Saqqara's secrets

By Nevine El-Aref
The so-called Amarna Period is a fascinating era of ancient history, but one about which we know all too little. The evidence is rare, and often contradictory, so every time a discovery is made relating to the time when Pharaoh Akhenaten chose to worship the solar orb, the god Aten, to the exclusion of other gods, it attracts tremendous attention.
Last week's discovery of the tomb of a high priest of Aten was exciting enough. When this was followed, some days later, by the appearance of a dyad, a pair statue, I hurried to the site to see what was going on.
It was a warm winter's day, and I mused about the significance of the discovery as I drove along the newly-paved Saqqara Road, passing villages which today are little different from those in ancient times. I headed for the necropolis, which is rich in Old Kingdom tombs and Middle and New Kingdom monuments.
Chance often plays a major part in discoveries in Egypt, as is evident from the discoveries of Tutankhamun's tomb in Luxor, the royal treasures of Tanis in the Delta, and Khufu's solar boats in Giza, to mention but a few. This time, archaeologists digging in Saqqara came quite unexpectedly upon the tomb of a high priest of Aten.
Adel Hussein, the director of Saqqara, guided me to the newly-revealed tomb, found near the New Kingdom cemetery where British archaeologist Geoffrey Martin has worked for many years on the restoration of the tomb of Haremhab, the military commander who became Pharaoh.
We approached the site by walking past the Step Pyramid of Zoser, across to the southern side of the ramp of the pyramid of Unas, and then climbing a small sandy hill. Below lay the tomb of Mery-Aten.
More than 80 archaeologists, restorers, photographers and site-workers were milling round, anxious to do as much as possible before the archaeological season comes to an end when summer sets in.
Earth was being brushed from the marvellous reliefs in one area of the tomb, while digging was being carried out elsewhere. Experts were in consultation, and one could feel the tension typical of a "dig" when discovery is in the air.
The tomb was unearthed early this month, when a Dutch-Egyptian team came across the back wall of the tomb of Mery-Aten. Maarten Raven, of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, showed me around the site.
We entered from the rear and worked our way forward from the burial chamber to the courtyard, with its five pillars, towards the tomb entrance. The mud-brick walls were faced with limestone, and plastered over so the artists could work their finely-detailed scenes of Mery-Aten and his family honouring Aten, the sun disk, with its extended rays ending in hands. There were scenes of workers in various industries, and the burial ritual including the "opening of the mouth" ceremony to imbue the deceased with renewed life. Among the coloured reliefs coming to light, the one of wailing women and weeping men is a masterpiece.
It appears that the owner of the tomb was originally a priest of the goddess Neith who initially bore the name Mery-Neith, but who seems to have changed his religious affiliation and come to adhere to the new religion introduced by his Pharaoh Akhenaten (c 1375-1350 BC). When the new capital, Akhet-Aten ("the Horizon of Aten") was founded, the high priest changed his name to Mery-Aten.
Raven showed me where a relief of the symbol of the goddess Neith had been deliberately changed to the symbol of Aten. "I believe that the tomb's owner was a priest in Memphis who was later called to Tel Al-Amarna," Raven said.
Rene Van Walsem, also of Leiden university, supports this hypothesis. He thinks the tomb can be dated to the first five years of Akhenaten's reign, before the Pharaoh left Thebes to found his new capital. He points out that the reliefs on the tomb walls show the transitional stage of art, somewhere between traditional stylised work and the realism characteristic of the Amarna period.
For thousands of years, Pharaoh had ruled as a god and was portrayed as powerful and majestic. During the so-called Amarna period, however, Akhenaten was depicted quite naturalistically. This naturalism broke with the formality of the past. The Pharaoh was often depicted as the same size as his people, as a mortal; no longer aloof and divine but a mortal in their very midst.
As I walked round the site I called to mind the statues of Akhenaten in the Cairo Museum, his heavy-lidded slits of eyes, lean face, thin neck, sensitive lips. Humanising the Pharaoh appears to have been an important aspect of Amarna art.
The voice of Van Walsem interrupted my thoughts. "We did not find any evidence of a burial," he said. "We have only unearthed galleries dated to the second dynasty, about 2800 BC, which are much older than the priest's tomb." He said it appeared that the priest had reused the Old Kingdom shaft for his own burial. Van Walsen went on to explain that, in his opinion, the high priest was never buried at Saqqara. "Not only is the tomb unfinished, but it dates to the early years of Akhenaten's rule. I would expect to find his actual burial in Akhet-Aten," he said.
Raven agrees. "We actually found another tomb of a high priest at Tel Al-Amarna. He was called Mery-Re, and although we are not at all sure it is the same person, it is highly likely."
Raven mentioned that the tomb of Mery-Re at Amarna was also unfinished and abandoned. Geoffrey Martin referred to these tombs during a lecture he gave last week at the Netherlands Institute. Many members of Akhenaten's family and high officials of Akhet-Aten were transferred to Thebes and re-buried there, Martin said. He suggested that Queen Nefertiti, five of their daughters, Akhenaten's minor wife Kia and his granddaughters may have been transferred from Amarna after Akhenaten's death and their remains re-interred "somewhat haphazardly" in the Theban necropolis. For all we know, the high priest Mery-Aten's mortal remains were carried there with them.
Parts of the tomb are badly damaged. This may have been deliberate: when the era of sun-worship was over, the traditional polytheistic religion was restored and much of the evidence of Akhenaten's "heresy" was destroyed. Some of the elements were usurped and reused elsewhere.
The tomb was known to exist because fragments of its reliefs have turned up in several museums around the world, but its actual location was unknown until this month. According to Gaballa Ali Gaballa, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the discovery has triggered intense debate among scholars anxious to know more about the early years of Akhenaten's reign. It could answer many questions. Did Akhenaten share a co-regency with his father Amenhotep III, or did he succeed him? And if so, did he allow the worship of other deities in addition to Aten? Several sun temples were constructed within the sacred precincts of Amun's great temple at Karnak, causing further speculation.
I reminisced about Akhenaten's reign as I walked round the site: the fact that it was only in the sixth year of Akhenaten's reign that he founded his new city, changed his name to Akhenaten ("Splendour of the Aten") and promulgated a decree that henceforth only one god would be worshipped -- Aten, creator and preserver of mankind.
My guide, Adel Hussein, was showing me a limestone statue, just unearthed. I saw it was a dyad, a pair statue, just less than a metre in width and with hieroglyphic texts and colour intact. Gaballa said it had just been found in the south-western chapel, and showed Mery-Re and his wife Ey-Yuya seated and linked in an embrace. The texts on the back of the statues reveal new facts: they enumerate their names and titles. Among those of Mery-Re (Mery-Aten) is "Scribe of the temple of the Aten at Akhet-Aten (i.e. Amarna)"
"The fact that Mery-Re held these two titles, as well as the overseer of the god Aten, proved that a temple dedicated to the sun god must lie somewhere in Saqqara, waiting to be discovered," said Zahi Hawas, director general of the Giza plateau. He said that during the next season they would try to find the whereabouts of this temple, and that further excavations of the tomb of Mery-Re might help.
Time is running out on the season. The winter archaeological session is almost over. Restoration is under way in the courtyard of the tomb: columns have been cleaned and re-erected in their original positions, and fallen fragments of relief have been affixed to the walls. When the season comes to an end, the site will be suitably protected until next year, when it is hoped more secrets of this mysterious era of sun worship will be disclosed.
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