In 1901 Mr. Mace attempted to find the chamber, but could
not. In the next year Mr. Currelly found between it and the Aahmes
tomb a small chapel, containing a splendid stele, on which Aahmes
commemorates his grandmother, who, he says, was buried at Thebes and had
a _mer-ahat_ at Abydos, and he records his determination to build her
also a pyramid at Abydos, out of his love and veneration for her memory.
It thus appeared that the pyramid to the east was simply a dummy,
like Usertsen's mastabas, or the Mentuhetep pyramid at Der el-Bahari.
Teta-shera was actually buried at Dra' Abu-'l-Negga. Her secondary
pyramid, like that of Aahmes himself, was in the "holy ground" at
Abydos, though it was not an imitation _bab_, but a dummy pyramid of
rubble. This well illustrates the whole custom of the royal primary and
secondary tombs, which, as we have seen, had obtained in the case of
royal personages from the time of the 1st Dynasty, when Aha had two
tombs, one at Nakada and the other at Abydos. It is probable that all
the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos are secondary, the kings being really
buried elsewhere. After their time we know for certain that Tjeser and
Snefru had duplicate tombs, possibly also Unas, and certainly Usertsen
(Senusret) III, Amenemhat III, and Aahmes; while Mentuhetep III and
Queen Teta-shera had dummy pyramids as well as their tombs.
Pages:
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364