Imuthes, chief astronomer in Karnak, now in San Bernardino

Imuthes, chief astronomer in Karnak, now in San Bernardino

Thursday, September 9th at 1 p.m.
Register: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/81750325810

 Thebes and Karnak were still a thriving cultic centre in Ptolemaic times. Hundreds of statues belonging to the local priesthood, mostly from the Cachette of Karnak, attest to that fact. The Theban priesthood was quite diverse with duties distributed among the Theban triad, Amun, Mut and Chons and smaller cults. One particular priest was pivotal to the functioning of the temple as a whole: the astronomer. This specialist was responsible for determining the days of the year and the hours of day and night. The astronomer, thus, indicated the proper times for rituals and feasts during the year making him a key figure. In this talk, I will examine private sources from Ptolemaic Thebes to shed light on the roles of astronomers in Karnak, where and how they worked, and in what religious discourses they were involved as ritual and scientific specialists. Particular emphasis will be put on the statue of Imuthes in San Bernardino (RAFFMA EG.01.008.2020). His and other astronomer's statues are noteworthy for their iconography depicting the astronomer with his instruments and for their highly individual and informative texts. By analyzing this private material from Thebes, we are able to help reconstruct the inner workings of Karnak and its temples.

Bio

Ralph Birk is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University of Berlin. He studied Egyptology, Ancient History and Catholic Theology at the University of Cologne and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2015, he completed his doctoral thesis on the Theban high clergy of the Ptolemaic Period at the Ludwigs-Maximilian University Munich. He has published on priestly cultures in Late and Ptolemaic Egypt – material, religious and linguistic. His particular focus lays on the reconstruction of cults in hellenistic Thebes and beyond. Ralph Birk was a lecturer in Munich, at the University of Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin.