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DEATH and the AFTERLIFE: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM : FOCUS (Stepped of King and the at Gizeh)

TITLE or DESIGNATION: Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser

ARCHITECT:

CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Early Dynastic Egyptian

DATE: c. 2675- 2625 B.C.E.

LOCATION: , Egypt ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/h umanities/ancient-art- civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom-the- great-pyramids-of-

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/h umanities/ancient-art- civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom- pyramid-of-

TITLE or DESIGNATION: Pyramid of Khufu at Gizeh

CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian

DATE: c. 2560–2540 B.C.E.

LOCATION: Gizeh, Egypt ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacadem y.org/humanities/ancient -art-civilizations/egypt- art/predynastic-old- kingdom/a/old-kingdom- pyramid-of--and- the-great-

TITLE or DESIGNATION: at Gizeh

CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian

DATE: c. 2520-2494 B.C.E.

LOCATION: Gizeh, Egypt

TITLE or DESIGNATION: Great Sphinx at Gizeh

CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Old Kingdom Egyptian

DATE: c. 2520-2494 B.C.E.

MEDIUM: Sandstone DEATH and the AFTERLIFE: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: SELECTED TEXT (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh) PYRAMIDS AT SAQQARA and GIZEH

Online Links:

Pyramid of Djoser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sed festival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mastaba - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ancient Egyptian burial customs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Djoser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Imhotep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Video Images of Saqqara - Discovering Egypt PYRAMIDS AT SAQQARA and GIZEH

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Ancient Egyptian Monuments: of Djoser's, Saqqara

Smarthistory - The Great Pyramids of Giza

Stepped - National Geographic EGYPTIAN KINGDOMS

Pre- and Early Dynastic Period (6000 - 2686 BCE)

Old Kingdom (2686– 2134 BCE)

Middle Kingdom (2030 - 1640 BCE)

New Kingdom (16th-11th centuries BCE) is not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the agency that granted all life.

Through the hope of new life after death Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature. He wears the crown and carries a crook and a flail. He is both the husband and brother of and the father of .

Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris. She used her magical powers to resurrect Osiris and to fashion a phallus to conceive her son.

Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Seth who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son. Imhotep. The Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser (Zoser), c. 2675-2625 BCE, Saqqara For his tomb complex at Saqqara, King Djoser (Dynasty 3, ruled c. 2681-2662 BCE) commissioned the earliest known monumental architecture in Egypt. The designer of the complex was a man called Imhotep.

It appears that he first planned Djoser’s tomb as a single-story , then later decided to enlarge upon the concept. In the end, what he produced was a stepped pyramid consisting of six mastabalike elements of decreasing size placed on top of each other. Although his final structure resembles the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, it differs in both its planned concept and its purpose of protecting a tomb. Djoser’s imposing structure was originally faced with a veneer of . A mastaba is an Old Kingdom Egyptian tomb

The shape of the pyramid was a solar reference, perhaps intended as a solidified version of the rays of the sun. Texts talk about the sun’s rays as a ramp the mounts to climb to the sky—the earliest pyramids, such as the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara—were actually designed as a staircase. The pyramid was also clearly connected to the sacred ben-ben stone, an icon of the primeval mound that was considered the place of initial creation. The pyramid was considered a place of regeneration for the deceased ruler.

Imhotep, the architect of the Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser, claimed to be founder of medicine, the scroll, and the first to use columns in architecture. In the form of his , Djoser was able to observe these devotions through two peepholes bored through the wall between the serdab and the funerary chapel.

To the east of the pyramid were sham buildings- simple masonry shells filled with debris- representing chapels, palaces with courtyards, and other structures. They were provided so that the dead king could continue to observe the sed that had ensured his long reign.

His spirit could await the start of the ceremonies in a pavilion near the entrance to the complex in its southeast corner. The running trials of the took place in a long outdoor courtyard within the complex.

After proving himself, the king’s spirit proceeded first to the South Palace then to the North Palace, to be symbolically crowned once again as king of Egypt’s Two Lands. Statue of King Djoser from the Third Dynasty, limestone This serdab is located at the Mortuary Complex of Djoser at Saqqara, c. 2680 BCE (on the northeast corner of the pyramid by the entrance to the ; original location of Djoser’s statue) The heb-sed festival (an important completed by Egyptian kings, typically after 30 years on the throne) to renew their powers.

The courtyards are symbolic of Upper and , indicated by engaged columns with papyrus and lotus capitals. tended to be grouped together in a - literally, a “city of the dead” – at the edge of the desert on the west bank of the Nile, for the land of the dead was believed to be in the direction of the setting sun. Two of the most extensive of these early are at Saqqara and Giza, just outside modern . The engaged columns spaced along the exterior walls of the North Palace, for example, resemble stalks of papyrus. Stylized papyrus blossoms serve as their capitals.

These columns may have been patterned after the bundled papyrus stalks early Egyptian builders used to reinforce mud walls and symbolized Lower Egypt. By contrast, the architectural decorations of the South Palace featured plants symbolic of , the flowering sedge and the lotus. Top Left: bird from the , tomb of , c. 1325 BCE

Bottom left: pendant from the Valley of the Kings, , c. 1325 BCE

Egyptian gylphs symbolizing (left to right) life (the ), stability (the pillar), beauty, joy, and protection Canopic jars were used by in the mummification process. The heads represented the . They are: • , the jackal-headed god whose jar contained the stomach (representing the east) • , the falcon-headed god whose jar contained the intestines (representing the west) • , the baboon-headed god whose jar contained the lungs (representing the north) • Inseti, the human-headed god whose jar contained the liver (representing the south) Preserving the deceased’s body by mummification was only the first requirement for in . Food and drink also had to be provided, as did clothing, utensils, and furniture. Nothing that had been enjoyed on earth was to be lacking. The Egyptians also placed statuettes called (answerers) in the tomb. These figurines performed any labor required of the deceased in the afterlife, answering whenever his or her name was called.

Pyramid of Khufu at Gizeh, c. 2560–2540 BCE

The largest of the three pyramids is that of Khufu’s. As with Djoser’s Stepped Pyramid, the four sides of each of the Great Pyramids are oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. But the funerary temples associated with the three Gizeh pyramids are not placed on the north side, facing the stars of the northern sky, as was Djoser’s temple. The temples sit on the east side, facing the rising sun and underscoring their connection with Re. At Gizeh, across the Nile from modern Cairo, stand the three Great Pyramids, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They testify to the wealth and pretensions of the Fourth Dynasty Khufu (r. 2551-2528 BCE), Khafre (r. 2520-2494 BCE) and (r. 2490-2472 BCE). The new tomb shape probably reflects the influence of Heliopolis, the seat of the powerful cult of Re, whose emblem was a pyramidal stone, the ben-ben. The Great Pyramids are symbols of the sun, where Egyptian kings were reborn in the afterlife, just as the sun is reborn each day at dawn. We know that the plateau of Giza, renowned for its three Great Pyramids, was chosen for its ability to withstand the burden imposed by the mass of the construction and for its proximity to the high waters of the inundation. Less than a thousand yards separated the construction site from the harbor area where the blocks coming from the quarry at Tura were unloaded.

Moreover, not all the stones had to be brought from elsewhere; the immediate environs of Giza furnished the majority of the blocks needed for the masonry of the interior. Once the king had made up his mind, it was necessary to plan the construction work: the number of stone blocks needed and where they would be extracted, the requisitioning of the work force, and the location of villages for the workmen near the site. Ben-ben stone from Heliopolis

The , inscribed on the burial chambers walls of many royal tombs beginning with the Fifth Dynasty pyramid of Urnas, refer to the sun’s rays as the ladder the pharaoh uses to ascend to the heavens. Many questions remain about the construction of these massive monuments, and theories abound as to the actual methods used. The workforce needed to build these structures is also still much discussed. Discovery of a town for workers to the south of the plateau has offered some answers.

It is likely that there was a permanent group of skilled craftsmen and builders who were supplemented by seasonal crews of approximately 2,000 conscripted peasants.

These crews were divided into gangs of 200 men, with each group further divided into teams of 20. Experiments indicate that these groups of 20 men could haul the 2.5 ton blocks from quarry to pyramid in about 20 minutes, their path eased by a lubricated surface of wet silt.

An estimated 340 stones could be moved daily from quarry to construction site, particularly when one considers that many of the blocks (such as those in the upper courses) were considerably smaller. Khufu’s pyramid is constructed of inner, rough-hewn, locally quarried core stones, which is all we see today, and angled, outer casing blocks laid in even horizontal courses with spaces filled with plaster.

The fine outer casing stones, which have long since been removed, were laid with great precision. These blocks of white Tura limestone would have given the pyramid a smooth surface and been quite bright and reflective. At the very top of the pyramid would have sat a capstone, known as a , that may have been gilt. This dazzling point, shining in the intense sunlight, would have been visible for a great distance. The interior chambers and passageways of Khufu’s pyramid are unique and include a number of enigmatic features. There is an unfinished subterranean chamber whose function is mysterious as well as a number of so-called “air shafts” that radiate out from the upper chambers.

These have recently been explored using small robots, but a series of blocking stones have obscured the passages. When entering the pyramid, one has to crawl up a cramped ascending chamber that opens suddenly into a stunning Grand Gallery. This corbelled passage soars to a height of 8.74 m (26 feet) and leads up to the King’s Chamber, which is constructed entirely from red brought from the southern quarries at . The king’s sarcophagus, carved from red granite, sits empty at the exact central axis of the pyramid. This burial chamber was sealed with a series of massive granite blocks and the entrance to the shaft filled with limestone in an effort to obscure the opening.

Khufu’s mortuary complex also included seven large boat pits. Five of these are located to the east of the pyramid and were a sort of model; these brick-lined boat shaped elements were probably intended for use in the afterlife to transport the king to stellar destinations.

Boat burials and models of this type had a long history in royal mortuary contexts—a fleet of 14 such pits, containing actual boats averaging 18-19 meters (60 feet) in length encased inside, were discovered at a Dynasty 1 mortuary enclosure in Abydos, the cemetery of Egypt’s earliest kings. Often, however, as with Khufu, the pits were simply boat shaped models rather than containing actual boats. In addition to these model boat pits, however, on the south side of the pyramid Khufu had two massive, rectangular stone lined pits that contained completely disassembled boats. One of these has been removed and reconstructed in a special museum on the south side of the pyramid. This cedar boat measures 43.3 meters (142 feet) in length and was constructed of 1,224 separate pieces stitched together with ropes. These boats appear to have been used for the funerary procession and as ritual objects connected to the last earthly voyage of the king, and were then dismantled and interred. Pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh, c. 2520-2494 BCE

The second , that was built by Khufu’s second son Khafre, has a section of outer casing that still survives at the very top (and which would have entirely covered all three of the great pyramids at Giza). Although this monument appears larger than that of his father, it is actually slightly smaller but was constructed 10 m (33 feet) higher on the plateau. From the remains surrounding the Pyramid of Khafre at Gizeh, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct an entire funerary complex.

The complex included the pyramid itself with the pharaoh’s burial chamber; the mortuary temple adjoining the pyramid on the east side, where offerings were made to the dead king, ceremonies performed, and cloth, food, and ceremonial vessels stored; the covered causeway, or raised corridor, who walls were decorated with painted reliefs; and the valley temple at the edge of the floodplain. The interior is much simpler than that of Khufu’s pyramid, with a single burial chamber, one small subsidiary chamber, and two passageways. The mortuary temple at the pyramid base was more complex than that of Khufu and was filled with statuary of the king--over 52 life-size or larger images originally filled the structure.

Khafre’s valley temple, located at the east end of the causeway leading from the pyramid base, is beautifully preserved. It was constructed of megalithic blocks sheathed with granite and floors of polished white calcite. Statue bases indicate that an additional 24 images of the pharaoh were originally located in this temple.

Map of the , showing the mastabas (Old Kingdom Tombs as seen above) constructed within the complex

In addition to these major structures, several smaller pyramids belonging to queens are arranged as satellites. A major cemetery of smaller tombs, known as mastabas ( for ‘bench’ in reference to their shape—flat-roofed, rectangular, with sloping sides), fills the area to the east and west of the pyramid of Khufu and were constructed in a grid-like pattern for prominent members of the court. Being buried near the pharaoh was a great honor and helped ensure a prized place in the afterlife. The three Great Pyramids attest to Egyptian builders’ mastery of stone masonry and to their ability to mobilize, direct, house, and feed a huge workforce engaged in one of the most lab0r- intensive enterprises ever undertaken.

Like all building projects of this type, the process of erecting the pyramids began with the quarrying of stone, in this case primarily the limestone of the Gizeh plateau itself. Often, the artisans had to cut deep tunnels to find high-quality stone free of cracks and other flaws. They pried the stones free from the bedrock with wooden levers. At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white “casing stones” – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ around the base of the Great Pyramid, and display the same workmanship and precision as has been reported for centuries. Creating this type of smooth surface is what architectural call ashlar masonry. Khafre (Gizeh), c. 2575-2525 BCE, diorite

Khafre was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty, who had his capital at Memphis. According to some authors he was the son and successor of Khufu, but it is more commonly accepted that was Khufu's successor and Khafre was Djedefre's brother and successor.

Khafre was the builder of the second largest pyramid at the Giza Necropolis complex (his is 3 metres shorter than Khufu's). Most modern Egyptologists also credit him with the building of the Great Sphinx. is carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, and it appears that the core blocks used to construct the king’s valley temple were quarried from the layers of stone that run along the upper sides of this massive image.

The was a royal symbol as well as being connected with the sun as a symbol of the horizon; the fusion of this powerful animal with the head of the pharaoh was an icon that survived and was often used throughout Egyptian history. The king’s head is on a smaller scale than the body. This appears to have been due to a defect in the stone; a weakness recognized by the sculptors who compensated by elongating the body.

Directly in front of the Sphinx is a separate temple dedicated to the worship of its cult, but very little is known about it since there are no Old Kingdom texts that refer to the Sphinx or its temple. The temple is similar to Khafre’s mortuary temple and has granite pillars forming a colonnade around a central courtyard. However, it is unique in that it has two sanctuaries—one on the east and one on the west—likely connected to the rising and setting sun. On the south side are the subsidiary pyramids, popularly known as Queens' Pyramids. Three remain standing to nearly full height but the fourth was so ruined that its existence was not suspected until the recent discovery of the first course of stones and the remains of the capstone. Hidden beneath the paving around the pyramid was the tomb of Queen I, sister and wife of and mother of Khufu. To keep the construction effort running smoothly all year round without interfering with agricultural work, teams of about twenty thousand men were rotated every three to four months. The work week was nine days, with the tenth devoted to leisure. The workmen took advantage of their free day to return home to see their families or simply to their clothes and make their bread for the coming week. Remains of workshops, storehouses, and shacks have Above: Worker tombs at Gizeh been unearthed in the vicinity of the pyramids of Giza.

Each hut was designed to shelter a dozen workers and had a kitchen, a cellar, and an oven for baking. Tombs of workers who died laboring on the pyramid were discovered in 1992 by Egyptian archaeologists at the southeast of the Giza plateau. Study of their skeletons has revealed that all the men suffered from serious pathologies of the spinal column and coccyx from the excessive strain of hauling and carrying. DEATH and the AFTERLIFE: PREDYNASTIC and OLD KINGDOM EGYPT: ACTIVITIES and REVIEW (Stepped Pyramid of King Djoser and the Pyramids at Gizeh)

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