Djoser’s Step Pyramid is the first monumental work in dressed stone and the first Egyptian pyramid, and his pyramid complex brought together funerary elements, such as tombs and enclosures, that were originally separate edifices, setting the pattern for centuries to come.  Last week the Em Hotep group shared their explorations of this architectural icon, which we have gathered here for your enjoyment and education.

 

 

Contributors:  Jane Akshar, Celeste Albo, Gwyn Ashworth-Pratt, Yvonne Buskens, Amy Calvert, Lorraine Evans, Ia Georgia, Dennis van Hoorn, Jemma Isis Johnson, Heidi Kontkanen, Mark Lauria, Manuela Le Chler, Vicky Metafora, Nebty, Richie O’Neill, Keith Payne, David Rohl, Keith Schengili-Roberts, Jean Smith, Jan Summers, R. Thiele, and Amy Wilson.  With very special thanks to The Brooklyn Museum, The Egyptian Society of South Africa, and The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities/ La Société pour l’Étude de l’Égypte.

Would you like to be a part of the Em Hotep group?  Doing so is easy.  Just follow this link to the Em Hotep BBS group on Facebook and request to be added.  A member will add you as soon as we notice you have requested to join.  Read the About section at the Facebook group site to get an idea of our few rules, and then join in.  It’s that easy.

 

 

 

 

 

Building on the Past:  From Mounds to Mudbrick to Stone

 

The Pyramids, the Sphinx: Tombs and Temples of Giza by Peter Lacovera

“The Egyptian pyramids can trace their ancestry back to the early Neolithic, or “Predynastic,” period that began in Egypt around 6000 BC and ended with the unification of Egypt under a single king around 3000 BC.  During this period people were buried in shallow graves along the edge of the desert.   The sand that had been scooped out of the graves was piled back on top of the burial in a low mound.  It’s possible that the sand’s drying effect preserved the bodies of the dead so well that it inspired mummification in later ages.

“With the development of a central state in Egypt, more impressive monuments for the king and his officials were sought.  Larger mounds were heaped over the graves and encased in reed mats or mudbrick retaining walls.  Bricks made of unbaked mud, formed in rectangular wooden molds, were an architectural innovation inspired by Mesopotamia.  There they were often laid in a complex recessed pattern of rectangular panels.  In Mesopotamia, these were used in temples, but in Egypt they were also used in tombs and royal residences, and Egyptologists often call this type of masonry “palace façade.”

“The tombs of the earliest kings of the first and second dynasties were located in Middle Egypt at Abydos, the traditional burial ground of the god of the dead, Osiris.  These tombs were placed out in the desert.  Closer to the Nile, large mudbrick enclosures mimicked the palace of the king and were built in “palace façade” style.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/9748178/

“With the beginning of the Third Dynasty, under the pharaoh Djoser, a fantastic innovation was conceived by his architect, Imhotep.  Instead of mudbrick, small blocks of stone the size of brick were used to create a large slope-sided rectangular structure…” (pp. 20-21).

 

 

 

 

 

Pharaoh Djoser

 

From Monarchs of the Nile by Aiden Dodson

“Whatever the nature of the disturbances that seem to have beset the Second Dynasty, they had definitely ended before a new, Third, dynasty arose, in the person of Horus Netjerykhet, better known by the name Djoser, perhaps his personal name, but oly found on monuments dating from long after his death.  The discovery of his sealings in the tomb of the Horus and Seth Khasekhemwy at Abydos has now proved that he did indeed found the dynasty, rather than being preceded by another king.  That Djoser’s reign was felt to be an important point in Egyptian history by New Kingdom scribes is indicated by the fact that his name is exceptionally inscribed in red ink in the Turni king list, a document written around the time of Ramesses II” (p. 22).

 

 

 

 

 

Imhotep—Vizier and Chief Builder

 

From The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson

“Vizier and architect of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser (2667-2648 BC) of the Third Dynasty.  Manetho credits him (under the Greek form of his name, Imouthes) with the invention of building in dressed stone.
He is also said to have written a number of ‘instructions’, although none has survived.  It was for his great learning that he was most respected and, some two thousand years after his death, the first evidence appears of his deification, a great rarity for non-royal individuals in ancient Egypt.  He was considered to be a god of wisdom, writing and medicine, and as a result became identified with the cults of the gods Thoth and Ptah” (p. 139).

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/9750708/

 

 

 

 

 

The Enclosure Wall, Entrance Colonnade and Southern Court

 

From The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson

The enclosure wall itself was decorated in the palace façade style, proclaiming the royal ownership of the monument.  Inside, a dummy royal palace was provided to serve the king for eternity, while a large courtyard in front of the pyramid with an elevated dais served as an eternal arena for the rituals of kingship.  In particular, two pairs of horseshoe-shaped markers denoted the ritual area in which the king would inspect prisoners, and around which he would stride or run to assert his territorial claim over Egypt” (p. 236).

 

From Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton

“The whole complex was surrounded by a high temenos  wall of white limestone blocks in the form known as the ‘palace façade’; thirteen false or dummy doors were set into it, while a fourteenth actually opened into the inner area.  This doorway led into a long colonnaded hall of fluted columns, none of which were freestanding, all of them being engaged into a supporting wall behind them, exemplifying the initial, faltering steps of architecture in stone taking over from mudbrick and imitating the organic forms of earlier styles [see comments below by David Rohl for another possible explanation for the columns being engaged].  The fine fluting on the columns immediately recalls the Greek Doric column, but that comes almost 2000 years later.  The hall in turn opens onto a large court on the south side of the pyramid, containing two jubilee festival altars whose bases only survive” (p. 36).

Author and Egyptologist David Rohl offered this explanation for the layout of the colonnade:  “Consider the possibility that each niche, created between adjacent engaged pillars, represents a shrine where the nome gods of Egypt were housed during the Heb Sed (in the original festival structure of which this stone version is a mortuary replica).  These gods’ statues would have been brought to Memphis for the festival in ships and carried to the ritual site where they would have required temporary shrines.  Count the niches and see if this works [there are 42, one for each nome].  Think of the corridor being the Nile River and the end chamber with the four columns being the delta and you get a picture of what the architect was trying to portray.  Then imagine the king processing along the corridor and passing by each nome shrine.  This would be a ritualized version of the king’s journey along the Nile to visit each of the nomes and their local gods.”

 

From The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

“The Egyptian penchant for simulation receives one of its greatest expressions here.  The stone enclosure wall imitates one of mudbrick; the ceiling stones of the entrance passage, the Sed chapels and the Pavilions of the North and South imitate wooden log beams; traces of paint indicate that many facades and pillars in fine limestone were painted red to imitate wood” (p. 85).

 

From Egyptens Pyramider: Evighetens Aarkitektur I Forntid och Nutid, by Nils Billing

Heidi Kontkanen, contrib.

“The entrance to Djoser´s pyramid complex is an impressive colonnade with 6 meter high columns.  The ceiling consisted of limestone blocks shaped like tree trunks. The columns are built to look like bundles of plant stems and are attached to the wall behind.  At the same time they form 42 niches that may have had a cultic function.”

From An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt by Kathryn A. Bard

Heidi Kontkanen, contrib.

“In the South Court, between the South Tomb and the pyramid, are curved stone cairns, which have been called territorial markers and are believed to be associated with the sed-festival.  Scenes of the sed-festival depict the king running between curved markers, and then seated on a double throne (symbolic of Upper and Lower Egypt) on a canopied dais and wearing a knee-length robe.  The stone cairns in the Step Pyramid´s South Court were for the king´s sed-festival symbolizing the king as the territorial claimant of all of Egypt.”

 

 

 

 

 

The South Tomb

 

From Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton

“Facing the pyramid on the south side of the enclosure is the so-called South Tomb.  Three carved relief panels set within the frames of its false doors show the king performing the heb-sed ritual, in which he reaffirmed his fitness to rule.  On one panel he wears the tall White Crown and a ribbed ritual beard as he runs the requisite course.  This also serves to underline the wholly ritualistic nature of the entire complex that Imhotep created for his master.

It is believed that the South Tomb also serves as the burial place for Djoser’s viscera, which were removed during the embalming process.  With his mummy buried in the pyramid, the king thus fulfilled the requirements of having a northern and southern tomb, symbolic of the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt” (pp35-6).

 

From The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson

“The pyramid is surrounded by an extensive complex of buildings, each designed to perform a specific function in the afterlife.  The South Tomb, built within the thickness of the enclosure wall, provided a final resting place for the king’s ka, and was thus a precursor to the satellite pyramids in Fourth Dynasty royal mortuary complexes” (p. 236).

 

From The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

“By all Egyptological reckoning the Step Pyramid itself is a functional royal tomb.  But in Djoser’s complex, in addition to the Step Pyramid, we find the enigimatic South Tomb.  Below it the builders replicated three essential features of the substructure of the pyramid: the descending corridor;p central shaft with the granite vault; and the king’s palace with its blue-tiled chambers.  As under the pyramid, the builders blocked the descending corridor except for a narrow stairway to allow them to bring in whatever it was they placed in the vault.  About halfway down the corridor a side chamber was found with large jars.  On top of these the workmen had left a wooden stretcher, box and posts from a baldachin that resemble those of Hetepheres’ cache at Giza” (p. 92).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heb Sed Court

 

From The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson

“A smaller courtyard, along the eastern edge of the complex, was provided as a setting for the sed festival.  It is lined with dummy chapels, for the deities of Upper and Lower Egypt, and contains a double throne-platform, a representation of which was used for the hieroglyph for ‘sed festival’” (p. 236).

 

From Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton

“Along the east side of the [Southern] court are a series of three heb-sed shrines or pavilions that face a narrower court which runs inside the eastern wall…These pavilions all have doorways, but they only penetrate the façade for a short distance and lead nowhere.  Three unfinished, roughly blocked out standing statues of Djoser have been placed to one side of this court.  They show the king in ritual pose wearing a nemes head cloth, long beard, and holding the flail and scepter” (pp. 36-7).

 

From The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt by Richard Wilkinson

“The false chapels which surrounded the Heb-Sed Court are among the most famous structures within the compound, for those on the east were given the narrow elevation and curved roof of the canonical shrine of Lower Egypt, and most of those on the west were formed to reflect the shrine of Upper Egypt.  Both building types are merely stylized renderings of very ancient architectural types representing the shrines of the gods, but they nevertheless show the Egyptians interest in maintaining the traditions of the earliest sacred buildings” (p. 127).

 

 

 

 

 

The T-Temple

 

From Pyramid and Mortuary Complex of Djoser by Su Bayfield

“Immediately to the north of the entrance colonnade, on the eastern side of a large open courtyard, is a series of reconstructed buildings thought to have been connected with the King’s heb-sed, or jubilee festival. A rectangular building known as Temple ‘T’ is suggested to have been a model of the King’s palace and contains an entrance colonnade, antechamber and three inner courts leading to a square chamber decorated with a frieze of ‘djed’ symbols. This structure leads into the southern end of the ‘Jubilee Court’, which is lined with dummy buildings representing Upper Egypt (on the eastern side) and Lower Egypt (on the western side).”

From Egyptens Pyramider: Evighetens Aarkitektur I Forntid och Nutid, by Nils Billing

Heidi Kontkanen, contrib.

“Immediately west of sed-festival court (on the east side of the complex) is the T-Temple, a name given by Jean-Philippe Lauer on basis of its external form.  The building contained rooms, with an entrance colonnade, an antechamber and a square hall. The square hall has a niche in the north wall and on the top part of the wall is a djed frieze.  Possibly in the niche was a statue of the king, and Cecil Firth suggested that the temple in fact represented the chambers where the king stayed during the sed-festival.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Houses (Pavilions) of the North and South

 

From Egyptens Pyramider: Evighetens Aarkitektur I Forntid och Nutid, by Nils Billing

Heidi Kontkanen, contrib.

“North of the T-Temple and sed-festival court are two courtyards, with the southern one being slightly larger than the northern one.   At the northern walls of these courts are two buildings which Jean-Philippe Lauer called “the Southern and Northern Houses.”  Before they were cleared and found, these ruined hills were so blended into the desert landscape that Lepsius even identified them as pyramids.

The chapels are small.  A door leads into a small L-shaped corridor which ends in a smaller wall niche. The roof consists, as in the entrance colonnade, of stone blocks in the form of wooden beams.  At the chapels’ interior walls Cecil Firth found a number of graffiti by later visitors from Eighteenth – Twenty-Sixth Dynasties. In the south chapel Pharaoh Ahmose (Eighteenth dynasty) wrote that he came to behold Djoser´s temple and found it as if heaven were within it and the sun god rose up through it. He said: “Let bulls, birds, and all good and pure things come to Djoser´s Ka, the upright.  Let fresh myrrh rain from the sky, let it drip incense!”

Regarding the graffiti in the House of the South, Em Hotep contributor Richie O’Neill quotes Jimmy Dunn:  “This graffiti includes those of the treasury scribe Hednakht and the vizier’s scribe, Panakht. These graffiti are actually of considerable historical importance, for they refer, for the first time, to Djoser as the owner of the complex and they also show that the structures were still in relatively good condition at that time (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasty)”

 

From The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson

Two buildings known as the ‘House of the North’ and ‘House of the South’ represent the tented structures in which the king would have robed, disrobed and received guests during the ceremonies” (p. 236).

 

From Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton

“To the north of [the heb sed court] is another [court], whose dummy buildings once again reflect the division of the Two Lands.  The first structure is known as the House of the South and has a stylized khekher frieze over its doorway—a stylized protective fence motif which, like so many the first appeared in the early periods, continued to be used for centuries, if not millennia…

“The House of the North is noted for its papyrus columns with large umbels, all of which are engaged in the supporting wall, but which also have the triangular-sectioned papyrus stems reproduced correctly in the small limestone blocks; later, in the New Kingdom, this accuracy is lost in favor of large, heavily –rounded columns” (p.37).

 

From The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt by Richard Wilkinson

“Beyond the Heb-Sed Court are the larger Houses of the North and South, so-named as they are believed to represent the archaic shrines of Upper and Lower Egypt at Hierakonpolis and Buto due to the heraldic floral images of the lily and papyrus carved on the capitals of their respective engaged columns.  Like the Sed chapels, these were dummy buildings, however, and thus of purely symbolic significance.  It is thought that all these dummy buildings were at least partially covered with earth after their construction to symbolize their role in the underworld” (p. 127).

 

 

 

 

 

The Step Pyramid

 

From The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

“The pyramid was built in stages, progressing from an initial square mastaba to the final six-step pyramid.  According to Jean-Philippe Lauer, the main excavator of the site, there were six stages.  Assuming that this is correct (Rainer Stadelmann has modified this scheme), we get a major expansion every three years, if we divide the six stages into the 19 years of Djoser’s reign.  Even doubling his reign to 38 years—conceivable if the 19 were biennial taxation years—gives us a major alteration every six years.

“When the builders began to transform the mastaba into the first pyramid they built a crude core of roughly shaped stones with a fine limestone casing and a layer of packing in between.  This technique had also been used for the mastabas.  But now there was a profound difference: they abandoned horizontal beds and began to build in accretions that leaned inward.  They also used bigger and better blocks that they no longer needed to pack with large amounts of mortar of tafla—the local tan-colored desert clay.  Instead, the clay was only used as an aid to setting each block on a bed that inclined with the accretion layer…”

“Evidence suggests that the builders partially buried the dummy structures of Djoser’s enclosure—the Pavilions of the North and South, the South Tomb and Sed Chapels—almost immediately after they built them in the first stage.  Likewise they encased the king’s mastaba in fine limestone in the first stage and then only a few years later entirely covered it with the step pyramid—an act which, if Stadelmann is right, they may have planned from the beginning.  The half submerging of the dummy buildings must have signified the chthonic, underworld aspect of existence after death.  And the full envelopment of the mastaba conforms to the pattern of early Egyptian monuments that successive stages conceal earlier ones.  Tomb building seems to have been part of a larger ceremonial cycle, an act of consolidation and renewal that necessitated burying finely crafted structures” (p. 84-5).

 

From Egyptens Pyramider: Evighetens Aarkitektur I Forntid och Nutid, by Nils Billing

Heidi Kontkanen, contrib.

“Djoser´s pyramid complex began with the same pattern as the royal mastaba tombs in the area, but turned out to be the world’s first monumental building in stone. The man behind this architectural revolution was the king´s architect Imhotep, who was later elevated to divine status. Djoser´s pyramid complex has a central position in the development of royal architecture.”

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/9748145/

 

 

 

 

 

The Serdab

 

From Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter A. Clayton

“Close to the northern entrance stands the serdab (Arabic for ‘cellar’), a box-like structure of finished Tura limestone with a pair of small holes pierced through its front-facing slope.  This was found during the excavations of C. M. Firth and was a complete surprise.  Within the serdab was a painted, limestone life-sized seated figure of Djoser, the oldest royal sculpture of this scale known from Egypt [although an older example may have been recovered in fragments from the elite cemetery at Hierakonpolis].  It represents the king closely wrapped in a long white cloak, probably that used in the king’s jubilee or heb-sed festival.  Food offerings and incense would have been placed on an altar before the two small eyeholes in the wall of the serdab, enabling the ka (the spirit of the king) to partake of the spirit substance—whilst, at the end of the day, the mortuary priests could enjoy the material substance of the offerings” (pp. 34-5).

 

 

 

 

 

The World Beneath Djoser’s Pyramid

 

From Egyptian Pyramids and Mastaba Tombs by Philip Watson

“The development of the substructure was no less complicated.  Again following the traditions of earlier mastabas, the burial chamber lay at the bottom of a 27 meters (88 feet) deep shaft excavated out of the bedrock.  It was constructed of pink Aswan granite and a hole had been left in one of the roof slabs through which the body would have been lowered.  A 3 ton granite block was stored in a room above the burial chamber ready to plug the hole following burial.

“The burial chamber was approached by a sloping ramp from the north side of the pyramid.  It started at ground level and stopped 12 meters (40 feet) above the bottom of the shaft.  However, this entrance was covered by the last extension of the superstructure and a new approach had to be cut.  This also started on the north side but followed a somewhat erratic course until it finally joined up with the original entrance ramp.  Midway between this junction and the burial shaft flights of stairs led to a series of underground galleries, some of which are decorated with reliefs and blue glazed tiles.

“Beneath the second extension of the pyramids were eleven tombs with deep shafts and tunnels excavated under the pyramid.  An alabaster coffin found at the end of one of these tunnels contained the remains of a child.  The relationship between these burials and the pyramid is not certain.  They are usually thought to be royal and possibly offer an explanation for the second extension, which could be interpreted as a common superstructure for these graves.  They are not to be equated with the subsidiary burials of the First Dynasty mastabas” (p. 20).

 

From The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

“The above-ground elements of Djoser’s pyramid complex are only one part of the story.  Below, the Egyptians created an underground structure on a scale previously unknown, quarrying out more than 5.7 km (3.5 miles) of shafts, tunnels, chambers, galleries and magazines…A central corridor and two parallel ones extend over 365 m (1,198 ft), connecting 400 rooms.  These and other subterranean features—impressive enough—surround one of the most complicated tangles of tunnels and shafts the Egyptians ever created, below the pyramid itself” (p. 87).

 

 

 

 

 

The Step Pyramid Under Restoration

 

By Heidi Kontkanen

From Al-Ahram: “Restoring Djoser’s Step Pyramid” by Nevine el-Aref

“The restoration project is the first complete plan to rescue the Step Pyramid of Djoser and the southern tomb. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), described it as a pioneer project comparable to the salvage operation of the Abu Simbel temples. Hawass added that the project would be carried out by Egyptian engineers and archaeologists in three phases with a budget of LE25 million. Plans include consolidating the underground tunnels, monitoring the cracks, restoring the wall decorations and inspecting the natural ventilation inside the pyramid and the southern tomb.”

If you wish to read about some of the concerns regarding the Djoser Step Pyramid restoration program, Dennis van Hoorn blogged about Sara Abou Bakr’s article, “Djoser’s Dilemma” on his Amun-Re Egyptology blog.

 

 

 

 

 

Djoser’s Step Pyramid in Black & White

 

Photography by Richie O’Neill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Links and Online Books

 

Vicky Metafora shared a link to Excavations at Saqqara Vol. 01 and Excavations at Saqqara Vol. 02 by Quibell, et. al.

Vicky Metafora shared a link to Saqqara Mastabas Parts I & II by Murray, Sethe, et. al.

Richie O’Neill shared a link to Tour Egypt’s article Imhotep—Doctor, Architect, High Priest, Scribe and Vizier to King Djoser by Jimmy Dunn

Jemma Isis Johnson and Yvonne Buskens shared the link to the University of Pennsylvania’s page on the Step Pyramid Complex of Djoser.

 

 

 

 

 

In the News & On the Blogs

 

Luxor Times:  6-Foot Sekhmet Statue Unearthed in Mut Temple (Jane Akshar)

ANSAmed: Italian Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Artifacts in Egypt (Celeste Albo)

Ancient Egypt Online:  8 Million Dog Mummies Uncovered at Saqqara (Vicky Metafora)

Ancient Egypt Online: Dashur Under Threat (Vicky Metafora)

Egypt at the Manchester:  Royal Portraits in Ancient Egypt…? (Yvonne Buskens)

Egypt at the Manchester:  Trees in Ancient Egypt (Celeste Albo)

Lapham’s Quarterly:  The Woman Who Would Be King (SSEA/SEEA)

The Hierakonpolis Expedition launched their new website

Current Research in Egyptology XIV announced their program (Lorraine Evans)

Ateliers de Nebty posted the January 16 Newsletter (Nebty)

Amun-Re Egyptology Blog:  Djoser’s Dilemma (Dennis van Hoorn/Sara Abou Bakr)

BBC:  Tutankhamun Tomb:  Human Breath Wreaks Havoc in Egypt (Mark Lauria)

Niebla y Iuz:  Searching for the Lost Royal City of Nubia in Northern Sudan (Celeste Albo)

The American University in Cairo published their Bioarchaeology of Ancient Egypt conference abstracts (Amy Wilson)

Seshat’s Journal: Manchester Museum (Gwyn Ashworth-Pratt)

History of the Ancient World:  When a Book of the Dead Text Does Not Match Archaeology—The Case of the Protective Magical Bricks (Mark Lauria)

Art of Counting: Bound Foes (Amy Calvert)

 

 

 

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2013.  All rights reserved.

All copyrighted photography is denoted as such by watermark and attribution and is used by permission of the respective creators, who maintain the copyrights and all other rights to their work.  All other copyrighted photography and text are used in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of copyright law.  All non-copyright photography is either in the public domain or is shared via Creative Commons and may be reused at will within those provisions.

Tags: Djoser, Faience, Heb Sed, Imhotep, Pyramid Complex, Pyramids, Serdab, Site Restoration, Step Pyramid of Djoser, T-Temple