Temple Inscriptions: How Ancient Egyptians Recorded Their History

Throughout the three millennia of the Pharaonic period, the ancient Egyptians transferred their history on the walls, pylons, columns, and lintels of their temples. Unlike paper scrolls, leather parchments, and wooden tablets, these monumental inscriptions were designed to last for eternity.

While today these towering stone inscriptions carved in deeply sunken or raised hieroglyphs appear as proud chronicles of dynastic conquest, treaties, and royal propaganda, to read the story of the history-making ancient Egyptians, one has to understand how their concept of history making differed from the modern understanding of the word. For the ancient Egyptians, history making was the sacred responsibility of the individual ruler who ruled the country to preserve Ma’at – the order, truth, and cosmos, and to fight Isfet (chaos).

1. The Dual Function: Monumental and Propaganda Purpose

Ancient Egyptian temple inscriptions have a dual function and serve as both sacred texts and political propaganda – the knowledge of which helps to understand both the meaning of these inscriptions and their context.

A. The Sacred Reality of Words

The words in ancient Egyptian belief had power – the word medu netjer (“words of the gods”) created reality by simply existing, and the story told on the wall of a temple made of sacred limestone or sandstone existed and continued to exist for eternity. When a king wanted to announce a military campaign or a prosperous year for the harvest, the words about it carved on the pylon of a temple acted as a perpetual magical formula that guaranteed Ma’at’s victory over Isfet.

B. Propaganda and Political Communication

The wall plaques, pylons, and courtyards of temples were open to the public gaze of priests, visitors, officials, and even the general crowd that could witness public festivals inside temple grounds. Hence, the temples’ walls became a perfect medium for political communication and expression of the king’s power, protection, and stability – a tool for political propaganda, aimed to frighten possible enemies and reassure allies and subjects.

2. Types of Historical Temple Inscriptions

The ancient Egyptian temples’ walls host dozens of different types of historical records, each telling a unique story about the history of the country, its rulers, administration, and people.

A. Royal Annals

Among the most famous inscriptions that tell the story of ancient Egypt are royal annals describing the military campaigns of different kings.

The Annals of Thutmose III at Karnak : This long inscription carved on the inner walls of the temple’s sanctuary surrounding the precinct of Amun’s cult in Karnak tells the story of seventeen campaigns of Thutmose III against the cities of the Levant – the victories, the routes taken by the army, the number of horses and grain harvested from conquered cities, and the detailed inventory of the spoils of war carried back to Egypt.

The Battle of Kadesh (Ramesses II): Ramesses II’s account of the famous battle near the Orontes River is carved on the walls of the Ramesseum, Luxor Temple, Karnak, and the rock-cut temple of Abu Simbel. It is presented in the form of a prose narrative known as The Bulletin and a verse composition entitled The Poem that describes the tactical ambush of the Egyptian army and Ramesses’ personal valor in leading the counter-attack, as well as the final standoff with the Hittite Empire.

B. Diplomatic Correspondence

Some temple inscriptions describe the history of foreign relations between Egypt and neighboring countries and peoples.

The Treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittite King : The entire text of the peace treaty between Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III is carved on the wall of the Great Hypostyle Hall of the Karnak Temple. This well-preserved inscription describes the treaty provisions, including the agreement for mutual defense and non-aggression, the rules for extradition of fugitives, and the curses brought upon all those who attempted to violate the terms of the treaty.

C. Royal Decrees

The walls of temples hold the royal decrees that describe the law and its enforcement in ancient Egypt.

The Decree of Horemheb at Karnak : The decree carved on the inscription of the Tenth Pylon of the Karnak Temple describes the comprehensive legal reform initiated by the king at the end of the Amarna Period, including the punishments introduced for corrupt officials, tax farmers, and abusive military governors.

Building Inscriptions: The building inscriptions describe the history of land grants, tax exemptions, and donations to the temple, acting as the land registry records. They could be found on many Ptolemaic temples’ walls, including the Edfu Temple.

3. Writing Methods and Visual Arts

These magnificent inscriptions required an incredible amount of effort to carve on the stone using special tools and following the master plan of the chief scribes.

A. Raised Relief and Sunken Relief

The ancient Egyptian sculptors traditionally used two methods of carving on stone – bas relief and sunken relief – depending on the location and exposure of the wall surface to sunlight.

The first method of carving reliefs in Egyptian meant simply raising the hieroglyphs. This method was very detailed and required significant effort from the sculptor but allowed the reliefs to be created without shadows, hence suitable only for shady interior chambers and sanctuaries of temples or covered hypostyle halls.

The second method was carving out the hieroglyphs in the middle of the rectangular or square recesses, resulting in a relief with pronounced shadows. This technique was used almost exclusively on the exterior walls of the temples, pylon gates, and open courtyard pavilions, exposed to direct sunlight.

B. Colorful Inscriptions

Modern-day visitors who see ancient Egyptian temples cannot possibly imagine the bright colors of these monuments as they appeared when freshly painted. Every hieroglyph was meticulously painted in its natural color: blue – for representing water and sky, green – for plants and fertility, red – for the desert and blood, yellow or gold – for the skin color of gods and so on. Thus, the colors helped to read the inscriptions from afar, creating a magnificent picture.

4. Reading Between the Lines: Historiography and Meaning

Although the ancient Egyptian inscriptions on the walls of temples contain invaluable data for the modern historians, these data require careful and unbiased analysis due to the peculiarities of the ancient worldview.

A. No Defeats Allowed

Since the primary objective of any temple was the maintenance of Ma’at, the temple inscriptions focused on achieving this goal, and rarely mentioned the defeats suffered by the Egyptian armies, the failures of the royal government, or the weaknesses of the king’s rule. From the perspective of the ancient Egyptian, these events were signs of Isfet, not the successes of their enemies or internal flaws of their ruler. Therefore, to determine whether a particular king suffered any defeats or not, the modern historians have to rely on limited sources, such as the Amarna Letters, and compare them with temple inscriptions.

B. Selectively Damaged Temple Inscriptions

Some of the ancient Egyptian temples’ inscriptions were subject to the so-called damnatio memoriae (a formal condemnation of memory) – the deliberate erasure of the name and all the images of a person, often performed by the new ruler to signify his disdain for the memory of his predecessor.

Such an example is the image of the famous queen Hatshepsut erased at the temple of Deir el-Bahari at the end of the reign of Thutmose III. Similarly, the entire history of the reign of Akhenaten, who introduced a revolutionary change of worshiping the sun disk instead of the traditional gods, was erased from the inscriptions of Karnak and his sun temples by the king Horemheb at the end of the Amarna period and the early Ramesside kings.

Conclusion

The ancient Egyptian temples’ inscriptions created one of the most enduring, remarkable, and majestic historical record systems known to mankind. The ancient Egyptian rulers built their legacy right into their temples’ stones, making sure that the achievements of their rule, their strength, character, and personality will live forever.

The annals of military campaigns, peace treaties with foreign nations, and royal decrees carved on the walls of temples provided the future generations of historians with a unique primary source of information about the early history of their country. Although these inscriptions may be difficult to read and understand due to their dual propaganda and sacred purpose, they will always be a true symbol of the ancient Egyptian wisdom and creativity.