DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26359#0112
The Development of the Teti Pyramid Necropolis...
we need further studies to confirm it. While in
the mastaba of Khentika/Ikhekhi, his namesake
of lower rank and status placed his false doors
near the owner’s false doors. Most probably his
burial was situated under the false door and so
the mastaba has not been usurped.42
The tombs of this period were located mainly
during the C.M. FIRTH’s and B. GUNN’s ex-
cavations. There are shafts No: 33, 64, 76-8,
233, 240, 255, burials No 81, 146, 213, 225,
227, tombs of Gemenuser, Satinteti43 and the
collective tombs of Gemni, Reki, Hersheflietep,
Ipiankhu and Khuithentiheti.44 Unfortunately,
in later periods, the cemetery was reused and
burials removed. Therefore, not many of the
tombs remained.
However, recent excavations exposed new
material.45 It confrrms that during that period the
streets going along the Western and Northern
wall of Nedjetempet mastaba were intensively
used to bury the deceased. There are also traces
of the shafts inside this mastaba. Probably the
remains of the walls made of stone, rough pieces
of limestone and mud brick seen in the open
courtyard and in the corridors are related to those
shafts. Two of the walls belong to the shafts with-
out funerary chambers and which probably have
not been finished or were shallow. Similar walls
remained in the tomb of Ibi (Pepi I or later), where
bricks have been placed on partly destroyed
original walls.
In the street between the mastabas of Nedjet-
empet and Shepesipuptah, numerous shafts with
a small diameter were built for optimal use of
free space. False doors and offering tables were
discovered in debris up to 3 m above the level of
the Nedjetempet chapel. That material is dated
from the end of the 6th dynasty. The area still has
notbeen fully excavated. Therefore we should ex-
pect other burials of that period there.
42 H.G. FISCHER, A Later Tomb Chapel in the Mastaba
of Chnty-kp Varia Nova, Egyptian Studies III, New
York 1996, p. 5.
43 The slab from the tomb of Mereruka wife was re-
used as an offering table in front of the false doors of
Satiniteti.
44 FIRTH, GUNN,passim.
45 KANAWATI, HASSAN, op. cit., p. 14.
46 FIRTH, GUNN, op. cit., p. 4.
9/10th dynasty (Heracleopolitan period) In
FIRTH’s opinion, at the end of this period, the
necropolis was cleared from the burials, the sub-
structure of many tombs was removed and the
whole area was prepared to be reused during
the Heracleopolitan period, which is shown by
a clear gap in the archaeological material.46 The
removed burials were situated in other places.
Cleared shafts and even funerary equipment were
reused. Most often, scattered bones and frag-
ments of the shards were found on the shaft bot-
toms in front of the funerary chapel entrance.
Particularly numerous finds came from the area
North of the great stone mastabas,47 where, it
seems, traces of the removed burials were placed.
In the case of most tombs of the North necropolis
part, the old shafts have been reused, frequently
widening them or building new chambers or ad-
ditional shafts. For this period, burials were sig-
nified by FIRTH as HMK (Heracleopolitan Mid-
dle Kingdom) and there are: HMK Nos 1-7,
10, 26, 30, 37, 40, 44-7, 66, 68-9, 90, 112,
120, 125, 130, 140, 159 (pl. 19).
However, it seems highly probable that the ex-
istence of such an immense 9/10th dynasty cem-
etery in this area should be connected not exclu-
sively with the cult of Teti or deified Kagemni.48
On the eastern side of the necropolis, there is
a small stone pyramid. It is attributed to the sev-
enth king of the 9/10th dynasty, Merikara, who
retumed from Heracleopolis to Memphis and built
his pyramid near Teti. Not much remained of the
pyramid, probably as a result of the building of
the Ptolomaic Anubieion and other, earlier con-
structions, but certainly there was a group of
tombs belonging to the officials related to the
Merikara cult. This is confirmed by large loose
material from the area to the East of the Teti pyra-
mid. It consists, for example, of the false doors
of Ipi/In, “Govemor of the Pyramid of Merikara”
47 In other words, it is debris covering the group of
small brick mastabas dated from the end of the 6th
dynasty, of which FIRTH was unaware.
48 K. DAOUD, The Heracleopolitan Stelae from the
Memphite Necropolis, in: C.J. EYRE (ed.), Proceed-
ings of the Seventh International Congress ofEgyp-
tologists. Cambridge, 3-9 September 1995, Leuven
1998, OLA 82, pp. 305-6.
109
we need further studies to confirm it. While in
the mastaba of Khentika/Ikhekhi, his namesake
of lower rank and status placed his false doors
near the owner’s false doors. Most probably his
burial was situated under the false door and so
the mastaba has not been usurped.42
The tombs of this period were located mainly
during the C.M. FIRTH’s and B. GUNN’s ex-
cavations. There are shafts No: 33, 64, 76-8,
233, 240, 255, burials No 81, 146, 213, 225,
227, tombs of Gemenuser, Satinteti43 and the
collective tombs of Gemni, Reki, Hersheflietep,
Ipiankhu and Khuithentiheti.44 Unfortunately,
in later periods, the cemetery was reused and
burials removed. Therefore, not many of the
tombs remained.
However, recent excavations exposed new
material.45 It confrrms that during that period the
streets going along the Western and Northern
wall of Nedjetempet mastaba were intensively
used to bury the deceased. There are also traces
of the shafts inside this mastaba. Probably the
remains of the walls made of stone, rough pieces
of limestone and mud brick seen in the open
courtyard and in the corridors are related to those
shafts. Two of the walls belong to the shafts with-
out funerary chambers and which probably have
not been finished or were shallow. Similar walls
remained in the tomb of Ibi (Pepi I or later), where
bricks have been placed on partly destroyed
original walls.
In the street between the mastabas of Nedjet-
empet and Shepesipuptah, numerous shafts with
a small diameter were built for optimal use of
free space. False doors and offering tables were
discovered in debris up to 3 m above the level of
the Nedjetempet chapel. That material is dated
from the end of the 6th dynasty. The area still has
notbeen fully excavated. Therefore we should ex-
pect other burials of that period there.
42 H.G. FISCHER, A Later Tomb Chapel in the Mastaba
of Chnty-kp Varia Nova, Egyptian Studies III, New
York 1996, p. 5.
43 The slab from the tomb of Mereruka wife was re-
used as an offering table in front of the false doors of
Satiniteti.
44 FIRTH, GUNN,passim.
45 KANAWATI, HASSAN, op. cit., p. 14.
46 FIRTH, GUNN, op. cit., p. 4.
9/10th dynasty (Heracleopolitan period) In
FIRTH’s opinion, at the end of this period, the
necropolis was cleared from the burials, the sub-
structure of many tombs was removed and the
whole area was prepared to be reused during
the Heracleopolitan period, which is shown by
a clear gap in the archaeological material.46 The
removed burials were situated in other places.
Cleared shafts and even funerary equipment were
reused. Most often, scattered bones and frag-
ments of the shards were found on the shaft bot-
toms in front of the funerary chapel entrance.
Particularly numerous finds came from the area
North of the great stone mastabas,47 where, it
seems, traces of the removed burials were placed.
In the case of most tombs of the North necropolis
part, the old shafts have been reused, frequently
widening them or building new chambers or ad-
ditional shafts. For this period, burials were sig-
nified by FIRTH as HMK (Heracleopolitan Mid-
dle Kingdom) and there are: HMK Nos 1-7,
10, 26, 30, 37, 40, 44-7, 66, 68-9, 90, 112,
120, 125, 130, 140, 159 (pl. 19).
However, it seems highly probable that the ex-
istence of such an immense 9/10th dynasty cem-
etery in this area should be connected not exclu-
sively with the cult of Teti or deified Kagemni.48
On the eastern side of the necropolis, there is
a small stone pyramid. It is attributed to the sev-
enth king of the 9/10th dynasty, Merikara, who
retumed from Heracleopolis to Memphis and built
his pyramid near Teti. Not much remained of the
pyramid, probably as a result of the building of
the Ptolomaic Anubieion and other, earlier con-
structions, but certainly there was a group of
tombs belonging to the officials related to the
Merikara cult. This is confirmed by large loose
material from the area to the East of the Teti pyra-
mid. It consists, for example, of the false doors
of Ipi/In, “Govemor of the Pyramid of Merikara”
47 In other words, it is debris covering the group of
small brick mastabas dated from the end of the 6th
dynasty, of which FIRTH was unaware.
48 K. DAOUD, The Heracleopolitan Stelae from the
Memphite Necropolis, in: C.J. EYRE (ed.), Proceed-
ings of the Seventh International Congress ofEgyp-
tologists. Cambridge, 3-9 September 1995, Leuven
1998, OLA 82, pp. 305-6.
109