Social Change in The Fourth Dynasty The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries

Social Change in the Fourth Dynasty: The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and
Cemeteries
Author(s): Ann Macy Roth
Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt , 1993, Vol. 30 (1993), pp. 33-
55
Published by: American Research Center in Egypt
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000226
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Social Change in the Fourth Dynasty:
The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries
Ann Macy Roth
The advent of the Fourth Dynasty of phar-eantry, the new-style pyramids proclaimed his
aonic Egypt marked a radical break withabsorption
the into the mystic symbol of the sun.
The tiny offering-temple was the principal
first three dynasties. This break is most visible
in the new shape of the era's most substantial
gesture to his human aspect.' R. Stadelmann
archaeological remains, the royal pyramidsviewed
and the pyramids in more political terms, as
their surrounding mortuary complexes monuments
(see that both expressed and enforced
fig. 1). In the Third Dynasty, royal tombs the universal claims of royal power. The new
took
the form of stepped pyramids, surroundedmortuary
by architecture, he suggested, was a
dummy buildings and enclosed in a rectanglesimplification and abstraction of older forms,
responding to growth in that power and to
of high, niched walls, with its long axis north-
south. During the reign of Snefru, royal tombs
changes in cultic requirements.
The cemeteries of officials that surrounded
became true pyramids of vastly increased size,
built at the western end of a complex ofthesenew pyramids add yet another dimension to
components and proportions, which extended the analysis. D. O'Connor has observed that, if
in an east-west line from the border of the the sizes of tombs represent the comparative
cultivation. power of the tomb owners, the gigantic pyra-
Egyptologists have long ascribed these mids of Giza surrounded by small private tombs
changes to social and religious developments.can be seen as a visual metaphor for the
J. H. Breasted suggested that the increasing im-centralized organization of the Old Kingdom
portance of the sun-cult of Re at Heliopolis led state, in which the immense power of the king
to the adoption of a tomb nearer in shape todwarfed and dominated the people surround-
the bnbn stone associated with that cult.1 I. E. S.ing him.
Edwards advocated a more direct relationship Since textual sources for the Fourth Dynasty
to mortuary beliefs, viewing the pyramid as theand the preceding period are few and enig-
solidified rays of the sun and citing Pyr. 523:matic, the primary support for these analyses is
"Heaven has strengthened for you the rays of the architecture and spatial organization of the
the sun, in order that you may lift yourself toFourth Dynasty pyramid complex itself. These
heaven as the eye of Re."2 He also attributed analyses of mortuary space are, however, largely
the new east-west axis to an increasing solar ori-impressionistic and based on intuitive assump-
entation. B. Kemp, describing the pyramid of tions about the meaning of space and architec-
Meydum, suggested a change in the theological tural forms. Moreover, they are based on the
and social role of the king: "In place of a tomb
which celebrated the king as supreme territo-
3 Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization
rial claimant and perpetuated his earthly pag-
(New York, 1989), 63, caption to fig. 21.
R. Stadelmann, Die dgyptischen Pyramiden: vom Ziegelbau
J. H. Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought zum Weltwunder (Mainz am Rhein, 1985), 80.
in Ancient Egypt (New York, 1912), 72. David O'Connor, "Political systems and archaeological
I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, rev. ed. (Har- data in Egypt: 2600-1780 B.C.," World Archaeology 6 (1984),
mondworth, 1985), 277-78 (translation slightly modified). 19-21.
33

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34 JARCE XXX (1993)
Fig. 1. The Step Pyramid complex, at left (after Edwards

dynasty mortuary complexes. The Fourth dynasty complex
dum pyramid complex. (The drawing here is partially
a Civilization, p. 63.) (Not drawn to the same scale.)
examination of onlyparing
a limited subset
quantitative measurements. of
Despite the mort
ary architecture. Private tomb
objective appearance of thearchitecture
results these tech- an
cemetery organization also
niques yield, changed
their application conside
often requires
ably, if less abruptly, during
subjective judgments. (It the same
is not always clear, forperiod
and this larger context has
example, what nota "room.")
constitutes been consider
Moreover,
in seeking explanations for
these techniques the new
have principally archit
been applied
tural forms adopted to
byhouses, and their usefulness in analyzing
kings.
symbolic spaces, such as mortuary or religious
Spatial buildings,
Analysis is less well established.
For an initial application of spatial analysis
In recent years, archaeologists to early Old Kingdom mortuary have increas
architecture,
ingly applied formal techniques of spatial these difficulties can be avoided by using a
analysis to the interpretation of cultural re- comparative approach, relating changes in the
mains. One useful concept of this type is access accessibility of mortuary architecture to the
analysis, which focuses on the ease or difficulty relatively static patterns in contemporary non-
with which people move through buildings and mortuary spaces. Based loosely on the same cri-
into important rooms. Techniques have been teria as the more quantitative approach, such
developed that allow buildings to be more easily comparisons allow distinctively Egyptian spa-
compared, including the reduction of plans to tial patterns and architectural forms to be con-
"justified access maps' and formulas for com- sidered. Although this approach is explicitly
6 For details of this method, see Bob Hillier and Julienne For a survey of a variety of quantitative methods, see
Hanson, The Social Logic of Space (Cambridge, 1984). Sally John Chapman, "Social Inequality on Bulgarian Tells and
Foster, "Analysis of spatial patterns in buildings (access analy- the Varna Problem," The Social Archaeology of Houses, Ross
sis) as an insight into social structure: examples from the Samson, ed. (Edinburgh, 1990), 49-92; the following essay,
Scottish Iron Age," Antiquity 63 (1989), 40-50; and Henry Frank E. Brown, "Comment on Chapman: Some Cautionary
Glassie, Folk Housing in Middle Virginia: a structural analysis of notes on the application of spatial measures to prehistoric
historic artifacts (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1975) were among the settlements," ibid., 93-109, points out some problems with
first to apply this method to archaeological spaces. this approach.

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SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE FOURTH DYNASTY 35
subjective, it is justified by buildings

the are sharpness
mixed with or segregated
of the from
contrasts it produces. These older structures.
contrasts Like spatial
can patterns
then in indi-
be compared with the surviving inscriptional vidual buildings, spatial patterns in sites can
evidence to suggest the nature of the changes suggest social characteristics, such as the de-
in the system of religious and social beliefs that gree of centralized control, relationships to the
underlay the new mortuary architecture. past, and the segregation of certain groups.8
The principle of access analysis that I have Such analysis has generally been applied to set-
adopted here is the distinction between "open" tlements, but it also is a useful way of looking at
and "closed" plans in buildings. Open buildings cemeteries.
tend to be readily navigable by strangers; they
can be entered easily and their internal organi- Non-mortuary Architecture:
zation is immediately apparent. The function Houses and Temples
and position of their important rooms are often
obvious from the exterior, and the paths to
This comparative analysis of spatial organiza-
reach them are both short and direct. Axial and
tion in mortuary and non-mortuary structures
symmetrical plans tend to result in openisbuild-
implicitly based on the assumption that there
ings, as do plans with many entrances. was no fundamental change in the plans of
Public
or communally-used spaces often havehousesopen and temples between the Archaic
plans, and they are especially common inPeriod
com-and the later Old Kingdom. This as-
munities where strangers are either raresumption
or as- does not conflict with any architec-
sumed to be friendly, in egalitarian societies,
tural remains so far excavated from the early
and in cultures that place a low value period,
on pri- but those remains are too few to prove
or disprove it. There are, however, a number of
vacy. Closed plans, on the other hand, separate
the most important rooms from the entrance corroborating circumstances, foremost among
by distance, by tortuous pathways, and by them the stability of these two architectural
con-
stricted or guarded doorways, so that strangers
forms in later periods.
have difficulty entering the building and In all periods for which there is evidence, the
nego-
Egyptians seem to have favored the greatest
tiating its interior spaces. Greater "closedness"
occurs in societies and in buildings where possible closedness in their houses.9 Figure 2
privacy, social control, separation of classes illustrates a selection of Old and Middle
or sexes, and protection from strangers are Kingdom house plans. The owners of ev
considered important. smallest houses were often willing to sacr
Not only can the principles of access analysis corner to create a small entrance vestibule that
be applied to individual buildings, but entire allowed them to screen their visitors. In larger
sites can be viewed in terms of their spatial or-
ganization. On this level, such questions as the 8 For the observations of such spatial relationships over
time in a settlement context, see Douglas W. Bailey, "The
distance between buildings, the regularity of
Living House: Signifying Continuity," in: The Social Archaeol-
their orientation, and the ease of access to
ogy of Houses, 19-48.
different parts of the site and the site as a A possible exception to this tendency is the compound
whole are considered. This analysis involves of thirty, largely contiguous, room-groups at Qasr es-Saga
comparing linear arrangements of buildings (Joachim Sliwa, "Die Siedlung des Mittlern Reiches bei Qasr
el-Sagha," MDAIK 48 [1992], 177-91). Despite the quanti-
with clustered arrangements, and judging the
ties of ash, fishbones, and animal bones they contained,
degree to which a site is homogeneous or has a however, these room groups seem unlikely to have been pri-
central focus. (Such broader factors should al- marily domestic spaces. The five identical, narrow rooms
ways be considered, since the degree of access opening off each courtyard resemble storerooms in their
to a site as a whole may explain anomalous ac- proportions (their dimensions are 2.1 x 7.9 m). These
rooms were carefully fitted with doors, but there are no
cess patterns in the individual buildings within
doorpost emplacements for the "courtyard" which was en-
it.) Arrangements of buildings within a site can tered directly from the street, and its built-in features
also be compared temporally, to find patterns (benches and raised round platforms) suggest industrial ac-
of site growth and to determine whether newer tivity of some kind.

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36 JARCE XXX (1993)
Fig. 2. These house plans were taken from the follow

(left); MDAIK 43 (1987) p. 91 (right); Hierakonpolis (
Giza (Fourth Dynasty): Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Ana
p. 148; Khentkawes town (late Fourth Dynasty): Ha
Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, p. 54 (somewhat
pi 14). Orientations differ and scales are approximate

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houses, the desire for closedness resulted in The closed pattern in large houses was al-
"baffle" walls at the entrance that obscured theready well established by the end of the Fourth
interior and forced the visitor to walk in an Dynasty, as exemplified by the "priests' houses"
S-shaped curve. The visitor was thenalong the causeway leading to the cultivation
normally
led well into the house, and had to double back from the tomb of Queen Khentkawes.12 From
to reach the functional rooms, sometimes re- the south, the houses could not be entered di-
versing direction several times to reach the rectly from the causeway, but only from a paral-
most private spaces. Access to the individual lel private path accessible through doors offset
rooms within houses was limited, but in some from the house doors. There, a baffle wall im-
mediately confronted the visitor, who had to
cases parallel or encircling hallways provided
second entrances. The purpose of this extrava-turn left, then right, then proceed along a cor-
ridor past a small room and into an open court
gant waste of space was probably to allow differ-
toward the back (north) of the house. To the
ent classes of people within the house (residents
and visitors, or masters and servants, or men south of the court was an area with a hearth
and women) to pass between the rooms without and ovens, and to the southwest lay a long
encountering one another. Another indica- room that may have been the principal public
tion of closedness is the frequency with which aroom. Opening off the latter to the west were
small room adjoined the inner vestibule, fromtwo consecutive rooms probably restricted to
which a servant could control access to the the family and used partly for sleeping. To the
house. north of the public room was the largest room
in the house. It was often subdivided or filled
with store jars; it may have been used to store

10 This is especially clear in the simple palaces attached
to the New Kingdom temples of the Ramesseum and Medi-
and distribute commodities as part of the occu-
net Habu (see, for example, W. J. Murnane, United with Eter- pant's professional activity. It had a separate
nity (Chicago, 1980), fig. 58), where parallel hallways for entrance (taken to be the principal one by the
servants run behind the private quarters, allowing servants excavator) that led past a small room to a pri-
to remove the chamber pots without disturbing the rooms' vate back street, to which access also seems to
occupants. The most extreme examples of this are the have been controlled.
Kahun mansions, with their parallel hallways (W. M. F. Pet-
There is no evidence for the architecture of
rie, Illahun, Kahun and Gurob [London, 1891], pl. 14); but
such parallelism is attested on a community-wide scale as large houses before the late Fourth Dynasty.
early as the Khentkawes town at Giza (S. Hassan, Excavations (The assumption of a closed plan is corrobo-
at Giza IV- 1932-1933 [Cairo, 1943], fig. 1). Such "service rated by the closed plans of early mortuary
passages" have been similarly analyzed in buildings of the
Roman period and the seventeenth century. See Eleanor
structures that are generally believed to dupli-
Scott, "Romano-British Villas and the Social Construction cate palaces, but in the context of this com-
parative
of Space," The Social Archaeology of Houses, 149-72; and Ross study, such arguments are potentially
Samson, "The Rise and Fall of Tower Houses in Post- circular.) Small houses dating to the earlier
Reformation Scotland," ibid., 197-243.
period that have been excavated at Hierakon-
11 The argument that these rooms represent "birthing ar-
bors," suggested by F. Arnold, "A Study of Egyptian Domes-
polis and Elephantine, however, show the
tic Buildings," VA 5 (1989), 81-82, is, to me, unconvincing, same closed patterns favored in later periods;
at least in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. A vestibule at the
entrance to the house seems a strange place to seclude a new 12 Hassan, Excavations at Giza TV, fig. 1.
mother, especially in the Kahun mansions, where both vesti- 15 W. Fairservis, K. R. Weeks, and M. Hoffman, "Prelimi-
bules are quite distant from the rooms Arnold identified as nary report on the first two seasons at Hierakonpolis,"
"women's quarters," and one is attached to an entrance that JARCE 9 (1971-72), figs. 12 and 13, show no complete
he viewed as a private entrance for the steward and male ser- houses but many small, tortuously connected rooms. The
vants. One would expect buildings that contain the commu- plan labeled 89 by J. E. Quibell and F. W. Green, Hierakon-
nity's grain reserves to be guarded, and the rooms are well polis II (London, 1902), pl. LXVIII, rooms 2-5, seems to
placed for this. It is not unlikely that even small households constitute an early house.
in such settlements of cult workers had at least one servant, W. Kaiser et al., "Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine,
and a vestibule by the door might have doubled as the ser- 11./12. Grabungsbericht," MDAIK 40 (1984), fig. 1, 174;
vant's bedroom/living room, like the vestibule occupied by W. Kaiser, et al., "Stadt und Tempel von Elephantine, 13./14.
the bawwab in a Cairo apartment building. Grabungsbericht," MDAIK 43 (1987), 91, fig. 6; for an overall

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38 JARCE XXX (1993)
Fig.3. Temples of the early period. These plans are ba

(Hierakonpolis), 78 (Abydos), 68 (Medamoud), and 7
and since the elite of this period

Temples were came
calledout
th
the same tradition, but they
their bore
houses little
were rese
probab
as closed in plan as of
the large houses
people. Temples from t
of th
Khentkawes settlement.
generally For purposes
strictly axial, of th
analysis, then, it will
plan thanbe assumed
houses, that clos
and there are indications
plans were favored for that this all
was alsohouses
true in the Old from
Kingdom and the Fi
Dynasty through the end
earlier. (See of
fig. 3 for somethe Old
Archaic Period and Kingd
(and later), and thus Oldthat
Kingdom provincial examples.) Symmetry
no significant chan
took place in patterns of domestic
was important architectu
even in the most "un-Egyptian"
between the Third and early temples,
Fourth as, for example, in the strange
Dynasty.
shrine at Medamoud. Some early temples, for
example
view, see W. Kaiser et al., "Stadt und Tempel von those at Abydos and Hierakonpolis,
Elephan-
tine, 15./16. Grabungsbericht," MDAIK 45 (1988), had145,baffle
fig. 4.walls at the entrance to block the
It is not impossible that the architecture of view
royal pal-
of the sanctuary, but beyond that a visitor
aces in the Fourth Dynasty reflected some of the changes in
had a straight path, and was never required to
the social and religious role of the king that are seen in mor-
double
tuary architecture. Changes in residential patterns back as in contemporary houses.
in the
capital may also have occurred, to reflect a changed rela-
16 C. Robichon and A. Varille, "Medamoud. Fouilles du
tionship between the king and his subjects. Unfortunately,
Museebefore
no royal palaces of the Old Kingdom are known from du Louvre, 1938," CdE 14 (1939), 82-87.
or after the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, so these
17 W.prop-
M. F. Petrie, Abydos II (London, 1903), pl. 50;' and
ositions cannot be tested. Quibell and Green, Hierakonpolis II, pl. 72.

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1 8
Hierakonpolis. Alternatively,
O'Connor has recently suggested that the these enclosures
early temples at Elephantine
could haveand Medamud
belonged to rulers centered at Hier-
were peripheral to more akonpolis,
important as precursors,
temples or rivals,
at or subordi-
those sites, and that thenates
temples at Hierakon-
of the Thinite kings. The later character
of the
polis and Abydos were Sixth western enclosure
Dynasty as a cult place of
ka-chapels,
again attached to more important, but
Horus might derive from undis-of its
the assimilation
covered, shrines nearby.royal
He has
owner andalso noted
that god, just as theatomb of
significant similarity between Djer was in
thethe Eighteenth
temple Dynasty
enclo-thought to
sure of Hierakonpolis (with entrances
be the tomb of Osiris.2 If so,at
it is the
hardly likely
east end of the north wall and the south end to have represented the standard temple plan.
of the east wall and enclosing a stone-faced, Whatever the importance of the early shrine
off-center mound) and the royal funerary of Satet
en-at Elephantine, it was unarguably a di-
closures on the plain west of Abydos vine as heculthas
place of the Archaic Period, since the
previously20 reconstructed them. On this principal
basis,temples of later periods were built di-
rectly above it; and the Medamoud structure
he has suggested that such enclosures represent
the standard form of early temples, and must
healso
be-have been a temple for the same rea-
son.be
lieves that a temple of this shape is to These
re-shrines resemble the small shrines
stored inside the town wall at Abydos ofasthe
theDjoser complex in their openness. Icon-
site's principal temple. ographic evidence suggests that barriers at the
temple
Other interpretations of this similarity are entrance were largely symbolic: only a
possible. East of the Horus temple enclosure
small picketis gate was shown in front of archaic
a "palace" gateway, located at the easttemples
end of in a hieroglyphic signs, presumably the
same
northern wall, with deposits of sand (like that that
in is replicated in stone in the shrines
the Horus temple mound) to the south. surrounding
O'Con- the jubilee court in the Djoser
complex.of a
nor has identified these elements as parts
second enclosure of the same type. Since it isrituals are notoriously conservative,
Religious
and one
unlikely that two large temple enclosures would
would want far more evidence than ex-
be built so close together, and since Horus

ists to is
postulate a major change in them; con-
sequently
not later paired with another deity at this site, it the buildings in which they were
seems more plausible to interpret both performed
of these probably had the same access pat-
Hierakonpolis enclosures as the funeraryterns en-
in earlier periods as they did later. For ex-
ample,of
closures of early kings. The relative position in later periods, gods were frequently
carried
the two enclosures and their relationship to theforth to take part in public ceremonies,
and their
Nile would not be unlike that of the Abydos en- passage through their temples was
closures. Since not all of the kings buried
likenedonto the passage of the sun across the sky.
the Umm el-Qab at Abydos were represented
If such ceremonies took place in the earlier
on the plain, perhaps some of them had periods,
funer- there would have been both practical
ary enclosures that served as their cultand symbolic
places at reasons for temples of the early
period to have open plans.23
18 D. O'Connor, "The Status of Early Egyptian Temples:
an Alternate Theory," in: The Followers of Horus: Studies Dedi-
21 W. M. F. Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties
cated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1944-1990, Renee II (London, 1902), p. 8.
Friedman
and Barbara Adams, eds. (Oxford, 1992), 83-98. 11 C. Firth and J. E. Quibell, The Step Pyramid (Cairo,
19 O'Connor's interpretation does not, however, explain1935), pl. 62 bottom. Detailed examples of the hieroglyphic
the small shrine at the north east corner of the great courtsigns occur on two of the reliefs decorating the subterra-
in the Djoser pyramid complex. It is nearly identical to the nean chambers in the same complex (ibid., pls. 17 and 40).
two Abydos chapels in both plan and orientation, but is un- Carrying-chair shrines seem to have occurred from
likely to be a ka-chapel, since it is already located in a mor-the very earliest period. See, for example B. Kemp, Ancient
tuary monument. Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 93, fig. 33. Other gods may
* David O'Connor, "New Funerary Enclosures (Tal- have traveled by sledge. Processions of divine standards are
bezirke) of the Early Dynastic Period at Abydos," JARCE 26 ubiquitous in the iconography of the late predynastic and
(1989), 51-86. Archaic periods.

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40 JARCE XXX (1993)
Fig. 4. Second and Third Dynasty tomb substructures

for use and storage of water jars; and L represents a r
substructure, based on the similarity of the shapes an
tombs at Saqqara (after Quibell, Archaic Tombs, p
Saqqara (after Lauer, Pyramide a degres 1, p. 5).
Private Tombs form mimicked the bed platform found in

bedrooms of private houses. (The rooms with
Both before and after the beginningbed of platforms
the at Kahun and the rooms assumed
Fourth Dynasty, the best attested type ofto be private sleeping quarters in the Khent-
mortu-
kawes
ary architecture is the private tomb. The houses were also to the west.) To the east
large
private tombs of the Second and ThirdofDynas-
the end room was a more complex group of
ties at Saqqara and elsewhere were viewed rooms, among them usually one containing a
literally as houses of the dead, and their sub- model latrine and another, north of it, contain-
structures sometimes contained quintessentially ing an emplacement for water jars. This latter
domestic features (see fig. 4a-c). These sub- room often had a separate second entrance
structures were normally entered by a stairway from a vestibule north of the end room, per-
from the north or east, leading to a corridor haps a "service passage," like those seen in later
that ran south under the long axis of the over- private houses. These rooms probably also du-
lying mastaba, periodically blocked by portcullis plicated the living quarters of the tomb owner.
stones. The corridor usually ended in a large Both along the axial approach to the inner
room, to the west of which was the burial cham- suite of rooms and in the body of the overlying
ber, where in some tombs a raised burial plat- superstructure, these tombs contained storage

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Fig. 5. Private tomb chapels: (a) Second and Third Dynasty mastabas
(b) Fourth Dynasty chapel of Nefermaat at Meydum, after Petrie, Med
Khufukhaf I (after Simpson, The Mastabas of Kawab, Khafkhufu I a
niches
areas. First Dynasty tombs or a recessed also
at Saqqara cruciform chapel, was cut
stored
intobelow
grave goods both above and the body ground,
of the mastaba, and seems ini-
and
the tradition seems to have continued into the
tially to have been open to a direct approach.
Third Dynasty. In fact, however, these chapels were typically
The rectangular mastaba massif of the approached
Saq- by extremely complex paths cre-
qara superstructures also continued the older
ated by walls and rooms outside the body of the
mastaba
tradition. It was oriented with its long axis run- (see fig. 5a). The approach often ran
along the facade and then twisted around ear-
ning north to south, and it was usually provided
with a niched facade or isolated niches on its lier structures and the mastaba' s own rooms
eastern face. The cult focus, either one of these and serdabs. The path could branch several
times before reaching the cult place, so that a
24 W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt (Harmondsworth, 1961), stranger approaching it might easily be lost.
158, notes that these internal features in the body of the The large tombs that now lack these complex
mastaba "had not quite died out" in some "big tombs of the
exterior approaches tend to be in areas where
Second Dynasty"; however, a tomb of the Third Dynasty, QS
2305, contained both large storage tanks in its superstruc-the secondary shafts are thickest, so it is likely
ture and sealings of Djoser. (J. E. Quibell, Archaic Tombs,
1913-1914, Excavations at Saqqara 6 [Cairo, 1923], pl. 2.)
The datings of many of these tombs are based on Second 25 The excavator described these chapels in general as
Dynasty royal names occurring in them; but many of these "accessible only along narrow, zigzag passages" (Quibell,
kings' names also occur in the substructure of the Third Dy-
Archaic Tombs, p. vi).
nasty Step Pyramid. 26 See Quibell's plan, ibid., pls. 1 and 2.

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42 JARCE XXX (1993)
tremely rare and the approach to the cult place

was either direct or through a simple exterior
building. The plans were uniformly more open
than those in the larger Third Dynasty tombs29
(see fig. 5b-c).
The Fourth Dynasty private tombs at Mey-
dum show a marked increase in decoration, of-
ten carved on a limestone facing that lined the
cruciform chapels. Here, the commodities and
equipment recorded in such loving detail by
Hesy-Re's artists were reduced to compartmen-
tal lists. Most notable, however, was the inclu-
sion of family members in tomb decoration.
Couples often shared tombs, and sometimes
Fig. 6. Fourth Dynasty
appeared together in the table scene of the
substructures: (a) the private sh
false doors, while their children were shown
of Kawab (after at Giza
Simpson, The Mastabas
Kawab, Khafkhufu I andflanking
W, fig. the central
7; niche.
(b) Husbands and wives
the substructur
the pyramid of Khafre of
attheGiza
period could
(afteralso beEdwards,
represented to- Pyram
of Egypt, p. 132). gether in statuary on the same scale. The
quantity of wall decoration was sharply (and
temporarily) curtailed in the reign of Khufu.
that such complex approaches were
where it was replaced by finely paintedmore
slab ste- com
mon than their survival indicates.
las and mastabas built entirely of stone, but
The decoration of the chapels of Thirdthe
Dy-occasional occurrence of family members
nasty tombs was normally limited to thealong
stela
with the male tomb owner continued, es-
with the table scene and other representations
pecially as the decoration began to increase in
of the deceased. Women and men apparently quantity again.
had their own cult places. If the tomb of Hesy-
There is very little evidence of burial equip-
Re was typical, chapels that were more exten-
ment from either the Fourth Dynasty or the
sively decorated added representations of food
period preceding, but it is very likely that
and equipment, doubtless very like the supplies
burials during the Fourth Dynasty were consid-
that filled the numerous storerooms, and geo-
erably poorer than they had been previously.
metrical motifs on the niched facade. Servants
The substructures without storerooms provided
and scenes of daily life were representedspace only
for only a limited amount of grave goods,
in the outer rooms.
and the disappearance of portcullis stones sug-
Already in the late Third Dynasty, several
gests that there was little to steal. Support for
changes began to take place in private tombs. In
the substructure, the storerooms and portcullis
stones disappeared, and the suite of rooms29atAt Meydum, the original cruciform chapels seem to
have been replaced by an even simpler form, a simple offer-
the end of the corridor was replaced by a single
ing court with a single central niche. (Petrie, Medum [Lon-
room with no domestic features (see fig. 6a).
don,By
1892], pl. 7).
the Fourth Dynasty, the superstructures of pri- Petrie, Medum, pls. 9ff. Interestingly, the women, who
vate tombs had also become considerably sim- are shown in positions where both wives and mothers fre-
pler. Although they retained the rectangular quently appear later, are not specifically called hmt.f, "his
wife." However, it is most likely that they were wives, since
shape, north-south orientation, and often the none have queenly titles and the men are all king's sons.
cruciform chapel, niched facades became ex- Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian, Official Cata-
logue of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (Mainz, 1987), entry 27
27 J. E. Quibell, The Tomb ofHesy, 1911-1912, Excavations and bibliography therein.
at Saqqara 5, (Cairo, 1913). W. S. Smith, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt,
2 Hesy-Re, for example, had scenes in his outer corridor 2nd ed., revised by W. K. Simpson (Harmondsworth, 1981),
of men leading cattle, and a crocodile in a pool. (Ibid., 10.) 104.

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
this suggestion can be found

Second and in Thirdthe burial
Dynasties are not of
very well at-
Hetepheres I. Although tested.
she Of was Secondprobably the we have
Dynasty royal tombs,
most important person in only
thethe Upper
country Egyptian "forts"
after at Hiera-
her
konpolis and
son Khufu himself, her tomb Abydos, the tombs
contained onlyof Peribsen
a
and Khasekhemwy
bed and its canopy, its curtains in an at theinlaid
Umm el-Qab at the
box,
latter site, and
two chairs, a carrying chair, two impressive
ceramic underground
vessels,
and several boxes holdingsubstructures at Saqqara, the of
a collection superstructures
jew-
of which have
elry and other equipment.33 been lost. from
Aside From the Third
her
body, it is unlikely that this burial
Dynasty, we have the chamber,
complexes of Djoser
now thought to have been her original place of
interment, could have held much more. Such Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty," JEA 52 [1966], 13-22;
and idem, "The Egyptian 1st Dynasty royal cemetery," Antiq-
equipment is meager indeed, compared with
uity 41 [1967], 22-32), the Abydos complexes may have
the food, clothing, furniture, and other sup-
been far larger and more elaborate than their Saqqara
plies that must have filled the extensive store-
counterparts. The tombs at Saqqara thus probably belonged
rooms of far less important people during the to the officials whose sealings and stelas were found in
first three dynasties. them. The private nature of the Saqqara tombs is further
confirmed in the analysis of cemetery organization below.
In general, then, although the private tomb of
W. Kaiser, "Einige Bemerkungen zur agyptischen
the Fourth Dynasty continued the traditional
Friihzeit III: Die Reichseinigung," ZAS 91 (1964), 104 n. 4.
external shape and orientation of the preceding W. M. F. Petrie, The Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrhyn-
period, it can be said to have been poorer in
chus (London, 1925), and, most recently, O'Connor, JARCE
26(1989), 51-86.
contents, though richer in its building materials
and its decoration. Family members began to be38 Petrie, Royal Tombs II, 11-14, pls. 61 and 63.
The westernmost substructure is generally attributed
shown in decoration, the wife depicted on the
to Hetepsekemwy, although it also contained sealings of his
same scale as her husband; and the depictions
successor Ra-neb. A plan is given in Lauer, Pyramide a degres
of domestic furniture were greatly reduced in
I, 4, although this plan differs somewhat from the detailed
importance. Both the mastaba superstructure verbal account given by the excavator, A. Barsanti, in "Rap-
ports sur les deblaiements operes autour de la pyramide
and its cult place became simpler in plan and
d'Ounas," ASAE 2 (1901), 250-53, and in "Fouilles autour
more directly approached, and the burial cham-
de la pyramide d'Ounas 1901-2," ASAE 3 (1902), 182-84.
ber no longer replicated the tomb owner'sThe second substructure opens just south of the southwest
house on earth. corner of the mastaba of Nebkauhor and contained Archaic
Period vessels and sealings of Ninetjer in addition to many

late period burials. It was mentioned briefly in S. Hassan,
Royal Mortuary Complexes "Excavations at Saqqara, 1937-1938," ASAE 38 (1938), 521
and H. Chevrier, "Les Fouilles," CdE 13 (1938), 283 (iv).
Unlike the royal tombs of the First Dynasty at it is frequently described as similar to Hetep-
Though
Abydos,35 the royal mortuary complexes of the
sekhemwy's, the plan of the northern part of this substruc-
ture that has been published (P. Munro, "Der Unas-
Friedhof Nord-West 4./5. Vorbericht iiber die Arbeiten
33 Ibid., 87-95. Hannover/Berlin in Saqqara," GM 63 [1983], 109) differs
34 Mark Lehner, The pyramid tomb of Queen substantially.
Hetep-heres I
R. Stadelmann, "Die Oberbauten der Konigsgraber
and the satellite pyramid of Khufu (Mainz, 1985), 35-44.
6b The older view that the tombs at theder Umm el-Qab
2. Dynastie in Sakkara," Melanges Gamal eddin Mokhtar,
BdE 97/2
were cenotaphs and that the larger First Dynasty (Cairo, at
tombs 1985), 295-307, has suggested that the
Saqqara were the kings' actual burial places long storeroom structures
is unlikely. The along the western edge of the
only real argument for identifying the tombs Djoser
atcomplex
Saqqara represent
as a third Second Dynasty tomb,
and restores
royal was that they were larger than the burials at thetheUmmother superstructures accordingly. How-
ever, the rooms
el-Qab. This argument ignores the value of location: at the southern end do not resemble the
a small
tomb on sacred ground can be more desirable "bedroom-lavatory-bathroom"
than a larger complex at the southern end
of Hetepsekhemwy's
tomb elsewhere. (A possible example of this phenomenon substructure. W. B. Emery, Archaic
from a later period is the comparative sizes Egypt, of the144-45,
tombssuggested
of that the internal stepped structure
the Votaresses of Amon in the Medinet Habu enclosure, found in a Saqqara mastaba from the reign of Anedjib mim-
and the tombs of their stewards in the Asasif.) Moreover, icked contemporary royal superstructures at Abydos, which
according to B. Kemp's convincing analysis of the en- ultimately were the source of the Step Pyramid. Icono-
closures on the plain at Abydos (B. Kemp, "Abydos and the graphic and textual evidence from Abydos seem to support

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
44 JARCE XXX (1993)
Sekhemkhet at Saqqara, as that

clearly suggests well as the
they, like several
private tombsu
cavated complexesof usually believed
the same dynasty, to da
represented in microcosm
their successors. The unfinished
the private "Layer
apartments of the tomb's owner. P
mid" at Zawiyet The substructures
al-Aryan of the late Second
probably Dynasty
also dat
tombs at Abydosas
the end of this dynasty, attributed
does, to Peribsen
perhap and
stepped pyramid Khasekhemwy
underlying also consisted
thepredominantly
pyram of
Meydum. storerooms. Here, however, the burial chamber
The earliest of these structures is remarkably (with no domestic characteristics) was at the
similar in spatial organization, though not in center, surrounded by storerooms, presumably
size, to private tombs. The western of the two following the pattern of the nearby First Dynasty
Saqqara substructures, which is generally attrib- tombs. This pattern of surrounding storerooms
uted to king Hetepsekhemwy (fig. 4d), was en- continued in the substructures of the Third
tered from the north through a long corridor Dynasty. Djoser's pyramid had four groups o
that was flanked on either side by groups of ca- storerooms, each radiating out from one sid
pacious comb-like storerooms. The rooms at of his central burial chamber, while the pyra-
the south end of the corridor were complex mid of Sekhemkhet and the Layer Pyramid
and irregular in plan. These innermost rooms Zawiyet al-Aryan both had corridors of store-
included a large room on the west, like the rooms that branched off the main axis before
burial chambers in private tombs. East of the the burial chamber and encircled the burial
main axis was a more complex group of rooms, chamber on three sides.
similar to those in private tombs that contain a Like the Second Dynasty substructures, the
latrine and areas for water storage. No bed plat- superstructure of the Djoser complex was
form or latrine slab appears in the published probably reminiscent of the palace complex in
plan of the tomb; however, the plan may have which the king lived during his life on earth.
been made without completely clearing the The enclosure, like most other early tombs, was
floor. Whether or not these features were in- oriented with its long axis running north-south.
cluded, the layout of the innermost chambers The complex was extremely difficult to enter.
There was no valley structure or causeway, so a
visitor
this hypothesis (see Ann Macy Roth, Egyptian Phyles in the must have found his own way to the en-
closure from the edge of the cultivation. Only
Old Kingdom: the Evolution of a System of Social Organization,
SAOC 48 [Chicago, 1991], 167-68), in which caseone theofsu-
the many model doorways in the niched
perstructures of these Second Dynasty tombs, and all royal
enclosure wall actually gave access to the inte-
superstructures until that of Snefru, can reasonably be as-
sumed to have been stepped.
rior, and although the entrance colonnade led
into the large courtyard south of
See, for example, the photographs in Geoffrey T. Mar- the pyramid,
only someone
tin, The Hidden Tombs of Memphis: New Discoveries from the familiar with the plan would have
known
Time of Tutankhamun and Ramesses the Great (London, how to reach the structure on the north
1991),
22 (fig. 6), and in Jean Capart, Memphis, a Vombre des pyra-
side of the pyramid that is generally believed to
mides (Bruxelles, 1930), p. iv. These structures are assumed
be Djoser's mortuary temple.
to be of Third Dynasty date, but since we know nothing
about the Second Dynasty superstructures at Saqqara,Thissome difficulty of access to the complex itself
may date to that period, as Stadelmann has suggested was ("Die
also the result of a long tradition. The First
Oberbauten der Konigsgraber," 304-7). The anonymous
and Second Dynasty monuments at Abydos,
enclosures west of Djoser's, however, are probably later.
both the tombs on the Umm el-Qab and the en-
Compare, for example the tombs on the Umm el-Qab at
Abydos, and the funerary enclosures on the plain north of
closures nearer the city (see fig. 7a), were often
the same city, as well as the tombs of the first three dynasties
in the northern part of the Saqqara cemetery. 4t Corridors that branch and surround the innermost
The Third Dynasty sites are well covered in a number
group of rooms may be attested as early as the Saqqara sub-
of general books: Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, 34-69; of Ninetjer. Chevrier's account of its discovery in
structure
R. Stadelmann, Die dgyptischen Pyramiden, 31-79; CdE
idem,13Die
(1938), 283, describes it as extending east, west, and
Grossen Pyramiden von Giza (Graz, Austria, 1991), 54-71.
south of its entrance; and the partial plan published by
(Stadelmann attributes the unexcavated complexes to the GM 63 (1983), 109, also suggests that the corridor
Munro,
Second Dynasty, however.) branched to the east and west just south of the entrance.

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
sited directly behind onesubstructure, another, which making

remained similarthe
to those
western monuments less visible and less invit- of the Third Dynasty, except that, beginning
ing. This is also true of the Second and with the Meydum pyramid, the corridors of
Third
Dynasty complexes and enclosures at Saqqara storerooms vanished (see fig. 6b). Usually, a
(see fig. 7b). Clearly none of these complexes single passage descended from the north face
were meant to attract casual tourists, and access of the pyramid, and then ascended to the
was probably restricted to people who knew the burial chamber. The burial chambers of the
layout well. pyramid at Meydum and the Bent Pyramid at
This pattern of indirect access was even more Dahshur were oriented with their long axis
noticeable in the plans of individual buildings north-south, but beginning with the Northern
in the Djoser complex (fig. 8a-c). The mortuary Pyramid at Dahshur, the burial chamber was
temple had long hallways that circled the build- usually oriented with its long axis east to west.
ing and doubled back on themselves before By the reign of Khufu, the position of the coffin
leading to the principal rooms; and, on the had been established at the west end of the
west, it had service passages located to bypass chamber, just as it had been in the "bed cham-
the two butchering areas. Its complexity and bers" of the Second Dynasty tombs. This might
tortuous pathways equal those of the Kahun have been a compromise between the tradi-
mansions. Also similar to domestic plans in tional north-south axis of the substructure (and
closedness were Temple T and the peculiar of all earlier superstructures) and the new east-
complex of twisting passages southeast of the west axis of the Fourth Dynasty superstructure.
jubilee court. (The shrines in the jubilee court, The second entrance to the Bent Pyramid of
probably modeled on traditional shrines, de- Dahshur from the west may have been an ear-
part from these patterns, as does the triple lier attempt to solve this problem.
shrine that may imitate the shape of the early As in private tombs, the disappearance of
temple at Abydos.) Interestingly, even when the storerooms must necessarily have meant a de-
plans of their rooms were extremely closed, the crease in the quantity of goods buried with the
stone doors of these buildings were all ren- king. The earlier storerooms were clearly not
dered eternally open, perhaps reflecting a ten- empty, and their contents would not have fit
sion between the closed plan of the palace that into the small chambers provided for the later,
served as a model for the complex, and a reli- much larger, monuments. Interestingly, inter-
gious requirement that the mortuary monu- nal storerooms began to appear again just as
ment be accessible to the king's spirit. the pyramids began to decrease in size. Men-
That the closedness of the Djoser complex was kaure's pyramid had a side chamber giving ac-
not an isolated example is clear from the "token cess to six storerooms, Shepseskaf 's tomb had a
palaces" in the southeast corners of the Peribsencorridor with five storerooms, and the Fifth Dy-
and Khasekhemwy enclosures at Abydos (see nasty pyramids routinely had three.
fig. 8d-e). Although the Khasekhemwy building The superstructure of the Fourth Dynasty
was considerably more complex than Peribsen's, royal tomb changed far more radically than its
both led the visitor from the south to the north substructure. The rectangular enclosure was
end of the building and then to the south again, abandoned in favor of a linear series of diverse
a typical domestic arrangement. A tradition structures

of (valley temple, causeway, mortuary
royal mortuary buildings with domestic charac- temple, pyramid) that ran from east to west, be-
teristics thus lay behind the Djoser complex. ginning at the edge of the cultivation. The diffi-
The change in the royal mortuary complex culty
at of access that characterized the Djoser
the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty was far
45 Both
more radical than the change in private tombs. of the Dahshur pyramids and that of Khufu have
secondary rooms where grave goods might have been stored,
The element that changed the least was the
but all of these are on the main axis, and do not seem to fit
the Egyptian conception of "magazines." Khafre's pyramid
44 E. R. Ayrton, C. T. Currelly, and A. E. P. Weigall,
has a large room at the end of a passage at right angles to the
Abydos III (London, 1904), pl. 6 and 7. principal passage, but no storerooms open off of it.

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
46 JARCE XXX (1993)
Fig. 7. Layouts of royal enclosures at (a) Abydos (af

tombs (black) at Saqqara. (After B. G. Trigger in:
p. 14. Additional royal enclosures have been added
placement of individual tombs in the subsidiary cem

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
Fig. 8. Three buildings in the Djoser complex: (a) Temple T, (b) a building
(c) the mortuary temple (after Firth and Quibell, The Step Pyramid, pls
from the Abydos enclosures of (d) Peribsen and (e) Khasekhemwy (after K
same scale.)
complex was entirely eliminated, both in the found their way to the sanctuary. In practice,
complex as a whole and its individual elements. however, their way might have been blocked,
The new complexes were exceedingly axial and since the Fourth Dynasty complexes apparently
symmetrical in plan (see fig. 9). An S-twist or had working doors, unlike the perpetually open
baffle wall sometimes obscured access to the stone doors at the Djoser complex. The in-
sanctuary itself, but the approach was creased
far sim-accessibility was thus probably more
pler, and without confusing side passages or re-
ideological and symbolic than practical.
versals in direction. In their degree of openness,
Another clear change in royal superstructures
the royal mortuary temples resembled was closely
the increase in their decoration. Where
the temples of the gods. decoration in the Step Pyramid Complex ha

been limited to the reproduction of plant m
Even the size of the Fourth Dynasty pyramids
enhanced their accessibility. The earliest
tifs royal
and six panels depicting the king placed i
monuments on the Umm el-Qab were probablythe inaccessible substructure, extensive figura
topped with low (2.5 m maximum) mounds
tive relief decoration began to appear on th
that would have been almost completely invisi-
walls of the superstructure associated with th
ble from a distance. There was a steady growth Bent Pyramid,
in and there are indications th
visibility from that time through the structures reign ofof Khufu and Khafre also bore wall
Djoser, when the burial mound-Step Pyramid decoration.4 While such decoration did not it-
extended above the high enclosure wall. By any self increase the complex's accessibility, it dem-
measure, the early Fourth Dynasty pyramids onstrates again the shifting of focus from the
were larger; towering above lower enclosure substructure to the superstructure of the tomb.
walls, they could be seen and understood by all However different in effect, the changes that
levels of Egyptian society. The isolation and plan occurred in royal tombs in the early Fourth Dy-
of the entire Fourth Dynasty royal complex nasty move in the same general direction as the
made its spatial organization obvious from the changes that took place in contemporary pri-
valley, and in theory, strangers could easily have vate tombs. Both private and royal tombs lost
their storerooms, their closedness, and their
46 G. Dreyer, "Zur Rekonstruktion der Oberbauten der
Konigsgraber der 1. Dynastie in Abydos," MDAIK 47 (1991), H. Goedicke, Re-Used Blocks from the Pyramid ofAmenem-
102. hetlatLisht (New York, 1971), nos. 1-7.

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48 JARCE XXX (1993)
and possibly at the even older site of Hierakon-

polis. Earlier Second Dynasty kings, however,
were apparently buried at Saqqara, perhaps be-
cause of the presence of some favored deity or
an illustrious ancestor in the non-royal ceme-
tery there. It was to this newer royal cemetery
that the Third Dynasty kings returned.
During most of this period, then, the kings
built tombs away from their subjects, in special
cemeteries where their ancestors had been bur-
ied. Even at Saqqara, which had originally been

a private cemetery, a sharp dividing line marked
by natural barriers was maintained between the
royal sector to
Fig. 9. Royal mortuary temples the the
of south and the private
Fourth sector
Dynasty
at the Meydum to and
pyramid the north
(b) (see
at fig.
the 7b).pyramid
Despite the lack
ofof Kh
(after Edwards, Pyramids ofby
space caused Egypt, pp. 75
the giant enclosures, and
later kings 11
respectively). (Not drawn to the
preferred tosame
build in scale.)
western less desirable
areas, or to raze the superstructures of their
predecessors, rather than build in the non-
domestic features, royal
and cemetery
their to the north.
cult Private individuals
places beg
to resemble the more open
were equally restrictedplans of
in siting their temp
tombs. In-
and receive decoration.
creasingly,But while
they expanded earlier
towards the west and ro
tombs were simplytowards Abu Sir to the north,
elaborate but no tombs were
versions of th
private counterparts,builtthein the southern,
tombs exclusively
of Fourth royal, sector Dy
nasty kings changeduntilinthe waysFifth Dynasty.
that(Asharply similar avoidance dist
guished them from those of their subjects. T
pyramids made powerful symbolic statement
48 W. Kaiser has suggested that the concentrations of
as did the valley temples and causeways that p
lines of subsidiary graves north of the later entrance to the
these monuments in active and direct contact
Serapeum are connected with some sort of First Dynasty
with the populations of the living. In this royal cult there ("Ein Kultbezirk des Konigs Den in Sakkara,
period there is no doubt which tombs belong to MDA1K41 [1985], 47-60). This is possible, or the subsidiary
graves might be related to early burials of the Apis bulls,
kings and which to commoners.
who were buried in this area in later periods.
49 Whatever their form, the superstructures of Hetep-
Cemetery Organization sekhemwy and Ninetjer seem likely to have been casualties
of Djoser's construction work to the north, since any but
In addition to changes in the size, shape, con- the most minimal superstructure covering these substruc-
tures would have interfered with the construction of his
tents, and orientation of royal tombs, the latter
massive enclosure wall. Djoser apparently had special access
part of the Third Dynasty also marked a change to the possessions of these earlier kings, since seventeen
in their location. The Umm el-Qab, in the vessels found in his storerooms bear the name of Hetep-
desert west of Abydos, was a traditional royal sekhemwy and thirteen that of Ninetjer (P. Lacau and J.-P.
cemetery even before the First Dynasty kings Lauer, La Pyr amide a degres TV: Inscriptions gravees sur les vases
were buried there. Except for the surrounding[Cairo, 1959-1961], 29-38). This would be explained by
the assumption that Djoser leveled their tomb superstruc-
subsidiary burials, it was exclusively royal; and
tures and appropriated the contents. The name of Djer also
whether or not these subsidiary burials were occurs on thirteen vessels, usually associated with the insti-
sacrificial, the people buried in them seem tution
to Smr-ntrw, which perhaps also fell victim to Djoser's
have been relegated to the status of burial workmen. No other king is mentioned on more than eight
equipment, providing labor and companion- vessels, and Djoser himself is mentioned on only one.
50 This division of the Saqqara necropolis would hardly
ship for the king just as servant models did in have been so strictly maintained had the First Dynasty
later periods. The last few kings of the Second tombs in the northern sector been the burial places of the
Dynasty also built tombs at the Umm el-Qab, First Dynasty kings.

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC
Fig. 10. The royal pyramid cemeteries of Dahshur (after Stadelmann,

and Giza (after O'Connor, World Archaeology 6 (1974), p. 21. (Not
of the area of the royal hind enclosures

them to theat Abydos
west, moving ever westward
seems to have lasted until the First Intermediate as the prime areas on the escarpment itself
Period.)51 became crowded. There was also an apparen
The end of the Third Dynasty, however, tendency to move northward, away from t
brought a new pattern. In the latter part of this royal tombs that had begun to be built to t
and most of the following dynasty, each new south, but this may be the result of uneven
king built his tomb at a new site, often at a great preservation and excavation.
distance from the tomb of his predecessor. In the Fourth Dynasty, high officials and
(The many small step pyramids found through- members of the royal family seem to have aba
out Egypt, dating technologically to the late doned this traditional cemetery to build the
Third Dynasty or Snefru's reign, may be related tombs in cemeteries near the royal tomb. A
to this policy.) This pattern was broken in only a Meydum and Dahshur, these private "pyram
few reigns, and it was continued intermittently cemeteries" were located some distance from
into the Fifth Dynasty by the kings who initiated the royal tomb, at least as far as the distance
new cemeteries at South Saqqara and Abu Sir. between the royal and non-royal sectors at
These repeated breaks with ancestral tradi- Saqqara (see fig. 10a). The distance between
tion can also be seen in the private cemeteries the royal and private tombs decreased mark-
of the Fourth Dynasty. The high officials and edly at Giza (compare fig. 10b); but the novelty
royal family members at Memphis had been, if lay not in the proximity to the royal tomb, but
anything, more conservative than their royal in the dependence upon it. When royal tombs
overlords in locating their tombs. First Dy-
nasty officials built their tombs in irregular 52 This movement may have begun simultaneously with
the moving of royal tombs away from Saqqara, since there
rows along the escarpment at Saqqara north were brick mastabas excavated north of the Layer Pyramid
of the central wadi. Their successors of the
of Zawieyet el-Aryan. (Dows Dunham, Zawiyet el-Aryan: The
Second and Third Dynasties built tombs
Cemeteriesbe-
adjacent to the Layer Pyramid [Boston, 1978] , 34.) At
Meydum and the Bent Pyramid, subsidiary cemeteries also
were laid out to the north, perhaps mimicking the geogra-
51 J. Richards, "Understanding the Mortuary Remains at
Abydos," NARCE 142 (1988), 7-8. phy of Saqqara.

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50 JARCE XXX (1993)
moved from Abydos to

shape of their Saqqara
pyramids, and
and is made explicit in back
in the first two dynasties,
texts of the early Fourth the
Dynasty. tombs of of
had remained at Saqqara without referen
the site of the royal tomb. (That
Conclusions
both priv
and royal tombs at Saqqara tended to move
westward was due to similar spatial constraints The changes described above, all of which
rather than any relationship.) occurred around the time of the beginning of
Under the new system, tomb builders were the Fourth Dynasty, are summarized in Table 1.
granted planned spaces in the new royal ceme- This collection of contrasts suggests strongly
teries surrounding the pyramid by the central that the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty coin-
authority, probably in proportion to some mea- cided with two fundamental changes, one
sure of their social rank and political impor- affecting the conception of the afterlife and the
tance. At Saqqara the private cemetery had been other affecting the relationship between the
a homogeneous mix of tombs of officials, varying king and his subordinates.
in size and jostling against one another in an The new and striking contrast in the archi-
effort to claim the most advantageous position. tectural form of the tombs of kings and com-
Now the private tombs were laid out in even moners alike suggests a change in beliefs about
rows, and fell into a uniform range of sizes. the nature of the afterlife and the needs of the
These tombs were not only associated with the dead. Fourth Dynasty Egyptians no longer
royal tomb, but were to some extent dependent viewed the afterlife as identical to life on earth,
upon it, since the cemetery was clearly part of a and hence they no longer required earthly
large, planned mortuary landscape centered goods to take part in it. The house plans of
upon the pyramid. With their new privileged commoners ceased to affect the plan of their
proximity to the royal tomb, paradoxically, the tomb chambers, and the buildings necessary
officials' tombs resembled nothing so much as for the king's earthly activities were not dupli-
the subsidiary graves around the First Dynasty cated in his mortuary complex. At the same
royal tombs, tombs that had belonged to a far time, the amount of grave goods buried with
lower stratum of society. Unlike these earlier the deceased, which had been increasing in
tombs, however, they occurred in clusters rather quantity and variety since the beginning of the
than rows.53
predynastic period, was suddenly drastically re-
The location of royal and private tombs and duced, as indicated by the reduced storage
the relationship between them clearly reflected space available for such goods in both royal and
a major social change towards the end of the private tombs.
Third Dynasty. The authority of ancestors, of For the earthly food, furnishings, and domes-
historical family ties, and perhaps of tribal loy- tic spaces that were supplied in older tombs,
alties was weakened in both the royal and pri- Fourth Dynasty officials seem to have substi-
vate spheres, and in the private sphere it seems tuted two new requirements, the perpetual cult
to have been replaced by a greater dependence ceremonies performed by the living and the
upon the power of the king. The new, indepen- blessings of the king. Cult service of some kind
dent position of royal tombs suggests that these probably existed in earlier periods, at least for
kings no longer derived their power from their kings, but it may have been very different from
relationship to earlier kings; this source of au- what it was later. The architecture of both royal
thority may have been replaced by the new rela-
tionship of the individual kings to the sun god
that has been postulated on the basis of the 54 Stone bowls inscribed with the name of the Zi-ho-nb/
Hr/jjtj, presumably royal tombs, and phyles of some type of
cult functionaries are known from the end of the first dy-
53 The contrast between the pattern in linear cemeteries nasty (Roth, Egyptian Phyles in the Old Kingdom, 154-69); and
of private tombs and the clusters of royal monuments has an early table of distribution was found at the Djoser com-
already been noted by O'Connor, JARCE 26 (1989), 59 and plex that is similar to those found at the Fifth Dynasty com-
n. 23. plex of Neferefre (ibid., 181-88).

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Table 1: Mortuary Customs in the Third and Fo
Third Dynasty Fourth Dynasty

Private Tombs
Complex "domestic" substructures Single chamber

Substructure entered by stairway Most often shaft from top
Many storerooms, portcullis No storerooms, no portcullis
Plentiful grave goods Few grave goods
Chapel has closed plan Open access to chapel
Mudbrick construction Largely or entirely stone
Man and wife have separate chapels Man and wife represented together
Wall decoration rare Increasing wall decoration
Royal Tombs
Stepped pyramid True pyramid
Not prominent or accessible Prominent, accessible appearance
Axis of enclosure north-south Axis of complex east-west
Elaboration of private plan Exclusively royal form
Asymmetrical "domestic" plans Symmetrical "temple" plans
House-like substructure Single burial chamber, antechambers
Many, many storerooms Few, if any, storerooms
Permanently open doors (Djoser) Real doors, could close
Decoration underground (Djoser) Decorated cult places
Cemetery Organization
Ancestral cemeteries of officials Private cemeteries centered on pyramid
Kings buried together New site for almost every reign
Private tombs independent of royal Private tombs move with king's
Siting of tombs uncontrolled Private tombs laid out on grid
and private tombs makes it unlikely that theirthe tomb owner, was also a change in the direc-
builders wanted to encourage casual visits to thetion of ensuring the service of the cult. It shows
tomb, such as those requested by the later "callsa desire to attract casual visitors who might be
upon the living," and it is possible that privateinspired to make an offering by the implied
tombs were essentially abandoned after the fu-power of the tomb owner in the spirit realm.
neral. The absence of family members of the Another factor in Fourth Dynasty private
tomb owner from tomb decoration in the early cults was the increased importance of the king.
period, and their ubiquity afterwards, is alsoThe need for his "blessings" is suggested by the
suggestive. The tomb owner's descendants wereinauguration of pyramid cemeteries. This was
largely responsible for the carrying out of thein part a practical dependence. A tomb site
cult, and their representation and hence im-near the royal pyramid offered the possibility of
mortalization in tombs may have been an incen- access to the more expensive materials and
tive for more faithful service. The transfer of royal crafts specialists of the pyramid project, as
resources from the cutting and equipping well
ofas nu-
the status boost of proximity to such an
merous underground storerooms (an expensive important monument. But the dependence
but invisible investment) to stone-builtsuggested super- by the metaphor of cemetery organi-
structures with stone-carved decoration, which zation was not entirely economically based. The
ostentatiously displayed the wealth and status ofintroduction of the htp-dj-nswt formula dates to

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52 JARCE XXX (1993)
complexes, as has been

the early Fourth Dynasty,55 and,noted however
above, has many i
elements in common states
be interpreted, it explicitly with templesthe
of divinities,
theo
perhaps because both
cal dependence of officials on were
the designed to ease bo
king's
for the necessities of the afterlife. The use of the transportation of large quantities of food
offerings.
the generic nsiutin the formula, rather than the The impressive size of this architec-
ture also inspired the fear and loyalty that
name of a specific royal benefactor, suggests
that the formula called for support fromhelped
future,ensure continual service. In this need
living kings, not just the tomb owner's for cult service, the king, like his subjects, de-
contem-
poraries, just as the cult required a perpetual
pended upon the kindness of posterity.
service of mortuary priests. The king's dependence upon the elite did
not the
Until the end of the Third Dynasty, then, begin with his death. The task of building
elite depended upon the past to ensure a con-
the immense pyramid that was a necessary part
of the new system undoubtedly required far
tinued life after death, a dependence suggested
architecturally by the duplication of their more resources than the earlier type of royal
earthly houses, by the burial of goods acquired tomb. Although the magnitude of the pyramid
during life, and by the location of their tombs in itself would have increased the total sum of re-
ancestral cemeteries. Beginning in the Fourth sources available to him by increasing royal
Dynasty, tomb owners looked to the living and power, these gains would hardly have been
to posterity for their security, depending on the sufficient alone to pay the costs of the project.
continued favor of kings and the loyalty of their The quantity of surplus production available
surviving family and dependents. The tombs' for use in mortuary architecture (and other
increased accessibility and independence from spheres) by the king's immediate subordinates
older cemeteries indicates visibly a shifting of must have been severely curtailed, and con-
focus from ancestors to future generations. siderable political skills would have been re-
If the king's authority ensured the afterlife of quired to convince the elite that resources from
his loyal subjects, who ensured the afterlife of their savings in grave goods should be invested
the king? The east-west axis of the new mortu- in the pyramid project. Their support was
ary complex, the pyramidal shape of the burial probably obtained by a tacit quid-pro-quo ar-
mound, and the importance of the sun god Re rangement. Tomb builders apparently received
in royal names and titles later in the dynasty are higher quality building materials from the
evidence for an increased connection with the
stone supplied for the royal project. Labor for
solar cult. The identification of the dead king
construction and access to royal crafts special-
with Re, who was reborn daily at sunrise, istswas
for adecorating the tombs may also have
powerful metaphorical insurance of the been centrally supplied. Furthermore, the
survival
of his soul.56 An afterlife lived with Re in his so- to the royal pyramid presumably con-
proximity
lar bark differed markedly, however, from ferred status, both during the lifetime of the
the
repetition of earthly glories that Djoser officials
antici- and afterwards, enhancing their pros-
pated. Supplies for an earthly existencepects
wereof eternal life. In exchange for these
unnecessary; instead, perpetual offerings and the officials must have provided labor-
benefits,
cultic service like those received by gods
ers,were
food, and other resources necessary to sup-
port the pyramid-building project. In this sense
required. The architecture of the new mortuary
the spatial organization of the new pyramid
55 Winfried Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der
cemeteries
altdgyptischen
demonstrates not the dependence
Opferformel (Gluckstadt, 1968), 3.
One novel feature of Fourth Dynasty pyramid sub-
structures between Snefru and Khafre that has not to my N. Cherpion, Mastabas et Hypogees d'ancien empire: Le
knowledge been noted previously is that a pyramid's en- probleme de la datation, Connaissance de l'Egypte Ancienne
trance corridors first descend, then rise to reach the burial (Bruxelles, 1989), 79, has argued that no Tura limestone
chamber. This pattern might be related to the setting and was used in private tombs at Giza after the Fourth Dynasty,
rising of the sun, although the axis is north-south rather in other words, after the completion of the royal pyramids
than west-east. for which Tura limestone was brought.

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authority
of the officials on the king, butin exchange
the for good government.
dependence
Such a transition is supported textually by Sne-
of the king on his officials.
Still other concessions to
fru'sthese
adoption ofessential
the title ntr nfr,
sup-
"the good
porters can be seen in textual
god," and, even sources. It is
more significantly, at
the Horus
this period that the king's personal
name Nb-Mjct, "possessor ofname be-
Maat," referring to
his ability
gan to be used extensively to maintain an ideal world
on monuments, sug~order
gesting a greater degree based
of on justice, truth,
access to him and traditionally
as anpre-
individual. This name also
scribed began
behavior. Thatto be incor-
the transition was at least
porated in the names of his officials and cult partly conscious, and that it entailed some hy-
personnel, a concession probably intended to perbolic propaganda stressing the king's good-
forge a closer relationship with the king and natured humanity, can be surmised from the
make sacrifices on his behalf more acceptable. benign, almost buffoonish role Snefru plays in
Also built on the name of the king were the later literature: his simple-minded lecherous-
names of royal mortuary estates, lands set aside ness in the papyrus Westcar story and his hearty
by the king as perpetual endowments to sup- good fellowship and willingness to act as a hum-
port his cult. Here again, the use of the power- ble scribe in the "Prophecies of Neferti."60
ful royal name may have helped ensure the The pyramids were thus built at the expense
loyalty of agricultural workers. Some revenues of the king's god-like distance from his sub-
from these funerary endowments were clearly jects. At the same time, other strategies were
diverted to supply the cults of loyal supporters, adopted to reinforce his divinity. The new use
who took the opportunity to depict this presti- of the king's personal name in the personal
gious source of supply on their chapel walls.59 names of his subjects gave them a special con-
(The king thus essentially garnished future ag- nection with him, but also gave him the same
ricultural production to pay for his pyramid, an role as gods, who were traditionally mentioned
early example of deficit spending.) in theophoric names. The htp-dj-nswt formula,
Such concessions suggest that Snefru's reign in which the king was normally paired with
marked a departure from the conception of Anubis in granting boons in the afterlife, again
kingship in which royal power derived solely associated the living king with a divinity and
granted him divine powers. The use of the
from fear of the king. The high walls of the early
royal tombs represent metaphorically the de- title "son of Re," beginning with Djedefre, es-
fensive nature of power that rested on the abil- tablished a physical connection with the most
ity to extract resources forcibly and punish powerful deity of the period. Finally, the dis-
opponents. The amount of control that can be tinctive shape of the royal pyramid itself and its
exercised with this type of power is limited. The restriction to royal use distinguished the king's
(visually) more accessible monuments of Snefru tomb from those of his courtiers, while its size
and his successors suggest that their power further emphasized his divinity. The king built
rested on a more political base, appealing to the his personal political power by granting access
approval of at least the elite members of the
population, who willingly supported the king's
60 Posthumous references to Snefru have been collected
by D. Wildung, Die Rolle dgyptischer Konige im Bewusstsein ihrer
58 H. Ranke, Die dgyptischen Personennamen 2 (Gliickstadt,Nachwelt: Posthume Quellen uber die Konige der ersten vier Dynas-
1952), 229-32. Although Ranke notes the absence of several tien, MAS 17 (Berlin, 1969), 114-19.
divine names from the Archaic period corpus, basilophoric This may also represent the king's adoption of a di-
names are simply absent from his summary of name types ofvine prerogative. The first attested offering formula, in the
the first three dynasties, and present in his Old Kingdom tomb of Rahotep at Meydum, is built on the name of
survey. Anubis; the word nswt is substituted for the god's name by
The first attested estates occur in the reign of Snefru. the time of Khufu at the latest, however. (Barta, Aufbau und
Helen Jacquet-Gordon, Les noms de domaines funeraires sous Bedeutung der dgyptischen Opferformel, 3-4.)
Vancien empire egyptien, BdE 34 (Cairo, 1962), 8. Some estates David Larkin has suggested to me that the new differ-
of earlier kings may occur, but they are of later date, and entiation in the shape and size of the royal tomb may have
may have been organized posthumously. made the spatial differentiation less important.

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54 JARCE XXX (1993)
to his tomb and his name, while simultane

increasing the value of that access by the v
enhancement of power that it paid for.
building of larger pyramids thus provided
fru and his successors with symbolic curren
pay for broader power and central control
The underlying motivation for these chan
probably again relates to the shift of focus
Horus to Re, as the divinity represented by
king. The sun that embodied Re was cert
more distant than the falcon Horus from the
Egyptians, and arguably from the king (since

the king was equated with Horus, but was only
Re's son); yet the sun clearly had a greater in-
volvement with their everyday lives than the fal-
con. The sun's light and warmth contrasted
implicitly with the darkness and cold of its ab-
sence; it was surely seen as a universally benefi-
cent force, rather than simply a powerful one.
The sun's power influenced views of the after-
life, but it may also have inspired a new kind of
relationship between the king and his people,
in which he cared for them as well as ruling
them.
The appearance of husbands, wives and chil-

dren together in the relief decoration and stat-
uary of Fourth Dynasty tombs may also be
connected with the cult of Re, though more
subtly. In royal iconography, the king's family
first appeared together (albeit at radically
different scales) in Djoser's temple to Re at He-
liopolis63 (see fig. 11). The cult of Re at Heliop-
olis was a family cult, involving a genealogically-
related ennead; and the king's connection
Fig. 11. A fragment from the temple ofDjoser at Heliopolis,
with Re also had a genealogical basis - he was
Re's son. The growth of the importance of nowRe in the Egyptian Museum, Turin. This drawing is
based on a slide taken by the author.
and his cult seems to have brought about a new
stress on family, children, and posterity. (The
63 W. S. Smith, A History of Egyptian Sculpture and older dynastic

Painting deities, Horus and Seth, in con-
in the Old Kingdom (Boston, 1946) 113, fig. 48 right. The
trast, had no spouses or children to speak of.) A
names, but not the figures, of Djoser's wife and daughter
also appear on 79 re-used steles and markers at his mortuary
similar increase in emphasis on the wife and
complex (Firth and Quibell, The Step Pyramid, 119, children
pls. 86- of the king took place at the end of
the 114,
87). A collection of four statues of different sizes (ibid., Eighteenth Dynasty along with the rise of
pl. 63 bottom), of which only the feet are preserved, another
might solar cult.
suggest that they were depicted as statues in the complex;
but it is equally possible that these statues represent deities.
Already on one of the Djoser fragments from Heliopo- 65 W[ilfried] S[eipel], "Konigin," LA III, col. 465, notes
lis Geb, Shu and Seth seem to be represented. W. S. that the queen began to outrank the king's mother and
Smith,
took on
The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, 2nd ed., revised bymore important roles in royal iconography begin-
W. K. Simpson (Harmondsworth, 1981), 64. ning in the reign of Amenhotep III.

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The ultimate origin of the mental characteristics

new forms of the Egyptians' belief
adopted
for royal tomb complexes in their
system: the early about
expectations Fourth
life after death
Dynasty, by this analysis, andresembles
their relationship that
to their king.
of ear-In both of
lier analyses. The changes these
derive
areas, the from
change represented
the new a departure
association between the from king and the sun
the backward-looking views ofgod,
the first
an association which, it should perhaps be three dynasties towards a forward-looking de-
noted, neither my analysis nor the traditional in- pendence on posterity, a posterity that was pro-
terpretations explain. The value of the applica- duced by the family relationships that the sun
tion of spatial analysis here lies in its elucidation cult stressed. Ironically, the endowments and
of the intermediate effects of this association, perpetual mortuary service that this new view re-
and their wider consequences. quired resulted in a proliferation of ancestor
This broader view of the architectural changescults, which came to dominate Egypt's society
of the early Fourth Dynasty reveals that the newand economy, and ultimately shackled to the
form of the royal tombs was not an isolated phe-past the very posterity upon which they de-
nomenon, resulting from an esoteric philosoph-pended. In its initial effects, however, the burst
ical and religious emphasis on the sun god that of pyramid building that the new solar ideology
was limited to the king himself. Instead, the produced at the beginning of the Fourth Dy-
changes occurred in all levels of elite mortuary nasty seems to have been one of many "ratchets"
architecture, and represented the culminationthat propelled a basically backwards-looking
of a larger, slower, and more far-reaching shift culture into the future.
in the focus of the Egyptians, from the past to

the future. This shift radically altered two funda- Philadelphia, PA

193.19.172.29 on Sun, 18 Jul 2021 11:37:48 UTC

Social Change in The Fourth Dynasty The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries

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Social Change in The Fourth Dynasty The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries

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Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000226

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Ann Macy Roth

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Fig. 1. The Step Pyramid complex, at left (after Edwards

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subjective, it is justified by buildings

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Fig. 2. These house plans were taken from the follow

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with store jars; it may have been used to store

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Fig.3. Temples of the early period. These plans are ba

and since the elite of this period

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be built so close together, and since Horus

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Fig. 4. Second and Third Dynasty tomb substructures

Private Tombs form mimicked the bed platform found in

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tremely rare and the approach to the cult place

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this suggestion can be found

Period vessels and sealings of Ninetjer in addition to many

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Sekhemkhet at Saqqara, as that

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sited directly behind onesubstructure, another, which making

a typical domestic arrangement. A tradition structures

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Fig. 7. Layouts of royal enclosures at (a) Abydos (af

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the temples of the gods. decoration in the Step Pyramid Complex ha

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and possibly at the even older site of Hierakon-

ied. Even at Saqqara, which had originally been

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Fig. 10. The royal pyramid cemeteries of Dahshur (after Stadelmann,

of the area of the royal hind enclosures

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moved from Abydos to

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Table 1: Mortuary Customs in the Third and Fo

Third Dynasty Fourth Dynasty

Complex "domestic" substructures Single chamber

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complexes, as has been

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to his tomb and his name, while simultane

Egyptians, and arguably from the king (since

The appearance of husbands, wives and chil-

63 W. S. Smith, A History of Egyptian Sculpture and older dynastic

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The ultimate origin of the mental characteristics

in the focus of the Egyptians, from the past to

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