Mastaba of Hesy-Re

The Mastaba of Hesy-re is an ancient Egyptian tomb complex in the great necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt.

It is the final resting place of the high official Hesy-re, who served in office during the Third Dynasty under King Djoser (Netjerikhet).

His large mastaba is renowned for its well-preserved wall paintings and relief panels made from imported Lebanese cedar, which are today considered masterpieces of Old Kingdom wood carving.

Mariette quickly discovered the famous niched gallery with its wooden panels and had these valuable artefacts brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

In the opinion of the later excavator James Edward Quibell, he had not worked very carefully and after the removal of the objects, the Hesy-re mastaba was covered over and again and abandoned.

The passage was filled in and roofed over with reeds, wood planks and some rubble on the same day, since the paint had begun to peel immediately on exposure to the sun.

Additionally, Quibell claimed that the corridor was so narrow that visitors and excavators were at risk of rubbing the paint off the walls with their shoulders as they walked through it.

Quibell reported also that he had to employ security personnel in exceptional quantity, to keep watch over the tomb day and night, in order to prevent theft and damage by graverobbers and vandals seeking either treasure or controversy.

In addition, innovations and precursors of ideas and practices pertaining to ancient Egyptian funerary cult and beliefs about the afterlife are found here.

In the tomb of Hesy-re, the so-called false doors in which the deceased are portrayed standing or walking appear for the first time.

[2] In addition, the figural images on the cedar wood panels mark a first key point in the artistic development of tomb decoration: the deceased was no longer indicated by an anthropomorphic silhouette, he is now depicted more naturalistically.

A somewhat similar style has since been uncovered in the underground galleries under the contemporary Pyramid of Djoser, in which the Pharaoh is depicted running in the Sed festival.

[3] Hesy-re's mastabe (S2405) is located in the northern part of Saqqara, about 260 metres northeast of the pyramid complex of King Djoser in tomb sector G2-G3.

The tomb is squeezed in between about a dozen other official graves, which date from between the Protodynastic period and the Fourth Dynasty, which are themselves packed close together.

Interior rooms, including corridors and the exterior walls of the mastaba were originally carefully covered in white limestone plaster.

The entire monument is a massive mudbrick building, completed with grey granite door frames and decorative cedar wood panels.

The north side of the anteroom was decorated with a frieze at the time of excavation depicting people, livestock and a crocodile.

The anteroom led on to the serdab, which extended in a southerly direction and contained the stone base of a ka-statue which was not preserved.

Near the west end of the mastaba, an isolated vertical shaft sinks 21 metres down to the underground grave chambers.

From the very fact that cedar wood was imported and worked in such quantity, it seems that Hesy-re was not just a high-ranking and influential man, but also very rich.

They preserve figural depictions of Hesy-re, who is shown standing in an official role or sitting at an offering table.

This style of perspective is entirely typical of the relief art of the Old Kingdom, as is the fact that Hesy-re's angular face with a false beard is modelled on that of his king Djoser.

In his grave, a single stele depicting Merka sitting down and including his titles, was found in a niche in the facade of the tomb.

Directly above the table is a short offering list, including wine, incense, cool water, beef(?)

In his left hand he holds scribal utensils: an inkpot with two openings for red and black ink, and a rod in which his writing brushes would be stored.

Scribal utensils hang over his right shoulder, which consist of an inkpot with two openings for red and black paint, a bag and a long rod, which would hold writing brushes.

In front of Hesy-re is a short offering list, which includes beef, poultry, drinks (e.g. wine) and incense.

The paintings of the west wall can be separated into three registers: the lowest consisted of a smooth red band with black spaces above and below.

Among the bones found in the tomb were two skulls and other body parts, which J. E. Quibell believed to derive from two different people.