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Many of Egypt's monuments exhibit multiple stages of expansion, rebuilding, and redecoration extending over the centuries in which they remained in use. Often archaeologically traceable, these modifications were also frequently recorded in propagandistic dedicatory inscriptions. Beginning in the First Intermediate Period, inscriptions containing the element sm3wy mnw "Renewal of the monument" and related expressions were employed to indicate acts of monumental restoration in a variety of contexts. A survey of these texts extending from their earliest appearance through the Ptolemaic era reveals both thematic consistency and a steady development in composition and usage, so that a study of their structure, content, and evolution, in light of the architectural and historical context of each example, illuminates the historical development of a formal tradition of monumental restoration. Restoration texts may be classified by two sets of sub-genres. The earliest attestations include both royal and non-royal dedications; an early division may also be observed between shorter, more formulaic "label"-type texts and longer "prose"-type inscriptions, including Königsnovelle. Examples of non-royal restoration texts, though always outnumbered by royal inscriptions, are found through the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The distinction between prose and label texts became most pronounced in the post-Amarna period when the sm3wy mnw label was introduced to commemorate the repair of vandalized divine images, but at all periods the two types functioned simultaneously to record particular acts of restoration or wider restoration campaigns. In the later periods, restoration texts more frequently indicate explicitly the antiquity of standing monuments under repair; the mention of original founders, such as Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, or Ramesside kings, enhances this dimension of their meaning. As such the restoration inscriptions illustrate not only a propagandistic/pious ideal but also an appreciation of history by those for whom the renewal of ancient monuments was a duty to the gods.
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