Kom Ombo I, Les inscriptions du naos (sanctuaires, salle de l'enneade, salle des offrandes, couloir mysterieux).

Cruz-uribe, Eugene

By ADOLPH GUTBUB. Texts edited by DANIELLE INCONNU-BOCQUILLON. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 1995. Pp. xxxix + 523, 8 plates.

With the appearance of Gutbub's seminal study in Textes fondamentaux de la theologie de Kom Ombo (1973), scholars of late-Egyptian religion found that de Morgan's original publication (Catalogue des monuments et inscriptions de l'Egypte antique, 1894-1909) was inadequate and eagerly waited for the IFAO publication of the temple inscriptions. With Gutbub's death in 1987 the work he began was assumed by Danielle Inconnu-Bocquillon. The volume under review is the first of four planned volumes.

In an introductory chapter Inconnu-Bocquillon helps readers acquire a good overview of the site and understand the publication style. She comments on the location and description of the temple site, the construction and decoration schema, and the theological definition of the temple; she discusses the divinities at the temple and their role in the theology; she catalogues the variety of texts found in the temple corpus and provides the reader with useful diagrams on the terminology used when texts are placed on the walls or gates (pp. xxiii-xxv, fig. 7-8). Inconnu-Bocquillon completes the introduction by discussing the epigraphy of the texts at this temple and by listing the unusual signs. While much of the information in this chapter was developed in earlier articles, the editor has done an admirable job of presenting a clear synopsis of the material.

The remaining pages give the hieroglyphic texts, juxtaposing the numbered outline drawings where possible. A new item of great benefit is the placement of temple diagrams placed before each section of the texts. Thus for the section labeled "salle des offrandes" (scenes 228-329) (pp. 307-448), a temple diagram shows from where the following drawings derive. While one could use the complete detailed drawings on p. xiii (fig. 4), these abbreviated drawings provide a more convenient manner of determining the location of the texts.

Another new item has to do with the drawings themselves. The standard IFAO publication-drawing is not meant to be an exact or perfect two-dimensional representation, but a scheme by which the locations of the texts can be determined in relation to the scene in which they are found. While the drawings in this volume have more detail than those of earlier IFAO volumes, they are still minimalist representations. In this volume, however, the editor and artists have added hatching on scenes to indicate where the surface of the wall has had deliberate hacking. For example, the hatching across scene 211 (p. 284) helps the reader realize where deliberate damage was done. In addition the drawings contain a clear delineation of block boundaries and missing sections to clarify why certain sections of texts are damaged or missing.

The inscriptions themselves contain a wealth of new information. Having just completed a study on the goddess Tait, I was pleased to discover an additional reference to that deity on p. 409. In this particular example Tait is listed in a calendar of deities as the goddess of 2 Akhet day 16 and has an epithet nb s w.t "mistress of satiation," an epithet commonly associated with Hathor.

The volume ends with indices for the types of scenes illustrated in the volume as well as one for the deities represented in the scenes. Lastly, two concordances collate the 380 scenes in this volume with those from De Morgan's volumes.

I am most pleased to see the appearance of Kom Ombo I. Inconnu-Bocquillon is to be congratulated on the fine first volume of this series and I look forward to the remaining three volumes.

EUGENE CRUZ-URIBE NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY