A preliminary report on the excavations of tomb AS 91 at Abusir South (autumn season 2016)

Abstract

This article summarises the excavations of tomb AS 91, uncovered during the autumn season of 2016 at Abusir South. The mastaba was highly damaged and its superstructure had almost completely disappeared. Three shafts were detected in the mastaba core. Shafts 1 and 2 were rather shallow, but to the contrary, Shaft 3 was considerably deeper, and at its bottom, an unfinished burial chamber was hewn. The burial had been looted, but a few fragmentarily preserved human bones, a fairly high number of animal remains, and even two Barn Owl skeletons were collected there. The archaeological report is supported by an archaeozoological analysis of the animal remains and by an anthropological study of the fragmentary human bones.

Keywords

• Abusir South
• mastaba
• superstructure
• substructure
• Old Kingdom
• archaeozoology
• anthropology