DNA recognition and microarray assay

A primitive form of the Feast of Sokar is known to have already been celebrated during the Archaic Period and the true Feast of Sokar was observed from the Old Kingdom on.

According to the Festival Calendar of Medinet Habu

(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses II

), the name of this particular feast was Hb skr. At Deir el-Medina, Hb skr may have also been the name of the Feast of Sokar. A Hb skr is mentioned on a door jamb in the collection of Jacques Jean Clére (date attributed to the Ramesside Period).

In P. UC 34336

(date attributed to year 6 of Siptah

), hrw Hb skrt-wsir, ‘day of the Feast of Sokar-Osiris,’ is mentioned. The Eve of the Sokar Feast proper was called nTryt.

The word nTryt may indicate the deification of the dead god during the days leading to the feast proper.

At Deir el-Medina, the Eve of the Sokar Feast seems to have been called grH nTryt, the

‘Night of nTryt’, as is explicitly stated in the tombs of Khabekhenet (TT2

) and Amenmose (TT9

), both from the reign of Ramesses II.

Sokar was originally the god of the metal workers in the Memphite necropolis.

By the Middle Kingdom, Sokar had become a mortuary god, probably due to his association

1 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 13–26. For the Feast of Sokar, see also, for example, Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (1967), 51–90; Goyon, Fête de Sokaris, BIFAO 78 (1978), 415–438; Mikhail, The Festival of Sokar, GM 82 (1984), 24–44; Helck, Zu Ptah und Sokar (1991), 159–164; Graindorge, Les oignon de Sokar, Rd’É 43 (1992), 87–105; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 55–77, 169–437; Graindorge, La quête de la lumière, JEA 82 (1996), 83–105; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 75–101.

2 Festival Calendar of Medinet Habu, 1025 (list 47); Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 165.

3 For the date attributed, see Nelson, The Calendar at Medinet Habu (1934), 25–29; Spalinger, Sovereignty and Theology, Saeculum 47 (1996), 226; Haring, Divine Households (1997), 53–55.

4 [1]b skr[...; Door jamb Clére 14; see Clère, Monuments inédits, BIFAO 28 (1929), 199, pl. 4.

5 P. UC 34336, vs. B, 33; the document is also known as P. Greg; for a translation of the text, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 111–130.

6 For the date attributed, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 115–116.

7 E.g., Festival Calendar of Medinet Habu, 1003 (list 46) (e.g., Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 164); see also Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 43–45; Graindorge, Les oignon de Sokar, Rd’É 43 (1992), 95–99; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 228–239.

8 Graindorge, Les oignon de Sokar, Rd’É 43 (1992), 97–99; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 232–234; another suggestion for a translation of nTryt is the ‘two goddesses’ (Gaballa &

Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 43).

9 GrH nTryt; TT2, funerary chapel, hall 1, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 14).

10 GrH nTryt; TT9, funerary chapel, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 71).

11 For the date of TT2, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 6–9. Amenmose, the owner of TT9, is known to have lived during the reign of Ramesses II; e.g., Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 2.

12 Brovarski, Sokar, LÄ V (1984), 1056–1057; Helck, Zu Ptah und Sokar (1991), 160–164; for skr, see also Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VI (2002), 664–666; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 661–663.

with the cemetery.

As a chthonic god, Sokar became associated with Ptah and Osiris.

In Thebes, Sokar had two main cult centres: the Akhmenu temple at Karnak on the East bank and the ‘Hwt Sokar’ in the temple of Amenhotep III in Western Thebes.

1nw, the bark of Sokar, stood on a sledge and was adorned with a prow in the form of an antelope. The falcon of Sokar shrouded in a cloak stood in the middle of the boat.

According to the festival calendar in the tomb of the official Neferhotep (TT50,

reign of Horemheb

), a ritual of moistening barley and doing sS Hnkyt took place on the eight days leading to the Sokar Feast proper.

Jan Assmann believes that the ritual sS Hnkyt refers to re-opening the shaft to the burial chamber during the days leading to this feast.

During the Feast of nTryt, people appear to have kept a vigil, tying garlands of onions to be worn around the neck and to be offered to Sokar and to the deceased.

The main ritual of the Sokar Feast proper was the procession of ‘going around the walls’, originally the white walls in Memphis.

During the procession, Nefertem standards and Sokar in his Hnw-bark were carried by priests while the king and the barks of Hathor, Wadjet, Shesmetet, Bastet, and Sekhmet accompanied the deity honoured.

Due to the presence of Osiris in the Sokar Feast presentations, it has been suggested that the Feast of Sokar was integrated into the Khoiak Festival.

According to Katherine Eaton,

the two feasts were still separate during the early 19th Dynasty. The presence of Osiris in the Sokar festival scenes may, in fact, be due to the funerary nature of the feast: the feast commemorated the burial of Sokar.

By the Ptolemaic Period, the Feast of Sokar had, indeed, been absorbed by the Khoiak Festival.

1 Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946), 124; see also Brovarski, Sokar, LÄ V (1984), 1057–

1058.

2 Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946), 123–147; Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (1967), 54–57;

Brovarski, Sokar, LÄ V (1984), 1059–1061.

3 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 27–30

4 Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (1967), 75–81; Brovarski, Sokar, LÄ V (1984), 1066–1067; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 17–33; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 80–84.

5 See, for example, Assmann, Das Grab mit gewundenem Abstieg, MDAIK 40 (1984), 284–287;

Manniche, Beginning of the Festival Calendar (1985), 105–108; Assmann, The Ramesside Tomb and the Construction of sacred Space, in Strudwick & Taylor (eds.), The Theban Necropolis (2003), 50.

6 For the date of TT50, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 95–97.

7 For sS Hnkyt nsw (imn-Htp), see P. Turin Cat. 1961 + 2006 rt. III, 5; see also Chapter III 1.3 (III prt 15).

8 Assmann, Das Grab mit gewundenem Abstieg, MDAIK 40 (1984), 287; Assmann, The Ramesside Tomb (2003), 50.

9 Graindorge, Les oignon de Sokar, Rd’É 43 (1992), 87–105; see also Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 44–45.

10 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 2–13; 52–53; see also The Epigraphic Survey, Festival Scenes of Ramses III (1940), pls. 218–228.

11 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 57; see also Graindorge, La quête de la lumière, JEA 82 (1996), 83–105.

12 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 34–36; see also Mikhail, The Festival of Sokar, GM 82 (1984), 24–44; Graindorge-Héreil, Le Dieu Sokar (1994), 169–171. For the Khoiak Festival, see Chapter III 1.2.1.5.

13 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 97–98. Claas Jouco Bleeker also believed that the Sokar Festival celebrated at Medinet Habu was purely Sokarian (Bleeker, Egyptian Festivals (1967), 71–75); see also Helck, Zu Ptah und Sokar (1991), 162–163.

14 Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 98.

15 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 33–34; Eaton, Festivals of Osiris and Sokar, SAK 35 (2006), 97.

At Deir el-Medina, Sokar was not one of the popular deities of everyday life.

Sokar instead appears to have been a form of Ptah, a fact that is well illustrated by O. Cairo CG 25052

(no date attributed). This ostracon contains a Htp-di-nsw prayer for Ptah of the Beautiful place ‘in this his name of Sokar-Osiris’.

Ptah-Sokar is also mentioned on funerary stelae in the British Museum (BM EA 446,

date attributed to the early 19th Dynasty

) and in the Museo Egizio in Turin (N. 50012,

date attributed to the reign of Ramesses II

).

According to the aforementioned P. UC 34336

(date attributed to year 6 of Siptah

), two days before the Feast of Sokar the crew received extra wicks in addition to the ones said to be for the work in the Royal Tomb. These additional wicks were perhaps meant for the approaching Feast of Sokar with its vigil on the eve of the feast.

On the Night of nTryt, the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina may have been tying onions to be worn around the neck and to be offered to Sokar and the deceased. The act of tying onions is mentioned in the tomb of Nebenmaat (TT219

) from the first half of the reign of Ramesses II.

In the tomb of Khabekhenet (TT2,

reign of Ramesses II

), nTryt is described as ‘the day of tying the onions’. In the tomb of Amenmose (TT9,

reign of Ramesses II

), there is a spell to be recited when tying onions for the neck of the tomb-owner. The rituals of the Sokar Feast proper are also alluded to in tombs and objects pertaining to Deir el-Medina.

1 See, for example, the work on the popular religion at Deir el-Medina by Ashraf Iskander Sadek where Sokar is only mentioned in connection with Ptah and Osiris (Popular Religion (1987), 104, 106–107, 109). See also Noberasco, Analisi statistica (1977), 13–15.

2 O. Cairo CG 25052; for a good illustration of the ostracon, see Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 51 fig.

31.

3 1tp-di-nsw (n) ptH n tA st-nfrw m rn=f pw n skry-wsir; O. Cairo CG 25052, 1–3. For skr-wsir, see Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VI (2002), 666–667; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 663–667.

4 PtH-skry; Stela BM EA 446. For ptH-skr, see Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter III (2002), 175–176; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003),210–211.

5 For the date attributed, see Hieroglyphic Texts XII (1993), 14–15.

6 PtH-skry; Stela Turin N. 50012; Ptah-Sokar is, furthermore, mentioned on a fragment of a stela (ptH-[sk]ry; Stela Turin N. 50160; no date attributed).

7 For the date attributed, see Tosi & Roccati, Stele e altre (1972), 47–49.

8 2bsw dit r pA r-a-bAk m hrw pn 10[...iw pAy (m?) wnmy Hr dit xbsw m hrw pn 6 smHy[...; P. UC 34336 vs. B, 27–30.

9 For the date attributed, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 115–116.

10 See also Janssen, Village varia (1997), 128. However, as the text also contains a reference to finishing something in the Royal Tomb (hrw n grH m tA riAt HtA; vs. B, 29), the wicks might have been intended for this work (Janssen, loc. cit.)

11 ...] hrw pn n tpy n Ts HDw IV Axt 26; TT219, funerary chapel, north wall, bottom register (Kitchen, KRI III (1980), 759).

12 Nebenmaat is known to have lived during the first half of the reign of Ramesses II; e.g., Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 236.

13 0rw pn n Ts HDw(t); TT2, funerary chapel, hall 1, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 14).

14 For the date of TT2, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 6–9.

15 R n Ts HDw r xx=k grH nTryt di.tw HDw r xx=k nxm.tw sty[...; TT9, funerary chapel, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 71).

16 Amenmose is known to have lived during the reign of Ramesses II; e.g., Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 2.

On the aforementioned door jamb in the collection of Clére

(date attributed to the Ramesside Period

), Kaha prays that he would be allowed to follow Wennefer, i.e., Osiris, during the Feast of Sokar. This seems to be an allusion to a procession during the feast in question. In the tomb of Khabekhenet (TT2,

reign of Ramesses II

), there is a reference to the act of ‘making Sokar’. This might allude to the making of a statue of Sokar.

Many of the Deir el-Medina references to the Feast of Sokar come from the tombs of the community.

If tombs were, indeed, opened during the days leading to the Sokar Feast as Jan Assmann

has suggested, tomb chapels and perhaps also funerary chambers of the community may have been used when celebrating this feast at Deir el-Medina. Since Sokar was equated with Ptah at Deir el-Medina, the rock sanctuary of Ptah and Meretseger on the path from the village to the Valley of the Queens might also have served as the site of the Feast of Sokar.

Furthermore, in the northernmost niche of the three naoi in the so-called ‘Chapelle à Trois Loges’ (numbered 1211 by Bernard Bruyère)

is a wall painting depicting the bark of Sokar.

This chapel might, thus, also have been used for rituals during the Feast of Sokar.

During the New Kingdom, the Feast of Sokar proper was celebrated on IV Axt 26 but the festival period with offerings to Ptah-Sokar-Osiris may have lasted for ten days, on IV Axt 21–30.

Wolfgang Helck

suggested that the references in O. BM EA 5634

(years 39–40 of Ramesses II

) to burying ‘the god’ on IV Axt 17 mark the beginning of the Feast of Sokar. At Deir el-Medina, the Feast of Sokar, however, seems to have been celebrated principally on IV Axt 25–26.

In the tomb of Khabekhenet (TT2,

reign of Ramesses

1 8i=f...Sms(=i) wnn-nfr m [H]b skr[...; Door jamb Clére 14; Clère, Monuments inédits, BIFAO 28 (1929), 199, pl. 4.

2 For the date attributed, see Clère, Monuments inédits, BIFAO 28 (1929), 199.

3 Iw.tw Hr ir skry m Hb=f n tp(y) rnpt m-drt sA=tn mry=tn ms; TT2, funerary chapel, hall 1, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 14).

4 For the date of TT2, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 6–9.

5 TT2, funerary chapel, hall 1, wall B, 2nd register (grH nTryt...ir skry m Hb=f; Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 14); TT9, funerary chapel, wall B, 2nd register (grH nTryt...]sw 26; Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 71); TT219, funerary chapel, north wall, bottom register (...] hrw pn n tpy n Ts HDw IV Axt 26; Kitchen, KRI III (1980), 759).

6 Assmann, Das Grab mit gewundenem Abstieg, MDAIK 40 (1984), 287; Assmann, The Ramesside Tomb (2003), 50.

7 For the rock sanctuary, see Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 5–48; Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².2 (1973), 706–709.

8 Bruyère, Rapport 1929 (1930), 17–18; see also Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².2 (1973), 689.

9 Bomann, Private Chapel (1991), 41.

10 In the opinion of Ashraf Iskander Sadek, however, chapel 1211 was perhaps a tomb chapel rather than one of the chapels of the gods (Popular Religion (1987), 71).

11 Gaballa & Kitchen, Festival of Sokar, Or 38 (1969), 34.

12 Helck, Feiertage, JESHO 7 (1964), 164.

13 Qrs pA nTr; O. BM EA 5634 rt. 13, vs. 4.

14 Rnpt-sp 40; O. BM EA 5634, rt. 1; see Janssen, Absence, SAK 8 (1980), 133; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 66–71.

15 See also Janssen, Village varia (1997), 127; cf. Helck, Feiertage, JESHO 7 (1964), 157 (only IV Axt 26).

16 GrH nTryt...ir skry m Hb=f; TT2, funerary chapel, hall 1, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 14).

II

), the Night of nTryt is mentioned on IV Axt 25 while the Feast of Sokar is said to take place on IV Axt 26. The inscriptions in the tomb of Amenmose (TT9,

reign of Ramesses II

) may also indicate that the Feast of Sokar was celebrated on IV Axt 25–26. The Night of nTryt is mentioned without a date but the day 26 after a lacuna refers probably to the Feast of Sokar on IV Axt 26.

According to P. UC 34336

(date attributed to year 6 of Siptah

), the Feast of Sokar was celebrated on IV Axt 26. On the previous day, the crew received deliveries from the temples of Western Thebes and the scribe of this papyrus made no comment on working.

An analysis of the references to working and inactivity during the last decade of IV Axt seems to indicate that the work-free period due to the Feast of Sokar lasted for two days on IV Axt 25–26.

In the sixth year of Seti II,

the crew was freed from work on the Royal Tomb on IV Axt 25–26, as stated in O. Cairo CG 25515.

The scribe of the lamp account recorded on O. Cairo CG 25545 + JE 72454

(date attributed to year 6 of Seti II and year 1 of Siptah

) omitted the days IV Axt 25–26, indicating that the royal artisans were work-free during this period. According to O. DeM 339

(reign of Ramesses III

), the crew was also freed from work on the Royal Tomb on IV Axt 25–26. According to O. Turin N. 57154

(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses IV

), the crew was already work-free on IV Axt 24. There is, furthermore, one document that seems to indicate that the royal artisans were work-free on IV Axt 25–26. In O. Cairo CG 25521,

a list of men absent or working from the first year of Siptah,

the days IV Axt 25–26 have been omitted but, as Nebnefer seems to have been ill both before and after

1 For the date of TT2, see Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².1 (1960), 6–9.

2 See, for example, Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 69–74.

3 Amenmose is known to have lived during the reign of Ramesses II; e.g., Davies, Who’s Who at Deir el-Medina (1999), 2.

4 GrH nTryt...]sw 26; TT9, funerary chapel, wall B, 2nd register (Černý, Répertoire Onomastique (1949), 71).

5 0rw Hb skrt-wsir; P. UC 34336 vs. B, 33.

6 For the date attributed, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 115–116.

7 5sp m inyt m nA rw-prw imntt [wAst; P. UC 34336 vs. B, 32; On IV Axt 24 and 27, the crew, however, is said to have been working (iw nA rmT-ist Hr bAk m pA r-a[-bAk; vs. B, 27, 36).

8 The ratios of references to working to references to inactivity on days IV Axt 25–26 are 1/4 and 1/3, respectively.

9 For the date of O. Cairo CG 25515, see, for example, Černý, Ostraca Caire (1935), 7; Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 322–327, 382–384; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 141–147, 160–163

10 aHa; O. Cairo CG 25515 vs. I, 15–16.

11 No lamps used; O. Cairo CG 25545 + JE 72454; see Helck, Die datierten (2002), 146–147).

12 For the date attributed, see Helck, Die datierten (2002), 146–147; Donker van Heel & Haring, Writing in a Workmen’s Village (2003), 34.

13 6A ist wsf...__.; O. DeM 339, rt. 10–11.

14 For the date of O. DeM 339, see Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 618–619; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 246–247.

15 Wsf; O. Turin N. 57154, 1–3; see also Janssen, Village varia (1997), 127. The days IV Axt 25–26 are not mentioned in this document.

16 For the date attributed, see Helck, Die datierten (2002), 409.

17 O. Cairo CG 25521, vs. 3.

18 For the date, see, for example, Černý, Ostraca Caire (1935), 10–11; Collier, Dating Ostraca (2004), 36–37, 155.

these excluded days,

the omission does not appear to have been due to no absentees. P.

Turin Cat. 1960 + 2071,

in contrast, seems to indicate that, in the fourteenth year of Ramesses IX,

at least part of the crew was working on IV Axt 25–26. Despite this exception, it seems that the Feast of Sokar may generally have been celebrated on IV Axt 25–26 in the royal artisans’ community.

1 IV Axt 24...iw nb-nfr mr IV Axt 27...iw nb-nfr mr; O. Cairo CG 25521, vs. 3.

2 ...2]5 bAk...[sw 2]6 xbsw...IV [Axt] 27 bAk m pA xr n pr-aA a w s hrw pn; P. Turin Cat. 1960 + 2071 rt. II, 1–9. Twenty-eight men, however, were inactive on day 25, and on day 26 the crew appears to have received extra wicks in addition to the ones used for working in the tomb (2]5...nty wsf s 28...sw 2]6 xbsw=w 15 dmD wnmy smhy 27 Ssp m-drt aA-n-ist nx-m-mwt xbs 22 aA-n-ist Hr-ms xbs 15 hAw n pA r-a-bAk xbs 60; rt. II, 1–6). Despite working during the Feast of Sokar, it seems that some activities related to the feast in question may have taken place.

3 For the date of this document, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 641–644; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 508–510.