Relief from the
mastaba of
Werirenptah
From Saqqara, Egypt
5th
Dynasty, around 2400 BC
In the early years of the twentieth century,
museums in Europe and North America acquired a number of
tomb-chapels of
mastabas,
which the Egyptian government had made available for sale. This
example belonged to Werirenptah, a man who was a middle-ranking
official, and who held the title of 'priest of Re and
Hathor in the sun-temple of [King] Neferirkare'. Such
priests were not those who carried out the daily rituals, but
officials who had been favoured by the king by being allowed to
receive some of the revenues from that
temple.
The
mastaba consists of a
main wall with two false
doors that serve as offering places. The false
doors are accompanied by scenes of offering, butchers, and also
dancing and music-making. Other walls show agricultural scenes and
preparation of the funeral equipment.
S.A. Gomez-Deluchi, The British Museum reliefs of (Oxford, 1996)
T.G.H. James (ed.), Hieroglyphic texts from Egyp-9, Part 1, 2nd edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1961)
