Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

On both false-doors, at about one-third
of their height, there is a zone of
permanent salt accumulation. It has the
structure of a homogenous layer (up to
1 mm thick) covering the rock wherever
the decoration has already been destroyed.
This and other types of salt concentration
were removed with scalpels. The fagade of
the chapel was subjected to a different
treatment. Here, the destructive activity of
salts could be observed particularly on the
walls below the outer architrave, where no
conservation activities have been imple-
mented after 1999- Their upper part, just
underneath the “lintel” (above the debris
filling removed in 1998) and their lower
part in the north of the fagade, especially
up to c. 1.30 m above the floor, are
particularly endangered.

The part of the architrave re-inserted in
2000 is in perfect condition. Not so the
lateral walls. However, their badly eroded
middle sections, reinforced twice (in 1999
and 2000), are integrated satisfactorily.
Multiple crevices and fragmenting of the
rock occur on all levels, extending in all
directions. Fragments of the rock are
threatening to fall.
The peeling fragments of the leveling
layers and of the polychromy in the
southern part of the eastern wall (including
the hunting scene), as well as in the lower
part of the southern wall, have been pasted
together (using a c. 8% solution of
Paraloid B-72 in toluene). Rifts and
detachments, which had appeared in the
lower part of the “offering list” in the
southern part of the western wall, were


Fig. 1. The conservation team at work on the decoration of the funerary chapel of Meref-nebef
and on pottery from the tomb of Qar (Photo M. Jawornicki)

144