Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

completely preserved, one without the lid
(No. 363), and the last (No. 355) missing
the mask. Two rectangular coffins were in
a poor state of preservation. The orienta-
tion of these burials varied; most of them,
however, were oriented E-W, with the head
pointing to the west. The wooden coffins,
each made of several planks that were
pegged together, had lids made of the same
material. A simple mask was carved into
the top, well preserved in the case of coffin
360. Coffin 363 also bears traces of
a painted hieroglyphic inscription on the
outside of the case. These coffins were
otherwise plain with no evidence of poly-
chromy on their surface.
Each burial was documented in situ5) 6 7
and subjected to preliminary conservation
steps. The human remains were then
studied from the anthropological point of
view, the most interesting cases of patho-
logies were photographed and x-rayed with
a special device brought specially for the
purpose from Cairo (skeletons nos. 35,
216, 217, 282, 288, 289, 360). Except for
a few particularly interesting cases, which
were left for further study, the human
skeletons were secondarily buried in an
explored shaft.
CULT CHAPEL
OF NY-ANKH-NEFERTEM
In the course of the present campaign,
three new Old Kingdom tombs with rock-
hewn cult chapels were discovered to the
north of Merefnebefs tomb (Figs. 1, 2).(>)
About 8.90 m north of the facade of this

tomb, the cliff in which it was cut turns at
almost a right angle and runs west for
10.07 m before turning back more or less
south. The resulting rock-hewn area forms
a quasi-rectangular court. The south side
of this court is less regular, being formed of
a sequence of “steps” or mini-terraces
descending from the upper (west) court of
Merefnebefs tomb to the leveled rock in
front of the three newly discovered tomb
chapels. The difference in levels between
these two courts is 0.97 m. One of the new
chapels, no. 15, was hewn in the east wall
of the court, beside the chapel of
Merefnebef, some 3-30 m away from the
vizier's tomb. The entrances to two other
cult chapels, nos. 16 and 17, were cut in
the north wall. All three chapels had
facades in the form of a rectangular niche
hewn in the rock.
The fagade of chapel 15 is 5.45 m long,
2.35 m high and 0.68 m deep. Its only
decoration is a long inscription in four
lines placed above the entrance, a kind of
"inner lintel", which contained, like in
Merefnebefs tomb, an ideal biography
carved in sunken relief. The inscription
was damaged, especially in the southern
part. It ended with a label presenting the
tomb owner in the company of his wife and
one of his sons.7’ There was no evidence of
painting on this relief and no trace of any
carved decoration on the lower part of the
fagade; instead, the rock revealed many
places where the crumbling surface had
been repaired with a mortar of pinkish
color. Neither was there any decoration on

5) To be published in the next volume of the Saqqara series.
6) Cf. preliminary reports already published: K. Mysliwiec, “Zwischen der Stufenpyramide und dem 'Trockenen Graben’:
Neue Entdeckungen in Sakkara”, Ma’at. Archaologie Agyptens 1 (2004), 6-23; id., “Sjsiedzi wezyra”, Swiat Nauki (Polish
edition of Scientific American) 5 (153) (May 2004), 36-47; id., “Teologia polityczna w Egipcie faraonow czyli nihil novi sub sole",
Nauka (Quarterly of the Polish Academy of Sciences) 1 (2004), 55-63; id., “Wezyr, cztery zony i kochanka’’, Polityka 2 (2434),
Jan. 10 (2004), 66-69.
7) For the names and titles of the family members, cf. communication by K. Kuraszkiewicz in this volume.

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