UNDER THE SIGN OF THE MOON
After the flight of the last Egyptian pharaoh from Thebes, Antef (VII) Nubkheper-Ré, King Seqenen-Re Tao and Queen Ah-hotep (Ahmose's parents) had seized Upper Egypt, both being the brother and sister of the Hyksos king Aqenenre Apophis (I) who ruled the North from his capital Avaris.
Their mother, the great royal mother Teti-sheri was the daughter of two non-noble Asians. Her husband is not attested, but it can be assumed that he was the old Syrian king Awserre Apophis (II) from whom she had separated after he committed incest on the person of their daughter Ah-hotep still very young.
The Asian occupiers of the North had thus shared Egypt with their family. But the moon god Ah honored by the rulers of Thebes was not the god of the ruler of Avaris, who had assimilated his storm god Sutech to the great Egyptian god Seth, and he honored god Seth except any other.
Ah the Moon was therefore a family god who became a dynastic god by the will of the new rulers of Thebes, who probably held him from their mother Queen Teti-Sheri.The same god gave his name to the city of Jericho. This town would therefore be one of the first centers of worship of lunar deities.
YHWH = Yah hwh : "I am Yah"** in Amorite dialect spoken by Patriarchs,
in which hwh means « to be » as in Aramaic.
* Sîn, the almighty Moon god in Ur and Harran in Mesopotamia ;
** Yah, the Moon, a Canaanite deity become the dynastic god at the end of the 17th Dynasty in Egypt.
King Ahmose, the last son of Queen Ah-hotep, changed the shape of the hieroglyph of the Moon in his cartouche from the 22nd year of his reign. It is assumed that from that date he escaped the influence of his mother who was of Asiatic origin.
King Ahmose's cartouche with the hieroglyph of the Moon pointing down in the Egyptian way.
King Ahmose's cartouche with the hieroglyph of the Moon pointing upward in the Asian way.
Queen Ah-hotep's cartouche with the hieroglyph of the Moon pointing upward in the Asian way.
The god Moon Ah reappeared in theophoric names worn by royal figures at the end of the 17th Dynasty and at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty. The sister-wife of King Se-qen-en-Ré was named Ah-hotep (the one who honors the Moon), and all their children were called Ahmes (born of the Moon), until their successor the first king of the 18th Dynasty Ahmes-neb-pehty-Re, whose wife was called Ahmes-nefertari. From the third king of the 18th Dynasty, Âa-kheper-ka-Re Thoutmes (born of Thoth), Ah the Moon god was likened to the great Egyptian god Thot, also of lunar character.
Graffito of Djebel Silsile :
The central figure is King Montouhotep (II).
At right, is his father King Intef (III), the beloved father of the god, followed by the treasurer Kheti.
Behind Intef stands the beloved mother of the god, priestress of Hathor, daughter of a king, Yah. (Her name is not in a cartouche, perhaps she was a secondary spouse of Intef III).
In Egypt, the Moon god Ah (to pronounce Iâh) appeared for the first time in a graffito on a rock of Djebel Silsile in the name of Pharaoh Montuhotep III's mother of the XIth Dynasty (c. 2060 B.C.) Its a mooon crescent with the horns pointing down. The name of the city of Jericho issued from the name of this moon god.
the king on his throne is welcoming visitors… two Lama, beneficent goddesses of fertility accompany a vassal, Khashkhamer governor of Ishkun-Sîn, before the sovereign…
the presentation is presided by the moon god nanna-Sîn manifested by the moon crescent.
the moon god of the temple of harran
north of mesopotamia
(presently in iraq)