Issue No. 593
Heritage
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
4 - 10 July 2002 Issue No. 593 Heritage |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Discoveries at Saqqara
ONLY an estimated five per cent of the monuments in the vast necropolis of Saqqara have been excavated so far, so it is little wonder that exciting discoveries are made with some regularity.
During routine excavations by two Egyptian missions early this month six mud-brick tombs, a pyramidion and a chapel were unearthed in the vicinity of the pyramids of Teti I and Queen Khewit, the mother of Pepi II, third Pharaoh of the sixth dynasty.
The mud-brick tombs and the pyramidion, which are characteristic of New Kingdom funerary architecture, were built for officials towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th dynasties when the seat of power was shifting from Upper to Lower Egypt. The largest of them belonged to Senner, a scribe in the temple of Ptah. This mud brick structure is capped by a 37cm-high piece of limestone carved in the shape of the sacred ben-ben. On one face of this pyramidion is a unique and beautifully-carved representation of the deceased, his two hands lifted with palms facing outwards in a gesture of prayer. In the text inscribed on the opposite side of the pyramidion, Senner is attributed with the virtue of honesty. All six tombs have an entrance gateway, an open court, a deep burial shaft and a domed ceiling in the sanctuary.
Zahi Hawass, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the discovery provided further proof of decentralisation during the New Kingdom. "These 3,500-year-old tombs give us important details about the structure of government,"said culture minister Farouk Hosni. Some of the deceased were lector priests in Pharaoh's mortuary temple, others were scribes. Scarabs, faiences, amulets, limestone ushabti figures and stelae were discovered inside the tombs.
The chapel, a limestone structure also with a domed ceiling, dates from the First Intermediate Period (c. 2,200 BC) and belonged to Shed-Ibd-Shedi, treasurer and supervisor of the royal palace granary. A fine white limestone false door, 163 cm high and 90 cm wide, is inscribed with eight hieroglyphic texts detailing the names and titles of the deceased, and the scene at the top features him seated in front of an offering table. On each side of the false door is a relief of Shed-Ibd-Shedi standing and wearing a wig and a necklace. Other scenes in the chapel feature him performing various rituals.
Back in 1892 British Egyptologist Cecil Firth, who became inspector of antiquities at Saqqara in 1913, discovered a collection of artefacts dating from the first Intermediate Period. Among them was a false door and a number of archaeological fragments inscribed with the name of this important official.
Notes by Nevine El-Aref
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
