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The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty (Abydos), Part I W.E. Flinders Petrie | | | | |
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THE ROYAL TOMBS OF THE FIRST DYNASTY, PART I.
(Report published in 1900 by the Egypt Exploration Fund).
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION.
1. Details of publication. 1
2. Previous wreck of tombs. 1
CHAPTER I. The Site of the Royal Tombs
3. The views of the site. 3
4. The group of tombs. 4
5. The order of the tombs 5
6. Appearance of the tombs 6
7. Later history of the tombs 6
Fig.1: Map of Egyptian sites, showing location of Abydos.
KINGS MENTIONED IN THIS VOLUME.
Inscriptions.
ZESER
Order unknown;
NARMER
probably before Mena
1st Dyn.
Manetho[1] Sety List. Tombs.
1.
Menes
Mena = AHA —
MEN
Probable order
2. Athothis Teta =
ZER
Probable order
3. Kenkenes Ateth =
ZET
Probable order
4. Uenefes Ata =
MERNEIT
Probable order
5.
Usafais
Hesepti = EN —SETUI
Order
certain.
6.
Miebis Merbap
= AZAB — MERPABA Order certain.
7. Semempses Semenptah= MERSEKHA - SAMENPTAH Order certain.
8.
Bieneklies
Kebh = QA — SEN (p.
23) Order certain.
2nd
Dyn.
PERABSEN
KHASEKHEMUI
THE ROYAL TOMBS OF THE 1st DYNASTY
INTRODUCTION
1.
The work described in this volume is but a portion of that carried out
during the past winter, 1899-1900. In most places it is essential to
finish the work in one season, and therefore to include everything in
one volume. But as Abydos is a subject for several years' work, there
is no need to delay the issue of the most important results while the
lesser but more tedious matters are being prepared. Hence this volume
does not profess to be complete, but is only some advance sheets of a
longer publication which will be completed next year. Large quantities
of the more bulky materials, such as jar searings and pottery, have
been left undrawn, to await issue in future; and the whole of the
results of the periods of the XVIII Dynasty and onward will appear in a
later volume. The present plates are but a portion of the material from
the 1st Dynasty, with a brief account of the subjects, but so important
a portion that we do not wish to keep it back for a year or two, or
even a month. This has led to reversing the order, and issuing it
before last year's results from Diospolis Parva, but the relative
importance of the two is sufficient reason for this course.
The
materials here published were prepared in Egypt during the excavating
season, and some two hundred photographs and the drawings for over
forty plates were brought home ready to use. My wife dreAv the tomb
plans and all the marks on pottery, and I have to thank Miss Orme for
inking the drawings of jar sealings. Thus I have been able to put
everything in the printers' hands within eighteen weeks from the
beginning of the excavations. I need not refer to our party at Abydos
in detail, as, excepting a little occasional help, the work on the
royal tombs, and the photographing and drawing, was my own share of the
season's work. Mr. MacIver worked on the prehistoric age and a temple
of the XII Dynasty; Mr. Mace on the cemetery of the XVIII to XXV
Dynasty; I worked some cemetery of the prehistoric and of the XXX
Dynasty; and for the Egyptian Research Account Mr. Garstang worked a
cemetery of the XII and XVIII Dynasties. All this material, of much
interest historically, will be published after it has been properly
worked up. Some of the photographs need apology; my plates were soon
exhausted by the great number of objects, a further batch from England
did not arrive, and I had to fall back on very unsatisfactory plates,
which were the best to be got in Cairo. Messrs. Waterlow's phototypes
are better than I could have expected from such negatives.
2.
It might have seemed a fruitless and (p.2) thankless task to work at
Abydos after it had been ransacked by Mariette, and been for the last
four years in the hands of the Mission Amelineau. It might seem a
superfluous and invidious labour to follow such prolonged work. My only
reason was that the extreme importance of results from there led to a
wish to ascertain everything possible about the early royal tombs after
they were done with by others, and to search for even fragments of the
pottery. To work at Abydos had been my aim for years past; but it was
only after it was abandoned by the Mission Amelineau that at last, on
my fourth application for it, I was permitted to rescue for historical
study the results that are here shown.
Nothing is more
disheartening than being obliged to gather results out of the fraction
left behind by past plunderers. In these royal tombs there had been not
only the plundering of the precious metals and the larger valuables by
the wreckers of early ages; there was after that the systematic
destruction of monuments by the vile fanaticism of the Copts, which
crushed everything beautiful and everything noble that mere greed had
spared; and worst of all, for history, came the active search in the
last four years for everything that could have a value in the eyes of
purchasers, or be sold for profit regardless of its source; a search in
which whatever was not removed was deliberately and avowedly destroyed
in order to enhance the intended profits of European speculators; a
search after which M. Amelineau wrote of this necropolis: "tous les
fellahs savent quelle est epuisee." The results in this present volume
are therefore only the remains which have escaped the lust of gold, the
fury of fanaticism, and the greed of speculators, in this ransacked
spot. These sixty-eight plates are my justification for a fourth
clearance of the royal tombs of Abydos.
PUBLICATIONS REFERRING TO THE ROYAL TOMBS.
J. de Morgan. Recherches sur les Origines de I'Egypte, ii., 1897. (Account by G. Jequier.)
E. Amelineau. Lcs nouvelles Fouilles d'Abydos. Compte rendu, 1895-6.
1896-7.1897-8.
E. Amelineau. Lcs nouvelles Fouilles d'Abydos, in extenso, 1896-7.
E. Amelineau. Le Tombeau d'Osiris (monographic), 1899.
G. Maspero. Reviews in Revue Critique (Jan. 4, 1897; Dec. 15, 1897).
K. Sethe. Aeltcstcn geschichtichcn Denkmaeler, in Zeitschrift f. A. S., xxxv. 1.
W. Spiegelberg. Ein neues Denkmal, in Zeitschrift f. A. S., xxxv. 7.
A. Erman. Bemerkung, in Zeitschrift f. A. S., xxxv, 11.
CHAPTER I.
THE SITE OF THE ROYAL TOMBS.
3.
Abydos is by its situation one of the remarkable sites of Egypt. At few
places docs the cultivation come so near to the edge of the mountain
plateau; the great headland of Assiut, the cliffs of Thebes, or the
crags of Assuan, rival it, but elsewhere there lie generally several
miles of low desert between the green and the mountain. At Abydos the
cliffs, about 800 feet high, come forward and form a bay about four
miles across, which is nowhere more than a couple of miles deep from
the cultivation (see pl.3.). Along the edge of this bay stand the
temples and the cemeteries of Abydos; while back in the circle of the
hills lies the great cemetery of the founders of Egyptian history, the
kings of the 1st Dynasty.
The site selected for the royal
tombs was on a low spur from the hills, slightly raised above the
plain, and with a deep drainage ravine on the west of it, so that it
never could be flooded. Strictly speaking, the river valley, the hill
line, and the tomb orientation, are all diagonal to the compass, the
sides of the tombs being N.E., S.E., S.W., and N.W. But for facility of
description it is assumed here that the river runs north and south, as
it usually does in Egypt, and that the tombs lie correspondingly. That
the ancient Egyptians recognized the diagonal direction is seen by the
corner of the wood-paving of Mersekha being marked "north." In all
those descriptions “north" means more exactly 44° W. of N. magnetic.
Plate 1:
1 (top). View from Kom es sultan. Royal cemetery in far distance.
2 (bottom). View from Fort (Shumeh). Royal cemetery in distance.
Advancing
up to the old fort our next view (pl,1, fig.2) is taken at the side of the
little signal heap seen on the further corner of the fort in view 1;
marked phi 2 in the plan.
From that we still have a stretch of the historic cemetery before us.
But the distant royal cemetery is clearer, below the mouth of the
valley; and the mounds are seen to be one long uniform mass, with a
short ridge nearer and a little to the left. The long mass covers the
royal cemetery; and the heap to the left is the rise marked as Heqreshu
on the plan (pl.3). This rise is so called as the ushabtis of a
noble of the XVIII Dynasty, named Heqreshu, were found here. This
ground was a favourite place for high people of that age to have their
ushabtis buried in, so as to be near Osiris, and ready to work in his
kingdom. No human burials were found; but ushabtis of some half dozen
persons were found here, and about the same number were found by the
Mission Amelineau.
We next, in the view (pl.2, fig.3), have gone forward to this hillock of Heqreshu, to the point phi
3 in the plan. The foreground is strewn with broken pottery, of
offerings made there in the XVIIIth Dynasty and onward. The mounds over
the royal tombs now separate into the (p.4) heaps of Mersekha on the
left, the great banks of pottery of the Osiris shrine in the middle,
and the heaps over Perabsen on the right.
The situation is wild and silent; close
round it the hills rise high on two sides, a ravine running up into the
plateau from the corner where the lines meet. Far away, and below us,
stretches the long green valley of the Nile, beyond which for dozens of
miles the eastern cliffs recede far into the dim distance.
Plate 2: 1: Royal cemetery from Hegreshu Hill. 2: Royal cemetery. Wall of Tomb of Zer in foreground.
4.
Looking at the group of tombs, as shown on pl.3, 3b, and pl.59., it is
seen that they lie closely together. Each royal tomb is a large square
pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level, or higher
up, are small chambers in rows, in which were buried the domestics of
the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the mode of burial, but
they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials, more or less
developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the predynastic
people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It is surrounded
in the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers opening from
it. By Merneit these chambers were built separately around it. By Den
an entrance passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was turned to
the north. At this stage we are left within reach of the early
passage-mastabas and pyramids. Substituting a stone lining and roof for
bricks and wood, and placing the small tombs of domestics further away,
we reach the type of the mastaba-pyramid of Seneferu, and so lead on to
the pyramid series of the Old Kingdom.
Plate 3:
Sketch map of the plain at Abydos, showing main
structures, location of royal cemetery, and places of the
photographs in plates 1 and 2.
The plan at pl.59 is
left intentionally in outline as the survey is not completed, and until
we have accurate plans of the tombs that I have not yet opened, it is
impossible to finish it uniformly. It might be supposed that the plans
already published wvould suffice, and that I might incorporate those.
But the uncertainties which surround them are so great that it is
impossible to rely on them. M. Jequier, in the Recherches sur les Origines de Egypte,
ii, on p. 232 has given a plan called the “tombeau du roi Ka," but the
form is that of the central chamber of Mersekha, and the scale shows it
to be 328 inches long, while that of Qa is 428, and that of Mersekha
523 inches; its proportion of length to breadth is as 1: 2.28, that of
Qa is 1: 1.90, and that of Mersekha 1: 1.80; it has no entrance, and
both Qa and Mersekha have wide doorways. Thus neither in size,
proportion, nor detail can it be followed.
Plate 59: Outlines of the Royal Tombs at Abydos.
The next plan, that of the “tombeau du roi Ti" (p. 242)
— or as he should be called, Khasekhemui—is by scale 2068 inches long,
by measure of the breadth 2810 long, and is stated in the text to be 83
metres or 3260 inches long: probably the text is corrupt and should
read 53. The details of the tomb I cannot verify until it is cleared.
Turning now to M. Amelineau's plans ("Nouvelles Fouilles, 1897-8"), the
"tombeau d'Osiris," that is (p.5) of King Zer,[2] is shown (p.
39) with the shortest dimension N. to S., in the text the shortest is
E. to W.; the detail I have not yet verified. In the plan of the tomb
of Perabsen, north and south are interchanged, and the scale is about
1:170 or 180, instead of 1: 200 stated; the contraction to the N. end
is unnoticed, but details I have not yet verified. It will thus be seen
that there was room for some fresh plans to be made of these tombs.
5.
The sequence of the tombs is to be carefully studied. As will be seen
on pls.11, No.14, and 15, No.16, the king whose ka name is Den is also known as
the suten biti setui, a name which Dr. Sethe has correctly suggested to
be that misfigured in the table of Abydos as Hesepti, the fifth of the
Dynasty. Further, by the sealings shown on pl.26, No. -57, the king
with Jca name Azab is also known as Merpab, doubtless King Merbap, the
sixth Dynasty. Further, by the sealing of the on pl.28, No. 72,
the king with the Jca name Mersekha is the seventh of the Dynasty,
figured in the Abydos table much like a statue of Ptah, and called
Semempses by Manetho. That this is to be read Sem-en-ptah is very
doubtful in view of the original form of the figure, which is best
seen on the tablet pl.17, No. 26; it seems more likely to be a
follower, shemsu, or possibly a "priest of Ptah." Beside the absolute
identification of three of the kings with those in the list of Abydos,
we can add several proofs of relative order from the inscriptions on
vases found appropriated by later kings. In this way a vase of Narmer
(pl.4, No. 2) is found in the tomb of Zet, and another erased in the
tomb of Den. A vase of Den-Setui (pl.5, No. 11) is found re-engraved
by Azab. Many vases of Azab arc found erased and re-used by Mersekha,
pl.6, Nos 9-11.
Therefore we may, from the evidence of the tomb inscriptions alone, restore the order of the kings as:—
Narmer
Zet
Den = Sctui
Azab = Merpaba
Mersekha = Semempses.
Hence the order of Manetho is confirmed for the three kings who are identified.
We
may now turn to the plan, as we can be certain that the order of
building is Den, Azab, Mersekha. It needs little notice to see that Qa
naturally follows this group. Of the earlier tombs it seems probable
that Merneit is before Den, Zet earlier still, and Zer (or Khent)
before these; the gradual pushing back of the tomb sites being pretty
clear. We therefore must look on the most eastern tombs as the
earliest, and this is confirmed by private tombs to the east of Zer,
which contain a jar sealing and a shell bracelet of King Aha. That Aha
must come very early in the 1st Dynasty is already clear; the style of
his work is certainly ruder than anything else in the Dynasty, and the
form of the hawk on his vases is closely like that of Narmer, who comes
before Zet and Den. Thus Aha must, from evidence of style, and position
of his objects, come within a reign of Mena; and there is no reason
for not accepting the identification of him with Mena; especially now
that it is shown to be usual for the king's name to be simply written
below the vulture and uraeus group.
Thus we are led to the following order of kings:—
By
tombs.
Table of Abydos. Manetho.
Aha
Mena
Menes
Zer
Teta
Athothis.
Zet
Atet
Kenkenes
Merneit
Ata
Uenenfes .
Den—Setui
Hesepti
Usafais
Azab—Merpaba
Merbap
Miebis
Mersekha
...ptah
?
Semempses
Qa—Sen
Qebh
Bienekhes
(p.6)
and we have left yet unplaced King Narmer, who must be before Zet; King
Zeser (pl.4, No.3), and King D (pl.32, No. 32); these two last
seem connected by the title being only two neb signs, without the
vulture and uraeus. Zeser is before Den, as the piece was found re-used
in Den's tomb. King D I found on a piece of vase in the Cairo Museum,
where it had lain unobserved. If Narmer came after Mena there would be
a difficulty, as there would be four names between Aha and Den, and
only three between Mena and Hesepti; but there is no proof but what
Narmer may be before Mena, as Zeser and D may be. The position of a
king who seems to be named Ket (pl 11, No.12; pl.17, No. 28)
is also uncertain; the piece was found by the offering-place of Qa.
6. We may now
notice the appearance and history of the royal cemetery in later times.
The tombs as they were left by the kings seem to have been but slightly
heaped up. The roofs of the great tombs were about six or eight feet
below the surface, an amount of sand which would be easily carried by
the massive beams that were used. The lesser tombs had about five feet
of sand over them. But there does not seem to have been any piling up
of a mound; not only is there no such excess of material remaining, but
the condition of the steles, as we shall next describe, shows that the
level of the soil remained uniform for a long time, whereas a mound
would have been continually degrading and accumulating blown sand.
Plate 00 (frontispiece): Stele of King Merneit at Abydos.
On
the flat, or almost flat, ground of the cemetery the graves were marked
by stone steles set upright in the open air. The great stele of Merneit
(plate 00) shows clearly the level to which it was buried; below
that point the stone is quite fresh, above that the exfoliations are
due to moisture soaked up from the earth, and the upper part is
sand-worn. Other small steles show very plainly the lower part
absolutely fresh and unaltered, and the upper part deeply sand-worn;
the division between the two being within a, quarter of an inch.
Each
royal grave seems to have had two great steles. I found two of Merneit,
one almost perished; there were two of Qa, one found by the Mission
Amelineau, one by myself; and though only one has been found of Zet and
Mersekha, yet one such might well be lost, as none have survived of
Zer, Den, or Azab. The steles seem to have been placed on the east side
of the tombs, and on the ground level. Those of Merneit had fallen into
the tomb on the east side, the fragments of steles of Mersekha lay on
the cast side, the stele of Qa lay on the ground level at the east
side, and close by it were many stone bowls, one inscribed for "the
priest of the temple of Qa."
Hence we must figure to ourselves
two great steles standing up, side by side, on the east of the tomb:
and this is exactly in accord with the next period that we know, in
which, at Medum, Seneferu had two great steles and an altar between
them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep had two great steles, one on
either side of the offering-niche east of his tomb. Probably the pair
of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V at Thebes were a later form of this
system. Around the royal tomb stood the little private steles of the
domestics (pls.31 - 36) placed in rows, thus forming an enclosure
about the king.
7. The royal cemetery seems to have gradually
fallen into decay; the steles were blown over or upset wantonly, and
the whole site was neglected and forgotten in the later ages. There are
no offering vases there of the pyramid age, nor of the Middle Kingdom.
But the revived grandeurs of the XVIII Dynasty awakened (p.7) some
interest in the tracing of the history. Tahutmes III had a roll of
ancestors compiled, which though very erratic, yet showed an interest
in the past; and Sety I succeeded in having a fairly correct list made,
in which a few blunders occurred in the early names, as we see by the
differences between the inscriptions of the 1st Dynasty and the Table
of Abydos, but which seems to have been historically in order.
This
revived the interest in the cemetery which tradition had known as that
of the early kings. Offerings began to be made to the kings at their
tombs; but very blindly, as several places which did not contain any
royal tomb were heaped up with potsherds, while some of the royal tombs
(as Merneit and Azab) had scarcely anything placed on them. Tn this
uncertainty the rise marked "Heqreshu," pl.3 was evidently
supposed to be important, though there was nothing older there than a V
or VI Dynasty tomb of an official named Emzaza.
A great impetus
to offerings was given by the adoption of one of the royal tombs, that
of king Zer, as a cenotaph of Osiris. The granite bier of Osiris placed
in it was probably of the XXVI or a later Dynasty; but in the XVIII
Dynasty the site had been adopted as the focus of Osiris worship, the
earliest of the pottery heaped over it being the blue painted jars
which came in under Amenhotep II or III. The later offerings were
mainly of the XXII to XXV Dynasty, during which an enormous pile of
broken jars accumulated over the tomb.
In the XXVI Dynasty a
chapel was built here by Haabra, of which part of a door-jamb was found
thrown into the tomb of Merneit (pl.38); scattered like the
fragments of the bier of Osiris, which we found, one by Azab and the
other a furlong away on the south. Further building was done here by
the Prince Pefzaauneit under Aahmes; but the interest in the site faded
under the Persians, and beyond a few stray scraps of Roman pottery and
glass there is nothing later found here.
At what time the
burning of the woodwork took place is not fixed. It was certainly long
after the original burial, as the wooden floors mostly remain quite
uncharred, and the walls seldom show anv burning toward the bottom. The
only tombs with burnt floor arc that of Merneit and part of Mersekha.
In the tomb of Azab it is clear that the roof had let in sand at the
south end until the chamber was nearly full, and only the corners of
the upper part were exposed to the burning of the roof. Probably,
therefore, the burning was due to accident. The tombs were deserted,
the roofs broken in, the chambers almost full of sand. Runaway slaves
and vagabonds taking refuge here would light fires and use the wood,
and thus by accident the great beams would catch fire and be destroyed.
Such seems to have been the source of the burning here; certainly it
had nothing to do with the funeral, as scarcely any of the objects of
wood, ivory, or stone, show any traces of it.
footnote:
1.
[Editor's note: Manetho was a 3rd century BC historian from Ptolemaic
Egypt who wrote several volumes on on history and religion in Greek.
One of his works, Aegyptiaca,
on the history of Egypt, contained a sequence of Egyptian kings which,
while at times erroneous, served as a primary source of ancient
Egyptian chronology until the advent of Egyptology and archaeology in
the 19th century.]
2. For this reading Zer (the bundle of reeds) I am indebted
to Mr. Quibell's study of the sealings from here. M. Amelineau reads
this sign, however, as khent (the group of vases), and always calls
this tomb that of Osiris.
[Continue to chapter 2]
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