Egypt
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass)
- Deciphering The Pyramid Texts Of Behenu
Talking Pyramids (Vincent Brown) With photos and diagrams. Following on from Thursday’s post I’d like to focus a bit more on the Pyramid Texts found in Queen Behenu’s recently discovered burial chamber. Offering texts on the north wall of the Unas...
- More Re Discovery Of Tomb Of Queen Behenu
Reuters The well-known necropolis of Saqqara, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo, served the nearby city of Memphis and was scoured in ancient times by thieves. The 5th Dynasty is generally understood to have lasted from 2465 to 2323 BC, while the 6th Dynasty...
- The Black Pyramid
drhawass.com There's a good aeriel photograph of the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur on the above address. Here's the caption: Aerial view of the pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur. Called the Black Pyramid because of its dark color,...
- More Re Ehnasya Al-medina Cemetery
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) The site of Ehnasya Al-Medina, which is perched on a hill, incorporates a number of cemeteries and temples spanning from the late First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom through to the Roman period. From this...
- 3400 Year Old Book Of The Dead
The British Museum's curator Dr John Taylor has located pieces of a New Kingdom book of the dead that once belonged to a high priest of Amun in around 1420 bc. The fragments are kept in the Queensland Museum but there are other pieces in various...
Egypt
In the field: Opening the tomb of Sa-Iset
drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass)
Recently I went to Dashur to investigate the tomb of the vizier Sa-Iset and lift the huge sarcophagus lid to discover what it contained.
This tomb was found by Jacques de Morgan in 1890, and the tomb was actually lost for many years, until the Egyptian archaeologists at Dashur uncovered it again in 2006 during survey work at the site.
It was very important that we re-excavate this tomb and open the lid of the sarcophagus. De Morgan found four funerary stelae in the 1890’s, which are currently in the Egyptian Museum. From inscriptions on the stelae and in the tomb we learned that Sa-Iset was a vizier in the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, during the reign of Amenemhat II.
From his incomplete records, we understand that de Morgan opened the sarcophagus lid, but we wanted to be sure of this, and discover if anything remained inside.
Sa-Iset’s burial chamber has a vaulted ceiling and is inscribed with Pyramid Texts. The style of the burial chamber and the style and color of the hieroglyphs are a copy of the pyramid of Unas, the last king of Dynasty 5. This tomb is unique and provides a very interesting example because it is a Middle Kingdom tomb that has Pyramid Texts inscribed on the walls. The use of Pyramid Texts in a Middle Kingdom tomb is very unusual, as the Coffin Texts were much more popular at that time. Coffin texts were a Middle Kingdom variation of the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, which were popular among non-elite individuals. In the New Kingdom, these funerary texts were adapted to become the funerary books that were inscribed on tomb walls.
- Deciphering The Pyramid Texts Of Behenu
Talking Pyramids (Vincent Brown) With photos and diagrams. Following on from Thursday’s post I’d like to focus a bit more on the Pyramid Texts found in Queen Behenu’s recently discovered burial chamber. Offering texts on the north wall of the Unas...
- More Re Discovery Of Tomb Of Queen Behenu
Reuters The well-known necropolis of Saqqara, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo, served the nearby city of Memphis and was scoured in ancient times by thieves. The 5th Dynasty is generally understood to have lasted from 2465 to 2323 BC, while the 6th Dynasty...
- The Black Pyramid
drhawass.com There's a good aeriel photograph of the Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur on the above address. Here's the caption: Aerial view of the pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur. Called the Black Pyramid because of its dark color,...
- More Re Ehnasya Al-medina Cemetery
Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref) The site of Ehnasya Al-Medina, which is perched on a hill, incorporates a number of cemeteries and temples spanning from the late First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom through to the Roman period. From this...
- 3400 Year Old Book Of The Dead
The British Museum's curator Dr John Taylor has located pieces of a New Kingdom book of the dead that once belonged to a high priest of Amun in around 1420 bc. The fragments are kept in the Queensland Museum but there are other pieces in various...