Systematic research was first undertaken in the 1990s by archaeologists of the National Museum of Scotland employing techniques like magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar. Before these excavations, the structure was thought to be an unfinished pyramid complex from the Third Dynasty. However, pottery shards in the filling of the walls were found to date to the late Second or beginning of the Third Dynasty which leads some Egyptologists to believe this is evidence the structure may have been constructed at the end of the Second Dynasty.