Memnonia: Update

The Greek toponym Memnonia derives from the Colossi of Memnon, the colossal statues of Amenhotep III that stood at the entrance to his mortuary temple on the west bank of Thebes. The name is used to refer to the entire region around the Colossi, but also more specifically to Djeme, as kastron Memnonion, the village located in and around MADINAT HABU, the mortuary temple of Rameses III (Timm 1984–2007: 1012–1034). In late antiquity, Djeme’s ancient pharaonic sacred monumental landscape was transformed into new patterns of secular and monastic occupation. Since 1991 and the original Coptic Encyclopedia publication of Hishmat Messiha’s MEMNONIA (Messiha 1991), considerable research has been undertaken on both the village of Djeme and the region of Memnonia more broadly, especially the monastic communities that were built in pharaonic temple complexes and royal and private tombs in the desert and mountains west of the cultivation’s edge. Examination of both the material published over a century ago and newer evidence deriving from modern excavations has resulted in new understandings of life across the late sixth to late eighth centuries: the peak period of Christian occupation of this area to which the majority of textual and archaeological sources date. Notably, the sources also demonstrate how interconnected the different communities were, with letters and legal documents in particular revealing a range of relationships and dependencies across Memnonia, connecting villages, monasteries, and individual monks.