Saqqara (Egypt)
Dates of work: 23 February–23 March 2015
Team:
Director: Prof. Karol Myśliwiec (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Deputy director: Assoc. Prof. Kamil Kuraszkiewicz, egyptologist (Oriental Faculty, University of Warsaw)
Archaeologists: Dobiesława Karst (Museum of Ancient Trade, Świdnica), Małgorzata Radomska (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Tomasz Stępnik (independent), Marek Woźniak (independent)
Anthropologists: Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin, Constance Lord, Eily Marlow (all University of Manchester)
Restorers: Urszula Dąbrowska, chief conservator (freelance), Krzysztof Olszowski (freelance), Robert Wolny (freelance), Ragab Mohamed Ragab (Supreme Council of Antiquities, Cairo)
Documentalist: Beata Błaszczuk (freelance)
Photographer: Jarosław Dąbrowski (freelance)
Technician: Mariusz Dybich (PCMA UW, Research Centre in Cairo)
(Joint description of seasons 2014 and 2015)
Work in the Dry Moat concentrated in 2014 on clearing the entrance to a rock-cut chapel (No. 32, identified already in 2012) in the lower tier, about 0.50 m below the Chapel of Ichy and in 2015 on exploring the chapel itself. An offering formula taking up the width of the facade was noted, but no wall decoration. Conservators protected the severely eroded rock face of the facade, including structural work inside the chapel, reinforcing a broken wall separating it from a neighboring chapel.
Comprehensive interdisciplinary research was carried out on human remains from the cemeteries (mainly from the Ptolemaic period). Artifact restoration covered all categories: wood, stone, gypsum, clay and textile, papyrus.
See also:
- Rzeuska, T.I. (2015). Noughts and crosses. Pot marks on the late Old Kingdom beer jars from West Saqqara. In J. Budka, F. Kammerzell, and S. Rzepka (eds), Non-textual marking system in Ancient Egypt (and elsewhere)[=Lingua Aegyptia. Studia monographica16] (pp. 255–281). Hamburg: Widmaier Verlag
- Welc, F., and Mieszkowski, R. (2015). Unknown ancient funerary structures discovered in West Saqqara (Egypt) using Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR). EtTrav, 28, 201–215
- Welc, F., Mieszkowski, R., Trzciński, J., and Kowalczyk, S. (2015). Western section of the ‘Dry Moat’ channel surrounding Step Pyramid complex in Saqqara in the light of Ground-Penetrating Radar prospection. Archaeological Prospection, 22(4), 293–305
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25