In 1263 BCE, priests announced the death of the APIS BULL. Sacred to Ptah, the bull dwelled in the temple at Men-nefer (Memphis). Now, in year 30 of Ramesses II, the King’s son KHA-EM-WASET would lead the funerary processions.
Shortly after, the prince inaugurated the first phase of a now famous monument. The Lesser Vaults of the SERAPEUM begin to take shape. The prince also starts a project for which he is renowned: the preservation and restoration of old monuments. These acts have earned him the moniker “the first Egyptologist.”
Music: Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net, used with artist’s permission.
Artefacts from Serapeum Isolated Tomb G, overseen by Khaemwaset: Louvre Museum online.
Bibliography
Aly, M. I. (2000). New Kingdom Scattered Blocks from Saqqara. Mitteilungen Des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 56, 223–237.
Aly, M. I., & Rohl, D. (1988). Apis and the Serapeum. The Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, 2, 6–26. https://www.newchronology.org/cgi-bin/somsid.cgi?session=1752239104&type=header&record=16
Dodson, A. (1995). Of Bulls & Princes: The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara. KMT. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, 6(1), 18–32.
Dodson, A. (2005). Bull Cults. In S. Ikram (Ed.), Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt (pp. 72–105).
Drioton, Ét. (1942). Deux statues naophores consacrées à Apis. Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l’Égypte, 41, 21–35. https://archive.org/details/ASAE-41-1941/page/n1/mode/2up
Gomaà, F. (1973). Chaemwese, Sohn Ramses’ II. und Hoherpriester von Memphis.
Kitchen, K. A. (1975). Ramesside Inscriptions Historical and Biographical (Vol. 2). https://archive.org/details/KennethA.KitchenRamessideInscriptionsVol1
Mariette, A. (1857). Le Serapeum de Memphis. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6231404v
Mariette, A. (1882). Le Serapeum de Memphis. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5806287d
Price, C. (2022). The Legacy of Prince Khaemwaset at Saqqara. Heritage, 5, 2196–2209.
Rondot, V. (Director). (2020, July 14). La reprise des fouilles du Louvre au Serapeum de Saqqara [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jopcT6IXuNI
Thijs, A. (2018). The Ramesside Section of the Serapeum. Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur, 47, 293–318. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26863336
Transcript
Death of Apis (Year 30)
In 1263 BCE, approximately, King Ramesses II celebrated his Sed Festival. The first jubilee, taking place thirty years into his reign, it was a moment of great celebration and rejoicing.
A few months later, though, sad news arrived in the palace. From Men-Nefer (or Memphis), priests of the great god Ptah announced the death of the APIS BULL.[1] This was a sacred animal, who lived at Men-Nefer.[2] His cult was old; the earliest records go back to the very start of Egypt’s kingdom.[3] Apis (or Hp, meaning “Runner”) enjoyed great prestige as a symbol of Ptah. Not the god himself, but his living representative (wHm, “Herald”). Living in the precinct of Ptah’s temple, the Apis enjoyed a life of comfort, abundant feed, and plenty of cows to mate. After his death, the bull would undergo a form of mummification and burial in splendour. We have a really good idea of how this went down, in the days of Ramesses II.
The Apis died around late June, early July, of 1263 BCE. We know that because priests, who participated, left a dated record of this event. From the Serapeum, a stone stela records the ceremonies for Apis. It says:
“Year 30, III Shemu, Day 21, of the Lord of the Two Lands (Ramesses II etc)… On this day, the incarnation of Hp (Apis) proceeded outward and reposed in the place-of-embalming, together with Anpu (Anubis)… (The god) embalmed the corpse, removing the fluids, banishing the blemishes… upon the pure alabaster in the Mansion of Gold…”[4]
The priest who made this record was named Thutmose (or Djehuty-Mesu, Born of Thoth). He was a priest and “Chief in the Funerary Workshop, pouring water for the deceased.”[5] Chances are, Thutmose oversaw the preparations of the bull’s mummy.
Mummifying Apis
When the animal died, members of the temple staff manoeuvred its body onto a wooden sled. They dragged the carcass out of its pen, to a special part of Ptah’s Temple. The place of embalming. Here, they would load the body onto a broad table of alabaster. Those tables survive today;[6] you can still see them in the ruins of Ptah’s temple.
The embalmers set to work. It was messier than you might expect. In a human mummification, the mortician would cut a small hole in the abdomen to remove organs by hand. The priests caring for Apis did not do that.[7] Instead, they butchered the animal first, removing the meat and setting it aside. The flesh would be offered up to the gods as nourishment and consumed in ritual feasts. For the actual embalming, they only kept the head, bones, and internal organs.
When that (smaller) mummy was ready, they placed it in a wooden coffin.[8] Loading that onto a sled, they were ready for the funeral.
The mourners assembled at Ptah’s temple. There were priests and priestesses of course, but also government officials, and members of the royal family. At their head, the part was led by a prince. Kha-em-Waset (or “Appearing in Luxor”) was the fourth son of Ramesses II. Born to the King’s Wife, Iset-Nofret, Khaemwaset was in his early-mid thirties.[9] He wore a short wig of overlapping curls, and a thick braid down one side of his head.[10] His clothing was high-quality. A linen kilt, reaching down to his shins; and around his chest and shoulders, a leopard-skin hung elegantly. This was the costume of a priest of Ptah, known as the Sem-priest. Khaemwaset was a high-ranking member of Ptah’s clergy; in that capacity, he would lead the burial of Apis.
This wasn’t his first rodeo. Khaemwaset had led another Apis funeral back in year 16, and records of that survive from Saqqara (more on that in a moment). But back then, he would have been just a teenager at best; probably learning the ropes of the priesthood and his role in Egypt’s religious society. Now, in Year 30, he was self-assured and ready to make his mark.
As the mourning party set off, they departed the precinct of Ptah’s temple. They headed west, passing through the suburbs of Men-Nefer. To either side, the people of the city came out to witness the black parade. At the head of the cortege, priests sprinkled water on the ground and burned incense, purifying the way. Priestesses shook their sistra rattles, raising a jingling cacophony over the parade. Some lifted their voices in song, or perhaps in a wail of lamentation. The death of Apis was a terrible loss; and the cult actually included professional mourners. Written records, from this very period, mention people like Sakhmet-Nofret (Sakhmet the Beautiful) who was a Tsy.t Hp or “Mourner of Apis.”[11] We can imagine ladies like her singing songs for the god and calling out prayers. Prayers like the following:
“Giving praise to Apis-the-Perfect, he with the horned head, that he may give life, prosperity, health, pleasure and joy every day, and a fine burial after old age, for (the one who makes the offering)… the living one, Herald of Ptah, the Osiris-Apis, true-of-voice.”[12]
With words such as these, the Apis funeral departed Men-nefer.
The Isolated Tombs
Departing the Temple of Ptah, the procession headed west. Through Men-nefer, into the farmland, and finally they reached the edge of the desert. Now, the cortege began to ascend the rocky paths that led to SAQQARA.
As they trekked up the paths, the floodplain fell away behind them. On the top of the escarpment, the vast cemetery stretched in all directions. To their left and right, the mourners passed ancient pyramids. The monuments of Teti and Userkaf, and the Step Pyramid of Netjery-khet (whom they called Djoser).[13] Between those royal edifices, countless smaller structures – like mastaba chapels – dotted the landscape. Saqqara was a true necro-polis, a city of the dead; the resting place for a hundred generations of people.
A couple hours later, the procession crossed Saqqara. Having ascended the rocky paths, up from the Nile Valley, they now passed the great monuments of distant ages. The party headed west. The Step Pyramid was on their left, Abusir on their right; and if it were a clear day, the Abusir pyramids were dwarfed by the great monuments of Giza, visible to the north.
Khaemwaset led the mourners, and the mummy of Apis, to a patch of ground west of the Step Pyramid. Here, a small cluster of chapels stood on the desert surface. They had columns and painted decoration. Nothing too fancy, but they stood out visibly against the desert wastes that stretched to the horizon. One of these chapels was fresh, created in the past few years. Beside it, a rectangular pit opened up; a staircase descended into the earth, leading to a tomb.
This was the burial place of Apis. But not the one you might imagine.
Today, tourists at Saqqara often visit the SERAPEUM, the underground catacombs with granite sarcophagi. That structure did not exist in 1263 BCE. It came later, and I’ll explain that in a moment. When Khaemwaset visited, in year 30 of Ramesses II, the Apis Bulls still went to their grave in small, separate tombs. Archaeologists know them as the “Isolated Tombs,” distinct from the Serapeum properly. You can’t see them anymore, they are buried by sand, just next to the Serapeum’s modern entrance. But if you imagine a series of small chapels, strung out in a line along the escarpment, you’ll have the basic idea.
The cortege arrived at their destination. Beneath the chapel, a short staircase descended into the earth. Khaemwaset led his priests down the stairs heading for the burial chamber.[14] This was a small room, decorated with paintings of the Apis. One image is quite fun, it shows Apis as a human mummy (with a bull’s head) standing in a shrine.[15] Before him, Ramesses II burns incense and pours libations, and prince Khaemwaset himself assists the king. Hieroglyph inscriptions refer to the god as “The Osiris Apis, Atum, Horus-of-Nekhen, Great God…” and “Herald of Ptah.” So many connections: with the King of the Dead (Osiris); the Solar Creator (Atum); an ancient form of Horus (from Nekhen or Hierakonpolis); and the earthly title, as the representative of Ptah. Apparently, the cult of Apis had become interwoven with a host of royal deities.
The mourners brought in Apis’ mummy and laid it to rest within a large wooden sarcophagus. Atop that, the priests laid valuable treasures. When archaeologists opened this tomb in the 1850s, they found the mummified bulls decked out in jewellery.[16] Golden pectorals, with the names of Ramesses II; amulets of cobras and vultures (the protective goddesses); and trinkets donated by high-ranking officials. Around the chamber, there was also shabti figures (those little “servant” statues). Hundreds of them, in fact, often inscribed with the names of the people who donated to the burial. There were shabtis from royalty (including Khaemwaset himself and his elder brother, Prince Ramesses Jr); local bigwigs like the Mayor of Men-Nefer, named Huy, and the Chief of Sculptors named Hatia. There were gifts from the artisans who worked for Ptah, like the “Gold-Worker” Nefer-Hor (or Beautiful Horus); and shabtis from nobles, like Sahty-Qedet, an aristocratic lady. These folks might be little more than names today, but they left a testimony of their piety, in the burial of Apis.
The officiants laid the bull (or its remains)into the wooden sarcophagus. They sprinkled oils and fumigated the room with incense, reciting prayers for the god’s wellbeing. Then, one by one, the priests and priestesses, porters, officials, Paser and Khaemwaset withdrew from the tomb. Masons hurried forward, to seal the doorway with stones and plaster. Burying the entrance, cleansing the ground, the party departed solemnly.
Notably, as the mourners buried this Apis, they actually had to work around another coffin already in the chamber. As I mentioned earlier, this wasn’t the first time that Khaemwaset had led an Apis funeral. About 14 years earlier, the prince-priest had brought another bull to this same location; and when the archaeologists opened this tomb in the 1850s, they found two bulls resting in separate coffins.[17]
It’s slightly strange. Why did Khaemwaset choose to bury the bulls in the same chamber? The first burial had been in Year 16, the second in Year 30. Plenty of time to prepare a new chamber. Why make them double-up?
Well, it may have something to do with another project, already underway. Just a dozen or so metres west of the chapel, a team of diggers were opening a pit in the sands of Saqqara. A new monument that would serve the Apis Bulls for the next thousand years.
This is where the Serapeum begins.
Sort of.
The Serapeum Lesser Vaults
In 1263 BCE, give or take, royal workers began digging a tunnel beneath the surface of Saqqara. It was a passage, oriented south to north, with space for small chambers branching off the sides. Apparently, the priests of Ptah (or Khaemwaset himself) decided that the Isolated Tombs were no longer satisfactory. Instead of building a new chapel and tomb every time, they would make something more versatile.
The new monument took the shape of a catacomb. Archaeologists call it the LESSER VAULTS of the Serapeum. Again, these are not the ones that tourists visit, the GREATER VAULTS. Those came about 800 years after Ramesses and Khaemwaset, in the era we call the LATE PERIOD.[18]
What Khaemwaset started was smaller; a set of chambers just east of the more famous catacombs.[19] You actually walk past the Lesser Vaults when you descend to the later crypts. Going down the staircase, you are technically walking on top of them. And on your left, another stairway (barred by a gate) leads to those older sections. The Lesser Vaults are closed today. In antiquity, part of the roof collapsed, and after their excavation archaeologists backfilled the site with clean sand, to protect it from the elements. The Lesser Vaults don’t have massive stone sarcophagi, or any distinctive decoration; so, there’s nothing your average tourist would find interesting. But they are there, beneath the sand; the work of Khaemwaset and his priests.[20]
Sadly, because of their fragility, the Lesser Vaults have not been examined for more than 150 years. However, that is changing. In 2020, a French team began a new excavation project.[21] I assume they got interrupted by the pandemic, but hopefully we’ll have some results in the next few years.
Khaemwaset’s Restorations at Saqqara
As the new catacomb took shape, Khaemwaset looked out on Saqqara and saw other opportunities. Places where he could do good work and make a name for himself.
Across the cemeteries of Saqqara (and Abusir to the north), Khaemwaset left a series of inscriptions documenting his restorations. Apparently, the prince and his assistants led a series of inspections on monuments of the Old Kingdom. By 1263 BCE, these pyramids and tombs were over a thousand years old. Imagine today we despatch conservators to the tombs of Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, or Emperor Taizong. I wonder how Khaemwaset felt about these age-old monuments. Were they symbols of a forgotten time, or visible reminders of the continuity that Egypt had achieved?
I suspect the latter, though the prince’s inscriptions do acknowledge the decay wrought by time. In one text, on the pyramid of Unas, Khaemwaset wrote the following:
“The King of Southern & Northern Egypt (Ramesses II), and the King of Southern and Northern Egypt, Unas… His Person decreed that the Chief-Directing-Artisans, the Sem-Priest, and King’s Son Khaemwaset, should restore the name of the King of Southern & Northern Egypt (with relevant name). Now, his name was not found on the face of his pyramid… Khaemwaset desired greatly to restore the monuments of the Kings… because of what they had made… which was falling into decay… Khaemwaset established a decree for (the pyramid’s) sacred offerings… endowed with a land-grant, together with its personnel… (provisions) from the King’s Granaries… done by Khaemwaset that he may achieve ‘given life.’”[22]
Such inscriptions appear on many structures throughout this region. The pyramid of Unas is the best preserved, thanks to modern reconstruction, but there were others. The prince left such “restoration texts” on the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the pyramid of Sahura at Abusir (episode 11) and the Sun Temple of Niuserra (episode 14). As he tells it, the prince came on the orders of the King himself, to inspect the edifices, organise repairs, and honour the great ancestors.[23]
As a result of these works, Khaemwaset is often known as the “First Egyptologist.” A more accurate term might be Conservator, as he acted more in the interests of preservation rather than study (in the sense of Egyptology). But that’s a pedantic reading. What can be said is that Khaemwaset took a special interest in the monuments this region.[24] He wasn’t the first to do so, but his restorations are the best preserved, giving him a special fame in the modern day.
The Serapeum Temple
Back in 1263 BCE, Khaemwaset completed the burial of Apis. His second funeral for the sacred bulls, the prince-priest could look forward to new projects in the future. As the catacombs took shape, they would become the resting place for many generations of Ptah’s chosen animal.
As the builders got to work on the Lesser Vaults, Khaemwaset was planning other monuments. Close to the Serapeum itself, the prince apparently commissioned a new temple for the Apis Bull. It’s gone today, only a few fragments survive.[25] But they include decoration that show gods of the Nile bringing offerings to the Apis. The names of Ramesses II and Khaemwaset appear on these fragments, so they have a secure date.
The prince also donated statues to this temple. Including one with a beautiful prayer. Khaemwaset beseeched all who came after to remember his name, for he had done his duties by the god. The statue says:
“… The Osiris, the Sem-Priest, King’s Son, Khaemwaset, he says: I am a valiant heir, a vigilant champion, who excels in wisdom in the heart of Djehuty/Thoth… a confidant whom he (the king/god) loves, whom he chose while (I) was merely a child. One whom the living Apis exalted in the presence of Ptah, and made great in his dignity as Iunmutef, while he was merely a youth. One who sat, opening a way…
“Oh you Sem-Priests, Chief-Directors-of-Artisans, and great ones of the Temple of Ptah, the god’s fathers, priests in charge of sacred estates… every scribe proficient in knowledge… all who are before the god and who will enter into this temple that I have made for the living Apis, and who shall see these things that I have done, engraved upon the stone walls… Never has the like been done, set down in writing in the Great Festival Court before this Temple… I have endowed for (Apis) sacred offerings; regular daily offerings; festivals whose occasions come on their appointed days; and annual feasts, throughout the year, on top of the foot offerings that are forthcoming… I have assigned to (Apis) wab-priests, lector-priests, who recite praises, and temple personnel in abundance… I have made for him a great stone shrine before his temple, in which to repose, spending the day when preparing for burial. I have made for him a great offering-table… of fine Tura limestone, inscribed with the sacred offerings and every good thing which is provided at the ‘Opening of the Mouth.
“Behold, it will seem a benefaction, when you look upon what the ancestors have done… there is none who should act against that which is made for the repose of another… [he who respects that, he is] rewarded, and he flourishes!
“Remember my name, when decreeing future works… Let a good deed be rewarded with its equivalent; may one act for you likewise.
“Oh Apis-Sokar, great god, lord of the Shetayet Shrine, I have come. I am the Sem-Priest and King’s Son, Khaemwaset!”
[1] Recorded on stelae discovered at the Tomb Chapels (Isolated Tombs) near the Serapeum. See Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions: Translations, vol. II, texts #130, #131 (hereafter KRITA).
[2] Wilkinson, Complete Gods & Goddesses, 170—172; Siuda, Encyclopedia Egyptian Deities, 733—737; Shaw, BM Dictionary, 35—36.
[3] Dodson, A. (1995). Of Bulls & Princes: The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara. KMT. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, 6(1), 18—32; Simpson, W. K. (1957). A Running of the Apis in the Reign of ’Aḥa and Passages in Manetho and Aelian. Orientalia, 26, 139—142. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43581573.
[4] KRITA II, 203; Louvre IM 5936.
[5] KRITA II, 203.
[6] Photos by Bruce Allardice: https://flickr.com/photos/gballardice/50843071733/
[7] Dodson, “The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara,” 28.
[8] Remains of wooden coffins found in the Isolated Tombs: Dodson, “The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara,” 23, 24./
[9] His early appearance on monuments suggests birth in the later years of Sety I or early Ramesses II.
[10] Description based on Khaemwaset’s appearance on Louvre E 25497 https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010004196
[11] KRI II, 373:12; KRITA II, 205; Louvre IM 6153.
[12] Prayer is a composite of two texts from votive stelae of the Apis burial in the time of Ramesses II. Louvre IM 5271 and IM 4964. Translations KRITA II, 205, 207.
[13] See the Ramessid King Lists (e.g. Sety I, Abydos) where Netjerykhet appears as Dsr, “Sacred.”
[14] See Mariette, Serapeum (1857), 12—15; Mariette, Serapeum (1882), 61—65.
[15] See Mariette, Serapeum (1857), pl. 8.
[16] See collection in Louvre “Tomb Isolee de Ramses II.”
[17] Mariette, Serapeum (1882),
[18] The first attested burial is that of Psamtik I, c. 665 BCE. Mariette, Serapeum (1882), 119.
[19] See Dodson, “The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara,” 28 for a summary of all Lesser Vault burials (and Isolated Tombs).
[20] Dodson, “The Early Years of the Serapeum at Sakkara,” 26, cf. Aly and Rohl, “Apis and the Serapeum,” 2, 16.
[21] Rondot, V. (Director). (2020, July 14). La reprise des fouilles du Louvre au Serapeum de Saqqara. [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jopcT6IXuNI
[22] KRITA II, 566—567.
[23] See Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions: Notes & Comments II, 583—584 for individual monuments and references; see also Fisher, Sons of Ramesses II, II, 101—131.
[24] Price, C. (2022). The Legacy of Prince Khaemwaset at Saqqara. Heritage, 5, 2196—2209.
[25] See e.g. decorated blocks at Vienna Kunsthistoriches Museum.
