Tomb of Meryneith/Meryre

Description

Type of resource	three dimensional object

Creators/Contributors

Creator	Sullivan, Elaine A.

Bibliographic information

Contained on project page	Title Model Metadata: Dynasty 18
ORIGINAL OWNER OR SPONSOR OF STRUCTURE (Owner/Builder)	Title Meryneith / Meryre
TYPE OF MONUMENT (Type)	Title Temple tomb
TEMPORAL PERIOD OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First Period)	Title New Kingdom
DYNASTY OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First Dynasty)	Title Dynasty 18
ROYAL REIGN OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First King)	Title Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten
SITE	Title Saqqara
MODERN SCHOLAR/EXPLORER FIRST DOCUMENTING STRUCTURE (Discoverer)	Title Raven and van Walsem
YEAR OF REDISCOVERY IN MODERN TIMES (Years)	Title 2001.0
TYPE OF STRUCTURE (3D Model Type)	Title Custom model
DATE OF MODEL CONSTRUCTION OR UPDATE (3D Model Data)	Title 2016.0
NAME OF 3D MODELER	Title Sophie Short
SOFTWARE USED FOR MODEL BUILD	Title SketchUp Pro
COPYRIGHT (Copyright)	Title UC Regents, 3D Saqqara Project
SOURCES/REFERENCES FOR 2D BASE DATA (Citation)	Title Polygon created for the 3D Saqqara Project, 2013, from digital data from Bresciani and Giammarusti (2003), added to and emended by GIS Supervisor and Senior Surveyor Emanuele Brienza (2010)
COMMENTS ON 2D DATA (Annotation)	Title Polygon location and date based on Maarten Raven, The Tomb of Pay and Raia at Saqqara, Excavation Memoir 74 (Leiden: National Museum of Antiquities, 2005), fig. 1
BASEMAPS/IMAGERY UTILIZED FOR GEO-REFERENCING 2D BASE DATA (Maps Used)	Title -
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL HEIGHT OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Height Original(m))	Title ~6.1 pyramid, including the plinth (estimated)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL LENGTH OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Length Original(m))	Title ~32.5
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL WIDTH OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Width Original(m))	Title 9.65
SOURCES/REFERENCE USED AS BASIS FOR 3D MODEL CONSTRUCTION (3D Data Source)	Title Maarten Raven et al., The Tomb of Meryneith at Saqqara (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL EXTERIOR DECORATION	Title Niched stela, painted
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL EXTERIOR MATERIAL (3D Texture)	Title Stone, mud-brick, mud plaster, white plasterThe majority of the structure was textured to represent the layer of white gypsum plaster that covered the mud plaster and mud-brick underneath; the roofing and pillars/columns were textured as white limestone; the pyramid is represented as white plastered, following the treatment given to the exterior walls
UNCERTAINTY LEVEL FOR 3D MODEL CONSTRUCTION	Title 1.0
Elevation - placement in model ASL	Title 56.3 (base of walls of open court), 56.5 (base of pylon/gateway)
Discussion of virtual reconstruction and interpretative choices	Title Meryneith’s tomb consisted of an off-axis entry to an open courtyard, a vestibule, a peristyle inner court with vaulted chambers in all four corners, and a central sanctuary with two columns capped by a stone pyramid; the 3D model of this tomb was based on the descriptions, plans, and site photographs in Raven et al. (2014: 57-71, fig. III.3), with the multiple phases of construction simplified down to a single moment, including the ‘phase 4’ opening of an entrance on the south wall of the courtyard; the 3D model is a highly simplified version of the monumentThe floor level of the tomb enclosure and mud-plaster forecourt were raised 20cm to lie at the same level of the peristyle court (Raven et al. 2014: 63). The thickness of the eastern wall of the east chapels measured 1.33m, in contrast with the north, south, and west walls (.5m–.8m thick). The western entrance façade had a slight angle, so the excavators concluded that a pylon-like entrance would have been located on the east side (Raven et al. 2014: 63); the eastern exterior wall of the tomb has been raised to 3.89m in a pseudo-pylon form to accommodate this theory, the hypothetical height calculated through comparison with another Dynasty 18 tomb at Saqqara (Tia and Tia). The width of the vestibule was too great to have been roofed with limestone slabs, so it was left uncovered (although Raven et al. 2014: 69 suggested that wood was a possible roof option). The exterior walls of the tomb are reconstructed at 2.84m (although the original height was unknown) based on the height of the preserved columns (measuring 2.24m from base to abacus), with an addition of .6m of roofing in some model locations.A plinth has been included in the pyramid structure, in the style of Tia and Tia’s pyramid; the form and position of the pyramid is based on Raven et al. (2014: figs. III.3 and III.12)
Part of publication	Title Sullivan, Elaine A. Constructing the Sacred: Visibility and Ritual Landscape at the Egyptian Necropolis at Saqqara, Redwood City: Stanford University Press 2020, http://doi.org/10.21627/2020cts
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/fy012tz8909

Access conditions

Use and reproduction

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The material is made available for non-commercial, research purposes. Any third party material may need to be permissioned separately for reuse.

Copyright

Stanford University, 2019.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).

Collection

Constructing the Sacred Archive

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