SERDAB

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 15 May 2012

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Word of the Day:

  SERDAB  (n. pl. -S)


Definition(s):

1. (n.) a small chamber of an ancient Egyptian tomb containing a statue of the deceased, typically either concealed or accessible only by a narrow passage
2. (n.) a living room in the basement of a Middle Eastern or East Mediterranean house that provides coolness during the summer months

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: ARDEBS, BARDES, BEARDS, BREADS, DEBARS, and SABRED
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Current theme:

Ancient Egypt

Epilogue:

The ancient Egyptians famously constructed elaborate PYRAMIDS to house the dead and their treasures.  Less well known is the precursor called a MASTABA (or MASTABAH), a square or rectangular flat-topped tomb with sides sloping outward to the base.  The word MASTABA, in fact, comes from Arabic for “bench of stone or mud.”  Many mastabas can be found in the same areas as the pyramids, and the pyramidal design may, in fact, have originated from the idea of stacking multiple mastabas on top of each other.

Inside most mastabas is a SERDAB, a small chamber containing a statue of the deceased.  The word is from Arabic and Persian, meaning “cellar” or “ice-house.”  The statue in the serdab was usually situated so that it could “see,” through a squint hole, into a ceremonial room where various rites could be performed and incense could be burned.  The sounds and smells of the rites could waft through the squint to the statue, which was designed to represent the KA (the spiritual self) of the deceased.  If the body and statue were well preserved, the ancient Egyptians believed, then the person’s BA (eternal soul) might someday return and revivify the body. 

The actual burial chamber in a mastaba was usually located in a separate, hidden part of the tomb.  The intricate layout may have been designed to protect the statue, the material possessions, and the actual body from grave robbers.  Unfortunately, though, most were looted over time, along with most of the rest of the ancient Egyptian tombs, however ingeniously designed.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =