Old Kingdom tombs and dating - problems and priorities: The Cemetery en Échelon

Peter Jánosi
University of Vienna



The Cemetery en Échelon is part of the large necropolis to the west of Khufu's pyramid. The site was excavated by H. Junker and G.A. Reisner, but only Junker was able to publish his results in extenso. The results and observations by both archaeologists furnish invaluable--and still unprocessed-data critical for the history of the necropolis, as well as for tomb development of the 4th and 5th Dynasties in general.

The peculiar name of the cemetery derives from the special arrangement of the individual mastaba cores in order to allow direct access to the chapel's entrance. The cemetery was built on a unified plan and, based on its position, is later than the other two core cemeteries G 2100 and G 4000 located immediately to the west. The necropolis consists of three North-South lines comprising nine cores in the two western rows and seven cores in the eastern row (the southern two cores in this row were obviously either never built or subsequently destroyed; the space was occupied by the large mastaba G 5110). Together with this large tomb the cemetery contains twenty-six individual mastabas, of which only seven can be positively attributed to a specific individual.

This paper will discuss some points concerning the date of this cemetery's creation and the dating of the final use of the individual tombs. Regarding the date of construction Reisner established a cautious approach by limiting the possible chronological frame after the middle of the reign of Khafre and before the middle of the reign of Menkaure (the date favoured by Junker, the end of Dyn. 4 or the beginning of Dyn. 5, is not tenable). It must be admitted that the exact date of the cemetery's creation cannot be ascertained on independent grounds; the reigns of both Khafre or Menkaure are possible (theoretically even the reigns of Khufu and Djedefre cannot be excluded from discussion, although this hypothesis is only based on circumstantial evidence).

More problematic than establishing the exact date of the tombs' construction is the assessing the completion date and final use of the individual mastabas. The data available provide a time frame from the reign of Khafre to Djedkare; this alone is a curious fact since the time span for the occupation of this cemetery comprises approximately five to six generations. The paper discusses certain criteria for establishing datum lines and highlights links with other tombs and cemeteries at Giza. The goal is to limit the possible time frames for the occupation of the individual Echelon Cemetery tombs.