Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

marks of a kind, possibly delineating the limestone wall (Firth 1925: 149; cf. also Baud
temenos as a whole (rather than an area 1999: 415; Espinel 2003: 218-219;
inside it) prior to the construction of the Oppenheim 2007; Kuraszkiewicz 2008).

DECORATED WOODEN COFFIN FROM SHAFT 73

Shaft 73 was explored in 2007 in the
northern part of the late Old Kingdom
necropolis. It is situated in square 1903, to
the north of Complex 6 (cf. Kuraszkiewicz
2007: 173-175). The superstructure of the
mastaba of which the shaft was part is not
preserved, but its position indicates that it
was significantly earlier than Complex 6 and
possibly also earlier than Complex 2.7 The
shaft measures approximately 1.77 by 1.76 m
at the mouth and is 9.40 m deep. Just above
the ceiling of the burial chamber, there is
a narrowing with an irregular hole that gives
access to the lower part (cf. Kuraszkiewicz
2009: 165-170).
The burial chamber (3.05 m N-S, 1.65
m E-W, 1.08 m high) is situated on the west
side of the shaft, symmetrically extending
towards the north and south (T-shaped)
(Kuraszkiewicz 2009: Fig. 2b, 3). A rectan-
gular pit (2.16 m N-S, 0.62-0.64 m E-W,
0.74 m deep) is hewn in the floor of the
burial chamber, intended for the body of the
deceased. The pit was originally covered with
a rough lid (x+1.33 m long, 0.67 m wide)
made of greyish limestone. The shaft had
been plundered in antiquity (traces of a
robbers’ tunnel were clearly visible in the fill
in the southwestern corner of the shaft), the
lid of the burial pit had been broken (parts of
it were found inside the pit) and the body of

the deceased removed from its original
resting place.
Several wooden planks were discovered
inside the burial pit, indicating that the body
had been buried in a wooden coffin inserted
into the pit covered with a stone lid.8 The
planks are broken and severely weathered,
making it impossible to determine the
original dimensions of the coffin. Traces of
decayed wood indicate, however, that the
coffin could not have been significantly
smaller than the burial pit. Decoration in
finely carved sunken relief has survived on a
number of fragmentary planks lying by the
east wall of the burial pit. Several elements of
the decoration can be identified on the inside
east wall of the coffin [Fig. 2]:
1. Elaborate palace fa9ade motif, preserved
on planks near the northeastern corner of the
burial pit [Fig. 3].

OFFERING FORMULA
OFFERING
OFFERING
II β)|||
LIST
SCENE
M (head)
S (feet)

<- ->

Fig. 2. Decoration scheme oj coffin from
Shafi 73 (DrawingKO. Kuraszkiewicz)

7 If the mastaba of Shaft 73 was more or less contemporary with Complex 2, it may be expected that their shafts would have
been aligned, i.e., Shaft 73 would be situated directly north of shafts 2 and 23.
8 Although such a practice is not uncommon, this is the only evidence to date from the part of the necropolis explored by
the Polish mission; in other cases, bodies were found in a coffin or in a burial pit/sarcophagus, never in both of them. This
rather expensive arrangement could be indicative of the relatively high social status of the deceased.

189

Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007