Satellite Pyramids explained

[Stokke]

Note - These are my conclusions. You will not find them in any textbook, so if you are allergic to new ideas then this thread is not for you. Also, if you are adamant that pyramids are not tombs, you will not enjoy this.
I welcome your opinion and criticism, but will only respond to people who are civil.
With that said, let us begin.

 

Satellite Pyramid - a smaller pyramid located within the funerary complex of a larger pyramid. Not to be confused with "Queens´" pyramids - a satellite pyramid served some purpose in regard to the main pyramid, while a "Queens´" pyramid was a smaller version of a main pyramid.

 

Funerary beliefs

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The verbal accompaniment to the embalming process centered on the theme of reuniting what had been torn apart. One by one, limbs and organs were given back to the deceased.

Assmann, p 34

The core belief that all the constituent parts of the body must be reunited in order live on in the Afterlife never changed throughout Egypts history from at least the 4th Dynasty from which we have Hetepheres´ Canopic Chest.

Their religion evolved, tomb-designs changed and embalming techniques improved, but the fundamentals - what Assmann calls "Salvation from Death by Piecing Together" remained the same over millennia. Given this remarkable consistency in their funerary beliefs, we can be confident that if we can determine the purpose of subsidiary tombs in the New Kingdom (yes, they had them too), then the same answer will apply to all earlier subsidiary tombs.

 

Subsidiary tombs

In the Old- and Middle Kingdoms we find actual subsidiary tombs - some in the shape of a pyramid, but we also find them as shallow shafts on top of many Mastabas. A subsidiary tomb was clearly an integrated part of the funerary complex, and we can therefore not be surprised that two tombs are depicted again and again in the iconography from the New Kingdom. Tomb of Sennedjem - TT 1:

 

Eye-of-Horus

Before we analyze an example of the two tombs in pAni, we need to remind our selves of the myth where Seth takes the left Eye of Horus. The Eye must be recovered from Seth, healed, and returned by Thoth. 

The Pyramid Texts makes it clear that the Eye-of-Horus is more than just an eye. Assmann calls it a life-endowing substance (p 357).

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I have come to bring you the Eye of Horus.

Take the efflux which issued from you; your heart will not be inert possessing it.

PT 32

 

pAni, chapter 17

 

Two tombs. The tomb on the right is fittingly mounted by Mehet-Weret, goddess of creation and rebirth. Over the tomb to the left we find an Eye - could this be the Eye-of-Horus that has been healed and returned by Thoth?

We make a note of the fact that the tomb of the right (the primary tomb) sits on an elevation - perhaps indicating that the tomb has got a superstructure, while the tomb to the left (the subsidiary tomb) rests lower - perhaps indicating that in the New Kingdom subsidiary tombs didn't have a superstructure.

Let us expand the scene a little:

Here we see the Eye being healed and replenished outside the gate to Rosetjau - not by the Embalmer like the rest of the body - but by crossing the two lakes in the Afterlife, before it is returned to the deceased. What about the last part of the myth, that it was Thoth who brought the Eye-of-Horus?

The Egyptians would of course be intimately familiar with their funerary beliefs so there would be no need to spell out everything, but fortunately, some artists did just that. Here is the same scene in another copy of Book of the Dead:

Thoth presenting the "Eye-of-Horus" and thus bestowing life-force on the deceased, making him complete again.

(Despite that the myth only refers to only one eye, it is clear from this example that both eyes were purified and healed):

 

Conclusion

The subsidiary tomb was for the part of the body that contained the "Eye-of-Horus", or rather both eyes. What that consisted of specifically will be the theme of a later post.

Morten

Assmann Jan, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, 2005

[Wepwawet]

12 hours ago, Stokke said:

(Despite that the myth only refers to only one eye, it is clear from this example that both eyes were purified and healed):

Evidence for both eyes being involved comes from the 4th Hour of the Amduat.

In the first image of part of the upper register we see an un-named god holding out the pupils of both eyes.

 

In the next image of part of the middle register we see one god, un-named but clearly Thoth. handing over what is labeled as the "Eye of Sokar", but is in fact the right eye of Ra, to another un-named god who is Horus.

In Ani's BoD we see the left eye, the eye of Horus, but this will be the choice of Ani in what emphasis to place on a long and complicated event, and I would suspect he has chosen the Eye of Horus for it's healing properties.

I'll refrain from further comment at the moment, though could do an exposition about what is or is not a shrine, if needed, until you add more, and I don't want to steal your thunder on a topic about exactly the type of technical discussion about AE religion that I like.

Edited April 8 by Wepwawet

[Wepwawet]

On 4/8/2024 at 11:15 AM, Wepwawet said:

exposition about what is or is not a shrine, if needed

Which it was, and case closed, Anubis, as was always the case, sits on a tomb in the example given in the OP.

[Stokke]

 

The purpose and rational behind pyramids and satellite pyramids in the Old Kingdom - as well as for later tombs and "embalmer caches". 

 

[Kenemet]

1 hour ago, Stokke said:

 

The purpose and rational behind pyramids and satellite pyramids in the Old Kingdom - as well as for later tombs and "embalmer caches". 

 

Except that in the afterlife, the ba and ka unite (along with the other parts of the soul -- which changed over time) to form the akh; the "effective soul."  This happens once the person has made a successful transition through the afterlife (passed through the Hall of Judgment.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_conception_of_the_soul

 

[Stokke]

1 minute ago, Kenemet said:

Except that in the afterlife, the ba and ka unite (along with the other parts of the soul -- which changed over time) to form the akh; the "effective soul." 

Yes.

The Ba and the Ka travel on separate routes to the Field of Offerings where they meet and merge into an Akh.

This is why we find, not one, but two maps in both the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead. One map depicting the journey of the Ba to the eastern horizon where it ascends, and another describing how the Ka goes to the Fields of Reeds where it replenish its life-force before joining the Ba.

The Ka offer its life-force to Osiris in the Fields of Offering:

[Kenemet]

1 hour ago, Stokke said:

Yes.

The Ba and the Ka travel on separate routes to the Field of Offerings where they meet and merge into an Akh.

This is why we find, not one, but two maps in both the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead. One map depicting the journey of the Ba to the eastern horizon where it ascends, and another describing how the Ka goes to the Fields of Reeds where it replenish its life-force before joining the Ba.

The Ka offer its life-force to Osiris in the Fields of Offering:

I'm not finding this very convincing, to be honest.

There's more on the pyramid grounds than just a big pyramid and a little one... there's actually multiple small pyramids (at least around some large pyramids) along with the mortuary chapel and chapels where the deceased was worshiped.  We have evidence of ka statues (and the niches were they were set) and offerings, but nothing in the setup or the names suggests that the secondary pyramids represented part of the king's soul.

Also, re the tomb of Sennedjim:

This is an example of a deliberate design, with mirrored texts -- there's all sorts of examples of this in official documents, on stele, and in tombs, of course.  It's part of their preferred aesthetic and doesn't represent a second tomb.

What you've presented is interesting but not strong enough to overcome my skepticism here.

[Stokke]

Was the recurrent duality - two tombs, two Anubis, two Djed-pillars, two stele - just a matter of aesthetics, or should we take what they show us as face value.

I opt for the latter because we have clear evidence that they did indeed prepare a secondary tomb.

The tomb is dug. Its importance is implied by the fact that the tomb-owner inspects it:

The Tekenu - both the actual Tekenu (an animal hide containing the efflux of the deceased - left), and the priest who will act on behalf of the Tekenu in the subsequent Opening-of-the-mouth ritual (right) - proceeds towards the tomb:

 The Tekenu is deposited in the tomb:

These are from the tomb of Mentuhirkhepeshef, TT20, (Maspero, pp 450, 452, 457).

Here in the 18th Dynasty they no longer built elaborate tombs for the Tekenu. A modest grave with no superstructure was sufficient. 

Many such tombs have been found - Tutankhamun comes to mind - but they have all unfortunately been misinterpreted and mislabeled as "embalmer caches".

[Wepwawet]

3 hours ago, Stokke said:

Many such tombs have been found - Tutankhamun comes to mind - but they have all unfortunately been misinterpreted and mislabeled as "embalmer caches".

This is a point. I've always wondered why the embalmers needed a cache, and never found an explanation. A number of questions are raised, one being just exactly where mummification took place, and did this vary. Evidence from one tomb at Saqqara shows that the tomb had doubled as a wabet, part of the embalming house, but textual evidence seems to show that  embalming was carried out in a building in town, for instance tales of the embalmers being "ritually" stoned by children for the gruesome work they did. But if this was an embalmers cache for Tutankhamun, what was the purpose of KV63, which contained, among spare coffins full of pillows, a frame used to support the mummy during the opening of the mouth ceremony, and fragments of mummified tissue.

Everything that made up the dead person should be in their tomb except their blood, stomach, intestine and bowel contents, which may have been flushed away, or may be included, perhaps more so the blood, as their efflux. This is all rather vague, like the tekenu, the icky bits, a representation of something not physically present but need to be shown, or the sem priest, and some illustration certainly do show the tekenu as the sem, who seems to be otherwise absent from depictions of funeral processions as a person walking with the procession, (I'll have to check that).  but then appears at the opening of the mouth ceremony.

Edited July 25 by Wepwawet

[Stokke]

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But if this was an embalmers cache for Tutankhamun, what was the purpose of KV63, which contained, among spare coffins full of pillows, a frame used to support the mummy during the opening of the mouth ceremony, and fragments of mummified tissue.

From its contents we can conclude that KV63, despite its somewhat unusual size for this kind of a tomb from the period (6 meter deep shaft tomb), is a Tekenu Tomb just like the one depicted in the iconography from TT20. Every last speck/drop of the bodily fluids must be preserved - including what might have been spilled onto the materials and equipment used in the embalming process.

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Everything that made up the dead person should be in their tomb except their blood, stomach, intestine and bowel contents, which may have been flushed away, or may be included, perhaps more so the blood, as their efflux.

Everything that made up the dead person should be in their tombs. The solid parts - the parts that the embalmer could preserve - in the main tomb, and the fluids - which the embalmer had no means to preserve - in the secondary tomb.

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This is all rather vague, like the tekenu, the icky bits, a representation of something not physically present but need to be shown, or the sem priest, and some illustration certainly do show the tekenu as the sem, who seems to be otherwise absent from depictions of funeral processions as a person walking with the procession, (I'll have to check that).  but then appears at the opening of the mouth ceremony.

It all becomes less vague once we realize two things:

1. The Tekenu contained the fluids from the deceased.

2. The fluids was an essential part of the body - and was treated as such.

You will never find the Tekenu as a person walking with the procession towards the main tomb. You will however find a person walking with the Tekenu towards the secondary tomb - as shown in the second image in my previous post. After "the carrying","the dragging" and "the Nubian Bow" ceremonies, the Tekenu is taken out of its catafalque and a priest carries it to its tomb. Another priest takes on the role as the Tekenu and lies down on a sledge - and is dragged to the main tomb once the Tekenu proper is buried. 

The iconography in TT20 is special because it shows us in detail all the rituals connected to the Tekenu. Maspero is available online - have a look. 

 

Edited July 25 by Stokke

[Stokke]

Two tombs. The iconography speaks for itself. The Egyptians practiced a two-fold burial practice throughout their history. One tomb was for the fluids from the deceased, the efflux, the life-force, the eye-of-Horus, the Ka, the Tekenu, Horus - and the second tomb was for the the corpse, the Ba, the Identity of the deceased, Osiris.

My next post shall conclude this thread by showing that the entities in both tombs - the Tekenu (efflux) and the Corpse - both were subject to the Opening-of-the-Mouth ritual once they reached the main tomb.

 

 

[Kenemet]

1 hour ago, Stokke said:

Two tombs. The iconography speaks for itself. The Egyptians practiced a two-fold burial practice throughout their history. One tomb was for the fluids from the deceased, the efflux, the life-force, the eye-of-Horus, the Ka, the Tekenu, Horus - and the second tomb was for the the corpse, the Ba, the Identity of the deceased, Osiris.

My next post shall conclude this thread by showing that the entities in both tombs - the Tekenu (efflux) and the Corpse - both were subject to the Opening-of-the-Mouth ritual once they reached the main tomb.

 

 

I don't think these images are the proofs you're looking for.  They aren't found in a document (wall inscription, etc) where the Tekenu is referenced (as far as I can tell) and the contexts aren't oriented to that explanation.  Thoth offering a wadjet doesn't seem to have a Tekenu anywhere around.

And offering of the wadjet occurs in many different contexts, such as the one mentioned in this blog : https://www.wonderfulthingsart.com/post/iah-thoth-receiving-the-wadjet

I see several explanations for the Tekenu (including that it was a priest who was roleplaying) but no actual firm proof of what it was.  I'd find your idea stronger if there was something more substantial (for example, mortuary caches always being found under satellite pyramids) and strong evidence of two tombs for each elite.  I do know that they would remake a tomb if they became very successful later in life (so two tombs aren't unusual) but this is not a standard.  

 

Again, not completely rejecting things here but not seeing anything that convinces me, either.

[Stokke]

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Again, not completely rejecting things here but not seeing anything that convinces me, either.

That is ok. To be honest - I am not looking to convince anyone. This is more like documenting my findings so that I can say "told you so" when Egyptologists finally catches up. Glennise West was somewhat close to cracking the code in her "The Tekenu and Ancient Egyptian Funerary Ritual", but no cigar.

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They aren't found in a document (wall inscription, etc) where the Tekenu is referenced (as far as I can tell) and the contexts aren't oriented to that explanation.  Thoth offering a wadjet doesn't seem to have a Tekenu anywhere around.

They literally paint you a picture of the Tekenu Tomb... but you want them to paint a Tekenu above the tomb?

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I see several explanations for the Tekenu (including that it was a priest who was roleplaying) but no actual firm proof of what it was. 

There are only two explanations for the Tekenu: 1. An animal skin containing the efflux of the deceased, and 2. the priest acting as the substitute for the Tekenu.

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 I'd find your idea stronger if there was something more substantial. 

Here is something substantial to support my theory (not idea): 

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Eaton-Krauss

Egyptologists working in the Valley of the Kings had found three undisputed "caches" of embalming refuse before the discovery of KV63 in 2005. All three were unusual. Two were discovered deep inside the tombs numbered KV36 and KV46, next to the mummies their non-royal owners. An explanation to account for this anomaly suggests that that the burials of Maiherperi, child of the royal nursery, and contemporary of Thutmosis III, in KV36, and of Tuya and Yuya, the parents of King Amenhotep III´s Great Royal Wife Teye, in KV46, were actually reburials. In other words, these people were initially interred outside the Valley of the Kings. When their coffined mummies, funerary equipment, and personal effects were moved, doubtless at royal behest, to the KV, the jars filled with embalming material were the first items removed from the old site and upon arrival in the Valley of the Kings, the first to be taken into the new tomb were they were expediently deposited. 

In other words: the "embalming refuse", the efflux, the Tekenu of the deceased, was as important as the rest of the body.

I struggle to see how the Egyptians could have made things any clearer. They spelled it out in text, picture and actions.