History and Program of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall

1.3 Program of Epigraphic Work

Recarved reliefs from the passageway through the Second Pylon recorded in the early 1990s.

The passages and doorways on the north,^[1] south and west sides, and at the southeast corner of the Hall, since they are mostly excluded from earlier publications, are to have a volume of their own (A, C, E, F & H). Field work on these walls is essentially finished, and the drawings only await final inking before they will be ready for publication (see below 4.1). The architraves undertaken during the early 1980s as a personal project by Rondot, formerly of the Franco-Egyptian Center, are now published.^[2]Murnane has recorded the "stereotyped" inscriptions on the shafts of the columns and the original bases that survive. Preparation of the manuscript, which will include a description of the color that remains on the columns, is in progress (see below 4.4). The war scenes of Seti I on the north exterior wall have been recorded by the Chicago Epigraphic Survey .^[3] This expedition is currently engaged in recording the complementary war scenes of Ramesses II on the south outer wall (see below 4.2)

Blocks fallen from the tops of the standing walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall are stored throughout Amen's precinct at Karnak. Murnane made initial use of this material while working on the Chicago Epigraphic Survey's publication of Seti I's war reliefs and was able to reconstruct the overall outlines of the decoration on the missing upper reaches of the Hall's north outer wall. By the time he left Egypt in the mid-1980s he had also noted the positions of over one hundred blocks from the Hall's interior. A number of these fragments have already been reassembled into a scene that must have stood originally in the fourth register of the west wall's southern wing.^[4] There is every reason to think, therefore, that similar results could be obtained with blocks from other, more seriously damaged walls of the building.^[5] In recent years many of the fragments have been moved onto waterproof platforms, as well, where they are safe from further deterioration that results from being in direct contact with the ground and its salt-inducing moisture.^[6] The Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Franco-Egyptian Center have recently agreed to clear the last important sector where blocks from the Hall are to be found, on the hill that lies east of the path which leads from the Hall's northern doorway to the Temple of Ptah.

A block from the north gate of the Hypostyle Hall.

The University of Memphis began working on these, as well as other fragments that lie around the site, in the spring of 2000 and 2002. The scenes that emerge from the joining of these fragments will be drawn and collated,^[7] but the photographed assemblages of the blocks will also be integrated into photographic composites of the Hall's inner walls that the Franco-Egyptian Center is now preparing. This reintegration will serve as a guide to future restorers, when and if it is decided to put these reassembled scenes back onto the walls of the Great Hypostyle Hall (see below 2.7 and 4.3).

The scenes on the columns are still to be recorded in detail (including those that are now lying in fragments north of the Hall, two of which have been reconstituted, on paper, by Murnane). Most columns have only one scene, executed originally by Seti I (in the northern half) or Ramesses II (southern half), but columns adjoining the central aisle each have two such scenes. Ramesses IV later filled the empty spaces on all of the columns except those in the Hall's south-western quarter, generally adding two scenes per column.^[8] Most of these 346 scenes survive (excepting those on the badly damaged columns at the southeast corner of the Hall's northern half), and although most of them are not executed on the large scale found on the colossal open-papyrus columns in the central aisle (Cols. 1-12), the prospect of recording them all poses a daunting logistical challenge. Advances in computer-aided techniques for handling such images, along with financial issues, will have to be considered before a final decision is made on the manner in which the columns will be recorded (see below 4.4).

Ramesses II returns from battle with Syrian prisoners of war. South exterior wall.

Finally, due to the rapid deterioration of some of the interior wall scenes— scattered throughout the building— a program of "salvage epigraphy" was undertaken in 2001 to record those scenes in the most immediate jeopardy of decay. This represents only the first step in the process of eventually re-recording all of the interior wall scenes published by Nelson. Given the amount of unrecorded material in the Hall, this cannot be the first priority, except for the most endangered reliefs. Neither can the drawings of Nelson, however, stand as the definitive publication of the interior wall scenes, even when augmented by the forthcoming volume of translations and epigraphic commentary. For this reason, we have begun to redraw selected wall scenes that are in danger of immediate deterioration as part of our "salvage epigraphy" program (see below 2.8-2.9.1).

The laborious program of recording described above will lead, undoubtedly, to an accumulation of valuable details on the history of the Great Hypostyle Hall. Ideally, however, and especially when enhanced by the addition of the fragments from the tops of the standing walls, it should also lead to a "grammar" of decorative and religious themes inside the Hall. These findings might then be applied to other, more incomplete buildings of the New Kingdom. The system used in decorating the Great Hypostyle Hall may thus shed light on the mentality that underlies this and other great religious buildings that survive from ancient Egypt.

^[1]Here only the eastern thickness remains unpublished, for the inner doorjambs are included in Nelson's publication (n. 7 above) and the outer doorway is published by the Chicago Epigraphic Survey, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak IV, The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak, OIP 107 (Chicago, 1986).

^[2]Rondot, Les Architraves.

^[3]Epigraphic Survey, The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I.

^[4]This is because it was first carved in raised relief that was subsequently recarved as incised "sunk" relief, a transformation that occurs only on the western half of the south wall (where this composition cannot fit) and on the northern two-thirds of the west wall's south wing (where there is ample room for it): see Murnane, "Reconstructing Scenes from the Great Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak" in A. Niwinsky, ed., Essays in honour of Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Lipinska, Warsaw Egyptological Studies I (Warsaw, 1997): 107-117.

^[5]Nelson (GHHK I.1, pls. 81-86) had already restored the top of the Hall's south interior wall from a number of such fragments, which are now stored on platforms at the southwest corner of the precinct of Amen, north of the Temple of Khonsu. Janusz Karkowski has also reconstructed the decorative scheme of scenes on the now missing lintel over the north gateway from a handful of blocks.

^[6]For which see Claude Traunecker, "Aperçu sur les dégradations des grès dans les temples de Karnak," Cahiers de Karnak 5 (1970-72): 119-130; idem, "Observations faites au IXe pylône: dégradations internes et humidités," ibid., 8 (1982-85): 355-367.

^[7]The expedition uses a variation of the Chicago Epigraphic Survey's method of recording carved reliefs (see below 3.0). For the "Chicago House Method," see Lanny Bell, Bernard Fishman and William J. Murnane, "The Epigraphic Survey (Chicago House)" in NARCE 118 (1982): 3-23 and ibid., 119 (1982): 5-13. The Hypostyle Hall Project's methodology is discussed in detail below.

^[8]See, in general, Christophe, Divinités, 2.