The Menkaure Valley Temple Occupation in Context

chapter 6 Shareholders: The Menkaure Valley Temple Occupation in Context

Mark Lehner Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA); Research Associate, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

Abstract

This article assesses the settlement structures in the Menkaure Valley Temple (MVT) in the wider context of settlement at the southeastern base of the Giza Plateau, including the Khentkawes Town (KKT), adjacent to the MVT, as well as domestic structures in other pyramid temples and enclosures, mainly those of Raneferef (Fifth Dynasty) and Wedjebten (Sixth Dynasty). I look at the hypothesis that the MVT and KKT together formed one pyramid town. From extensions of the KKT to the east, discovered in the last few years, doorways opened north to the adjacent Central Field East cemetery, which developed in a Fourth Dynasty quarry during the Fifth Dynasty, contemporary with the main occupation of the KKT and MVT. Seen in these wider architectural, settlement, and cemetery contexts, the occupation of the MVT court appears as one node, like that of the Raneferef court, in a complex network of affiliations of pyramid towns and temples, including a tight relationship between the foundations of Khafre, Menkaure, and Khentkawes I.

1 Introduction

When George Reisner excavated the Menkaure Valley Temple (MVT) between July 1908 and April 1910, he found packed into the central court a dense warren

* Major support for this work was provided by David H. Koch and Mr. and Mrs. Lee M. Bass; The Glen Dash Foundation for Archaeological Research; Ann Lurie; Ed and Kathy Fries; Lou R. Hughes; Bruce Ludwig; Piers Litherland; Cameron and Linda Myhrvold; Marjorie Fisher; Ann Thompson; Jon and Janice Jerde; and Matthew McCauley. Raymond Arce, Michael and Lois Craig, Richard S. Harwood, Don Kunz, Nathan Myhrvold and Rosemarie Havrenak, Jeffrey Raikes, Dr. Bonnie M. Sampsell, Craig Smith, and many AERA members helped make possible AERA’s fieldwork at Giza.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��5 | doi ��.��63/9789004301894_007 228 Lehner of small bins, round silo bases and walls defining small houses or apartments; “the general appearance was that of a poor modern village.”1 Barry Kemp characterized this occupation as the “villagization of a monument,”2 a process that must have started soon after Menkaure’s successor, Shepseskaf, finished the temple in mudbrick upon his predecessor’s death when all major stonework on this pyramid complex stopped.3 This article looks at the MVT “village” together with the nearby Khentkawes Town (KKT) and domestic structures at the pyramids of Raneferef (Fifth Dynasty) and Wedjebten (Sixth Dynasty). Like those settlements, the MVT was a node in a wider network of affiliations of pyramid towns and temples. Individuals who benefitted from the MVT node were buried in the Fifth Dynasty cemetery of the Central Field East, immediately north of the MVT and KKT. Part 1 reviews the royal decrees for the Menkaure Pyramid and its town. Part 2 surveys the occupation structures in the MVT court. Part 3 compares the MVT settlement to occupation structures around the Wedjebten pyramid. Part 4 examines the secondary “houses” occupying the court of the Raneferef pyramid temple and relates those structures to textual information in the Raneferef papyrus archive. Part 5 reviews the hypothesis that the MVT occupation and the Khentkawes Town (KKT) functioned together as the pyramid town of Menkaure. Part 6 describes the extension of the KKT to the east, discovered in the last few years by teams from Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) and looks at the possible relationship of the extended settlement to the cemetery in the Central Field East.

2 Decrees for the Menkaure Pyramid and Its Town

The impetus for the growth of a “village” inside the MVT was probably a decree issued by Shepseskaf, carved on a limestone stela, the earliest known exam- ple of a genre of royal decrees. Introduced by the formula, ɩ̓r.n-f m mnw-f, “he made it as a monument,”4 the edict sets up pekher offerings in the pyramid of Menkaure and mentions wꜤb [purification] priests appointed forever.5

1 Reisner, Mycerinus, 49. 2 Kemp, Anatomy of a Civilization, 207–09, fig. 74 and “Old Kingdom,” 93–94. 3 Reisner, Mycerinus, 34–54. 4 Papazian, Domain of Pharaoh, 305 restores “[for] (the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Mn-kꜢ.w-RꜤ).” 5 Reisner, Mycerinus, pl. 19b, d; Urk. I, 160; KD, 16–21; Strudwick, Texts from the Pyramid Age, 97–98, no.16; Papazian, Domain of Pharaoh, 260–62, 305–06.