O years! and age! farewell:
Behold I go,
Where I do know
Infinity to dwell.
And these mine eyes shall see
All times, how they
Are lost i' th' sea
Of vast eternity: –
Where never moon shall sway
The stars; but she,
And night, shall be
Drown'd in one endless day.
Robert Herrick Eternity
Senusret I could not wait any longer for the throne. While leading a campaign in Libya and safely away from the royal residence, he instructed the royal guards in his absence to assassinate his father Amenemhat I. His father was old and in the 29th year of his reign. But he would not die! Although he had been conferred as co-regent, Senusret I wanted the throne for himself. Now with the deed done, he would have absolute power over the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Egypt.
Of course, as a result he had to hurry the completion of Amenemhat I’s pyramid tomb and mortuary temple to keep up appearances and appease the Gods. As long as the exterior of the pyramid looked perfect, the interior didn’t matter, that meant cutting corners with mud brick and rubble. Senusret I could also dismantle his father’s last two attempts at building his eternal resting place. The blocks were already dressed, and the structures lay abandoned and incomplete in the desert.
We cannot know with certainty if this is the exact scenario explaining Amenemhat I’s assassination or the reason for the shoddy workmanship for his completed pyramid tomb at Lisht. We do have the facts that Amenemhat I was assassinated in the 29th year of his reign under mysterious circumstances. At the time, his son was on campaign in Libya. In the 20th year of his father’s rule, Senusret I has been named co-regent possibly to ensure his easy and secure succession since Amenemhat I was not of legitimate royal lineage. But even as co-regent, Senusret I would not have had all of the power and status of his father.
It is also true that Amenemhat I’s pyramid was built of inferior materials, especially those materials that would not show on the outside. The pyramid was built primarily of mud bricks and blocks of limestone reused from other monuments. The repurposed limestone blocks still carry the carved reliefs and inscriptions of their former use making it easy to identify their original purpose. The exterior was finished with polished limestone as was usual for the pyramid of an Egyptian king, but this had been stripped off in ancient times and reused for other purposes. The interior mud brick construction has not weathered time well and Amenemhat I’s final resting place that once stood shining bright white in the sunlight at 194 feet, now resembles a hill of sand in the landscape.
Amenemhat I himself, while serving as Vizier (Chief Advisor), gained the throne of Egypt more than likely by overthrowing king Mentuhotep IV during the king’s troubled reign. Mentuhotep IV’s reign was considered “the 7 empty years” by the records from the time. As the Vizier Amenemhat I held a very powerful position in court. Mentuhotep IV appears to have been childless and with the country in turmoil through difficulties with keeping Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt united, conflicts with Africa and the Near East, and trade problems, Amenemhat I seems to have taken advantage of his position and the unstable political situation and asserted his power to take hold of the throne.
Soon after Amenemhat I ascended the throne, he moved the capital of Egypt to a new location, 30 kilometers south, away from Thebes, near the Faiyum Oasis, where there was fertile land and he was able to keep a defensive eye on the enemies of Egypt, the Libyans to the west and the tribes of the Levant to the east. He named his new capitol Itjtawy – “the seizer of two lands.” This is in reference to his determination to unite the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, which had resisted unification even though they had been conquered. It was near Itjtawy that he also established the location of his pyramid complex at Lisht and abandoned the building of all of his other tombs near the former capital of Thebes.
It was at the Lisht mortuary complex where the Lintel of Amenemhat I and Deities was found. This relief block was incorporated into the foundation stones of the Amenemhat I’s funerary temple. It is clear from its subterranean position as an infrastructure support stone, that this relief was reused from one of Amenemhat I’s previous building campaigns. The relief is in an excellent state of preservation, still retaining its original color. It depicts the king in the central position, receiving honors during his Sed festival.
The Egyptian Sed festival was a jubilee that occurs during the 30th year of a ruler’s reign. It was designed to test the ability and strength of the king’s competence to continue as a leader of his domain and people. Since Amenemhat I was assassinated in the 29th year of his rule, this relief does not commemorate an actual event, but was designed to convince the future viewer that he was consecrated by the gods to have successfully completed the Sed festival’s tests of endurance and had passed into the realm of an eternal god/king.
Amenemhat I sits enthroned at the center of the relief. Instead of the traditional Nemes headdress, which confers on him his spiritual ascendancy and the right to confer with the gods, he is wearing a wig of tight curls. The absence of the headdress indicates that he had not yet been given his transformation into a deity. He is however wearing other symbols of authority that indicated his rank as ruler. On his head he retains the Ureaes. The Ureaes in the form of a spitting cobra was the protector of Egyptian gods and kings. The image was worn on the forehead of royalty as protection from those who would challenge the authority of the king. It was assumed that it would spit venom into the eyes of the king’s enemies. Amenamhat I also retains the false beard of authority that is part of the ceremonial dress of all gods and kings.
In his right hand he is holding a flail, a symbol of the king’s coercive power to encourage and restrain his people. In his left hand he is holding a mekes object. This object provides the magic granted by Thoth the God of magic for the king to successfully complete with ease the rigors of the Sed festival and ensure his place on the throne for another 30 years. With these symbols of kingly authority, it is visually established that Amenemhat I is the true ruler and worthy of the attentions of the gods who occupy the relief with him.
Amenemhat I faces right toward the standing figure of Anubis, the canine headed god of the Underworld, who ensures that the funeral rites are followed with precision, and who also cares for and guides the soul of the deceased as they embark on their journey to the Otherworld. Here he stands before the king proffering him and ankh on the end of his Was scepter.
Anubis’ Was scepter is modified from a shepherd’s walking stick that has a forked end which acts as a snake catcher. It has been stylized to resemble the god Set, the aardvark headed God (this designation is in contention among archeologists) with the forked tail. Set protects Ra by fighting Apep, who in the form of a snake, represents the forces of darkness and chaos. In order for Ra the Sun God to bring the dawn every morning, Set must defeat Apep every night as the two Gods journey through the Underworld of night. The Was scepter gives authority and power over the forces of evil to its holder, which is why it is carried by Anubis as the God of the Underworld. Anubis is offering to Amenemhat I, the ankh, the symbol of life and renewal. This ankh however is presented hanging on the head of his Was scepter, indicating a transferring of primordial power. Through this gesture, Anubis is granting Amenemhat I the gift of eternal life and the status of a God.
Behind the seated king, Horus, the falcon headed God of the struggle between light and darkness, rebirth, victory, and protector of kings is holding out an ankh toward the king, giving him the gift of millions of future Sed festivals to ensure Amenemhat I’s rule for eternity.
At each end of the relief as witness of this ceremony are the Goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet. Nekhbet is the goddess and protectress of Upper Egypt. Wadjet is the goddess and protectress of Lower Egypt. The presence of these two goddesses as witnesses to Amenemhat I’s Sed ceremony elevating the king to the status of God and granting him immortality, not only authorizes the advancement of the king’s stature, but also confirms and legitimizes his rule over the two kingdoms of Egypt.
It is difficult to access the aesthetics of this relief since what we see here is only half of the work. The bottom half of the relief is lost. We can fairly imagine what the missing part looks like, but without the actual missing piece, we must speculate on its quality. It can be ascertained that the symmetrical composition, and its stylistic representation of the figures are in keeping with the high-quality of workmanship of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the remaining piece that has come down to us, the main figures show the skill of a master carver, while the linear details seem to have been given over to a lesser hand.
As noted previously, Amenemhat I did not issue from a royal lineage. Although it does seem as though he did come from an upper-class family with connections to the royal family. This, along with his strategic intelligence and military acuity allowed him to rise to become the king’s Vizier. It was through his cunning and political knowledge that he was able to take advantage of an opportunity during a tumultuous time in Ancient Egyptian history when the power of the reigning king was in question and commandeered himself into the position of the king of Egypt. Not having been born into royalty in Ancient Egypt, kept him from being a God on Earth as all Egyptian kings of royal descent had been. But with this lintel, which would have been placed above the entrance of his burial chamber, he was announcing that he had been elevated by the Gods themselves to the position of God King. With this final ascension he would finally be able to take his place, as all other Egyptian kings had before him, in the heavens among the pantheon.
After his father’s assassination, Senusret I ascended the throne and was able to complete the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt that his father struggled with. He established a formal southern border of Upper Egypt which ended the conflicts with the Nubians. Senusret I reigned for 45 years. He built many monuments which stand as a tenement to the age of prosperity he brought through his rule.
Arthur Bruso © 2024
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