The Valley temple of Menkaure was a mainly brick-built structure that was enlarged in the Fifth or Sixth Dynasty. From this temple come the famous statues of Menkaure with his queen and several deities. A partial list includes:
- Nome triad, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore seated, and King and Hare-nome goddess standing, greywacke, in Boston Mus. 09.200.
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Theban nome-god standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40678.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Jackal-nome goddess standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40679.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Bat-fetish nome -goddess standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 46499.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor, and nome-god standing, greywacke. (Middle part in Boston Mus. 11.3147, head of King in Brussels, Mus. Roy. E. 3074.)
- Double-statue,’ King and wife (Khamerernebti II) standing, uninscribed, greywacke. (Now in Boston Mus. 11.1738.)
- King seated, life-size, fragmentary, alabaster. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40703.)
- King seated, lower part, inscribed seat, alabaster. (Now in Boston Mus. 09.202)
Construction
Reconstructing Menkaure’s valley temple is more complicated than any other element within his pyramid complex. The west part of the limestone block base and lower part of the core of the temple’s north wall were probably completed during the ruler’s lifetime, while the remaining clay masonry would be attributable to his son, Shepseskaf. Just behind the portal to the temple, there was a square antechamber adorned with four columns. The alabaster (calcite) bases of these columns, pressed into the clay floor, have been preserved. On either side of this room are four storerooms. Behind the entrance antechamber, the whole middle of the valley temple consisted of a vast open courtyard with inner walls decorated with niches (similar to the mortuary temple’s courtyard). A path, paved with limestone slabs, ran from the pillared antechamber through the centre of the courtyard to a common stairway, which led through a portico with two rows of wooden columns. This terminated at an offering hall where an alabaster altar may have once stood. To the north of the offering halls were twelve storerooms and five additional storerooms to its south. This was where Reisner found the famous, predominantly triad statues of the ruler, along with four unfinished statuettes of Menkaure, fragments of other statues and stone vessels. Reisner discovered three statues of the goddess Hathor on the ruler’s right side, with divinities symbolizing three Upper Egyptian nomes on his left. These may have been part of an enormous collection of statues for each of the provinces of Egypt, or perhaps only the nomes that provided endowments for the complex.
Function
Curiously, the function of the valley temple changed over time. Reisner retraced the process by which houses of the pyramid town first crowded up against the front wall of the temple and then began to be built within it. People began living in the temple, particularly in the courtyard, where grain storehouses and lodgings were built.
As early as the 5th Dynasty, the temple was severely damaged by water after a hefty rain tore away the temple’s west side. Reisner believes that the temple was rebuilt roughly during Pepi II’s reign.
More recently, an Egyptian archaeologist, Selim Hassan, while excavating the nearby tomb complex of queen Khentkaues I, discovered a small brick structure with a platform, low benches and a small drainage canal, together with a basin at the northeast corner of Menkaure’s valley temple. Stored, there were a large number of flint blades and stone vessels. Some Egyptologists believe that this structure was used for a “purification ten” and was only a part of a larger structure where the mummification ritual took place.
Another modification of the valley temple was a brick structure built in front of the temple’s west wall. It may have provided a widened portal, giving better access between the temple and the pyramid town.
The Causeway
The causeway of this pyramid complex leading from the Valley temple to the Mortuary Temple was most likely completed by Shepseskaf. It had floors made of limestone blocks and highly compressed clay mixed with limestone fragments. A little more than two meters thick, mudbrick walls supported a roof. Reisner believed that the roof was made of wooden beams and mats because he found the remains of such material at the end of the causeway. However, other Egyptologists, because of the width of the side walls and architectural elements of nearby close family members’ tombs, believed there would have been a vaulted roof of brickwork.
Nevertheless, the causeway was never completed. Work seems to have stopped when it meets the west side of the old Khufu quarry. From there down to the valley temple, the causeway was probably never more than a construction ramp for delivering the stone. Hence, we do not know how it was to connect to the valley temple. However, some Egyptology resources believe that it would not have begun at the west part of the valley temple but instead would have run along its whole south and part of its west side. They believe it was accessible from the storerooms in the valley temple’s southern section.
New Findings from the Menkaure Valley Temple
During our 2019 Field Season, we returned to the Menkaure Valley Temple, an area crucial to our understanding of the overall settlement of the Giza Plateau. We believe that when people abandoned the Heit el-Ghurab (HeG) settlement (also known as the Lost City of the Pyramid Workers), they resettled near the Khentkawes Town (KKT) and MVT. These sites then changed from infrastructures for significant royal works to service centres for the cults of the deceased kings.
The First and Second Temples
George Reisner excavated the Menkaure Valley Temple between 1908 and 1910, but he never saw the whole temple exposed in phase, so his temple plan is reconstructed from separate exposures. It was clear to Reisner that he had two significant periods: an earlier mudbrick First Temple completed by Menkaure’s successor Shepseskaf and a later “Second Temple” built over 200 years later, probably under King Pepi II.
Reisner found evidence that a desert flash flood streamed down the causeway’s northern side, washing out the centre of the First Temple west wall and destroying the entrance and offering hall. After this event, the Menkaure Valley Temple was abandoned. Eventually, people returned and rebuilt the outer wall of the Second Temple roughly over what survived the outer wall of the First Temple. Late in the occupation of the Second Temple, people built a fieldstone “Water Wall” against the base of the outer wall as protection against further flash floods.
Removing Reisner’s Backfill
This year, a good part of our work went into removing and examining the deep sand and spoil that Reisner dumped into the back of the Menkaure Valley Temple and around the surrounding area as he excavated the central court. This central court area was filled with domestic structures, including many bins and granaries, which were built over time on top of each other across the court and up and over the “First Temple” walls. This area was both architecturally complex and rich in material culture.
A short distance north of Reisner’s excavation, we found concentrated deposits of Egyptian alabaster mixed with sand overburden, extending north beyond our excavation limit. These spoil deposits were rich in pottery, flint tools, animal bones, ash, charcoal, worked stone (including a diorite beard from a royal statue), pigment, wood, metal, clay sealings, and nearly 100 kg of alabaster statue fragments. Some of the alabaster fragments showed parts of hieroglyphic texts, while others showed traces of blue paint. This deposit is probably where Reisner’s workers sorted the material they found in the court. These finds were overlooked or deemed unimportant in Reisner’s time, but today there is much we can learn from them.
Animal bone and flint tools appear to be, by far, the most abundant material. If this material did come from the apartments on the southern side of the court, the people who stayed there cut much meat. Further work in our lab may help us find out.
Descending into the Thieves’ Hole
After we removed Reisner’s backfill, our attention turned to what he called the “Thieves’ Hole.” This is where Reisner discovered the Menkaure dyad before being stopped from going further by the rising groundwater. Given our limited time and resources, we focused on removing Reisner’s fill within his retaining walls to reach the bottom of the hole, which gave a valuable cross-section of the stratified architecture of the temple. As we descended, we were astounded by the incredible depth of this part of the temple and the massiveness of the First Temple walls. We found two large limestone “core blocks,” so-called because they were meant to form the cores of the walls, which the builders would later sheath in hard granite. This is evidence that Menkaure wanted to build a stone temple, like Khafre’s Valley Temple, but the stonework stopped, probably when he died, and the temple was completed in mudbrick.
Further to the east, inside the Thieves’ Hole, we found another large limestone core block. In front of this block is where Reisner discovered the famous nearly life-sized statue of Menkaure and a woman, probably the queen’s mother, standing upright and virtually undamaged (except for a chip off the King’s beard). This dyad statue, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is one of the most magnificent sculptures in history.
A New Theory
Our archival research and this season’s excavations have led us to realize that Reisner did not find the dyad in the Thieves’ Hole but in a deeper, older hole that someone dug in ancient times a little farther east. AERA senior archaeologist Dan Jones came up with this important finding from a detailed review of Reisner’s published report, unpublished diary, and photographs, all available at The Giza Archives. On January 16, 1910, Reisner wrote in his diary, “(n)ext to the thieves’ hole…there is another hole filled with such debris (yellow gravel) that it also must be a thieves’ hole.” In all later reports, Reisner conflated the two conjoined holes, but a close study of his photographs and our new excavation leads us to believe the Thieves Hole and the “dyad hole” are indeed different features. The older dyad hole appears to have been started from the surface of the ruins of the First Temple. Someone dug this hole into the crushed limestone foundation of the First Temple during or after it fell into disrepair, perhaps soon after the flash flood destroyed the sanctuary.
It now appears that the Menkaure dyad may have been buried long before the Thieves’ Hole was dug and that this older dyad hole was intentionally dug expressly to place the undamaged statue upright and safely keep it deep inside the temple foundations. Why this was done and who and what the dyad represents must await further discussion. We hope to find more answers when we return to the deep end of the MVT for our 2020 Field Season.
