|
Abydos is one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, and also of the eighth nome in Upper Egypt, of which it was the capital city. It is located about west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of el-'Araba el Madfuna and al-Balyana. In the ancient Egyptian language, the city was called Abdju (''ꜣbdw'' or ''AbDw''). The English name ''Abydos'' comes from the Greek , a name borrowed by Greek geographers from the unrelated city of Abydos on the Hellespont. Considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt, the sacred city of Abydos was the site of many ancient temples, including Umm el-Qa'ab, a royal necropolis where early pharaohs were entombed. These tombs began to be seen as extremely significant burials and in later times it became desirable to be buried in the area, leading to the growth of the town's importance as a cult site. Today, Abydos is notable for the memorial temple of Seti I, which contains an inscription from the nineteenth dynasty known to the modern world as the Abydos King List. It is a chronological list showing cartouches of most dynastic pharaohs of Egypt from Menes until Seti I's father, Ramesses I. The Great Temple and most of the ancient town are buried under the modern buildings to the north of the Seti temple. Many of the original structures and the artifacts within them are considered irretrievable and lost; many may have been destroyed by the new construction. ==History== Abydos was occupied by the rulers of the Predynastic period,〔William Flinders Petrie, ''Abydos'', ii. 64〕 whose town, temple and tombs have been found there. The temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down to the times of the thirtieth dynasty, and the cemetery was used continuously. The pharaohs of the first dynasty were buried in Abydos, including Narmer, who is regarded as founder of the first dynasty, and his successor, Aha.〔Wilkinson (1999), p. 3〕 It was in this time period that the Abydos boats were constructed. Some pharaohs of the second dynasty were also buried in Abydos. The temple was renewed and enlarged by these pharaohs as well. Funerary enclosures, misinterpreted in modern times as great 'forts', were built on the desert behind the town by three kings of the second dynasty; the most complete is that of Khasekhemwy. From the fifth dynasty, the deity Khentiamentiu, ''foremost of the Westerners'', came to be seen as a manifestation of the dead pharaoh in the underworld. Pepi I (sixth dynasty) constructed a funerary chapel which evolved over the years into the Great Temple of Osiris, the ruins of which still exist within the town enclosure. Abydos became the centre of the worship of the Isis and Osiris cult. During the First Intermediate Period, the principal deity of the area, Khentiamentiu, began to be seen as an aspect of Osiris, and the deities gradually merged and came to be regarded as one. Khentiamentiu's name became an epithet of Osiris. King Mentuhotep II was the first one building a royal chapel. In the twelfth dynasty a gigantic tomb was cut into the rock by Senusret III. Associated with this tomb was a ''cenotaph'', a cult temple and a small town known as ''Wah-Sut'', that was used by the workers for these structures.〔Harvey, EA24, p.3〕 Next to that cenotaph were buried kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty (compare: S 10 (Abydos)) and those of the Second Intermediate Period, such as Senebkay. The building during the eighteenth dynasty began with a large chapel of Ahmose I. Pyramid of Ahmose I was also constructed at Abydos—the only pyramid in the area; very little of it remains today. Thutmose III built a far larger temple, about . He also made a processional way leading past the side of the temple to the cemetery beyond, featuring a great gateway of granite. Seti I, in the nineteenth dynasty, founded a temple to the south of the town in honor of the ancestral pharaohs of the early dynasties; this was finished by Ramesses II, who also built a lesser temple of his own. Merneptah added the Osireion just to the north of the temple of Seti.〔 Ahmose II in the twenty-sixth dynasty rebuilt the temple again, and placed in it a large monolith shrine of red granite, finely wrought. The foundations of the successive temples were comprised within approximately . depth of the ruins discovered in modern times; these needed the closest examination to discriminate the various buildings, and were recorded by more than 4000 measurements and 1000 levellings.〔Petrie, ''Abydos'', ii.〕 The latest building was a new temple of Nectanebo I, built in the thirtieth dynasty. From the Ptolemaic times of the Greek occupancy of Egypt, that began three hundred years before the Roman occupancy that followed, the structure began to decay and no later works are known.〔Petrie, ''Abydos'', i. and ii.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Abydos, Egypt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|