Dendera — the 'light bulb' reliefs

OVERVIEW

The 'Dendera light' is a motif in the crypts of the Hathor temple at Dendera: three objects, each shown twice (in south crypt 1-C and in room G), depicting Harsomtus as an upright snake emerging from a lotus flower inside an oval container (hn), sometimes held up by a djed pillar or a kneeling figure.

HISTORY

The crypts were treated as the Duat; their reliefs record the cult statues once kept there — 'gold and metal, height four palms', 'gold and all precious stones, height three palms', 'gold, height one cubit' — which were 'resurrected' through contact with light on the temple roof. The captions name each statue as Harsomtus 'who rises out of the lotus flower as a living Ba'.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

A fringe theory says the reliefs show ancient electric technology — light bulbs, cathode-ray or Crookes tubes — citing the lack of soot in tombs and a text about copper-plated poles 'to break the storms'. Bolko Stern explained the poles as a magical, not electrical, installation and noted no evidence of electrical apparatus in Egypt; Kenneth Feder points out that bulbs would leave glass, sockets and filaments in excavations, and that mirrors or salted torches explain the missing soot. Filed UNVETTED.

VISITING

The reliefs are in the crypts of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. Visiting arrangements are not recorded in the source.