Ar Raqāqinah, is a settlement in the

New Valley Governorate New Valley Governorate or El Wadi El Gedid Governorate ( ar, محافظة الوادي الجديد , ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the southwestern part of the country, in the south of Egypt Western Desert (Egypt), Western D ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, approximately 30 km south of

Sohag Sohag ( , ), also spelled as ''Sawhāj'', ''Suhag'' and ''Suhaj'', is a city on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. It has been the capital of Sohag Governorate since 1960, before which the capital was Girga and the name of the governorate was ...

. It is next to

Sohag International Airport Sohag International Airport''( ar, مطار سوهاج الدولي) is an Egyptian International airport serving the city of Sohag, capital of the Sohag Governorate of Egypt. The airport is south of the city. The airport is a new establishmen ...

and is the location of an ancient

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

Necropolis

The ancient necropolis, approximately 24 km from Abydos, was excavated by archaeologist

John Garstang John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine biol ...

in 1901–1902. The excavation discovered burials which Garstang believed dated from the

predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with ...

period through to the end of the

Fifth Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties Third Dynasty of Egypt, III, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, IV and Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, VI under the group title the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. The Fifth ...

. The site contained many types of burials, including mastaba tombs, similar to those found at the nearby site of

Beit Khallaf Beit Khallaf (Arabic: بيت خلاف ) is a small rural village located 10 kilometers west of Girga in Upper Egypt. Beit Khallaf is part of the area known as the Hajer line, which is composed of three other villages: Beit Allam, Beit Khuraybi, an ...

, pit tombs in enclosures, burials under large pots, and burials under arched vaults. In the 1900-1901 excavation season,

excavated sites between Abydos and Bêt Khallâf on behalf of the Egyptian Research Account. One of his major discoveries was the 3rd Dynasty mastaba tombs near Bêt Khallâf. The next season, Garstang returned to Egypt to examine sites north of Bêt Khallâf with private funding from a committee, featuring notable Liverpool industrialists and representatives of museums. This was the first time Garstang's archaeological work was funded by an Excavation Committee, a funding method he used for the rest of his career. The Committee included William MacGregor (1848-1937), Henry Martyn Kennard (1833-1911), Ralph Brocklebank, Frederick Hilton Price (1842-1909), and

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...

, keeper of the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

. Garstang examine various sites including Bêt Dawd (designated site D); Sararwah to the north of Bêt Khallâf (designated site B); Reqaqnah (designated site R). The majority of the season was spent excavating a necropolis discovered 0.5 km from the village of Reqaqnah (Ar Raqāqinah). The site comprised two large mounds naturally split by an ancient watercourse. In the southern mound they discovered three large 3rd Dynasty stairway tombs (R1, R2, and R40), similar to the tombs discovered at Bet Khallaf in the previous season. They also discovered several smaller stairway tombs, including R14, which was incomplete. In the Northern mound they discovered a systematically constructed necropolis, thought by Garstang to date from the early 3rd Dynasty to the 5th Dynasty. Garstang discovered three large mastaba tombs (R50, R70, and R75), as well as burials within mud brick enclosures; burials under mud brick vaults (in enclosures and without enclosures); shaft burials; and burials under upturned pots. Garstang also discovered some plundered tombs and graves which he believed dated from an earlier period. The team also locally bought pottery which was thought to date from the

period. Garstang also excavated smaller sites in the region and found burials of a much later date. At Bet Dawd they excavated the remains of Roman houses and a Greco-Roman cemetery where they discovered the stela of Se-Ra the sculptor dating from the

12th dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some s ...

. At Sarawah they excavated tombs from the

19th Dynasty The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty fur ...

and a necropolis which Garstang thought was used from the 6th- 11th Dynasties.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ar Raqaqinah Mastabas Abydos, Egypt sites 1901 archaeological discoveries