LATE POTTERY FROM THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB OF NESEMNAU IN GIZA AND FEATURES OF THE FORMATION OF THIEVES’ DEBRIS IN BURIAL SHAFTS

Abstract

The ancient Egyptian rock-cut tomb of Nesemnau in the north-eastern part of the Giza Necropolis was explored by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS in 2015–2017 and 2020. Archaeological study of the three tomb shafts revealed repeated violation of the filling layers due to the numerous robberies; as a result, the original burials of the Old Kingdom were destroyed, and later pottery (827 out of 2602 ceramic samples) and artifacts entered these complexes. Pottery analysis dating from the New Kingdom to the beginning of the 20th century allows speculating on the formation of thieves’ debris in the burial shafts of this tomb. Obtained data indicates repeated human intervention into the tomb, occurring apparently in the Late Period (possibly in order to create secondary burials), in Ptolemaic and Byzantine times, in the Middle Ages and in Modern times (during the robbery). Fragments from the same vessels are present in the fillings of all the shafts in Nesemnau’s tomb; therefore, they ended in these burial complexes at the same time as a result of the one and the same group of robbers’ activities. The latest ceramic fragments belonging to the zir-jars of the 19th — early 20th centuries indicate terminus ante quem of plundering. It is probable that the increase of tourism and the beginning of large-scale archaeological excavations in Giza Necropolis at that time intensified the thieves’ activity at the ancient site.