Bárta, Miroslav. 2011. "A new Old Kingdom rock-cut tomb from Abusir and its Abusir-Saqqara context." In Old Kingdom, new perspectives. Egyptian Art and Archaeology 2750–2150 BC, eds. H. and N. Strudwick, Oxford and Oakville: Oxbow Books. 9-21. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Bárta, M. 2020, Non-royal tombs in Abusir, small
Kings of the Sun. Studies, 2020
The modern interdisciplinary exploration of ancient Egyptian burial sites represents one of the major trends of contemporary archaeological research in Egyptology. Cooperation among representatives of the natural, technical and social sciences is imperative if we are to understand the information collected during the excavation process. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife similar to the life they had lived on earth, and their tombs – in terms of their location, architecture, decoration, inscriptions, and burial equipment – reflected many aspects of their world, including the administration of the state, the social standing of tomb owners and their families, the realities of everyday life, religious ideas, the anthropology of the population of that time, and the state of (and changes in) the environment. Over time, four royal complexes of Fifth-Dynasty kings were built in the Abusir pyramid field during the Old Kingdom. In addition, members of the royal family and the state’s high officials constructed their tombs here. In their shadow, lower-ranking officials, along with their wives and children, would be buried. All of these monuments tell thousands of multifaceted stories, from which we can reconstruct the history of the world’s oldest territorial state. As the Abusir burial ground is so vast, it comes as no surprise that several different non-royal burial sites gradually arose independently of each other in this widespread area over the course of the third millennium BCE. While the factors influencing their position, nature and time of origin varied, key considerations would undoubtedly have been the location of the Old Kingdom’s capital, White Walls, the evolution of the network of settlements, the local cult topography, and the main communications connecting the necropolis with the Nile valley. Although much of the site remains unexplored, current knowledge and archaeological research offer a relatively detailed awareness and description of how it developed in time and space. Each of the burial sites tells, in its own specific way, the story of its time and of the owners of the individual tombs. These monuments reflect the dynamics and transformations of ancient Egyptian society. The following text provides a very limited description of some of these sites, drawing on the enormous wealth of sources known to date .
AMAZON, 2023
Renata G. TATOMIR - LATE OLD KINGDOM PRIVATE ELITE TOMBS OF THE SAQQARA CEMETERY , AMAZON, 2023, 284 pp., Copyright © 2023 Renata G. TATOMIR, All rights reserved., ISBN: 9798373542975 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.pl/dp/B0BW2MZ59J https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BW2MZ59J This book is an Egyptological study of particular historical, archaeological, funerary, and religious aspects of the Late Old Kingdom. More precisely, it addresses the general issue of five private elite tombs (rock-cut tombs and mastabas) of the 5th and the 6th Dynasties at the Saqqara cemetery, as an attempt to in-depth analysis and understanding of the various levels of relationship between the elite members of the central apparatus at the top of the Egyptian society, through their tombs viewed as monumental funerary symbols of prestige and power. It is a three-part study focused in the first one on pursuing the process of the genesis and evolution of the Egyptian central elite and its funerary monuments and symbolism on several levels, as it developed in the complex and profound framework of the socio-political and religious-funerary transformations that marked the central authority of Ancient Egypt and the unified state throughout the Old Kingdom, and particularly in its late part. The particular features of this phenomenon are exemplified in a detailed presentation and analysis in the second part, where, together with essential information provided on their owners, are described five tombs: two rock-cut tombs of the 5th Dynasty medium-rank elite members Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotepp, and Irukaptah, and three impressive in size and grandeur mastabas of the 6th Dynasty highest central elite, the viziers Kagemni, Mereruka and Mehu. At the same time, the study also raises the issue of the relationship between life and death in the Egyptian mindset, the latter understood as a continuation of life on an invisible plane. The third part of the study, in its abbreviated form, contains a minimal yet suggestive selection of photographs the author has taken during her last six-year explorations at Saqqara cemetery, in the area of the tombs subject to research and analysis. Most of them are exterior photographs of the area and of the five tombs with which I chose to exemplify the analysis in its current form. However, I also chose some representative interior details of larger shots from each tomb. Where appropriate, I provided my transliteration and translation of each extant inscription. Finally, in the last part, the author proposes an EXCURSUS: DEATH IS NOT THE END on the possible links between the latest discoveries in the medical field on near-death experiences and the hypothesis that the ancient Egyptian approach to the afterlife was influenced by this very type of experience..
New Egyptian tomb type found at Abusir South? Report on the excavations of mud brick complex AS 103
Prague Egyptological Studies XXI, 2018
In the autumn season of 2017, four mud brick structures designated as AS 103 were excavated in the area of the south-eastern part of the New Kingdom temple (AS 70–73). It is a complex of four corridor chapels/tombs (in an area of 15.0 × 12.7 m), with single or composed niches in the western inner walls. One of the niches in Corridor Chapel 1 was cased with red-painted wooden planks. Shafts were detected in front of the niches, a fairly uncommon phenomenon in Egyptian tomb architecture. The term “hollow tomb with a shaft below a niche” is being proposed for this new tomb (sub)type. A preliminary study of the pottery leads to the conclusion that the tombs were built from the east to the west, with Corridor Chapels 4, 3 and 2 built successively in the Third Dynasty and Corridor Chapel 1 in the Fifth Dynasty. Even though they were funeral -structures, not many burials were excavated: the remains of a single human body have been found. The structures did not contain many finds, either. However, four white limestone offering basins were uncovered in situ. One of them was inscribed with the female name Nfr.t-jw=s. It is evident that the excavations have brought to light new insights into burial practices of non-elite people of the Old Kingdom period. In the context of Abusir South, AS 103 represents the first thoroughly excavated complex of such a type of tombs. Based on preliminary probing, similar structures are very likely located nearby, continuing in all directions. Keywords: Abusir South – Old Kingdom – mud brick tomb – corridor chapel – niches – human burial – pottery – offering basin – wooden casing
Prague Egyptological Studies, 2017
The excavations at Abusir South have already uncovered many tombs that added valuable information to the general knowledge of the development of the Old Kingdom society, its burial and funeral habits, and last but not least social relations and their impact on the lives of ancient Egyptian officials. One of the last discoveries is represented by the tomb of “the elder of the judicial hall” Kaisebi (AS 76) and the adjoining tomb of Ptahwer (AS 76b), which are located to the south of the anonymous mastaba AS 54 lying on the most prominent spot of the whole Abusir South area. Kaisebi and Ptahwer built their tombs between this huge mastaba AS 54 and recently discovered 18.5 m long ship, both dated to the end of the Third Dynasty. Tomb AS 76 was constructed in two phases in the course of the late Fifth and Sixth Dynasty. The first one consisted of a rather small rectangular mastaba with a chapel, a northern niche, a serdab, and two shafts. Later on, the original structure was enlarged by an annexe (AS 76b) attached to the eastern wall of AS 76, which included another offering place and two burial shafts. The cruciform chapel of Kaisebi’s mastaba with colourful wall paintings contains a well-preserved false door in situ.