Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

burial chamber is hewn above the bottom
level, and the difference in levels can be
significant, up to c. 1 m [cf. Fig. 2].2
Alluvial sediments at the bottom of many
shafts and burial chambers are proof of
flooding, most probably during rainy
periods known to have occurred in the
terminal phase of the Old Kingdom. One
may suppose, therefore, that the shafts
reaching below the level of the floor of the
burial chamber were intended as a kind of
drainage device, meant to prevent
rainwater from entering the burial
chamber and destroying its contents
(similar solution attested in Giza, cf.
Reisner 1942: type lr, Fig. 32, 92 and type
6, Fig. 24, 90).
The walls of burial chambers are hewn
in bedrock and none was ever lined with
stone blocks. When hewing a burial
chamber, workers often took advantage of
distinct bedrock structure consisting of
alternate hard and soft layers of stone. By
removing a soft layer and uncovering the
bottom surface of the overlying harder one,

they obtained a flat, relatively stable
ceiling for a burial chamber.
Burial chambers are usually quasi-
rectangular in plan, with the longer axis
always oriented N-S, according to Old
Kingdom burial practice (Ikram, Dodson
1998: 24, 109-113, 155-156, 195-196).3
In the excavated part of the necropolis,
burial chambers are situated to the north,
south, west or east of the shaft [Fig. 3}·
When situated west or east, a burial
chamber can be T-shaped (i.e., extending
more or less symmetrically both north and
south of the shaft), L-shaped (when
extending only to the north or south of the
shaft) or I-shaped (when the chamber is
situated either north or south of the shaft).
The majority of the shafts have the burial
chamber on the western side, and the
number of the T- and L-shaped chambers is
nearly equal. Less common are the
chambers situated on the eastern side of
the shaft, these being predominantly L-
shaped. The I-shaped chambers occur
relatively seldom in this part of the


Fig. 2. Situation of the burial chamber in relation to the bottom of a shaft (vertical cross-sections)
(K.O. Kuraszkiewicz)

2 In some cases the evidence visible in the shaft's bottom indicates that its hewing has been aborted for some reason,
which means that the shaft was initially planned as reaching deeper below the burial chamber's floor level.
3 However, the rule of placing a body on its left side, with head to the north facing east, was not always observed; several
burials have been noted to have a different orientation. Nonetheless, in burial chambers, they are laid consistently
oriented N-S.

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