Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

PRELIMINARY
ZOO ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT, 2000
Salima Ikram

The 2000 season yielded a significant
amount of faunal material from a variety of
locations. All contexts were funerary, save
one, which was possibly ritual. The bones
were collected by hand and identified to
genus and species whenever possible.
Information concerning bone fragment-
ation, age, side, gnawing, burning, erosion,
and fungal activity was also recorded. The
aging systems for bones and teeth that were
used were I. Silver, A. Grant, and S. Payne.^
A total of 403 bones, 223 from the various
tombs and 180 from the assemblage in
Corridor 1, were examined this season.
Some identifications are still pending.
The burial shafts and offering chapels of
the Sixth Dynasty contained remains of
what appear to be funerary offerings, with
occasional intrusive remains of canids
(dogs or/and jackals). The majority of
remains from the tombs are of cattle (Bos
taurus, 40 elements, mainly hind leg and
skull parts). The age at death of these
animals varied between 17 months and
over two years of age. Surprisingly few
bones were positively identified as coming
from other domestic animals: sheep/goat
(2) and donkey (Equus asinus (1). Ad-
ditionally, several fragments of medium
and large mammal bones were recovered
from the excavated areas.

Pig (Sus scrofa) bones were also found in
funerary contexts. The pig bones came
from three different locations. The first
was from near the entrance of Corridor 2,
where the distal end and shaft fragment of
a tibia, was found. The epiphysis was
unfused, suggesting that the age at death
of the animal was under two years. The
second deposit of pig bones came from
I/F2, Shaft 45, and consisted of the first
and second molars of a pig that had
achieved at least fourteen months of age
prior to its death. The third and last
deposit of pig bones came from Shaft 28,
and consisted of a fragment of the right
scapula of a young pig, not more than two
and a half years of age. While the discovery
of pig bones in a funerary (albeit disturbed)
context might seem strange, these finds are
certainly not unique, as pig bones were also
recovered during the 1998 season in the
area a little to the east of the one that is
currently being explored.1 2) At the time of
writing it is unclear whether these deposits
are primary or secondary. If they are
primary, then one must re-evaluate the
position of pork in the ancient diet. It is
possible that although pork was probably
not offered as part of the funerary feast at
the time of butial, it might have been an
acceptable and economically feasible

1) A. Grant, “The Use of Tooth Wear as a Guide to the Age of Domestic Ungulates”, Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones
from Archaeological Sites, in: B. Wilson, C. Grigson, and S. Payne, eds., BAR British Series (Oxford 1982); S. Payne, “Kill-
off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Asvan Kale”, Anatolian Studies 23 (1973), 281-303; I. A. Silver, “The
Ageing of Domestic Animals”, in: Science in Archaeology, eds. D. Brothwell and E. S. Higgs, (London 1963), 283-302.
2) S. Ikram, “West Saqqara: Faunal Remains, Preliminary Report”, PAM X, Reports 1998 (1999), 106.

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