A false door, or recessed niche, [1] is an artistic representation of a door which does not function like a real door. They can be carved in a wall or painted on it. They are a common architectural element in the tombs of ancient Egypt, but appeared possibly earlier in some Pre-Nuragic Sardinian tombs known as Domus de Janas. Later they also occur in Etruscan tombs and in the time of ancient Rome they were used in the interiors of both houses and tombs.
Egyptian architecture was influenced by Mesopotamian precedents, as it adopted elements of Mesopotamian Temple and civic architecture. [3] These exchanges were part of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations since the 4th millennium BCE. [3]
Recessed niches were characteristic of Mesopotamian Temple architecture, and were adopted in Egyptian architecture, especially for the design of Mastaba tombs, during the First Dynasty and the Second Dynasty, from the time of the Naqada III period (circa 3000 BCE). [3] [4] It is unknown if the transfer of this design was the result of Mesopotamian workmen in Egypt, or if temple designs appearing on imported Mesopotamian seals may have been a sufficient source of inspiration for Egyptian architects. [3]
The ancient Egyptians believed that the false door was a threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead and through which a deity or the spirit of the deceased could enter and exit. [5]
The false door was usually the focus of a tomb's offering chapel, where family members could place offerings for the deceased on a special offering slab placed in front of the door. [6]
Most false doors are found on the west wall of a funerary chapel or offering chamber because the Ancient Egyptians associated the west with the land of the dead. In many mastabas, both husband and wife buried within have their own false door.
A false door usually is carved from a single block of stone or plank of wood, and it was not meant to function as a normal door. Located in the center of the door is a flat panel, or niche, around which several pairs of door jambs are arranged—some convey the illusion of depth and a series of frames, a foyer, or a passageway. A semi-cylindrical drum, carved directly above the central panel, was used in imitation of the reed-mat that was used to close real doors.
The door is framed with a series of moldings and lintels as well, and an offering scene depicting the deceased in front of a table of offerings usually is carved above the center of the door. [5] Sometimes, the owners of the tomb had statues carved in their image placed into the central niche of the false door.
The configuration of the false door, with its nested series of doorjambs, is derived from the niched palace façade and its related slab stela, which became a common architectural motif in the early Dynastic period. The false door was used first in the mastabas of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (c. 27th century BCE) and its use became nearly universal in tombs of the fourth through sixth dynasties. [7] Rarely, the Old Kingdom false door was combined with statues, demonstrating the common ancestry of the false door and naos in similar early ancient Egyptian architectural features. [8] During the nearly one hundred and fifty years spanning the reigns of the sixth Dynasty pharaohs Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II, the false door motif went through a sequential series of changes affecting the layout of the panels, allowing historians to date tombs based on which style of false door was used. [9] [10] : 808 The same dating approach is used also for the First Intermediate Period. [11]
After the First Intermediate Period, the popularity of the false doors diminished, being replaced by stelae as the primary surfaces for writing funerary inscriptions. [10] : 808
Representations of false doors also appeared on Middle Kingdom coffins such as the Coffin of Nakhtkhnum (MET 15.2.2a, b) dating to late Dynasty 12 (c. 1850–1750 BCE). [12] Here, the false door is represented by two wooden doors that are secured with door bolts, bracketed on both sides by architectural niching – recalling earlier niched temple and palace façades such as the enclosure wall that surrounds the mortuary complex of king Djoser of the Third Dynasty. In a similar manner to the Old Kingdom false doors, representations of false doors on Middle Kingdom coffins facilitated the movement of the deceased's spirit between the afterlife and the world of the living. [13]
The side panels usually are covered in inscriptions naming the deceased along with their titles, and a series of standardized offering formulas. These texts extol the virtues of the deceased and express positive wishes for the afterlife.
For example, the false door of Ankhires reads: [14]
The scribe of the house of the god's documents, the stolist of Anubis, follower of the great one, follower of Tjentet, Ankhires.
The lintel reads:
His eldest son it was, the lector priest Medunefer, who made this for him.
The left and right outer jambs read:
An offering which the king and which Anubis,
who dwells in the divine tent-shrine, give for burial in the west,
having grown old most perfectly.
His eldest son it was, the lector priest Medunefer,
who acted on his behalf when he was buried in the necropolis.
The scribe of the house of the god's documents, Ankhires.
Carved or painted Pre-Nuragic false doors appear in about 20 tombs mostly located in northwestern Sardinia, [16] : 137–139 an example being some of the Domus de Janas of the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju, which are variously datable from the Ozieri to the Bonnanaro cultures of Pre-Nuragic Sardinia (c. 3200 – c. 1600 BCE). [17]
These false doors, apparently resulting from a strong Eastern influence, [17] : 11 usually appear on the back wall of the main chamber, and are represented by horizontal and vertical frames and a projecting lintel. [16] : 137–139 Sometimes the door is topped with painted or carved U-shaped bull horns, inscribed inside each other in a variable number. [16] : 144 [15]
Unlike the Egyptian ones, the meaning of pre-Nuragic false doors is less clear. It has been argued that these represents the passageway to the afterlife that definitively separate the deceased from the living loved ones, also preventing a possible return. [16] : 137–139 Alternatively, it is possible that these false doors are simply clues of the plan of the corresponding former house of the deceased. [18] : 44
In Etruscan tombs the false door has a Doric design and is always depicted closed. Most often it is painted, but on some occasions it is carved in relief, like in the Tomb of the Charontes at Tarquinia. Unlike the false door in ancient Egyptian tombs, the Etruscan false door has given rise to a diversity of interpretations. It might have been the door to the underworld, similar to its use of the ancient Egypt. It could have been used to mark the place where a new doorway and chamber would be carved for future expansion of the tomb. Another possibility is that it is the door of the tomb itself, as seen from outside. In the Tomb of the Augurs at Tarquinia two men are painted to the left and right of a false door. Their gestures of lamentation indicate that the deceased were considered to be behind the door. [19]
Painted doors were used frequently in the decoration of both First- and Second style interiors of Roman villas.
An example is the villa of Julius Polybius in Pompeii, where a false door is painted on a wall opposite a real door to achieve symmetry. Apart from creating architectural balance, they could serve to make the villa seem larger than it really was. [20]
A mastaba, also mastabah, mastabat or pr-Djt, is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt's Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. In the Old Kingdom epoch, local kings began to be buried in pyramids instead of in mastabas, although non-royal use of mastabas continued for over a thousand years. Egyptologists call these tombs mastaba, from the Arabic word مصطبة (maṣṭaba) "stone bench".
The pyramid of Djoser, sometimes called the Step Pyramid of Djoser, is an archaeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the ruins of Memphis. It is the first pyramid to be built. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. The pyramid is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration.
The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. It comprises the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and part of the Eleventh Dynasties. The concept of a "First Intermediate Period" was coined in 1926 by Egyptologists Georg Steindorff and Henri Frankfort.
Domus de Janas are a type of pre-Nuragic rock-cut chamber tomb found in Sardinia. They consist of several chambers quarried out by the people of the San Ciriaco through Ozieri cultures and subsequent cultures, resembling houses in their layout.
A stele, or occasionally stela when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.
The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave goods thought to be needed in the afterlife.
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The pyramid of Unas is a smooth-sided pyramid built in the 24th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Unas, the ninth and final king of the Fifth Dynasty. It is the smallest Old Kingdom pyramid, but significant due to the discovery of Pyramid Texts, spells for the king's afterlife incised into the walls of its subterranean chambers. Inscribed for the first time in Unas's pyramid, the tradition of funerary texts carried on in the pyramids of subsequent rulers, through to the end of the Old Kingdom, and into the Middle Kingdom through the Coffin Texts that form the basis of the Book of the Dead.
The Theban Tomb TT52 is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of Nakht, an ancient Egyptian official who held the position of a scribe and astronomer of Amun, probably during the reign of Thutmose IV during the Eighteenth Dynasty, the first dynasty of the New Kingdom.
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs, tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and communal memorials to the dead, such as war memorials, which may or may not contain remains, and a range of prehistoric megalithic constructs. Funerary art may serve many cultural functions. It can play a role in burial rites, serve as an article for use by the dead in the afterlife, and celebrate the life and accomplishments of the dead, whether as part of kinship-centred practices of ancestor veneration or as a publicly directed dynastic display. It can also function as a reminder of the mortality of humankind, as an expression of cultural values and roles, and help to propitiate the spirits of the dead, maintaining their benevolence and preventing their unwelcome intrusion into the lives of the living.
Tarkhan is an ancient Egyptian necropolis, located around 50 km south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile. The cemetery was excavated in two seasons by Flinders Petrie. Tombs of almost all periods were found, but most importantly many belonging to the time of Egyptian state formation, the Early Dynastic period around 3100 BC. Petrie found more than 2,000 tombs, most of them simple holes in the ground belonging to common people. However, there were also several mastabas of the First Dynasty, decorated with a palace facade.
Rehuerdjersen was an ancient Egyptian treasurer who held this office under the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I.
The Tomb of Akhethetep, also known as Mastaba of Akhethetep, is a tomb complex in Saqqarah, Egypt. It was built for Akhethetep, a royal official, near the western part of the Pyramid of Djoser. Akhethetep was an official with several, mainly religious titles. including priest of Heka, priest of Khnum and priest of Horus. The tomb's decorated chapel was removed in 1903 and reassembled at the Louvre in Paris, where it is also known as the "Mastaba of Akhethetep" or simply "le mastaba du Louvre".
The Ozieri culture was a prehistoric pre-Nuragic culture that occupied Sardinia from c. 3200 to 2800 BCE. The Ozieri was the culmination of the island's Neolithic culture and takes its name from the locality where early findings connected with it have been found, the cave of San Michele near Ozieri, in northern Sardinia. The Ozieri existed contemporaneously with the Arzachena culture, sharing some similarities, and its influence also extended to nearby Corsica.
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The Mastaba of Hesy-re is an ancient Egyptian tomb complex in the great necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt. It is the final resting place of the high official Hesy-re, who served in office during the Third Dynasty under King Djoser (Netjerikhet). His large mastaba is renowned for its well-preserved wall paintings and relief panels made from imported Lebanese cedar, which are today considered masterpieces of Old Kingdom wood carving. The mastaba itself is the earliest example of a painted tomb from the Old Kingdom and the only known example from the Third Dynasty. The tomb was excavated by the Egyptologists Auguste Mariette and James Edward Quibell.
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Nyibunesu, Ni-Ibunesut or Ne-Ibunesu was an ancient Egyptian priest of Hathor and local chief who lived during the Third or Fourth Dynasty in the region of Dendera. What is known from his life comes from his mastaba burial tomb in the Dendera Necropolis, a few hundred metres south of the Temple to Hathor. This tomb was explored during 1897 and 1898 by a team led by the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie.
Private tombs of the Third Dynasty [c. 2686 BC–2613 BC] broadly followed the pattern of those of the Second, in being brick mastabas. However, there were significant developments in the form of the offering place at the southern end of the eastern facade, which was in some cases lined with stone and projected into the heart of the mastaba. These linings could be decorated, while a niche at the northern end of the tomb might be dedicated to the cult of the wife of the tomb owner. The southern niche and its slab-stela evolved during the Third Dynasty into what by the following dynasty had become the classic false door.
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