Egyptian Archaeology 25

No. 25 Autumn 2004

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Mummy: the inside story JOHN TAYLOR To accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.

The 3,000 year-old mummy of the Egyptian priest Nesperennub has never been removed from its beautifully painted case. Scientists have used noninvasive technology such as CT scans, plus computer graphics to make a ‘virtual reality’ mummy. Examine the skull, bones, internal organs and the objects placed inside the wrappings – including some surprising finds!

T HE B ULLETIN

80 colour illustrations Paperback £5.99

For Children

The British Museum

Fantastic Mummies

Sudan

Open up the secrets of Ancient Egyptian Mummies

Ancient Treasuress

JOHN TAYLOR With this fantastic way of learning about Nesperennub, star of the British Museum’s mummy exhibition, 26 mummyshaped cards fan out to show the different layers of the mummy. Turn the cards over for lots of information on ancient Egyptian death, mummies and tombs.

50 colour illustrations

EDITED BY DEREK A. WELSBY AND JULIE ANDERSON To accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.

The National Museum in Khartoum houses one of the finest collections of antiquities in the world. This catalogue illustrates several of these treasures,many of them never previously exhibited outside Sudan.

470 colour illustrations Hardback £35.00

‘Fan’ Binding £5.99

For Children The British Museum Pocket Dictionary of

Ancient Egyptian Animals ANGELA McDONALD A delightful and often surprising survey of the animals of ancient Egypt with full-colour illustrations from papyri, sculpture, paintings, coffins and other items in the collections of the British Museum.

55 colour illustrations Hardback £6.99

Grain Transport in the Ramesside Period Papyrus Baldwin and Papyrus Amiens JAC J. JANSSEN Full hieroglyphic transcription, translation and commentary of the texts on a mid-20th Dynasty papyrus now divided between the British Museum and Amiens Museum.

The British Museum half of the papyrus is previously untranslated and unpublished.

52 line drawings and 23 b&w illustrations Hardback £125

The Papyrus of Nebseni (BM EA 9900) The Texts of Chapter 180 with New Kingdom Parallels Occasional Paper 139 GÜNTHER LAPP This definitive text edition of an important chapter of the Book of the Dead has been collated from a full range of surviving manuscripts. Line drawings enable comparison between the texts and verification of the differing hieroglyphic content.

Cleopatra Reassessed Occasional Paper 103 EDITED BY SUSAN WALKER AND SALLY-ANN ASHTON Nineteen conference papers explore such issues as the presentation of Cleopatra; her known deeds; perceptions in antiquity and the Islamic world, and her influence as an icon of female power.

70 half-tones, 15 line drawings and maps Paperback £25

40 pages of line-drawings Paperback £8

06

For further information about these or any other British Museum Press titles, or for a list of new publications, please contact: The Marketing Department, British Museum Press, 46 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 1234 Fax: +44 (0)20 7637 8467

www.britishmuseum.co.uk

PRICE £4.95

9 770962 283001

OF

T HE E GYPT E XPLORATION S OCIETY

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society Website: www.ees.ac.uk The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the aims or concerns of the Egypt Exploration Society Editor Patricia Spencer

Tell el-Amarna.The three eldest daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, followed by two attendants and Nefertiti’s sister, Mutnodjmet. Part of a scene in the tomb of Parennefer, reproduced from pl.IV of Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna VI, now reprinted by the EES (see p.13).

Number 25 Editorial Advisers Peter Clayton Vivian Davies George Hart David Jeffreys Dominic Montserrat Mike Murphy Chris Naunton John Taylor

Autumn 2004

Editorial

2

The EES library catalogue online Chris Naunton

2

The fate of the Tell el-Amarna paintings Barry Kemp

3

Advertising Sales Linda Lee Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews London WC1N 2PG (Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880) (Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118) (E-mail: ea.sales@ees.ac.uk)

Conserving bronzes from North Saqqara Paul Nicholson

7

Trade Distribution Oxbow Books Park End Place Oxford OX1 1HN Fax: +44 (0)1865 794449 Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249 E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com Website: www.oxbowbooks.com Published twice a year by The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG Registered Charity No.212384 A limited Company registered in England, No.25816 Original design by Jeremy Pemberton Printed by Commercial Colour Press plc 116-122 Woodgrange Road Forest Gate, London E7 0EW The SymbolGreek II font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580, USA. Phone: (425) 775-1130.

Recent investigations at Deir el-Barsha Harco Willems

10

Amarna statuary fragments Kristin Thompson

14

Sudan: ancient treasures Derek Welsby and Julie Anderson

17

Notes and News

20

Creating an archive for the Karnak temples Alain Arnaudiès

21

Digging Diary 2003-2004 Patricia Spencer

25

The royal necropolis at Tell el-Amarna Marc Gabolde and Amanda Dunsmore

30

Excavations at Soknopaiou Nesos (Dime) Paola Davoli

34

Notice Board

37

An apprentice’s board from Dra Abu el-Naga José Manuel Galán and Mohamed el-Bialy Bookshelf

38

Membership Matters and Acknowledgements

44

41

www.linguistsoftware.com

© Egypt Exploration Society and the contributors. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publishers.

ISSN 0962 2837

Cover illustration: Deir el-Barsha. A gilded limestone mummy mask, found in an intact secondary Second Intermediate Period burial in one of the early Middle Kingdom tombs in the plain (see pp.1012). Photograph: Deir el-Barsha Mission, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven.

1

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Study days spread their wings implications for understanding the history of the Amarna Period. We hope in future issues to be able to continue to give a taste of the content of Study Days, serving as a reminder for those who were there and to encourage other members to attend events.

As this issue was about to go to press, we received the very sad news of the death, at a tragically early age, of Dominic Montserrat. Dominic, who will be well known to readers through his books and lectures, was a former EES Committee member and had served as an Editorial Advisor for Egyptian Archaeology since issue 21 (Autumn 2002). He will be greatly missed by his many friends and colleagues in the Egyptological community. An appreciation of Dominic’s life and work PATRICIA SPENCER will appear in EA 26.

Since 2002 the Egypt Exploration Society has been organising Study Days in London, in the Brunei Gallery Theatre at The School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.These have proved to be a great success, and a programme of similar days outside London was initiated in 2004 with a Study Day in Exeter (held in conjunction with the University of Exeter and local Egyptology societies) and a day planned for Manchester in March 2005 (see further p.37). Members who attended the London Study Day ‘Horizons of the Aten’ in November 2003 will be pleased to see in this issue two articles that arose directly out of that event: Barry Kemp’s description of the Amarna wall and floor paintings and Marc Gabolde’s account of work at the Royal Tomb and its

The EES library catalogue online Many members visiting the offices at Doughty Mews do so in order to use the library, which, although it has always been one of the Society’s finest assets, has improved considerably in recent years. As the numbers of Egyptology students and of publications produced each year have increased, the management of the library has been put on a more professional footing: in recent years responsibility for the library has been transferred to full-time staff, the holdings have been completely reorganised and computerised, and new areas refurbished to accommodate more books.

Having created such an excellent resource the Society is now turning its attention to making it as widely available as possible.

With the process of computerising the holdings 99% complete, the library catalogue should be, by the time this issue of EA is distributed, available for consultation on the Society’s website (www.ees.ac.uk then ‘Library/Archive’ and ‘Online Catalogue’). This will allow members to search for specific books, offprints and journals, to plan their visit in advance and be in a better position to make specific requests of the Librarian. Hopefully this will encourage members who already use the library to visit more often, and those who have not yet made use of this excellent research resource to make their first visits. Members who cannot visit Doughty Mews are reminded that they can use the library remotely, and are encouraged to do so: UK-based members can borrow books by post, and photocopied articles can be mailed to members worldwide (postage and copying charges will be applied).

For further information on how you can make use of the resources available please consult the website or e-

mail the Librarian direct: chris.naunton@ees.ac.uk Members using the library sometimes ask if it would be possible for it to stay open over the lunchtime each day. With the increase in staff numbers at Doughty Mews (see p.44), this has become more practicable and it has been decided to change the opening hours with effect from 1 November 2004. For a trial period until Easter 2005 the library will not close at lunchtime but will be open from 10.00 am until 4.30 pm, TuesdayFriday.The library will remain closed at weekends and on public holidays and additionally will be closed on Mondays. It is hoped that by allowing members to work continuously throughout the day, those living outside the London area will be encouraged to visit more often.

Please check out the online catalogue and make use of the search facility to find the books you need. We look forward to welcoming more members to the library at Doughty Mews.

CHRIS NAUNTON

2

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The fate of the Tell el-Amarna paintings One of the most distinctive features of the houses and palaces at Tell el-Amarna is the large number of finely-painted walls and floors. Barry Kemp summarises here the account he gave at the EES Study-Day in November 2003 of the successes and failures of archaeologists who have attempted to preserve and conserve the Amarna paintings. the royal family relaxing. Lacking the kind of chemical consolidants that are now considered essential, and only too well aware of the fragility of the paintwork, on ‘a still day’ he removed the bricks from the back to leave the painted mud plaster standing on its own, ‘brought a box lid against the face with newspaper padding on it, grasped the sheet of mud against the lid, and turned it down’. The result is the delightful ‘princesses panel’ now in the Ashmolean Museum.

Petrie’s improvisation in this instance paid off, but it did not set a precedent that was easy to follow.

More or less at the same time his workmen, in that part of the Great Palace which later came to be called the North Harim, discovered many more areas of painted designs on the mud wall plaster, in addition to what we can now judge to have been the largest extent of painted gypsum floor plaster from any pharaonic building. By the time of this discovery Petrie

Archaeologists, who tend to work to the limits of their resources, are usually unprepared for unexpected discoveries. These often demand the rapid application of specialist skills and materials which, even if their need could have been anticipated in case the unexpected happened, could not have been afforded anyway.

Hence the improvisation which is woven into the history of archaeological discovery. It is something that can be admired in its own right, though whether the subject is best served in this way is debatable.The early discoveries of painted floors and walls at Amarna illustrate this only too well.

In November 1891 Flinders Petrie began his work at Amarna, putting most of his time and labour into the Great Palace and King’s House in the Central City.

In a rear room along the east side of the King’s House the walls must have stood to around 75cm high, and on one of them he found the remains of a painting of

The wall painting of the princesses removed by Petrie in 1891. (Photograph courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

3

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The building which Petrie had erected over the floor paintings in the North Harim (Photograph: Egypt Exploration Society Archive)

Detail of the floor paintings in the North Harim (Photograph: Egypt Exploration Society Archive)

was swamped with material which required urgent attention. Within the scope of this single season, and with no intention of returning in a subsequent year or even of slowing down the pace of his workmen, he set about the twin tasks of recording and conservation. For the recording the time available was nowhere near enough. He made colour copies of one of the wall paintings (a unique strip showing servants in the palace) and just under half of the three painted floors. Petrie’s normal method of excavation was to backfill as the work progressed, and in this way most of the wall paintings were reburied. The floors so impressed him, however, that he decided to erect a building over them, using money from an English charity recently created, the Society for the Preservation of the Monuments of Ancient Egypt. The result was a two-room construction which sat rather awkwardly on the ancient wall foundations and allowed visitors to progress around the paintings on a raised wooden walkway. Photographs of the interior were published in volume 78 (1992) of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (plates XXIV and XXV) and two

are reproduced above.

The paintings themselves were in a mixed condition, with most of the surface ‘more or less spongy, and the colours liable to be rubbed off ’. Petrie’s response was to ‘soak the face with tapioca water’. ‘I took daily with me bottles of thick and of thin tapioca water over to the pavement, tried on each part of the paving what thickness would just sink in without leaving any glair [glare], and then spread that over the surface, entirely with the side of my forefinger… There were 250 square feet to do, but it could not be done every day, or the skin wore away too quickly for renewal’.

The source of tapioca is manioc, a large brown conical root vegetable with a slightly shiny surface, which is cultivated extensively in south-east Asia. In Britain tapioca has somewhat negative culinary connotations, at least to older people, it having for years been used as a cheap form of dessert in school meals. It is not necessary, however, to imagine it as a staple of Petrie’s diet.

As a major and easily obtainable form of starch it has industrial uses as well, especially in the manufacture of textiles. Presumably Petrie bought it under this guise,

Reconstruction of the scene on the lower part of one of the walls of the Green Room. The painting is currently housed in the EES Cairo Office, awaiting removal to the new Visitors’ Centre at Amarna when this is completed. (Painting by Fran Weatherhead. Photograph: Barry Kemp)

4

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

photography and tracing. Finally, in 1926, the attempt was made to remove them. By this time a chemical treatment was available for use that sounds more familiar than Petrie’s tapioca water: alcohol for initial cleaning, and a spray of celluloid dissolved in amyl acetate sprayed on four or five times to increase strength. The method of removal was the same as that used by Petrie for the ‘princesses panel’ and is probably the only one that is possible, namely the piece by piece removal of the wall itself to free the painting so that it comes to rest against a prepared surface that can hold it steady. At the Green Room the surface on to which the paintings would, in effect, fall were boards padded with cotton wool supported on easel-like legs.

Once the wall had been removed, brick by brick, from behind, and the wall paintings, now cut into sections, allowed to nestle on to the padded boards, plaster-ofParis was poured over the back to add to the thickness and strength.

If one inspects the Green Room now it is obvious that the technique was fully used for the west wall, for the whole of this wall is now much lower than it was when recorded with the painting still present.The east wall tells a different story, however. When discovered its painting had spread along the full length. However, only about one third of the wall, at the southern end, is missing today. The other two-thirds still stand, complete with the niches in the face of the brickwork which are such a distinctive feature of the Green Room. The conclusion is inescapable: two-thirds of this wall was never removed. Had it already deteriorated to such an extent that it was no longer worthwhile to try, or did the team simply run out of time? We will probably never know. Incidentally the chemical treatment did not work well, and the preserved panels have lost much of their colour.

In 1934 the Society’s expedition, now directed by

The current state of the east wall of the Green Room

probably by the sackful, and it proved to be effective in binding the paint to the plaster.

Unfortunately Petrie’s initiative had unforeseen consequences. The museum’s popularity amongst tourists led to local ill-feeling and, on 1 February 1912, some of those charged with looking after it broke into the museum and hacked the pavement to pieces. A little later, officials from the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, collected many of the pieces and relaid them on the floor of the central hall of the museum, filling in the gaps with new plaster. Beneath a wide glass and woodframe cover it remains in this condition to this day.

The whiteness of the background has, however, become brown, and this could be a long-term consequence of the use of the tapioca starch.

The Egypt Exploration Society’s own first large-scale encounter with paintings occurred in 1923, at the North Palace. The very first trench into the site, on the morning of 6 November, revealed the top of the painted scene of marsh life which has become famous as one of the ‘Green Room’ paintings (see the reconstruction on p.4). The excavation was then suspended until the following year, when a start was made on

Reconstruction by the writer of the painting on the east wall of the Green Room

The reconstructed painting digitally superimposed onto the east wall of the Green Room

Detail of the scene of feeding geese

5

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Previously unpublished Pendlebury photograph showing the paintings at the Great Palace North Harim site surrounded by gypsum.

(Photograph: Egypt Exploration Society Archive)

John Pendlebury, was back at the site of Petrie’s work at the Great Palace. He found that most of Petrie’s wall paintings had remained with little change through being buried in the sand of Petrie’s backfilling. From time to time in older reports one finds the fear expressed that if paintings were simply reburied they would then be destroyed by local people. Here was a test case which pointed to the opposite conclusion, but the lesson was not appreciated at the time. Instead Pendlebury took a surprising decision which he

nowhere acknowledges in pr int. He must have decided to leave the whole Harim area and its paintings open to public view. A previously unpublished photograph (above) shows that the painted walls were coated with a thick layer of gypsum which surrounded the areas of painting, evidently to preserve them. It did not achieve its purpose, however, and all of the walls are now reduced to little more than their foundations. This was particularly unfortunate because, as ever, there was not enough time to copy or even to photograph everything. The principal omissions were a long narrow scene of life along the river, and (in the South Harim) another river scene and a picture of a chariot and a ship. None was recorded and all are lost.

On looking at the small, fragmentary and mostly discoloured remains of paintings that now survive in museums, one ought to ask if any of the local damage that archaeologists of the time so feared if the paintings had been reburied could have had a worse effect?

I think not. Could we do better now? The reports by Pamela Rose and Eric Miller in EA 23 (pp.20-24) of the saving of the Taharqo wall painting at Qasr Ibrim show that, at least in respect to the mechanics of conservation and removal, the answer is yes.

North Palace, central hall. Area of floor painting with painted wall dado

❑ Barry Kemp is Reader in Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and Field Director of the EES expedition to Tell el-Amarna.

A study by Fran Weatherhead of the history of the recording and conservation of painted plaster at Amarna is included in the British Museum volume, Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt, edited

by W V Davies (2001).The EES will shortly be publishing a study of Amarna palace paintings by Fran Weatherhead. This includes full documentation of all of the past discoveries, amongst them a gypsum pavement from the South Harim of the Great Palace, traced

by Pendlebury’s expedition but not included in City of Akhenaten III. Photographs (unless otherwise indicated): Gwil Owen © The Egypt Exploration Society.

Detail of the painted wall dado in the central hall of the North Palace

6

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Conserving bronzes from North Saqqara In 1995, an EES expedition at North Saqqara discovered a large cache of bronze objects. Their initial investigation and cleaning were described in an article in EA 9. Paul Nicholson now reports on further conservation undertaken in 2004.

As part of the Egypt Exploration Society’s project to complete the publication of the work undertaken in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara by the late Bryan Emery, an area in front of the Falcon Catacomb was recleared in 1995. This led to the discovery of a very large cache of bronze objects, which had been placed in an abandoned, and partly collapsed, tomb chamber, very close to the stairway leading down to the Falcon Catacomb.The objects had become badly corroded and had fused together into a large, and extremely heavy, mass.

The mass was carefully removed, and fortunately separated quite readily into three smaller lumps.These were packaged and stored until conservators from Cardiff University were able to go to Saqqara early in 1996 to work on them. They separated the large concretions into the individual objects, and also began to clean some of them (see EA 9, p.18). It soon became apparent that this was not only the largest cache of votives from the Sacred Animal Necropolis but a particularly interesting one.

It was then the intention that conservation would

The bronze scarab beetle, provisionally identified as Bubas bubalus (Ol).

continue the following year, but the antiquities’ magazine in which the bronzes were stored was the subject of an attempted robbery and the material became available for further study only after the construction of a new storage magazine at Saqqara in 2003. At this time the writer was asked by the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities to resume work on the finds as part of the Egypt Exploration Society’s commitment to the conservation of finds and monuments in Egypt.

The first stage of the renewed work involved the checking and repackaging of those objects considered by the SCA, after cleaning in 1996, to be the most significant. These had been stored separately and needed to be repacked, described in full and photographed in detail for publication. These registered objects were described and catalogued on to a computerised database and the photography was achieved using entirely digital media; this will allow the decorative designs on some of the situlae to be ‘unrolled’ as well as helping to facilitate publication.

In examining these objects it was discovered that an unusual hollow-cast figure at first thought to be some kind of hedgehog or porcupine was in fact a type of beetle. Paul Buckland, of Bournemouth University, has provisionally identified this as Bubas bubalus (Ol).

Further research may indicate whether or not this species was particularly asWork in progress in the SCA magazine at Saqqara on the many hundreds of situlae 7

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

sociated with either the ibis or the falcon. Other objects include a particularly fine censer handle in the form of the head of Isis, and the upper part of a sceptre showing the seated cat-goddess Bastet on top of what is probably an open papyrus flower. There were also two small and crudely made schist offering tables.

These had been pierced to take a loop of string for suspension.

The second stage of the work involved the rest of the objects, of which there are more than 600, starting with the situlae. Each was assigned an individual, unique number and they were then separated into groups according to their shape and size. Meanwhile, a small group of very large and elaborate situlae was handed over to the conservation team so that work could begin on them, as it was felt that these were the most likely to preserve traces of inscription. It could already be seen that they had the most, and most elaborate, decoration.

During the three weeks spent in the field, all the situlae were measured, weighed and photographed, and a short coded description made of them. However, the sheer number of pieces made it impossible to describe every one in detail. This was further complicated by the discovery that a far higher proportion of the pieces was decorated than had been expected. The data have not yet been fully processed, but up to three-quarters of the examples may have had some form of decoration This normally comprises one or more registers showing a worshipper in a pose of adoration standing to the right of a small altar or offering table. In front of him, to the left of the table, stands ithyphallic Amun with, behind him, a procession of other deities. The number and selection of deities varies, as does the qual-

View of the interior of the situla (below) containing the Osiris and shrew figures

ity of workmanship. The base of the decorated vessels usually takes the form of a lotus flower. Where handles remain intact, they vary considerably in their proportions. One of the team remarked that, overall, the collection had the appearance of a school craft project, with handles bearing no relation to the size of the vessel they were intended to serve! One has the strong impression that the handles were not made by the craftsmen who produced the vessels, but were perhaps the work of less skilled apprentices.

The conservation work carried out on the large vessels proved to be very worthwhile, although time consuming and frequently difficult. It was found that where the blue corrosion product azurite was present, it could be softened by soaking the object overnight, making it easier to remove. However, green corrosion products were found to be hard and not susceptible to

Left: The large situla which was found to contain figures of Osiris and a shrew. Above: A provisional attempt at digitally ‘unrolling’ the design on this vessel

8

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

A figure of the Apis bull (top) and a censer handle with the head of Isis (below). (Drawings by James Newboult)

soaking. This made the corrosion extremely difficult to remove, and occasionally impossible. In one case a vessel was found to contain two other objects which turened out to be figures of a shrew and Osiris, fused to each other and to the inside of the vessel. Careful cleaning and conservation made it possible to see and identify the figures, but they were too heavily corroded to the vessel wall to be removed from it. By the end of the season it became clear that some of these large vessels still bore the remains of hieroglyphic inscriptions though as yet these are not sufficiently complete to be read with confidence. The SCA did not feel that it was necessary to add them to the register list this year, but may well do so when cleaning has been completed. The same view was taken of the small wooden object described below.

As well as the numerous situlae, there is a smaller, but significant, number of other items, such as small offering tables or offering trays, some of which have standing or squatting figures of deities around them.

These objects too are equipped with a handle which would have allowed them to be hung up in the shrine.

There are also figures of gods, mostly Osiris or the Apis bull, though Horus and Bastet are also present.

In addition to the bronzes, there is a small wooden object with the remains of a text in inlaid hieroglyphs.

Until the very end of the season it was too fragile to be safely handled, but it was initially thought to have been part of a wooden shrine, perhaps the container in which the bronzes had been buried. However, when the piece was finally consolidated and turned over it proved to be a statue, representing a figure offering a smaller statue.Time did not permit the complete cleaning of the inscription, and there was no time to work on the sculpted side of the piece at all. This will be a priority for the next season when it will be cleaned, together with those situlae identified as priorities for conservation. If time permits the team will also at-

A small spouted situla with typical decoration.

(Drawings by James Newboult)

tempt to work on some of the offering tables and figures of deities. With such a large collection it will not be practicable to clean every object to museum display standard, but all will be stabilised and, as now, packed in such a way as to avoid to any further deterioration.

None of the pieces so far cleaned bears a royal cartouche, but it is likely that most belong to the fourth century BC.The collection provides an interesting insight into the range of objects offered at the shrines of the Saqqara Sacred Animal Necropolis, and shows just how popular these cults were at the time. There are vessels in a range of sizes, decorated and undecorated, which would have been sold to pilgrims of varying wealth and given, as votive offerings, to the shrines of particular gods. It is easy to imagine the lively scene of the workshops and stalls of those selling these items, and to appreciate something of the skill (or occasionally otherwise) of these Late Period craftsmen. ❑ Paul Nicholson is Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He is grateful to the conservators in 1996 (Siobhan Stevenson and Walter Gneisinger) and 2004 (Jennifer Gosling and Panagiota Manti) and to Janice Coyle, James Newboult, Elizabeth Verrinder and the SCA conservator, Abd el-Aziz Sayed Abd el-Rasheed Soltan, for their professionalism and hard work.

9

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Recent investigations at Deir el-Barsha Most famous for the Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Djehutyhotep, the site of Deir el-Barsha is now under investigation by a Belgian team. Harco Willems describes the early results of the work.

Since 2002 the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has requires knowledge of vast areas of land, and by using been conducting archaeological fieldwork at Deir eltraditional methods this would be beyond the means Barsha, a site more commonly, but inaccurately, known of most archaeological missions. Modern geophysical to Egyptologists as ‘Bersheh’. Renowned for the tombs techniques have opened up new avenues here, and reof the Middle Kingdom nomarchs of the Hare nome, cent years have shown their great potential for many the site is in fact much larger than the small rock pladifferent types of sites. teau where these tombs are located. The current At Deir el-Barsha, the plain between the village and concession area of the Leuven mission comprises c.9 the foothills of the Eastern Desert has proved particusq km and includes one small Third Dynasty cemlarly fruitful in this regard. Here, due west of the mouth etery, two Old Kingdom/First Intermediate Period of the wadi, there exists a low accumulation of wadi cemeteries on the northern and southern flanks of discharge. Both the present-day village and the modthe Wadi Nakhla, the rock tombs of the Middle Kingern Coptic cemetery are located on top of this dom nomarchs higher up on the north flank of the elevation, evidently to safeguard them from occasional wadi, and a vast cemetery, also of the Middle Kingfloods from the wadi.These recent and sub-recent strucdom, in the plain at the foot of the hills. Apart from tures partly cover a vast cemetery dating to the First the necropolis, the site has numerous limestone quarIntermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. ries of various dates both within the Wadi Nakhla and Our attention here has focused on the triangular eastin the hills to its north and south, and a fifth century ern tip of this gezira. A geophysical survey carried out monastic settlement north of the wadi. Most of these in 2002 by Tomasz Herbich revealed not only that the areas have barely been investigated in the past, although area has been heavily pitted by looters and early arthe damage caused by looting has been extensive. chaeologists, but also that it is cut through by a long, The project intends to carry out long-term research narrow anomaly running from east to west. Moreover, in the area, with the main aim being to understand the magnetic map showed the presence of some walls better the topography and history of the site. In this that are apparently oriented towards the anomaly. Tests way we hope, for carried out since example, to be able then have revealed to reconstruct the that the walls organisation of belong to early work in the Late Middle Kingdom Period quarries, and tomb complexes, to understand the and the nar row spatial organisation anomaly is a of the cemeteries. str ip of alluvial This ar ticle will clay artificially deconcentrate only on posited on the the latter aspect of desert gravels. It is research. undoubtedly a Spatial analysis of road leading to pharaonic cemetery the track up the sites is still in its innorth slope of the f ancy. This is no wadi, where the doubt in part due to contemporary the fact that, by the tombs of the ver y nature of View of the north slope of the Wadi Nakhla from the south with the Middle Kingdom rock tombs nomarchs are lothings, such analysis in the centre. The tombs have been heavily damaged by exploitation of the area as a stone quarry, cated. It seems which also led to the collapse of the top of the hill

10

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

clear that the cemetery was entirely organised along this road, the tombs of the highest elite being located on top of the hill, those of the lower elite along the road, and those of people of lower standing set back at a greater distance from the road. At the northern tip of the gezira, a number of well preserved tombs of the latter group has been discovered by Christoph Peeters, who is currently excavating them. These complexes consist of one or more brick-lined tomb shafts within an enclosure wall. In some, small traces of mastabalike superstructures were discovered in 2004. Around the brick-lined shafts there sometimes occur secondary shafts and simple pit graves, suggesting that the tomb complexes attracted the bur ials of others.

The people buried in the rock tombs on the north slope of the wadi occupied the other end of the social spectrum: they are the Middle Kingdom nomarchs, members of their families, and high officials from the nomarchal court. Our research has been concentrated in two areas: a group of small tombs of the late First Intermediate Period or early Middle Kingdom, and the area of the famous tomb of Djehutyhotep. The study of the small tombs has now been completed, and the results will be published soon. These burials belong to three subaltern officials in the nomarchal hierarchy, named Iha, Khnumnakht, and Djehutynakht.

All three tombs were visited by Percy Newberry and partly described in his second volume for the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society). Nevertheless our study has led to some surprises.

In the background is the Wadi Nakhla, with the track leading up the north slope towards the nomarchal tombs clearly visible. In the foreground is a large triple tomb. The oval excavation around the mouths of the shafts indicates the contours of a robbers’ pit. The road across the plain runs through the slight depression visible behind the tomb

None of the relief decoration of the tombs has been published, but a particularly interesting finding is that the western wall of Djehutynakht’s tomb is completely occupied by an autobiographical inscription. The text offers a rare account of the tasks of a person working directly below the nomarch.

Although parts are extremely difficult to read, the general drift is clear. Djehutynakht held a wide variety of posts in the local administration. Mostly these seem to have been concerned with the production and storage of food and other commodities, such as bricks, or perfume. In addition he commanded a variety of kitchen staff, he was an overseer of Medja-Nubians, and the architect and builder who constructed the tombs in the cemetery. Most

Plan of the site of Deir el-Barsha

11

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Bracelet found in the debris in front of the tomb of Djehutyhotep

Carter, the artist of the Newberry mission, also left behind traces of his presence in the form of paint tubes and pieces of aquarel (water-colour) paper, some of which bear the letters ‘How’. This is probably part of Carter’s signature, which was partly cut off.

The combined evidence of the material left behind by the Newberry mission and the wall fragments they placed in the cachettes gives an indication of how they worked in the tombs. Many reliefs that were shown as being in relatively good condition in their 1893 publication turned up again in our excavations, but often parts of the scenes had been sawn out, clearly after Carter had drawn them. A case in point is the scene (parts of which are now in the British Museum) showing the wetnurses of Djehutyhotep’s daughters. The saw cuts often sliced straight through reliefs of the most delicate quality. Also, the sawing was often apparently performed with such haste that scenes disintegrated altogether – for us a fortunate circumstance, for by fitting together such fragments it is sometimes possible partly to reconstruct scenes. We also found other relief fragments missed by the Newberry mission, or not deemed worthy of reproduction in their publication. The face of one of Djehutyhotep’s daughters reproduced here is a case in point. It fits one of the figures published by Newberry, of which the present whereabouts is unknown.

In front of Djehutyhotep’s tomb a large amount of debris was cleared away. Here many more fragments of wall decoration of the tomb were retrieved, but in addition there were remains of funerary equipment, possibly from Djehutyhotep’s burial apartment, because they were found right in front of its entrance.The finds included more than a dozen figurines from funerary models, and two bracelets, one of which is shown above.

Below this debris, much of which may well have been deposited there by Kamal, we found five tomb shafts.

At the time of writing it is not yet clear whether they are the shafts discovered in front of the tomb by Daressy.

If they are, the plans of Daressy and Kamal depict them in the wrong position. On this basis, and for other reasons, it is possible that the Daressy tombs are located right in front of the tomb in an area we have not yet been able to investigate. If so, this row of five tomb shafts may well be a new series not hitherto known further excavation should resolve this problem.

Wall fragments from the tomb of Djehutyhotep

intriguingly, however, are his remarks about a further task, which was that of an astronomer. The text employs a specialised vocabulary the meaning of some of which is unfortunately not clear. He seems to take most pride in the ability to adjust a diagonal star clock that no longer ‘ran on time’. The method used to do this is described in some detail.

The tomb of Djehutyhotep was published by Newberry, and excavations have been carried out there

by Newberry’s team, by Georges Daressy and Ahmed Kamal, and by George Reisner. Therefore the prospects for renewed research seemed not very promising here. However, the walls, which until recently were covered by a dark grey crust of soot and dirt, have now been cleaned by the SCA, revealing the often delicate paintings and reliefs. A full colour publication of this decoration is now being prepared, with a new architectural description. Cleaning works were undertaken in preparation for this both inside the tomb and in front of it.

Inside the tomb, some robbers’ pits in the floor of the chapel were cleared, and this unexpectedly led to the discovery of many hundreds of decorated wall fragments – most of them small. They must be cachettes left behind by the Newberry mission, although later visitors such as Kamal can be shown to have looked into the larger of them. It seems clear that George Fraser, one of Newberry’s staff members, backfilled the pits with the fragments after he had made his selection of pieces to be sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for onward division. From Journal d’Entrée entries in Cairo it is clear that it was he (and not Newberry) who shipped the pieces to the museum, and an envelope addressed to him was found in the fill of one of the pits. We also found a piece of blueprint paper with part of a map of the site – presumably the map Fraser and Marcus Blackden prepared in 1891 – together with the pencils used to draw it. Howard

❑ Harco Willems is Professor of Egyptology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Photographs: Deir el-Barsha Mission, Katholiele Universiteit, Leuven

12

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Egypt Exploration Society New Reprint

The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna (Archaeological Survey Memoirs 13-18)

The EES has reprinted all six volumes of Norman de Garis Davies’ The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna, which have been out of print for many years. Each volume includes two of the original series.

Between 1902 and 1907 Norman de Garis Davies, working under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society), conducted a comprehensive architectural and epigraphic survey of the tombs of Akhenaten’s courtiers, in the cliffs and wadis around the site of Tell elAmarna in Middle Egypt. This pharaoh’s reign, which began in approximately 1353 BC, was a time of great religious and political upheaval, and saw the foundation, at Amarna, of an entirely new capital city, Akhetaten. It was also a time of great innovation and change in art, not least in the style and content of scenes carved in two dimensions. This change is abundantly evident in the surviving wall decoration in these tombs, which Davies captured so skillfully, and which was then made available to the scholarly world and the wider public through the sixvolume publication resulting from his work.

Each of the reprinted volumes includes a new preface by Barry Kemp, Director of the current EES fieldwork and research at Amarna, with colour cover photographs by the expedition photographer, Gwilym Owen.

Full Price: £40 per volume, or £110 for the set of three EES Members’ price: £35 per volume, or £95 for the set of three

Orders should be sent to: Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford OX1 1HN, UK. Fax: +44 (0)1865 794449.

Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249 E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com Website: www.oxbowbooks.com

13

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Amarna statuary fragments Two dumps left by previous expeditions have yielded hundreds of fragments of Amarna Period statuary. Kristin Thompson describes the discovery, registration and investigation of this material.

Since the 2001 season of the Egypt Exploration Society mission to Tell el-Amarna there has been a project under way to recover, register and study a large number of statuary fragments found in two dumps on the site. One, the North House Dump, was discovered in 1982 when pieces of granite and quartzite were found on the desert surface at a spot between the old EES dig house and the northern cliffs. Just over 200 pieces were gathered, crated, and sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, clearances of bur ied mater ial The site of the North House Dump during a clearance in the 2002 season, with the ruins of the yielded several hundred additional North Expedition House in the distance fragments.

In 1992, stone fragments had begun surfacing directly both the German and early EES expeditions before behind the southern expedition house, built in 1911 the latter moved to the newly built north house in

by Ludwig Borchardt’s Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft 1924. Labelled pottery sherds from both expeditions expedition. These proved to be from a second cache, indicated a mix of material and provided little evithe South House Dump, containing architectural eledence as to which group had discovered the unlabelled ments and pottery sherds as well as pieces of statuary statuary fragments. In 2002, however, the writer visand stone objects in quartzite, granodiorite, greywacke ited the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin and was able and travertine. Of the stone elements recovered, 188 to examine Borchardt’s expedition diary for the 1912pieces of granodiorite proved to be from a single un13 season. The entry for 13 December 1912, mentions finished statue, depicting Akhenaten and Nefertiti a find of ‘black granite’ (ie. granodiorite) fragments in seated side by side, approximately two-thirds life-sized.

P47.3, a small building in the northeast corner of the The matching and joining of these pieces continued workshop complex of the sculptor Thutmose. A wellduring the 2001 to 2004 seasons. Although the heads, known head of Nefertiti was found at the same time hands and feet are missing, perhaps half of the total and is now in the Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin (No. statue survives.

21358).

Initially the original provenance of the fragments in these dumps was unclear. The North House Dump had obviously been left behind by John Pendlebury’s EES expedition shortly before work at the site ended in 1937 but the south expedition house had been occupied by An unfinished granodiorite head of Nefertiti (Berlin 21358) from the Thutmose workshop. It fits the back pillar from the shattered dyad in the Amarna magazine.

(Photograph courtesy of the Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin)

Trays of granodiorite pieces in the Amarna workroom in 2001, before the process of joining the dyad of Nefertiti and Akhenaten began

14

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Dietrich Wildung kindly provided a plaster cast of that head, and in the 2003 season it proved to match the top of Nefertiti’s back pillar, which was among the fragments in the EES magazine.

Other matches and similarities between pieces in Berlin and Amarna suggest that most or all of the statuary found in the South House Dump originally came from the Thutmose complex. The hundreds of pieces include parts of princess heads similar to the ones that survive in more complete form in Cairo and Berlin, as well as portions of torsos and limbs.

The North House Dump has yielded even more statuary fragments, in most cases of considerably larger size. Smaller finds include portions of a smashed travertine relief that apparently depicted the royal couple offering bouquets to the Aten. There are a few pieces of small-scale statues in pink granite, but most of the North House Dump finds are fragments of colossal statues, a few in quartzite of various colours, but more in granite. Pieces of crooks, flails, and clenched fists strongly suggest that some of the granite colossi were in an Osirid pose similar to that of the more familiar sandstone colossi from the East Karnak Aten temple. Like the Karnak colossi, the ones at Amarna also seem to have worn a variety of crowns. Fragments of the nemes headdress, a white crown, and various unidentifiable feathered crowns survive. Oddly, though, the scale of these colossi does not seem to have been uniform, as was that of the East Kar nak statues. Some of the Amarna granite colossi were on roughly The reconstructed dyad of Nefertiti and Akhenaten with the cast of the Berlin granodiorite the same scale as their Karnak predhead of Nefertiti (Berlin 21358) ecessors, but others were probably Hall, there can be little doubt that that area is where distinctly larger. An enormous neck, an elbow and sevmost or all of these statues originally stood. eral parts of arms and legs testify to the grandeur of the decorative scheme.

Given the early success with reconstructing the pair statue from the Thutmose workshop, in 2001 Barry The North House Dump fortunately yielded quite Kemp applied for the return of the North House specific clues as to the provenance of its contents.

Sherds labelled with find spot and season were minDump fragments sent to the Egyptian Museum in 1982.

The hope was that matches could be made among gled among the stone pieces. All were dated to the those pieces and the ones more recently excavated from 1934-35 and 1935-36 seasons and were found in the Great Palace. Some of the pieces of travertine relief the Dump. Through the generous co-operation of officials of the Supreme Council for Antiquities and were also labeled ‘PAL’. Given that the Great Palace the Museum, two crates containing the fragments were was indeed excavated during these seasons and that Pendlebury reported finding numerous pieces of granite retruned to Amarna at the end of the 2002 season.

The subsequent two seasons have seen a significant statuary in a trench along the east side of the Broad

15

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Left.A rare fragment from a head: the left end of a mouth and part of the cheek from a colossal statue of Akhenaten or Nefertiti in tan quartzite

Grey and black stones were used more commonly in Amarna statuary than was previously thought, as suggested by this granodiorite left half of a left foot, a surface find in 2004 from the Great Aten Temple

Above.Two matching pieces of a quartzite princess head with the remains of a painted eye and brow. From the workshop of Thutmose Right. Part of a large feather from the crown of a colossal statue in quartzite that once stood in the Great Palace The Kom el-Nana sunshade temple seems to have contained mainly quartzite statues of the royal family in relatively casual poses.

This section of a statue base names one of the princesses

number of matches within the North House Dump material.

While the granodiorite pieces from the Thutmose workshop represent a single statue which can be partially reconstructed, the fragments from the Great Palace represent several statues, most of which were huge, so it is clear that only small portions of each have survived. The reconstruction of substantial sections of any one statue seems unlikely unless future excavation in the area of the Broad Hall itself yields substantial numbers of additional fragments.

Apart from these large collections of stone gathered from the two dumps, smaller numbers of fragments have been found in situ, some during the current expedition’s excavations at Kom el-Nana and in the Small Aten Temple. The 2004 season yielded 44 surface finds

of statuary, mainly from the Great Aten Temple, but individual pieces were also picked up at Kom el-Nana, the Great Palace and the Small Aten Temple.

By the end of the 2004 season, about 700 fragments have been registered but there are still hundreds of pieces, mostly of pink granite, waiting to be registered: a process that will probably take at least two more seasons. Overall, there is a vast amount of statuary material now in the Amarna magazine, and most of it can be traced back to a specific building. Such exact provenances, rare for Amarna fragments until recently, allow at last a study of the statuary programme in the ancient city. This could yield evidence for other aspects of the site’s history. For example, the presence of several granite colossi in Osirid poses in the Broad Hall of the Great Palace provides new evidence for evaluating the function of that enigmatic building. Analysis is under way, drawing upon both the pieces in the magazine and others in museums around the world, to learn what types of stone were used in statuary and which buildings, poses, and scales were associated with each type. The result should be a considerable expansion in our knowledge of the distinctive art of the Amarna Period. ❑ Kristin Thompson is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been a member of the EES Expedition to Tell el-Amarna for the past four seasons. She wishes to thank Dietrich Wildung, of the Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin, for his aid in determining the provenance of the South House Dump fragments. Photographs, unless otherwise indicated, by the writer © The Egypt Exploration Society.

A dramatic example of the contrasts in scale in Amarna statuary: a granite elbow from a colossal statue of Nefertiti from the Great Palace and a life-sized indurated-limestone elbow from the Small Aten Temple

16

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Sudan: ancient treasures For millennia the Sudan has been the zone of contact between central Africa and the Mediterranean world. It boasts archaeological sites of the greatest interest, and a major exhibition of its material culture opened in London in September 2004. Derek Welsby and Julie Anderson describe the scope of the exhibition and the wide range of artefacts which will be on display.

The centenary of the founding of the Antiquities Service in the Sudan, one of the oldest in Africa, is being celebrated in 2004. To mark this occasion, to draw attention to Sudan’s archaeological heritage and to highlight the wealth of archaeological activities being undertaken each year in the country, the British Museum, in conjunction with the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan, has organising a major exhibition which opened at the British Museum in September. It will remain in London for several months, and then travel to a number of venues in Europe and perhaps also to North America.

This will be the first UK exhibition devoted to the ancient and medieval cultures of Sudan and it will display material from the collections of the National Museum in Khartoum and from regional Sudanese museums. Many of the objects have rarely, if ever, been seen by the public and all are drawn from archaeological excavations. Some of the objects in the exhibition were excavated only in spring 2003 while others have been seen previously only by the archaeologists who discovered them, having been stored up until now in the excavators’ magazines at sites throughout northern Sudan from Sai to Naqa.

Sudan has been described as a corridor to Africa: a conduit for the luxury and exotic goods of sub-Saharan Africa so prized in the Mediterranean world and in the Middle East through the millennia. It was, as a result of its location on a major trade route, a magnet to those powers which dominated Egypt, and Sudanese history for the last 5,000 years has been intimately linked with that of its northern neighbour. The close contacts with Egypt will be highlighted in the exhibition, with many imported objects and others produced in Sudan but influenced by artistic styles current in Egypt.

Some of the finest objects produced during all Gold flies and scarabs of the Beja period (second to early first centuries BC). From tomb D.16.1 at Wadi Terfowi, (Sudan National Museum 31347, 31353)

Seated sandstone statue of Amenhotep I in the hebsed garment.

From Sai island. (Sudan National Museum 63/4/5)

17

EGYPTIAN

Neolithic calciform beaker from grave 121 in cemetery 1 at Kadruka.

(Sudan National Museum 29000)

ARCHAEOLOGY

The head of a sandstone Ba statue from grave II T84, s2 at Sedeinga. (Sudan National Museum 31118)

Soba-ware ceramic chalice from Khalil el-Kubra. Fifth-sixth centuries AD. (Sudan National Museum 26941)

phases of human settlement from the Palaeolithic through to the Islamic Period will be on display. The oldest objects date to around 200,000 years ago (with some of the earliest evidence anywhere in the world for the processing of pigment for artistic or ritual purposes) while the latest objects are of the late nineteenth century. Key items in the exhibition will seek to highlight the contrast between the world views of the many Sudanese cultures: from the demonstrations of worldly power of the Kerma kings who were accompanied to their deaths by 400 sacrificed persons, to the humble graves of Christian rulers; from the grandiose temples built by the Egyptian pharaohs to the churches and mosques of later periods. Recent new discoveries will highlight topics such as the growth of the Kushite empires, the locations of ancient capitals, and the ever-changing nature of archaeological research.

All too often artefacts in museum permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions are displayed as objects of fine art divorced from their context. This exhibition seeks to retain the archaeological context, with objects grouped by site and period and with photographs illustrating the nature of the sites and their environment. As well as site-based displays a number of themes will focus on particular aspects of Sudan’s cultures. These include the gold of Kush (so valued by the ancient Egyptians), the burial customs and grave goods of the Nile Valley and the vast desert hinterlands to its east and west, and Nubian ceramic masterpieces.

Some of the very earliest pottery anywhere in the world Meroitic sandstone stela of Queen Amanishakheto and the goddess Amesemi from the Hypostyle Hall of the Amun Temple at Naga.

Late first century AD. (Sudan National Museum 31338)

18

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Correspondence Courses Ceramic statue of the goddess Beset, from Building A1 of site Q3 at Kawa. Napatan Period. (Photograph: S Marshall)

The Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians Part 1 - History Part 2 - Religious Beliefs and Funerary Practices

was made in Sudan and Sudanese potters produced impressive examples of ceramic art at various periods.

Many of the forms are innovative while continuity of form and decoration is apparent in other products; some decorative motifs, for example, remained in use for over 5000 years.

The exhibition includes artefacts influenced by Egyptian, Greek, Hellenistic and Roman f ashion, interspersed with others which were very clearly made in a sub-Saharan cultural milieu, serving to illustrate the enduring fascination of Sudan as a bridge between the Mediterranean and African worlds.

Language Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs

Study Tours Specialized Study Tours to many interesting and unusual sites of Ancient Egypt For details contact: Suzanne Bojtos BA MPhil The Civilization of the Ancient Egyptians & Study Tours Vivien Raisman BA Language PO Box 368 Edgware, Middx. HA8 9SF Tel: 07970478857 Email: suzanne_bojtos@hotmail.com vraisman@hotmail.com

❑ Derek Welsby is a Curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan (DAES), British Museum, London, and Honorary Secretary and Field Director of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society. Julie Anderson is Special Exhibition Curator in the DAES, at the British Museum, and Co-Director of the joint Canadian/ Sudanese expedition at Dangeil. Sudan: ancient treasures will be on display at the British Museum until 9 January 2005. Photographs (unless otherwise stated) by Rocco Ricci © The British Museum.

19

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Notes and News Egyptian Museum. In February 2004 Wafaa el-Saddiq was appointed Director of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Dr el-Saddiq gained her PhD in Vienna and was formerly Director General of the Scientific Dept of the Supreme Council for Antiquities and Head of the International Union for Children in Germany. Dr el-Saddiq is now engaged on a project to catalogue and restore over 90,000 antiquities stored in the museum’s basement.

Kamose stela. Working with the FrancoEgyptian Centre at Karnak, Charles van Siclen has identified the remains of a third great historical stela of King Kamose of the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty. The stela was or ig inally excavated by Georges Legrain south of the Eighth Pylon in 1902, but it was never published. The surviving remains and a photograph allow a partial reading of the text, which mentions Nubians and Asiatics in a military context.

The end of the stela has some parallels with the end of the Second Kamose Stela.

Drawings by Norman and Nina de Garis Davies. Some 850 tracings of scenes in Theban tombs by Norman and Nina de Garis Davies, now housed at the Griffith Institute in Oxford, have just been cleaned, partly restored and rehoused in the Institute’s Archive. Many of these tombs have seriously deteriorated since the drawings were made and the tracings, which represent a valuable source of information, are now available for consultation.

Old Cairo. A Groundwater Lowering Activity, jointly funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the Government of Egypt, and involving CCJM engineers, the Cairo Wastewater Organization and the SCA, is working at various monuments including the important Church of Abu Serga (Sts. Sargius and Bacchus) founded at the end of the fourth century. The Project (directed by Shree Gokhale working with Peter Sheehan of ARCE) has revealed a monumental structure deep beneath the church cr ypt.

Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that it is the embankment wall of a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, strongly supporting the theory that one of the prime reasons for the establishment of the Roman fortress was to protect this canal.

The wall formed the floor of the crypt church for over a thousand years and in view of the crypt’s religious significance as one of the resting places of the Holy Family, it has been agreed that the stones, previously slated for removal, would be left intact. A new engineering design for water removal was utilised, and a transparent security-glass floor will be built, providing a surface on which church services can be conducted, and through which visitors can easily view the floor below.

Kom el-Hettan site museum. The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conser vation Project, directed by Hourig Sourouzian, has now completed constr uction of a storeroom which was presented to the project through the kind generosity of Monique Hennessy.

Kom el-Hettan.The newly-constructed site museum.

The storeroom also Photograph courtesy of Hourig Sourouzian serves as a temporary workshop and laboratory for stone conserRamesses II statue. After many years of vation and is currently being used as a small discussion and announcements of its imfield museum to display temporarily disminent departure (see, for example, EA 11, cover ies from the excavation of the p.18) the red granite statue of Ramesses II Amenhotep III temple, including the which has stood since 1955 in Ramesses Sekhmet statues and other sculpural eleSquare in Cairo may finally be on the move. ments excavated in 2004 (see also p.27).

The SCA has agreed that the statue should be dismantled and moved to a secure store The Ninth International Congress of to await the opening of the new Grand Egyptologists took place at Grenoble Egyptian Museum, currently being confrom the 6-12 September 2004, at the structed near the Giza plateau, where it will invitation of the Conseil Général de l’Isère then be re-erected.The statue is now enand the Association pour la Conservation de la cased in scaffolding, awaiting the attention Propr iété et des Arc hives des Frères of technical specialists.

Champollion, with Jean-Claude Goyon as President of the Organising Committee. Six The Griffith Institute, Oxford. The and a half days of papers, running in six Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation daparallel sessions morning and afternoon, tabase of all 5,398 objects found in the with highlight plenary papers before the tomb of Tutankhamun is now complete and lunch break each day, provided a compcan be consulted at www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/ rehensive overview of the current state of 4tut.html and a new search facilityhas been research in Egyptology. Ideal facilities in the added at www.ashmolean.museum/php/amAlpexpo Congress Centre, with tightly search.php?&db=burton making it possible to administered timetables, gave eager particbrowse or search through the Harry Burton ipants access to the maximum of individual photographs included in the database. This papers, along with plenty of space for bypasses the written records searchable by coffee drinking and book-sellers’ displays, www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/perl/gi-ca-qsearch.pl and all topped by a magnificent dinner with concentrates on the purely visual aspects dancing on the Saturday night. An invitof the discovery. The Institute’s site now ation has been issued by the Dept of also houses, at www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/ Mediterranean Studies of the University of 9chari0.html, a story, written for young peothe Aegean to hold the next Congress from ple, by Mary Anne Bradley and Jaromir 19-26 May 2008 on the island of Rhodes.

Malek, Chariot to Heaven. It is set in Memphis dur ing the last days of King Manchester Museum. In February 2004, Tutankhamun.

Christina Riggs became Curator of EgyptTell Basta. The German-Egyptian mission ology at The Manchester Museum, working at Tell Basta (Bubastis) has uncovUniver sity of Manchester. A for mer ered part of another version of the so-called Research Fellow of The Queen's College, ‘Canopus Decree’ with the remains, as on Oxford, Dr Riggs is completing the catathe Rosetta Stone (British Museum, Lonloguing of the collection, in preparation for don) and the Canopus Decree itself a major reinstallation of the two Egyptian (Egyptian Museum, Cairo), of a bilingual galleries in about five years' time. ImprovEgyptian-Greek text. The text, partly preements to the stores are also underway. An served in Greek and demotic with traces incomplete version of the catalogue (which of the hieroglyphic version, is dated to 238 will be edited, improved, and augmented BC in the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes. over the next three years) is already available online at w w w. m u s e u m . m a n . a c . u k ('Search the Collections'). The museum is Thanks to Christopher Eyre, Rawya Ismail, open daily and admission is free. ResearchEva Lange, Jaromir Malek, Mike Murphy, ers and visitors are welcome to contact Dr Christina Riggs, Joanne Rowland, Hourig Riggs with any queries: phone; +44 (0)161 Sourouzian and Charles van Siclen for in275 8772; e-mail: christina.riggs@man.ac.uk formation for ‘Notes and News’.

20

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Creating an archive for the Karnak temples The Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak is creating an archive of photographs and records relating to this major site. Alain Arnaudiès describes the nature of the archive and appeals for co-operation and collaboration to develop this important research facility.

In 1967, by an agreement between the French and Egyptian governments, The Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Kar nak (CFEETK) was eestablished as an inter-governmental non-profit-making body. It accommodates researchers and experts of all nationalities who are undertaking study and/or restoration of the monuments of Karnak, and it also assists colleagues from abroad who are undertaking investigations in connection with the site.

Over the past 37 years, a great deal has been achieved by the CFEETK with regard to the conservation and preservation of the extremely important site of Karnak.

However, much remains to be done, particularly with regard to the existing documentation of the site and the need to make this resource available to researchers. An extensive collection of archives of the Karnak complex is considered to be of the utmost importance in facilitating investigations and research at Karnak and in its environs.

Since the beginning of 2003 the CFEETK has been collecting archival material relating to the temples of Karnak from 1800 to 1960. The purpose of this documentary project for the sites of Karnak is to create an archive to serve the research community world-wide.

The documentation provided by archaeological and Egyptological institutions will be made available in a computerised database for researchers and experts studying and restoring the Karnak temples.

To date, the Karnak archives unit has gathered more than 50,000 illustrations, all recorded in the computerised database which is constantly being expanded.

As more archives are collected, the more complete this research instrument will become. With such a large database, we hope to be able to fulfil an important part of our mission to preserve the moneuments of Karnak and also to enable the CFEETK to provide quick responses to queries world-wide.

Since the first work of Auguste Mariette in 1858, the Karnak temples have seen many changes, and archival material can provide vital evidence on monuments that have since disappeared, been lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed. We assume that, in addition to all the societies and organisations mentioned in Porter and Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. II. Theban Temples, (2nd edition, Oxford, 1972), other institutions may well have in their archives materials relevant to our project, particularly from the period 1800 to 1960: documents and texts, survey records, studies, historical and archaeological manuscripts, illustrations, reports, plans, Karnak, Amun temple, the Second Pylon at the end of the nineteenth century. The destruction of the pylon has maps, drawings, paintings, been dated to around 1840. (Photograph: Antonio Béato, CFEETK 57459)

21

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Taharqo colonnade and the Second Pylon as painted by David Roberts (right) between 1846 and 1849. (CFEETK DP 2999) and as photographed

by Francis Frith (left) in 1858. (CFEETK 57762)

The dismantling and reconstruction of the Taharqo column in 1929 (cropped photograph). (© Chevrier’s archives, CFEETK 96414)

The Taharqo colonnade during excavations in 1970. (© A Bellod, CFEETK 3439)

22

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

A granite block which was reused in the Osiris Coptite chapel, as photographed (left) in the 1930s (© H Chevrier, CFEETK 97574) and (right) sixty years later (© E Arnaudiès, CFEETK 71846). The inscribed face has been affected by salts and moisture

Above: The copper base plate after restoration in 1993 (© G Réveillac, CFEETK DP 4142). Below: Drawing after restoration (© P Maritaux, CFEETK 40711)

The copper base-plate of a flag mast found in front of the Ninth Pylon during excavations in 1978. (© A Bellod, CFEETK 16680)

Karnak, published by Belzoni in 1820 (the sky has been cropped here). A rare view showing houses inside the temple (CFEETK DP 3017)

23

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Georges Legrain’s squeezes of the ‘Annals of the Priests of Amun’. Except for some fragments now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, all the other blocks found by Legrain have disappeared. The squeezes are today the only evidence of their existence. (© A Bellod, CFEETK 26616)

photog raphs, aer ial views, videotapes, films, databases, etc., all dealing with Karnak and its environs.

If any institutions, or individuals, do have in their collections any such materials, we would like to appeal to their generosity.We wish to obtain permission to conserve and publish, on their behalf, all materials relating to Karnak that they would be willing to send to us, in the form of copies, which would enrich the database of our Karnak archives and which we would make available, free of charge, to all colleagues and to the research community as a whole.

We understand that these contributions may well generate costs - notably for duplication of materials and mailing expenses - and we would be ready to help with them, within our limited means. If so desired, the CFEETK will undertake to make known and publicise contributions to our international effort.

The first stage of this project is to collect relevant archives for the use of researchers and experts working in the Karnak area. This international effort is well under way but it needs more contributions to be truly successful. Recent events in the world have shown the importance of protecting the heritage of older civilisations from natural and human disasters. Nowadays, the restoration and protection of archaeological sites is the collective duty of all countries.

Today, public museums, private collections, libraries and archives need the same approach. They are repositories of knowledge and, as such, are keepers of records that must be preserved for future generations. The growing importance of archives is widely recognised today and duplication of records is a way of preserving and disseminating information more widely. With broader participation in this project, the CFEETK will be better able to protect and reconstruct the history and archaeology of the Karnak temples. We invite all our Egyptological colleagues to participate: the compilation of the Karnak Archive cannot be successful without your help.

Contact details for the Karnak Archive Project Documentation de Karnak (CFEETK) AmbaFrance Caire 128 bis, rue de l’université 75 351 Paris 07 SP France or Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak BP 63 Luxor Egypt Website: www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr E-mail:documentation@cfeetk.cnrs.fr

or

arnaudies@ifrance.com

Since the beginning of the documentary project of the Karnak Temples, the Franco-Egyptian Centre (CFEETK) has been supported by many institutions world-wide. We would like to thank the following institutions and individuals for agreeing to the use of archival materials regarding the Karnak temples: Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien,Vienna (Helmut Satzinger).

Belgium Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, Brussels (Herman De Meulenaere, Dirk Huyge).

Denmark Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (Mogens Jørgensen).

Egypt Centre d’Étude et de Documentation sur l’Égypte Ancienne, Cairo (Abd el-Hamid Ma’arouf).

France Musée du Louvre, Paris (Christiane Ziegler).

Collège de France, Paris (Nicolas Grimal).

Institut d’Égyptologie, Strasbourg (Claude Traunecker, Annie Schweitzer).

Germany Ägyptisches Museum, Bonn (Isabel Stünkel).

Great Britain Griffith Institute, Oxford (Jaromir Malek).

Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow (Simon Eccles).

Holland Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (Maarten Raven).

United States Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Luxor (Raymond Johnson, Ellie Smith).

❑ Alain Arnaudiès, archivist, manages the documentation unit for the collection and the conservation of the CFEETK archives. This project is directed by François Larché and Nicolas Grimal, both field directors of the CFEETK (CNRS). The author is particularly grateful to staff members Magdi Louiz, Mikhail William and Kristophe Chalmon, and to Charles Van Siclen for his help and advice.

Individuals: CharlesVan Siclen, Jean Jacquet, Helen Jacquet-Gordon and Pierre Tallet.

24

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Digging Diary 2003-2004 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt during the Winter of 20032004 and the Spring of 2004 appear below. Reports of two expeditions (Sharuna and Koptos) which worked in Autumn 2003 are also included under ‘Winter’.The sites are arranged geographically from north to south, with the oases at the end.

Field Directors who would like reports to appear in future issues of EA are asked to send a short summary as soon as possible after the end of each season to Egyptian Archaeology, 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG. E-mail: patricia.spencer@ees.ac.uk PATRICIA SPENCER Abbreviations: EDP Early Dynastic Period: OK Old Kingdom; FIP First Intermediate Period; MK Middle Kingdom; SIP Second Intermediate Period; NK New Kingdom;TIP Third Intermediate Period; LP Late Period.

Institutes and Research Centres: ACE Australian Centre for Egyptology, Macquarie University; ARCE American Research Center in Egypt; AUC American University, Cairo; BM British Museum, London; CNRS French National Research Centre; CFEETK Franco-Egyptian Centre, Karnak; DAI German Institute, Cairo; EAP Egyptian Antiquities Project; IFAO French Institute, Cairo; OI Oriental Institute, Chicago; PMCA Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology; UCL University College London.

SCA Supreme Council for Antiquities.

WINTER 2003-2004 (December-March) Lower Egypt Abu Sir: The Czech Inst of Archaeology team, directed by Miroslav Verner, concluded excavation of the twin pyramid Lepsius no.25. In southern Abu Sir, the examination and reconstruction of the relief decoration in the 6th Dyn tomb of Inti was continued. In the late 26th/early 27th Dyn shaft tomb of Iufaa, the chest of his inner anthropoid sarcophagus was raised from the outer limestone sarcophagus.This technically demanding operation opened access to the inscriptions and vignettes covering both elements. In the western collateral shaft a small intact burial chamber was opened. In it was found in situ a largely decayed anthropoid wooden coffin with the remains of a man named

Gemnefherbak. His relationship to Iufaa is as yet unknown. A geodestic survey of the Abu Sir pyramid field was also concluded this season.

Saqqara: 1. The Mission Archéologique Française du Bubasteion, directed by Alain Zivie (CNRS/Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris) undertook a study season (postponed from Autumn 2003), mainly in tomb Bub. I.27 of Raiay/Hatiay ‘scribe of the treasury of the Aten in Memphis and Akhetaten’. Drawing was almost finished in tomb Bub. I.20 of Maia, and other pre-publication work completed.A project of preservation and presentation of the site and tombs (installation of sensors, analysis in SCA laboratories, urgent conservation work, etc.) was started, in close cooperation with SCA specialists.

2. The joint Leiden Museum/Leiden Univ expedition, directed by Maarten Raven and René van Walsem, has finished excavating the tomb of Horemheb by clearing the forecourt which extends from the previously known (Second) Pylon to the First Pylon discovered in 2003. The First Pylon still stands to a height of c.3m and is built of mudbrick, like the side-walls of the forecourt which measures c.15.5m × 17.5m and is paved with limestone. The eastern entrance has remains of limestone revetment but without inscriptions or reliefs. Several LP shafts and burials were found in this area, as well as deposits of LP and NK pottery, and relief blocks from the tombs of Pay and Raia, Meryneith and Tia. One deposit comprised a robbers’ dump of grave goods from the tomb of Tia and Tia, with fragments of the granodiorite sarcophagus, shabtis, canopic jars, and pieces of wood with the couple’s names. Rare finds were the lid of a coffin for a pet monkey and two fragmentary ‘coffinettes’ of alabaster.The expedition also finished the facsimile drawing of wall paintings in the tomb of Meryneith and continued recording relief fragments, pottery and skeletal material from that tomb.

Helwan: The ACE team, directed by E Christiana Köhler, following the completion of stage 1 of the Facility for Archaeological Research at Helwan (FARAH) in early 2003, was able to set up the study and storage rooms for the season ahead. Fieldwork continued in Operation 4 where 20 new tombs (late 1st Dyn-4th Dyn) were uncovered. They comprise

different types ranging from small pit graves to shaft tombs with solid mudbrick mastabas and cult chapels. A subterranean chamber tomb of the late 2nd Dyn (Op.4/59) contained a fragment of an inscribed funerary stela in a secondary context.The team was also able to open and clear another of Zaki Saad’s on-site storage tombs (Op.3/3) which contained several hundred pottery vessels.Although most date to the EDP one small group is of the MK, again indicating that Helwan continued to be used as a necropolis at least until this time. The team also conserved and studied artefacts and examined human remains from previous seasons.

Upper Egypt: Fayum: An expedition of the Inst of Archaeology, UCL, the Geography Dept, UCL and the Geology Dept, Cairo Univ, directed by Fekri Hassan, Roger Flower and Mohammed Hamden, initiated a multidisciplinary fieldwork programme. Cores were taken from the deepest point (8.4m) in Lake Qarun and seven cores were taken in the Hawara Channel and near the Shedmu Dam (near Itsa). One core, 16m long, records the sedimentary history of the Hawara Channel back to Late Pleistocene sands (c.20000 years BP). The land-cores have been subjected to magnetic susceptibility analysis and are now undergoing sedimentological description and dating at Cairo Univ. One lake-core is being analysed at UCL (another core was deposited in Egypt). To complement a bibliographical survey of recorded sites, visits were made to all the Fayum archaeological sites to assess their state of preservation, any threats posed, confirm their given dates, size and function and to record their exact geographic coordinates.

164 sites were recorded in the Fayum Depression, and a further 21 in the border zones of Beni Suef, Ehnasya and El-Wasta; the collected data was entered into an Access database, which will be linked to a GIS programme to model the changing settlement patterning and water regime from 7200 BC to AD 1000. Packed-mud embankments were found for the damming of the Hawara Channel at Dimishkin (Roman Period) and also at Lahun (MK, Bahlawan Dam). A bathymetric survey using combined GPS/echo sounding equipment was conducted on Lake Qarun to generate a bathymetric

Egypt Exploration Society Expeditions WINTER/SPRING Sais: The EES/Univ of Durham expedition, directed by Penny Wilson, completed excavation of the TIP domestic complex, Ramesside kilns and ovens, and NK wall at Kom Rebwa. A test trench uncovered substantial pottery evidence for an OK settlement at this site. The drill augering programme identified a previously unknown settlement area S of Sa el-Hagar village on an ancient gezira and beside the river. Some diagnostic OK to late NK sherds were found in the core sediments. Analysis of pottery and environmental samples from previous seasons continued.

Nor th Saqqara, Sacred Animal Necropolis: A team led by Paul Nicholson (Univ of Cardiff) conserved and documented a large cache of votive bronze objects discovered in 1995 (see pp.7-9).

Amarna: The expedition directed by Barry Kemp (Univ of Cambridge) completed the reexamination of the house of Ranefer, exposing almost the whole of the plan of the earlier, underlying house. Excavation was begun in adjacent fresh ground, which is a continuation of the housing area. Repairs to the central columned hall of

Amarna. Aerial view of the excavation of the house of Ranefer and the adjacent area. Photograph: Gwil Owen © Egypt Exploration Society the North Palace were completed, as was the relaying of stonework between the three pylons of the Small Aten Temple.The GPS desert survey included the mapping of the stone huts at the entrance to the Royal wadi, and also located two more robbed

25

cemeteries probably both of the Amarna Period.

Gebel es-Silsila and the Wadi Shatt er-Rigal.

Jürgen Osing (Freie Univ Berlin) checked and collated graffiti, rock-drawings and quarry marks to enable the publication of work carried out in the sandstone quarries in the 1970s and 1980s by the late Ricardo Caminos.

Qasr Ibrim: The work, directed by Pamela Rose (EES/Univ of Cambridge), was split between a study season based in Aswan, and a three-week period of excavation at Ibrim itself.

During the former, work continued on studying the artefacts from recent seasons, particularly pottery and archaeobotanical remains. In addition, a project to study the tanning and manufacture of all the leather objects was begun. On site, excavation continued in one of the areas begun in 2000, and concentrated particularly on Napatan Period remains. Several early occupation phases were identified, and parts of at least two mudbrick structures, founded on the gebel surface of the hilltop, were revealed.

Elsewhere on the site, features uncovered as a result of water action were mapped.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

map of the lake. The work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy.

Sharuna (Kom el-Ahmar):The Univ of Tübingen expedition, directed by Béatrice Huber, completed investigations in the OK/FIP settlement, and of the Coptic funerary basilica, confirming, by archaeological and geological drillings, the extent (200m × 200m) of the cemetery around the basilica. A great hermitage covering an area of c.2500m 2 and situated in the desert 800m away from the church, was excavated, revealing a complex funerary chapel (4th-7th/8th centuries) with originally c.30 tombs, a tower of 9m × 9m, domestic installations and other buildings. This was the centre of a laura of more than 25 hermitages occupying pharaonic tombs. A survey was undertaken in the area of Qarara and Qasr al-Banat,10km N of Sharuna,particularly to register early Christian settlements and cemeteries.

Antinoopolis (El-Sheikh Ibada): The Istituto Papirologico ‘G.Vitelli’, Florence, under the direction of Rosario Pintaudi, continued excavation of the high mound in the east part of the town, with the aim of obtaining a complete stratigraphy of the mound. Among the finds were fragments of Greek and Coptic papyri, leather goods, shoes, belts, coins, lamps and various ceramic types, all of the 5th-8th centuries AD. Hundreds of ‘dipinti’ on amphorae have been collected from the excavation and during the surveys in different sectors of the town.

Amarna:The team directed by Marc Gabolde (Univ of Montpellier), assisted by the EES, continued work in the Royal Wadi (Wadi Abu Hassah el-Bahari).

See pp.30-33.

Wadi/Mersa Gawasis: Excavations, directed by Rodolfo Fattovich (Oriental Inst, Naples) and Kathryn Bard (Boston Univ), were conducted at this site c.23km south of Safaga, first excavated in the 1970s by Abdel Moneim Sayed (Univ of Alexandria), who identified it as the MK port of Saaw.

An industrial area was investigated with much evidence of copper smelting, including tuyères, an intact ceramic furnace, and many deposits of ash and charcoal. Associated ceramics are MK. The earliest use of the site is associated with handmade Nubian-like pottery, a microlithic tool industry, a few shell tools, and many fish bones.

Abydos: The DAI expedition, directed by Günter Dreyer, continued work at Umm el-Qaab. At the tomb of Semerkhet old excavation dumps and accumulations of wind-blown sand to the S and W were removed and sifted, revealing large quantities of pottery and stone vessel sherds, small finds, and fragments of ivory, bone and copper objects, all mainly from the neighbouring tombs of Qaa and Den. The tomb of Semerkhet was partly excavated for mapping, revealing many divergences from Petrie’s plan. The tomb and its chambers are not rectangular, and at the SW corner there are five chambers rather than Petrie’s three.Two contain the skeletal remains (probably juvenile females) of subsidiary burials. Traces of fire are confined to the king’s chamber. At the tomb of Khasekhemui material from the northern debris mound (sifted

then used to cover exposed walls) included several seal impressions as well as pottery and stone vessel sherds. Analysis and documentation was finished of the small finds and pottery from the predynastic cemetery U while documentation of small finds and pottery from the tombs of Khasekhemui, Peribsen and Den and pottery processing from cemetery B continued. The treasure, found in 2003 in pots buried E of Den’s tomb, was cleaned and the crumpled gold foil fragments (c.0.5kg) unfolded.The foil and the 6kg of (mainly broken) lapis inlay probably belonged to a coffin. The deposit also contained a bronze, stelophorus Thoth figurine and may be the remains of a rich burial of the 4th century BC. Koptos: The joint mission of the Univ LumièreLyon 2, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, and the Univ Marc Bloch-Strasbourg 2, directed by Laure Pantalacci, continued the topographical survey, including a contour map of the central city (c.500m2). The locations of the nearby tomb of the vizier Khemai and the temple at el-Qala were established by GPS readings. After working in 2002 in the so-called ‘temple of Osiris’ and in the area of the churches, west of the baptistry, excavation was concentrated in the Ptolemaic/Roman temple of Min and Isis, revealing a third gate (S of the two identified and mapped by previous missions). The gate of Min was the central gate of the temple.The three gates were each c.4m-4.20m wide and c.12m deep. They had at least two periods of use, the later floor level being c.1m higher than the first; pillars of Amenhotep II and Tuthmosis III had been used as door sockets in the raising of the floor level.The gate inscriptions were copied and the cataloguing of loose blocks continued.

Karnak:The CFEETK, under the overall direction of François Larché and Nicolas Grimal, continued work on various projects.

1. In the area between the Hatshepsut rooms and the 4th pylon, a sounding made by Guillaume Charloux outside the NE angle of the N rooms of Hatshepsut uncovered the limestone corner block of the first course of the podium of the the MK temple. Several mudbrick walls were discovered, including the continuation of the MK foundations found last year. A narrow sandstone water channel (temp. Amenhotep I on stratigraphic evidence) was found under the pavement of the E Tuthmosis III chapel.This channel runs N for over 20m; to the S, it was cut when Hatshepsut’s rooms were built.

Soundings by Emmanuel Lanoé and Ophélie de Peretti in the courtyards of the 5th pylon show distinct architectural phases though the water table was reached without encountering levels earlier than the 11th Dyn. Further fragments of a sandstone architrave of Sesostris I were found reused, in the S courtyard, as foundations for the bases of the Tuthmosis I colonnade. The architectural study of the colonnade and the 4th and 5th pylons continued. Assuming that the 5th pylon was built by Amenhotep I, the 4th pylon can be attributed to Tuthmosis I. 2. At the Annals wall of Tuthmosis III (6th pylon courtyard) salt and decay have damaged many blocks. In partnership with the Fondation Schiff Giorgini and the World Monuments Fund, digital photography by Antoine Chéné of both faces of the wall and facsimile copies of its decoration by Hélèna Delaporte were completed. The dismantling of the wall was started by Marc Hubert.

3. In order to study the Koptos. The first pylon of the temple of Min and Isis with the gate of Min (at the left) original foundations of the Amenhotep II caland the south gate (at the right). Photograph courtesy of Laure Pantalacci

26

cite chapel, investigations were carried out by François Larché around the foundations of the six obelisks W of the 4th pylon, revealing structural details which show that all six were built at the same time. The N obelisk of Tuthmosis I is set into an earlier mudbrick structure which was demolished to make way for the 4th pylon, 4. In the courtyard between the 8th and 9th pylons, work directed by Charles van Siclen took place on the W side of the court. A mudbrick wall over 6m thick, was discovered running E to W, c.15m S of the 8th Pylon; it descends at least 2m below ground and is apparently the enclosure wall of the MK Amun temple. Beneath and W of Horemheb’s wall, are remains of what is probably the W side of the same wall. S of the MK enclosure was a small forecourt, entered through what may have been a small mudbrick pylon, in front of which, W of the axis, was the raised mudbrick platform of Sesostris I’s limestone barque chapel. Just below the present surface of the court are remains of a long mudbrick wall (probably temp. Amenhotep I) running N to S for c.40m. Inside the court is a two-course foundation of talatat, some of which still have Amarna Period reliefs. Also inside the court are traces of the Coptic granary associated with a small granite millstone and the now lost Coptic monastery which had been built around the 8th Pylon.

5. Work at the Osiris Tomb, directed by François Leclère, concentrated on the southern vaulted chamber, first opened by Henri Chevrier in 1950.

The chamber’s vault, which was in danger of collapse, was dismantled and surface cleaning started, revealing more Osirian burials covered by niches built with red bricks, almost all stamped with the name of Necho II.The visible burials constitute the last of probably three superimposed levels. Nine niches can be seen in the last levels, orientated N to S, and arranged in three main sections. Structural details of the niches were recorded. Excavation continued mainly in the middle section, where the covers of two niches were removed, revealing traces of the buried figurines, mainly composed of an internal body of sand, covered by two layers of plaster. Each is 50cm long, 10-15cm wide, and represents very roughly the shape of the mummified Osiris, with the white crown. On each side are preserved four small models of this figure, representing the Four Sons of Horus and an ovoid object - possibly a scarab. All the figurines seem originally to have been covered with bandages soaked in bitumin or natural resin and covered by a bead net. Some colour traces (mainly blue and red) remain on the surface of the second layer of plaster.

6. At the chapel of Osiris Onnophris Nebdjefa clearance, directed by Laurent Coulon, of the area immediately S of the entrance has been completed, revealing a large mudbrick (probably Ptolemaic) wall.

On the N side of the entrance, the Late Roman settlement has now been fully excavated.Two more blocks belonging to the large lintel with the names of Osiris Nebdjefa, Amasis and Ankhnesneferibre, were recovered. Behind the chapel, nearly 3m higher than its floor level, excavation of a large building revealed new rooms. The S part of the excavated area contained pottery of the 5th and 4th centuries BC.The building resembles late-period storerooms, commonly found in the Delta.

7. Excavations in the area near the wall of Tuthmosis III, directed by Aurélia Masson and Marie Millet, included a deep stratigraphic sounding, revealing eight occupation phases from the FIP to the 13th Dyn. Excavation also continued at the priests’ houses of the 26th/27th Dyns.The street serving the houses is limited to the W by a mudbrick wall and to the E by the houses and is not parallel to the precinct wall of Tuthmosis III. To the S, the street becomes narrower and the houses smaller.

Luxor: The Chicago House (OI) team, directed by W Raymond Johnson, finished construction of the last 265m of new, damp-coursed mastaba storage

EGYPTIAN

platforms for wall-fragments. 14 large Roman column drums, 4 large 18th Dyn blocks, 3 large blocks from the Colonnade Hall, 35 Kushite column drum sections, 31 large Amenhotep III blocks, and 3 miscellaneous blocks were lifted up on to the new platforms. Stone conservator Hiroko Kariya condition-surveyed all the fragments in the blockyard, and treated 117 deteriorating wall fragments, as well as sections of two large Amenhotep III blocks. Digital recording and monitoring of 347 severely deteriorating fragments was undertaken, and a priority list for treatment was compiled based on iconographic importance. On-site photography of selected fragments and fragment groups for analysis continued, including corpora of Tuthmosis III, Kushite, and Ptolemaic blocks, partly recorded last season, all of which reassemble into wall and gate sections which came originally from the Luxor or Karnak temples. The Luxor Temple blockyard protection, conservation and documentation work received funding for this year and next by a Robert W Wilson Challenge for Conserving our Heritage Award and the World Monuments Fund.

Western Thebes: 1. In the Valley of the Kings, the Theban Mapping Project, directed by Kent Weeks, cleared further corridors and chambers in KV5, finding, in the process, 42 columns of carved text, Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, and numerous fragments of carved and brightly painted plaster and stone.A new corridor with at least eight side-chambers has been found on yet another, deeper, level of the tomb, and the number of chambers in KV 5 is now at least 125. In addition, the Project has been working with the SCA to develop a masterplan for the Valley of the Kings, install a visitors’ centre, and make plans to protect the West Bank memorial temples.

2. The University of Basel, MISR (Mission SiptahRamses X) Project, directed by Elina Paulin-Grothe, continued clearing the area E of the tomb of Ramesses X (KV 18). Remains of stone-walled huts were documented as were ostraca and pottery sherds found in the huts and in the overlying debris which also contained decorated wall fragments from the tomb of Seti I (KV 17). Documentation of the finds from the tomb of Seti I and the workmen’s huts continued. Ongoing excavation in the area N of the tomb of Siptah (KV 47) revealed objects from the burial equipment of Siptah and Queen Tiaa. Opposite the entrance of KV 47 one of the ‘lost pits’ in this area was reexcavated. Clearing of debris inside the tomb of Siptah showed that it had been decorated through to the burial chamber (J2) as the remains of painted decoration are still visible on the lower parts of the corridor walls.

3. At Dra Abu el-Naga the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project (ACE), directed by Boyo Ockinga, worked mainly in tomb TT 147 (18th Dyn), undertaking conservation and some reconstruction of the chapel and starting excavation of the forecourt. This revealed a complex stratigraphy above the original floor of the tomb, with two layers of later occupation and several flood levels interspersed with layers of rough rubble from the cliff. Structural investigations showed that the tomb plan was changed during construction because of the nature of the local bedrock. On the S side of the courtyard, against the E wall, the remains of a mudbrick structure, probably a cult emplacement, were found.

A shaft opening directly in front of it was revealed only at the end of the season. TT 147 was decorated for at least two different people but their names are not preserved. However, c.15 funerary cones of an official, Neferrenpet, were found during the excavation of the courtyard. It is likely that Neferrenpet was the senior tomb owner. The remains of later, intrusive burials were found; a ‘wabpriest of Amun’, Khonsmose (21st Dyn) and a ‘God’s Father of Amun’ , Nespautytawy (also 21st Dyn). In TT 148 (Amenemope) conservation work continued and in TT 233 (Saroy and Amenhotep/

ARCHAEOLOGY

Hierakonpolis, cemetery HK43. Flint fish-tail knife with its handle still wrapped in animal hide.

Photograph courtesy of the Hierakonpolis Expedition Huy) the epigraphic record was collated.

4.The team directed by Mohammed el-Bialy (SCA) and José Galan (Spanish Supreme Council for Scientific Research, Madrid) continued work at Dra Abu el-Naga in the open courtyards of the tombs of Djehuty (TT 11) and of Hery (TT 12). The pyramid above Hery was excavated, as was a Saite Period mummification deposit which had been dug into the pyramid when it had partly collapsed. Connected inside to the tomb of Hery is the tomb of a ‘scribe Nebamun’, as stated on several stamped mud bricks found outside its entrance. Human and animal remains were X-rayed, and insects examined by two entomologists. An ‘apprentice’s board’ (see pp.38-40) was restored and prepared for exhibition in the new galleries at the Luxor Museum.

5. A mission led by Marilina Betrò (Univ of Pisa) continued working in the Ramesside tomb of Huy (TT 14) at Dra Abu el-Naga.The first decorated chamber still preserves a painted ceiling showing Huy, as ‘wab-priest of Amenophis I’ and ‘the favourite of Amun’. The tomb, developing along a N-S axis, proceeds into a small vaulted room with a niche, giving access eastwards to an almost square larger room (not yet excavated) and westwards, by a step, to a sloping passage running southwards. The passage, just 1m high, leads to another room on the E side and to a probably later passage on the W side, still filled by debris. Among the finds were pottery and faience shabtis, fragments of painted cartonnage and of wooden funerary equipment, and an inscribed block in carved relief with a prayer to the sun-god.

6. At Deir el-Bahri the work of the Polish (PCMA)-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission at the Hatshepsut temple, directed by Zbigniew Szafranski, concentrated on the Upper Terrace, with restoration in the Solar-Cult Complex, conservation in the Northern Chapel of Amun-Re, and continued documentation work in the complex of the Royal Mortuary Cult. One of Hatshepsut’s Osirid figures in the Upper Portico was restored and the two colossi that once flanked the wings of the Lower Portico were studied. In the Chapel of Hatshepsut a test trench, in the pavement at the base of the N wall, revealed two shafts hewn in the bedrock. Shaft 7A/82 had first been located in 1982. It is more than 6m deep and leads to an undecorated burial chamber, located to the W. Both the shaft and burial chamber contained remains of TIP burials and Coptic material disturbed in the 19th/20th centuries. Full exploration of the shaft will be undertaken next season. Shaft S.1/04 was unearthed in the NE corner of the Chapel, hewn in the bedrock, c.80cm under the pavement. The uppermost part of the shaft contained a mix of funerary and chapel equipment, together with small fragments of decorated blocks from the walls of the Complex. A few fragments seem to be from the Tuthmosis III temple and were moved to its storage room, where work continued on the theoretical reconstruction of the decorative relief scheme.

7. In Asasif, an expedition from the Ägyptologisches Inst, Univ of Tübingen, directed by Farouk Gomaa, undertook a second excavation season at the tomb of Padineith (TT 197). The second court and the room to its south with the shaft and burial chamber have now been completely cleared of debris. In

27

this part of the tomb some later burials with finds were excavated. A ramp leads to the main entrance of the tomb with its staircases, and a mudbrick gate with sandstone decorated blocks was uncovered and restored. The blocks bear the name of the owner and other religious texts. At least two blocks name Padineith’s oldest son, Sheshonk.

8.At Qurna the Mission archéologique dans la Nécropole thébaine, directed by Roland Tefnin, excavated the last subterranean room of the tomb of the Vizier Amenemope (TT 29, reign of Amenhotep II).

Beneath a LP layer containing two poor mummies, some burned and scattered remains of what seems to have been a NK resting place were discovered.

Thousands of faience shabtis were found, many with the name of ‘the Divine Father, Chief of the Jewellers of the Domain of Amun, Iway’, while a beautifully-painted large shabti bore the name of ‘the nbt pr May’. The Coptic material from TT 29 (ceramics and ostraca) was studied in depth in preparation for publication. In the tomb of Sennefer (TT 96), the consolidation of the roof of the passage continued and is now almost complete.

9.The team from the Centro Comasco di Egittologia F. Ballerini, Como, directed by Angelo Sesana, continued excavation at the temple of Amenhotep II. The central ramp leading to the inner part of the temple is now almost completely cleared and to its S a smaller side ramp has been discovered, suggesting there was originally a symmetrical ramp on the N side. Between the central and S ramps the scant remains of two sarcophagi were found. Of one, only faint traces were still visible. The other (late 22nd/ early 23rd Dyn) was partly preserved, with the owner’s name, Bakenptah, written in black on a yellow background. In the N area a long mudbrick wall has now been almost completely cleared. Not all the excavated walls belong to the original temple but this wall surely does as it is founded on the bedrock and contains many mud bricks with the prenomen Aakheperure. In the W area of the temple is a line of several column bases and there is evidence for a second row and maybe a third. In the area of the innermost part of the temple later reuse has obscured the original plan but foundation stones lying on the bedrock were found.

10. The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project continued work at Kom el-Hettan, under the direction of Hourig Sourouzian. In the area of the 2nd Pylon, the E whitewashed façade of the N wing (with two large flagpole niches) was revealed and the broken colossus was again uncovered. Its parts were removed from the mud and conserved. In the Peristyle Court, five life-sized Sekhmet statues were discovered in the E and N porticos under heaps of rubble left by stone quarriers. In the N portico the monumental alabaster hippopotamus statue was re-excavated and removed for cleaning and conservation. During clearance of the S and N porticos several parts and fragments of standing royal colossi were found, including a red granite torso, a quartzite torso and parts of a statue base with depictions of northern foes. All were documented, cleaned and conserved for future reassembly (see further p.20). Restoration and documentation continued in the workshops, as did architectural research in the Hypostyle Hall and the W portico of the Peristyle Court. Resistivity and geomagnetic surveys were undertaken in the area of the temple sanctuaries and between the 2nd and 3rd pylons.

11. At Medinet Habu, the Chicago House (OI) teams, under the overall direction of W Raymond Johnson, finished cleaning and photography in the final two rooms of the sanctuary of the 18th Dyn temple, and the paint collation and review of all of the drawings of the painted reliefs and graffiti in those rooms. A new aluminium and frosted glass skylight was installed over the front ‘dyad chamber’ roof. The conservation work, funded by USAID through the EAP of ARCE, will be published later

EGYPTIAN

in the ARCE/EAP series as part of the EAP grant package. Epigraphic work continued for publication of the barque sanctuary and ambulatory.

12. At Deir el-Medina an extensive programme of work was carried out by various IFAO scholars, under the overall direction of Nadine Cherpion.

Studies of basketry and NK ceramics were continued and architectural studies, epigraphy and research on scenes and inscriptions took place in TT 218 (Amennakht), TT219 (Nebenmaat), TT 220 (Khameteri) and TT 335 (Nakhtamun). In TT 323 (Peshedu), during cleaning of the tomb, a chamber containing 27 mummies, perhaps all members of one family, was discovered. Photographs were taken of the demotic graffiti in the temple and a survey made of the mounds of debris in the area north of the temple, along the foothills of the Theban mountain and north of the Qurnet Murai hill, as this zone is the only part of the site still unexplored.

Excavation (by an IFAO/Louvre Museum team, led

by Guillemette Andreu) was initiated in the region of the Great Well, to continue the last work of Bruyère. Preliminary investigations uncovered 150 ostraca; 116 in hieratic with the remainder being figured or written in demotic or Coptic. Other finds included two reliefs (one a trial-piece) with royal heads, fragments of stelae, basins and offering tables, pieces of painted wall plaster, seal impressions, elements of wooden furniture and female figurines.

Elkab: The BM team, directed by Vivian Davies, continued work on the conservation and recording of the 17th Dyn tomb (no.10) of Sobeknakht. Good progress was made in cleaning the ceiling, which is decorated along its length with a delicate painting of a cedar-wood beam, coloured yellow with the grain and knots of the wood in red, and the area of the central doorway, where an unusual motif was uncovered above the lintel: a large udjat-eye flanked by a series of falcon heads.There was further cleaning and study of the historical inscription on the doorway’s right jamb discovered last season (see EA 23 pp.3-6), resulting in significant new readings.

Hierakonpolis: The BM/Univ of Arkansas expedition, directed by Reneé Friedman, resumed exploration of the Nubian C-Group Cemetery (HK27C) first identified in 2001. Excavations (funded by the Schiff-Giorgini Foundation) revealed 16 additional MK graves, all of which had features identifying the owners as Nubians of the C-Group culture, including distinctive Nubian pottery, brick tumuli and leather clothing. One grave contained the body of an older woman who was tattooed on her arm, hand and abdomen. In collaboration with Izumi Takamiya (Kinki Univ, Japan) the predynastic pottery kilns in the wadi (HK11) were examined, including part of a structure containing 3 ovens with firebars still in situ. Excavation of the predynastic cemetery at HK43 was concluded: 88 graves have been excavated and no further graves remain in the endangered part of the cemetery. A rare example of a fishtail flint knife still hafted to its bamboo-like handle was recovered from the rich grave of a middle-aged male. It was wrapped in an animal hide, with the blade sheathed in leather.

Hagr Edfu: The BM expedition, led by Vivian Davies, continued cleaning the tomb (no.1) of Hathoremkhabet called Sataimau, of the reign of Amenhotep I. This work is now well advanced.

During the season, a fine painted scene depicting the owner hunting in a desert landscape was revealed on the east wall and traces of grid lines in red, among the earliest known examples from the 18th Dyn, were documented on the south wall.The use of artists’ grids in this tomb appears to have been selective. Planning was also begun of two adjacent tombs (nos.2 and 3) and both were protected by the installation of metal cages on their façades.

Aswan (Syene): The Swiss Institute/SCA Aswan team, headed by Cornelius von Pilgrim and Mohi ed-Din, and directed in the field by Kai-Christian Bruhn, continued excavations in the late Roman

ARCHAEOLOGY

domestic quarters south of the Isis temple. A small rescue excavation was carried out in the centre of the modern town, revealing remains of substantial Byzantine buildings In addition a large-scale rescue operation started in a vacant garden area opposite the New Coptic Basilica, where the local authorities intend to extend the water supply system.

Beneath a layer, at least 3m thick, of debris consisting of the levelled remains of the former medieval kom, two occupation layers dating to the Ptolemaic and early Roman Periods were investigated.A sandstone altar standing in an open area beside a tree points to a Ptolemaic religious function for the area.

In two sondages a massive earlier enclosure wall was identified; it can be dated to the end of the LP. Kharga Oasis: The North Kharga Oasis Survey, directed by Salima Ikram (AUC) and Corinna Rossi (Cambridge Univ), focused on the sites of Ain elTarakwa and Ain el-Dabashiya (in Kharga Oasis), and the Darb Ain Amur. The first two sites, never properly investigated before, were surveyed with a combination of theodolite and GPS, with the most important buildings and the accessible tombs surveyed in detail. Ceramics, small finds, human and animal remains, and archaeobotanical samples were also studied. Ain el-Tarakwa consists of a sandstone temple surrounded by a mudbrick enclosure wall, with internal mudbrick constructions, including a

church, and is surrounded by a cemetery and several wells. At Ain el-Dabashiya the original mudbrick temple, half-covered by modern dwellings, is surrounded by extensive cultivations and processing areas, including a well-preserved pigeon tower. New discoveries in the area (used from the 27th Dyn to the Roman Period) include a canid cemetery. At the fort of Mohammed Tuleib the remains of another temple were identified, and a general map was prepared at Ain Lebekha. A section of the Darb Ain Amur, between Umm el-Dabadib and Ain Amur, was explored and several prehistoric and dynastic petroglyphs were discovered, including an EDP serekh with the name of a new king.

SPRING 2004 (March-May) Lower Egypt Tell el-Balamun:The BM expedition, directed by Jeffrey Spencer, continued investigation of the Roman street which bisected the ancient town on the line of the dynastic temple axis. Remains of kerbstones and fragmentary paving blocks were found. Excavation was also carried out in front of the subsidiary temple of Nectanebo I, where a complex sand-filled foundation, lined with mudbrick, was exposed. Although no remains of the temple are preserved above the foundation-level, loose blocks include an inscribed limestone wall

Tell el-Balamun ❑ Buto ❑ ❑ Sais

31°N

❑ TellTinnis ❑ Tell Ibrahim Awad

100 km

Wadi Natrun

30° ⇐ Siwa Oasis

Abu Rawash ❑ Cairo Giza ❑ Abu Sir, Memphis,Saqqara ❑ ❑ Helwan Soknopaiou Nesos ❑

❑ El-Bawiti

29°

Sinai Peninsula

Lake Qarun

Bahariya Oasis

❑ Dimishkin, Lahun

Fayum ❑ Qarara, Qasr el-Banat ❑ Sharuna

28° Tuna el-Gebel❑

❑ Antinoopolis ❑ Deir el-Barsha ❑ Amarna

Eastern Desert

27° Athribisl❑

Wadi/Mersa Gawasis ❑ ❑ Koptos

Abydosl❑

26° Kharga Oasis ❑ Mohammed Tuleib Darb Ain Amur ❑ ❑ Ain el-Tarakwa, Ain el-Dabashiya

25°

Dakhla Oasis

Western Thebes ❑ ❑ Karnak, Luxor

Hierakonpolis ❑ ❑ Elkab Hagr Edfu ❑

Gebel Gulab, Gebel Tingar ❑

Aswan

24°

23°

Key: Names in bold type: subjects of main articles

Names in normal type: ‘Digging Diary’ or ‘Notes and News’ entries

Lake Nasser

A Qasr Ibrim ❑

29°E

30°

28

31°

32°

33°

34°

EGYPTIAN

fragment describing offerings to Amun, and an unfinished element of a basalt gateway.

Tell Tinnis: Alison Gascoigne and Jean-Michel Mouton under the auspices of IFAO, carried out a GPS survey of the site and made geophysical trials (using a fluxgate gradiometer) with some success. A survey was undertaken of the architectural remains of the water system and some small sondages made to investigate the fortifications.

Buto (Tell el-Farain): The DAI work directed by Ulrich Hartung continued N of the village of Sekhmawy at the W part of the site exposing further TIP and Saite structures (see EA 24, pp.14-17).

Numerous small ovens and huge deposits of ash indicate that the excavated area was a TIP industrial zone while the main TIP settlement seems to have been situated further to the E. The purpose of the ovens is not yet clear as neither slags nor wasters were found. Immediately below these remains, courses of ED walls are showing up now in an area of more than 1000m2. They belong in part to an adminstrative building complex of the 1st/2nd Dyns and await further investigation. In cooperation with the DAI a Univ of Poitiers team, directed by Pascale Ballet, continued excavation of Late Ptolemaic/Early Roman pottery kilns on the northern slope of the Kom (see EA 24, pp.18-19).

Tell Ibrahim Awad. The Netherlands Foundation for Archaeological Research in Egypt expedition, directed by Willem van Haarlem, undertook a short study season of pottery fragments found in several layers of the cemetery and settlement area of the Late OK/FIP. In addition, flint implements, from the same areas, were documented to enable comparison with those from the temple area and 17 pottery vessels were registered, mainly the large offering stands from one of the first temple deposits, discovered in 1993.

Abu Rawash: The team (Univ of Geneva/IFAO), directed by MichelValloggia, continued work in the pyramid complex of Radjedef. A trench excavation c. 20m long S of the pyramid revealed no constructed elements but this area seems to have been used as a quarry in antiquity. In 1842 Lepsius reported the existence, in the SW sector, of a hill which at that time resembled a satellite pyramid, but a survey showed that it was probably the start of local limestone exploitation. In the outer precinct of the funerary complex, the soft erosion of the NW area allowed the clearing of important vestiges of the remains. In the N, a section c.144m long of a wall has been cleared, as well as two monumental gateways. The wall turns a rounded corner and continues towards the S for more than 120m. A third monumental gateway has been discovered there. In the E sector of the complex clearing revealed various constructional stages in the E precinct. The E dependencies, excavated last year, have been reconstructed and excavation extended to the E structures.

Among the finds, in addition to ceramics, there were, notably, flint knives and a clay seal impression.

Giza. An SCA team, directed by Zahi Hawass, has been working 10m north of the causeway of Khafre and west of the Sphinx, in the area where the 26th Dyn ‘Campbell’s Tomb’ and ‘Tomb of Osiris’ are located. Another rock-cut shaft tomb, which appears also to belong to the 26th Dyn, was discovered.

The 3m × 3m shaft descended for c.10m at which point niches were found cut into the rock. One contained a wooden box full of 408 small shabtis.

They are each c.6cm high and are uninscribed. Excavation of the shaft is continuing and it may be another 10m before the burial chamber is reached.

This tomb would seem to be intact.

Saqqara.

1. The SCA expedition working in the area of the pyramids of Khuit and Iput, under the direction of Zahi Hawass, has completed excavation, photography and recording of objects found during the work. Special attention was paid to NK and 26th Dyn artefacts from tombs discovered in the

ARCHAEOLOGY

area.The expedition also identified the location of the tomb of Mose.

2. The DAI mission, directed by Günter Dreyer (in cooperation with Peter Munro), continued excavation at the tomb of Ninetjer. On the walls of the corridors are remains of a light brown tafl-plaster, which also occurs in most of the galleries and some chambers, leaving no doubt that all the subterranean structures belong to the period of Ninetjer. The ground plan of Ninetjer’s tomb seems quite irregular, almost a labyrinth, and quite unsuitable for the storage of goods as the corridors and passages occupy much more space than the cham- Athribis. General view over the ancient site. Photograph: Athribis Mission bers.The tomb was clearly enlarged temple of the goddess Repit. An overall survey of and altered in several building stages. Still more or the standing walls and fallen blocks has distinguished less unexplored is the SE part, where only one chamvarious forms of damage and a catalogue has been ber (H 300) was emptied by the expedition, revealestablished for different types of damage to building the heavily disturbed remains of several muming stones, plasters and paint layers. A preliminary mies lying on a mastaba bench in front of the N conservation programme was developed. The wall. The mastaba had been enlarged for these secepigraphic survey of the temple of Repit (Ptolemy ondary burials and covered with mud plaster which XII) was begun with complete photographic docucontained many stone vessel sherds and mud seals mentation of the inscriptions and decoration. from the original contents of the chamber.The imKarnak: pressions all show the Horus name of Ninetjer and 1. The CFEETK, under the overall direction of the ‘palace of the harpooning Horus at Buto’.

François Larché and Nicolas Grimal, worked in Tuthmosis III’s Akh Menu temple (the Festival Upper Egypt: Hall). Julie Masquelier completed the facsimile copyTuna el-Gebel: The joint mission of the Univs of ing of scenes and inscriptions of the southern Cairo and Munich, directed by Dieter Kessler, magazines and their corridor.Traces of an axial door worked outside and E of the animal cemetery with have been identified in the W wall of the temple. final excavation of the so-called Compound C, a 2. In cooperation with the CFEETK, a project to large Ptolemaic storage and administrative complex. investigate landscape evolution and the hydrolA test trench E of Compound C and the tomb of ogy of Karnak was undertaken by a team, led by Djedthothefankh revealed an important area of Angus Graham, with 14 boreholes being augered. tombs. A Roman tomb (2nd century AD and Around 25 different types of object were recovered reused later) consists of a limestone platform (5.80m including beads and seal impressions as well as a × 6m) with brick superstructures for burials. Hunwide range of stones, plant remains, teeth and bones. dreds of small finds came from over 17 plundered The appearance of ubiquitous desert polished quartz mummies.The S wall of the Roman tomb reused a grains a metre below the MK levels is indicative of much older tomb façade, carefully constructed of environmental change. Interpretation of the heavy limestone blocks. This older tomb, with an sedimentological data reveals that during the develentrance façade of more than 12m and with four opment of the temple site new land was added to half columns, lies exactly in line with the tomb of the W and N of the original temple.

Djedthothefankh and may also belong to the (Early) Aswan (Gebel Gulab and Gebel Tingar): a Ptolemaic Period. A broad limestone ramp with an British/Norwegian team led by Elizabeth Bloxam altar in front led to the entrance. Further survey (UCL) and sponsored by the Norwegian Geological work inside the animal galleries led again to the Survey, surveyed the silicified sandstone (often discovery of hundreds of wooden pieces, bronzes, termed quartzite) quarries at Gebel Gulab and Gebel faience figures, etc. Previously unattested in the Tingar (west bank, Aswan) which are currently galleries, some Roman coins (2nd century AD) and under threat from modern development.The archone coin from AD 293 were also found. aeological and geological survey located numerous Deir el-Barsha:The Archaeological Mission of the occurrences of previously undocumented PreKatholieke Univ Leuven, directed by Harco dynastic Period to Graeco-Roman Period rock art, Willems, continued work (see further pp.10-12). hieroglyphic inscriptions and a 1m × 1.5m rock Research at the OK rock tombs on the N slope of engraving of a NK barge. New areas of obelisk the Wadi Nakhla has now revealed a probably quite extraction were located as well as partially worked extensive reuse in the MK, with evidence for stelae which together with ‘industry based’ further SIP reuse. Recording of the demotic and production of grinding stones, implies that the pictorial graffiti in five large quarries (temp. quarries were one of the major sources of silicified Nectanebo I) was finished. In the plain, work on sandstone, particularly during the NK. The Roman the walled tomb complexes proceeded. Drill cores Period presence is less than previously thought, in the W parts of the village and the cultivation to suggesting that the sophisticated networks of quarry its W illustrate its westward extension and showed roads are predominantly NK in date. that an ancient Nile branch once immediately passed Bahariya Oasis.The SCA expedition, directed by by the village.

Zahi Hawass, has identifed two further tombs Athribis: The joint Univ of Cologne/SCA Sohag beneath modern houses in el-Bawiti, site of the tomb project directed by Christian Leitz and led in the of the governor of Bahariya, his father Padiese and field by Rafed El-Sayed (Cologne) and Yahya Elhis wife Nasa II.The newly-discovered tombs have Masry (Sohag) continued the general site survey of not yet been excavated but seem to be intact. the site, 80% of which has now been planned. Elevations were made of most of the visible I would like to thank the following for assistance in comarchitecture. The inscriptions of the so-called gate piling this edition of Digging Diary: Lisa Giddy, David of ‘Physcon’ (Ptolemy IX) were collated for pubJeffreys,Chris Naunton, Jeffrey Spencer and Sylvie Weens. lication in a first volume together with the I am also grateful to Barry Kemp, Laura Pantalacci, Renée architectural history of the gate. Conservation studies Friedman and Rafed el-Sayed for providing photographs. concentrated on the highly endangered limestone

29

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The royal necropolis at Tell el-Amarna The royal necropolis at Tell el-Amarna is currently being investigated by an expedition from the Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III. The work was described by Marc Gabolde at the EES Study-Day in November 2003. Here he and Amanda Dunsmore summarise the results and discuss the implications for interpreting events at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Five tombs are known in the royal necropolis at Tell el-Amarna (the Wadi Abu Hassah el-Bahari): the royal tomb (No. 26) in the main wadi, three unfinished tombs (Nos.27-29) in a side wadi, and what from its small size appears to be an embalmer’s cache (No.30) just north of the royal tomb. Previous work in the necropolis has been extensive, with the tombs first having been cleared by Alexandre Barsanti at the end of the nineteenth century. However, the main excavations and publications were undertaken for the Egypt Exploration Society; by John Pendlebury in the 1930s, and by Geoffrey Martin and Ali el-Khouly in the 1970s and 1980s. Nevertheless, some work still remained to be done and in 1999 the expedition of the Université Paul Valéry–Montpellier III began its investigations.

The first aim of the project was to produce an archaeological and topographical map of the necropolis, as all that existed were Waddington’s rough sketches made during the Pendlebury expedition in the 1930s.

The second aim was to investigate the modern spoil heaps and surrounding areas of the tombs to attempt to answer long-standing questions concerning who was buried where and when.

The royal tomb (No.26) is the only decorated tomb in the necropolis. From the evidence of reliefs, inscriptions and fragments of funerary equipment it is clear that Akhenaten himself, his mother Queen Tiye and three of Akhenaten’s daughters were buried there. The large unfinished suite of rooms off to the right of the main corridor is uninscribed and it is tempting The upper part of a shabti of Akhenaten from a recent to attribute it to Nefertiti. As dump in front of tomb No.27 the king clearly wanted to be buried close to his three daughters and mother, it is hard to imagine that Nefertiti was not intended to be buried in the royal tomb as well. Moreover, the text from the boundary stelae foresees the ‘burials’ of the queen and her children in the same ‘tomb’ as that of Akhenaten himself. Despite this, it is clear that Nefertiti was never buried in the royal tomb: there are no reliefs relating to her funeral rites and no traces of her

View of the excavation in front of tomb No.29 during the 2003-2004 season

30

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Topographical and archaeological map of the Amarna royal necropolis

31

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

corridor dimensions are exactly the same as those of the royal tomb and the presence of a ramp in the middle of the stairway is otherwise attested only in Akhenaten’s tomb at Amarna. However, only the first corridor was finished and there is no trace of a burial.

It was most likely cut for one of the successors of Akhenaten, probably the female pharaoh Nefer nefer uaten, rather than Smenkhkare or Tutankhamun who never ruled at Amarna. The shabti fragment of Akhenaten, found in the dump in front of the entrance, was probably moved from the royal tomb in the 1930s.

Tomb No.29 is impressive. Four corridors were cut and plastered but the burial chamber was never completed and the tomb is undecorated. The dimensions of the doorways and corridors are similar to the lateral suite on the right hand side of the royal tomb. Tomb No.29’s location would suggest that it was cut for the burial of a royal wife of lesser rank, rather than for Nefertiti. Excavation of Barsanti’s dump provided no specific evidence of burial but yielded a large quantity of pottery. One jar docket is clearly dated to year 1, which must refer to Akhenaten’s successor because of the title of the vintner. An udjat-eye, roughly worked, can hardly be part of a royal funerary object and was probably a workman’s amulet. This evidence, together with the large number of stone pounders found in the wadi (160) and also in Barsanti’s dump (40) strongly suggests that tomb No.29 was used as a storage place by the workmen engaged on tomb No.27 further down

Udjat-eye amulet from Barsanti’s dump

bur ial equipment, most notably no sarcophagus fragments. However, early in 1933 a shabti fragment of Nefertiti entered the Brooklyn Museum and it can be assumed that it was found by locals during Pendlebury’s exc-avation of the royal necropolis at Amarna. The fragment shows that Nefertiti died as queen and that she was not, therefore, the female successor of Akhenaten. When Nefertiti died, shortly before her husband, the royal tomb was already the burial place of four members of the royal family. It was necessary to leave sufficient room for the burial of the king, and the big suite on the right of the tomb, probably intended for the queen, was still unfinished. The possibility thus arises that Nefertiti was temporarily buried in another tomb, awaiting the completion of her own burial chambers.

The three other tombs in the royal necropolis are located about 500m from the royal tomb. The first one, tomb 27, was clearly also intended for the burial of a member of the royal family. The doorway and Wine jar with cut-off neck and label over the taster hole

Plan showing the area excavated in 2001-2004

32

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Stratigraphy east-west in front of tomb No.29 Description A) sand, few limestone chips, few sherds B) limestone chips, few sherds C) sand, sandstone fragments, few sherds D) sand, few limestone chips, big sherds, pounders, fragments of gypsum E) sand, few limestone chips, few sherds F) natural surface covered with grey sand

Interpretation A) levelled off rubbish from the 1984 excavations B) original cutting dump of the lower part of tomb No.29 (limestone) C) original cutting dump of the upper part of tomb No.29 (sandstone) D) dump from the emptying of tomb No.29 by Barsanti E) dump from the 1984 excavation F) natural fill before any ancient work or modern excavation

the wadi. Also from the cutting-dump of tomb No.29 are several shoulder sherds of a Canaanite amphora with post-firing decoration and a hieratic docket reading ‘(boiled) butter (semy) for the house of the Noble (?)[…]’.

Tomb No.28 is smaller than No.29 but is the only finished tomb in the necropolis, with its entrance only 7.5m north of No.29. The dimensions of the stairway and door are closest to those of the princesses’ rooms in the royal tomb and the remaining rooms are of roughly the same proportions. This suggests that the tomb was originally cut for a prince or a princess who was related to the owner of the adjacent tomb No.29.

The identity of the original owners of tombs Nos.28 and 29 is suggested by their locations, dimensions and the material evidence; they may have been cut for a secondary wife of the king and her child, possibly Kiya and her daughter, probably Baketaten. This scenario would fit well with what is known of Kiya, whose funerary equipment was re-used for the burial in KV

55 at Thebes after she fell from grace or died. It would not be surprising, then, that her tomb at Amarna was used as a storage place by the workmen engaged on tomb No.27 after the death of Akhenaten.

Nevertheless, it is clear that a burial did occur in the side wadi, in either tomb No.28 or tomb No.29.

Numerous fragments have been found of blue-green faience plaques which undoubtedly belonged to a luxurious piece of funerary equipment. In addition, the lower part of a shabti coffin was discovered by Martin and el-Khouly and a fragment of a faience object, looking at first sight like a ‘New-Year’ flask, was found downhill from the tombs and can hardly be considered a workmen’s implement. At present, these results would suggest that, if a burial occurred, it was probably in tomb No.28, the modern dump of which is scheduled to be investigated in the next season.

The recent investigations in the royal necropolis have concentrated mostly on topographical work and the study of the ceramics. With the exception of the large quantities of pottery, the material found appears rather poor but it must be remembered that most of the funerary equipment, except the heavy sarcophagi which were broken into pieces, was moved to Thebes probably in year 3 of Akhenaten’s successor and that previous excavations have already uncovered the most significant items. What remains is consequently only what has been spared by the centuries and also escaped the eyes of earlier archaeologists.In spite of this, the new data provides some clues for understanding the history of the site and, as so often happens, highlights further areas for investigation. In doing so we hope to reduce what is still the most impressive aspect of studies on the Amarna Period: the speculation.

Wine docket with ‘Year 1’ of a successor of Akhenaten

Ostracon, from the dump of tomb 29, reading ‘male’

(Boiled) butter docket with mention of ‘house of the Noble (?)...’

❑ Marc Gabolde is Lecturer (Maître de Conférences) at the Université Paul Valéry - Montpellier III and Director of the expedition in the Wadi Abu Hassah al-Bahari. Amanda Dunsmore is Assistant Curator, Decorative Arts (International) at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Fragment of a faience flask (?) from the water course of the side wadi

33

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Excavations at Soknopaiou Nesos (Dime) Since 2001 an Italian mission has been excavating at the Graeco-Roman town of Soknopaiou Nesos (Dime) in the Fayum. Paola Davoli reports on the results of the expedition.

The Italian Joint Archaeological Mission of Bologna and Lecce universities, directed by Sergio Pernigotti (Bologna University) and by Mario Capasso (Lecce University), started work in 2001at Soknopaiou Nesos (Dime), a Graeco-Roman town north of Lake Qarun in the Fayum. The first aim of the expedition was to prepare a topographical map of the entire archaeological area, as the only published map of the site is that of Karl Lepsius, who visited the ruins in July 1843.

From an archaeological point of view Dime is not well known and very little has been published about it, despite the fact that it is in a good state of preservation. The only archaeological excavation to be undertaken using stratigraphic methods was in 1932, by the Archaeological Mission of Michigan University directed by Ernest Peterson. There have, however, been many other ‘excavations’ over the years, the sole purpose of which was to find objects and papyri. In fact many papyri, now housed in various collections, were discovered at this site.

The topographical survey (2001-2002) of the present mission has enabled us to learn a great deal about the

archaeological area, which measures 640m from north to south and 320m from east to west. During the survey all the visible above-ground buildings were catalogued and a scientific topographical map was drawn up. The plan was realised by topographers and archaeologists of Bologna University, from the Department of Archaeology and from DISTART (Dipartimento di Ingegneria delle Strutture, dei Trasporti, delle Acque, del Rilevamento, del Territorio) using modern methods of topographical surface survey as well as by means of a series of photographs taken at low altitude using a specially equipped aerostatic balloon and a digital terrain model (DTM) was obtained for the site. The DTM provides the base for different representation products and is useful at different stages of the study; some examples are contour maps and shaded relief maps.

During the survey various structures were identified, such as houses, insulae, large enclosures, temples, and kiosks on the dromos. The area inside the enclosure of the temenos of the main temple, dedicated to the crocodile god Soknopaios, is of great interest. Numerous buildings in mud-brick and stone are still partially pre-

Aerial view of the temple (courtesy of DISTART)

34

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

View of the site from the south, showing the dromos and the temenos of the great temple

served. Some of them were subsidiary buildings while others were small temples and chapels in both Egyptian and classical styles.

In February-March 2003 a more in-depth archaeological investigation was undertaken inside this great temple enclosure, which still dominates the ruins of the ancient town and within which no scientific excavation work had ever taken place. Although nothing was known about its use and chronological evolution, the temple of Soknopaios is well known as the provenance of numerous statues, architectural elements, and a large number of Greek and demotic papyri belonging to the temple archives which have been brought to light there. The area was also extensively quarried

as the many stone structures provided a good source for building materials. What is left today is a large, irregular enclosure which measures 122.30m × 84.37m, surrounded by mud-brick walls which are c.3m thick, 10m in height and mostly still well preserved.The main entrance was about halfway along the southern flank, at the end of a paved road, the dromos, which ran southwards for about 400m, dividing the ancient settlement into two parts.

In the middle of the enclosure there is a building which can, by its position and plan, be easily identified as the temple proper. Its entrance faces south, opposite the original gateway in the temenos and the dromos.This temple (32.53m × 18.90m) is preserved to

Plan of the northern part of the town with the temenos (squares of 20m)

35

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The courtyard from the south-east

The courtyard from the north

at least 5m in height and was built in local stone originally covered with a heavy layer of plaster, which only partially remains today. The building is surrounded by a mud-brick wall and its general plan is that of a small Egyptian temple of the Graeco-Roman Period, but it has a second door in the northern wall opposite the main entrance, at the rear of the naos. Beyond this door, in the middle of the enclosure, there is an area of c.60m × 20m where a large number of blocks and lintels cut from different types of local stone lie. They may represent the remains of one or possibly more as yet unknown monumental buildings.

The excavation started from the northern side of the temple, in order to understand how and when it was enlarged northwards.The sector under excavation was 20m wide (east to west) and 7m long (north to south).

It turned out to be a large courtyard surrounded by walls and paved in local stone. In front of the rear door of the temple and on the other side of the courtyard is an imposing wall built in the Roman Period with local isodomic sandstone blocks belonging to a building which has not yet been excavated.

At this stage we can hypothesise that the original

temple, dedicated to the crocodile god Soknopaios and founded during the Hellenistic Period, was enlarged northwards in the Roman Period. Although the interior of the temple has yet to be excavated, subsequent building phases, which gradually altered its plan, can be recognised. The four gateways, of which two are internal, were built with fine sandstone blocks on the longitudinal axis and probably date back to the last of the restructuring phases. The fourth gateway was opened in the back wall of the naos and led into the courtyard, revealed in 2003. On the opposite side of the courtyard and on the same axis there was another gateway in the sandstone block wall belonging to the Roman Period building. At this stage in the research this building phase cannot be dated more precisely.

Among the objects found during the 2003 season were a piece of a wooden naos with the Horus name of Ptolemy III, a small scarab with the inscription nzw bit, the face of an anthropoid sarcophagus (probably Late Period), 80 demotic ostraca, a few dozen fragments of Greek and demotic documentary papyri and nine figured magical papyri, many of which were still rolled up, tied with papyrus fibre and sealed with mud.

From the results so far obtained it would seem that the temple of Soknopaios at Dime was constructed in the Hellenistic Period and then enlarged in the Roman Period, when a new building was added behind the older temple, which then served as a passageway to the new Roman temple. This later temple seems to have been built according to the same techniques and in the same style as can be seen at other sites in the Fayum, such as Karanis, Bakchias, Narmouthis and Dionysias. ❑ Paola Davoli is Field Director of The Italian Joint Archaeolog ical Mission of Bologna and Lecce Universities (working at Bakchias and Soknopaiou Nesos) and Professor in Egyptology at Lecce University.

The temple of Soknopaios from the south

36

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Notice Board Egypt Exploration Society Events London

Manchester

Cairo

Saturday 13 November, 2004. EES Study Day Memphis: within the White Walls in the Brunei Gallery Theatre at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG. Speakers: Penny Wilson, Dorothy Thompson, David Jeffreys and Janine Bourriau. Details: EES London Office (contact@ees.ac.uk).

Manchester lectures are held in Lecture Theatre 1, Stopford Building (1st floor), University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester (NB: new venue) at 7.00 pm. Enquiries: Rosalie David, KNH Centre of Biomedical Egyptology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT. Phone: + 44 (0)161 275 2647. E-mail:

EES lectures are held in the auditorium of the British Council at 7.00 pm. Enquiries: Rawya Ismail, EES Cairo Office, c/o British Council, 192 Sharia el-Nil, Agouza, Cairo. Phone: +20 (0)2 3001886.

E-mail: ees.cairo@britishcouncil.org.eg

Saturday 4 December, 2004. The EES Annual General Meeting, lecture and reception will take place in the afternoon/early evening in the Br unei Gallery Theatre at SOAS. EES members will find details in the autumn mailing.

Saturday 11 June, 2005. EES Study Day in the Brunei Gallery Theatre at SOAS. Full details will be sent to members in the spring mailing.

Bolton The Annual EES lecture in Bolton for 2005 has not yet been arranged. Details will be included in the Autumn mailing to EES members, or contact Angela Thomas, Egyptology, Bolton Museums, Art Gallery and Aquarium, Le Mans Crescent, Bolton BL1 1SE. Phone: +44 (0)1204 332212.

E-mail: angela.thomas@bolton.gov.uk

rosalie.david@man.ac.uk

Tuesday 30 November, 2004.Abeer Helmi, The Royal Mummies: recent researches.

Tuesday 25 January, 2005. John Taylor, Creating a ‘Virtual Mummy’ at the British Museum.

Saturday 5 March, 2005. EES/Manchester Ancient Egypt Society Study Day Current Excavations in Egypt and Sudan in the Renold Building, University of Manchester. Speakers: Steven Snape, Ian Mathieson, Mark Collier and Derek Welsby. Full details will be sent in the EES autumn mailing.

Tuesday 24 May, 2005. Stephen Quirke, In the Name of the King: the history and interpretation of the five titles and names of Pharaoh.

Tuesday 28 June, 2005. Jiro Kondo, Recent activities in Egypt by the Institute of Egyptology, Waseda University.

Site-visit 24 December, 2004 - 7 January, 2005.

Christmas/New Year tour of Uweinat, the Gilf el-Kebir and Dakhla Oasis. Places are limited.

Other Cairo events for the rest of 2004/ early 2005 have not yet been confirmed.

Please contact Rawya for details.

Cambridge 24-25 September, 2005. The EES and the University of Cambridge will host a conference at the Mill Lane Lecture Theatre, Cambridge, and at The Fitzwilliam Museum.The conference will include the 2005 Glanville Memorial Lecture, to be given by Vivian Davies, on the evening of 24 September,followed by a reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Details will be sent in a future EES mailing, or consult the EES website: www.ees.ac.uk/membership/ conference.htm

NON-EES LECTURES AND OTHER EVENTS Lectures on ancient and modern Egypt and other cultural events are held at the Education and Cultural Bureau, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, 4 Chesterfield Gardens, London W1Y 8BR at 6.30 pm.

Phone: +44 (0)20 7491 7720. E-mail:

To 9 January, 2005. Sudan: ancient treasures.

A loan exhibition from the National Museum, Khartoum, Sudan, featur ing material from recent excavations, at the British Museum, London.

egypt.culture@ukonline.co.uk

Friday 28 January, 2005. Margaret Serpico, Petrie and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt. Friends of the Petrie Museum lecture and New Year party at the Inst of Archaeology, UCL, London WC1. Phone: +44 (0)20 7679 2369. E-mail: pmf@ijnet.demon.co.uk

18-19 December, 2004. An international conference City and Harbour: the archaeology of ancient Alexandria at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Details: Jonathan Cole, OCMA, Inst of Archaeology, 36 Beaumont St, Oxford OX1 2PG or www.ocma.ox.ac.uk 6-8 January, 2005.The Sixth Annual Current Research in Egyptology Symposium at the University of Cambridge. Papers by graduate students but attendance open to all. Details: CRE VI, c/o Rachel Mairs, Sr Catherine’s College, Cambridge CB2 1RL. E-mail: cre62005@yahoo.co.uk Website: www.currentresearchegypt.fsworld.co.uk

Friday 25 February, 2005. Peter Phillips, The columns of Egypt. Friends of the Petrie Museum, London lecture. Details as above.

To 27 March, 2005. Mummy: the inside Story.

Exhibition at the British Museum, London.

To 10 April, 2005. Pharaohs. Exhibition (most pieces loaned by the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.

37

Friday 15 April, 2005. José-Ramon PerezAccino, The temple of Herishef. Friends of the Petrie Museum, London lecture. Details as above.

Friday 6 May, 2005, Kasia Szpakowska, Spotty dogs and other guardians of the afterlife.

Friends of the Petrie Museum, London lecture. Details as above.

To 4 September, 2005. Trail of the Mummy.

Exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.

1-4 February 2006. International conference at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Oahu, Hawaii. Evolving Egypt: innovation, appropriation and reinterpretation in ancient Egypt.

Details: Kerry Muhlestein, Dept of History, BYU-Hawaii, 55-220 Kulanui St 1975, Laie, Hawaii 96762. E-mail: evolvingegypt@byu.edu Website: w3.byuh.edu/academics/religion/ muhlestk/evolving-egypt-frame.htm

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

An apprentice’s board from Dra Abu el-Naga The Spanish-Egyptian mission at Dra Abu el-Naga, working in the Eighteenth Dynasty tombs of Djehuty and Hery, has found pieces of a wooden board which had been used for drawing and writing. José Manuel Galán and Mohamed el-Bialy report on this significant find.

The Theban tombs of Djehuty (TT 11) and Hery (TT 12) are located at the eastern extremity of the modern settlement of Dra Abu el-Naga (where the area known as ‘Dra Abu el-Naga north’ begins). Djehuty was a high official under Queen Hatshepsut, while Her y lived dur ing the reigns of Ahmose and Amenhotep I. Both tombs were hewn into the foothill, and they are interconnected through a third tomb (–399–), also of the early Eighteenth Dynasty.The open courtyards of the three tombs are in a row, separated by walls carved from the rock and following the descending hill-slope. Each wall is surmounted by a few courses of mud bricks.

During the first three seasons (2002-2004), the work of the Spanish-Egyptian mission has been concentrated outside the tombs themselves, excavating the mound of accumulated rubble over the courtyards. Many objects have been unearthed, comprising the remains of funerary equipment of various periods from the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards. The objects were found mixed up, due to successive reuse of the area in antiq-

The modern entrance to Djehuty’s tomb (TT 11) and the still covered courtyard of tomb –399–, by the time the 14 fragments had been uncovered. The area of the discovery is marked out in red

uity, and the activities of nineteenth century robbers and early Egyptologists.

In the first season of work, in the disturbed sand in

Aerial view of Dra Abu el-Naga.The contiguous open courtyards of TT 11, tomb –399– and TT 12 are in the centre, to the left of the tent

38

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

the right (A), of which only traces of the opening sign and three words at the top of the second column remain. The handwriting is small and tight compared to the other two versions; it thus seems reasonable to assume that the first one was probably written by a master and was used as a model. The signs of the two subsequent copies (B and C) are larger, disconnected, and show hesitancy and doubt in their tracing. However, the second time the model was copied (the pair of columns furthest to the left - C), the calligraphy improved significantly.The copies were certainly done by an apprentice, most probably the board’s owner.

On the left half of the recto is a drawing of two frontal human figures. Like the cursive text, one (the figure further to the right) was done by a master, and the left-hand figure is a copy made by the pupil. The line drawing of the figure to the right is thin, and its tracing is firm and continuous. The figure to the left has been drawn with a much thicker line, and looking closely one can see that the brush strokes are short, showing a certain insecurity in the apprentice’s hand.

Both figures were first sketched in red, with the final drawing traced over in black.

A squared grid, ruled in red, was used to adjust each

Recto of the apprentice’s board, practising both writing and drawing

front of the tombs, three small flat pieces of painted wood were found, and at the beginning of the second season further fragments gradually appeared. Although they all belong to one and the same board, the fragments were scattered throughout an area covering the eastern side of Djehuty’s courtyard and that of the neighbouring tomb, and running over the separating wall between the two, at about 2m above the original ground level. In all, 14 pieces were found, representing a little over half the rectangular board. It was made of dom-palm, and would have measured, when complete, 31cm × 45.8cm × 1cm. It is covered with a fine coat of creamy-yellowish stucco and linen tissues can be seen in some places, between the wood and the stucco, probably intended to fill the irregularities of the wood grain. The corners are curved, and the edges taper and are slightly rounded.

The board was used for drawing and writing on both sides. On the right half of what is being considered as the ‘recto’ are six ver tical columns of cursive hieroglyphs written from right to left and without separating lines. They can be grouped in pairs, since the text in fact consists of the same passage written three times. It is the opening paragraph of the school text ‘The Book of Kemit’: It is the servant who says to [his lord that he (the servant) wishes that he (the lord) may live, be prosperous] and healthy for the len[gth of] eternity and for ever, as [this (his) humble servant wishes]. The first pair of columns to be written were those furthest to

Upper part of the six columns in cursive hieroglyphs. The first paragraph of ‘The Book of Kemit’ has been written three times, once by a master (the pair of columns furthest to the right), and twice by his pupil

Detail showing the double frontal representation of a pharaoh’s statue, probably Tuthmosis III or Hatshepsut. The figure to the right has been drawn by a master; the other by his apprentice

39

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Detail, on the recto, of the royal frontal portraits

figure to a set of pre-determined relative proportions, and it is interesting to note that the frontal view of the human figure was not divided in two by a vertical line acting as a symmetrical axis; the width of the body was divided into five squares. The central column of squares served as the vertical axis, and its side lines helped to locate the exterior of the eyeballs, the vertical line of the lower part of the nemes headdress, the folding of the kilt, the knees and the feet.

The two draughtsmen have depicted a frontal view of a pharaoh’s standing statue. It could have been a preliminary drawing before the carving of a sculpture, or a practice outline based, perhaps, on an existing statue similar to Tuthmosis III’s greywacke statue wearing the nemes, now in the Luxor Museum (J 2). The closest parallel to the Dra Abu el-Naga board is the British Museum drawing board (EA 5601), on which there is a profile portrait of the young Tuthmosis III seated on a throne. However, the fact that the new drawing lacks the false beard, added to the way in which the inner side of the eyes and the upper lip have been depicted (without smiling dimples in the corners of the mouth), may also point to Hatshepsut as a good candidate for the pharaoh depicted. The archaeological context could support identification with either ruler.

On the ‘verso’, there is a drawing on the left half that can be seen correctly by flipping the board with

Detail of the verso. A pharaoh is depicted fowling in the marshes

a vertical twist (if it is turned around horizontally, the scene is upside down). The figure, drawn inside a red squared grid, has been first outlined in red and then traced over in black ink. It represents a king in profile, fowling in the marshes and holding a duck in his left hand as a decoy, while his right hand (not preserved) must have grasped a throwing stick held high. His legs are wide apart, and the heel of his rear foot is elevated to indicate movement. The king is wearing the red crown, and it is noteworthy that it has no uraeus, and that the crown’s coil is quite large, its spiral extending beyond the frame of the red grid.

Although the fowling scene was a recurrent theme on the walls of nobles’ tombs from the Old Kingdom, the earliest attestation of a king performing this activity is found in Ay’s tomb (KV 23) in the West Valley.

Since the figure on the board is likely to be Hatshepsut or Tuthmosis III (the rounded nose, eyes and lips are of the ‘co-regency style’), it would seem to be the earliest known representation of a pharaoh hunting ducks.

On the right half of the verso there are traces of a second red squared grid, which has been washed out.

It would seem that the board’s owner was inclined to wash and reuse the right half of both the recto and verso, preserving the fine drawings on the left intact.

The same seems to be true of the British Museum board, as its right half was also washed much more often than the left, which bears the carefully outlined figure of the king.

This apprentice’s board, possibly part of Djehuty’s tomb equipment, gives an insight into ancient teaching methods and illustrates that drawing and writing were learned and practised together. It is now on display in the new galleries of the Luxor Museum. ❑ José Manuel Galán is a researcher at the Spanish Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Madrid, and Director of the Spanish-Egyptian mission at Dra Abu el-Naga. Mohamed el-Bialy, General Director of Antiquities Upper Egypt Sector, is the codirector of the project. The sponsors are: Telefónica Móviles, Fundación Caja Madrid, Fundación Telefónica, the Spanish Association of Egyptology and the CSIC.

The verso. The figure on the left side has been traced inside a red squared grid. The right side has been washed for re-use

40

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Bookshelf Françoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE - 395 CE. Translated by David Lorton. Cornell University Press, 2004. (ISBN 0 8014 4165 X) £25.95. Readers may raise an eyebrow when they realise that an image of the goddess Hathor on the dust-cover of this book is wrongly identified as Isis. This surprising slip can be forgiven because the the book within the dust-cover is such a stimulating and challenging study. Non-specialist readers might struggle with some of the complex concepts and terminology applied here, but persistence will be rewarded by a comprehensive and upto-date understanding of all aspects of ancient Egyptian religion There are really two books involved.The first, written by Dr Zivie-Coche, deals primarily (but not exclusively) with the evidence from the Pharaonic Period down to the fourth century BC, while the second, by Professor Dunand concentrates on Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.The starting point is the ‘World of the Gods’ beginning with a detailed exposition of netjer, the ancient Egyptian word usually translated as ‘god’ and written, for reasons which can only be guessed, with the inanimate symbol of a bandaged pole ending in a banner.The etymology of the term is discussed along with other words which may have have similar meanings such as akhu (the ‘transfigured’), bau (beings that could belong to the sphere of the divine) and sekhemu ( the ‘powerful ones’), but it is emphasised that the nuances of meaning which differentiated these words from netjer in antiquity elude us today.

There follows an analysis of the ‘icons’ of the deities which enabled the Egyptians to express and communicate with divine power through statues and images which were frequently hybrid in form. The complexity of Egyptian deities becomes clear in the concept of ‘tripartition’, where the ba of a god was in the sky, the image was on earth and the god’s body was in the Underworld.There are some very perceptive remarks about the idea of a unique transcendental god (including the Aten) concerning which, so far as I can tell, the author has serious reservations.

The chapter ‘Cosmogonies, Creation and Time’ includes a synthesis of Egyptian attempts to explain the origins of the universe. In particular there is the most explicit definition yet of the primeval, indestructible and permanent entity known as the god Nun, ‘an unformed and dark mass’ crucial to the successful functioning of the cosmos. The traditions of the creation of the world are reviewed together with identifications of the actual locations of the event and of the first land to emerge.There is also an evaluation of the concept of time as in the term ‘First Occasion’ which the Egyptians pragmatically probably regarded as undatable. The thorny problem of the words neheh and djet, both conventionally translated as ‘eternity’, is subjected to close scrutiny and the author convincingly points out the links between these terms and the deities Ra and

Osiris, stressing the cyclical and completed aspects of time.

Egyptian temples and their liturgies are examined mainly from the evidence of New Kingdom and Ptolemaic temples since their Old and Middle Kingdom counterparts have not survived so well. The temple is described in terms of the edifices within its temenos quay, obelisk, pylon, festival court, hypostyle hall, naos, sacred lake and mammisi: in fact, as the author felicitously puts it,‘the décor of the divine theatre on earth’.The domain of a temple is also looked at from the perspective of economic power, although describing the gods as ‘landed gentry’ is perhaps somewhat incongruous. The daily cult ritual in a temple was, of course, of immense importance and the author uses the sources to give a lucid account of every stage of the ceremonies, including the meat offerings where the victims symbolised victory over Seth or Apophis.The notion of human sacrifice is not dismissed out of hand.

The author’s attention then turns to personal piety and the human condition, and consequently the tone becomes far more subjective, contemplating how the ancient Egyptians connected with their deities beyond the ‘institutional cult’. It is pointed out that areas of the exclusive temples were accessible to secular individuals and throughout Egypt lesser constructions, often made of mud brick, bear witness to popular devotion to specific or local deities. Festivals gave people an opportunity to take a holiday and celebrate the normally remote deities whose statues were carried in procession. Indeed, the author thinks that there is even a possibility that ordinary Egyptians may have witnessed the ‘revelation of the face’ of the divine image.

Oracles were of extreme importance in guiding decisions that affected the lives of ordinary Egyptians and those of Amun of Karnak and

41

Amenhotep I of Deir el-Medina were the most popular in the New Kingdom when oracles really came into their own. In discussing the concept of ‘magic’ the author stresses that in no way are magical practices inferior to cult rituals but contain powers to counteract evil.

She gives a good synopsis of charms, execration rites, tales of enchantment and healing statues and continues with a review of the role of deities in the course of an individual’s lifetime. The interpretation of dreams forms an interesting exposition and Dr Zivie-Coche’s contribution ends with a chapter called ‘Death will come’ which brilliantly encompasses Egyptian fears and hopes about the Hereafter.

Professor Dunand’s specific interest is the development of Egyptian religion after Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt in 332 BC.The author provides a wealth of fascinating detail which enriches our perception of this exciting era when the politics of the Ptolemies and the Romans impinged on cults and rituals.The author cuts through some of the vague descriptions of Serapis and gives us a most penetrating analysis of the nature of this god with his Egyptian and Hellenistic traits, his links to royalty and his role as the protector of the city of Alexandria. In the section called ‘The Religious Universe’ we are introduced to the salient features of the Graeco-Roman temples. In a stimulating chapter ‘New Gods and Cults’ Professor Dunand begins with a review of the correspondences of Greek and Egyptian deities and then discuses the cults of members of the royal family. These were first instituted by Ptolemy II Philadelphos for his deceased parents, Ptolemy I and Berenike, but he then established the worship of himself and his sister-wife Arsinoe II while they were both still living.The survey of Judaism and Christianity in Egypt is measured and exemplary, as is the account of the innovations in the image of traditional Egyptian deities such as IsisAphrodite and Harpokrates on horseback.

The authors have written an excellent book which challenges readers to explore Egyptian religion with intellectual honesty towards the ancient evidence.

GEORGE HART John H.Taylor, Mummy: the inside story. The British Museum Press, 2004. (ISBN 0 7141 1962 8). £5.99. Produced to accompany the spectacular exhibition ‘Mummy: the Inside Story’ at the British Museum, this book provides a concise but illuminating account of the life and career of the priest Nesperennub.

The mummy of Nesperennub, discovered at Luxor in the 1890s, was bought by Wallis Budge and transported to England in 1899.

John Taylor uses information from several sources to piece together the details of Nesperennub’s life and death. The inscriptional evidence provides his official titles and background about his family: a priest of high status, mainly associated with the cult of Khons in the temple complex at Karnak, he participated in the daily ritual of offering to the god.

EGYPTIAN

However, it is the contribution of a new technology to the study of mummies that provides most information about this individual. Dr Taylor discusses the drawbacks associated with unwrapping mummies, and describes the limitations encountered when X-raying mummies by conventional radiography. In contrast, he shows how the use of CT scanning provides a non-invasive method of investigation which will demonstrate some of the diseases present in the mummy, as well as the ancient artefacts placed inside the bandage layers.

In the exhibition at the British Museum, the application of CT scanning to mummies is taken a stage further. A software toolset developed by Silicon Graphics Inc. allows the viewer to travel inside the data. This creates the illusion of being under the wrappings and inside the mummy, and the pioneering study of Nesperennub provides the first opportunity for this technology to be applied interactively to a complete body.

One section of the book demonstrates how 3D data can be used to ‘tour’ the mummy and perform a ‘virtual unwrapping’. The investigation has provided information about Nesperennub’s state of health and dental condition: for example, there is speculation about the possible cause (a tumour?) of a small cavity in the bone above his left eye. The reader can also come face-to-face with the priest through the facial reconstruction that has been produced, using sophisticated X-ray techniques, even though the skull is physically inaccessible within the mummy wrappings.

ARCHAEOLOGY

the religious significance and mythology associated with the decoration of his coffin.

Visitors to the exhibition will want to buy this well-illustrated book (excellent value at £5.99) as an informative souvenir of a unique experience. It presents a succinct and lucid description of the contribution made by this pioneering technology to mummy studies. In addition, the description of various aspects of Egyptian funerary customs and equipment will appeal to a wide, general readership.

ROSALIE DAVID

The author shows how the new technology can reveal evidence which was not available from the earlier radiographic survey carried out in the 1960s. This includes the presence of amulets at the mummy’s throat, a snake amulet on the forehead, and an embalmer’s bowl negligently abandoned on his client’s head some 2,800 years ago!

Using the information derived from this multidisciplinary study, the book also provides brief but helpful descriptions of mummification techniques, the construction of the cartonnage case enclosing the mummy, and

42

Joyce Tyldesley, Tales from Ancient Egypt. Rutherford Press, 2004. (ISBN 0 9547622 0 7). £8.50. This new book provides an economical and easily-digestible publication of the major works of ancient Egyptian literature. Dr Tyldesley says in her introduction that she has decided ‘to retell the stories rather than provide a straight translation of the surviving texts’ since, as she notes, there are already many excellent translations which are listed in her bibliography. This approach certainly makes the ‘tales’ easier to read, without having to worry about the meanings of individual words or mentally to fill in lacunae in the texts. As such it will be welcomed by readers who are new to Egyptian literature and by those to whom the content of the ‘tales’ will be familiar but who would like to be able to read them as connected and flowing texts.

The book is divided into four distinct sections, cover ing different categor ies of document. ‘Four Tales of Gods’ includes the

EGYPTIAN

creation and ‘destruction of mankind’ myths, as well as the stories of Isis and Osiris, and the struggle between Horus and Seth.‘Seven Tales of Men’ covers the ‘classics’ of ancient Egyptian literature: the magical tales of the Westcar Papyrus, the stories of the shipwrecked sailor, the ‘talkative’ peasant, Sinuhe, the doomed prince and the two brothers, and the story of Truth and Falsehood.

The final two sections are somewhat different as ‘Four true stor ies’ recounts the adventures of Harkhuf, the seige of Megiddo (Tuthmosis III), the battle of Kadesh (Ramesses II) and the voyage of Wenamun.The final section, ‘One Hymn’, contains Dr Tyldesley’s version of the Hymn to the Aten.

The tales are arranged in an approximate chronological order and each is followed by a commentary on the text, its meaning and its mythological or historical setting.These commentaries are particularly valuable in helping readers to relate to the characters and events in the ‘tales’ and alone make the book, at only £8.50, worth buying even for those who may already own more literal translations of the texts.

PATRICIA SPENCER Rafael Pérez Arroyo (with Syra Bonnet and José Maria de Diego Muniz), Egypt: Music in the Age of the Pyramids. Centro de Estudios Egipcios, Madrid, 2003. (ISBN 84-9327961-7). Euros 145. First published in Spanish in 2001, this survey of ancient Egyptian music in the Predynastic Period and Old Kingdom has now been translated into English by Dorothy Hare and Guy Hill. The main author (Rafael Pérez Arroyo) is a musicologist who has moved on from the study of Renaissance Spanish music to investigate the music of ancient Egypt.

The introduction describes how he undertook his research by studying actual instruments in Egyptian collections, reconstructing working replicas, collecting ancient references to musicians and their instruments from Egyptian scenes and texts, and studying the folklore and musical traditions of the Nile Valley, the western oases and Nubia. He has also researched the liturgical music of the Coptic Church, which he views as ‘a vitally important starting point’ for understanding ancient Egyptian music.The results, he says,‘have been spectacular’, leading to new information on the ancient tuning methods and scales used.

The end result of this painstaking and varied research is a massive tome of just over 500 pages, taking the study of Egyptian music up to the end of the Old Kingdom. Further volumes on music in the later periods of Egyptian history are planned.

The first chapter concentrates on the Predynastic and Thinite Periods, describing the musical instruments which have survived, and assessing the importance of music in Egyptian life at this formative period. The bulk of the work, however, inevitably concentrates on music in the Old Kingdom, about which there is much more evidence.

After a general survey of the culture of the Old Kingdom, the third chapter covers the results of Dr Arroyo’s musicological researches into the scales, tones, rhythms, modal systems, etc. of ancient Egyptian mu-

ARCHAEOLOGY

sic. This is not an easy chapter for those (like this reviewer) with little or no knowledge of musical theory, but it is fascinating reading.

The remaining chapters are Egyptologically easier, presenting the evidence for music in ancient Egypt through the surviving instruments, textual references and depictions. For each instrument in use in the Old Kingdom, the author describes its construction (materials and method), the technique by which it

would have been played and how it was tuned.

He cites, and illustrates as much as possible, its representations and preserved examples and, where valid, draws attention to similarities with instruments, such as the arghul (double clarinet) and the nay (flute), in use in Egypt today.

In addition to studying the musical instruments themselves, one chapter collects together evidence for the lives and careers of musicians, while another assesses dance in the Old Kingdom and there is an interesting study (pp.119-133) of the skill of the chironomist.

Appendix A collects the fully-referenced terminology of music and dance in the Old Kingdom and Appendix B (by José Maria de Muniz) translates, line by line, selected hymns from the Pyramid Texts and some other texts.

The book is richly illustrated with fine colour photographs of many musical instruments, especially those of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and of scenes which include musicians and/or dancers. There are also numerous detailed, but easy to understand, drawings of reconstructed instruments, with diagrams showing how they would have been played.

This beautiful and impressive volume collects together much thought-provoking and original material in one (albeit weighty) place.

It will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone with an interest in ancient Egyptian music and dance. PATRICIA SPENCER Margaret Drower (Editor), Letters from the Desert: The Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie. Aris and Phillips, 2004. (ISBN 0 85668 748 0) £30. Flinders Petrie was famous for his productivity, his published output numbering hundreds of books and articles, and it is perhaps no surprise that, endlessly resourceful as he was, he also found the time to correspond at length with friends, relations and

43

colleagues, describing his experiences while at work in Egypt and Palestine. A selection of these letters is arranged here in chronological order, beginning with those which Petrie wrote to his parents during his first trip to Egypt to survey the pyramids of Giza.

Each of Petrie’s expeditions is represented, his explorations in the Delta for the EEF in particular providing the stage for some of our hero’s earliest experiences of all the peculiar, exotic and delightful aspects of life as a khawaga in rural Egypt.There are vivid descriptions of the landscape and people he encountered, of his living conditions and daily routine, and also of events or finds, some of which would assume great significance in the longer term. It is fascinating, for example, to read of his coming across ‘a great prize at Gizeh’– the alabaster figurine of a Greek mercenary that would eventually lead him to the discovery and identification of the great Greek city of Naucratis.

He also tells of his first journey to Biahmu, where he would identify what were known locally as ‘pyramids’ as the seats for a pair of colossal statues. His account of such episodes whose significance for archaeology are well known are typically to be found alongside his observations of more ordinary things; though the great archaeologist is clearly recognisable, the more human side of him is very much in evidence here. Indeed, Petrie seems to have had a keen eye for what, to an Englishman in a strange country, seemed absurd, and on occasion (though perhaps not intentionally) a very funny turn of phrase; indeed the language is frequently a treat: ‘People in England speak of a flea... Here one never reckons about less than half a dozen... Last night I was up three times, and slaughtered about two dozen of my depletors.’

Petrie’s distaste for modern life and all its luxuries is also very much in evidence (‘Another point in which modern civilization seems to have gone strangely astray is the absurd and needless use of egg cups’), as is his legendary thriftiness, particularly in his making a little girl among his workers ‘the munificent offer of a pair of old trousers.’

At times several letters written during a very short period of time are reproduced, and this can occasionally lead to frustration when the next entry skips to events some weeks hence.

It might have been useful to have added a few more editorial notes, as those which are included are very helpful. However, as the text is relatively unencumbered by such notes, the reader feels a closeness to Petrie which is maintained throughout.The incorporation of some of his sketches and doodles is a nice touch, and the inclusion of a selection of his watercolour sketches is very welcome, but it is a shame that the photographs are so few in number. Many have previously been published elsewhere, however, most notably in Miss Drower’s excellent biography. Her publication of the correspondence makes a superb complement to the biography, and is perhaps best read as such; many of the anecdotes and descriptions are self contained, and to ‘dip’ into the text at random is just as rewarding – entertaining, informative and occasionally hilarious - as reading the book cover to cover.

CHRIS NAUNTON

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Membership Matters At an Extraordinary General Meeting held after the StudyDay on 26 June 2004 EES members voted unanimously to approve a recommendation made by the Committee that the wording of the Society’s ‘Memorandum of Association’ should be changed to permit the Society to include ‘medieval’ as well as ‘ancient’ Egypt in its research interests.

London Library opening hours. These will be changed with effect from 1 November 2004. The Library will, for a trial period, be closed on Mondays but will remain open during the lunch hour Tuesday to Friday each week (see further p.2).

EES website updated. The Society’s website is now being continually updated by Chris Naunton, so please check it regularly for news and details of events. In addition, in the ‘Fieldwork’ section, Barry Kemp has contributed an attractive and informative account of the current work at Amarna while Jeffrey Spencer’s Delta Survey records have been updated and augmented.

The 2004 Centenary Awards. Interviews for the 2004 Awards were held in May. There was a very strong field of applicants and funds were awarded to three post-doctoral researchers to carry out small fieldwork projects in Egypt. Joanne Rowland (University College London) was granted funds to undertake an initial survey of sites in the region of Mansura in the eastern Nile Delta; Angus Graham (University College London) was given an award to continue drill-augering at Karnak and study ceramics from earlier seasons of work; and Sarah Parcak (University of Cambridge) was awarded funds to undertake a satellite imagery survey of Middle Egypt. Sarah was also awarded the first ‘Christine John Award’ for the same piece of work. Christine John joined the Society in 1995 and was an enthusiastic member until her untimely death in 2002. In her memory her husband,Geoffrey John, and her daughters gave a most generous donation to the Centenary Fund to encourage young researchers in Egyptology.

Book sale. The sale of EES publications advertised in the summer mailing to members ends on 31 December 2004. Additional copies of the list and the order form can be obtained from the EES London Office.

Kenneth Frazer, who has served the EES for over 40 years as architect, surveyor and archaeologist, celebrated his 90th birthday on 28 July 2004. Harry Smith has written this bir thday tr ibute: ‘Born in New Zealand, Ken served with the Kiwis in North Africa in the Second World War, and was awarded the Military Cross for twice successfully leading troops across a minefield.His imagination fired by Africa and the Near East, he studied at Cambridge for a year, and then became a District Officer in the Gambia, where he gave devoted service. He joined Jack Plumley at Qasr Ibrim Ken Frazer on site at the Sacred in 1963, and was responsible Animal Necropolis, Saqqara, in 1994. for the basic site survey and Photograph: Paul Nicholson the plans and elevations of the Cathedral and other buildings. In 1966 he moved on to work with Bryan Emery at Saqqara where he planned, without modern instruments but to a fine degree of accuracy, the surface structures and the vast, tortuous underground catacombs at the Sacred Animal Necropolis. From 1975 he worked both at the New Kingdom Necropolis (with Geoffrey Martin) and at the SAN, where his input into reconstructing buildings and interpreting sites was crucial, for Ken was always bursting with new ideas on every topic.

His fine drawings already grace the pages of many of the volumes and preliminary reports on those sites. Throughout these years Ken also played an important part in the American excavations at Sardis, the ancient Lycian capital. No brief career summary can, however, capture the quality of Ken’s magnificent personal contribution to EES work. His courage and imperturbability (for example when exploring the North Ibis Catacombs with Paul Nicholson and Caroline Jackson when over 80), his unquenchable enthusiasm, his warm-hearted friendship and generosity, his spontaneous humour and inexhaustible fund of stories upheld the social bonding of many a field camp and earned the admiration, gratitude and affection of us all.’

Office at Doughty Mews. September 2004 saw changes in the London Office staff when the Librarian, Chris Naunton, changed to working part-time while he studies, at the University of Swansea, for a PhD. Chris will continue to work for the EES three days a week and will still have charge of the Society’s Library. In addition he will take on responsibility for the Society’s extensive Archive of over one hundred and twenty years of excavations in Egypt. Chris’s former ‘membership’ duties have been transferred to a new member of staff, Andrew Bednarski, who was appointed as ‘Membership and Outreach Secretary’ with effect from 1 September 2004. Andrew, who has just completed research for his doctorate at the University of Cambridge, is a graduate of Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and has participated in fieldwork in Egypt at Hierakonpolis, Amarna and Abydos (Andrew can be seen drawing in the field on the cover of EA 24). He will also work three days a week and members can contact him at: phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1903, e-mail: andrew.bednarski@ees.ac.uk The arrival of a third member of staff in the ground floor office at Doughty Mews led to a partial refurbishment of the space there with the purchase of new desks and storage cupboards and the replacment of the rather tired green carpeting. The general effect is much ‘lighter’ in appearance and provides a more pleasant working environment.

Ida Barlow, MBE, died on 24 May 2004 at the age of 87. Barry Kemp writes: ‘During the 1960s and 1970s several members of EES expeditions, whilst in Cairo, stayed in the guest house of the Anglican Cathedral, where they were made warmly welcome by Ida Barlow. The connection was through (the Rev) Jack Plumley, then director of the Society’s expedition to Qasr Ibrim. Ida had been sent to Egypt to work with the Church Missionary Society in Egypt after the Second World War and came to run the guesthouse as one her many duties. Ida had great liberality of spirit, and was equally welcoming to those, like myself, whose religious profession was less than obvious. She retired in the 1980s to Belper in Derbyshire, but continued to keep in touch with the friends she had made in the Society.’

Acknowledgements All archaeological fieldwork and research in Egypt is carried out by permission of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities. Contributors to Egyptian Archaeology gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the SCA Secretary General, Directors General and local Officials and Inspectors.

44

No. 25 Autumn 2004

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Mummy: the inside story JOHN TAYLOR To accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.

The 3,000 year-old mummy of the Egyptian priest Nesperennub has never been removed from its beautifully painted case. Scientists have used noninvasive technology such as CT scans, plus computer graphics to make a ‘virtual reality’ mummy. Examine the skull, bones, internal organs and the objects placed inside the wrappings – including some surprising finds!

T HE B ULLETIN

80 colour illustrations Paperback £5.99

For Children

The British Museum

Fantastic Mummies

Sudan

Open up the secrets of Ancient Egyptian Mummies

Ancient Treasuress

JOHN TAYLOR With this fantastic way of learning about Nesperennub, star of the British Museum’s mummy exhibition, 26 mummyshaped cards fan out to show the different layers of the mummy. Turn the cards over for lots of information on ancient Egyptian death, mummies and tombs.

50 colour illustrations

EDITED BY DEREK A. WELSBY AND JULIE ANDERSON To accompany an exhibition at the British Museum.

The National Museum in Khartoum houses one of the finest collections of antiquities in the world. This catalogue illustrates several of these treasures,many of them never previously exhibited outside Sudan.

470 colour illustrations Hardback £35.00

‘Fan’ Binding £5.99

For Children The British Museum Pocket Dictionary of

Ancient Egyptian Animals ANGELA McDONALD A delightful and often surprising survey of the animals of ancient Egypt with full-colour illustrations from papyri, sculpture, paintings, coffins and other items in the collections of the British Museum.

55 colour illustrations Hardback £6.99

Grain Transport in the Ramesside Period Papyrus Baldwin and Papyrus Amiens JAC J. JANSSEN Full hieroglyphic transcription, translation and commentary of the texts on a mid-20th Dynasty papyrus now divided between the British Museum and Amiens Museum.

The British Museum half of the papyrus is previously untranslated and unpublished.

52 line drawings and 23 b&w illustrations Hardback £125

The Papyrus of Nebseni (BM EA 9900) The Texts of Chapter 180 with New Kingdom Parallels Occasional Paper 139 GÜNTHER LAPP This definitive text edition of an important chapter of the Book of the Dead has been collated from a full range of surviving manuscripts. Line drawings enable comparison between the texts and verification of the differing hieroglyphic content.

Cleopatra Reassessed Occasional Paper 103 EDITED BY SUSAN WALKER AND SALLY-ANN ASHTON Nineteen conference papers explore such issues as the presentation of Cleopatra; her known deeds; perceptions in antiquity and the Islamic world, and her influence as an icon of female power.

70 half-tones, 15 line drawings and maps Paperback £25

40 pages of line-drawings Paperback £8

06

For further information about these or any other British Museum Press titles, or for a list of new publications, please contact: The Marketing Department, British Museum Press, 46 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QQ Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 1234 Fax: +44 (0)20 7637 8467

www.britishmuseum.co.uk

PRICE £4.95

9 770962 283001

OF

T HE E GYPT E XPLORATION S OCIETY