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

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It is located about 80 km south of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

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 Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

and

New Kingdom New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

s. The cemeteries were excavated and published by

Reginald Engelbach Reginald "Rex" 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 m ...

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

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s, statues and

canopic jars Canopic jars are funerary vessels that were used by the ancient Egyptians to house embalmed organs that were removed during the mummification process. They also served to store and preserve the viscera of their soul for the afterlife. Use of t ...

. 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 Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

, 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 Riqqeh tomb Pectora 5966

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Egypt Populated places in Giza Governorate Gerzeh culture