False door

From ArchaeoWiki

The false door (French: faux-porte, pl. fausses-portes; German: Scheintur, pl. Scheintür) represented an important feature of ancient Egyptian funerary architecture during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods, the ‘door’ magically representing a portal to a passageway, providing deceased individuals (gods, rulers and commoners) with access to the terrestrial world after their death.

During the Middle Kingdom, with the advent of new tomb types, the false door was gradually superseded by funerary stelae.

Contents 1 Typology 1.1 Normal False Door 1.2 Realistic False Door 1.3 Palace Façade False Door 1.4 Other Types 2 Bibliography

Typology

Normal False Door

Realistic False Door

Palace Façade False Door

Other Types

Bibliography

• Haeny, G., “Scheintür”, LdÄ V, 563-574.

• Lauer, Jean-Philippe [1981], "La signification et le rôle des fausses-portes du palais dans les tombeaux du type de Negadeh", MDAIK 37 (1981), pp.281-287.

• Wiebach, Sylvia [1981], Die ägyptische Scheintur, Hamburg, 1981.