Shepseskaf was the last pharaoh of Dynasty IV and the son of Menkaure.
His royal tomb at South Saqqara is known as Mastabat el-Fara'un, an
Arabic name which means 'Pharaoh's Bench'. Shepseskaf's huge mastaba,
measuring 99.6m on its longest side and 74.4m in width, was described
by Perring and first entered by Auguste Mariette in 1858 and has been
investigated by many other archaeologists since that time. The
identity of its owner was first determined by Gustave Jequier in 1925
after finding a fragment of the pharaoh's name. |
The tomb is constructed of enormous blocks of limestone and was
originally sheathed in a finer white Tura limestone casing, with a
bottom course of pink granite. Remains of restoration texts of Prince
Khaemwaset have been found on some of the casing blocks. The mastaba
appears to have been built in two steps and may have been deliberately
conceived to take the shape of a Buto-type shrine, a Lower Egyptian
form of tomb which was a vaulted shape with straight ends and which
Karl Lepsius noted as looking like a giant sarcophagus.
The tomb is entered by a sloping passage on its northern side, about
one and a half metres above ground level and very similar to a pyramid
entrance. This descends about 20m into a corridor originally blocked
by three portcullis slabs and leads to the subterranean antechamber,
burial chamber and store-rooms. The antechamber and burial chamber
both have ceilings constructed as a false vault, like those in
Menkaure's pyramid and both of the chambers were built with pink
granite. The burial chamber contained fragments of Shepseskaf's dark
basalt sarcophagus, but little else. From the antechamber a narrow
passage runs to the south and leads to six niches or store-rooms.
The mastaba was enclosed within two mudbrick walls, the first
containing Shepseskaf's mortuary temple on the eastern side. The small
temple seems to have been constructed in two phases, the earlier parts
in stone with later mudbrick additions. The older parts of the
mortuary temple included a paved courtyard with an altar, a T-shaped
offering hall with a false door and several chambers which were
probably magazines. The later mudbrick parts had a large courtyard
built to the east with niches decorating the inner walls.
Shepseskaf's causeway, constructed from white-painted mudbrick,
adjoined the mortuary temple at the south-eastern corner of the
courtyard wall. When built, the long causeway resembled a vaulted
passage which must have led down to the King's valley temple but this
has not yet been discovered.
The burial monument of Shepsekaf remains a mystery to Egyptologists.
It is not clear why this king chose South Saqqara as the site of his
tomb rather than Giza, or why he chose to construct a mastaba rather
than the traditional pyramid. Jequier suggested that this unusual form
of royal tomb was built as a protest against the increasing influence
of the priesthood of the sun-god Re - the pyramid form was considered
as a sun symbol. As further evidence to his theory he also points out
that Shepseskaf did not use the element Re in his name. Or perhaps it
was simply that Giza had no appropriate site for another pyramid and
the king therefore chose to site his tomb near Dashur where his
ancestor Snefru, the founder of Dynasty IV was buried. Shepseskaf
reigned for only around four years and was perhaps also limited by
economic factors in a time which may well have been unstable, choosing
to construct a provisional monument which may have been later intended
to become a larger tomb or pyramid. |
