Buried Bronzes: Caches of the Sacred Animal Necropolis (Egyptian Archaeology 49 (2016): 43–6) with Sanda Heinz

The caches of the North Saqqara Sacred Animal Necropolis are the last major group of unpublished material from the 1964–1976 EES mission. Since 2014, all documentation concerning the work and objects has been kept at the EES’ Lucy Gura Archive in London. As Sanda Heinz and I argue, the quality of the material in the caches is often spectacular and deserves full treatment, although for practical reasons their project is currently based on excavation records. Here, they discuss the archive and their plans for publication of the caches.

Caching is the burial of sacred items after their removal from display. Saqqara is exceptional due to the number of caches discovered (68), the wealth of material preserved in them, and its detailed archaeological records. The caches were secondary deposits placed around the temple complex and catacombs. Most comprised bronze statuettes of deities and kings, and/or bronze ritual equipment. Other materials, such as wood, faience and stone, were found in lesser quantities. Significantly, these items were decommissioned and then buried, rather than being melted down, despite their economic value.

The practice of offering bronze statuettes gained frequency in the Third Intermediate Period, flourished in the Late Period, and continued under the Ptolemies. The Sacred Animal Necropolis in North Saqqara (SAQ- SAN) was active for hundreds of years during this time, and the caches of statuettes perfectly illustrate this trend. Certain well-dated animal mummy burials provide a chronological framework for the site, from the Saite Twenty- sixth Dynasty through the Ptolemaic Period.

A review of the caches as a whole therefore opens up important research questions. For instance, as we placed the caches in a loose chronological framework, we noted that some of the earliest ones (Cache 2, 1968/9 and Caches 1 and 2, 1974/5), from the early 4th century (Phase IIa), were the most carefully laid and prepared, as well as being closely associated with speci c building construction phases. Loose caches in debris and construction lls appear in all phases but dominate from Phase IIb (ca. 380–360 BC) onwards. The evidence thus seems to suggest that the practice of caching changed over time at Saqqara. Smith and Davies also discovered that the caches are divided predominantly by type or material (statuettes, temple equipment, wood, faience). As we continue our research, we are looking to define any spatial and temporal patterns related to these groupings.