Through the Eras

Architecture and Designpyramid town at Abu Sir was located along the southand east walls of the pyramid temple of King Neferirkare(2472–2462 B.C.E.). Against an inner enclosure wall,there were nine mud brick houses in a row running southand southeast with a tenth house at the northeast cornerof the temple. These houses were home to the scribesof the Abu Sir Papyri, the only ancient evidence of theday-to-day function of the pyramid complexes. Giventhe number of people mentioned in the Abu Sir Papyrilists of rations, there was probably another town, not yetdiscovered by modern archeologists, somewhere nearby.This pyramid temple/pyramid town demonstrates oneof the basic problems which all states or institutions facewhen constructing large buildings: maintenance. Thehastily finished columns of the forecourt were originallywood. Termites apparently destroyed the woodencolumns fairly soon after completion, and haphazard repairsreplaced the wood with less attractive mud bricksupports. This kind of repair was probably typical giventhe administrators’ diminishing resources and increasingresponsibilities. By the end of the Old Kingdom, therewere twenty pyramid complexes to maintain. It is clearfrom the treatment they received that the Old Kingdomstate had no policy for maintaining historic buildings. Itwas not until the New Kingdom that kings began to replacemud brick structures in temples in the towns withstone construction. For example, Ramesses II’s sonKhaemwase tried to restore some of the important OldKingdom buildings in the Memphis area.CHANGING THE FUNCTION OF BUILDINGS. Thepyramid town at the valley temple of Menkaure showseven more clearly the course of events at Old Kingdompyramid complexes as old temple endowments could nolonger support the original intentions of the builders.Since the valley temple of Menkaure is today too ruinedto allow meaningful views of the original intentions ofthe builder, it is useful to imagine the valley temple ofKhafre, his immediate predecessor, as the prototype ofthe original intentions of the builder. We will then followthe history of Menkaure’s valley temple as it changedfrom a holy site to a village. Today’s visitor to the valleytemple of Khafre at Giza can see the massive walls ofwhite limestone which create an overwhelming sense ofpeace and majesty, as must have been originally intended.At Menkaure’s valley temple the statuary whichhad been prepared for the building would have addedeven more to the atmosphere, but the walls were left unfinishedafter Menkaure’s premature death. His successor,Shepseskaf, finished the building in mud brick,which must have reduced the majestic effect considerably.Gradually workmen transformed the temple into afortified mud brick village. Some 300 years after the temple’soriginal completion, it would have been unrecognizableto its builders. In the village, by the SixthDynasty, an additional entranceway supported by twocolumns had been constructed which led to a vestibulewith four columns supporting the roof. A right turn thenled to the main courtyard, now filled with mud brickhouses and granaries. In modern times, archaeologistsdiscovered the famous statues of Menkaure now in theBoston and in the Cairo museums in the rooms originallydesigned for supply storage. At some point duringthe Old Kingdom, a flood caused some damage to thebuilding. The repairs to that damage led to the remodelingof the building for the temple’s new use as a villagerather than a temple. The restorations were, in fact,a formal recognition of the new use of the building. Eschewinguse of the old sanctuary, workers set up a smallshrine in a room with four columns. Four statues ofMenkaure were set up there on an altar made from anold worn slab of alabaster set up on two upright stones.In order to reach this makeshift sanctuary, the priestwould walk through a mud brick village. All of the associatedarchaeological material in this village suggestthat squatters built it and lived in it during Dynasty Six.A decree of Pepi II found in the inner gateway suggeststhat this village would have been a normal town in thislater period. This situation was certainly very far fromMenkaure’s and even his successor Shepseskaf’s intentionsfor the building.SOURCESBarry Kemp, Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Anatomy (London;New York: Routledge, 1989).TRANSITION TO THEMIDDLE KINGDOMNEBHEPETRE MENTUHOTEP. Between the end ofDynasty 6 (2170 B.C.E.) and the inauguration of the MiddleKingdom in the Mid-eleventh Dynasty (2008 B.C.E.)royal architecture did not exist because the central governmenthad collapsed. Egypt was ruled by provincial officials.Royal architecture in the Middle Kingdom beginsagain with King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, the founder ofthe Middle Kingdom. Nebhepetre Mentuhotep wasamong the most famous kings in ancient Egyptian history.He reestablished the central government of Egyptafter the First Intermediate Period (the period withoutcentral government from 2130–2008 B.C.E.), and usheredin a unified period now called the Middle Kingdomabout 2008 B.C.E. Kings for the next 1,000 years claimedArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 37