Unas pyramid
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_11.jpg) Northeast side of the Unas pyramid
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The Unas pyramid is the smallest royal pyramid of the Old Kingdom and is located in Saqqara next to the Djoser pyramid . Unas was the last ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) of the 5th Dynasty and ruled from around 2380 to 2350 BC. Although the above-ground part of the pyramid was smaller than that of all its predecessors, the pyramid represented an important milestone in the development of the Egyptian pyramids. Unas was the first king to have the underground pyramid chambers inscribed with reciting dead texts in the form of " death sayings ". This is the first time in human history that the liturgies of the dead are recorded .
With the use of the pyramid texts Unas established a tradition that ran through the pyramids of the kings and queens of the 6th Dynasty and formed the basis for later liturgies for the dead, such as the coffin texts and the Egyptian Book of the Dead . With the lettering of the chambers, the chambers of the pyramid are decorated for the first time since the Djoser pyramid, which represents a departure from the bare walls of the pyramids of the 4th and 5th dynasties. Although the pyramid itself is badly eroded, the chambers of the substructure are well preserved.
exploration
The first investigations of the pyramid were carried out by John Shae Perring in the 1830s and by Karl Richard Lepsius in the 1840s, whereby only the exterior of the pyramid complex was explored. The latter recorded the pyramid in his list of pyramids under the name Lepsius XXXV . After the discovery of pyramid texts in the Pepi I pyramid and the Merenre pyramid , Gaston Maspero , who was the first to enter the pyramid, found the oldest pyramid texts when examining the substructure in 1881. However, the pyramid had already been robbed in ancient times. The grave goods had been stolen, only a few mummy fragments were still to be found.
From 1899 to 1901, Alexandre Barsanti examined the complex and partially excavated the mortuary temple. Cecil Mallaby Firth carried out further excavations of the temple from 1929 until his death in 1931. Jean-Philippe Lauer took over the management of the excavation until 1939. Selim Hassan , Zakaria Goneim and Abdul Qader Hussan continued the work until 1949. In the 1970s, Ahmad Moussa excavated the valley temple and the lower area of the pathway. In 1974 Audran Labrousse , Jean-Philippe Lauer and Jean Leclant explored the complex.
Parts of the valley temple and the access road have been reconstructed in recent years.
Construction of the pyramid
Despite his long reign - according to the royal papyrus Turin he ruled 30 years, after Manetho 33 years - Unas built the smallest of the royal pyramids of the 5th dynasty. The reason for the size reduction is speculated on a decrease in the available resources, since the long reign of the UNA would have been sufficient for a larger pyramid complex. In contrast to his predecessors, he gave up the densely built-up necropolis of Abusir as a building site and returned to the old necropolis of Saqqara. He built his pyramid directly to the south, adjacent to the great moat of the Djoser pyramid . The above-ground structures of the tombs of two kings of the 2nd dynasty - Hetepsechemui and Ninetjer - were probably completely destroyed if they were still there at the time. However, the extensive underground galleries of the grave of Hetepsechemui have been preserved and some run under the Unas pyramid and the mortuary temple. Instead of queen pyramids, mastabas were once again built here for the royal wives.
pyramid
The Pyramid des Unas has a base length of 58 m (110 royal cells ) and was originally 43 m high. With a side inclination of 56 °, it was the steepest royal pyramid of this period.
The core of the pyramid consisted of six steps of roughly hewn limestone from local quarries. The size of the stones decreases as the height of the pyramid increases. The core was clad with precisely hewn and smoothed stones made of fine Tura limestone. Only a few stones from the lower layers of the cladding have survived, the rest fell victim to the stone robbery.
An inscription on the preserved cladding attests to the restoration of the pyramid in the 19th dynasty by Chaemwaset , a son of Ramses II. Spolia from other structures were found in the masonry of the pyramid , such as blocks from a chapel of the Djedkare . It is unclear, however, whether these spoils were already used during construction or were brought in during the later restoration by Chaemwaset.
Due to the inferior, coarse internal structure and the removed cladding, the Unas pyramid appears today as a hill of ruins. It is much worse preserved than the older pyramids of the 4th dynasty , as the coarse core masonry could not withstand erosive influences compared to the higher quality masonry of the 4th dynasty.
View from the southwest of the Unas pyramid
Entrance to the pyramid and parts of the preserved cladding at the foot of the north side
Parts of the preserved cladding at the foot of the south side of the pyramid
Core masonry, small underlay stones and cladding stones
Substructure
The entrance is at floor level in the paved courtyard on the north side of the pyramid and not, as in most earlier buildings, on the pyramid side. From there, a 14.35 m long passage inclined at 22 ° leads to a passage chamber (A) under the pyramid, which has the dimensions 2.47 m × 2.08 m. From there a flat, 14.10 m long continuation leads to the chambers inside the pyramid. There are three granite stone barriers in this passage (B). In the area around the barriers, the wall cladding is also made of granite. The continuation of the corridor behind the barrier leads to the antechamber (D), which is located in the center of the pyramid and has dimensions of 3.75 × 3.08 m. In an easterly direction you can reach the three-niche chamber (C), which measures 6.75 m × 2 m, in a westerly direction the burial chamber.
Both antechamber and burial chamber (E) have a gable roof, while the ceiling of the niche chamber is flat. The burial chamber has a length of 7.30 m in an east-west direction and a width of 3.08 m. The walls of the burial chamber in the western half around the sarcophagus (F) are clad with alabaster and have a palace facade pattern in the colors white, black, yellow, red and blue. The eastern half is clad in limestone.
At the foot of the sarcophagus made of greywacke (incorrectly given as basalt according to older regulations) was the canopic chest . Some mummy remains were found in the sarcophagus and are now kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo . It has not yet been clarified whether these belong to Unas or a subsequent burial.
Decoration program
The substructure of the Unas pyramid is the first since the Djoser pyramid to be decorated. Otherwise its structure largely corresponds to that of the Djedkare pyramid . In the passage from the fall barrier, in the antechamber and the eastern half of the burial chamber, the oldest known pyramid texts are carved into the limestone cladding of the walls. The hieroglyphs are finely worked out and highlighted in blue.
The inscriptions serve as a continuous recitation surrounding the dead king . There are a total of 228 sayings that should ensure the king's afterlife. The king's sarcophagus (F) stands in front of the mostly unlabeled west wall in the burial chamber (E), only in the gable are defensive statements against snakes . The burial chamber decoration is divided into the subject areas "Supply" and " Transfiguration ", whereby the Transfiguration texts extend from the south wall over the southern passage wall to the east wall in the entrance area.
The supply spells, on the other hand, are located on the northern wall and end in the antechamber (D), in which the subjects of “ the king's ascension to heaven ” and his “crossing of heaven ” as well as “the king's appearance in the world of the gods” are dealt with. The death sayings in the burial chamber give the appearance of direct speech to the king and his subsequent elevation to a higher level of power through supply and transfiguration, which is presented to the gods in the antechamber after the "ascension into heaven" has taken place.
The burial chamber, which can be entered from the east, contains the ritual of the feeding of the dead and lists of numerous offerings to the king on the north wall . On the south wall are the pyramid texts 213-219, which show the dead king ascending into the sky in the form of a jackal-headed star deity with subsequent transition into the course of the sun . This part of the grave decoration was retained as an arrangement in all subsequent pyramids of the Old Kingdom and many coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom as well as in the graves of the late period . The ceiling in the chambers shows a star motif. In contrast to the other chambers, the niche chamber (C) is unlabeled and undecorated.
In addition, Unas introduced a firmly anchored system for the “speaking person”, both for his and for all future pyramid texts: the king is called in the burial chamber, while the deities responsible for the king are the addressees in the antechamber and in the entrance area.
"Get up, [King], take your head, hold your bones, gather your limbs, wipe the earth from your flesh, receive your bread that will not go moldy, your beer that cannot go sour. May you step to the doors to ward off the subjects.
May the sky open to you, may the earth open to you [...] so that you go out and enter with Re , while you walk freely like the lords of eternity [...] May your ba live, your vessels flourish, your face be open on the ways of darkness. "
Pyramidal complex
The pyramid complex includes a cult pyramid , the mortuary temple and the north chapel within the surrounding wall . Outside the wall are the queen graves, the access road, the valley temple and the ship graves. Thus, the execution of the complex largely corresponds to the standard pyramid complex, as it had been established since the Sahure pyramid .
North chapel
On the north side of the pyramid was the small, one-room north chapel . It contained an altar and a stele and enclosed the entrance to the substructure. The north chapel has been largely destroyed and can only be traced back to traces of displacement. The function of the north chapel in the ruler's cult has not yet been finally clarified; it was probably used for ritual acts in connection with the grave entrance and as a visible monument to the same.
Cult pyramid
To the south-east of the pyramid is a small cult pyramid within the enclosure wall , which had a height of 11.5 m with base dimensions of 11.5 m and a side inclination of 63 °. Limestone from local quarries with a cladding of fine Tura limestone was also used as building material. An entrance from the north leads to a T-shaped chamber. No traces of a burial were found in it. In contrast to the main pyramid, the base of the cult pyramid is neither decorated nor labeled. Most of the superstructure of the cult pyramid has been removed.
Mortuary temple
The mortuary temple largely follows that of the pyramid of its predecessor Djedkare . The entrance from the Aufweg is a portal made of rose granite with an inscription of Teti II . This is followed by the alabaster-paved entrance hall, from which you can get to the open colonnaded courtyard. Of the originally 18 palm columns made of rose granite, none have been preserved on site. However, some copies are in various museums ( Louvre and Cairo ), as well as in Tanis . A fragment of an official's biography reports that the granite columns were transported by ship from Elephantine to Saqqara. The columns are labeled and name the ruler's Horus and proper names , as well as various deities. There was also a fragment of an architrave that also gives the name of the ruler. There were storage rooms to the right and left of the courtyard and the entrance hall. Some shaft graves were dug in this area in the late period .
An entrance leads from the courtyard into the inner area of the temple. First there is a cross corridor that leads to the storage rooms, the pyramid courtyard, the cult pyramid and the five-niche chapel. From there one arrives to the right to further magazine chambers and to the left to the antechamber and finally to the sacrificial hall, which is also flanked by further magazine chambers. Practically nothing has survived from the antechamber, only a false door made of rose granite of the sacrificial hall .
Entrance to the mortuary temple
Door jamb in the mortuary temple with the title of Unas
Palm column from the mortuary temple in the Louvre
Only a few fragments remain of the temple's former wall decoration. Some were found in the pyramid complex of Amenemhet I in el-Lisht . A relief fragment shows a goddess giving the king the breast. Other fragments show Unas at the sacrificial table, slaying an enemy, between Horus (?) And Seth , who crown the ruler, and rows of deities. The Sedfest also played an important role in the decoration program.
Double mastaba of queens
The Unas complex does not contain any queen pyramids. Instead, the double mastaba of his wives Nebet and Chenut is located north of the mortuary temple . This was originally 49 m long, 22 m wide and 4 m high and contained the two almost identical graves. The western grave of Chenut is badly damaged, while the eastern Nebets is better preserved. The chapel of the tomb of Nebet has four as an unusual feature as opposed to the usual three statue niches. Presumably there was a statue of Unas in one of the niches, while the other three contained statues of Nebet.
Ship graves
About 150 m east of the pyramid south of the upper bend of the path to the pyramid, two 45 m long barque graves made of limestone masonry have been found. The slightly curved walls of the side walls follow the shapes of the slender boat hulls that were once contained there. The boats themselves, however, had crumbled. Only fragments of the capstones, which are also made of limestone, have survived.
On the way
The 720 m long driveway, which makes two turns to avoid uneven terrain, is one of the longest driveways to a pyramid. Unevenness in the ground is partly filled with material from other graves. Parts of the surrounding wall of the Djoser pyramid can be found there. The graves of Nianchchnum and Khnumhotep were almost completely reconstructed by Ahmed Moussa from filling material from the Unas path.
The way up - one segment has been completely reconstructed with a roof
Covered part with light slot
Upper part of the path, looking down to the Nile
The way
The driveway was covered and decorated inside with multi-colored bas- reliefs. The depictions include hunting scenes, war scenes, prisoners of war, transporting stone pillars and starving Bedouins. Most of the reliefs, however, are lost. Light came into the corridor through a wedge-shaped crack in the roof. At the same time, this construction prevented rainwater from reaching the relief-decorated side walls.
Relief from the path
Relief detail with starving Bedouins
Valley temple
The valley temple and its port facility lay on the west bank of a lake that no longer exists today, which is also known as Lake Unas. The temple was badly damaged by stone robbery, but some of the pillars have been preserved in various museums. The valley temple was accessed from the east via the port's quays . Eight eight meter high columns made of rose granite once stood here. There were two further entrances to the north and south, each adorned with two columns, each 5.21 m high. The path to the pyramid began on the west side of the valley temple. Only a few fragments of the decoration of the temple have survived. The motifs of the decoration were deities, offer bearers and ships.
A room in the valley temple was used as a burial place for a prince at the end of the Old Kingdom. Here the sarcophagus of Ptahsheps was found, which still contained rich jewelry and the mummy of an elderly man. Neither the identity of the prince nor the reason for the burial in the valley temple have been sufficiently clarified. Guy Brunton thought he was a son of Unas, whose grave was looted after the funeral and whose body was reburied in the temple. Aidan Dodson , however, considers him to be a son of Pepis II , who appropriated a sarcophagus from a tomb of the 4th Dynasty and used it for his own burial.
Remains of the valley temple
Granite columns of the valley temple
literature
General
- Zahi Hawass : The Treasures of the Pyramids. Weltbild, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-8289-0809-8
- Peter Jánosi : The pyramids. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-50831-6
- Jean-Philippe Lauer : The royal tombs of Memphis. Excavations in Saqqara. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1988, ISBN 3-7857-0528-X
- Mark Lehner : The Secret of the Pyramids. Econ, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-572-01039-X
- Miroslav Verner : The pyramids (= rororo non-fiction book. Volume 60890). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60890-1 .
- Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 .
Excavation publications
- Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Mission archéologique de Saqqarah. II, Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. (= Bibliothèque d'étude. Cairo. (BdE) No. 73). Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, Le Caire 1977.
- Audran Labrousse, Ahmed M. Moussa: Le temple d'accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 1996, ISBN 2-7247-0168-2 .
- Audran Labrousse, Ahmed Moussa: La chaussée du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 2002, ISBN 2-7247-0311-1 .
Questions of detail
- Georges Goyon: Les navires de transport de la chaussée monumentale d'Ounas. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. Vol. 69, 1971, pp. 11-41
Pyramid texts of the Unas and their arrangement
- Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49707-1
- Jürgen Osing : On the disposition of the pyramid texts of the Unas. In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologische Institut Kairo (MDAIK) , Vol. 42, 1986, pp. 131–144
Web links
- Alan Winston: The Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara in Egypt (English)
- Pyramid and Mortuary Temple of Unas (English)
- The pyramid texts of the Pyramid of Unas (English)
- Saqqara - Double Mastaba of Nebet and Khenut (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Year numbers according to Thomas Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen, Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 .
- ^ A b Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. Munich 2003, p. 323.
- ^ Ogden Goelet: A Commentary on the Corpus of Literature and Tradition which constitutes the Book of Going Forth By Day. Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1998, pp. 139-170.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Miroslav Verner: The pyramids. Reinbek 1997, p. 369ff. The pyramid of Unas .
- ↑ a b c d Rainer Stadelmann: The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world. Mainz 1997, pp. 184-185.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, pp. 125-29, Doc. 120-128.
- ↑ a b c d Mark Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. Düsseldorf 1997, p. 154f. The Unas pyramid - the inside of the pyramid .
- ↑ Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. Munich 2003, p. 324.
- ↑ Here for example for Proverb 373 of the Pyramid Texts and for the 17th Dynasty ; according to Jan Assmann: Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt . P. 325.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Mark Lehner: Secret of the pyramids. Düsseldorf 1997, p. 155f. The Unas Pyramid - The pyramid complex .
- ↑ Peter Jánosi: Comments on the northern chapels of the Old Kingdom. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture (SAK) . No. 22, 1995, pp. 145-167.
- ^ HG Fischer: A Speedy return from Elepantine . In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. 61, 1975, pp. 33-35, pl. XVI, 1.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977 p. 84, Doc. 28.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, p. 89, Doc. 38.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, pp. 89-90, Doc. 39.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, pp. 95-97, fig. 73.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, pp. 97-98, Doc. 50.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Jean Leclant: Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Le Caire 1977, pp. 85-87, Doc. 29-35, 79.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Ahmed M. Moussa: Le temple d'accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Cairo 1996, pp. 32-38.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Ahmed M. Moussa: Le temple d'accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Cairo 1996, pp. 72-75.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Ahmed M. Moussa: Le temple d'accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Cairo 1996, pp. 77-78.
- ↑ Audran Labrousse, Ahmed M. Moussa: Le temple d'accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas. Cairo 1996, pp. 79-81.
- ↑ a b Aidan Dodson: On the Burial of Prince Ptahshepses . In: Göttinger Miscellen . 129, 1992, pp. 49-51.
Coordinates: 29 ° 52 ′ 5.9 ″ N , 31 ° 12 ′ 53.2 ″ E
