Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT

the walls of the narrow entrance (1.80 m
high, 0.56 m wide, 1.10 m thick) hewn
approximately in the middle of the facade.
The chapel itself was a quasi-rectangular
room, the west wall especially angling
away back on either side of the entrance.
The facing east wall is 6.53 m long and
c. 1.83 m high. The length of the north
wall is 2.65 m, that of the south wall
2.80 m. The height differs as well: 1.89 m
for the north wall, and 1.83 m for the
south one. Most of the north wall above the
lowest register of decoration had caved in,
letting debris pour into the chapel through
the hole. Behind the wall in this spot
a shaft had been cut at a later date; the wall
between the two structures had either
collapsed on its own or had been broken
through accidentally by the stonecutters
(cf. Fig. 1 on p. 128 for a view of this part
of the chapel immediately after discovery).
Fragments of the original decoration
containing an extensive offerings list were
found in the debris.8)
A secondary burial was discovered at
the bottom of the debris in this part of the
tomb. The skeleton lay 0.90 m away from
the north wall, the head to the west, and
was covered with a reed mat. Given the
fact that no pottery of later date than the
Old Kingdom was found in this context,
the burial should be considered as intrusive
and dated putatively to the very end of the
Old Kingdom.
All the chapel walls are decorated, but
the carving of the reliefs, which are
generally well preserved, was left off at
various stages of completion. On the
southern wall, the representations are
unfinished and there is substantial
evidence of preliminary sketches in black
or red ink on the surface of the rock or on
the pinkish mortar filling uneven places.

The scenes carved on this wall occupy the
surface from the ceiling to the upper edge
of an undecorated, c. 0.60 m high, zone
that runs around the chapel. The panel is
2.70 m long and 1.20 m high. It shows the
tomb owner, Ny-ankh-Nefertem, and his
wife Seshseshet seated facing left (Fig. 3),
and in front of them various scenes carved
in three registers: men in papyrus boats in
the upper register, offering bearers in the
middle one, and female dancers and
musicians in the lowest one (Fig. 4). The
titles of the tomb owner, presented not
only here, but also on the false doors and
the offering-table, include, among others,
those of “god's servant of the pyramid of
Wenis” and “god's servant of the pyramid
of Teti”. Temi (the “fair name” of the tomb
owner) could have been a contemporary of
the vizier Merefnebef, but, considering the
style of the reliefs in his chapel, the tomb
can be dated plausibly to slightly later
times, beginning with the second half of
Pepi I's reign. The style betrays simpli-
fication, even naivety compared to the
extremely fine reliefs and painting in the
other tomb, although imitations of the
latter may be observed in many regards.
The west wall was decorated primarily
with false doors hewn in the rock: two
situated south of the entrance and one
north of it. The southern ones were never
finished; there is evidence of sketching in
black ink on the smoothened rock surface
and the inside of the sunken-relief
hieroglyphic signs seldom feature any
carved details (except for the finely
rendered face hieroglyphs Fir and owl m,
and a few other signs) (Fig. 5). The
decoration of the west wall to the north of
the entrance was markedly different. It was
finely executed and preserves a rich
polychromy (Fig. 6). Just next to the

8) An effort to reconstruct this decoration will be made in the coming season.

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