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57-632: The temple complex is surrounded by a 275 m (902 ft) wide and 325 m (1,066 ft) long enclosure wall and is located southeast of the Pyramid of Teti and south of the Anubieum . It had a large entrance way in the south wall, a feline necropolis and settlements. In the New Kingdom , the location was already the site of a temple of Bastet, who was honoured as the Lady of Ankhtawy . Proper investigation of

114-517: A Milanese printer, and of an unnamed father, but identified by family tradition with Camillo Marsuzi de Aguirre, Italian revolutionary on the run. Maspero was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and at a Jesuit boarding school, followed by university studies at the École Normale Supérieure . While at school he showed a special taste for history and became interested in Egypt following a visit to

171-448: A deviation of the floor which traditionally should have been located in the axis of the temple but here is moved south. It then accesses the temple through a hallway of the north–south facade joining the east–west axis of the monument. Followed in this main axis is a second hall. The thickness of the walls suggests a vaulted cover. It was probably the "Room of the Greats", on the walls of which

228-518: A hundred cat mummies and thousands of cat bones have been found. The cat cemetery developed in the second half of the first millennium BC became as important as the cat cemetery at Bubastis . Radiographic investigations showed that the majority of cats were killed at a young age by either strangulation or by violent blows on their skulls. Several examined packets contained only a few cat bones, and others even no bones at all, but only clay and pebbles. The cats were mummified in two different manners. In

285-459: A new larger Cairo facility, to encourage the Egyptians to take greater responsibility for the maintenance of their own heritage by increasing public awareness of it. In 1912 he also succeeded where his predecessors had failed in the introduction of a series of anti-looting laws. Because of the long hours that he worked his eye-sight began to decline and so in the spring of 1914 he resigned his post in

342-468: A passage where access was closed by a double door. The walls of these rooms are covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions commonly called the Pyramid Texts . The pyramid of Teti is the second royal monument to contain the complex theological corpus to assist and support the rebirth of the king. The burial chamber contains an unfinished greywacke sarcophagus, a fragment of a lid and a canopic container that

399-412: A series of club heads with the names of Teti has reached us and one of the canopic jars containing the viscera of the king. The most troubling item found among the debris of the funeral viaticum is the plaster mold of a death mask . The reproduced molding transmits to us the face of a man with eyes closed, mouth slightly open. The expression is striking and it is purported to be an image of Teti making it

456-564: A session of the Académie on 30 June 1916, he fell ill and died on his bench. He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Maspero married the journalist Harriett Yapp, known as Ettie, on 11 November 11, 1871. The couple had two children: Georges (a future sinologist) and Isabelle who was born on 20 September 1873. A few days after the birth of her daughter Harriett died of peritonitis at

513-540: A temple of worship. Among the many tombs that form this necropolis of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt include: During the Middle Kingdom , the cult of the king was assured as evidenced by recent discoveries to the east of Teti's pyramid of the tombs of Sa-Hathor-Ipy and of Sekoueskhet (Sekweskhet). These were two priests attached to the worship of the famous pharaoh. In the New Kingdom , other graves are arranged near

570-563: A three-week long bout of dysentery, and before the end of that same year had fallen down a tomb-shaft, had an attack of rheumatism and a minor stroke. Maspero also began plans to clear out the Luxor Temple . This would require compensating the owners of the various houses that had been constructed against, inside and on top of the temple. As the Antiquities Service was desperately short of funds he negotiated with Thomas Cook to introduce

627-668: A visitors tax (later changed to an entry ticket) but this was insufficient. He pleaded to the British colonial authority but Sir Colin Scott-Moncreiff, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works rejected his petition, claiming it was the practice in England for undertakings such as this to be funded by personal donations. A public appeal raised enough funds to commence clearance of the temple in 1884. As an aspect of his attempt to curtail

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684-448: Is a smooth-sided pyramid situated in the pyramid field at Saqqara in Egypt . It is the second known pyramid containing pyramid texts . Excavations have revealed a satellite pyramid, two pyramids of queens accompanied by cult structures, and a funerary temple. The pyramid was opened by Gaston Maspero in 1882 and the complex explored during several campaigns ranging from 1907 to 1965. It

741-405: Is located southeast of the royal pyramid and therefore was accessible only through a corridor of stores and halls of worship. This small pyramid covers an underground plan consisting of a short ramp leading to a single underground chamber. In the middle of the courtyard of the paribolos, facing east and west, are two landscaped basins in the granite floor. Their use is disputed by Egyptologists, but

798-436: Is nothing more than a simple hole in the ground. And for the first time, a royal sarcophagus contains inscriptions, here slightly etched on the hollow interior of the vessel. Although looted since ancient times, remains of the king's grave goods were found during the first excavation of the monument. Consisting mainly of stone materials, these objects have been abandoned by looters, probably considered useless or worthless. Thus,

855-508: The Peribolos , a sacred part of the royal pyramid reserved for priests of the king, was a chapel containing the five Naos , housing five statues of the King appearing in the aspect of the five principal deities of the realm. This part also included a private room containing the false door stela of the King, a veritable object of funeral worship, and a double row of stores on both sides of the axis of

912-626: The 18th and 19th Dynasties and were plundered in the Late Period . After this they were remodelled and reused for the cat mummies from the nearby sanctuary of Bastet. Two of these tombs were discovered in the early 1980s and the rest have been uncovered more recently. The majority of the graves are carved from the rock face, but some are built of high-value Tura limestone. The decoration is very diverse, often differing significantly within individual tombs. It consists mainly of reliefs, as well as paintings which vary from good to exceptional quality. Many of

969-741: The Egyptian galleries of the Louvre at the age of fourteen. At university he excelled in Sanskrit as well as hieroglyphics . It was while Maspero was in final year at the École normale in 1867 that friends mentioned his skills at reading hieroglyphics to Egyptologist Auguste Mariette , who was in Paris as commissioner for the Egyptian section of the Exposition universelle . Mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of considerable difficulty to study, and

1026-449: The French government, which ultimately developed into the well-equipped Institut français d'archéologie orientale . This occurred a few months before the death of Mariette, whom Maspero then succeeded as director-general of excavations and of the antiquities of Egypt. Maspero later claimed he only took the position to prevent it falling out of French hands by being given to Emile Brugsch, who

1083-599: The University of Oxford. He was made an honorary Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (United Kingdom) in 1909. He was a member of Queen's College (University of Oxford), American Archaeological Institute (Boston), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cambridge, Massachusetts), American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia), American Oriental Society (Ann Arbor) and the Turin Academy of Sciences. On 30 November 1883, he

1140-553: The age of 27. At the end of October 1880, the 34-year-old Maspero married 22-year-old Louise Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (1856-1953), great-niece of Benjamin Constant and sister of Paul d'Estournelles de Constant . The couple had two children: Henri Maspero (who became a sinologist), and Jean Maspero (who became a papyrologist ). Maspero was Commander of the Legion of Honour and received an honorary degree from

1197-409: The burial chambers are located inside the adjoining chapel against the north face of the pyramid. The entrance hallway leads to a long descent of eighteen hundred and twenty-three metres. The entrance was once blocked by a plug of granite now lost. The descending passage was probably clogged along its length by large blocks of limestone that thieves have broken up. The debris still littered the passage at

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1254-464: The collections made rapid progress under Maspero's direction. Twenty-four volumes or sections were already published in 1909. This work and the increasing workload of the Antiquities Service led to an expansion of staff at the museum, including the 17-year-old Howard Carter . It was Maspero who recommended Carter to George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1907, when the Earl approached him to seek advice for

1311-421: The core to slump All around the funerary complex of the king extends one of the richest parts of the necropolis of Saqqara. The king, whose special destiny seems to have impressed his contemporaries, will be revered later as a divine mediator along with a few courtiers who have in some sense inherited it by reputation. The king was also accompanied by his two principal wives who each had a pyramid accompanied with

1368-666: The defence of France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and was granted French citizenship in recognition of his service. In January 1873 he presented the first doctoral thesis on Egyptology in France. In 1874 he was appointed to the chair of Champollion at the Collège de France , succeeding Emmanuel de Rougé . By the end of the 1870s he was regarded as the leading French Egyptologist of his generation. In November 1880 Maspero went to Egypt as head of an archeological mission sent there by

1425-581: The development of the Egyptian language. Selecting five later Old Kingdom tombs, he was successful in that aim, finding over 4,000 lines of hieroglyphics which were then sketched and photographed. In 1882 he led the first excavation at Lisht which resulted in the discovery of the eroded Pyramid of Amenemhet I . He dispatched Emile Brugsch to Luxor to supervise the removal of a cache of royal mummies that had recently been found. Basing himself on his official streamer Maspero himself took charge of work at Zawiyet el-Aryan, Dahshur and Meidum. In October he had to endure

1482-502: The discovery of a hidden tomb near Dayr al-Baḥrī , containing 40 mummies, including pharaohs Seti I , Amenhotep I , Thutmose III , and Ramses II . His study of these findings was published in Les Momies royales de Deir-el-Bahari (1889). After a brief period in Paris, he returned to Egypt to organize a vast collection of antiquities at a museum in Cairo's Būlāq district , which later became

1539-488: The foundation of the Egyptian Museum established in 1902. During his second tenure as director general (1899–1914), Maspero regulated excavations, combated illicit trade, preserved monuments, and oversaw the archaeological survey of Nubia . Maspero was highly regarded for his versatility and contributions to Egyptology. He authored the comprehensive Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique (1895–1897) and

1596-425: The funerary complex of Teti, who is sometimes referred to as a true deity. Mose , a scribe, had his decorated tomb chapel here. Under the reign of Ramses II , Khaemwaset , the royal prince and High Priest of Ptah , would even restore the pyramid of the distant ruler, taking care to re-register his name on one side of his pyramid. Finally, in the Late Period , popular enthusiasm for the gods of Saqqara increased to

1653-534: The hope of enjoying some remaining years to be devoted to his favourite studies, and to the congenial duties of Secretaire Perpetuel of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres. Following his return to France Maspero was elected perpetual secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on 24 July 1914. Following his retirement he had a heart attack, from which he never fully recovered and while attending

1710-720: The items discovered in the tombs, especially those from the tomb of Aperel , are now found in the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara. The numbering of the tombs is that of the MAFB, in which the tombs of the upper level are numbered with a Roman numeral I and those of the lower level with a II. There is possibly a third level, buried under debris. After the roman numeral, the individual tombs are numbered from east to west with Arabic numerals 29°52′26″N 31°13′25″E  /  29.873775°N 31.223656°E  / 29.873775; 31.223656 Pyramid of Teti The pyramid of Teti

1767-485: The journal Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes . Published quarterly, it was the first French journal to act as a medium for publishing the results of detailed studies bearing on Egyptology and Assyriology. Maspero was not only its editor but its main contributor during the nearly 40 years of its existence. He also established the Bibliothèque égyptologique in which

Bubasteum - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-434: The location of these basins, following the path of the sun, suggests ritual practices that shed some light on the role of this monument. The orientation of the pyramid is not aligned with the four cardinal points. However, the proportions and plan of the pyramid follow exactly the same pattern as that of the pyramid of Djedkare Isesi . The internal dimensions and slope are the same and it is otherwise very similar. Access to

1881-424: The main hall in ruins. Maspero had already made some repairs and clearances there (continued in his absence by unofficial but authorized explorers of many nationalities) in his previous tenure of office, and now he set up a team of workmen under French Egyptologists and regularly visited to oversee its reconstruction work, opposing some Romantics who wished the ruins left as they were. In 1903 an alabaster pavement

1938-481: The one, the legs and tail were bound and wrapped close to the body; in the other, head, body, legs and tail were separately wrapped in cloth, some with eyes and ears added. Some mummies were found in wooden or stone sarcophagi . Some were even buried with kittens, sculptures, jewellery and amulets . The mummification procedure was quite basic: the animal was simply dried out without removing the innards. The priests perhaps sold pilgrims mummies of different qualities. In

1995-503: The only true royal portrait that has survived from the Old Kingdom. The Egyptian Royal Cubit is estimated at 525 mm. Teti's pyramid measures 78.5 per side at the base and the height is 52.5 m. These are equal to 150 cubits per side at the base and 100 cubits high. The core was a built in steps and accretions made of small, locally quarried stone and debris fill. This was covered with a layer of dressed limestone which has been removed, causing

2052-480: The point that a temple dedicated to Anubis is built on the funerary complex of Teti whose pyramid continued to dominate the entire valley and would remain a sacred monument to all the devotees who borrowed while along dromos leading to the Serapeum of Saqqara and which skirted the venerable pyramid of Teti. Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero KCMG (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916)

2109-515: The rampant illegal export of Egyptian antiquities by tourists, collectors and agents for the major European and American museums, Maspero arrested the Abd al-Russul brothers from the notorious tomb-robbing village of Gurneh ( Kurna ), who denied being responsible even under torture, then after a family dispute finally led the authorities to the great cache of royal mummies at Deir el-Bahri in July 1881. The cache

2166-421: The royal family and influential members of the court were to be represented assisting and accompanying the eternal journey of their sovereign. This hall opened into an open courtyard surrounded on all four sides by colonnades whose main purpose was the presentation of daily offerings and ritual libations. The only way out is centered to the west and provides access to the innermost part the sanctuary. Included in

2223-781: The same scope, which passed through six editions from 1875 to 1904; Etudes de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes (Paris, 1893, etc.), a collection of reviews and essays originally published in various journals, and especially important as contributions to the study of Ancient Egyptian religion ; L'Archéologie égyptienne (1887), of which several editions have been published in English. Maspero also wrote: Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah (Paris, 1894); Les momies royales de Deir el-Bahari (Paris, 1889); Les contes populaires de l'Egypte ancienne (3rd ed., Paris, 1906); and Causeries d'Egypte (1907), translated by Elizabeth Lee as New Light on Ancient Egypt (1908). In 1878 he established

2280-616: The scattered essays of the French Egyptologists are collected, with biographies, etc.; and the Annales du service des antiquités de l'Egypte , a repository for reports on official excavations, etc. In 1888, he published the first edition of the Arabic–Old French glossary . Some public domain e-books by Maspero: The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) building in Cairo , Egypt

2337-486: The site was begun in 1976 by Alain-Pierre Zivie and the first excavations began in 1980. In 1986, the Mission Archéologique Française du Bubasteion (MAFB), was founded, which has overseen all investigations of the site since then. In the second half of the 18th Dynasty , high dignitaries created rock-cut tombs for themselves in this area, which were later reused as cat- catacombs . To date, more than

Bubasteum - Misplaced Pages Continue

2394-408: The temple. The first row frames the party host and is accessible by a long corridor along the entire width of the building that leads to the south and north within the peribolos of the pyramid. The second set frames the sanctuary and the hall of statues of gods and was only accessible from the latter. The last element essential to the funerary cult, the satellite-pyramid encircled in its own peribolos,

2451-438: The time of discovery. In the descending corridor is a successive horizontal hallway, a vestibule, another hallway, a bedroom with harrows, a final corridor, and a final granite passage which opens into the funerary apartments of the King. The room with harrows spans more than six metres and is designed with alternating limestone and granite. The three granite harrows, originally lowered, are now broken into several pieces leaving

2508-485: The tomb of Tutankhamun 's wet-nurse Maia found on the site in 1996, a lion skeleton was excavated in 2001. The lion was considered a manifestation of the god Maahes , son of Bastet. In 2019, five lion mummies were found at the necropolis. On the south side of the Bubasteum, near the excavation headquarters of the French mission, is a Steilhang , which contains two levels of tombs. These were created by high officials in

2565-637: The use of an expert to head his planned archaeological expedition to the Valley of the Kings . In 1904, when the British decided to raise the Aswan Low Dam by seven metres, Maspero managed to raise the necessary funds to isolate, consolidate, but also study a large number of religious buildings in Lower Nubia, which were threatened with engulfment. Maspero also set up a network of local museums throughout Egypt, including

2622-420: The way open to visitors. The horizontal passage leads to rooms consisting of a funeral serdab , an antechamber, and a burial chamber. All three are aligned along an east–west axis. The only peculiarity of the serdab is the size of the block ensuring its coverage, measuring 6.72 metres long with a weight of forty tons. The antechamber and burial chamber are covered with huge vaulted rafters. They are connected by

2679-404: The young self-taught scholar produced translations of them in less than a fortnight , a great feat in those days when Egyptology was still almost in its infancy. The publication of these texts in the same year established his academic reputation. In 1869 Maspero became a teacher ( répétiteur ) of Egyptian language and archeology at the École pratique des hautes études . Maspero fought in

2736-539: Was German. After a brief vacation back in France to organise his affairs Maspero returned to Egypt in September 1881 to take up his position. Aware that his reputation was then more as a linguist than an archaeologist, Maspero's first work in the post was to build on Mariette's achievements at Saqqara . He expanded their scope from the early Old Kingdom to the later, with particular interest in tombs with long and complete hieroglyphic inscriptions that could help illustrate

2793-550: Was a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government. Widely regarded as the foremost Egyptologist of his generation, he began his career teaching Egyptian language in Paris becoming a professor at the Collège de France . In 1880, he led an archaeological mission to Egypt, which later became the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale . In 1881, Maspero's investigation led to

2850-429: Was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Among his best-known publications are the large Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique (3 vols., Paris, 1895–1897, translated into English by M. L. McClure for the S.P.C.K.), displaying the history of the whole of the nearer East from the beginnings to the conquest by Alexander ; a smaller Histoire des peuples de l'Orient , 1 vol., of

2907-483: Was found in the court of the 7th Pylon, and beneath it a shaft leading to a large hoard of almost 17,000 statues, with every part of the dig drawn, recorded and photographed. On Maspero's arrival in 1899 he found the collections in the Bulak Museum enormously increased, and while working to expand them further he superintended their transfer from Gizeh to the new quarters at Qasr El Nil in 1902. The vast catalogue of

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2964-497: Was moved to Cairo as soon as possible to keep it safe from robbers. He was elected member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres on 20 November 1883. In 1886, he resumed work begun by Mariette to uncover the Sphinx , removing more than 65 feet (20 m) of sand and seeking tombs below it. He also introduced admission charges for Egyptian sites to the increasing number of tourists to pay for their upkeep and maintenance. Maspero

3021-401: Was originally called Teti's Places Are Enduring . The preservation above ground is very poor, and it now resembles a small hill. Below ground the chambers and corridors are very well preserved. The pyramid complex of Teti follows a model established during the reign of Djedkare Isesi , the arrangement of which is inherited from the funerary complexes of Abusir . A valley temple, now lost,

3078-499: Was popular with museum keepers and collectors because he was known to be a "pragmatic" director of the Service of Antiquities, one who would allow them to remove from the country what he did not want for the Bulak Museum in Cairo . Maspero did not attempt to halt all collecting, but rather sought to control what went out of the country and to gain the confidence of those who were regular collectors. When Maspero left his position in 1886 and

3135-400: Was probably destroyed in antiquity due to the place of an Old Kingdom temple dedicated to Anubis constructed there. A better known funerary temple, revealed by James Edward Quibell in 1906, is connected to the valley temple by a causeway. The plan of the temple of Teti is also comparable to that of Unas , its immediate predecessor. Teti's temple has a somewhat special plan, however, due to

3192-548: Was replaced by a series of other directors who attempted to halt the trade in antiquities, his absence was much lamented. Maspero resumed his professorial duties in Paris teaching at the Collège de France and the École des Hautes Etudes from June 1886 until 1899, when, at 53, he returned to Egypt in his old capacity as director-general of the department of antiquities and remained there until his retirement in 1914. On 3 October 1899, an earthquake at Karnak collapsed 11 columns and left

3249-779: Was the first editor and translator of the Pyramid Texts , known as the Book of the Dead . His work extended to art, mythology, and religion, influencing many through his role as editor of the Recueil de travaux and Director of the Egyptian Service des Antiquités . Maspero's son, Henri Maspero , became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia . Gaston Maspero was born in Paris in 1846 to Adela Evelina Maspero, who had been born in Milan in 1822, daughter of

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