Early Dynastic Tombs at Saqqara
This is how the dead pharaoh was dragged to the embalming place. And specially hired mourners tore their hair and sobbed loudly. Still from the film "Pharaoh" (1965)
"Saqqara is a village in Egypt, about 25 km south of Cairo. It contains the oldest necropolis of the capital of the Old Kingdom, Memphis."
Wikipedia
“…that he would give me the cave of Machpelah, which is at the end of his field, that he might give it to me for a fair price in the midst of you, as a burial place.”
Genesis 23:9
Wikipedia
“…that he would give me the cave of Machpelah, which is at the end of his field, that he might give it to me for a fair price in the midst of you, as a burial place.”
Genesis 23:9
Another expedition to the ancestors. Probably, many of the readers of VO have experienced this: you come, say, on vacation to an unfamiliar city, walk around it... and suddenly find yourself in a cemetery. However, some even visit them specifically, citing the fact that "it's interesting there." And just as there are no similar cities, there are no similar cemeteries, although they all have the same purpose - the repose of the dead. However, in terms of interest, our cemeteries, without a doubt, are still far from... the burials of Ancient Egypt. And we are not talking so much about the legendary pyramids, of which there are as many as 108 today, but about the burials of more or less wealthy and influential people, that is, not poor people. They can tell a lot about the past - and have already told, by the way. Although there is still more than enough untold (and unexcavated!) there. And today we will go to one such "interesting" cemetery in Egypt...
Fresco on the wall of Neferbauptah's tomb on the Giza plateau. What fine hams, aren't they?
And it was that on the ridge that runs along the eastern edge of the North Saqqara Escarpment all the way to Abusir, early dynastic burials of many elite members of the First and Second Dynasties were discovered. This area of large clay mastabas was first discovered and properly excavated by Walter Emery in the 1930s. They continue to dig there today. In fact, if you go there and wander around, you will see many pegs driven into the ground with red flags. This means that there is something down there. But there are not enough hands or money to dig it up yet.
Vaulted ceiling and wall painting in the Imeri tomb in Giza. The painting depicts the process of making grape wine. That is, the Egyptians knew it, knew how to make it, and drank it!
The value of this cemetery is, first of all, that our knowledge of this period of Egyptian stories are very vague, so that even the sequence of succession of the kings of that time is often the subject of debate among scholars. And here's what's interesting: most of the information we have about the early dynastic period comes from seals and their impressions, as well as numerous inscriptions on ivory and wooden palettes, steles and stone vessels found... precisely in this cemetery.
Painting on the left wall at the entrance to the tomb of Nakht. The tomb of Nakht (TT52) is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. It is part of the Theban necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, directly opposite Luxor. He held the position of scribe and astronomer of the god Amun, most likely during the reign of Thutmose IV (1401-1391 BC or 1397-1388 BC), that is, the Eighteenth Dynasty, the first dynasty of the New Kingdom. There are several rooms in the tomb, but only one, conventionally called the "anteroom", is covered with paintings. It depicts scenes of funeral sacrifices and burial rites. But along with them, everyday scenes of peaceful rural life are shown, including scenes of grain cultivation, digging irrigation canals, a rich harvest, successful fishing and even hunting in the Nile Delta.
During Emory's excavations of the tombs of the Dynasty I rulers at North Saqqara (who also had tombs at Abydos), there was some debate about which were the actual burials and which were cenotaphs for cultic purposes. But the research has established that North Saqqara was an elite cemetery for those officials from Memphis whose rulers were buried at Abydos. The long mud-brick walls, sometimes extending for 50 m, were decorated with the typical "palace façade" seen at Abydos and later in the step pyramid complex of Djoser. The necropolis was begun during the reign of the second king of the First Dynasty, Hor-Aha, and the rectangular mastabas of this period were either filled with gravel or divided into chambers, many of which were used as storerooms for rich burial paraphernalia and decorated with reliefs or paintings.
This facsimile painting copies part of a funeral scene in the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuka (TT 181) at Thebes
As with the royal tombs of Abydos, the mastabas of Saqqara become more complex by the time of the Second Dynasty. Their underground chambers are cut into the bedrock, and some may have included a rudimentary funerary temple. In later tombs, the decoration of the "palace façade" became simpler, but with two false doors added to the outer walls. The underground chambers were arranged to represent a typical "modern house" of the time, while the unbaked brick superstructure was filled with a calcined core of rubble or mud (Nile silt).
Tomb of Raemkai, false door on the west wall, ca. 2446–2389 BCE. Old Kingdom. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
One of the most sumptuous tombs discovered at Saqqara belonged to Hemaka, the vizier and perhaps the most important official of King Den of the First Dynasty. His tomb has yielded many artefacts of superb quality, including a wooden box containing the first roll of papyrus ever found in Egypt. The most recent Early Dynastic mastaba to be excavated at North Saqqara was found in 1995 when the area was surveyed ahead of proposed construction. The indefatigable Zahi Hawass found this First Dynasty tomb, and it turned out to contain the name of the little-known king Nefer-Sieka. In the rubble from the burial chamber, Dr Hawass found large quantities of broken pottery, pieces of alabaster and flint tools. Ten other smaller tombs were found in the same area, which had been reused during the New Kingdom. One of them contained a unique false door made of clay brick, topped by a wooden panel carved with a scene of an offering to the deceased. His name, unfortunately, could not be read, but it may be the earliest example of a false door ever found.
Fresco from Theban tomb TT93, located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor. The tomb belongs to an Egyptian of the XNUMXth Dynasty named Kenamun, who was the overseer of the cattle of Amun and the chief steward of Amenhotep II. Kenamun's mother, Amenemipet, was Amenhotep II's wet nurse, making Kenamun the foster brother of the young prince who was to become king. In the fresco we see a cuirass made of metal, most likely bronze, plates.
In another tomb, Dr. Hawass found a skeleton wrapped in linen and lying in a fetal position, which he declared to be the oldest mummy found in Egypt. However, little can be seen today of the early dynastic mastabas at North Saqqara, as they have all been filled in and their superstructures are barely visible and are now covered by wind-blown sand.
Typically, the First Dynasty mastabas follow the eastern ridge, with the Second Dynasty tombs located behind them. Only a few have been identified, such as tomb 3503 of Queen Merneith, 3504 of Sekhemke, 3505 of Ka, and 3507 of Queen Herniet, a possible wife of Pharaoh Djer. However, this area may still contain a wealth of interesting information, as there are still many unexcavated tombs.
While the early necropolis at the northern end of Saqqara is a cemetery for the elite, the rulers themselves appear to have abandoned the ancestral burial ground at Abydos in favor of Saqqara from the time of the first king of the Second Dynasty, Hetepsehemwy, who built his tomb about one kilometer south of the elite cemetery. Until now, only the names of this king and Ninejer have been associated with tombs at Saqqara, although the names of other early kings are attested there.
As already noted, the royal tombs of Saqqara were cut out of rock, unlike the earlier tombs at Abydos, which were mostly pits lined with mud bricks. The practice of constructing subsidiary tombs for family and servants around the royal tomb was abandoned at this time. The great tomb of Hetepsekhmenwy, located very close to the pyramid of Unas, with extensive galleries partly lying beneath the pyramid, was identified by numerous seal impressions bearing the names of King Horus and his successor Nebre, although the tomb itself was empty.
In the same tomb of Kenamun there is also an image of a shield like this one, with a cover made of bull skin with the hair on the outside.
The nearby tomb of Nebre's successor Nynejer is currently being re-examined by a German archaeological team. When it was first discovered, it contained hundreds of late period mummies from later burials. While it is likely that subsequent kings may have been buried at Saqqara, they have not yet been found, although a Dutch team working in the area recently found early dynastic structures beneath the New Kingdom tombs of Maya and Merineith. And towards the end of the Second Dynasty, kings Peribsen and Khasekhemwy again decided that they would rather be buried at Abydos...
To be continued ...
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