Some Background

            Welcome back to my blog.  I thought a good place to start before I leave is to give a brief survey of the history of Abydos. 

            Abydos is a site located in Upper (southern) Egypt approximately 270 miles (433 kilometers) south of Cairo.  The site is located on the western side of the Nile River below a series of steep cliffs rising out of the desert.  The primary ancient site is located near the edge of the cultivation (the area where water easily flows by means of canals from the Nile) and the low desert.  The area above these dramatic cliffs is called the high desert.  Directly above the site is a wadi, a dry prehistoric river bed that cuts a canyon through the cliffs.  Ancient Egyptians apparently believed that this wadi was the entrance to the underworld which they believed lay beyond the western horizon (where the sun set each evening).    

The Wadi and the Cliffs above Abydos

Abydos throughout most of Egyptian history was one of the culture’s key funerary sites from at least 3,300 BCE until well into the 1^st Century CE, almost 3,400 years due primarily to the fact that it was the home of the temple of the funerary god Osiris, Yet even before Osiris came to be worshiped at the site Khenty-Imentyw, an early dog headed god who was later assimilated into an aspect of Osiris, was the chief funerary of Abydos.  Most ancient Egyptians strove to make a pilgrimage to Abydos and the temple of Osiris at least once in their life, and many had this pilgrimage depicted on the walls of their tombs.  Several kings, particularly Seti I and Ramses II, built large temples dedicated to themselves as a manifestation of Osiris at Abydos.  Over the thousands of years that the site was in use countless monuments (tombs, temples, shrines, etc.) were built across the landscape.  Many of these monuments were built on top of earlier structures, creating a rather complex archaeological site.

Satellite view of Abydos from Google Earth

1. The Wadi,    2. Royal Tombs at Umm el-Gaab   3. The North Cemetery   4. The Middle Cemetery

5. Remains of Early 18th Dynasty Pyramid of Ahmose  Area in Box- Detail in Next Map

Most important for this blog are the Early Dynastic remains.  These remains date to the 1^st and 2^nd Dynasties (2950-2650 BCE), a period when the first kings were establishing the political and cultural traditions that would dominate ancient Egypt for the rest of its long history. These early kings were particularly active at Abydos.  One of the more important building activities that these early kings participated in was the construction of their tombs near the opening of the wadi in an area which is now called Umm el-Gaab (“Mother of Pots” in Arabic).  In these tombs archaeologists have found some of the world’s earliest examples of writing.

Satellite view of Abydos from Google Earth

1. Expedition Dig House   2. The Shuneh   3. The North Cemetery   4. Portal Temple of Ramses II  5. Osiris Temple Site   6. Ancient Town Site   7. Middle Cemetery   8. German Expedition House 

9. Temple of Ramses II   10. Temple of Seti I   11.  Modern Coptic (Christian) Cemetery

A short distance away near the edge of the cultivation is the site of the “Royal Enclosures” (also called “Royal Funerary Enclosures”).  These monuments were large rectangular walled enclosures made of mudbrick (unbaked bricks made of Nile silt mixed with sand, water and straw, not unlike adobe of the American Southwest).  All the monuments were built in an area now called the North Cemetery, which was only a short distance from the ancient town site and the site of the main temple (first dedicated to Khenty-Imentyw and then later Osiris).  This site was perhaps chosen as it was the highest spot in the low desert of Abydos.  Of the dozens of enclosures only one remained intact until modern time, the enclosure of Khasekhemwy (ca. 2650 BCE) the last pharaoh of the Second Dynasty.  This monumental structure, known as the Shunet ez-Zebib (or simply The Shuneh) is the focus of the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) excavations and conservation at Abydos. 

Early excavators believed that these enclosures were directly related to the tombs of these kings located only a short distance away.  While it was originally believed that the other enclosures simply collapsed, recent excavations by the PYIFA (Penn Yale IFA) expedition have demonstrated that each enclosure was ritually demolished.  With this in mind it is now believed that these enclosures were not built solely for the funerary purposes, but were rather built during the life of the king and used during important kingship rituals during his life.  When the king died the monuments were ritually destroyed, perhaps in an attempt to “kill” the structure and bring it into the afterlife with the king.  Alongside these enclosures were buried a large number of retainers (servants), animals and in one case a fleet of boats, all apparently intended to accompany the king into the afterlife.   

The Enclosure of Khasekhemwy (the Shunet ez-Zebib or the Shuneh)

For some reason though the enclosure of Khasekhemwy was never destroyed.  It has been suggested that this marks a transition in the thought process of ancient Egyptians, a shift towards the concept of the indestructible and the monumental.  Indeed Khasekhemwy’s successor, Djoser, built one of Egypt’s first stone monuments, which also happened to be the first pyramid.  This shift from mudbrick to stone, and from monuments designed to be destroyed to ones that were meant to last forever is one of the greatest changes in Egyptian thought and would dominate Egyptian construction for the next two millennium.  Perhaps the fact that the Shuneh was never destroyed is a symptom of this change in mind set. 

As the last remaining royal enclosure, and the monument occupying the high ground at the site, the Shuneh remained one of the most important monuments in the ritual landscape at Abydos.  As such there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, not only about the initial use of the structure, but also about its continued use.