Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

SAQQARA

EGYPT

erosion of the two layers show that the time
gap between particular water-flows could not
have been extensive.
The structure and lithological compo-
sition of layers found above this leave no
doubt that the water-flows down the slope
became much more intensive in later times.
Proof of this is supplied by the strongly
cemented structure of the lower red layer
(L3) [cf. Fig. 6]. The cementing is due to
cyclical watering of the layers coupled with
intensive evaporation. High iron (Fe3+)
content suggests intensive weathering of the
primary layers in conditions of a warm and
fairly humid environment. Next, water
started collecting in hollows in the rock
massif, testifying to a distinct intensification
of rainfall in the area. Corresponding to this
phase is layer L4, which is in essence the
bottom of a small reservoir filled with
crushed stone brought there by intensive
mud and rubble flows. The upper red layer
(layer L5), which ends the studied sequence
of strata attributed to Phase I is no longer as
strongly cemented structurally as the lower
red layer (L3).2 It means that the intensity of
rainfall and water-flows lessened over time.
In all likelihood, the latter episode
corresponds to the beginnings or the first
half of the Third Dynasty.
It can be said in conclusion that the
climate during the first phase of the
functioning of the cemetery was
characterized by considerable changeability;
furthermore, repeated cycles of dry periods

and periods of intensive rainfall occurred
alternately over a relatively short time. This
reconstruction of events is confirmed by
geoarchaeological research carried out,
among others, in the eastern part of the Nile
Delta, where it was found that in the said
period, that is, around 2600 BC, the level of
water in the Nile fluctuated considerably due
to an unstable climate characterized by
transient periods of high and low rainfall
intensity (cf. De Wit 1993: 317).3
PHASE II
It is difficult to be sure of the climatic
conditions in the time following the Third
Dynasty through the end of the Fifth
Dynasty, because any strata corresponding to
this period were destroyed by the
superstructures of Sixth Dynasty mastabas
(those of Shafts 51, 101, 63, 96, 97, 98).
Observation and analysis of the
stratigraphical sequence in section 4 [Fig. 7]
in square 2102, permitted a provisional
reconstruction of site history at the time of
the end of the Lower Necropolis, which is
put in the Late Old Kingdom and the
beginning of the First Intermediate Period
(see above). The building of the enclosure
wall of the Step Pyramid on the surface of
layer L5 probably stopped for a while the
mud and rubble flows engulfing the Lower
Necropolis.
Layer L6 is connected most likely with
the destruction of the Sixth Dynasty mud-
brick mastabas,4 caused by the extensive

2 Layers L3 and L5 are rhe result of a redeposition of gravels originating from an active phase of the Nile in the Quartenary period.
Gravels of this kind are present in large areas of central Saqqara and around Abusir: Said 1962: 194; El-Qady, Sakamoto,
Ushijima 1999: 1093. The nearest area with such gravel occurs in the upper part of the southern face of the southern section of
the so-called “dry moat”. On this structure, c£, among others, Swelim 1988; 2006; Mysliwiec 2006a.
3 With regard to the entire Near East in a broader time range, that is from 7000 to 4500 BC, this period is referred to as a
pluvial, cf. Horowitz 1979.
4 Earlier damage of tomb structures has also been noted in the necropolis (e.g. phase B in Kuraszkiewicz 2007: 174), but it
seems that the destruction which resulted in the formation of layer L6 was a cataclysm on an unprecedented scale, which
ultimately put an end to the functioning of the Lower Necropolis.

204

Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007