Mastaba

mastaba (măs`təbə), in Egyptian architecture, a sepulchral structure built aboveground. The mastabas of the early dynastic period (3200–2680 B.C.), such as those of the I dynasty at Sakkara, were elaborate, having many storage or offering compartments, and were quite evidently close copies of contemporary houses. Better known are the mastabas of the Old Kingdom (2680–2181 B.C.), which were an elaboration of the predynastic burial-pit and mound form. The typical mastaba was generally rectangular in plan with a flat roof and inward-sloping walls, built of brick and faced with limestone slabs.

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mastaba

(Arabic: “bench”) Rectangular superstructure of ancient Egyptian tombs, built of mud brick or, later, stone, with sloping walls and a flat roof. A deep shaft descended to the underground burial chamber. Old Kingdom mastabas were used chiefly for nonroyal burials. Storage chambers were stocked with food and equipment, and walls were often decorated with scenes showing the deceased's expected daily activities. What had earlier been a niche on the side grew into a chapel with an offering table and a false door through which the spirit of the deceased could leave and enter the burial chamber.

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mastaba, mastabah

a mudbrick superstructure above tombs in ancient Egypt from which the pyramid developed

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mastaba

mastaba

A freestanding tomb used in ancient Egypt, consisting of a rectangular superstructure with inclined sides, from which a shaft leads to underground burial and offering chambers.

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Mastaba 

(Arabic, literally “stone bench”), the modern name for ancient Egyptian tombs of the Protodynastic Period (c. 3000-2800 B.C.) and the Old Kingdom (c. 2800-2250 B.C.). A mastaba is a rectangular superstructure with sloping sides joined by a vertical shaft to an underground burial chamber with several rooms. The outer walls of mastabas of the Protodynastic Period were built of brick (First Dynasty) or stone (Second Dynasty) and were recessed and brightly painted (exemplified by the tomb of Queen Herneit in Saqqara).

In the mastabas of the Old Kingdom, the superstructure had a severe exterior with smooth walls and a complex interior layout, with halls, corridors, and storerooms (exemplified by the tomb of the royal treasurer Akhethotep and his son Ptahhotep in Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty). The inner chambers contained statues (repositories of the souls of the dead) and the walls were covered with reliefs and paintings.

REFERENCE

Vseobshchaia istoriia arkhitektury, vol. 1. Moscow, 1970.