Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (13.2001(2002))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

ered in 1999 and 2000, and the group
discovered this year, proving beyond doubt
that we are dealing with a single deposit.
The prevailing forms are of the closed
kind: chiefly jars of various size with round
base and high neck with rolled rim, (red-
slipped, Nile silt B1 or B2); amphorae:
two-handled (SQ 01-1039, slipped Marl
clay D) and with rolled rim (SQ 01-1017,
uncoated, Nile silt B2); beer jars with
direct rim (uncoated, Nile silt B2) (Fig. 3).
Good parallels come from Malkata.22)
One fragment of a beer jar (SQ 01-985)
is particularly extraordinary for its
decoration (Fig. 4). The cream-slipped
surface is painted in blue, red and black.
The ornament consists of a frieze of
overlapping petals below a composite
band. Similar jars from Malkata23) and
Amarna24) seem to confirm a dating in the
late Eighteenth Dynasty.
A rare find is a bell-shaped vessel (SQ
01-989, uncoated Nile silt B2) with a
handle (?) at the top and at least two holes

The pottery presented above reflects types
hitherto unknown or little known from the
West Saqqara necropolis. Sherds of the
Third-Fourth Dynasties likely originated
from the funerary complex of Netjerikhet.
A jar found in situ in the burial chamber of

pierced before firing (Fig. 5). Malkata
again provides a parallel.25)
Also belonging to the deposit are two
Canaanite amphorae (SQ 01-1040, SQ 01-
1051, cf. Fig. 5). They are made of two dif-
ferent types of clay (respectively P. 55 and
P. 56), dense and hard, containing an
abundance of large- and medium-size gray
and gray-white mineral inclusions.2(^ On
the grounds of the characteristic carination
on the shoulder, the amphorae may be
dated to the late Eighteenth Dynasty.27^
Open forms are restricted to three small
bowls with flat base (uncoated, made of
Nile silt Bl, cut base, cf. Fig. 5).
The pottery seems to be chronologically
homogeneous (late Eighteenth Dynasty).
Yet it was found apparently not in its
original location, but in a layer of wind-
blown sand instead. No New Kingdom
tombs have been discovered in the West
Saqqara necropolis to date, although there
is nothing to preclude the possibility of
such graves being located there.

Shaft 51 represents a rare import from the
Lebanese coast, confirming trade contacts
with this region in the Late Old Kingdom.
An unresolved issue is the New Kingdom
pottery, which surely came from some as
yet unknown structure.

22) C. A. Hope, Pottery of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Three Studies (Burwood 1989), fig. 3 a (beer jars), e (red-slipped
jars), fig. 4 a-b (amphorae), pi. 7c (marl-clay amphorae).
23) Hope, op. cit, fig. 10, b.
24) Egypt's Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558-1085 BC. Catalogue of the Exhibition, Museum
ol Fine Arts, February 3-May 2, 1982 (Boston 1982), 93, no. 73.
25) Hope, op. cit, fig. 4 f.
26) Petrographical and mineralogical analyses are planned.
27) Hope, op. cit., part III, Amphorae of the New Kingdom, fig. 4 no. 1; M. Serpico, “New Kingdom Canaanite Amphorae
fragments from Buhen”, in: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H. S. Smith, eds. A. Leahy, J. Tait (London 1999), 267-
272.

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