The eastern section of the lower causeway and a small area of the south wall of the harbour area of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur were archaeologically investigated between 2009 and 2018. A total of 424.6 kg of ceramic vessels was recovered, mostly in fragmentary condition and only rarely well-preserved or complete. The finds derived either from aeolian or fluvial sand layers, or from architectural contexts.
A fundamental aim of the present work was the creation of a fabric description system for the Dahshur pottery. At the outset of the study, the geomorphological conditions in the working area had to be examined in more detail. This knowledge formed the basis for the description system of the Dahshur pottery, modeled on the Vienna System. Another insight gained from the geology of the Dahshur region is the identification of a marl clay deposit at the mouth of the Sneferu Valley. In addition, it was established that both the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid were founded on Pleistocene deposits (fluvial gravels and sands), which may have led to a different architectural layout of the two pyramids compared to the pyramids in Giza. In this regard, further important research remains to be carried out, as too little is yet known about the thickness of the Pleistocene sediments.
The core of the study consisted in the analysis of ceramic forms, particularly from a chronological perspective. Special attention was paid to vessel types whose dating has so far been difficult to fix in time, such as beer jars and miniature offering bowls. For the beer jars, a development from wide to narrow forms could be traced; for the miniature offering bowls, from large to small. For the latter ceramic type, the increased use of marl clay can be attested in the late Old Kingdom. In the study of beer jars, it was also observed that the Nile silt coatings required for this coarse ware resulted in a volume reduction of approximately 20%.
Another important topic of this work was dating the construction of the lower causeway and the harbour area, as well as their silting-up process. Both structures can be dated on the basis of the ceramic typology to the early to mid-4th Dynasty. Two later construction phases were identified at the lower causeway: a raising of the outer walls probably took place no later than in the reign of Niuserre (mid-5th Dynasty), and the insertion of a vault likely during the reign of Pepi I (6th Dynasty). The elevation of the outer walls of the lower causeway is associated with increasing landscape transformation, particularly heightened sand mobility. In the New Kingdom, with the decline of the Amarna period (ca. 1300 BCE), the cult at Sneferu’s valley temple ceased, and the dismantling of the temple — perhaps even of the entire pyramid complex — began.
The quantitative analysis of vessel types from excavation trench 1 showed that, in the aeolian sand layers of the 5th Dynasty, beer jars, miniature offering vessels, and, to a lesser extent, bread molds are predominant. This pottery was located primarily north of the lower causeway and, due to its association with hearths, faience beads, and intentionally broken vessels interpreted as ritual acts, can be understood as an element of a cult site. For various reasons, it can be assumed that this cult shows parallels to the sun temples at Abusir and is connected to the agricultural calendar of Ancient Egypt, which was primarily influenced by the Nile inundation occurring in summer. The deposition of cult ceramics during the 5th Dynasty at the lower causeway is therefore most plausibly interpreted in the context of festivals celebrated during the annual flooding of the Nile and during the harvest months.
The examination of landscape change at the end of the Holocene humid phase revealed that the present climatic state had not yet been reached in the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE. A shift towards a hyperarid climate comparable to today’s landscape very likely began at the transition from the 4th to the 5th Dynasty. The particular interest in a Sneferu cult throughout the 5th Dynasty can be well explained against the background of advancing aridification and Sneferu’s self-presentation — already in his lifetime — as a guarantor of sufficiently high Nile inundations and the resulting abundant harvests.
