![]() Of course, all the work has been done in close connection with the Organization of Egyptian Antiquities, which became the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Antiquities, headed since 2011 by the Ministry of Antiquities.įrom several points of view, this tomb is exceptional, as were its discovery and the difficulties and the risks of its excavation. The next step was the exploration, excavation, and preservation of his tomb, a task to which this writer has been completely devoted since 1980 with the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion (MAFB), supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It became a real archaeological adventure. So began the resurrection of the vizier ‘Aperia (‘Aper-El), as he was usually called after this exploration. This hypogeum and others close to it-and all of the Bubasteion with its New Kingdom rock tombs, which had been reused later as cats’ catacombs-were revealed to have been completely ignored in spite of their outstanding interest 025and their importance for our knowledge of the Amarna period in its broader sense. Among other unpublished notes, Petrie’s copy is kept by the Griffith Institute in Oxford, where I consulted it, shortly after entering the tomb in 1976 and beginning my study of its decors and inscriptions slightly more than a century after the visit of Petrie. The tomb had been entered by British archaeologist William Flinders Petrie in 1881, who copied some signs visible in accessible parts of the chapel (level 0). Being the first of a series of tomb entrances on the same side, the tomb is referenced as Bubasteion I.1 (I for the upper level of tombs, 1 because it is the first on a line going westward). His rock-cut tomb ( hypogeum) is located almost at the southeast corner of the cliff, in the zone known as the Bubasteion, a part of the necropolis known in Pharaonic time as the “escarpment of ‘Ankhtawy” ( dhnt nt ‘nkht3wy). 3 ‘Abdiel was buried with his wife and one of his sons, probably the elder one, in Saqqara, the main necropolis of Memphis. With its exceptional contents, his tomb at Saqqara is not only the main source for our knowledge of ‘Abdiel (‘Aper-El), but the only one. First, a short presentation of his tomb, his career, and his family and time is necessary. 2 Therefore, we shall call the subject of the present article ‘Abdiel (‘Aper-El)-and shall turn to the question of his identity and supposed origins later. 1 In that respect the vizier’s name can be compared with theophoric names from Egypt’s New Kingdom, referring to other Syro-Canaanite names associated with the element ‘abed written ‘aper: ‘Aper-Reshef (‘Abdireshef), ‘Aper-‘Astarté (‘Abdiashtoret), ‘Aper-Degel (‘Abdidegel), etc. ![]() As for the shortened form ‘Aperia, it could have been pronounced something like 024 ‘Abdi or ‘Abdou. As for the first element, ‘aper ( ‘pr), even if it recalls an Egyptian verb meaning “to equip,” it is an attested way of writing a non-Egyptian word: the Semitic ‘abed ( ‘abd, ‘abdou), or “servant.” Therefore, the name of ‘Aper-El (or ‘Aperel) was in fact pronounced something like ‘Abdiel (‘Abdi-El), and it meant “the servant of the god El” (not “the servant of God”!). But in its singular form, the name was used in other Biblical names, many of which are still in use today, like Daniel, Raphael, etc. We recognize in the second element, i3r/l, the Egyptian way of writing “El,” the name of a prominent Syro-Canaanite god, which later became a designation of God in the Bible (also appearing in its plural form, Elohim). Let us also note that the name can be sometimes shortened to ‘Aperia ( ‘pri3). ![]() The name ‘Aper-El is written in Egyptian ‘Aperiar ( ‘pri3r), with iar ( i3r) being an Egyptian spelling for ial ( i3l). This Egyptian man also piques the interest of specialists of the Near East and the Late Bronze Age, as well as of Biblical scholars and historians of religion, for two reasons: first, because of his Semitic name containing the name of the god El, known also from the Bible, and, second, because of his connection with the pharaoh Akhenaten, too often presented as the “creator” of monotheism. Usually known under the Egyptian spelling of his name, ‘Aper-El or ‘Aperel (but certainly not ‘Aper-el, as we find sometimes, because El is the name of a divinity and as such requires a capital letter), his fame expands beyond the circle of Egyptologists. His floruit was in the last decades of the 18th Dynasty, under the reigns of both Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), corresponding to the famous Amarna period in its broader definition (c. This man was indeed a prominent character of New Kingdom Egypt. The purpose of this article is to introduce ‘Aper-El, the “vizier and father of the god,” to the readers of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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