Egypt’s Monuments Part X: The Rule Of Ra Part I: “The Fifth Dynasty – When The Sun Ruled”

Miroslav Verner’s next chapter deals with the Fifth Dynasty and the shift in the religious views as well as in the political ones. The ruler’s of the Fifth Dynasty were mostly made up of the priesthood, and if not, those who ruled were put into place because of the priesthood. This was the Dynasty with which the priesthood, and religion, started to take a significant role within Egyptian politics. In former Dynasties the monarchs were the ones in charge of the economic and political state, and they would only place their family members over the official offices. In the early Dynasties the priesthood played an insignificant part within the Egyptian state, and were only in charge of the religious factors of Egyptian life; they worked under the monarchs and only focused on their religious tasks. But in the Fifth Dynasty the religious officials started to take on more than their religious duties. This could have been because of the economic instability at the end of the Fourth Dynasty. The first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty may very well have had royal blood in him but he was also a High Priest. Before this dynasty the religion and state were separate, but the fall of the economy in the end of the Fourth Dynasty could have made the priesthood decide to intervene in state affairs.

A major political figure in the end of the Fourth Dynasty, and the beginning of the Fifth, was Queen Khentkaues I. Who is believed to have reigned for a short period during the gap between the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. Her fame was not present during her time, but after. Rulers who came years after her famed her as being the mother of the sun kings. There is a papyrus displaying, what is believed to be, her story: “And ultimately the queen mother Khentkaues probably went down in ancient Egyptian literature as the heroine of the myth of the divine birth of the kings of the Fifth Dynasty. The account given in the Westcar papyrus was written a thousand years after these events, in the era of the Hyksos kings. In it Rudjedjet appears as the consort of a sun-cult priest from the city of Sakhebu and as the mother of the sun kings, whose father was supposed to be the sun god Re himself.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: Their Archaeology and History. New York: Grove Press, 1997, p. 265). But like her supposed second husband, Userkaf, there is many more mysteries surrounding her than facts. Some Egyptologist believe that Userkaf could have been one of Menkaure’s sons: “His origin remains for the time being obscure, but he may have been, along with Shepseskaf, one of Menkaure’s sons. During his reign the sun cult seems to have reached its apogee, since from then on the title ‘son of Re’ became an inseparable part of the royal titulature. On the other hand, it is striking that in both Shepseskaf’s and Userkaf’s names the name of the sun god Re is lacking.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 265). There are chief events surrounding Userkaf’s name that entitles him to be the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, but other than that his origin and other main factors about him are unknown. He not only undertook campaigns in the typical country of Nubia, which his predecessors did as well, but also set up trade with other foreign countries; one of them being Greece. “He undertook a further campaign in Nubia, and during his reign renewed commercial contacts with foreign lands were developed, including contacts with the distant Greeks islands, as a stone vessel bearing his name and found on the island of Cythera shows.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 266). His successor was Sahure who continued the political strength and religious cult that Userkaf had set up.

The rulers of the Fifth Dynasty went down in ancient Egypt as the start of a new era and new religious ideals. But despite the impact that the Fifth Dynasty rulers had on Egyptians in later dynasties there was mystery shrouding all of the royals in power during that century. The only well known fact is that they had changed religion into a political office and the priesthood began to rise as a part of the state, instead of separate from it. There were a few rare ruler’s in the Fifth Dynasty who did not take on the recent religious ideals that had been set up, the sun cult, and one of these was King Djedkare. “At this time religious ideas and practices were spreading that had earlier played a role only at the highest level of society. The cult of the god Osiris, the ruler of the realm of the dead and the symbol of the eternal cycle of life and death, moved into the foreground. Shifts in religious ideas or economics or both were the basis for Djedkare’s decision not to have a sun temple built.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 272). Religion was not the only shift that occurred during this time, and like we saw with the first King of the Fifth Dynasty trade was established and both trade and crafts were prospering. “Crafts and trade were flourishing in the country, and additional expeditions were sent to Byblos, Nubia, and distant Punt, from whence the expedition’s leader, Baurdjed, even brought back a dancing dwarf to entertain the king. The fact that these expeditions did not always involve peaceful trade is shown by a unique scene of conquest preserved on the walls of Inti’s tomb in Deshasha in Middle Egypt.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 272). Another moderation that was established and prosperous during this era was writing: “Writing also flourished. In this period the famous work later known as The Maxims of Ptahhotep attributed by some scholars to Djedkare’s vizier of the same name. Its goal was to educate young men in absolute accord with the ancient Egyptian worldview and especially with the needs of the state.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 273).

The change from the end of the Fourth Dynasty to the beginning, and continuing on through, the Fifth Dynasty was as different as night and day. The Fourth Dynasty started off by prospering but in the end the political leaders, the monarchs, were not able to hold up the economy. Then it seems that once the priesthood changed its status from just a religious practice away from the state to becoming a political factor within the state; the economy was once again under stable rule. But was it truly the priesthood becoming part of the state that allowed the Fifth Dynasty rulers to flourish? So far this seems like the only possible solution to how Egypt’s economic stability was able to prosper after faltering in the last part of the Fourth Dynasty. For the religious officials of Egypt to combine with the state is not an uncommon act within civilizations. Many countries only prospered because of the funds that were brought in when religion became part of the state, but it is unclear if this is what happened in Egypt. Miroslav Verner focuses more on the pyramids in his book, and their construction, instead of state affairs and issues. But Egypt’s religion does play a major role within the Egyptian state and we can see it playing even a larger role during the Fifth Dynasty. Pyramids were created the way they were because of religion, and because many costs, materials, and manual labor went into building the pyramids we can make the hypothesis that the religion, indeed, did drive the Egyptian state.

A Break From Egypt’s History: An Introduction To Another Passion Of My Heart

I am going to take a small break from Miroslav Verner’s book to update my readership on the things that are going on. I want to introduce to another blog that I have started because of another passion I have. When I was young I was not only interested in history and archaeology, but I would spend hours reading and studying Animals, insects, and plants. How they lived, what they ate, their environments, and every other fact about them I could research. I believe that God created the animals and insects for specific purposes and through studying them I came to see that. I also saw another amazing thing, and that is through the animals and insects God is revealed. For Theologians, this is called general revelation; where an intelligent being is revealed through the things we see around us and even ourselves. But general revelation can only go so far, and this is why so many civilizations worshiped a god of some kind because they saw the things around them and knew it had to be created. But to learn and know who the true God is, the God of the Bible, we need to shown what is called “Special revelation,” which is what Paul used to tell the gentiles in Acts 17:23-32. Jesus was his message and he preached: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent(v. 30).” Those who worshiped gods went through a time of ignorance, but because of Jesus there is no longer ignorance and the true God is shown. Because if he was not God he would not have risen from the dead, only God could have power over death. So through the general revelation of this world I wish in this blog to show how it can lead to proof that there is an intelligent designer, and that we know who He is and what He has done. That He came to this earth walked among us, was put to death, and then rose again on the third day. The creatures of the earth show the glory of God and that is why scripture says: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12).” Because all of creation in the way God made it gives glory unto the Lord. The blog address is science-generalrevelation.blogspot.com and in this blog I desire to demonstrate that through the studies of Zoology, entomology, and botany the general revelation of God, an intelligent being, is clearly shown. Furthermore, by proving the existence of God, I wish to enlighten people to who God is, and encourage those who already know him to see how the creatures of earth proclaim his glory.

Enjoy,

Nicole Bittle

Egypt’s Monuments Part IX: The Pyramids Part VI; The Last Monarchs Of The Fourth Dynasty

In this post I will be finishing off Miroslav Verner’s chapter The Fourth Dynasty – The Greatest Of The Great and the last monuments mentioned are the third pyramid in Giza, the Mastabat Fara’un, and Queen Khentkaues I’s Step Pyramid. All of the monarchs responsible for the end of the Fourth Dynasty play significant roles in fall and economic instability in the end of the Fourth Dynasty. As stated in an earlier post the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty brought on much improvement from the Third, but in the end of the Fourth Dynasty the monarchs couldn’t keep this stability. One of these final rulers was a Queen who possibly ruled after her husband’s death, and was married to the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty. Unlike Snefru, and even Khufu and Khafre, the last rulers of this era did not live long lives and died early. All three monarchs did not have sufficient supplies and resources to build as extravagant of tombs like their predecessors. This just shows how the end of the Fourth Dynasty differs from the beginning, with the Great Builder Snefru. The final pyramid at Giza is not as grand as the other two, although Khafre’s pyramid is a lot grander on the outside than inside, it is still a significant monument in Egypt’s history. This final pyramid took not one, but both of the final male ruler’s, to finish constructing it. Because of this many Egyptologist’s believe Shepseskaf built a mastaba instead of a pyramid. I will give a brief history of all three rulers and their accomplishments.

The first of these three rulers in the end of the Fourth Dynasty was the builder of the third pyramid in Giza; King Menkaure. The three pyramids of Giza are sometimes called the “great troika” and Menkaure’s pyramid is the smallest, and Verner states that this is where the start of the decline of the Fourth Dynasty was. “The smallest pyramid of the ‘great troika’ in Giza stands not far from the Nile and is called ‘Menkaure is divine.’ One might almost think that it anticipated, in its dimensions and partly unfinished state, the approaching decline of the Fourth Dynasty.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids: Their Archaeology and History. New York: Grove Press, 1997, p. 242). Menkaure was not able to finish his masterpiece and that task was left for his successor, but while working on it he tried to follow after the designs of Khufu and Khafre. He used pink granite mostly as well and in fact the entire outward casing was meant to be pink granite. “As in the case of Khafre’s pyramid, here too it was necessary to thoroughly prepare the rock subsoil, especially around the northeast corner. The difference in elevation between the base levels of the two pyramids is slight: Menkaure’s is only two and a half meters higher. Its core consists of limestone blocks quarried nearby. Up to a height of about fifteen meters, its casing is made of pink granite, while farther up it was probably made of limestone.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 242). One of the most fascinating objects within the pyramid was Menkaure’s sarcophagus, which differed from Khufu’s and Khafre’s, and was not made of pink granite: “On the burial chamber’s west wall Vyse [Richard W. H.] found a beautiful basalt sarcophagus decorated with niches and a lid ornamented with a concave cornice. Ricke [Herbert] saw a certain parallel between these decorations and those of the shrine of the god Anubis, and he interpreted them as an expression of the effort to increase the protection of the tomb by means of that divinity.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 245). Sadly the sarcophagus was lost in a ship wreck when it was being brought to Great Britain. Menkaure started on his pyramid complex, mortuary temples and all, but because of his early death his successor had the task of finishing these projects.

Shepseskaf’s reign was much shorter than that of Menkaure’s, and this may be why he was not able to build a pyramid but instead a mastaba. Egyptologists first thought the Mastabat Fara’un belonged to the last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, but then through research and a fragmented stela found in the tomb it was accredited to Shepseskaf. The local people call the giant Mastaba tomb Mastabat Fara’un which means “Pharaoh’s Bench” and it is one of Egypt’s most puzzling tombs. One question is: why did he build this mastaba, a First Dynasty Pre-Dynastic era tomb, instead of the Fourth Dynasty pyramids that changed Egypt’s architecture forever? One of the answers to this is that Egypt’s economic stability was diminished in the end of the Fourth Dynasty. Unlike the pyramids of his predecessors Shepseskaf built his tomb out of mostly Limestone, which shows that he did not have the same materials accessible for building: “The casing consisted primarily of soft white limestone; only its lower level was made of pink granite.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 255). The mastaba opens up into a single corridor, or hallway, and then splits off into three big halls which hold the chambers and corridors of a typical tomb. Most scholars believe that the reason for why Shepseskaf built this mastaba is because he finished off all the available resources on Menkaure’s pyramid, and so resorted to making his tomb a mastaba. But there are those who have other ideas for why Shepseskaf built Mastbat Fara’un. One of these ideas is offered by Gustave Jequier: “He was convinced that Shepseskaf had intentionally chosen the unusual form of his royal tomb. As a protest against the increasing influence of the priesthood of the sun god Re, he rejected a tomb in the form of a pyramid, considered as a symbol of the sun, and decided to build a mastaba-like structure for himself. According to Jequier, the break with earlier tradition was emphasized by the fact that Shepseskaf did not have his tomb erected in the old cemetery at Giza, but rather in a distant place in modern South Saqqara. Jequier sees further evidence for his theory in the ruler’s name, which did not include the component re.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 257). But most Egyptologists go with the common idea that he didn’t have the materials to build a pyramid because of the fall in the economy at the end of the Fourth Dynasty.

The last ruler of the Fourth Dynasty was also one of the first Queens of the Fifth Dynasty. Queen Khentkaues I has a lot of mystery and uncertainty surrounding her. She is one of the rare queens who are thought to have ruled in Egypt, who is believed by some to have been the wife of Shepseskaf and then was remarried to the first king of the Fifth Dynasty, Userkaf. “He [Selim Hassan] considered Khentkaues I to be Shepseskaf’s consort and believed that after Shepseskaf’s death she ruled for a short time but was ultimately forced to yield power to the priesthood. The result was her marriage with Userkaf, the high priest of the sun god Re from Heliopolis and the later founder of the Fifth Dynasty. She refused, however, to be buried next to either her first or her second husband, and decided instead to have her own tomb built in Giza, near her royal predecessors.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 263). Her tomb was once considered to be the fourth pyramid at Giza and is said to resemble her first husband’s tomb; which would be the Mastabat Fara’un. Like her predecessors she used pink granite and limestone for the materials, and she tried to make both steps completely square. An interesting fact is that the tomb was altered: “Not long after it was completed, the tomb was substantially altered, probably during the first half of the Fifth Dynasty. Over the west half of the tomb, a limestone structure with an oblong plan that resembled a mastaba was built. It was intentionally not placed over the center of the tomb, since its weight might have ruptured the ceilings of the chambers in the lower part.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 260). The alteration on Khentkaues tomb is theorized to be because of the change of religion because where in the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty only those of the royal family ruled, during the time of Khentkaues the priesthood began to rule. Her second husband, a high priest, founded the Fifth Dynasty and this shows in the changes made to her tomb. “The transformation of the tomb, which probably took place at the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty, seems to have been intended to express a fundamental conceptual change connected with a later elevation of Khentkaues’s status and that of her cult. Only concern about the stability of the original rock-cut tomb prevented the construction of a pyramid with two or possibly three steps.” (Miroslav Verner, The Pyramids, p. 261-262).

These last monarchs who ruled in the end of the Fourth Dynasty show through their tombs and building materials that the economy had plummeted from where it once was. Under the first King of this era, Snefru, the economy was flourishing, but like with all civilizations there are seasons of plenty and then seasons of hardship. Not only did the Fifth Dynasty bring about economical changes but the monarchy was changed as well. In the Fourth Dynasty those born of royal blood were the only ones who ruled Egypt, and many kings placed their royal family members in charge of the official offices. But the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty was not a royal but instead a High Priest, and so the priesthood began to take a higher status then in the eras before. This began an inward fight that is commonly seen in civilizations, a battle of the monarchs and the priesthood. In some cases the monarchs win out and in others the priesthood does, and the first ruler of the Fifth Dynasty is proof of this type of instability. Many civilizations of the past have dealt with the same inward fighting, although it is mostly a political fight and blood is rarely shed over this type of warring. But nonetheless the instability of Egypt’s economy at that time shows that there was another hidden type of instability occurring; a political one.