The Christianization of Ancient Egyptian Cosmology: Philae in Late Antiquity

Abstract

Abandonment, destruction, being a source for retrieving building materials, and the reuse, these were multiple destinies that ancient traditional temples reached in Late Antiquity, accompanying the religious paradigm shift from polytheism to monotheism. The First Cataract in the frontier zone between Egypt and Nubia has a significant ontological value to ancient inhabitants, studying the fate of its temples cannot be done without approaching the significance of the sacred landscape, a significance that is perceived in the topographical and astronomical features representing the cosmic impact on the Egyptian mythology and theology. This paper will focus on the Ptolemaic temple of Isis on Philae Island, as the last temple to be closed in Egypt, declaring the absolute domination of Christianity. Starting by setting the historical background explaining the complexity of the regional situation politically and culturally. Accordingly, trying to interpret the temple transformation as a unique phenomenon reflecting the public ontological understanding of the sacred power, and its points of access, in spite of changes in the perceptions of religion. The objective is to bring to light a new perspective for the transformation of traditional sacred spaces, and how transformation can be a manifestation of the localization of a new faith. An assumption is based on applying Mircea Eliade’s phenomenological analysis of the religious experience. The research is using the tools of ethnographic descriptions, iconographic representations, archeoastronomical studies, and archeological examinations, for applying a thematic analysis, within the hermeneutic phenomenology as a methodology.