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This is the first of a group of chambers (A6, A8, A11) lying on a east-west axis, together with annexes (A9 and A12) and the serdab (A7). Annexe A9 lies on a south-north axis above chamber A8.
All are decorated, with the exception of the serdab (A7).
The chamber A6 is entered at the south end of its east wall, from the north end of the west wall of chamber A4. The entrance doorway is wider at the A6 end, to accept a door which would open into this chamber. The passageway is decorated on both sides, with the usual parade of servants with various items : livestock, birds, food and drink. They are grouped in threes in each register, all facing into chamber A6; two and half registers surviving of the south jamb, one and half on the north jamb (view enn-1). There is no accompanying text.
The chamber is approx. 5.8m long (east-west) by 2.0m wide. All four walls are decorated but with only an average of 0.5m of the decoration surviving; the highest, small, portion surviving on the west wall, near to the serdab opening.
The east wall :
This wall, which contains the entry from chamber A4, is only decorated with the images of the deceased and one of his wife. In this scene Mereruka wears sandals, whilst elsewhere in this chamber he is bare-footed. It should also be noted that here, as in the two occurrences on the south wall, Seshseshet stands in front of him (in diminutive scale) grasping his front stepping leg. On the north wall she stands behind him at a similar size to her husband.
The south wall :
On the left half of the wall a census of domesticated animals is carried out, which include oxen, goats and gazelles. In the lower register, the census is written down by four scribes, with an attending scribe standing behind them. In front of them another scribe, probably more senior, presents the lists to Mereruka. The deceased and his wife stand to the right of the scene. Only the last part of the column of text remains in front of them, which states:" ... from his settlements of Lower and Upper Egypt".
On the right half of the wall, Mereruka and his wife (situated at far right) receive the products of the villages or estates, symbolised by women carrying these in either a basket on their head or carried by hand. The names of each domains is given in front of the representative. Again, only the last part of the column of text remains in front of them, stating:"... of his estate for an invocation offering for him there".
Male servants walk behind the women, laden with more offerings. The text above these says: "Let the best and all good year-offerings come to his ka".
The west wall :
The topic of the lower reliefs of this wall is the treatment of animals of the farmyard. Geese, ducks and pigeons appear to roam freely in a large meadow. The bottom register deals specifically with the scenes of the raising of cranes. Grain is thrown to the free roaming adults. For the young this is prepared as a mash or it is cooked; with this they are then force fed (view ww-3a and view ww-3b).
Towards the middle of this wall a vertical opening gives the only access to the serdab (chamber A7), situated behind. When the mastaba was originally constructed, a space would have been left in the wall to enable the placement of statues of Mereruka. Afterwards this would have been filled with blocks, faced, then decorated; leaving only the small opening.
A small remaining portion of an upper register still exists, to the left, above the height of the opening. This shows several men carrying what is almost certainly a palanquin.
The north wall :
On the small portion of this wall, to the left of the entry to chamber A8, is depicted a collection of offerings.
To the right of the doorway only the lower register and a half have survived. The lower register shows the butchery of oxen (view nw-1). Three dead animals are shown having their haunches severed as an offering for Mereruka. Working on the middle animal, the man on the right instructs his work-mate to:"Pull towards yourself, comrade", whilst with the animal on the right, the man kneeling on its neck instructs his work-mate to:"Turn his head, comrade". Above, men carry offerings towards the entry to chamber 8.
In the middle of the wall, the deceased, his wife and son, face the fishing scene on the right. Originally he would have stood to almost the full height of the wall. His wife stands behind him at the same scale. His son, who is shown at a much smaller scale, stands in front; this is Meryteti.
The surviving lower part of the column of text in front of them says: " ... of the estate, so that invocation offerings of bread and beer may come forth to him there".
To the right, the scenes which Mereruka and company observe are again subdivided originally into several registers with only one and a half surviving. The actual fishing scene of the lowest register shows twenty-three men pulling on a large net, provided with floats (view nw-3). Entrapped in this are a large variety of fish. In the register above can be seen the fishermen bringing the produce of their task towards Mereruka.
This chamber has an approximate size of 4.8m in length by 2.0m in width (see plan in chamber A6, above). The serdab is a special chamber set aside and fully closed off from the preceding chamber (A6) except for a narrow rectangular aperture, set vertically in the middle of the common wall. Of this group of six chambers, only this one was undecorated. This was quite normal as it was only intended for statues of the deceased, observations of which were thus only possible through the narrow aperture. These statues provided reserve bodies which the deceased might occupy when needed. Unfortunately, of the statues themselves, only a few fragments of wood were found.
Possibly intended originally as an annexe and away from the main focus of the mastaba (chamber A13), it lies to the north-west of its associated chamber. However, with the presence of a stela (or false door) at its western end, it makes a strange addition to the mastaba complex. The location for the false door was already dictated by the position of the burial shaft (created before the erection of the internal walls) in chamber A11 (see below). The access from A6 is at the east end of the south wall, directly in line with the opening into chamber A9 (cut through the north wall after completion of its decoration) and thus giving a direct line of sight from A6 into A9.
The entry was designed for an inward opening door. The passageway is again decorated with a parade of servants with various items : livestock, birds, food and drink. This time they are grouped in fours in each register, all facing into chamber A8; only one and half registers surviving on either wall. There is no accompanying text.
The chamber has an 7.8m east-west length and a width of 2.6m, making it larger than the chamber to which it is the possible annexe. The surviving decoration varies from almost full height at the west end of the north wall to almost nothing on the east wall.
The south wall :
This wall was originally covered with bas-reliefs representing long lines of servants heading towards the west, carrying foods and products of all kinds, for Mereruka and his wife Seshseshet.
The whole of the bottom register has survived and a large portion of the second, only the part nearest to the entry door being missing. Of the third register, only the legs of the porters now exist. A descriptive text band is located above the characters of each register.
Two decorated blocks are situated higher up the wall, one of which contains part of the kheker frieze which would have delimited the upper area of the wall.
Located at the west end of the wall, Mereruka is seated on a fine chair with a back rest and having legs which end in the claws of lions, resting on small conical pedestals (line drawing). None of the text associated with Mereruka has survived, his upper portion being missing. His wife kneels next to him, breathing the fragrant lotus flower. She is identified by the text in front of her. He sits in front of a table of offerings, of which the upper portion is missing (a fuller version can be seen on the north wall). Crates containing various offerings are situated under the table, which stood on a single pedestal. More offerings are piled to the left of these.
Walking in front, in the bottom register, are six men carrying thighs of oxen, a most valued offering. These are positioned directly below the seated couple. Only the first of these is named; they were relatives of the deceased. Of the other names which have survived or ever existed, only four can be found.
The long text band above this register is only missing the left-hand (end) section, part of Mereruka's titles and names. The text says: "Bringing choice pieces (shanks and birds), gifts and all good year-offerings, which are brought from his estates, from his settlements of Lower and Upper Egypt, so that invocation offerings of bread and beer may come forth to him there on every day, at every feast, at the opening of the year festival, at the Thot festival, at the first of the year festival, at the Wag-festival, at the Sokar festival, at the great festival, at the festival of burning, to the extent (of eternity for the)", then follows some the deceased's titles and his name/s.
At the left-hand side of the bottom register, porters carry various goods in containers, some carry large fowl, and some are accompanied by small domesticated animals (view sw-1 and view sw-2).
One interesting item being carried, which all visitors seem to want to see, is the hedgehog being carried by the eleventh porter from the left hand side of the bottom register (see left).
The west wall :
This wall of the chamber is formed from a magnificent monolithic stela or false door, in Turah limestone (view ww-2). The upper portion is almost entirely destroyed. On the usual display area, in the middle, can be seen the deceased seated in front of a table of offerings (see detail), on top of which is the usual display of many upright half-loaves. Below the table are two vessels on top of a box. On the lower lintel, beneath the small scene, are several of his titles and his name "Meri", written on two lines of text. Below this, and extending across the width of the inner door section, is a cylindrical drum contains just his title of "Sole companion" and again just "Meri".
Three long texts (the inner two are of two columns each, the outer is of three columns), located at either side of the central narrow door, list many of his titles, each side enumerated in the same way (line drawing). many of the titles are repeated; each set ending with both of his names. At the bottom of each set of text lines is the standing figure of Mereruka, facing inwards, towards the actual door section.
Down each side of the stela are superimposed seven sets of vessels containing the seven sacred unguents. Each set stands on a table.
In front of the stele was placed, in antiquity, an offering table in the shape of a hetep-sign. This has not been found; only the depressed block in which it would have rested now exists.
Although, from its location, away from the normal route to the main chamber of the complex, and the fact that this chamber does not contain the burial shaft, this false door is far superior to the one in chamber A11.
The north wall :
Like the south wall, it originally had reliefs representing long lines of servants heading west, carrying offerings towards the seated Mereruka and his wife.
The couple, and the table in front of them, are the only remains of any registers above the bottom one (line drawing). However, here nearly all of the image of Mereruka has survived, including some of his titles and part of the tabular list of offerings which is located over the table. This enumerates nourishments and perfumes. Mereruka stretches out his hand towards the table of offerings covered with a vertical stack of eighteen half-loaves. Directly in front of the leg of the table is a single crate containing a variety of vessels. Beyond this is a pile of offerings.
Again, the whole length of the bottom register has survived; but only to its full height at the western end. As on the south wall, six men carrying thighs of oxen lead the parade. Unlike the south wall, their names are given and they are the names of relatives. In the middle of the parade, porters (like those of the south wall) have a variety of goods in containers, carry a various birds and are accompanied by livestock (view nw-2). A descriptive text band is located above the characters, but only the western end still exists. From what does still exist, it can be seen that it would have been a duplicate of that found on the south wall.
The east wall :
The bas-reliefs of this wall are nearly completely destroyed. All that remains is a fraction of a butchery scene at its south end.
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