DW Podcast | Ancient Egypt - 06 - Pharaoh Sneferu

The following is a DW Ancient Egypt production. In the last episode, we discussed the third dynasty and observed the advancements toward the pyramid complex. We begin this episode on Pharaoh Sneferu, the first king of the fourth dynasty. He created three large pyramids which set the standard for true pyramid construction, making him one of Egypt's greatest rulers. The topics of this episode include Pharaoh Sneferu, the Medun Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, the Red Pyramid, the Pyramid Complex, highlights of fourth dynasty art, and the Westkar Papyrus. Historians suspect that princesses regularly fought over the succession to the throne. Each ruler had several wives, and the sons of different mothers could allege to be the legitimate heirs, each possibly with the support of diverse lobbies in court. Our understanding of these events is greatly hampered by the fact that we often do not know the exact kinship between the members of the court whose names appear in the sources. But the current tentative reconstruction of the royal families suggests that disputes were frequent in the old kingdom. Sneferu's ascension to the throne and the start of the fourth dynasty, for example, seems to have been awkward as his relationship to the last king of the third dynasty is unclear. Pharaoh Sneferu. Sneferu, his name meaning He of Beauty, who ruled from 2613 to 2589 BC, may have been the son of Huni by a minor wife, Queen Meresankh I. He married Hedeferez I, the daughter of Huni, by another wife, to cement his position. Sneferu was the first pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, and his children had a major impact on the Egyptian culture. Khufu built the Great Pyramid, Neferma'at I and Ka-Nefer were his viziers, and Ankaf was the vizier of his nephew Khafre. His other sons included Netjeraperef, Rahutep, Ra-Nefer, and I-Nefer. His daughters included Maretetes I, the wife of Khufu, Hedeferez A, the wife of Ankaf, Neferet Nesu, and Neferet Kal. Sneferu's reign saw three major innovations. The first was that true pyramid construction began through trial and error. The second, Egypt became an international power, and the third, artistic standards were established that would last for thousands of years. Sneferu was the first pharaoh we know of who carved his name in a cartouche. French for artillery shell, a cartouche is an oblong circle with a baseline into which the king's name was written and signifies the king's power over everything the sun encircled on its daily course. Sneferu must be ranked as one of Egypt's most renowned pyramid builders. In fact, the sheer volume of building work was greater than any other ruler in the Old Kingdom. His achievements in pyramid building extended beyond the pyramid structure itself and incorporated evolving religious beliefs. During his reign, we see the first real elements of the sun worship that was to follow and reach a culmination over a thousand years later in the reign of Akhenaten. For the first time in the orientation of the building plan, the main access was oriented from east to west rather than from north to south as were earlier pyramids. This was apparently a move away from the astronomical star-oriented beliefs toward the east-west passage of the sun in the worship of Ra. Now, with Sneferu, the mortuary temple was on the east rather than the north side like the Djoser Step Pyramid Complex at Saqqara. We see the first of the small satellite pyramids placed near the southern face of the main pyramid. Furthermore, the pyramid and mortuary temple elements were now linked by a causeway to a valley temple located on the edge of the cultivation closer to the Nile. It is believed that the valley temple operated as a monumental gateway to the whole of the pyramid complex. After the death of King Huni, his son-in-law Sneferu founded the fourth dynasty, as we noted earlier, by marrying Huni's daughter Hedeferas. She would find great fame as the mother of Khufu. Sneferu was also a son of Huni by a minor wife. He was probably therefore Hedeferas's half-brother. By marrying Hedeferas, who presumably carried the royal blood line as the daughter of a more senior queen, he consolidated his claim to the throne. This would be common practice throughout the ancient Egyptian line, much like the future British monarchy. Sneferu's international policies took him beyond the borders of Egypt. As recorded on the Palermo Stone, Sneferu organized trading expeditions to Lebanon to get cedar wood for temple doors and pyramid construction. Among other building uses, Sneferu is credited as having used some of this wood to build Nile river boats up to about 170 feet in length. Wood was a scarce commodity in Egypt, thus stone and mudbrick were the main building material. Like the previous pharaoh, Sneferu also sent expeditions to the Sinai to mine copper and turquoise. There were considerable difficulties in mining. The organization for such a trip was considerable in itself, not to mention the demands made by the summer heat, which was incredibly hot. Average temperatures were around 115 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. An army was needed, since these expeditions were in foreign, dangerous territory. Inscriptions in the Sinai call Sneferu the smiter of barbarians. Later, during the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians created a temple for miners on top of the mountain, which was dedicated to the goddess Hathor, our lady of turquoise. At this site, called the Temple of Serebet el-Kadim, Flunder's Petrie discovered a small sphinx made of red sandstone, which has two intriguing inscriptions on its base. These were written in Proto-Sinaitic script. The precise origins of the script remain uncertain, but the inscriptions bear witness to a key phase in the early development of alphabets, in which the symbols represent sounds. And so the sphinx gives us one of the oldest surviving examples of the first stages of the alphabet we use today. A campaign conducted in Libya records 11,000 captives and 13,100 head of cattle. According to the Palermo Stone, they also campaigned militarily against the Nubians. The expedition to Nubia was a very large campaign. The Palermo Stone records the capture of 7,000 prisoners and 200,000 head of cattle. The population of Nubia was never very great, so this was perhaps a rather substantial depopulation of the area. Not only were these campaigns against Nubia initiated to obtain raw material and goods, but also to protect Egypt's southern borders as well as the all-important African trade routes. The Meidum Pyramid. Pharaoh Sneferu made a drastic move away from Saqqara by constructing his pyramid at Meidum, on the edge of the Fayyum, 50 miles south of Cairo. Known as the Meidum Pyramid, it was the first to have a square ground plan and was intended to be the first that was geometrically true. Due to a lack of bonding to the k-stones that had originally filled in the seven steps, and because the outer layer was founded on sand and not on rock, this pyramid collapsed and did so violently. Whether the pyramid fell before its final completion is debated, but the evidence suggests that it came down during the reign of Sneferu. The valley temple was never constructed and the mortuary temple was discovered under the rubble and found incomplete. In its ruined state, the structure is 213 feet high and its entrance is aligned north to south with the entrance in north 66 feet above present ground level. The steep descending passage, 57 feet long, leads to a horizontal passage just below the original ground level that then leads to a vertical shaft 10 feet high that leads to the corbelled burial chamber itself. The chamber is unlikely to have been used for any burial. The walls were only partly polished. Two stelas inside, usually bearing the names of the pharaoh, are missing inscriptions. The burial chamber inside the pyramid itself is also incomplete with raw walls and wooden supports still in place which are usually removed after construction. Affiliated mastabas were never used or completed and none of the usual burials have been found. The Bent Pyramid Sneferu abandoned the Meidum Pyramid and began work at the second site at Dahshur, 28 miles north of Meidum. Why he changed locations is unknown but he would build two pyramids at this location and be followed by several kings of the later 12th dynasty. The first pyramid at this site, called the Bent Pyramid, began at 54 degrees like the Meidum Pyramid. However, the corners of the pyramid were built on unstable ground and structural changes had to be made to 43 degrees. This would give the pyramid its bent look and cause numerous issues inside. Large cedar beams had to be brought in to brace the collapsing walls which were shifting inward and this pyramid was therefore abandoned. His pyramid is unique among Old Kingdom pyramids because it had a second entrance that opened high on the west face. The rationale for having the entrance on the north face of all known Old Kingdom pyramids has a religious basis and was connected to the northern stars. The western entrance is a mystery. From the north, a passage descends down to an antechamber. In order to deal with the downward pressure of the pyramid on this chamber, its roof was made of different courses, with each course projecting more inward than the course below. This technique, known as corbeling, was also used for the pyramid at Meidum. The burial chamber, also with a corbeled roof, is located above the antechamber. The burial chamber was probably the greatest room in the world when it was built. The corbeled ceiling rose up to 55 feet high. The mysterious second entrance in the west face of the pyramid lead down via a descending passage to a horizontal corridor which was intended to be blocked by some porcelain slabs. The second burial chamber behind these porcelain slabs also has a corbeled roof. It is at a higher level than the first burial chamber. Scaffoldings of cedar beams were intended to give the room some additional support. After they were completed, the two burial chambers were connected by a passage that was cut out through the existing masonry. It is not known why Sneferu wanted to have two burial chambers in this pyramid, but perhaps this too can be explained by the clear experimental nature of this monument. Probably at around the same time as when the slope of the main pyramid was decreased, work started to the south to build a smaller satellite pyramid. This pyramid, with a base length of 53 meters and a height of 32.5 meters, was probably an adaptation of the concept of the south tomb found in the complex of Djoser at Saqqara. Its internal structure is a precursor for the pyramid of Khufu at Giza. It has a descending and then an ascending passage, with a smaller version of Khufu's Grand Gallery. The actual burial chamber is far too small for a human burial and may probably have been intended to house the Ka statue of the king. Between the satellite and the main pyramid, there was a small offering place. Two funerary stele bearing the titulary of Sneferu were erected along the east face of the satellite pyramid. A small offering chapel, also with two funerary stele, was built against the east face of the main pyramid. Like the eastern chapel of the Pyramid of Medun, this chapel is too small to be an actual mortuary temple. An enclosure wall surrounded both the main and satellite pyramids, with a causeway leading from its northeast towards a small rectangular structure in the east, about halfway down to the valley. This structure shares features of both valley temples and mortuary temples in later pyramid complexes. It has the courtyard, pillars, and statues that would become traditional in later mortuary temples, but it was built at some distance of the pyramid, which is typical for the valley temple. Even though this pyramid was finally completed, including additional constructions such as the satellite pyramid in the mortuary temple, Sneferu was buried in his third pyramid, the Red Pyramid, built a couple of kilometers north of the Bent Pyramid. The Red Pyramid. Sneferu's final pyramid, the second pyramid at Dahshur, is called the Red Pyramid and is the first true pyramid in the world. This pyramid takes its name from the color of the stonework in the evening sun. The Red Pyramid, also called the North Pyramid, is the largest of the three major pyramids located at the Dahshur necropolis. The Red Pyramid was not always red. It used to be cased with white turl limestone, but only a few of these stones now remain at the corner of the pyramid's base. During the Middle Ages, much of the white turl limestone was taken for building the city of Cairo. Revealing the red limestone beneath. Perhaps of greater importance is the fact that some of the casing was dated. This not only gives us clues to how long the pyramid took to build, but also the sequence of work that took place. From these, we know that the pyramid was probably begun around the 22nd to 29th year of Sneferu's reign. Other dates tell us that two years later, six layers of stone had been constructed. Within four years, 30% of the pyramid had been completed and the entire complex was finished in about 17 years. Like most Egyptian pyramids, the only entrance is on the north side that leads to a 206-foot passageway that descends to the first chamber. The first chamber has a corbelled ceiling with a height of about 40 feet. All three of the chambers in this pyramid have corbelled ceilings. Even with some 2 million tons of stone above, this ceiling design is so strong that there are no cracks or structural problems even today. A short passage on the south side of the first chamber leads to a second chamber. These first two chambers are at ground level, while a third chamber is higher, built within the masonry of the pyramid itself. The second chamber is unusual in that it lies directly under the apex of the pyramid. It is one of the only pyramids in Egypt to have this design layout. The final chamber, with its entrance passageway about 25 feet above the floor of the second chamber, is where Sneferu was most likely buried. Queen Hetapharas' original tomb was most likely located nearby. It was really Pharaoh Sneferu who showed the world how to build pyramids. There were disasters, but he never gave up. He would be remembered by later Egyptians as one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs, and future kings would attempt to model their success based on his reign. The Pyramid Complex. The following pyramids demonstrate what was to become the norm for the layout of a pyramid complex. Archaeologist Peter Clayton best describes this in his book Chronicle of the Pharaohs. This consisted of the pyramid itself, with an entrance on the north face which gives access via a descending passage to a burial chamber, normally located in the bedrock or at ground surface within the mass. There can be more than one chamber and at different levels within this group. On the east face of the pyramid is a small pyramid or mortuary temple. From this, a causeway runs down to the edge of the cultivation where the valley temple is located. Very fine reliefs are usually a feature of later examples of these buildings. The early pyramids were built differently from the later ones. During the Old Kingdom, these constructs were made of stone blocks, while those of the later Middle Kingdom were made of mud brick cased in limestone. As a result, the Middle Kingdom pyramids were smaller and did not last. The early structures usually had a core of local limestone, cased in an outer layer of better quality limestone, or occasionally granite. Granite was also traditionally used for the chambers inside the pyramid. Up to 2.5 million limestone blocks and 50,000 granite blocks might be used to construct a single pyramid. The average weight might be anything up to 2.5 tons per block, with some very large megaliths weighing up to 200 tons. The capstone at the top of the usually consisted of basalt or granite, and if plated with gold, silver, or electrum, which is a mixture of both, would temporarily blind observers with its reflection in the sun. Based upon the excavation of a series of workers' cemeteries discovered during the early 1990s, archaeologists now believe the pyramids were built by tens of thousands of salaried workers and craftsmen who were lodged in huge encampments nearby. Today the pyramids stand isolated in the desert, abandoned when the last tourist leaves, but in ancient times that was not the case. The mortuary complexes were meant to provide the dead with offerings and eternal reverence. In reality, that ideal was never realized, and cults ceased typically after a couple of generations. In the beginning, however, these temples needed personnel to perform the religious tasks. Priests were assigned to those duties in shifts and had to move into the complex. They set up residences near or inside mortuary and valley temples and built themselves shelters. Their presence and natural decay caused damage to the temple architecture, which they tried to patch up with wooden beams and bricks. Over time these buildings became dilapidated, and the stately monuments we may imagine became a part of small villages, and these temples housed people who cooked, washed, discarded rubbish, and so on, creating a sort of homeless camp. It was impossible for Egyptians in later periods to maintain all the old kingdom monuments, and most of them were deserted. Some had a special appeal, however, and remained important. Djoser's complex at Saqqara was a pilgrimage site from the New Kingdom on, with many visitors leaving offerings, especially to his architect Imhotep. On the plateau around it, people from the Middle Kingdom into the Roman period built tombs, and from the New Kingdom on, the mummified Apis bull was buried there. Rameses II started underground galleries for the animal's burial, which continued to expand into the Roman period. Highlights of 4th Dynasty Art In 1871, French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette discovered some of the great masterpieces of Egyptian art. Near the Pyramid of Meidum, in the tomb of Prince Nefermat, known as Mastaba 16, three pairs of realistic and beautifully painted geese on a frieze were found. Prince Nefermat was one of several relatives of Pharaoh Sneferu who were buried in Meidum. The tomb is known for the special technique used for drawing the scenes, sculptures carved deeply in sized images that then were filled with colored paste. This method was labor-intensive because the paste tended to dry, crack, and then fall out. The technique results in vividly colored scenes. This tomb is the only one known to date showing this technique. The fact that later the plaster cracked and resulted in the loss of the paste likely led to craftsmen abandoning this type of decoration. Along with him was Prince Rehotep and his wife Nofret who were buried with two companion statues. These works of art may be the most extraordinary ever found and are in an excellent state of preservation. This was due to the fact that the chapels in the Mastaba were sealed off in ancient times and apparently never known until modern discovery. The colors appear almost freshly painted. They are each just over 120 centimeters high. The most outstanding feature is that they both retain their lifelike inlaid eyes of crystal which stunned the Egyptian workmen who first opened the tomb. In the torchlight of the dark tomb they looked alive and the fled in terror. The craftsmanship involved in creating these works of art still remain a mystery to scholars. The Westcar Papyrus. The Westcar Papyrus, also known as Three Tales of Wonder from the Court of King Khufu, is composed of 12 rolls of papyrus written during the Hyksos period but recounting stories which are thought to date to the Middle Kingdom. It centers around four stories told to the old kingdom pharaoh Khufu by his sons and a final section telling of the birth of the first three kings of the fifth dynasty, Usserkov, Sahuri, and Nefer-Erkari-Kalkai. Some commenters have ventured that the poor handwriting and high number of mistakes in the text suggests that the papyrus was a copy done by a student as part of his studies. The Westcar Papyrus contains the earliest personal account of a king and features Sneferu. The papyrus portrays Sneferu as an accessible pharaoh. The story is narrated by Prince Bofre son of Khufu. It begins with Sneferu feeling bored while wandering through the palace. Seeking a solution he summons his chief lector-priest for advice. The priest suggests taking the king out on the lake and having him rowed by some of the young palace ladies. Intrigued, Sneferu agrees and adds a playful request for the women to row while wearing nets given to them after removing their clothes. The king finds joy in watching their rowing. Unfortunately the excursion takes an unexpected turn when one of the ladies accidentally drops her turquoise fish amulet into the lake and refuses to continue rowing until it's retrieved. Sneferu offers to replace it but the lady insists on having the original back. In response, the king summons his chief priest once more who miraculously parts the waters of the lake to retrieve the lost charm. With the amulet recovered, the rowing resumes. Although the story is fictional, it hints at Sneferu's approachable nature as a pharaoh. The act of parting the waters resembles the story of the biblical Exodus though it predates it by a thousand years. Sneferu's ability to build three pyramids for himself showcases his command over resources and manpower solidifying his kingdom. By constructing the largest building in history at the time and sharing knowledge of pyramid building with the Egyptian people, Sneferu demonstrated Egypt's potential as an international power. Additionally, he established artistic conventions that would endure over 3,000 years. Some historians consider the art from Sneferu's era as the pinnacle of Egypt's artistic achievements. Perhaps his most important legacy of all was his son Khufu. He would take his father's achievements even further and create the largest pyramid ever known. Thank you for joining us.