Current Research of the Leiden-Turin Archaeological Mission in Saqqara. A Preliminary Report on the 2018 Season

In 2015, the Museo Egizio in Turin joined the Leiden expedition to Saqqara, in the area south of the Unas causeway. This report presents the expedition’s new approach as well as some first results of this new cooperation. In the 2018 season, the Leiden-Turin expedition worked in the northern sector of its concession, covering an area of ca. 250 sqm just north of the tomb of Maya. Here Late Antique layers overlie a windblown deposit containing some simple burials and numerous “embalmers’ caches”, some of which yielded marl clay cups with hieratic labels. An overview of both the pottery and the human remains found during this season is provided in the present report. Below the wind-blown deposit is a level with Ramesside funerary chapels and shafts. One of them has a remarkable decoration including six small-format figures carved in high relief in the middle of its back wall. The shaft of another chapel was also excavated, revealing several plundered chambers which yielded only scanty finds. A large mud-brick wall exposed during the previous season turned out to belong to the outer wall and pylon entrance of a monumental tomb, whose owner’s name has not been found yet. A photogrammetric survey by a team of the Politecnico di Milano yielded a 3D model of the dig (included in the web version of this report), as well as several 3D models of the monumental tombs (completed or in the making). During the season, conservation work was carried out on several tombs and on the newly discovered Ramesside chapel. Current Research of the Leiden-Turin Archaeological Mission in Saqqara. A Preliminary Report on the 2018 Season


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Walking Dead at Saqqara: The Making of a Cultural Geography", 5 under the supervision of Lara Weiss.
The point of departure of their research is the acknowledgement that ancient Egyptian religion was subject to constant change. 6 In other words, the material evidence at Saqqara (as indeed at all archaeological sites) is the result of individuals and groups continuously shaping their environment, and whose activities were shaped, in turn, by their ever-changing environment. 7 Reconstructing the cultural geography of these material remains involves (1) correlating finds to their wider environment, e.g. to earlier and contemporary structures, access routes, and traces of later reuse; (2) tracing changing transmission processes of tomb decoration and texts; and (3) pinning down the variety of religious practices performed during and after burials. Cultural geography thus helps to detect the manifold negotiation processes that shaped the larger Saqqara area. 8 The choice of the definition "cultural geography" as opposed to "sacred geography" or "religious geography" is intended to avoid the presumption that all individual and group actions were religiously motivated. For example, the building of a large and beautiful tomb could provide status to the living and the opportunity to demonstrate their upper-class taste and knowledge of required ritual. 9 The broader focus of the current fieldwork is thus the perfect complement to the cultural geography approach of the "Walking Dead" project.

The 2018 fieldwork season
In 2018, the Leiden-Turin joint mission continued the excavation in the northern sector of its concession area, covering ten grid squares (V-W/80-85, approx. 250 sqm) situated immediately to the north of the large Eighteenth Dynasty tomb of Maya ( Fig. 1) In this relatively new cooperation, the two museums are continuing in the long and successful tradition of the Leiden excavations in Saqqara, but they are also opening new perspectives and broadening the research scope. The area under investigation was in use continuously from the Early Dynastic to the Byzantine period, and human activity can be traced until today. Therefore, in 2018 more emphasis was put on excavating and studying all phases of the history of the site, regarded as a palimpsest on which human activity and nature left complex and intertwined traces for thousands of years.

A cultural geography of Saqqara
The Leiden-Turin fieldwork at Saqqara is not only supported by the two museums -the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Museo Egizio and to the members of the Permanent Committee of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, for permissions, advice, and assistance. We also acknowledge the valuable collaboration of SCA restorers Dr Ashraf Fahmi and Ismail Raghab. Last, but definitely not least, we would like to deeply thank the ever-helpful Salah El- Fig. 1: General plan of the excavation area, based on orthographic photos by the 3D Survey Group. In square W83 are the remains of the Late Antique occupation layers, in squares V/W-83/84 the three Ramesside funerary chapels with their respective shafts, and in squares V/W 82 the remains of the mud-brick pylon entrance of an earlier tomb. All the main robbery pits are also indicated by means of shading. By Paolo Del Vesco/Leiden-Turin Expedition to Saqqara.
Deen Hasabalaa, our dear friend, chef, housekeeper and much more, Atef Sayed Ramadan, and the more than thirty diggers, shovellers, basket-carriers, water-carriers and pottery assistants, 11 without whose work nothing could have been done or found in this or any season.

The photogrammetric survey
In 2018, the Dutch-Italian mission to Saqqara decided to use digital imaging to document the mission's activities, in collaboration with the 3D Survey Group, Department ABC, Politecnico di Milano. 12 During the season, the survey team worked on several fronts: the general topography, the previously excavated tombs in the area, and the documentation of the ongoing excavation (Fig. 2).
After checking the topographic network using a Topcon Total Station (Fig. 3), the team focused on the area under investigation. Throughout the season, the team recorded in 3D over 100 contexts as they were progressively exposed; at regular intervals, general surveys of the entire area were also performed.
The photogrammetric survey of the undulating surface of the area was carried out by means of a DSLR Canon 5D MKIII, endowed with a 22 Mpix full frame CMOS sensor, using either a 35 mm or a 20 mm lens.
For the survey of the funerary shaft, an 8 mm equisolid fisheye lens was employed for the interior 13 and a 20 mm lens for the exterior. The overall accu-

Traces of Late Antique occupation
In 2017, during the first season of excavation in the new area of the concession to the north of the tomb of Maya, the nature of the high ground located here had been clarified. 14 A sloping compact mud crust, identified as the original surface of the high ground back in the 1980s, was covered by heaps of limestone chips and modern mud-brick fragments, which had originated from the restoration activity carried out on Maya's tomb after its discovery, by high deposits of debris dumped here during the excavation of other nearby tombs in the then Anglo-Dutch concession, and by wind-blown sand deposits. Beneath  pation. In many instances, though, the connections between the floors and structures across the excavation area were lost due to the later extensive pitting.
However, careful documentation of the stratigraphy and state-of-the-art digital recording of the excavation allowed the missing links to be virtually restored during the post-excavation processing work.
A small pit, approximately 50 x 30 cm, its sides and      This sandy deposit thus covers the displaced stone blocks deriving from the collapse and dismantling of the Ramesside chapels (Fig. 12). It also contained some very simple interments (see for instance burials no. 2 and no. 3 in the "Preliminary Analysis of the Human Remains" paragraph below), which were later heavily damaged by the plunderers' activity, so abundantly documented in the area. As in the 2017 season, the wind-blown sand deposit also yielded numerous small pits containing pottery sherds most likely originating from vessels used during some sort of embalming procedure. Notably, during the 2018 season six such "embalmers' caches", as they are usually called, were recorded and excavated in squares W84 and W85 (Fig. 13). They appear to date to the fifth century BCE.
The vessels and sherds collected from these caches (see the preliminary pottery report below) complement the series of bowls, cups and bottles from the seven "embalmers' caches" excavated during the 2017 season. In addition to the usual vessels, the new caches also yielded a variety of interesting small finds, such as linen natron bags, flint knives and a The chapel is about 140 x 260 cm, its floor is neatly paved with limestone blocks, and two sub-squared pillar bases (length of sides between 37 and 40 cm) mark the facade. Fragments of the limestone cavetto cornice of a lintel and of the two pillars were found scattered in front of the chapel (Fig. 12). The chapel decoration is rather uncommon and the quality of the carving extraordinary. On the limestone slab at the centre of the western wall of the chapel are six figures carved in very high relief (almost as inthe-round statuettes), and are executed with an eye to great detail (Fig. 14, Fig. 15). Two couples stand side by side, the men in the middle, the women on the left and right, each with a child beside her. The hands of the embracing women are visible on the men's shoulders. The sleeves of the ladies' dresses nicely fill the spaces between each couple, hanging few marl clay cups bearing hieratic labels (see Fig. 29 below). These labels, currently under study, contain the usual mentions of ingredients probably used during the preparation of the corpse, such as "the concoction for the cavity" (tA pXr.t n hn) or "resin/oil of [uncertain plant name]" (sfy n […] + tree determinative ), but also in one case an interesting and less common reference to "the concoction for embalming" (tA pXr.t wty). 19

A new Ramesside chapel
Underneath the wind-blown sand deposit, a compact rubble and mud tread surface was reached.  was also at floor level. Such small naoi were relatively common, 31 but often their original context is no longer known.
One of the best parallels for the decoration of the west wall of chapel 270 is perhaps stela Louvre C97, also from Abydos, which shows two standing couples underneath a row of sitting gods (Fig. 17). 32 The individuals here represented are the high priest of Osiris, Wennefer with his wife Ty on the left, and his father Mery with his wife (and mother of Wennefer) Many on the right. 33  The south wall of chapel 270 also shows a very interesting scene, in which traces of vivid colours are still preserved (Fig. 18). Here the carved wall decoration in sunk relief is separated from the floor level by an undecorated dado, ca. 30 cm high. The scene and dado are divided, in their turn, by a very standard block frieze. The scene displays two bulls and three men pulling a sledge supporting a boat decorated with a banner. A priest walks besides the procession, which is proceeding westward. The boat is followed by a man and a woman and preceded by a woman; all three are in attitudes of mourning. The iconography suggests the scene may represent the funerary procession. It is odd, however, that no coffin or statue shrine is visible. 35 On the adjoining west wall, several men approach what seems to be a tomb façade, supporting the idea of a funerary procession. Unfortunately, this part of the wall is highly damaged and not much can be made out. The northern part of the west wall and the north wall do not retain any

Excavation of the underground chambers of chapel 125
The small chapel of Ramesside date (context 125) situated between Maya's north exterior wall and chapel 270 described above had already been uncovered in 2017. 36 The associated tomb shaft, approximately 150 x 70 cm wide, located to the east of this chapel was instead cleared of its loose filling during the last season. Its subterranean chambers could thus be partially explored. The upper part of the stone casing of the shaft had been almost completely removed from its north, west and south sides by later robbers, probably with the aim of re-using the blocks for their own buildings.
The bottom of the shaft lies at an elevation of 52.93 m, 4.37 m below the chapel's floor level. It gives access to three funerary chambers opening onto its west, south and east sides (Fig. 19, Fig. 20   which thus dates to the Ramesside period (Fig. 21).
The available evidence suggests, however, that these walls actually continue below this level, 39 and that the original floor of the new tomb lies at a level close to that of the floor of Maya's tomb, some 110-130 cm lower than the level attained by our excavation so far.
Although the "Ramesside" surface slopes slight- ly down towards the west, starting from the back wall of chapel 135, it seems to continue into the new tomb, which indicates that the earlier funerary structure was still in use when the small chapels were being built and used, at least as a source for building material, stone blocks or reusable funerary equipment.
Indeed, at least two phases of dismantlement of the structure have been so far identified. The first probably began not long after the tomb was abandoned, while the second most likely was due to Late Antique or pre-modern plundering, which is widely attested in the area.

Preliminary report on the pottery from the 2018 excavation
During the March-April 2018 season at Saqqara, the study of pottery mainly focused on the materials found during the previous campaign (2017) and on the preliminary processing of the ceramics discovered during the 2018 season.
The vast majority of the pottery sherds belong to socalled "embalmers' caches" dated to the Late Period, and possibly more specifically to the fifth century BCE. 40 These deposits possibly include both materials discarded at the end of the embalming process and funerary offerings.
The ceramic materials are highly consistent in terms   Some of these specimens have post-firing holes, pierced from the exterior to the interior with a sharp object, suggesting an interpretation as "ritual killing holes" (Fig. 23), perhaps related to the de-functionalisation of the pots just before their deposition. 41 Some other specimens have traces of inscriptions, so-called "charcoal dockets" (Fig. 24), most probably written with black ink, very faded, which have been previously interpreted as relative to the four Sons of Horus, 42 but need to be further investigated.
The second most represented pottery type from the embalmers' caches is the bottle (Fig. 25), characterised by a vertical rim, a slightly externally thickened, cylindrical neck with a groove 0.5 cm below the rim, a rounded shoulder, a cylindrical body and a convex base. The external surface is red-slipped and burnished. The clay is Nile Silt J2 (according to the site-specific fabric classification system), usually finer than the one used for the manufacturing of the "goldfish" bowl. Inscriptions have not been found on this type of vessel. On average, the diameter is 10 cm and the height around 30 cm. Another type of bottle is bigger -about 40 cm tall -and has a broader rim and broader shoulder, and a larger ovoid body.
The neck of this type is graced by two shallow ridges about 1 to 2 cm below the externally thickened rim.
The plates (Fig. 26) are quite small, with an average diameter of 16 cm, a direct rim, an oblique wall and a flat, string-cut base, sometimes modelled. Their surface is untreated and their crude manufacture makes them quite uneven in shape. The interior usually displays a shallow depression with a finger mark in the middle.
Pot stands (Fig. 27) are quite standardised. They have an everted rim, a cylindrical wall and an externally thickened base. They range in diameter between 13 and 16 cm and are slightly uneven in shape. The surface generally appears to be untreated, except in some specimens that are covered with a light wash.
None of the examples found shows any wear-marks, which suggests that they were used over a short pe-     (Fig. 28, right), most probably related to the manufacturing process: it is still perfectly preserved and covers the whole interior. 43 Since only one half of the flask is preserved, it was probably reused after breaking. In addition to the loose bone material, we found and excavated four burials. These have not been analysed yet, but some information regarding their context can already be given.
Burial no. 1, ascribed to context 249, was tentatively dated to the Late Antique period. The individual, a subadult, was wrapped in a piece of cloth before being buried in a small pit lined with mud (see Fig. 6,   Fig. 7 above). The limited size of the burial (the cloth had a total length of 28 cm and a maximum width of Here, too, the upper part of the burial had suffered severe damage, most likely due to later plundering activities. Only the lower leg bones (up to the distal femur), partially wrapped in cloth, were preserved, along with the badly worn small planks (43 cm long and 18 cm wide) they rested upon.
Lastly, burial no. 4 (context 275) was above context 150 -the above-mentioned wind-blown sand deposit -in what appears to be the same layer as burial no. 2. As in that interment, the deceased was a subadult wrapped in cloth, lying supine with his/her head to the east (Fig. 32). No traces of a mud-brick lining or a wooden coffin could be identified. The burial was lifted in its entirety as it was and placed in storage for further analysis. During its removal, two metal wristbands, one on each wrist, were found (see Fig. 8    148, a male adult who died in middle age (36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49) years old) and whose skull still showed remains of the hair; and the probably male individual from context 162, also adult, but whose age-at-death could not be estimated due to the incompleteness of the skeleton.
Overall, the 2018 Leiden-Turin season at Saqqara yielded interesting bone assemblages, which will be studied in greater detail in 2019. 9. Construction of temporary timber protective boxes around the newly-discovered Ramesside tomb chapels north of the tomb of Maya (Fig. 35).

Architectural conservation report
In addition, a discussion was held with the Directors of the Mission to determine priorities for the next season. It was agreed that we would focus on additional maintenance of mud-brick walls, including the tombs of Horemheb (south wall, internal courtyard, pylons), Ptahemwia (exterior walls) and Meryneith (forecourt). A preliminary design will be produced  On the night of April 24/25 there were a severe hailstorm and rainfall on the site, which heavily affected all the mud-brick structures (Fig. 36). This was followed by further rain throughout April 25, which made the damage worse. It was therefore decided that a stronger capping brick should be trialled next season and used on the upper two courses of all exposed mud-brick walls. Experiments will be made in the coming months to develop a stronger brick using lime and fly-ash additives. It is also advised that a 'sacrificial' mud plaster layer be applied to large areas of new brickwork on the north and west sides of