Amenemhet II pyramid

Amenemhet II pyramid
Egyptian name Ba-Amenemhet B3-Jmn m ḥ3.t Amenemhet is capable of design (with determinative for pyramid) Data place Dahshur builder Amenemhet II construction time 12th dynasty Base dimension 50 m? / 84 m? Height (originally) ? Tilt ?

The Amenemhet II pyramid is located roughly in the middle of the Dahshur plateau. Today it is very badly damaged because it was used as a quarry. The remains of the limestone gave it the current name “White Pyramid”. The ancient name of the pyramid may have been Ba-Amenemhat. The pyramid city was called Sechem-Amenemhat. Prisoners of war from Asia were used to build the pyramid.

Research history

In the years 1894/95 Jacques de Morgan dug in the pyramid district. He concentrated, however, on the graves of the princesses Ita and Khnumet ; the wonderful jewelry was a spectacular find at the time (now in the Cairo Museum). The rest of the district was not examined at all or only superficially.

The valley temple has not yet been researched, and a comprehensive investigation of the entire pyramid area is still pending. In November 2018, excavations in the pyramid found 8 mummies, 3 of which are said to be well preserved.

Surname

A distinctive feature of the 12th Dynasty pyramids is the use of different names for different parts of the pyramid complex. While the facilities of the Old Kingdom only had one name for the entire royal tomb complex, the facilities of the 12th Dynasty had up to four names, which denoted the actual pyramid, the mortuary temple, the cult facilities of the district and the pyramid city. The name of the Amenemhet II pyramid has not been proven with absolute certainty, but it should have read Ba-Imen-em-hat (“Amenemhet is capable of design”). This name has only survived on a relief fragment from Matarieh and was also read as Ach-Imen-em-hat or Djefa-Imen-em-hat . However, Ba-Imen-em-hat seems to be the most likely reading. The name Djefa-Imen-em-hat ("Amenemhet is supplied") was originally taken for the name of the pyramid by Wolfgang Helck , which was adopted by other researchers such as Farouk Gomaà and Rainer Stadelmann . Hartwig Altenmüller was able to show that this was a mistake. Since the name is mentioned several times in connection with statue foundations, it does not designate the pyramid, but the cult complex and the mortuary temple or the entire pyramid district. The pyramid city was called Sechem-Imen-em-hat ("Amenemhet is strong"). It is also recorded in the short form of Sechem-Imeni and in one case in the form of Sechem-Imenu . The city was later named under the same name by Amenemhet's great-grandson Amenemhet III. included in his pyramid complex .

The pyramid

Entrance passage and burial chamber

The pyramid itself is centrally located in the district. It consisted of a skeleton of retaining walls that were built with limestone. The gaps were simply filled with sand. Cladding stones were no longer found, so the angle and height of the pyramid can no longer be determined. The base should have been around 50 m.

The entrance to the pyramid is in the middle of the north side. A corridor secured in front of the burial chamber with two fall barriers leads to the burial chamber in the center, to which four niches for statues were attached. The ceiling of the burial chamber was flat and was relieved by twelve limestone beams.

The sandstone sarcophagus was set into the floor. From the burial chamber a shaft about two meters deep leads to another short passage to the north. At the end of this passage there is a square hole, possibly for the canopic jar .

The pyramid district

Plan of the pyramid district

The pyramid district with the name “Amenemhet is supplied” consists of a long, rectangular enclosure, as it is known from the 3rd dynasty . The alignment was in an east-west direction with two massive pylons in the east. The way to the district ended between these. Amenemhet II was the 3rd king of the 12th dynasty . He returned with his tomb to Dahshur, where King Sneferu from the 4th Dynasty had already built the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid .

literature

General overview

• Mark Lehner : Secret of the Pyramids. ECON, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-572-01039-X , p. 174.
• Bertha Porter , Rosalind Moss , Ethel Burney , Jaromír Málek : Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. Volume III. Memphis. Part 2. Saqqara to Dahshur. 2nd Edition. University Press, Oxford 1981, ISBN 0-900416-23-8 , pp. 885-886 ( PDF; 33.5 MB ).
• Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 , pp. 236-237.
• Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book. Volume 60890). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 , pp. 445-447.

Excavation publications

• Jacques de Morgan : Fouilles a Dahchour. 1894-1895. Holzhausen, Vienna 1903 (online) .

Questions of detail

• Hartwig Altenmüller : The pyramid names of the early 12th dynasty. In: Ulrich Luft (Ed.): The Intellectual Heritage of Egypt. Studies Presented to László Kákosy (= Studia Aegyptiaca. Volume 14). Budapest 1992, ISBN 963-462-542-8 , pp. 33-42 ( online ).
• Felix Arnold : The South Cemeteries of Lisht II. The Control Notes and Team Marks (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition. Volume 23). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1990, ISBN 978-0-300-09161-8 ( online ).
• Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing : Catalog Général des Antiquités Égyptienne du Musée du Caire. Nos. 18065-18793. Stone vessels. Holzhausen, Vienna 1904 ( online ).
• Ludwig Borchardt : Catalog Général des Antiquités Égyptienne du Musée du Caire. Nos. 1295-1808. Old Kingdom monuments (except statues) in the Cairo Museum. Part 1. Reichsdruckerei, Berlin 1937 ( PDF; 71.5 MB ).
• Peter Jánosi : The pyramids of the queens. Investigations on a grave type from the Old and Middle Kingdom (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Memoranda of the entire academy. Volume 13 = Investigations by the Cairo branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Volume 13). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7001-2207-1 , pp. 59–60.
• Pierre Lacau : Catalog Général des Antiquités Égyptienne du Musée du Caire. Nos. 28100-28126. Sarcophages antérieurs au Nouvel Empire, Tome II. Imprimiere de l'Institut Français d'Archeologie Orientale, Cairo 1906 ( online ).
• A. Schwab: The sarcophagi of the Middle Kingdom. A typological study for the 11th to 13th dynasties. Dissertation, Vienna 1989.
• Bruce Williams : The Date of Senebtisi at Lisht. In: Serapis. The American Journal of Egyptology. Volume 3, 1975/76, pp. 41-55 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Amenemhet II pyramid  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Pyramid floor plan

Individual evidence

1. ^ H. Altenmüller: The pyramid names of the early 12th dynasty. In: U. Luft (Ed.): The Intellectual Heritage of Egypt. Budapest 1992, pp. 33-42. ( online )
2. ^ A. Altenmüller, AM Moussa: The inscription of Amenemhet II. From the Ptah temple of Memphis. A preliminary report. In studies of ancient Egyptian culture. Vol. 18, Hamburg 1991, p. 36.
3. ↑ Hartwig Altenmüller: The pyramid names of the early 12th dynasty. 1992, pp. 39, 41.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Pyramid names. In: Wolfgang Helck, Wolfhart Westendorf (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume 6, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 978-3-447-02489-1 , Sp. 6.
5. ↑ Farouk Gomaa: The colonization of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. Volume II. Lower Egypt and the adjacent areas (= Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East (TAVO). Series B, Volume 66). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 978-3-88226-280-3 , p. 50.
6. ^ Rainer Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. 1991, p. 237.
7. ↑ Hartwig Altenmüller: The pyramid names of the early 12th dynasty. 1992, pp. 38-39, 41.
8. ↑ Hartwig Altenmüller: The pyramid names of the early 12th dynasty. 1992, pp. 37-38, 41.

Coordinates: 29 ° 48 ′ 20 ″  N , 31 ° 13 ′ 22 ″  E