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The Egyptian 1st Dynasty Royal Cemetery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Barry J. Kemp
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Extract

Around 3100 B.C. the kingship of Egypt, a country probably united already for over a century, passed into the hands of a family which tradition states originated from the Thinite nome in Upper Egypt. At about the same time the keeping of written records was begun and these first historic kings have come to form what we know as the 1st Dynasty. This was clearly a crucial and momentous period for under their rule Egyptian civilization began to take on that peculiarly characteristic form which was to last so long. It is obviously a matter of some consequence to be able to locate the tombs of these kings but here archaeology has provided a puzzle. For two quite separate sites have been identified as the royal cemetery of the period [I].

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 41 , Issue 161 , March 1967 , pp. 22 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1967

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References

Notes

[1] Those wishing to learn more of the period should read Emery, W. B., Archaic Egypt (Pelican Books, 1961)Google Scholar, where are numerous illustrations of the monuments under consideration as well as a full bibliography. The basic publications for Abydos are Amélineau, E., Les nouvelles fouilles d’Abydos, in three parts (Paris 1899–1904)Google Scholar, and Petrie, W. M. F., The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, in two parts (London, 1900–1)Google Scholar; for Saqqâra they are Emery, W. B., The Tomb of Hemaka (Cairo, 1938)Google Scholar, Ḥor-aḥa (Cairo, 1939)Google Scholar, Great Tombs of the First Dynasty, in three parts (Cairo, 1949, London, 1954, 1958).Google Scholar A reconstruction of one each of the monuments from Abydos and Saqqâra is given on page 25 in Stevenson Smith, W., The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (London, 1958, new ed., 1966)Google Scholar.

[2] The arguments in favour of Saqqâra as a royal cemetery are stated by W. B. Emery in his publications Ḥor-aḥa, pp. 1–3, and Great Tombs of the First Dynasty, vol. II, pp. 1–4, and vol. III, pp. 1–4. A significant contribution has also been made by J. Lauer. His arguments are summarized in his Histoire monumentale des pyramides d’Egypte, I (Cairo, 1962), pp. 16–62.Google Scholar The most detailed arguments against this theory have been presented by Kees, H. in two review articles in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol. 52, 1957, pp. 12–20 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and vol. 54, 1959, pp. 565–70. This view has also been followed by P. Kaplony in an exhaustive study of the inscriptional material of the period, Die Inschriften der ägyptischen Frühzeit. Particularly valuable here is his treatment of the Abydos necropolis, making full use of Amélineau’s material as well as Petrie’s. My section on the subsidiary burials owes much to his results.

[3] de Morgan, J., Recherches sur les origines de TEgypte, II (Paris, 1897), 159.Google Scholar

[4] Publishedin the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 52, 1966, 13 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

[5] See Montet, P., Kêmi, 7, 1938, 23; 8, 1946, 180Google Scholar.

[6] This tomb, QS 2405, is published by Quibell, J. E., Excavations at Saqqara (1911–12), (Cairo, 1913)Google Scholar.

[7] See Quibell, J. E., Excavations at Saqqara (1912–14), (Cairo, 1923), 9 Google Scholar and 38–9, pls. II and XXII, 1; also Reisner, G. A., The Development of the Egyptian Tomb (Cambridge, 1936), 259–50 Google Scholar.

[8] See W. B. Emery, Great Tombs of the First Dynasty, 1, 116–24, pls. 48–54.

[9] See J. E. Quibell, ibid., 42–3, pls. II and XXII, 2, right foreground.