In this status, an essential, though rather obscure repository may be significant. In the cemetery of Dara, some 27 km. downriver from Assiut in Middle Egypt, a truly gigantic mud-brick mastaba-tomb, noted as Kom Dara, occupies a commanding position. This construction has not yet been properly inquired. In its present discipline, an field of 138 X 144 m. (that is, 19,872 sq. m.) is limited by massive outer walls that earlier rose to a height of about 20 m. The rests of the mortuary chapel that must sure once have processed part of the complex have not yet been saw. The interior, however, was reached by a inclined corridor entering the establishing in the middle of its north side, and leading down to a single belowground burial chamber reconstructed from great limestone slabs.
The extended size of this tomb, on with its square layout and the position of its burial chamber, are immediately reminiscent of a pyramid. Closer analysis of its expression, however, exposes beyond any doubt that the constructing was never designed as a pyramid. In fact, approach to the burial chamber from the north is a fairly standard feature in individual tomb architecture of the gone Old Kingdom, while the square layout of the superstructure is twinned by lesser tombs in Dara graveyard itself Kom Dara, thus, may be understood as a monumental tomb that came from a local paradigm, very untold in the way that the royal saff-tomhs at Thebes developed from the simpler types of saff-tomhs made for the funerary cults of the ordinary people.
On the basis of pottery, Kom Dara can be dated to the earlier half of the First Intermediate Period. Its owner rests unknown to us, and there is not yet any certain evidence to support the often repeated identification with an otherwise unattested King Khuy, whose name appears on a relief fragment found reused in another construction at the site. The tomb itself however, attests unequivocally to its owners dreams to a political role that far surpassed that of a mere nomarch, regardless of whether he actually dared to take the titles of royalty.
There are no historical records that can tell us what was really happening at this site, but the whole setting makes it plain that the owner of the Kom Dara tomb did not in fact succeed in establishing an clear centre of power, as the Thebans did at a slightly later date. It is tempting, however, to reflect a little further. In the wide, fertile plains of Middle Egypt, every hard local dynasty was dressed to find himself immediately surrounded by a account of powerful competitions. The geographical situation itself, therefore, may have helped to brace the balance of power between a number of Middle Egyptian local rulers, which, in turn, could have been material in maintaining royal over-lordship. In addition, it does not seem too far-fetched to accept that here, in one of the agriculturally most winning areas of the country, the Crown saw important interests at stake and, accordingly, felt rather less inclined to tolerate the political adventures of provincial rules than in the remote stretches of the head of the southern (that is, the Theban region).
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· Kohl
· Amenemhat (Nobleman)
· Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt
· Memphis
· Kom Aushim
· Amenemhet (Official)
· Menat
· Terenuthis
· Amenemhet (Temple official)
The extended size of this tomb, on with its square layout and the position of its burial chamber, are immediately reminiscent of a pyramid. Closer analysis of its expression, however, exposes beyond any doubt that the constructing was never designed as a pyramid. In fact, approach to the burial chamber from the north is a fairly standard feature in individual tomb architecture of the gone Old Kingdom, while the square layout of the superstructure is twinned by lesser tombs in Dara graveyard itself Kom Dara, thus, may be understood as a monumental tomb that came from a local paradigm, very untold in the way that the royal saff-tomhs at Thebes developed from the simpler types of saff-tomhs made for the funerary cults of the ordinary people.
On the basis of pottery, Kom Dara can be dated to the earlier half of the First Intermediate Period. Its owner rests unknown to us, and there is not yet any certain evidence to support the often repeated identification with an otherwise unattested King Khuy, whose name appears on a relief fragment found reused in another construction at the site. The tomb itself however, attests unequivocally to its owners dreams to a political role that far surpassed that of a mere nomarch, regardless of whether he actually dared to take the titles of royalty.
There are no historical records that can tell us what was really happening at this site, but the whole setting makes it plain that the owner of the Kom Dara tomb did not in fact succeed in establishing an clear centre of power, as the Thebans did at a slightly later date. It is tempting, however, to reflect a little further. In the wide, fertile plains of Middle Egypt, every hard local dynasty was dressed to find himself immediately surrounded by a account of powerful competitions. The geographical situation itself, therefore, may have helped to brace the balance of power between a number of Middle Egyptian local rulers, which, in turn, could have been material in maintaining royal over-lordship. In addition, it does not seem too far-fetched to accept that here, in one of the agriculturally most winning areas of the country, the Crown saw important interests at stake and, accordingly, felt rather less inclined to tolerate the political adventures of provincial rules than in the remote stretches of the head of the southern (that is, the Theban region).
Recent Posts:
· Kohl
· Amenemhat (Nobleman)
· Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt
· Memphis
· Kom Aushim
· Amenemhet (Official)
· Menat
· Terenuthis
· Amenemhet (Temple official)