Message #130538

[Bianca]

Until now, such notations had little meaning for us. But today's scholars know so much more about the formative period of the Egyptian civilisation that we can reconsider at least 21 of the 30-odd entries on the Palermo Stone, especially those that relate to the fashioning of images of gods by kings, because archaeological evidence supports the idea of uniform cult centre development; that is to say, excavations carried out at some of the earliest settlement sites reveal uniformity. A common feature, for example, is that all sacred enclosures were kept apart from the eyes of the public and surrounded by a wall. Another is the finds of votive offerings, crudely-baked clay objects sometimes numbering hundreds, probably made by local artisans for simple people who wished to make offerings to the god. Indeed, uniformity can clearly be seen in the gods themselves. Whether in human form, or a human body with animal, bird, reptile, or insect heads, they remained archetypes to which future generations had recourse.

Interestingly enough, the gods remained vague characters throughout Egyptian history, later described in terms such as "he of Ombos" (Set), "he of Edfu" (Horus), "she of Sais" (Neith), and "he of Qift" (Coptos). In other words, no single one was more important than the others. Prayers and hymns addressed to them differed only in epithets and attributes. It was clearly the place, not the god, that mattered, with the place being chosen for its strategic position.

The cult centre of the vulture-goddess Nekhbet, for example, was on the east bank of the Nile at Nekheb (modern Al-Kab), which gave access to the mineral-rich Eastern Desert with its deposits of copper, agate, and jasper. That of Pe (Buto) in the Nile Delta was a departure point for trade with the Near East. And Coptos (Qift) was almost opposite the mouth of Wadi Hammamat, the shortest route to the Red Sea and the gold-bearing veins of the Eastern Desert.

The creation of images and establishment of cult centres mentioned on the Palermo Stone is also mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (inscribed on the walls of the kings who ruled towards the end of the Old Kingdom), and in the so-called Memphite Drama (a text which survived in a late copy and which is also explicit on the creation of cults, the establishment of shrines, and the making of divine statues with distinctive ensigns representing a plant, bird or animal distinctive to a community, and made "of every wood, every stone, every clay"). Apart from being identified with the king, they served at the popular level. Early Egyptians came to believe that the statue in the shrine held the key to a good crop, health, and fertility, and they made pious gestures that were not much different from today's offerings and prayers to the shrines of Christian saints and Muslim sheikhs. Gestures of devotion are a time honoured practice which clearly has its roots in the most ancient past.