Fieldwork at Saqqara, Egypt, February 2025

In February, our team returned to Saqqara for another field season. Our focus was on completing the study and documentation of human and textile remains and data collection in preparation for publication of our project findings.

Iwona and Emily completed the skeletal inventory and examination of the previously and newly excavated burials, with particular attention paid to any evidence of physiological stress, disease, and trauma. These will be later used to establish physical health profiles of the individuals who lived and died during the late Old Kingdom and Graeco-Roman times in the Memphite region. This season, we enhanced our naked-eye examination of human remains with the application of a DinoLite microscope, which offers a range of magnifications that allow for a detailed examination of changes in bone and dental tissue. This proved extremely useful in recording irregularities in the formation of dental enamel, seen in the image as horizontal grooves, which represent periods of physiological or nutritional stress at the time when the teeth were developing in the early childhood. Findings such as these can help us understand childhood health and its impact on later development and adult health of the individuals affected.

Our new team member, Nina, undertook a mammoth task of recording cranial and dental non-metric traits and collecting odontometric data from nearly 200 individuals with preserved dentition. Cranial and dental morphology are an integral part of osteological investigations, giving clues of the development, health and affinity of individuals and populations. As such, the collected dataset can be used in a host of studies that aim to understand the life courses of the people buried in Saqqara.

Our textile specialist, Magda, continued her work on the remaining large assemblages of funerary textiles, which – yet again – delivered some exciting findings. An astonishing amount of textiles were used in the preparation of mummified remains dating to the Graeco-Roman period. Metres upon metres of linen wrappings and shrouds took days for Magda to meticulously document and study. Such richness of wrappings can give us an idea about an individual’s social standing and wealth in life. Various documents from the period, such as embalmers price lists, inform that linen was one of the most expensive items required in the process of mummification and preparation of the body for burial.
While documenting textiles from a late Old Kingdom burial, Magda identified yet another fragment of a dress – a skirt (lower part of the dress) made from one piece of textile decorated with a weft-fringed and rolled hem. This exciting finding was followed by another one of a further two dresses identified in the same burial assemblage. Two of the dresses were made of a thick linen, while the third was made of a distinctively finer fabric, but all showed clear evidedence of wear and repair, suggestive of their use in daily life.
While most of our team worked on the ground, Agnieszka spent many days in the underground structures of an Old Kingdom shaft tomb, excavating and documenting in situ yet another important burial. Similarly to our last season, our work and findings were documented photographically by Mateusz.

We would like to thank the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for granting the permission to continue our work at Saqqara West and for approving our extensive programme of research. We are equally grateful to our Egyptian colleagues from the Saqqara Antiquities Directorate for their support and assistance throughout our fieldwork, and our local workmen for their dedication and hard work throughout the season.