Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

shaft), and tafl bricks in their upper part.
Up to two layers of the bricks were
preserved in places. Lying always on one
of their largest faces, they were laid
longitudinally in the lower stratum and
transversely in the higher one. Irregular
size and the different material used (both
tafl and clay bricks have been found)
prove that they were reused in this
construction. The inner faces of both
shafts, as well as the orientation of the
dividing wall, are strikingly irregular.
Their inner faces are coated with
black/grayish mud, which also covers
the upper surface of the walls, thus
indicating that the shafts had never been
higher than this. Surprisingly, the
bottoms of both shafts, given a similar
coating of mud, rested directly on the
rock surface. There are no additional
rooms or recesses at the bottom. Their
function thus remains obscure and one
cannot exclude that they were con-
structed as camouflage as well. Another
surprising feature apparently excluding
their ritual function is the almost total
absence of any pottery in the fill.
Considering the structure and execution
of these shafts, one is inclined to date

them tentatively to the final phase of the
Old Kingdom or the beginning of the
First Intermediate Period.
The next, much later testimony of
building activities in this area is the
mysterious mud-brick platform.13 Recent
examination of pottery from the fabric of
the platform bricks and from between them
has identified exceedingly numerous tiny
sherds of Middle Kingdom date,14 as well
as some fragments from the late
Eighteenth/early Nineteenth Dynasty (e.g.
painted fragments). Found mainly in the
spaces between or below the bricks, the later
fragments constitute a terminus post quern for
the platform. If it was built in the early
phase of the Ramesside Period, it may have
been part of a restoration program under-
taken by Khaemwase,15 the famous son of
Ramesses II, high priest of Ptah in
Memphis, who restored, among others, the
nearby precinct of King Wenis' pyramid,
enlarged the Serapeum in Saqqara, and had
a residence on a hill located in the west of
Saqqara.16 Even his tomb is supposed to
have existed close to the Serapeum, that is,
only a short distance away from the
platform in question.1

13 Cf. note 8 above, and Mysliwiec, Kuraszkiewicz et al., Merefnebef, op. cit., 43, note 42.
14 T.I. Rzeuska, "The Pottery, 2004", PA/M XVI. Reports 2004 (2005), 172-174.
15 F. Gomaa, Chaemwese, Sohn Ramses' II. und Hoherpriester von Memphis (Wiesbaden 1973).
16 S. Yoshimura, I. Takamiya, "A monument of Khaemwaset at Saqqara", BEES 5 (1994), 19-22; further bibliography in:
S. Yoshimura, I.H. Takamiya, H. Kashiwagi, "Waseda University excavations at North Saqqara: A preliminary report
on the fourth to sixth seasons, August 1995-September 1997", Orient 34 (1999), 44, note 2; for recent discoveries on
the site, cf. S. Yoshimura, N. Kawai, "An enigmatic rock-cut chamber. Recent Waseda University finds at North
Sakkara", KMT 13(2) (Summer 2002), 22-29; id., id., "Finds of the Old and Middle Kingdoms at North Saqqara",
Egyptian Archaeology 23 (2003), 38-40; S. Yoshimura, N. Kawai, H. Kashiwagi, A sacred hillside at Northwest
Saqqara: A preliminary report on the excavations 2001-2003", MDAIK 61 (2005), 361-402.
17 F. Gomaa, "Chaemwese", LA (1975), 897-898.

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