In October, the Nile Scribes led their first tour to Egypt, stopping in Aswan, Luxor, and Cairo. Agilika Island, located in the river at Aswan, is now the home of Philae Temple. It was moved there in the 1960s, piece by piece, from neighbouring Philae Island, now underwater. The island is a regular spot for visitors to southern Egypt thanks to its gorgeous setting in the Nile, but we were anxious to visit the temple complex for another reason: hieroglyph hunting. Philae contains the last known instances of inscriptions that were written using both the hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts. This week we are introducing our readers to both inscriptions, and showing you how you can see them for yourself on your next visit to Philae.

Philae in Context

The earliest extant part of the temple complex date to the Saite kings Psamtek II and Amasis, but the temple proper was built later during the Ptolemaic Period. Construction of the Isis temple began under Ptolemy II Philadelphus and the temple continued to receive the attention of the Ptolemies for generations – Ptolemy III contributed a bark stand to the temple’s sanctuary, Ptolemy VI built a mammisi (birth house), and Ptolemy XII added the first pylon. The temple was established as part of the cult of Isis and remained an important pilgrimage site well into the Christian era, particularly for Nubian populations.

In the fourth century AD, Roman Emperor Theodosius issued a series of decrees that targeted the practice of ‘pagan’ religions in all parts of the Roman Empire. The slow closure of the ancient temples across Egypt, then a Roman province, coincided with Christianity’s gradual rise to prominence. Philae Temple was the last Egyptian temple to remain open as a place of worship, largely thanks to the Meroitic pilgrims from south of Aswan, who left large numbers of Meroitic graffiti there. Like most of ancient Egypt’s sacred monuments, Philae Temple was eventually converted into a Christian church by AD 575, and visitors to the site can still see numerous Christian icons throughout.

1. Last Hieroglyphic Inscription

Located to the west of the Isis Temple’s hypostyle hall is the so-called ‘Gate of Hadrian’ which was built in connection with a stairway that leads up to the temple complex from the water. The monumental gateway features several scenes of the famous Osirian myth. Exploring the gate in more detail, you will notice the figure of the Nubian god Mandulis, who also had a chapel dedicated to him on the island of Philae. The figure has suffered much damage since antiquity except for his ornate hemhem crown that still beautifully rests atop the deity’s head. Immediately to the right of the figure there are two columns of hieroglyphs that read as follows:

“Before Mandulis son of Horus, by the hand of Nesmeterakhem, son of Nesmeter, the Second Priest of Isis, for all time and eternity. Words spoken by Mandulis, Lord of the Abaton, great god” (1)

The quality of the hieroglyphic signs are roughly etched into the stone, added to the gateway some two hundred years later. An accompanying Demotic inscription below gives the name of the scribe again, Nesmeterakhem, and the date: “the Birthday of Osiris, his dedication feast, year 110,” which corresponds to August 24, AD 394 of the Gregorian calendar (1). This roughly carved inscription associated with a Nubian deity is believed to be the last time the hieroglyphic script was used in a monumental setting in ancient Egypt.

2. Last Demotic Inscription

Philae also has the honour of being home to the last Demotic inscription. The cursive script known as Demotic came into frequent use during the Twenty-sixth Dyansty and continued to be used into the Roman Period, even beyond the heydey of the hieroglyphic script. When F.Ll. Griffith published his monograph of graffiti from temples in Lower Nubia, he recorded a Demotic graffito on the roof above the hypostyle hall (GPH 377) that reads: “The feet of Panakhetet the lesser” (1). The inscription was accompanied by a Greek text which helped to date the inscription to December 11, AD 452. Until recently, this graffito was considered to be the last Demotic inscription written by Egyptians. However, almost twenty years ago, a different Demotic inscription (GPH 365) at Philae was re-dated to 12 December AD 452 thanks to a re-reading of the original Egyptian. Carved on the the second pylon, this inscription names Nesmety the elder as the dedicator.

Eugene Cruz-Uribe recently published an updated catalogue of graffiti from Philae in which he also records graffiti previously unnoticed by Griffith (3). Cruz-Uribe identified a “new” graffito (GPH 939) on a wall near the main sanctuary between a figure and vertical register of hieroglyphs, which he attributes to the late Roman Period. The Demotic inscription reads simply: “Petiese son of Petosiris”(4). When the hypostyle hall of the temple was eventually converted into a Christian church some time during the sixth century AD, the door leading to the main sanctuary was blocked off. Cruz-Uribe ponders whether Petiese carved this graffito after the Egyptian temple was closed in AD 538 by gaining access to the main sanctuary via a door on the sanctuary’s western side. If so, this Demotic inscription might be the truly last recorded use of the script. A key argument that lends weight to his hypothesis is his assertion that graffiti do not tend to occur in areas of an Egyptian temple that were still active. While the inscription mentioning Nesmety the elder is still considered the last time the Demotic script was recorded, one cannot help but wonder about Petiese’s inscription…

Notes

1. Richard Parkinson. Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment. 1999. London: British Museum Press – page 178.
2. Francis Llewellyn Griffith. Les Temples Immergés de La Nubie. Catalogue of the Demotic Graffiti of the Dodecaschoenus. Vol. 2. 1935. Oxford: Oxford University Press – plate LIV.
3. Eugene Cruz-Uribe. The Demotic Grafitti from the Temple of Isis on Philae Island. 2018. Atlanta: Lockwood Press.
4. Eugene Cruz-Uribe. ‘The Last Demotic Inscription’. In Hieratic, Demotic and Greek Studies and Text Editions: Of Making Many Books There Is No End: Festschrift in Honour of Sven P. Vleeming (P.L. Bat. 34). 2018. Leiden: Brill – page 7.