A New Necropolis from the Old Kingdom at South Saqqara

Vassil Dobrev

French Institute of Archaeology, Cairo

 

Historical information concerning the end of the Old Kingdom raises a serious challenge to archaeology. According to later chronological sources the today's list of the archaeologically attested Kings of Dynasty 6 (Teti, Pepy I, Merenre I and Pepy II) is far from being complete. There are at least three other rulers : Userkare, Merenre II, and the famous Queen Nitokris. One of the best ways to prove that these missing Kings have really reigned would be to find out archaeological evidence of the existence of their tombs. The actually known pyramids of the Kings from Dynasty 6 are all in Saqqara, especially in South Saqqara. Therefore, this might be the site where the tombs of the missing Kings could be found.

              Since September 2000, the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo (IFAO) began work on a archaeological map of South Saqqara (scale 1:2000); an area of more than 4 km from North to South and almost 2 km from East to West has been covered. During the completion of the map the economy of the whole site and its relationship with the neighbouring site Dahshur became clearer. It appears now that the geographical position of the actually known Kings' pyramids at South Saqqara followed the rule of several axes. The issue of finding the necropolis of one of the missing Kings became more and more realistic.

              In parallel with the archaeological map, the excavation work of IFAO at South Saqqara has concentrated on a small plateau (400 m N-S, 200 m E-W), located at the north-western corner of the site, called Tabbet al-Guesh. During the first season (October-December 2000), a series of small brick mastabas has revealed an unknown cemetery from the Late Period. Some of the collected pottery shreds were dating to that period and later; however, there was a considerable number of sherds from the late Old Kingdom. This was a clear sign that an unsuspected necropolis from that age could be present somewhere at Tabbet al-Guesh. The first Dynasty 6 tombs were discovered during the second and the third archaeological seasons (October-December 2001-2002). Several rock-cut tombs came into light. It was a surprise to find this kind of tombs at that place, because the quality of the rock ("gebel") was not really good. Why the high officials buried in these rock-cut tombs did not build stone or brick mastabas?

              One of the best preserved tombs belongs to the lector priest Haunefer, who was also King's nobleman, chief of priests' phyle and khenti-she priest serving at the mortuary temple of the pyramid of Pepy I (the 3rd King of Dynasty 6). Completely preserved polychrome walls, build up with fine white limestone slabs, represent the priest with his wife Khuti, priestess of Hathor, and their 13 children. On one of the door jambs of the tomb's entrance, Haunefer appears with another woman whose name, Hatek, is up to now unknown. She is King's acquaintance and priestess of Hathor. But this so rare name is also the name of Haunefer's eldest daughter, represented inside the tomb in between her father and mother. In this case, it is possible to consider that the two Hateks were in fact one and the same person, represented as a young girl inside the tomb and as a young woman on the door jamb, where she and her father are shown as a couple. There is even a small girl, also called Hatek, standing in between them, to complete the family image. The fact that the faces of the man and the woman were deliberately scratched puts forth an embarrassing question of a possible incest. Another serious problem comes from the intentional removal of all biographical inscriptions that have been carved on the walls around the entrance door of the tomb; the stones were cut off, leaving just the beginning of Haunefer's biographical text : "I was...".

              Another rock-cut tomb belongs to the lector priest Khnumhotep, probably the father-in-law of Haunefer. Except for the entrance door, where the inscribed limestone lintel and the lower parts of the limestone door jambs were found, Khnumhotep's tomb does not bear other decoration. On the other hand, a dozen of small limestone statuettes, discovered around and inside one of the tomb's pits, represent the lector priest Khnumhotep in different positions of his function.

              In the layers over the Old Kingdom rock-cut tombs were found numerous untouched burials from the Late Period and the Greco-Roman Period (wooden anthropoid sarcophagi, skeletons wrapped in vegetal nets, pottery sarcophagi). These burials clearly show that the whole plateau has been massively reoccupied, almost 2000 years later. For the moment, there is no trace of any burials from the Middle and the New Kingdoms. Important mud brick structures (one of them 10 x 7 m and 3 m high) have been built over the rock-cut tombs. The function and the date of these structures are still not clear.

              The presence on the plateau of Tabbel al-Guesh of a new Old Kingdom necropolis of high ranking officials, away from all known pyramids at South Saqqara, arises an important question : could this necropolis be royal?