1. HISTORY OF THE EXPLORATIONS (Primo paragrafo)

Roberto Buongarzone

1A. North Saqqara in the last two centuries.

The fascinating discovery of Saqqara crosses the whole history of Egyptian

archaeology from the middle of the XVIII century, and yet it is far from being

over.

The exploration of Djoser’s step pyramid, by Von Minutoli and Segato in 1821,

and Perring and Vyse in 1837, was the beginning of modern archaeological

research in the Saqqara site.

The German Egyptologist Richard Lepsius was the first to discover and

describe about thirty tombs in the area surrounding the pyramid (R. Lepsius

1849), and marked their positions in the first archaeological map of the

necropolis, which also remained the most accurate until the one drawn by

Smith in 1936 (W.S. Smith 1936).

The sensational discovery of the Serapeum complex (SAC02) in 1850-’51 urged

the French archaeologist Auguste Mariette, after he was appointed Director of

the Egyptian Antiquities in 1858, to carry on the exploration of the Saqqara

plateau, north of Djoser’s pyramid. His main purpose was to take the statues

from the mastaba serdabs to fill the future museum of Egyptian Antiquities in

Cairo; but he was also wise enough to copy many inscriptions, especially those

on the false doors, and to draw sketches of the plans of 115 mastabas (A.

Mariette, 1885). Among his most important discoveries in Saqqara is Kaaper’s

mastaba (NSP87), where he found the famous wooden statue representing its

owner, known as Skeil el-beled, “Headman of the village”, which is presently

kept at the Museum of Cairo. He also discovered Ty’s mastaba, one of the most

beautiful ones in Saqqara and therefore included in phase 3 of our project

(NSP109). Hesira’s mastaba too, with its magnificent carved and decorated

wooden panels, was discovered by him. The results of his researches were

published posthumously by his successor Gaston Maspero, under the title

Mastabas de l’Ancien Empire; this work was one of our bibles in order to gather

information about the necropolis.

Maspero chose to devote himself to the pyramids in South Saqqara, focusing

on his sensational discovery of the Texts of the Pyramids (G. Maspero 1894).

In 1893 it was Jacques de Morgan’s turn, immediately after he was appointed

head of the Antiquities Department, to discover, north of Teti’s pyramid, the

two stately mastabas of Mereruka and Kagemni, bordering on one another,

which are still the most visited of Saqqara. We have included them among the

ten tombs in our phase 2 (ATP18 and 17), in order, too, to take the anthropic

impact on monuments which have been visited for more than a century. These

two mastabas lay under some mud brick tombs dating back to the New

Kingdom, which were in turn overtopped by the avenue of sphinxes of the

Ptolemaic period joining the Serapeum and the Anubieion, at the borders of the

cultivated land.

We also owe to De Morgan the famous Carte de la nécropole memphite of

1897, a milestone in the archaeological cartography of Saqqara and of the

other Memphite necropoles. All the monuments explored up until that moment,

of some of which no traces are left, are reported in it, even though its

cartographical landmarks may be incorrect.

De Morgan’s successor, Victor Loret, in 1897-8 carried on the exploration of the

area north-west of Teti. Under a level of tombs of the New Kingdom which he

first documented before destroying it (ATP 44-46; V. Loret 1899), he discovered

the pyramids of the queens Khuit and Iput (PS03 and 02), the latter being Teti’s

wife. Loret also discovered one of the rare documented cemetery avenues of

the necropolis (J. Capart 1907), which goes from the north-east corner of Teti’s

pyramid to Khuit’s and Iput’s two pyramids. Many important tombs of the VI

dynasty, in addition to Kagemni’s mastaba, overlook this avenue: among them,

that of vizier Ankhmahor (ATP04), with its rare scenes of surgery and

physiotherapy: circumcision and toe manipulation (J.F. Nunn 1996).

In that same 1898, Norman de Garis Davies completed the exploration, which

Mariette had just begun many years before, of the mastaba of Ptahhotep and

Akhethotep (WSP09), one of the most beautiful in Saqqara, and published its

very refined reliefs in an exemplary way (N. de Garis Davies 1900 and 1901).

Ptahhotep’s mastaba, included in phase 3 of our project, was monitored

instrumentally, together with Unas’s pyramid and Ty’s mastaba.

When Maspero returned to his appointment as General Director of Antiquities,

after Loret, the exploration of the pyramids started off again, in search of new

inscriptions on the walls of the funeral apartments. At the beginning of year

1900, the chambers of Unas’ pyramid, the first decorated with the Texts of the

Pyramids, were already open to the public. It is an exceptional monument,

which bears on the walls of its funeral apartments the first original version of a

magical-religious text, and therefore the first literary text in the history of

mankind. Only in 1996 was Unas’s pyramid closed to the public, and it is now in

urgent need of interventions to slow down the deterioration of the once very

bright colours embellishing its hieroglyphs and the palace-façade decoration of

the western portion of the sarcophagus chamber, made from an alabaster

triptych of three huge monoliths (about 20 tons each) surrounding the

sarcophagus.

The task of clearing the area surrounding the pyramid from the sand and of

discovering the ruins of its funeral temple was entrusted by Maspero to

Alexandre Barsanti. He brought back to light the little mastaba of Semnefer (V

dynasty), at the pyramid’s north-west angle (A. Barsanti 1900a), and the three

Saitic shaft tombs of Tjaiennahebu (A. Barsanti 1900b), Psamtek (A. Barsanti

and G. Maspero 1900) and Padienisi (A. Barsanti 1900c), to the south of the

pyramid. In 1901, in the yard located to the north of the funeral temple,

Barsanti discovered an underground passage leading, at a depth of eight

metres, to a long tunnel excavated in the rocks along the north-south axis, of

the same length as the whole temple standing above it, from which other

tunnels and many rooms and deposits branched off. The rich pottery which was

found there dated back to the archaic period, and its seals confirmed a more

accurate dating: the tunnels were the underground portion of the royal tomb of

Hotepsekhemui or Raneb, respectively the first and second sovereign of the II

dynasty (G. Maspero 1903). The superstructure had been apparently destroyed

on a previous occasion, by Unas or one of his predecessors. It was a

sensational finding. And yet this tomb, like the similar tomb detected by Selim

Hassan further south (see below), is still waiting for a thorough exploration and

a publishing of its results.

The period following the appointment of Quibell as chief inspector of Saqqara

after Maspero’s indications was one of the most rich in findings (J.E. Quibell

1907; 1908; 1909). In 1906, to the south-west of the temple below Unas, the

monastery of Apa Jeremias (BMS61) was found, a monument which is now

almost entirely sanded up, although it deserves to be included in the

necropolis’ visiting route (J.E. Quibell 1912).

During two consecutive campaigns, from 1910 to 1912, Quibell brought to light

a large part of the II and III dynasty necropolis, in the plateau north of Djoser’s

pyramid towards the modern village of Abusir. Part of the tombs he found had

already been explored by Mariette and had later got sanded up again, like that

of Hesira (NSP13); but the others were actually new findings, like, among them,

some tombs of the I dynasty, datable to Djer’s reign (J.E. Quibell 1913, 1923).

The north plateau area, wedging itself towards Abusir’s pyramids, whose

boundary is marked by the fertile plain with the village of Abusir to the east

and by the desert valley joining Abusir and the Serapeum and the Djoser area

to the west, and which was probably the main access to the necropolis, is

archaeologically very rich: from the I to the VI dynasty, tombs were built there

one next and over the other. The I dynasty chose the eastern part, overlooking

the fertile valley and ancient Memphis, as a necropolis for Memphite

dignitaries. The officers of the II dynasty were also buried there. But the

building activity was especially boosted by the III dynasty, maybe because of

the burial of Imhotep, the famous architect of Djoser, whose tomb is still

searched for by archaeologists.

This zone, hardly legible from the beginning because of the many burial places

built in perishable mud bricks, became more and more so because of

excavations searching for museum objects and reliefs and removable wall

paintings, which were the main interest of Egyptologists between the XIX and

the first half of the XX centuries. The mud brick tombs of the first three

dynasties, seemingly poor, did not raise great interest.

Between 1910 and 1912, in a period of only two years, Quibell brought to light

500 tombs and funeral shafts only in this area of the necropolis, but could not

manage to publish and document everything. The plans of the areas he

explored in that zone are very accurate and detailed, even in comparison with

those documenting the most recent excavations.

Later on (1912-1914), Quibell worked in the area to the north of Teti’s pyramid

(J.E. Quibell, A.G.K. Hayter 1927), especially north-east of Kagemni (mastaba of

Ptahshepses ATP08) and west of Mereruka (mastaba of Kaemheset ATP37).

After World War I, Cecil Firth, appointed director of Saqqara, carried on the

exploration of the area north of Teti (C. Firth and B. Gunn 1926): he opened the

funeral shafts of the mastabas of Mereruka and Kagemni, excavated the

mastaba of Ikhekhi (ATP02) and reached the funeral chamber of Iput’s

pyramid. In 1924, he moved his researches in the perimeter area of Djoser,

discovering some mastabas of the V dynasty to the west of the walls (WSP18-

19), and the great mastabas of Kairer (APU29) and Idut (APU10) to the south.

His most important discovery was the magnificent complex surrounding

Djoser’s pyramid (PS05), which had been covered up with sand until that

moment. In 1926, more and more exceptional findings – the North and South

Mansion (phase 2 of our project), the jubilee yard, the entrance court and

colonnade – persuaded Firth and Pierre Lacau, who was then the general

director of antiquities, to entrust the study of these monuments to young

architect Jean Philippe Lauer. After Firth’s death in 1931, Lauer took on the

direction of Djoser’s site and dedicated to it the rest of his life, bringing many

parts of the complex back to their former state (J.-Ph. Lauer 1936, 1939, 1959-

1961, 1965).

In 1928, Firth brought to light the remains of the funeral temple and the two

satellite pyramids to that of Userkaf (PS04); he then explored the Saitic shafts

of Neferibrasaneith and Uahibramen (ESP23, 24) dug in the temple area. A

third Saitic shaft, with the tomb of Hor (ESP25), was opened by Zaki Saad in

1941-42.

In the postwar period, Lauer carried on the works at Userkaf’s temple; recently,

Jean Leclant and Audran Labrousse worked on it, and then published the entire

complex (A. Labrousse and J.-Ph. Lauer 2000). During the 1930-‘31 winter, Cecil

Firth resumed the work Quibell had interrupted twenty years earlier in the

northern plateau, discovering many tombs of the first dynasties. His untimely

death in 1931 prevented him from publishing the results of his last

explorations.

In the aerial photographs and photogrammetries at our disposal we can clearly

see the presence, along the eastern border of the northern cliff, of tombs,

probably built under the I dynasty, never studied nor published. Their mention

on the GIS is a unique documentation element, which will be useful for future

interventions of excavation and restoration of the site.

In 1937-38 the Egyptian Egyptologist Zakaria Goneim was entrusted from

Selim Hassan the task to clear the area to the east of the funeral temple of

Unas. He thus discovered many mastabas, the processional avenue and the

temple below of Pharaoh Unas. At the foot of the southern wall of the mastaba

of Nebkauhor, Goneim found the access to the underground apartments of a

tomb of the II dynasty (APU02), very similar to that discovered by Barsanti in

1901 to the west. The pottery and seals found there allowed to attribute it to

king Ninetjer (S. Hassan 1938).

From 1939 on, the excavations were carried on by Zaki Saad, by direction of

Etienne Drioton, who was then the general director of antiquities. Among his

most significant findings there are the great Saitic shaft of Amontefnekhet

(APU57), the great twin mastabas of queens Khenut and Nebet (APU17-18),

respectively Unas’s wife and, maybe, mother, the magnificent mastaba of

Mehu (APU11) and other great mastabas (those of Haishtef, Iynefert and

Unasankh are the most important), today in a deplorable state of preservation.

From 1940 on, Abdel-Salam Hussein carried on the work begun by Hassan and

Goneim, bringing to light a further stretch of Unas’s eastward causeway.

During these works, to the south of the causeway he discovered some rock-cut

tombs, the access to which was hidden by sand and drifts (among them, those

of Irukaptah APU42 and Akhethotep APU41) and two mastabas buried at the

foot of that same causeway (Iyka APU38 and Neferherenptah APU39).

Irukaptah’s tomb, with some unexplored shafts, was published again recently

following excavations and restorations carried out by an Australian mission (A.

McFarlane 2000).

After Firth’s death, excavations in the area north of Teti were carried on in

1942-43 by Zaki Y. Saad. He excavated the area to the north of Mereruka,

finding mastabas of minor officers of the VI dynasty (ATP09-16), on the

northern side of a cemetery avenue which skirts the mastabas of Mereruka and

Kagemni, and then intersects at a right angle to the avenue discovered 45

years earlier by Loret.

After Abdel-Salam Hussein’s death in 1949, Unas’s causeway was made object

of occasional excavations, which led to the discovery of Unas’s second pit for

sacred boats (H. Basha) and to the restoration of Khaemwaset’s inscription on

the southern face of Unas’s pyramid (A. Raslan on fragments found by Lauer in

1937. J.-Ph. Lauer 1957).

In 1950, Zakaria Goneim found the unfinished funeral complex of Sekemkhet

(PS06), which proved to be very similar in structure to that of his predecessor

Djoser (M.Z. Goneim 1957, 1964). Goneim died in 1959, before he carried

through the excavations of the northern and southern areas of the complex,

which are still awaiting an accurate excavation. In 1963 Lauer resumed the

exploration, locating the southern tomb and opening its funeral apartment, in

which the mummy of a two years old infant was found inside a wooden

sarcophagus contemporary to the monument (J.-Ph. Lauer 1966, 1968).

The necropolis of the I dynasty is associated to the excavations and

publications of the archaeologist Walter B. Emery, who systematically explored

the western portion of the northern plateau, from the northern promontory

overlooking the pyramids of Abusir to the modern inspectorate of antiquities, in

three different periods: from 1936 to 1939, working together with Zaki Y. Saad

(W.B. Emery 1938, 1939); from 1946 to 1949 (W.B. Emery 1949); from 1952 to

1959 (W.B. Emery 1954, 1958), on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society. He

was the first to thoroughly appreciate the importance of these fragile and

stately monuments built in mud bricks, which he deemed to be the tombs of

the first kings of Egypt, and to which he dedicated his three brilliant volumes

entitled Great Tombs of the First Dynasty and the monography The Tomb of

Hemaka.

In the Sixties, Emery carried on the exploration of the northern plateau,

bringing to light the great complex (SAC03) which includes, from north to

south, with entrances to the west facing the desert valley, the Northern

Catacombs of the ibis, Nectanebo II’s temple, the Catacombs of the Mothers of

Apis bulls, those of the baboons, the hawks and finally the Southern Catacombs

of the ibis. In this entire area he unearthed many mastabas of the III dynasty,

together with other mastabas datable to the IV-VI dynasties, generally

clustered around major tombs and nowadays almost completely sanded up.

One of these is the group of mastabas of the III dynasty which surrounds the

great mastaba 3518 (NSP52) over the baboons’ catacomb, and the coeval

group further east with the mastabas 3003-3020, which have never been

published and of which only Emery’s general map is left - later on redrawn by

G.T. Martin (1981) - and a brief description by Reisner (but only of two of them)

in The Development of the Egyptian Tomb (1936). Another group belonging to

the III dynasty stands further north, over the northern ibis catacombs and west

of the larger mastaba, the 3050 (NSP177) (G.T. Martin 1979). Of other isolated

mastabas in the area nothing is left today but Reisner’s map and some brief

information: this is the case with the large mastabas of the IV dynasty 3074

(NSP227, according to Reisner dating back to Snefru’s period), 3075 (NSP228),

3076 (NSP69, maybe also excavated by Mariette) and 3077 (NSP231); of the

mastabas of the III dynasty 3073 (NSP57) and 3517 (NSP230), too, only plants

and sections were published. The latter, the largest mastaba of the III dynasty

in Saqqara (56x25 m at the base), was discovered in 1965 by Emery, during his

search for Imhotep’s tomb. Despite its huge structure, it was not inserted in the

Porter & Moss Bibliography. As almost every structure of its period, mastaba

3517 was completely lacking in clues which could make its attribution possible

(W.B. Emery 1966).

Having followed on the excavation reports the fascinating adventures of the

exploration of the northern plateau, we are left with a doubt, which is actually

almost a certainty: that some of the tombs which Mariette discovered, and

which later were left under the sand (he never left a detailed map of his

findings), were later on excavated again and classified by Quibell, Firth and

Emery under different numbers. We know some of such cases: tomb 18 De

Morgan (Mariette’s A1) was classified by Firth under the number 3076 (NSP69),

and tomb 5 De Morgan (Mariette’s A2) was classified under the number 3073

(NSP57). That same number 3073 was assigned by Firth to another tomb

(NSP30). In some cases, archaeologists have mixed up their own excavations:

Emery, for example, during two separate excavation campaigns assigned to

two different mastabas discovered over the Catacombs of the Hawks the same

numbers (3518 and 3519) which he had already assigned to two other

mastabas, excavated by himself, in the area of the southern catacombs of the

ibis, further south. So, in our databases and maps we have two tombs S3518

(NSP52 and 52bis) and two tombs S3519 (NSP203 and 203bis).

The confusion is worsened by the fact that sometimes we don’t have an

accurate publication of the findings. While Martin published (1981) in full detail

the excavations begun by Emery and carried on by himself in the southern

area of the catacombs of the animals, the Northern Catacombs of the Ibis and

the overhanging tombs have never been published to date.

Excavations in the southern sector (Sector 7), carried through by G.T. Martin in

the 1971-2 and 1972-3 seasons, brought to light, in addition to the Northern

Animal Necropolis (SAC03), started off by Emery in the 1964-6 and 1969-70

seasons and the well known Catacombs of the Ibis (which were, from the XVII

to the beginning of the XIX centuries, the major tourist attractions of Saqqara),

the already mentioned archaic tombs and Old Kingdom tombs, the Ibis

Courtyard, burials of falcons, baboons and cows, together with the shrines

providing for their cult in the Late and Ptolemaic Period, which were added to

our database under separate numbers (NSP239-44), since their function is

uncertain.

From 1965 to 1967 the exploration of the Unas’s causeway was resumed, first

by Mounir Basta and a year later by Ahmed Moussa. The most important

findings were the mastaba “of the two brothers” Niakhkhnum and Khnumhotep

(APU46), buried under the Unas’s causeway (A.M. Moussa and H. Altenmüller

1977), and many rock-cut tombs to the south of the causeway (A.M. Moussa

and F. Junge 1975), the most remarkable among which are those of Irenkaptah

(APU47), Neferseshemptah and Sekhentiu (APU48), and especially Nefer’s

tomb (APU43); this rock-cut tomb (A.M. Moussa and H. Altenmüller 1971) is

sumptuously decorated and very well preserved, and holds in one of its shafts

a rare intact mummy of the V dynasty. Nefer’s tomb, only open to particular

visitors and scholars, was included among the thirteen tombs examined in our

project.

From 1974 on, Martin devoted himself to the necropolis of the New Kingdom to

the south of Unas processional avenue, and between the end of the Seventies

and the Nineties he brought to light some magnificent temple-tombs of the

XVIII and XIX dynasties: Horemheb BMS04 (G.T. Martin 1989), Maya BMS06,

Tia and Tia BMS02, Kay BMS55, Pabes BMS56, Iniuia BMS59, etc. (G.T. Martin

1991). Researches in this area, conducted by an Anglo-Dutch joint mission (led,

among others, by M.J. Raven, R. van Walsem and H.D. Schneider), are still

giving important results (H.D. Schneider and G.T. Martin 1993, H.D. Schneider

1995, G.T. Martin 1997, 1999, R. van Walsem and G.T. Martin 1999, M.J. Raven

1991, 2000). Lepsius’s evidence, as he was the first to explore this area, and

the recent Egyptian missions to the north and south (see below) of the Anglo-

Dutch excavation area, prove that the entire area is packed with still

undiscovered tombs of the New Kingdom. The area is still closed to tourism,

and could become a strong point of the future visiting routes of the necropolis.

In the early Seventies, the team directed by Edda Bresciani from Pisa worked

on the so-called “Persian shaft”, to the south of Unas’s pyramid, three shaft

tombs of the Saitic-Persian period discovered in 1900 by Barsanti (E. Bresciani

et al. 1977). Two of them, Tjaiennahebu and Padienisi (APU53 and 55), were

included among the thirteen in our project because of the beauty of their

inscriptions and pictures, which in Padienisi’s case still retain their splendid

original colours (R. Buongarzone 2001).

From 1976 on, the archaeologists Smith and Jeffreys took up, on behalf of the

Egypt Exploration Society, the first scientific exploration of the area of the

Anubieion (SAC 01, D.G. Jeffreys and H.S. Smith 1988), a temple complex of the

late period which appeared to be coeval and under some aspects similar to the

temple complex of the Northern Animal Necropolis (S. Davies and H.S. Smith

1997). Es-Sign Yusuf, the “jail of Joseph” (such was the name given in the XIX

century by the inhabitants of Abusir to the two large mud brick walls

overlooking the cultivated plain to the east of Teti’s pyramid), had been

explored for the first time by Mariette, who, following the sphinx avenue from

the Serapeum, had discovered this area and called it “Serapéum grec”,

believing it to be an appendix of the Serapeum itself (A. Mariette 1857, pp. 72-

5). De Morgan’s map (1897) reports, to the north of the northern wall, two

catacombs of mummified dogs, cleared by an unknown hand at an uncertain

date and still scientifically unexplored to date.

In 1900 Alexandre Barsanti had explored the remains of the pyramid which was

given the number XXIX by Lepsius and was already in ruins by that time. The

pyramid (PS09) stood on the south-western angle of the southern wall; it has

recently been attributed to Merykara, with some uncertainty (J. Malek 1994, J.

Berlandini 1979). Quibell first 1905-7 (J.E. Quibell 1907) and then Firth 1922-4

worked in that area, in order to explore the area of Teti’s funeral temple, on

whose eastern remains the Anubieion had been built. Firth wanted his house,

the first settlement of the Antiquities Organization Complex, to be built in the

northern part of the northern wall. In the Fifties Sainte Fare Garnot, Lauer and

Leclant worked again on Teti’s temple, covering with the excavation ribble the

southern part of the northern wall (J.-Ph. Lauer and J. Leclant 1972). The

following excavations, funded by the Egypt Exploration Society (D.G. Jeffreys

and H.S. Smith 1988; L.L. Giddy 1992) led to locate, inside a complex

stratigraphy going from Teti’s period to the Christian period, a settlement west

of the main sanctuaries (Area 5) with administrative functions, a North Temple

(Area 11), a Saitic and Ptolemaic Central Temple (Areas 12-14) - today almost

entirely beneath the village of the Antiquities - and a Ptolemaic South Temple

(Areas 15, 17), with a Chapel of Bes and Bes Chambers. The excavations also

located the Serapeum Way in the northern wall and a Christian village (Areas

12, 14).

1B. Recent explorations and works in progress

Over the last twenty years, the excavations brought to light many tombs of the

New Kingdom, a period previously little documented in Saqqara. Only a few of

them are isolated tombs, most are monuments of great significance sited in

large cemetery contexts in some areas of the necropolis (J. van Dijk 1988; Zivie

1988; 2000). In addition to the above mentioned group of tombs unearthed by

Martin and later by a joint mission of the Egypt Exploration Fund and of the

University of Leiden, we must not forget the important excavation by the

University of the Cairo on the plateau border south of the Unas causeway.

Between 1984 and 1988, these excavations brought to light about twenty

temple-tombs and as many funeral shafts of the Ramesside period (BMS14-51 –

S. Tawfik 1991), among which that of Ramesses II’s vizier Neferrenpet (BMS14)

and that of the same king’s royal Scribe Ameneminet (BMS24 – S. Gohary

1991). The Ramesside necropolis covers a series of tombs and shafts of the Old

Kingdom, as shown by the surveys carried out by the Egytpian mission, which

resumed working in 1993 (T. Handoussa 1998). About 200 m south of the area

of the Anglo-Dutch mission, a mission of the Egyptian Antiquities Department

brought to light, between 1994 and 1997, a mastaba of the Old Kingdom

(BMS52) and other surrounding mud brick structures (M. el-Ghandour 1997).

From 1979 on, in the Bubasteion cliff facing the wadi where once the causeway

of Userkaf ran and where, today, the modern road turns west to get into the

necropolis, the French Egyptologist Alain Zivie discovered many rock-cut tombs

of the New Kingdom (A. Zivie 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000). The first he

found was that of vizier Aperia (ATP60), on the eastern angle of the cliff, just

below the antiquities guesthouse. Later on, about thirty rock-cut tombs were

found, and it was possible to identify the owners of 11 of them. Among these

we may mention the Royal Chancellor Nehesy (ATP92), who probably organized

Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt; the Chief of the Double Granary

Meysekhmet (ATP91), whose tomb contains reliefs of exceptional artistic worth;

Seth (ATP93), the Royal Singer at Amenophis III’s and IV’s time; Netjerwymes,

whose tomb (ATP94) is a hemispeos of the Ramesside era with an outer

pillared court; and finally Maya (ATP96), Tutankhamun’s Royal Nurse.

Since 1974 the magnificent Saitic tomb of Bakenrenef (ESP28) has been object

of study and restoration (E. Bresciani, M. Betrò, A. Giammarusti, C. La Torre

1988) by the Italian mission directed by Edda Bresciani (E. Bresciani 1978,

1980, 1981, 1983, 1990, 1991-1992, 1993, 1995, 1996). The tomb overlooks

the road which, skirting the eastern cliff, turns near the Boubasteion and then

divides and reaches today’s most visited monuments. The excavation works

led to discover a real rock-cut funeral palace, regularly frequented for several

centuries starting from the Saitic period (E. Bresciani, S. el-Naggar, S.

Pernigotti, F. Silvano 1983), when vizier Bakenrenef had his underground

temple-tomb built there. The more than three thousand blocks forming a part

of the tomb’s impressive decorative cycle, pillaged by antiquities thieves for

more than a hundred years from the half of the XIX century on, were

recomposed virtually in reconstructive plates, using the information technology

as well. The writings embellishing the walls of the six decorated internal rooms

range from the Texts of the Pyramids to the funerary books of the New

Kingdom (S. Pernigotti 1985) to Saitic formulae (R. Buongarzone 1990, 1991-

1992). Near Bakenrenef’s tomb, the Pisan mission discovered three minor rock-

cut tombs (BN1, BS1 and BN2 – ESP32, 31 and 29), the portal of the last of

which bears inscriptions of important solar texts (M.C. Betrò 1990).

At the half of the Seventies, a mission of the Egypt Exploration Society and of

the British Museum studied a group of mastabas of the VI dynasty in the

cemetery area of Teti, north of Mereruka’s and Kagemni’s mastabas (W.V.

Davies et alii 1984; A.B. Lloyd et alii 1990); later on, and up until today, this

area has been made object of systematic exploration by a mission of the

Australian Centre for Egyptology, directed by Naguib Kanawati together with

some well-known Egyptian archaeologists. The mission both cleaned and

restored tombs discovered in the first half of the last century by Loret, Quibell,

Firth and Saad, and brought to light for the first time many tombs of officers of

the VI dynasty. Publications were significant and numerous (N. Kanawati et alii

1984, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000a, 2000b, 2001; K. Sowada et alii 1999).

From 1992 on the Egyptian-Dutch Research Project on ancient DNA, in

collaboration with the Leiden Museum and the Egypt Exploration Society,

focused on the evolution of monkey and ape species by examining the

exemplars of the Northern Animal Necropolis (J. Goudsmit and D. Brandon-

Jones 1999).

In the same year, an Egyptian mission directed by Zahi Hawass (Z. Hawass

2000) cleaned around the site of the mortuary temple of Queen Iput I (PS02),

an area where, between the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX

centuries, Loret, Quibell, Firth and Gunn had been working. Hawass undug for

the first time the entire funeral temple of the queen and discovered the tomb

of Tetiankhkem, one of Teti’s sons, on the eastern side of the funeral temple.

The mission later unearthed Khuit’s pyramid (PS03) and explored its burial

chamber.

An epigraphic and topographical survey of the area surrounding Teti pyramid

has been directed since 1992 by David P. Silverman and Josef Wegner of the

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology, in conjunction with an art

historical survey of Rita Freed of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (D.P.

Silverman 1997). The Middle Kingdom tombs of Sekhweskhet and Sahathoipy

were re-excavated by the Pennsylvania-Boston expedition in 1997 (D.P.

Silverman 2000).

Over the last twenty years several missions have been working at the Unas

causeway.

All over the Eighties, a mission from the universities of Hannover and Berlin,

directed by P. Munro, investigated the area north-west of the Unas causeway,

near the funeral temple, restoring order in an area of extremely complex

stratigraphy, messed up by too many cursory explorations (P. Munro 1993).

Since 1991 a mission of the Louvre Museum, directed by Christiane Ziegler, has

been working in the area immediately to the north of the Unas causeway, just

next the south-east angle of Djoser’s wall. The mission’s initial purpose was to

find the exact place of the mastaba of Akhethotep (APU36), sold to France in

1903 and now exposed in the Louvre. The excavations went far beyond that,

and brought to light two other mastabas of the Old Kingdom (APU61, 62), many

modest burials of the late period (XXVI-XXX dynasties) and layers of Coptic

settlements related to the nearby monastery of Apa Jeremias (C. Ziegler 1997,

2000).

In 1998-9 a mission of the Australian Centre for Egyptology surveyed some

unexplored shafts in the tomb of Irukaptah (APU42), south of Unas causeway

(A. Mc Farlane 2000).

We owe to a team of Tokyo’s Waseda University one of most interesting

findings of the last years (S. Yoshimura, I.H. Takamiya, 1997, 1999, 2000): on

the summit of a prominent limestone outcrop about one km north-west of the

Serapeum, the Japanese team unearthed, over annual campaigns since 1991, a

stone structure (NSP236; 25x30m ca. at the base) built by Khaemwaset, the

fourth son of Ramesses II, with an outer wall, inner rooms and a portico to the

east. The remains of the refined internal reliefs and of a limestone false-door

prove that the building was constructed specifically for the prince. Attached to

this stone monument of Khaemwaset, a mud brick house (NSP236) was found.

The foundations of a large mud brick structure (NSP237; about 25x22 m) were

also discovered in the western part of the outcrop. Stelae bearing names and

figures of Tuthmosis IV suggest that it was a royal resthouse, perhaps for

hunting of animals.

In the last years, the area stretching in the desert west of Djoser’s complex was

the object of some scientific researches, the first ones carried out from De

Morgan’s times. Following a geophysical survey of the area (1987), a mission of

the university of Warsaw has been working since 1996 in an area east of

Djoser’s walls, about 120 m from the pyramid’s western edge (K. Myliwiec

1998, 1999; K. Kuraszkiewicz 2000). In 1997 vizier Merefnebef’s tomb was

found (WSP32), dating back to the beginning of the VI dynasty, with a richly

decorated cult chapel, hewn into the rock. The entire zone contained structures

of the archaic period, overtopped by burials of the Ptolemaic period.

Surprisingly, no trace of any activity between the Old Kingdom and the

Ptolemaic period was found.

In 1990, Ian Mathieson, from the National Museums of Scotland, in cooperation

with the Egypt Exploration Society, started off a geophysical mapping project of

the valley stretching from the Gisr el-Mudir Sekhemkhet ridge in the south to

the Abusir West Saqqara Wadi in the north (I. Mathieson 1997, 2000; D. Jeffreys

and A. Tavares 1994, 2000). The most interesting results are actually about the

Gisr el-Mudir area (PS07) and the nearby L-shape enclosure (WSP34), two

enclosures which are clearly visible in the aerial photos and which almost all

scholars attribute to sovereigns of the II dynasty. In the Gisr el-Mudir, surveys

revealed the presence of limestone walls forming an enormous stone-walled

enclosure measuring 600x300 m (twice the size of the Step Pyramid complex);

instead, the L-shape enclosure’s walls were made of mud bricks. The remote

sensing techniques did not detect any coeval building inside the two

enclosures, which are maybe to be connected to the archaic enclosures of

Abydos and Hierakompolis. They could be areas where the funeral cult of

archaic sovereigns was performed, maybe inside structures in perishable

materials of which nothing is left.

North of the two enclosures, along the valley leading to the ancient lake of

Abusir, Mathieson’s survey detected several brick mastabas buried on the

northern side of the valley and a likely mastaba field starting at the tomb of Ty

in the west and stretching down to the Sacred Animal necropolis in the east.

1C. Open problems

A lot is still to be discovered, then; but a lot more about Saqqara’s and

Memphis’ history may be revealed by future excavations. The recently

discovered vast cemetery areas of the New Kingdom are discrediting the cliché

of a necropolis leaving to Thebes the undisputed supremacy after having had

its golden age, with the other Memphite necropoles, during the Old Kingdom;

nevertheless, some scholars still do not admit the idea that there are no royal

burials of the I dynasty in Saqqara, even because of the enormous amount of

royal pottery of the I dynasty found inside the tunnels along the northern and

western walls of Djoser’s complex. Maybe the “cult area of Den” (according to

Kaiser’s hypothesis in MDAIK 41, 1985), north of the Serapeum, was not

isolated, and the Abusir West Saqqara wadi has just begun to reveal significant

hints of its frequentation in the archaic period (S. Davies and H.S. Smith 1997).

In the area sited to the north-west of the wadi, not far from Abusir, the

Japanese researchers of the Waseda University in Tokyo have just found

(September 2002) the remains of an impressive stepped limestone structure,

probably a mastaba, about 4.5 m high and 33.5 m long. In case this structure

proved to be more ancient than Djoser’s pyramid (2650 BC ca), which is

considered the most ancient stone building in the history of humankind, it

would be an exceptional discovery, as exceptional as the discovery of the

limestone walls of the Gisr el-Mudir.

A fascinating task for the archaeologists of the present and of the future is to

investigate the organization of the necropolis through the ages (cfr. A. Macy

Roth 1988) and to reveal the richness and value of the Saqqara site as a whole,

with three millennia in a few meters - paraphrasing an interesting text of Lisa

L. Giddy 1997 - everywhere in this huge necropolis. Thus the new discoveries

of the last years stretch our view of Saqqara from the Old Kingdom towards the

Archaic Period on one side and from the New Kingdom towards the Late Period

on the other.

2. The archaeological documentation and the Egyptological

database (secondo paragrafo)

Roberto Buongarzone

2A. Archaeological maps

The study of archaeological maps has been one of the most interesting tasks

for Egyptologists, architects and specialists of the GIS. It was, in my opinion, an

exemplary model of team working between people with different trainings, and

different mentalities as well. While the Egyptologists tend to analyze

archaeological data and are mainly interested in historical issues, the

architects aim to synthesize cartographical data and to represent them clearly

on maps, whereas the specialists of the GIS consider maps as related to the

whole system, and aim to their utilization in data processing. Assembling the

different archaeological maps into the already existent and more detailed map

of Saqqara was a hard task, the credit of which is due to Antonio Giammarusti,

who had to digitize in Autocad maps which were often discordant or inaccurate

(a common fault among archaeologists), to correct them with the help of data

measured in situ with GPS or simply by means of a survey with maps in hand.

The Egyptologists often had to play the role of exegetes of archaeological

maps, helping to interpret what the archaeologists of the late XIX or the early

XX century meant with their maps which might not distinguish graphically, for

istance, the stratigraphical levels or the height of the door lintels.

2A.1 General archaeological maps of Saqqara

Such maps cover a lapse of time from the half of the XIX century to year 1980.

For reasons of graphical space, even the most recent maps do not report all

the monuments’ positions.

The Lepsius map (1849). It is the most ancient map of Saqqara and reports

the tombs and pyramids explored by the German Egyptologist. Almost all the

monuments explored by Lepsius in Saqqara were brought back to light during

the most recent explorations. As far as the missing ones are concerned, the

map’s accuracy, even though remarkable for that time, is not such that it

allows to locate them with certainty: the radius of probability is of many

metres, in some cases (like that of the south plateau necropolis of the New

Kingdom) even of 50 m.

The De Morgan map (1897). Very detailed, but also topographically very

inaccurate, it reports many tombs without indicating their names, which made

it almost impossible to identify them with the known monuments, especially

with the tombs discovered by Mariette, which were likely to be still visible

above ground at De Morgan’s time. This map has however some undeniable

merits: it is, for instance, the only one to report the entire route of the

Serapeum way, the Anubieion before Martin’s excavations and the catacombs

of the jackals, unexplored in modern times.

The Smith map (1936). It is the first modern map of Saqqara,

topographically accurate and based on the map of the visible monuments

drawn by the Survey of Egypt 1932, with, in addition, the position of the buried

mastabas reconstructed by W.S. Smith from available records and surface

indications. This precious map reports accurately Saqqara’s situation in a

period when the great excavations by Quibell and Firth had just finished. It

reports, in particular, many mastabas of the north plateau discovered by Firth

shortly before he died and never published, and also many mastabas

discovered by Mariette and no more traceable on the ground. The

topographical marks of the positions of the tombs discovered by Leipsius and

Mariette east of Djoser’s complex and south of Userkaf is also extremely useful,

since nowadays the area is occupied by a parking lot for tourist coaches. This

map shows the evolution of modern routes of access and visit to the necropolis

compared to De Morgan’s times, and proves that at Smith’s time the Serapeum

way was already totally sanded up.

The Spencer map (1974). It updates Smith’s map using the first edition of

the Porter & Moss Bibliography as well. It is less accurate than its model from

the topographical point of view, but has the great merit of reviewing the

intricate situation of the most ancient discoveries in the north plateau,

rearranging the six different notation systems (Lepsius, Mariette, De Morgan,

Quibell, Firth and Emery) and also correcting some of the recent mistakes (for

instance W.B. Emery’s two tombs 3518).

The Porter & Moss maps (1978-80). The maps of the famous Bibliography

are extremely precious for Egyptologists, but topographically inaccurate.

Besides, they do not report all the locatable tombs.

2A.2 Non-archaeological maps.

Six cadastral planimetries of year 1932, to the scale of 1 to 2500, and an

aerophotogrammetry (aerial survey), sheets H23, H22, to the scale of 1 to

5000, of the Civil Survey Authority, produced by the Consortium SFS.IGN

(France), based on a 1977 aerial survey, integrate the Smith map as far as

modern installations are concerned.

The aerophotogrammetry, which provides the aerial photo-interpretation of the

ground structures and gives indications about monuments buried underground

too, was the topographical base on which the archaeological data were

inserted.

General maps of the site in order of publication

R. Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Abth. I, Bl. 32, 33, 34, Berlin 1849.

J. De Morgan, Carte de la nécropole memphite, Dahchour, Sakkarah, Abou-Sir, 1897.

W.S. Smith in G.A. Reisner, The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down to the Accession of Cheops, London 1936, Map 2.

A.J. Spencer, Researches on the Topography of North Saqqara, Orientalia N.S. 43 (1974), pp. 1-11 and Tab I.

B. Porter, R.L.B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, III2, Part 2, Saqqara to Dahshur, 3 Fascicles, Second Edition revised and augmented by PhDr. Jaromír Málek, Oxford 1981.

2A.3 Partial archaeological maps of Saqqara

The data of the general maps, transferred on the cartographical base, were

integrated from time to time with maps of the single archaeological sites,

prepared by archaeologists themselves or by the missions’ architects.

Sometimes it was not easy to make different data from successive excavations

on the same site coincide. This was the case with the area north of Teti, where

the plans of the recent excavations by Kanawati at times did not correspond

with the old but accurate plans by Firth and Gunn (1926) and by Quibell and

Hayter (1927). This is the case too for Martin’s map (1981) of the area of the

north plateau with the Northern Animal Necropolis and the nearby tombs,

which omits some details in comparison to Quibell’s map, published in 1923. Or

even, still as far as the north plateau is concerned, the position of the

mastabas of the I dynasty given by Emery in his splendid treatises Great

Tombs of the I Dynasty proved to be completely inexact. Luckily, the

aerophotogrammetry, the aerial photo and the survey on the site, where the

trace of the buried walls is still visible on the sand covering them, allowed

Antonio Giammarusti to report correctly these important monuments on the

map.

Partial archaeological maps of the site in order of publication.

A. Mariette, Le Sérapéum de Memphis, Paris 1857.

G. Maspero, "Trois années de fouilles" in MMAF I, p.20 (1883-84).

N.de G. Davies, Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, Part I, London 1900.

J.E. Quibell, Archaic Mastabas, Excavations at Saqqara VI (1912-14), Le Caire 1923.

C.M. Firth, B. Gunn, Teti Pyramid Cemeteries, Cairo 1926, Pl. 51.

J.E. Quibell, A.G.K. Hayter, Teti Pyramid, North Side, Excavations at Saqqara, Le Caire 1927.

W.B. Emery, Great Tombs of the First Dynasty I, Cairo 1949, II, London 1954, III, London 1958.

Abd El-Hamid Zayed, Le tombeau d’Akhti-hotep à Saqqara, ASAE LV (1958).

V. Maragioglio, C.A. Rinaldi, Notizie sulle piramidi di Zedefrâ, Zedkarâ Isesi, Teti, Turin 1962.

V. Maragioglio, C. Rinaldi, L’architettura delle Piramidi Menfite, II-VII, Turin 1963-70.

W.B. Emery, "Preliminary Report on the Excavations at North Saqqara 1965-6", JEA 52 (1966).

A.M. Moussa, H. Altenmüller, The Tomb of Nefer and Ka-hay, Mainz am Rhein 1971.

J. Ph. Lauer, J. Leclant, Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Teti, BdÉ 51, Le Caire 1972.

S. Hassan, Mastabas of Princess Hemet-ra and others, Excavations at Saqqara III (1937-38), Cairo 1975.

R. Stadelmann, "Die Königsgräber der 2. Dynastie in Sakkara", Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, Vol. II, BdÉ 97/2 (1975).

S. Hassan, The Mastaba of Neb-Kaw-Her, Excavations at Saqqara I, Cairo 1975.

U. Hölscher, P. Munro, „Der Unas-Friedhof in Saqqara 2. Vorbericht über die Arbeiten der Gruppe Hannover im Früjahr 1974", SAK 3 (1975).

A.M. Moussa, F.Junge, Two Tombs of Craftsmen, AV 9, Mainz am Rhein 1975.

E. Bresciani, S. Pernigotti, M.P. Giangeri Silvis, La tomba di Ciennehebu, capo della flotta del re, Pisa 1977.

A. Labrousse, J. Ph. Lauer, J. Leclant, Le temple haut du complexe funéraire du roi Unas, BdÉ 73 (1977).

A.M. Moussa, H. Altenmüller, Das Grab des Nianchchnum und Chnumhotep, AV 21, Mainz am Rhein 1977.

G.T. Martin, The Tomb of Hetepka and Other Reliefs and Inscriptions from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara 1964-1973, EES London 1979.

E. Bresciani, S. Pernigotti, S. el-Naggar, F. Silvano, Tomba di Boccori, La galleria di Padineit, visir di Nectanebo I, Saqqara I, Pisa 1980.

G.T. Martin, The sacred animal Necropolis at North Saqqâra, The southern Dependencies of the Main Complex, EES London 1981.

W.V. Davies, A. El-Khouli, A.B. Lloyd, A.J.Spencer, The Mastabas of Mereri and Wernu, EES London 1984.

N. Kanawati, A. El-Khouli, A. Mc Farlane, N.V. Maksoud, Excavations at Saqqara, north-west of Teti’s Pyramid, II, Sidney 1984.

E. Bresciani, M.C. Betrò, A. Giammarusti, C. La Torre, La tomba di Bakenrenef (L. 24): attività del Cantiere Scuola 1985-1987, Saqqara 4, Pisa 1988.

R. Stadelmann, Die Ägyptischen Pyramiden vom Ziegelbau zum Weltwunder, KAW 30, Mainz am Rhein 1985.

A. Insley Green, The Temple Furniture from the Sacred Animal Necopolis at North Saqqara, 1964-76, EES London 1987.

G.T. Martin, "The Saqqâra New Kingdom Necropolis Excavations 1986: Preliminary Report", JEA 73 (1987).

G.T. Martin, The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-chief of Tutankhamun I, Reliefs, Inscriptions and Commentary, EES London 1989.

A.B. Lloyd, A. J. Spencer, A. El-Khouli, The mastabas of Meru, Semdenti, Khui and others, EES London 1990.

A. Zivie, Découverte à Saqqarah Le vizir oublié, Paris 1990.

H.D. Schneider, G.T. Martin, et alii, "The Tomb of Maya and Meryt: Preliminary Report on the Saqqara Excavations 1990-1", JEA 77 (1991).

S. Tawfik, "Recently excavated ramesside tombs at Saqqara, 1: Architecture", MDAIK 47 (1991).

L. L. Giddy, The Anubieion at Saqqâra II, The Cemeteries, EES London 1992.

A. Labrousse, A.M. Moussa, Le temple d’accueil du complexe funéraire du roi Ounas, BdÉ 111, Le Caire 1996.

A. Labrousse, L’architecture des pyramides à textes, I, Saqqara Nord, BdÉ 114/1-2, Le Caire 1996.

C. Ziegler et alii, "La mission archéologique du musée du Louvre à Saqqara. Résultats de quatre campagnes de fouilles de 1993 à 1996", BIFAO 97 (1997).

M. el-Ghandour, "Report on work at Saqqara south of the New Kingdom cemetery: Seasons 1994, 1996, 1997", GM 161 (1997).

D. Jeffreys, J. Bourriau, W. Raymond Johnson, "Fieldwork 1997-8, Memphis 1997", JEA 84 (1998).

N. Kanawati, M. Abder-Raziq, The Tety Cemetery at Saqqara, Vol. III, The Tombs of Neferseshemre and Seankhuiptah, Warminster 1998.

K. Sowada, T. Callaghan, P. Bentley, The Tety Cemetery at Saqqara, Vol. IV, Minor Burials and other Materials, Warminster 1999, Pls. 1, 2.

J. Goudsmit, D. Brandon-Jones, "Mummies of Olive Baboons and Barbary Macaques in the Baboon Catacomb of the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara", JEA 85 (1999).

K. Mysliewic "Saqqara, Excavations 1998", PAM 10, Reports 1998 (1999).

R. van Walsem, G.T. Martin et al., "Preliminary Report on the Saqqara Excavations, Season 1999", OMRO 79 (1999).

A. Labrousse, J. Ph. Lauer, Les complexes funéraires d’Ouserkaf et de Néferhétepès, BdÉ 130/2, Le Caire 2000, Figs. 42, 383.

N. Kanawati, M. Abder-Raziq, The Tety Cemetery at Saqqara, Vol. V, The tomb of Hesi, Warminster 2000.

N. Kanawati, M. Abder-Raziq, The Tety Cemetery at Saqqara, Vol. VI, The tomb of Nikauisesi, Warminster 2000.

C. Ziegler, "Recherches sur Saqqara au musée du Louvre: bilan et perspectives", in M. Bárta, J. Krejcí eds., Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2000, Praha 2000.

S. Yoshimura, I. H. Takamiya, Waseda University excavations at North Saqqara from 1991 to 1999, pp. 161-172, in M. Bárta, J. Krejcí eds., Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2000, Praha 2000.

A. Zivie, "La resurrection des hypogées du Nouvel Empire à Saqqara", in M. Bárta, J. Krejcí eds., Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2000, Praha 2000.

Z. Hawass, "Recent discoveries in the pyramid complex of Teti at Saqqara", pp. 413-444, in M. Bárta, J. Krejcí eds., Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2000, Praha 2000.

2B. The choice of the monuments for phases 2 and 3.

Our project involved, for the first two years phase, the choice of 13 monuments

for an analysis of the environmental risk representative of the entire site. The

matter was to choose, among more than 600 main monuments, those which

could best represent a significant sample of the entire site in period, position,

typology, state of preservation, anthropic frequentation and environmental

risk.

The three tombs of phase 3 – the only ones subjected to instrumental

monitoring -, the pyramid of Unas and the mastabas of Ty and Ptahhotep, were

chosen by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in May 2000, before the official

start of the project. They are the most known and important monuments in

north Saqqara, save for Djoser’s pyramid, the general conditions of which do

not allow the access to the funeral apartment. The funerary chambers of the

pyramid of Unas, with the first version of the Texts of the Pyramids carved on

their walls, were visited for almost a century and are today in very poor

condition, even though they have been closed to public for six years. The

mastaba of Ptahhotep, too, has been for a century, and still is, among the most

visited in Saqqara: its decorated reliefs were unrivalled in delicacy in that

period. The mastaba of Ty, which contains reliefs with scenes as precious in

quality and repertory, has been subjected to anthropic impact for 125 years,

even though the temporary closing of the Serapeum (now opened again)

brought less visitors to it.

These three monuments are sited along the central axis of north Saqqara,

between the imaginary prolongation southwards, north-westwards and

northwards of the western side of Djoser’s complex.

We had the task to choose the other ten monuments, on the basis of the

abovementioned criteria and also considering the monuments’ accessibility at

that time (year 2000). It would certainly have been interesting to include a

mastaba of the III dynasty of the north plateau, or one of the necropoles of

sacred animals. But almost all the tombs of the north plateau are now sanded

up, and all the necropolis of the animals were inaccessible at that time,

Serapeum included, due to consolidation works. Our task was not the

archaeological research, but the construction of a risk manual from available

data.

Another important requirement for our choice was the possibility to evaluate

the evolution of the monuments’ decay; therefore, they had to be known since

at least twenty years, they had to be well documented at the moment of their

discovery and, if possible, also through the years, with photographs and

publications. As far as the New Kingdom was concerned, Horemheb was an

almost unavoidable choice, as it was the first tomb of that historical period to

be unearthed in Saqqara not too recently (1975). Besides, G.T. Martin’s

detailed publication (1989) and the photos of its discovery in the archives of

Saqqara were a very good basis to evaluate the decay of its delicate painted

reliefs. The best example of starting documentation was the tomb of Ty, with

its publications made in 1913 (Steindorff), 1939 (Épron and Daumas), 1953 and

1966 (Wild), whose splendid photographs show the progression of the

monument’s state of preservation.

Monuments perio

d

Area typolog

y

preservati

on

Anthropic

frequentati

on

Environmen

tal risk

Historical

-artistic

value

S3507 I dyn. North

Plateau

mud

brick

mastab

a

Bad Closed

since its

discovery

High High

Djoser

North and

South

Buildings

III

dyn.

Central

plateau

limesto

ne

building

s

decent Open since

its

discovery

Medium High

Nefer V

dyn.

Unas

valley

Rock-

cut

tomb

excellent Limited

access

Low High

Kagemni VI

dyn.

Serapeu

m way

valley

limesto

ne

mastab

a

Bad Open since

its

discovery

Medium High

Mereruka VI

dyn.

Serapeu

m valley

limesto

ne

mastab

a

lacking Open since

its

discovery

Medium High

Idut VI

dyn.

Unas

valley

limesto

ne

mastab

a

lacking Open since

its

discovery

until the

Nineties

Medium High

Teti VI

dyn.

Serapeu

m valley

pyramid decent Open since

its

discovery

Medium High

Horemheb XVIII

dyn.

South

plateau

Temple-

tomb

lacking Closed

since its

discovery

High High

Tjaiennahe

bu

XXVI

dyn.

Unas

valley

Shaft

tomb

Good Closed

since the

Nineties

Medium Medium

Padienisi XXVI

dyn.

Unas

valley

Shaft

tomb

Good Closed

since the

Nineties

Medium Medium

2C. A system of selection and organization of archaeological data

One of the biggest problems faced by the Egyptological team in the initial

phase of the organization of the GIS was the creation a system of

archaeological data compatible with an advanced computer system, the GIS,

requiring a standardization of pieces of information which somehow forces the

nuances peculiar to archaeological data: uncertain or multiple dating of some

monuments, mixed typologies of tombs, different building materials, etc.

The computer experts Renzo Carlucci and Emanuele Brienza prepared an

ACCESS database with different levels of information, all to merge in the GIS. In

the first level database we decided to input the following basic data:

2C1. IDENTIFICATION DATA (MAIN DATABASE)

No. tomb of the project, assigned following the classification

of the Porter & Moss Bibliography. This fundamental work has

been at the roots of our job. The Bibliography’s subdivision

into areas, which we adopted, doesn’t take into account the

sites’ topography; it refers instead to the natural reference

monuments for every Egyptologist: the pyramids of Djoser,

Unas, Teti and Sekhemkhet. We decided to preserve this

subdivision in our database for reasons of convenience, and

because our work did not have the ambition to replace the

use of the Bibliography, but was meant to relate its data to a

map, that was to be unique and updated with all the

monuments of Saqqara. Obviously, we updated the

Bibliography’s data both with recent excavations and with all

the information we got in two years of work, even about old

excavations and particularly the poorly documented ones in

the north plateau. Thus, our notation proceeds with the

following partitions:

PS = Pyramid-Field of Saqqara

NSP = North of the Step Pyramid

ATP = Around Teti Pyramid

ESP = East of the Step Pyramid

WSP = West of the Step Pyramid

APU = Around the pyramid-complex of Unas

BMS = Between the Monastery of Apa Jeremias and the

enclosure of Sekhemkhet

TPU = Tombs of position unknown

The order of notation follows the Bibliography’s list, and then

goes on with the new entries, inserted, when possible, in an

area’s north-south order, otherwise in order of discovery.

P. and M. No.. It is the tomb number given by the Porter &

Moss Bibliography (if lacking, there is the abbreviation nn, no

number), which is the same number assigned by

archaeologists who worked on the site. Double numbers, with

the second one in brackets, refer to the notation given by

different archaeologists (for instance, Mariette and De

Morgan). For the new entries we adopted the same system as

Porter & Moss: that is, to report the numbers given by

archaeologists to the discovered tombs (for instance, BN1,

Bresciani N.1; MAFP for the tombs of the French mission of

the Bubasteion).

Level. It denotes the project phase: 3. monitored tombs (3),

2. tombs object of environmental analysis (10), 1. all the

remaining tombs.

Owner. The owner’s name, transcribed in international

characters according to the model of Hannig Lexica (R.

Hannig 1995, 1999, 2000), which in our opinion was a

medium point between tradition and innovation and between

the different national schools’ conventions.

Typology. Initially, it seemed easy to distinguish, for

instance, between mastabas and rock-cut tombs; but actually

we had to admit that in different cases such names

(especially the traditional mastaba) are arbitrary. In Saqqara

there are many tombs which could be ascribed to at least two

different typologies, like the tomb of Herimeru-Merery

(APU22), partly cut in the living rock, partly built in limestone

and mud bricks. The notion of shaft tomb itself is debatable,

as it is almost certain that all tombs of this kind, in every

period, had some kind of superstructure, at least a little

chapel with a false-door stela. There are also the non-

funerary, non-templar buildings, like the mud brick “blocks”

(NSP239-44) discovered by Martin south-west of the main

temple of the Northern sacred Animal Complex (G.T. Martin

1981). Reflections upon typologies have occupied a great

deal of our debates, especially between Architects and

Egyptologists. The scientific definition of the Egyptian tombs’

typologies will have surely to be reviewed in the future.

Period. All the dynasties and the longest periods have been

considered. We chose to avoid, at least in this phase of the

project, to input in this entry the dating by sovereigns, which

was settled in the Annotations instead.

Location. We tried, when possible, to be more accurate than

the Porter & Moss Bibliography, using a larger number of

landmarks.

Main building material. This entry was added on request

by the experts in preservation. Though it is almost always

reductive, it is nevertheless useful for the GIS classifications

and for the evaluation of architectural and environmental

risk: for instance, a building made mainly of mud bricks is

likely to be more at risk than a limestone one.

2C2. OTHER DATA OF THE MAIN DATABASE

Discoverer and discovery year. It is an important piece of

information, yet it is missing in the Porter & Moss

Bibliography. It allows the direct visualization, thanks to the

GIS system, of the history of the exploration in Saqqara.

Accessibility. We took into consideration, in addition to the

opening and closing to the public, the use of tombs as

storehouses as well, which makes them actually inaccessible

without a SCA authorities decree; the inaccessible tombs are

those whose entrance is prevented by structural conditions

(for instance, collapsed rooms) or by the walling of the doors

using authority. The re-buried tombs are those buried again

by sand and drifts, either completely or in such a way that

access is averted.

As for closed tombs, we reported the year of closing, when

possible. In order to obtain such information, which the

inspector’s office often did not have, Egyptologist Ehmad

Khater made personally an inquiry asking Saqqara’s senior

inspectors.

Bibliography. We input the monuments’ general

bibliography taken from the Porter & Moss Bibliography,

enrolling for that purpose some consultants: our competent

assistant Hebat Allah and Annalisa Malaguti, an Egyptologist

and collaborator of the archaeological attachée of the Italian

Embassy Maria Casini. Annalisa, in particular, collaborated

occasionally also in collecting archaeological data and in

surveying in Saqqara, making herself very useful, especially

when Italian experts could not be there.

We did not input the bibliography about each decorated

surface, nor that about the finds discovered in the tombs, in

order not to burden the database. We added instead, where

possible, the latest and the existing bibliographies about the

many monuments added to the bibliography.

Annotations. Under this entry we input the exact dating by

kingdom, significant details about the owner or the

monument’s usurpation, about the typology and the building

materials. On request of the scientific director Edda

Bresciani, we later input the finds preserved in museums and

already accounted for on the Bibliography, in order to offer a

more complete description of the monument’s history.

2C.3 THE SECONDARY DATABASE

Titles of the Owner. As for the monuments already

accounted for in the Bibliography, we only transcribed the

main titles reported by Porter and Moss, sometimes

translating in English the entries originally in Egyptian

transcription. As for the new entries, we chose ourselves the

most significant titles. We realized, though, that if we had

more time it would have been better to input titles

transcribing them from the hieroglyphs, in order to avoid

different interpretations and thus have useful archives for all

scholars to understand the officers’ allocations in

homogeneous areas of the necropolis.

Relatives. Generally, only relatives whose names are

included in the tombs’ text are reported.

Excavations. Among the excavations carried out after the

discovery of a monument, there often are interventions of

restoration, which in Egypt is almost always traditionally

entrusted to archaeologists.

Old general photos. These are the photos taken from the

archives of Saqqara’s inspectorate, and sometimes from the

publications.

New general photos. The photos shot over the last two

years by our photographers, Carlos de la Fuente and Kirols

Barsum.

General Drawings. Plants, surveys and graphic

reconstructions of the elevations taken from publications.

General Description. It is a perfectible computerization

system of the monuments’ basic data, with entries divided by

architectural items and decoration items. The entries denote

whether basic architectural and decorative items are present,

so as to make the computer (and therefore the automatic)

evaluation of the monument’s “worth” possible, in order to

estimate the risk coefficient. We are of course speaking of

quantitative value indexes: the size of a certain tomb, that is

how many internal rooms it has got, how many of its rooms

are decorated, if there are a sarcophagus in situ and

architectural ornaments of great value, like false-door stelae

and statues. The latter are meant as statues which are

integral part of the architecture, still inside the tomb, like for

instance the famous statue in Ty’s pillared room. The offering

tables too are meant as non removable offering platforms,

inserted in the original flooring of the rooms.

The general description includes an interesting implication for

scholars, as it allows to search for characteristic architectural

items in Saqqara, such as the subsidiary pyramids of the

temple-tombs of the New Kingdom, or the presence of

colonnades, hypostyle rooms and serdab. It was not always

possible to check personally, since the most part of the

monuments are inaccessible, the presence of original

floorings and ceilings, which many publications do not even

mention.

Detailed Description. This entry is dedicated to the

thirteen monuments of phases 2 and 3, with the essential

purpose to serve as caption for the walls’ pictures and

especially for the photomosaics prepared by Carlos de la

Fuente and Paola Galli.

2D. The new records

Of the 169 new entries of the database added to the 442 already there in the

Porter & Moss Bibliography, 83 refer to excavations prior to 1976, therefore to

tombs which could be inserted in the last edition of the Bibliography. Most of

them are monuments of the north plateau, which, as I said many times, has a

quite troubled excavation history. If we separate monuments by the

archaeologists who discovered them, we have:

26 of them discovered by Quibell, all of them mud brick mastabas of the north

plateau (NSP186-90, 203, 206-14, 219-26, 229, 235), except for the monastery

of Apa Jeremias (BMS61);

we have then 35 tombs discovered by Firth, two of which are in the area

around Teti pyramid (ATP88, 99), and all the others on the north plateau

(NSP171-85, 191-202, 227-8, 231-34);

the 13 new entries discovered by Emery are all on the north plateau (NSP52bis,

203bis, 204-5, 217-8, 217bis, 230, 240-4); besides, in the same area there is a

mud brick shrine discovered by Martin in 1971 (NSP239) and two tombs of the

III dynasty discovered by Smith and Jeffreys in 1975-6 (NSP215-6).

In other areas of the necropolis, there are then two Lepsius tombs (PS09 and

ATP104), two De Morgan’s (the archaic walls WSP33-34) and two Bresciani’s

(ESP31-2).

The Bibliography’s authors decided not to insert these monuments certainly in

order to make a selection (this is definitely the case with the about 500

Quibell’s tombs), choosing the best documented and the most important

monuments. While the exclusion of a non-pharaonic monument, the monastery

of Apa Jeremias, is understandable, the fact remains that the tombs discovered

by Emery at the end of the Sixties, some of which are well documented in the

volumes of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, were not inserted. And the

exclusion of the “destroyed pyramid” Lepsius XXIX (PS09) appears to be a

mistake (nobody’s immune, we least of all). As far as the tombs discovered by

Firth are concerned, probably the Bibliography’s authors were faced with an

almost complete lack of documents. We chose to insert at least the most

remarkable structures, re-examined and summarily described by W.S Smith in

1932 (Reisner 1936). We chose to be “looser” about Quibell too, inserting

tombs which we thought to be worthy of mention in size and findings.

Nevertheless, we would have liked to input every single documented or

somehow signalled funerary shaft, but we had no time in this first phase, and,

most of all, our purpose was to create a database related to a map. And even a

detailed map such as ours could not include thousands of “minor” burials.

The 86 monuments discovered in the last twenty years bear witness to a

remarkable enthusiasm in excavating a site which has still many secrets to

reveal.

No less than 59 among the new discoveries date back to the New Kingdom,

thus proving that this period is the less represented in the modern research on

the site. Together with the Late and the Coptic period, the New Kingdom was

underestimated to date in Saqqara, even because of the old habit to knock

down the later structures to reach the Old Kingdom layers. Christiane Ziegler’s

recent excavations north of the Unas causeway testify the presence also in that

area of Coptic settlements over the Old Kingdom structures (C. Ziegler 1997,

2000). It is certain that during the less recent excavations the Coptic layers,

like those of the late period and even of the New Kingdom – it is the case of the

area north of Teti – were destroyed without documenting them, with a few

exceptions, like Loret’s excavations between 1897 and 1899 just in the area

north-east of Teti (V. Loret 1899). The modern archaeology’s historical sense

will be able to give in the future a much more complete picture of Saqqara’s

three thousand years of history, especially if the archaeological research will be

planned in relation to the general historical view of the archaeological site.

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Roberto Buongarzone