Visitors, Usurpers, and Renovators: Glimpses from the History of Egyptian Sepulchral Monuments

Abstract

The Egyptian ideal was to establish an everlasting mortuary cult in order to ensure for the deceased infinite commemoration in this world and eternal life in the otherworld. In order to achieve this bold aim, funerary institutions were endowed with land and income, the priests and personnel were bound strictly to observe their duties and principles, and future offspring were defined as legally constrained to take over the offices and obligations of their fathers. In most instances, however, families became incapable of affording the cult or were extinct after a few generations, personnel left the priesthood, or the funerary institutions were stripped of property and were discontinued. Over time, even royal mortuary cults were ended and royal monuments abandoned. The tombs and memorial monuments then remained uncared for and were left to an uncertain future. As time went by, some of those monuments evolved into local attractions for visitors, some were piously restored, some were usurped or reused, and some were dismantled in order to process the building materials for new edifices. The present contribution aims at tracing the Egyptians’ thoughts and experiences and at illustrating the manifold fates of Egyptian mortuary monuments.