Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

ANGELA P. THOMAS: The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah

used and the other contained funerary equipment of stone and copper vessels, flint and copper implements and pottery and also the wooden coffin and bones of a man 1.86 metres in height. Garstang noted that the superstructure of the tomb seemed to have been built up originally in steps.

13 Tombs K.3, K.4 and K.5 were smaller and apparently private tombs, but of these the largest was K.5 with some finer quality stone vessels and a number of sealings of Nezcm'ankh with the title of local prince or nomarch. Garstang's opinion was that he had located the royal tombs of Sanakht and Neterkhet Djoser or at least their southern tombs, which might or might not be cenotaphs. This is a similar debate to the claims of Abydos or Saqqara to be the actual royal burial places of Dynasties I. and II. No tomb has as yet been found for Sanakht at Saqqara, but the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is a complex ritual funerary complex associated with the vision and skill of the king's great minister Imhotep and which includes a stepped pyramid erected entirely in stone over the underground burial area. Stone had been used within tombs from Dynasty I and in fact K.l at Bêt Khallâf contained a stone walled room underground. The concept of building a monument exclusively in stone was perhaps inevitable, but the achievement of Djoser's monument seems a sudden leap forward on an impressively grand scale. Within the complex the provision of what has been interpreted as a southern mastaba tomb has led to the view that the mastaba at Bêt Khallâf and indeed all the mastabas at that site should be seen as the tombs of important officials. Whether this is the case or not, there is clearly scope for further research on the development of the step pyramid in mastabas at Abydos, at Saqqara where stepped central mounds feature in Dynasty I mastabas

14 and in the evidence recorded by Garstang of a stepped structure in K.2 at Bêt Khallâf. In connection with the Step Pyramid at Saqqara it is interesting to note Lauer's account of the discovery and removal of about 40,000 mostly crushed stone vessels from galleries below the pyramid'

5 and which apparently dated to Dynasties I and II. Garstang had commented on the great amount of stone vessels in K. 1 at Bêt Khallâf and the sheer quantity of deposits may be an indication of the importance of a monument and the person associated with it. 13 Ibid., pp. 11-14. " I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, New York 1986, pi. 4 - for a clear example. 15 J.-P. Lauer, Saqqara. The Royal Cemetery of Memphis. Excavations and Discoveries since 1850, London 1

976, pp. 100, 133-134.