of the outer court were set up a number of offering-stands. Hither came the king and queen immediately on entering this court (see fig. 5) and made each an oblation, finally consecrating their gifts by extending over them the hrpbaton. During this performance the royal children, who stood immediately behind their parents, rattled sistra, while, at a respectful distance from their majesties, stood the courtiers who had been admitted to the temple, making profound obeisance with hands on knees. In front of the king the high-priest Merire' is depicted bowing low and holding a censer and a libation vessel. Doubtless the act of consecration with the hrp-baton was preceded by the burning of incense and the pouring out of a libation; hence the censer and libation vase in the hands of the attendant high-priest.

Their preliminary offering completed, the king and queen, accompanied by their daughters, passed through the pylon into the first or great court of the temple and, as a relief in the tomb-chapel of Paneḥsi shews us (fig. 6), proceeded to mount the steps up to the high altar, which stood in the midst of the court. Before approaching the altar, however, the royal pair and their children no doubt purified themselves with water from the tanks situated in front of it (see above p. 508). The relief in question shews us the altar loaded with a great oblation of joints of meat, poultry, vegetables, and flowers, three shallow pans of burning incense being laid on top of all. The king and queen are depicted standing on a narrow platform at the top of the steps and replenishing the smoking pans with fresh supplies of frankincense. Their daughters, though the artist has made it appear that they are standing some distance away on the floor of the court, are no doubt really supposed to be standing just a step or two lower on the stairway than their parents, to whom one of them holds out a bowl of incense in either hand, while her two sisters rattle sistra. In front of the altar, facing the king and queen and making profund obeisance, stand the high-priest and the Chief Servitor of the Aton, of

whom the former, and probably the latter also, holds a bouquet of flowers. Behind the two priests are four other priests, bowing low and holding each a round vessel, probably containing wine or some other liquid. Beside

Fig. 6. 'Okhnatōn and Nefertiti officiating at the high altar of the larger temple. (After DAVIES, op. cit., II, pl. XVIII.)

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these again are four chanters, also bending forward in an attitude of deep respect and accompanying their singing with hand-clapping.

It might be noted here that a relief in the tomb-chapel of Ma'hu() suggests that the act of consecration with the (1) Ibid., IV, pl. XV.

hrp-baton followed upon the pouring of frankincense into the braziers set on top of the offerings to be consecrated, for there we see the king burning incense in this manner, while the queen stands by holding the baton in readiness.

way

To return to the scene in Paneḥsi's tomb-chapel : Male and female attendants stand behind the royal party a little back from the foot of the stairs, and others of the suite (including flabellifers), who have now entered the temple enclosure, wait in the outer court in front of the great pylon; with these there are also apparently four priests. The rest of the retinue remains outside the sacred precincts, as do also two companies of women, probably professional musicians, who are represented worshipping, singing to the accompaniment of hand-clapping, and playing on single-membrane drums, such as are still used in Egypt(); one waves a palm branch.

The presentation of bouquets of flowers, as stated on p. 517, figured prominently in the El-Amarna temple liturgy, but what its position was in the series of offeringepisodes, the present state of our knowledge does not permit us exactly to determine. However, two already mentioned reliefs in the tomb-chapel of Paneḥsi (2) indicate that such bouquets were almost, if not quite, the last items to be laid upon the altar. The relief in the same tomb-chapel (see fig. 6), just described above on p. 519 f., also leads to the same conclusion. Here the king and queen are seen replenishing the pans of burning incense, which, together with bouquets of flowers, surmount the heaped-up offerings. The bouquet held by the attendant high-priest is either a spare one or else is to be laid on the altar as a last gift by the priest himself or by his majesty. Perhaps, just before or after the laying of the flowers on the altar, wine, or some other liquid, was poured

(See W. S. BLACKMAN, Some Modern Egyptian Graveside Ceremonies, in Discovery, II, p. 210 f.

(*) See above, p. 517, notes 3 and 4.

out over the whole conglomeration of offerings, an act suggested by the vessels held by the four bowing priests in this same scene.

We are no better able to decide at what point in the liturgy unguent was presented, or when occured such a performance as that depicted in the tomb-chapel of Ipy (1), viz. the offering to the Aton by the king and queen of votive pieces, doubtless made of precious metal, representing in the one case two of the royal daughters, and in the other the queen herself, adoring the god's cartouches. Fragments of similar scenes are to be found on Pl. VII of Petrie's Tell el Amarna. In the relief in Ipy's tomb-chapel the votive figures of the royal children have three ostrich feathers stuck in their hair, in one of the fragmentary scenes published by Petrie the votive figure of the queen wears four such feathers. Perhaps, as Davies suggests (2), these figures are impersonations of Me'et. If so, then in the Aton-cult the offering of these votive pieces corresponds, so to speak, with the offering of the figure of Meet in the old temple (in the first instance Heliopolitan sun- temple) liturgy, an important episode preceding the performance of the divinity's toilet (3).

We know practically nothing about what took place inside the smaller temple in the way of liturgical performances. A relief in the tomb-chapel of Ḥuya (4) shows us 'Okhnatōn, preceded by Huya himself and another high official, taking his mother Tyi to inspect this edifice, which had just undergone reconstruction and was now known as Her (i. e. Tyï's) Shade of Re. Waiting to receive them inside the colonnaded forecourt of this temple is the high-priest, bowing low and holding a censer and a long cloth (see fig. 4). With the cloth the high-priest no doubt swept the floor of the temple, before the royal

DAVIES, op. cit., IV, pl. XXXI.

(2) Ibid., IV, p. 19, note 2.

(3) BLACKMAN, Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, 1918-1919, p. 49, 52.

(*) DAVIES, op. cit., III, pl. VIII.

officiant began the celebration of the liturgy, and remov ed the foot-prints at the termination of the service (1).

Behind the king and his mother walks his sister Bektaton, carrying three cucumbers, one for herself, and one each for her brother and Tyi, to lay on the altar. The royal party is followed by the usual retinue of courtiers and attendants.

The cult of the royal statues set up in the colonnaded forecourt has already been discussed on pp. 513 sqq., as has also the significance of those disposed about the main and subsidiary courts of the sanctuary.

An important point to be noted is that the El-Amarna reliefs nearly always depict the queen as acting in exactly the same capacity as the king in the temple service, Together they burn incense (see fig. 6) (2), pour out a libation (3), elevate trays of offerings (4), offer flowers (5) or unguent (6), or consecrate an oblation with the hrp-baton (see fig. 5). Or again, while the king burns inceuse the queen presents an offering (8) or makes libation (9), or while he makes libation she burns incense (10), or while he presents an offering she prepares to perform the act of consecration (11).

The representations of either temple (see figs. 1, 2 shew that the main and subsidiary courts into which they were divided, and also both enclosures or outer courts, were crowded with provisions of all kinds, loaves of bread, joints of meat, poultry, vegetables, and flowers,

Ibid., IV, pl. XV. For all that is known as to what extent women could act as chief officiants in the old temple liturgy, see BLACKMAN, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, VII, p. 22 ff and especially p. 25 f.