Welcome to Saqqara.nl
This website is maintained by the Friends of Saqqara Foundation, a non-profit foundation aimed at providing financial support for Dutch archaeological research at Saqqara, Egypt. For the last fifteen years the foundation has particularly supported the joint excavation team of the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, the Museo Egizio at Turin and Leiden University. For several decades, this team has been advancing the research, documentation, and preservation of the monuments in the area to the south of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, where a cemetery of important New Kingdom officials is located.
If you wish to support the Dutch expedition’s excavations and restorations at Saqqara, make an online donation to the Friends of Saqqara Foundation now!
You can transfer your donation to the bank account of the Friends of Saqqara foundation. Our banks details are as follows:
IBAN: NL18 INGB 0009 5621 50
BIC: INGBNL2A
Want to become a Friend?
There are two membership categories:
- Regular, € 35
- Student, € 17,50
(For members abroad an additional € 5 will be charged for postage)
Online lecture by Aidan Dodson: The Serapeum at Saqqara
Online lecture exclusively for our Friends of Saqqara! Register with your “donateurnummer”.
Online lezing exclusief voor Friends of Saqqara-donateurs! Aanmelden met donateurnummer.
Uw donateurnummer wordt vermeld in de emails die u van ons ontvangt.
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you for an online lecture exclusively for our Friends of Saqqara! Please register in the form below with your “donateurnummer” (your membership number is stated in the emails you receive from us).
The Apis bull, an avatar of Ptah, had been worshipped since the First Dynasty, but nothing is known of its posthumous fate until the reign of Amenhotep III. Henceforth, however, we have an almost unbroken sequence of bull burials running down to the end of the Ptolemaic Period. Today, we will take an overview of their history and development.
Saqqara Newsletter 18 (2020)
The newest volume of our Saqqara Newsletter 2020 (18) has been sent to all Friends of Saqqara.
Contents:
- Vincent Oeters – From the Chairperson
- Paolo Del Vesco, Christian Greco, Corinna Rossi, Daniel Soliman, Lara Weiss – Saqqara Away from Saqqara: Research in Troubled Times;
- Daniel Soliman – Late Antique and Medieval Remains at Saqqara: A Retrospective;
- Editorial board – Interview with Daniel Soliman;
- Ola el Aguizy – The Tomb of the Army General Iwrkhy: Genealogy Problems;
- Nozomu Kawai – Exploring the New Kingdom Tombs at North Saqqara;
- Huw Twiston Davies – Signs of life in the City of the Dead;
- Karel Innemee – The Monastery of Apa Jeremiah at Saqqara.
In case you want to receive the annual Saqqara Newsletter: become a Friend!
To become a Friend send an email to friends@saqqara.nl with your name + postal address and pay the membership fee!
There are two membership categories:
- Regular € 35
- Student € 17,50
(For members abroad an additional
€ 5 will be charged for postage)
Our banks details are as follows:
IBAN: NL18 INGB 0009 5621 50
BIC: INGBNL2A
Saqqara-Day 2020 Cancelled
Dear Friends,
The past few weeks have been intense for everyone. I hope everything goes well with you and your family and friends. It is a particularly difficult time in which the corona virus affects society, our daily life and everyone’s social life. It will take a while before everything will be back to “normal” again. Unfortunately, events currently pose a risk of spreading the virus too quickly and too widely. The Dutch government has therefore decided that the current ban on events will be extended until 1 September.
As a result, Friends of Saqqara is forced to cancel the annual Saqqara 2020 Day, scheduled for Saturday, June 6. Needless to say, we deeply regret this decision, but the board of Friends of Saqqara obviously adheres to the decision-making of the government and unfortunately the current situation gives us no other choice.
For now we think it is especially important that everyone puts his or her health and that of their loved ones first. We wish everyone a lot of strength and good health. Please watch yourself and each other.
On behalf of the entire board of Friends of Saqqara,
Best wishes,
Vincent Oeters
Chairman
COVID-19 Update
Dear Friends,
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic most of us are locked up inside and working from home to curb the virus. We hope that all of you are safe and healthy in these bizarre circumstances and we wish you the best in these difficult times. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones.
As was to be expected, like all other missions, the Leiden-Turin excavation team had to cancel its campaign planned for Spring 2020. Egypt has suspended all international air traffic, hotels and tourist facilities are closing. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that all museums and archaeological sites in Egypt will be closed from March 23. Friends of Saqqara wishes all our Egyptian friends and colleagues strength in overcoming this crisis now that so many will have no income.
Our Friends of Saqqara pubquiz is postponed since all public gatherings have been suspended in the Netherlands until 1 June 2020; the Dutch government will re-evaluate corona measures on 6 April. This implies that our annual Saqqara Day planned for 6 June 2020 might be postponed also. We will evaluate in the days to come. News on the activities of the Friends of Saqqara Foundation will soon follow. In the meantime, we would like to suggest you attend the Online Events of our colleagues at the EES (in English), and visit a tour by Gabriele Pieke on the exhibition „Yesterday – Tomorrow“ in the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum in Mannheim (in German), and a virtual tour by Lara Weiss on the exhibition “Saqqara: Living in a City of the Dead” in Leiden (in Dutch). Remember, you can also visit the tombs of Horemheb and Maya at home in our Virtual Tours!
Take care of yourself and each other,
On behalf of the entire board of Friends of Saqqara,
Vincent Oeters
Chairman
Boekenmarkt in het RMO
Op zondag 2 februari neemt Friends of Saqqara deel aan de grote (tweedehands) boekenmarkt in het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. Van 10.00-16.30u kunt u in de Tempelzaal van het museum snuffelen in het aanbod van:
- de RMO-museumwinkel (extra korting voor RoMeO-leden en BankGiro Loterij VIP-kaarthouders!)
- de RMO-bibliotheek (doublures van wetenschappelijke publicaties)
- het NINO-onderzoekscentrum (oudere publicaties) en de NINO-bibliotheek (doublures van wetenschappelijke publicaties)
- Ex Oriente Lux (wetenschappelijke en publieksboeken over het Oude Nabije Oosten)
- Friends of Saqqara (tweedehands boeken over het oude Egypte, het Oude Nabije Oosten en de klassieke oudheid)
Graag tot ziens!
Saqqara-dag 2020: save the date!
De 18e Saqqara-dag vindt plaats op zaterdag 6 juni 2020. Noteer de datum alvast in uw agenda! Het programma wordt later bekend gemaakt. Vaste onderdelen zullen ook dit jaar zijn: een verslag van de Leids-Turijnse opgravingen in 2020, een bijzondere buitenlandse spreker en onze tweedehands boekenmarkt.
Donateurs van de stichting Friends of Saqqara betalen geen entreegeld voor de Saqqara-dag. Nog geen donateur? Meld u aan via friends@saqqara.nl en maak uw donatie over naar ons bankrekeningnummer. Meer informatie staat onderaan deze webpagina (in de voettekst van elke pagina op onze website).
The 18th Saqqara Day will take place in Leiden on Saturday 6 June 2020; save the date! The full program will be revealed later. As in previous years, you may certainly expect a report on the Leiden-Turin excavations at Saqqara in 2020, an international speaker, and our second-hand book market.
Friends of Saqqara members receive free entrance to the Saqqara Day. If you wish to become a Friend, please email us at friends@saqqara.nl and transfer your donation into our bank account. More information is found at the bottom of this webpage (and in the footer of all pages on our website).