Sun sanctuary of Userkaf

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Userkaf's solar sanctuary in hieroglyphics
ra
O48
O25

Nechen-Rau
Nḫn Rˁ.w
Fortress of Re

Userkaf Sun temple rendered Mk2.jpg
Reconstruction of the sun sanctuary of Userkaf
The Abusir necropolis

The Sun Sanctuary of Userkaf is an ancient Egyptian temple structure from the time of the 5th Dynasty , located in Abusir , which was built under the king ( Pharaoh ) Userkaf , who lived around 2500 to 2490 BC. Ruled. It is the only one of a total of six specimens of this type of temple that has been archaeologically proven to date , along with the Niuserre solar sanctuary .

Research history

The Sun Temple was the 1842 expedition of Karl Richard Lepsius discovered and described briefly. He first thought the structure was a pyramid and gave it number XVII on his list of pyramids . Ludwig Borchardt carried out a further investigation at the beginning of the 20th century in the course of his excavations in the neighboring pyramid district of the Sahure . The most detailed research of the sanctuary so far took place in the 1950s under the direction of Herbert Ricke .

Construction circumstances

Userkaf founded (established) a completely new type of temple with his solar sanctuary, which five other rulers of the 5th dynasty should take up after him. The reason for this seems to have been a change in the religious worldview that no longer had the king as the central world god, but the sun god Re (Ra). The king was only seen as his son. This also caused a change in the royal cult of the dead . The solar sanctuary with its western orientation formed a place of worship for the setting (ie dying) sun god and was thus part of the royal pyramid complex - even if there were sometimes considerable spatial distances between the two. Both buildings together should enable the king to travel to the hereafter and to unite with his divine Father.

Due to the connection to the pyramid complex, the solar sanctuary is partially similar in structure. It has a valley temple , an access path and an upper temple (which corresponds to the mortuary temple in the case of pyramids ). However, there are no other similarities and the overall conception of the sanctuary differs significantly from a pyramid complex.

The solar sanctuary

Sun sanctuary of Userkaf and valley temple
1 = obelisk
2 = obelisk base
3 = statue shrines
4 = altar
5 = benches
6 = annex
7 = access road
8 = valley temple

Valley temple and way

The valley temple of the Userkaf sanctuary has no orientation towards the cardinal points, which is extremely unusual for an Egyptian temple complex. It has a rectangular floor plan and is divided into four sections: an antechamber, a central section, an open pillar courtyard and an area with seven niches.

The way up is also unusual, as it is neither on the main axis of the valley temple nor on that of the upper temple. There are certain structural similarities to the pathways of the burial grounds of Userkaf's predecessors Mykerinos and Schepseskaf .

Obelisk Temple

The central part of the sanctuary was the east-west facing upper temple, in the western half of which there was once an obelisk made of red granite , which today is only preserved in fragments. This temple was built in a total of four phases, which changed its appearance considerably. So the originally square floor plan was expanded into a rectangular one. east of the obelisk was a sacrificial altar for the sun god, south and north of it were two shrines, probably for statues of Re and Hathor . Storage rooms were also part of the temple. The sanctuary was surrounded by a wall with rounded corners. It is not yet known whether the latter was only due to structural engineering or whether there is a symbolic representation of the primeval mound .

The question of whether the obelisk was part of the original conception of the solar sanctuary or whether it was only erected in one of the later construction phases by a successor to Userkaf has not yet been clearly clarified. The latter was assumed by Ricke on the basis of italic hieroglyphic spelling of the name of the sanctuary, in which the determinative is only shown as a truncated pyramid with a line thickened at the top instead of the obelisk. Ricke therefore believed that in the first phase of construction there was only a wooden pole on the truncated pyramid, with a golden disc attached to the end. Ricke's reconstruction has been questioned several times in research, but a comparison of all spellings of the name of Userkaf's sanctuary seems to suggest that there was an early construction phase without obelisks and a later one with obelisks.

Statue finds

Head of a statue of Userkaf from his solar sanctuary; Egyptian Museum, Cairo

The remains of several statues of the king were found in the Userkaf sanctuary. The most important of these was discovered by Ricke outside the valley temple and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (inv.no. JE 90220). It is made of greywacke and measures 45 × 26 × 25 cm. The king is depicted beardless and wears the red crown of Lower Egypt on his head. The excavator Herbert Ricke originally assumed that it was a portrait of the goddess Neith , who was also depicted in this way. Later, however, remnants of a mustache painted with black paint were found, which clearly confirmed that it was a statue of a king.

Other statuary finds from the Userkaf sanctuary are smaller fragments of limestone , granite and red sandstone , which were discovered by Ludwig Borchardt in 1907. Another piece of alabaster originally belonged to an almost life-size statue. It shows the king's mouth and chin and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin (Inv.-No. 19774)

literature

  • Peter Jánosi : The Sun Sanctuaries . In: Christian Hölzl (ed.): The pyramids of Egypt. Monuments of Eternity . Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2004, pp. 101-107, ISBN 3-85498-375-1 .
  • Mark Lehner : Secret of the Pyramids . Orbis, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-572-01039-X , pp. 150-151.
  • Herbert Ricke et al .: The sun sanctuary of King Userkaf . Contributions to Egyptian building research and antiquity. Volumes 7 and 8, Wiesbaden 1965 and 1969.
  • Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 , pp. 163-164.
  • Miroslav Verner : The Sun Sanctuaries of the 5th Dynasty . In: Sokar, No. 10, 2005, pp. 39-41.
  • Susanne Voss : Investigations into the sun sanctuaries of the 5th dynasty. Significance and function of a singular temple type in the Old Kingdom. Hamburg 2004 (also: Dissertation, University of Hamburg 2000), pp. 7–59, ( PDF; 2.5 MB ).
  • Richard H. Wilkinson : The world of temples in ancient Egypt. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-18652-4 , p. 121.

Individual evidence

  1. The last symbol is to be replaced by a truncated pyramid with an obelisk attached .
  2. Year numbers according to Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs .
  3. Jánosi: The Sun Sanctuaries . Pp. 101-104
  4. a b c Verner: The sun sanctuaries of the 5th Dynasty . P. 40
  5. Verner: The Sun Shrines of the 5th Dynasty . P. 41
  6. Rainer Stadelmann: The head of the Userkaf in the "valley temple" of the solar sanctuary in Abusir . In: Sokar, No. 15, 2007, pp. 56-61
  7. ^ Bertha Porter , Rosalind LB Moss : Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. III. Memphis . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1974, p. 333; Rainer Stadelmann: The head of the Userkaf in the "valley temple" of the solar sanctuary in Abusir . In: Sokar, No. 15, 2007, p. 60