Following the end of the Old Kingdom, the political fragmentation of the country was reflected by the number of major tombs built in the provinces. Most of these were rock-cut monuments and represented a continuation of trends at the sites during the Old Kingdom. A new type of tomb developed at Thebes towards the end of the period, in which the facade comprised a series of openings leading into a single very broad, but shallow, vestibule. Known as a saff (row) tomb, its offering place lay at the end of a passageway on the central axis of the structure. Particularly large versions were constructed at el-Tarif for the early kings of the Eleventh Dynasty, with additional facades at right angles to the main tomb-front which gave access to the tombs of members of the court (Arnold 1976).
The concept of the approach to the king’s tomb being lined with those of his followers was further developed at Thebes, where the mortuary monument of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahri lay at the end of a desert valley, its causeway flanked by the rock-cut tomb-chapels of his court. Cut individually into the cliffs, these chapels were similar in design to the saff tombs, although many had flat plastered mud-brick facades rather than the piers seen in the true saffs. The king’s monument was an innovative colonnaded terraced temple with a central massif that may have been a pyramid. The king’s burial chamber lay at the end of a long sloping passage in the rear courtyard of the temple. Shaft and corridor tombs of his family and household lay in various parts of the complex and its immediate surroundings (Arnold 1974-81). Although at least one later example of such a tomb-temple was begun around the end of the dynasty (TT281: Arnold 1991), the type did not continue into subsequent periods.
The Twelfth Dynasty returned the royal cemeteries to the north, kings’ tombs initially reverting to Old Kingdom-style pyramid complexes, accompanied by mastabas. The complex of Senwosret I at Lisht borrows many features from the late Old Kingdom, although with an enhanced use of statuary and a multiplication of the number of pyramids provided for members of the royal family (Arnold 1988; 1992). However, the succeeding pyramid of Amenemhet II at Dahshur brings in many changes, and, as the dynasty progresses, more innovative architectural approaches began to appear, both above and below ground. Most notably, the traditional relationships between the super - and sub-structures were abandoned at Lahun, where the entrance to the pyramid of Senwosret II was placed not on the time-hallowed north side, but on the south. There it was accompanied by the substructures of eight mastabas of the royal family that lay to the north of the pyramid, some 150 m away. This fundamental change can only have been a response to a need to improve the security of the burial chamber, and many of the other innovations seen during the latter part of the Middle Kingdom were very clearly inspired by a desire to shield the mummy from the tomb-robber (q. v.). Another change found at Lahun is the construction of the royal pyramid from brick, rather than stone, something that then continues for the remainder of the Middle Kingdom. The pyramid complexes of the next two reigns of the dynasty show further deviations from classic Old Kingdom norms, that of Senwosret III adopting a scheme clearly based on the rectangular enclosures of the Third Dynasty. The monument of Amenemhet III at Hawara was built on a vast scale to the south of the pyramid that led to its being dubbed in Classical times ‘‘The Labyrinth’’ (Arnold 1979). Some members of the royal family continued to be buried in pyramids (or even under part of the king’s pyramid), but others found rest in other kinds of tombs (Arnold 1987; 2002).
Private mastabas initially reflected Old Kingdom practice, but, as the Middle Kingdom progressed, more innovative designs appeared. On the one hand, some moved further away from the prototype, becoming, in essence, free-standing chapels with only a marginal resemblance to the original bench-shaped monument (Arnold 2007). On the other hand, we also find in the reign of Senwosret III monuments with elaborate paneled exteriors, recalling early practice, albeit differing greatly in detail. Tombs’ substructures (almost always undecorated) show an increasing concern for security, with various protective arrangements introduced into both private and royal practice, including the aforementioned change in the location of entrances vis-a-vis the superstructure. In the case of royal tombs, elaborate systems of concealed trap-doors, false passageways, and large hardstone portcullises were developed. These reached their peak with an unfinished pyramid of the Thirteenth Dynasty at Saqqara-South, which also had a burial chamber of solid quartzite, with the sarcophagus and canopic chest as integral elements, and which was entered via a movable roof-slab that was to be lowered by the power of sand (Dodson 1987).
Outside the cemeteries of the royal court, many of the First Intermediate Period provincial necropoleis continued to flourish. Most of these were occupied by fairly simple rock-cut tomb-chapels with vertical shaft-approaches to their substructures (e. g. those at Beni Hasan: Newberry and Griffith 1893-4). There are, however, significant exceptions to this. Decoratively, the motifs found in the Old Kingdom continue, although there is often more effort to fit them into the architecture of the tomb itself. Major provincial private tombs greatly reduce in number during the reign of Senwosret III, apparently as a result of centralizing reforms during his reign with a corresponding growth in the size of the cemeteries adjacent to the king’s pyramid at Dahshur. However, some exceptionally elaborate examples continued to be built into the next reign at Qau el-Kebir, with their rock-cut cores supplemented by built elements, including pylons and walled causeways (Steckeweh 1936). At the other end of the spectrum, middle-class tombs, which throughout Egyptian history were normally simple rock-cut shafts, might have a small offering place created by carving a false-door in the rock close to the mouth of the shaft, examples existing at Beni Hasan (Garstang 1907).
World History
