Vestiges of Ancient Egypt: The Bubasteion Votive Cachette at Saqqara

More than 5,000 years ago, the first kings of Ancient Egypt selected Saqqara, a sweeping area west of the fabulous capital city Memphis, as the site for their portals to the afterlife ― their tombs. The step pyramid of the Old Kingdom ruler Djoser and other surviving mastabas are above-ground nodes on an expansive network of subterranean sites. Through the millennia, Saqqara was deserted, revived, and adapted to changing mythologies, cults, and cultures that define the periods and dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Absent the grand pyramids and temples of sites such as the Valley of the Kings, Saqqara has evaded much of the attention of archaeologists, tourists, and mercifully of plunderers; thus the sands of Saqqara still conceal a honeycomb of structures including hundreds of undisturbed tombs, miles of walls, and necropolises containing countless mummies, animal and human, all awaiting discovery. In the waning months of 2019, the first ever all-Egyptian archaeological mission opened a sma