Saqqara served as capital of Egypt, Saqqara remained in use as a burial ground for nobles. Moreover, the area became an important destination for pilgrims to a number of cult centres. Activities sprang up around the Serapeum, and extensive underground galleries were cut into the rock as burial sites for large numbers of mummified ibises, baboons, cats, dogs, and falcons. Saqqara and the surrounding areas of Abusir and Dahshur suffered damage by looters during the 2011 Egyptian protests. Store rooms were broken into, but the monuments were mostly unharmed. During routine excavations in 2011 at the dog catacomb in Saqqara necropolis,
Hammerum burial site landscape during the late Roman Iron Age. Analyses of the pollen found in the soil layer around the Hammerum Girl’s clothing have revealed that hazel trees were prominent in certain dry zones; red alder would have appeared around a nearby stream. Heaths and meadows dominated the open areas that remained free from trees. The pollen found on the Hammerum Girl’s clothing indicates that fields reserved specifically for agriculture would have had their place in the landscape. Hammerum burial site The Hammerum burial site is an archaeological excavation located about 5 km east of Herning, Denmark, on Ny Gjellerupvej. The site