The Dead and the Living in the Memphite Cultural Landscape

Abstract

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 license. chapter 6The Dead and the Living in the Memphite Cultural Landscape 6.1The Place of the Tomb in the Memphite Cultural LandscapeChapters 4 and 5 explored the development of the two main clusters of New Kingdom tombs on the North Saqqara plateau (Fig. 85). In this chapter, the two clusters will be taken out of isolation and studied in their broader environmental setting.1 Memphis was shaped to a great extent by the presence of its prime local deities. Egypt's foremost temple complex of Ptah dominated the cityscape, and the elevated desert necropolis-commonly referred to as West of Memphis or Ankhtawy-was considered the ancient, sacred abode of the Memphite deities, primarily Sokar.2 Ptah and Sokar played important parts in the religious life and afterlife of the local residents. Since the Old Kingdom (c. 2543-2120 bce), the chief deity of Memphis, Ptah, was connected to the chthonic deity Sokar,3 a god of death, and the syncretic connection Ptah-Sokar-Osiris has been well attested since the Middle Kingdom.4 Ptah-Sokar-Osiris gained further significance during the reign of Amenhotep iii, a rise to prominence which coincided with grand construction works initiated by the king in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, and with construction works at the site of the temple(s) and burials of the Apis bulls, located in the Wadi of Abusir, c. 1200 m south of its mouth. This complex is today better known by the name given in the Ptolemaic period, namely Serapeum: the tombs made for the successive sacred Apis bulls, 1 The recent work by Sullivan (2020) also aimed at recontextualising built spaces at Saqqara within the larger ancient landscape. The temporal scope adopted in her study is much broader, ranging from the 1st Dynasty until the Late Period. This broad scope results in a much less detailed study, however. For example, her treatment of the New Kingdom activity at Saqqara includes only a fraction of the tombs that were built during that period. As such, the present study does not overlap, but rather complements Sullivan's study. 2 See also Staring (2019), 209-210. 3 Statue Florence 1790 of the 18th Dynasty (temp. Amenhotep iii) High Priest of Ptah, Ptahmose [413], mentions a ḥw.t Ptḥ-Skr, 'temple of Ptah-Sokar' . In the statue inscription, Ptahmose addresses "… all future High Priests in the temple of Ptah-Sokar". 4 Te Velde (1982), col. 1179.

Représenter les morts, captiver les vivants

“…Par exemple, le mastaba de Nensedjerkai [2], dans le cimetière de l'ouest de Giza, se présente comme un agrandissement du mastaba de Merib [1] puisqu'il a été construit hors de l'alignement des mastabas d'origine de ce cimetière 783 . Cette rupture des conventions « urbanistiques » permet toutefois au propriétaire d'obtenir une localisation plus visible : en effet, le mastaba de Nensedjerkai [2] se situe à l'une des extrémités de la rue est-ouest formées par les grands mastabas d'origine, et lui permet donc une visibilité accrue pour les passants arrivant depuis l'ouest 784 , en tous les cas avant que cet axe de circulation ne soit par la suite complètement obstrué par l'adjonction d'autres mastabas 785 . Les abords de la façade et le chemin d'accès jusqu'à la tombe peuvent également être aménagés en travaillant sur le recul nécessaire au passant pour appréhender la totalité de cette paroi, tout en signalant le passage dans un espace « privé ».…”

Funerary Objects and an Intact Secondary Burial in the Early Ramesside Tomb of Iurokhy at Saqqara

“… 58. Paser was the chief guardian of records of the army, ḥrỉ sȝw n sšw-mšʿ in the time of Ramesses II, after year 30, and the royal envoy to all foreign countries, wpw.t nsw m ḫȝs(w).t nb(.t) . His tomb, numbered 022/USC, has been excavated by the mission of the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University in 2013–2015 (El-Aguizy 2020: 125–131; El Aguizy 2022: 46; Staring 2023: 188). …”

“…The different systems pose problems to the study of the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara. For that reason, Nico Staring introduced a new numbering system that covers all Saqqara New Kingdom tombs, see Staring 2023: 73–79.…”

“… 16. K RI III, 191–195; Staring 2014/15: 74–76; El Aguizy 2018: 1; El Aguizy, et al 2020: 439; Staring 2023: 308–309 (004/USC). …”