Moscow: Rudomino, 2005. 224 p., ill. ISBN № 5-7380-0210-5

Egypt of the First Pharaohs. Sed-Festival and Emergence of the Ancient Egyptian State (in Russian)

The book is the first study entirely concentrated on the numerous problems of the Ancient Egyptian royal festival heb-sed. This festival was an essential part of the royal ideology during almost 3000 years of pharaonic history. However, despite the fact that it was celebrated by many rulers we do not have a complete version of the heb-sed ritual. Detached elements of the festival are scattered throughout various types of sources which cover a large period of time from the emergence of the state in the Nile valley up to Ptolemaic rule.

The heb-sed has become a kind of «communis opinio» in contemporary Egyptology being seen as a festival of the renewal of kingly potency and the reaffirmation of the divine descent of the king and thus the confirmation of his claim to the throne. It has also been suggested that the sed festival was a ceremony which averted the ritual killing of the king before he began to grow old and lose his physical and supernatural energies.

This festival was theoretically celebrated for the first time on the 30th anniversary of the pharaoh's rule and then repeated every 3-4 years. That is why heb-sed is often called jubilee in Egyptological literature. Actually, being referred to as a 30 year festival, itwas based on a royal epithet «kyrios triakontaetiridon» in the Ptolemaic Period.
In our book we trace back origins of this hypothesis. It was first suggested by the English archaeologist W.M.F. Petrie who stated that the sed-festival was a survival of the ritual killing of the priest-king which had existed in «the wild prehistorical age». Later on, this «fierce» custom was replaced by the sed-festival, whose purpose was rejuvenation of vital forces of a reigning monarch. During the ritual the aging king, exhausted by years, was deified as Osiris. Just as Osiris was murdered and then reanimated, a king could die and be resuscitated through a special sequence of rituals.
This hypothesis was certainly influenced by J.G. Frazer's book «The Golden Bough», especially by the fifth volume called «Atis, Adonis, Osiris» which appeared in 1905 and was devoted to the study of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern mythology.

Later on this consept of the sed-festival was developed in works by M. Murrey, A. Moret, W. Helck, M. Mathie, W. Barta, E. Uphill, E. Hornung, E. Staehelin and others.

However this «vital» interpretation of the heb-sed ritual was not shared by all Egyptologists. According to the alternative point of view the main content of the sed festival rituals was confirmation of the country's unity which was once established by the conquest of the Lower Egypt. This idea was supported by K. Sethe, W. Kees, ?ern?, B. Piotrovsky and others.

We believe that the «vital» theory does not take into account that sed-festival could develop in the course of time and change its ritual meaning. In our opinion heb-sed became a cyclic festival of renewal of the king's power not earlier than in the time of Amenophis III who celebrated three such festivals in the 30th, 34th and 37th years of his reign. Once more this «ideal» scenario of heb-sed performance was followed by Ramesses II. He celebrated his first jubilee in the 30th year of his reign and then repeated it 14 times during his 66 years of rule.
In other words, these were only two regular series of sed-festivals among dozens of others which were celebrated «against» the rule.

Moreover, the vital theory finds noproof in the Early Dynastic Period. Contemporary sources do not allow us to interpret the heb-sed as a festival of rejuvenation of the king's power at that time.
All these contradictions arising under rigorous comparison of the ideal theory of the sed-festival with data of sources allow us to think that revision of the sed-festival ideology may give new approaches to the understanding of this phenomenon.

Any such revision has to begin with the very beginning of Egyptian dynastic history when the first sed- festival was celebrated.

Thorough study shows that heb-sed did not have any roots in predynastic times but rather emerged parallel to the emergence of the state in the Nile valley.

Let us suppose that the emergence of the state and that of the sed-festival may be connected. In fact, intensive analysis of sources shows that the sed-festival came into being at the dawn of dynastic history as a military celebration held after successful suppression of revolts in the Delta and re-unification of the country under the power of a strong monarch.

The process of the composition of the «two in one» structure of the country, Upper and Lower Egypt, took almost five centuries and was completed by the beginning of the III dynasty. The mortuary complex of pharaoh Necherihet serves as a set of petrified symbols of the unified kingdom. At the same time the complexes of especially the so-called grand court and the heb-sed court show that by that time the ritual of the sed-festival was finally established.

It had changed dramatically during 500 years of the I-II Dynasties. At the beginning it was a military triumph festivity. The celebration included ceremonial processions of standards-bearers; running of captured nobles around markers (dnbw) which symbolized borders of the state and then putting these nobles to death. Certainly the celebration included other rituals but these two were the main events.

In the course of time, at least from the rule of Den, running between boundary markers became a ritual exclusively performed by the king himself. The area between dnbw-markers was perceived as the country embracing two regions. We may assume that the run around dnbw was a symbolic act of taking possession over the entire country, a ritual statement of the restituted unity of Egypt. The main reason to celebrate heb-sed was still the suppression of uprisings in the North or, starting from the Den?s reign, successful operations on the country's borders.

Khasehem(wj) reign was marked by the final defeat of rebellious forces. The massacre of insurgents inflicted by this ruler in the Delta pacified the country for a lengthy period. The monumental complex of king Djoser became a symbolic embodiment of the unity of Egypt created by «iron and blood».

The book falls into two parts. The first one is focused on the study of how, when and why the sed-festival appeared and how its ritual developed. This study is conducted on the background of political, economical and social changes which marked the transition from Predynastic to Early Dynastic period, emergence of the state and the process of formation of the «2 in 1» structure of Egypt.

The second part consists of comments which make the first («scientific») part more understandable for a reader not fully involved in problems of modern Egyptology.