Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

Dynasty.6 This brings us to a reconside-
ration of the previously proposed dating of
the rock-cut hypogeum.7 The two floors
(nos 1 and 2) appear to be in strict
connection with the rock-cut hypogeum,
especially Floor 2 which rests on a brick

bedding. As for the rock hypogeum,
nothing lets suggest that its execution had
cut through these floors. Taking this fact
into consideration, one can put forward
a provisional date for the hypogeum at the
beginning of the Third Dynasty.8

STONE AND BRICK CASING WALL OF THE ROCK-CUT
HYPOGEUM

A low stone wall with remains of a brick
superstructure has been preserved along the
eastern, southern and western edges of the
corridor to the rock-cut hypogeum (no. 5 in
Fig. 1). The stone part was constructed of
small irregular blocks of local limestone set
without mortar. The wall was raised in at
least three independent stages, the first one
being a section encasing the southeastern
edge of the ramp. The construction
technique, as well as the small and irregular
limestone blocks used here effectively
distinguish this part. The next section of
this wall, running along the northern and
the middle of the eastern border of the
corridor, was made of much bigger and
more regular blocks cut from local
limestone of a clearly brownish color.
Corresponding with the latter stage is
a section of the stone wall uncovered on the
western side of the corridor, at its northern
end. It is very similar in terms of
construction technique and material used.
Its chronologically latest fragment, a short
structure barely a meter long was found
between the two walls lining the eastern

edge of the corridor. It looks like a hasty
reparation, erected to fill a gap in the wall,
probably after intensive rainfall causing
streams. The blocks used here are highly
irregular and of varied size, laid without
mortar, the numerous voids between them
filled with small rock rubble and potsherds.
These stages in the construction of the
casing wall of the rock-cut hypogeum are
confirmed by the relation between this wall
and the underlying mud Floor no. 2. All
three stages of the wall cut through the
Floor 2, the lowest courses of blocks being
set in a long and narrow trench with
relatively regular edges, much wider next to
the northern end of the corridor where flat
and thin limestone slabs had been used. The
pottery found in the structure of the casing
wall consisted mostly of beer-jar fragments
from the terminal Old Kingdom period. It
is in this period then that the building of
the stone and brick casing wall of the
entrance ramp should be placed.
The construction of the casing wall
indicates that the earlier structure (rock-
cut hypogeum) was still in use somehow at

6 The period preceding architectural extension of the pyramid complex to the west and north. Cf. Lauer 1936: 206; 1988:
5 - 11, fig. 1
7 Mysliwiec 2005a: 6-7, 2007a: 160 -161, Myshwiec 2007b: 83
8 Such a dating is also confirmed by the pottery finds from the neighborhood of the rock-cut hypogeum, cf. below,
Pottery report by T.I. Rzeuska in this volume. On the other hand, mastabas with similarly arranged underground parts
uncovered in Meidum and Dahshur have been dated to the end of the Third and early Fourth Dynasty. Concerning such
a dating of the rock-cut hypogeum see above, contribution by K.O. Kuraszkiewicz in this volume, esp. 170.

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