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Stone Engravings of Famous Warrior Pharaoh Found in Ancient Egyptian Temple
Stone engravings found in a temple in southern Egypt may reveal new information about a pharaoh named Seti I, who launched a series of military campaigns in North Africa and the Middle East after he became pharaoh in about 1289 or 1288 B.C., several Egyptologists told
The inscriptions have both drawings and hieroglyphs on them and one of the inscriptions mentions an elite general in King Tut's army.
Archaeologists with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities discovered the inscriptions while conducting a groundwater-lowering project in Aswan; they found them inside Kom Ombo, a temple dedicated to the god Horus and a crocodile-headed god named Sobek. The temple dates back 2,300 years; the inscriptions may have originally been in an earlier temple, now lost, at Kom Ombo that was located on the same spot as the later temple. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]
sent images released by the ministry on Sept. 30 to several Egyptologists who gave their perspectives on what the inscriptions say.
"This is an exciting discovery and may be historically important," said Peter Brand, a professor of ancient history at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. One of the inscriptions, which still has yellow paint on it despite the passage of 3,300 years of time, shows Seti I, with images of the king worshiping Sobek and Horus, said Brand, noting that it appears to date to early in Seti I's reign.
"This [inscription] proves that the double cult of these two gods [Horus and Sobek] was already established at Kom Ombo in the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period, more than 1,000 years [before] the later temple was built," Brand told
Another, much larger inscription also appears to be in the name of Seti I and has an image that appears to show the king worshipping Horus and Sobek, Brand said. "This one is even more important historically," Brand said.
Brand can't tell from the photos precisely what that larger inscription says but "this was a major royal inscription and likely contains some kind of royal decree about the king's activities in the region, perhaps a dedication to the temple of Horus and Sobek [at] Kom Ombo," Brand said. Another inscription left by Seti I (also spelled Sety I) was discovered in the past at a site called Gebel es-Silsilah, which is located to the north of Kom Ombo. "Perhaps Sety was traveling through his realm in Year One [of his reign] and made stops at Gebel es-Silsilah and then at Kom Ombo on his way south from Thebes, modern Luxor," Brand said.
It "would be wonderful if the text [of the larger inscription] contains a report on the king's military activity," Brand said, noting that Seti came from a family of military generals, and after he became pharaoh, he launched military campaigns to conquer Libya, Canaan, Syria and Nubia.
The larger inscription mentions Horemheb, who was pharaoh until around 1293 B.C., according to the statement. Aidan Dodson, an Egyptology professor at the University of Bristol, could also see at least one mention of Horemheb in the inscription.
Horemheb "was in fact the highest general in King Tut's army during Tut's reign. He became king by marrying into the royal family, and being head of the army probably also didn't hurt his chances of becoming pharaoh, either," Ronald Leprohon, professor of Egyptology at the University of Toronto, told
Why exactly Horemheb is mentioned in an inscription written in the name of Seti I is unclear. The inscription may be "about completing some kind of building work begun by Horemheb and left unfinished at his death," Dodson said.
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