Mastaba Mereruka: hippopotamus vs. crocodile!
Mastaba Mereruka in Saqqara
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, just as the sun was rising, they came to the tomb.
Mark Gospel 16:2
Mark Gospel 16:2
Egypt through my own eyes. Today, we will probably tell you for the last time, dear readers of "VO", about ancient Egyptian mastaba tombs. Because there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of them, and it is simply impossible to tell here about even the most famous ones, and it is not necessary, since any, even the most interesting topic usually gets boring pretty quickly. But before saying goodbye to the mastabas and moving on to the topic of the pyramids, we will take the opportunity to tell you about one more of them - the Mereruka mastaba in Saqqara, where our readers Irina and Sergey visited and from where they brought us many completely unique photographs. In general, right before you, story this tomb in the form in which it has survived to this day and as it can be seen today.
It is located in the Saqqara area, and this place is perhaps more interesting than the plateau of the three great pyramids in Giza. There are pyramids here too, although not as majestic as there, but there are a lot of them. The pyramid of Pepi (Piopi) I and Pepi II, Teti, the pyramids of Lepsius No. 29, Userkaf, Unas, Sekhemkhet, Djedkare Isesi, Ibi, Merenre I and, of course, the step pyramid of Djoser. That is, wherever you look, you are sure to see a pyramid. We can say that the Saqqara necropolis is simply enormous, and it is simply impossible to see all of its objects in one day. In addition, in addition to the pyramids, there are also many mastabas of the nobility of the XNUMXth dynasty. Among them are the large and well-preserved tombs of Mereruka (who was the son-in-law of Pharaoh Teti), the high priest Kagemni, the priest-vizier Ankhmahor and many others.
It is interesting that the Mereruka mastaba was excavated a long time ago, in 1892, and it was discovered by the French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan. It would seem that during this time absolutely everything could have been learned about it, and indeed a lot has been learned about it (in particular, its full description was published back in 1936), but this does not make it any less interesting. The fact is that in fact it contains not one, but three tombs, consisting of 31 internal rooms. These are real underground apartments, of which 21 rooms belong to Mereruka himself, five to his wife and five more to his son Meriteti. The value of this burial is primarily in the fact that on the walls of these internal rooms, very finely carved and carefully detailed two-dimensional reliefs with scenes of everyday Egyptian life are well preserved, including those activities that the deceased and his family planned to engage in in the afterlife.
The overall dimensions of the Mereruka tomb are impressive, stretching 23 meters from east to west and 30 meters from north to south, and 41 meters if you count the Meriteti chambers. And the ceilings there are high - 4,5 meters. Moreover, inside the mastaba itself, on the surface of the earth, the ceilings are only slightly higher than 4 meters. That is, the deceased clearly decided not to economize on the living space for his soul! Which, however, is not surprising at all if we get acquainted with his biography.
His mother, Nedjetempet, was a noble lady, and Mereruka himself (his name translates as "My Ka loves me") made a career under Pharaoh Teti and became one of the most influential officials of his reign during the 6th dynasty. The trust that the Pharaoh had in him is evidenced by the fact that he allowed him to marry his daughter, Princess Sesheshet Wadjitthethor. Moreover, Mereruka had several children from her (the son of Meriteti, the daughters of Nebetpernesut and Ibneitnub) and as many as five more sons from his second wife.
Mereruka held many titles, including the title of chati, which made him the second most important person in Egypt after the pharaoh. Among other government positions were: overseer of the priests at the pyramid of Teti, manager of the palace, chief kheriheb, overseer of the royal scribes, and director of all the pharaoh's works. The last title shows that Mereruka supervised the construction of the pyramid of Teti.
The paintings at the entrance to the tomb depict Mereruka accepting offerings and playing board games. In general, we are again presented with a kind of "comics" depicting the life of that time. The first three chambers also contain hunting scenes, as well as images of furniture makers and jewelers at work. And here we again see Mereruka and his wife, who have come to a jewelry workshop, where some of the craftsmen are... dwarves. Sculptors and stone carvers are also working here. That is, the set of professions illustrated in the tomb is quite large.
A very realistic statue of Mereruka has also been preserved, as has a false door in the serdab directly above the burial chamber. But the above-ground part of the mastaba also contains paintings and reliefs, so there is much to see there. Among the birds and animals, the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls and corridors of Mereruka's apartments also contain his various titles. So we know all of his achievements as an official of the pharaoh with absolute certainty.
In the swamp hunting scene, we see five men in a traditional Egyptian reed boat against a backdrop of wildlife and various birds. There is also an image of an adult hippopotamus killing a crocodile, while another crocodile is clearly about to attack a newborn hippo.
In the funeral complex of the princess, to the left of the entrance to the tomb, there is an image of her receiving gifts from the pharaoh, including carved furniture. She is also shown with three dogs, very similar in appearance to greyhounds, and a funny monkey.
In hall No. 7, the princess sits on a wide bed with her husband and plays the harp. But some rooms of the tomb remained unfinished and were apparently later used as storage for burial gifts.
Well, now we will see all this with our own eyes...
Entrance to the Mereruka Mastaba
Plan of the Mereruka Mastaba
This is how archaeologists of the past published their findings in graphics... Statue of Mereruka in his tomb, 1897
Photographers at work. 1934.
Today, a spiral staircase like this one leads to the underground part of the tomb!
This is what the Mereruka statue looks like today
The underground rooms are full of doorways and there are frescoes and reliefs everywhere.
Through such a window in the serdab one could look at the statue of the deceased
Underground there is a real labyrinth of columns, passages and rooms!
Doors, doors, doors...
Column and frescoes
Master of the Tomb
The funniest thing about this photo is the fire extinguisher in the corner. What could possibly catch fire there?
The reliefs of the tomb are very informative. Here we see a hedgehog in a cage. It seems that hedgehogs were found in Egypt at that time and they were caught...
Relief with fishermen, crocodiles and hippos
Hippopotamus deals with a crocodile! Apparently this happened in Egypt...
Antelope Hunting. Three dogs straight out of our time!
Relief with scribes. How could we do without them?
On the left is Mereruka with his son, on the right is the same...
The ships are depicted very accurately, and you can see that they are big!
And here is the princess playing the harp
P.S. In conclusion, we will name the most interesting Egyptian mastabas to visit. We have already told you about the Mereruka mastaba. The Ankhmahor mastaba, located next to it, is a little smaller. During his life, he held the titles of "caretaker of the Big House" and "first after the pharaoh". The frescoes in the tomb are very interesting, as they allow us to believe that he was also a doctor for the pharaoh Teti.
The Mastaba of Ptahshepses is located in Abusir and is considered the second largest. It was discovered in 1893 by the French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan. Ptahshepses held high positions under the pharaoh Sahura. The uniqueness of his mastaba is due to the fact that in addition to the chapel, serdar and burial chambers, it has an outer courtyard with two chambers for solar boats, and no other mastabas like this have been found.
The mastaba of Pharaoh Shepseskaf replaced his pyramid and clearly speaks of his reformist inclinations. It was discovered in 1843 by the German archaeologist Karl Lepsius. It turned out that the deceased pharaoh was not buried in it. Although its size is impressive! The mastaba of Pharaoh Ti can be considered one of the most beautiful. Unique paintings and reliefs on the walls cause admiration of everyone who sees them. But in the mastaba of the priest Ptah-Hotep there are interesting images of religious rites.
The tomb of Kagemni, the guardian of the priests, is located in the same place as the mastaba of Mereruka, between it and the mastaba of Ankhmahor. Its corridors are decorated with very vivid images of animals and birds.
The mastaba of Queen Herneit, wife of King Djer, has a very unusual shape.
PSS The author and the site administration thank I. and S. Valov for providing photographs of Egyptian antiquities.
Information