Chapter 4 (part 16)

The broken mummy of this king, together with fragments of its bandages, was found lying on the floor. 5. See Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh , vol. iii., p. 5 6. It had been partially opened by Mariette in May, 1880, but the clearance of sand was not effected until early in 1881. 7. The full text is given by Maspero in Recueil de Travaux , t. v., pp. 157-58, Paris, 1884; t. vii., pp. 145-76, Paris, 1886; and t. viii., pp. 87-120, Paris, 1886. 8. It was opened early in January, 1880, by Mariette, who seeing that the sarcophagus chamber was inscribed, abandoned his theory that pyramids never contained inscriptions, or that if they did they were not royal tombs. The hieroglyphic texts were published by Maspero in Recueil de Travaux , t. ix., pp. 177-91, Paris, 1887; t. X, pp. 1-29, Paris, 1388; and t. xi., pp. 1-31, Paris, 1889. The alabaster vase in the British Museum, NQ 4493, came from this pyramid. 9. This pyramid is a little larger than the others of the period, and is built in steps of small stones; it is commonly called by the Arabs Haram el Mastabat , because it is near the building usually called Mastabat el-Far'ûn . See Vyse, Pyramids , vol. iii., p. 52. The hieroglyphic texts are published by Maspero in Recueil de Travaux , t. xii., pp. 53-95, and pp. 136-95, Paris, 1892; and t. xiv., pp. 125-52, Paris, 1892. There is little doubt that this pyramid was broken into more than once in Christian times, and that the early collectors of Egyptian antiquities obtained the beautiful alabaster vases inscribed with the cartouches and titles of Pepi II. from those who had access to the sarcophagus chamber. Among such objects in the British Museum collection, Nos. 4492, 22,559, 22,758 and 22,817 are fine examples.] {p. xxiv} Summary of the monumental evidence. Thus we have before the close of the VIth dynasty five copies of a series of texts which formed the Book of the Dead of that period, and an extract from a well-known passage of that work on the wooden coffin of Mycerinus; we have also seen from a number of mastabas and stelæ that the funeral ceremonies connected with the Book of the Dead were performed certainly in the IInd, and with almost equal certainty in the Ist dynasty. It is easy to show that certain sections of the Book of the Dead of this period were copied and used in the following dynasties down to a period about A.D. 200. The Book of the Dead a collection of separate works. The fact that not only in the pyramids of Unas and Teta, but also in those of Pepi I. and his immediate successors, we find selected passages, suggests that the Book of the Dead was, even in those early times, so extensive that even a king was fain to make from it a selection only of the passages which suited his individual taste or were considered sufficient to secure his welfare in the next world. In the pyramids of Teta, Pepi I., Mer-en-Ra and Pepi II. are found many texts which are identical with those employed by their predecessors, and an examination of the inscription of Pepi II.