The Mastaba-tomb of Ty , in Saqqara, is one of the most famous of the Old Kingdom, remarkable for the diversity and relevance of topics, as well as for the quality of execution of its reliefs and their state of conservation.

The Mastaba, is situated a few hundred meters to the northwest of the step pyramid of Djoser and about 150 meters from the entrance way leading into the Serapeum.

The structure if the Mastaba hold the traditional characteristic of the old kingdom funerary structure with a superstructure above the ground level for the living to visit the chapel and honor the deceased and a substructure below ground level where the burial chamber is located.

The plan of the tomb of Ty is simple: the entrance opens onto an open courtyard with pillars, hence, two successive corridors lead to the first room (a storeroom), then another leads to the main chapel for receiving the offerings and worship.

The mastaba of Ty was one of the first private tombs to consist of a great pillared courtyard. This courtyard is external to the main structure, to the east of the main oblong massif, and not inside, which signifies that it had been maybe added in a second phase.

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The orientation of the monument is nearly perfectly north-south; the chapel, serdabs (vaults) and storeroom are therefore oriented east-west.

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Unfortunately this panorama doesn’t go into the faded details of the walls which is explained here here in much more details

Ty’s eminent social standing as "Unique Friend" was due to his position as "director of the hairdressers of the Great House", which conferred on him the right to approach and to touch the sovereign.

As a rich and powerful man, he had - among other things - the responsibility of agricultural domains and especially of some of the most important institutions connected to the posthumous cult of the sovereigns.

Indeed, he had some functions associated with two pyramids (those of Neferirkare and Niuserre) and in four solar temples, those of Sahure, Neferirkares, Raneferefs and Niuserres.

The List of titles given to Ty was numerous .
This list has been established according to the work of P. Piacentini.

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The "tomb of Ty" was a family monument, which was used not only by Ty himself, but also by his wife and by his sons.

His wife Neferhetepes, was a priestess of Neith and Hathor.

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  The false-door of Demedj

This false door is dedicated to Demedj is the eldest son of Ty.
The central part, which corresponds to the actual, uninscribed opening, is divided into two by a vertical feature. At its summit, the roller imitates a roll of matting and which includes the (mutilated) name of the deceased, and began by the hieroglyphic sign "mr" signifying that he was loved by someone.

The lateral panels are symmetrical, in pairs, and each occupied half by a representation and half by the text.

 The false door of Neferhetepes 

This magnificent stela is dedicated to Nefer-Hetep-es (Neferhetepes), the wife of Ty.
She is represented identically everywhere: she wears a slim-fitting dress with two shoulder straps, which should cover her breasts, but which somehow manage to be revealed as a symbol of femininity.

On her chest is a large usekh-necklace of several rows, whilst her neck is enclosed by a tight band/collar (or choker necklace).
She wears bracelets around her wrists and ankles. On her head, she wears a long tripartite wig.

The stela consists of a central (base) panel with two upright panels on each side, the outer ones extending higher than the inner ones. An inner lintel spans the inner uprights and the central panel, which also includes above it a scene of offering.
An upper lintel spans the full width of the stela.

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 The south wall 

This is the wall on top of the entrance to the second part of of the corridor.

The relief of this wall, which has the entry to the second corridor, has suffered especially, and the colours have almost disappeared, only the image of Ty has preserved some of the colour.

The engraving work is of quality, but very difficult to distinguish, but an image (the one opposite) has been created with an outline overlay effect.

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 Doorway leading to the second corridor 

The opening, which is offset to the right, measures about 0.75m wide by 2.10m in height, becoming even narrower due to the fact that it was recessed to take a door at the first corridor end.

This room served for the storage of offerings, and objects which could be used for cult worship

 East wall – Entry wall above the door  

It is occupied entirely by representations of various kinds of pottery which are arranged in seven registers, of which the lower two are very short because they occupy the area at the side of the entry opening.

Only certain colors have survived, notably the red of some tables and the upper part of five vases (third register, on the left), also a dark brown for some of the other tables.

To the right of the east wall and close to the entrance (south wall) is a standing figure of Ty wears a short cut square beard, occupying the height of three registers.

He holds the long staff with his left hand and a folded piece of linen with the right hand.
At his feet is his second son, "Ty" (junior), chief of the breeders of ducks, one of which he holds in his right hand, whilst in his left he clutches his father's staff.

"Neferhetepes" kneels behind her husband.
She holds on to his right leg with her left hand, while she rests her right arm on her thigh.

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  The parade of porters  

Totalling sixty-eight, they are very well preserved.
Apart from the six men bringing two poultry, they are nearly all different, even though one can recognise a common base model for their structure.

The draftsman had to have separate models for the body and the positions of arms according to the offerings being carried.

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  The West wall  

This should be the one facing you when you enter this room.

This wall holds one of the best known walls of Egyptian funeral iconography. It is excellently preserved and details the manufacture of bread, beer and pottery, as well as the recording of the results by the scribes attached to the domain: a whole section of economic activity is summarized into a coherent composition.

The arrangement of the seven registries goes from the bottom register to the top one as follows:
- Pottery making – register 7
- Brewing beer – registers 6 and 5
- Cooking bread – registers 4, 3 and 2
- Scribes registering deliveries register 1 that is closest to the ground

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Read more about this room here

The entry from the second corridor leads to the north-east corner of the chapel.
The tops of the walls are decorated with narrow frieze, using a simple geometric pattern.
The bottom part of the walls, the dado area, is approximately 1.5m high and although uninscribed, it was painted red. This base color has faded in many places.

The rest of the walls are covered with engraved and painted registers, some of which are masterpieces.

The chamber includes two square pillars in its center, on the east-west axis and two great stelae false-doors on the west wall (see north-west corner).

Extending from the east wall to the west one is a beam.
This is part of the stone structure of the two pillars, which they appear to support.
It is in this room (on the south wall) that there are the openings to the second serdab of the mastaba.

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  East wall (left)  
Agricultural activities of the harvest season

Including the left part of the two bottom registers, this section contains a total of ten registers which are devoted to various agricultural activities of the harvest season.

The sequence of harvest-time operations starts with the top register and spreads into 10 registers The top registers display the scenes of the harvesting of various products (flax, barley and then corn), five registers in total.

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Next comes the transportation of the harvest by donkey (two registers)
and its placement in stacks (one register)
This is followed by the threshing, which in ancient Egypt was carried out by donkeys and cattle, on the next-to-bottom register. Finally, at the bottom, the winnowing (the separation of the grain from the chaff) takes place.

  About The serdab  

Serdab translates to vault in Arabic.
It should be remembered that this is a completely closed room, or which includes only one (or rarely several) narrow slits.
It contains one or several statues of the deceased's " ka ", supported between others of his " ba ", to which the offerings can be presented.

Via this slit, the deceased can also insure that the service which is due to him is effectively and correctly practiced.

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Katja Lehmann submitted his thesis in 2001 under the direction of Professor Jan Assmann on the topic " The serdab in private tombs of the Old Kingdom". This is a summary of it:

" The standard serdab is defined as an oblong or square room, situated in the superstructure of a tomb, or underground, designed to contain at least one statue of the owner of the tomb. The serdab has been found in about 600 tombs of the Old Kingdom, since the first Dynasty up to the First Intermediate Period.

One outcome of the survey was to show that many false ideas in Egyptology are found about the architecture, the content and location of the serdab in the tombs.

The serdab functionally represented a funeral chamber for the statue of the deceased's ka.

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There is no evidence that in the private tombs, the burial of a statue of the ka has been indispensable to the funerary cult: the owner of the tomb chose to integrate, or not, a serdab in his monument.

Thus, the private serdab appears as an optional room, which had an evolution in its own right. In pharaonic tombs, it is indispensable for the funeral of statuary of the royal ka. "

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At the mastaba of Ty, there are two serdabs, which is rare.
The first, is arranged in the thickest part of the north wall of the courtyard and the second is arranged in the southern wall of the inner chapel.

  The parade of the Domains  

This covers the whole width of the wall, without interruption, up to the entrance doorway.
It is located directly above the usual broad red band.

It includes thirty-six women who head from the entry towards the false doors of the west wall.
They are clothed identically with completely transparent long dresses, with a naked breast; they wear bracelets on their wrists and ankles, and a necklace and choker around the neck. They transport products from the domain of Ty, again it is uncertain whether these are fictional or partially fictional domains, this question has not yet been resolved.

At the front of the women (left near the false door), four texts explain: "bringing invocatory offerings from the places in the domain which are in Lower and Upper Egypt, for the unique friend, Ty".

The texts in front of each woman identified the contribution which she brings or where it is from; each containing the name "Ty" at the top, and the hieroglyphic determinative for "town" or "estate" at the bottom.

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  The central wall  

This area, which occupies the space from the top of the parade of the domains to the frieze at the top of the wall, contains only one scene which provides the focal point of the wall.

Ty seems minuscule standing on the raised deck of his frail papyrus reed boat in the midst of the gigantic papyrus.

Ty is standing, with the same costume and attitude which he has when he is on the ground, even holding his great staff of office in front of him. At the rear, a mariner controls the craft with the help of a long pole, whilst in the front, almost made invisible by the confusion caused by a smaller craft and its occupants, is a man who turns respectfully towards his master, probably warning him of what is happening in front of his craft.

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Ty is not alone on the water. On the left, a fisherman with a hand-held line, whom the artist didn't seem to know where to represent him from a lack of space, is seated in a comfortable reed chair.

Once again, a great variety of fish are represented in the middle of the blue zigzag lines which represent the waters of the Nile.

They share this habitat with a group of hippopotamus represented on the right.
Their accompanying presence owes nothing to chance, because these species, which live hidden in the waters of the river, symbolize the enemy, hostile forces, although some are considered as beneficial.

The scene of hunting the hippopotamus became traditional in the Old Kingdom, and would continue for a long time into the New Kingdom.
Its significance may have been dual from the outset, but in any case, it certainly became so.

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we hope you enjoyed this tour as much as we did, and please refer to osirisnet.net for more elaborate description of this magnificent tomb.

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