DOI Heft:
Egypt
DOI Artikel:Mycielska-Dowgiałło, Elzbieta; Woronko, Barbara: Saqqara: analysis of mineral deposits in the northern wall of Pit I
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0111
removed from the building area. On the other hand, flood waters
entering the building area from the north found no transversal
obstacle in the form of a high stone wall. Hence, the construction of
the stone wall must have been interrupted at the present height,
which corresponds to the ceiling of the weathering-soil horizon.
Above this horizon, as well as above the stone wall, sand carried
with the flood waters had accumulated freely, forming a horizontal
stratification (fig. 1, layer 4a). The chronology of this series (fig. 1,
4a) is confirmed additionally by massive Nile flooding dated to
1850 - 1550 BC (personal communication of Z. Szafranski). It must
have been a period of heavy rains leading to floods not only in the
main river valley, but also in the tributaries. Therefore, it cannot be
excluded that the building works at the stone wall were interrupted
by flood sands accumulating in the area, and were never resumed.
A deep pit cuts through layer 4a, with a talus visible at the
bottom (fig. 1, layer 5a). The pit of a mummy burial (no 32; fig. 1,
layer 5c) was excavated in the talus deposits, thus it must be
somewhat younger than the talus itself, probably of Ptolemaic age.
It indicates all the series described up to this point were formed
between 4 500 (or 4 300) and 2 000 years BP (2550 or 2350 -
50 BC).
The remains of a human skull were discovered at the same
level as the mummy burial, but in a neighboring weathering-soil
horizon. In neither case were there any traces of excavation from
above visible. This allows the inference that the burial pits were
excavated horizontally from trench walls that no longer exist. Part
of such a trench seems to be visible in the western wall of Pit I.
(fig. 1, layer 5b). During heavy episodic precipitation, these
trenches could have been filled with sandy-gravel deposits washed
down the slope (layer 5b). Hence, the repeated digging up of these
deposits on the occasion of subsequent burials.
109
entering the building area from the north found no transversal
obstacle in the form of a high stone wall. Hence, the construction of
the stone wall must have been interrupted at the present height,
which corresponds to the ceiling of the weathering-soil horizon.
Above this horizon, as well as above the stone wall, sand carried
with the flood waters had accumulated freely, forming a horizontal
stratification (fig. 1, layer 4a). The chronology of this series (fig. 1,
4a) is confirmed additionally by massive Nile flooding dated to
1850 - 1550 BC (personal communication of Z. Szafranski). It must
have been a period of heavy rains leading to floods not only in the
main river valley, but also in the tributaries. Therefore, it cannot be
excluded that the building works at the stone wall were interrupted
by flood sands accumulating in the area, and were never resumed.
A deep pit cuts through layer 4a, with a talus visible at the
bottom (fig. 1, layer 5a). The pit of a mummy burial (no 32; fig. 1,
layer 5c) was excavated in the talus deposits, thus it must be
somewhat younger than the talus itself, probably of Ptolemaic age.
It indicates all the series described up to this point were formed
between 4 500 (or 4 300) and 2 000 years BP (2550 or 2350 -
50 BC).
The remains of a human skull were discovered at the same
level as the mummy burial, but in a neighboring weathering-soil
horizon. In neither case were there any traces of excavation from
above visible. This allows the inference that the burial pits were
excavated horizontally from trench walls that no longer exist. Part
of such a trench seems to be visible in the western wall of Pit I.
(fig. 1, layer 5b). During heavy episodic precipitation, these
trenches could have been filled with sandy-gravel deposits washed
down the slope (layer 5b). Hence, the repeated digging up of these
deposits on the occasion of subsequent burials.
109