Mastaba S3477

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Mastaba S3477 , also Saqqara Tomb No. 3477 , was excavated in January 1939 in the necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt by Walter Bryan Emery . It is about the burial of an elderly woman in a mastaba . The grave was found untouched and gained a certain prominence in research, as a well-preserved funeral meal was found next to the coffin of the dead. The grave dates from the end of the 2nd dynasty . In front of the mastaba there was a stele showing the king's daughter Schepsetip (the name reading is very uncertain). It may be the buried woman.

The mastaba was about 16.50 x 9.30 m. It is made of adobe bricks and has a core of rubble stones. On the east side there were two niches, one of which once contained the above-mentioned stele. Inside the superstructure a winding staircase led into the underground burial chamber. The passage to the burial chamber was flanked by two small storage rooms. The actual burial chamber had a recess on the west side in which the remains of the wooden coffin were found. There was a small niche on the south side of the burial chamber.

The corpse of the dead, which was about a 60-year-old woman, was found in the remains of the wooden coffin inside the pit on the east wall of the burial chamber. The dead woman was not wearing any jewelry, but various ceramic , stone and copper vessels were found in the remains of the coffin. There were also three stone tools here. Other stone and ceramic vessels were found in the niche in the burial chamber, but also in the two small storage rooms. Remains of wooden furniture were found in the burial chamber, but they were too poorly preserved and could no longer be reconstructed. The funeral meal that was found next to the coffin on the floor of the burial chamber was well preserved:

  • A bread on a bowl
  • a kind of porridge on an alabaster bowl
  • an unidentifiable liquid
  • a boiled fish on a ceramic bowl
  • Dove on a ceramic bowl
  • a cooked chick on a ceramic bowl
  • two boiled kidneys on a ceramic bowl
  • Ribs and legs of a beef on a ceramic bowl
  • unsafe meal, but it contained beef
  • Fruits, maybe figs
  • Nabk fruits (belong to the Syrian Christ thorn family ) on a diorite bowl
  • small round cakes, on ceramic bowl
  • three vessels with cheese
  • Wine in a large storage vessel

literature

  • Walter Bryan Emery: A Funerary Repast in an Egyptian Tomb of the Archaic Period. Nederlands instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1962.