Petrie’s theory of the non-Egyptian Semitic basis to Mount Sinai’s Temple ruin (Download)

Petrie’s theory of the non-Egyptian Semitic basis to Mount Sinai’s Temple ruin (and practice) by Jason .S. Jowett 9/02/2021 (Download) 

Said to have been stumbled upon, the earliest shrine at the highest point on the plateaus front is according to Flinders Petrie dating to 4750 B.C. From this cave, the site grew between 3450 and 1150 B.C. reaching 230 feet.

Researches in Sinai

by Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), Sir, 1853-1942

In possession of distinctly Semitic character, particularly ‘non-Egyptian’ rather of the subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic; on worship by ‘Egyptians’ at Serabit el-Khadim, atop ‘Mount Sinai’ the Greek-Christian name for Gebel Musa (distinctly identified by its peak as Horeb)). 

A recumbent and mummified ram, Kherty appears twice at Serabit, usually worshipped at one side as a guide, who brought the deceased king safely to "the yonder site" by "being the ferryman". He also protected the deceased against various demons (named inmetjw in the texts) sent by Seth, the lord of the red (desert) land, the counter-balance to Horus' role as lord of the black (soil) land. The second more obscure deity featuring in Serabit is Khentekhtay, whose appearance is more complex on four monuments. Firstly two on stelae dated to the reign of Ammenemes, one on an offering table considered Middle Kingdom and the fourth a stela with New Kingdom dates. The first two show his human body with a falcon head, disked with double feathers and described as the Lord of Athribis, thought to be Horus as a black bull and a crocodile furthermore. See Gardiner, AH; Peet, TE; Cerny, J.

Depending on the severity of interpretation, regarding the representative use and hence associative attribution of these two rarer deities at this site, we might presume to assuage the Black Bull and Crocodile are representative of both extreme risk and danger, which can be controlled (for experimentation/taming) and as otherwise lying at the water’s edge, on the a Posteriori case for Akhenaten as Moses, as according the records of Laurence Gardner.

Petrie adduces four practices he aligns with the local sect at Serabit el-Khadim of which J. Cerny, T.E Peet, & A.H Gardiner detail at length. Those being to which they contest in addition as parallel to the ritual of semitic religion;

1. The offering of burnt sacrifices on high places.

2. The dedication of conical stones.

3. Ceremonial acts of washing parts of the body or sacred containers.

4. Visitation for the purpose of receiving oracular dreams (consequent establishment of memorial stones upon this dream-site).

Petrie cites the presence of a ‘bed of clean white ash’ from chamber O to E with nothing but traces of pottery amongst it, and amounting to 50 tons worth prior to denudation bearing approximately 200 tonnes worth. Further two conical stones (bearing a groove underneath) typical of Syrian rituals in deity representation, and similar to that found in Malta’s Halsaflieni hypogeum, where the cones were used for plugging connected ground holes of the right size and a foot apart. J. Cerny, T.E Peet, & A.H Gardiner deduce the three rectangular tanks; one outside the north entrance, one in the Hathor Hanafiyah, and one in the Lesser Hanafiyahdo prove the use of ceremonial ablutions, again contesting Petries’ attribution of  ‘un-egyptianness’, as only on the basis that there is no Egyptian Temple preserving so neatly it’s ritual arrangement to be found in Egypt. Though similar ‘tanks’ are identified in case as located at the unfinished pyramid of Zawyet el-Aryan (the elliptical stone trough), and at the Osireion at Abydos, with it’s two small square basins.

Laurence Gardner’s Genesis of the Grail Kings. 2001. Fair Winds Press. Pg. 249 See File:Map of Hathor Temple in Serabit el-Khadim.png - Wikimedia Commons also.

Lastly J. Cerny, T.E Peet, & A.H Gardiner contest Petrie’s conclusion concerning the plateau outside the temple where (to the west of) thirty cases of enclosures are evident with one dozen bearing stellae standing firm. All but one of the stellae bear royal markings on four sides, one yet bears funerary engravings of a common variety and the remainder confers private status. Petrie is noted to be confirming the stellae within a stone ring as “Bethel”, also generally Egyptian in character despite the standard of Egyptian one-sided stellaes.

The stellae of the approach were recorded in detailing the various expeditions to the region similar to what is inscribed on cliff faces near the mines or quarries of Magharah and Wady Hammamat. Cledat describes them as all similarly 2.55 meters tall, 1.25 wide and 0.7 in depth, with rectangular form, and upper angles rounded off. The most distinctive inscription offers ‘an oblation to Hathor by the ka, or soul, of the chief of the expedition’.

Inscriptions today partially remain as much of Serabit is now moved and or destroyed since Petrie’s initial documentation. Prominently Thutmose III features smiting an adversary.

 

Whilst successive generations have built additional rooms where in total “Amenophis II built a chamber at the rear of his father’s edifice, oriented in the opposite direction…. [So that] after Tuthmosis III, three distinct complexes were in existence in the sequence A-T: (1) the complex of the cave of Hathor… (2) the complex ‘pylon -- L’ of Tuthmosis III facing east, and (3) the complex of the later kings, consisting of a series starting with the room of the reigning king, down to Room K, facing west… [all] until the last one in the series was built under Seti I” (Ventura, R. 1988:134)

In comparison with further research along the “estuary of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile and the ‘Ways of Horus’”(Dijkstra, M. 2009). This reconstruction of which Dijkstra, M. concurs with J. Cerny, T.E Peet, & A.H Gardiner in placing no doubt that Sinai and the 19th Dynasty in Serabit was regarded as an appanage of the north-east frontier and the great military road into Asia, it (figure 1.) depicts Amun, Lord of the thrones of the two lands )in_ the ‘Dwelling of Sesu’; bears the inscription: Praise to thee, O Re of (?) [Ramesses Meriamun?]. Appearing to (?) the chief of the Bowmen, overseer of foreign lands for the Lord of the two lands, attributed to Rameses II.

Petrie’s account of the partial destructions and subsequent builds relaying complex deity worship of which the various kingdoms honoured in respect of the political liberties at the time. The prevailing attribution for which the temple complex is largely attributed remains as Hathor the Lady of Turquoise, placed by Amenhotep III XVIII dynasty (below)

On the subject of the early Kings “Sneferu, Amenemhat III, Hatshepsut, along with divinities Sopdu and Hathor,... the inscriptions honor Sneferu by Hatshepsut giving the long account of the founding of the shrine by that queen.” (W.M.F Petrie. 1906:84)

Petrie cites the extreme difficulty in reading the inscriptions, particularly the earliest, but notes the figures of Amenemhat III, the chief chamberlain Khenemsu, and the chief seal-bearer Amenysenb, adoring Hathor (W.M.F Petrie. 1906:94).

The obvious controversy in which Gardiner, AH; Peet, TE; Cerny, J supports is the Semitic values of this site, it’s bearing in the origin of Judaism and as bearing the literal biblical narrative. It has been law afterall to only value archaeological evidence which corroborates the direct and literal biblical Exodus, which Petrie elucidates in reference alone, but in qualification of this site as a preliminary Semitic basis, or rather non-egyptian. “The figure of the leader Moses is accepted as historical by Steindorff; and his name is taken as obviously the Egyptian Mesu; ‘the child’, of which a different etymology was constructed in Hebrew.” (W.M.F Petrie. 1906:200). Describing the two or three irreconcilable dogmas and the political issues in migrations of masses of people, such as how and where they “pasture” (See Appendix), Petrie draws a contemporaneous account in much more appropriately inherent criticism of the social vanguard than other academics pertaining to dismiss his “non-egyptian” explanation of Serabit el-Khadim, particularly Isralites following military jurisprudence in the district of Sinai.

Anthropology aside, the more irrefutable matter concerning the Serabit is it’s access to mineral wealth of which Beit-Arieh, I. concludes copper mining and smelting was indeed achieved in the district upon discovery of 40 molds for tool casting(1982). The non-prevalence of turquoise otherwise would suggest no such crystals were mined at Serabit, whilst the attribution of the meaning of turquoise in context is itself contested by Laurence Gardner as being correctly ‘shem-an-na’ also represented as conical ‘bread and the very same substance Petrie accounts for on site as white ash. Stelae 116 depicts the representation of this most controversial matter surrounding the site, the context of the exodus in total, it's political turmoil and inherent anthropological mystery in all. It states [The good God] lord of the two lands, lord of might, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Memacrec (?), living forever, beloved of Hathor. Where Hathor holds out to him the emblems of life and dominion her words are written ‘aid by Hathor : I am giving thee life, perpetuity and health to thy nose for eternity.’ (W.M.F Petrie. 1906:119). The item in the left hand of the Goddess which is a deflated round shape is unknown but thought to be jewelry.

Blackman relays (Westcar Papyrus) in description of an item so bearing the characters translated as Mfkzt by L. Gardner in his detailed exposition of the contentious monatomic mineral which he contests as the basis of all misinterpretation, being the technological secret and substance essential to the foundation of the Egyptian empire, manifest in their ability to achieve the remarkable feats of engineering espoused in pyramid building for one. As represented by the conical shape held aloft, and afforded great and common modern reverence in Jewish ritual as Shem bread, or bread baked into shapes and mode of mfkzt ; [Blackman] the king is being rowed on a lake by a crew of maidens, when one of the maiden rowers accidentally drops her “fish pendant” of Mfkzt into the water. The pendant is said to be of Mfkt (new turquoise in popular translation), but the article is otherwise unknown and assumed as adornment. (Blackman, A. 1925:212). Gardner based his case that Akhenaton was the biblical Moses, the controversy surrounding his religious reformation, and subsequent abdication and erasure from official Egyptian records as the basis for the historical precedent, merely recounted in child friendly storytelling as the Biblical Moses. His exposition on Mfkzt details an application of the Ark of the Covenant as practical applications of anti-gravity, aside the ritualistic uses (and manufacturing) depicted at Serabit el-Khadim. This presentation by Hathor to the king recounts the object in question as a production for him to inhale through his nose (?). Whilst the obvious parallel would be and however disputed the facts may be, cocaine is present in mummies found in Egypt. 

Cited bibliographic figure of Porter-Moss VII 359 E.E.F by Gardiner, AH; Peet, TE; Cerny, J Pg. 119-120.

References:

Beit-Arieh, I. (1982). New Discoveries at Serâbît el-Khâdîm. The Biblical Archaeologist, 45(1), 13-18. doi:10.2307/3209843

Blackman, A. (1925). Philological Notes. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 11(3/4), 210-215. doi:10.2307/3854142

Dijkstra, M. (2009). A CHIEF OF THE BOWMEN, OVERSEER OF THE FOREIGN LANDS AT SERABIT EL-KHADIM (SINAI 300 297) AND THE "DWELLING OF SESU" (TELL Figure 

Gardiner, AH; Peet, TE; Cerny, J - The Inscriptions of Sinai Vol 2 (1955) Page 43-44.

Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), Sir, 1853-1942; Currelly, C. T. (Charles Trick), 1876-1957

Ventura, R. (1988). Bent Axis or Wrong Direction? Studies on the Temple of Serabit el-Khadim. Israel Exploration Journal, 38(3), 128-138. Retrieved February 9, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27926107

Figures:

1. Sinai 297+300 : EL-BORG). Ägypten Und Levante / Egypt and the Levant, 19, 121-125. Retrieved February 9, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23788586

Appendix: The references to Mfkzt in the Pyramid Text

936c. he pastures as you pasture in the field of malachite; The Pyramid Texts: The Pyramid Texts: 22. A Miscellaneous Group, Utterances 453-486 (sacred-texts.com)

In-Full >>

Utterance 473.

926a. To say: The two reed-floats of heaven are placed by the morning-boat for Rē‘,

926b. that Rē‘ may ferry over on them to Horus who inhabits the horizon, to the horizon.

926c. The two reed-floats of heaven are placed by the evening-boat for Horus who inhabits the horizon,

926d. that Horus who inhabits the horizon may ferry over on them to Rē‘, to the horizon.

927a. The two reed-floats of heaven are caused to descend for N. by the morning-boat,

927b. that N. may mount on them to Rē‘, to the horizon.

927c. The two reed-floats of heaven are caused to descend for N. by the evening-boat,

927d. that N. may mount on them to Horus, who inhabits the horizon, to the horizon.

928a. N. mounts on high on this eastern side of heaven where the gods are born;

928b. N. will be born (anew there) like Horus, like him of the horizon.

929a. N. is justified; the ka of N. is justified;

929b. the sister of N. is Sothis; the mother of N. is the morning star.

930a. N. hath found the spirits well-equipped by reason of their mouth,

930b. sitting on the two shores of the śḥśḥ-lake,

930c. the drinking-bowl of each spirit well-equipped by reason of his mouth.

930d. "Hast thou no eyes?", so said they to N.,

930e. the spirits well-equipped by reason of their mouth.

930f. Said he, "a spirit well-equipped by reason of his mouth."

931a. "How has this happened to thee?", so said they to N.,

931b. the spirits well-equipped by reason of their mouth,

931c. "that thou art come to this place which is more august than any place?"

931d. N. is come to this place which is more august than any place.

932a. The two reed-floats of heaven are placed by the morning-boat for Rē‘,

932b. that Rē‘ may ferry over on them to Horus who inhabits the horizon, to the horizon.

932c. The two reed-floats of heaven are placed by the evening-boat for Horus who inhabits the horizon,

932d. that Horus who inhabits the horizon may ferry over on them to Rē‘, to the horizon,

933a. because the two reed-floats of heaven were caused to descend for N. by the morning-boat,

933b. that N. may mount on them for life and joy to Rē‘, to the horizon;

933c. because the two reed-floats of heaven were caused to descend for N. by the evening-boat,

933d. that N. may mount on them to Horus who inhabits the horizon, to the horizon.

934a. N. mounts on high on this eastern side of heaven, where the gods are born;

934b. N. was born (anew there) like Horus, like him of the horizon.

935a. N. is justified; the ka of N. is justified.

935b. Praise be to N.; praise be to the ka of N.

935c. The sister of N. is Sothis; the mother of N. is the morning star.

936a. N. comes (to be) with you:

936b. N. walks with you in the Marsh of Reeds;

936c. he pastures as you pasture in the field of malachite;

937a. N. eats of that which you eat;

937b. N.. lives on that on which you live;

937c. N. clothes himself with that wherewith you clothe yourselves;

937d. N. anoints himself with that wherewith you anoint yourselves;

937e. N. takes water with you out of the mn-canal (or, lake of the nurse) of N.,

937f. the drinking-bowl of each spirit well-equipped by reason of his mouth.

938a. N. sits as he who lives in the great ’itr.t-palace;

938b. N. commands (each) spirit well-equipped by reason of his mouth;

938c. N. sits on the two shores of the śḥśḥ-lake;

938d. N. commands (each) spirit well-equipped by reason of his mouth.

---

47. THE ASCENDED KING, HIS WORKS, AND IDENTIFICATIONS, UTTERANCE 627.

Utterance 627. The Pyramid Texts: The Pyramid Texts: 47. The Ascended King, His Works, and Identifications, Utterance 627 (sacred-texts.com)

1771a. To say: N. is a well-equipped spirit, who asks to be;

1771b. heaven is agitated; the earth quakes

1771c. ----------------------------

1772a. N. was born on (the day of the feast) of the month; N. was conceived on (the day of the feast) of the half-month;

1772b. (for) he came forth with the dorsal carapace of a grasshopper,

1772c. as among that (of) which the wasp bore.

1773a. The two wings --------------------

1773b. --------- two uraeuses. N. was conceived in the night and ascends to Rē‘ each day.

1773c. The chapel is open for him (when) Rē‘ appears.

1774a. N. has ascended on the rain-cloud; he has descended -----

1774b. -------------------- truth is before Rē‘

1774c. on the day of (the feast) of each first-of-the-year.

1775a. Heaven was in satisfaction; the earth was, in joy,

1775b. (after) they heard that N. had put truth [in the place of error].

1776a. ------ protect (or, avenge) ----- N. in his divine court

1776b. with the true decision, which comes forth from his mouth,

1776c. demanded his installation as chief: Two acres

1776d. -----------------

1777a. N. is the great falcon who asks to be;

1777b. N. ferries over the sky on four geese (?).

1777c. N. has ascended on the rain-cloud; he has descended ----

1777d. -------------------

1778a. N: is the great falcon, who is upon the battlements (or, cornice blocks) of the house of "him of the hidden name,"

1778b. who will seize the (possessions, or) provisions of Atum for him who separates the sky from the earth and Nun

1778c. -- this N. in all (?) ---- shines.

1779a. His two lips are like those of the male of the divine falcons;

1779b. his neck is like that of the mistress of the nbi-flame;

1779c. his claws are like those of the bull of the evening;

1780a. his wings are like those of him who presides over (his) abode within the lake of his chapel.

1780b. The ḥw (taste) of N. is like the swnw-ḥr.f-wr, who is at the side of him who is, in Nun.

1780c. N. was born at (or, on) the hand of eternity.

1781a. --------------------

1781b. N. [went?] to the field of the glorified;

1781c. his hands fell upon Dbn-wp.wt (him of the twisted horns), north of the island of Elephantiné (ȝbw);

1781d. he has illuminated the earth with his first divine being.

1782a (N. I 168). To the side ----------

1782b. ------------ the [urae]us, the gu[ide], in his first birth.

1782c. He is busying himself with śpd.w nwȝ.t;

1782d. It goes well with N. because of his ba.

1783a. ------------------

1783b. ------------------- wś ’irmn.wt nfr.ś

1783c. The name of N. is made like that of a divine falcon, through which he who passes by it fears;

1784a. because like N. Śmśw is older than nhd ---

1784b. -------

1784c. N. goes to his seat (place?) of (in) the Šsm.t-land;

1784d. that which N. eats comes from the Marshes, of Offerings

1784e. and from the lakes of malachite -------------

1785a (N. I 171). He --- a ka in the body of a hundred thousand ----

1785b. N. conducts Rē‘ into his two boats of mȝ‘.t

1785c. on the day (of the feast) of the end of the year,

____________________________________________________________________________

Khepri’s Praises The Pyramid Texts: The Pyramid Texts: 16. Miscellaneous Utterances on the Hereafter, 350-374 (sacred-texts.com)

                                                           Utterance 350.

567a. To say: O thou who stridest very wide,

567b. as she sows the emerald, the malachite, the turquoise (as) stars,

567c. if thou art green (well), N. will be green, green as living plants (?).

Utterance 351.

568a. To say: A vulture is become pregnant with N. in the night;

568b. (he is) on thy horn, O pregnant cow.

568c. If thou art green (well), N. will be green, green as living plants (?).

                                                Utterance 352.

569a. To say: A vulture has become pregnant with N. in the night;

569b. (he is) on thy horn, O pregnant cow.

569c. (He is) thy papyrus-sprout, green as the turquoise of stars; thy green papyrus-sprout is N.

569d. (He is) green as living plants (?); N. is green with thee.

Utterance 353.

570. To say: N. has come out of Buto, red as fire, living as Khepri.

Khepri is a scarab-faced god in ancient Egyptian religion who represents the rising or morning sun. By extension, he can also represent creation and the renewal of life.