Recent research on all aspects of the Old Kingdom in Egypt is presented in this volume, ranging through the Pyramid Texts, tomb architecture, ceramics, scene choice and layout, field reports, cemetery layout, tomb and temple statuary. The contributions also show how Egyptology is not stuck in its venerable traditions but that newer forms of technology are being used to great effect by Egyptologists. For example, two papers show how GIS technology can shed light on cemetery arrangement and how 3D scanners can be employed in the process of producing facsimile drawings of reliefs and inscriptions.
The authors cover a wide range of sites and monuments. A large part of the work presented deals with material from the great cemeteries of Saqqara and Giza of the Old Kingdom capital city of Memphis but all the smaller sites are discussed. The book also includes a paper on the architecture of mastabas from the lesser-known site of Abu Roasch. The provinces are by no means overlooked, with articles on material from Deir el-Bersha, el-Sheikh Said and Akhmim. Between them, the authors discuss material from the milieu of the king right down to that which concerned the tomb workmen and those who supplied their basic needs, such as bakers, brewers and potters. Containing papers presented at a conference at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in May 2009, this book continues a series of publications of the latest research presented at previous meetings in Paris, Berlin and Prague. Much new material is published here and the papers are fully illustrated, with over 200 photographs and drawings.

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1: Recent work in the tomb of Nebkauhor at Saqqara
  • The history of the tomb's discovery and first publication
  • Reasons for re-publishing the tomb of Nebkauhor
  • Tomb owner
  • The architecture of the superstructure and substructure
  • The decoration
• 2: A new Old Kingdom rock-cut tomb from Abusir and its Abusir-Saqqara context
  • North Saqqara
  • The Cemetery of Unas
  • The cemetery of Merefnebef
  • Tabbet al-Guesh
  • The ‘Bubasteion’ Cemetery
  • A new rock-cut tomb from Abusir
  • Conclusions
• 3: Mastaba core structure: new data from fourth dynasty elite tombs at Abu Rawash
  • Mastaba structure: problems of definition
  • Principles of construction
  • Mastaba F 37: pavements and casemates
  • Mastaba F40: a variant of the paved fill
  • Mastabas F48 and M9: the triple belt system
  • Conclusions
• 4: The art of Egyptian hieroglyphs as seen by the Akhmim painters
  • The French Palaeography Project
  • The Akhmim corpus
  • Scribal skills
  • Mastery of form
  • Originality
  • Invention and ingenuity
  • As recorders of their times
  • Evolution of signs
  • Substitution, or visual puns
• 5: Two cemeteries for one provincial capital? Deir el-Bersha and el-Sheikh Said in the fifteenth Upper Egyptian nome during the Old Kingdom
• 6: Blocks from the Unas causeway recorded in Černý's notebooks at the Griffith Institute, Oxford
  • 1. New readings of ‘narrative inscriptions’ (nos 30; 81; 83; 85; 86; 89) (Fig. 3, Fig. 4)
  • 2. Court titles and personal names recorded by Černý (Fig. 5; Appendix II)
  • 3. The transport of the benbenet stone (no. 67) (Fig. 6)
  • 4. Transport scenes of indeterminate furnishings (nos 114–115) (Fig. 7)
  • 5. A stick-fighting scene (no. 116) (Fig. 8)
  • 6. A siege scene (?) (no. 119) (Fig. 8, Fig. 9)
  • 7. A possible arrival of a naval expedition from a foreign country (no. 120) (Fig. 8).
  • Conclusion
  • Appendix I
  • Appendix II. Personal names and titles
• 7: A spatial metaphor for chronology in the secondary cemeteries at Giza
  • Conclusion
• 8: The decorative programmes of the pyramid complexes of Khufu and Khafre at Giza
  • Khufu's Pyramid Complex
  • Khafre's Pyramid Complex
  • Conclusion
• 9: Reading the Menkaure Triads: Part II (Multi-directionality)
  • Introduction 1
  • Expression of movement in the triads
  • The architectural context of the triads as related to earlier material
  • Triad figures, moving versus still
  • Multi-directionality at Sneferu's statue cult (‘valley’) temple 36
  • Multi-directionality at Djoser's Step Pyramid complex
  • Relationship of Menkaure's triads to Djoser and Sneferu material
  • Relevant features in the triads’ titles
  • Summary
• 10: The death of the Democratisation of the Afterlife
  • 1. The birth of the democratisation theory
  • 2. The birth of the term Coffin Texts
  • 3. Pyramid Texts as manifestation of a wider body of literature
  • 4. The nature of the desired afterlife: Osiris and Akh
  • 5. Means of becoming an Akh: ritual and knowledge
  • 6. , Pyramid Texts, and pictorial representations of mortuary service 105
  • 7. Conclusion
• 11: A new specific tomb type in Abusir?
  • Tomb complex Lepsius no. 25
  • The mastaba of Werkaure
• 12: An afterworld for Netjerykhet
• 13: Re-examining the Khentkaues Town
  • Introduction
  • I. Changes in the upper settlement (KKT)
  • II. Khentkaues valley complex (KKT-E)
  • III. The match to Menkaure
• 14: Searching for an undistorted template (digital epigraphy in action)
  • Conclusion
• 15: The ‘Reserve Heads’: some remarks on their function and meaning
  • Introduction 1
  • The corpus of the heads: artistic features and archaeological context
  • Old and new theories on the value and meaning of the heads
  • Positive and negative implications: a new approach to the issue
• 16: The evidence of images: art and working techniques in the mastaba of Mereruka
  • Working procedures
  • Progress of work
  • Master versus ordinary sculptors
  • The role of the viewer
  • Use of colour
  • Grouping of figures
  • Conclusion
• 17: The concept of in Old Kingdom religious texts
• 18: Twisted Kilts: variations in aspective representation in Old Kingdom mastaba chapels
• 19: And where are the viscera…? Reassessing the function of Old Kingdom canopic recesses and pits
  • Introduction
  • Recesses in the Maidum mastabas and the confusion around the mysterious packages
  • When theory turns into dogma
  • Blessed doubts
  • If not canopic, then what?
  • Summary
• 20: Fixed rules or personal choice? On the composition and arrangement of daily life scenes in Old Kingdom elite tombs
  • Fixed rules versus personal choice: theory and practice
  • Data and research methodology
  • Contextualising tomb decoration: the architectural setting
  • Variation versus uniformity: an analysis of internal aspects
  • Conclusion
• 21: Village, town and barracks: a fourth dynasty settlement at Heit el-Ghurab, Giza
  • Barracks
  • The Royal Administrative Building (RAB)
  • Village
  • The Western Town
  • Early Phase
  • Giza settlement levels
  • What bounded the site at the north-east?
  • What is missing at Heit el-Ghurab?
  • A study of exceptions
  • What kind of settlement is the Heit el-Ghurab site?
  • A Shifting Capital? 82
  • Conclusion
• 22: An Old Kingdom bakery at Sheikh Said South: preliminary report on the pottery corpus
  • Conclusion
• 23: Why was the Fifth Dynasty cemetery founded at Abusir?
• 24: The economic connection between the royal cult in the pyramid temples and the sun temples in Abusir
  • Introduction
  • The sun temple(s) in the archive of Neferirkare Kakai
  • The sun temple(s) in the archive of Neferefre Izi
  • The sun temple of Niuserre Ini, the foundation inscriptions
  • Administration of the sun temple and funerary temples
  • The royal ideology and the sun temples
  • The economic relationship between the funerary temples and the sun temples
  • Conclusions
• 25: The Ancient Egypt Research Associates settlement site at Giza: the Old Kingdom ceramic distribution
  • Introduction
  • Late fourth dynasty pottery
  • Pottery distribution
  • Comparison between the selected areas
  • Conclusions
• 26: scenes of the Old Kingdom revisited
  • 1. Gender and representation of the major figure
  • 2. Position in the administration and priesthood
  • 3. Family background
  • 4. Placement of the scene
  • Summary
• Addresses of authors
• Plates