Serapeum Complex

Description

Type of resource	three dimensional object

Creators/Contributors

Creator	Sullivan, Elaine A.

Bibliographic information

Contained on project page	Title Model Metadata: Dynasties 26-30
ORIGINAL OWNER OR SPONSOR OF STRUCTURE (Owner/Builder)	Title Unknown (Serapeum)
TYPE OF MONUMENT (Type)	Title Sacred animal complex, catacomb, enclosure, temple
TEMPORAL PERIOD OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First Period)	Title Late Period
DYNASTY OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First Dynasty)	Title Dynasty 26
ROYAL REIGN OF ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION (First King)	Title Nectanebo I? (enclosure wall) (see also Dynasty 18 for earlier chapels)
SITE	Title Saqqara
MODERN SCHOLAR/EXPLORER FIRST DOCUMENTING STRUCTURE (Discoverer)	Title Mariette
YEAR OF REDISCOVERY IN MODERN TIMES (Years)	Title 1850.0
TYPE OF STRUCTURE (3D Model Type)	Title Custom model
DATE OF MODEL CONSTRUCTION OR UPDATE (3D Model Date)	Title 2016.0
NAME OF 3D MODELER	Title Elaine Sullivan
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 data from Bresciani and Giammarusti (2003) added to and emended by GIS Supervisor and Senior Surveyor Emanuele Brienza (2010)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL HEIGHT OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Height Original(m))	Title 4 (estimated for Nectanebo II temple)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL LENGTH OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Length Original(m))	Title 35.5 (Nectanebo II temple)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL WIDTH OF STRUCTURE IN METERS (Width Original(m))	Title 17.75 (Nectanebo II temple)
SOURCES/REFERENCE USED AS BASIS FOR 3D MODEL CONSTRUCTION (3D Data Source)	Title Auguste Mariette, Le Sérapéum de Memphis (Paris: Vieweg, 1882), vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/lesrapumdememph00marigoog and Jean Philippe Lauer and Charles Picard, Les statues Ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1955)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL ENCLOSURE WALL DIMENSIONS	Title 270 (north-south) x 240 (east-west) (estimated)
DESCRIPTION – ORIGINAL EXTERIOR MATERIAL (3D Texture)	Title Enclosure wall: mud-brick, Mariette (1882: 1:77). The temple of Nectanebo II: The plan of Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 1) shows that the temple was made of mud-brick with a façade on the west of Turah/white limestone blocks; it does not show a limestone casing around the other sides of the building. Egyptian-style shrine on the dromos is designated as Turah limestone in Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 26); sizing of the dromos wall and dromos paving-stone pattern was based on the reconstruction of Mariette’s excavations published in Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 17c), with four courses of stone blocks for the dromos walls.
UNCERTAINTY LEVEL FOR 3D MODEL CONSTRUCTION	Title 4.0
Elevation - placement in model ASL	Title 43 (base of Nectanebo II temple), 41.6 (ground level at the enclosure main gate); enclosure wall stands at various heights
Discussion of virtual reconstruction and interpretative choices	Title The original form and heights of most of the Serapeum structures are highly hypothetical. The enclosure walls are generally dated to Nectanebo I, and the temple to Nectanebo II. The estimated size and form of the Serapeum enclosure was designed based on the plan in Mariette (1882: vol. 1), the plan of the dromos, eastern temple of Nectanebo II, and entrance to the Serapeum on the plan in Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 1), and the hypothetical reconstruction of the Egyptian-style shrine on the dromos from Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 17). The presence of a southern and western enclosure wall remains hypothetical (and is so indicated on Mariette's map), so those have been reconstructed in the suggested location in the model, but the exact size and location of these walls remains uncertain.Only the Late Period elements of the Serapeum were modeled; the Greek and Roman period additions (including the hemicircle of philosophers, a Greek chapel along the north dromos wall, and other structures) were not included. Elisabeth David, “Processional Way of Sphinxes,” 2016, http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/processional-way-sphinxes suggested that the sphinxes originally assigned by Mariette to the Late Period are instead dated to the early Ptolemaic Period (Ptolemy I or II), so they were not included in the model.The plan of Lauer and Picard (1955: pl. 1) documented a series of additional mud-brick service buildings located to the south and west (and presumably associated with) the Nectanebo II complex. Due to lack of information on their form or appearance, they were not included in the model.Based on comparative monuments, Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 8 pl. III suggested that a series of temples would have stood within the Serapeum enclosure walls. There would also have been a series of monumental gateways along the east-west axis and the north-south axis, as well as a large gateway and building along the north enclosure wall (where in the model only a stone gateway is currently reconstructed) that leads to a pathway linked to the sacred animal necropolis. None of his hypothesized structures are included in the model due to lack of detail on their form or exact position.
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/zk049nr1655

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Copyright

Stanford University, 2019.

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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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