ḏꜣḏꜣ: The range of meanings of ḏꜣḏꜣ have been much discussed (e.g. Cabrol, Les voies processionnelles de Thèbes (OLA 97), Leuven 2001, 565–7 with refs.). I follow Azim and Gabolde (Le dispositif à escalier, puits et canalisation situé au nord-ouest du lac sacré: une ḏꜣḏꜣ(.t)? In: Cahiers de Karnak 15, 2016, 1-21) in understanding it as a platform that was part of a larger architectural installation used to control the flow of water between the Nile and the sacred lake at Karnak, in order for various rituals to be performed upon the lake (contra Cabrol 2001: 735 and Konrad, Architektur und Theologie, Wiesbaden 2006: 42–43, 50, who consider ḏꜣḏꜣ-terraces to be processional spaces and sites for oracular performance). The ḏꜣḏꜣ described by the high priest Amenhotep in one of his building texts is specifically associated with the lake (KRI VI, 535,6), while, in Bakenkhons’s inscription, the ḏꜣḏꜣ is associated with the plantations he narrates in the following verses and was probably connected with the canal or waterway that passed near the eastern area of the temple complex (Cabrol 2001, 579–80, 648).

Commentary author: Elizabeth Frood; Data file created: 11/17/2022, latest revision: 11/17/2022

ḫft-ḥr: Cabrol (Les voies processionnelles de Thèbes, OLA 97, Leuven 2001, 88–91) discusses the chronological development of ḫft-ḥr from its root as a preposition describing close proximity to its use to designate the ‘dromos’ of a temple in Late Period sources. As she observes (2001, 90), in the New Kingdom it refers to symbolic proximity as much as geographic, designating spaces that relate particularly closely to a temple or, as here, the city. She translates ḫft-ḥr in Bakenkhons’ text as ‘sur le parvis’ (2001, 580), which I render as a prepositional phrase.

Commentary author: Elizabeth Frood; Data file created: 11/17/2022, latest revision: 11/17/2022