The ‘Slaughterhouse Archive’ of the Seti Temple at Abydos Ayman M Damarany and Hazem Salah report on the surprise discovery of an archaeological deposit in the so-called Slaughterhouse section of the Seti temple, sealed off until recently.
Workmen Talaat, Ahmed and Dahshour (left to right) sifting through the mass of papers.
20
Abydos is one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, and today one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. Located in the low desert west of the Nile some 300 miles south of Cairo, in ancient times it was the capital of the eighth nome of Upper Egypt. It is no surprise that this magnificent site has attracted the attention of archaeologists since the second half of the 19th century: what is
surprising is that Abydos is still giving up its secrets a century and a half later. Though probably best known as the main cult centre of Osiris, king of the netherworld, Abydos – Ancient Egyptian Abdju, Coptic Ebot, modern Al-Araba al-Madfunah – is home to archaeological remains from all periods of ancient Egyptian history. The site is notable for the Early Dynastic royal cemetery of Umm