Author Description

In the latter part of the Fifth Dynasty the necropolis that surrounded the Fourth Dynasty pyramids of Giza again became a popular site for the tombs of Memphite officials. A particular cluster of these mastaba tombs was excavated between 1936 and 1939 by George Andrew Reisner. Some of the tomb chapels were found to be decorated; others had anterooms with courtyards and porticoes. All of the inscribed tombs bore a title which Roth translates as "palace attendant". This publication presents the artifactual, iconographic and architectural results of the excavation in two parts. The first covers the architecture of the cluster as a whole; the second compares details of the individual tombs, and an extensive index lists mastabas, personal names, and Egyptian words, phrases, titles and epithets. This is a vast study, which leaves no Gizan stone unturned.