13th International Congress of Egyptologists, Leiden, August 2023

Over the years, the International Congress of Egyptologists has become a platform to present current research on various aspects of Ancient Egypt, including literary and religious studies, archaeology and, increasingly more, bioarchaeology alongside funerary archaeology. Such meetings are a wonderful opportunity to share research, exchange ideas, and forge new and exciting collaborations.

During the conference, Iwona presented a poster on the seasonality of death at Saqqara. Ancient Egyptian life was governed by the rhythm of the river Nile and its seasonal flooding, which was a symbol of life and rejuvenation but could also create conditions conducive to higher morbidity and mortality across the land. As many diseases leave no trace in skeletal remains, the study of spatial orientation of inhumations has potential to shed light on seasonality of death in Ancient Egypt. It has been observed that in later periods burial alignment was closely associated with the movement of the sun across the horizon, with the bodies placed on the east-west axis, with the head to the west. Accepting that this orientation was a standard practice, any deviation from this alignment would reflect differences in the position of the sun on the horizon at different times of the year. Using the spatial distribution and demographic data from a cemetery located immediately west to the Step Pyramid funerary complex, we have investigated the seasonality of death during the Graeco-Roman period at Saqqara. The poster presented the results of our investigation based on hundreds of inhumations documented during ongoing excavations at this multiperiod ancient necropolis.

We continue to work on this topic, expanding on the research presented at the conference. Our findings will be compared with the existing data from contemporary cemeteries at Giza, Saqqara and Abusir to explore the pattern of the seasonality of death in the Memphite necropolis with regard to environmental conditions, economic and religious factors. The results of this research will be disseminated through publication.