Layout ; and E) causeway|alt=3D model of the mortuary complex
Old Kingdom mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a mortuary temple; (4) a cult pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid. Sahure's east–west oriented complex contains all of these elements. Its tall main pyramid comprised six ascending steps of stone encased in fine white limestone, with a cult pyramid located at the south-east corner, and a mortuary temple, the standard-bearer for future variants, adjacent to its east face. These connected to the valley temple, situated on Abusir lake, by a long limestone causeway. From the outset of the Fifth Dynasty, the main pyramids were dramatically reduced in size and adopted simplified
construction techniques. Meanwhile,
relief decoration advanced in wealth of subject matter and quality of workmanship, and temples were outfitted with expansive storeroom complexes. Except for minor deviations, the complex built by Sahure became the model for the remainder of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties and the arrangement of the apartments of his mortuary temple became the standard for subsequent temples of the type in the Old Kingdom. Thereby it marked a milestone in the development of pyramid complex construction. The complex is well-decorated, containing thematically diverse relief-work identified by the Egyptologist
Miroslav Verner as 'the highest level of the genre' found in the Old Kingdom. Across its entirety, it is estimated that of finely carved relief adorned the walls. His mortuary temple alone contained 370 running metres (1,214 running feet) of relief decorations. By contrast, Sneferu's mortuary temple contained 64 running metres (210 running feet) of relief decoration, Khufu's contained 100 running metres (328 running feet), and the temple of Sahure's direct predecessor Userkaf contained 120 running metres (394 running feet). The mortuary temple of Pepi II, the last king of the Old Kingdom, contained 200 running metres (656 running feet) of relief decoration, indicating a decline after Sahure too. No more than of fragmentary relief has been preserved from Sahure's temple, but this is considered well-preserved. Additionally, Sahure reserved of the mortuary temple's floorplan for storerooms, accounting for 21.6% of its total area. By comparison, the temple of Sneferu's
Red Pyramid at
Dahshur, and temple of Khufu's
Great Pyramid had no storerooms, while the temple of
Khafre's pyramid reserved less than of space for storerooms, accounting for 15.8% of its total area. This change represents a shift in priority towards the daily activities of the mortuary cult.
Main pyramid Sahure's pyramid is situated upon a hill elevated above the
Nile valley. Although the
subsoil of the area has never been investigated, evidence from the nearby
mastaba of
Ptahshepses suggests that the pyramid was not embedded into bedrock, but on a platform constructed from at least two layers of limestone. The pyramid had a core comprising six ascending steps, five of which remain. The steps were probably built from horizontally laid courses of limestone. The core consisted of low-grade roughly cut limestone bound with
mud mortar, and was encased by fine white limestone. The pyramid was constructed in a drastically different manner to those of the preceding dynasty. Its outer faces were framed using massive, roughly dressed grey limestone blocks well joined with mortar. The inner chambers were similarly framed, but using considerably smaller blocks. The core of the pyramid, between the two frames, was then packed with a rubble
fill of limestone chips, pottery shards, and sand, with clay mortaring. This method, while less time- and resource-consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high-quality limestone. Pyramid of Sahure 2.jpg|alt=Photograph of a pyramid complex|The pyramid from the end of the causeway Metropolitan Museum Collection. Model of King Sahure's Pyramid at Abusir.jpg|alt=3D model of a pyramid complex|Model of the complex from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art Pyramid of Sahure (1).jpg|alt=Photograph of a pyramid|Crumbling remains of the pyramid Owing to the poor condition of the monument, information about its dimensions and appearance contains a degree of imprecision. The pyramid had a base length of about to converging at either 50° 11′ 40′′ or 50°30′ towards the apex between and high. The architects made a notable error in demarcating the base, causing the southeast corner to extend too far east. Consequently, it is not square. A ditch was left in the pyramid's north face during construction, which allowed workers to build the inner corridor and chambers while the core was being erected around it, before filling it in with rubble. The pyramid is surrounded by a limestone paved courtyard, except where the mortuary temple sits, and is accessed from the temple's north and south wings. Enclosing the courtyard is a tall, rounded enclosure wall at its thickest.
Substructure The substructure access is located slightly above ground on the pyramid's north face. A short descending corridor – lined with granite – leads into a vestibule, beyond which the route is guarded by a pink granite
portcullis, with granite-lined walls on either side. The corridor is long sloped at 24° 48′, with a passage wide and high. The corridor following – lined with limestone – begins with a slight ascent becoming horizontal – lined with granite – just before its terminus. The ascending portion is long with a slope of 5°, while the horizontal section is long. Precise reconstruction of the substructure plan has been rendered impossible by the extensive damage that stone thieves wrought on the chambers. Until 2019, sources differed as to whether the funerary apartment – estimated to be east–west by north–south – consisted of a single or twin chambers. Clearance of the substructure in 2019 confirmed that the funerary apartment consisted of two rooms, with the burial chamber still to be investigated. The
antechamber lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid, occupying of space, with the
burial chamber to its west. The chambers had a ceiling constructed from three
gabled layers of limestone blocks, which dispersed the weight from the superstructure onto either side of the passageway preventing collapse. Perring estimated the largest blocks to be long, wide and thick. Despite their size and weight, all but two have been broken. Inside the apartment's ruins, Perring found stone fragments – the only discovered remains of the burial – which he believed belonged to the king's basalt sarcophagus. Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 94 on p. 70).png|alt=Photograph of the substructure entry|Entryway into the pyramid substructure Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 95 on p. 71).png|alt=Photograph of a chamber ceiling|Limestone
gable of the chamber ceiling
Valley temple Sahure's now-ruined valley temple was situated on the shore of Abusir lake, on the edge of the desert. It had a rectangular ground plan long by wide and oriented on the north–south axis. Its base is now around below ground level, which has risen over the millennia due to the accumulation of silt deposits during the annual Nile flood. The temple's walls slope inwards as they rise, their corners are formed into a convex
torus mould up to a
cavetto cornice with its own horizontal torus mould. The temple had two entrances. Its main entrance, in the east, consisted of a landing ramp leading to a column-adorned portico. Its floor was paved with polished basalt, its walls had a red granite
dado above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief, and it had a limestone ceiling that had been painted blue and decorated with relief-carved golden stars – representing the entrance into the
Duat. The columns were formed into
date palms, with leaves tied vertically to form capitals, and each column bore the king's titulary and name carved into the stone and painted green. An alternative entrance was built on the south side, accessed by a canal leading to a ramp up to another columned portico, this time containing four red granite columns. The columns, in contrast, were cylindrical in form and lacked any crown. This portico was also less deep and was paved with limestone. It remains unclear why this entrance was built. The wall may belong to Sahure's pyramid town, named 'The soul of Sahure comes forth in glory'. The entrances were connected by passages to a T-shaped hall equipped with two columns. The room has a transverse space with a narrowed recess in its rear wall containing the two columns, followed by an even narrower recess in the first's rear wall. The room was originally adorned with polychromatic relief, and contained a scene depicting the king, as a
sphinx or
griffin, trampling captive Near Eastern and
Libyan enemies led to him by
the gods. The room connects to two others: a room with a staircase up to the roof terrace at the south end, and the causeway at its rearmost recess. A relief depiction of troops from Sahure's valley temple can be contrasted with similar imagery in Userkaf's complex. In Sahure's scene, the soldiers are carved with near identical postures, a stark contrast to Userkaf's confused arrangement of overlapping figures. The latter has greater dynamism inducing more interest, whilst the former is more readily understood. The monotony of Sahure's scene was balanced by craftsmen introducing detail in the musculature and facial features of the figures. Ancient Egypt fragmentary painted limestone relief from the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Sahure, Abusir, Old Kingdom, 5th. Dynasty, c. 2496-2483 BC (28642630982).jpg|alt=Photograph of stone blocks from the mortuary temple|Fragmentary relief of Sahure in the form of a sphinx trampling Egypt's enemies Sahure Sed.png|alt=Line drawing of a seated king|Drawing of a relief of Sahure wearing the tunic of the
Sed festival and
Deshret of
Lower Egypt.
Causeway A long, slightly inclined limestone causeway connected the valley temple to the mortuary temple. The causeway was roofed, with narrow slits left in the ceiling slabs allowing light to enter, illuminating its polychromatic bas-relief covered walls. These included scenes with seemingly
apotropaic functions, such as a scene of the king represented as a sphinx crushing Egypt's enemies under his paw. Other scenes presented include offering bearers, animal slaughter, and the transport of the gilded pyramidion to the construction site. Only the base of the causeway, made of large limestone blocks, has been preserved. The scene depicting emaciated nomads, reduced through starvation, to skin and bone – had important historical implications. The scene was thought only to exist in
Unas' causeway, and was thus believed to be unique eyewitness testimony to the declining living standards of Saharan nomads brought about by the end of the
Sahara wet phase in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The discovery of an identical scene in Sahure's causeway casts doubt onto this hypothesis. Instead, Miroslav Verner suggests that the nomads might have been brought into the pyramid town to demonstrate the hardships faced by builders bringing higher-quality stone from remote mountain areas. A second discovered scene has implications for Fifth Dynasty genealogy. In this scene, Sahure is surrounded by his family in the palace garden
Wtỉs-nfrw-Sꜣhw-rꜥ meaning 'Extolled is Sahure's beauty'. The image confirms the identity of Sahure's consort,
Meretnebty, and his twin sons, Ranefer and Netjerirenre. Ranefer, who is depicted closer to Sahure and bears the titles 'king's son' and 'chief lector-priest', may have been Sahure's eldest son, ascending to the throne as Neferirkare. Netjerirenre may be the ephemeral ruler
Shepseskare, who took the throne after Neferefre's early death. Another important relief discovered depicts a procession of ships, led by the king, being moored at an unidentified location. The relief originated on the causeway south wall, and although the location depicted cannot be identified, a corresponding relief on the same wall depicts the king, his mother and wife, awaiting the arrival of ships carrying myriad goods from the land of
Punt – particular emphasis was placed on the
Commiphora myrrha trees (
nht n ꜥntw). Sahure's is the earliest recorded voyage taken by the Egyptians to Punt acquiring
myrrh,
electrum and wood from there. Sahure is further depicted extracting myrrh with an
adze from the tree in one scene, and banqueting with his family, including his sons, and officials near the tree in another. The trees depicted may not be
Commiphora myrrha, as the use of an adze to extract resin was typically reserved for the
Boswellia tree, and moreover the colour of the resin in Sahure's scene was identified by the Egyptologist Tarek El-Awady as yellowish brown, like
Boswellia frankincense, and not red, like myrrh. Sahoure3.JPG|alt=Photograph of the path to the mortuary temple|Causeway leading to the mortuary temple Berlin ÄM 21782.jpg|alt=Photograph of a stone block in a museum|Captured enemies being marched to the temple by
Set and
Sopdu Mortuary temple The mortuary temple was an expansive, rectangular building positioned along the east–west axis, and situated on a level surface built from two layers of limestone blocks in front of the main pyramid's east face. The outer façade was inclined at 82° up to a cavetto cornice with torus mould. In its layout, Sahure's mortuary temple represented the 'conceptual beginning' of all subsequent such temples of the Old Kingdom. It contained five basic elements, exemplified in the temple of
Khafre: an entrance hall, an open courtyard, a five-niche statue chapel, an offering hall, and storerooms. The dominant building material used in its construction, here as elsewhere, was limestone, but substantial valuable materials such as red and black granite, alabaster and basalt were also incorporated.
Entrance hall The transition between causeway and temple was marked by a large granite gate leading into the mortuary temple's entrance hall. In the Fifth Dynasty, it was of the standard size of long, wide, and tall. The hall has suffered considerably, rendering a precise reconstruction impracticable. It had a limestone floor, its walls had red granite dado above which was, probably, limestone decorated with painted bas-relief scenes, and it was covered by a stone
barrel vault ceiling which had slits in its
tympanum allowing the enclosure to be dimly lit. Contemporary sources identify this room as the
pr-wrw meaning 'House of the Great Ones', and it may be a replica of the hall of the royal palace, where nobles were received and certain rituals performed. At its end, a granite doorway led to a closed corridor surrounding an open courtyard.
Corridor The corridor was paved with basalt, and its walls had a granite dado, above which they were decorated with colourful relief. The north wall contains scenes depicting the king fishing and hunting wildfowl, while on the south wall he is depicted hunting – antelopes, gazelles, deer and other horned animals are shepherded into an enclosure for the king to shoot with his bow and arrow, after which hound dogs seize and kill the animals, elsewhere
hyenas are observed poaching, and
hedgehogs and
jerboa scatter into their holes – whilst his courtiers observe. A masterful depth of detail has been incorporated into the latter scene, which measured long by high. The sedate posture of the king's courtiers, representing order, is juxtaposed against the mass of wounded and frightened animals depicted in a variety of postures and facing various directions, representing chaos. The imposing figure that is Sahure is unrivalled in any other example, and the gruesome detail of the injured animals is unreplicated. The figure of a hyena, pawing at an arrow in its jaw, reappears frequently in the
Middle and
New Kingdom, an homage to the relief from Sahure's temple.
Ptahhotep's tomb in
Saqqara contains an abridged, and slightly less skilfully executed, copy of this hunting scene. AbuSirSahureEast.jpg|alt=Photograph of the ruins of a corridor and temple|South corridor – site of the hunting relief – relative to the pyramid complex Berlin_122009_015a.jpg|alt=Photograph of a relief in stone|Sahure hunting with his courtiers behind him, including his successor Neferirkare Berlín Sahure 28.JPG|alt=Preserved remains of relief carved into stone|Herded animals being slain by Sahure or poached by predators The Egyptologist
Mark Lehner suggests that the corridor represented the untamed wilderness, surrounding a clearing – the open courtyard – of which the king was guarantor. From the reliefs depicting ships on the east corridor's west wall and west corridor's (transverse corridor) east wall, the Egyptologist
Dorothea Arnold contends that the courtyard and corridor form an architectural unit analogous to the Egyptian
benben myth. The other reliefs present symbolize the king's role as guarantor of order and prosperity on the sacred island. An important discovery was made on the reliefs of the room: The titulary of one of the present subjects was modified to include the inscription
nsw-bỉt Nfr-ỉrỉ-kꜣ-rꜥ meaning 'King of Upper and Lower Egypt Neferirkare'. From this detail,
Kurt Sethe, who was responsible for compiling and preparing the scenes for publication, proposed the hypothesis that Neferirkare and Sahure were brothers, and that Neferirkare had had the reliefs altered after ascending to the throne.
Courtyard The open courtyard was paved with polished basalt and lined with sixteen red granite columns, supporting the roof of an ambulatory. Aside from an alabaster altar in the north-west corner decorated with scenes of sacrifice, the open courtyard is bare, though it originally had statues of the pharaoh placed between the columns, and may once also have contained statues of kneeling captives. Eleven of the original sixteen granite columns were found in the temple. Each was tall, and carved into the form of date palms, symbolising fertility and immortality, upon which the king's name and titulary was inscribed and painted in green. The
Two Ladies appear on these columns as well:
Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, in the south half representing
Upper Egypt, and
Wadjet, the cobra goddess, in the north half representing
Lower Egypt. Above, a red granite architrave bore the royal titulary, and further supported the limestone ceiling. The ambulatory's blue painted ceiling was decorated with yellow stars, whilst its limestone walls were decorated with polychrome bas-reliefs, fragments of which have been preserved, depicting the king's victory over his enemies – on the north wall Near Eastern peoples, on the south Libyans – and the acquired spoils. In a particular scene, showing the capture of animals, supplementary inscriptions identify the quantities seized: '123,440 head of cattle, 223,400 asses, 232,413 deer, and 243,688 sheep'. In another scene, the family of a Libyan chief beg for his life to be spared whilst the king prepares to execute him. Under the northern ambulatory, a relief of exemplary craftsmanship depicting precious oil vases and
Syrian brown bears was found. The figures were given rounded edges so that they simultaneously blend in with the background and stand out clearly. Much of the paint used has been preserved: a dark red-brown colour was used for the vase and a yellow-brown for the bear's fur. Up to a further eleven scenes remain too fragmentary to be reconstructed. Abousir Sahoure 03.jpg|alt=Photograph of basalt paving|Basalt paving of the courtyard Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 05.jpg|alt=Photograph of massive stone blocks|Remnant of the massive granite architrave inscribed with Sahure's titulary Palm Column of Sahure MET 10.175.137-Borchardt Pl6.jpg|alt=Cross-section of an architectural design|Depiction of Sahure's mortuary temple as it appeared in the
Old Kingdom Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 04.jpg|alt=Photograph of a column's capital|Palmiform capital of a column
Transverse corridor and storage galleries Beyond the courtyard is a transverse (north–south) corridor which separates the public outer from the private inner temple, which only priests were allowed to access. The corridor further served as an intersection connecting the outer and inner temples, the courtyard surrounding the pyramid, and the cult pyramid. At its northern end was a staircase up to the roof terrace. Its floor was paved with basalt, as the courtyard was, and its walls had a granite dado, above which was limestone decorated with bas-relief. On the north half of the corridor's east wall is a relief, considered by the Egyptologist
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards to be amongst the most interesting in the temple, that depicts the king and his court observing the departure of twelve sea-going vessels, probably on expedition to
Syria or
Palestine. In the south-half, a similar scene depicts the king and his court awaiting the arrival of ships laden with cargo and several Near Eastern peoples, who do not appear to be prisoners, indicating either a commercial or, perhaps, diplomatic mission. In the centre of the west wall of the corridor was an alabaster staircase that led into the five-niche statue chapel. Flanking the staircase were two deep niches, each containing two granite papyriform columns high. The columns supported an
architrave, a fragment of which has been found in the oil press of St. Jeremiah monastery in Saqqara. The niche's walls were decorated with reliefs depicting processions of offering bearers, and they had recessed side doors leading to two-story storage galleries. The northern gallery consisted of ten rooms arranged in two rows, each outfitted with its own staircase – cut directly into the limestone walls – leading to the second story. These held cult objects used for the temple rituals. The southern gallery consisted of sixteen or seventeen rooms, also arranged in two rows and outfitted with staircases, that probably held sacrificial offerings. Reliefs in the corridors leading to the galleries even included ritual instructions, such as 'presentation of gold' or 'sealing a box containing incense' found in the north and south corridors respectively. Berlin 122009 020a.jpg|alt=Photograph of relief decoration|Transverse corridor relief of a returning naval expedition Sahoure10.JPG|alt=Photograph of storage rooms|The southern storage gallery where offerings were stored Mortuary Temple of Sahure (V).jpg|alt=Photograph of stone steps|Carved stone steps of a two-story storage room
Statue chapel The transverse corridor staircase leads into the five-niche statue chapel, a room with considerable religious importance. Accessed through a double-door, it had a floor paved with white alabaster, red granite sheathing in the niches and dado, fine white limestone sheathed walls elsewhere which was lavishly decorated in relief, and a limestone ceiling decorated with stars evoking the night sky of the
Duat. A small staircase stood before each niche, which was once occupied by a statue, none of which have been preserved. It was originally assumed that each statue represented one of the king's five names, but the
Abusir Papyri, discovered in the nearby pyramid of Neferirkare, indicate otherwise. The papyri identify that the central statue represented the king as
Osiris, while the two outermost ones represented him as the king of Upper Egypt, and the king of Lower Egypt. The remaining two are not identified. Exiting the chapel to the south is a path leading through two rooms – including a rectangular vestibule that appears to be a predecessor of the
antichambre carrée, first found in Nyuserre's mortuary temple – passing around a great stone massif and into the westernmost room of the temple, the offering hall.
Offering hall and auxiliary rooms The offering hall of the temple held the most significance for the royal mortuary cult. The sanctuary was in length and wide. It was entered through a black granite door that opened up to a white alabaster paved floor, and walls with dado of black granite above which was fine white limestone decorated with polychromatic bas-relief depicting divinities bringing offerings to the king, and covered along its length by a vaulted ceiling with painted stars. A low alabaster altar stood at the west wall, at the foot of a granite
false door, possibly covered in copper or gold, through which the spirit of the king would enter the room to receive his meal, before returning to his tomb. Unusually, the false door has been crudely fashioned, and bears none of the names, titles, or sacrificial formulas that are expected to be found. This led Borchardt to speculate that the door may have originally been sheathed with metal which was eventually stolen by thieves. The room also originally contained a black granite statue and an offering basin, located in a recessed niche in its south-west corner, with an outflow of copper piping. In the north wall, a granite doorway gives access to five auxiliary rooms, which served the offering hall.
Drainage system Sahure's temple had an elaborate drainage system including more than of copper piping. Rainfall captured on the roof was funnelled out through stone lion-head spouts fit onto the tops of the outer walls. The choice of the lion-head may relate to the ancient Egyptian belief that
Set and other inimical deities could manifest themselves in rain. The lion, a symbolic protector of sacred ground, consumed the harmful spirits and ejected harmless water. Where no roof existed, gaps around the base of the outer walls collected the water, conducting it out using channels cut into the paving. Water and other liquids used in rituals and ceremonies, which had become impure and thus dangerous to touch, were removed using the drainage system. Five stone and copper-plated basins, each with a lead plug to fit the vent, were placed around the inner temple. The first was found in the offering hall, two more were in the auxiliary rooms beyond it, a fourth in the corridor leading up to the offering hall, and the fifth in the northern magazine gallery. These were connected via an intricate network of copper pipes laid beneath the temple, which led down the length of the causeway before terminating at an outlet on its southern side. Borchardt-Sahure (Abb 112 & 113 on p. 82 - abridged).png|alt=Photographs of limestone channels|Limestone channels through which water and other liquids were drained Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 102 on p. 76).png|alt=Photograph of a lead plug|Lead plug of a copper basin from the mortuary temple Borchardt-Sahure (Abb. 104 on p. 78).png|alt=Photograph of limestone channels from the offering hall|Carved limestone channels departing the offering hall
Cult pyramid By the main pyramid's south-east corner, confined to a separate enclosure, lies a cult pyramid. The enclosure is accessed from either the southern end of the transverse corridor, or through a portico – the side entrance to Sahure's mortuary temple – flanked by two granite columns bearing Sahure's royal titulary. The portico floor was paved with basalt, as were the dado of its walls, above which the walls were built of limestone and decorated with polychromatic relief. The reliefs portrayed rows of deities,
nome and estate personifications, and fertility figures – all clutching
was-sceptres and
ankh signs – marching into the temple. An accompanying inscription bears their message to the king: 'We give you all life, stability, and dominion, all joy, all offerings, all perfect things that are in Upper Egypt, since you have appeared as king of Upper and Lower Egypt alive forever'. Beyond the portico, a room with two exits gives access to the transverse corridor in the north or to an oblong room preceding the cult pyramid in the south. The cult pyramid had a core ascending in two or three steps, composed primarily of limestone block debris framed by yellow limestone blocks, and then encased with white limestone blocks – the same method of construction as used in the main pyramid. It had a base length of converging at 56° towards the apex high. From the north face, a bent corridor – initially descending, then switching to an ascent – leads into the miniature pyramid's sole chamber: an east–west oriented burial room slightly below ground level. The chamber was found void of any content, and its walls had been severely damaged by stone thieves. The purpose of the cult pyramid remains unclear. Its burial chamber was not used for burials, but instead appears to have been a purely symbolic structure. It may have hosted the pharaoh's
ka (spirit), or a miniature statue of the king. It may have been used for ritual performances centring on the burial and resurrection of the
ka spirit during the
Sed festival. Sahure-Pyramid - Temple 03.jpg|alt=Photograph of archaeological remains|Remains of the mortuary temple; the side entrance columns to the right of image Abousir Sahoure 07.jpg|alt=Photograph of a broken granite column|Granite column of the side entrance reading 'Sahure, given all life, health and joy for eternity' Procession of deities at the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Sahure. From the Pyramid Complex of Sahure, Abusir. Neues Museum.jpg|alt=Photograph of personages in a relief|Deities,
nome and estate personages, and fertility figures entering the temple Liebieghaus-2014-Totentempel-Koenig-Sahure-Relieffragment-Ffm-407.jpg|alt=Photograph of cult workers in a relief|Butcherers preparing and delivering offerings for the king's mortuary cult
Necropolis There is a largely unexplored necropolis found through the side-entrance on the transverse corridor's southern end that is thought to be the burial ground of Sahure's consort, Meretnebty, and son, Netjerirenre. == Later history ==