Tomb of Perneb..Egypt, Dynasty 5, reigns of Isesi and Unis (ca. 2381-2323 BC)..From Saqqara, north of King's Djoser's Step Pyramid....Perneb (the name neans: My Lord has come forth to me) was a court ifficial who functioned primarily at the robing and crowning of the king.....This open-air courtyard forms the center of Perneb's aboveground funeral monument. It was originally furnished with a low platform for the deposition of offerings and two small obelisks, powerful symbols of rebirthdedicated to the sun god as the ultimate source of life.....A central, recessed doorway leads into the main offering chamber of the tomb, while the door on its left gives ccess to a sesondary ritual chamber connected with the so-called serlad (Aribic for" cellar"), a closed room in which Perneb's statue stood.....The partially ruined wall opposite the central, recessed doorway is slightly stepped and inclined. It represents the outside enclosure of another monument: the tomb of the Vizier Shepsesre, who may have been Perneb's father. Perneb's builders attached his tomb to that of Shepsesre.....While all other walls surrounding the courtyard are original, the shepsesre wall was reconstructed by the Museum, using stone from a quarry located close the the one from which Perneb;sbuilding material was extraced. The reconstrucyion serves to convey to visitors the intimacy of perneb's court, which was both a private and sacred space.
