Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

The variety of burial types is consider-
able. The following classification includes
only burials attributable to one of the types
(those too poorly preserved to be attributed
— 52 in all — escape this statistic).
A. Skeletal burials, sometimes with
remains of reed mats found under the body
or covering it. Only two burials could be
identified as skeletal beyond any doubt
(nos. 348 and 351, see below). Some of the
badly damaged corpuses could possibly
belong to this category, e.g. nos. 304 and
344 (see below) with traces that could be
recognized as a form of primitive mum-
mification.
B. Mummies, that is, bodies wrapped
in white linen, bound with thin straps of
similar material, without any decoration,
generally deposited directly in the sand

{Fig. 5)\ 96 burials of this type were
identified, but the number may still grow.
C. Coffins made of various materials,
containing either a skeleton or a mummy,
or else a mummy overlaid with cartonnage.
The cases come in three varieties:
a) oblong wooden boxes made of plain
planks, usually slightly broader at the
shoulders, containing either a skeleton
(nos. 348, 351, see below) or, more fre-
quently, a mummy;
b) anthropoid wooden coffins (six burials),
with a lid preserving a relief rendering of
the head and occasionally solely the face.
The surfaces were painted white at the very
least; the most sophisticated ones bear
polychrome decoration, usually a vertical
inscription written in black on a white- or
yellowish-colored band, against a red


Fig. 5. Three mummy burials next to one another — nos. 288, 289 and 314 — in sector 1716,
viewed from the south (Photo M. Jawornicki)

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