| Discussion of virtual reconstruction and interpretative choices |
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Exterior niching size and form based on the plan of the tomb in Emery (1958: pl. 2). Standing architecture almost 2m in height was preserved at time of excavation, including significant remains of plastered and painted exterior decoration. The original height of the core structure is unknown; a height of 5m is used in the model, but this is an estimate based on the location of the base dado of the painted design (solid yellow below a red dado with the polychrome design above; Emery 1958: pls. 15–16), which implies that the design extended much higher. The form, pattern, and color of the upper paneling in the model is hypothetical, as none of the the upper portions of the mastabas with exterior niching were preserved at Saqqara; the design here was based on Early Dynastic palace facade imagery that shows some type of flat panel between the most deeply recessed niches, with the shallower niched areas extending higher, as visualized more elaborately in Emery (1954: pl. 39). Emery’s drawn reconstruction suggests that the monument was ringed by two enclosure walls; the outer enclosure was preserved to height of 1.6m, with a batter of 3 (Emery 1958: 7).The exterior of the mastaba had elaborate niching on the north, east, and south sides; the west façade had a simpler design (Emery 1958: 7–8). The niches were white plastered and painted with elaborate polychrome geometric designs, including red, white, black, blue-green, and yellow (Emery 1958: 6). Surrounding the paneled façade area was a low bench, also plastered, .30m high and .55m wide (Emery 1958: 8). Remains of clay bull heads were discovered, and Emery suggested that they may have numbered in the hundreds (Emery 1958: 6); a clearer example of this type of decoration was recorded in tomb 3504 and is represented in that model. Emery suggested that the entire monument was enclosed with a roof (i.e., that the interior enclosure wall supported a roof over the main structure) based on the high level of preservation of the exterior painting (not on the archaeological remains). Other reconstructions do not appear to suggest that the monuments were fully enclosed (as shown in the reconstruction); this remains a point of hypothesis.A funerary temple stood on north side of the monument, also enclosed by the complex’s larger perimeter wall, with a doorway on east wall, north side. Rooms variously were plastered and in a few cases had polychrome painted decoration (Emery 1958: 10 and pl. 27).The surface between the inner and outer enclosure walls was originally covered with white gypsum plaster according to the Emery plates, so the monument reconstruction includes an off-white floor surface in this area (Emery 1958: 7 and pls. 13a–b).In Dynasty 5, the mastaba (as well as all the Dynasty 1 mastaba tombs) is replaced in the model by a deflated ruin; the elaborate niching, the polychrome painted patterns on these niches, and the temple and enclosures are replaced by a solid rectangular structure, shorter than the original, to represent the possible melting and collapse of the brick structure. The exact dating and duration for this process is unclear, but Emery’s excavations show that in Dynasty 2–3, new tombs were already built against and even over the earliest structures, suggesting that the deflation process was rapid and certainly took place before the end of the Old Kingdom.
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