Through the Eras

Architecture and DesignBURIALTombs and Temples at AbydosIn 1899–1900 W. M. F. Petrie excavated the royaltombs of the first and second dynasties at Umm el Gaab,a section of the ancient Egyptian town called Abydos. In1902–1903 he worked at Kom es Sultan about two kilometersfrom Umm el Gaab. There he found the templeenclosures that were a part of the royal funeral complexes.When he first discovered the thickly walled buildingsat Kom es Sultan, however, Petrie identified them asforts and did not recognize the connections between theUmm el Gaab and Kom es Sultan buildings. Subsequentresearch identified the buildings that Petrie identified asforts as the first temples, gathering places for the gods.The following map shows the locations of various Abydosburial tombs with corresponding names of the kings thatare buried there, along with the location of the Kom esSultan temples.SOURCE: Dieter Arnold, “Royal Cult Complexes of the Old andMiddle Kingdoms,” in Temples of Ancient Egypt. Ed. Byron E.Shafer (Ithica, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1997): 40.MerneithAnedjibKhasekhemwy(2nd dynasty)1ST-DYNASTY TOMBSPeribsenQa’aCEMETERY UUmm el-QaabRoyal tombsOsireionTempleof Seti IGeneral plan of Abydos0 1 kmKom es SultanFunerarypalacesTemple ofRamosis IIDesertedgeNOsirisTempleenclosureSemerkhetDjetDenDjerHor-AhaN0100 m0 330 ftDYNASTY 0NarmerKaIri-HorTomb UjPlan of royal tombs at Abydos. CREATED BY GGS INFORMATION SERVICES. GALE.the king’s courtiers were located around the king’s tomb.This practice marks the beginning of a tradition of includingthe king’s courtiers’ tombs on the same site thatcontinued through the next thousand years.TOMBS IN SAQQARA. From 1936 to 1956, theEnglish archaeologist Walter B. Emery excavated largeFirst-dynasty mastaba tombs at Saqqara in northernEgypt (Lower Egypt). These tombs contained manygrave goods including jars labeled as the king’s property.These labels led Emery to identify these Saqqaramastabas as the real tombs of the First-dynasty kingssince he believed that the tombs discovered by Petrieat Umm el Gaab were cenotaphs, memorials to the kingsthat never contained burials. After considerable debate,most Egyptologists believe that the Saqqara tombs belongedto high officials of the First Dynasty while theactual kings’ tombs were located in Abydos at Umm elGaab. Even so, some books and articles written duringthe mid-twentieth century continue to refer to Saqqaraas the burial place of First-dynasty kings.FUNERARY ENCLOSURES (“FORTS”) AT KOM ESSULTAN. Petrie worked his second season at Abydos in1902–1903 at the area known as Kom es Sultan. Therehe found the mud brick foundations of five buildingswith huge mud brick walls. The walls were up to elevenmeters (36 feet) tall and were roughly 65 by 122 meters(213 by 400 feet) long. Petrie believed that thesemassive walls and large enclosed spaces could only beintended as forts. These structures were built completelyabove ground and had no underground chamberssuch as were found at the tombs of Umm el Gaab.The patterned, mud brick walls were laid in what Egyp-8 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)