GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

A Feast of Ptah ‘in his feast of lifting the sky’ (m Hb=f n axy pt) is known to have been celebrated in Memphis.

At Deir el-Medina, a feast of Ptah was also celebrated around the time it was celebrated in Memphis. In O. DeM 401,

a work journal from the second year of Ramesses IV,

this feast of Ptah was called the ‘Great Feast’ (Hb aA). In the third year of Ramesses X,

the feast was simply termed Hb ptH, ‘Feast of Ptah,’ as indicated in P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094.

I know of one more reference that might stand for the Feast of Ptah at the beginning of III prt.

In O. DeM 230

(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses II

), pA Hb n ptH is mentioned without date.

Ptah was the god of the craftsmen, the deceased, and the sky, just to give a few examples.

The main sanctuary of Ptah was situated in Memphis, where Ptah ‘South of the White Walls’ was revered.

In Thebes, Ptah had many places of worship and a temple had been erected for him in the north part of Karnak.

Ptah, the ‘sky-lifting’ deity is known as one of the aspects of this creator god from the Ramesside Period on.

The ‘sky-lifting Ptah’ took the role of Shu, the son of Atum, as the one instigating the separation of the earth and the sky at the time of the creation of the world.

Ptah was one of the most popular deities at Deir el-Medina.

His principal place of worship was the rock sanctuary on the road to the Valley of the Queens.

The god revered in these grottos that formed the sanctuary was called ‘Ptah of the Beautiful Place’ (ptH n tA

1 Altenmüller, Feste, LÄ II (1977), 177. For the Feast of Ptah, see, for example, Berlandini, Ptah-demiurge, Rd’É 46 (1995), 29–31; for Ptah, see, for example, Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 59–102;

Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946); Giveon, A God Who Hears (1982), 38–42; te Velde, Ptah, LÄ IV (1982), 1177–1180; Helck, Zu Ptah und Sokar (1991), 159–164; Berlandini, op. cit., 9–

41; Dils, Ptah van de grote poort, De Scriba 4 (1996), 69–84.

2 [i]w=sn irt Hb aA; O. DeM 401, rt. 4.

3 For the date, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 125; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 379–380.

4 For the date of P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094, see, for example, Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 687–699; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 541–554.

5 1b ptH; P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094 rt. I, 5.

6 Not all allusions to a feast of Ptah refer to this particular feast at the beginning of III prt. In O. DeM 45, a feast of Ptah is mentioned taking place on II Axt 16 (pA Hb n ptH[...; rt. 13; year 2 of Ramesses IV; e.g., Černý, Ostraca Deir el Medineh I (1935), 12].

7 PA Hb n ptH nfr[-Hr]; O. DeM 230, 8.

8 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI III (1980), 559.

9 Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946), 31–107; see also te Velde, Ptah, LÄ IV (1982), 1177–

1180; for ptH, see also Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter III (2002), 167–171; idem, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter VIII (2003), 204–210.

10 Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946), 204–220.

11 Sandman Holmberg, The God Ptah (1946), 224–231.

12 Berlandini, Ptah-demiurge, Rd’É 46 (1995), 10.

13 Berlandini, Ptah-demiurge, Rd’É 46 (1995), 11–15.

14 Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 100; see also Noberasco, Analisi statistica (1977), 13–15.

15 Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 5–48; Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².2 (1973), 706–

709.

st nfrw).

The Chapel labelled G by Bernard Bruyère,

which is situated to the north of the present Ptolemaic precinct, might also have been dedicated to Ptah.

A fragment of wall painting with a man's hand in the act of offering to Ptah was found in this chapel.

No inscriptions indicating the identity of the Ptah revered in this chapel have survived.

Both these places of worship might have served as the location for the Great Feast of Ptah.

One of the earliest known references to the ‘sky-lifting Ptah’ comes from Deir el-Medina.

Stela BM EA 286 is the top half of a stela dedicated to Ptah by a workman in the Place of Truth. The epithets of the deity are written above the god: Ptah, Lord of Maat, King of both lands, Gracious of face, who is on the Great Place, who lifts the sky with his hand (ax pt m Hp=f).

Generally, however, Ptah was referred to with the general epithets of Ptah of Memphis at Deir el-Medina.

According to O. DeM 401

(year 2 of Ramesses IV

), the royal artisans celebrated the Great Feast of Ptah by offering to this deity in the Valley of the Kings. In respect to offerings to Ptah, one may also mention P. Turin Cat. 1907 + 1908

(year 5 of Ramesses VI through year 7 of Ramesses VII

), according to which an unidentified man received grain for an offering to Ptah approximately ten days before the Feast of Ptah. The grain may have been intended for brewing beer for the offerings made during the feast.

As far as I am aware, no other ceremonies during this feast are known and no procession of Ptah has been mentioned in the documents pertaining to Deir el-Medina or depicted in the tombs or stelae from the community. The festival rituals of the Great Feast of Ptah are, thus, unknown apart from the offerings.

1 Bruyère, Mert Seger (1930), 48–52; for ptH n st nfrw, see also Leitz (ed.), Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter III (2002), 175.

2 Bruyère, Rapport 1945–1947 (1952), 21–27; see also Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography I².2 (1973), 694.

3 Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 83.

4 Bruyère, Rapport 1945–1947 (1952), 24.

5 See Bruyère, Rapport 1945–1947 (1952), 21–27.

6 Berlandini, Ptah-demiurge, Rd’É 46 (1995), 10 note 6. Jocelyne Berlandini referred to Stela BM EA 286 as the earliest evidence for the ‘sky-lifting Ptah’ citing Hieroglyphic Texts VII (1925) where the stela has been attributed a date in the late 18th Dynasty (p. 12). The stela, however, has been published anew and the editor, Morris L. Bierbrier, attributed the stela a date within the Ramesside Period (Hieroglyphic Texts XII (1982), 14).

7 PtH nb mAat nsw tAwy nfr Hr Hry st wrt ax pt m Hp=f; Stela BM EA 286.

8 Compare the epithets of Ptah pertaining to Deir el-Medina (Sadek, Popular Religion (1987), 104–

107) with the titles mentioned, for example, by Maj Sandman Holmberg (The God Ptah (1946), 108–114, 204–220) and Herman te Velde (Ptah, LÄ IV (1982), 1177–1180).

9 0rw [p]n wdn n ptH m sxt aAt in tA ist r-gs pA r-a-bAk [i]w=sn irt Hb aA m bAH pA r-a-bAk; O. DeM 401, rt. 1–5.

10 For the date, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 125; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 379–380.

11 Rdi.tw n=f m rnpt-sp [4 II] prt 20 r wdn n ptH bdt XAr 1 ir.n dbn 8 it m it XAr 1 ir.n dbn 24; P.

Turin Cat. 1907 + 1908 vs. II, 16; Jac. J. Janssen was inclined to read III prt or IV prt in the lacuna but, considering the evidence in O. DeM 401 and P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094 for a feast at the beginning of III prt, he concluded that the month number in the lacuna must be II (Janssen, A Twentieth-Dynasty Account Papyrus (Pap. Turin no. Cat. 1907/8), JEA 52 (1966), 87 note hh). For calling the side of the papyrus with fibres V/H verso, see Deir el-Medina Database, P.

Turin Cat. 1907 + P. Turin Cat. 1908, Remarks.

12 For the date of this papyrus, see Janssen, Twentieth-Dynasty Account Papyrus, JEA 52 (1966), 92.

13 For brewing beer for feasts and offerings, see Chapter III 2.7.

The Feast of Ptah ‘in his feast of lifting the sky’ was celebrated in Memphis at the end of the month of II prt and the beginning of III prt.

According to the Festival Calendar of Medinet Habu

(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses II

), a Theban variant

of this Feast of Ptah, was observed from II prt 29 through III prt 1. In the New Kingdom papyri

containing a calendar of lucky und unlucky days, the Feast of Lifting the Sky, however, is said to have taken place on II prt 1. In the Greco-Roman temples of Esna, Edfu, and Dendera, a feast of Ptah was celebrated on III prt 1.

In documents pertaining to Deir el-Medina, a feast of Ptah is said to have been celebrated at the beginning of III prt. According to O. DeM 401,

in the second year of Ramesses IV,

the Great Feast of Ptah was celebrated on III prt 4. According to P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094

from the third year of Ramesses X,

the Feast of Ptah, in contrast, was celebrated on III prt 1. There is no indication in this particular text whether the royal artisans were work-free on this day or not but on III prt 2, the crew is stated as having been freed from work on the Royal Tomb.

The difference in dates of the Feast of Ptah in O. DeM 401 and the Turin journal suggests that the Feast of Ptah perhaps was observed according to the lunar calendar. Alternatively, the festival calendar of Deir el-Medina might have changed by the end of the Ramesside Period.

It is also possible that certain problems mentioned in the Turin Papyrus, such as irregularities in the payment of wages and the subsequent strikes,

led to changes in the festival calendar. I have suggested above

that the beginning of III prt was perhaps dedicated to the eponymous feast mxr while the Feast of Ptah was celebrated on III prt 4–5 in this community. The evidence for two separate feasts at the beginning of III prt, however, is open to doubt and it is possible that only one feast was celebrated at Deir el-Medina.

There are indications

1 Altenmüller, Feste, LÄ II (1977), 177.

2 Festival Calendar of Medinet Habu, 1350–1369 (list 60); Kitchen, KRI V (1983), 178–179. The first day of this feast in the Medinet Habu Festival Calendar is stated as being II prt 9, but this must be an error for II prt 29 as the second and third day of the feast are II prt 30 and III prt 1, respectively (Schott, Festdaten (1950), 96).

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 Altenmüller, Feste, LÄ II (1977), 177

5 NTrw nTryt m Hb pn m Hb ax pt ra in ptH m awy=fy; P. Cairo JE 86637, rt. XXIII, 5; P. Sallier IV, rt.

XVI, 1; see also Leitz, Tagewählerei (1994), 228–229; Berlandini, Ptah-demiurge, Rd’É 46 (1995), 29–30.

6 Grimm, Festkalender (1994), 397; in the temple of Dendera, the Feast of Ptah was part of a festival cycle on II prt 28 – III prt 1 (ibid., 396–397).

7 0rw [p]n wdn n ptH m sxt aAt in tA ist r-gs pA r-a-bAk [i]w=sn irt Hb aA m bAH pA r-a-bAk; O. DeM 401, rt. 1–5.

8 For the date, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 125; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 379–380.

9 1b ptH; P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094 rt. I, 5.

10 For the date of this papyrus, see, for example, Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 687–699; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 541–554.

11 Wsf tA ist; P. Turin Cat. 1898 + 1926 + 1937 + 2094 rt. I, 5.

12 See also Valbelle, Les ouvriers (1985), 324.

13 See Valbelle, Les ouvriers (1985), 43–44.

14 See Chapter III 1.2.1.7; see also Wikgren, The Festival Calendar (2005), 186.

15 See also Chapter III 1.2.1.7. Wolfgang Helck believed that the whole beginning of III prt was dedicated to a feast of Ptah (Feiertage, JESHO 7 (1964), 158). The question remains whether mxr was an alternative name of this conceivable Feast of Ptah at the beginning of III prt or whether Mekhir was celebrated in II prt.

that the crew may have been freed from work on the Royal Tomb at the beginning of III prt, occasionally through day 4. The scribe of the lamp account O. Cairo CG 25542

(date attributed to the reign of Seti II

) omitted II prt 29 – III prt 5, indicating inactivity during these particular days. In O. Turin N. 57432

(date attributed to the reign of Ramesses III

), it is said that the men were work-free from II prt 23 through III prt 10. In O. Ashmolean Museum 131,

(date attributed to year 2 of Ramesses VI

) only the ‘weekend’, II prt 29–

30, is said to have been work-free. The subsequent day mentioned, however, is III prt 5,

indicating perhaps inactivity up to that date.

Generally, the work-free period ended by III prt 5

or 6,

as several lists of men absent or working indicate. The reference in O. DeM 401

(second year of Ramesses VI

) to the Great Feast of Ptah having been celebrated on III prt 4 stands perhaps for the fourth day of the festival.

1 O. Cairo CG 25542 vs. II, 12–13.

2 For the date attributed, see Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 305–309; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 137–138.

3 M wsf; O. Turin N. 57432, rt. 6–8, vs. 7–9.

4 For the date attributed, see López, Ostraca ieratici III (1982), 41–42; Kitchen, KRI VII (1989), 317–

318; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 241–242.

5 4w 29 wsf...arq _.; O. Ashmolean Museum 131, vs. 4–5.

6 For the date attributed, see Janssen, Village varia (1997), 134–137.

7 II prt 5 dit pA 3 Hwtyw diw; O. Ashmolean Museum 131, vs. 6.

8 Alternatively, the scribe of this work journal had nothing to report on the days omitted.

9 O. DeM 594, 1–4 (date attributed to the second half of the 19th Dynasty; Kitchen, KRI IV (1982), 407–408 (year 8 of Tausret); Helck, Die datierten (2002), 88 (year 8 of Merenptah)); O. DeM 911, rt. 3 (date attributed to year 26 of Ramesses III; e.g., Janssen, A Curious Error, BIFAO 84 (1984), 306).

10 O. BM EA 5634, vs. 2 (year 39 of Ramesses II; e.g., Janssen, Absence, SAK 8 (1980), 13); P.

Bibliotheque Nationale 27 (date attributed to year 3 of Ramesses IV; Gutgesell, Die Datierung I (1983), 269).

11 0rw [p]n wdn n ptH m sxt aAt in tA ist r-gs pA r-a-bAk [i]w=sn irt Hb aA m bAH pA r-a-bAk; O. DeM 401, rt. 1–5.

12 For the date, see Kitchen, KRI VI (1983), 125; Helck, Die datierten (2002), 379–380.

13 The fact that the rituals of this specific day took place in the Valley of the Kings, i.e., in a location were the men were customarily working, may have prompted the scribe of this document to write an account of the festivities.