The pyramid tomb of Sahure and many others to follow

www.academia.edu...

By Keith Hamilton

I will be putting here the works of this man who makes guides to little known Egyptian ruins.

The image below of Sahure‟s pyramid (south face) is largely a picture of destruction, with the fine white limestone of its casing having been robbed in antiquity. Though there are many uncertainties as regards the family tree of Old Kingdom royal families, it is believed that Sahure was the son of Userkaf and queen Neferhetepes. The chosen location for Sahure‟s pyramid was not near his father‟s pyramid at Saqqara, but rather a short distance southeast of Userkaf‟s Sun temple at Abusir. This would be the commencement of a new pyramid field, which incorporated the pyramid complexes of the fifth dynasty kings, Sahure, Neferirkare, Raneferef and Niuserre.

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Yes there are ruins and pyramids in Egypt that aren't at Giza!

a reply to: Hanslune

With the use of Lidar and other ground penetrating radar devices no telling what else is and will be found all over the world

originally posted by: 727Sky
a reply to: Hanslune

With the use of Lidar and other ground penetrating radar devices no telling what else is and will be found all over the world

Yep a lot of stuff is being found - well beyond the budgets to excavate them. However, its good to know its all there if we can get to it before the looters do.

a reply to: Hanslune

I'm going to convert the PDF and check it out on my reader.

The coolest of the linked pictures, hope there's more in the document.

originally posted by: Ksihkehe
a reply to: Hanslune

I'm going to convert the PDF and check it out on my reader.

The coolest of the linked pictures, hope there's more in the document.

This is a link to ALL of his guides (about 25 of them) which are all an excellent read and they have many fantastic images

independent.academia.edu...

a reply to: Hanslune

Excellent, thanks.

My next step was going to be looking for similar work.

Known as "Waggy's Guides", they're well respected and kind of a "must read" if you're going to those sites. Chock full of information on the digs and so forth.

originally posted by: Byrd
Known as "Waggy's Guides", they're well respected and kind of a "must read" if you're going to those sites. Chock full of information on the digs and so forth.

Yep and he's alive and well and in some cases will answer questions.

originally posted by: Hanslune

...

This is a link to ALL of his guides (about 25 of them) which are all an excellent read and they have many fantastic images

independent.academia.edu...

There are some 40 guides mentioned here.

a reply to: Hanslune

Yes there are ruins and pyramids in Egypt that aren't at Giza

Wow who would have thought it? So ignorant are us non academic types...

What’s interesting about this is how bad it is, supposedly built by the same culture that made the great pyramid and such? Doesn’t look like it.

originally posted by: surfer_soul
a reply to: Hanslune

Yes there are ruins and pyramids in Egypt that aren't at Giza

Wow who would have thought it? So ignorant are us non academic types...

What’s interesting about this is how bad it is, supposedly built by the same culture that made the great pyramid and such? Doesn’t look like it.

Yep once they switched back to using mudbrick as the core stones or using rubble and covering that with quality limestone (for a century and half or so they used larger limestone core stones having moved up from mudbrick and smaller limestone) - once it was removed the structure would suffer. Same folks though. If 'someone' else was there they left no archaeological trace. Just Egyptians going back to the Naqada and earlier. They did built more useful structure like the later Karnak, etc.

duplicate

The Mastaba of Ptahshepses: Abusir, A Layman's guide, by Keith Hamilton

www.academia.edu...

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Indications of a sizeable structure existing near a grouping of 5th dynasty pyramid complexes, was noted by Lepsius, and drawn on his map above. He would term this area as pyramid XIX, though later excavations would uncover a most impressive mastaba complex. This mislabelling is often common throughout his work, but he was not equipped to excavate each ruin he came across, and so could only make an educated guess on some sites, which would sometimes turn out to be mastaba's or even natural features. This mound of debris noticed by Lepsius, was first excavated by J.de Morgan in 1893, and was limited to a few months. What little we know of these excavations was published in Revue d’Egyptologie. This brief excavation would not uncover the whole mastaba; he would uncover a large pillared court and some rooms, and was under the impression that the ruins might be part of a grouping of several mastaba’s. The site by and large was somewhat forgotten until the 1960’s, with limited restoration works being done in the intervening years on what had been uncovered; unfortunately some areas were not protected, resulting in deterioration of some elements.

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At times like this, one misses the skills of Petrie, who could provide plentiful data on sarcophagi that would enable us to judge their precision and quality of construction. Unfortunately I feel sarcophagi do not get the attention that they deserve; the data is generally quite  poor, and few get the scrutiny afforded to them, such as Khufu’s  box;where Petrie’s good work highlights the flaw’s and errors: indeed, Khufu’s box, in terms of precision, is quite poor quality.

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Conclusion:

Given the ruinous condition of the mastaba, enough remains to highlight its grandeur and the importance of Ptahshepses even from the earliest phase of its construction. There are many unsolved elements of the mastaba, which will likely always remain so, given the vast time since its construction. We are often reduced to marrying clues from other sites in the hope of finding solutions, but at best we are reduced to educated guesses, which may or may not be correct. One of the biggest mysteries is the presence of two granite sarcophagi in the burial chamber. The consensus seems to be that the smaller sarcophagus was for the princess, but I have problems with this suggestion. Regardless of which route the sarcophagi were introduced into the chamber, it had to be at an early stage of construction of the initial mastaba, and if the introduction of the sarcophagus for his wife was made so early, surely she deserved a better solution than we currently see. There was no shortage of real estate to provide another chamber at this early stage, and it’s doubtful that superstructure masonry was advanced enough, to be in the way of the construction pit to provide another chamber.

We have no evidence that the princess was buried inside the mastaba, though we do have evidence of her own tomb located south of Ptahshepses mastaba; where there is nothing definitive to suggest that she was not buried in her own tomb. It might be construed that the fine granite sarcophagi is suggestive of very important people, the largest for Ptahshepses and the smallest for the princess; however, this might be mitigated to an extent if both these lined sarcophagi were second hand items. Tomb robbery is as old as time, so I feel it’s not unlikely that many robbed tombs would provide a source of fine sarcophagi.

The king himself would unlikely avail himself of such second hand goods, but such fine boxes could be gifted to others. Clearly Ptahshepses was an important official, even judging from his initial mastaba; what titles and roles he held at this time is uncertain, but he could have been in charge of workshops, which might deal with and restore recovered sarcophagi from robbed tombs. The large sarcophagus seems strange in that the bosses on the side of the lid appear too small, and had to be modified to allow the sarcophagus to fit inside the niche. But what of the smaller sarcophagus, placed in the passage of the small niche; would robbers go to such measures? I would suggest that this sarcophagus possibly contained one of Ptahshepses children, a new chamber was deemed not necessary, and a smaller recycled sarcophagus was obtained, with it being placed inside the small niche. As for the minor offering chapel 28, it might have been set aside for the occupant of the smaller sarcophagus. Likely it will always be an unsolvable mystery

The Pyramid of Nuiserre, a layman's guide

By Keith Hamilton

www.academia.edu...

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Quote


The above ruinous mound of debris and masonry is all that is left of Nuiserre‟s pyramid. This image shows the excavation made in the north side, some of which is down to Perring who was the first modern era excavator to gain access to the pyramids substructure. Perring‟s drawing and brief description of the pyramid, which he termed the Middle Pyramid was published in his „Pyramids of Gizeh, part III‟ in 1842. The only other modern era excavator to visit the inside of the pyramid was Borchardt, who published his findings in 1907. The above two excavators are the only firsthand accounts we have of what exists beyond the now blocked entrance of the pyramid. Maragioglio and Rinaldi (M&R) found the entrance blocked and could only provide a description of the exterior along with the temple; they would publish their findings in 1975.

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Concluding Remarks The data which we hold on the Abuisr pyramids is quite scant and dated. They really do require more modern excavation, and while it is good that some of this work has started inside Sahure‟s pyramid, such work is negated by the lack of detailed publication. This lack of publication by Egyptology has been with Egyptology since its earliest days and continues in the modern era. There is simply too much excavation and not enough publication; without publication, we run the risk of being modern day tomb robbers, destroying valuable evidence which cannot be recovered. I have no idea what has been going on inside Sahure‟s restoration; the corridor is now covered with modern restoration, but will we ever find out what was found underneath this facade which allowed the restorers to create what we see today?

The interior of Userkaf‟s pyramid was cleared over a decade ago, and still the only data we have is a scant account by Perring; why do we not have a more detailed monograph of what the excavators discovered to update Perring‟s brief account?   I could make a large list of excavations which appear to go unpublished. The pyramid discovered in Dahshur in 2017, will we ever get a detailed publication on this? Who has been digging inside the White pyramid, and what was found during the clearance inside the Lahun pyramid? As a layman it is very frustrating trying to make sense of so many monuments; some of this frustration is out of our control due to the destruction evident in so many sites; but we can control what we excavate and publish. Unfortunately there is too much excavation and not enough publication. Margaret Drower would state; “No archaeologist has equalled Petrie‟s record for prompt publication. It was a dictum of Pitt-Rivers that “the date of a new discovery is the date of its publication”.

If we take Pitt-Rivers dictum, one could state that little gets discovered today; instead we live in a modern media age, were a documentary or magazine article is the new form of publishing; though both are poor substitutes for a detailed publication. The promptness of Petrie is a rarity, instead we get what Drower describes; Too many excavators sit for years on their material, hoping to cross every T and elucidate every puzzle before they commit themselves to print, while their memory of their fieldwork fades, costs of production rise, and the world waits for the information only they can provide. " Unfortunately, sometimes this information never gets published and valuable evidence can be lost forever.

There is little doubt that in the future the Pyramid of Nuiserre will be entered and excavated, and one can only hope that things improve, though I am not hopeful: it might be better for the rubble to protect it from archaeologists.