Temples, Tales and Technology - Day 3 at CRE XI Leiden 2010
The Current Research in Egyptology conference in Leiden finally came to a close on Friday after three full days of enlightening talks from colleagues around the world. Highlights of the first days included the opening lecture by Demarée, and of course my own talk on Green Osiris on day two! On our third and last day of the CRE XI conference in Leiden the temples session opened the day. Carina van den Hoven from Leiden made the distinction of the typology of groups of deities portrayed at the temple of Kalabsha.
This temple was dedicated to the god Mandulis, but other deities are present. Isis and Osiris are the main characters and Mandulis is also portrayed in his ‘child’ version along with this pair. The temple is divided into northern and Southern parts and deities vary along the walls. The most prominent one is my favorite: Osiris.
Following this we heard and saw how Kenneth Griffin from Swansea found a double Rekhyt in the temple of Seti I at 
Abydos. Several questions arise: what is the decorative scheme? Who did it? Why the double Rekhyt? This animal is shown with human hands up in adoration and a neb hieroglyphic underneath. Kenneth thinks this depiction signaled the passages not intended for the general public in temples. The Rekhyt faces the entrance to the sanctuary, it adores the gods, and it also present in more temples like the Luxor temple.
Marta Sankiewicz from Poznan, who worked with the Polish mission at Deir el-Bahari showed in a much elaborated scheme and a very good piece of hard work how Hatshepsut was not so eliminated from her temple as some say. Her nephew Tutmose III just wanted to rededicate some parts of the temple to his father Tutmose II, never intending to overshadow her. The entire family bunch is represented in Deir el-Bahari.
The rest of the conference covered other themes like museology, findings at Sedment from Petrie that are scattered throughout the UK and the geophysical mapping of sites in Egypt by a Polish institute.
Why the double Rekhyt? This animal is shown with human hands up in adoration and a neb hieroglyphic underneath. Kenneth thinks this depiction signaled the passages not intended for the general public in temples.
Linda Steynor made a brilliant presentation on the metaphors used in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant stressing how we use metaphors in everything we say everyday. She also explained which ones we can recognize in the Tale.
We then had our annual meeting to decide which city gets CRE next year and Durham won! Hurray! We also voted for a logo for CRE. A very nice one showing Thoth with an ankh in hand was chosen, and finally we all decided it should be better to have CRE in Spring, around the time of the Easter holidays, to minimise disruptions in transportation due to adverse weather conditions.
I look forward to meeting all my colleagues again as we had 40 nationalities present in this conference and around 120 people there.
Other Egyptology Conferences scheduled this year are the Third British Egyptology Congress in London, September and in Swansea, May.
Coming soon - keep visiting Heritage Key for more information and interviews with some of the experts taking part in CRE XI.
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I was there at CRE XI in Leiden and I must make a remark to this here article. Kenneth Griffin thinks just the opposite of what is said here. He refuted the claims by others that the Rekhyt-rebus was shown only in areas accessible to the general public. In fact, he gave many reasons and examples of why this cannot be the case! Also, his research shows that the Rekhyt-rebus wasn't looking at the entrance of the sanctuary, as is stated here, but at the processional alleys in the temple.
On a personal note: I liked the logo with the map of Egypt better. ;-)
Whoops, I should take some of these remarks back. :-) Apparently I misread the article about Kenneth's statement about the places where the Rekhyt is shown. I looked over the word 'not' here! Sorry for that! Even still, this is also not what Kenneth was stating at his lecture even though I appear to claim that in my previous comment, as I reread it now.
Kenneth simply pointed out that the Rekhyt is shown in all areas of the temple, whether they were publicly accessible or not.
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