Dear Readers: Some queries have been made about the origin of the “Temple of Mut” theme. Mut was the mother goddess of ancient Egypt, who was the wife of Amun-Re (King of the Gods). Though grizzly bears were not found in ancient Egypt, she was revered through the country under many titles for her protective, mothering nature: World-Mother, Eye of Ra, Queen of the Goddesses, Lady of Heaven, Mother of the Gods, and She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any..
As an amateur Egyptologist for over 4 decades, I thought she would be a great icon of the Shrine of Flaming Capitalism. I also closely follow the archeology occurring at the Temple of Mut Precinct in Karnak.
So, I am taking a moment from my own “American Exceptionalism Tour” of the easy coast to get back to my egyptology roots. It seems that there has been an exciting new discovery involving a sacred lake in another MUT precinct, this time close to ancient Tanis.
New Pharaonic artefacts discovered in North Egypt’s site of San El-Hagar
French excavators working at the San El-Hagar archaeological site unearthed hundreds of painted limestone blocks that were once used in the construction of the temple of the XXII dynasty king Osorkon II.
Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said that early studies on site revealed that these blocks were dismantled and reused in the construction of edifices during the Late Ancient Egyptian period and the Ptolemaic era.
He promised that after unearthing all the blocks the archaeological team would study and reconstruct the blocks into their original shape in order to discover whether they formed a temple or a chapel.
French archaeologist Philip Brissaud, head of the French mission, claims the newly discovered blocks were reused in the construction of the enclosed wall of goddess Mut’s sacred lake, which the mission has been working hard to locate since last year. The lake is 30 meters in width, 12 meters long and six meters deep….
Meanwhile, he continued, other blocks bear hieroglyphic text with the name of the goddess Mut, the lady of Usher lake, which makes finding the sacred lake at San El Hagar temple, like the one that was found at Karnak’s temples on Luxor’s east bank, even more important.
Are there any pictures of these blocks bearing hieroglyphic text available?
Follow the link to the article; three pictures are offered in slideshow form.
Finding that lake is awesome !
Soon after I discovered your site a few months ago, I did a search for “temple of mut” and found she was the consort of Amun-Ra. Whoa !…I wasn’t expecting that ! She was in quite the high position at that time. Very interesting.