EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
Some recent discoveries at Saqqara Ali el-Batal, Saleh Soleiman and Ragab Turkey report on some hitherto unknown tombs at the site of Gisr el-Mudir, Saqqara. Among the most impressive tombs in Egypt are brilliantly decorated private tombs of Saqqara, but those usually shown to the tourists represent only a small percentage of the whole necropolis. The three years before the revolution of January 2011 witnessed intensive Egyptian archaeological activity at Saqqara, especially in the area of the Gisr el-Mudir site. Located west of the step pyramid of Zoser and the Unas pyramid at Saqqara, the name means ‘enclosure of the mudir’ (= director), after Selim Hassan who had conducted excavations here.This site has escaped attention until recently; three successive seasons of work (20082010) have now been carried out, revealing an extensive cemetery of nobles of modest rank dating to the Old Kingdom along the north side of the pyramid enclosure of Sekhemkhet (Third Dynasty).
Left: the shaft from which Tjeneh's tomb was discovered. Above: the false door inside Tjeneh’s tomb.
the offerings, while her left is placed on her breast. She is clad in a tight long robe and wears a long wig. At the entrance, a lintel bears three lines and a column of inscription cut in a plaster coating over an earlier inscription, suggesting that the tomb was re-used for Tjeneh. The tomb is fronted by a courtyard measuring 3.5 m by 2.5 m, accessible via six steps. We suggest the late Fifth Dynasty as a date for the tomb. Ali el-Batal.
One discovery in the south-east corner of the site was the rock-cut tomb of the adorner of the king and overseer of the maid-singers,Tjeneh. Unfinished, it measures 5.2 m by 2.2 m, including the chapel, and is undecorated inside except for a false door, painted pink to imitate granite and featuring a scene of Tjeneh with her funerary repast. Tjeneh is shown seated on a chair at the offering table loaded with loaves of bread, raising her right hand towards 41