Two 3000-year-old statuary fragments, depicting the god Hapi and King Amenhotep III, were unearthed in Egypt this week. The discovery of the statues at the pharaoh's mortuary temple in Luxor, was announced in a statement to the press by Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny.
The find of the two granite fragments happened during routine excavations on the northern side of the temple. The excavations at the site aim to uncover and preserve the ruins of the funerary complex, which once was the largest temple in Egypt – dwarfing even Karnak.
Unfortunately, Amenhotep III's mortuary temple was constructed to close to the edge of the Nile flood plain, and it collapsed less that 200 years after its 14th century BC construction. All what remains of the 350,000 square metres temple complex today are the famous Colossi of Memnon, two massive seating statues depicting the pharoah.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), explained that the first newly discovered artefact is a 2.73m tall head of the ancient Egyptian deity Hapi. Hapi, depicted with a baboon face, was one of the four sons of Horus.
The second object is a fragment of a larger statue of King Amenhotep III, which features two legs that measure 30cm tall. 18th Dynasty king Amenhotep III, father of 'heretic' pharoah Akhenaton and possibly grandfather to King Tut, ruled from 1410 to 1372 BC.
Due to the large number of statuary found in the area, Dr Hawass believes the northern side of the temple may have served as a burial spot for broken and damaged statues. Because the statuary were ritually significant they could not be destroyed, instead Hawass believes that the ancient Egyptians gathered the fallen statues and buried them in a cache beside the temple.
Abdel Ghaffar Wagdi, supervisor of the excavation team, said that excavators are now focussing on uncovering more statues from the agricultural land surrounding Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple.
In the past two archaeological seasons five double statues of King Amenhotep III accompanied by the deities Re-Horakhti, Khepri, Horus, and Hapi have been found at the mortuary temple, as well as what is possibly the best preserved depiction of Amenhotep III’s face found to date – a colossal 2,5 meters granite head.
Excavation at the site is expected to be ongoing until around 2027, when the site is set to open as an open-air museum.
Author: Ann Wuyts | Source: Heritage-Key [December 16, 2010]