DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0030
Evidence of the texts
of the pyramid of
Unas.
Xxii INTRODUCTION.
celebration of funeral rites ; but a text forming the Book of the Dead as a
whole does not occur until the reign of Unas (b.c. 3333), the last king of the
dynasty, who according to the Turin papyrus reigned thirty years. This
monarch built on the plain of Sakkara a stone pyramid about sixty-two feet
high, each side measuring about two hundred feet at the base. In the time of
Perring and Vyse it was surrounded by heaps of broken stone and rubbish,
the result of repeated attempts to open it, and with the casing stones, which
consisted of compact limestone from the quarries of Tura.1 In February, 1881,
M. Maspero began to clear the pyramid, and soon after he succeeded in making
an entrance into the innermost chambers, the walls of which were covered with
hieroglyphic inscriptions, arranged in perpendicular lines and painted in green.2
The condition of the interior showed that at some time or other thieves had
already succeeded in making an entrance, for the cover of the black basalt
sarcophagus of Unas had been wrenched off and moved near the door of the
sarcophagus chamber; the paving stones had been pulled up in the vain attempt
to find buried treasure ; the mummy had been broken to pieces, and nothing
remained of it except the right arm, a tibia, and some fragments of the skull
and body. The inscriptions .which covered certain walls ancl corridors in the
tomb were afterwards published by M. Maspero.3 The appearance of the text
of Unas4 marks an era in the history of the Book of the Dead, and its
translation must be regarded as one of the greatest triumphs of Egyptological
decipherment, for the want of determinatives in many places in the text, and
the archaic spelling of many of the words and passages presented difficulties
which were not easily overcome.5 Here, for the first time, it was shown that
the Book of the Dead was no compilation of a comparatively late period in
the history of Egyptian civilization, but a work belonging to a very remote
antiquity; and it followed naturally that texts which were then known, and
which were thought to be themselves original ancient texts, proved to be only
versions which hacl passed through two or more successive revisions.
1 Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh, p. 51. 2 Maspero, Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., p. 178.
3 See Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., pp. 177-224; t. iv., pp. 41-78.
4 In 1881 Dr. Brugsch described two pyramids of the Vlth dynasty inscribed with religious texts
similar to those found in the pyramid of Unas, and translated certain passages (Aeg. Zeitschrift,
Bd., xix., pp. 1-15); see also Birch in Trans. Soc. Bihl. Arch., 1881, p. 111 ff.
6 The pyramid which bore among the Arabs the name of Mastabat el-Far‘tin, or “ Pharaoh’s
Bench,” was excavated by Mariette in 1858, and, because he found the name of Unas painted on
certain blocks of stone, he concluded that it was the tomb of Unas. M. Maspero’s excavations have,
as Dr. Lepsius observes (Aeg. Zeitschrift, Bd. XIX., p. 15), set the matter right.
of the pyramid of
Unas.
Xxii INTRODUCTION.
celebration of funeral rites ; but a text forming the Book of the Dead as a
whole does not occur until the reign of Unas (b.c. 3333), the last king of the
dynasty, who according to the Turin papyrus reigned thirty years. This
monarch built on the plain of Sakkara a stone pyramid about sixty-two feet
high, each side measuring about two hundred feet at the base. In the time of
Perring and Vyse it was surrounded by heaps of broken stone and rubbish,
the result of repeated attempts to open it, and with the casing stones, which
consisted of compact limestone from the quarries of Tura.1 In February, 1881,
M. Maspero began to clear the pyramid, and soon after he succeeded in making
an entrance into the innermost chambers, the walls of which were covered with
hieroglyphic inscriptions, arranged in perpendicular lines and painted in green.2
The condition of the interior showed that at some time or other thieves had
already succeeded in making an entrance, for the cover of the black basalt
sarcophagus of Unas had been wrenched off and moved near the door of the
sarcophagus chamber; the paving stones had been pulled up in the vain attempt
to find buried treasure ; the mummy had been broken to pieces, and nothing
remained of it except the right arm, a tibia, and some fragments of the skull
and body. The inscriptions .which covered certain walls ancl corridors in the
tomb were afterwards published by M. Maspero.3 The appearance of the text
of Unas4 marks an era in the history of the Book of the Dead, and its
translation must be regarded as one of the greatest triumphs of Egyptological
decipherment, for the want of determinatives in many places in the text, and
the archaic spelling of many of the words and passages presented difficulties
which were not easily overcome.5 Here, for the first time, it was shown that
the Book of the Dead was no compilation of a comparatively late period in
the history of Egyptian civilization, but a work belonging to a very remote
antiquity; and it followed naturally that texts which were then known, and
which were thought to be themselves original ancient texts, proved to be only
versions which hacl passed through two or more successive revisions.
1 Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh, p. 51. 2 Maspero, Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., p. 178.
3 See Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., pp. 177-224; t. iv., pp. 41-78.
4 In 1881 Dr. Brugsch described two pyramids of the Vlth dynasty inscribed with religious texts
similar to those found in the pyramid of Unas, and translated certain passages (Aeg. Zeitschrift,
Bd., xix., pp. 1-15); see also Birch in Trans. Soc. Bihl. Arch., 1881, p. 111 ff.
6 The pyramid which bore among the Arabs the name of Mastabat el-Far‘tin, or “ Pharaoh’s
Bench,” was excavated by Mariette in 1858, and, because he found the name of Unas painted on
certain blocks of stone, he concluded that it was the tomb of Unas. M. Maspero’s excavations have,
as Dr. Lepsius observes (Aeg. Zeitschrift, Bd. XIX., p. 15), set the matter right.