The bulls head platform at tomb 3504, Saqqara. This overlaps with next months topic, tombs and burials, but I thought when we proposed the two themes that there would be far more overlap than there has been. This post concerns a particular feature of Tomb 3504 at Saqqara, dating to the reign of the Firsty Dynasty ruler Djet. Although it has been attributed to both Djet and a member of the elite called Sekhma, the identify of the owner remains in dispute. At 49.4 x 2m it is one of the biggest mastaba tombs of the First Dynasty, and has a number of very distinctive features. Here I just want to mention one of those features - a low bench that surrounded the tomb, which was the setting for 300 bulls heads, the skulls made out of clay inset with real horns. There have been several interpretations of the feature, as you can imagine. Bulls were clearly closely assocated with royalty and as these features were external to the tomb itself, part of its role may have been visual - a message about the owner of the tomb and his importance. At the same time, it has been suggested that these were bulls that were intended to accompany the tomb owner into the afterlife (62 human burials were found outside the enclosure wall, each with its own supersturcutre), that were a ceremonial offering to provide for the mourners, or were an offering to the deities. The bull theme was repeated within the tomb itself in the form of ivory bulls leg finials that survived in the ruinous furniture (the tomb was heavily plundered and had been burned). All of the images below were taken from Emery 1961. My book finally fell apart whilst putting this post together- thankfully I have somehow managed to accumulate two more copies. What a super book. References: W.B. Emery Archaic Egypt (Penguin 1961); Ellen F. Morris On the ownership of the Saqqara mastabas and the allotment of political and ideological power at the dawn of the state 2007 In The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in Honor of David B. O’Connor, vol. II, ed. Zahi Hawass and Janet Richards. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, pp. 171-190.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:32:35 +0000
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