Shrine of Taharqa
The Shrine of Taharqa is an Egyptian shrine commissioned by the pharaoh Taharqa in the early part of the 7th century BC. It was located in Kawa, which falls within the borders of present day Sudan, but since 1936 has been kept in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford, England.[1][2]
Description
[edit]The shrine was originally built within a large temple dedicated to Amun-Re.[3] It appears to have been constructed at the same time as the rest of the temple.[4]
The shrine has four outer walls engraved with images of Taharqa interacting with various gods.[4] On two of them he is depicted with Amun-Re along with the gods of Gematen on the western side and Thebes on the eastern side.[4] The depiction of Amun-Re on the western side was painted blue, as was typical of the period, whereas the depiction on the eastern side was not.[4] The southern side depicts gods associated with Heliopolis while the northern side carries depictions of gods associated with Memphis.[4]
History
[edit]The shrine was built in or shortly after 684 BC under the rule of the pharaoh Taharqa.[3][5] A neighbouring shrine was added in the 6th century BC under the rule of the pharaoh Aspelta.[4]
Westerners became aware of the broader temple site in the late 19th century.[2] Small digs were carried out in 1929 and 1930 and an extensive excavation began 22 November 1930.[2] These digs exposed the remains of the buildings to the weather and they started to decay.[6]
The carved walls of the shrine along with the Wall of Aspelta were removed from the site in 1936 with the permission of the Sudanese government while other carvings were transferred to Khartoum with the aim of protecting them from further decay.[6][3] The blocks were removed by building sand ramps up the side of the shrine and then moving them to the ground on rollers.[6] They were then coated in a solution of nitrocellulose in amyl acetate and acetone, as a lacquer to help preserve the blocks' surface integrity, before being transported to the Ashmolean Museum in 233 cases.[6][3] This process took about a month to complete.[6]
At the Ashmolean
[edit]
Once at the Ashmolean a further layer of nitrocellulose was applied to the stones.[3] A brick structure was built to cover the interior faces of the shrine.[3] It was then plastered with the plaster being coated with black paint.[3] The shrine was protected from rising damp by a layer of bitumen.[3]
By the 1960s the nitrocellulose had started to decay and in 1968 it was removed from most of the shrine and replaced with a layer of paraffin wax.[3] The remaining nitrocellulose was removed in the 1980s with the paint being stabilised with Paraloid B-72.[3]
The shrine's weight meant the decision was made not to move it when the gallery it was in underwent rebuilding work and since November 2011 the shrine has been on display to the public in the museum's refurbished Egyptian and Nubian galleries.[1][7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Guner, Fisun (25 November 2011). "Art Gallery: Egyptian and Nubian Galleries, Ashmolean Museum". The Arts Desk. Archived from the original on 18 May 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
- ^ a b c Kirwan, L. P. (1936). "Preliminary Report of the Oxford University Excavations at Kawa, 1935-1936". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 22 (2): 200–211. doi:10.2307/3854627. JSTOR 3854627.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hanna, Seamus; Norman, Mark (1990). "The cleaning and removal of surface coatings from a seventh century BC sandstone shrine from Nubia". Studies in Conservation. 35 (sup1): 23–27. doi:10.1179/sic.1990.35.s1.006. ISSN 0039-3630.
- ^ a b c d e f Armstrong, Caroline H (2015). "The Two Non-Blue Amuns of the Shrine of Taharqa at Kawa". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 101 (1). SAGE Publications: 177–195. doi:10.1177/030751331510100109. ISSN 0307-5133.
- ^ Macadam, M. F. Laming (1955). The Temples of Kawa II. History and Archaeology of the Site. Oxford University Press. p. 61.
- ^ a b c d e Kirwan, L. P. (1936). "Preliminary Report of the Oxford University Excavations at Kawa, 1935-1936". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 22 (2): 210–211. doi:10.2307/3854627. JSTOR 3854627.
- ^ Atkinson, Rebecca (24 November 2011). "New galleries planned at Ashmolean". Museums Journal. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
External links
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