The name of the fourth month of the ancient Egyptian civil calendar, IV Axt, was kA-Hr-kA (Greek Khoiak).
1A mention of the eponymous feast kA-(Hr-)kA dating to the 18th Dynasty is found on the astronomical ceiling in the Tomb of Senmut (TT71).
2The Feast of kA-Hr-kA is also mentioned in several documents pertaining to Deir el-Medina. The feast name [kA-Hr-]kA, for example, is used in the list of eponymous feasts in the unpublished O. IFAO 1088
3(no date attributed). According to O. Berlin P 12635
4(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses IV
5), food was transferred to an unidentified man on kA-Hr-kA. In this document, the event is said to have taken place on a certain day at the beginning of I prt and, thus, the reference seems to be to a feast. Furthermore, when Weskhet-nemtet made Isis his wife
6in the mid-20th Dynasty,
7he gave his father-in-law food during various events including three
8occasions of kA-Hr-kA:
O. Berlin P 124069
(rt. 11) KA-Hr(-kA) 2, each one 5 loaves, makes 10 (rt. 12) One mnt-jar beer.
(vs. 1) Again on kA-Hr(-kA)
(vs. 2) 15 loaves, 10 loaves of the Pharaoh l. p. h.
(vs. 3) 3 mnt-jars beer, 2 oipe emmer wheat.
The three occurrences of kA-Hr-kA in this document could mean perhaps three different occasions or days within one and the same feast. Alternatively, the references could allude to separate feasts over three years.
1 E.g., Erman, Monatsnamen, ZÄS 39 (1901), 129; Černý, Origin of Tybi, ASAE 43 (1943), 174;
Parker, Calendars (1950), 43. For the Khoaik Festival, see, for example, Chassinat, Le mystère d’Osiris (1966–1968); Daumas, Choiakfeste, LÄ I (1975), Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 169–437; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 75–101; Minas, Die Ptolemäischen Sokar-Osiris-Mumien, MDAIK 62 (2006), 208–210; see also Schott, Festdaten (1950), 89–92.
2 See, for example, Parker, Calendars (1950), 42–43, pl. I; Leitz, Studien zur Astronomie (1989), 35–
48; for the date of TT71, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 139–142.
3 O. IFAO 1088, 6 (Černý, Notebooks, 110.56); see also van Walsem, Month-Names (1982), 242 (O.
DeM reg. no. 1088). For a discussion of this document, see Chapter III 1.2.1.
4 I prt 2 m kA-Hr-kA; O. Berlin P 12635, vs. 9.
5 For the date attributed, see Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 354–355.
6 R rdit rx.tw ixt nb i.di wsxt-nmtt n pAy=f it m-Dr ir=f Ast m Hmt [...; O. Berlin P 12406, rt. 1–2; for this text, see Toivari-Viitala, Women at Deir el-Medina (2001), 62–63.
7 Weskhet-nemtet is known from the first year of Ramesses IV through year 1 of Ramesses V (Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 262; see also Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 444).
8 Three times pn-(imn-Htp) was also mentioned in this document (pn-(imn-Htp) 3; O. Berlin P 12406, rt. 3).
9 O. Berlin P 12406, rt. 11 – vs. 3
(rt. 11) kA-Hr(-kA) 2, wa nb aqw 5 ir.n 10 (rt. 12) Hnqt mnt 1
(vs. 1) wHm m kA-Hr(-kA)
(vs. 2) aqw 15 aqw n pr-aA a w s 10 (vs. 3) Hnqt mnt 3 bty ipt 2.
For a translation of this text, see Deir el Medine online, Berlin P 12406, Übersetzung.
The Khoiak Festival is known to have been celebrated in Abydos since the Middle Kingdom.
1The main event of the feast was the procession of Osiris-Khentamentiu from the temple of Osiris to his tomb Peker at Umm el-Qaab.
2For the purposes of this procession, two so-called ‘corn mummies’ of Osiris were constructed.
3An ‘Osiris Fetish’, i.e., a wig (perhaps with face and plumes) on a standard, also had an important part to play in the festival procession.
4The aim of the Khoiak Festival was to take part in the resurrection of Osiris and to gain eternal life.
5Osiris was a popular deity at Deir el-Medina,
6especially in the funerary sphere.
7A figured ostracon (DeM 2603,
8no date attributed) depicts a procession, perhaps during the Khoiak Festival, of an Osiris Fetish. The cult of Osiris may have been carried out in the numerous tomb chapels of the community. There is also a possibility that Bruyère’s Chapel 1221
9was dedicated to this god. A head of a statue belonging to a group of Osiris and his son Horus was found in this particular chapel.
10Depictions of Osiris, furthermore, are found in the rock sanctuary of Ptah and Meretseger on the road from the village to the Valley of the Queens.
11It has been suggested that the Feast of Sokar was integrated into the Khoiak Festival.
12According to Katherine Eaton,
13the separate suites for Osiris and Sokar in the temple built by Seti I at Abydos demonstrate, however, that the two feasts may still have been unconnected during the early 19th Dynasty. By the Ptolemaic Period, the Feast of Sokar had been incorporated into the Khoiak Festival.
14The festival dates of Khoiak differ from one source to another.
15The festival normally seems to have been celebrated during the month of IV Axt and to have
1 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 75–76.
2 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 75–76; for Peker being located at Umm el-Qaab, see Schäfer, Die Mysterien des Osiris in Abydos under König Sesostris III nach dem Denkstein des Oberschatzmeisters I-cher-nofret im Berliner Museum (1904), 27–28. For wsir, see Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter II (2002), 528–536; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 142–186.
3 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 97; see also Daumas, Choiakfeste, LÄ I (1975), 958–959; for corn mummies, see Beinlich-Seeber, Kornosiris, LÄ III (1980), 744–746; Raven, Corn-mummies, OMRO 63 (1982), 7–38; Centrone, Behind the Corn-mummies (2005), 24–26; see also Tooley, Osiris Bricks, JEA, 82 (1996), 167–179; Quack, Saatprobe und Kornosiris (2007), 325–331.
4 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 84–93.
5 Daumas, Choiakfeste, LÄ I (1975), 959; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 76.
6 See, for example, Noberasco, Analisi statistica (1977).
7 Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 108.
8 Figured O. DeM 2603.
9 Bruyère, Rapport 1929 (1930), 44–45; for Chapel 1221, see also Bomann, Private Chapel (1991), 43.
10 Bruyère, Rapport 1929 (1930), 44–45.
11 Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 149; Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 108. For the rock sanctuary, see Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 5–48; Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².2 (1973), 706–
709. A ‘storehouse of Osiris’ is mentioned in O. DeM 586, 3 (wDA n wsir; date attributed to the reign of Ramesses III; Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 583).
12 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 36; for the Feast of Sokar, see Chapter III 1.2.2.2.
13 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 97–98.
14 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 33; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 97.
15 Daumas, Choiakfeste, LÄ I (1975), 958.
culminated in the Feast of Lifting the Djed-pillar on IV Axt 30.
1The Khoiak Festival, thus, is similar to such eponymous feasts as the Feast of Thoth, the Opet Festival, and the Beautiful Feast of the Valley which were celebrated within the month that was named after the feast in question.
At Deir el-Medina, Khoiak (kA-Hr-kA) seems to have been the name of a feast at the beginning of I prt. This follows the general custom of celebrating an eponymous feast at the beginning of the subsequent month after the one named after it. According to O. Berlin P 12635
2(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses IV)
3, kA-Hr-kA was celebrated on I prt 2.
In Graffito 2087
4(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses V
5), the crew is said to have brought kA-Hr-kA to Meretseger on I prt 5. Note also the work journal O. Ashmolean Museum 70
6(date attributed to the mid-20th Dynasty
7), where the crew is said to have been work-free on I prt 1 because of a wp, ‘feast’
8. An analysis of the references to working and inactivity at the beginning of I prt indicates that the royal artisans may, in general, have celebrated the Feast of kA-Hr-kA for two days on I prt 1–2.
9In O. Cairo CG 25542,
10a lamp account dating to the fifth year of Seti II,
11the days IV Axt 29 – I prt 3 have been omitted from the record indicating that the royal artisans were work-free during this period. According O. Cairo CG 25515
12(year 6 of Seti II
13), the royal artisans were freed from work on the Royal Tomb from IV Axt 29 through I prt 4. O. DeM 340,
14the date of which is attributed to the 19th Dynasty,
15is a list of days of working and inactivity.
According to this document, the crew went back to work on I prt 3 after having been work-free since IV Axt 27.
16There are some additional documents that might be interpreted as indicating that the royal artisans were work-free at the end of IV Axt and at
1 Gardiner, Review of Frazer, The Golden Bough: Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 1914. JEA 2 (1915), 123;
Daumas, Choiakfeste, LÄ I (1975), 958; Altenmüller, Feste, LÄ II (1977), 176; Mikhail, Raising the Djed-pillar. The Last day of the Osirian Khoiak Festival, GM 83 (1984), 51–69; see also Schott, The Feasts of Thebes (1934), 85–87, figs. 41–43.
2 I prt 2 m kA-Hr-kA; O. Berlin P 12635, vs. 9.
3 For the date attributed, see Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 354–355.
4 Ii in tA-ist r msy kA-Hr-kA n Hnwt aAt Spsyt mrt-sgr; Graffito 2087, 1–3. For mr.s-gr, see Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter III (2002), 343–344; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 259.
5 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 271; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 420.
6 Wsf wp; O. Ashmolean Museum 70, rt. 9.
7 According to the Deir el-Medina Database, the presence of four Hwtyw in this text suggests a date in the reign of Ramesses VI (O. Ashmolean Museum 0070, Remarks).
8 Erman & Grapow, WB I (1926), 304 (Fest (allgemeines Wort)).
9 The ratios of references to working to references to inactivity is 2/5 on I prt 1 and 1/4 on I prt 2; cf.
Helck, Feiertage, JESHO 7 (1964), 157.
10 O. Cairo CG 25542, rt. 10–11.
11 For the date of O. Cairo CG 25542, see Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 305–309; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 137–139.
12 aHa; O. Cairo CG 25515 vs. II, 1–6.
13 For the date, see Černý, Ostraca Caire (1935), 7; Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 322–327; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 141–147.
14 O. DeM 340, rt. 1 – vs. 2.
15 For the date attributed, see Černý, Ostraca Deir el Medineh V (1951), 1.
16 Wsf[...] IV Axt 27 sw 28 sw 29 arq[...] iw I prt 3; O. DeM 340, rt. 3. A great deal seems to be lost at the ends of all the lines but, nevertheless, it is possible to determine that the words wsf and iw have been inserted before the days they refer to: if these words would refer to the preceding days, the men would have been working on the 29th and the 30th days of the month.
the beginning of I prt. The scribe of the list of men absent or working O. Cairo CG 25521
1(year 1 of Siptah
2) omitted IV Axt 29 – I prt 3. As Pamerihu is said to have been ill both before and after the days omitted,
3the exclusion of the dates from the record does not seem to have been the result of everyone being present. The entire crew may have been work-free during these days. The lamp account on the verso side of O. Cairo CG 25536
4(year 1 of Siptah
5) starts with I prt 4, a day when wicks were brought from storage. The scribe of this text may have opened the account on I prt 4 because it was perhaps the first working day of the month.
6Thus, it appears that, at least during the 19th Dynasty, the work-free period due to the Feast of kA-Hr-kA at Deir el-Medina may have started on IV Axt 29 and ended on I prt 2 or 3.
7There is, however, one contradictory document. In O. Cairo CG 25514
8(date attributed to the reign of Amenmesse)
9, individual men who were absent from work on I prt 1–8 are listed. In the year this particular document was written, the rest of the crew, thus, appears to have been working during the feast at the beginning of I prt.
In the magical literary text O. DeM 1059
10(no date attributed), the ‘seven days of Khoiak’ are mentioned. According to the aforementioned Graffito 2087
11(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses V
12), the royal artisans brought kA-Hr-kA to Meretseger on I prt 5.
If one assumes that the festival had already started during the preceding ‘weekend’, I prt 5 would have been the seventh day of the feast. However, the fact that Graffito 2087 is situated in the Valley of the Kings
13might indicate that the crew was working on that day despite the observance of the rituals related in this particular graffito. Moreover, as observed above, the feast seems generally to have lasted only through the second day of the month at Deir el-Medina. Despite the fact that the inactivity due to the Khoiak Festival does not seem to have lasted for seven days, the ritual related in Graffito 2087 may have been part of the rites during the festival period.
1 O. Cairo CG 25521, rt. 4–5.
2 For the date, see, for example, Černý, Ostraca Caire (1935), 10–11; Collier, Dating Ostraca (2004), 36–37, 155.
3 IV Axt 28...iw pA-mr-iHw mr rnpt-sp 2 I prt 4...iw pA-mr-iHw mr; O. Cairo CG 25521, rt. 4–5. The scribe of another absentee list, O. DeM 339 from the reign of Ramesses III (e.g., Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 618–619), omitted IV Axt 29 – I prt 2 (rt. 12–13). The omission in this document, however, might be due to no one being absent on these days.
4 Inyt (m) pA wDA m hrw pn xbs hAw iryt im=sn xb[s 8]; O. Cairo CG 25536, vs. 1–2.
5 For the date of O. Cairo CG 25536, see Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 402–204; Wimmer, Hieratische Paläographie I (1995), 56–57; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 169, 171.
6 For the scribes at Deir el-Medina opening and closing the book, see Donker van Heel & Haring, Writing in a Workmen’s Village (2003), 67.
7 All the references to the Feast of kA-Hr-kA have been attributed a date in the mid-20th Dynasty;
Graffito 2087, 1–3 (date attributed to the reign of Ramesses V; e.g., Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 271);
O. Berlin P 12635, vs. 9 (date attributed to the reign of Ramesses IV; Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 354–355).
8 O. Cairo CG 25514, 1–5.
9 For the attributed date, see Wimmer, Hieratische Paläographie I (1995), 47–48; Janssen, Village varia (1997), 103; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 107–108; cf. Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 333–334 (Seti II).
10 PA 7 hrw n kAy-Hr-kA; O. DeM 1059, rt. 7–8.
11 Ii in tA-ist r msy kA-Hr-kA n Hnwt aAt Spsyt mrt-sgr; Graffito 2087, 1–3.
12 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 271; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 420.
13 Valley of the Tomb of Seti II; Félix & Kurz, Graffiti de la Montagne Thébaine II: Plans de Position (1970), pl. 43.
According to O. Demarée H 6
1(date attributed to year 3 of Seti I
2), the crew received deliveries of wood and pottery on IV Axt 30. Among the containers were 40 kA-Hr-kA-vessels,
3the name of which seems to derive from the Khoiak Festival.
4As the date of the delivery mentioned in O. Demarée H 6
5is during the festival period of kA-Hr-kA, it seems reasonable to assume that the containers were meant for some rituals performed during the festivities. The kA-Hr-kA, which according to Graffito 2087
6was brought to Meretseger, may also have been such a ritual vessel.
According to various sources from the Middle and the New Kingdom, I prt 1 was, in fact, dedicated to a feast of the god nHb-kAw.
7NHb-kAw was a serpent deity of time and of the fate of the deceased.
8NHb-kAw was, furthermore, one of the serpent demons represented on the thrones of the goddesses Sekhmet and Bastet, i.e., the Eye of Re.
9Perhaps the Feast of nHb-kAw was also celebrated in honour of these goddesses as the astronomical ceiling of the Ramesseum
10might indicate: the deity representing IV Axt in this inscription is not Osiris but Sekhmet. The Feast of nHb-kAw, which was celebrated at the beginning of a new season, was associated with the New Year.
11The Feast of nHb-kAw was also a feast of kingship, and Ramesses III seems to have chosen I prt 1 as his coronation day.
12That the Feast of kA-Hr-kA was celebrated at the time of the Feast of nHb-kAw at Deir el-Medina may be explained by the fact that this latter feast seems to have been an extension of the Khoiak Festival.
13The Khoiak Festival ended in the resurrection of Osiris while the Feast of nHb-kAw celebrated the accession of his son Horus as the king of Egypt.
141 IV Axt arqy xt...qrHwt; O. Demarée H 6, 1–2, 8.
2 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI VII (1989), 30.
3 KA-Hr-kA 40; O. Demarée H 6, 8.
4 Černý, Some Coptic Etymologies III, BIFAO 57 (1958), 207.
5 IV Axt arqy; O. Demarée H 6, 1.
6 Ii in tA-ist r msy kA-Hr-kA n Hnwt aAt Spsyt mrt-sgr; Graffito 2087, 1–3.
7 Schott, Festdaten (1950), 93–94; Barta, Nehebkau, LÄ IV (1982), 389. For the god nHb-kAw, see Shorter, The God Nehebkau, JEA 21 (1935), 41–48; Zandee, Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions (1960), 98–100. For various interpretations of the name nHb-kAw, see Gardiner, Mesore, ZÄS 43 (1906), 139; Shorter, The God Nehebkau, JEA 21 (1935), 41; Barta, Nehebkau, LÄ IV (1982), 388. See also Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter IV (2002), 273–
276.
8 Barta, Nehebkau, LÄ IV (1982), 388–390; see also Shorter, The God Nehebkau, JEA 21 (1935), 46–
47.
9 Shorter, The God Nehebkau, JEA 21 (1935), 47.
10 Astronomical ceiling in the Ramesseum; see for example, Parker, Calendars (1950), 44 fig. 19, pls.
2–3. In the astronomical frieze in the Greco-Roman temple of Edfu, the deity representing IV Axt is kA-Hr-kA (see Parker, Calendars (1950), 43–45, pl. V).
11 Gardiner, Review of Frazer, The Golden Bough, JEA 2 (1915), 124; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 279; Spalinger, Calendars: Real and Ideal (1994), 302–308; Spalinger, Parallelism of Thought (1994), 363–377.
12 Gardiner, Review of Frazer, The Golden Bough, JEA 2 (1915), 124; Barta, Thronbesteigung, SAK 8 (1980), 48; Barta, Nehebkau, LÄ IV (1982), 389.
13 Altenmüller, Feste, LÄ II (1977), 176; Barta, Nehebkau, LÄ IV (1982), 389; see also Gardiner, Mesore, ZÄS 43 (1906), 139; Spalinger, Parallelism of Thought (1994), 363–377.
14 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 74; see also Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 277.
As far as I am aware, the name of the Feast of nHb-kAw is only found once at Deir el-Medina. In an inscription of the tomb of Amenmose (TT9,
1reign of Ramesses II
2), the name of the deceased is said ‘not to be forgotten in the morning of nHb-kAw’. The
‘morning of nHb-kAw’ might refer to I prt 2 since, in the tomb of the official Nakhtamon (TT341,
3reign of Ramesses II
4), I prt 2 is called the ‘morning of nHb-kAw’. As all the known references to the Festival kA-Hr-kA at Deir el-Medina have been attributed a date in the mid-20th Dynasty,
5the name of the feast at the beginning of I prt may have changed sometime between the reign of Ramesses II and that of Ramesses IV.
NHb-kAw was not a deity revered in the everyday life of the royal artisans’
community at Deir el-Medina.
6Another deity who also took the form of a snake was, however, mentioned in connection with the Feast of kA-Hr-kA/nHb-kAw. According to the aforementioned Graffito 2087,
7the crew performed a ritual to Meretseger at the beginning of I prt. This goddess of the nearby mountain top or slope
8may in this case have been revered particularly as a snake-goddess. There are, furthermore, some indications of a Deir el-Medina cult of the goddess Sekhmet, who may also have been celebrated in the Feast of kA-Hr-kA/nHb-kAw.
9Sekhmet is mentioned in O. DeM 200,
10the date of which is attributed to the reign of Ramesses III.
11This document records the distribution of over 300 vessels to the men, the two door-keepers, ‘the god’, and Sekhmet.
12Although the date of the event is not recorded, one might perhaps tentatively suggest that these extra rations may have been delivered in connection with a feast,
13such as the Feast of kA-Hr-kA.
1 N] HnHn rn=k dwAwt nHb-kA; TT9, chapel, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 72).
2 Amenmose is known to have lived during the reign of Ramesses II; e.g., Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 2.
3 Schott, Festdaten (1950), 94.
4 For the date of TT341, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 408–409.
5 Graffito 2087, 1–3 (date attributed to the reign of Ramesses V; e.g., Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 271);
O. Berlin P 12635, vs. 9 (date attributed to the reign of Ramesses IV; Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 354–355).
6 See, for example, the deities listed in Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 85–151; Noberasco, Analisi statistica (1977), 13–15.
7 I prt 5 ii in tA-ist r msy kA-Hr-kA n Hnwt aAt Spsyt mrt-sgr; Graffito 2087, 1–3.
8 For this sense of the word dhnt, see Yoyotte, A propos de quelques idées reçues: Méresger, la Butte et les cobras, in Guillemette (ed.), Deir el-Médineh et la Vallée des Rois: La vie en Égypte au temps des pharaohs du nouvel Empire. Actes du colloque organisé par le musée du Louvre les 3 et 4 mai 2002 (2003), 281-307; Adrom, Der Gipfel der Frömmigkeit? Überlegungen zur Semantik und religiösen Symbolik von tA-dhn.t, LingAeg 12 (2004), 1–20.
9 The deity representing IV Axt on the astronomical ceiling of the Ramesseum is not Osiris but Sekhmet (Parker, Calendars (1950), 44 fig. 19, pls. 2–3).
10 O. DeM 200, 1–7.
11 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 597.
12 QrHt 328 s wa nb qrHt 8 (iry-)aA s 2 wa nb 3 ir.n 6 pA nTr qrHt 2 sxmt qrHt 3 1/2; O. DeM 200, 1–5.
For deliveries for offerings to the deities of the community, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 34–35;
Jauhiainen, Religious Buildings (2009), 156–159. For Sekhmet, see, for example, Hoenes,
Untersuchungen zu Wesen und Kult der Göttin Sachmet (1976); Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VI (2002), 556–559; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 654–659. For Sekhmet at Deir el-Medina, see also Stela BM EA 810.
13 Deir el-Medina Database, O. DeM 0200, Contents.