ABSTRACT
A consequence of the immense organization needed to build the pyramids, and the recruitment and training of the hosts of artists and craftsmen necessary to work on all the various divisions of the project, was that in the later decades of the Old Kingdom, when the king no longer absorbed most of the available labour and talent in the construction of his pyramid, a pool of highly skilled workers and craftsmen existed on which the nobles and indeed even the merely prosperous could draw to build and decorate monuments for themselves. This aspect of life in the Old Kingdom is reflected in the apparent ‘democratization’ of Egyptian religion, a phenomenon which has often been commented upon. The argument proceeds that first the king alone was guaranteed immortality; then his attendants, family, and most intimate courtiers were brought in the scope of the Afterlife by being buried close to him. It may seem a naïve view for a sophisticated people, but there is little doubt that the fact that a minor self-made official or tradesman could afford to commission a handsome tomb led quite quickly to the insistence that such a tomb was worth commissioning and that the individual concerned could expect to enjoy an eternity once reserved exclusively for his betters. This was to lead ultimately to a sort of democratization of death and the loss of the primordial Egyptian attitude to the world beyond death. Later in the Old Kingdom we see the king himself acknowledging the change and giving his favoured courtiers ‘houses of millions of years’, tombs which were intended to serve as estates for eternity, comparable with the lands, herds and servants with which he would reward those who served him in their lifetimes.
