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(19th Dynasty) These grand architectural elements are the finest preserved parts of an ancient Egyptian palace anywhere in the world, and the only one on exhibit in the United States. The palace originally stood in the vicinity of the sanctuary of Ptah at Memphis, where it housed the king during religious festivals. It was excavated in 1915 by a University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition led by Clarence Fischer. Merenptah was the son and successor (1213 - 1204 BC) of one of Egypt's best known pharaohs, Ramesses II. The current installation includes a monumental gateway to the palace, along with columns, doorframes and windows.
Sphinx The sphinx, a lion with a human head, represents the power of the Egyptian king, both to protect his people and to conquer the enemies of Egypt. This statue was buried up to its shoulders; only the exposed head was attacked by windblown sand, which eroded the facial features and the royal false beard. The inscriptions on the chest and around the base give the five names of Ramesses II. His son and successor, Merenptah (1224-1214 BC), added his own cartouches to the shoulders after his father's death. This sphinx, the third largest known in the world, weighs about twelve tons [Quiz Clue!]. It was quarried at Aswan and transported by river to the Ptah Temple at Memphis, 600 miles away.
The Lower Egyptian Gallery houses one of the finest collections of Egyptian architecture on display in the United States. A monumental granite sphinx dominates the gallery. Surrounding it are the gateway, columns, doorways and windows from the best preserved royal palace ever excavated in Egypt. The palace was built for the pharaoh Merenptah at the city of Memphis in Lower Egypt. Merenptah was the 13th son and eventual successor of the famous Ramesses II (ca. 1224-1214 BC). The UPM is the only museum in the world to exhibit such a significant portion of an Egyptian royal palace. The palace, excavated by Clarence S. Fisher, one of the Egyptian Section's early curators, between 1915 and 1923, originally stood beside the temple of the Memphite creator god, Ptah. A model of the throne room displayed in the gallery indicates the original appearance of the structure. The exhibited elements of the palace provide insight into the religious, political and social beliefs of the Egyptian people. For the Egyptians, the palace served as a metaphor for the universe: the floor, decorated with floral and faunal motifs, represented the earth, while the towering columns with their floral capitals seem to grow toward the heavens. The hieroglyphic symbols on the lower portion of the columns depict the inhabitants of the earth giving praise to Merenptah, while the upper portions show the king presenting offerings to the gods. On the massive gateway at the rear of the gallery, the king is seen in a ritual pose expressing domination over Egypt's enemies, an image that occurs on royal monuments from the time of Egypt's first king (ca. 3100 BC) throughout pharaonic history. The stone doorways are topped by images of the winged sun disk, and remains of the original gilding-the earliest example ever found in situ on an Egyptian building-are still visible on one of the doorways. In front of the architectural elements of Merenptah's palace is a 13-ton red granite sphinx, the largest in the United States and believed to be the third largest in the world. It, like the palace, derives from the ceremonial center of Ptah at Memphis. The fine red granite was quarried near Aswan in the southernmost part of Egypt, and transported by river some 600 miles to Memphis. The image of the sphinx, in which the pharaoh is portrayed with the body of a lion, is one of the most enduring symbols of Egyptian kingship. The inscriptions on the chest and around the base identify the pharaoh depicted as Ramesses II, while his son and successor Merenptah added his own cartouches on the shoulders. Like the seated statue of Ramesses II in the Upper Egyptian Gallery, the sphinx was probably usurped from an earlier ruler, with new inscriptions added. Standing along the wall in the center of the gallery is the partially restored black basalt stela of one of Egypt's earliest rulers, King Qa'a of the 1st Dynasty (who ruled approximately 2915-2890 BC). Nearly 5000 years old, this stela supplies a rare example of the monuments erected by the earliest Egyptian kings in front of the low mudbrick structures that marked the royal burials at Abydos. The decoration consists of the serekh, a schematic representation of the niched façade of the palace, in which the king's name is inscribed. Atop the palace sits the falcon god Horus, of whom the king was believed to be a living manifestation. At the end of the gallery, currently enclosed by a protective wall and visible through the window, are the eastern and southern walls of the tomb chapel of Kaipure, a treasury official of the late Old Kingdom (ca. 2415-2289 BC). The painted limestone chapel was the inner of two rooms in the tomb's superstructure, and served as the center for Kaipure's memorial cult. The actual burial would have been located in a subterranean shaft. The preserved decoration on the walls focuses on the large figures of Kaipure. On the south wall, he sits before a table of offerings, while on the east wall he stands in the center of the wall. The scenes of people slaughtering cattle and bringing offerings of food and living animals were intended to guarantee a perpetual source of sustenance for Kaipure in the afterlife. The tomb chapel is currently in the process of a two-stage conservation program. The west wall had already been conserved, and is now part of the traveling exhibition Searching for Ancient Egypt. |
