Relief from the North Wall of the Chapel of Ramesses I

　History

After the death of Ramesses I, his son Seti I built for him a small memorial temple not far from the northeast corner of the enclosure of his own temple. One cannot determine whether the chapel was built before or after the large enclosure wall. The chapel consisted of a one-chamber limestone building enclosed by a brick wall with a limestone gate. Later Merenptah added his cartouches to the facade of the chapel. The eastern enclosure wall of the temple was probably aligned with the east enclosure wall of the Seti I temple.

In 1910, while digging a well, inhabitants of the hamlet of Arabeh el-Madfuneh discovered the remains of the temple. (The spot is densely built over now.) They employed an Armenian stonemason to saw off the relief surfaces and tried to sell the slabs in Cairo. The pieces were temporarily confiscated but Gaston Maspero unfortunately had to renounce the governmental entitlement on the pieces because they were found on private property.

Encouraged by Winlock, J. Pierpont Morgan bought some of them (Bas-Reliefs pls. I-III, VI-VIII and left half of pl. IX) for the Metropolitan Museum; the dealer Dikran Kelekian bought the rest. He sent those on pls. IV and V to Paris and kept those of pls. IX and XI in his shop in Cairo. The Kelekian reliefs deteriorated -due to humid storage- so badly that he could not sell them anymore and donated 3 fragments from his Cairo shop to the Museum.

In 1927, Winlock sent Harry Burton, Walter Hauser and Norman de Garis Davies to Abydos to record what was left of the looted chapel. At that time, the front of the temple with the doorframe was still in position and apparently in relative stable condition. Winlock published a photo (Temple fig. 5) and a drawing of it. One has to suspect that they perished thereafter. Burton's photo also shows that not much of the doorframe of the outer door (in the brick enclosure, fig. 2) was left. Davies drew what was left of the northern frame (pl. 1).

The expedition of 1927 succeeded, however, in documenting the chapel so carefully that Winlock could produce an adequate reconstruction in his second volume.
　

Conservation

The temple certainly stood originally on high and dry desert ground. The raising of the surface of the fields buried the building in damp mud and soaked the limestone with water. When exposed in 1910, the salt included in the stone dissolved the surface of the reliefs. Numerous attempts to rescue them were undertaken already in Cairo and 1939-40 and 1943 in New York, unfortunately with the usage of benzene and paraffin.

The last effort to rescue the decaying reliefs was successfully carried out for the final installation in Gallery 129 in 1990(?). Four blocks from the left wall were in such bad condition that they were not included in the display and are kept in storage.

After the discovery of 1910, Lefebvre discovered at the site the lower part of a large limestone stela with the dedication of the chapel by Seti I to Ramesses I. The copy of the text he produced is kept in the department’s archives.


Description

The temple house was built of limestone and had the usual cavetto and torus articulation. The interior was covered with a false vault. Most of the upper half of the building (the third block course with the upper relief series) had disappeared already before 1910. The wall reliefs were generally arranged in two registers, except for the front and the building. There the doorframe was inscribed with 2 x 3 columns of dedication texts and the doorframes were flanked on both sides by a standing figure of Seti I. Detailed drawings, photos and descriptions of the scene exist and need not be repeated.

Right (N) Wall: 5 blocks (see 11.155.3a, 12.186.2–related)

11.155.3a(1)

11.155.3a(2)

11.155.3a(3)

12.186.2a (from Kelekian)

12.186.2b (from Kelekian)

All blocks seen by Winlock are on display. The doorframe only is missing.

Center (W) Wall: 5 blocks (see 11.155.3b)

11.155.3b(1)

11.155.3b(2)

11.155.3b(3)

11.155.3b(4)

11.155.3b(5)

The two blocks of the upper register, published by Winlock as in possession of Kelekian, are missing.

Left (S) Wall: 10 blocks (see 11.155.3c, d–related)

11.155.3d(1a) not displayed

11.155.3d(2a) not displayed

11.155.3c(1a)

11.155.3c(2a)

11.155.3c(3a)

11.155.3d(1b) not displayed

11.155.3d(3b) not displayed

11.155.3c(1b)

11.155.3c(2b)

11.155.3c(3b)

The 4 blocks of the left half of the wall published by Winlock are not displayed and are in MMA storage. The piece with the king driving cattle was published as in possession of Kelekian (Winlock 1937, pl. 5) is missing and so are the pieces of the left (S) doorframe.

Left doorframe: Kelekian also donated the block 12.186.1 from the left jamb (facade) with the upper part of a large figure of Seti I wearing the atef-crown (Winlock 1937,　pl. 11). Due to its condition, the block is not on view.

Dieter Arnold, 2016

Given to the Museum by Dikran G. Kelekian, 1912.

Winlock, Herbert E. 1921. Bas-reliefs from the temple of Rameses I at Abydos, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Papers, 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Winlock, Herbert E. 1937. The Temple of Ramesses I at Abydos, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Papers, 5. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.