Ritva Kurittu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Care to share some of that "homework"?


I don't have my notes available, so the answer will have to be "no", for now.


> Before you
> do, though, I'd like to point out, that from the
> end of the 4th to the later part of the 5th the
> time lapse is only 70 years.


Ah, but we aren't really talking about the end of the Fourth for the Giza structures, are we? In fact, the one that is most heavily (and erroneously) linked to Osiris belongs to the second king of the Fourth Dynasty: Khufu.

And so, again, let's put the dates in a relative context:

Chronology:

Dynasty IV: 2630 - 2524 BCE Khufu: 2606-2583

Dynasty V: 2524 - 2400 BCE

First probable appearance of Osiris: 2458-2430
First definitely dated appearance: 2430-2400


[www.cofc.edu]


These are, of course, only relative dates. They can be stretched a few years either way, but it is the space in between them that matters. So, from 2583 BCE (the latest date for Khufu) to 2458 BCE (the earliest date of attestation of Osiris), we have a span of 125 years.


Now, we are discussing the tomb of Hetemra, specifically, and this one is not an exception to the timeline above. Its inscriptions, grammar and content land it far closer to Unas than to Userkaf. That is more than the 125 years quoted above, and still almost a century after the end of the Old Kingdom.

During this time, we have a great fusion of the old and new religions (again, I reference David's book on the subject). The texts that include Osiris could not possibly pre-date the Fourth Dynasty (grammar and such) and the peaceful coexistence of older texts with newer texts is the hallmark of the era in which we finally find Osiris as part of the funerary customs of the kings as embodied in the PYramid Texts.

This is not a half-bad summation of the time in question:

Quote

The rituals of burial and passage into the afterlife were only used for the pharaohs until around the sixth dynasty. At this point, rights were extended to the pharaohs’ immediate family and the aristocracy. When this dynasty fell around 2250 B.C., this practice was used more and more by the common people as well. Until the Osiris myth came along, there was only the sun-god myth for burial and passage. This was not suited for the common person, as they did not even have access to the inner sanctuaries of Ra’s temples. The cult of the sun-god explained present day politics and was tied up in laws of ownership and inheritance of power and property. The Osiris cult appealed to the common man’s emotions and provided a way for him to believe that he, too, could have eternal life.

As the cult spread, Osiris took over more and more of Ra’s functions. Osiris became associated again with agriculture, as was Ra before Ra became so much a puppet of politics. Osiris eventually absorbed the power of Ra over the Nile, the floods, the vegetation. This was Osiris in his role a symbol for resurrection. Just as he was the god of the afterlife, so was he the god over the regeneration of non-human life on earth.
[www.touregypt.net]

Every role Osiris plays in later Egyptian history is already held by a different, but still evidenced deity during the Fourth Dynasty. There are no demonstrated relationships between evidenced gods that could push Osiris back into the picture. Frankly, if you had asked Khufu if he'd ever heard of "Asar", he would probably ask you back, "What nome is he from?"


Anthony

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.