Serapeum of Saqqara

The Serapeum of Saqqara is a serapeum located north west of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, a necropolis near Memphis in Lower Egypt. It was a burial place of Apis bulls, sacred bulls that were incarnations of the ancient Egyptian deity Ptah. It was believed that the bulls became immortal after death as Osiris Apis, a name that appears in Coptic as ⲟⲩⲥⲉⲣϩⲁⲡⲓ, Userhapi, which was borrowed in Greek as Σέραπις, Serapis, in the Hellenistic period.

Serapeum of Saqqara
Gate of the Serapeum of Saqqara
Shown within Northeast Africa
Serapeum of Saqqara (Egypt)
LocationSaqqara
Coordinates29.874722°N 31.2125°E / 29.874722; 31.2125
TypeSerapeum
Stele commemorating the death of an Apis bull in "Year 24 of Taharqa", the Nubian King of the 25th Dynasty. Found in the Serapeum of Saqqara, Saqqara.

History

The most ancient burials found at this site date back to the reign of Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the 1350s BC.

Working as an administrator during the reign of his father, Khaemweset, a son of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) of the Nineteenth Dynasty, ordered that a tunnel be excavated at the site, and a catacomb of galleries – now known as "The Lesser Vaults" – be designed with side chambers to contain the sarcophagi for the mummified remains of the bulls. But for one, all chambers were found emptied of their contents except for a disarray of dedication stelae.[1][2][3]

A second gallery of chambers, now known as "The Greater Vaults", was excavated under Psamtik I (664–610 BC) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty and later extended to approximately 350 m in length, 5 m tall and 3 m wide (1,148.3×16.4×9.8 ft) by the Ptolemaic dynasty along with a long, parallel service tunnel . These gallery chambers contained granite and diorite sarcophagi weighing up to 70 tonnes each, though all were found empty.

The long boulevard leading to the ceremonial site, flanked by 600 sphinxes, likely was built under Nectanebo I, (379/8–361/0 BC) the founder of the Thirtieth Dynasty (the last native one).

Discovery

The temple was discovered by Auguste Mariette,[4] who had gone to Egypt to collect Coptic-language manuscripts, but later grew interested in the remains of the Saqqara necropolis.[5] In 1850, Mariette found the head of one sphinx sticking out of the shifting desert dunes, cleared the sand and followed the boulevard to the site. After using explosives to clear rocks blocking the entrance to the catacomb, he excavated most of the complex.[6] Unfortunately, his notes of the excavation were lost, which has complicated the use of these burials in establishing an Egyptian chronology.

Mariette found one undisturbed burial, which is now at the Agricultural Museum in Cairo. The other 24 sarcophagi of the bulls had been robbed.

Controversy

A controversial aspect of the Saqqara find is that for the period between the reign of Ramesses XI and the twenty-third year of the reign of Osorkon II – about 250 years – only nine burials have been discovered, including three sarcophagi Mariette reported to have identified in a chamber too dangerous to excavate (that have not been located since). Because the average lifespan of a bull was between 25 and 28 years, Egyptologists believe that more burials should have been found. Furthermore, four of the burials attributed by Mariette to the reign of Ramesses XI have since been retrodated. David Rohl advocates changes to the standard Egyptian chronology and has argued that the dating of the Twentieth Dynasty should be pushed some 300 years later on the basis of the Saqqara discovery.[7][8][9]

Most scholars rebut that it is far more likely that some burials of sacred bulls are waiting to be discovered and excavated.[10][11]

  • Sphinx of the dromos, now at the Louvre
  • Detail of a sphinx of the dromos
  • The crypt of the Louvre
  • Statue of Apis, from a chapel of the Serapeum (at the Louvre)
  • The main tunel in Serapeum of Saqqara
  • Sarcophagi in the Serapeum without cover
  • Serapeum in Saqqara, the Sarcophagi with slightly moved cover
  • One can see the size of Sarcophagi

See also

Bibliography
  • J.-F. Brunet, The XXIInd and XXVth Dynasties Apis Burial Conundrum, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum 10 (2005), 26-34.
  • Aidan Dodson, Of Bulls & Princes, the early years of the Serapeum at Sakkara, in: KMT 6/1 (1995) 18-32.
  • Aidan Dodson, The Eighteenth-Century Discovery of the Serapeum, in: KMT 11/3 (2000) 48-53.
  • M. Malinine, G. Posener, J. Vercoutter, Catalogue des Stèles du Sérapéum de Memphis, tome premier (textes), Paris, 1968.
  • Auguste Mariette, Le Sérapéum de Memphis, Parijs 1857.
  • Auguste Mariette, Catalogue général des monuments d'Abydos découverts pendant les fouilles de cette ville. Paris 1880.
  • G. Maspero, Le Sérapeum de Memphis, par Auguste Mariette-Pacha, publié d’après le manuscrit de l’auteur, tome premier. Paris, 1882.
  • A. Thijs, The Ramesside Section of the Serapeum, SAK 47, 2018.

Sources and references
  1. Mathieson, I., Bettles, E., Clarke, J., Duhig, C., Ikram, S., Maguire, L., et al. (1997). The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara survey project 1993-1995. Journal of Egyptian archaeology, 83, 17-53.
  2. Mathieson, I., Bettles, E., Dittmer, J., & Reader, C. (1999). The National Museums of Scotland Saqqara survey project, earth sciences 1990-1998. Journal of Egyptian archaeology, 85, 21-43.
  3. Dodson, A. "Bull Cults"(2005); Ibrahim, A., Rohl, D. "Apis and the Serapeum"(1988)
  4. Malek, J. (1983). Who Was the First to Identify the Saqqara Serapeum? Chronique d'Égypte Bruxelles, 58(115-116), 65-72.
  5. Harry Adès, A Traveller's History of Egypt (Chastleton Travel/Interlink, 2007) ISBN 1-905214-01-4 p. 274.
  6. Dodson, A. (2000). The Eighteenth Century discovery of the Serapeum. KMT, 11(3), 48-53.
  7. Beechick, R. (2001). Chronology for everybody. Technical Journal, 15(3).
  8. Rohl, D. M. Pharaohs and kings: Crown Publishers.
  9. Rohl, D. M. (1992). A Test of Time: The New Chronology of Egypt and its Implications for Biblical Archaeology and History.
  10. Steiner, M. (1999). THE NEW CHRONOLOGY DEBATE - Problems of Synthesis - A criticism of the New Chronology from Margreet Steiner.
  11. Molnár, J. (2003). The liberation from Egypt and the new chronology. Sacra Scripta (1), 13.
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