Extreme Home Makeover: Ancient Egypt Edition! (ca. 664 – 525 BC)
A necropolis just south of Cairo, once used for burials by Egypt’s royal family in the 5th dynasty, was apparently selected for an extreme makeover courtesy of the nobles of the 26th dynasty, after it had fallen into disrepair. Never mind that the burial grounds were 2,000 years old – why build a bunch of new chambers when these ones would work just fine with a fresh coat of inscriptions?
The 5th dynasty’s reign was rather minimal to begin with, spanning only the period between 2498 and 2345 BC. At this time, Egypt’s capital was the city of Memphis, although it was shortly put into disuse when the next dynasty of nobles came into power. Twenty centuries afterward, the royal family of the 26th dynasty wanted to be buried near the temples of Saqqara – which is fairly close to Memphis – and this seemed like the perfect place to do it!
So, the burial chambers at the necropolis were recycled for the 26th dynasty’s own purposes – and what they did to the place has been described as “gentrification”, which means that they fixed it up to look excessively refined and elegant. One of the most interesting recycled burial chambers at the site was actually that of a royal scribe, named Menekhibnekau, who lived during the 5th dynasty.
The chamber is about 20 meters underground, and the shaft entrance seems to have been inspired by the nearby step-pyramid at Saqqara. Inside the burial chamber itself, there was a vaulted ceiling, completely covered with stars for decoration. There were also two large sarcophagi: one that appeared to be an exterior coffin, made from limestone, while the other was human-shaped and was made out of dark green sandstone called greywacke. Both sarcophagi were also thoroughly covered with religious texts.
Excavators of this burial chamber could easily tell it had an extreme makeover, due to the vastly different style of decoration on the walls of the chamber. The south side was decorated with a chapter of text from the Book of the Dead and images of guardsmen, while the east and western sides had pictures of figures that represented Time, alongside a solar barque and additional sacred texts.
Although this chamber is one of few that can conclusively be said was redecorated, there are many more burial chambers at the necropolis that have yet to be examined – hopefully these will provide another look into just how extensive the redecoration project was!
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Brits have always liked French fashion
No comments yet
Leave a reply