Architecture: Private Tombs

Sources

Parts of the Tomb. Tombs helped ensure rebirth into the next world through design and decoration. Egyptian tombs were divided between a chapel in a superstructure and the actual burial place in a substructure. These two parts were constant, though there were many changes and developments in tomb plans over the course of three thousand years.

Superstructure Types. The Egyptians used three different structures for tomb chapels throughout their history. The mastaba was a freestanding structure built of stone; the rock-cut tomb was cut into the side of a mountain; and the temple-tomb was similar in plan to a temple. Mastabas and rock-cut tombs were used in all periods. Yet, the mastaba is considered characteristic of the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. Rock-cut tombs became most common in the Middle and New Kingdoms. Temple-tombs were most popular in the Late Period, but examples are known from the New Kingdom.

Bench Tombs. Mastaba tombs derived their name from the Arabic word meaning “bench.” These tombs resemble a series of benches arranged in rows around the pyramids of Giza. They are built of stone with some niches in the facade that act as offering places. The interiors of mastabas included both a chapel and storage chambers. The chapel had an offering place carved in stone to resemble a door. Since they are only models of doors that

cannot be opened, Egyptologists call them “false doors.” The chapel also included an area that Egyptologists call the serdab, from the Arabic word meaning “basement.” The serdab was an enclosed area that contained a statue of the deceased. The enclosure had one wall in front of the statue that contained two holes allowing the statue “to see” the offering presented to the deceased. The walls of the mastaba chapel were decorated in painted relief sculpture, which portrayed life on earth as a way of magically re-creating it in the next world. The scenes often depicted food production, including agriculture, herding, and hunting. The walls also included scenes of the manufacture of various objects found in the tomb, such as coffins and statues. All of these scenes are related to further decoration depicting the transport of food and objects into the tomb. Other relief sculptures showed the deceased and spouse receiving the food offerings, sometimes at the hands of an oldest son acting as a priest. Some scenes of the tomb owner and spouse shown together sitting on a bed are interpreted as having erotic content as a means of “rebirth” into the next world. Mastabas varied greatly in size depending on the status of the deceased. Most officials built chapels consisting of one or two rooms. The vizier Mereruka, who was married to the king’s daughter, had thirty rooms in his mastaba.

Rock-Cut Tomb Chapels. Rock-cut tomb chapels were already built at the end of the Old Kingdom in Upper Egypt. They became popular among the local rulers in Middle Egypt during the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. They were also the commonest tomb chapel form in the Theban area during the New Kingdom and were carved directly into the mountains on the western side of the Nile. Originally, they had facades carved from the living rock. Typically in Dynasty 18, open courtyards fronted the tomb chapel. In Dynasty 19 they often had courtyards surrounded by a portico. Above the entrance to the chapel on the mountain was a small pyramid with a niche, which held a stela with a prayer to the sun god carved on it. The entrance corridor led to a wide rectangular room. In the middle of the far wall of this room began a hallway forming a long room. Together the interior rooms of the chapel took the form of an inverted T. A staircase that led down to the actual burial chamber could be located inside the chapel at various places or in the courtyard outside the entrance. In any case, it was hidden from view.

Decorative Zones. New Kingdom tombs comprised three decorative zones, each dedicated to a separate deity or aspect of the deceased’s life. The upper level was dedicated to sun worship. It took the form of a small chapel, pyramid, or a statue of the deceased holding a stela with a prayer to the sun god Re inscribed on it. It was located just above the entrance to the tomb chapel. The middle zone was the long room of the tomb chapel itself, decorated to show the deceased’s position in life. Paintings in this area depicted the deceased supervising work in his fields or in workshops that he owned. The lower level was located beneath the tomb chapel. It was decorated to represent the next world and sometimes included representations of the deity Osiris.

Sources

Kathiyn A. Bard, From Farmers to Pharaohs: Mortuary Evidence for the Rise of Complex Society in Egypt (Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994).

Aidan Dodson, Egyptian Rock-Cut Tombs (Princes Risborough, U.K.: Shire, 1991).

Sigrid Hodel-Hoenes, Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Scenes from Private Tombs in New Kingdom Thebes, translated by David Warburton (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000).

Frederike Kampp-Seyfried, “Overcoming Death—The Private Tombs of Thebes,” in Regine Schulz and Matthias Seidel, Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs (Cologne: Könemann, 1998), pp. 249–263.

Philip J. Watson, Egyptian Pyramids and Mastaba Tombs of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (Princes Risborough, U.K.: Shire, 1987).