Artistic Study of the Wildlife Scene at the Burial Chamber of Rashepses in Saqqara, Egypt

Saqqara is the main necropolis of Memphis which was the capital of ancient Egypt during the old kingdom. The ancient Egyptians tried to keep their place in the after life so they tried to hide their grave away from robbers, especially from the time of the fourth dynasty, they buried their bodies in deep shafts and kept them in stone sarcophaguses, however. From the middle of the fifth dynasty, they began to make big burial chambers, deep underground, accessed by vertical shafts or sloping corridors, they also began to decorate the burial chambers. the burial chamber of Ra-shepses is considered the most ancient of decorated burial chamber that has been discovered till now. Ra-shepses was one of the most important people in the time of the fifth dynasty, he was the first one to have the title of (the responsible for the south), he was a vizier at the time of King Jedkara, the pigments in the burial chamber of Rashepses are unique, the ancient artist used shadows for the first time although it is the most ancient decorated burial chamber. There are more than ten different colors were used in the wildlife scene, that shows how the artist used his skills to create new colors weren't used before, optical digital microscopy, is used to study those pigments and try to identify the technique that was used to create that terrific scene in the burial chamber.