Recherches sur le premier nome de Haute-Egypte à l'époque ptolémai͏̈que et romaine

• Auteur / Autrice : Gihane Zaki
• Direction : Jean-Claude Goyon
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire
• Date : Soutenance en 2000
• Etablissement(s) : Lyon 2

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Égypte -- 332 av. J.-C.-640 (période gréco-romaine)

Vie religieuse

Haute-Égypte (Égypte)

Égypte

Sanctuaires

Antiquité

Nome

Résumé

L'ensemble de notre étude porte sur le premier nome de Haute-Egypte à l'époque ptolémai͏̈que et romaine. Ce nome frontière constitue la porte du sud depuis la plus haute antiquité. Malheureusement, malgré son histoire longue et mouvementée, il n'est pas intégré au rang qu'il mérite dans le contexte de la civilisation du pays. . . Il nous a semblé primordial de recenser et d'ordonner tous les témoins actuellement connus appartenant essentiellement à la documentation désignée selon la tradition égyptologique sous l'appellation de ''processions'' ou ''listes géographiques''. A la lumière de ces sources, nous avons reconnu tsyt, mention plus rare qu Sounou, origine de la Syène des Grecs et de l'Assouan moderne. Ce toponyme montre que cette localité ne prend que tardivement un rôle religieux. Il nous a semblé important de faire ce constat afin d'établir le lien avec la rareté des vestiges archéologiques aujourd'hui connus, pour l'essentiel le temple de Domitien voué à Isis, souveraine du nome et de tout le pays de long en large. Hiérasykaminos (Takompso) identifié à l'actuelle Maharraqa marque peut-être l'ultime limite de l'extraordinaire développement du culte de la déesse aux derniers temps de la domination romaine, prenant ainsi la place de la triade locale présidée par Khnoum, le créateur. Le culte populaire a également subi d'importantes modifications, telles que l'apparition de divinités locales comme Petensetis à Sehel et Ptensenis à Senmet (Bigga) ainsi qu Patempamentès.

Our study concerns the first nome of Upper Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Roman Period. This frontier nome which represents the southern gate of Egypt since the highest antiquity, and the entrance of the Nile valley from the south, although its long and important history, does not achieve the place it deserves in the Egyptian civilisation context. We tried in the first part ''The geographical study'' to retrace the Nile course with all the monuments that have been erected around and also to delimitate the physical and geographical aspects of this first nome frontier. The northern frontier fixed at Gebel Silsileh since the Old Kingdom did not change. On the contrary, the southern one suffered from many modifications during the ptolemaic period: Takompso represented the further limit of Egypt; it changed only during the reign of Ptolemy VI, by his leader Boetos, when it became Premis (Qasr Ibrim). During the Roman period this frontier was sometimes represented by Takompso, other times by Premis, Philae or Syene that is why Strabo mentioned one cohorte there. In 295-297, Diocletian reorganised the military installations in this critical region and Philae became the official southern limit of Egypt. Constantin (306-337) achieved the reform of the defensive system. Few years later, Justinian, responsable of none of the military act in the region, ordered the shutting of Isis temple, ending so the cult of the most famous goddess in Egypt. With the help of our fourty one documents, extracted mostly from what the egyptological tradition called ''geographical processions'' or ''geographical lists'', we tried to set in order all what we disposed from recent evidences, and we learned several new facts among which we can mention tsyt, one of the different designations of Aswan during this period, was the religious name of the region although rarely used. We deduct then that this toponym acquired its mythological importance only in greco-roman period, this was probably the reason of the rarety of the archaeological sites known up till now. The temple of Domitian is one of the most significant examples: it was dedicated like the ptolemaic one lying on the same bank to Isis, the divine mother, the lady of Abaton and the sovereign of the Two Lands down to Hierasykaminos (Maharraqa), the ultimate point of the extraordinary development of the goddess cult which superseded the one of the local triad presided by Khnum and superseded also other famous deities in this period like Soukhos. Otherwise we noticed many changements in popular cult like the appearance of local form: for example Petensenis in Senis (Bigga), Petensetis in Setis (Sehel) and Patempamentes.