Model of the Mastaba Tomb of Perneb

This model was made between 1913 and 1916 for the first installation of the mastaba of Perneb (13.183.3) in the Museum. It offers an overview of the layout of the entire structure. The mastaba was reached by a narrow street that threaded between rows of tombs in the cemetery and passed through an entry in the outer wall of Perneb’s mastaba into the courtyard, whose outer wall was formed by the adjacent outer wall of the mastaba of Shepsesre.

Most of the interior space of the mastaba was packed with rubble, but the roof has been cut away here to allow a view into the vestibule and main offering chamber, which were accessed via the entryway in the center of the long wall of the courtyard. Also visible are the side offering chamber, which was linked to the statue chamber (serdab); the burial shaft, sunk vertically through the rubble fill; and a second shaft that was begun but never completed. The burial shaft reached the burial chamber in the bedrock below, and was filled in after deposition of the mummy and its accompanying burial equipment.