Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Part I Proportions in ancient Egyptian architecture
- Part I Ancient Egyptian sources: construction and representation of space
- Part III The geometry of pyramids
- Introduction to Part III: Combining the knowledge
- 5 Symbolic shape and constructional problems
- 6 The proportions of pyramids
- 7 Pyramids and triangles
- Conclusion to Part III: Interpreting the slope of pyramids
- An overview
- Appendix: List of Old and Middle Kingdom true pyramids
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Symbolic shape and constructional problems
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Part I Proportions in ancient Egyptian architecture
- Part I Ancient Egyptian sources: construction and representation of space
- Part III The geometry of pyramids
- Introduction to Part III: Combining the knowledge
- 5 Symbolic shape and constructional problems
- 6 The proportions of pyramids
- 7 Pyramids and triangles
- Conclusion to Part III: Interpreting the slope of pyramids
- An overview
- Appendix: List of Old and Middle Kingdom true pyramids
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The form
Pyramidal form and solar cult
Although built in different dimensions, forms, and materials, and performing different functions, pyramids were constructed throughout the history of ancient Egyptian architecture. The monuments themselves, their chronological succession, and the symbolism and the constructional problems associated with them have been thoroughly studied by Reiner Stadelmann, Jean-Philippe Lauer, Dieter Arnold, Mark Lehner and Martin Isler, among others. It is also worth mentioning here the impressive amount of material collected on many Old Kingdom pyramids by Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi, and the comprehensive report on the Old and Middle Kingdom secondary pyramids published by Peter Jánosi. Here, as an introduction to the subject, I will summarise the most important steps in the evolution of these monuments.
From the Old Kingdom until the beginning of the New Kingdom, pyramids were essentially royal symbols. Rectangular mud-brick mastabas were used as funerary monuments by kings and nobles of the early period at Saqqara and at Abydos. At least two kings of the Second Dynasty, Hetepsekhemwy and Ninetjer, build large underground complexes at Saqqara, where, at the beginning of the Third Dynasty, Djoser erected his innovative funerary complex. The large mastaba, originally intended to cover the pit of the burial chamber surrounded by an intricate set of underground galleries, was enlarged twice before a new expansion of the volume took place. The basically flat, almost two-dimensional rectangular tumulus was turned into a massive, three-dimensional stepped monument pointing to the sky. The first step pyramid was born.
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- Architecture and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt , pp. 180 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004