BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The Origins of Egypt’s Karnak Temple

Sacred complex may have been built on island symbolizing creation

Ruins of Egypt’s temple of Karnak. Courtesy Ben Pennington.

Famous within biblical archaeology for its conquest relief of Pharaoh Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak), the temple complex at Karnak was one of the most important religious sites in ancient Egypt. However, since the beginning of excavations at the site, Karnak’s origins have been poorly understood. Publishing in the journal Antiquity, an international team of archaeologists has taken a significant step in solving this mystery, and the answer may provide fascinating insight into ancient Egyptian cosmology.

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Building the Cosmic Creation

Excavators taking core samples at the Egyptian temple of Karnak. Courtesy Benjamin Pennington

Located near the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, Karnak temple was dedicated to the deities Amun-Ra, Montu, and Mut, with the temple precinct of Amun-Ra comprising the central portion of the complex. While Karnak was in use for approximately 3,000 years, Egyptologists still debate when the site was first utilized as a temple and what exactly the early site looked like. Although the earliest archaeological remains date back to the last century of the third millennium, some scholars have argued the site was first occupied at least 1,000 years earlier based on evidence found outside the site. Unfortunately, since the temple was in continuous use for such a long period, very little of the site’s earliest layers can be securely identified.

To solve this problem, an international archaeological team conducted the most comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of the site ever undertaken. The team analyzed 61 sediment cores that were systematically collected within and around the temple site, with an average depth of over 20 feet. They also studied 142 cores from past excavations. The team analyzed the cores for sediment type and then dated each sediment layer through the presence of pottery fragments found within the cores. This process allowed the team to reconstruct the topological evolution of the site both before and after its occupation, and then cross-date each change in that topology.

Based on this analysis, the team proposed that the site only became habitable around 2520 BCE, since before that date the area was underneath a fast-flowing section of the Nile for a significant portion of the year. While occupation of the site could have begun shortly thereafter, the earliest pottery fragments date between 2305 and 1980 BCE, placing the founding of the temple slightly earlier than is frequently assumed, but not nearly as ancient as some have suggested.

Palaeolandscape reconstruction at Karnak. Courtesy Benjamin Pennington et al.

However, Karnak’s age was not the only interesting detail revealed by the cores. For much of the temple’s early history, Karnak was an island, with channels of the Nile flowing on either side. Over time, these channels silted over, both naturally and through human intervention. According to Dominic Barker, one of the study’s co-authors, “The river channels surrounding the site shaped how the temple could develop and where, with new construction taking place on top of old rivers as they silted up.”

This feature may explain why the site was chosen for the construction of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian creator god. Egyptian texts from the Old Kingdom (c. 2591–2152 BCE) describe how Ra-Amun manifested himself as high ground, emerging from “the lake.” The island of Karnak would have been the only high ground that was surrounded by water in the area of ancient Thebes. Additionally, with the annual Nile floods, the island would have likely shrunk considerably, only to then seemingly reemerge from the waters at the end of the flood season. “It’s tempting to suggest the Theban elites chose Karnak’s location for the dwelling place of a new form of the creator god, ‘Ra-Amun,’ as it fitted the cosmogonical scene of high ground emerging from surrounding water,” said Benjamin Pennington, the paper’s primary author, in a press release. “Later texts of the Middle Kingdom (c. 1980–1760 BCE) develop this idea, with the ‘primeval mound’ rising from the ‘Waters of Chaos.’ During this period, the abating of the annual flood would have echoed this scene, with the mound on which Karnak was built appearing to ‘rise’ and grow from the receding floodwaters.”

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