DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49512#0298
262 DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURES OF PRIVATE TOMBS: DYN. I-III, AND SNEFERUW
Three mastabas, FS 3079-3081, which I assign to the end of Dyn. IV, also have the exterior two-room
chapel undoubtedly wood-roofed and with the roof of the wide southern room supported by a column.
Examples of the exterior corridor chapel, roofed and unroofed, occur also in early Dyn. IV at
El-Kab, Denderah, Reqaqnah, and Naga-ed-Der. At Giza the corridor chapel, when it is an exterior
chapel, is always roofed, and is generally the result of a reconstruction, or of building one mastaba
close behind the western wall of another. But the corridor chapel of the stone mastabas at Giza is
usually an interior chapel (see the Cheops mastaba G 4000), and the interior corridor chapel was one
of the characteristic types of late Dyn. V and Dyn. VI.
(2) The exterior chapel around the chief niche
The open-air exterior chapel around the offering-place begins, as I have said above, with the
curiously formed enclosures of the small mastabas of Dyn. I at Tarkhan. At Medum, in early Dyn. IV,
the exterior niches of the mastabas of Neferma'at and Rahotep, in their final form, had exterior one-
room chapels around the chief niches, but whether they were roofed or open is uncertain. At
Saqqarah, the mastaba of Ka-aper (Mariette, Mastabas, C 8) and several others had chapels of this sort
which were probably partially or wholly roofed with wood. In the later mastabas of Dyn. IV at Giza
an open court was frequently found attached to exterior c.b. chapels (cf. open courts of the temples of
Mycerinus and his queens).
The exterior roofed multiple-roomed chapel obviously bears some relation to the open-air chapel
around the chief offering-niche. The two earliest examples, QS 2406 and QS 2407, are both at the
southern end of the mastaba. In QS 2406 the group of exterior rooms opens into the southern end of
the corridor chapel and includes an entrance to the corridor from the east through an ante-room. The
exterior group of rooms in QS 2407 lies south of the mastaba and is entered by a doorway through the
southern end of the interior cruciform chapel. The exterior rooms of Hesy-ra, outside the eastern
corridor chapel, are grouped around the doorway to the corridor, that is, on the south, with one room
near the substitute niche in the northern end of the eastern corridor. At Giza, in the reign of Cheops,
a number of exterior c.b. chapels are known in which two or more rooms and an open court are grouped
about an offering-room, and most of the large mastabas have a complex of rooms built against the
facade of the mastaba around the interior chapels. The rooms of these Giza chapels appear to have
been roofed in most cases with c.b. vaults with leaning courses, and were closed with wooden doors
provided with locks. The subsidiary rooms were magazines in which were stored the vessels of the
funerary priests and perhaps other ritual implements.
In conclusion, the protected corridor chapel, whether an interior or an exterior chapel, was designed
chiefly to protect the decoration of the chief niche or of the panelled facade and to secure it from
mutilation by chance visitors. The two-room corridor chapel was apparently introduced to protect the
more elaborately decorated southern niche (a palace-facade niche) by means of the roofed and locked
southern room, but the northern corridor may also have been roofed and locked. The subsidiary rooms
of the multiple-room exterior chapel were on the other hand designed for the safe deposition of the
utensils used by the fez-priests, or of the statues of the owner and his family. In the two-room corridor
chapel, the southern room may have been used for the same purpose; but, except in a few important
tombs, it is to be noted that such utensils seem not to have been kept in magazines. The tall stands with
basins, the offering-basins, and the offering-stone were undoubtedly, in many locked chapels, left in
position before the chief offering-niche, and have been found repeatedly still in place. I have suggested
above that the statues may have been deposited in some of the exterior multiple-roomed chapels.
Three mastabas, FS 3079-3081, which I assign to the end of Dyn. IV, also have the exterior two-room
chapel undoubtedly wood-roofed and with the roof of the wide southern room supported by a column.
Examples of the exterior corridor chapel, roofed and unroofed, occur also in early Dyn. IV at
El-Kab, Denderah, Reqaqnah, and Naga-ed-Der. At Giza the corridor chapel, when it is an exterior
chapel, is always roofed, and is generally the result of a reconstruction, or of building one mastaba
close behind the western wall of another. But the corridor chapel of the stone mastabas at Giza is
usually an interior chapel (see the Cheops mastaba G 4000), and the interior corridor chapel was one
of the characteristic types of late Dyn. V and Dyn. VI.
(2) The exterior chapel around the chief niche
The open-air exterior chapel around the offering-place begins, as I have said above, with the
curiously formed enclosures of the small mastabas of Dyn. I at Tarkhan. At Medum, in early Dyn. IV,
the exterior niches of the mastabas of Neferma'at and Rahotep, in their final form, had exterior one-
room chapels around the chief niches, but whether they were roofed or open is uncertain. At
Saqqarah, the mastaba of Ka-aper (Mariette, Mastabas, C 8) and several others had chapels of this sort
which were probably partially or wholly roofed with wood. In the later mastabas of Dyn. IV at Giza
an open court was frequently found attached to exterior c.b. chapels (cf. open courts of the temples of
Mycerinus and his queens).
The exterior roofed multiple-roomed chapel obviously bears some relation to the open-air chapel
around the chief offering-niche. The two earliest examples, QS 2406 and QS 2407, are both at the
southern end of the mastaba. In QS 2406 the group of exterior rooms opens into the southern end of
the corridor chapel and includes an entrance to the corridor from the east through an ante-room. The
exterior group of rooms in QS 2407 lies south of the mastaba and is entered by a doorway through the
southern end of the interior cruciform chapel. The exterior rooms of Hesy-ra, outside the eastern
corridor chapel, are grouped around the doorway to the corridor, that is, on the south, with one room
near the substitute niche in the northern end of the eastern corridor. At Giza, in the reign of Cheops,
a number of exterior c.b. chapels are known in which two or more rooms and an open court are grouped
about an offering-room, and most of the large mastabas have a complex of rooms built against the
facade of the mastaba around the interior chapels. The rooms of these Giza chapels appear to have
been roofed in most cases with c.b. vaults with leaning courses, and were closed with wooden doors
provided with locks. The subsidiary rooms were magazines in which were stored the vessels of the
funerary priests and perhaps other ritual implements.
In conclusion, the protected corridor chapel, whether an interior or an exterior chapel, was designed
chiefly to protect the decoration of the chief niche or of the panelled facade and to secure it from
mutilation by chance visitors. The two-room corridor chapel was apparently introduced to protect the
more elaborately decorated southern niche (a palace-facade niche) by means of the roofed and locked
southern room, but the northern corridor may also have been roofed and locked. The subsidiary rooms
of the multiple-room exterior chapel were on the other hand designed for the safe deposition of the
utensils used by the fez-priests, or of the statues of the owner and his family. In the two-room corridor
chapel, the southern room may have been used for the same purpose; but, except in a few important
tombs, it is to be noted that such utensils seem not to have been kept in magazines. The tall stands with
basins, the offering-basins, and the offering-stone were undoubtedly, in many locked chapels, left in
position before the chief offering-niche, and have been found repeatedly still in place. I have suggested
above that the statues may have been deposited in some of the exterior multiple-roomed chapels.