Senenmut

Senenmut

Senenmut's tomb (TT 353) - entrance:  southwest corner of an ancient quarry (25˚ 44' 10" N; 32˚ 36' 45" E; 105 m above mean sea level) near the northeast corner of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple (25˚ 44' 18" N; 32˚ 36' 23.6" E)

Centre axis of passage / chamber system:  ∼8 - 9 degs south of east. Two metre high vaulted access passage, stepped floor, angle of incline of ∼25 degrees.

First chamber (A): 3.6 x 3 m; 61.2 m from entrance.

Second chamber (B): 24.8 m from chamber A.

Third chamber (C): 10.4 m from chamber B; 96.4 m from entrance. NE corner has a 1.5 m deep vertical pit, 41 m below entrance level in quarry.

All four walls of chamber A are covered with inscriptions. Ceiling painted with a celestial theme that includes on the southern half of the ceiling, decans, depictions of the large distinctive constellation Orion (sAH) in the centre, followed by Sirius (spdt), the brightest star in their sky, four of the five visible planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus (Mars is omitted), and on the northern half of the ceiling, Mesekhtiu (msxtjw) the large distinctive 7-star asterism ('Big Dipper' / 'the Plough') in Ursa Major tethered to a high pole surmounted by a circle with a smaller circle in the centre.

An inscription on the south wall of chamber A (Liturgy 7, §20 (S33 - S36)):

"O you who are revered before Nut, Senenmut, she spreads over you that she might receive you, that you might rise among the imperishable stars. She has caused you to be a god; your enemies do not exist. You shall rise in her in the east and set in her in the west; you will go to and fro across her belly together with her children. She shall recognize you in her name of Lady of Khem, (for) you are her son, the eldest of her children in her name of 'Great Sieve.' It is in your embrace that Senenmut is glorified, so that he cannot die. O great one (Nut) who came into existence in the sky, you have filled every place with your beauty, you have placed Senenmut among the imperishable stars, the one who is in reverence. As for this Senenmut, honored before Mut, lady of JSrw, this Senenmut, she will keep from drowning, she will (re)assemble him. You are Osiris; she will cause mankind to acclaim you, (for) you are Sokar who is in the Hnw bark."

The astronomical ceiling with four of the five visible planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus: 

from right to left (following Sirius) - Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus

Jupiter:  His name is 'Horus who bounds the Two Lands' - the southern star of the sky. (Hrw tAS twAy rn.f sbA rsy pt)

Venus:   large wading bird with star on head. The bird resembles the saddle-billed stork or African jabiru (ephippiorhynchus senegalensis), Gardiner sign, G29 (bA).

In later similar celestial scenes (Seti I, Ramses II, Tausert, Ramses VI, Psusennes), the bird is clearly a grey heron (G31).

Pedamenope and Montemhet are the same as Senenmut.

Above the bird at the top of the column is the name Osiris (Asir) and above this, a 'heron on a stand' sign (G32), ideogram for flood / inundate (baH)

'the crosser' - baH-Osiris' (DA baH-Asir)

This could read: 'the crosser of the inundation / abundant land - Osiris' or  'The inundated / abundant land of Osiris - the crosser'

'inundation' with the 'heron on perch' as determinative in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts:

"Since Unis has allowed them to eat from their cups and drink from their inundation....." W 165 (PT 254) Sethe Vol. 1: 154; §287b

"Greetings, you at the fore of the inundation, who guard nourishment [and sit at the fore of the green marsh at] the shoulder of the lord of sunlight! You [shall let me eat] of grain, [and I will] become [like Osiris on] the Great Immersion*." P 376 (PT 493) Sethe Vol. 2: 87; §1059a

*Great Immersion (mHt wrt) - designation of the sky.

"You shall take the arm of the Imperishable Stars, go up from Great Land*, and descend into the Big Wadi**. Stand up! Raise yourself! Recitation: Ho Pepi! Your water is the inundation; your cool water is the great inundation that comes from you." P 297 (PT 460) Sethe Vol. 1: 484; §868b

*Great Land (tA-wr) - the nome of Abydos

**Big Wadi (jnt aAt) - desert valley west of the royal tombs of Egypt's first kings at Abydos.

The view south of east from Hatshepsut's mortuary temple - dawn 22.12.1458 BC:  Jupiter (upper right corner), Saturn, Mercury (below and to the left of Saturn), Venus (just above the eastern horizon):

sky simulation - Starry Night Pro Plus 6 ver. 6.4.3

sky simulation - SkySafari Pro ver. 1.7.3

Hatshepsut reign:  c.1473 - c.1458. The depiction of the four of the five visible planets on the ceiling of Senenmut's tomb may commemorate the occasion when Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus were briefly seen together at dawn in the eastern sky perhaps around the time of Hatshepsut's death, or when one of her funerary ceremonies was being held.

Hatshepsut's Horus name, 'Horus, Powerful of Kas' (Hrw wsrt-kAw) appears in the two serekhs above Jupiter and Saturn.

Orion and Sirius (Ancient Egyptian: sAH and spdt)

Hatshepsut

Reign: New Kingdom 1473 - 1458 ± 10 years (Shaw 2000: 481)

Names:

Horus:  weseret kau (wsrt-kAw) - 'Powerful of Kas'

Two Ladies:  wad jet renput (wADt-rnpwt) - 'Flourishing of Years'

Golden Horus:  netjeret khau (nTrt-xaw) - 'Divine of Appearances'

Throne:  maat ka ra (mAat kA ra) - 'The True One of the Ka of Ra'

Birth:  khemet imen hat shepsut (xnmt imn HAt Spswt) - 'United with Amun, Foremost of Noble Women'

Mortuary temple:

25˚ 44' 18" (25.7383˚) N; 32˚ 36' 23.6" (32.6064˚) E; height above sea level ∼150m; central axis: 116.5 ± 0.5˚

Obliquity of the ecliptic: 23.87˚; southern extreme of yearly sunrises (midwinter sunrise): ∼117˚

name:  Djeser-djeseru - 'Holy of Holies'

Vaulted rooms on the north and south sides of the upper court dedicated to Hatshepsut, her father Thutmosis I, 'Sun-Horus of the Akhet' and Amun.

Diodorus Siculus 1st century BC

‘Library of History’ Book 1 

"Now as for the stories invented by Herodotus and certain writers on Egyptian affairs, who deliberately preferred to the truth the telling of marvellous tales and the invention of myths for the delectation of their readers, these we shall omit, and we shall set forth only what appears in the written records of the priests of Egypt and has passed our careful scrutiny."  (Chap. 69)

"Now the Egyptians say that also after these events a great number of colonies were spread from Egypt over all the inhabited world. To Babylon, for instance, colonists were led by Belus, who was held to be the son of Poseidon and Libya; and after establishing himself on the Euphrates river he appointed priests, called Chaldaeans by the Babylonians, who were exempt from taxation and free from every kind of service to the state, as are the priests of Egypt; and they also make observations of the stars, following the example of the Egyptian priests, physicists, and astrologers.  They say also that those who set forth with Danaus, likewise from Egypt, settled what is practically the oldest city in Greece, Argos, and that the nation of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Jews, which lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from their country; and this is the reason why it is a long-established institution among these two peoples to circumcise their male children, the custom having been brought over from Egypt.  (Chap. 28)

"Now it is maintained by the Egyptians that it was they who first discovered writing and the observation of the stars, who also discovered the basic principles of geometry and most of the arts, and established the best law.  (Chap. 69)

"In the education of their sons the priests teach them two kinds of writing, that which is called "sacred" and that which is used in the more general instruction.  Geometry and arithmetic are given special attention.  For the river, by changing the face of the country each year in manifold ways, gives rise to many and varied disputes between neighbours over their boundary lines, and these disputes cannot be easily tested out with any exactness unless a geometer works out the truth scientifically by the application of his experience.  And arithmetic is serviceable with reference to the business affairs connected with making a living and also in applying the principles of geometry, and likewise is of no small assistance to students of astrology as well.

For the positions and arrangements of the stars as well as their motions have always been the subject of careful observation among the Egyptians, if anywhere in the world; they have preserved to this day the records concerning each of these stars over an incredible number of years, this subject of study having been zealously preserved among them from ancient times, and they have also observed with the utmost avidity the motions and orbits and stoppings of the planets, as well as the influences of each one on the generation of all living things - the good or the evil effects, namely, of which they are the cause.

And while they are often successful in predicting to men the events which are going to befall them in the course of their lives, not infrequently they foretell destructions of the crops or, on the other hand, abundant yields, and pestilences that are to attack men or beasts, and as a result of their long observations they have prior knowledge of earthquakes and floods, of the risings of the comets, and of all things which the ordinary man looks upon as beyond all finding out.  And according to them the Chaldaeans of Babylon, being colonists from Egypt, enjoy the fame which they have for their astrology because they learned that science from the priests of Egypt."  (Chap. 81)

Chris Tedder

Vihtavuori, March 2013