Report of the Waseda University Excavations at North Saqqara 2009-I

Orient, 1999

1997

Orient, 1999

"Waseda University Egyptian Expedition has excavated the previously unknown New Kingdom tomb chapel and burial chamber containing the sarcophagus of a certain ‘noble woman, Isisnofret’ on the summit of the rocky outcrop at Northwest Saqqara. Architectural features of the tomb chapel suggest that it dates to the Nineteenth Dynasty. The location of the tomb chapel, at right angles to the central axis line of the monument of Prince Khaemwaset (probably his ka-chapel) and the archaizing style of Isisnofret’s sarcophagus which reflects the same archaizing style of Khaemwaset’s own monuments, suggest that this Isisnofret is a daughter of Khaemwaset."

Seal Impression in Context, 2021

The archaic necropolis at North Saqqara has been the subject of archaeological activity that has yielded hundreds of tombs and mastabas, dating as early as the First to the end of the Third Dynasty. Recently activity returned again to the area with the work of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Scientific Center for Archaeological Training of Cairo and Giza at North Saqqara. This resulted in the uncovering of a new Second Dynasty mastaba, S 3537, which is the subject of the present article.

JEA 72, 1986

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Regulski I., Lacher C., Hood A.G.E., (2010). Preliminary report on the excavations in the Second Dynasty necropolis at Saqqara. Season 2009, JEOL 42. Pp. 25 – 53.

Miroslav Bárta, Filip Coppens, Jaromír Krejčí, eds., Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2020, Prague: Charles University, 2021

The archaeological exploration of Old Kingdom cemeteries provides us with a considerable amount of vessels containing inside traces or, in some cases, even thick layers of white substance, whether mortar, plaster or gypsum, coming from diverse contexts. While these vessels are undoubtedly part of what can be dubbed as repurposed and secondarily reused pottery, they should not be simply overlooked or ignored, as they often provide indirect evidence of rituals or activities closely connected to performing rituals. Their presence in the burial chambers, shafts and cultic areas can often signify either sealing or purifying rites that were executed during the burial or in the course of later ritual activities.

V. Verschoor, A.J. Stuart and C. Demarée (eds), Imaging and Imagining the Memphite Necropolis. Liber Amicorum René van Walsem, Egyptologische Uitgaven 30, Leiden-Leuven., 2017

François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (1821-81) visited Egypt for the first time in 1850 on behalf of the Musée du Louvre, and it is at the site of Saqqara where he made probably one of his most spectacular discoveries: the Serapeum. That Mariette also worked in the area now known as the New Kingdom necropolis south of the Unas causeway is less well known. During the years 1858-9, he visited that area accompanied by Théodule Devéria (1831-71). Recently, a number of photographs made by Devéria at Saqqara in 1859 were identified. These capture various New Kingdom tombs that have since been lost, including that of Ptahmose, the early Nineteenth Dynasty Mayor of Memphis; Ptahemwia, the Overseer of Cattle and Overseer of the Treasury of the Ramesseum; and Khay, another Treasury Overseer of Ramesses II’s Theban memorial temple. Those photographs provided the incentive for a closer examination of Mariette’s exploration of the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara south of the Unas causeway. This article aims to demarcate the area of the necropolis where he worked, and to determine what his motives were to work there.