Mastaba of Kaninisut
The mastaba of Kaninisut also Mastaba G 2155 is located in Gizeh on the so-called west cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Cheops . It was built for Kaninisut (also Ka-ni-nisut or k3-nj-njwś.t ), a high civil servant of the 4th Dynasty or early 5th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (approx. 2500 BC). The cult chamber of the mastaba is exhibited today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna under inventory number 8006. It consists of the best, white Tura limestone and is adorned with fine, raised bas-reliefs . Above all, lists of victims, scenes from the cult of the dead as well as the grave lord and his family are shown. Kaninisut's descendants built other smaller graves around the large mastaba.
location
The mastaba of Kaninisut is located in the West Cemetery of Giza . Clearly planned mastaba cemeteries were built to the east and west of the Great Pyramid . The close relatives of Cheops were buried in the east cemetery and high officials and dignitaries were buried in the west cemetery. Through this privilege, the buried could be included in the world of misrepresentation of the royal afterlife and received the necessary offerings through the worship cult carried out in the royal mortuary temple. The structure, alignment and equipment of the individual private graves were a reflection of the hierarchical society of that time. During Cheop's reign, a total of 77 graves were built in the two cemeteries, and numerous graves were added later. The regular arrangement of the individual mastabas suggests that it was designed by a state building authority. Apparently the mastabas were left to the owners as shell structures without cladding and they took on the further decoration. The mastaba of Kaninisut is located in the far west of that section of the cemetery, which is called cemetery en échelon due to the arrangement of its graves .
Discovery and purchase of the cult chamber
In 1902, the Westfriedhof was divided into three sections running from east to west, for each of which an excavation concession was granted to the USA, Italy and Germany. Georg Steindorff led three excavation campaigns between 1903 and 1907 . In 1911, Steindorff and Hermann Junker , who had previously excavated in Nubia , decided to swap their concessions. The Austrian Academy of Sciences thus took over the German concession in Giza.
Hermann Junker and his colleagues discovered the mastaba of Kaninisut on January 10, 1913. A little later, the decision was made to buy the cult chamber for the Art History Museum in Vienna in order to be able to present the typical grave architecture of the Old Kingdom. Hermann Junker commented:
"The whole chamber is so beautiful and instructive in every respect that I consider it primarily suitable to be transferred to Vienna."
On January 27, 1914, the kuk Oberstkämmerer signed the purchase contract with the Egyptian antiquities administration. In a month's work, the cult chamber was dismantled and transported in 32 boxes with a total weight of 65 tons via Cairo to Vienna, where it arrived in early July 1914. The installation was delayed by more than 10 years due to the First World War and the difficult economic situation in the post-war period. Only on June 17, 1925 was the cult chamber rebuilt and open to the public. The Viennese industrialist Rudolf Maaß took over the costs for the purchase and transport of around 30,000 kroner, who also contributed to the costs of building the cult chamber.
Kaninisut and his family
Kaninisut was a high civil servant, as evidenced by his numerous honorary degrees and the location and size of his grave in Giza. The exact date of the reign of an Egyptian king is still not possible today. His family can be traced back to the 5th generation, as his descendants had the graves built in the immediate vicinity of his large mastaba. However, the social decline of the family can be read from the grave architecture and the titles of his descendants. Apparently, the family increasingly lost their high position at the king's court.
Kaninisut had titles such as “head of the apron”, “only friend” and “physical son of the king”, which were originally only allowed to have relatives of the king, but in the old kingdom they were honorary titles for highly respected persons of non-royal origin. They do not say much about the actual function of the Kaninisut. The title of sem priest is usually mentioned first . This indicates certain cultic tasks in the cult of gods and the dead. His wife and two sons and a daughter are also shown in the cult chamber.
Description and function of the mastaba
The grave of Kaninisut is a so-called mastaba grave. The term “mastaba”, which means “bank” in the Arabic language , is derived from the appearance of these graves: The superstructure is cuboid with slightly sloping side walls and is reminiscent of an oversized bench. The core of the Mastaba des Kaninisut is 24 m long and 10.2 m wide, the height can no longer be determined due to the destruction. The outer walls are made of limestone blocks that were clad with a layer of fine white Tura limestone . The interior of the superstructure has no rooms, but is filled with rubble. Towards the end of the reign of Cheops it was increasingly common to relocate the cult rooms to the interior of the superstructure, before that they were added to the east facade of the tomb. In the case of the mastaba des Kaninisut, it was apparently the case that the shell was already completed towards the end of the reign of Cheops, but it required numerous modifications to meet the new building trend: the decision was not to hollow out the mast tobacco, but rather to extend the grave towards the south in order to build the cult chamber there.
In front of the entrance to the cult chamber, a mud brick porch was built on the east facade. A 2.55 m long and 0.75 or 1.05 m narrow passage led into the cult chamber, which was closed by a wooden door. The 3.60 m long, 1.45 m wide and 3.16 m high chamber contained two false doors on the west wall, in front of which the sacrifices were offered. Behind the false door was the Serdab, a small, completely walled-up room in which the Ka - statue of the tomb was kept. However, Hermann Junker could no longer find the Ka statue of Kaninisut. The chamber was robbed in ancient times, which is also indicated by traces of the use of force.
According to ancient Egyptian ideas, the ka is an aspect of the soul that outlasts the physical death of humans. It leaves the body of the dying person and then continues to exist independently. He is a source of life force ; through his presence man is animated and animated. After death, the ka remains near the corpse. Now it is his main task to protect the dead and to help him to an existence that corresponds to his previous social rank. The home of the Ka is a statue erected especially for him in the grave, the Ka statue. The ka of the deceased could enter this world through the false door. He was able to take part in the ritual for the dead sacrifice in the cult chapel, which consisted of the offering of food and drink and other cult acts.
The substructure of the Mastaba des Kaninisut had a 17 m deep, vertical grave shaft , which led over a short corridor to the south to a burial chamber roughly hewn out of the rock . The careless execution of the burial chamber stands in stark contrast to the fine design of the cult chamber. Apparently the design of the underground rooms was increasingly neglected in the late 4th dynasty. No burial remains were found.
On the eastern front of the mastaba, Kaninisut's son of the same name had a modest grave built on his father's mastaba. The superstructure is 8.8 m long and 3.5 m wide. The cult chamber, which also had two false doors on the west wall, was accessed via the east side of the extension. Its underground coffin chamber was found to be completely ransacked, apparently through robbery in ancient times. Nonetheless, burial objects were discovered lying around, such as sham vessels made of alabaster , small copper tools and four clay jugs that had been used to hold the entrails of the mummy .
Another extension was on the north side of the great mastaba of Kaninisut (I.). This grave probably comes from the third generation, from Kaninisut (III.) Of the same name. Not much is left of this extension today.
Iri-en-re and Ankh-ma-re, probably great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Kaninisut (I.), had their graves built in the immediate vicinity. The only possible building site was the narrow street between the Mastaba des Nisut-nefer (G 4970) and the Mastaba G 4980. The tomb of Iri-en-re was built on the northwest corner of Nisut-nefer, to which that of Ankh-ma-re is connected to the east.
Relief decorations of the cult chamber
The cult chamber of Kaninisut is made of the best, white Tura limestone and adorned with fine, raised bas-reliefs that can be seen today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Some of the remains of the original painting are still present. Typical of the Egyptian style is that people are shown in a flat screen in a combination of front and side views. For example, the eyes, shoulders, parts of the chest and the stomach are shown in the frontal view and the head, arms, chest and legs in the side view.
Northern and southern door jambs
Dining table scenes are depicted on the north and south walls of the entrance corridor. Kaninisut sits in front of a sacrificial table on which twelve loaves of bread stand close together, symbolizing the food supply on the other side. Kaninisut wears a panther skin , the official costume of the Sem priest. On the southern door jamb it is the long panther skin robe and on the northern one the less frequently occupied short panther skin robe.
To the right of the dining table scene, four priests, who are shown much smaller than Kaninisut, perform the ritual of the dead sacrifice on the northern door jamb: the first, the "cupbearer of the large bar table", kneels, hands out a vessel and bread. Behind it, a Ut priest transfigures the ritual of the dead sacrifice by stretching out the fist of his right hand and touching the forehead with his left hand. The third priest holds up a washing set that was used to clean the cult site. Behind it stands a Heri-wedjeb priest with a hand raised in a gesture of speech. He names the gifts recorded in the list of victims: frankincense, anointing oil, green eye make-up, black eye make-up, wine, wˁḥ fruits, (12) hurt fruits, bread made from Christ thorn berries, figs, four pieces of dpt bread, Christ thorn berries, t3-rtḥ- Bread, roasted wheat, white and green zẖt barley. On the southern door jamb, behind the Heri-wedjeb priest, another man is shown carrying a large beef thigh.
Southern door jamb
Northern jamb
South wall at the door jamb
Following the southern door jamb, an antelope is shown on the south wall. Two men wearing only one belt and three ribbons lead the sacrificial animal. The priest of the dead sacrifice Anchhaf takes the antelope by the mouth and horns, behind it the “head of the hall” drives the animal with a stick. A man walks ahead who makes additional sacrifices. The antelope is a gift from a foundation that provided food for the cult of the dead sacrifice of Kaninisut. Above that there are further images of offerings, which are arranged in two registers.
East wall
On the east wall above the entrance you can see two registers with depictions of ships. A sailing boat is shown in the upper register and a rowing boat is shown in the lower register. A long, narrow strip below the boats symbolizes the water and at the same time forms the dividing line between the registers. Kaninisut stands in the middle of the ship, leaning on a staff. The depictions of ships symbolize the journeys of the dead in the afterlife to the old capitals of Buto and Heliopolis.
The two upper registers of the long east wall contain representations of the endowments personified. The posture of arms and hands is similar in all figures: with their right hand they hold a basket with offerings on their head, the left arm hangs down along the body. The people stand for the foundation's assets that delivered the regular sacrifice.
The third register shows the bringing in and slaughter of cattle. In the left half two cattle with long horns and a calf are brought in, in the right half the slaughter of two cattle is shown.
In the lowest register, thirteen male donors carry small tables or trays with bread, fruit and pieces of meat.
East wall: depictions of ships
East wall
South wall
The narrow south wall contains a list of victims and a dining table scene. The list of victims consists of eight registers in which the key words are arranged in short vertical lines from left to right, without any boxes. The dining table scene is shown to the right of the lower four registers. In the ritual sacrifice list, the offerings and ritual acts are recorded that were carried out in the regular ritual of the dead sacrifice at the grave. It begins with the enumeration of the entrance rites that were performed by the priest of the dead, such as cleaning the cult site by sweeping and pouring water, washing hands, burning incense and providing the seven holy anointing oils and make-up. This is followed by a list of the food and drinks that were served in a certain order. These were different types of bread, cakes, pieces of meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables. Only fragments of the dining table scene have survived.
West wall
The west wall was the main cult site of the tomb, which contains two false doors . The southern false door consists of an outer frame, false door panel, inner frame, door roll and door niche. On the crossbar of the outer frame is a sacrificial formula: The sacrifice that the king gave, (the sacrifice) that Anubis , who stands at the top of the divine hall, gave, he may be buried in the west, (namely) the Lord of Became the great god, after he has grown very beautifully, (namely) the Sem priest and head of the apron Ka-ni-nisut. In front of it stood a pedestal that was used to place cult implements and offerings. Behind it was the Serdab with the (no longer found) Ka statue.
On the left outer door post, two men are shown, one on top of the other, bringing writing utensils or strips of fabric. Other servants are depicted on the inner doorposts holding various things such as a pot, a scroll and a sack in their hands. The dining table scene and a short list of victims in front of it can be found in the rectangular false door panel. Selected titles of the grave lord are mentioned above. A slightly different title sequence is mentioned in the door scroll between the inner door posts.
Another architrave is located between the two false door arches, which contains a complete listing of all the titles of the Kaninisut: the Sem priest, the head of the apron, the friend, the Sema priest of Horus, the administrator of Dep, the mouth of all the people of Pe , the only friend, the keeper of the secret of the morning house, the head of el-Kab , the head of the allocations of the house of life , the head of the bat, the head of the black jug, the prophet of the Lord of Buto , the son of the black jar, the prophet of the Lord of Buto, the son of the Northern, the priest who is in the wake of Ha, the only one of the greats of the feast of Ka-ni-nisut.
Below is the grave lord with his wife Nefer-ha-nisut and his children. The faces of the children and the grave lord were willfully destroyed. To the left of this are the numerous servants of the Kaninisut household, including four scribes . Between them is a container with papyrus documents and papyrus rolls tied together. Below you can see five priests carrying cult objects and offerings. More gift carriers can be seen in the lower register of the middle section.
The northern false door of the west wall is a subsidiary cult. There is again a short list of victims, the names and titles of the grave lord and the dining table scene. The remains of servant figures with Hes vases can be seen on the inner door posts. Another servant in the lower area of the outer door post holds up a wash set. All servants turn to the door niche. In the door niche there is a large hole that grave robbers probably punched in the hope of finding a serdab with a statue. In the upper section of the outer door post the wife of Kaninisut is depicted, who, in contrast to the servants, does not look to the false door, but to the adjacent north wall with the large representation of Kaninisut.
Northern false door of the west wall
Northern false door: dining table scene
West wall: Kaninisut and his wife Nefer-ha-nisut
West wall: Bringer of gifts
North face
A large representation of the grave owner dominates the north wall. Above it is a horizontal line of inscriptions with a detailed listing of its titles. Kaninisut stands there with advancing left leg. He holds a long staff in his left hand and the sixem scepter in his right . He has a half-long strand hairstyle and wears a short gala apron and over it a panther fur, which is held by a strip of fabric across his chest. Behind it stands his eldest son, Her-wer, who only reaches half his calf his father and is shown as a naked child with a youthful curl, a typical representation of the children of the grave lord, even if in reality he is already an adult.
Before Kaninisut, clerks and officials of his household are shown in three registers. At the top of the top register is his headmaster Wehem-ka, who is reading from a papyrus document.
literature
- Hermann Junker : The Offering Room Of Prince Kaninisut . Ed .: Verein der Museumsfreunde (= Guides to the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts at Vienna . Volume 14 ). Holzhausen, Vienna 1931 (English, PDF file; 3.5 MB ).
- Hermann Junker (ed.): Gîza II. The Maṣṭabas of the beginning V 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 ). Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig 1934, p. 135–171 ( PDF file; 41.5 MB ).
- Jürgen Brinks: The development of the mastaba up to the end of the Old Kingdom. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. (SAK) Beiheft Volume 2, Hamburg 1989, pp. 35-44.
- Peter Jánosi : Austria in front of the pyramids. Hermann Junkers' excavations on behalf of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna near the great pyramids in Giza . Ed .: Manfred Bietak (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-historical class. Meeting report . Publications of the Egyptian Commission No. 3, Volume 648). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2664-6 , p. 44, 52–55, 64 ( PDF file; 83.7 MB ).
- Regina Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II (= Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum. Loose-leaf catalog of Egyptian antiquities. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Egyptian-Oriental Collection . Delivery 21). von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2674-2 , p. 33–87 ( PDF file; 85.4 MB ).
- Regina Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna . Ed .: Wilfried Seipel . Brandstätter, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85497-088-9 ( PDF file; 33.5 MB ).
Web links
- Cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the object database of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
- Entry and description of the cult chamber on The Global Egyptian Museum
- Rudolf Koch: The cult chamber of Kaninisut.
- Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae: Mastaba des Kai-ni-nisut transcription and translation of the inscriptions
Individual evidence
- ↑ H. Junker: Gîza II. Vienna / Leipzig 1934, p. 135.
- ↑ Michael Haase: A place for eternity. The pyramid complex of Cheops from a structural, architectural and cultural-historical point of view. von Zabern, Mainz 2004, p. 71ff.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 31.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 13.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 9ff., 31, 37.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 25ff.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 31.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 31ff.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 43-45; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 33–35.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, p. 45; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 35–36.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 45-48; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 36–43.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 48-49; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 43–46.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 49-53; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 46–51.
- ↑ R. Hölzl: The cult chamber of the Ka-ni-nisut in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. 2005, pp. 53-55; R. Hölzl: Reliefs and inscription stones of the Old Kingdom II. 21, pp. 51–53.
Coordinates: 29 ° 58 ′ 47.9 " N , 31 ° 7 ′ 52.8" E