Alexey Krol

The article studies the ritual meaning of the sed-festival run and localisation of a place where this run might have taken place while performed by rulers of Early Dynastic Egypt. The first part of the article is devoted to the study of the sed-festival. The author expresses his doubts concerning the opinion that originally heb-sed was a festival of the renewal of the king’s potency.

From the author’s point of view, the rise of the state and that of the sed-festival may be connected. In fact, intensive analysis of the sources shows that the sed-festival came into being at the dawn of dynastic history as a military celebration held after the successful suppression of revolts in the Delta and re-unification of the country under the power of a strong monarch.

The heb-sed run of a pharaoh was a culmination point of the sed-festival celebration in all periods of ancient Egypt history. The ruler is usually depicted as performing his run between semi-circular, horseshoe-like signs reminding of the letter D. They are called dnbw in hieroglyphic texts.

The author assumes that the dnbw signs were associated by ancient Egyptians with the southern and northern borders of the country. In this case the territory limited by them could be conceived as the whole of Egypt. The run between dnbw signs also has the meaning of Upper and Lower Egypt’s unification. At the same time it demonstrated physical strength of the ruler.