The Shaft Tombs of Abusir

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Intact tombs from ancient Egypt are extremely rare, so high are the rewards of grave-robbing. Even the most famous tomb of all—that of King Tutankhamun (1336–1327 B.C.), opened by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922—was robbed in antiquity. The last intact tomb was excavated in 1941 by Egyptian archaeologist Zaky Y. Saad. Nothing more, for over half a century.

Then, in 1996, a Czech team under my supervision discovered a fully intact shaft tomb deep beneath the necropolis of 016Abusir, on the west bank of the Nile about 20 miles southwest of Cairo. The tomb held a huge limestone sarcophagus, which contained another large sarcophagus with a lid made of schist. Inside this second sarcophagus was a wooden coffin bearing the mummy of a 2,500-year-old man. From inscriptions on burial objects in the tomb, we even know his name: “Iufaa, Administrator of the Palaces.”

It’s not surprising that lonely Abusir yielded an unknown tomb. Archaeologists have generally been far more interested in Saqqara, another necropolis just south of Abusir and the site of the oldest pyramid in Egypt, the step pyramid of King Djoser (2630–2611 B.C.). Until recently, moreover, no one had bothered to explore the southwestern section of the Abusir necropolis, where Iufaa was buried, even though limestone walls could be seen emerging from the sands. In the early years of the 20th century, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt excavated tombs and pyramids built by 5th Dynasty (2465–2323 B.C.) kings in the north and northeastern parts of Abusir, but he decided that the southwestern sector contained little of interest.

After Borchardt, Abusir was abandoned for about half a century. The Czech (then Czechoslovak) expedition began work in 1960, excavating the mastaba (a large rectangular tomb) of the 5th Dynasty vizier Ptahshepses in the part of the necropolis explored by Borchardt. Not until 1980 did the Czech archaeologists turn their attention to the southwest, and on the very first day of the surface survey they found five ancient structures.

The first structure the team excavated proved to be the shaft tomb of one Udjahorresnet, the “Chief Physician of Upper and Lower Egypt.” The tomb rests at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep burial shaft. The man buried in the tomb, Udjahorresnet, had already been known from a biographical text inscribed on a statue now in the Vatican Museum. He lived toward the end of the sixth century B.C. in the Nile Delta city of Sais (present-day Sa el-Hagar), where he functioned as a priest in the cult of the creator-goddess Neith. When the Persian Achaemenid king Cambyses conquered Egypt around 525 B.C., Udjahorresnet performed distinguished service for the invader, and later for his successor, Darius I (522–486 B.C.)—thus earning himself the nicknames “collaborator” and “traitor.” For years archaeologists simply assumed that Udjahorresnet’s tomb would have been at Sais, certainly not at Abusir.

Although this burial complex had been robbed by tomb raiders, it yielded a number of shabti figurines (small statues, often shaped like mummies, intended to serve the deceased in the nether world) and three sets of foundation deposits (miniature pottery vessels, model buildings and other objects placed under 017the corners of the structure to mark it as belonging to the deceased). Several of the finds carried inscriptions mentioning King Amasis, the penultimate ruler of the 26th Dynasty (664–525 B.C.), the last dynasty of native Egyptian pharaohs.

After completing the excavation of Udjahorresnet’s tomb, we turned our attention to a neighboring structure only a stone’s throw to the southeast. Before work began, this area was simply a shallow depression on the desert surface, roughly square and filled with yellow wind-blown sand. Just beneath the surface we found a massive mudbrick enclosure, whose outer wall was incised with a “paneling” of alternating rectangular niches and pilasters. This facade closely resembles—to the point of imitating—the face of the enclosure wall of the mortuary complex of King Djoser at Saqqara, which is the oldest monumental stone architecture in Egypt and which is visible from this part of Abusir.

Each of the four walls of the structure held a 6-foot-wide niche where large stelae once stood. Our excavations turned up limestone fragments with religious inscriptions and relief scenes showing servants bringing offerings to the deceased. These fragments once formed the large stelae, about 9 feet high and 6 feet wide, that filled the niches. They were not carved from single blocks of stone but rather assembled from smaller ashlars.

This square structure enclosed a shaft-tomb more than 80 feet deep. The mouth of the burial shaft measured 45 feet on each side, though it tapered down to about 35 feet square at the bottom. To reach the tomb at the bottom, we had to excavate 2,600 cubic yards of sand, crushed mudbrick and other 018rubble clogging the main shaft. In ancient times, two narrower shafts, one situated to the south and another to the west, gave access to the foot of the main shaft.

As we began to clear the main shaft, we found clear traces of tomb robbers. This was disheartening: So much work to be done, with only the prospect of a plundered tomb at the bottom! Suddenly, however, at about 60 feet below the surface, the tomb robbers had stopped. Why did they abandon their work just 20 feet from the bottom, after all that digging?

Several weeks later we knew the answer. The shaft had been cut in soft, unstable shale, which had been kept moist and firm by water seeping up from the aquifer; once exposed to the desert air, however, the shale began to dry out and then to crack and crumble. The tomb robbers, valuing life over lucre, simply decided that the risks were too great. (After we reached the bottom, we had to consolidate the sides of the main shaft, which kept cracking and threatening to come crashing down. We built a large protective cover, using 15 tons of steel bars and 520 cubic yards of concrete.)

In March 1996, after two months of intense work, the main shaft of the tomb was completely cleared. At the bottom stood the intact walls of a vaulted burial chamber—the tomb of Iufaa. The only entrance to the chamber was a small opening, about 2 feet by 2.5 feet, which was blocked up with small pieces of limestone set in the original whitish lime mortar. This tomb, then, had lain completely undisturbed for two and a half millennia.

The interior of the rectangular burial chamber measures about 16 feet by 11 feet. We found it half filled with sand, crushed mudbricks and some limestone blocks. Dominating the chamber was a huge sarcophagus made of two pieces of white limestone. Surrounding the sarcophagus on all four sides was a 1.5-foot-wide corridor.

In this narrow corridor were numerous burial 019goods. On one side stood a damaged wooden chest with its bottom broken through and its contents strewn on the floor—including ten 3-inch-high faience vases with lids, 6-inch-high faience cups and ten small ceramic vases. On each of these vessels, the name of the sacred oil it contained was written in black ink, such as “the purest cedar oil” and “the best oil of Libya.” Most of the vessels still had oil in them, though over the millennia the oil had degenerated into a dark carbonized substance. Also fallen on the floor were two small bronze models of offering tables, four uninscribed miniature alabaster tablets, two small schist amulets (one showing a double ostrich feather and the other the conical crown of Upper Egypt), and a small clay brick bearing a four-line hieratic inscription from chapter 151B of the Book of the Dead, asking the gods to protect the deceased from his enemies. We also found the remains of a papyrus scroll that was badly damaged by humidity (lying 80 feet below the surface, the chamber is not far above the water table) and pieces of unidentified iron objects.

Also in the chamber were two flat, open wooden boxes containing numerous blue-glazed shabti figurines. There were 408 of these statuettes—perhaps they were meant to cover each day of the year, along with some replacements or supervisors. Clearly Iufaa, or those who buried him, had made sure that he would be well served in the afterlife.

Associated with the boxes of shabti figurines were two taller wooden chests, each holding a pair of canopic jars. According to ancient Egyptian belief, for the deceased to be reborn in the afterlife, his entire body had to be buried with him; in the process of mummification, the soft viscera were removed and stored in stone or ceramic vessels called canopic jars, which were then included with the burial. All four of this tomb’s foot-high, alabaster canopic jars were capped by lids with depictions of the same human face—probably the face of Iufaa himself (see photo of canopic jars). Each of the canopic jars bore an inscription mentioning one of the four sons of Horus, lesser gods charged with the protection of the deceased. And all the jars were nearly full of the resinous substance once used to preserve the viscera. Unfortunately, resin used by ancient embalmers has become so completely carbonized that its source cannot be identified.

Lying next to the chamber’s eastern wall was a 020limestone jar 18 inches high and bearing an inscription mentioning the jackal-god Anubis (the god of embalming). Like the four canopic jars, this vessel was filled with resin.

Why would the embalmers have used a fifth jar, somewhat larger than the rest, when they surely could not have needed more than four? The explanation probably involves the stipulation that the deceased’s entire body had to be included in the burial. Inevitably, tiny fragments of Iufaa’s corpse—bits of hair or skin, for example—would have come off on the linen and other materials used in the process of mummification. We believe that the embalmers preserved these materials in the fifth canopic jar, so that all of Iufaa’s body would be ready for rebirth.

The walls of the burial chamber are covered with inscriptions and relief carvings. The texts are religious, including long excerpts from the Pyramid Texts (some 800 religious utterances intended to help the deceased on the journey through the afterlife, inscribed on the walls of pyramids built toward the end of the third millennium B.C.). One of the inscriptions is a long list of offerings—mainly food, drink and clothing—to ensure the eternal well-being of the deceased.

Similar religious texts, mostly excerpts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, appear on the sides of the 13-foot-long, 8-foot-high rectangular limestone sarcophagus, which stands in the center of the burial chamber on a platform raised about 14 inches above the floor. The texts begin at the center of the eastern side, or directly behind the head of the deceased (this positioning is unusual for Egyptian burials, in which the head of the deceased was almost always pointing west, toward the setting sun).

This immense sarcophagus fills almost the entire chamber, leaving free only the narrow corridor between the sarcophagus and the walls and some 3 feet of space in the vault above the lid. To open the sarcophagus, we first had to dismantle the chamber’s vault. We then raised the 3-foot-thick, 24-ton lid with jacks, inserted four large wooden beams under the lid and moved it out of the burial chamber. This dangerous procedure took nearly two weeks of heavy labor.

Under the lid of the sarcophagus was a cavity, roughly anthropoid in shape and about 9 feet long and 3 feet wide (at the shoulders). The limestone walls of the cavity are completely covered with inscriptions and representations of deities and religious symbols, finely incised and colored. The texts are religious excerpts from the Pyramid Texts—023especially lists of feasts and litanies to the sun god.

At the bottom of the cavity, the lid of an inner sarcophagus was partly visible beneath a layer of gypsum mortar and crushed mudbrick. Possibly this layer was meant to catch moisture seeping through the lid of the outer sarcophagus.

The top part of the inner sarcophagus—really just a thick lid, made of schist, covering yet another cavity in the outer limestone sarcophagus—was carved with the head, wig and beard of a man. Much of the rest of this 7-foot-long lid is covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, consisting largely of texts from the Book of the Dead appealing to the heart of the deceased not to give evidence against him during final judgment: “My heart … do not stand up to oppose me at the judgment. May there be no opposition to me in the presence of sovereign princes.”

After struggling with the huge outer lid, we removed this anthropomorphic inner lid with ease. The cavity beneath it held the remains of a wooden coffin almost completely destroyed by moisture. Inside the coffin was Iufaa’s mummy, still wrapped in a partly damaged netting of colored faience beads. This netting covered the entire body except for the head. Under the chin, an elaborate broad collar (or wesekh in Egyptian) of seven rows of stylized leaves, lotus buds and rosettes was finely worked from black, yellow, red and green beads. On the chest, the netting carried a depiction of the goddess Nut, kneeling with outstretched arms combined with vulture wings. On the stomach were figures of the four sons of Horus, and on the thighs was a yellow oval with the name of the deceased (Iufaa), his title (Administrator of the Palaces) and his mother’s name (Ankhtisi).

Under the netting, the mummy was encased in a thick layer of linen wrappings, which had deteriorated badly because of the moisture. We also found a headrest on which the mummy’s neck had been laid. On the body were a number of amulets, among them the so-called heart scarab (a scarab placed close to the heart to remind it not to oppose the deceased at final judgment), along with models of Horus’s eye,^a hearts and other religious symbols.

The mummy’s fingertips and toe tips were covered with thin sheaths of pure gold, with even the nails represented. The genitals were protected by another 024thin plate, made of gold-plated copper. These were the only gold items found in the burial chamber—so the tomb robbers, had they reached this far, would have been sorely frustrated.

After removing the mummy and decayed wooden coffin, we cleaned the cavity of the inner sarcophagus. It too was covered with inscribed religious texts, symbols and offering scenes. At the center of the cavity’s bottom is a scene that may be a depiction of the tree of life, along with a large Horus-eye and smaller representations of the gods Tatenen (who symbolizes the fertility of the land) and Atum (whose name means “the all,” signifying the creation of the universe). Such scenes were meant to ensure Iufaa’s successful rebirth and life in the underworld (see the first sidebar to this article).

Numerous references on the walls of the burial chamber, the sarcophagi, the canopic jars, the shabti figurines, the wooden coffin and the mummy’s netting tell us that the mummy was Iufaa. Of the once-living and breathing Iufaa, however, we know little, even after several years of research. Physical anthropologist Eugen Strouhal has determined that Iufaa was only 25 to 30 years old when he died—toward 025the end of the sixth century B.C., when the Persian kings ruled Egypt. The name “Iufaa” probably meant “He is great,” though the rendering “He of great flesh” is also possible (perhaps in Iufaa’s day obesity was a sign of wealth and prosperity).

Beyond that, we learn from the inscriptions only that his mother was named Ankhtisi and that he was the Administrator of the Palaces. During the time of the pyramid builders, about 2,000 years before Iufaa lived, this title referred to the administrator of the royal palaces and installations in the city of Sais in the western Nile Delta. Most scholars believe that by Iufaa’s day the Administrator of the Palaces had something to do with the cult of the goddess Neith, the patron deity of Sais. If that is true, Iufaa, like Udjahorresnet (whose tomb dates to the same period and lies only a short distance away), might well have served as a priest of the goddess Neith. That would explain the enormous quantity of religious texts in his tomb. How Iufaa acquired the resources to build such an expensive tomb so deep underground in remote Abusir, however, remains a mystery.

We hope to learn much more over the next few years as we continue to excavate the area around Iufaa’s tomb, along with the other tombs in the southwestern sector. We have already uncovered a large complex of 16 rooms, corridors and courtyards just east of the main shaft of Iufaa’s tomb. The rooms, dug into the soft shale, were originally covered with mudbrick vaults, and their walls were plastered with Nile silt. In one wall of the room at the very center of this complex was a 6-foot-wide vaulted niche, with its base 3 feet above the floor. Possibly this niche held a stela similar to the large stelae in the niches of Iufaa’s nearby shaft tomb. Although little has been found in this complex—other than some papyri written in demotic (a late form of the cursive hieratic script), fragments of a limestone stela and a pair of papyrus sandals—there is little doubt that it was used by the funeral cult of Iufaa. This provides more evidence of Iufaa’s surprising affluence.

We have also recently discovered a sloping passage that starts as an open trench in front of the eastern side of Iufaa’s shaft tomb and continues down as an underground corridor, ending just to the south of the shaft tomb. At the end of the corridor were two wooden coffins with the mummies of an elderly man and a middle-aged woman. According to inscriptions on her coffin, this woman was probably Iufaa’s sister.

After five seasons of work, we are still making discoveries around the tomb of Iufaa. There are undoubtedly other underground rooms and corridors that will tell us more about Iufaa and his family—and perhaps tell us how he commanded such wealth and why his family chose to be buried far from their home in the Nile Delta.

Intact tombs from ancient Egypt are extremely rare, so high are the rewards of grave-robbing. Even the most famous tomb of all—that of King Tutankhamun (1336–1327 B.C.), opened by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922—was robbed in antiquity. The last intact tomb was excavated in 1941 by Egyptian archaeologist Zaky Y. Saad. Nothing more, for over half a century. Then, in 1996, a Czech team under my supervision discovered a fully intact shaft tomb deep beneath the necropolis of 016Abusir, on the west bank of the Nile about 20 miles southwest of Cairo. The tomb held a […]