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mastaba (MAS-tuh-bah, sometimes mas-TAH-buh) - n., an ancient Egyptian tomb with a rectangular base, sloping sides, and a flat roof.
Usually constructed of mud bricks. It looks a little like a pyramid with the top lopped off, and pyramids developed from mastabas by continuing the slope up to a point -- so most mastabas were built during predynastic times or the Old Kingdom. Adopted from Arabic, where the name was derived from maṣṭaba, bench, especially a wide stone bench built into the wall of a house, from Aramaic maṣṭabtā, bench/dais, which may have been derived from Indo-European roots, including either Ancient Greek or Old Persian.
---L.
Usually constructed of mud bricks. It looks a little like a pyramid with the top lopped off, and pyramids developed from mastabas by continuing the slope up to a point -- so most mastabas were built during predynastic times or the Old Kingdom. Adopted from Arabic, where the name was derived from maṣṭaba, bench, especially a wide stone bench built into the wall of a house, from Aramaic maṣṭabtā, bench/dais, which may have been derived from Indo-European roots, including either Ancient Greek or Old Persian.
---L.
