Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
The history of the provincial Egyptian temples is characterized by a process of
constant growth from small mud brick temples in the early dynastic period to the
monumental stone temples of the New Kingdom. The Eleventh Dynasty is a
considerable step within this process as the temples of this period witness the first
stages of monumentalization. This monumentalization reflects a new social setting of
the provincial temples in the Eleventh Dynasty and can be described as transformation
of a provincial to a royal institution. Although this transformation has already been
recognized by several authors a closer look on the iconographic and textual
environment of the temples gives a more comprehensive insight into the mechanisms
of this development. The comparisons of the temples of Mentuhotep II. and III. to the
funerary temple of Mentuhotep II. and to the reliefs of contemporaneous officials are
especially revealing. The paper will demonstrate the development of the temples in
the Eleventh Dynasty and discuss their position in the social history of the Old and
Middle Kingdoms. The main focus will be on the structural relationship between
provincial Egypt and the royal culture.
Egyptian stylistic influence on stoichedon and the Hekatompedon Inscription at
Athens
Patricia Butz
This paper begins to discuss the origins and emergence of the stoichedon style, not as
a phenomenon of Greek epigraphy but rather of Egyptian, and linked chronologically
to what is conventionally termed the later or second canon of proportions. Evidence
for and application of grid systems for both sculpture and inscriptions in the Late
Period are examined first, with attention given to ancient sources as well as modern
treatments of the subject (IVERSON, DAVIS, ROBINS). This information is then
analyzed and applied with respect to artistic developments in critical areas of the
Mediterranean where Greeks have lived and survived with major multi-cultural
influences all around them. Foremost among these is Samos, where the literary record
strongly supports the idea of significant Egyptian interaction in the area of
proportions. Samos has been regarded as a candidate for the birthplace of the
stoichedon style by R. P. AUSTIN in his seminal work, The Stoichedon Style in Greek
Inscriptions (1938). The Greek-Egyptian connection at Naukratis, where a number of
important Ionic city-states having a tradition of early stoichedon are well-represented
in the epigraphical record, will also be considered.
The paper proposes that the Hekatompedon Inscription at Athens, IG I3 4, one of
the earliest and most famous sacred laws in Greek epigraphy, is the ideal inscription
to use as an exemplar for these principles. The term stoichedon for the gridded
formation of Greek inscriptions is a modern epigraphical construct, but a rare and
meaningful ancient application occurs on the magical healing Stele of Moschion (SEG
8.464, Bernand, Inscr.Métr. 108), which today is found in two major fragments: the
Cairo Lunette, as I have termed it previously, in the Egyptian Museum; and the Berlin
fragment in the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung. The Egyptian
provenance of this stone and its association with a sacred precinct, are noteworthy,
despite the late date usually assigned to the monument. The Hekatompedon was
recognized by Austin as the very first of the Greek inscriptions to show clear evidence
of a mechanical grid used for its execution. The precision of the Hekatompedon’s
layout in combination with the highly geometric style of letterforms, surprisingly
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