EXPLORATION OF AN ARCHAIC(?) FUNERARY STRUCTURE IN SECTOR 2002
EXPLORATION OF AN ARCHAIC(?) FUNERARY STRUCTURE IN SECTOR 2002

Summary/Abstract: The eastern boundary of Sector 2002 is formed by the wall of the funerary complex of Netjerykhet's step pyramid. A passage in the rock was uncovered in the western part of the sector in 2004 and a mud-brick walled shaft was partly excavated in 2004 and 2005. The investigations have lead to the conclusion that the complex as a whole, comprising passage, entrance and corridor with sloping ceiling, remained out in the open for a relatively long time. This process can be seen as taking place already in the late Old Kingdom, considering that the pottery found on top of the fill originates from this period. Once the entrance had been blocked with accumulated debris, large quantities of offering pottery, mostly beer jars, appear to have been deposited nearby, forming in the end effect an extensive pottery deposit more than half a meter thick. The big limestone-tafl blocks with traces of red paint found in the surface layer of the baulk, may have come from the stone structure discovered to the south of the described feature. Their presence in the fill should perhaps be linked with the last chronological phase corresponding most likely to the devastation of the necropolis at the very end of the 6th Dynasty and in the First Intermediate Period.

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