DOI Heft:
Egypt
DOI Artikel:Kuraszkiewicz, Kamil O.: An old kingdom autobiography from Saqqara
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41369#0149
WEST SAQQARA
EGYPT
AN OLD KINGDOM AUTOBIOGRAPHY
FROM SAQQARA1)
Kamil Omar Kuraszkiewicz
An inscribed limestone block found during
the 2001 campaign of Polish-Egyptian
excavations at West Saqqara (field inv. no.
S/01/20) has turned out to bear a text that
can be identified as a real and not
conventional autobiography.
It was found between the northern
“bastion” of Netjerikhet's enclosure wall
and Shaft 51, on a thin layer of dakka over
the foundation level of the enclosure wall; it
appears to have been connected with the last
phase of the destroyed mastaba of Shaft 51.1 2)
DESCRIPTION
The form and the decoration of the block
suggest that it was the left jamb of a niche
once containing a false door.3) It is carved
in a single block of hard, white limestone
and has the form of a slab, 110 cm high,
12 cm wide and 30 cm thick. It has not
survived intact — much of the upper part of
the decorated front has been destroyed and
the lower part has been crushed, probably
by blocks falling from the enclosure wall of
the step pyramid. While the lower part of
the jamb has been reconsolidated, the
missing parts of its decorated surface could
not be restored (Fig. 1).
Only the carved front of the jamb was
dressed, the other sides being left
unworked. The decoration consists of two
columns of text and a figural representation
below them, executed in shallow sunken
relief, c. 3 mm in depth. The inscription
and figural representation, both turned to
the right, are framed with incised vertical
lines. The block bears no trace of
polychromy.
The initial part of the first column of
the text, as well as final part of the second
one, is missing. In addition, the standing
figure of the deceased is badly damaged,
the sole preserved elements being his left
hand holding a long stick and part of the
hrp-sceptre held in his right. The text in
the second column can be considered as
a direct continuation of the one in the
first.
1) The author would like to thank Mr. Dariusz Niedziotka for inspiring discussions on the subject of this text.
2) Cf. contribution by K. Mysliwiec in this volume.
3) Several objects of this kind have been discovered by the Mission, but so far none has borne a biographical text; cf.
K. Kuraszkiewicz, “Inscribed objects from the Old Kingdom necropolis west of the Step Pyramid (with remarks on their
white coating)”, Archiv Orientalni (forthcoming).
147
EGYPT
AN OLD KINGDOM AUTOBIOGRAPHY
FROM SAQQARA1)
Kamil Omar Kuraszkiewicz
An inscribed limestone block found during
the 2001 campaign of Polish-Egyptian
excavations at West Saqqara (field inv. no.
S/01/20) has turned out to bear a text that
can be identified as a real and not
conventional autobiography.
It was found between the northern
“bastion” of Netjerikhet's enclosure wall
and Shaft 51, on a thin layer of dakka over
the foundation level of the enclosure wall; it
appears to have been connected with the last
phase of the destroyed mastaba of Shaft 51.1 2)
DESCRIPTION
The form and the decoration of the block
suggest that it was the left jamb of a niche
once containing a false door.3) It is carved
in a single block of hard, white limestone
and has the form of a slab, 110 cm high,
12 cm wide and 30 cm thick. It has not
survived intact — much of the upper part of
the decorated front has been destroyed and
the lower part has been crushed, probably
by blocks falling from the enclosure wall of
the step pyramid. While the lower part of
the jamb has been reconsolidated, the
missing parts of its decorated surface could
not be restored (Fig. 1).
Only the carved front of the jamb was
dressed, the other sides being left
unworked. The decoration consists of two
columns of text and a figural representation
below them, executed in shallow sunken
relief, c. 3 mm in depth. The inscription
and figural representation, both turned to
the right, are framed with incised vertical
lines. The block bears no trace of
polychromy.
The initial part of the first column of
the text, as well as final part of the second
one, is missing. In addition, the standing
figure of the deceased is badly damaged,
the sole preserved elements being his left
hand holding a long stick and part of the
hrp-sceptre held in his right. The text in
the second column can be considered as
a direct continuation of the one in the
first.
1) The author would like to thank Mr. Dariusz Niedziotka for inspiring discussions on the subject of this text.
2) Cf. contribution by K. Mysliwiec in this volume.
3) Several objects of this kind have been discovered by the Mission, but so far none has borne a biographical text; cf.
K. Kuraszkiewicz, “Inscribed objects from the Old Kingdom necropolis west of the Step Pyramid (with remarks on their
white coating)”, Archiv Orientalni (forthcoming).
147