The mastabas of the early dynasties had within them a development of the primeval mound, the place of original creation in Zep Tepi, the First Time, an embryonic stepped structure, concealed inside the internal fabric of the building. It was almost inevitable, therefore, that later generations should express their creative spirit in a shape of pure force, colossal but surging upwards, resting with absolute confidence on the earth, immovable but expressing that reaching out for the firmament — and beyond it, to the realm of the Imperishable Stars — which is so typical of the spirit of early Egypt.
It would have been more extraordinary, perhaps, if the Egyptians had not produced so perfect a shape as the pyramid, at this particular point in their development. That they did so sets the final seal on their achievement; after that expression of creative energy it was only to be expected that decline would inevitably follow. It was not a performance that could ever be repeated, nor one that could even be sustained; indeed, it may be argued that it could not be matched.
The pyramid, the supreme artefact of the age which was now approaching, represented in stone the summation of all that early Egypt was seeking to express. In every aspect of life, particularly those which touched the king in any way, the early builders of the Egyptian state were attempting to reconcile the cosmic with the human, to identify their society with concepts which otherwise defied articulation.
The Egyptians possessed an exceptional ability to synthesize complex propositions and penetrating perceptions in symbol and in expressions of the form and content of buildings. Often such synthesis was occluded. An example, which is pertinent to the origins of the Step Pyramid, is the terraced mound, whose origin lies in the little pile of sand raised above a Badarian grave. The mound signifies the Primeval Hill, the mound of creation on which the creator god settled himself when it first appeared above or out of the waters of the Abyss, on which he performed the first acts which inaugurated the cycle of creation itself.
The most spectacular manifestations of the terraced mound are the Step Pyramid and its companions in other parts of the Valley. The terraced mound would have had a powerful mystical appeal both to Imhotep and to his master. By means of it, Netjerykhet is able to mount to the stars; also it permits the king to fulfil the role of the creator god on his mound, in the perpetual renewal of the life of Egypt, which the whole complex at Saqqara encompasses.
The terraced mound evidently meant something of profound importance to the powers of the Third Dynasty and, so far as we can judge, particularly to them. Their successors of the Fourth Dynasty began at once to break away from the stepped form in the experimental structures which King Sneferu developed at Dahshur and Maidum, which achieved their consummation in the pyramids which his successors raised on the plateau at Giza.
There is a still more numinous form of the terraced mound, from much earlier times which is, in a quite literal sense, even more occult. Hidden in the core of the brick-enclosed rubble superstructures of several of the large First Dynasty mastabas at Saqqara is buried, as though waiting for its ultimate liberation or rebirth in the soaring terraces of the Third Dynasty pyramids. The terraced mound is to be found in all periods of Egyptian history, even in the latest, most decadent days. It is one of the most enduring and persistent images developed by the genius of the Egyptian creative spirit.
Some might see elements in the Netjerykhet complex as the last flowering of the ‘Mesopotamian connection’ in Egypt. The great wall, running for a total length of over one and a half miles, is recessed in a way reminiscent of the recessing of mastaba tombs which are in turn derived from Mesopotamian precedents. This similarity with the exterior of a mastaba is in line with the monument’s rich and complex symbols, and it probably deliberately recalls the earlier structure.
World History
