Rekhyt
| Rekhyt | |||||||
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 Rekhyt under the feet of Djoser (Statue)
(Egyptian Museum in Cairo) | |||||||
| Name in hieroglyphs |
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The word Rekhyt from
After the collapse of the
Name
Etymology
The
The ancient Egyptians saw the lapwing as a “clumsy mourning bird in the mud” due to its “slowly staggering-fluttering herd flight behavior” and its typical long drawn-out cry “pliit”.[2]
The assumption was often made earlier in Egyptology that the name Rekhyt written with the single hieroglyph G23
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was written as a transmission of the lapwing. However, this was an unprovable assumption and had to be corrected.[3] A people must have a collective name, the name of an individual bird cannot be a collective noun. Rather, the word "Rekhyt" derived from the behavior and appearance of the lapwing that basic meaning after which the ethnic group was later named, with Rekhyt as an ethnonym referring to the singular nouns "Rekh"[4] and "Rekhet".[5]
Origin
The appearance of the lapwing was unknown to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt, as the lapwing did not migrate to the regions around
The translation made by
To the Ancient Egyptians, the “residences of the lapwing” referred to the area around
Depiction
In Egyptian temples, the Rekhyt were described together with the two other strata of the population, the Pat (pꜥt, 'Patricians') and Henmemet (ḥnmmt, 'Sun-people' (of Heliopolis)), as a three-part social system of the ancient Egyptian
As a symbol of the Egyptian servant population, the kings held the Rekhyt tightly in their hands. On the western wall of the second
Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom
Rekhyt can be seen on the Scorpion Macehead. The scene is interpreted as a victory of King Scorpion II over the Rekhyt people. However, the Rekhyt standards might symbolically represent the control of Scorpion over different areas of Egypt, not necessarily with military conflict. In addition, the creation of irrigation ditches or channels by Scorpion and other people can be seen.
In the Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom, which include the Palermo Stone, the Rekhyt are mentioned twice under King Den of the First Dynasty. In the fourth year of his reign, the reading “People of the Rekhyt” can be made in an otherwise unclear context. In the 31st year of reign, the Rekhyt or their settlement areas play a role in connection with an administrative action carried out by Den. In 1987, Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck translated the difficult passage as “Plan (?) And dig the western and eastern canals (through) the area of the Rekhyt”.[12] However, Helck’s reading is based on the interpretation of the pond hieroglyph
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as canal
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and the symbol V23 (“mehu”)
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as F30 (“schedj”)
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Overall, Helck's assumption fits very well, since such canal construction work was previously documented by King Scorpion II and later in the Old Kingdom. In 2000, Toby Wilkinson submitted a slightly modified translation to Helck regarding the 31st year of Den's reign, which adhered to the given hieroglyphs: “Organization? of farms? the north-western delta (Rekhyt) and all people in the eastern delta.” [13] Wilkinson remarked at his reading that it was also only to be regarded as an interpretation.
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was used for the representation of the Rekhyt. This motif was one of the king's rulership attributes and expressed his power over Egypt and its neighboring regions.
Deity
| Rekhyt | |||||||
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 Base of a statue of Nectanebo II with two Rekhyts | |||||||
| Name in hieroglyphs |
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| Part of a series on |
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 Ancient Egypt portal |
With the decline of the
A similar change took place in regarding the gods. In the Old Kingdom, a topography of the afterlife was irrelevant for non-royal deceased, since only the king could ascend into heaven. With the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, more precise ideas of the afterlife emerged, which were now also accessible to non-royal people. For the accompaniment of the dead and the worship of heavenly deities, new protective and auxiliary gods were necessary, to whom logistical and ritual tasks were assigned. The Rekhyt deity had a cult-accompanying function and in this network mainly took on the "god and king worshiping" position that was derived from the task previously assigned to the Rekhyt people as subjects and servants of the king.[16]
Mythology
Since the lapwing belong to the migratory birds that overwintered in Lower Egypt (Qebehu), a connection was made between the appearance of the
Already in the Old Kingdom, the region of "the (cooling) waters (of the sky)" was considered to be the area above the goddess
The deity Rekhyt has only been documented since the Middle Kingdom. The first mentions of the deity Pat date from around the same period. In a funerary text from the New Kingdom, the deceased proclaimed the words of the sun god Ra to Rekhyt. Rekhyt also appeared in other minor forms, such as the snake-headed 37th of the Assessors of Maat ("Wedj-Rekhyt"), who checked whether the deceased ever offended a deity in their life.[18] Together with the deity Pat, Rekhyt worshiped the newborn god child Amun. It is also mentioned that Rekhyt and Pat "could not harm" the deceased.
In the
Iconography
The deity Rekhyt first appeared as a group of three kneeling people in cheer who raised their arms. From the New Kingdom onwards, the deity Rekhyt appeared as a community of up to six leaping, each with raised human-shaped arms sitting on a nest worshiping other deities.
Hatshepsut
The oldest surviving representations of the divine Rekhyt symbol are in the
The Rekhyt hymn to Amun, preserved on the north side of the east wall, was probably present on all the transverse walls of the entrance hall, as two surviving texts can also be found in the sanctuary on the north and south sides:
All life, all duration and all happiness, all health and all joy; all countries and foreign countries are at the feet of Amun, lord of the thrones of both countries, whom all Rechit praise, for they live (through him) for a million of millions (of years) for (all) eternity.
— Entrance hall east wall, north side, block 133 and sanctuary east wall, north side, block 262[21]
Amenhotep II
In the forecourt of the Khnum temple in Elephantine, there is an inscription in which the Rekhyt are mentioned: “He (Amenophis II) built this temple for his father Khnum, who in Elephantine lives. The festival hall was built so that all Rekhyt people can see what he has done for Khnum.” The Rechit representations are also here, as is usually the case with the examined columned halls, not only in the entrance area but also in other inner rooms.
Ramesses III
In the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu is the most conspicuous Rekhyt figure of all temples. On the upper outside of the wall of the Migdol entrance gate, Ramesses III is represented as Rekhyt in a praying posture; supplemented with the royal insignia of the Nemes headscarf and divine beard as well as the bull attribute.
Augustus
Words to speak: Be silent four times and cheer four times, all Rekhyt people, let us come cheering so that you may see the son of Osiris (Harpocrates), who is your Lord and your Prince.
— Mammisi in Philae[22]
References
- ^ a b Elmar Edel: Zu den Inschriften auf den Jahreszeitenreliefs der „Weltkammer“ aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Niuserre, Teil 2. S. 115.
- ^ Richard Meinertzhagen: Nicoll’s birds of Egypt. Rees, London 1930, S. 547.
- ^ Siehe auch Wb II 447,8
- ^ Männlicher Kiebitz:
- ^ Weiblicher Kiebitz:
.
- ^ Wolfgang Helck: Geschichte des Alten Ägypten; Bd. 1, Abschnitt 3. Brill, Leiden 1968, S. 20 und S. 42.
- ^ Christian Leitz u. a.: LGG, Register. Peeters, Leuven 2003, ISBN 90-429-1376-2, S. 313.
- ^ Sonderzeichen U 103 gemäß Petra Vomberg: Sonderzeichenliste In: Rainer Hannig: Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch : (2800 - 950 v. Chr.). von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9, S. 1448.
- ^ Henri Asselbergh: Chaos en beheersing: Documenten uit de aenolitische Egypten. Brill 1961; S. 222–224.
- ^ Simson Najovits: Egypt, the Trunk of the Tree: A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land, Bd. 1. Algora Publishing, New York 2003, ISBN 0-87586-221-7, S. 248.
- ^ Farid Atiya: Pocket Book of Ancient Egypt. Amer University, Cairo 2008, ISBN 977-17-4439-9, S. 202.
- ^ Wolfgang Helck: Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA) Bd. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4, S. 157 and Rolf Gundlach: Die Zwangsumsiedlung auswärtiger Bevölkerung als Mittel ägyptischer Politik bis zum Ende des Mittleren Reiches. Steiner, Stuttgart 1994, S. 50–51.
- ^ Toby A. H. Wilkinson: Royal annals of ancient Egypt: The Palermo Stone and its associated fragments. Kegan Paul, London 2000, S. 108 ff.
- ^ Wolfgang Helck: Geschichte des Alten Ägypten; Bd. 1, Abschnitt 3. Brill, Leiden 1968, S. 34.
- ^ Hermann Alexander Schlögl: Das alte Ägypten. Beck, München 2008, ISBN 3-406-48005-5, S. 123.
- ^ Hermann Alexander Schlögl: Das alte Ägypten. Beck, München 2008, ISBN 3-406-48005-5, S. 127.
- ^ Elmar Edel: Zu den Inschriften auf den Jahreszeitenreliefs der „Weltkammer“ aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Niuserre, Teil 2. S. 106.
- ^ Christian Leitz u. a.: Wedj-Rechit In: Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen, Bd. 2. Peeters, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1147-6, S. 634.
- ^ Christian Leitz u. a.: LGG, Bd. 6. Leuven, Peeters 2002, ISBN 90-429-1151-4, S. 130.
- ^ Franck Burgos, François Larché, Nicolas Grimal: La chapelle Rouge: Centre Franco-Égyptien d'Étude des Temples de Karnak, Vol. 1. Éd. Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris 2006, ISBN 2-86538-300-8, S. 198 und 202.
- ^ Karin Stephan: Die Dekoration der „Chapelle Rouge“ in Karnak: Struktur und Funktion (Hochschulschrift, Magisterarbeit 2006). S. 108.
- ^ Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates): Die Genese eines ägyptischen Götterkindes. Peeters, Leuven 2006, ISBN 90-429-1761-X, S. 104.
