The Mastaba of Mereruka. Part I: Chambers A 1-10, Plates 1-103

204 Pages·1938·115.307 MB·English

by  The Sakkarah Expedition

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS
JOHN ALBERT WILSON
AND
THOMAS GEORGE ALLEN
Editors
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THE MASTABA OF MERERUKA
PART I
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
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NEW YORK
THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON
THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI--KAISHA
TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUIKUOKA, SENDAI
THE COMMERCIAL PRESS, LIMITED
SHANGHAI
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PLATE 1
PRINTED IN GERMANY
MERERUKA ISSUING FROM THE KINGDOM OF THE DEAD AND
ENTERING HIS TOMB
AN ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE SCENE IN ITS ORIGINAL LIGHTING
CHAMBER A 13, NORTH WALL
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ORIENTAL INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONS
VOLUME XXXI
THE
MASTABA OF
MERERUKA
PART I
CHAMBERS A1-10
PLATES 1-103
BY
THE SAKKARAH EXPEDITION
FIELD DIRECTOR
PRENTICE DUELL
ARTISTS EPIGRAPHERS
RAYMOND T. COWERN CHARLES FRANCIS NIMS
H. M. LACK KEITH C. SEELE
DONALD NASH
PHOTOGRAPHER
STANLEY R. SHEPHERD
LESLIE F. THOMPSON
CLYDE R. SHUFORD
VCEVOLD STREKALOVSKY ASSISTANT
E. A. WARREN MARINA KOSSOFF
Internet publication of this work was made possible with the
generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS
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1938
COPYRIGHT BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED JUNE 1938
COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea of reproducing adequately the painted relief sculp- members of his staff was to us one of the most pleasant of
tures of the notable tomb of Mereruka at Sakkarah originated experiences. I have further to acknowledge helpful sugges-
with the late Professor James H. Breasted, founder and first tions on the part of many colleagues who visited the Expe-
director of the Oriental Institute. Owing to the interest dition, especially Dr. Howard Carter, Mr. Joseph Lindon
and generosity of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the project Smith, and Dr. Caroline Ransom Williams.
was made possible and these volumes accomplished. Dr. I am greatly indebted to Professor Harold H. Nelson,
Breasted's regretted death occurred toward the end of the Field Director of the Oriental Institute's Epigraphic and
Expedition's field work. The task was completed and the Architectural Survey at Luxor, for his generous assistance
volumes edited under his successor, Professor John A. Wilson. in organizing the Expedition and for valuable help afforded
In the preparation of the volumes I am indebted to numer- me at all stages of the work. As to the Introduction, I owe
ous friends who have collaborated directly and indirectly much to Professor A. T. Olmstead, Oriental Institute Pro-
in the work both in the field and at home. I wish first to fessor of Oriental History in the University of Chicago. I
thank M. Pierre Lacau, former Director General of the acknowledge gratefully the assistance of Dr. T. George
Service des Antiquites of the Egyptian Government, for his Allen, Editorial Secretary of the Oriental Institute, who
courtesy in granting the necessary permission to undertake read the manuscript and checked the inscriptions with metic-
the project, and M. Henri Gauthier, former Secretary Gen- ulous care; Dr. Adolph A. Brux I wish also to thank for
eral, for most kindly arranging the many official details. much assistance. Above all, I wish to express to my staff
The generous assistance lent me by the late Cecil M. Firth, my appreciation of their loyalty and conscientious labor
Inspector General of the Service des Antiquites, at Sakkarah, throughout five field seasons in making the plates repro-
and by his successor, the late J. E. Quibell, I recall with grati- duced in these volumes; on their behalf I would place on
tude. To Professor George A. Reisner, Director of the Joint record the great inspiration of working under the guidance
Egyptian Expedition of Harvard University and the Boston of Professor Breasted. I would likewise express to Professor
Museum of Fine Arts at Gizah, I am deeply indebted for John A. Wilson our appreciation of much helpful co-opera-
much kind co-operation and for advising me on such prob- tion in bringing these volumes to completion.
lems as arise in the field; the friendly relationship with the
PRENTICE DUELL
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD, BY JAMES HENRY BREASTED AND THOMAS
GEORGE ALLEN - - - - xi
LIST OF PLATES - - - - - - xix
LIST OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS - - xxv
INTRODUCTION, BY PRENTICE DUELL - - - - 1
CONTENTS OF THE MASTABA - - - - - - 1
THE FAMILY - - - - - - - - 3
DATE AND HISTORY OF THE MASTABA - - - - - 5
ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION - - - - -7
PIGMENTS
--------- 10
TECHNIQUE
THE SUBJECTS-. ...O F THE RELIEFS -- 12
-
- - - - - 16
ERRATUM
In the legends of Plates 29 B and 30 B, for "Carpenter" read "Carpenters"
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FOREWORD
It is to the enlightened interest of Mr. John D. Rocke- Long before this the storms of war had swept away the
feller, Jr., that we owe this opportunity of publishing and Delta cities, and after the Moslem conquest the scanty
saving from destruction the great treasury of art and history wreckage of Heliopolis also had disappeared. Besides its fa-
which has survived to us in the tomb of Mereruka in the mous obelisk only a few scattered blocks still remain within
ancient Memphite cemetery. In view of the fact that the the line of ancient walls now traceable. With Heliopolis and
two volumes portraying it are intended for students of art Memphis gone, the historian of today has lost the greatest
and history and not exclusively for orientalists, it has been two cities of the archaic age in Egypt; and with them he has
necessary to present here an account of the tombs of Mem- lost forever a great body of evidence disclosing the early de-
phis which the professional orientalist may find superfluous. velopment of Egyptian civilization after the rise of the
The traveler of today who rides his donkey through the pharaonic state.
beautiful palm groves of ancient Memphis finds it difficult It is the destruction of these cities which has given un-
to believe that the somber mounds of rubbish out of which equaled importance to the cemeteries of the Old Kingdom
these lofty palm trunks rise cover the wreckage of what was stretching for over fifty miles along the margin of the desert,
once the capital of Egypt-a city which already five thou- from Abu Roash on the north to Meidum on the south. They
sand years ago, in the Pyramid Age, was one of the most are today our basic source for the disclosure of a unique stage
splendid the Ancient World was ever to see.' Late in the of human development. I am using the word "unique" here
fourth century the edict of Theodosius I condemning all the with a temporal limitation, by which I mean that the civiliza-
so-called "pagan" temples to destruction resulted in much tion revealed in the Old Kingdom cemeteries was unique at
damage to the splendid buildings of Memphis. Much more the time of its appearance. It is their unparalleled impor-
destructive was the Arab conquest of Egypt two and a half tance as historical sources and as works of art which gives
centuries later, in A.D. 640, when the Moslem builders of these cemeteries their unique significance. [The tomb struc-
al-Fustt and Cairo began to use as a quarry the vast struc- tures found in them are of two main types: the pyramids of
tures of Memphis and its neighboring cemeteries, especially royalty and the mastabas3 of both royal and nonroyal own-
Gizah and Sakkarah. When cAbd al-Latif, who was flourish- ers. Architecturally the pyramid itself is an outgrowth and
ing about A.D. 1200, visited Memphis, this quarrying in the elaboration of the mastaba. The latter type, in its various
ancient buildings had been going on for over five centuries. stages of development, is characteristic of the vicinity of
Nevertheless his account of what he saw, among the im- Memphis.4]. As sources for a knowledge of the early life of
posing monuments which he found still surviving there, is man the wall scenes sculptured in the tomb chapels of Mem-
filled with wonder. His words are: phite lords at Sakkarahs from nearly 3000 to after 2500 B.c.
Among the monumental remains of ancient Egypt are also those of the have no parallel elsewhere until two thousand years later,
city situated in the territory of Gizah a little above al-Fust4., that is, of when the Greek vase-painters began to adorn their pottery
Memphis, which was the residence of the pharaohs and the established
with similar glimpses of daily life in Greece.
capital of the empire of the kings of Egypt..... The territory covered
The mastaba wall scenes have long been recognized as an
by the ruins today is half a day's journey in extent. It had been inhabited
unequaled revelation of early material life in its varied as-
in the time of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses (may peace be upon them!)
and previous to them, as God willed, and also after them to the time of pects, such as industry, agriculture, animal husbandry and
Nebuchadnezzar..Yet in spite of the city's extent and antiquity, in domestication of animals, and traffic and transportation by
spite of the successive changes introduced into it by different religions both land and water. As these things are disclosed in actual
and the destruction meted out to it by various peoples-the effacement
pictures they incidentally form also a unique revelation of
of its remains, the wiping out of its vestiges, the removal of its stones and
natural /j/e, especially of wild animals, including fish and
materials, the devastation of its buildings, the disfiguration of its statues,
fowl, all of which are depicted with amazing skill and fidelity.
in addition to the havoc wrought in it by upwards of four thousand years
-you will still find in it such marvels as exceed the understanding of the It has also long been recognized that these wall scenes furnish
reflecting mind and tongue-tie even the eloquent. The more you reflect invaluable knowledge of the local processes of government and
on them, the more they increase your admiration; and the more you look
administration at a period far earlier than we find them illus-
at them, the more they enhance your wonderment. As often as you seek
trated elsewhere. They are the earliest revelation of the or-
to elicit a meaning from them, they inform you of something more ex-
ganization of human society under governmental forms and
traordinary; and as often as you seek to obtain from them knowledge,
it is but to learn that behind them lies something still greater. of the operation of its machinery in the systematized control
The next few centuries, however, resulted in the complete of human groups. Curiously enough, however, it has not
demolition of the Memphite temples; but from the beginning been recognized that these tomb chapel scenes are our earli-
of the destruction under Theodosius it was more than a thou- est source for observing the rise of family life as the primary
sand years before the mighty buildings which the Egyptian
3[ The accepted name of this type of tomb is based on Arabic mastabah,
pharaohs had erected in their first dynastic capital had been
"bench," which describes the form of the superstructure.]
entirely quarried away.
4[ Instances elsewhere are rare. Two of the 6th dynasty at Edfu are discussed
in Service des Antiquites, Annales XVII (1917) 130-40 and XXXIII (1933) 131-
'[Cf. the thoroughly illustrated appreciation and description of this ancient
34, by G. Daressy and Ragheb Ibrahim Effendi respectively.]
capital and its cemeteries as a whole by Jean Capart and Marcelle Werbrouck:
Memphis. A l'ombre des pyramides (Bruxelles, 1930).] s [The 5th and 6th dynasty mastabas offer the widest range of subjects and the
[Translated by Dr. A. A. Brux from the Arabic text in J. White's Abdollatiphi fullest treatments. Since the outstanding examples are found at Sakkarah, the
historiae Aegypti compendium, arabice et latine (Oxonii, 1800) pp. 116-20.] mastabas of Gizah are not considered in detail here.]
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FOREWORD
force in the creation of the earliest ideals of conduct and the tion of these tombs by the modern inhabitants; for the
emergence of conscience as a social force.6 demolition of these tombs to secure building stone for local
Besides their unique value as historical sources the Sak- use, or limestone for the lime kilns of the neighborhood, con-
karah tomb walls are an extraordinary treasury of works of tinued until two generations ago. Writing from Gizah in
art, both graphic and sculptural, produced at a period long 1843, Lepsius says:
before any art disclosing such astonishing power of repre- Es ist wahrhaft empdrend mit anzusehen, wie tiiglich ganze Ziige von
sentation had arisen among any other people. The power Kameelen aus den naichsten Dbrfern hierher kommen, und mit Baustei-
of these mastaba wall scenes is due to a number of character- nen beladen in langen Reihen wieder abziehen..... Gestern haben die
istics. In the first place they are the earliest large and ambi- Raiuber einen schdnen, festen, ganz beschriebenen Pfeiler, der eben ge-
zeichnet werden sollte, hinter unserm Riicken umgeworfen. Das Zer-
tious compositions known in the history of art, including
schlagen scheint ihnen nicht gelungen zu sein. Die Menschen sind hier so
many figures of men and animals combined with all kinds of
erbiirmlich geworden, dass ihre Kraifte vielfach nicht mehr hinreichen,
equipment and furniture, such as tools, weapons, cabinet-
mit allem Fleisse das wieder zu zerstdren, was ihre grossen Vorginger
work, and especially elaborately drawn Nile ships with sails, aufgerichtet haben.9
rigging, and oarsmen, all colored with surprisingly enduring
But Mariette, strangely enough, mentions only sand and
water-color paints, mostly in flat tones. These colors lend
robbers of mummies as the destroyers of the Sakkarah
great vivacity, which is enhanced by the fact that many of
tombs.o Far from being a destroyer of the tombs, the sand
the human and animal figures are in rapid or even violent
was on the contrary the sole protection which the tombs en-
motion. This characteristic is the more surprising in view of
joyed after the decline of Egyptian civilization. At the pres-
the fact that Egyptian sculpture in the round is static; the
ent day the visitor will constantly find, in the mastabas now
greatest sculptures of the same age are portrait statues de-
open to inspection, that only the lower portion of the wall
picting the subject motionless, whether seated or standing.7
scenes is still in position. The blocks forming the upper por-
Finally we must note that these wall scenes, while we call
tion projected above the sand, which had not yet covered
them sculptures, are really raised drawings, involving all the
them, and were therefore exposed to plundering. They were
problems and difficulties of drawing, and that the artists who
removed by the plunderers down to the level of the protect-
produced them were superb draftsmen. Understanding per-
ing sand; and the survival of the lower parts of the sculp-
fectly well how to draw the human figure, they yielded to the
tured walls, which we now find still in position, was of course
demands of traditional and highly revered conventions re-
due to the fact that the sand covered them. They too would
garding it; but in the drawing of animals they were not af-
eventually have been dug out, but not until all more easily
fected by such inherited conventions. Their animal figures,
accessible blocks had been carried away. Like the sumptuous
often crowded together in violent motion, are superb exam-
blocks from the marble-incrusted buildings of ancient Rome,
ples both of drawing and of complicated composition. The
most of these Memphite tombs have been either consumed
artists were sometimes so aware of the beauty of animal
by the lime kiln or re-used in the construction of later build-
forms that they placed an animated scene of hunting in the
ings.
midst of a setting of desert ridges and sand dunes, touched
The history of modern scientific research in the mastaba
here and there with plants and shrubs, the whole disclosing
cemeteries is of unique interest because it was these re-
a dawning sense of landscape and the unity of a desert scene
searches which for the first time rolled up the curtain on the
in which the desolation of the sandy wilderness merges into
oldest stage of human history yet discernible at that time.
the life of leaping antelopes and wild cattle. The coursing
Pushing backward through the progressive disclosure of the
hounds speed before the hunters with such life and power
great periods of Egyptian history, we see that they were re-
that we seem to hear their very yelping as they drag down
vealed in inverted succession by modern research, first the
the exhausted gazelles.
later ones by Champollion, then the earlier by Lepsius, as
In spite of the extraordinary value of these ancient tomb
follows:
chapel scenes, an advancing tide of desert sand under which
Discovered by
these tombs have been engulfed has never been systemati- THE EMPIRE (16th to 12th century B.C.) POLLION, begCinHnAinMg-
cally cleared away. Mariette's far-reaching and praise- THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (flourishing 2000 B.c.)J 1828
worthy effort to disengage the Sakkarah mastabas was not
THE OLD KINGDOM or PYRAMID AGE (30th to Discovered by LEP-
followed by any systematic copying of the wall scenes. His 25th century B.C.) slus, beginning 1842
records of his work at Sakkarah8 contain only a few notes,
I have elsewhere"= had occasion to pay tribute to the prodi-
chiefly on the material features of each tomb, with but slight
gious labors of Champollion among the temples of the Nile in
references to the wall scenes or the inscriptions. The history
pioneer researches which revealed to his eyes, the first mod-
of scientific work among the mastaba cemeteries, however,
ern eyes able to read hieroglyphic inscriptions, the power
reveals some exceedingly valuable publications of the wall
and splendor of the Egyptian Empire. Neither did he fail
scenes of individual tombs, and these are briefly discussed
to discern the Middle Kingdom, the great age which preceded
below.
the Empire; but it was little short of tragedy that he passed
One of the valuable results of modern scientific interest in
by the great mastaba cemeteries without perceiving that
the mastaba cemeteries has been the stoppage of the destruc-
9 Richard Lepsius, Briefe aus .legypten, Aethiopien und der Halbinseld es Sinai
6 See Breasted, The Dawn of Conscience (New York: Scribner's, 1933).
(Berlin, 1852) pp. 39 f. The same statements are quoted by A. M. Lythgoe in
7 It was under the influence of the mastaba wall scenes that groups of house- Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Tomb of Perneb (New York, 1916) pp. 24 f.,
hold servants eventually were sculptured in the round, in animated activity, per- from the English translation (London, 1853) pp. 63 f.
forming household tasks. _° Mariette, Les mastabas ... , p. 3.
8 [Auguste Mariette, Les mastabas de l'ancien empire, ... pub. ... par G. Mas- YYE pigraphic Survey, MedinetH abu I ("Oriental Institute Publications," Vol.
pero (Paris, 1889).] VIII [Chicago, 1930]) ix.
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