Discriminating interaction classes: Affection vs. dis-

The first two dynasties are often labeled the Early Dynastic or Archaic Period. Although this period is poorly known, it seems that the main features of Egyptian civilization were established then: not only the conventions of drawing the human body and hieroglyphic writing but also the organization of the state, religious and funerary beliefs, and art and architectural forms. Our assessment of these important developments depends heavily on the monumental tomb com-plexes that have survived so well. Written documents are short, and the towns, such as Memphis, the early capital, buried in Nile silt or under modern occupation, are difficult to investigate. Since the tomb complexes were erected in the desert beyond the zone of cultivation, they have been much more accessible to archaeologists. Abydos and Saqqara contain the key cemeteries of the period.

The dry climate of Egypt, because it preserves organic materials – including the human body – surely influenced Egyptian notions of the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that life continued after death with little change. The body was resurrected, and the deceased led the same sort of life he did before: the same family members, village, and socio-economic conditions. But this afterlife did not materialize automatically. Burial procedures and rites had to be performed cor-rectly and, at least from the Fifth Dynasty on, Osiris, the god of the underworld, had to give his approval. The wrapping of the body, the selection of objects placed in the grave, and the decoration of the tomb were carefully done to ensure that the deceased reached the afterlife and flourished there. Thieves could disrupt this well-planned journey, however. In consequence, the long history of tomb design in ancient Egypt was the never-ending search for the perfect protec-tion for the body and accompanying materials.

Embalmment and mummification

In Predynastic Egypt, a body buried in a simple pit would be well preserved by the hot, desiccat-ing sand. As tomb structures became more complex, the body was placed in shafts or chambers well removed from that beneficial sand. Despite advances in tomb design, the body decom-posed rapidly. Eventually the Egyptians became aware of the consequences, and to counter them, developed elaborate procedures of mummification, that is, embalmment and wrapping of the body. The term comes from the Arabic word “mumiya,” meaning bitumen, a tar in which, it was mistakenly thought, the blackened, poorly embalmed bodies from the late periods had been dipped.

The earliest known evidence of classic or standard mummification is from the tomb at Giza of Queen Hetep-heres, the mother of Khufu, the important king of the Fourth Dynasty. Although

her body was not found, a Canopic chest containing four of her organs proved that the stan-dard process of embalmment was already being performed. The most skillful mummifications come from the New Kingdom. Although classic techniques faded in the Hellenistic period, the practice continued, with different degrees of elaboration (depending on how much one could afford), into the early Christian period.

The organs were removed (except for the heart, the spiritual sentinel, which remained in the body in order to testify at the moment of Judgment), since they putrefied first. Four key organs were given special treatment: the stomach, the intestines, the lungs, and the liver, but not, inter-estingly, the brain, which was apparently discarded. They were washed, packed and dried in natron (a naturally occurring salt), painted with resins, wrapped in separate bundles, and packed in four Canopic jars, and placed in the tomb. Each was protected by a special divinity.

The body was dried in natron. After a certain period, at least forty days, the natron was removed and the body was prepared for burial by anointing with oils and resins, and packing with linen stuffing to restore its original shape. Finally it was tightly wrapped with linen strips to safeguard that shape, with amulets interspersed in the wrapping.

Mastaba tombs at Abydos and Saqqara

In Predynastic times, burials were simple, with bodies placed in flexed position in shallow pits.

Simple grave gifts might be added, such as a few pots, figurines, tools, cosmetics, and orna-ments. In the Archaic period, practices became more elaborate. The body was wrapped in linen and placed with grave goods in a pit sunk 3m–4m into the ground. This burial spot and any adjacent rooms were covered and protected first by a low mound of earth, and then by a mastaba, a low, flat, rectangular structure made of mud brick, a series of compartments cov-ered by a single roof (Figures 5.3 and 5.4).

The façades were decorated to resemble a house, with the grandest showing the same sort of indented façades believed to have been featured on the palace at Memphis, the capital city. Such indented façades were standard in the mud brick architec-ture of Mesopotamia and, together with the use of cylinder seals and perhaps the idea of writing, indicate the high level of Near Eastern contact in this formative period of Egyptian civilization.

Mastaba tombs beginning with that of King Aha (First Dynasty; Narmer’s successor) at Abydos were surrounded by simple graves for servants and craftsmen buried with the tools of their particular trades (Figures 5.5 and 5.6). Thirty-four such tombs accompanied Aha’s burial;

they belonged to seemingly healthy young men, none older than twenty-five, plus a pair of lions.

The men may have been dispatched to accompany their master in the afterlife; their presence recalls the array of sacrificed servants in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. This practice did not continue beyond the Archaic period. A good supply of servants was eventually assured by the placing in tombs of such stand-ins as figures painted or sculpted on tomb walls (beginning in the Fourth Dynasty); small-scale models of activities from daily life (farming, preparation of food and drink, etc.), from the First Intermediate Period on; and shabtis (mummiform statuettes), starting in the

Figure 5.3 Mastaba tomb of Queen Merneith (reconstruction), Abydos

Figure 5.4 Mastaba tomb also attributed to Queen Merneith (reconstruction), Saqqara

Figure 5.5 Overall site plan, Abydos

Figure 5.6 Plan, the Archaic cemetery, Abydos

Middle Kingdom. All these images were given life through the texts written on the walls and the magic of ritual.

The Archaic cemetery at Abydos contains an important feature seemingly absent at Saqqara:

funerary enclosures. Such enclosures are associated with royal burials. The enclosures may rep-resent palace courtyards, impressive locations for ceremonial appearances of the kings (Figure 5.7). A few kilometers separate them from the tombs; they lie closer to the cultivation zone, more accessible for the living. Their walls have indented “palace-facade” decoration, like the mastabas. Inside they are largely empty space; but the best preserved enclosure, the “Shunet ez-Zebib,” that of the late Second Dynasty king Khasekhemwy, contained a small building in one corner. Outside the eastern wall, twelve wooden boats (19m–29m in length) buried in pits may be connected either with this enclosure or with the adjacent. The presence of the enclosures and the buried boats in the first two dynasties is significant, for both will reappear dramatically in the great tombs of the succeeding Third and Fourth Dynasties (see below).

The identity of those buried in the Early Dynastic mastaba tombs at Abydos and Saqqara has been much argued. Which tombs belonged to the kings? The combination of mastaba tomb and funerary enclosure makes it probable that Abydos, not Saqqara, was the location for most First and several Second Dynasty royal burials. Also favoring Abydos is apparent continuity in burials of distinguished individuals from the later Predynastic period, and the greater number of subsidiary graves of retainers. In this view the Saqqara mastabas would belong to high officials, or might represent northern cenotaphs of the rulers buried at Abydos. The question remains

Figure 5.7 Royal funerary enclosures, Abydos

controversial, however, for the mastaba tombs at Saqqara were larger, grander than those at Abydos, even if without enclosures, and the capital city, Memphis, lay conveniently nearby. In the Second Dynasty, royal tombs may well have been divided between Abydos and Saqqara.