DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49512#0273
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURES OF
PRIVATE TOMBS: DYNASTIES I—III,
AND SNEFERUW
IN the preceding chapters the development of the substructure, the burial-place, has been traced
from the Predynastic period to the end of the reign of Sneferuw. Many of the tombs were plundered
and empty and some partially destroyed, but a great number of graves have been described in which the
type of the substructure was clear. Every substructure implies a superstructure which marks the site
of the grave and provides a place where the offerings to the dead may be presented. The fullest proof
of this lies in the Archaic Cemetery at Saqqarah, which contains a continuous series of c.b. mastabas
both large and small, extending from the reign of Zer to the end of Dyn. IV, when this cemetery merges
into the cemetery of stone mastabas of Dyn. V and VI. The Naga-ed-Der site presents a similar series
of tombs running from the beginning of Dyn. I to Dyn. VI, and although these cemeteries had been
greatly damaged, superstructures or parts of superstructures were found wherever the old surface
remained undisturbed. Smaller cemeteries contain a series of mastabas covering this whole range. The
examples of superstructures of Dyn. I and II are not so numerous as those of Dyn. Ill, and examples
of the Predynastic period are lacking altogether; but the long list of examples shown below covers the
whole period from the beginning of Dyn. I to the end of the reign of Sneferuw. The later examples of
Dyn. IV-VI at Giza, Saqqarah, Medum, Abu Roash, Dahshur, and other sites are well known and
leave no doubt of the facts during that period. It is for this reason that I state the principle that every
substructure implies a superstructure of some sort.
Taking the principle just stated, the question arises, why so many superstructures, sometimes whole
cemeteries like the Royal Cemetery at Abydos, appear now not to have superstructures. In the first
place it is clear that the substructures being underground were less exposed to weathering and denuda-
tion than the mastabas built on the surface. When a cemetery was abandoned the spaces between the
mastabas and all other hollows were filled up partly by the disintegrated tops of the mastabas, partly
by the filling of the mastaba let out by the decay of the c.b. walls, and partly by drift sand. The rapidity
of the deposition of drift sand determined largely the height to which the mastaba was preserved.
There was always a certain erosion caused by the blowing of sand along the surface of the drift sand,
when it stood stationary for any length of time. But it is always the lower part of the mastaba which is
best preserved either by the disintegrated c.b. fallen from the walls above or by the rapid deposition
of sand or other debris. In the great cemeteries there are always a few superstructures more exposed
by their topographical position than the others, and these are sometimes denuded to within a few
centimetres above the ground or wholly destroyed. In a growing cemetery such destroyed mastabas,
which at the time of their denudation were on the exposed edge of the cemetery, have often been after-
wards surrounded by later mastabas well preserved (see space between FS 3020 and FS 3010 in the
Archaic Cemetery). Cemeteries also occur which have been completely denuded so that neither the
original surface nor any superstructure remains.
PRIVATE TOMBS: DYNASTIES I—III,
AND SNEFERUW
IN the preceding chapters the development of the substructure, the burial-place, has been traced
from the Predynastic period to the end of the reign of Sneferuw. Many of the tombs were plundered
and empty and some partially destroyed, but a great number of graves have been described in which the
type of the substructure was clear. Every substructure implies a superstructure which marks the site
of the grave and provides a place where the offerings to the dead may be presented. The fullest proof
of this lies in the Archaic Cemetery at Saqqarah, which contains a continuous series of c.b. mastabas
both large and small, extending from the reign of Zer to the end of Dyn. IV, when this cemetery merges
into the cemetery of stone mastabas of Dyn. V and VI. The Naga-ed-Der site presents a similar series
of tombs running from the beginning of Dyn. I to Dyn. VI, and although these cemeteries had been
greatly damaged, superstructures or parts of superstructures were found wherever the old surface
remained undisturbed. Smaller cemeteries contain a series of mastabas covering this whole range. The
examples of superstructures of Dyn. I and II are not so numerous as those of Dyn. Ill, and examples
of the Predynastic period are lacking altogether; but the long list of examples shown below covers the
whole period from the beginning of Dyn. I to the end of the reign of Sneferuw. The later examples of
Dyn. IV-VI at Giza, Saqqarah, Medum, Abu Roash, Dahshur, and other sites are well known and
leave no doubt of the facts during that period. It is for this reason that I state the principle that every
substructure implies a superstructure of some sort.
Taking the principle just stated, the question arises, why so many superstructures, sometimes whole
cemeteries like the Royal Cemetery at Abydos, appear now not to have superstructures. In the first
place it is clear that the substructures being underground were less exposed to weathering and denuda-
tion than the mastabas built on the surface. When a cemetery was abandoned the spaces between the
mastabas and all other hollows were filled up partly by the disintegrated tops of the mastabas, partly
by the filling of the mastaba let out by the decay of the c.b. walls, and partly by drift sand. The rapidity
of the deposition of drift sand determined largely the height to which the mastaba was preserved.
There was always a certain erosion caused by the blowing of sand along the surface of the drift sand,
when it stood stationary for any length of time. But it is always the lower part of the mastaba which is
best preserved either by the disintegrated c.b. fallen from the walls above or by the rapid deposition
of sand or other debris. In the great cemeteries there are always a few superstructures more exposed
by their topographical position than the others, and these are sometimes denuded to within a few
centimetres above the ground or wholly destroyed. In a growing cemetery such destroyed mastabas,
which at the time of their denudation were on the exposed edge of the cemetery, have often been after-
wards surrounded by later mastabas well preserved (see space between FS 3020 and FS 3010 in the
Archaic Cemetery). Cemeteries also occur which have been completely denuded so that neither the
original surface nor any superstructure remains.