Author Description

This book is an Egyptological study of particular historical, archaeological, funerary, and religious aspects of the Late Old Kingdom. More precisely, it addresses the general issue of five private elite tombs (rock-cut tombs and mastabas) of the 5th and the 6th Dynasties at the Saqqara cemetery, as an attempt to in-depth analysis and understanding of the various levels of relationship between the elite members of the central apparatus at the top of the Egyptian society, through their tombs viewed as monumental funerary symbols of prestige and power. It is a three-part study focused in the first one on pursuing the process of the genesis and evolution of the Egyptian central elite and its funerary monuments and symbolism on several levels, as it developed in the complex and profound framework of the socio-political and religious-funerary transformations that marked the central authority of Ancient Egypt and the unified state throughout the Old Kingdom, and particularly in its late part. The particular features of this phenomenon are exemplified in a detailed presentation and analysis in the second part, where, together with essential information provided on their owners, are described five tombs: two rock-cut tombs of the 5th Dynasty medium-rank elite members Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotepp, and Irukaptah, and three impressive in size and grandeur mastabas of the 6th Dynasty highest central elite, the viziers Kagemni, Mereruka and Mehu. At the same time, the study also raises the issue of the relationship between life and death in the Egyptian mindset, the latter understood as a continuation of life on an invisible plane. The third part of the study, in its abbreviated form, contains a minimal yet suggestive selection of photographs the author has taken during her last six-year explorations at Saqqara cemetery, in the area of the tombs subject to research and analysis. Most of them are exterior photographs of the area and of the five tombs with which I cho