News
Season 2012
In 2011, the Leiden expedition was unable to work at Saqqara due to the Egyptian revolution. For 2012, we have received permission to resume our work at Saqqara. Unfortunately, proper excavations are not yet possible in view of the security situation. Our small team will therefore spend the month of February on site, with the following objectives:
- To repair the damages inflicted by plunderers of the site in January 2011 and caused by heavy rains in April 2011
- To replace the wire mesh over Horemheb's inner court by a finer quality intended to keep out the birds
- To discuss the possibility to enrich the tombs of Horemheb and Ptahemwia with some replicas from the collections of the Bologna Museum
- To continue the study of pottery and skeletal material found in former seasons
- To finish the study of the wall reliefs from the tomb of Ptahemwia
Participants will be Maarten Raven (field director), Christian Greco (deputy field director), Barbara Aston (ceramicist), Ladislava Horáčková (anthropologist), Daniela Picchi (on behalf of the Bologna Museum), Nicholas Warner (architect) and Dorothea Schulz (artist). The season will last from January 31 to March 5. In spite of the fact that no excavation will be carried out, we intend to publish weekly digging diaries on this website, as usual. These will be posted from Cairo every Friday in the period indicated.
Website updates
Many small updates have been executed. More than 20 new images have been placed at the Tombs section.
For our members JEOL 40 has been placed at the Publication page in the Friends section.
Always wondered who is behind the Friends of Saqqara Foundation? Click on the 'Board' link in the menu right to see the volunteers of the Board of F.o.S. and the Board of Trustees who make this Foundation and its website possible!
Since 1975 many articles and books about the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara have been written. Currently twelve final publications are available and coming year two more are expected. Now all covers of the final publications have been scanned and placed at the Publication page.
Bibliography Database
A new online tool is avaible to search in a database containing more than 200 publications dealing with the excavations of the Leiden Mission at Saqqara since 1975: The Online Database of the Bibliography of the Leiden Mission
produced by V. Oeters, together with G.G.A. Roosien.
It is possible to search for publications on author, title, year of publication and keywords.
You can find the database here.
Horemheb V available
A new publication dealing with the New Kingdom necropolis is now available: The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb V: The Forecourt and the Area South
of the Tomb with Some Notes on the Tomb of Tia written by field director M. J. Raven, together with V. Verschoor, M. Vugts and R. van Walsem.
The book is the sixth number in the series of the National Museum of Antiquities called: Papers on Archaeology from The Leiden Museum of Antiquities (PALMA).
The book is published by Brepols (Turnhout) and can be ordered here.
Saqqara day 2011
The ninth Saqqara Day held on 28 May 2011 was again a success. We would like to thank all the visitors and their donations for the
project!
Site open for tourists!
Through media we learned that today, May 23, the MSA officially opened seven of our tombs to the public. The tombs of Maya, Horemheb, Meryneith,
Ptahemwia and Pay & Raia will be open to the public. There is no mention of ticket prices just yet.
See the press release on dr.hawass.com
Press release
On the Dutch Friends section a video of Maarten Raven is placed on the 'News for Members' page.
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