Temple of Seti I (Abydos)
[3] The temple was built in order to commemorate and worship the earlier pharaohs of Egypt as well as the major gods of the Egyptian pantheon.
[6][7] The temple boast many features, including the first and second courts that house hypostyle halls, chapels to Seti I and various gods, and the Osireion.
[11] During the 1925-1927 season under the Egyptian Exploration Society and Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Herbert Felton recorded the sculptures within the temple through photography.
With financial assistance from John D. Rockefeller Jr., this expedition gained the services of Myrtle F. Broome, Hugh Calverley, C. M. Beazley, Charles Little, Linda Holey, and Adriaan de Buck.
[12] This work was completed in 1933 consisting of a four-volume work titled The Temple of King Sethos I At Abydos consisting of photos and drawings of the chapels of Osiris, Isis, Horus, Amen-Re, Re-Harakhti, Ptah-Sokar, and Seti, The Osiris Complex, and the Second Hypostyle Hall.
[14] Individuals who wished to obtain something from the god would possibly leave offerings, talk to the oracle, and sometimes sleep overnight in the temple to have a mystical experience.
Notably, some rulers, like the 15th Dynasty Hyksos that ruled Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period 1650-1550 BCE and the reign of the 18th Dynasty heretic Akhenaten of the New Kingdom 1550-1069, were omitted from the list, possibly due to being associated with periods of internal weakness and divisions.
The slaughterhouse provided access to the desert through its eastern entrance and was connected to the temple through The Gallery of Ancestors to its north.
The court contained depictions of Seti offering meats to the gods, such as the scenes with Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Wepwawet.
The Hall contained scenes of animal butchery with priests carrying off the offerings to be used in processions.
[24] The Gallery of Ancestors contains scenes that continue these ritual offerings with the king purifying the meat.
[25] The temple contains six barque chapels, completed by Seti I's death, in a row dedicated to the gods Osiris, Isis, Horus, Amen-Rem Re-Harakti, and Ptah.
The first three chapels, dedicated to that of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, are intended to represent the principal gods of Egypt's religion and the triad of Abydos.
[29] The fetish contains imagery that is associated with the sun, as there are representations of lions possibly related to the god Aker, symbolizing the horizons, sunrise, and sunset.
Within the image, there is a traditional henu gesture being performed which signifies obedience and submission to a god, as well as symbolically used during rituals to animate the king's soul.
[33] The Osireion is the symbolic tomb of Osiris, created of red granite and sandstone that housed a sarcophagus and a chest for canopic jars.
Temples consisted of priesthoods and required funding to ensure proper production and operations.
One type of textual evidence from the Middle Kingdom that attests to the payment of temple staff is that P. Berlin 10005 = P. Cairo JE 71580.
[36] The temple was granted special permission to mine which allowed for economic assets to be acquired within areas such as the Eastern Desert and in Nubia.
Within the Eastern Desert the temple would have mined specifically at Wadi Mia and within Nubia at Nauri.
Although the temple supported workshops and gangs to turn agricultural goods into commodities, its ships ensured economic activities as they were protected.
Following this fall, she had awakened and believed that she was the reincarnation of a priestess who committed suicide when she was discovered to be the former lover of Seti.
In 1956, Eady moved to a small village in Abydos and practiced the Ancient Egyptian religion.
This carving was later filled in with plaster and re-carved during the reign of Ramesses II with the title "He who protects Egypt and overthrows the foreign countries."
Over time, the plaster has eroded, leaving both inscriptions partially visible and creating a palimpsest-like effect of overlapping hieroglyphs.
London: Egypt Exploration Society (Archaeological Survey); Chicago: Oriental Institute University of Chicago,1933.
“The Festivals of Osiris and Sokar in the Month of Khoiak: The Evidence from Nineteenth Dynasty Royal Monuments at Abydos.” Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur 35 (2006): 75–101.
Edgerton, William F. “The Nauri Decree of Seti I: A Translation and Analysis of the Legal Portion.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 6, no.
“Temples and Agricultural Labour in Egypt, from the Late New Kingdom to the Saite Period.” In Dynamics of Production in the Ancient Near East, edited by Juan Carlos Moreno García.
Ian Rutherford, "Pilgrimage in Greco-Roman Egypt: New Perspectives on Graffiti from the Memnonion at Abydos," in Ancient Perspectives on Egypt, 1st ed., quoted in Jennifer Westerfeld, "Monastic Graffiti in Context: The Temple of Seti I at Abydos," in Writing and Communication in Early Egyptian Monasticism (Leiden: Brill, 2017) Kemp, Barry.
