DW | Ancient Egypt
09 – The 5th Dynasty Sun Kings
Welcome to the DW World History Series. In the last episode, we focused on the Second and Third Pyramids of Giza and left off with Shepseskaf returning to Saqqara to build his large mastaba tomb. With his death, the 4th Dynasty closes and we begin with Userkaf, the first of the 5th Dynasty Sun Kings.
9.1 – Pharaoh Userkaf (2498-2491 BC)
Beginning his reign around 2498 BC, Userkaf was the grandson of Djedefre who built a pyramid just outside the northeast corner of Djoser's enclosure wall. Userkaf's pyramid is part of a larger mortuary complex comprising of a mortuary temple, an offering chapel and a cult pyramid as well as a separate pyramid and mortuary temple for Userkaf's Queen. The entire pyramid complex is terribly ruined and the interior of the pyramid is inaccessible.
The pyramid core was created in a step-like structure, a construction technique similar to that of the 4th Dynasty, although the building material was of a significantly lower quality. The outer casing of the pyramid was made of fine Tura limestone.
The pyramid, itself, does not have any internal chambers, as all the chambers for this pyramid were located underground. These were constructed in a deep open ditch dug before the pyramid was created.
The entrance to the underground chambers was located north of the pyramid from a pavement in the court in front of the pyramid face. This is different from the 4th Dynasty pyramids for which the entrance to the internal chambers was located on the pyramid side itself. The entrance was hewn into the bedrock and floored and roofed with large slabs of white limestone, most of which have been removed in modern times.
The pyramid was originally around 161 ft high with an inclination of 53° identical to that of Khufu's great pyramid. The core of the pyramid was built of small, roughly-hewn blocks of local limestone disposed in horizontal layers. This meant a considerable saving of labor as compared to the large and more accurately hewn stone cores of 4th Dynasty pyramids. However, as the outer casing of Userkaf's pyramid fell victim to stone robbers throughout the millennia, the loosely assembled core material was progressively exposed. This explains the current ruined state of the pyramid.
From the entrance, a 61 ft long, southward descending passage leads to a horizontal tunnel, some 26 ft below the pyramid base. The first few meters of this tunnel were roofed and floored with red granite. The tunnel was blocked by two large stones of red granite, the first one still having traces of the gypsum plaster used to seal it.
Behind the granite barrier, the corridor branched eastward to a T-shaped magazine chamber which probably contained Userkaf's funerary equipment. The presence of such a magazine chamber, located under the base of a pyramid, is unique of all the 5th and 6th Dynasty pyramids.
At the south end of the corridor lies an antechamber, which was located directly under the tip of the pyramid. The antechamber was oriented on the east–west axis and led west to the king's burial chamber which had the same height and width as the antechamber, but was longer. At the western end of the burial chamber, fragments of an empty black basalt sarcophagus was discovered which had been originally placed in a slight depression as well as a canopic chest. The chambers were protected from the pyramid weight by a gabled ceiling made of two large Tura limestone blocks, an architecture common to all pyramids of the 5th and 6th Dynasties. The chambers were lined with the same material, while the floor pavement was lost to stone robbers.
Userkaf's mortuary temple layout and architecture is difficult to establish with certainty. Not only was it extensively quarried for stone throughout the millennia, but a large Saite period shaft tomb was also dug in the middle of it, thus damaging it further.
The walls of the courtyard were adorned with fine reliefs of high workmanship depicting scenes of life in the papyrus thicket, a boat with its crew and names of Upper and Lower Egyptian estates connected to the cult of the king.
Two doors at the south-east and south-west corners of the courtyard led to a small hypostyle hall with four pairs of red granite pillars. Beyond this were storage chambers and statue niches. It is interesting to note that the mortuary temple of Userkaf's pyramid was located on the south side of the pyramid, instead of the usual east. This most likely occurred because the temple was bathed in the sun's rays throughout the day from the south.
An impressive and much larger than life size head of Userkaf was found in the temple courtyard. Made of pink Aswan granite, it is the largest remaining Old Kingdom portrait head, if one excludes the Great Sphinx. Another fine portrait of the king was discovered in the valley temple of Abu-Gurob. This is particularly important because it is one of the few sculptures from the Old Kingdom that shows the pharaoh wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt.
Solar Temples of the 5th Dynasty
The first of the 'Solar Kings' or 'Sun Kings', Userkaf constructed the first of five sun temples just south of Saqqara, at Abu-Gurob. These Solar Temples were something not seen before in Egypt and were the forerunners to the later obelisks of the New Kingdom. In front of the obelisk was a sun altar which was later adopted by Akhenaten and his temple to the Aten during the later 18th Dynasty. A causeway led north to south to a valley temple, and to the south, was a boat of Ra constructed of mud-brick. Their imagery was strongly connected to the sun: the obelisk was a monumental sunray and the boat represented the boat in which the sun traversed the sky.
We lack specific details, but it is believed that the construction of the sun temples mark a shift from the royal cult, especially prevalent during the 4th Dynasty, to the cult of the sun god Ra. With this shift, the king was no longer revered directly as a god, but rather as the son of Ra, thus changing the royal mortuary cult. This sun cult appears to have been building during the end of the 4th Dynasty, when King Djedefre first began using the royal title 'Son of Ra'. After Userkaf, the pharaohs take on unique names that praise the sun god Re (or Ra). We get names like Sahure, Neferirkare, Nyuserre, Djedkare.
The successors of Userkaf constructed their own sun temples in a row, just to the northwest of the original. Now little remains of these, other than mounds and scattered stone. This goes for their pyramid complexes as well, which were slightly further south of Userkaf's pyramid. The last kings of the dynasty moved back to Saqqara for their burial place.
From the beginning of this dynasty on, we also note an increase in the number of high officials. Contrary to the 4th Dynasty, high offices were now no longer restricted to members of the royal family. Government and administration were reformed which resulted in a far more efficient bureaucracy.
9.2 – Egypt's Administration
From its very creation, the Egyptian state required a bureaucracy that at a minimum kept track of the resources owed to the center of power. Many preserved documents from the entire ancient history of the country deal with this issue. Some of the first records we have are bureaucratic: objects from the tombs at Abydos contained sealings with indications where they came from. We have to assume that in all periods, and especially when the country was unified, a large administration existed. At the same time, it is clear over the long period that ancient Egypt existed many changes took place.
We can see certain basic patterns, however. The pharaoh was at the center of the administration and state resources were for the king to collect and distribute. In order to facilitate work, different departments existed; for example: the treasury, agricultural and labor departments. The titles of the officials who headed these departments changed little over the centuries. They dealt with all the assets of the state goods, produce, and manpower. They supervised the collection of dues and labor and their allotment for varied purposes.
The large country was divided into provinces, which we designate with the term nome. By the 5th dynasty, Upper Egypt was divided into 22 nomes, while the systemization of Lower Egyptian nomes is clear to us only late in Egyptian history. Nomarchs ideally represented the king's interests, but in intermediate periods they gained much independence.
The huge central bureaucracy had many levels. Throughout Egyptian history a vizier acted as second in command to the king. In some periods, two viziers shared numerous tasks. It is always difficult for us to determine what the administrators did. The titles themselves do not indicate it, but many officials combined various titles and accumulated several responsibilities. Alongside the central administration existed temple and military administrations, each with their ranks and tasks. The latter is totally unknown from Old Kingdom records. Egypt's bureaucracy was so large that it represented a burden when the state was weak. Its participants not only received rewards in life, but the king also gave many the resources to build a lavish tomb and support a mortuary cult that ideally would last forever.
9.3 – Pharaoh Sahure (2490-2477 BC)
Sahure, who ruled from about 2490-2477 BC, is considered to be one of the most important kings of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. His reign was a political and cultural high point of the 5th Dynasty.
During Sahure's time on the throne, Egypt had important trade relations with the Levantine coast. Sahure launched several naval expeditions to modern day Lebanon to procure cedar trees, laborers and exotic items. He also ordered the earliest attested expedition to the land of Punt, which brought back large quantities of myrrh, malachite and electrum.
Pharaoh Sahure is shown celebrating the success of this venture in a relief from his mortuary temple which shows him tending a myrrh tree in the garden of his palace. This relief is the only one in Egyptian art depicting a king gardening. Sahure sent further expeditions to the turquoise and copper mines in the Sinai. He also possibly ordered military campaigns against Libyan chieftains in the Western Desert, bringing back livestock to Egypt.
Sahure had a pyramid built for himself in Abusir, thereby abandoning Saqqara and Giza. This decision was probably motivated by the presence of the sun temple of Userkaf. The main pyramid of Sahure's mortuary complex exemplifies the decline of pyramid building, both in terms of size and quality. Yet, the accompanying mortuary temple is considered to be the most sophisticated one built up to that time. The overall layout of Sahure's complex would serve as the template for all mortuary complexes constructed from Sahure's reign until the end of the Old Kingdom, some 300 years later.
The pyramid's internal chambers were devastated by stone thieves, rendering an accurate reconstruction impossible. Stone fragments believed to belong to the king's basalt sarcophagus are the only remains of the burial that have been found. The mortuary temple adjacent to the pyramid's east face comprises an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms. These elements had appeared in mortuary temples since the reign of Khafre. South of the temple is the enclosure with the cult pyramid, employing the same construction method used in the main pyramid but on a reduced scale.
The causeway and mortuary temple of his pyramid complex were once adorned by over 110,000 sq ft of fine reliefs, which made them renowned in antiquity. These included a relief depicting brown bears and a relief showing the bringing of the pyramidion to the main pyramid and the ceremonies following the completion of the complex.
The architects of Sahure's pyramid complex introduced the use of palmiform columns (that is columns whose capital has the form of palm leaves), which would soon become a hallmark of ancient Egyptian architecture. Sahure is also known to have constructed a sun temple called "The Field of Ra", and although it is yet to be located, it is presumably in Abusir as well.
He has only one statue that is preserved. Seated on a throne, the king is accompanied by a smaller male figure personifying a local nome god in Upper Egypt. This deity offers the king an ankh with his left hand. Sahure wears the nemes headcloth and straight false beard of a living pharaoh. The flaring hood of the uraeus, the cobra goddess who protected Egyptian kings, is visible on his brow. The nome god wears the archaic wig and curling beard of a deity. The statue may have been intended to decorate the king's pyramid complex at Abusir.
9.4 – Pharaoh Neferirkare (2477-2467 BC)
Neferirkare acceded the day after his father's death, in 2477 BC, and was considered by his contemporaries as a kind and benevolent ruler. His rule witnessed a growth in the number of administration and priesthood officials, who used their expanded wealth to build architecturally more sophisticated mastabas, where they recorded their biographies for the first time. His rule witnessed continuing trade relations with Nubia to the south and possibly with Byblos on the Levantine coast to the north.
Neferirkare started a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir which was initially planned to be a step pyramid, a form which had not been employed since the days of the 3rd Dynasty, 120 years earlier. This plan was modified to transform the monument into a true pyramid, the largest in Abusir, but this was never completed due to the death of the king. Neferirkare also built a Sun Temple
that ancient sources describe as the largest one built during the 5th Dynasty, but it has not been located.
Beyond his construction of a pyramid and sun temple, little is known of Neferirkare's reign. In all probability, it was around this time that the Westcar Papyrus was first written, a tale where Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare are said to be brothers, the sons of Ra with a woman named Rededjet. Not much is known about his successors Neferefre and Shepseskare. It is even unknown who reigned first.
9.5 – Pharaohs Nyuserre & Menkauhor
Nyuserre was the most prolific builder of his dynasty, having built three pyramids for himself and his queens and a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir. He built the largest surviving Sun Temple of the Old Kingdom. Nyuserre also completed the Sun Temple of Userkaf and the valley temple of Menkaure in Giza. In doing so, he was the first king since Shepseskaf, the last ruler of the 4th Dynasty, to pay attention to the Giza necropolis, a move which may have been an attempt to legitimize his rule.
There is little evidence for military action during Nyuserre's reign, which was from 2425-2422 BC. The Egyptian state continued to maintain trade relations with Byblos on the Levantine coast and to send mining and quarrying expeditions to the Sinai and Lower Nubia. Nyuserre's reign saw the growth of the administration, and the effective birth of the nomarchs, provincial governors who, for the first time, were sent to live in the provinces they administered rather than at the pharaoh's court.
Little is known about his successor Menkauhor, who ruled from 2422-2414 BC.
Menkauhor was the last pharaoh to build a sun temple. His successors, Djedkare and Unas, abandoned this practice as the cult of Ra declined at the expense of that of Osiris. Given the paucity of documents relating to Menkauhor's sun temple, it probably functioned for only a short time or was never completed.
Menkauhor built a pyramid in North-Saqqara, thereby abandoning the royal necropolis of Abusir, where kings of the 5th Dynasty had been buried since the reign of Sahure, some 80 years earlier. The reason for this choice may be that the Abusir plateau had become overcrowded by the beginning of Menkauhor's reign. The pyramid, known as the 'Headless Pyramid,” is estimated to have been around 50–60 m (160–200 ft) at the base, so that the edifice would have stood 40–50 m (130–160 ft) high at the time of its construction, making it one of the smallest royal pyramids of the Old Kingdom. There is evidence that Menkauhor had the time to complete his pyramid, whose small dimensions are thus consistent with his short eight to nine years of reign.
On the north side lies the entrance to the underground chamber system, which was sealed by two granite portcullises indicating that a burial took place. A broken sarcophagus lid of blue-grey basalt was found in the burial chamber by Cecil Firth during his brief excavations of the pyramid in 1930.
The cult of Menkauhor continued into the late Eighteenth to Nineteenth Dynasty most likely due to the location of his pyramid, which stood on the way to the necropolis of the Apis bulls, which later became the Serapeum.
Although Menkauhor is well attested by historical sources, few artifacts from his reign have survived. Consequently, he becomes a vague king of the 5th Dynasty.
9.6 – Pharaoh Djedkare (2414-2375 BC)
Djedkare likely enjoyed a reign of more than 40 years, from 2414-2375 BC, which heralded a new period in the history of the Old Kingdom. Breaking with a tradition followed by his predecessors since the time of Userkaf, Djedkare did not build a temple to the sun god Ra, possibly reflecting the rise of Osiris in the Egyptian pantheon.
More significantly, Djedkare effected comprehensive reforms of the Egyptian state administration, the first undertaken since the inception of the system of ranking titles. These reforms implemented by Djedkare are generally assessed negatively in modern Egyptology as his policy of decentralization created a virtual feudal system that transferred much power to the high and provincial administrations. Some Egyptologists argue that this contributed heavily to the collapse of the Egyptian state during the First Intermediate Period, some 200 years later.
Under his rule, Egypt continued expeditions to the Sinai to procure copper and turquoise, to Nubia for its gold and diorite and to the fabled Land of Punt for its incense. Egypt also entertained continuing trade relations with the Levantine coast and made punitive raids into Canaan, but did not attempt to establish a permanent dominion there. In particular, one of the earliest depictions of a battle or siege
scene was found in the tomb of one of Djedkare's subjects.
Pharaoh Djedkare was buried in a pyramid in Saqqara which is now ruined, owing to theft of stone from its outer casing during antiquity. The burial chamber still held Djedkare's mummy in a fragmented sarcophagus. Examinations of the mummy in the 1940s revealed that he died in his fifties. He would be succeeded by his possible son, Unas.
9.7 – Pharaoh Unas and the Pyramid Texts
The reign of Pharaoh Unas, from 2375-2345 BC, was a time of change in Ancient Egyptian religion and in the ideology of kingship. This involved the lessening of the power of the kingship in conjunction with that of the administration and the priesthood.
Meanwhile, the cult of Osiris was becoming more important with this god replacing the king as the guarantor of life after death for the pharaoh's subjects. For an Egyptian of the time:
"The ... afterlife no longer depended on the relationship between the
individual mortal and the king, ... instead it was linked to his ethical
position in direct relation to Osiris".
-The German Egyptologist Hartwig Altenmüller
In contrast, the cult of the sun god Ra was in apparent decline, even though Ra was still the most important deity of the Egyptian pantheon. The Pyramid Texts found in Unas' pyramid demonstrate the importance of Osiris as almost an equal to Ra in ancient Egyptian religion at the time. Both gods were believed to play the key roles in accessing the afterlife, with Ra as the source of life and Osiris as the force through which the next life would be attained.
Little is known of Unas' activities during his reign, which was a time of economic decline. Egypt maintained trade relations with the Levantine coast and Nubia, and military action may have taken place in southern Canaan. With Unas, however, we find decorated burial chambers inside the pyramid for the first time.
The Pyramid of Unas was excavated by Gaston Maspero in 1881. The carved reliefs on the walls inside revealed scenes of hunting, sailing, and desert life. This artwork was not unlike those found on the mastaba tombs of the nobles who had been doing this for quite some time.
Created in North Saqqara, between the pyramid of Sekhemkhet and the southwestern corner of the pyramid complex of Djoser, Unas had workers level and cover older tombs in the area in order to complete his pyramid.
The pyramid of Unas is the smallest of the pyramids completed during the Old Kingdom, having a square base of only 189 ft × 189 ft at 141 ft high. The pyramid of Unas was part of a larger mortuary complex built around it. It was approached via an ancient lake on the shores of which Unas' valley temple was located. This temple received the provisions for the cult of the king and the offerings to be made were prepared there.
At the back of the valley temple was the beginning of a 700-meter causeway, equaled only to that of Khufu, and leading to an upper temple adjacent to the pyramid. A thin slit in the roof of the causeway allowed the light to illuminate its walls which were carved, for their entire length, in painted reliefs. These depicted the Egyptian seasons, processions of people from the nomes of Egypt, craftsmen at work, offering bearers, battle scenes and the transport of granite columns for the construction of the pyramid complex.
At the end of the causeway was a large hall leading to a pillared open court surrounded by magazine chambers. The court led into the mortuary temple proper which housed statues of the king and were where the offerings to the deceased took place. At the southeast corner of the enclosure was a small satellite pyramid for the Ka of the king. As mentioned, the Ka was basically the soul of the king.
The most important discovery was the pyramid texts. These comprised of 228 spells designated to ensure that the pharaoh completed his journey to the next world, some of which may have been recited during the burial ceremony. Unas' pyramid was the first to feature such texts, but the tradition was quickly established to become the norm in the next dynasty. No complete series exists in any of the pyramids, but a total of 400 have been compiled from the pyramid of Unas and his 6th Dynasty successors. These texts will eventually evolve into the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom and later into the famous 'Book of the Dead' during the New Kingdom.
The burial chamber housed nothing but a black basalt sarcophagus sunk into the floor and a canopic chest. The sarcophagus proved to contain scattered bones, but whether these belonged to Unas is uncertain.
The pyramid texts were intended to protect the body of the pharaoh in three different stages as it laid in the burial chamber. First, the spells were written to make sure the body of the pharaoh remained undisturbed in its sarcophagus until it was ready to travel. The second set of spells were for when the pharaoh traveled across the sky to the west. This would take place in a solar barge and these spells were to make sure that the journey was safe and without trouble. The third and final set of spells was to make sure the pharaoh would be accepted into the next world.
These spells combined the ideologies of Osiris and Ra, which were both seen as forces of rebirth. During the day, the sun, identified with Horus, traveled through the sky as the source of all life. At night it merged with Osiris in the netherworld to be reborn at daybreak. The Pyramid Texts guided the king to his place alongside the sun.
The west was always associated with the dead, probably because the sun dies everyday in the west and rises again in the east. For this reason, the Egyptians almost always lived on the east-bank and buried their dead on the west-bank of the Nile. All the Egyptian tombs are located on the west side of the Nile, which is considered the land of the dead. The god of the dead, Osiris, is called 'the lord of the West'.
“Like our 'Dearly Departed', the Egyptians would say that 'they went West'. They called the dead 'Westerners'.” - Egyptologist Bob Brier
The funerary cult of Unas continued until the end of the Old Kingdom and may have survived during the chaotic First Intermediate Period. The cult was still in existence or revived during the later Middle Kingdom (c. 2255-1650 BC). This did not prevent Amenemhat I and Senusret I from partially dismantling the mortuary complex of Unas for its materials. In parallel to the official cult, Unas may have received proper veneration as a local god of the Saqqara necropolis until the Late Period (712–332 BC), nearly 2,000 years after his death. His statues have never been found.
The 5th Dynasty ends with the death of King Unas who leaves no heir and a short period of political instability occurs until the rise of King Teti and the 6th Dynasty.
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