Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
deliberate substitutes for the stone in another material. This paper will examine some
Egyptian and “egyptianising” objects in amethyst recovered in the Mycenaean world,
as well as other artefacts of unique character, and will discuss some of the inferences
and conclusions that may be drawn from the evidence they present.
Principles of decoration: concept and style in the mastaba of Mereruka at
Saqqara
Gabriele Pieke
The mastaba of Mereruka at the Teti-Cemetery of Saqqara is one of the most
important tombs of the Old Kingdom. The layout of the architecture presents three
different sections for Mereruka, his wife Watetkhether and some smaller chambers
generally attributed to their son Meryteti. Besides this the mastaba is of vital
importance due to the high number of decorated chambers and innumerable motives,
some newly defined for the very first time. Traditionally, illustrations and texts are
recorded only descriptively in scholarly publications. Evaluations concerning
composition, visual concepts, style, relief, and painting techniques as well as the
“Rezeptionsästhektik” (“aesthetics effect”) are rarely to be found, even though the
visual communication and its numerous meanings play a decisive role especially for
the layout of relief and painting. The analysis of a representative elite tomb of the
Sixth Dynasty, the mastaba of the vizier Mereruka at Saqqara, exemplifies the
possibilities of a detailed description of form and style. “Der Betrachter ist im Bild”
(‘the beholder is within the image’) as described by the art historian Wolfgang Kemp
can also be stated without doubt for Ancient Egyptian Art. The lecture presents a
discourse of images as another important key for the understanding of Ancient
Egyptian ‘pictorial language’ as well as the semantics of tomb decoration.
Accordingly, different techniques were used to increase the visibility of relief and
painting. This was already in focus, while the wall decoration was conceptualized –
an important aspect, which was almost neglected so far in our scientific tradition. By
detailed recording of the wall areas, several artists can be distinguished, who are
working next to each other in regular distances in the same direction. Stylistic
parameters like the height of the relief cut, the modelling and smoothing of relief, and
special designs of details are the underlying criteria for this analysis. The examination
of the working techniques besides the evaluation of quality in general is an important
method especially when the process of work in the tomb is concerned. With this
method for example, identical sculptors can be distinguished, who worked in several
rooms of Mereruka as well as of his wife, which verifies a simultaneous working
process. Various rooms and wall designs indicate different periods of development for
the different parts within the tomb. Furthermore, the layout of chambers and walls
emphasise the semantic structure and meaning of the different parts of the tomb. This
outline of the wall scenes and group of figures is thereby based on a metric system of
numbers.
As part of the layout of the complete mastaba a strong hierarchy of decoration can
be detected. Chambers in particular relevant for cultic activity and the afterlife of the
deceased can be defined outstanding in terms of quality as well as the height of the
register. Especially the main cult chamber with the false door (A 8), the room A 11
with the shaft to the burial chamber, and the pillar hall (A 13) containing the famous
statue of Mereruka enshrined above an alabaster altar have to be mentioned in this
198