THE GRAFFITI OF LUXOR TEMPLE

Graffiti are, in fact, an important source material for the Egyptologist. The ancient Egyptians left innumerable drawings and inscriptions on rock-cliffs and buildings. In the limestone hills of Western Thebes, for example, are thousands of graffiti. Despite their intrinsically modest character, these texts have attracted the attention of some of the most famous Egyptologists

On a walk through Luxor Temple, it is the magnificent New Kingdom reliefs which deservedly first claim one's attention. However, the attentive visitor soon observes that many other small inscriptions or scenes have been carved upon the original decoration or in the blank areas below them. These graffiti range from elaborate and well executed scenes to the crudest scratches.

Whether on a cliff face or a temple wall, graffiti can be maddeningly difficult to record. First of all, they are often lightly scratched into the plastered surface of the temple walls. Now that the plaster is generally gone, only the bases of the cuts are preserved. One can walk by a wall a thousand times without seeing any trace of a graffito. One day, the sunlight may hit the stone in a particular way, and a new inscription is suddenly revealed. A further obstacle to the interpretation of graffiti is that they are rarely done by first-rate artists or scribes
In order to record the graffiti, we formed a small "graffito hit-team," consisting of Christina di Cerbo (artist), John Damell (epigrapher) and myself. Tina would trace the graffito on plastic. All three of us would generally be present at this initial stage. She later transferred this plastic copy onto tracing paper, applying the standard Epigraphic Survey drawing conventions. John and I would thereupon take a copy of her drawing to the temple, and check it against the wall once more. Tina would then incorporate the corrections into the facsimile.
The Survey Egyptologists have recorded about 60 premodern graffiti in the area of the Colonnade Hall. There are inscriptions in hieroglyphs, Demotic, Coptic, Greek, Carian, and Arabic. Among the pictorial graffiti are renderings of kings, gods, and animals. This tally does not include the miscellaneous recent graffiti found upon the upper courses of the columns in the Hall. There are, for example, numerous nineteenth century travelers' names preserved on the upper portions of the columns. The Colonnade was full of debris until the late l9th century, which made it quite easy to scrawl one's name on such now inaccessible spots.

Perhaps the most significant graffiti are high up on the eastern facade of the Colonnade. This portion of the facade is obscured from view below by the ponico of Ramesses II. But having climbed up to the Ramesside roof on a two-section ladder, one is rewarded not only by a splendid view, but also by a number of graffiti carved onto the original Eighteenth Dynasty facade relief. There are some 14 graffiti in situ here. The largest one is figure of the god Amun, but there are also several votive inscriptions left by Greeks or Egyptians with names such as Archilles and Panakhates. More exotic are the inscriptions written in Carian, a rather mysterious Anatolian language written in a distinctive script. Carians came to Egypt beginning about the seventh century B.C., and were especially employed as mercenary soldiers. Since the number of Carian texts is quite small, our Luxor examples are not unimportant. The job of copying these Carian inscriptions was made more difficult because of the many random scratches on the wall. Our copies have now been submitted to specialists in the Carian language, and we are eagerly awaiting their analysis. It is unclear just why there seems to be a concentration of Greek and Carian graffiti in this portion of the temple. No Carian inscription appears to be preserved elsewhere in Luxor Temple.

One intriguing corpus of material is the group of sixty-two block fragments which Ray Johnson has identified as coming from the Colonnade facade. Several fragments also have Greek graffiti on them. Most are in a sad state of preservation, but one legible Greek inscription may be translated as "the votive-inscription to the Ruler of the World (Greek kosmos)." This may well be a Greek rendering of the Egyptian nbp.t "lord of heaven," a common epithet of Amun. The graffito is in fact located on a large figure of that deity.
More graffiti are carved on the facade below the Ramesside roof-line. The visitor who cares to walk behind the east colossus beneath the Ramesside portico will see at ground level an impressive scene showing the high official Pinudjem and his family offering to Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. This graffito, dated to the Twenty-first Dynasty, has in fact been much discussed in Egyptological literature. However, the Survey's careful facsimile will be the first published copy of the scene. There is another graffito higher up on the facade which belongs to the same rather poorly documented period of Egyptian history. Quite close to that is a very nicely carved figure of the god Khonsu as a naked child. It is accompanied by a fine inscription in delicate tiny hieroglyphs . The dedicatee wishes for himself "praise, power, a long lifetime, and an excellent old age." Scattered about on the facade are other graffiti, chiefly crudely done faces or figures of kings or gods, the aspiring artists inspired no doubt by the magnificent original wall reliefs.
The only Demotic Egyptian inscription in our concession, probably of late Ptolemaic date, is on a doorjamb at the entrance to the Colonnade. This is an example of a wish expressed by many ancient graffiti writers of that period: "(May) the good name of Petamenope, son of Pamenekhonsu, remain (before the god)."
Within the portal thickness itself are several Christian period crosses at ground level. Higher up on the eastern thickness is a two-line Coptic inscription, probably to be dated between the fourth and eighth centuries AD. This graffito is significant since it is on the original Ramesses II relief, which had been built over by the later pharaoh Sety II. The location of the Coptic text may show that already by this time much of the Colonnade had been dismantled.
The west exterior wall of the Colonnade is best known for the battle scenes of Ramesses II. While those reliefs are to be recorded by the Egyptian Documentation Center, the Survey is publishing the post-Ramesside additions. We carefully examined the western wall, which receives good raking light in the afternoon. The results of our search were 16 graffiti. These include a six foot high figure of the god Amun. Though sadly damaged, we decided that this Amun figure deserved the full Chicago House treatment. Survey photographer Jerry Kobylecky photographed the scene and produced drawing enlargements for Tina, which John and I collated. There are also a number of Greek names and short texts. One Roman Period visitor, forexample, wrote "I, Korax, have come (here)." These Greek inscriptions are in fact particularly lightly incised, and were therefore quite difficult to recognize and decipher. Among the catch too is a large boat, with rigging proudly set and a surprisingly detailed sketch of a horse. It is sometimes difficult to know, of course, just how old such graffiti is; our horse at any rate is visible on photographs of the early 20th century. Jean and Helen Jacquet have drawn the elevation of the western exterior wall, and we can thus present the reader with the precise locations of our graffiti.
A few meters to the south, in the north west corner of the Amenhotep III sun court is a very large roofing block, which may have come from the Colonnade Hall roof. The block contains several "feet-graffiti," that is, the outlines of feet within which the ancient priestly scribes inscribed their name and titles. The hieroglyphs are often crude; the priests were quite probably not especially practiced at carving hieroglyphs, but would generally use the hieratic script. Such texts, with their names and titles, can help us to understand the inner workings of the temple.