Serapeum (Saqqara)
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Kemet Km.t place of the black bulls |
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The Serapeum ( ancient Egyptian Kemet ; also Kem ) was used in ancient Egypt to worship the holy Apis - bull , which was kept in the stables above ground . After their death , the bulls were embalmed and buried in the underground necropolis . The Serapeum of Saqqara is not far from the step pyramid of the king ( pharaoh ) Djoser . Although the bull was represented as a symbol of power during the first Egyptian dynasties and a burial place for bulls was also mentioned in the pyramid texts , the first Apis bulls are only from the time of Amenhotep III. occupied. The Roman Emperor Honorius had the Serapeum closed, and the Coptic monks who settled nearby destroyed most of the bull mummies.
history
Until the time of Seti I, burials were carried out in individual graves. His son Ramses II began to develop the graves into long galleries , as they were used until the end of the Ptolemaic period. In addition to the necropolis for the bulls and the stables, there was an Osiris or Apis temple, which Nectanebos I had built, and an embalming house . The entire district is about 7 km long. At the end of the gallery there is a black pomp sarcophagus made of highly polished granite . It is provided with inscriptions and incisions.
exploration
The French Paul Lucas was the first to enter the facility in the early 18th century . In his day it was still normal among the Egyptians to sell items from necropolises, especially in Cairo . Lucas therefore also reports on Apis bull canopies and parts of bull mummies that he saw in markets.
Also Auguste Mariette was art objects, on bazaars attention were offered to the Serapeum. He went in search of it in 1852 and excavated the area buried under sand dunes. Along a corridor he discovered 28 burial niches, each of which has an empty granite sarcophagus in 24. Another sarcophagus stands in a side passage. The sarcophagi are among the largest of ancient times, their weight is estimated at 70 to 80 tons.
Why the Egyptians took the trouble to build a facility for sarcophagi weighing several tons is still controversial. The material had to be transported from Aswan 1000 km away . In addition, the sarcophagi were partially walled into the ground, the content of which ultimately found seems to contradict the burial behavior of the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom. There is evidence of a bull cult, and some finds from the late Ptolemaic period can also be clearly assigned to a cultic worship of Apis. But most of the sarcophagi in the Saqqara complex were undoubtedly not all bulls buried.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-93787208-6 , pp. 46–51 → Apis , pp. 751–753 → Stier .
- Adolf Erman : The Egyptian religion. Reimer, Berlin 1909.
- Wolfgang Helck among others: Small Lexicon of Egyptology. 4th, revised edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-44704-027-0 , p. 276 → Serapis , p. 298–299 → Stiere, heilige .
- Auguste Mariette , Gaston Maspero (eds.): Le Sérapeum de Memphis. Volume 1, Vieweg, Paris 1882, under Heidelberg historical holdings - digital .
Web links
Coordinates: 29 ° 52 ′ 29 " N , 31 ° 12 ′ 44.7" E