Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

ashes. Both inner and outer stoppers were
in ample evidence, and the jars bore traces
of such sealings. Also present in the shaft
were numerous fragments of jars made of
mixed clay P. 60 {Fig. 2], bowls, plates,
bread forms and animal bones mixed with
charcoal. The collection was evidently part
of an offering deposit placed usually in the
burial shafts.4 The deposit was partly
damaged and disturbed in the robbing of
the burial chamber and so it cannot be ex-
cluded that it has been mixed with funeral
goods originally deposited in the burial
chamber. The assemblage is chronological-
ly homogeneous; it comes from the ter-
minal period of the Old Kingdom, the end
of Pepi IPs reign or even later. The pottery
is identical with the ceramic finds from the

mastaba of Peh-en-Ptah (funerary complex
no. 3), neighboring with the presently in-
vestigated complex on the north.5 The ab-
sence of any later pottery suggests that the
tomb was plundered within a relatively short
time of the funeral.
The offering deposit recovered from
Shaft 62, another shaft found below the
mud-brick platform, consisted of the same
pottery types.
In summary, the pottery from the two
shafts is homogeneous as regards type and
date, hence the shafts should be seen as
being from the same period. It is still too
early, however, for any discussion of cult prac-
tices at the mastaba as neither ritual shaft
(containing remnants of the funeral banquet)
nor cult chapel(s) have yet been found.


Fig. 1. Beer jars (type 7 and 10) dated to the very end of the Old Kingdom. Not to scale
(Drawing T. I. Rzeuska, inking M. Orzechowska)

4 T.I. Rzeuska, Late Old Kingdom Pottery from Saqqara, Saqqara II (in press).
5 Mys'liwiec, PAM XI, op. cit., 92-93.

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