r)74 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABTJSIR, EGYPT. 



the worship of their heavenl}^ ancestor also into the district of their 

 capital. He conld be snre here of a ready reception, for the Egyptian 

 gods were not exclusive and were always ready to make room for 

 other heavenly powers in the sanctuaries as long as their own cult 

 was not prejudiced In^ it. The inscriptions teach us that gradually 

 several pyramid obelisks w^ere erected in the vicinity of Memphis. 



According to the Egyptian view, at the moment when the image of 

 a god was completed in the prescribed form there came into existence 

 a new god, and in the study of these structures this belief is of funda- 

 mental importance. The new^ god was equipped with all the rights 

 and duties of the original divinity who was imitated by the image. 

 He lived as long as the image lasted, and after its destruction passed 

 away as a dead god into the other world. On this account old images 

 of gods were occasionally buried in order to give the corpse of the 

 god a proper resting place. The logical contradiction appearing in 

 the juxtaposition of numerous similar divinities, as shown by the 

 multitude of divine images, disturbed the Egyptians no more than did 

 the many other unlogical elements which the sun-god religion presents 

 to modern critics. The object of worship in the editice of Ra-en-user 

 was accordingly the representation of the sun god newly created by 

 the King; for him were intended the sacritices which were oti'ered 

 upon the lai-ge altar. From the platform upon which the sanctuary 

 stood the god could look down upon the worshipping multitude as it 

 approached him. The discovery of this god image and its place of 

 w^orship was the achievement of the excavations just described. 



From what has been said it follows that the northernmost large 

 mound of ruins at Abusir did not contain the tomb of King Ra-en- 

 user. Succeeding investigations made it clear that this must be some- 

 what south of the sanctuaiy beneath a shapeless heap of debris, about 

 thirty meters high, the remains of a pyramid adjoined on its eastern 

 side b}^ a large tield of ruins. The (excavations of the German Orient 

 Society, imder the direction of Dr. L. Borchardt, have since 1901 been 

 devoted to this site. In the pyramid, Avhich had already been opened, 

 little of importance could be expected, but the adjoining tield of ruins 

 that covered the mortuary temple of Ra-en-user was more promising. 

 Sanctuaries serving the same object had alread}^ been discovered near 

 other pyramids. The temple recently examined made it possible to 

 follow up, with their aid, the development of beliefs in the relation 

 of the living to the dead in the early times of Egypt. 



The tomb was at first nothing but a hole in the desert sand, into 

 which the earthly remains of the dead were laid either in parts or the 

 entire body, as skeleton or mummy, with or without a coffin. By 

 their side were placed some pots and bowls with food and drink for 

 the deceased, whose physical needs were the same in the other world 

 as in this. Gradually it became the custom to furnish the graves 



