HAA 0150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Saqqara, Sed Festival, Mastaba
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15 Sep 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Sept. 10: Old Kingdom/The Afterlife
Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE)
•3rd-6th dynasties
•Period of stability
•Rural, agrarian communities integrated into the state
•Memphis was center state of administration
•Divine king was immortal king
-Giza and Saqqara on western bank are mortuary centers
-West bank was “land of the dead”
Saqqara – Djoser’s Mortuary Complex (3rd Dynasty)
•Can’t go into structures – false buildings create backdrop for rituals, enclose courtyards
•Largest courtyard has circle stone pile – territorial run of king
-Symbolic ritual to symbolize extent of king’s territory
•Small courtyard lines with divine shrines for gods to stay while king performed heb-sed
ritual
-Lined with statues of Djoser to attend self on rituals
•Serdab statue – painted limestone, 1.42 m tall
-Statue above ground, facing north (towards eternal stars of sky)
-Statue could look out at ritual performers statue embodies king, ka inhabits
figure
-Nemes headdress, attached beard, hair piece
-Pedestal inscription of titles and name
•Stepped pyramid
-Early old kingdom experiments with pyramid shape
-Continuous effort to emphasize sun god Ra and king’s protection under Ra’s
manifestation
Giza funerary complex
•4th dynasty
•East-west axis