VERÖFFENTLICHUNGEN DER INSTITUTE FÜR AFRIKANISTIK UND ÄGYPTOLOGIE DER UNIVERSITÄT WIEN 29 WA FA A el-SADEEK Twenty-Sixth Dynasty Necropolis at Gizeh BEITRÄGE ZUR ÄGYPTOLOGIE BAND 5 WIEN 1984 VERÖFFENTLICHUNGEN DER INSTITUTE FÜR AFRIKANISTIK UND ÄGYPTOLOGIE DER UNIVERSITÄT WIEN NR. 29 WAFAA EL-SADEEK TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY NECROPOLIS AT GIZEH ANALYSIS OF THE TOMB OF THERY AND ITS PLACE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SAITE FUNERARY ART AND ARCHITECTURE BEITRÄGE ZUR ÄGYPTOLOGIE, BAND 5 WIEN 1984 C Copyright 1984 by AFRO-PUB Verein zur Förderung und Publikation wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten aus den Fächern Ägyptologie und Afrikanistik Verleger und Eigentümer: AFRO-PUB Herausgeber: H. Mukarovsky Verantwortliche Schriftleiter: D.Arnold, J. Holaubek alle: A-1010 Wien, Doblhoffg.5 und Frankgasse 1 Druck: 0. Schanz To my parents V CONTENTS Acknowledgment IX Introduction 1 Chapter I Gizeh necropolis: its history 3 Chapter II The Tomb of Thery 11 a. History of excavation and discovery 13 b* Description of the tomb 17 c. Decoration of the tomb 22 Exterior 22 Interior 32 d. Thery1 s burial: contemporary and geographical setting 89 Chapter III Dynasty XXVI at Gizeh 101 a. General introduction 103 b. The Isis Temple 105 c. Individual tombs 114 Chapter IV Dynasty XXVI throughout Egypt 149 a. General introduction 151 b. Graves at Saqqara 155 c. Graves at Thebes - Asasif 166 d. Graves at Heliopolis 183 e. Graves at Bahriya Oasis 186 Chapter V Analysis of the architecture of the Tomb of Thery within the Dynasty XXVI pattern 205 a. Introduction 207 b. Building materials and local conditions 208 c. Architectural features 209 d. Comparison of likely use 212 Chapter VI Analysis of scenes from the Tomb of Thery within the Dynasty XXVI pattern 215 a. Introduction 217 b. Scenes of daily life 219 c. Scenes of religion and ritual 221 d. Other decoration in the tomb 229 VI Chapter VII Analysis of inscriptions from the Tomb of Thery within the Dynasty XXVI pattern 235 a. General introduction 237 b. Commentary on Spell 625, of the Coffin Texts 243 c. Commentary on Spell 301, of the Coffin Texts 247 d. The solar hymn 248 e. Book of the Dead Chapter 146 249 f. Names, titles and epithets 249 Chapter IX Conclusion 259 IX ACKNOWLEDGMENT The writer is deeply indebted to Univ.-Doz.Dr. Helmut Satzinger, Director ot the Egyptian Collection, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, for all his help and encouragement throughout the prepara­ tion of this work. For financial support, my grateful thanks go to the Austrian Bundesministerium fur Wissenschaft und Forschung, which has en­ abled me to study in Vienna and to Dr. Ahmed Qadry, Director-General of the Antiquities Organisation of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Special thanks for help and co-operation, and for encouraging me in my early efforts, go to Professor D. A. Saleh, former Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Cairo; and for unstinting help in allowing me access to material, to Dr. W. K. Simpson, Curator of the Egyptian Department, Boston Museum of Fine Arts; to Mr. B. von Bothmer, Director of the Egyptian and Classical sections of the Brooklyn Museum; to Professor H. S. Smith, Edwards Professor of Egyptology, University College London; Mr. D. P. Dawson, Curator or Archaeology and History, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; Miss Janine Bourriau, Assistant Keeper, Department of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Miss Helen Murray, of the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; especially to Dr.Dia' Abu-Ghazi, Director-General of the Museums Service of Egypt; to Dr. M. Saleh, Director of The Egyptian Museum, Cairo; and to the Trustees of the British Museum and the governing body of the Ashmolean Museum for providing photographs. Also on a practical level, I am immensely grateful to Mr. Salah el-Naggar, Architect of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities for the Gizeh and Saqqara Zone, for his help in drawing the plan of the tomb of Thery; and to Mr. J. M. Murphy, of the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London, for his kindness in revising my English language. 1 INTRODUCTION It is an often forgotten but nevertheless important part of the duty of anyone who is given temporary responsibility for the guardianship of any archaeological site not only to help to reveal the fragments of the past and to safeguard them for future generations but also to satisfy himself that those who have gone before him on the site have drawn from it and from its exposed remains the fullest possible information before they crumble to dust. It is a duty to seek out those monuments left unpublished, or inadequately published, or thought not to be worthy of major attention, and to make sure that they give up all of their secrets before work is started on a fresh area of study. Conservation does not of necessity mean the work of the scientist and the stone-mason, but may also take the form of comprehensive publication, with drawings and photographs of every facet of the monument before it disappears. Happily, there are many examples of this nature of work in Egypt today, especially in Asasif, where the many large and at one time magnificent tombs of Dynasty XXVI are to be published in detail, with teams of archaeologists - many of them Austrian and German - co-operating by working on clearing them and preparing them for publication. Indeed, several have already found new fulfilment in extensive new publications. Similarly, the British are now starting work on a major survey of the ancient capital of Memphis, a task which has been sorely needed for almost a century; and the Americans are working on major new publications of the Old Kingdom tombs discovered by Reisner at Gizeh. So it is that, having realised that the important Dynasty XXVI tombs and other remains of Gizeh had not only suffered terrible damage in the past but were also continuing to feel the combined effects of the weather and the modern way of life, that I determined to bring them together into one comprehensive piece of work in order to rescue what is left from the ultimate fate of total destruction. My interest has centred particularly on the remarkable tomb-chapel of Thery, set on the southern slope of hills. 2 What I intend to do in this thesis is to confine myself largely to the Saite necropolis in Gizeh, and to set it in its place among the other Dynasty XXVI necropoles set throughout Egypt, as well as attempting to show the characteristics of the Gizeh flowering of that period by comparing it, especially through the tomb of Thery, with the architecture, the scenes and the inscriptions of the other great burial places. Thus the planned programme which I shall follow includes a defining of the history of the Gizeh necropolis itself, showing in which main periods the Plateau area was used for burials, and to follow that with a brief examination of the remainder of the Saite necropoles. It will be important to note the individual character of each of these other burial-places, and whether they bear overall Saite similarities or whether each has its own individual face. The main focus of the thesis, the tomb-chapel of Thery itself, will be examined in minute detail, with reference not only to today's remains still standing, but also to the reports of the early excavators, with a view to comparing its details of architecture, scenes and inscriptions with the characteristics of Saite tombs from up and down the Nile Valley. The aim is to achieve a synthesis of the Saite style of burial, and to test to what extent Thery's tomb follows a typically Saite pattern or follows the plans of a unique individual. As a by-product, much new light will be shed on the Saite use of the Gizeh necropolis, long thought of primarily if not exclusively as a burial-place of the Old Kingdom. It is my hope that this work will produce the evidence which will help to decide whether the Gizeh necropolis of the Saites may justly lay claim to ranking with the truly great Dynasty XXVI places of rest of Asasif and Saqqara. CHAPTER I Gizeh necropolis: its history 5 The history of the massive grave-field of Gizeh is long but by no means continuous: the popularity of the sweeping plateau and its spurs waxed and waned through the three thousand years of Egyptian history, from its apparent early use in the Archaic period about 3100 B.C. until the Romans dug their burial pits in the low range of hills south of the plateau itself. It was in these selfsame hills that Petrie1 discovered the earliest evidence for funerary use of what later became the country's most sacred burial place: some of the mud-brick mastabas of Dynasties I and II, such as the so-called "Covington's Tomb", were almost big enough to rival the enormous edifices of nearby Saqqara. But the zenith of popularity for Gizeh and its necropolis came after Khufu decided to use the imposing limestone plateau towering above the Nile to build his majestic monument for all the world 2 to see. The area quickly became what Reisner aptly described as "a great city of the living kas of all members of the royal family and court," and during the development of the Fourth Dynasty the tombs of the area became grouped into three great cemeteries: the western containing burials of the high priests and officials who had served Khufu; the eastern seemingly reserved for the royal families of the dynasty; and the central, developed slightly later, with the staff and followers of Khafre.