Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (10.1998(1999))

_WEST SAQQARA_

EGYPT

The Old Kingdom tombs were found
covered with a thick layer of fine sand, in
which numerous mummies, skeletons
lying on mats, and wooden coffins were
buried in Ptolemaic and Roman times.8)
Three wooden coffins were found this year,
two of these of anthropoid shape with
painted lids. At least two layers of burials
could be distinguished, and some mum-
mies were inserted deep into and under
Old Kingdom walls (Figs. 8 and 9).
Some of them were covered with lime-
stone slabs which were reused fragments
of uninscribed "false doors".

Several pottery deposits found in this
stratum contained fragments of large-size
amphorae imported from the Greek islands
at the turn of the 4th cent. BC. These have
been reconstructed and documented along
with a considerable number of Old
Kingdom vessels.
A high mudbrick wall visible in the
eastern trench wall of sector G proves that
important architectural structures should
be expected still further in the direction
of the pyramid. Research in this area will
be one of the objectives of the next cam-
paign.


Fig. 8. Ptolemaic/Roman period burials nos. 34-55, probably mother and child. Old Kingdom
limestone blocks reused in the construction (Photo Z. Kos'c)

8) On a skeleton previously discovered in this area see Z.E. Szafranski, A Case of Reassembly of the Dead Body, Burial 14
(Pit I), PAM IX, Reports 1997 (1998), pp. 100-105.

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