"This is a lightly revised version of a doctoral thesis in the History of Religions, defended in the spring term of 2013 at the Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University." Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents:
Introduction -- The performative structure -- Iconicity and monumentality -- Image and architecture-ritualizing the pyramid complex in the Old Kingdom -- Monumentalizing the beyond-the pyramid -- The pyramid of Pepy I -- The sarcophagus chamber (P/F) -- The passage (P/F-A) -- The antechamber (P/A) -- The corridor (P/C) -- The vestibule (P/V) -- The ascending passage (P/D) -- The performative structure.
Summary:
Billing investigates the ancient Egyptian pyramid complex as a performative structure, ritualized through the operative faculty inherent in monumental architecture, text, and image. The main body of research is given over to an analysis of the Pyramid Texts found in the pyramid of king Pepy I of the Sixth Dynasty (ca 2300 BCE). It is demonstrated that the texts were distributed on distinct space-bound thematic and ritual levels in order to perpetuate a cultic activity from which the lord of the tomb could be transformed by moving through the different chambers and corridors towards the exit. Just as the decoration program of the mortuary temple once delineated the ritual and ideological structure of the royal mortuary cult, the corpus of texts distributed in the pyramid provided a monumentalized performative structure that effectuated the perennial rebirth for its owner.
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