Chris,

I don't know if you are quoting Allen or if these are your words, but since your argument as to "what is your evidence" is pretty much "because Allen says so", I'll take the above as your opinion.

The full name of the pyramid is for example: 'Khafra's 'Great Pyramid', / 'Khafra's Great Place', abbreviated to the 'Great Pyramid' / the 'Great Place'.

Two things in one example.
If the pyramid-glyph means "pyramid" only, then why the necessity to translate "Khafre's Great Place". Why place?
If you look at the names of the OK pyramids (complexes), you'll notice that they all refer one way or another to the afterlife and resurrection, which can be anticipated seen the context. However, Khafre named his burial "Khafre's Pyramid". Does that make sense to you? Doesn't this give some kind of indication that the pyramid-sign may mean something else than just "pyramid"? Especially since we do know, that it was used in contexts other than a pyramid already during the MK. Hmmm??


You wrote:The pyramid is not an isolated structure - it was the most conspicuous part of the royal funerary complex, and the name of the pyramid gave the name to the whole complex.

How exactly do you know this? How do you know it was the pyramid that gave name to the whole complex, and not the complex that was called by that name to begin with?

The reason I emphasize that strictly speaking the name refers to the pyramid itself, is that the pyramid was a manifestation of the king - we even have texts where a queen is royal mother of the pyramid of Pepi I; royal wife of the pyramid of [Meryre] etc.

This doesn't make much sense, you know. If the pyramid is a manifestation of the deceased king, then his manifestation is a tomb with a dead body, right? The MT on the other hand is a manifestation of the deceased king as a divine god. Why leave that out? Isn't the king becoming a divinity among others the ultimate goal of the burial?

In practice however, the name of the pyramid covered the whole funerary complex including the settled community that served the royal cult.

So you (or Allen) are in measure to see that the name didn't mean the whole complex, but in practise (which we do have evidence of!) the name served the whole complex? Care to show how you can deduct this? Isn't the basis of this claim the fact, that you have decided the pyramid-determinative to mean only and exclusively the pyramid? Your resoning is somewhat circular....




You still haven't commented on the MK commoners tomb having the pyramid-determinative.



Ritva