DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50107#0209
THE CHRONOLOGY OF CEM. N 500-900 189
form with the chief niche enlarged by a complicated variation of the brickwork into a cruciform room.
This form of niche-room is well known from c.b. mastabas at Medum, Giza, and Saqqarah (see Quibell,
Archaic Mastabas, Nos. 2304, 2306, 2440, 2446, 2464, &c.). The Saqqarah mastabas prove its use in
Dyn. Ill, but many of the other examples are from the first two reigns of Dyn. IV. Just across the valley
from Naga-’d-Der, at Reqaqna, Prof. Garstang found two tombs with this niche-room, R 62 and R 64,
both of about the same date as N 739. R 64 was the tomb of the king’s scribe, Shepses, and contained
a diorite bowl inscribed with the name of Sneferuw. N 610 is manifestly a generation later than N 739
and was, I take it, the tomb of the fifth headman of the community, the last to be buried in Cem.
N 500-900, probably some time in the reign of Chephren. In addition, N 764, added to the ‘eastern’
end of N 610, contained, I believe, the grave of the wife of this headman. There was certainly no further
site left on the wady bank suitable for a large mastaba. With the spread of knowledge of quarrying,
it was now possible for the well-to-do men of Upper Egypt to cut chambers and shafts in the limestone
which is here of a very good quality although with two intervening strata of tuft (geological clay). Just
‘north’ of N 500-900 stands a limestone hill which separates our cemetery from the sloping plain the
‘western’ edge of which was taken by Cem. N 3000 (Dyn. II). On this plain ‘east’ of Cem. N 3000
stands a small group of crude-brick mastabas of medium size each of which has a shaft grave with shaft
and chamber cut in the limestone. These are of Dyn. V. Above, the rock slopes up to a cliff and above
the first cliff rises a second slope terminated by a second cliff. In the upper cliff have been excavated the
earliest of the rock-cut chapels also with rock-cut burial shafts. It is probably in these mastabas with
rock-cut shafts and in these early cliff tombs that the continuation of the cemetery of headmen is to
be found.
At this point, about the end of Dyn. IV, the change in burial custom took place, probably an advance
in the process of mummification, which produced the more extended burial (hcsk) on the left side with
the knees bent, and with it brought in the long wooden coffin with the long shaft and the long burial
chamber. The rest of the Cem. N 500-900 is filled with the graves of this new type (Dyn. V-VI.)
These graves of type vi a-d lie in rows after the manner of family groups. It was therefore of the same
character as the old ‘western’ cemetery, growing in family groups, each founded by a nucleus grave.
Judging by position and by contents, the earliest groups were in map iii EF 2-3. The latest appear to
be in the ‘NE’ quarter, and the cemetery probably tended to grow from EF 2-3 ‘westwards’, ‘eastwards’,
and ‘northwards’. Towards the ‘west’, twenty-six graves were intruded in the outskirts of the cemetery
of headmen as far as N 689. Traces were found of crude-brick mastabas over several of these graves and
the spacing indicates that all of them had been surmounted by mastabas of some sort. In Cem. N 3500
there were a number of pit graves with small oval mounds of mud-plastered rubble as mastabas, and it
may be that part of the type vi graves under discussion were covered by similar mounds. In Cem.
N 100, some of the rock-cut tombs which entered the steep slope of the hill-side were crowned with
c.b. mastabas built on the slope just above, and possibly some similar type was used in Cem. N 500-900
for the graves cut in the steep slope of the gravel. With these graves of type vi, we have reached Dyn. V;
but, in spite of the rock-cut tombs of this period, all the graves in Cem. N 500-900 have been cut in
gravel. This fact is a clear indication of the poverty of the community, but the contents of the graves do
not indicate any greater poverty than is indicated by the contents of the small graves of Dyn. Ill and IV
in this same cemetery. There are no more large tombs like the tombs of the headmen; but the mass
of the community appears to have held to the old traditional burial-place down to the end of Dyn. VI.
There are a few graves later than this but they are intrusive and may not belong to the same community.
It is improbable that the community came to an end at the end of Dyn. VI although it may have shifted
form with the chief niche enlarged by a complicated variation of the brickwork into a cruciform room.
This form of niche-room is well known from c.b. mastabas at Medum, Giza, and Saqqarah (see Quibell,
Archaic Mastabas, Nos. 2304, 2306, 2440, 2446, 2464, &c.). The Saqqarah mastabas prove its use in
Dyn. Ill, but many of the other examples are from the first two reigns of Dyn. IV. Just across the valley
from Naga-’d-Der, at Reqaqna, Prof. Garstang found two tombs with this niche-room, R 62 and R 64,
both of about the same date as N 739. R 64 was the tomb of the king’s scribe, Shepses, and contained
a diorite bowl inscribed with the name of Sneferuw. N 610 is manifestly a generation later than N 739
and was, I take it, the tomb of the fifth headman of the community, the last to be buried in Cem.
N 500-900, probably some time in the reign of Chephren. In addition, N 764, added to the ‘eastern’
end of N 610, contained, I believe, the grave of the wife of this headman. There was certainly no further
site left on the wady bank suitable for a large mastaba. With the spread of knowledge of quarrying,
it was now possible for the well-to-do men of Upper Egypt to cut chambers and shafts in the limestone
which is here of a very good quality although with two intervening strata of tuft (geological clay). Just
‘north’ of N 500-900 stands a limestone hill which separates our cemetery from the sloping plain the
‘western’ edge of which was taken by Cem. N 3000 (Dyn. II). On this plain ‘east’ of Cem. N 3000
stands a small group of crude-brick mastabas of medium size each of which has a shaft grave with shaft
and chamber cut in the limestone. These are of Dyn. V. Above, the rock slopes up to a cliff and above
the first cliff rises a second slope terminated by a second cliff. In the upper cliff have been excavated the
earliest of the rock-cut chapels also with rock-cut burial shafts. It is probably in these mastabas with
rock-cut shafts and in these early cliff tombs that the continuation of the cemetery of headmen is to
be found.
At this point, about the end of Dyn. IV, the change in burial custom took place, probably an advance
in the process of mummification, which produced the more extended burial (hcsk) on the left side with
the knees bent, and with it brought in the long wooden coffin with the long shaft and the long burial
chamber. The rest of the Cem. N 500-900 is filled with the graves of this new type (Dyn. V-VI.)
These graves of type vi a-d lie in rows after the manner of family groups. It was therefore of the same
character as the old ‘western’ cemetery, growing in family groups, each founded by a nucleus grave.
Judging by position and by contents, the earliest groups were in map iii EF 2-3. The latest appear to
be in the ‘NE’ quarter, and the cemetery probably tended to grow from EF 2-3 ‘westwards’, ‘eastwards’,
and ‘northwards’. Towards the ‘west’, twenty-six graves were intruded in the outskirts of the cemetery
of headmen as far as N 689. Traces were found of crude-brick mastabas over several of these graves and
the spacing indicates that all of them had been surmounted by mastabas of some sort. In Cem. N 3500
there were a number of pit graves with small oval mounds of mud-plastered rubble as mastabas, and it
may be that part of the type vi graves under discussion were covered by similar mounds. In Cem.
N 100, some of the rock-cut tombs which entered the steep slope of the hill-side were crowned with
c.b. mastabas built on the slope just above, and possibly some similar type was used in Cem. N 500-900
for the graves cut in the steep slope of the gravel. With these graves of type vi, we have reached Dyn. V;
but, in spite of the rock-cut tombs of this period, all the graves in Cem. N 500-900 have been cut in
gravel. This fact is a clear indication of the poverty of the community, but the contents of the graves do
not indicate any greater poverty than is indicated by the contents of the small graves of Dyn. Ill and IV
in this same cemetery. There are no more large tombs like the tombs of the headmen; but the mass
of the community appears to have held to the old traditional burial-place down to the end of Dyn. VI.
There are a few graves later than this but they are intrusive and may not belong to the same community.
It is improbable that the community came to an end at the end of Dyn. VI although it may have shifted