EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
their brother Osiris who is supposed to be somewhere in Akhmim, and Atum is defending him against Seth and his allies. A similar description can be found at the left inner door jamb at the exit of the chapel: Atum is together with Isis in the foreign lands and referred to as the living ba of Osiris in the Haou-nebout, i.e. the Greek Islands. This is, as far as the authors know, a unique and rather surprising statement, its mythological background still to be elucidated. It is to be hoped that this chapel can be rescued from its present place which is unsafe for a number of reasons, but demolishing the house above the chapel and excavating down to a depth of 5 m is quite a difficult task in the ancient city of Akhmim. It would also be quite astonishing if this chapel stood completely isolated and would not be a part of a larger archaeological context, pointing to the potential of further excavation work in the future.
Gamal Abdel Nasser is the General Director of the Inspectorate at Sohag. Stefan Baumann is a PhD student at the University of Tübingen, working on the project ‘The Temple as a Canon of Religious Literature in Ancient Egypt’ at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Christian Leitz is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Tübingen. The authors wish to thank Mohsen Lamaay, Abdellah Abu-Gabal, and Samir Ahmed Abdellatif.
Top right: upper part of a door jamb. Above and above right (detail): inscriptions with paint residues. (Photos: Stefan Baumann) 6