Cultural Memory or State Ideology?

Assmann (2006: 91) has suggested that ‘memory is a system that is imposed from outside and can only be sustained by state power’, and much of the evidence from Egypt relating to this topic could be seen as supporting this view.

Whether tradition is founded in state ideology handed down to the people, or in a fascination with the past, or a desire to record popular culture, the fact remains that it has become a part of the identity of a group. Cultural memory does not have one recognized source but is an amalgamation of culture, traditions and history of a group, one that is affected both by internal and external factors. The fact remains that the Ramesside inhabitants of Egyptian communities, particularly those of Thebes, chose to depict royal figures in their tombs. These royal figures played a part in their lives through festivals and through oracles, the people were exposed to royal genealogy, royal monuments and royal stories, and they adopted them into their own cultural memory. Through this, a link between the centre and the peripheries was created and the state became relevant in the lives of its subjects.

Notes

1 Circa 1200-1194 bce. All dating is based on that given in Shaw (2000).

2 ‘Ordinary people' refers to the section of society below that of the royal and elite but who were still able to afford tombs on the West Bank at Thebes, and who were likely to have been literate or had access to texts (for example, Baines and Eyre (1983: 90) suggest that there were around 20 literate persons at any one time at Deir el-Medina, although Janssen (1992: 82) argues that the numbers of literate and ‘semi-literate' persons was somewhat higher). While this may not represent the full spectrum of Egyptian society, it is important to remember that evidence relevant to this study is almost completely lacking in the lower strata of society, and so this does represent the whole of society for which supportable conclusions may be drawn.

3 Circa 1295-1203 bce.

4 Titles can be found in Porter and Moss (1960: 15, 353, 420).

5 This number is an estimate as several tombs can only be dated approximately to a period such as ‘Ramesside' or ‘Nineteenth Dynasty'.

6 This includes images in TT2 and TT4 of Amenhotep I and Ahmose-Nefertari with their daughter, Merytamun.

7 Circa 1550-1203 bce.

8 That is, with the gods, or in the place of a god, such as in TT219 (Bruyere 1928: fig. 57) where the deceased offers to Osiris, Amenhotep I, Hathor and Ahmose-Nefertari.

9 Usually these images showed a line of kings in order to emphasize their genealogy, such as in TT2 (Lepsius 1849-58: 2(a)).

10 These range from images showing statues of the king in festivals, as in TT19 (Foucart 1935: pls xi-xvi), to the recording of personal titles linked to the mortuary cult of the king.

11 The period from the reign of Ahmose to that of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, c. 1550-1352 bce).

12 That is, showing a scene from the life of the deceased that included the living pharaoh, or an image of him, such as the bestowing of gifts or a title.

13 Wang and Brockmeier (2002: 46) suggest that ‘a culture's practices of autobiographical remembering as well as its prevailing ideas about selfhood play a central role not only in defining the mnemonic registers of the entire sociocultural system, but also in transmitting them from one generation to the next'. This implies that autobiographical memory plays an important role in the development of cultural memory. However, this study will focus on the place of deceased kings in the cultural memory of Egypt, as it is discussed by Assmann (2006: 7) and Luiselli (2011: 11).

14 Festivals which included statues of deceased kings in all likelihood varied from place to place. Scenes from Theban tombs help one to understand how they may have looked to those who saw them, such as the images found in TT19 which show a statue of Ahmose-Nefertari being dragged from a temple, Amenhotep I's image being carried in front of a bark of Mut, Ahmose- Nefertari's statue being towed on a lake close to two statues of Amenhotep

I in palanquins, and a bark of Thutmose III before his temple alongside a scene of stick wrestling (Foucart 1935: pls iv(A), vi, xi(A), xiii).

II at Abydos include lists of provisions needed for festivals; the festival of Osiris for example included a wide range of animals such as a bulls, an oryx, a crane, gazelles and geese (el-Sabban 2000: 55). Although this was arguably a particularly large feast it does demonstrate both the size of some festivals, and the types of activities that were involved, such as animal sacrifice and consumption. Wikgren (2005: 182-3) includes a list of festivals at Deir el-Medina and suggests approximately 41 days of feasts per year of which 12 were related to deceased royal figures and a thirteenth was the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, which also revived the memory of royal ancestors. This suggests that festivals of deceased royalty were not uncommon in the lives of the Egyptian people, at least at Deir el-Medina.

The Ramesseum was the mortuary complex of Ramesses II at Thebes (Haeny 1998: 87, 115).

See Barta (1980: 51-2) for discussion of this theory.

See McDowell (1992: 101-2) for details of festivals of Amenhotep I at Deir el-Medina.

From the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Beautiful Festival of the Valley involved taking a statue of Amun to mortuary temples on the West Bank, thus becoming a state commemoration of royal ancestors (Bell 1998: 137). The festival may have existed as early as the Middle Kingdom on a local level - Graefe (1986: 187) suggests that it descended from the Valley Festival of Nebhepetre-Mentuhotep. However, it grew in importance in the Eighteenth Dynasty, with the temple of Hatshepsut as a key location in the festival route (see map in Wilkinson 2000: 95).

Porter and Moss (1960: 259) do, however, mention a scene in TT148 in which a statue of Ramesses III is protected by winged Isis.

Assmann (2006: 15) suggests that is was celebrated from the Late Period into the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, c.

This ritual and the mythology behind it, which stems from the belief that Seth killed Osiris and scattered the parts of his body throughout Egypt which were then reassembled by Isis, is discussed in more detail in Assmann (2008: 42-3). This tomb has been published by Davies and Gardiner (1948: 11-30).

Of course, at Deir el-Medina this is true also because many were employed in the Valley of the Kings, but this is an exceptional example.

These titles are based on those given in Porter and Moss (1960).

TT60 dating from the time of Senwosret I. This tomb is published by Davies (1920).

Circa 1390-1352 bce.

He notes that Napoleon was known to have visited the tomb of Charlemagne, as a way both of commemorating the revered king, and of linking himself to him (Morrissey 2001: 159).

Studies such as Bommas (2008) have looked at the importance of the worship of deceased kings.

TT50 dating from the reign of Horemheb. This tomb has been published by Hari (1985).

This study uses the term ‘king list' in its loosest sense. Redford (1986: 1) defined this term as a list that ‘set out; a) to arrange the names in correct historical sequence, b) to give for each name the length of the reign, and c) to note conscientiously any gaps in (a) or (b)’. Clearly, the examples noted here are not true ‘king lists’ in this sense (in fact Redford (1986: 2) states only one such list in the Ramesside Period, the Turin Canon, although he suggests that there were originally many more such documents that have not survived), but they are, to all intents and purposes, lists of kings (albeit in illustrated form) and for this reason will be referred to as ‘king lists’.

31 Redford (1986: 21-2) notes that the text identifies the ceremony as the ‘[performance of the htp-di-nsw for the ki]ngs of Upper and Lower Egypt and for Osiris, through the agency of King Usermare Setepenre, son of Re, Ramesses Maiamun’. This implies that the ceremony was connected with his position within the royal cult and may have been a representation of his role within it.

32 This ‘group’ must be seen as other priests and lay people who attended the mortuary cults of the pharaohs in the area.

33 As discussed by Spiegelberg (1921: 156-8)

34 Porter and Moss (1981: 571) date this tomb to the Nineteenth Dynasty, although the owner is unknown.

35 Janssen (1992: 81) points out that literature played a vital part in New Kingdom Egypt despite low levels of ‘literacy’. He also notes that ‘semi-literacy’ (the ability to read basic texts but not reproduce them) may substantially raise the numbers of people able to access texts.

36 There is continuing discussion on whether common people had access to certain areas of temple complexes, with Bommas’ discussion of the wesekhet hebit concluding that there was some access to such areas (Bommas 2000: 211). Griffin (2007: 81), however, argues that ‘rekhyt (common) people were present within the temple metaphysically and not physically’.

37 This scene shows the deceased offering to two lines of kings and queens. They are recognizable (from left to right) as Ahmose-Nefertari, Nebhepetre- Mentuhotep, Ahmose, Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II and Thutmose III in the upper register, and Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, Horemheb, Ramesses I and Seti I in the lower register.

38 Collier (1996: 110) describes this crown as a ‘tall cap, bulbous at the front with an angle at the back that rises from a ridge along the side of the crown’.

39 This includes, but is not restricted to, cultural memory.

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