Pyramid Texts

• 1. The Sand Buried Discovery

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  French archaeologist Gaston Maspero arrived in Egypt during 1880 to begin his work. He chose a site in South Saqqara that had been mapped by Karl Richard Lepsius back in 1842. There, Maspero found the ruins of a large structure which he concluded must be the pyramid of Pepi I. During the excavations he was able to gain access to the subterranean rooms and discovered that the walls were covered in hieroglyphic text. Maspero contacted Auguste Mariette to inform him of this find. Mariette concluded that the structure must be a mastaba since no writing had previously been discovered in a pyramid. Maspero continued his excavations at a second structure around south-west of the first one. This second structure was determined to be the pyramid of Merenre I. In it, Maspero discovered the same hieroglyphic text on the walls he had found in Pepi I's pyramid. He also found the mummy of a man in the sarcophagus of the burial chamber. Mariette rejected these findings again saying on his deathbed that in thirty years of Egyptian excavations he had never seen a pyramid whose underground rooms had hieroglyphs written on their walls. Throughout 1881 Maspero continued to direct investigations of other sites in Saqqara. More texts were found in each of the pyramids of Unas, Teti, and Pepi II. Maspero began publishing his findings in the Recueil des Travaux from 1882 and remained involved until 1886.

• 2. From Royal Tombs To Officials

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  The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts dating to the late Old Kingdom. They date back to approximately 2300 BCE. Written in Old Egyptian, the texts were carved onto the subterranean walls and sarcophagi of pyramids at Saqqara. The earliest examples appeared from the end of the Fifth Dynasty through the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Some texts even extended into the Eighth Dynasty of the First Intermediate Period. Unlike later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated. During the Old Kingdom spanning 2686 BCE to 2181 BCE, these texts could be found in the pyramids of kings as well as three queens named Wedjebten, Neith, and Iput. During the Middle Kingdom spanning 2055 BCE to 1650 BCE, Pyramid Texts were not written in the pyramids of the pharaohs. However, the traditions of the pyramid spells continued to be practiced. In the New Kingdom spanning 1550 BCE to 1070 BCE, Pyramid Texts were found on tombs of officials instead of royalty.

• 3. Rituals And Personal Spells

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  The spells or utterances of the Pyramid Texts were primarily concerned with enabling the transformation of the deceased into an akh. Those judged worthy could mix with the gods after this transformation. The spells are divided into two broad categories: Sacerdotal texts and Personal texts. The sacerdotal texts are ritual in nature and conducted by the lector priest addressing the deceased in the second person. They consist of offering spells, short spells recited in the presentation of an offering, and recitations which are predominantly instructional. These texts appear in the Offering and Insignia Rituals, the Resurrection Ritual, and in the four pyramids containing the Morning Ritual. The writing in these Dramatic Texts suggests they may have formed around the time of the Second and Third dynasties. The remaining texts are personal and broadly concerned with guiding the spirit out of the tomb and into new life. They consist of provisioning, transition, and apotropaic or protective texts. The provisioning texts deal with the deceased taking command of his own food supply and demanding nourishment from the gods. One example is the king's response in Unas' pyramid. The transition texts known as Sakhu or Glorifications are about transforming the deceased into an Akh and their ascent mirroring the motion of the gods into the sky. These form the largest part of the corpus and are dominated by the youngest texts composed in the Fifth and possibly Sixth dynasties. Apotropaic texts consist of short protective spells for warding off threats to the body and tomb.

• 4. Walls Of The Substructure

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  The texts first appeared in the pyramid of the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty belonging to Unas. A total of 283 spells appear on the subterranean walls of Unas' pyramid. These spells represent the smallest and best-preserved corpus of the texts in the Old Kingdom. Copies of all but a single spell PT 200 inscribed in the pyramid appeared throughout the Middle Kingdom and later. Unas' pyramid was situated between the pyramids of Djoser and Sekhemkhet in North Saqqara. It had a core built six steps high from roughly dressed limestone encased in fine white limestone. The entry led into a downward sloping corridor followed by a corridor-chamber with three granite portcullises guarding the entrance into the horizontal passage. The horizontal passage ends at the antechamber guarded by a fourth granite portcullis. The antechamber connects to two further rooms including a serdab to the east and the burial chamber with the ruler's sarcophagus to the west. With the exception of the walls immediately surrounding the sarcophagus lined with alabaster, the remaining walls were covered with vertical columns of hieroglyphs making up the Pyramid Texts. Unas' sarcophagus was left without inscription. The king's royal titulary did not appear on the walls surrounding it as it does in later pyramids. The west gable of the burial chamber is inscribed with protective spells while other walls are primarily dedicated to ritual texts.

• 5. Queens In The Afterlife

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  Pyramid Texts were found not only in the tombs of kings but those of queens as well. Queen Neith who was the wife of Pepi II is one of three queens of the 6th dynasty whose tomb contains pyramid texts. The pyramids of the other two queens both thought to be wives of Pepi II named Iput II and Wedjebetni also contained tombs inscribed with texts. Those of Neith have been kept in much better condition compared to the tombs of the kings. The layout and structure of those that belonged to these queens were much simpler. But the layout of the texts corresponded to similar walls and locations as those of the kings. For example, the Resurrection Ritual is found on the east end of the south wall. Due to the fact that the pyramid of Neith did not contain an antechamber many of the spells normally written there were also written on the south wall. The texts of Queen Neith were similar and different from those of the kings in a few additional ways. Like those of the kings the use of both first and third person is present in these Pyramid Texts. Neith's name is used throughout the texts to make them more personal. Many pronouns used throughout her pyramid texts are male indicative of parallels between the texts of kings and queens though a few female pronouns can be found.

• 6. Hymns Of Power And Protection

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  Utterances 273 and 274 are sometimes known as the Cannibal Hymn because it seems to describe the king hunting and eating parts of the gods. Appearing first in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty this hymn preserves an early royal butchery ritual. In it the deceased king assisted by the god Shezmu slaughters cooks and eats the gods as sacrificial bulls. This incorporates divine powers into himself so he might negotiate his passage into the Afterlife. Apart from the burial of Unas only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn. Utterance 534 is sometimes known as the Curse Hymn because it is a rare Pharaoh's curse only found in the Pyramid of Pepi I. An apotropaic text its purpose is to ward off any malignant gods assist the king's passage to the sky and curse anyone who damages the pyramid. It states that he who gives his finger against this pyramid has given his finger against Horus's Enclosure in the Cool Waters. Nephthys shall traverse for him every place of his father Geb. His case has been heard by the Ennead and he has nothing. He has no house. He is one accursed he is one who eats his own body.