René VAN WALSEM

(Leiden University, The Netherlands)

Methodology/Approach:
As briefly explained in my workshop presentation on Monday, the decorative programmes of Old Kingdom (±2600-2100 BC) elite tombs are extremely complex with many facets and varying aspects on different levels of interpretation. The in-depth study of the various topics entails sets of standard and non-standard questions. Unequivocal answers of these are of the greatest importance to help maximizing the substance and authority of the outcome and interpretation of all kinds of possible analyses. Their quantification makes them imitable and controllable for everybody beyond the researcher, and thus help to better weigh the produced evidence for certain research results. It is no longer good enough for an “authority” to state that a certain topic occurs “frequently” among the mastaba material – and, thus, was important for “the” ancient Egyptian elite – by giving, e.g., a list of 27 parallels, which may seem impressive to the reader who, however, is left in the dark on the number of publications consulted by the author or the total population of published tombs. MastaBase, first of all, gives not only the total number of published tombs (337), but also of rooms (581), of walls (2366), of registers (6740) and of texts (11459). Thus, it immediately shows that 27 is not “frequent” at all, nor is its importance impressive for “the” elite. On the other hand, MastaBase, may show that 21 occurrences of the topic are found in Giza, 5 in Saqqara and 1 in Meidum, which irrefutably demonstrates that the topic was of great importance for “the” elite of Giza, but not for those of Saqqara and Meidum. However, MastaBase may also prove that at Giza 3 occurrences date to the 4th dynasty and the remaining 18 to the 5th, while the 5 at Saqqara all date to the 4th. Abundant subtleties in interpretation emerge immediately and objectively. Other cases concerning orientation (is there a “symbolic” meaning, e.g., a West (place of the majority of necropolises) wall means “funerary” connotations?), distribution on walls, and historic developments of texts will be demonstrated.

Results:
Objective quantitative data are highly time-efficiently produced by a few clicks, offering immediate results, beyond reach in the pre-MastaBase period, helping to reach well-founded qualitative interpretations.

Keywords: Unequivocal answers, objective data, subtleties, quantitative data, qualitative interpretations.