Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

SQUARES 1903-1905

The archaeological stratum lying below a layer
of sand followed by a thick layer of dakka
turned out to be a dense agglomeration of late
Old Kingdom shafts alternating with
Ptolemaic Period (perhaps also terminal Late
Period and Roman) burials [Fig. 1]. There
were but scanty remains of mud-brick
mastabas constituting the superstructure of
Old Kingdom tombs.3 Altogether 25 shafts
(nos 71-95) and 52 burials (nos 413-464)
(including those of the Old Kingdom, found
inside burial chambers) were unearthed in this
campaign.
At the western edge of the excavated area,
there were two large shafts belonging to the
tomb of Nyankhnefertem: a larger and deeper
one, no. 77, on the north side, and a smaller
one, no. 52, to the south of it. Shaft 77 ended

3 Cf. report by K.O. Kuraszkiewicz in this volume.

with a spacious burial chamber on the west
side of the shaft. The shaft was 10.10 m deep
(8.30 m hewn in the rock, the upper part
constructed of irregular stone blocks) and the
burial chamber was a maximum 1.91 m high,
5.32 m long (N-S) and 3.31 m wide (E-W).
A rectangular burial pit (2.19 m N-S by
0.88 m E-W; depth 0.90 m) was hewn in the
floor and covered with a 0.32 m thick lime-
stone lid. The long frontal face of the lid bears
a graffito painted in black ink, apparently
containing the three hieroglyphs of the name
Temi. The skeleton could be seen inside
through a hole in the lid's southwestern
corner, but the burial was evidently disturbed
and fragmentary. It appeared to belong to
a stocky man. The skull lay separately. The
cracked northern end of the lid was removed to


Fig. 2. Old Kingdom burial (no. 453) in a coffin made of Cyperns Papyrus, in the burial
chamber of Shaft 80 (Photo J. Dgbrowski)

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