Editing Mastaba (section)

== Interior ==
A mastaba was essentially meant to provide the ''ba'' with a house in the afterlife, and they were laid out accordingly. Some would be used to house families, rather than individuals, with several burial shafts acting as "rooms".<ref name=":0" /> The burial chambers were cut deep, into the bedrock, and were lined with wood.<ref>{{cite web|last=BBC|title=Mastabas|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/pyramid_gallery_02.shtml|publisher=bbc|access-date=29 May 2013}}</ref>  A second hidden chamber called a ''[[serdab]]'' (سرداب), from the Persian word for "cellar",<ref>{{cite book | last = Bard | first = K. A. | title = Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt | publisher = Routledge | location = New York | year = 1999 |isbn=978-0415185899}}</ref> was used to store anything that may have been considered essential for the comfort of the deceased in the afterlife, such as beer, grain, clothes and precious items.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lewis|first=Ralph|title=Burial practices, and Mummies|url=http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/burialpracticesgallery|publisher=Rosicrucian Museum|access-date=29 May 2013|archive-date=13 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313100323/http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/burialpracticesgallery|url-status=dead}}</ref> The mastaba housed a statue of the deceased that was hidden within the masonry for its protection. High up the walls of the ''serdab'' were small openings that would allow the ''ba'' to leave and return to the body (represented by the statue); Ancient Egyptians believed the ''ba'' had to return to its body or it would die.  These openings "were not meant for viewing the statue but rather for allowing the fragrance of burning incense, and possibly the spells spoken in rituals, to reach the statue".<ref>{{cite book |last=Arnold |first=Dorothea |title=When the Pyramids were Built: Egyptian Art of the Old Kingdom |location=New York |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=1999 |page=12 |isbn=978-0870999086 }}</ref> The statues were nearly always oriented in one direction, facing the opening. The serdab could also feature inscriptions, such as the testament and [[mortuary cult]] of the owner.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Manuelian |first=Peter Der |date=2009 |title=Penmeru Revisited—Giza Mastaba G 2197 (Giza Archives Gleanings V) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25735445 |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |volume=45 |pages=3–48 |jstor=25735445 }}</ref> More elaborate mastabas would feature open courtyards, which would be used to house more statues and allow the dead to perform rites. Over time, the courtyards grew into magnificent columned halls, which served the same purposes. These halls would typically be the largest room in the mastaba, and they could be used for sacrifices of livestock. Larger mastabas also included a network of storerooms, which the presiding [[phyle]] would use to maintain the mortuary cult of the mastaba's owner. Generally, there would be five of these storerooms, used by the living to store equipment needed for performing rites; unlike the serdab, they were not meant to be used by the deceased. These lacked any form of decoration, again distinguishing their function from that of the rest of the tomb. Due to the great expense of adding a complex of storerooms, these were only constructed in the largest of mastabas, for the royal family and viziers.<ref name=":1" />