Temples in ancient Egypt were confines of restricted sacred space. Only priests had access to the inner workings of the temples and their mysteries. During the great festivals, the gods that dwelled in these sanctuaries went on procession for everyone to see, travelling to other temples in barques of gold and wood. These barques were typical of furniture that was both religious and processional. Study of the lexicography, iconography, and function of ancient Egyptian ritual processional furniture could shed light upon the metanarrative of ancient religious practice. This research identifies the unique characteristics and lexicography of ritual processional furniture as manifest in ancient Egypt between the Old and New Kingdoms. A multidisciplinary approach is taken in regards to the data, utilizing both lexicographic and iconographic sources, to which a seven criteria conceptual framework is applied in order to select the appropriate data. The methodology used in this study is inductive and qualitative, and the conclusions are derived from primary sources. Objects that are discovered to be ritual but not processional are eliminated from further analysis. The analyzed data is synthesized and assimilated to expand the current paradigm of ritual processional objects into a new understanding. In this thesis three primary classes of ritual processional furniture are identified and examined in detail: chests, barques, and palanquin thrones. This project analyzed over sixty lexemes and three hundred fifty instances of iconography. The lexemes for twelve chests, six sacred barques, and six palanquins were found to have been used as ritual processional furniture. The iconographic study examined the pictorial instances by typology and locale. For sacred barques, the results attempted to resolve the ongoing problems concerning identification and inconsistencies between icon and text. The results for palanquin thrones showed that the iconography from sacred barques was appropriated and compressed elevating the king to a focus of religious adoration. This extensive study of Egyptian ritual processional furniture contributes to the ongoing dialogue regarding the material and cultural context of religious expression by synthesizing the paradigm of temple sacred space upon smaller physical objects. The contribution to knowledge has been to flesh out the identities of specific instances of ritual processional furnishing and to assimilate the architectural understanding of sacred space with the available data so as to arrive at a new understanding of the existing paradigm. The significance of these contributions is that they further develop our understanding of the religious cultural context of ancient Egypt.

The god Seth was depicted in both zoomorphic and bimorphic form. In zoomorphic form he was depicted as a canine-like animal with a down curved muzzle, upright squared-off ears and an erect tail, whilst in bimorphic form he was portrayed as a human male with the head of the Seth animal. Although much has been written on the mythology of Seth and identification of the Seth animal, no in-depth research has been undertaken regarding the variations that occur in his images over the dynastic period of Egyptian history. This thesis looks at the variations in the images of Seth and how he was represented in temples, tombs, written texts and in personal adornment. A comparison of the variations of his component parts leads to a comprehensive understanding of the different forms employed and allows the questions to be answered of whether there was ever a fully defined standard representation or if each image was an individual interpretation of a loosely defined theoretical form. Additionally, the study of the use of the zoomorphic and bimorphic Seth images within the Nile Valley and Western Desert oases provides the further understanding of the form of the proscription against Seth.

The research presented in this thesis applies Thomas Luckmann’s theory of invisible religion to three aspects of ancient Egyptian culture (festivals, household and personal items, and communication with the dead and with gods). The intention is firstly to address the four key issues that have arisen as a result of previous research into personal religion in ancient Egypt, secondly to determine whether ordinary ancient Egyptians possessed individual religiosity, and thirdly to establish whether the three aspects of ancient Egyptian culture considered can be viewed as examples of invisible religion. With regards to the four key issues, this research concludes: there was a link between individual religiosity and state religion; the intimacy of ordinary ancient Egyptians’ emotions relating to individual religiosity varied; individual religiosity was not a phenomenon of the lower classes; individual religiosity was not an innovation of the New Kingdom. In addition, it is shown that ordinary ancient Egyptians did possess individual religiosity but that each person would have created, maintained, engaged with, and internalised the universe of meaning (as described by Luckmann) to a different extent. Finally, this research concludes that the three aspects of ancient Egyptian culture considered can be viewed as examples of invisible religion.