Uncharted Saqqara: A Postscript

Abstract

W. B. Emery's 1964–71 excavations at the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara, uncovered large quantities of bovid material, thought at the time to derive from the Mother of Apis Catacomb. This article suggests instead that the material may have come from other (now lost) bovid galleries in the vicinity, the existence of which is attested by the accounts of eighteenth and nineteenth century travellers who visited them. These accounts are compared and the possible positions of the galleries discussed. References to bovid cults at Saqqara attested in texts but not yet located are set out and certain objects from the site reviewed in an attempt to elucidate the character of the material and the identity of the cults represented by the lost galleries.