A canopic chest-the name given to the container A stone sarcophagus, decorated with the palace façade motif similar to the older superstructures, rested in a niche in the west wall. At the bottom of the shaft a tunnel extending to the west led to the burial chamber. The shaft extended to the roof of the mastaba that gave the only access to it and to the burial chamber. The mastaba itself was mostly solid with a corridor that led to two chapels on the east side, built over shafts excavated into the bedrock. Most of them were at least relatives of the royal family and held high office in the bureaucracy. Probably this change is due to the fact that these mastabas belonged to the very richest non-royal people. By the time Khufu built the Great Pyramid, however, all of the surrounding mastaba tombs were limestone.

Fourth-Dynasty Mastabas.Īt the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty (2625–2500 b.c.e.), mud brick continued to be the main construction material of mastabas with some elements such as lintels-the top element of a doorway that rests on the sides of the doorway called jambs-made of stone. They continued into the Third Dynasty as the typical burial for the wealthy, even as kings began to build step pyramids. Yet, no definite progression of these types can currently be deduced. The living used all of these places to make offerings to the dead. Later, architects built exterior chapels on the east side of the tomb, in addition to interior chapels shaped like a corridor, and cruciform chapels on the interior. On the east side of the mastaba, architects placed two offering niches where the living could make offerings. The mastaba became a solid brick block with retaining walls and a rubble core. A staircase led to these storage chambers and the burial chamber. Though the first mastabas had storage chambers, storage moved to the substructure during the course of the First Dynasty. First-dynasty mastabas had plastered and painted exteriors, though this feature apparently did not continue into the Second Dynasty. The mastabas built during the First and Second Dynasties were decorated with the palace façade motif derived from the enclosure wall of the contemporary royal palace as well as the funerary enclosures of kings in this period. Mastabas of Dynasties One, Two, and Three. The type remained the basic burial architecture for the region around Memphis used by the wealthy into 3100 b.c.e. At first they built them of mud brick, but later switched to stone. It was only during the first two dynasties (3100–2675 b.c.e.) that the Egyptians began to build superstructures over pit graves called mastabas. These simple linings were the precursors of coffins. In the Nagada II Period (3500–3300 b.c.e.), the Egyptians dug more rectangular pits for graves and sometimes lined them with basket-work, reed matting, or wood.

These graves were unmarked, but the grave goods show that from the earliest period the Egyptians believed that people needed supplies to take with them to the next world. From the Nagada I Period (3800–3500 b.c.e.), grave goods such as pots, tools, and weapons were included in the grave along with the body. In the very earliest periods, Egyptians buried their dead in oval-shaped pits in the desert. In fact all the functions that a person performed in life-sleeping, eating, dressing, receiving friends-were performed in the tomb by the deceased.

A deceased person could even receive mail at the tomb just as mail could be delivered to a person in this life. Not only did the ba and the ka spend time with the mummy and the statue of the deceased in the tomb, but also supplies that a person would need in the next life were stored in the tomb, just as there were storage facilities in a house. The soul divisions included the ba that could travel between the mummy and the next world, the ka that could inhabit a statue of a deceased person, and the akh that was transformed in the tomb into a spirit that could live in the next world. One name that the ancient Egyptians gave to tombs was per djet, 'house of eternity.' The Egyptians thought of the tomb as one of the places in which their souls would live after they died. Such benches are often located in front of houses. The mastaba tomb's name comes from the Arabic word meaning 'bench,' for its resemblance to a mud brick bench sitting on the desert sand. Mastaba Tombs of the Old Kingdom House for Eternity.

Kingdom of the dead tomb location