Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (11.1999(2000))

WEST SAQQARA


FUNERARY CHAPEL OF MEREF-NEBEF
Preliminary report on the recording of the decoration

Kamil Kuraszkiewicz

The present report is a presentation of the
documentation principles and the most
important problems that have been
encountered in the recording of the funer-
ary chapel of the vizier Meref-nebef, which
the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission
at Saqqara discovered in 1997 during exca-
vations west of the funerary complex of
NetjerykhetT
The chapel had been cut. in a ledge of
yellowish limestone, which is very soft and
crumbling. The monumental facade con-
sists of three walls: the oblong eastern one,
which has an extremely narrow entrance
(60 cm wide) to the chapel in the middle,
and the narrow, northern and southern lat-
eral walls. The decoration of the eastern
wall of the facade is composed of three reg-
isters. The topmost one (referred to as
inner "lintel") bears the inscription and
a representation of the deceased in sunken
relief (c. 1 cm deep) with traces of blue
paint, having in its present state a greenish
shade. The middle register consists of
a long inscription, and the lower one bears
eight representations of the tomb owner,
both executed in raised relief (up to 1 cm

high) and polychromed. The surface of the
rock ledge on either side and above the
chapel facade, referred to as the outer
"jambs" and "lintel", is covered with texts
and representations in sunken relief (up to
5 cm deep), but with no surviving traces of
polychromy.
The chapel itself is a rectangular room,
6.45 x 2.43 m (Fig. 1), cut in the rock and
decorated inside with inscriptions and rep-
resentations, for the most part in raised
relief (the exceptions being false doors,
offering lists and a few inscriptions), the
polychromy largely preserved. The false
doors inside the chapel were painted in
imitation of red granite and decorated with
inscriptions and representations in sunken
relief, featuring blue paint.2) Considerable
changes with respect to the original ver-
sion may be noted in the present state of
the decoration.
The nature and structure of the rock
forced the ancient artists to use different
techniques. Some parts of the decoration
were cut straight in the rock face, covered
with a thin lime ground and painted (e.g.
most of the decoration inside the chapel).

0 K. Mysliwiec, PAM X, Reports 1998, (1999), n. 2 for earlier bibliography; id., "Five Wives and a Girlfriend", Discovering
Archaeology (July-August 1999), 54-67; id., "Nowe odkrycia przy najstarszej piramidzie swiata", Swiat Nauki 8 (1999), 28-
37; id., "Vizir de Saqqara", L'Archeologue. Archeologie Nouve/le, 42 (juin-juillet 1999), 47-49; id., "Meref-nebef: Berater des
Pharaos", Spektrum der Wissenschaft (Dezember 1999), 54-60; id., "The New Discovered Tomb Hidden by the World's Oldest
Pyramid" (in Japanese), Nikkei Science, vol. 30, no. 8 (2000), 48-58; id., "Saqqara: una tomba piena di misteri", Le Scienze,
377 (2000), 76-85; id., "O Tafos tou Archierea ton Farao", Scientific American (Greek edition) (January 2000), 51-60; id., "La
decouverte d'un vizir", Pour la science (avril 2000), 34-41; id. (with K. Kuraszkiewicz), Recent Polish-Egyptian Excavations
in West Saqqara, Saqqara-Abusir 2000, Prague (in print).
2) K. Mysliwiec, New Faces of Saqqara (Tuchow 1999), figs. 39-41.

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