Saqqara Necropolis through the New Kingdom

Nico Staring, DPhil (2016), Macquarie University, Sydney, is a postdoctoral researcher (Chargé de recherches) of the F.R.S.–FNRS at the University of Liège. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters about Ancient Egyptian funerary archaeology and tomb iconography.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures, Plates and TablesAbbreviations1 A Quiet and Desolate Plateau, Once Bustling with Life1.1 Introduction1.2 The ‘Walking Dead’ at Saqqara1.3 Problems and Research Questions1.4 A Few Notes on Landscape Archaeology1.5 Landscape Biography1.6 Structure of This Study2 Exploring Landscape: Layerdness, Temporality, Authorship2.1 The Layered Landscape2.2 Landscape and Temporality2.3 Landscape’s Temporal Paradox2.4 The Landscape Connecting Moments in Time2.5 Landscape Authorship2.6 Pitfalls of Desired Life-Paths2.7 Landscape, Temporality, and Heritage Practices2.8 Landscape and Social Norms3 The Memphite Necropolis at Saqqara in the New Kingdom3.1 Topography of the North Saqqara Plateau and Its Eastern Escarpment3.2 The North Saqqara Wadi’s: A Network of Desert Roads3.3 The River Nile and Its Changing Floodplain3.4 A Scattered Cemetery?3.5 The Necropolis as a Space Inhabited by the Living and the Dead3.6 A Myriad of Tomb Numbering Systems (and Their Absence)3.7 Introducing a New Tomb Numbering System for the Saqqara New Kingdom Necropolis3.8 Memphite Tombs and Tomb Clusters Not Included in This Study4 The Unas South Cemetery4.1 Extent of the Cemetery4.2 History of Excavation4.3 Notes on the Site before the New Kingdom4.4 The New Kingdom before the Amarna Period4.5 The Expanding Cemetery in the Reign of Amenhotep III4.6 The Amarna Period4.7 Post-Amarna Period: Reign of Tutankhamun4.8 Excursus: The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb4.9 Transition of the 18th to the 19th Dynasty4.10 The Cemetery’s Lateral Growth in the Early 19th Dynasty4.11 Reign of Ramesses II, First Half4.12 Reign of Ramesses II, Second Half4.13 The ‘Labyrinth’ at Its Most Complex: Towards the End of the New Kingdom5 The Teti Pyramid Cemetery and the Cliff of Ankhtawy5.1 Setting the Scene5.2 A New Kingdom Cemetery Founded on the Remains of the Old Kingdom5.3 Methodological Problems with Virtually Recreating a Largely Lost Cemetery5.4 Notes on the Extent of the Cemetery5.5 A Cemetery of Pit-Burials5.6 Evidence for Above-ground Markers of Pit-Burials5.7 The Earliest Evidence for Tomb Chapels: Reign of Amenhotep III5.8 Late 18th Dynasty: Amarna and Post-Amarna Period5.9 Ramesside Period5.10 Rock-Cut Tombs in the Cliff of Ankhtawy6 The Dead and the Living in the Memphite Cultural Landscape6.1 The Place of the Tomb in the Memphite Cultural Landscape6.2 The Sokar Festival at Memphis6.3 From Object to Landscape: The Sokar Festival and the Stela of Ptahmose (mma 67.3)6.4 The Cemetery En Route to the Serapeum6.5 Temples of Millions of Years and Their Relationship to the Necropolis6.6 On Wadi’s and Pyramid Causeways: Accessing the Teti Pyramid Cemetery6.7 Closing Note on the Landscape of the Living East of the Teti Pyramid Cemetery and the Cliff of Ankhtawy7 Saqqara through the New Kingdom: Synthesis and Final Thoughts7.1 A Cultural Landscape Forever in the Making7.2 Unas South Cemetery7.3 Teti Pyramid Cemetery and the Cliff of AnkhtawyCatalogue of New Kingdom Tombs at SaqqaraBibliographyIndex