1 Project Genesis
During my PhD entitled Analyse spatiale à Saqqâra des origines à la fin de lâAncien Empire. Les exemples des complexes funéraires de Netjerikhet et de Sekhemkhet,2 I treated the Saqqara spatial organization and I used the examples of two circumscribed spaces: the funerary complexes of Netjerikhet and of Sekhemkhet.
To understand the organization of space and its layout, I recorded the data with tools specifically created for my study: a geographic information system (GIS) linked to a database. In order to analyze these funerary complexes, I recorded all the archaeological remains: structures, accesses, material, decoration and inscriptions both on architecture and on material, and human and faunal remains. Moreover, to find the information sources, a table for bibliographic references was created and another one for the pictures enabling the user to visualize the artifacts.
Thanks to the use of these tools, new elements were revealed about the circulation in the complex, on the choice of the materials of the vases according to the different periods and on the dummy doors of the funerary complex of Netjerikhet, for example.3
The results being thus encouraging, I wanted to extend my study to the whole site of Saqqara, because it seemed very interesting to be able to take advantage of the methods implemented as well as the tools created during my PhD.
2 Issue, Aim and Main Purposes
While Saqqara is the subject of many studies, paradoxically there is no global examination of the entire site to understand its spatial organization. Indeed, the main difficulty is that there is no archaeological map, namely a single map of the entire site with all the monuments identified. There are several reasons for that.4 The SIGSaqqâra project aims to know more about the spatial organization of the site of Saqqara from the Predynastic to the end of the Old Kingdom.
To address this problem and to better understand the space and its development during this period, the SIGSaqqâra project has three main purposes. The first is scientific: it is necessary to identify all the monuments present during the period studied in order to record them precisely in a database and to georeference them in a GIS, from the publications (monographs, articles, reports, etc.). The second, still scientific, is to analyze the spatial data that means the location of the monuments, and the semantic or attribute data about the structures and their owners. Finally, the third, more technical, is to plan the online publishing.
The difference with my PhD work is that I focus more on the architecture of the funerary monuments built from the Predynastic Period to the end of the Old Kingdom and their owner and not on archaeological material, decoration and inscriptions discovered in situ.
3 Tools and Methods
Archaeology and Egyptology have appropriated IT and are developing digital tools such as databases and GIS. Indeed, these tools can be used to meet several needs in the framework of different studies, including research on networks,5 on landscapes6 or work on endangered heritage and sites or monuments with risks,7 for example.
In order to carry out this study, my work uses the digital toolsâdatabase and GISâcreated during my PhD. Some criteria were considered to choose the software. For different reasons,8 I chose Microsoft Access9 and ArcGIS.10 One of the reasons for choosing this software is that they are complementary and compatible. Indeed, thanks to the personal geodatabase in ArcGIS, the information recorded in one of these tools is directly visible in the other one.
To gather the documentation and thus record the data, I chose to create a database with a database management software. I did so because a database management software makes it possible to create forms which allow better ergonomics for the recording of data but also for their management: editing, deleting or simply for consultation. Each entity is identified by a unique identifier. Furthermore, in a database, it is possible to record entities that could not be represented in the GIS for various reasons such as the fact that the location is lost.
To locate a monument in the space, at its exact position in the site, various ancient maps are used and georeferenced. Since the seventeenth century, Saqqara has been visited by many explorers and the first map of the area was published in La Description de lâÃgypte, between 1809 and 1822, following Napoleonâs campaign. The map of âMemphis et environsâ includes a large area but no structure is really recognizable (Figure 15.1).
Figure 15.1
âMemphis et environs,â Description 1823, pl. 1
Since then, a lot of maps and plans have been published, with varying degrees of detail, depending on the different discoveries made by the researchers working on the site, such as Lepsius, for example (Figure 15.2).
Gradually, North Saqqara was distinguished from South Saqqara. Maps were increasingly accurate with respect to topography, like the map made by W.S. Smith in 1936.11 It is based on the cadastral plans of the visible monuments produced by the Survey of Egypt in 1932 at a scale of 1/2500.12
Several decades later, in 1974, A.J. Spencer mapped all the tombs found at North Saqqara.13 He associated the monuments with the numbers assigned by the researchersâK.R. Lepsius, A. Mariette, J. De Morgan, J.E. Quibell, C.M. Firth and W.B. Emeryâat the time of the discoveries. He also indicated the name of their owner. For burials without a number, he gave their position in relation to other known monuments. A.J. Spencer thus listed the monuments known at the time of publication. This is a first step that allows us today to have a vision of the occupation of North Saqqara. Unfortunately, except for the tomb numbers given by the discoverers and the names of their owners, no other information is available to get a deeper understanding of the spatial occupation of this area. The organization of the necropolis depends on the choices made by individuals who settled there according to various factors. To understand the space studied, it is necessary to examine the interaction of the various elements discovered. As the artifacts are part of an organized system, they are an indicator of occupation. Therefore, all data concerning the context (chronology, environment/landscape, etc.), the social aspect (social status with the titles of the deceased and family relationships, etc.) and also the architecture of the tombs (material used, interior layout, etc.), etc. must be studied.
During the Survey of Egypt in 1977, aerial photogrammetry was produced at a scale of 1/5000 and carried out in 1978 by the SFS/IGN France Consortium for the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction of the Arab Republic of Egypt. For the Saqqara area, these maps are H22 for North Saqqara and H23 for South Saqqara.14
4 Georeferencing and Overlay
With their geographic coordinates, these latter maps are used to georeference plans without geographic coordinates. I use the H22 map in particular because my work is more focused on North Saqqara. De Morganâs map,15 which does not have any geographic coordinates, has been georeferenced on map H22 like Quibellâs two plans,16 for example (Figure 15.3).
Figure 15.3
Overlay in ArcGIS of plans and maps in ArcGIS
Thanks to the overlay of all these maps, some of them being georeferenced, it is possible to identify the location of a monument with precision, which could then be cross-referenced with the data of surveys made in situ.
5 Vector Data
Then, it is thus possible to represent the monuments in the GIS software. To draw an entity, we can choose a point, a line or a polygon according to the scale of the study. For the SIGSaqqâra project, I chose to draw each monument as a polygon (Figure 15.4). 494 monuments are georeferenced in the GIS out of 716 recorded in the database.17
Figure 15.4
Vector data: in pink, monuments drawn as polygons on Quibellâs plans
6 Semantic Data
In the database, the data are classified by type of entities. These are the tables. In each table, fields are created to record all the data useful for analysis. For this project, I wanted to record the monuments with the numbers attributed by the discoverers, the types of tombs and the materials, among others.
The owners are also considered with their names and titles written on the walls of the monuments. The hypotheses about the filiation are also recorded. Images are also visible with their names, for example. Finally, to find the sources of the information, the bibliographic references are also still recorded in the table âBibliographyâ with its own fields. These semantic data are linked to the geometrical data in the GIS, thanks to the unique identifier of each entity.
7 Queries
The point of producing these tools is to be able to analyze the large quantities of data. With these tools, the queries can be carried out on the semantic data as well as on the geographic ones, and therefore on the spatial dimension, which multiplies the possibilities. And it also makes it possible to cross the results of different queries.
8 Semantic Queries
In the framework of this project, it is possible to query the data about the discovery of the monuments: name of the discoverer and date, for example and to cross the results (Figure 15.5, 15.6, 15.77). These kinds of analyses allow us to understand the excavation works and the progression of the different researchers.
It is also possible to query data about the type of the monuments, like the âmastabas,â for example (Figure 15.8).
The data on architecture can also been queried, like the âpalace-façade motifâ (Figure 15.9). Then, the result can be crossed with other data, like the dating of these last monuments (Figure 15.10).
By examining the dating of the monuments with façade-palace motif, we learn that 13 out of these 25 monuments date from the First Dynasty, which is more than half of them.
Figure 15.5
Monuments discovered by C.M. Firth (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.6
Monuments discovered in the Twenties and Thirties (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.7
Monuments discovered by C.M. Firth in the Twenties and Thirties (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.8
Mastabas (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.9
Monuments with palace-façade (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.10
Monuments with palace-façade and dating from the First Dynasty (Status of data record: March 2020)
9 Digital Terrain Model (DTM)
In order to understand the organization of the monuments, the site topography can be taken into account thanks to a DTM. After a work on contour lines, a tool contained in the GIS software generates the DTM. The colors range from blue for the lowest places to red for the highest places (Figure 15.11). It allows us to better visualize the topography of the site and to know which monuments are built on more or less high ground compared to other monuments.
By crossing the DTM data with the attribute data on the architecture and the dating: the monuments with a palace-façade motif dating from the First Dynasty, the result appears directly in the software. The result is quick and easy to obtain. Moreover, the visual aspect of the result: a map with the location of the selected tombs on a background with different colors according to the terrain levels makes it easy to see and understand the situation. It is possible to appreciate that this motif shaped on these monuments, which is âun symbole de royauté et de pouvoir,â18 was visible from relatively far away. Then, it allows hypotheses to be put forward, or even new research perspectives to be considered, by cross-referencing further data, for example. Of course, this information is already known but this example allows us to understand the conceptual approach and the process. A query can be made on a large number of data, but the result that appears on a map will also be easily readable and understandable.
10 Geographical Data
The geographical data, which means the location of the tombs in the space, can be examined too. Indeed, it is, for example, possible to query the data to know which monuments are at a distance of less than 75 meters from a royal funerary complex (Figure 15.12).
Figure 15.11
Monuments with palace-façade and dating from the First Dynasty on the DTM of North Saqqâra (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.12
Monuments located at a distance of less than 75 meters from royal complexes. (Status of data record: March 2020)
The result provides 96 monuments. Then, it is possible to query the status of the owners of these tombs. In the database, 744 individuals are listed. I recorded titles for only 138 of them buried in 127 different monuments, some individuals being buried in the same tomb.
In the GIS, 112 out of these 127 monuments containing deceased persons whose titles are recorded, are represented (Figure 15.13). These monuments host 123 individuals.
Afterwards, the analysis can be refined. If the 96 monuments located at a distance of less than 75 meters from royal complexes (Figure 15.14) are queried on the titles of their owners, it is striking to note that 25 monuments host 27 individuals bearing the title of smḥr wʿty (Figure 15.15), which means more than a quarter of the monuments. It is also very important to remember that the titles of all the persons buried in these 96 tombs have not been recorded in the database. Therefore, it is possible that there are more individuals bearing this title of smḥr wʿty and therefore more monuments concerned.
In total, there are 33 monuments drawn in the GIS hosting 36 persons bearing the title of smḥr wʿty (Figure 15.16).
With recording being in progress, the results are incomplete. But some serious avenues of reflection and work are emerging. The tools provided by the GIS software, make it possible to test some hypotheses and to produce documents that can help to make decisions and help research.
Figure 15.13
Monuments hosting individuals having titles recorded in the database (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.14
Monuments hosting individuals having titles recorded in the database and the monuments located at a distance of less than 75 meters from royal complexes (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.15
Monuments hosting individuals bearing the title of smḥr wʿty located at a distance of less than 75 meters from royal complexes (blue outlines) (Status of data record: March 2020)
Figure 15.16
Monuments hosting individuals bearing the title of smḥr wʿty (blue outlines: for monuments at a distance of less than 75 meters from royal complexes; green outlines: for monuments at a distance of more than 75 meters of royal complexes) (Status of data record: March 2020)
11 Analysis
Thanks to the architectural data, the future analyses could reveal some information on techniques, methods, and know-how. By comparing the data, it can then be determined whether the choices were made based on the deceasedâs preferences, on the social status (thanks to the titles) he had or on compliance with the conventions in use.
Thanks to the data about filiation and genealogy, information about the influence of family ties on the spatial organization of the necropolis can be detected. The interaction between different individuals can be studied. Information may emerge and be updated. Thus, it may be possible to determine whether some architectural conventions (construction techniques, materials, dimensions, etc.) are transmitted from generation to generation in the same family or whether phenomena only related to conventions prevail according to some other criteria (such as the period in which the tomb was built, the geographical location of the tomb or the social status of the deceased, for example). In the longer term, we can imagine doing this analysis on the decorations made in the tombs.
In addition, other data could be aggregated, such as geomorphological data or data on landscape and vegetation, among others. Finally, an atlas could be created.
12 Online Publishing
After the data analyses, the data are planned to be published online to disseminate the data to the scientific community and the general public. Several options are possible in order to share, present, query, store and keep the data to save them.
However, some questions about the accessibility of the information must be studied because the information is sensitive due to the georeferencing of the data. A lot of options were considered in order to choose the most appropriate format and to plan accessibility, given that the data must be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).
In order to collect the opinion of the future users and to know what they expect, I elaborated and conducted a survey.19 The survey was carried out on different publics: researchers, students, Egyptophiles and the general public to know more precisely about their needs and expectations.
After reviewing the responses, I developed a test with ArcGIS Online because it can be adapted to the needs of everyone. This tool may be one option among others. But because it offers a lot of options which can meet the needs of the future users, I chose it to show what is possible to do.
In the tool created to test the possibilities, several layers can be displayed (Figure 15.17, button in yellow frame). It is possible to click directly on the monument in order to get its recorded data and then all the detailed information is displayed and pictures, like a plan for example, can be seen (Figure 15.17, in purple).
Figure 15.17
Web application created with ArcGIS Online: layer âMonumentsâ (Test in August 2018)
Filters were also made and are recorded in the application. To have access to them, it is necessary to click on a button (Figure 15.18, yellow frame). There is, for example, a layer with all the monuments containing a false door. Then, it is possible to have a summary of the information by clicking on another button (Figure 15.18, orange frame). The number of entities concerned and the data are displayed (Figure 15.18). Finally, the map can be printed or saved in PDF, for example (Figure 15.18, pink frame).
By clicking on a button, all the data stored in the database can be queried. If we consider possible extension to tourism management, the system brings new opportunities for tourists who could get a map. Indeed, it is easy to have a map with the monuments open for visit, for example, because this information is also recorded in the database.20
Figure 15.18
Web application created with ArcGIS Online: filter âmonuments containing a false doorâ and the data about them (Test in August 2018)
These are only a few examples, but anything is possible. The web application will be retrievable online and accessible with computer, tablet, or smartphone. For novices, some maps will be proposed; as for experts, they can make their own queries. To protect the data, a password can be implemented to restrict access. This web application can be integrated to a web site. Two main options are available: a web site dedicated to this project or a platform with other archaeological databases, not specifically in Egyptology. According to the survey investigation, the first option seems to be favored by the potential users.
13 Conclusion
After the data analyses and thanks to the online publishing of the data, everybody will be able to carry out research according to their own interests and thus conduct new investigations. Therefore, these tools could be used to create the georeferenced archaeological map of Saqqara.
But ambitions can be greater. In the long-term, the project could allow the recording of more data, such as the material contained in the tombs or their decoration and inscriptions, for example. The geographical area, but also the chronological period, could be extended, which would allow to have a still wider vision of the logic of the spatial occupation at Saqqara, with South Saqqara and all other periods. Moreover, these tools can be applied to all kinds of sites, which might bring further developments in many archaeological areas under study.
This project was supported by LabEx ARCHIMEDE from âInvestissement dâAvenirâ program ANR-11-LABX-0032â01.
Noc 2015.
The results are in the process of being published.
For some of the reasons, see, for example, Noc 2018, 58.
About networks, âDesert Networksâ Project funded by the European Research Council and hosted by the HiSoMA research center at Lyon (CNRS) works on physical, economic and social networks in the Egyptian Eastern Desert from the mid-second millennium BC until the late third-early fourth century AD, see
For the study of landscapes, in particular Saqqara, the project led by E.A. Sullivan (Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz), Constructing the sacred. Visibility and Ritual Landscape at the Egyptian Necropolis of Saqqara, is developing a GIS. It âexplores how concepts of sacred space were reinvented as the built and natural landscape changed, creating new meanings as individuals and communities reimagined the form and use of the site over timeâ (
The project, first called âEnhancement of the Organisation and Capabilities to preserve Cultural Heritage Assets of Egyptâ, then synthesized into the âRisk Map for North Saqqara Siteâ started in July 2000, presented on 2Â March 2002 in Cairo, and completed in 2003, focused on Saqqara. âThe Direzione Generale per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo (DGCS, General Directorate for Development Cooperation) of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started a supporting programme for the Egypt Environmental Affairs AgencyâTechnical Co-operation Office for the Environment in the ambit of the environmental programme of application of the NEAP which, for the part concerning the safeguarding of the cultural heritage, has the SCA (Supreme Council for Antiquities) as its operative counterpartâ (Ago, Bresciani, GIammarusti 2003, 76). The aims of this project was to create a âcomputer model as a support to analysis and for proposals for the minimization of the environmental degradation which is impoverishing Egyptian archaeological sitesâ, to aid the âSCA to improve the archaeological sitesâ managementâ and to create âan integrated system of support and development of Egyptian civil service for the prevention of environmental risks and the socio-economical development of the country cultural resourcesâ (Ago, Bresciani, GIammarusti 2003, 77). Six hundred monuments were surveyed and the information about them was organized in a Microsoft Access database in which environmental, archaeological, tourism and conservation data could be recorded. These monuments were then located on a georeferenced map, in a GIS under Esri ArcView. The second phase aimed to assess the vulnerability and dangers that Saqqara and its monuments can withstand. Finally, the third phase was the actual analysis of the different risks experienced by the North Saqqara site through the exploitation and development of the GIS (Ago, Bresciani, GIammarusti 2003, 90â96). More recently, the EAMENA project focuses on the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East & North Africa, including Roman military sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. âEAMENAâs primary aim is to rapidly record and evaluate the status of the archaeological landscape of the MENA region in order to create an accessible body of data which can be used by national and international heritage professionals to target those sites most in danger and better plan and implement the preservation and protection of this heritageâ (
Noc 2019, 175â176.
Reisner 1936, carte 2.
These cadastral plans are preserved in the Institut français dâarchéologie orientale (IFAO).
Spencer 1974, tab. 1.
These maps are preserved in the IFAO. H22: nº 61396â65429 and H23: nº inv. 56181-56182-65428. They are reproduced in Bárta and Brůna 2006, 29 and 31.
De Morgan 1897, map section 10.
Quibell 1923, pl. I and II.
Status of data record: March 2020.
Monnier 2011, 36; See also Wilkinson 1999, 224â229.
The survey was carried out between 23/05/2017 and 15/02/2018 among 26 persons. A conference about this survey was given, entitled: âThe SIGSaqqara Project: around the online publishing,â BECÂ 4 The Fourth British Egyptology Congress, Manchester, 7â9Â September 2018.
This is one of the wishes expressed in the survey.
Bibliography
Description 1823. Description de lâÃgypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Ãgypte pendant lâexpédition de lâarmée française Seconde édition dédiée au Roi, publiée par C.L.F. Panckoucke, Chevalier de la légion dâhonneur, Antiquités. Tome Cinquième, Paris. https://www.wdl.org/fr/item/2403/view/1/1/ Accessed 4-07-2019.
Ago, Fabrizio, Edda Bresciani, and Antonio Giammarusti. 2003. The North Saqqara archaeological site: Handbook for the environmental risk analysis. Progetti: documenti per lâarcheologia eziziana I, Pisa.
Bárta, Miroslav, and VladimÃr Brůna. 2006. Satellite Atlas of the Pyramids: Abu Ghurab, Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur. PlzeÅ: Dryada.
De Morgan, Jacques. 1897. Carte de la nécropole memphite: Dahchour, Sakkarah, Abou-Sir. Cairo: Imprimerie de lâInstitut français dâarchéologie orientale.
Lepsius, Richard. 1848â1859. Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien nach den Zeichnungen der von seiner Majestät dem Könige von Preussen Friedrich Wilhelm IV nach diesen Ländern gesendeten und in den Jahren 1842â1845. Ausgeführten Wissenschaftlichen Expedition auf Befehl seiner Majestät, Neudruck der Ausgabe 1849, Tafelwerke Abtheilung I, Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung. http://edoc3.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/lepsius/tafelwa1.html Accessed 4-07-2019.
Mariette, Auguste. 1885. Les mastabas de lâAncien Empire / fragment du dernier ouvrage de A. Mariette; publié dâaprès le manuscrit de lâauteur par G. Maspero. Paris: F. Vieweg.
Monnier, Franck. 2011. âLa signification des enceintes à redans dans les forteresses nubiennes du Moyen Empire.â GöttMisz 228: 33â49.
Noc, Eloise. 2015. Analyse spatiale à Saqqâra des origines à la fin de lâAncien Empire. Les exemples des complexes funéraires de Netjerikhet et de Sekhemkhet, PhD diss. Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, University of Montpellier.
Noc, Eloise. 2018. âSIGSaqqâra: présentation du projet.â Ãgypte, Afrique et Orient 89 (mars-avril-mai): 57â60.
Noc, Eloise. 2019. âSIGSaqqâra: Presentation and Applications of the Project.â In Egyptian & Egyptological Documents Archives Libraries (EDAL) VI, Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology 7 Proceedings of the International Conference, Università Degli Studi di Milano 3â7 July 2017, edited by Patrizia Piacentini and Alessio Delli Castelli, 174â179 and plates. Milano.
Quibell, James Edward. 1923. Excavations at Saqqara (1912â1914), Archaic Mastabas. Cairo: Service des Antiquités de lâÃgypte: Institut français dâarchéologie orientale.
Reisner, George Andrew. 1936. The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down to the Accession of Cheops. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; Oxford: Oxford University Press, London: Humprey Milford 1936.
Sullivan, Elaine A. 2020. Constructing the Sacred: Visibility and Ritual Landscape at the Egyptian Necropolis of Saqqara. Stanford: Stanford University Press. doi:10.21627/2020CTS. https://constructingthesacred.supdigital.org/cts/introduction Accessed 3-28-2022.
Spencer, Alan Jeffrey. 1974. âResearches on the Topography of North Saqqâra.â Orientalia 43: 1â11.
Wilkinson, Toby A.H. 1999. Early Dynastic Egypt. London-New York: Routledge.
Online Resources
| EAMENA Project |
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| Desert Networks Project |
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| ArcGIS by ESRI |
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| Microsoft Access |
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