Editorial

With this volume of Études and Travaux we would like to present the Centre for the Research on the Egyptian Temple, established at our Institute in 2016, to our colleagues and friends – partners in scientific discussions. The multi-generation team of the Centre consists of researchers connected with the Polish missions working at Temples of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III at Deir el-Bahari, the Temple of Thutmose I and the small Ramesside temple, both at Qurna, the French mission at Karnak and its studies on the Late period temples, the German and the Swiss missions on Elephantine examining relics of e.g. Ptolemaic-Roman temples, and, starting from 2020, the Italian-Polish mission researching solar temples at Abu Ghurob. This diversity of interests is an important inspiration in undertaking scientific initiatives leading to expansion and confrontation of areas of research and displaying a wide variety in terms of chronology and topography

Aegyptiaca Vespasiani. Notes on Vespasian’s presence on Elephantine

The article reviews the share that Vespasian had in the decoration of the Temple of Osiris Nesmeti on Elephantine. It is considered in the context of a report of Cassius Dio (LXVI 8, 1) who associated that ruler’s entry into Alexandria with an exceptional rise of flooding waters and also in view of the connection of that report with the Egyptian royal ideology which identified the king with the Nile and its flooding. The Vespasian’s decoration of the Temple of Osiris Nesmeti is analyzed in the light of representations of Nilus on the monumental staircase leading to the temple and of the stele of Florence (no. 4021)

Petempamentes, Petensetis, Petensenis – Their Portraits on Elephantine

The article is a publication of the decoration fragment coming from an unknown sacral building from Elephantine. The scene preserved in the lower register represents Ptolemy VI Philometor making and offering to Petempamentes, Petensetis and Petensenis. The three gods, known from I.Th.Sy. 303 stele, who have been the subject of scientific discussion for years, appear here all together in one scene – for the first time in the decoration programme of an Egyptian sacral edifice. The iconography of the characters and the accompanying texts suggest a definition of the gods’ personalities as divine warriors and protectors, subject also to a popular cult. The scene considered in the context of the preserved fragments of the upper register seems to imply the association of the building with the royal ideology and possibly the dynastic cult