DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0027
Excavations at Nuri
5
chapel on the “western” face; (2) an enclosing wall around both pyramid and chapel;
(3) an open stairway descending from the “west” to a series of two or three under-
ground burial chambers.
The pyramid was tall, with a steep incline of 60° to 70°, formed of sloping stepped
courses of masonry, but without moldings on the four corners. The chapel was built
against the middle of the “western” face and usually bonded with the pyramid casing
by means of toothing. It consisted of a single room with a doorway opening to the “west”.
There were however two types: (a) the plain chapel, and (b) the pylon chapel. The
pylon chapel is in the shape of a T with the long front wall in the form of an ordinary
temple pylon with batter, corner moldings, and hollow cornice. In each type, there
was a niche in the “eastern” wall opposite the doorway, which had usually contained
a granite stela. The objects placed in the chapel consisted of an offering stone (altar)
resting on a short pillar in the middle of the room, and two hollow-topped offering stands,
one on either side between the altar and the stela. In at least one case, a stone basin was
placed on the floor in front of the altar.
The enclosing walls were also of two main types: (a) a simple rectangle in form, and
(b) a form with reentrant angles at the “NW” and “SW” corners.
The underground chambers, which lie one behind the other in the axis of the pyramid,
are lettered A, B, and C, or A and B if there are only two.1 Room A is always the one
next to the stairway. It is obvious that the general idea was that the axes of pyramid,
chapel, stairway, and burial chambers should coincide, but only as a matter of good work-
manship. Wherever defects in the rock or other causes interfered, no hesitation was
shown in turning the axis of either stairway or chambers at an angle with the axis
of the pyramid. After the mummy had been placed on the coffin-bench in room C and
the funerary furniture in rooms B and C, the outer doorway only (that between the
stairway and A) was walled up with masonry, called hereafter door-block. The stair-
way was then refilled with the broken rock taken from the excavation of the tomb, called
original filling. When the debris from the excavation of the tomb had been brought up,
it was cast down in two big dumps on each side of the “western” end of the stairway.
In refilling, these two dumps were never entirely cleared away, and the remainders, after
twenty centuries of exposure to wind and rain, may be seen today as low mounds one
on each side of the beginning of the stairway. Owing to the absence of dirt in this
original filling, it was always clearly distinguishable from the later penetrations. The
question of plundering and intrusive layers of debris will be taken up in the next section
dealing with the identification of the pyramids.
1 In the earlier tombs with two chambers, it is room B which has been omitted,
5
chapel on the “western” face; (2) an enclosing wall around both pyramid and chapel;
(3) an open stairway descending from the “west” to a series of two or three under-
ground burial chambers.
The pyramid was tall, with a steep incline of 60° to 70°, formed of sloping stepped
courses of masonry, but without moldings on the four corners. The chapel was built
against the middle of the “western” face and usually bonded with the pyramid casing
by means of toothing. It consisted of a single room with a doorway opening to the “west”.
There were however two types: (a) the plain chapel, and (b) the pylon chapel. The
pylon chapel is in the shape of a T with the long front wall in the form of an ordinary
temple pylon with batter, corner moldings, and hollow cornice. In each type, there
was a niche in the “eastern” wall opposite the doorway, which had usually contained
a granite stela. The objects placed in the chapel consisted of an offering stone (altar)
resting on a short pillar in the middle of the room, and two hollow-topped offering stands,
one on either side between the altar and the stela. In at least one case, a stone basin was
placed on the floor in front of the altar.
The enclosing walls were also of two main types: (a) a simple rectangle in form, and
(b) a form with reentrant angles at the “NW” and “SW” corners.
The underground chambers, which lie one behind the other in the axis of the pyramid,
are lettered A, B, and C, or A and B if there are only two.1 Room A is always the one
next to the stairway. It is obvious that the general idea was that the axes of pyramid,
chapel, stairway, and burial chambers should coincide, but only as a matter of good work-
manship. Wherever defects in the rock or other causes interfered, no hesitation was
shown in turning the axis of either stairway or chambers at an angle with the axis
of the pyramid. After the mummy had been placed on the coffin-bench in room C and
the funerary furniture in rooms B and C, the outer doorway only (that between the
stairway and A) was walled up with masonry, called hereafter door-block. The stair-
way was then refilled with the broken rock taken from the excavation of the tomb, called
original filling. When the debris from the excavation of the tomb had been brought up,
it was cast down in two big dumps on each side of the “western” end of the stairway.
In refilling, these two dumps were never entirely cleared away, and the remainders, after
twenty centuries of exposure to wind and rain, may be seen today as low mounds one
on each side of the beginning of the stairway. Owing to the absence of dirt in this
original filling, it was always clearly distinguishable from the later penetrations. The
question of plundering and intrusive layers of debris will be taken up in the next section
dealing with the identification of the pyramids.
1 In the earlier tombs with two chambers, it is room B which has been omitted,