I am posting here a query regarding Siegel’s paper that I posted on GHMB.

Quote
Oren Siegel
Assuming Gohary’s restoration of the scenes depicted by the talatat blocks is correct, serpentine walling is at times found on either side of the rectilinear palace wall. These blocks confirm that serpentine walls were used to surround monumental constructions as late as the Amarna period, and their presence near offering kiosks and the Sed-festival palace would seem to suggest that these walls were integral parts of buildings which had cultic significance. However, several factors mitigate against assigning these serpentine enclosure walls specific religious or ritual meanings that are distinct from those suggested for more traditional rectilinear enclosure walls.95 First, there is a distinct possibility that the ritual kiosks depicted in the Sed festival reliefs were only temporary, and were disassembled following the conclusion of the ceremony, meaning that the serpentine walls were again serving as impermanent enclosure walls.96 Second, given the flurry of construction in Karnak at the start of Akhenaten’s reign, it is plausible that not every enclosure wall was entirely finished in time for the Sed festival, and serpentine walls were retained in some cases when time did not permit for the comple- tion of more robust rectilinear walls. Indeed, serpentine walls were clearly not viewed as aesthetically deficient enclosure walls, given that they were not replaced by rectilinear walls at several mortuary com- plexes during the late Middle Kingdom.

I find it difficult to agree with Sigel's line of reasoning here. It appears that Siegel is claiming that since the Sed Festival Kiosks are temporary structures, the serpentine walls have no significance other than an impermanent enclosure for said kiosks. I think we should consider alternatives and evaluate:

1. The Sed festival, according to Petrie is not a regnal year festival, but is held on a regular cycle of thirty years to an astronomical cycle. Petrie (1899) p32: “Though the vanity of Ramessu II. Led to his transferring the astronomical cycle of 30 years to his personal reign and starting a series of Sed festivals on his 30th year, and even repeating them every 3 years after that, such a perversion does not affect the value of the regular cycle for historical purposes.” This notion is backed up by Lurker (1980) p13: “The fact that the festival took place thirty years after the accession could be based on the thirty year revolution of Saturn which was the outermost known planet orbiting the sun.”. and Sellers (1992) p218: “It had been noted that the thirty year period, celebrated by the rulers of Egypt, coincided with the slow return of the slowest planet that they knew of, Saturn. Since it was furthest away it was given the greatest importance. Saturn returns to the same place in the zodiac only every thirty years. However, the next slowest is Jupiter, whose period of orbit is twelve years, (approximately one 30 degrees area of the sky per year). Again the figures seem to have an astronomical base and if this is true, they bear out the antiquity of planetary observations. Far from negating a previous concluded link with celestial movements, it might appear to be further verification.”

2. Just after the Middle Kingdom, there is the mathematical knowledge of division of an amount into unequal amounts yielding an arithmetic progression - refer to Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problems 40 and 64 (Chace (1927), pp84-85 and p102). This is the foundational mathematics to model a varying process such as the timing of synodic phenomena with linear interpolation.

3. The Karnak water clock or clepsydra, dated to approx 1450BCE contains on its outer face astronomical diagrams with similar content to that of the Ramesside era star charts. On the inside face, there is a set of scales, one for each month in the Egyptian calendar. The scales are thought to be related to the hours of night time between the solstices and the total length of the scales are linearly spaced between 12 finger breadths at the summer solstice and 14 finger breadths at the winter solstice, combining an incrementing arithmetic progression and decrementing arithmetic progression in terms of the total distance of the scale Hoyrup (2021), p18: “The Karnak clock assumes the change of the length of night to be uniform from solstice to solstice – in the idiom used to discuss Babylonian astronomy, it constitutes a zigzag-function”

Given the possibility that the Sed Festival timing may have originally been based on an astronomical foundation, the extant mathematic sources show the development of the required mathematics by the Second Intermediate Period, and the zig-zag function found in the Karnak water clock roughly contemporary with the mathematics is an astronomical function modelling a process varying over time, we should consider whether the serpentine/sinusoidal/zig zag walls have symbolic meaning over and above a rectilinear enclosure. One such candidate if we were to follow Lurker and Sellers proposal that the timing may be related to Saturn's orbital period, then the serpentine walls may symbolically represent the timing and/or angular distance travelled by a planet for successive synodic phenomena. As such, instead of being temporary enclosures, the serpentine walls may be symbolic features added to the Sed Festival kiosks.

References:
Chace, A. B., The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Volume I, Mathematical Association of America, 1927, accessed from [www.math.stonybrook.edu]
Høyrup, J., A Historians History of Ancient Egyptian Science, accessed March 2021 from [www.academia.edu]
Lurker, M., The gods and symbols of Ancient Egypt: an illustrated dictionary, Thames and Hudson, 1980 p13
Petrie, WMF, A History Of Egypt During The Xviith And Xviiith Dynasties, Third Edition, 1899, Methuen And Co, p33
Sellers, J., The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt, Penguin Books, 1992, p218