The Last Royal Pyramid in Egypt

Steve Harvey finished the day at the ARCE pyramid conference with a lecture entitled “The Later History of a Form: Abydos as a Pyramidal Landscape”.  As always Steve’s lecture was loaded with interesting facts:

• At Sinki (near Abydos) there is a small 4^th Dynasty structure that might have originally been a small pyramid built by Snefru (how many pyramids did Snefru build!)
• Ahmose (Dynasty 18) built the last Egyptian royal pyramid at Abydos. A small temple was found at the base of the pyramid by Arthur Mace; the pyramid was large (50 meters per side)
• A temple for Ahmose Nefertari was found near Ahmose’s pyramid
• In 1902 a building for Tetisheri (a pyramid?) was found, as was a possible tomb for Ahmose that was like the tombs built in the Valley of the Kings, rather than a pyramid. Ahmose erected a stela describing his building of a pyramid for his grandmother
• Some very steep-sided pyramids were found at Abydos by Mariette; were these pyramids the inspiration for the steep-sided pyramids built by the Nubian kings? It is known that pyramids were built at Abydos for relatives of the Nubian kings

All in all it was a great event filled with a lot of interesting material!

Middle Kingdom Pyramids

     Adela Oppenheim also spoke at the ARCE pyramid conference in Philadelphia. Her topic was the Metroplitan Museum’s work at the pyramid of Senwosret III and her lecture was entitled “Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Pyramid Complex of Senwosret III as Dashur”. Dr. Oppenheim mentioned some interesting things:

·               The pyramid of Userkaf (Fifth Dynasty) appears to be the first pyramid with an extensive decorative scheme

·               Amenemhat I started a pyramid at Thebes (I did not know this), but then moves the capital north and built a pyramid at Lisht. The subsidiary burials around his Lisht pyramid do not seem to have ever had superstructures. A two volume set detailing the Met’s findings at Amenemhat’s pyramid was published earlier this year

·               De Morgan did some sloppy excavations of the pyramids of Amenemhat II and III as well as at the pyramid of Senwosret III, excavating all three in less than two seasons (!!!)

·             The enclosure wall at the pyramid of Senwosret III was similar in style to that of the step pyramid of Djoser; the wall was originally plastered and white washed

·              Senwosret III’s burial chamber shows no evidence that it was ever used; was the king buried at Abydos?

·              This pyramid (Senwosret's) had a scene of “starving foreigners" on the walls of its causeway (like the one on the causeway of Unas' pyramid); this scene was for many years thought to be unique to the causeway of Unas’ pyramid. We now know that the causeway of Sahure’s pyramid also had such a scene, so it must now be considered a “stock scene” and not something that reflects an actual event during the reign of Unas

The Pyramids

     The American Research Center in Egypt held a meeting in Philadelphia on June 11. Three speakers discussed their work on different sites that were either pyramids or were Dynasty one or two pre-cursors to the pyramids.

David O’Connor gave a talk entitled “Will we Ever Know? The Mystery of Pyramid Origins”. The talk started with a discussion of the so-called royal tombs of Dynasties One and Two at Sakkara. Were they royal tombs or were they elite tombs? What was the significance of the subterranean mounds that covered some of these tombs? The mounds preserved were built below ground; was another mound built over then above ground?

The “tomb” of Khashekhemui had some stone masonry that may have come from a stone superstructure. 

At Abydos some of the structures from the first two dynasties we “shaved” down to ground level. This seems to have been quite deliberately done shortly after these structures were built. Were they leveled after use for ritual reasons?

No definitive explanation for the origin of pyramids was given but the material covered was fascinating and thought provoking.

The Pyramid Texts (Cont.)

     The Pyramid Texts have been broken down into different groups by several scholars, most recently James Allen and Harold M. Hays. The texts are generally written from top to bottom of the wall they are on, but a few spells in a few of the pyramids are written from bottom to top for reasons that are unclear today.

     Dr. Hays, in his book The Organization of the Pyramid Texts (2 volumes, Probleme der Aegyptologie, volume 31, Boston: Brill, 2012) makes the point that, while a number of spells were meant to be read by others for the benefit of  the deceased,  many of the spells were also designed to be spoken by the deceased himself for his own benefit. Some of the utterances even urge the deceased to not share the spell with anyone else.

     Dr. Hays is also of the opinion (correctly I believe) that the writing that makes up the Pyramid Texts was copied onto the walls from another source (likely a papyrus scroll). He also believes (again, I think correctly) that the rituals that were to be performed along with the reciting of these texts were performed outside the pyramid, not inside the crowded and dark burial chamber itself. In other words, the spells are written on the interior walls of the pyramid, but the spells in the tomb were not actually used or recited during the funeral (the copy on a priests papyrus scroll would have been used during the funeral).

The Pyramid Texts

     The Pyramid Texts are the oldest large body of religious literature in the world. They first appeared in the pyramid of the Egyptian Pharaoh Unis, who was the last king of the Fifth Dynasty. Other copies of these texts can be found in the tombs of the Sixth Dynasty kings Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II, as well as in the pyramids of the queens Neith, Iput II, Wedjebetni (all wives of Pepi II), and Ankhesenpepi (a wife of Pepi I). A Dynasty Eight pharaoh named Ibi also had a copy of the Pyramid Texts in his tomb. The most recent copy of the Pyramid Texts to be found was in the burial chamber of the Sixth Dynasty Queen Behenu (found in 2010). It is unclear if Behenu was married to Pepi I or Pepi II.

     The Pyramid Texts gave way to the Coffin Texts in the Middle Kingdom and the Book of the Dead in the New Kingdom, but some of the Pyramid Text "spells" (as we refer to them today) remained in use up until the Roman Period.

     Sethe was the first to publish a translation of the Pyramid Texts and he numbered the spells found in the pyramid of Unis. As other copies of this religious document were found new utterances (spells) had to be added to Sethe's numbering system. This has led to complications in publishing translations (such as those of Mercer, Piankoff, Faulkner and, most recently James Allen). The complications have gotten so bad that Allen included in his translation a series of cross reference tables that take up more than 40 pages!


References:
Allen, James. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.

The Book of the "Living"?

     I am reading a rather large and very scholarly, two volume set called The Organization of the Pyramid Texts, by Harold M. Hays. Dr. Hays spends a fair number of pages early in volume one of this work talking about a copy of the Book of the Dead written in the New Kingdom for a man named Nu.

     One point the author makes is that a number of the spells in this copy of the Book of the Dead have rubrics attached to them indicating that they are to be performed by the owner of the scroll while he is still alive. For instance, in Utterance 18 is written, "Should a man recite this utterance while pure, it means going out into the day after he dies and making the metamorphosis which his heart [gives]. And as for anyone who recites it [for himself] every day, (it means) he is prosperous on earth, he goes forth from every fire , and no evil comes near him". Another example is Utterance 17 where it is said, "It is beneficial for the one who does it upon earth".

     The major conclusion to be drawn from this is that many spells in the Book of the Dead were meant to be used during life. Perhaps we should refer to this text as the "Book of the Living"?

Some Travel Pictures Posted by a Friend

     A friend of mine, Dave Rudin, is a professional photographer and has posted a few pictures he took in Egypt a number of years ago. Take a look at them at his website.

     Dave - post some more pictures!