The remains of headless falcons discovered at an ancient Egyptian port along the Red Sea coast have provided new information about the Blemmyes and their worship. The Moongod Khonsu
According to an inscription found at a dig site at the Ptolemaic-Roman port of Berenike, certain aspects of religious rituals were forbidden within that sacred space – namely, the boiling of falcon heads in preparation for offering in a sacred ritual.
It is wrong The inscription reads“To boil a Head in Here”
Berenike was briefly inhabited by the seminomadic Blemmyes prior to its abandonment sometime before the middle sixth century CE.
The Northern Complex is a complex that includes a number buildings. It is the site where the shrine was discovered. They contain clues that hint at the culture and beliefs, as well as inscriptions naming Blemmyan Kings.
“Nothing is known except that the Blemmyes were associated with the temples Philae on the Nile,” The researchers wrote in their paper.
“The current shrine could be a sign that they respected Egyptian tradition and created cultic practices in witch falcons were offered to Khonsu by offering them to him. This was a method not attested in Egypt but still reveals its roots in ideas from the Nile Valley temples.”
The Falcon Shrine, as it has been named by a team of archaeologists led by Joan Oller Guzmán of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain, was uncovered during fieldwork in 2019. It is composed of two rooms that are small and rectangular. The doorways are placed on a central axis in the form of an Egyptian shrine.
Archaeologists found a platform in the rear room on which a god statue would have been mounted. Also, a stand where offerings would have been made to gods would be placed. The room contained 735 animal bones from fish, birds, mammals, and eggs. These were located in several places throughout the room.
The team discovered that six mammal species were responsible for the bones of mammal bone, including pig, donkeys, dromedarys, sheep, goat, cattle, and goat. They made up 16.5 percent. Only 5.7 percent of the remains were made from fish bones.
At 64.2 per cent, the majority of the remains were bird bone fragments from three falcon species, including the peregrine falcon.Falco peregrinus), saker falcon (Falco cherrug), and common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).
They represented 15 birds in total, 13 of them had been killed and 14 were placed at the base of the pedestal. One peregrine was found alive, and placed in a corner of a room under an inverted container. It is not clear if the birds were wild or bred to be sacrificed. Ancient Egypt had a common practice.
The team also noted that the egg shells were identified as being from falcon eggs. This is why the team called it the Falcon Shrine.
While the remains of animals mummified in ancient Egypt are often incomplete – especially raptors – the decapitation of the falcons and lack of deliberate preservation hints at a ritualistic purpose.
An excellently preserved stone tablet or stele, which is a significant clue about the falcon’s sacrifice, can be found near the scene. A relief shows a pharaoh offering sacrifice to three gods. It includes Harpocrates, the child god Horus, and Khonsu the falcon-headed god. The crown of the goddess is also on the tablet. Hathor.
The foot inscribed forbids boiling heads in this space.
“It is a prohibition that warns the reader not to engage in what was clearly considered a profane activity: the boiling or cooking of a head, presumably that of a falcon, within a specified place – in this case, the shrine in which it was found,” The researchers wrote in their paper.
“We think that the sacrificial animal sacrifices were boiled prior to being presented to God, possibly to facilitate plucking their birds, and that their heads had been removed according to the prescription in the stele.”
Taken together, the discoveries suggest that the Blemmyes – as many groups and religious traditions have done throughout history – borrowed gods and rites from other cultures and adapted them to their own rituals and beliefs.
The publication of the research was published in American Journal of Archaeology.
