Grave slab with an offering table scene

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Tomb slab of Iunu from Giza (4th dynasty)

Grave plate with offering table scene (even sacrificial plate with dining table scene , Slab Stela or relief Slab ) denotes plates with hieroglyphic inscriptions and figural representations from the ancient Egyptian grave - Architecture . Such limestone plates are in the necropolis of Helwan early as the end of the first dynasty occupied. They were probably built into the façade of the mud brick mastaba superstructure and identified the grave with the name (and title) of the tomb lord. They are therefore a pre-form of the false door . More than half of the finds (86 in total) come from Heluan, another 15 from Gizeh and others from Saqqara , Meidum and Abusir . The Gizeh plates represent a special development in the grave development under Cheops in the 4th dynasty , as the classic form of the false door already existed at that time. There is as yet no definitive explanation for the possible backgrounds that led to this reduced equipment.

terminology

Zaki Saad , who excavated in Heluan, assumed that the stones mostly found in the grave shafts in the entrance area of ​​the underground tombs were in situ there . Consequently, he interpreted it as a ceiling stela (German for "ceiling stele"). Another name that prevailed was slab stela (German for "plate stele"), which is still used today. Recent studies have shown that most of these finds are certainly not steles in the strict sense. The slabs were not found in the primary archaeological context, but were in architectural connection with a sacrificial niche or sacrificial site of the grave superstructure. As these objects were consequently not set up free-standing, Köhler and Jones avoid the expression “stela” and instead refer to them as relief slabs (German: relief panels). In German, the expression (grave) plate or sacrificial plate (with sacrificial table scene / dining table scene) has established itself.

development

Grave slab of the Seeeser ( 2nd dynasty )
Tomb slab of the Heti ( 2nd dynasty )

In order to ensure the continued existence of the dead in the hereafter , the fundamental actions and gifts have also been shown in the picture since the early days . The scene of the offering table can be traced back to the time of the unification of the empire , initially on cylinders as additions. These cylinders were replaced in the 2nd dynasty by the grave slabs built into the grave with the offering table scene. This also created the core of the grave decoration in the later graves of the Old Kingdom. The dead person was represented while they were eating, a kind of further development of the idea of guaranteeing the dead their food through magical acts by depicting them. Such representations gradually replaced the addition of food offerings and increasingly led to the care of the dead through corresponding pictorial representations, in which the dining table scene formed the core.

In the 3rd dynasty the figurative presence of the tomb lord increased. The newly appearing false door niche contains an additional representation of the standing grave lord at the false door niche. Under Sneferu , at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, the classic form of the false door on the grave facade of the mastabas already existed. Under Cheops, however, the decoration of private graves was reduced to the exclusive installation of grave slabs. 12 of the 15 plates found in Giza also fell during the reign of Cheops, mostly during the first half of his reign. All Gizeh plates were not part of a false door and should never be inserted into one, although the pictorial theme of the plate representations formed the central element before and after Cheops.

According to Peter Der Manuelian, the Gizeh plates represent a special development in the development of the grave under Cheops. There is still no definitive interpretation of the possible backgrounds that led to this reduced equipment. For Der Manuelian, the panels were the sublime expression of an elite that was aware of their intellectual environment under Cheops and was in harmony with the linear architectural aspirations of that era ( non-linear reductionism ).

Decoration and lettering

Tomb slab of Neferetiabet from Giza (4th Dynasty)

The grave slabs were mostly narrow, rectangular limestone slabs. Those from Helwan have an average size of 50–60 cm in length, 20–25 cm in height and 6–10 cm in thickness. The standard size of those from Giza is about 37.7 × 52.5 × 8.3 cm, but there were also deviations in the standard with a size of up to 88 × 52 × 10 cm. In Helwan almost all panels had a central, rectangular image field, while in Giza the decoration took up the whole area.

The formal structure of the decoration follows a certain scheme: the iconographic elements such as the division of the image field, arm position and shape of the offering table are extremely durable. In contrast, there is a high degree of variability among the individual victims.

The grave owner usually sits on the left side of the field of view in an upright position on a chair, facing to the right. He stretches his right arm against the sacrificial table with the sacrificial bread, and holds the left arm bent to his chest. The sacrificial table with halved loaves of bread stands in front of the tomb. Among them, there are often other offerings in 1000s (alabaster vessels, linen, bread, beer, ox, antelopes, etc.).

The label part gives the name and title of the deceased in the header. Before the deceased, the offerings are listed in the form of a list (incense, eyeshadow, ointments, wine, cakes, figs, milk, the so-called list of substances, etc.).

literature

  • Peter Der Manuelian : Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis . Ed .: William Kelly Simpson, David B. O'Connor (=  Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt . Volume 7 ). Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale University, New Haven / Philadelphia 2003, ISBN 0-9740025-1-8 ( gizapyramids.org [PDF; 59.4 MB ]).
  • Emad El-Metwally: Development of the grave decoration in the ancient Egyptian private graves. Iconographic analysis of the cult of the dead from prehistory to the end of the 4th dynasty (= Göttingen Orient Research. IV. Series, Egypt. Vol. 24). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1992, ISBN 3-447-03270-7 (also: Dissertation, University of Göttingen 1991).
  • Gerhard Haeny: About the plates with an offering table scene in Helwan and Giseh. In: Essays on the 70th birthday of Herbert Ricke (= contributions to Egyptian building research and antiquity. Issue 12). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1971, pp. 143-164.
  • Peter Jánosi : The dead person in front of the sacrificial table. Giza's sacrificial plates. Review of the book “Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis” by Peter Der Manuelian . In: Sokar. The world of the pyramids . No. 10 . Haase, 2005, ISSN  1438-7956 , p. 18–23 ( gizapyramids.org [PDF; 1.4 MB ]).
  • Hermann Junker (Ed.): Gîza I. The mastabas of the 4th dynasty on the Westfriedhof . Report on the work carried out by the Academy of Sciences in Vienna at joint expense with Dr. Wilhelm Pelizaeus undertook excavations in the cemetery of the Old Kingdom near the pyramids of Gîza (=  Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-historical class. Memoranda . Volume 69.1 ). Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig 1929 ( gizapyramids.org [PDF; 73.0 MB ]).
  • Jochem Kahl : On the dating of the early grave slabs with an offering table scene. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture (SAK) 24, 1997, pp. 137–145.
  • E. Christiana Köhler , Jana Jones: Helwan II. The Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom Funerary Relief Slabs. Leidorf, Rahden 2009.
  • Peter Kaplony : The inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. 3 volumes (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 8). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963.
  • Peter Kaplony: Small contributions to the inscriptions of the early Egyptian period (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. Vol. 15). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1966.
  • Ilona Regulski: A Paleographic Study of Early Writing in Egypt (= Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. [OLA] Vol. 195): Peeters - Department Oosterse Studies, Leuven, Paris / Welpole MA 2010, ISBN 978-90-429-2326-3 .
  • Zaki Youssef Saad: Ceiling Stelae in Second Dynasty Tombs from the Excavations at Helwan (= Egypt. Maṣlaḥat al-Āthār. Annales. Supplément). Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 1957.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Christiana Köhler: The Helwan Project. In: Homepage of the Institute for Egyptology at the University of Vienna (accessed on August 3, 2012).
  2. ^ Zaki Youssef Saad: Ceiling Stelae in Second Dynasty Tombs from the Excavations at Helwan. Cairo, 1957. So does Peter Kaplony: The inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. 3 volumes. Wiesbaden, 1963, Peter Kaplony: Small contributions to the inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. Wiesbaden, 1966.
  3. ↑ Peter Der Manuelian: Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis. New Haven / Philadelphia 2003; Ilona Regulsky: A Palaeographic Study of Early Writing in Egypt. Leuven, 2010, p. 40f.
  4. ↑ After Karl Martin: Article Stele. In: Wolfgang Helck , Wolfhart Westendorf (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume VI. Col. 1ff. the term stele (from the Greek στήλη ) is generally used for a (free) high point. The ancient Egyptian expression wḏ , which was primarily used, seems to express less formal criteria and those of the type of arrangement, but rather content- related . It stands for memorial marks of various kinds (such as inscription-free boundary stones, gravestones, rock inscriptions, small or large memorial stones, free-standing, leaning against or embedded in buildings, painted on or carved into walls). Martin also assumes that the grave slabs of the early period are not "real" steles .
  5. ^ E. Christiana Koehler, Jana Jones: Helwan II. The Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom Funerary Relief Slabs. Leidorf, 2009, p. 85ff.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Haeny: On the plates with an offering table scene in Helwan and Giseh. In: Essays on the 70th birthday of Herbert Ricke (Festschrift Ricke), Wiesbaden, 1971, pp. 143–164; Jochem Kahl: On the dating of the early grave slabs with an offering table scene. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture (SAK) 24, 1997, pp. 137–145; Hermann Junker: excavations in the cemetery of the Old Kingdom near the pyramids of Giza. Volume I: The mastabas of the 4th Dynasty in the Westfriedhof. Vienna, 1929, p. 23ff .; Gerhard Haeny: Article false door. In: Wolfgang Helck, Wolfhart Westendorf: Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume V. Wiesbaden, 1984, column 571, note 8.
  7. ↑ E. Christiana Köhler, Jana Jones: Helwan II. Pp. 192 & 193; Obj. 10
  8. ^ Emad El-Metwally: Development of the grave decoration in the ancient Egyptian private graves. Iconographic analysis of the cult depictions of the dead from prehistory to the end of the 4th dynasty. Wiesbaden, 1992, p. 8ff.
  9. ↑ El-Metwally: Development of the grave decoration in the ancient Egyptian private graves. P. 19.
  10. ↑ Peter Jánosi: The dead in front of the sacrificial table. Giza's sacrificial plates. Review of the book “Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis” by Peter Der Manuelian. In: Sokar 10, 2005, pp. 20ff .; Peter Der Manuelian: Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis. New Haven / Philadelphia, 2003, pp. 133ff.
  11. ↑ Jánosi: The dead in front of the sacrificial table. In: Sokar 10, pp. 20ff .; The Manuelian: Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis. P. 167.
  12. ↑ Peter Jánosi: The dead in front of the sacrificial table. Giza's sacrificial plates. Review of the book “Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis” by Peter Der Manuelian. In: Sokar 10, 2005, p. 19f .; Köhler, Jones: Helwan II. P. 23ff .; The Manuelian: Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis. P. 141ff.