Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

ANGELA P. THOMAS: The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah

complex and if the reign was relatively short, this may explain why the monument was not completed, although much stone was probably robbed from it in later times. Interestingly there were hundreds of stone vessels buried in layers in the corridor and as in the Djoser complex there was a southern mastaba. However, by this time there was probably a lack of sufficient prestigious space in the early necropolis at Saqqara and therefore the next king, usually held to be Khaba, moved further away to construct his funerary monument. This is thought to be the Layer Pyramid at Zawiyet el-Aryan, which was intended to be a step pyramid, but the building work was apparently abandoned and the monument was perhaps never used for its purpose as a tomb.

20 The association with Khaba stems from stone vessels with his name from brick mastabas of Dynasty III situated a little to the north of the Layer Pyramid. There are also the identified remains of seven other step pyramids at Elephantine, Edfu, ElKola, Naqada, Abydos, Zawiyet el-Mayatin and Seila. These all seem to date to the later part of Dynasty III and are puzzling as they present no evidence of serving as tombs. It has been suggested that they are all monuments of the last ruler of the dynasty, Huni, and were cenotaphs or visible evidence of his authority.

2

' This is problematic, but Huni's actual funerary monument is probably the pyramid of Meidum, completed by his successor, Snefru, the first ruler of Dynasty IV. There were possibly several changes in plan resulting in a pyramid of seven steps and finally in eight steps, but these were filled and then faced to form a true pyramid.

22 Meidum had a necropolis with private mastabas, so it is possible to see the final developments in officials' tombs during Dynasty III and contrast them with the significant changes that had taken place during this period in royal funerary practices. This is also apparent at Saqqara where the private tomb had developed decoration as in the mastaba of Hesy-re with a painted niched palace facade and the carved wooden panels depicting Hesy-re and in the stone-lined walls carved with reliefs in other tombs. Decoration with a broad variety of scenes occurred in the brick mastabas at Meidum of Rahotep and Nefert and of Nefermaat and Atet including vignettes of daily life, occupations, depictions of the deceased and through representation the provision of :

" A. Barsanti, Ouverture de la pyramide de Zaouiet el-Aryan, ASAE II (1901), pp. 92-94. 21 G. Drcycr-W. Kaiser, Zu den Kleinen Stufenpyramiden Ober- und Mittel-Ägyptens, MDAIK 36 (1980), pp. 43-59. 22 W. M. Fl. Petrie, Medum, London 1892, B. Porter & R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. Vol. IV. Lower and Middle Egypt, Oxford 1934, pp. 89-95.