Qa'a - Tomb

Tomb

Qa'a had a fairly large tomb in Abydos which measures 98.5 X 75.5 feet or 30 X 23 meters. A long reign is supported by the large size of this ruler's burial site at Abydos. A seal impression bearing Hotepsekhemwy's name was found near the entrance of the tomb of Qa'a (Tomb Q) by the German Archaeological Institute in the mid-1990s. This pharaoh's large Abydos tomb was excavated by German archaeologists in 1993 and proved to contain 26 satellite (i.e. sacrificial) burials. The discovery of the seal impression has been interpreted as evidence that Qa'a was buried, and therefore succeeded, by Hotepsekhemwy, the founder of the second dynasty of Egypt, as Manetho states. The beautiful tomb stela of Qa'a is now on display at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The tomb of one of Qa'a's state officials at Saqqara—a certain noblemen named Merka—contained a stele with many titles. There is a second sed festival attested. This fact plus the high quality of a number of royal steles depicting the king implies that Qa'a's reign was a fairly stable and prosperous period of time.

A number of year labels have also been discovered dating to his reign at the First Dynasty burial site of Umm el-Qa'ab in Abydos. Qa'a is believed to have ruled Egypt around 2916 BCE. A dish inscribed with the name and titles of Qa'a was discovered in the tomb of Peribsen (Tomb P of Petrie).

Read more about this topic:  Qa'a

Famous quotes containing the word tomb:

    Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
    Bound for the prize of all too precious you,
    That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inherse,
    Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
    Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
    Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “But thou, O King, I bid remember me, unwept, unburied,
    “Heap up mine arms, be tomb by sea-bord, and inscribed:
    “A man of no fortune, and with a name to come.
    Ezra Pound (1885–1972)

    And so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
    Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride
    In her sepulchre there by the sea—
    In her tomb by the side of the sea.
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)