Almost two millennia after the Lower Necropolis has been abandoned, the area west of the Step Pyramid was again used as a burial ground; in the sand-covered ruins of the tombs of Old Kingdom officials, ordinary citizens of Memphis started to be buried. Their tombs were quite modest: mummified bodies were laid simply in pits dug in the ground, in some cases lined with stones. Some persons could afford being buried with a carton age decoration and/or coffin made of wood, pottery or reed. The majority of ver four hundred burials of the Upper Necropolis (marked on the plan below; click to enlarge) discovered so far have been published in volumes III and IV of the Saqqara series.
