Riqqeh (also known as ar-Riqqeh or Riqqa) is a modern village in

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 Medit ...

. It is located about 80 km south of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

Overview

Close to the village, in the desert, was excavated a series of cemeteries. The cemeteries ranging in time from the

Gerzeh culture The Gerzeh culture, also called Naqada II, refers to the archaeological stage at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile. The necropolis is named after el-Girzeh, the nearby contem ...

to modern times. Most important are those tombs dating to the Gerzeh (named for the El Gerzeh cemetery) and those of the Middle and New Kingdoms. The cemeteries were excavated and published by

Reginald Engelbach Reginald Engelbach (9 July 1888 – 26 February 1946) was an English Egyptologist and engineer. He is mainly known for his works in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, above all the compilation of a register of artifacts belonging of the museum. ...

in 1912 to 1913. Most of the tombs found were simple shafts, some with one or more chambers at the bottom. Finds include steles, statues and

canopic jars Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cente ...

. From the Middle Kingdom some well preserved and decorated coffins are preserved. Most remarkable was an undisturbed tomb containing two skeletons and golden jewellery. A closer look at this burial revealed that one of the skeletons belonged to the person buried here, while the other one belonged to a tomb robber, killed when the roof of the tomb chamber collapsed while he was looting the mummy.

Literature

* R. Engelbach, M. A. Murray,

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyp ...

, W. M. Flinders Petrie: ''Riqqeh and Memphis VI'', (British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account Nineteenth Year, 1913), London 1915
online as pdf
* J. Richards: ''Society and Death in Ancient Egypt'', Cambridge 2005, S. 98-106, 118-124 {{ISBN, 0-521-84033-3 Archaeological sites in Egypt Populated places in Giza Governorate Gerzeh culture