Saqqara: some remarks on flora from funerary context

An extensive Ptolemaic cemetery west of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara (Egypt), excavated since 1987 by a Polish mission headed by Karol Myśliwiec, has inspired the present study. Over 500 burials have been found so far in strata overlying the Old Kingdom necropolis. The aim of the paper is to present the plant remains discovered in burial contexts in 1987-2012 in the so-called Upper Necropolis. It emphasizes the results of their archaeobotanical analyses. The effects of research on plant remains from the Lower Necropolis are presented here to be used as a 2000 years older comparative material.