The Tomb of Djeheutyhotep at Bersheh.īersheh is on the east bank of the Nile opposite Mallawi, a modern town in central Egypt. Paintings illustrating daily life in the Oryx nome and military training decorate the sidewalls. Centered in the rear is a niche containing a statue of Amenemhet, also carved from the mountain itself. The columns, architraves, and vaults all were carved from the stone of the mountain. The vaults spring from the two sidewalls to the architraves on the two columns and another vault between the columns. The architraves appear to support three vaults. The columns support two architraves that run from the front to the back of the room. The roof of this room is supported by four columns, each with sixteen sides. The visitor would then pass between the columns into a square room cut into the mountain. Though built more than 1,500 years earlier, the columns and architrave resemble classical Greek architecture. The base also supports the column and spreads its weight on the floor. The abacus helps to distribute the weight of the architrave over the column. The columns taper to the top and carry an abacus, a plain slab of stone balanced between the top of the columns and the bottom of the architrave, while standing on a wide base. The architrave carries a cornice, a projecting moulding that imitates the ends of rafters made of wood, though carved in stone.
#KINGDOM OF THE DEAD TOMBS SERIES#
The columns are octagonal and support an architrave, the series of beams that columns support. The façade is supported by two columns, also cut from the mountain itself. The face of the mountain itself was smoothed to form a façade. The pathway to his tomb led up the mountain from the cultivated plain in the river valley to a court cut directly into the bedrock of the mountain.
Amenemhet was Great Overlord, or nomarch, during the reign of Senwosret I (1919–1875 b.c.e.). Eight of the 39 tombs excavated in the mountains belonged to a succession of men who held the title "Great Overlord of the Oryx Nome," the ancient name of Beni Hasan. The Tomb of Amenemhet at Beni Hasan.īeni Hasan in Middle Egypt is 23 miles south of the modern city of Minya on the east bank of the Nile. Provincial tombs demonstrates how Egyptologists have analyzed this situation: the tomb of Amenemhet at Beni Hasan, the tomb of Djeheutyhotep at Bersheh, and the tomb of Hepdjefa I at Asyut-all built in the early Twelfth Dynasty. Egyptologists regard this change as evidence that the king had reasserted his authority over the provinces. Then in the reign of Senwosret III (1836–1818 b.c.e.), the burial of provincial officials returned to the area around the king's pyramid in relatively similar mastaba tombs.
Local traditions, especially of rock-cut tombs, grew in Beni Hasan, Bersheh, and Asyut, among other places. Furthermore, in the Middle Kingdom, local variations in tomb plans were common. Even with the reestablishment of strong central government in the Twelfth Dynasty, nomarchs who lived during the first four reigns of the period (1938–1837 b.c.e.) preferred burial in their hometowns rather than in Itj-tawy, the national capital. This tradition of local burial began in the First Intermediate Period (2130–2008 b.c.e.), a time when the absence of a central government caused the individual nomes to behave as independent entities. Nomarchs, the officials who ruled the 42 Egyptian provinces that Egyptologists call nomes, established their own cities of the dead that included many local officials. In contrast, during the early Middle Kingdom, provincial officials preferred to locate their tombs in their home provinces. In general their plans were similar since they were all built in the same place by the same people. These Old Kingdom mastabas were gifts from the king to his top officials. This was clearly the case in the Old Kingdom when cities of the dead surrounded the pyramids. At times when the central government exercised strong control over the provinces, officials wanted to be buried near the king. One indication of the central government's control over its officials in ancient Egypt was the location and plan of official's tombs. Rock-Cut Tombs of the Middle Kingdom Location, Plans, and Political Power.
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