Saqqara, as the principal necropolis of Memphis, was a crucially important site in all periods of Egyptian history, from the Old Kingdom through the Late Period, and it has been a fruitful area of excavation and investigation for Egyptologists since the nineteenth century. Prominent among these have been a distinguished line of French archaeologists: Auguste Mariette, Gaston Maspero, Victor Loret, Jean-Philippe Lauer, and Jean Leclant have all made major contributions to the understanding of this large and complex site. Following in this tradition, Alain Zivie and his team of the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion have spent the last twenty-five years exhuming from the sands of Saqqara a major New Kingdom cemetery, which was later transformed into catacombs for sacred cats. Among their important discoveries, they have brought to light the tomb of the vizier ‘Aper-El, with its burial treasure, and those of the painter Thothmes, of Maïa, the foster mother of Tutankhamun, of an ambassador of Ramesses II, and of the scribe of the Aten treasury in Memphis. This unique book gives the reader a rare insight into the immediacy, excitement, and hard work of archaeological excavations, through the outstanding photography of Patrick Chapuis and the reflections of the author on the significance of the archaeological, historical, and artistic results of the team’s discoveries.

ALAIN ZIVIE is director of the excavations of the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion at Saqqara and vice president of the Société Française d’Egyptologie. He is currently visiting professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo. PATRICK CHAPUIS has been photographing the excavations of the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion at Saqqara since 1987. His work has appeared in major magazines, including Paris-Match, Le Figaro Magazine, and National Geographic.