This volume continues the ceramic history of the Saqqara Anubis temple, excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society from 1977 to 1979. Volume IV covers the Late Dynastic Period. From at least the mid- 6th century BC onwards, burials appear to have been made in the earlier shaft tombs as well as in a new cemetery in the sand. A temple to Anubis, god of the dead, was commenced at the same time, abandoned during the Persian Period but restarted around 400 BC. The ceramics include bowls used by the embalmers as well as offering vessels and the repertoire of the fourth century builders.

Peter French is an Affiliated Scholar of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, specialising in Ancient Egypt. He has more than 40 years of fieldwork experience in Egypt, concentrating on ceramics and small finds, at sites from Buto in the Delta to Qasr Ibrim in Nubia. He continues to work in the field, completing the study of ceramics from sites in which he participated, but is now principally engaged in their publication. Janine Bourriau is a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute, an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College and formerly Keeper of Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum. She has worked for the Egypt Exploration Society at Saqqara and Buto and directed the recording and publication of the ceramics from the excavations at Memphis, Kom Rabia.