Qahedjet

Qahedjet (actually Hor - Qahedjet ) is the Horus name of an ancient Egyptian King ( Pharaoh ), which may be either towards the end of the 3rd Dynasty (Old Kingdom), reigned in the first split, or even only in the 18th Dynasty.

Is Qahedjet, similar to King Huni, viewed from Egyptology to be particularly difficult to classify ruler since the previous findings on only a single artifact can rely on him. The name " Qahedjet " is received on any other monument or artefact. The classification of the ruler in the 3rd dynasty is also associated with uncertainties, the actual reign point is unknown.

Name and identity

Qahedjets identity is controversial because of its unique Attribution. Thomas Schneider, Jürgen von Beckerath, Rainer Stadelmann and Dietrich Wildungsmauer see him as a ruler of the late 3rd Dynasty. This assignment is based mainly on stylistic similarities between the facial profiles of Qahedjet and King Djoser ( 3rd Dynasty ) on relief images. Toby Wilkinson, Ian Shaw and Nabil Swelim beat additionally, before equating Qahedjet with Huni, because of the latter is known only to the birth name and it has been no Horus name could be assigned. However, this proposal is not universally accepted. After Peter Kaplony Qahedjet has eventually ruled during the First Intermediate Period. Jean -Pierre and Jacques Pätznik Vandier consider it possible that Qahedjet with Thutmose III. ( 18th dynasty ) could be identical.

Documents

The stele

The date the only artifact that points to the existence of this king, is approximately 50.5 inches high, 31.0 inches wide and about 3.0 inches thick stele made ​​of polished, fine-grained limestone, which is since 1967 owned by the Louvre Museum in Paris is. She comes from a private art trade. Your location is unknown.

In the stele ( see figure at top right) is engraved with a rectangular window. Main subject of the reliefs therein is an upright figure king with the White Crown (left), embraced by a human form with a falcon's head (right). Both figures are the same size and look into the eyes of each other. The face of the ruler acts sharply with its short nose and strong lips, to a very great king beard. The pursed dress has a belt with a dagger on the side, over the torso runs a ribbon. Qahedjet holds in one hand a ceremonial mace with pear-shaped pommel, in the other hand he holds a staff with a distinctive notch at mid-height. The figure with bird's head, however, can be identified as the falcon god Horus. The inscription to the right of the king Serech refers loud Jeane -Pierre and Jacques Pätznik Vandier on a possible visit of the monarch in a temple of the god Ra at Heliopolis or in an Upper Egyptian shrine.

Dating

The iconographic program of the stele is contradictory, in the opinion of Pätznik and Vandier in its stylistics and themes. Facial profile of the ruler and the design of the royal Serechs similar to those of the reliefs of King Djoser in the underground grave galleries of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, thus correspond to the art of the 3rd Dynasty, even if the technical design of the relief engraving is finer and more mature and on a suggests later date of origin. But the issue of image representation gives rise to speculation and discussion. Although the ruler was in his kingly office as a representative of Horus, but the portrayal of God as he hugged a ruler, would be whether the provocative iconography for a royal monument of the Old Kingdom unusual and hitherto earliest evidence of this kind

The mention of a building named hwt - ˁ 3.T ( " hat - aat " = " Grand Palace ") in the orthography, as it is presented on the stele, also I ( 12th Dynasty ) is occupied only since Sesostris. Horus name with one of the two crowns as element names have only been King Tuthmosis III. (18th Dynasty) familiar. In addition, the design of the barn owl hieroglyph comes ( Gardiner sign - G17; phonetic value of "m" ), which do not usually appear before the 18th Dynasty, also the arrangement of the characters Horus Owl toponym is occupied on any monument of earlier eras. And illustrations of anthropomorphic Horus, as he receives an Egyptian ruler in a familiar pose, under King Sahura (5th Dynasty) are attested for the first time in the sun temple. In addition, the conspicuous offset to the right inscriptions on the figure representations that contradict the visible in reliefs of the Old Kingdom striving for artistic harmony and the visual - canonical rules. The word Qa - hedjet is also available in a rarely occupied variant of the Horus name of Thutmose III. occupied as the name syllable. The name on the stela would therefore be a unique short form.

The significant contradictions for the art style and the epigraphic designs have Jean -Pierre Pätznik and Jacques Vandier ultimately raised the question of whether it could possibly be a modern forgery or a reproduction from the New Kingdom or from Saitischer epoch in the stele. The latter assumption is based on the fact that, for example, of King Djoser a heavily destroyed, relief- decorated shrine in Heliopolis existed, whose artistic versions of the images is a clear homage to the 3rd Dynasty, the shrine itself, however, is not contemporary. In the New Kingdom and in the Saitic era such homages were common in royal decorations.