6. Agyptologische Tempeltagung: Funktion und Gebrauch altagyptischer Tempelraume.

• Author: Eaton, Katherine
• Position: Book review

6. Agyptologische Tempeltagung: Funktion und Gebrauch altagyptischer Tempelraume. Edited by BEN HARING and ANDREA KLUG. Konigtum, Staat und Gesellschaft fruher Hochkulturen, vol. 3,1. Pp. vii + 300, illus. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2007. [euro]78.

This volume contains papers from the Tempeltagung conference, where Egyptologists with different specialties come together to talk about ancient Egyptian temples. This occasion, the sixth, focused on assessing the "functions" and "uses" of rooms. "Function" (Funktion) refers to the original intentions of the designers. "Use" (Gebrauch) refers to the reality of how the spaces were ultimately employed. This is an important distinction. However, even setting subtleties aside, the relationship between the theme and some of the articles in the volume is rather tenuous. I discuss the articles in groups according to the materials that the authors began their inquiries with: archaeological contexts, groups of visual and textual representations of ritual, iconographic patterns in representation, ritual objects, and architectural elements. Although most of the articles integrate approaches, the starting-points form the frameworks within which further inquiry occurs.

Several articles examine the relationship between a cult building, its support structures, and wider environs. Three articles begin addressing this question through examination of archaeological contexts, incorporating textual and artistic data when relevant. Andrassy, in "Der Lowentempel von Musawwarat es Sufra: Zu Funktion and Raumstruktur eines meroitischen 'Einraumtempels'" (pp. 11-34), looks at the relationship between Egyptian influence and the Meroitic expression at Musawwarat es Sufra. Two features of interest here are the single-chambered building and "der auBere Tempelbezirk." consisting of an oval-shaped sacred zone with remains of cull activity. Eigner, in "Design, Space and Function: The Old Kingdom Temple of Tell Ibrahim Awad" (pp. 83-99), reports on a pre-formal, local shrine. He posits a division into five zones of increasing sacredness: public space, outside of the precinct; semi-public space, outside, yet walled on three sides: offering, marked by a space with fourteen offering stands as one enters the building; a central area for a portable image; and the innermost part of the building, for a hidden image. Kessler, in "Die Tempel von Tuna el-Gebel" (pp. 131-52), examines a temple built on an animal cemetery. He...