History

This block originates from the temple of Harendotes ("Horus the Avenger"), which stood on Philae Island within the enclosure of the Isis Temple and near the northwest corner of that temple.

The temple was probable built under the Emperor Claudius. The unusual square plan (14. 5 x 14.7 m) was probably dictated by the nearness of the island’s edge. A central staircase led up to the building, which stood on a platform. The front of the tetrastylos in antis faced east and consisted of four columns with papyrus/palmette capitals. The foundation shows that there was no second row of columns. The hall was covered with 4.5 m long architraves running east to west. A square sanctuary, surrounded by an ambulatory and four wing chambers, followed directly behind the pronaos.

The temple was taken down in Byzantine times to the foundation platform and the stones were used for building a small church (P) nearby. A photo in Lyon’s report still shows one of the capitals in the ruins of the Byzantine settlement. During the Nubia salvage campaign, the platform of the Harendotes temple was transferred to the new Philae site with the major stone buildings; the brick buildings were left behind and disappeared under Lake Nasser.

The cavetto block and the two capitals 11.154.4–.5 were purchased together in 1911 by The Museum from the Egyptian government.

Description
This block originally formed part of one of the two screen walls that connected the four front columns and the sidewalls of the temple. The cavetto formed the exterior of the block. The purification scene faced inside and was usually attached to the front part of the temple, the area where the priests had to carry out their personal purification before entering the sanctuary.

Dieter Arnold 2015

Purchased from the Egyptian Government, 1911.

Lyons, Henry George, W.E. Garstin, and Waterlow & Sons 1896. A report on the island and temples of Philæ. London, pp. 31–32, pls. 22–24, plan 9.

Arnold, Dieter 1999. Temples of the Last Pharaohs. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 252–53, fig. 217.

Hill, Marsha 2000. "Roman Egypt." In The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West, edited by Elizabeth J. Milleker. New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 89, fig. 89; p. 207.