Dokumentation, Konservierung und Publikation der saitisch-perserzeitlichen Sarkophag-Gräber in Saqqara

01/04/2016 to 31/03/2019

The sarcophagus-tombs at Saqqara are valuable sources for the study of the textual tradition of the Saite-Persian Period. Their compositions of religious texts are drawn from the older corpora of the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, in addition to a modest number of unparalleled texts. Although all corpora of the ancient Egyptian religious texts are represented in these compositions, the Pyramid Texts spells constitute the core of all the Saqqara Saite Persian compositions, a fact that presents the sarcophagus tombs as indispensable sources for the study of the history of the Pyramid Texts corpus in particular and the practices of text revival and transmission in general. These compositions are also indicative of the characteristics of the Saite-Persian canons of text selection, integration and layout on the tomb walls. The Saqqara Cemetery has, so far, the largest concentration of sarcophagus-tombs, approximately 12 tombs, their architectural features and inscriptions have not been properly documented or published, despite the considerable number of studies on the ‘elite tombs’ and archaism of the Saite-Persian Period. This project focuses on three sarcophagus-tombs clustered around the pyramid of King Unas of Dynasty Five. In a period of three years, this project aims to record their inscriptions, to produce exact facsimiles of their texts, to document their architectural components, to produce accurate architectural drawings, to conserve them and finally to fully publish their archaeology, artifact assemblages and texts.