The Royal Cemetery of Abydos
With the founding of the unified Egyptian state, the monarchy had also acquired a new dimension, and a new character in its socio-political role. These are most closely reflected in the development of royal tomb architecture, which can be traced in the Abydos cemetery until the end of the First Dynasty. The necropolis lies in the desert area, some 1.5 km away from the strip of fertile land. Its tombs are rectangular chambers sunk into the desert soil and shored up on the outside by brick walls. The first stage of development came with Horus Aha.
His tomb, instead of having two chambers sunk side by side, as in the case of three previous tombs from “Dynasty 0,” comprised three considerably larger chambers. In addition, his tomb shows the first evidence of a custom that flourished intensively for a short time, and then fell into disuse at the end of the First Dynasty: the custom of burying members of the royal household in neighboring tombs. The finds on the site as a whole make it hard to avoid concluding that the people buried here were in fact killed on the occasion of the royal funeral. Stelae referring to such tombs mention servants, including people of small stature (“dwarfs”), who were popular as part of a royal household, and women and dogs. In the case of Aha, thirty-six secondary tombs were laid out in three parallel rows. Investigation of bones cast aside by earlier excavators as worthless recently produced some results as surprising as they were revealing. King Aha had also taken a group of young lions into the next world with him as a symbol of royalty. Judging by the state of their bones, the animals had lived and were probably even born in captivity; in other words, the royal court kept lions.
In the next large tomb complex, that of King Djer, the new structural organization is completed and was the point of departure for gradual further development in following generations. Instead of several small chambers, there is only one rectangular burial chamber laid out in a deep pit in the desert sand, but it is a very much larger one. The traces still show that a wooden coffin was set against its back wall, and the king was buried in this coffin. The burial chamber was covered by a massive timber ceiling, above which, still within the top of the pit, a low tumulus of sand was piled up and enclosed by brick walls. It is not at all certain what these tombs looked like from the outside: new excavations have left no room for illusion on that topic. Since there are no remains of buildings, and indeed architectural factors would categorically prohibit it, the tombs can have had no monumental super O structures. The most that can be assumed is the presence of a low heap of sand contained within brick walls above the tomb. The pairs of stelae sometimes found in front of the tombs would have indicated a place of sacrifice; their inscriptions give the names of the kings and thus identify the owners of the tombs.
While at first the roofing of the pit and the erection of the burial mound could have been carried out only after the funeral rites were completed, later on, from the time of King Den in the middle of the First Dynasty, a stairway closed by stone slabs led down to the burial chamber.
The subsidiary tombs were arranged in a rectangle around the royal tombs themselves, first in large and then in swiftly dwindling numbers. Access was regularly left free to the southwest. In the tomb of Den, a stairway led from this opening down to an underground statue chapel adjoining the outside of the royal burial chamber: a place where the king could be ritually addressed, and where he could be imagined stepping out of his tomb.
The royal tombs of the First Dynasty thus acquired a new complexity, and were rich in symbolism, but they cannot be described as monumental even in the context of contemporary comparisons. However, there was yet another component to the royal tomb complex from the time of King Djer at the latest. Additional huge, rectangular precincts were laid out some 1.5 km north of the cemetery, on the borders of the fertile land near the town and the temple of the local god Khontamenti, who was also god of the necropolis. Djer’s precinct consists of a rectangle 100 x 55 m in size, surrounded by a brick wall over 3 m broad and at one time about 8 m high, ornamented on the outside by a regular niche pattern. Access to the precinct was through monumental gates at the southeast and northeast corners.
As yet we have very little idea of any buildings inside the precinct. Remains of a number of structures have been identified in later complexes, but it is to be supposed that the only ones erected at this date for certain ritual celebrations consisted of light materials (wood and matting) and have left no traces. These “valley precincts” are also surrounded by rows of subsidiary tombs. There is no doubt that such precincts are connected with the royal tomb complex: a direct line leads from their design to the entire pyramid complex of King Djoser at the beginning of the Third Dynasty at Saqqara. In its turn, this connection enables us to conclude with great probability that the valley precincts of Abydos served for the ritual of great festivals, celebrating the sacred role of kingship and the renewal of the king’s dominion in the next world on the occasion of his funeral.
Memphis
The kings of the first two dynasties gave high priority to the traditions of the past by having themselves interred in the ancient cemetery at Abydos, in the territory of their town of origin This (the name of the town is the reason that the two first dynasties are described in classical antiquity as Thinite, from This).
However, it had been clear for some time that the true cultural center of the country was moving farther and farther north, to the area between the beginning of the Faiyum and the southern extremity of the Delta. This was a central location between the large cultivated areas of Middle Egypt and the Delta, and closer to the routes communicating with the culturally very important Near Eastern areas. Once the kingdom had been unified, Memphis was laid out here as the new capital and the king’s royal residence, and archaeological evidence confirms the information provided by the later tradition of classical antiquity, naming King Menes as its founder. Only recently have traces of the early settlement been found under later strata of fertile land. Once again, however, it is principally the evidence of the burial grounds that allows us to draw conclusions about the importance of the site: these burial grounds comprise the extended cemetery of Helwan and the necropolis of the kingdom’s elite in Saqqara.
The Great Niche Mastaba Tombs at Saqqara
The largest of the tombs standing here in a long line on the desert
plateau that rose above the old settlement are of truly royal dimensions, but in design they are very different from the complexes of Abydos. These monuments are large, rectangular buildings, known as mastaba tombs, their exteriors decorated with a complex niche pattern that was even more striking in its original condition because of the colored paint on the plaster. Such niche tombs are found not only in Saqqara but also at certain burial sites between Tarkhan, north of the exit route from the Faiyum, and Abu Roash at the southern end of the Delta. Only a single example of this genre is known in Upper Egypt, but it is one of the oldest.
It cannot be supposed that such a complex type of building,
appearing here so suddenly during the rule of King Aha, had no
models. In Egypt, one would expect to find these models in urban
temple and palace architecture, and indeed there is such an example in the Early Dynastic complex of Hierakonpolis, although unfortunately the function of the building concerned is not clear. In terms of architectural history, however, the trail leads to the Near East, where the development of niche architecture from the pilasters required for structural reasons to the complex type of decoration for official buildings found in Egypt can be followed step by step. The niche facades in the tombs at Saqqara were mostly built on a low base course, where the heads of cattle modeled in clay were frequently placed. A slab stela was found outside one niche at the southern end of the east wall of one particular mastaba, showing the occupant of the tomb seated, and giving his title in an inscription. It was probably originally set at the back of the niche, as frequently seen later in the false doors of the early Old Kingdom.
Inside the tombs, the burial chambers were dug out of the desert ground and, like the complexes ofAbydos, were roofed with timber and covered with a tumulus above which stood the superstructure. Here again a stairway was introduced during the First Dynasty, giving access to the burial chamber and allowing construction on the tomb to be completed before the funeral.
Since the discovery of the great niche mastabas in Saqqara, there has been dispute as to whether these were the real tombs of the First Dynasty kings, in which case the complexes of Abydos would be cenotaphs or “false tombs,” merely a remnant of tradition. In view of the number of tombs at Saqqara, which exceeds the number of kings of the First Dynasty, only some of the largest complexes could in fact be royal. Nonetheless, it would be surprising to find the tombs of kings and officials promiscuously mingled and only gradually coming to differ in terms of size. Later on, the royal burial place was always distinct in quality from the tombs of even the highest administrative officials, just as Pharaoh himself was not primus inter pares, but by virtue of his royal office stood closer to the divine creator himself than to humanity.
However this difficult question may finally be decided, for all their differences the close connection between the large niche tombs and the royal tombs at Abydos must not be overlooked. They are linked by the development of the shape of the burial chamber and the covered tumulus above its roof. At Saqqara the tumulus is even sometimes found with a stepped exterior, which naturally calls the later Step Pyramid to mind. Subordinate tombs surrounding the main tomb were built at Saqqara too. Moreover, elements of later royal funerary architecture are anticipated in the large niche tombs.
This is particularly clear where a funerary temple actually adjoins the mastaba tomb on its north side, just as a temple does later in King Djoser’s funerary precinct at the beginning of the Third Dynasty. This site is not an isolated find. One of the oldest mastabas had a complex of enclosed courtyards, with walled benches probably used for sacrificial purposes, on the north of the tomb precinct. A cult area north of the tomb therefore seems typical of the design of such precincts. Boats as grave goods, known from the pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom, also seem to appear for the first time in the great niche tombs of the First Dynasty.
The royal tomb architecture of the Old Kingdom, then, is certainly based on a synthesis of elements from the entire spectrum of the funerary architecture of the elite. Nor is this surprising, for although the kings set great ideological store by their exclusive status, in sociological terms they were also members of the kingdom’s elite. Their family members and the highest functionaries of their courts may be sought in the niche mastaba complexes of other cemeteries too.
From the beginning of the First Dynasty, these tombs provide us with our first view of not just the kings but the other leading figures of the kingdom, a clearly defined sociological group concentrated in the region of the capital, and this is almost the most distinctive cultural contrast between the period of the unification of the two lands and the Predynastic Period.
With the founding of the unified Egyptian state, the monarchy had also acquired a new dimension, and a new character in its socio-political role. These are most closely reflected in the development of royal tomb architecture, which can be traced in the Abydos cemetery until the end of the First Dynasty. The necropolis lies in the desert area, some 1.5 km away from the strip of fertile land. Its tombs are rectangular chambers sunk into the desert soil and shored up on the outside by brick walls. The first stage of development came with Horus Aha.
His tomb, instead of having two chambers sunk side by side, as in the case of three previous tombs from “Dynasty 0,” comprised three considerably larger chambers. In addition, his tomb shows the first evidence of a custom that flourished intensively for a short time, and then fell into disuse at the end of the First Dynasty: the custom of burying members of the royal household in neighboring tombs. The finds on the site as a whole make it hard to avoid concluding that the people buried here were in fact killed on the occasion of the royal funeral. Stelae referring to such tombs mention servants, including people of small stature (“dwarfs”), who were popular as part of a royal household, and women and dogs. In the case of Aha, thirty-six secondary tombs were laid out in three parallel rows. Investigation of bones cast aside by earlier excavators as worthless recently produced some results as surprising as they were revealing. King Aha had also taken a group of young lions into the next world with him as a symbol of royalty. Judging by the state of their bones, the animals had lived and were probably even born in captivity; in other words, the royal court kept lions.
In the next large tomb complex, that of King Djer, the new structural organization is completed and was the point of departure for gradual further development in following generations. Instead of several small chambers, there is only one rectangular burial chamber laid out in a deep pit in the desert sand, but it is a very much larger one. The traces still show that a wooden coffin was set against its back wall, and the king was buried in this coffin. The burial chamber was covered by a massive timber ceiling, above which, still within the top of the pit, a low tumulus of sand was piled up and enclosed by brick walls. It is not at all certain what these tombs looked like from the outside: new excavations have left no room for illusion on that topic. Since there are no remains of buildings, and indeed architectural factors would categorically prohibit it, the tombs can have had no monumental super O structures. The most that can be assumed is the presence of a low heap of sand contained within brick walls above the tomb. The pairs of stelae sometimes found in front of the tombs would have indicated a place of sacrifice; their inscriptions give the names of the kings and thus identify the owners of the tombs.
While at first the roofing of the pit and the erection of the burial mound could have been carried out only after the funeral rites were completed, later on, from the time of King Den in the middle of the First Dynasty, a stairway closed by stone slabs led down to the burial chamber.
The subsidiary tombs were arranged in a rectangle around the royal tombs themselves, first in large and then in swiftly dwindling numbers. Access was regularly left free to the southwest. In the tomb of Den, a stairway led from this opening down to an underground statue chapel adjoining the outside of the royal burial chamber: a place where the king could be ritually addressed, and where he could be imagined stepping out of his tomb.
The royal tombs of the First Dynasty thus acquired a new complexity, and were rich in symbolism, but they cannot be described as monumental even in the context of contemporary comparisons. However, there was yet another component to the royal tomb complex from the time of King Djer at the latest. Additional huge, rectangular precincts were laid out some 1.5 km north of the cemetery, on the borders of the fertile land near the town and the temple of the local god Khontamenti, who was also god of the necropolis. Djer’s precinct consists of a rectangle 100 x 55 m in size, surrounded by a brick wall over 3 m broad and at one time about 8 m high, ornamented on the outside by a regular niche pattern. Access to the precinct was through monumental gates at the southeast and northeast corners.
As yet we have very little idea of any buildings inside the precinct. Remains of a number of structures have been identified in later complexes, but it is to be supposed that the only ones erected at this date for certain ritual celebrations consisted of light materials (wood and matting) and have left no traces. These “valley precincts” are also surrounded by rows of subsidiary tombs. There is no doubt that such precincts are connected with the royal tomb complex: a direct line leads from their design to the entire pyramid complex of King Djoser at the beginning of the Third Dynasty at Saqqara. In its turn, this connection enables us to conclude with great probability that the valley precincts of Abydos served for the ritual of great festivals, celebrating the sacred role of kingship and the renewal of the king’s dominion in the next world on the occasion of his funeral.
Memphis
The kings of the first two dynasties gave high priority to the traditions of the past by having themselves interred in the ancient cemetery at Abydos, in the territory of their town of origin This (the name of the town is the reason that the two first dynasties are described in classical antiquity as Thinite, from This).
However, it had been clear for some time that the true cultural center of the country was moving farther and farther north, to the area between the beginning of the Faiyum and the southern extremity of the Delta. This was a central location between the large cultivated areas of Middle Egypt and the Delta, and closer to the routes communicating with the culturally very important Near Eastern areas. Once the kingdom had been unified, Memphis was laid out here as the new capital and the king’s royal residence, and archaeological evidence confirms the information provided by the later tradition of classical antiquity, naming King Menes as its founder. Only recently have traces of the early settlement been found under later strata of fertile land. Once again, however, it is principally the evidence of the burial grounds that allows us to draw conclusions about the importance of the site: these burial grounds comprise the extended cemetery of Helwan and the necropolis of the kingdom’s elite in Saqqara.
The Great Niche Mastaba Tombs at Saqqara
The largest of the tombs standing here in a long line on the desert
plateau that rose above the old settlement are of truly royal dimensions, but in design they are very different from the complexes of Abydos. These monuments are large, rectangular buildings, known as mastaba tombs, their exteriors decorated with a complex niche pattern that was even more striking in its original condition because of the colored paint on the plaster. Such niche tombs are found not only in Saqqara but also at certain burial sites between Tarkhan, north of the exit route from the Faiyum, and Abu Roash at the southern end of the Delta. Only a single example of this genre is known in Upper Egypt, but it is one of the oldest.
It cannot be supposed that such a complex type of building,
appearing here so suddenly during the rule of King Aha, had no
models. In Egypt, one would expect to find these models in urban
temple and palace architecture, and indeed there is such an example in the Early Dynastic complex of Hierakonpolis, although unfortunately the function of the building concerned is not clear. In terms of architectural history, however, the trail leads to the Near East, where the development of niche architecture from the pilasters required for structural reasons to the complex type of decoration for official buildings found in Egypt can be followed step by step. The niche facades in the tombs at Saqqara were mostly built on a low base course, where the heads of cattle modeled in clay were frequently placed. A slab stela was found outside one niche at the southern end of the east wall of one particular mastaba, showing the occupant of the tomb seated, and giving his title in an inscription. It was probably originally set at the back of the niche, as frequently seen later in the false doors of the early Old Kingdom.
Inside the tombs, the burial chambers were dug out of the desert ground and, like the complexes ofAbydos, were roofed with timber and covered with a tumulus above which stood the superstructure. Here again a stairway was introduced during the First Dynasty, giving access to the burial chamber and allowing construction on the tomb to be completed before the funeral.
Since the discovery of the great niche mastabas in Saqqara, there has been dispute as to whether these were the real tombs of the First Dynasty kings, in which case the complexes of Abydos would be cenotaphs or “false tombs,” merely a remnant of tradition. In view of the number of tombs at Saqqara, which exceeds the number of kings of the First Dynasty, only some of the largest complexes could in fact be royal. Nonetheless, it would be surprising to find the tombs of kings and officials promiscuously mingled and only gradually coming to differ in terms of size. Later on, the royal burial place was always distinct in quality from the tombs of even the highest administrative officials, just as Pharaoh himself was not primus inter pares, but by virtue of his royal office stood closer to the divine creator himself than to humanity.
However this difficult question may finally be decided, for all their differences the close connection between the large niche tombs and the royal tombs at Abydos must not be overlooked. They are linked by the development of the shape of the burial chamber and the covered tumulus above its roof. At Saqqara the tumulus is even sometimes found with a stepped exterior, which naturally calls the later Step Pyramid to mind. Subordinate tombs surrounding the main tomb were built at Saqqara too. Moreover, elements of later royal funerary architecture are anticipated in the large niche tombs.
This is particularly clear where a funerary temple actually adjoins the mastaba tomb on its north side, just as a temple does later in King Djoser’s funerary precinct at the beginning of the Third Dynasty. This site is not an isolated find. One of the oldest mastabas had a complex of enclosed courtyards, with walled benches probably used for sacrificial purposes, on the north of the tomb precinct. A cult area north of the tomb therefore seems typical of the design of such precincts. Boats as grave goods, known from the pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom, also seem to appear for the first time in the great niche tombs of the First Dynasty.
The royal tomb architecture of the Old Kingdom, then, is certainly based on a synthesis of elements from the entire spectrum of the funerary architecture of the elite. Nor is this surprising, for although the kings set great ideological store by their exclusive status, in sociological terms they were also members of the kingdom’s elite. Their family members and the highest functionaries of their courts may be sought in the niche mastaba complexes of other cemeteries too.
From the beginning of the First Dynasty, these tombs provide us with our first view of not just the kings but the other leading figures of the kingdom, a clearly defined sociological group concentrated in the region of the capital, and this is almost the most distinctive cultural contrast between the period of the unification of the two lands and the Predynastic Period.
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