This study is a methodical investigation of the ancient Egyptian priesthood appearing in the Memphite elite tombs of the Old Kingdom. The iconographic specifics of figures having singular priestly titles, or any hierarchical and gender variations of the same titles, were collected into a database and analyzed to determine the ranges and limitations of each title's function as well as any relationships they may have to one another. Priestly figures appearing in offering table scenes are compared to those appearing at false doors, and priestly figures appearing in funeral scenes are compared to those appearing in offering rooms to determine any relationship. This study also explores the sequences of priests appearing in the elite tomb offering list scenes and their relationship to sequence of rituals in the Pyramid Text offering list. All the above coalesce to suggest deep similarities between the function and rituals of the non-royal tomb complexes and the royal tomb complexes of the Old Kingdom.

What is presented here is a preliminary crystallization of thinking about questions, problems, and aspects that presented themselves during research into the iconography of Old Kingdom elite tombs in the so-called Leiden Mastaba Project (LMP), started in 1980 for teaching advanced students. Since the Egyptian culture has been given shape mainly in connection with the residences of the kings, the elite tombs of the Memphite area only were incorporated into the database. The original paper database consists of individual files on each tomb, giving a plan, wall scheme, a concise description of each sub-theme and its accompanying texts (if present). For details on the set-up, the original questions, the intention and some preliminary results on the partially collected material in 1985, see Van Walsem, Mastaba project. The core of this essay is a combination of and an elaboration of two former lectures by the author entitled: "Some un(der)exposed aspects in the study and interpretation of mastaba scenes" and "Religious iconography of Ancient Egypt: methodological and theoretical problems".

In The Iconography of Family Members in Egypt’s Elite Tombs of the Old Kingdom, Jing Wen offers a comprehensive survey of the depiction of family members and provides a new perspective to explain its meaning.

This study collects, categorizes, and interprets the representations and associated texts of family members of the tomb owner that appeared in elite tombs of the Old Kingdom in the Memphite and provincial necropolis from the Fourth to the Sixth Dynasties. It provides a detailed investigation into the kinship designations, titles, and presentational specifics of family members, and examines the frequency of occurrences of kinship designations and titles. The typology introduced in this study classifies the stances of family members into seven major types, each with several sub-types. The analysis of the appearances of each sub-type makes it possible to trace the developments and innovations of the depiction of family members during the Old Kingdom and further discuss the familial ideology expressed by these stances. This study also introduces the concept "family group" to describe the situation when more than one family members appear in a single scene or on the false door. A comprehensive analysis of all the family groups in the Old Kingdom private tombs demonstrates how the Egyptians conceptualized relationships within a familial framework, such as the differentiation of gender and generation, and the indication of age. A particular issue is the meaning of the term sn- dt "brother of the funerary estate." By analyzing all the existing examples, this study points out that the establishment of the sn-dt is a strategy to extend funerary responsibilities to non-family members and remote relatives, who would then provide offerings for the deceased as the family members did. The offerings that family members usually carry is the stpt-offerings, a specific type of offerings consist of forelegs, processed birds, and other food. This study also compares the representation of family members in the chapel and other sources concerning making offerings by taking them as different language games. This comparison reveals the nature of the depiction of presenting offerings.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Recent research on all aspects of the Old Kingdom in Egypt is presented in this volume, ranging through the Pyramid Texts, tomb architecture, ceramics, scene choice and layout, field reports, cemetery layout, tomb and temple statuary. The contributions also show how Egyptology is not stuck in its venerable traditions but that newer forms of technology are being used to great effect by Egyptologists. For example, two papers show how GIS technology can shed light on cemetery arrangement and how 3D scanners can be employed in the process of producing facsimile drawings of reliefs and inscriptions. The authors cover a wide range of sites and monuments. A large part of the work presented deals with material from the great cemeteries of Saqqara and Giza of the Old Kingdom capital city of Memphis but all the smaller sites are discussed. The book also includes a paper on the architecture of mastabas from the lesser-known site of Abu Roasch. The provinces are by no means overlooked, with articles on material from Deir el-Bersha, el-Sheikh Said and Akhmim. Between them, the authors discuss material from the milieu of the king right down to that which concerned the tomb workmen and those who supplied their basic needs, such as bakers, brewers and potters. Containing papers presented at a conference at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in May 2009, this book continues a series of publications of the latest research presented at previous meetings in Paris, Berlin and Prague. Much new material is published here and the papers are fully illustrated, with over 200 photographs and drawings.

This volume collects papers from the symposium 'Body, Cosmos and Eternity: the Symbolism of Coffins in Ancient Egypt', convened at the historical building of the University of Port, February 2013.