The Hypogeum (K24)
The central area of the previous describes mummification facility is dominated by the burial shaft K24 named after the SSTP’s survey grid. It measures approx. 3.00×3.50 m and runs approx. 30.00 m deep. The walls are built of mixed materials, such as irregular limestone blocks and mud bricks on a foundation trench cut into the bedrock without any signs of roofing. The inner walls are lined with mud bricks to depth of 3.00 m. The shaft K24 was refilled with compact clean, dark, yellow sand in antiquities. It contains six tombs cut into the walls at different depths. Furthermore, burials were found in the middle of the shaft in a depth of approx. 16.00 m (fig. 7).
Tomb 1 (Loculus I-West) is located approx. 3.00 m deep on the western side of the shaft. The chamber is coated with white plaster with four lines in Demotic with red ink. The inscription implies a difference in opinion between the wife of the deceased and her mother in law.
Tomb 2 (Loculus II-West) is part of the 2nd Dynasty gallery network, which is cut through in the western wall of shaft K24 in a depth of approx. 8.00 m. The entrance of the chamber was originally walled up with irregular limestone blocks and mortar, but was already removed in antiquities. The gallery was expanded with different loculi and their entrances were blocked in part. The burials were partially disturbed. The ceramics date to the Saitic-Persian Period.
Tomb 3 (Cubicula I-Nord) is located in a depth of approx. 9.00 m on the northern wall, and consists of several smaller chambers (cubicula). The entrance was walled up with irregular limestone blocks, whereby the topmost course was already removed. All the interments were disturbed in antiquity. Besides an unfinished, anthropomorphic sarcophagus, several burials were found, in which mummified human bodies were arranged above each other, only separated by a thick layer of clean sand. All of the cubicula show a similar outline, except for the north-western one: coffin pits and ledges for burials. Several objects could be retrieved, amongst others shabtis, amulets, and ceramics, which also date in the same period.
Tomb 4 (Loculus I-South) is opposite to tomb 3 on the southern wall of the shaft. It is an elongated room, which takes up the entire length of the width of the south wall. Originally, the chamber was walled up—remains of it were still in-situ. The limestone blocks showed one line of a Demotic inscription in red ink, which was similarly repeated above the loculus.
Tomb 5 (Cubiculum I-South) is located in a depth of approx. 20.00 m and consists of one small chamber (2.85×2,25 m, east-west axis). The entrance is in the north and was blocked off by six irregular limestone blocks. Two of them are inscribed with Demotic in black ink. The burials seem to belong to an uncle and his nephew.
Tomb 6 (Cubicula II-North; fig. 8) opens itself to the north in a depth of 30.00 m, and consists of six cubicula (fig. 7). The entrance measures approx. 2.00×2.10 m and leads into a corridor, which is separated into two rooms—loci 1 and 2—with north-south axis (approx. 10.00×5.50 m). Locus 1 opens to the west (locus 3) and to the east (locus 9) in a chamber each. In the second ‘room’ of the hallway (locus 2) is located in the west (locus 4) and in the east (locus 8) two chambers, too. Locus 4 can be entered by a kind of antechamber (locus 5). Two additional chambers are located to the north (loci 6 and 7). All loci, except for locus 7, were walled up with irregular limestone blocks. In the different loci, a number of limestone sarcophagi—partially anthropomorphic, partially rectangular—and wooden coffins, which were very disintegrated, as well as different funerary equipment, such as canopic jars, several shabti sets (fig. 11), amulets, models of bricks and boats made of mud, pottery, and a gilded silver mask (fig. 9–10).