DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Rzeuska, Teodozja I.: The pottery, 2005
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42091#0189
SAQQARA
EGYPT
count of bottoms, represented forms 4, 7,
8, 9, and 10. Bread moulds were also
identified, including a type on a high foot
with white-washed rim (form 209 in the
local typology). Also included were
cylindrical stands made of Nile Bl, like
SQ 1510 (form 220) found in the sloping
passage and discussed below, bent-sided
plates (form 93), as well as plates with
ledged rim underlined with inner groove
(form 108). The little pottery originating
from the fill below the deposit included
mostly beer-jar fragments, of forms 9 and
10 as a rule, some pieces that are white-
washed, false filings, a bread mould, a ceramic
palette, and animal bones. These finds
seem still to be part of the offering
deposit. Green-painted stones (flint
concretions, chunks of quartz and
sandstone) constituted an intriguing
element of the deposit.7 8 At the very
bottom of the burial shaft there was a single
beer jar filled with mud, animal bones,
MUD-BRICK
The ceramic material found between the
bricks of the platform and from the bricks
themselves included numerous small
pieces of Old Kingdom wares, less
numerous Middle Kingdom pots and for
the first time a fragmentary New
Kingdom vessel — a blue painted closed
form — but unfortunately not diagnostic
and too damaged to permit a recons-
truction of either shape or decoration.
Fragments of other New Kingdom pots
and bricks with one side white-washed.
Perhaps they testify to a sealing of the
chamber entrance with a brick wall, which
was ritually white-washed on the outside.
The burial chamber itself was filled with
pottery as well: beer jar and bread mould
fragments, bent-sided plates (form 93),
plates with ledged, rounded rim (form
104), Meidum bowls (form 179 and 183),
and pieces of charcoal.
A small squat jar, SQ 1524 (form 35),
8.7 cm high and with a maximum
diameter of 7.7 cm, was found in the
burial chamber [Fig. 2], It is wheel-made
of Nile B2, in two parts joined at the
shoulders, the outer surface being red-
slipped. It is the first jar of its kind found
in the necropolis.
The pottery from this offering deposit
can be attributed to phases III-IV, thus
dating burial shaft 77. The shaft itself has
yet to be assigned to a specific funerary
complex.
PLATFORM
also found here were beer jars and jars with
rounded body and straight, high neck,
both paralleling closely finds from a pot-
tery deposit in the northern part of the
platform discovered in 2001.9 Thus, the
pottery found in and among the bricks
(providing a terminus post quern) and the
pottery found directly on the platform
have dated the construction of the platform
to the turn of the 18th and early 19th
Dynasty.
7 Rzeuska, Saqqara II, op. cit., Figs 128-129. All the pottery forms and types are cited according to this publication.
8 On the symbolism and significance of green-painted stones, see forthcoming article by the author in EtTrav XXII.
9 T.I. Rzeuska, "Saqqara. The pottery', 2001", PAM XIII. Reports 2001 (2002), 155-158.
185
EGYPT
count of bottoms, represented forms 4, 7,
8, 9, and 10. Bread moulds were also
identified, including a type on a high foot
with white-washed rim (form 209 in the
local typology). Also included were
cylindrical stands made of Nile Bl, like
SQ 1510 (form 220) found in the sloping
passage and discussed below, bent-sided
plates (form 93), as well as plates with
ledged rim underlined with inner groove
(form 108). The little pottery originating
from the fill below the deposit included
mostly beer-jar fragments, of forms 9 and
10 as a rule, some pieces that are white-
washed, false filings, a bread mould, a ceramic
palette, and animal bones. These finds
seem still to be part of the offering
deposit. Green-painted stones (flint
concretions, chunks of quartz and
sandstone) constituted an intriguing
element of the deposit.7 8 At the very
bottom of the burial shaft there was a single
beer jar filled with mud, animal bones,
MUD-BRICK
The ceramic material found between the
bricks of the platform and from the bricks
themselves included numerous small
pieces of Old Kingdom wares, less
numerous Middle Kingdom pots and for
the first time a fragmentary New
Kingdom vessel — a blue painted closed
form — but unfortunately not diagnostic
and too damaged to permit a recons-
truction of either shape or decoration.
Fragments of other New Kingdom pots
and bricks with one side white-washed.
Perhaps they testify to a sealing of the
chamber entrance with a brick wall, which
was ritually white-washed on the outside.
The burial chamber itself was filled with
pottery as well: beer jar and bread mould
fragments, bent-sided plates (form 93),
plates with ledged, rounded rim (form
104), Meidum bowls (form 179 and 183),
and pieces of charcoal.
A small squat jar, SQ 1524 (form 35),
8.7 cm high and with a maximum
diameter of 7.7 cm, was found in the
burial chamber [Fig. 2], It is wheel-made
of Nile B2, in two parts joined at the
shoulders, the outer surface being red-
slipped. It is the first jar of its kind found
in the necropolis.
The pottery from this offering deposit
can be attributed to phases III-IV, thus
dating burial shaft 77. The shaft itself has
yet to be assigned to a specific funerary
complex.
PLATFORM
also found here were beer jars and jars with
rounded body and straight, high neck,
both paralleling closely finds from a pot-
tery deposit in the northern part of the
platform discovered in 2001.9 Thus, the
pottery found in and among the bricks
(providing a terminus post quern) and the
pottery found directly on the platform
have dated the construction of the platform
to the turn of the 18th and early 19th
Dynasty.
7 Rzeuska, Saqqara II, op. cit., Figs 128-129. All the pottery forms and types are cited according to this publication.
8 On the symbolism and significance of green-painted stones, see forthcoming article by the author in EtTrav XXII.
9 T.I. Rzeuska, "Saqqara. The pottery', 2001", PAM XIII. Reports 2001 (2002), 155-158.
185