Season 2024

The 2024 season was scheduled to last two months and take place in spring, but due to delays in obtaining security clearance, it had to be carried out in autumn and lasted only three weeks, because of academic or professional commitments already made by members of the Mission team. This also forced a reassessment of the season’s objectives. While the main task envisaged was the location and start of the re-excavation of the tombs of the Memphite high priests Ranefer (5^th Dynasty) and Sabu Tjety (6^th Dynasty), located in the so-called ‘Mariette Cemetery’ to the north-west of the Step Pyramid, the time constraints meant that the work was concentrated solely on the tomb of Sabu Tjety and its surroundings.

However, after three weeks of work and sand removal, this tomb has not yet been located. This is mainly due to the inaccuracy of the topographical maps available, all of which are very old. The essential task of producing a new general map of the archaeological region of Saqqara based on current georeferencing technologies is still pending. Thus, the precise geographical referencing of the excavated elements has been one of the main tasks of the season. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), topographic instruments (total station) and specific documentation resources (digital photogrammetry), the aim has been to obtain highly accurate cartographic material.

The excavation area has been extended to a total of 340 m2, reaching a maximum depth of 3.88 m. The work has mainly consisted of clearing the large amount of aeolian sand accumulated over the archaeological structures. In this area, a total of three structures identifiable as mastabas have been partially documented. Cross-referencing information from old maps of the area with new methods of geographical referencing has made it possible to understand that work has been carried out immediately north of the mastaba of Sabu Tjety. However, in this area, there is a total lack of documentation on old maps, so the structures now unearthed were not excavated or known to Mariette and are previously unrecorded tombs. We do not yet know who they belonged to, as there was no time to access any of the chapels, shafts, or burial chambers of these tombs, and no loose fragments of inscriptions were recovered that could provide any clues.

The newly discovered tombs are organised around a north-south street in the cemetery. The largest is located to the west of this street, so that its eastern wall has been partially exhumed, with the funerary chapel (yet to be excavated) to the south and a ritual niche with two recesses to the north. The other two are located to the east of the street, one to the north and the other to the south of another small street running east to west, so their western walls have been partially excavated, where no openings or niches are expected. The arrangement is particularly interesting for us, since the study of the urban planning of the ‘Mariette cemetery’, the level of circulation, and the ritual activity both inside and outside the funerary structures is one of the main objectives of the Mission’s scientific project.

The campaigns of the coming years will allow us to complete the excavation of these new tombs, learn about their owners and the roles they played in the Memphite court of the Old Kingdom, as well as exhume the mastaba of Sabu Tjety and understand the topographical relationship of all the structures in this sector of the cemetery.