Der dgyptische Tempel als ritueller Raum: Akten der internationalen Tagung, Hans der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 9.-12. Juni 2015.

• Author: Theis, Christoffer

Der dgyptische Tempel als ritueller Raum: Akten der internationalen Tagung, Hans der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 9.-12. Juni 2015. Edited by STEFAN BAUMANN and HOLGER KOCKELMANN. Studien zur spatagyptischen Religion, vol. 17. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VER-LAG, 2017. Pp. xi + 584, 8 pis. [euro]144.

The anthology under review comprises twenty-one contributions from the conference "Der agyptische Tempel als ritueller Raum" held in Heidelberg on June 9-12, 2015. The volume starts with a list of bibliographical abbreviations on pp. vii-ix, a short foreword on p. xi, and an introduction on pp. 1-2, in which the editors sum up the articles in single sentences.

The first thematic section, "Architektur. materieller Formenkanon und Grundmuster des Tempelbaus," opens with an article by Pierre Zignani, "Les derniers grands temples egyptiens: A propos de la forme architecturale et de la typologie" (pp. 3-15). Zignani makes use of measurements to describe the mathematical proportions of ancient Egyptian temples and emphasizes that the ratio of three to five between width and length can be found in many Naoi of the Greco-Roman period.

Stefan Baumann entitles his article "Der Tempel als Haus Gottes: Bemerkungen zu Raumstruklur und Raumfunktion in agyptischen Tempeln" (pp. 17-37). Baumann compares architecture and architectural features of residential buildings with those of temples and describes the various sections for a summary of the spatial planning in both types; it becomes obvious that a temple is nothing else than a "bigger" house for a god.

The article by Alexa Rickert bears the title "Stufe urn Stufe: Ein Vergleich der Treppen auf das Dach in den Naoi der Tempel der Spatzeit und der griechisch-romischen Zeit" (pp. 39-82). In a first step, Rickert describes the aim of her study and the various types of stairs for a categorization. Based on this, she gives a comprehensive list of the thirty-six preserved staircases of Egyptian temples (pp. 45-65). Rickert states that there are a lot of different types of staircases, but that all can be classified as "einlaufige gerade Treppe" (single-lane straight staircase) and "mehrlaufige gewundene Treppe" (multi-treaded spiral staircase). It becomes obvious that there is no chronological development of staircases in ancient Egyptian temples, but that some minor local clusters can be observed, as is the case with a single-lane straight staircase in the south and a cluster of multi-treaded spiral staircases in the region of Dendera. For the Fayyum, it seems that two multi-treaded spiral staircases are typical for this region (pp. 67-68). Rickert concludes her study with a history of staircases in Egypt (pp. 72-75).

The second thematic section, "Architektur und Text," is opened by Jan Tatko, with "Der Sanktuarumgang und seine Kapellen in Edfu-Bemerkungen zur Dekoration der Turdurchgange" (pp. 83-105). It becomes obvious that the jambs of the temple in Edfu are unconventional, because they bear a description of the room and not a eulogy of a certain god. Every inscription presents a characterization of...