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Definitivo Buongarzone
Definitivo Buongarzone
Roberto Buongarzone
The exploration of Djoser’s step pyramid, by Von Minutoli and Segato in 1821,
and Perring and Vyse in 1837, was the beginning of modern archaeological
research in the Saqqara site.
The German Egyptologist Richard Lepsius was the first to discover and
describe about thirty tombs in the area surrounding the pyramid (R. Lepsius
1849), and marked their positions in the first archaeological map of the
necropolis, which also remained the most accurate until the one drawn by
Smith in 1936 (W.S. Smith 1936).
In that same 1898, Norman de Garis Davies completed the exploration, which
Mariette had just begun many years before, of the mastaba of Ptahhotep and
Akhethotep (WSP09), one of the most beautiful in Saqqara, and published its
very refined reliefs in an exemplary way (N. de Garis Davies 1900 and 1901).
Ptahhotep’s mastaba, included in phase 3 of our project, was monitored
instrumentally, together with Unas’s pyramid and Ty’s mastaba.
The task of clearing the area surrounding the pyramid from the sand and of
discovering the ruins of its funeral temple was entrusted by Maspero to
Alexandre Barsanti. He brought back to light the little mastaba of Semnefer (V
dynasty), at the pyramid’s north-west angle (A. Barsanti 1900a), and the three
Saitic shaft tombs of Tjaiennahebu (A. Barsanti 1900b), Psamtek (A. Barsanti
and G. Maspero 1900) and Padienisi (A. Barsanti 1900c), to the south of the
pyramid. In 1901, in the yard located to the north of the funeral temple,
Barsanti discovered an underground passage leading, at a depth of eight
metres, to a long tunnel excavated in the rocks along the north-south axis, of
the same length as the whole temple standing above it, from which other
tunnels and many rooms and deposits branched off. The rich pottery which was
found there dated back to the archaic period, and its seals confirmed a more
accurate dating: the tunnels were the underground portion of the royal tomb of
Hotepsekhemui or Raneb, respectively the first and second sovereign of the II
dynasty (G. Maspero 1903). The superstructure had been apparently destroyed
on a previous occasion, by Unas or one of his predecessors. It was a
sensational finding. And yet this tomb, like the similar tomb detected by Selim
Hassan further south (see below), is still waiting for a thorough exploration and
a publishing of its results.
During two consecutive campaigns, from 1910 to 1912, Quibell brought to light
a large part of the II and III dynasty necropolis, in the plateau north of Djoser’s
pyramid towards the modern village of Abusir. Part of the tombs he found had
already been explored by Mariette and had later got sanded up again, like that
of Hesira (NSP13); but the others were actually new findings, like, among them,
some tombs of the I dynasty, datable to Djer’s reign (J.E. Quibell 1913, 1923).
The north plateau area, wedging itself towards Abusir’s pyramids, whose
boundary is marked by the fertile plain with the village of Abusir to the east
and by the desert valley joining Abusir and the Serapeum and the Djoser area
to the west, and which was probably the main access to the necropolis, is
archaeologically very rich: from the I to the VI dynasty, tombs were built there
one next and over the other. The I dynasty chose the eastern part, overlooking
the fertile valley and ancient Memphis, as a necropolis for Memphite
dignitaries. The officers of the II dynasty were also buried there. But the
building activity was especially boosted by the III dynasty, maybe because of
the burial of Imhotep, the famous architect of Djoser, whose tomb is still
searched for by archaeologists.
This zone, hardly legible from the beginning because of the many burial places
built in perishable mud bricks, became more and more so because of
excavations searching for museum objects and reliefs and removable wall
paintings, which were the main interest of Egyptologists between the XIX and
the first half of the XX centuries. The mud brick tombs of the first three
dynasties, seemingly poor, did not raise great interest.
Between 1910 and 1912, in a period of only two years, Quibell brought to light
500 tombs and funeral shafts only in this area of the necropolis, but could not
manage to publish and document everything. The plans of the areas he
explored in that zone are very accurate and detailed, even in comparison with
those documenting the most recent excavations.
Later on (1912-1914), Quibell worked in the area to the north of Teti’s pyramid
(J.E. Quibell, A.G.K. Hayter 1927), especially north-east of Kagemni (mastaba of
Ptahshepses ATP08) and west of Mereruka (mastaba of Kaemheset ATP37).
After World War I, Cecil Firth, appointed director of Saqqara, carried on the
exploration of the area north of Teti (C. Firth and B. Gunn 1926): he opened the
funeral shafts of the mastabas of Mereruka and Kagemni, excavated the
mastaba of Ikhekhi (ATP02) and reached the funeral chamber of Iput’s
pyramid. In 1924, he moved his researches in the perimeter area of Djoser,
discovering some mastabas of the V dynasty to the west of the walls (WSP18-
19), and the great mastabas of Kairer (APU29) and Idut (APU10) to the south.
In 1928, Firth brought to light the remains of the funeral temple and the two
satellite pyramids to that of Userkaf (PS04); he then explored the Saitic shafts
of Neferibrasaneith and Uahibramen (ESP23, 24) dug in the temple area. A
third Saitic shaft, with the tomb of Hor (ESP25), was opened by Zaki Saad in
1941-42.
In the postwar period, Lauer carried on the works at Userkaf’s temple; recently,
Jean Leclant and Audran Labrousse worked on it, and then published the entire
complex (A. Labrousse and J.-Ph. Lauer 2000). During the 1930-‘31 winter, Cecil
Firth resumed the work Quibell had interrupted twenty years earlier in the
northern plateau, discovering many tombs of the first dynasties. His untimely
death in 1931 prevented him from publishing the results of his last
explorations.
From 1939 on, the excavations were carried on by Zaki Saad, by direction of
Etienne Drioton, who was then the general director of antiquities. Among his
most significant findings there are the great Saitic shaft of Amontefnekhet
(APU57), the great twin mastabas of queens Khenut and Nebet (APU17-18),
respectively Unas’s wife and, maybe, mother, the magnificent mastaba of
Mehu (APU11) and other great mastabas (those of Haishtef, Iynefert and
Unasankh are the most important), today in a deplorable state of preservation.
From 1940 on, Abdel-Salam Hussein carried on the work begun by Hassan and
Goneim, bringing to light a further stretch of Unas’s eastward causeway.
During these works, to the south of the causeway he discovered some rock-cut
tombs, the access to which was hidden by sand and drifts (among them, those
of Irukaptah APU42 and Akhethotep APU41) and two mastabas buried at the
foot of that same causeway (Iyka APU38 and Neferherenptah APU39).
Irukaptah’s tomb, with some unexplored shafts, was published again recently
following excavations and restorations carried out by an Australian mission (A.
McFarlane 2000).
After Firth’s death, excavations in the area north of Teti were carried on in
1942-43 by Zaki Y. Saad. He excavated the area to the north of Mereruka,
finding mastabas of minor officers of the VI dynasty (ATP09-16), on the
northern side of a cemetery avenue which skirts the mastabas of Mereruka and
Kagemni, and then intersects at a right angle to the avenue discovered 45
years earlier by Loret.
After Abdel-Salam Hussein’s death in 1949, Unas’s causeway was made object
of occasional excavations, which led to the discovery of Unas’s second pit for
sacred boats (H. Basha) and to the restoration of Khaemwaset’s inscription on
the southern face of Unas’s pyramid (A. Raslan on fragments found by Lauer in
1937. J.-Ph. Lauer 1957).
Excavations in the southern sector (Sector 7), carried through by G.T. Martin in
the 1971-2 and 1972-3 seasons, brought to light, in addition to the Northern
Animal Necropolis (SAC03), started off by Emery in the 1964-6 and 1969-70
seasons and the well known Catacombs of the Ibis (which were, from the XVII
to the beginning of the XIX centuries, the major tourist attractions of Saqqara),
the already mentioned archaic tombs and Old Kingdom tombs, the Ibis
Courtyard, burials of falcons, baboons and cows, together with the shrines
providing for their cult in the Late and Ptolemaic Period, which were added to
our database under separate numbers (NSP239-44), since their function is
uncertain.
From 1965 to 1967 the exploration of the Unas’s causeway was resumed, first
by Mounir Basta and a year later by Ahmed Moussa. The most important
findings were the mastaba “of the two brothers” Niakhkhnum and Khnumhotep
(APU46), buried under the Unas’s causeway (A.M. Moussa and H. Altenmüller
1977), and many rock-cut tombs to the south of the causeway (A.M. Moussa
and F. Junge 1975), the most remarkable among which are those of Irenkaptah
(APU47), Neferseshemptah and Sekhentiu (APU48), and especially Nefer’s
tomb (APU43); this rock-cut tomb (A.M. Moussa and H. Altenmüller 1971) is
sumptuously decorated and very well preserved, and holds in one of its shafts
a rare intact mummy of the V dynasty. Nefer’s tomb, only open to particular
visitors and scholars, was included among the thirteen tombs examined in our
project.
From 1974 on, Martin devoted himself to the necropolis of the New Kingdom to
the south of Unas processional avenue, and between the end of the Seventies
and the Nineties he brought to light some magnificent temple-tombs of the
XVIII and XIX dynasties: Horemheb BMS04 (G.T. Martin 1989), Maya BMS06,
Tia and Tia BMS02, Kay BMS55, Pabes BMS56, Iniuia BMS59, etc. (G.T. Martin
1991). Researches in this area, conducted by an Anglo-Dutch joint mission (led,
among others, by M.J. Raven, R. van Walsem and H.D. Schneider), are still
giving important results (H.D. Schneider and G.T. Martin 1993, H.D. Schneider
1995, G.T. Martin 1997, 1999, R. van Walsem and G.T. Martin 1999, M.J. Raven
1991, 2000). Lepsius’s evidence, as he was the first to explore this area, and
the recent Egyptian missions to the north and south (see below) of the Anglo-
Dutch excavation area, prove that the entire area is packed with still
undiscovered tombs of the New Kingdom. The area is still closed to tourism,
and could become a strong point of the future visiting routes of the necropolis.
In the early Seventies, the team directed by Edda Bresciani from Pisa worked
on the so-called “Persian shaft”, to the south of Unas’s pyramid, three shaft
tombs of the Saitic-Persian period discovered in 1900 by Barsanti (E. Bresciani
et al. 1977). Two of them, Tjaiennahebu and Padienisi (APU53 and 55), were
included among the thirteen in our project because of the beauty of their
inscriptions and pictures, which in Padienisi’s case still retain their splendid
original colours (R. Buongarzone 2001).
From 1976 on, the archaeologists Smith and Jeffreys took up, on behalf of the
Egypt Exploration Society, the first scientific exploration of the area of the
Anubieion (SAC 01, D.G. Jeffreys and H.S. Smith 1988), a temple complex of the
late period which appeared to be coeval and under some aspects similar to the
temple complex of the Northern Animal Necropolis (S. Davies and H.S. Smith
1997). Es-Sign Yusuf, the “jail of Joseph” (such was the name given in the XIX
century by the inhabitants of Abusir to the two large mud brick walls
overlooking the cultivated plain to the east of Teti’s pyramid), had been
explored for the first time by Mariette, who, following the sphinx avenue from
the Serapeum, had discovered this area and called it “Serapéum grec”,
believing it to be an appendix of the Serapeum itself (A. Mariette 1857, pp. 72-
5). De Morgan’s map (1897) reports, to the north of the northern wall, two
catacombs of mummified dogs, cleared by an unknown hand at an uncertain
date and still scientifically unexplored to date.
In 1900 Alexandre Barsanti had explored the remains of the pyramid which was
given the number XXIX by Lepsius and was already in ruins by that time. The
pyramid (PS09) stood on the south-western angle of the southern wall; it has
recently been attributed to Merykara, with some uncertainty (J. Malek 1994, J.
Berlandini 1979). Quibell first 1905-7 (J.E. Quibell 1907) and then Firth 1922-4
worked in that area, in order to explore the area of Teti’s funeral temple, on
whose eastern remains the Anubieion had been built. Firth wanted his house,
the first settlement of the Antiquities Organization Complex, to be built in the
northern part of the northern wall. In the Fifties Sainte Fare Garnot, Lauer and
Leclant worked again on Teti’s temple, covering with the excavation ribble the
southern part of the northern wall (J.-Ph. Lauer and J. Leclant 1972). The
following excavations, funded by the Egypt Exploration Society (D.G. Jeffreys
and H.S. Smith 1988; L.L. Giddy 1992) led to locate, inside a complex
stratigraphy going from Teti’s period to the Christian period, a settlement west
of the main sanctuaries (Area 5) with administrative functions, a North Temple
(Area 11), a Saitic and Ptolemaic Central Temple (Areas 12-14) - today almost
entirely beneath the village of the Antiquities - and a Ptolemaic South Temple
(Areas 15, 17), with a Chapel of Bes and Bes Chambers. The excavations also
located the Serapeum Way in the northern wall and a Christian village (Areas
12, 14).
From 1979 on, in the Bubasteion cliff facing the wadi where once the causeway
of Userkaf ran and where, today, the modern road turns west to get into the
necropolis, the French Egyptologist Alain Zivie discovered many rock-cut tombs
of the New Kingdom (A. Zivie 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000). The first he
found was that of vizier Aperia (ATP60), on the eastern angle of the cliff, just
below the antiquities guesthouse. Later on, about thirty rock-cut tombs were
found, and it was possible to identify the owners of 11 of them. Among these
we may mention the Royal Chancellor Nehesy (ATP92), who probably organized
Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt; the Chief of the Double Granary
Meysekhmet (ATP91), whose tomb contains reliefs of exceptional artistic worth;
Seth (ATP93), the Royal Singer at Amenophis III’s and IV’s time; Netjerwymes,
whose tomb (ATP94) is a hemispeos of the Ramesside era with an outer
pillared court; and finally Maya (ATP96), Tutankhamun’s Royal Nurse.
Since 1974 the magnificent Saitic tomb of Bakenrenef (ESP28) has been object
of study and restoration (E. Bresciani, M. Betrò, A. Giammarusti, C. La Torre
1988) by the Italian mission directed by Edda Bresciani (E. Bresciani 1978,
1980, 1981, 1983, 1990, 1991-1992, 1993, 1995, 1996). The tomb overlooks
the road which, skirting the eastern cliff, turns near the Boubasteion and then
divides and reaches today’s most visited monuments. The excavation works
led to discover a real rock-cut funeral palace, regularly frequented for several
centuries starting from the Saitic period (E. Bresciani, S. el-Naggar, S.
Pernigotti, F. Silvano 1983), when vizier Bakenrenef had his underground
temple-tomb built there. The more than three thousand blocks forming a part
of the tomb’s impressive decorative cycle, pillaged by antiquities thieves for
more than a hundred years from the half of the XIX century on, were
recomposed virtually in reconstructive plates, using the information technology
as well. The writings embellishing the walls of the six decorated internal rooms
range from the Texts of the Pyramids to the funerary books of the New
Kingdom (S. Pernigotti 1985) to Saitic formulae (R. Buongarzone 1990, 1991-
1992). Near Bakenrenef’s tomb, the Pisan mission discovered three minor rock-
cut tombs (BN1, BS1 and BN2 – ESP32, 31 and 29), the portal of the last of
which bears inscriptions of important solar texts (M.C. Betrò 1990).
At the half of the Seventies, a mission of the Egypt Exploration Society and of
the British Museum studied a group of mastabas of the VI dynasty in the
cemetery area of Teti, north of Mereruka’s and Kagemni’s mastabas (W.V.
Davies et alii 1984; A.B. Lloyd et alii 1990); later on, and up until today, this
area has been made object of systematic exploration by a mission of the
Australian Centre for Egyptology, directed by Naguib Kanawati together with
some well-known Egyptian archaeologists. The mission both cleaned and
restored tombs discovered in the first half of the last century by Loret, Quibell,
Firth and Saad, and brought to light for the first time many tombs of officers of
the VI dynasty. Publications were significant and numerous (N. Kanawati et alii
1984, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000a, 2000b, 2001; K. Sowada et alii 1999).
Over the last twenty years several missions have been working at the Unas
causeway.
All over the Eighties, a mission from the universities of Hannover and Berlin,
directed by P. Munro, investigated the area north-west of the Unas causeway,
near the funeral temple, restoring order in an area of extremely complex
stratigraphy, messed up by too many cursory explorations (P. Munro 1993).
Since 1991 a mission of the Louvre Museum, directed by Christiane Ziegler, has
been working in the area immediately to the north of the Unas causeway, just
next the south-east angle of Djoser’s wall. The mission’s initial purpose was to
find the exact place of the mastaba of Akhethotep (APU36), sold to France in
1903 and now exposed in the Louvre. The excavations went far beyond that,
and brought to light two other mastabas of the Old Kingdom (APU61, 62), many
modest burials of the late period (XXVI-XXX dynasties) and layers of Coptic
settlements related to the nearby monastery of Apa Jeremias (C. Ziegler 1997,
2000).
In 1998-9 a mission of the Australian Centre for Egyptology surveyed some
unexplored shafts in the tomb of Irukaptah (APU42), south of Unas causeway
(A. Mc Farlane 2000).
In the last years, the area stretching in the desert west of Djoser’s complex
was the object of some scientific researches, the first ones carried out from De
Morgan’s times. Following a geophysical survey of the area (1987), a mission of
the university of Warsaw has been working since 1996 in an area east of
Djoser’s walls, about 120 m from the pyramid’s western edge (K. Myliwiec
1998, 1999; K. Kuraszkiewicz 2000). In 1997 vizier Merefnebef’s tomb was
found (WSP32), dating back to the beginning of the VI dynasty, with a richly
decorated cult chapel, hewn into the rock. The entire zone contained structures
of the archaic period, overtopped by burials of the Ptolemaic period.
Surprisingly, no trace of any activity between the Old Kingdom and the
Ptolemaic period was found.
North of the two enclosures, along the valley leading to the ancient lake of
Abusir, Mathieson’s survey detected several brick mastabas buried on the
northern side of the valley and a likely mastaba field starting at the tomb of Ty
in the west and stretching down to the Sacred Animal necropolis in the east.
A lot is still to be discovered, then; but a lot more about Saqqara’s and
Memphis’ history may be revealed by future excavations. The recently
discovered vast cemetery areas of the New Kingdom are discrediting the cliché
of a necropolis leaving to Thebes the undisputed supremacy after having had
its golden age, with the other Memphite necropoles, during the Old Kingdom;
nevertheless, some scholars still do not admit the idea that there are no royal
burials of the I dynasty in Saqqara, even because of the enormous amount of
royal pottery of the I dynasty found inside the tunnels along the northern and
western walls of Djoser’s complex. Maybe the “cult area of Den” (according to
Kaiser’s hypothesis in MDAIK 41, 1985), north of the Serapeum, was not
isolated, and the Abusir West Saqqara wadi has just begun to reveal significant
hints of its frequentation in the archaic period (S. Davies and H.S. Smith 1997).
In the area sited to the north-west of the wadi, not far from Abusir, the
Japanese researchers of the Waseda University in Tokyo have just found
(September 2002) the remains of an impressive stepped limestone structure,
probably a mastaba, about 4.5 m high and 33.5 m long. In case this structure
proved to be more ancient than Djoser’s pyramid (2650 BC ca), which is
considered the most ancient stone building in the history of humankind, it
would be an exceptional discovery, as exceptional as the discovery of the
limestone walls of the Gisr el-Mudir.
A fascinating task for the archaeologists of the present and of the future is to
investigate the organization of the necropolis through the ages (cfr. A. Macy
Roth 1988) and to reveal the richness and value of the Saqqara site as a whole,
with three millennia in a few meters - paraphrasing an interesting text of Lisa
L. Giddy 1997 - everywhere in this huge necropolis. Thus the new discoveries
of the last years stretch our view of Saqqara from the Old Kingdom towards the
Archaic Period on one side and from the New Kingdom towards the Late Period
on the other.
Roberto Buongarzone
The study of archaeological maps has been one of the most interesting tasks
for Egyptologists, architects and specialists of the GIS. It was, in my opinion, an
exemplary model of team working between people with different trainings, and
different mentalities as well. While the Egyptologists tend to analyze
archaeological data and are mainly interested in historical issues, the
architects aim to synthesize cartographical data and to represent them clearly
on maps, whereas the specialists of the GIS consider maps as related to the
whole system, and aim to their utilization in data processing. Assembling the
different archaeological maps into the already existent and more detailed map
of Saqqara was a hard task, the credit of which is due to Antonio Giammarusti,
who had to digitize in Autocad maps which were often discordant or inaccurate
(a common fault among archaeologists), to correct them with the help of data
measured in situ with GPS or simply by means of a survey with maps in hand.
The Egyptologists often had to play the role of exegetes of archaeological
maps, helping to interpret what the archaeologists of the late XIX or the early
XX century meant with their maps which might not distinguish graphically, for
istance, the stratigraphical levels or the height of the door lintels.
Such maps cover a lapse of time from the half of the XIX century to year 1980.
For reasons of graphical space, even the most recent maps do not report all
the monuments’ positions.
The Lepsius map (1849). It is the most ancient map of Saqqara and reports
the tombs and pyramids explored by the German Egyptologist. Almost all the
monuments explored by Lepsius in Saqqara were brought back to light during
the most recent explorations. As far as the missing ones are concerned, the
map’s accuracy, even though remarkable for that time, is not such that it
allows to locate them with certainty: the radius of probability is of many
metres, in some cases (like that of the south plateau necropolis of the New
Kingdom) even of 50 m.
The De Morgan map (1897). Very detailed, but also topographically very
inaccurate, it reports many tombs without indicating their names, which made
it almost impossible to identify them with the known monuments, especially
with the tombs discovered by Mariette, which were likely to be still visible
above ground at De Morgan’s time. This map has however some undeniable
merits: it is, for instance, the only one to report the entire route of the
Serapeum way, the Anubieion before Martin’s excavations and the catacombs
of the jackals, unexplored in modern times.
The Spencer map (1974). It updates Smith’s map using the first edition of
the Porter & Moss Bibliography as well. It is less accurate than its model from
the topographical point of view, but has the great merit of reviewing the
intricate situation of the most ancient discoveries in the north plateau,
rearranging the six different notation systems (Lepsius, Mariette, De Morgan,
Quibell, Firth and Emery) and also correcting some of the recent mistakes (for
instance W.B. Emery’s two tombs 3518).
The Porter & Moss maps (1978-80). The maps of the famous Bibliography
are extremely precious for Egyptologists, but topographically inaccurate.
Besides, they do not report all the locatable tombs.
• R. Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Abth. I, Bl. 32, 33,
34, Berlin 1849.
• J. De Morgan, Carte de la nécropole memphite, Dahchour, Sakkarah,
Abou-Sir, 1897.
• W.S. Smith in G.A. Reisner, The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down
to the Accession of Cheops, London 1936, Map 2.
The data of the general maps, transferred on the cartographical base, were
integrated from time to time with maps of the single archaeological sites,
prepared by archaeologists themselves or by the missions’ architects.
Sometimes it was not easy to make different data from successive excavations
on the same site coincide. This was the case with the area north of Teti, where
the plans of the recent excavations by Kanawati at times did not correspond
with the old but accurate plans by Firth and Gunn (1926) and by Quibell and
Hayter (1927). This is the case too for Martin’s map (1981) of the area of the
north plateau with the Northern Animal Necropolis and the nearby tombs,
which omits some details in comparison to Quibell’s map, published in 1923. Or
even, still as far as the north plateau is concerned, the position of the
mastabas of the I dynasty given by Emery in his splendid treatises Great
Tombs of the I Dynasty proved to be completely inexact. Luckily, the
aerophotogrammetry, the aerial photo and the survey on the site, where the
trace of the buried walls is still visible on the sand covering them, allowed
Antonio Giammarusti to report correctly these important monuments on the
map.
• C.M. Firth, B. Gunn, Teti Pyramid Cemeteries, Cairo 1926, Pl. 51.
• W.B. Emery, Great Tombs of the First Dynasty I, Cairo 1949, II, London
1954, III, London 1958.
• A. Insley Green, The Temple Furniture from the Sacred Animal Necopolis
at North Saqqara, 1964-76, EES London 1987.
• H.D. Schneider, G.T. Martin, et alii, "The Tomb of Maya and Meryt:
Preliminary Report on the Saqqara Excavations 1990-1", JEA 77 (1991).
These three monuments are sited along the central axis of north Saqqara,
between the imaginary prolongation southwards, north-westwards and
northwards of the western side of Djoser’s complex.
We had the task to choose the other ten monuments, on the basis of the
abovementioned criteria and also considering the monuments’ accessibility at
that time (year 2000). It would certainly have been interesting to include a
mastaba of the III dynasty of the north plateau, or one of the necropoles of
sacred animals. But almost all the tombs of the north plateau are now sanded
up, and all the necropolis of the animals were inaccessible at that time,
Serapeum included, due to consolidation works. Our task was not the
archaeological research, but the construction of a risk manual from available
data.
Another important requirement for our choice was the possibility to evaluate
the evolution of the monuments’ decay; therefore, they had to be known since
at least twenty years, they had to be well documented at the moment of their
discovery and, if possible, also through the years, with photographs and
publications. As far as the New Kingdom was concerned, Horemheb was an
almost unavoidable choice, as it was the first tomb of that historical period to
be unearthed in Saqqara not too recently (1975). Besides, G.T. Martin’s
detailed publication (1989) and the photos of its discovery in the archives of
Saqqara were a very good basis to evaluate the decay of its delicate painted
reliefs. The best example of starting documentation was the tomb of Ty, with
its publications made in 1913 (Steindorff), 1939 (Épron and Daumas), 1953 and
1966 (Wild), whose splendid photographs show the progression of the
monument’s state of preservation.
One of the biggest problems faced by the Egyptological team in the initial
phase of the organization of the GIS was the creation a system of
archaeological data compatible with an advanced computer system, the GIS,
requiring a standardization of pieces of information which somehow forces the
nuances peculiar to archaeological data: uncertain or multiple dating of some
monuments, mixed typologies of tombs, different building materials, etc.
PS = Pyramid-Field of Saqqara
Period. All the dynasties and the longest periods have been
considered. We chose to avoid, at least in this phase of the
project, to input in this entry the dating by sovereigns, which
was settled in the Annotations instead.
Old general photos. These are the photos taken from the
archives of Saqqara’s inspectorate, and sometimes from the
publications.
New general photos. The photos shot over the last two
years by our photographers, Carlos de la Fuente and Kirols
Barsum.
Of the 169 new entries of the database added to the 442 already there in the
Porter & Moss Bibliography, 83 refer to excavations prior to 1976, therefore to
tombs which could be inserted in the last edition of the Bibliography. Most of
them are monuments of the north plateau, which, as I said many times, has a
quite troubled excavation history. If we separate monuments by the
archaeologists who discovered them, we have:
26 of them discovered by Quibell, all of them mud brick mastabas of the north
plateau (NSP186-90, 203, 206-14, 219-26, 229, 235), except for the monastery
of Apa Jeremias (BMS61);
we have then 35 tombs discovered by Firth, two of which are in the area
around Teti pyramid (ATP88, 99), and all the others on the north plateau
(NSP171-85, 191-202, 227-8, 231-34);
the 13 new entries discovered by Emery are all on the north plateau (NSP52bis,
203bis, 204-5, 217-8, 217bis, 230, 240-4); besides, in the same area there is a
mud brick shrine discovered by Martin in 1971 (NSP239) and two tombs of the
III dynasty discovered by Smith and Jeffreys in 1975-6 (NSP215-6).
In other areas of the necropolis, there are then two Lepsius tombs (PS09 and
ATP104), two De Morgan’s (the archaic walls WSP33-34) and two Bresciani’s
(ESP31-2).
No less than 59 among the new discoveries date back to the New Kingdom,
thus proving that this period is the less represented in the modern research on
the site. Together with the Late and the Coptic period, the New Kingdom was
underestimated to date in Saqqara, even because of the old habit to knock
down the later structures to reach the Old Kingdom layers. Christiane Ziegler’s
recent excavations north of the Unas causeway testify the presence also in that
area of Coptic settlements over the Old Kingdom structures (C. Ziegler 1997,
2000). It is certain that during the less recent excavations the Coptic layers,
like those of the late period and even of the New Kingdom – it is the case of the
area north of Teti – were destroyed without documenting them, with a few
exceptions, like Loret’s excavations between 1897 and 1899 just in the area
north-east of Teti (V. Loret 1899). The modern archaeology’s historical sense
will be able to give in the future a much more complete picture of Saqqara’s
three thousand years of history, especially if the archaeological research will be
planned in relation to the general historical view of the archaeological site.
Bibliography
Roberto Buongarzone