DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Rzeuska, Teodozja I.: Saqqara 2006: the pottery
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42092#0185
SAQQARA
EGYPT
depression and on the inside deep hori-
zontal grooves, both evidence for the
technique of pinching and hollowing.
Large ovoid jars with trefoil rim were
equally common as beer jars. They featured
a little indent in the rim on the inside,
short neck, wide shoulders and rounded
bottom. Judging from the preserved
fragments, these jars could be at least 80-
100 cm high, with a maximum body
diameter of c. 60 cm. They were handmade
of marl or mixed2 clay by coiling, only the
rim being more regularly shaped, perhaps
even turned on a tournette. The joining of
the rim to the rest of the body is very
distinct, the wall here uneven in thickness
and marked on the inside with a hollowing
and vertical smearing to conceal the
joining.
A few dozen fragments of wheel-made
bowls (or lids?) with an inner ledge were
found. These vessels of Nile B2 clay with
untreated surfaces and a characteristic
scraped base are represented by fragment
SQ 06-1708 (Dia.rim 19-5 cm) {Fig. I}.
A few previously not recorded types
were now recognized in the early Old
Kingdom assemblage. One is a small, low
tray with rounded rim. Made of Nile C clay,
this vessel (SQ 06-1805; Dia.rim 14 cm,
LATE OLD
Most of the pottery from the late Old
Kingdom discovered during the 2006
season represented vessel types already
identified and published regularly in
previous years (annually in PAM and most
recently Rzeuska 2006). Beer jars were as
Dia.base 18 cm, H. 4; Fig. 1) had the base
made by pounding and the walls probably
by pinching. The surfaces were natural (un-
coated) and inside there was a prefiring
potmaker's (?) mark resembling the hiero-
glyph mr (Gardiner's U7). Another previ-
ously unnoted type is a simple-rimmed
bowl with characteristic partly grooved
inner surface, bell-shaped body, and flat
base, e.g. SQ 06-1779 (Dia.rim 20 cm,
Dia.base 24 cm, H. 6 cm; Fig. 7)3. Hand-
made of Nile C, it has the bottom pounded
and the walls coiled. Its inner surface is
entirely red-slipped, while the outer surface
is partly red-slipped (on the rim) and partly
natural (untreated).
Early Old Kingdom vessels appear to
have been concentrated especially within
the area of Shafts 94-97, which neighbor
directly with the Netjerykhet complex.
They were found in mixed archaeological
contexts, always in association with late Old
Kingdom pottery, which means that they
were in secondary position. Their original
provenance cannot be established, but the
proximity of the step pyramid compound
makes it highly probable that the vessels
came from there.4 It is at present impossible
to date this assemblage more precisely than
to the Third-Fourth Dynasty.
KINGDOM
usual in dominance, but unlike earlier
seasons bread molds were much rarer.
Meriting attention are some types which
have so far gone under-represented, as well
■ as pottery deposits from two burial shafts
(nos. 84 and 100).
2 P.38 in the local clay typology. This clay resembles closely the mixed clay P.60 from the late Old Kingdom and it may
belong to the same family, but this will be confirmed only after petrographic chemical analyses are completed. Rims of
similar shape but made of Marl Cl have already been recorded, e.g. SQ 01-999; it is not clear, however, whether they
represented the same type of jar as nothing but the rims have been preserved, cf. Rzeuska 2002: 151-153, Fig. 1.
3 Hawass, Senussi 2008: 166 no. A 81, 288 HW3.
4 In areas west of the compound enclosure wall, Early Old Kingdom material is found in much smaller quantities.
182
EGYPT
depression and on the inside deep hori-
zontal grooves, both evidence for the
technique of pinching and hollowing.
Large ovoid jars with trefoil rim were
equally common as beer jars. They featured
a little indent in the rim on the inside,
short neck, wide shoulders and rounded
bottom. Judging from the preserved
fragments, these jars could be at least 80-
100 cm high, with a maximum body
diameter of c. 60 cm. They were handmade
of marl or mixed2 clay by coiling, only the
rim being more regularly shaped, perhaps
even turned on a tournette. The joining of
the rim to the rest of the body is very
distinct, the wall here uneven in thickness
and marked on the inside with a hollowing
and vertical smearing to conceal the
joining.
A few dozen fragments of wheel-made
bowls (or lids?) with an inner ledge were
found. These vessels of Nile B2 clay with
untreated surfaces and a characteristic
scraped base are represented by fragment
SQ 06-1708 (Dia.rim 19-5 cm) {Fig. I}.
A few previously not recorded types
were now recognized in the early Old
Kingdom assemblage. One is a small, low
tray with rounded rim. Made of Nile C clay,
this vessel (SQ 06-1805; Dia.rim 14 cm,
LATE OLD
Most of the pottery from the late Old
Kingdom discovered during the 2006
season represented vessel types already
identified and published regularly in
previous years (annually in PAM and most
recently Rzeuska 2006). Beer jars were as
Dia.base 18 cm, H. 4; Fig. 1) had the base
made by pounding and the walls probably
by pinching. The surfaces were natural (un-
coated) and inside there was a prefiring
potmaker's (?) mark resembling the hiero-
glyph mr (Gardiner's U7). Another previ-
ously unnoted type is a simple-rimmed
bowl with characteristic partly grooved
inner surface, bell-shaped body, and flat
base, e.g. SQ 06-1779 (Dia.rim 20 cm,
Dia.base 24 cm, H. 6 cm; Fig. 7)3. Hand-
made of Nile C, it has the bottom pounded
and the walls coiled. Its inner surface is
entirely red-slipped, while the outer surface
is partly red-slipped (on the rim) and partly
natural (untreated).
Early Old Kingdom vessels appear to
have been concentrated especially within
the area of Shafts 94-97, which neighbor
directly with the Netjerykhet complex.
They were found in mixed archaeological
contexts, always in association with late Old
Kingdom pottery, which means that they
were in secondary position. Their original
provenance cannot be established, but the
proximity of the step pyramid compound
makes it highly probable that the vessels
came from there.4 It is at present impossible
to date this assemblage more precisely than
to the Third-Fourth Dynasty.
KINGDOM
usual in dominance, but unlike earlier
seasons bread molds were much rarer.
Meriting attention are some types which
have so far gone under-represented, as well
■ as pottery deposits from two burial shafts
(nos. 84 and 100).
2 P.38 in the local clay typology. This clay resembles closely the mixed clay P.60 from the late Old Kingdom and it may
belong to the same family, but this will be confirmed only after petrographic chemical analyses are completed. Rims of
similar shape but made of Marl Cl have already been recorded, e.g. SQ 01-999; it is not clear, however, whether they
represented the same type of jar as nothing but the rims have been preserved, cf. Rzeuska 2002: 151-153, Fig. 1.
3 Hawass, Senussi 2008: 166 no. A 81, 288 HW3.
4 In areas west of the compound enclosure wall, Early Old Kingdom material is found in much smaller quantities.
182