MastaBase

The Leiden Mastaba Project (LMP) concerns an integral and analytic study of the secular or 'daily life' scenes and their accompanying texts in the elite tombs of the Memphite area in the Old Kingdom (c. 2600-2150 B.C.). The project has the aim to get insight in the developments of number, size, internal organization and shape of the various (sub)themes, their location in the tomb, their wall position (upper/middle/lower level), and their orientation (north/east/south/west) on the walls. This reflects the dynamics of Old Kingdom funerary culture in general aspects (collective) and in specific cases (individual). Simultaneously it reveals possible local variations, mainly among the large necropoleis of Saqqara and Giza. The data are digitalized in a database called MastaBase, published on this cd-rom. Thanks to the standardisation of the material offered in the MastaBase, with this cd-rom it is now possible to gain quick oversights into various different aspects of these tombs and their decoration via extensive selection procedures. Minimum system requirements: - IBM compatible PC - Pentium 4 processor or better - Minimum 256 Mb RAM memory - Windows 98SE / 2000 / XP or higher - 16-bit (millions) color display or higher - CD-ROM drive 12-speed or better - 45 Mb hard disk space