Exploration of the pyramid complex of King Djedkare: season 2018 Cover Image

Exploration of the pyramid complex of King Djedkare: season 2018
Exploration of the pyramid complex of King Djedkare: season 2018

Author(s): Mohamed Megahed, Peter Jánosi, Hana Vymazalová
Subject(s): History, Archaeology, Ancient World, Theology and Religion
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze - Filozofická fakulta, Vydavatelství
Keywords: Old Kingdom – South Saqqara – Djedkare – pyramid complex – open court – north court – queen’s precinct

Summary/Abstract: During the latest fieldwork in the pyramid complex of King Djedkare in the 2018 season, the Egyptian mission focused oncleaning and documentation of the central and northern parts of the king’s funerary temple, including the open courtyard(T.e), and the north court (T.o). In addition, archaeological exploration was pursued in the area between the king’s northernportico, the northern massif, and the south wall of the queen’s pyramid (T.g area), which had not been explored previously.Thus, this area constitutes a valuable source of evidence showing that this area was used as a dump during the late OldKingdom and First Intermediate Period and as a burial ground from the late Second Intermediate Period probably untilthe Ptolemaic and Roman times. Besides the burials, remains of the architecture of the king’s and queen’s precincts weredocumented, which allowed us to distinguish precisely between the king’s and the queen’s funerary temples; also, manyrelief fragments were uncovered, revealing not only details of the queen’s decorative program but also her name and titles,which had been unknown to scholars until now.Finally, one of the main tasks included the consolidation work in the substructure of the king’s pyramid, focusing on thenorth walls of its antechamber and burial chamber.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 23
  • Page Range: 12-36
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: English