Theban Priests of Montu, Twenty-first to Twenty-fifth Dynasty

– 26 novembre, 3 et 10 décembre 2013
_ de 10h à 12h
_ Centre de recherches égyptologiques de la Sorbonne (CRES)
_ 1, rue Victor Cousin 75230 Paris Cedex 05
_ En Sorbonne : Escalier G, 3e étage, salle J 324

Séminaires de Cynthia Sheikholeslami

_ The temples and cult of Montu helped to define the ritual landscape of the Theban nome at Armant, Tod, Medamud, and Thebes for over two millennia. However, for the Third Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21-25), there is evidence only from Thebes itself. The Crown Prince Osorkon endowed the cult of Montu. The temple of Montu at Karnak North was renewed by Taharqa. About one-third of the statues of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty from the Karnak Cachette belong to priests of Montu, and the burial equipment of the many who were interred in shaft tombs in the terraces of the Hatshepsut temple at Deir el-Bahari was sumptuous for the period, attesting to their elite status.

– 3 décembre 2013 : Lecture 2 – The Priests of Montu under Libyan and Kushite Rule

_ The importance of the cult and priesthood of Montu increased in Thebes during the Third Intermediate Period, culminating under the Kushite rulers of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, whose control of Upper Egypt they probably helped to solidify and legitimate. The family of the viceroy of Kush during the reign of Osorkon III, Pamiu (i), included priests of Montu. The powerful Mayor of Thebes Montuemhat was descended from a family of vizirs and priests of Montu. The Besenmut family dominated the priesthood of Montu during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The priests of Montu controlled important positions in the temple treasury at Karnak as well.

– 10 décembre 2013 : Lecture 3 – The Priests of Montu and their Interaction with other Theban Cults

_ The Twenty-fifth Dynasty priests of Montu also officiated in the cult of Mut as protectors of the Divine Eye, connecting them to the myth of the Distant Goddess and its association with the annual inundation of the Nile, an important element in Kushite kingship ideology. In addition, they had a number of titles related to the cult of Osiris, evidence for the role of Montu priests in the rituals for the ancestral gods of Thebes at Djeme, especially during the Osirian rites on 26 Khoiak.