Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (8.1996(1997))

E-W in the direction of the Djoser pyramid. To judge by the
joining, the latitudinal wall was most probably built at a slightly
later date (Fig. 1).
The N-S wall looks like a compact conglomerate of stone
blocks that are almost oblong in shape as far as can be observed.
Larger white limestone and yellowish slate blocks, mostly of
irregular shape, are part of this masonry as well. The mortar used
in this wall is a dark, grayish-black Nile silt with many organic and
mineral inclusions.
The E-W wall is quite different. It is 0.85-0.90 m thick,
ca. 1.60 m long in the western part and preserved up to 1.15 m
above the levelled rock, upon which it stands. The visible blocks
are of less regular shape and the masonry betrays a mediocre
quality: slate, rarely limestone fragments, alternating with less
compact gravel and a yellowish-gray sandy mortar, full of
inorganic inclusions. Both the inner and outer face of the wall were
plastered with a 0.5 cm layer of dark Nile silt, with another 0.5 cm
layer of partly preserved finely polished white plaster on top of it.
In spite of technological differences, the two walls seem to
be related in chronological terms. It is possible to distinguish
phases of occupation in the two layers of clay covering the
southern face of the E-W wall. The original layer covers the
masonry down to the rock, while the lower edge of the secondary
layer follows the outline of a diagonal ramp which descends
eastwards on the wall's southern side.
Two large but shallow rock-hewn shafts were uncovered in
the eastern section of the area excavated this year. The shafts are
situated on either side of a rock-hewn wall, extending away from it
and explored until the edge of the currently excavated pit. The
partition wall, which is 0.72 m thick, goes on toward the Djoser
pyramid; the rooms on either side may have been the subterranean
galleries of a large tomb. Only their western parts have been
explored, while the eastern ones are still covered with a 5.30 m
high deposit of sand, gravel and stone (Phot. 1). The southern

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