If there is a portrait in the monarchic propaganda of the Third Dynasty which best translates the new ambitions of royalty in the Old Kingdom, it is the seated statue of Djoser discovered in the serdab of his pyramid and now in the Cairo Museum. His bony face, with its thick jaw and strong lines, gives an impression of strength and toughness, a combination which contemporary portraits of other figures show, e. g. that those of the scribe Hesyre or the priest Khabausokar, who appear as implacable agents of power (Eaton-Krauss 1997: 18; Baud 2002: 74-5, 246-7).
The measure of this political will is reflected in the ambitious new architecture of the kings, which places them well above the world of ordinary mortals. In addition to a decorated temple dedicated to the royal jubilees at Heliopolis, city of the creator sun-god (Morenz 2002), of which only a few fragments of decoration remain, Egypt of the Third Dynasty can be seen to be a kingdom of superlatives above all from the great complex of Djoser (Lauer 1936-9; Lehner 1997: 84-93; Baud 2002: 95-115, 136-67). Its dressed stone enclosure wall includes 211 bastions; it is more than 10 m high, 545 m long and 277 m wide; it is surrounded by a dry ditch (Swelim 1988), 40 m wide and 25 m deep (to judge from the small portion recovered). This complex, covering an area of 15 ha, is dominated by a pyramid 61m high, when it was complete, and by an associated mastaba (housing a false tomb) 88 m long; a great variety of buildings surround it above ground, including 25 jubilee court chapels, whilst below ground we find an immense network of galleries running to more than 6 km in length and reached by shafts 35 m deep. The more modest complexes of his successors also contain major pyramids with projected heights of probably 70 m for Sekhemkhet and 45 m for Khaba, though both were unfinished. All these pyramids are ‘‘layer pyramids,’’ a structure characteristic of the period, as is the stepped exterior form of these monuments (Lehner 1997: 218-19). For such construction the mobilization of the workforce was without precedent, even if it is impossible to quantify: an army of quarrymen, stone cutters, and labourers was indispensable, as well as scribes to manage the material and human resources required by the operation. The need for copper for tools soared, necessitating the opening of new mines: Djoser, Sekhemkhet, and Sanakht provided themselves with fresh supplies from the Wadi Maghara in western Sinai, where rock-cut reliefs left by successive expeditions celebrate their power in the face of local enemies, shown beaten down with maces (Baud 2002: 260-9). The new requirements in timber for the construction of the pyramids (scaffolding) or ships (transportation of blocks and other expeditions) were, met thanks to new relations formed with Byblos (attested at the end of Second Dynasty, and then in the 4th), a city-state that assured the supply of pine and cedar from the Lebanon by sea, as well as other products (wine, oil, bitumen, etc. Redford 1992: 37-48).
The end of the dynasty (Huni, then Snefru for the Fourth) saw the construction of another type of step pyramid which was small size (10-16 m high) and without a funerary function (Dreyer & Kaiser 1980; Seidlmayer 1996a). Seven have been discovered ranging from Elephantine to the Fayum (Seila) on the outskirts of important towns of great antiquity, which had doubtless recently acquired the status of nome capital, the pivot of the administrative network put in place by the monarchy. The pyramids certainly aimed to proclaim royal power in regions where local elites of long standing might be tempted to resist Memphite tutelage. This was reinforced by royal residences in which the governor, at the head of a complex administration (e. g. at Elephantine: Seidlmayer 1996a), supervised the collection, processing, and redistribution of commodities levied from the region; even the workings of the monarch’s limited interest in local temples (Elephantine, Thebes, Tell Ibrahim Awad), some of which played an important role in royal festivals, followed the same principles (Moreno Garcia 2004: 199-206; Kemp 2006: 112-35, map of the Old Kingdom). The degree ofcooperation ofthe local elite remains unknown, but the setting up ofthe network of pyramids shows the royal will to advertise the king’s appropriation of the areas in question. The disappearance, shortly after the Third Dynasty, of large local tombs (as at Beit Khallaf or el-Kab), as well as the interment of the elite in the capital, shows that there was no more building ofmonumental tombs outside the Memphite area. It is a different proposition in Lower Egypt, except for a handful of ancient centres. Vast unoccupied spaces, steppes bordering the deserts and marshes in the north, gave the monarchy an important reservoir of agricultural and cattle-rearing resources. A policy of active colonization, conducted by virtue of a network of royal foundations, would lay the basis for the administrative organization of the Delta (Moreno Garcia 1999: 234-5).
World History
