The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt by David A. Rosalie; David Rosalie;

Author:David, A. Rosalie; David, Rosalie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Religion at Kahun

At Kahun, as elsewhere throughout Egypt, there were different levels of religious practice. The official cults, performed on behalf of the king and the gods in the elaborate setting of temples, certainly existed there. So, also, did the worship of humble deities in the inhabitant’s own dwellings. The official religion at Kahun shows no specific evidence of non-Egyptian beliefs or practices, but some aspects of the popular religion at Kahun are perhaps unusual. It will be necessary to consider later whether these peculiarities can be accounted for by the fact that our knowledge of domestic religion at settlement sites is limited, or whether the Kahun situation reflects ‘foreign’ practices, brought in by those residents whom Petrie claimed had migrated to Egypt.

The official religion at Kahun was centred on the pyramid temple of Sesostris II. This, we have seen, was one of the main reasons for the town’s continuing existence and prosperity once the king’s pyramid was completed. The pyramid temple played an important part in the king’s burial service, and thereafter, it became the place where the priesthood performed daily rituals, offering food and drink to the dead king’s spirit so that he might enjoy an eternal food supply. In this, the funerary temple had the same purpose as the offering chapels attached to humble tombs of the non-royal deceased, where their families and special funerary priests presented food offerings. In the funerary temple rituals, it was also the intention to ensure the dead king’s acceptance by the gods and to constantly reaffirm his role as a god and king in the next world.

The two temples attached to the Lahun pyramid—one immediately joining it, and the other, where the rituals continued to be performed after the king’s death, about 805 m away at Kahun—were both excavated by Petrie. Originally they would have been linked by some kind of causeway although at this site, this link was more ‘spiritual’ than actual. In both, he discovered foundation deposits placed there when the construction was started, and in the Kahun temple, a mass of papyri were discovered which provided information about the personnel and administration of the temple.

Amongst the papyri there was a list of royal statues which were kept in the temple at Kahun. The four members of the royal family who were represented in this group were Sesostris II as a deceased king, Sesostris III (still alive), the ‘King’s Wife and Mother’, who was already dead, and the ‘King’s Wife’ who was still alive. It was doubtless these royal persons who received worship and divine honours at the temple during the reign of Sesostris III. Another papyrus recorded the attendance of dancers and singers at festivals in the same temple. It makes reference to the 35th Year of the reign of a king, whose name is lost. It also contains a number of tables; the most complete preserves the names of sixteen persons, grouped together under various mutilated headings, but it is clear that they were all dancers or acrobats and singers.

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