Editing Abydos, Egypt (section)

== History ==
[[File:Gebel_el-Arak_Knife_ivory_handle_(back).jpg|thumb|Possible illustration of the conflict between Abydos and [[Nekhen]], on the [[Gebel el-Arak Knife]], [[Louvre Museum]], 3300–3200 BCE.<ref name="JJ"/>]] 
{{Hiero|1=Name of Abydos|2=<hiero>Ab-b-Dw:O49</hiero>|align=left|era=egypt}}
Most of [[Upper Egypt]] became unified under rulers from Abydos during the [[Naqada III]] period (3200–3000 BCE), at the expense of rival cities such as [[Nekhen]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Jason |title=A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present |year=2008 |publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press |isbn=978-977-416-091-2 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbcCqIC5358C&pg=PA18 |language=en}}</ref> The conflicts leading to the supremacy of Abydos may appear on numerous reliefs of the [[Naqada II]] period, such as the [[Gebel el-Arak Knife]], or the frieze of Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis.<ref name="JJ">{{cite journal |last1=Josephson |first1=Jack |title=Naqada IId, Birth of an Empire |pages=166–167 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19179915 |language=en |doi=10.5913/jarce.51.2015.a007 |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |volume=51 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }}</ref>

Tombs and at least one temple of rulers of the [[Predynastic Period of Egypt|Predynastic period]] have been found at [[Umm El Qa'ab]] including that of [[Narmer]], dating to {{circa|3100 BCE}}.<ref name="Dawn">{{cite book |last1=Patch |first1=Diana Craig |last2=Eaton-Krauss |first2=Marianne |last3=Allen |first3=Susan J. |last4=Friedman |first4=Renée F. |last5=Roth |first5=Ann Macy |last6=Silverman |first6=David P. |last7=Cortes |first7=Emilia |last8=Roehrig |first8=Catharine H. |last9=Serotta |first9=Anna |title=Dawn of Egyptian Art |year=2011 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-460-6 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfkvlD4Pi20C&q=Abydos+was+occupied+by+the+rulers+of+the+%5B%5BPredynastic+Period&pg=PA16 |access-date=24 August 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Bestock">{{cite book |last1=Bestock |first1=Laurel |title=The Development of Royal Funerary Cult at Abydos: Two Funerary Enclosures from the Reign of Aha |year=2009 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-05838-4 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rIXRokO0ijcC&q=Predynastic+&pg=PA2 |access-date=24 August 2020 |language=en}}</ref> The temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down to the times of the [[Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt|Thirtieth Dynasty]], and the cemetery was in continuous use.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}}

The pharaohs of the [[First dynasty of Egypt|First Dynasty]] were buried in Abydos, including [[Narmer]], who is regarded as the founder of the First Dynasty, and his successor, [[Hor-Aha|Aha]].<ref>Wilkinson (1999), p. 3</ref> It was in this time period that the [[Abydos boats]] were constructed. Some pharaohs of the [[Second dynasty of Egypt|Second Dynasty]] were also buried in Abydos. The temple was renewed and enlarged by these pharaohs as well. Funerary enclosures, misinterpreted in modern times as great 'forts', were built on the desert behind the town by three kings of the Second Dynasty; the most complete is that of [[Khasekhemwy]], the [[Shunet El Zebib]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/abydos/abydosfuneraryenclosures.html|title= The Funerary Enclosures of Abydos|access-date=2008-01-15|work=Digital Egypt|publisher=UCL}}</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}}

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="2" caption="King Khasekhemwy fort">
File:Khasekhemwy Monument (II).jpg|King [[Khasekhemwy]] "fort" in Abydos. {{circa|2700 BCE}}
File:Enceinte de khasekhemouy.jpg|King [[Khasekhemwy]] "fort" in Abydos.
</gallery>

[[File:SFEC-ABYDOS-2010-056.JPG|thumb|Part of the [[Abydos King List]]]]
[[File:Journey of the dead to Abydos.jpg|thumb|Tomb relief depicting the vizier Nespeqashuty and his wife, KetjKetj, making the journey of the dead to the holy city of Abydos – from [[Deir el-Bahri]], [[Late Period of ancient Egypt|Late Period]], [[Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt]], reign of [[Psammetichus I]]]]
From the [[Fifth dynasty of Egypt|Fifth Dynasty]], the deity [[Khenti-Amentiu|Khentiamentiu]], ''foremost of the Westerners'', came to be seen as a manifestation of the dead pharaoh in the underworld. [[Pepi I]] ([[Sixth dynasty of Egypt|Sixth Dynasty]]) constructed a funerary chapel which evolved over the years into the Great Temple of [[Osiris]], the ruins of which still exist within the town enclosure. Abydos became the centre of the worship of the [[Isis]] and Osiris cult.

During the [[First Intermediate Period]], the principal deity of the area, Khentiamentiu, began to be seen as an aspect of Osiris, and the deities gradually merged and came to be regarded as one. Khentiamentiu's name became an [[epithet]] of Osiris. King [[Mentuhotep II]] was the first to build a [[Mahat chapel of Nebhetepre Mentuhotep II|royal chapel]]. In the [[twelfth dynasty of Egypt|Twelfth Dynasty]] a gigantic tomb was cut into the rock by [[Senusret III]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}} Associated with this tomb was a [[cenotaph]], a cult temple and a small town known as "[[Wah-Sut]]", that was used by the workers for these structures.<ref name="bvzwvt">Harvey, EA24, p.3</ref> Next to the cenotaph at least two kings of the [[Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Thirteenth Dynasty]] were buried  (in tombs [[S 9 (Abydos)|S9]] and [[S 10 (Abydos)|S10]]) as well as some rulers of the [[Second Intermediate Period]], such as [[Senebkay]]. An indigenous line of kings, the [[Abydos Dynasty]], may have ruled the region from Abydos at the time.

New construction during the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]] began with a large chapel of [[Ahmose I]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=82}} The [[Pyramid of Ahmose]] I was also constructed at Abydos—the only pyramid in the area; very little of it remains today.

[[Thutmose III]] built a far larger temple, about {{convert|130|x|200|ft|m|abbr=on}}. He also made a processional way leading past the side of the temple to the cemetery beyond, featuring a great gateway of granite.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=82}}

[[Seti I]], during the [[Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt|Nineteenth Dynasty]], founded a temple to the south of the town in honor of the ancestral pharaohs of the early dynasties; this was finished by [[Ramesses II]], who also built a lesser temple of his own.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}} [[Merneptah]] added the [[Osireion]], just to the north of the temple of Seti.<ref name="bvzwvt" />

[[Ahmose II]] in the [[Twenty-sixth Dynasty]] rebuilt the temple again, and placed in it a large monolith shrine of red granite, finely wrought. The foundations of the successive temples were comprised within approximately {{convert|18|ft|m|abbr=on}}. depth of the ruins discovered in modern times; these needed the closest examination to discriminate the various buildings, and were recorded by more than 4,000 measurements and 1,000 levellings.<ref>Petrie, ''Abydos'', ii.</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=82}}

The last building added was a new temple of [[Nectanebo I]], built in the [[Thirtieth Dynasty]]. From the [[Ptolemaic Period|Ptolemaic]] times of the Greek occupancy of Egypt, that began three hundred years before the Roman occupancy that followed, the structures began to decay and no later works are known.<ref>Petrie, ''Abydos'', i. and ii.</ref>{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}}

=== Cult centre ===
From earliest times, Abydos was a cult centre, first of the local deity, Khentiamentiu, and from the end of the Old Kingdom, the rising cult of Osiris. A tradition developed that the [[Umm el-Qa'ab|Early Dynastic cemetery]] was the burial place of Osiris and the tomb of [[Djer]] was reinterpreted as that of Osiris.<ref>O'Connor, David (2009). ''Abydos: Egypt's First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris''. Thames & Hudson. pp. 18–19</ref>

Decorations in tombs throughout Egypt, such as the one displayed to the right, record pilgrimages to Abydos by wealthy families.<ref>{{cite web|author=Stephen P. Harvey |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/abydos/abydos.html|title=Holy Abydos|website=Archaeology|date=25 June 2001}}</ref>

=== Great Osiris Temple ===
[[File:SFEC-L-ABYDOS11.JPG|thumb|Panel from the [[Osiris]] temple: [[Horus]] presents royal regalia to a worshipping Seti I.]]
From the First Dynasty to the [[Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt|Twenty-sixth Dynasty]], nine or ten temples were successively built on one site at Abydos. The first was an enclosure, about {{convert|30|x|50|ft|m|abbr=on}}, enclosed by a thin wall of unbaked bricks. Incorporating one wall of this first structure, the second temple of about {{convert|40|ft|m|abbr=on}} square was built with walls about {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=on}} thick. An outer ''[[temenos]]'' (enclosure) wall surrounded the grounds. This outer wall was made wider some time around the Second or [[Third dynasty of Egypt|Third Dynasty]]. The old temple entirely vanished in the Fourth Dynasty, and a smaller building was erected behind it, enclosing a wide hearth of black ashes. Pottery models of offerings are found in these ashes and were probably the substitutes for live sacrifices decreed by [[Khufu (pharaoh)|Khufu]] (or Cheops) in his temple reforms.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=81-82}}

At an undetermined date, a great clearance of temple offerings had been made and the modern discovery of a chamber into which they were gathered yielded the fine ivory carvings and the glazed figures and tiles that demonstrate the splendid work of the First Dynasty. A vase of [[Menes]] with purple [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] inlaid into a green glaze and tiles with relief figures are the most important pieces found. The [[Khufu Statuette]] in ivory, found in the stone chamber of the temple, gives the only portrait of this great pharaoh.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=82}}

The temple was entirely rebuilt on a larger scale by [[Pepi I Meryre|Pepi I]] in the [[Sixth Dynasty of Egypt|Sixth Dynasty]]. He placed a great stone gateway to the ''temenos'', an outer wall and gateway, with a colonnade between the gates. His temple was about {{convert|40|x|50|ft|m|abbr=on}} inside, with stone gateways front and back, showing that it was of the processional type. In the [[Eleventh dynasty of Egypt|Eleventh Dynasty]] [[Mentuhotep II]] added a colonnade and altars. Soon after, [[Mentuhotep III]] entirely rebuilt the temple, laying a stone pavement over the area, about {{convert|45|ft|m|abbr=on}} square. He also added subsidiary chambers. Soon thereafter, in the Twelfth Dynasty, [[Senusret I]] laid massive foundations of stone over the pavement of his predecessor. A great ''temenos'' was laid out enclosing a much larger area and the new temple itself was about three times the earlier size.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=82}}

=== Brewery ===
On 14 February 2021, Egyptian and American archaeologists discovered what could be the oldest brewery in the world dating from around 3100 BCE at the reign of King [[Narmer]]. Dr. Matthew Adams, one of the leaders of the mission, stated that it was used to make beer for royal rituals.<ref>{{Cite news|url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-antiquities-idUSKBN2AE0ET |title= Ancient mass production brewery uncovered in Egypt |website=[[Reuters]]|date= 14 February 2021 |access-date=2021-02-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/egypt-brewery-1.5913913?cmp=rss |title= 5,000-year-old brewery, possibly world's oldest, uncovered in Egypt |website=[[CBC News]]|access-date=2021-02-14}}</ref>