thumb|249x249px|Map of Precinct of Mut Complex (lower portion)

The Precinct of Mut is an Ancient Egyptian temple compound located in the present city of Luxor (ancient Thebes), on the east bank of the Nile in South Karnak. The compound is one of the four key ancient temples that creates the Karnak Temple Complex. It is approximately south of the precinct of the god Amun. The precinct itself encompasses approximately of the entire area. The Mut Precinct contains at least six temples: the Mut Temple, the Contra Temple, and Temples A, B, C, and D. Surrounding the Mut Temple proper, on three sides, is a sacred lake called the Isheru. To the south of the sacred lake is a vast amount of land currently being excavated by Betsy Bryan and her team from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Today, most of the compound is still destroyed, but it is currently being renovated. Surrounding the Mut Temple, the Contra Temple, and Temples A, B, C, and D, is an enclosure wall made of mud brick dating to the 30th Dynasty. The Mut Temple proper was made of mediocre sandstone and it is positioned north and south and is directly aligned with the Precinct of Amun. The Contra Temple, also made of mediocre sandstone, borders the Mut Temple at the south end of it, hence the name, and it possibly dates to the 30th Dynasty with certain alternations made during the Ptolemaic period. The purpose of the Contra Temple is still unclear, however, Fazzini states that it possibly served as a stopping point in a partially columned passage around the Mut Temple. Temple D, or Structure D, was a chapel made during the Ptolemaic period, the front room was dedicated to the goddess Mut and the back room shows evidence of being dedicated to a Ptolemaic ancestor cult. The Brooklyn Museum mentions one other important monument found on the site is the Taharqa gateway that is about 7 yards wide and is oriented south and west, it was built to enlarge the Mut Precinct and opened a new pathway to Temple A. The sacred lake, Isheru, was man made and held religious importance to the cult of the goddess Mut.

The goddess Mut

The goddess Mut is the wife and consort of the god Amun-Ra. She was also known as the Mother Goddess, Queen of the Goddesses, and Lady of Heaven. According to Elizabeth Waraksa, during the 19th Dynasty, Ramsses II worked broadly on Temple A, he placed two massive statues of himself and two alabaster stelae in the front of the temple's first pylon. The statues are made of diorite or "black granite" and initially approximately 570 granodiorite statues were thought to have been at the Precinct of Mut at one time. According to Lythgoe, Amenhotep III, commissioned the many statues to be built as a "forest". Today the statues can be found in various museums across the globe; in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts has one seated statue, the Egyptian Museum, Cairo has six statues, and in London, the British Museum has thirty statues, just to name a few examples.

Ceramic figurines

Between 2001 and 2004, the Johns Hopkins expedition catalogued quite a number of female figurines found in the industrial areas south of the Sacred Lake. According to Waraksa after the four seasons of excavation, the total number of female figurines the expedition found was 42. Between 2002 and 2004, the excavation of the Mut Precinct, conducted by Bryan and her team, revealed a section of New Kingdom work fixings that included baking and brewing centers, as well as granaries. In January 2006, the expedition, after clearing some debris, found a life-sized statue of Queen Tiy, the wife of Amenhotep III, made of granite and that dates back to the 21st Dynasty. Bryan and her team discovered human remains south of the Sacred Lake in 2011, what was interesting about the remains is the orientation of the body, it was faced down and appeared to be constrained, even more interesting is the location of the skull, it seems as if it was purposely placed underneath a sandstone base for a wooden column. In 2012, The Johns Hopkins University expedition, directed by Bryan, found burials behind the Sacred Isheru Lake. Now in January 2015, the main goal of the JHU expedition is to excavate what is now considered a cemetery behind the sacred lake.

References

Bibliography

Bryan, B. M. (2007). "2006 report on the Johns Hopkins University excavations at the Mut Temple". Bulletin of the American Research Center in Egypt, 191, 4–11.

Bryan, B. M. (2008). "A newly discovered statue of a queen from the reign of Amenhotep III". In D'Auria, S.H. (ed.) Servant of Mut: Studies in honor of Richard A. Fazzini. 32–43. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Fazzini, R. A., Dijk J., (2007). "Recent work in the Mut Precinct at South Karnak", Egyptian Archaeology, 31, 10–13.

Fazzini, R. A., curator emeritus. (2015). "Brooklyn Museum and the Precinct of Mut".

  • The Precinct Of Mut, Queen Of The Gods, Karnak, Egypt (Brooklyn Museum)