Egyptian Archaeology 38

No. 38 Spring 2011

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EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

T he B ulletin of T he E gypt E xploration S ociety

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EGYPTIAN

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society www.ees.ac.uk

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the aims or concerns of the Egypt Exploration Society Editor Patricia Spencer Editorial Advisers Peter Clayton Vivian Davies George Hart David Jeffreys Mike Murphy Chris Naunton Alice Stevenson John Taylor Advertising Sales Rob Tamplin Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews London WC1N 2PG Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880 Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118 E-mail: rob.tamplin@ees.ac.uk Distribution Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 2268 Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118 E-mail: orders@ees.ac.uk Website: www.ees.ac.uk

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

ISSN 0962 2837

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Medinet Habu. The Chicago House conservation team moving blocks, including statue fragments, in the blockyard at the temple. Photograph: Nahed Samir. See ‘Digging Diary’ p.27.

Number 38

Spring 2011

Safeguarding Egypt’s antiquities Patricia Spencer

2

EES Centenary Awards

2

Ancient Theban waterways Angus Graham

3

Recent EES Events

4

The discovery of the lintel of Hatiay at Amarna

5

Barry Kemp’s work in Egypt honoured Aidan Dodson

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A statue of Ramesses II from Tell Basta Theresa Steckel

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The tomb of the Royal Envoy Nakht-Min Khaled Daoud

7

A new era at Quesna Joanne Rowland

10

A survey of the mud-brick buildings of Qena Maria Correas-Amador

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Seals and seal impressions from Hierakonpolis Richard Bussmann

17

The temple of Ptah at Karnak Christophe Thiers and Pierre Zignani

20

Digging Diary Patricia Spencer

25

Undisturbed Late Period tombs at Saqqara Christiane Ziegler

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Online C14 database for Egypt Joanne Rowland and Christopher Bronk Ramsey

33

Bookshelf

35

A Hyksos palace at Avaris Manfred Bietak

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A papyrus from the House of Life at Akhetaten Richard B Parkinson

42

Five minutes with Kent Weeks

44

Cover illustration. Karnak, the temple of Ptah. Two adjoining loose blocks belonging to the Ptolemaic structure of the courtyard. Photograph: ©CNRS-CFEETK/Christophe Thiers. See further, pp.20-24.

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Safeguarding Egypt’s antiquities news section of Egyptology Resources: http://tinyurl.

As we go to press Egypt is entering a third week of demonstrations and, since events are fast-moving, it is impossible to predict what may have happened by the time this issue has been printed and is in your hands.

On 31 January, the Society’s Chair, Karen Exell, issued the following statement: ‘On behalf of The Egypt Exploration Society I would like to express our concern for the situation in Egypt at the moment. As an organisation that works closely with the Supreme Council of Antiquities in the preservation of the heritage of Egypt we are watching closely as events unfold. Whilst it is distressing to hear news reports of looting and damage to museums and artefacts, we are aware that the SCA and the Egyptian people are doing their best to protect the sites and museums, and we are deeply grateful to them for such actions amidst the unrest. Above all, we wish the Egyptian people well and hope fervently that a resolution to the situation, without further injury and loss of life, can be achieved as soon as possible’.

The reports of looting and damage that Karen referred to relate to the few days immediately after the withdrawal of the police, not just in Cairo but throughout the country, which left the antiquities sites, magazines and museums vulnerable. It now seems that many of the early reports of looting and illicit excavations were misleading and SCA Inspectors and local people took over the guarding of sites and magazines - action which the whole Egyptological community warmly appreciates.

Zahi Hawass, appointed as Minister of Antiquities in the new Egyptian Cabinet, is posting regular updates on his website: www.drhawass.com which EA readers are encouraged to consult for the official SCA view of recent events as they affect the country’s aarchaeological sites and museums. Other useful compilations of information can be found in the news digests of The Egyptologists’ Electronic Forum: www.egyptologyforum.org/ and the

com/6endoqu.

Although many reports of illicit excavations and looting appear now to have been unfounded, there was a well-publicised break-in on 28 January at the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square in Cairo, during which cases were broken and a number of objects damaged, including some of those from the tomb of Tutankhamun, although an initial report of damage to two mummies proved not to be accurate. An SCA storage magazine at Qantara on the Suez Canal was also broken into and objects removed, but most were later recovered by the authorities.

Archaeological missions that were working in Egypt when the unrest broke out have had mixed experiences, with some being instructed to close down, others choosing to do so and some continuing to work normally.

The EES had one mission in the field at the time - our new project on the west bank at Luxor, directed by Angus Graham who describes (opposite) the aims of the project and the results of the team’s initial investigation.

EES members will be pleased to hear that our Cairo Representative, Faten Saleh, and her predecessor, Rawya Ismail, are both safe and well. The British Council (www. britishcouncil.org/egypt.htm), where the Society’s Office is situated, is currently closed but our Office will reopen as soon as the Council feels it is safe to do so.

At the moment the Society, along with other institutions that organise archaeological expeditions to Egypt, is waiting to see if missions planned for spring 2011 will be able to go ahead, and we are keeping a close eye on the situation and on the travel advice for Egypt issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We will post updates on our website and circulate them in our e-newsletters - if you don’t already receive these and would like to, please contact any of the staff at Doughty Mews.

PATRICIA SPENCER

EES Centenary Awards a very strong field of applications, awards were made to Jennifer Cromwell for a study of unpublished non-literary Coptic documents in the University of Copenhagen, Kenneth Griffin for his work on The Book of the Dead from the Tomb of Karakhamun (TT 223) and Hélène Virenque for a study of ‘Édouard Naville and the Egypt Exploration Fund through his correspondence’.

Reports on these projects will be included in future issues of EA and an article by Maria Correas Amador on her fieldwork funded by a 2009 Centenary Award can be found on pp.14-16 of this issue. The 2011 Centenary Awards will be advertised in the late summer.

The EES Centenary Awards were established with funds raised by an appeal in our centenary year of 1982, to encourage students to undertake their first research projects, either in Egypt or in museum collections.

The first award was made in 1983 and many of the grant-holders, then in the early stages of their careers, have since become established Egyptologists, some now directing their own fieldwork projects in Egypt. A list of all the past holders can be found on the Society’s website: www.ees.ac.uk/research/centenary-awards.html

The Centenary Awards, now aimed at ‘early career researchers’, are advertised annually and in 2010, from

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Ancient Theban waterways The EES Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey Project has just had its first (shortened) season.

Angus Graham describes the background and aims of the project.

The aim of this new EES project is to look at the ‘big picture’ of past landscapes and waterways of the Theban region and to attempt to answer very specific questions related to ancient sites in the area. Previous reconstructions of the Theban floodplain have been based on the modern river location combined with information from ancient texts and scenes from New Kingdom Theban tombs.

What has been lacking, however, is a geoarchaeological and geophysical foundation to these reconstructions.

Comparing maps from the Napoleonic survey to recent times reveals that the river has been migrating eastwards in the Theban area. It is, of course, today constrained by stone and concrete revetments on the east bank at Luxor and parts of the west bank. Our previous work at Karnak (see EA 27, pp.17-19 and EA 36, pp.25-28) has revealed that the earliest occupation of the area was on an island in the Nile with the eastern arm of the river subsequently silting up and the western arm migrating north-westwards, enabling the expansion of the Karnak complex of temples in the New Kingdom.

On the west bank, there is archaeological, textual and pictorial evidence for platforms/tribunes in front of the New Kingdom memorial temples with associated basins and links to the river using canals. The constructions of Amenhotep III - Birket Habu on the west bank and Luxor Temple on the east - provide rough constraints for the location of the river since the Eighteenth Dynasty, suggesting that any canals in front of the memorial temples will not have been erased by the migrating river. If these canals once operated in the west bank floodplain, then our application of non-invasive geophysical techniques such as Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) should be able to identify them below the present-day surface.

Visits to our proposed locations of investigation during our shortened 2011 season revealed that the many

A view looking westwards to the Ramesseum shows one of the many field paths that will be ideal to work along. Photograph: Sarah Jones

narrow paths criss-crossing the fields on both banks of the Nile provide excellent opportunities to carry out ERT profiles parallel and perpendicular to the many New Kingdom monuments. The geophysics will be followed by geoarchaeological studies using an Eijkelkamp hand auger to ‘ground-truth’ our sub-surface findings making use of the methodology we developed at Karnak. All of this information and the areas we work in will be mapped using GPS, which will enable Digital Elevation Models to be produced. Any near-surface features identified will be further explored in an area survey using other noninvasive geophysical techniques such as magnetometry.

We also plan to investigate the Birket Habu, an area of c.2.4km x 1km enclosed by the enormous spoil heaps from digging the basin/lake associated with the palace complex of Amenhotep III at Malkata. This would enable us to assess whether the lake/basin was traversable all year round or only for part of the year, as suggested by Kemp and O’Connor. Opposite Birket Habu, on the east bank, is a similar rectilinear shape of mounds in the area of el-Hubeil, measuring c.1.6km x 1.05km. Ray Johnson believes that these two ‘lakes’ were ritual constructions of Amenhotep III associated with his jubilee.

We hope that our work here and on the west bank will advance our understanding of the dynamic river Nile and ancient Egyptian hydraulic projects in Thebes. q Angus Graham has recently defended his thesis on ‘Harbours and Quays in the Egyptian Nile Valley’ at University College London He would like to thank Sarah Jones (Museum of London), Kristian Strutt (University of Southampton) and Ginger Emery (University of Chicago) for their expert contribution to the work this season. At the SCA in Cairo the team is grateful to Zahi Hawass and Mohammed Ismail, and in Luxor to Sultan Eid Ahmed, Moustafa Waziry, Ali Redda, Mohammed Ali Asan Hamdan and Hassan Youssef. They are especially grateful to Mansour Boreik, Ray Johnson, Richard Wilkinson and Hourig Sourouzian for their support of the work.

Faten Saleh, the EES Representative in Cairo, was also of immense help. Thanks as always go to Reis Omar Farouk for his knowledge, expertise and logistical organisation

A GoogleEarth© image clearly shows the spoil mounds of Birket Habu and Birket el-Hubeil. (Background image courtesy of GoogleEarth)

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Recent EES events

Left to right: Amarna Study-Day speakers; Stephen Cross, Joyce Tyldesley, Joyce Filer, Stephen Harvey and Aidan Dodson

Stephen Harvey during his talk Recent work at Abydos, after the Society’s Annual General Meeting. Photograph: Dyan Hilton

At the AGM itself, Karen Exell and John J Johnston were elected as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Society and Maria Cannata, Aidan Dodson, David Jeffreys, Martina Minas-Nerpel, Margaret Mountford, Susan Royce and Alice Stevenson were all elected as Trustees. Dr Harvey’s talk was followed by a wine reception in the foyer to the Brunei Theatre at SOAS.

The talks by Aidan Dodson, Joyce Tyldesley, Stephen Cross and Joyce Filer at the EES Study-Day on Amarna, and Stephen Harvey’s lecture on his work at Abydos were all well received by about 140 members who attended these events before and after the Society’s Annual General Meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London on Saturday 11 December 2010.

David Jeffreys and Judith Bunbury who were two of the speakers at the Manchester Study-Day

The Society’s Officers at the reception following the AGM. Left to right: John J Johnston (Vice-Chair), Karen Exell (Chair) and Paul Cove (Treasurer)

On Saturday 23 October 2010 the Society held a StudyDay in Manchester - the first of many we hope to run outside London - and to highlight the Appeal for this year’s Amelia Edwards Projects (Tell Basta and Tell Mutubis).

The Study-Day focused on current EES field projects on the theme of Landscape, Development and Climate Change, with talks from Jamie Woodward, Penny Wilson, Angus Graham, Judith Bunbury and David Jeffreys.

Some 70 EES members attended the Study-Day and the reception which followed, both held in the Manchester Conference Centre. Further events outside London are now being planned for 2011 and full details can be found in the Spring ‘News and Events’.

EES member Heba Abd elGawad in front of the Amelia Edwards Projects display

Several events have been held at Doughty Mews during the winter, including a number of very well-attended Saturday Seminars, evening lectures and a successful Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs class, taught by Joanna Kyffin.

On the evening of Monday 10 January 2011, thanks to the generosity of the Trustees of the British Museum and Vivian Davies, Keeper of the Department of Alice Williams and Steve Partridge greeting Ancient Egypt and members arriving for the private viewing Sudan, the Society was able to offer EES members a rare opportunity to attend a private viewing of the Book of the Dead exhibition (see EA 37, pp.21-24). Over a hundred EES members and guests attended and were able to view the exhibition at leisure. The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery was also open during the evening, especially for EES members.

Joanna Kyffin teaching an introductory hieroglyphs course at Doughty Mews

Speakers at the Seminar held on 20 November 2010 Navigating the Nile.

Left to right: Chiara Zazzaro, John Cooper, Angus Graham and Lucy Blue

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The discovery of the lintel of Hatiay at Amarna Chris Naunton has uploaded to the EES page at YouTube another short film that he has edited from footage shot at Amarna during the Society’s excavations in the 1930s.

This fascinating film describes the discovery of the famous painted lintel from the house of Hatiay: www.youtube. com/user/EgyptExplorSociety. It can also be accessed via the EES website: www.ees.ac.uk/news/index/89.html.

The film footage, which is silent and to which Chris has added a commentary, shows the lintel as it was found on site, and being transported to the excavation house. Chris has also included in the film contemporary excavation photographs from the Society’s Lucy Gura Archive and reports of the discovery in newspapers of the time. The finely-painted lintel is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but a cast made for the Society’s end-of-season exhibition in London is preserved in the Bolton Museum and is also featured in the film.

In 2010, with the help of Geoffrey Martin, Chris retrieved from Cambridge the full-size coloured copy of the lintel made at the time by John Pendlebury’s wife Hilda. The painting has now been deposited Hilda Pendlebury’s painted copy of the scenes and texts on the lintel after in the Society’s Lucy Gura its first unrolling in Doughty Mews Archive.

The Society’s YouTube page with a scene from the film showing a report of the discovery as it was published in the New York Times

The lintel on site at Amarna in the 1930-31 season.

Photograph: EES Lucy Gura Archive

Barry Kemp’s work in Egypt honoured Barry Kemp was made a Companion of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in Her Majesty the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. The CBE is a grade of honour directly below a knighthood and represents a very welcome national recognition of Barry’s contributions to Barry Kemp at Amarna in Egyptology – in particular the March 2010. Photograph: exemplary excavations he has Dyan Hilton been carrying out at Amarna since the 1970s, working until recently under the auspices of the Society, and now under those of the Amarna Trust.

In addition, through his teaching at Cambridge University until his retirement in 2007, Barry was instrumental in initiating and furthering the careers of many Egyptologists around the world, a number of whom were among the forty friends and colleagues who celebrated his career in a two-volume Festschrift, published by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in 2009. For the broader audience, his two editions of Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization have provided an exposition of what made the country ‘tick’ that is hard to beat in Egyptological literature. The Society congratulates Barry on receiving his well-deserved honour and looks forward to many more years of achievements.

AIDAN DODSON

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A statue of Ramesses II from Tell Basta Almost all the statues that have been found in Tell Basta bear the name of Ramesses II. Theresa Steckel describes another statue of this king which was recently found by the Tell Basta Project.

In March 2009, during the excavations of the SCA/ University of Potsdam expedition to Tell Basta (see EA 37, pp.17-20), the lower part of a seated statue of Ramesses II was found to the north-east of the entrance hall of the main temple of Bastet (EA 35, p.28). The statue was on top of a wall of burned bricks in a context of the third century AD, showing that it had been moved from its original position by that time. After cleaning of the statue and conservation measures to protect the surface of the stone from crumbling, it was moved to the Open Air Museum at Tell Basta.

The incomplete statue is of red granite and measures 1.36m high, 0.69m wide and is a maximum of 1.42m deep. It is broken at the waist so the upper part of the statue is lost, with only the legs of the king, seated on a throne, being preserved. The king is wearing a short pleated kilt, traces of which are still preserved on the right side. The tail attached to the kilt is visible on the throne between the legs.

The inscriptions in sunk relief on all four sides of the throne show the titulary of Ramesses II. Beside the legs incised inscriptions read (right): ‘King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands, UsermaatreSetepenre, everlasting’ and (left) ‘Son of Re, lord of appearances, Ramesses-Meriamun, who provides Egypt’.

The left and right sides of the throne are decorated with scenes of the unification of the Two Lands, and while the surface of the left side of the throne is well preserved, the right side is badly eroded. On both sides, over the

The inscriptions on the back of the statue

The statue of Ramesses II in situ

sign, are the throne and birth names of Ramesses II, flanked by seated Nile gods. Above their heads hover the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt. On the back of the throne are the remains of three vertical lines of hieroglyphs which again give the throne and birth names of Ramesses II, with epithets.

The writings of the king’s names on the newly-found statue and on other statues of Ramesses II found at the site conform with those attested after his thirtieth year (Gauthier, Le livre des rois d’Égypte III, p.45ff) which might suggest that Ramesses II was active at Bubastis in the second half of his reign. However, many statues of Ramesses II were moved to Bubastis by Osorkon II so it is more likely that the statue originally stood in another city such as PiRamesse. q Theresa Steckel is a member of the Tell Basta Project. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Leipzig and is studying the statue programme of the great temple of Bastet in Bubastis/Tell Basta.

Photographs by the writer.

The front of the statue with epigraphic drawing of the inscriptions by the writer

After excavation and conservation the statue was installed in the Open Air Museum at Tell Basta

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The tomb of the Royal Envoy Nakht-Min In 2009 the EES awarded a grant from the Excavation Fund for epigraphic work in the Nineteenth Dynasty tomb of Nakht-Min at Saqqara. Khaled Daoud describes the tomb and assesses the significance of its owner and its location at Saqqara.

In 1993 (see EA 3, p.44), following illicit digging at the site, the local SCA inspectorate discovered a rock-cut tomb at the bottom of the desert scarp on which the elite necropolis of the First and Second Dynasties stands and very close to Abu Sir village. The tomb is that of the ‘Royal Envoy to All Foreign Lands, Overseer of Royal Chariots’, Nakht-Min, of the Nineteenth Dynasty (probably of the reign of Ramesses II). It is located in a sector that was previously not known, or even suspected, to contain major tombs, although it is close to very early occupation sites on the margins of ancient Memphis.

The limited investigations of the local SCA inspectorate suggest that a series of tombs is preserved in the limestone rock scarp here, which is of unusually good quality in the generally rather miserable geology of the SaqqaraAbu Sir area. It seems probable that this sector of the Memphite necropolis represents an important part of a so-far unknown burial site of the highest officials of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The equivalent tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty are at Luxor, and then Amarna, but the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty private tombs at Luxor are of local, rather than national, officials. Tombs of the transition to the Nineteenth Dynasty are at South Saqqara. Investigation of this new group therefore presents the opportunity of extending knowledge of the artistic and architectural change into the Ramesside Period at the

© GoogleEarth

GoogleEarth image showing the location of the Nineteenth Dynasty elite cemetery at North Saqqara

capital, reflecting highly significant changes in religious practice at this time, and a range of historical and cultural issues in this high profile period at the peak of Egyptian wealth and military power.

Nakht-Min’s tomb consists of a rockcut section, of at least five rooms with short connecting corridors, in front of which was a columned courtyard. At least two of the rooms contain painted decoration on plaster: religious scenes, including sections of the Book of the Dead. The rock-cut section starts with an inner courtyard that was originally decorated with high quality relief on white limestone panelling. The beautifully coloured reliefs are mostly religious in nature. The revetment had been smashed by robbers, but the expedition has been able to reconstruct some of the scenes and walls. The robbers had managed to take some of

The courtyard of the tomb of Nakht-Min, looking south

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the reliefs, and it is always possible that these may appear on the antiquities market in a few years. Evidence of the robbers’ work can be seen on a number of sawn or half-sawn blocks.

The pillared outside courtyard was originally decorated completely in fine relief carved on high quality limestone with scenes showing both ‘daily life’ and religious scenes.

These are typical decorative themes in tombs of this period, which characteristically contain both autobiographical inscriptions of historical significance, and extended ‘hymns’: texts which have increased our understanding of the cults of local major temples. Of the large number of loose blocks, only a few insignificant ones are now left in the tomb. The rest (about 80 fragments at present) have been placed in secure storage. These decorated limestone blocks come mainly from the front limestone walled room and the outside pillared courtyard.

An initial photographic documentation of the tomb and its decoration, both in situ and loose blocks, has been made, and a detailed epigraphic documentation is currently in process. Nearly half of the decorated blocks currently in the storeroom have now been copied for line drawings. Initial examination of these blocks shows a number of interesting features: subject matter, texts and colourings as well as styles and quality of the reliefs.

A relief block from the tomb of Nakht-Min, as found. The right side has been sawn away by robbers

Nakht-Min at the Eighth Gate to the Underworld

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Interestingly, a number of blocks were reused from the Old Kingdom monuments situated in the vicinity of Nakht-Min’s tomb. Some of these exhibit a distinctive Old Kingdom fine raised low relief, and possibly belong to a nearby royal structure of the late Fifth Dynasty or early Sixth Dynasty.

The expedition intends to carry out a full evaluation of this new Nineteenth Dynasty burial site. For the tomb itself, this may require limited clearance to define and plan the tomb, both within the living rock and outside in the courtyard and approaches to the tomb, and also an evaluation the potential for finds of objects A finely-carved Old Kingdom relief fragment which was re-used in the tomb of Nakht-Min from the destroyed original burial.

The appreciation of Nakht-Min’s tomb decoration q Khaled Daoud is Associate Professor of Egyptology at the Universities of Fayum and Qatar, and is Field Director and epigrapher and architecture cannot be complete without general of the Nakht-Min expedition. His co-directors and fellow epigraphers assessment and investigation of the cliff and surrounding are Sabry Farag (SCA Chief Inspector, Saqqara) and Christopher Eyre tombs in this previously unknown cemetery. Such (Professor of Egyptology, University of Liverpool) who is also the evaluation is vital to understand the historical and expedition’s photographer. They are grateful for the help and support archaeological importance of this whole cemetery to the of Zahi Hawass, the SCA Permanent Committee and staff of the SCA Inspectorate at Saqqara. They would also like to thank the Egypt development of the Saqqara-Abu Sir necropolis, as well Exploration Society for an Excavation Fund grant and the Michela as to gather more direct political and social-historical data Schiff Giorgini Foundation, especially Nicolas Grimal and Nathalie in relation to the contemporary capital city of Memphis, Beaux-Grimal, for support of the expedition over several seasons. which it faces.

Study day Unveiling the Norwich Shroud: an ancient Egyptian shroud conserved and revealed Thursday 7 April 2011 10.00–17.00 British Museum (free) Tuesday 24 May 2011 10.00–17.00 (repeat) Norwich Castle Museum (museum admission only) Booking essential

© Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery and the Trustees of the British Museum.

This rare shroud, with its inscriptions from the Book of the Dead, is part of the Norwich Castle Museum’s Egyptian collection. In a recent joint project with the British Museum, the shroud has been unrolled and conserved and its long-kept secrets laid bare.

This study day focuses on what has been discovered. Speakers will present illustrated talks on how the shroud came into the Norwich Castle collection, the work of the British Museum in conserving it, the results of the scientific analysis, and the light that the text sheds on the life and times of the shroud’s owner.

Book your tickets now Thursday 7 April at the British Museum (free): +44 (0)20 7323 8181 Tuesday 24 May at Norwich Castle Museum (museum admission only): +44 (0)1603 495897

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A new era at Quesna Continuing EES investigations at the site of Quesna, in Minufiyeh Governorate, have revealed for the first time evidence for monuments of the Old Kingdom on the gezira. Joanne Rowland reports on the discovery of a mud-brick funerary structure on the northern edge of the site.

The site of Quesna in the central Delta is most commonly associated with cemeteries and a sacred falcon necropolis dating to the Late, Ptolemaic and Roman Periods (see reports in JEA 94 and 96, EA 28 and 32). These archaeological remains are founded on a sand gezira (turtleback), which the current EES mission surveyed in 2006 and 2009 using two geophysical techniques; magnetometry and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The results of these surveys have informed the locations of test trenches within specific sectors of the falcon necropolis and the cemeteries, and clarified the horizontal and vertical extent of subsurface features. In spring 2010 these results also led to the opening of the first test trenches on the very northern edge of the gezira and it is on the results of the most westerly of these trenches, T5, that this article focuses.

In spring 2009 the magnetometry survey had been completed, with the investigation of a final strip of land along the northern edge of the gezira. The results indicated features similar to those associated with the pit and ceramic coffin burials further south in the cemetery, and this led to the excavation of T6, which confirmed that the Ptolemaic and Roman cemetery extended to the modern northern edge of the gezira (see JEA 96, pp.31-48). The gezira originally extended much further north, but the sand has been quarried away for purposes of modern development in recent historical times. T5 was positioned (see above right) west of T6 and immediately to the north of the SCA spoil heaps from the excavation of the falcon necropolis, due primarily to the protrusion of mud bricks from the northern edge of the gezira.

Although time permitted only a brief investigation of the remains located within T5 during spring 2010, the

Magnetometry survey of Quesna, with the area of the mastaba indicated

test trench nevertheless revealed two apparently separate and badly damaged mud-brick features. Their outline was unclear and most of the associated ceramic sherds were badly eroded. Towards the end of the season, during the planning of features prior to backfilling, an unexpected find was made. Sitting on top of part of the mud-brick structure, several coarse ceramic sherds were found, and these were identified as coming from Old Kingdom beer jars. Given the apparent lack of settlement remains on the gezira and the proximity to the later cemetery and sacred falcon necropolis, the evidence strongly suggested that an Old Kingdom funerary structure had been located.

The discovery of Old Kingdom archaeological remains at Quesna is not so remarkable given the site’s close proximity to ancient Athribis (Tell Atrib, now within modern Benha). Textual evidence attests to the existence of Athribis from the Old Kingdom (Fifth Dynasty) onwards, with the cult of Horus Khenty-Khety known there from at least the Middle Kingdom, although as yet no archaeological remains of Old Kingdom date have been found at Athribis. A relationship between

17/10 shoulder to base ofanOld Kingdom beer 17/10 shoulder to base ofofOld Kingdom beer jar jar 17/10 shoulder to base early (base and body of pointed base, collar beer (base and body of pointed base, collar rimrim beer jar)jar) Fourth Dynasty beer jar. (Nile silt base and body of pointed base, collar rim)

24/10 Old Kingdom beer 24/10 rimrim Kingdom beer jar jar 24/10 rim ofOld an early Fourth Dynasty beer (rim sherd of pointed base, collar beer (rim sherd of pointed base, collar rimrim beer jar)jar) jar. (Nile silt rim sherd of pointed base, collar rim beer jar)

Examples of Old Kingdom beer jar sherds associated with the mastaba at Quesna.

Drawings by Ashraf el-Senussi 10

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the two sites is apparent from the Late Period onwards, with inscriptions found on funerary equipment at the Quesna mausoleum referring to individuals who lived in Athribis which was the capital of the Tenth Lower Egyptian (Athribite) province. Quesna belonged to this province at some periods in history but during the Old Kingdom, it was a part of the Ninth (Busirite) province, the capital of which was located at Busiris (Djedu; modern Abusir Bana).

During the summer 2010 season T5 was re-opened and further excavation showed that the structure located in the spring was indeed a mastaba tomb. Although not yet fully cleared, by the end of the season its visible dimensions measured 17m north-south by 13m east-west.

The clearest and best-preserved sides are the western and northern, with the southern side badly damaged and the eastern side of the structure requiring further investigation. At the centre of the northern side there are at least four courses of well-preserved mud bricks; each measuring 50cm x 30cm x 15cm. In contrast the average size of the bricks constituting the core of the mastaba is much smaller, measuring 23cm x 15cm x 11cm. The bricks along the northern side of the structure appear to relate to the substructure of the mastaba, since the horizontal stratigraphy of the sand directly north of the bricks suggests that the part of the structure remaining must have been dug into the gezira sand, rather than having been built on top of it. The remains of this side

Close-up of the central bricks of the northern faรงade, showing the horizontal layers of the gezira sands

are sufficient to observe that the mud bricks are stepped both horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, moving towards the centre of the northern side, each brick is stepped northwards, culminating in the central brick occupying the most northerly position of the whole

View of the northern and central areas of the mastaba, showing the highest preserved parts of the mud-brick structure (looking east) 11

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structure. Vertically, the bricks overhang each other to the north, so that the uppermost course remaining is the northernmost course of bricks. By contrast, the southern side is currently represented only by a couple of fallen mud bricks, although the fact that they are of the same size as those on the northern side suggests that the remains may well relate to the rear wall of the mastaba. Interpreting the eastern side is more challenging, in that there appear to be the remains of two separate, albeit damaged, walls running from north to south. This suggests that there may have been a corridor behind the eastern faรงade, made accessible through an offering chapel(s)/niche(s) in the eastern wall. However, further investigation is required to establish whether this is a distinct architectural feature or whether it might rather be the product of severe damage caused by the robbing of the structure.

The ceramic sherds found in association with the fill of one of the various robbing cuts made into the mastaba date to the Late Period or Ptolemaic Period and there were also several badly eroded Ptolemaic and Roman ceramic sherds found in the disturbed upper layers that were covering the mastaba. The remainder of the cuts into the mud-brick structure have revealed ceramic sherds of the Old Kingdom, probably displaced from their original contexts during later disturbance. The cuts into the interior of the mastaba appear to have been made in an attempt to locate the burial shaft and chamber and it will only be after further investigation in 2011 that the location of the burial chamber might be confirmed.

Further excavation will hopefully also provide new evidence as to the tomb owner, perhaps from a

fragmentary inscription, and a secure date for the burial itself may be confirmed by further ceramics and/or other finds that remain in the burial chamber. In the meantime we can investigate the composition of the mud bricks themselves and can compare the method and type of construction of the Quesna mastaba with other mastabas in the Delta and further south.

If the Quesna mastaba was constructed during the late Third-early Fourth Dynasty, as is currently suggested by the ceramics, then it is the first of this date to be recorded within the region. There are other Old Kingdom mastaba tombs at a number of eastern Delta sites, for example of the Fifth-Sixth Dynasties at Tell el-Ruba (Mendes) and of the Fourth to Sixth Dynasties at Tell Basta (Bubastis).

Sites including domestic/sacred remains of Old Kingdom date include Tell el-Farkha (with evidence up to the early Fourth Dynasty), Tell Awalad Daoud (an administrative

Detail of the western half of the northern side (looking west) showing the horizontal stepping of the mud bricks

The brickwork in the interior of the mastaba, showing tool-marks where the bricks have been cut into. View from the east

Detail of the mud bricks on the northern side of the mastaba

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building), Tell Ginidba, Tell Faraun (Petrie’s Nebesha, at el-Huseiniya) and Tell Iswid North (a settlement with graves within the settled area). At Tell Ibrahim Awad there are the remains of an early temple, in addition to settlement and cemetery remains dating to the First, Second and Fourth-Sixth Dynasties. Closer to Quesna are the Old Kingdom (Fifth-Sixth Dynasties) remains at Kom el-Hisn (a settlement and tombs), Kom Abu Billo (Sixth Dynasty tombs), and the less well known, and thus far only briefly investigated, remains at Abu Ghalib, el-Qatta and Gebel el-Nahya, south of Kom Ausim (Letopolis). The tomb at Quesna, however, provides the first evidence for a Delta mastaba of the Third-Fourth Dynasties and is an important addition to the recent expansion of knowledge relating to the prehistory and early history of the central Delta.

One structure that the mastaba does resemble is a Second Dynasty noble’s mastaba excavated by Emery at Saqqara (Emery, Archaic Egypt, pp.159-163), a structure which also steps gradually backwards (southwards) and downwards towards the subterranean burial chamber.

This mastaba has a regular rectangular superstructure with stairs leading down towards the burial chamber.

The superstructure of the Quesna mastaba remains in some parts and may show similarities to the mud-brick framework of the superstructure in the Second Dynasty example, with rubble filling between the mud-brick walls. The internal and external walls of the eastern side of the mastaba, however, might represent the location of a corridor chapel, leading from an opening on the

eastern side and to a serdab for a statue of the tomb owner and, along the corridor, to one for his wife. Any of these chapel types would fit with a late Third-early Fourth Dynasty date. One comparable, if somewhat larger, example of a corridor chapel mastaba is that of Hemiunu (G4000) at Giza, which is a structure with multiple phases of construction. However, the mud-brick mastaba of Rahotep and Nofret (No. 6) at Meidum, which has two external chapels on the eastern side of the mastaba, may offer the best parallel in terms of date.

The investigations in T5 will continue in 2011 and the immediate area will also be subjected to further survey using GPR, which produced excellent results in the region of the falcon necropolis and the mausoleum at Quesna, showing features extending to 5m below the surface. That the magnetometry results show only faintly the substantial mud-brick mastaba structure, shallowly buried beneath the sand, suggests that if further smaller or more deeply buried structures exist in the vicinity they might not have been detected through magnetic prospection. q Joanne Rowland, the Director of the EES Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey, is Junior Professor in Egyptian Archaeology in the Egyptology Department of the Freie University in Berlin. Thanks are due to the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, the John Fell (Oxford University Press) Fund and the Freie University Berlin for their support of the fieldwork. Ceramic analysis is by Ashraf el-Senussi; images from the magnetometry are courtesy of Kristian Strutt (University of Southampton) and photographs are by the writer, William Mills and Geoffrey J Tassie. Thanks are due to the EES Cairo Office for logistical assistance and the loan of surveying equipment.

View over the mastaba in the early morning at the end of the summer 2010 season 13

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A survey of the mud-brick buildings of Qena Mud brick was the main building material used by Egyptians from antiquity until modern times.

Maria Correas-Amador reports on her survey of mud-brick buildings in Qena, funded by an EES Centenary Award.

At the end of 2009, the Egypt Exploration Society generously granted me a Centenary Award towards a survey of mud-brick buildings in Qena in Upper Egypt.

The motivation for this project was the belief that further research was needed concerning technical aspects of mud-brick buildings, ancient and modern, together with investigation of the social and cultural aspects of life in and around the buildings.

One of the main characteristics of vernacular architecture, regardless of its building materials, is the continuity of building methods throughout time, as well as the permanence of certain structural or design features that may remain unchanged for centuries or even millennia. Research suggests that this is the case for Egyptian vernacular mud-brick architecture, which now survives mainly in rural areas but which has been rapidly disappearing for the past decades, as red-brick and

The inner wall of the old Shenhur mosque, showing the decorative brickwork

concrete have become the principal building materials following a ban in 1984 on using Nile silt to make bricks.

The implications for the study of ancient Egyptian mudbrick buildings are significant since the recording of their modern equivalents can help us to understand the often fragmentary remains that are found in the archaeological record. It is worth noting, however, that exposed mud brick is particularly vulnerable to erosion and weathering and that the ancient structures (and modern ones when not regularly repaired) are rapidly deteriorating. It is thus important to record mud-brick buildings of all dates before they fall into ruin.

The Qena governorate was chosen for the survey since it has a wide range of relatively well-preserved modern mud-brick buildings. In addition, the area is home to many archaeological sites, some of which include remains of mud-brick buildings, and a number of these were selected for comparative surveys; namely sections of the enclosure wall and sanatorium of the temple of Hathor at Dendera, the ancient sites of Koptos and Naqada, the Roman fort in Hu and the remains of an old mosque in Shenhur, located next to the temple of Isis. This mosque is at least 100 years old, according to local sources, with a modern mosque built in front of it and a minaret behind, sandwiching a wall of the old mosque. On the side of the wall that faces the more modern minaret, stretchers had been used at intervals to create a decorative effect.

While the aim of the survey of ancient sites was to

The remaining wall of the old mosque at Shenhur 14

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Small pieces of straw ready to be mixed with mud

An area of mud brick production. The bricks at the back are ready for use

record the brickwork – brick dimensions, composition and colour, characteristics of mortar and render, type of bonding, etc. - the survey of modern houses also included observation of sociocultural aspects associated with mudbrick buildings.

The survey of modern mud-brick houses confirmed that a particular brick size and building mixture is used consistently throughout the region. The composition of the bricks is mainly mud (collected from surrounding soil or dredged from canals) with straw temper mixed with water pumped up from the subsoil. Once this has been mixed to a uniform consistency, the brick-maker fills a wooden mould with a handle, similar to those depicted in ancient Egyptian sources. He then smooths the surface and removes the mould, repeating the process many times. The lines of bricks are then covered with straw and left to dry for several days in the sun, and the brick-maker stands them up on edge, once they are solid enough, to speed the drying process. Some of the bricks can then be fired on request, normally for use in areas that would be more susceptible to damage, while the rest are sold as mud bricks. The dimensions of the mud bricks currently being produced in the Qena area are 26cm x 13cm x 8cm, but other brick makers identified the ideal brick size as being 24cm x 12cm x 9cm.

When comparing modern and ancient mud-brick buildings, the inclusion of straw in bricks as temper for the mixture is a common denominator. Both the ancient and modern bricks in buildings surveyed in Qena lacked pebble inclusions; a feature that is found elsewhere in ancient buildings, for example at the North Palace at Amarna. The brick mortar at Qena, however, did sometimes contain pebbles as well as small pottery sherds.

The making, composition and sizes of bricks in Qena appears to have changed little since ancient times.

As regards the appearance of the finished bricks, colours can vary for several reasons. Although bricks used for the construction of any one house are normally of the same colour, two modern houses within the same village may have been built with slightly differently coloured bricks, possibly as the result of different provenances for

the mud used and/or factors such as proximity to water resources. Ancient brickwork, however, can appear to have differently coloured bricks within the same wall but this apparent variation is often a result of the erosion and weathering of the most exposed brickwork. Colour differences can also be the result of repairs and additions carried out throughout time.

In terms of layout and design, the survey of modern mud-brick houses showed that the flexibility of mud as a material allowed for an organic development of houses, resulting in a great degree of variation in layout, both

Brickwork of the enclosure wall of the temple of Dendera 15

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A mud-brick staircase with a below-stairs cupboard in a house at Dendera

The badly-damaged wall of a modern mud-brick building in Qift

within any one village and between different villages.

This seems worth considering when interpreting domestic architecture in the archaeological record.

Modern houses are usually two storeys high with the main door opening straight on to the street, although better-off houses often have a front courtyard with trees.

The first few brick courses at the bases of the walls are sometimes built in red brick and rendered with cement to protect the walls from damage caused by rising subsoil water, weather and animals. The bonding is normally one or two courses of stretchers alternating with a course of headers, usually with bricks on end at intervals. The brick courses are levelled with mud mortar which is sometimes repaired with, or replaced by, cement, and the wall faces can be rendered with a mud or cement plaster or left unrendered, especially in the case of walls other

than the front façade. Stairs to the upper floor can be straight or dog-legged and are normally solid but several examples of suspended stairs were also found. In these, the steps were made of mud bricks which were placed on top of reed matting in turn laid over tree trunks, in a construction method attested in an ancient house at Amarna. Like that ancient house, these stairs featured a cupboard underneath. In an exceptional house (belonging to the mayor of Dendera) the stairs had wooden treads as well as a wooden balustrade. A feature found in the wall of several staircases was an alcove, reportedly to place an oil lamp to be used for going upstairs at night. Other alcoves or niches, serving as cupboards, are also found in other walls of the houses.

Finally, there is a series of non-technical factors affecting design that needs to be taken into account in the interpretation of ancient mud-brick buildings, such as financial considerations, social status and cultural aspects. However, it is worth noting that, in modern buldings, practical considerations appear in many instances to prevail over cultural requirements. For example, a room can reportedly be used for a different activity if the usual room fitted for that purpose is subject to adverse conditions, such as being exposed to the sun in the summer.

This initial survey has shown that mud brick has been regarded as a sturdy, reliable building material throughout history because it is flexible enough to be adapted to the building requirements of the people, which reflect their social and cultural needs. It is hoped that further comparative work – especially in other areas of Egypt – will help to determine whether the mud-brick buildings in Qena of different periods have more in common with each other than they do with buildings of the same periods located in other areas. q Maria Correas-Amador is a PhD research student at the University of Durham. She is grateful to the Egypt Exploration Society for funding her survey and would like to thank Ayman Wahby, Ayman Hendy (SCA inspector in Qena) and the people of the Qena region – in particular at Dendera – for their kind help and assistance during this project. Photographs by the writer.

An alcove in a mud-brick wall to house an oil lamp, for use on the stairs in the dark, in a modern house at Hu 16

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Seals and seal impressions from Hierakonpolis Inscribed seals and seal impressions give insights into the administration forming the backbone of the Egyptian state. Richard Bussmann explores the potential of the early Old Kingdom seals from Hierakonpolis for investigating the establishment of royal power in a local context.

Hierakonpolis has been recognised as a central place of state formation in Egypt ever since the Narmer palette was discovered in 1898. This artefact is one of the earliest representations of kingship in Egypt and quickly became a key piece for understanding the Egyptian state. However, research over the last few decades has shown that state formation must be understood within the wider context of early Egyptian society and requires a substantial theorising of the objectives of and approaches to investigating early states. Arising from this a greater emphasis is now placed on the question of what the state does rather than what it is, and the growing body of archaeological evidence suggests that the process of state formation was embedded in various local communities in very different ways.

The analysis of the seals and seal impressions from Hierakonpolis contributes to the exploration of these overall questions. Most of the material was excavated by James E Quibell and Frederick Green in 1898 and 1899 in the town area of Hierakonpolis. The map they produced (Hierakonpolis, Part II, pl.LXXIII) shows the position of structures at the site. To some extent this allows the seals to be related to their original findspot. However, the exact provenance of the seals within the town is often difficult to define. Barbara Adams was able to reconstruct the archaeological context of many finds from Hierakonpolis on the basis of Green’s excavation notes, now kept in Cambridge. She combined information on the location of find contexts given in the notes with find context numbers written on the objects. Unfortunately, the context numbers of the seals were not written on them and have often been lost. In many cases only Green’s drawings and notes on the lids of the wooden boxes in which the seals were stored give a clue to the original findspot. Therefore, all the information on the context

Sealing with name of King Sekhemkhet (Z 46135)

of objects relies heavily on the care excavators and museums took with documentation and record keeping.

Today, the majority of the corpus forms part of the collection of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, to which it has been transferred from the former Faculty of Oriental Studies. The collection comprises nearly 350 mud sealings that were originally applied to door knobs, papyrus documents, wooden boxes, vases and bags. They bear impressions of cylinder seals, inscribed examples of which were also excavated at Hierakonpolis. The excavators published some fifty impressions and dated them to the early Old Kingdom because the corpus included the royal names of Djoser, Khaba and Sneferu. A previously unpublished sealing seems to be inscribed with the Horus name of King Sekhemkhet, adding to the list of Third Dynasty kings attested at Hierakonpolis. However, later American excavations brought to light a seal impression of King Qaa, suggesting that parts of the sealing corpus might date back to the First Dynasty.

While Green restricted publication of the material to the hieroglyphic impressions, the reverse sides of the sealings allow the object sealed to be reconstructed.

The round topped Djoser sealing had been applied on the strings wrapped around a papyrus and is the only example of this sealing type identified in the corpus to date. The official title written between the impression of Djoser’s Horus name Netjerikhet is difficult Papyrus roll sealing with Horus name of to read but the sealing King Djoser (Z 45960) itself is evidence for the early use of papyrus documents in the royal administration of provincial Egypt. It shows that provincial administration could

The lid of the wooden box in which the sealing Z 46008 (see photographs on p.18) was kept by the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, including the find context number ‘H.168’, a sketch of the text, and the former accession number ‘LE 82’

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Mud seal with imitations of hieroglyphs (Z 15676)

Not all the seal impressions from Hierakonpolis display the standardised forms and uses of hieroglyphs of later texts. It seems, for example, as if writing was being imitated on a mud seal found in a vase maker’s workshop.

The fact that an inscription had been imitated points to the exclusive status of writing within the settlement. Another sealing (below) that was applied on some vegetable fibres includes a representation of the offering table scene.

Contrary to previous interpretations, the sealing proves that this elite icon was not only displayed on seals used as amulets in burial contexts but also for administrative purposes. Some of the sealing patterns, similar in style to those from the predynastic cemetery U at Abydos, are completely composed of figurative designs (as illustrated on p.19) comparable with the sealing evidence from the late Old and Middle Kingdoms. Some scholars have argued that these patterns could not have been used within a depersonalised network of communication but can only have functioned in a face-to-face community with a limited number of seal-bearers. Similarly, the actual texts, although mostly readable, may have been used as images rather than writing, having been identified rather than necessarily read. It seems important from these few remarks to model the development of writing, which is often automatically linked to the emergence of the state and administration, within a broader understanding of the use of media in early Egypt.

The absence of royal names of the Second Dynasty on the sealings from Hierakonpolis stands in contrast to the situation at Elephantine Island.

Although conclusions must be drawn carefully given that the Sealing displaying the offering table scene collection of sealings (Z 46033) from Hierakonpolis is smaller, this difference reveals that administration may have been present to varying degrees at different sites and dif ferent periods.

Administration may not have been a stable and constant

Door sealing with the title ‘scribe’ (Z 46008)

have made use of lists, tables and accounts, and was set up within the broader scope of record keeping – that is beyond sealing – positive evidence for which is otherwise lost. The sealing corpus from Elephantine Island has revealed that people other than those related immediately to the royal administration were sealing papyri as early as the Second Dynasty. Large-scale record-keeping seems, therefore, to have been carried out at a local level already in this early period.

Non-royal inscriptions abound in the corpus from Hierakonpolis and are evidence for provincial officials in local administration. One was a ‘scribe’ whose name seems to include that of the god Anubis. His sealing (above) shows, on the reverse side, impressions of a wooden peg with a string wrapped around it, and an uneven surface.

It was probably placed on a peg in a plastered mud-brick wall connected with a string to a door: the scribe might have been in charge of controlling access to an archive of administrative documents sealed behind the door.

Many officials have titles typical of the Early Dynastic Period and the early Old Kingdom, such as mjtr and hbnj, who performed a variety of functions. One of them sealed the knot of a cord applied around a container.

His name, which reads ‘The king is great’, suggests that he was one of the few local officials with some sort of connection to the crown.

Another person who sealed a basket was called Neferu and may not have had any title at all. These examples demonstrate that local Knot sealing with private name ‘The king is great’ (Z 46992/1) administration included a wide social range of persons who are not mentioned in other written sources, such as the inscriptions in elite mastabas.

Basket sealing with the private name ‘Neferu’ (Z 46011) 18

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Sealing displaying a figurative design (Z 46133)

Geoffrey Thorndike Martin

Umm el-Qaab VII Private Stelae of the Early Dynastic Period from the Royal Cemetery at Abydos

system that ran automatically once it had been set up. Instead, it may be interpreted as a flexible practice adapted to temporary needs resulting in chronological peaks and geographical gaps which may be reflected in the archaeological record of any specific ancient site.

This approach draws attention to the local history of Hierakonpolis. Current fieldwork in the Wadi Abu el-Suffian and the adjacent desert strip helps with the reconstruction of the predynastic settlement and cemeteries which reflect the development of social hierarchies at the site. The transition from the Predynastic to the Early Dynastic Period marks the heyday of Hierakonpolis with an unrivalled amount of monumental and artistically excellent votive objects offered in the temple. Apart from Khasekhem(wy) only a few Early Dynastic kings left traces at Hierakonpolis and the site seems to have declined into a provincial town in the early Old Kingdom until kings began again to erect statues and stelae in the temple area at the end of the Old Kingdom.

Interestingly, however, the sealings provide evidence of a vibrant community in the settlement during the early Old Kingdom undermining a king-centred reconstruction of the history of the site. The reconstruction of archaeological contexts is especially important in this respect and the bulk of the seals can be shown to come from the settlement area rather than from the temple, which is associated with earlier material. The pottery and stone vessels found in the same contexts as the sealings also suggest that parts of the town proper are younger than the temple area.

The history of Hierakonpolis is still a matter for research.

On the one hand, the local history has to be set in the context of regional development, including the rise of Elkab as the centre of the third Upper Egyptian nome and the large-scale transformation of settlement patterns in Egypt. On the other hand, current excavations in the desert strip, work in the temple and town area, augering to reconstruct the ancient landscape, and study of the digging diaries and objects in museums need to be merged into a more coherent picture within which the true potential of the sealings as a historical source can be explored. This will be the focus of future investigations.

Archäologische Veröffentlichungen 123 2011. Ca. V, 312 pages, 1.332 fig., 90 plates with 332 fig., clothbound ISBN 978-3-447-06256-5 Ca. € 98,– (D) / £ 88,–

The objects published in this catalogue by Geoffrey T. Martin are stelae (gravestones), over 350 in number, most of which commemorate administrators, priests, attendants, artisans, and others who formed part of the entourage of Egypt’s earliest kings, interred in the ancestral royal cemetery at Abydos in southern Egypt at the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. A surprising number are inscribed for women, who do not for the most part have titles, though it cannot automatically be assumed that they were members of the royal harem. Most of the stelae were excavated more than a century ago, but have never received definitive publication. Others have been found more recently by German and American expeditions.

The large rectangular mud-brick tombs of the early kings were enclosed by subsidiary graves, on which the stelae studied in this volume were erected. Thus, the rulers were surrounded in death as they were in life by their officials and attendants.

The inscriptions on the stelae – some of the earliest in the history of mankind – are fundamental not only for the analysis of the emergence of the hieroglyphic script (some of the signs are unique to the First Dynasty) but also for the study of the development of the embryo Egyptian state following the unification of the separate kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt between 3100 and 3000 BC. Laurel Bestock

The Development of Royal Funerary Cult at Abydos Two Funerary Enclosures from the Reign of Aha Menes 6 2009. XIV, 213 pages, 100 fig., pb ISBN 978-3-447-05838-4

€ 68,– (D) / ca. £ 60,–

Two of the most characteristic aspects of ancient Egyptian culture – kingship and a great attention to death – were present from a very early age. The first kings to rule all of Egypt came to power in approximately 3000 B.C., and the same kings were the first to have monumental tombs and funerary temples built.

These early royal mortuary temples in particular are quite enigmatic, but the recent discovery of two previously unknown monuments at the site of Abydos is shedding new light on their development and use. Most surprisingly these temples are from the same reign, suggesting that members of the royal family in addition to the king might have received funerary cult in the early First Dynasty. This study documents the excavation of these two temples, their provision for the dedication of offerings, and the sacrificial burials that surrounded them. It sets these monuments within the framework of the rise of Egyptian kingship and cult, examining both continuities and innovations in royal mortuary practice during this formative period.

q Richard Bussmann is a Lecturer in Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London and head of the project ‘The seals and seal impressions from Hierakonpolis’ funded by the Gerda-Henkel-Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, the Crowther-Beynon Fund and the Mulvey Fund. All photographs reproduced by permission of University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG • WIESBADEN www.harrassowitz-verlag.de • verlag@harrassowitz.de

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The temple of Ptah at Karnak Since October 2008 the Franco-Egyptian team at Karnak has been studying the temple of Ptah, which has inscriptions dating from the time of Tuthmosis III to that of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

Christophe Thiers and Pierre Zignani describe the main preliminary results.

General view of the temple of Ptah, in the northern area of the Amun-Re precinct. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout

The pre-Tuthmosid origin of the Ptah temple at Karnak remains obscure but a sanctuary dedicated to the god probably existed in the same place, dating back at least to the Seventeenth Dynasty, as shown by the upper part of a stela found by Georges Legrain at the beginning of the twentieth century, of the reign of King Intef VII Nubkheperra. It was recently republished by Daniel Polz (Der Beginn des Neuen Reiches: zur Vorgeschichte einer Zeitenwende, 2007) and shows Amun-Re, Mut and the king ‘beloved of Ptah, Lord of Maat, King of the Two Lands’. The temple’s foundation stela dedicated by Tuthmosis III (Cairo CG 34013) also implies that there was an earlier version as on it the king says that he ‘found this temple built of brick, the columns and the doors made of wood, going to ruin’.

Another early monument at the temple, in the southern part of the portico, is the red granite base of a naos, which was uncovered by Mariette and published by him in 1875.

This bears the name of Amenemhat I but is dedicated to Amun-Re. We are indebted to Dorothy Arnold and Adela Oppenheim, curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in N e w Yo r k , w h o identified a granite fragment in a private collection as being a missing corner of this naos base. The The naos base of Amenemhat I with its Metropolitan Museum restored and replaced right corner (see inset), organised its return to returned to Egypt by the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts, New York. © its original location in CNRS-CFEETK/Pauline Batard January 2010, in the

presence of Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, and Zahi Hawass, General Director of the SCA. The oldest part of the temple of Ptah consists of a triple-cell structure built by Tuthmosis III. The central chamber is dedicated to Amun-Re, as the temple was a way-station for the barque of the god during his annual processions, which survived until the Roman Period. This main chamber gives access to two chapels: one for Hathor on the southern side, and one for Ptah on the northern side. In the front is a portico with two polygonal columns opening on to a small courtyard. The foundation of the Eighteenth Dynasty sanctuary consists of two layers of roughly bonded stone, the first one in limestone and the second in sandstone. It is noteworthy that the builders in the reign of Tuthmosis III were reusing blocks not only of Queen Hatshepsut but also of Tuthmosis III himself.

These blocks are parts of the door jambs of an unknown building, dedicated to Amun-Re, which must have stood for only a short time. The surviving pavement shows reused older limestone slabs with cornices on the side.

The decoration of Tuthmosis III was completed inside the chapels and on the walls of the portico while the southern elevation of the courtyard was decorated by the last kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty (Ay and The northern outer foundation of Tuthmosis Horemheb) and III’s building with a re-used limestone block of Hatshepsut (see inset). the northern one

by Ptolemy IV. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout 20

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Longitudinal section through the temple (Tuthmosis III, Ptolemy III and IV). © CNRS-CFEETK

The main transformation of the temple occurred in the reigns of Ptolemy III and Ptolemy IV and mostly concerned the courtyard. The axial gate of the courtyard was dedicated by Tuthmosis III but there is insufficient evidence to show whether or not the original New Kingdom courtyard was the same size as its Ptolemaic successor. Several transformations of this entrance can be observed; for example, the raising of the passage by adding a new course of smaller blocks. Since there is an added inscription of Takeloth II on the inner southern door jamb, the raising of the passage may have been done at least during the Twenty-Second Dynasty. The size of the door-wing was also enlarged, and the iconography of the exterior elevation of the gate was renewed in Ptolemaic style, in the name of Tuthmosis III. Before the Ptolemaic Period, the environment of the sanctuary changed radically, around the time of the Thirtieth Dynasty, with the enlargement of the main precinct of the temple of Amun-Re. Originally the Ptah temple was outside the Eighteenth Dynasty temenos of the

Amun-Re temple but its Thirtieth Dynasty enclosure was enlarged to include the temple of Ptah while still excluding the northern area of its annexes. The huge mud-brick wall was built less than one metre from the northern wall of the Tuthmosis III building, restricting the northern lateral access and surely hindering all the temple’s daily activities.

This situation explains some of the Ptolemaic transformations of the western side of the courtyard.

The original northern small door of the court could no longer be used because of the new enclosure wall and the Ptolemaic construction, and was also partially blocked by a new staircase leading to the roof. A secondary entrance, linked with the annexes, was thus inserted into the southern part to allow access into the courtyard, via a vestibule.

There is, in fact, evidence that the courtyard ceased to be open to the sky following this transformation. From the scattered blocks lying around the temple, we have been able to identify and restore one axial slab, showing

General plan of the temple of Ptah. © CNRS-CFEETK 21

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The Ptolemaic staircase partly blocking the northern entrance to the courtyard, with the enclosure wall of the Amun-Re precinct in the background. © CNRS-CFEETK/Pierre Zignani The inner elevation of the main gate (Tuthmosis III) of the courtyard with the names of Takeloth II (left). The last layer of stone below the lintel was added in an ancient restoration of the gate. © CNRS-CFEETK/Pierre Zignani

The main gate of Tuthmosis III partly renewed under Ptolemy III; the cartouches of Tuthmosis III were recarved in Ptolemaic style. © CNRS-CFEETK/Pierre Zignani

The central chamber with two limestone roofing slabs reused as pavement and foundation of the southern wall; the door at the top of the photograph leads to the south chamber. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout 22

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Constructional details of the Ptolemaic clerestory lighting and roofing of the courtyard. One of the scattered blocks has been replaced on the top of the wall. © CNRS-CFEETK/Pierre Zignani

A restored Ptolemaic roofing slab which covered the New Kingdom courtyard. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout

The southern wall of the courtyard: Amun, Ptah, Khonsu, Mut and Hathor, with a recarved cartouche of Horemheb. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout 23

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Reconstruction drawing of the southern inner door jamb of the first gate of Shabaka, with epigraphic copies of three scattered blocks found in the field and one now in Berlin. © CNRS-CFEETK

can be replaced in their original locations on top of the walls and thus contribute to a better understanding of the temple for visitors.

Investigations also brought to light some reused blocks, of the reigns of Merenptah and Ramesses III. Hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic graffiti are currently being studied to complete the global approach to researches on the Ptah temple.

To conclude, we would like to issue a word of warning about some modern alterations made by our predecessors.

People come from all over the world to see, in the southern lateral chapel of the temple of Ptah, the reerected statue of Sekhmet just below a zenithal opening, through which sunlight - or moonlight on certain nights filters on to the statue. In the central chamber, at noon during the summer solstice the sun’s rays light directly the statue of a kneeling king (only the legs are preserved) in front of the god Ptah. Unfortunately for the atmospherelovers, the lighting of these statues was not part of the ancient design of the temple and the missing slabs directly above them were removed by Legrain to create light-openings. Genuine ancient work can be seen in the northern chapel, which still preserves its original roof, and here the zenithal opening is located not above the god’s statue but just inside the entrance door in order to provide light for the priest who entered to perform the daily cult.

View of the Coptic settlement built on the remains of the Ptolemaic enclosure wall, with two granite column bases in front of a southern gate. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout

the vultures Nekhbet and Wadjyt, which, when replaced, provides evidence for the support of a ceiling. Above the original cornice there are also two openings with recess bands to insert clerestory windows.

Later architectural work at the temple was minor: a new gate with the name of Ptolemy VI was built westward onto the way between the temple of Amun and the northern precincts of Karnak and the last construction was in the reign of Ptolemy XII when an intermediate and isolated door was added between the two Twenty-Fifth Dynasty gates, decorated by King Shabaka.

After it ceased to function as a cult-place, the temple housed a Coptic settlement, which greatly reduced the pharaonic brick walls and annexes of the temple. The abundant ceramic remains date this settlement to the fifth to sixth centuries AD. As part of the main epigraphic survey, investigations all around the temple brought to light numerous blocks and a restoration programme is now under way on all those blocks which have suffered from wet saline soil.

After restoration, they can be studied and some of them

The central chamber at the summer solstice 2010 at solar noon: this spectacular effect is due to modern reconstruction. © CNRS-CFEETK/Jean-François Gout

The northern chamber at the summer solstice 2010 at solar noon: lit by the original lighting shaft, just inside the door. © CNRSCFEETK/Jean-François Gout 24

q Christophe Thiers is an Egyptologist and senior researcher at the CNRS and director of the USR 3172-CFEETK (Centre Franco-Égyptien d’Études de Temples de Karnak). Pierre Zignani is an architectarchaeologist at the CNRS USR 3172-CFEETK. The authors would like to thank Zahi Hawass and their colleagues Mansour Boreik, co-director of the CFEETK, Ibrahim Soliman, director of the temples of Karnak, Hamdi Abd el-Gelil, chief inspector, the SCA inspectors and the reis Mahmud Farouk, for their unvaluable help and support. They would also like to thank the Egyptian team and all the individuals who are involved in this programme. The Ptah Temple Project is funded by the CNRS, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SCA. See: www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/

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Digging Diary 2010 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt during 2010 appear below.

The sites are arranged geographically from north to south.

Field Directors who would like reports on their work to appear in EA are asked to e-mail a short summary, with a website address if available, as soon as possible after the end of each season to: patricia. spencer@ees.ac.uk PATRICIA SPENCER Abbreviations: ED Early Dynastic; OK Old Kingdom; FIP First Intermediate Period; MK Middle Kingdom; SIP Second Intermediate Period; NK New Kingdom; TIP Third Intermediate Period; LP Late Period; GR Graeco-Roman.

Institutions and Research Centres: ARCE American Research Center in Egypt; AUC American University Cairo; BBC British Broadcasting Corporation; CFEETK Franco-Egyptian Centre, Karnak; CNRS French National Research Centre; EACP Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project; IFAO French Institute, Cairo; HIAMAS The Hellenic Institute of Ancient and Mediaeval Alexandrian Studies; MMA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; OI Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Swiss Inst Swiss Institute for Architectural Research and Archaeology, Cairo; UCL University College London; UMR, USR research groups of the CNRS; WMF World Monuments Fund.

SCA Supreme Council for Antiquities.

SUMMER 2010 (May to September) Lower Egypt Abu Rawash: The work of the IFAO expedition, led by Yann Tristant, concentrated on mastabas M10 and M11 (middle 1st Dyn, probably reign of Den), which had been destroyed possibly as early as the OK, as shown by evidence of quarrying: limestone slabs from the mastabas were re-used in the tombs of the neighbouring ‘F’ Cemetery.

The funerary chamber of M10 has been destroyed but plastered walls and floor are still visible. Two notches in the pit correspond to the vertical grooves on both sides of the entrance in order to close the chamber with stone slabs. At the N and E two side chambers still exist. The mud-brick superstructure is preserved only to a few milimetres around the rectangular pit. Mastaba M11 still has an in situ

portcullis: two massive slabs in two vertical grooves on each side of the entrance. There are also three others rooms for the funerary offerings. On the E side of the mastaba secondary individual burials are still preserved with the contracted bodies lying on their left sides and orientated on a N-S axis, with heads to the N (facing E) with hands in front of the face or beneath the head. All graves had had containers in perishable materials (mat and wooden coffins) and some had associated pots, the positions of which varied within the burials. The bones are in a poor state of preservation, and the Shenhur: René Preys and Marleen De Meyer copying reliefs on the north wall sexes of the bodies could not of the temple. Photograph: Martina Minas-Nerpel be determined. Study of the Passing through a false door, a second staircase ceramics by Jane Smythe (ARCE) confirmed the with 37 steps was excavated. The last step was left dating of the burials to the mid 1st Dyn and the unfinished and the tunnel came to a dead end after cleaning of the mastabas brought new information a total length of 174.5m. www.sca-egypt.org concerning the architecture and planning of the 2. The joint mission of the Northern Arizona Univ, 1st Dyn elite tombs and their subsidiary burials.

Indiana Univ and Eastern Kentucky Univ, led by www.ifao.egnet.net/archeologie/abou-roach/ Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Stephen Vinson and Jackie Jay rephotographed a number of graffiti in tombs Upper Egypt KV 1 (Ramesses VI), KV 2 (Ramesses IV) Shenhur: During this joint mission of Leuven and KV 15 (Seti II) and collated drawings made Univ and the Univ of Swansea, directed by during the previous three field seasons, for the final Harco Willems, Martina Minas-Nerpel and Troy publication of the KV demotic graffiti planned for Sagrillo, final copies and collations were made the summer of 2011. of the inscriptions and decoration of the Roman Elkab: The joint mission of the Northern Arizona temple The architectural record of the temple was Univ, Indiana Univ and Eastern Kentucky Univ, also completed. http://tinyurl.com/33svh8t led by Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Stephen Vinson Valley of the Kings: and Jackie Jay, recorded demotic graffiti at the 1. SCA excavations of the tunnel in the tomb Ptolemaic temple and the shrine of Amenhotep of Seti I (KV 17), which began in November III. More than 80 new demotic graffiti were 2007, ended in May 2010. The team, directed found, mostly prayers and mainly dating to the later

by Zahi Hawass and led in the field by Tarek elPtolemaic – early Roman Period. All the graffiti Awady and Moustafa Abdel Shakour, completed at the Ptolemaic temple were on the exterior the conservation study of the tunnel (see also walls and gateways, while most of the those at EA 36, p.32) and undertook soil composition the Amenhotep III shrine were red dipinti painted analysis. After reaching 136m inside the tunnel, on the interior walls. There had been extensive which had been previously excavated by the erasing of the painted dipinti in ancient times with Abdel Rassoul family, the team found a 25.60m some reuse of the same areas by later graffiti. descending corridor and 54 steps, each 2.6m wide.

Egypt Exploration Society Expeditions (www.ees.ac.uk)

SUMMER/AUTUMN Sais (Sa el-Hagar): In the summer the EES/ Univ of Durham team, led by Penelope Wilson, excavated a trench on the W side of the Great Pit, continuing the area excavated in 2003. The aim was to find evidence for industrial workshops during the Saite Period and Ptolemaic-Early Roman Periods, as well as to locate structures connected with the ancient city of Sais. Only a narrow area along the main track in front of the modern houses was accessible, but part of a pottery dump was uncovered, containing locally-made tablewares, many of which could be reconstructed. The sets of small cooking pots, cups, bowls, juglets, bottles and flasks date from the first century BC to the first century AD. One remaining question being studied by Aude Simony and Mikäel Pesenti is whether this tableware was made at Sais or was brought here from elsewhere for sale in the local market. www.dur.ac.uk/penelope.wilson/sais.html

Minufiyeh Governorate: The summer season of work directed by Joanne Rowland (Freie Univ Berlin) focused predominantly on continuing excavations at Quesna, with investigation of the mud-brick structure in Trench 5, first revealed in Spring 2010. This is a badly damaged mud-brick mastaba tomb that appears to date to the OK, based upon the presence of ceramic sherds from late 3rd to early 4th Dyn beer jars, and other OK types (see further pp.10-13). The mastaba has been damaged by what are presumed to be robbers’ pits which contained re-deposited OK sherds with some LP and Ptolemaic. Ptolemaic and Roman sherds were also found in excavation of surface layers. The mastaba is 17m (N-S) by 13m (E-W).

Investigations also continued at Kom el-Ahmar (Markaz Minuf) where additional drill cores were made in the area of the Gurn el-Maawad and on the S edge of the village, revealing limited and badly eroded ceramic sherds. Three more stone blocks were examined, one of red granite is clearly

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from the corner of a (LP?) naos roof and another, also of red granite, is possibly from the side of a naos and is decorated with figures in relief. http:// minufiyeh.tumblr.com

Saqqara: The season of work by the EES/Univ of Cardiff team, led by Paul Nicholson and supported by the National Geographic Society, continued planning the larger of two catacombs for mummified dogs (the smaller one being currently inaccessible). A description of the features of the catacomb was continued, as was photographic documentation, concentrating on the niches along the aisles. Work was undertaken to examine the faunal remains with a view to determining whether all the occupants were indeed domestic dogs rather than other canids.

This study has also yielded valuable information on the age profile of the animals and calculations of the numbers of animals originally present within the monument are now possible. www. cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/pn/ /e_dogs.html

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Alexandria: a black granite monolithic shrine raised from the sea in 2010. Photograph: HIAMAS

AUTUMN 2010 (October to December) Lower Egypt Alexandria: The HIAMAS Mission, directed

by Harry Tzalas, carried out, jointly with the Dept of Underwater Antiquities of Alexandria, an underwater survey in the area of Chatby, on the remains of submerged ancient Cape Lochias, focusing on raising and studying some large architectural elements that had been identified during previous seasons but which needed to be properly photographed, drawn and studied out of the water. A 50-ton floating crane was used for the lifting operation. The central piece of a large millstone (probably part of a flour-mill) was raised together with a series of five steps carved in a block of red granite. A damaged monolithic black granite naos and two parts of another were also raised, as was a pharaonic block with a hieroglyphic dedicatory inscription, first found in 2006. Two black granite proto-Christian column capitals (fifth century AD) were also raised from the assumed location of the Martyrium of St Mark, near the Chatby Casino. Three Islamic Period stone anchors were lifted and were taken to the Kom el-Dikka Laboratory for conservation and study.

The other pieces were deposited on the sea floor in an area selected by the Dept of Underwater Antiquities of Alexandria. It may be arranged in the future as an underwater archaeological park. www.underwaterarchaeology.gr/HIAMAS/

Tell el-Daba: The Austrian Archaeological Inst, directed by Irene Forstner-Müller, continued work at ancient Avaris (for a report on the Hyksos palace, see pp.38-41).The team, led in the field

by Irene Forstner-Müller and Pamela Rose, concentrated on a salvage excavation in a highly endangered area, (RIII) E of the modern village of Ezbet Rushdi, where archaeological remains had been partly destroyed by modern agricultural activity earlier this year. This part of the town had previously been surveyed using magnetometry but had not been excavated before. The excavations unearthed part of a town quarter of the late SIP. The remains consist of two built-up areas separated by a street. In the W district buildings with rooms and casemates abutted on to each other, and courtyards with silos were attached to them.

The lack of tombs was noteworthy, since they are usually present in domestic areas of Avaris. A large number of sealing impressions suggests that this town precinct had an official character. www. auaris.at

Cairo: The archaeological monitoring project, led by Peter Sheehan, in connection with the groundwater-lowering project at Old Cairo,

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funded by USAID, has been completed with the publication by ARCE and the AUC Press in November 2010, of Peter Sheehan, Babylon of Egypt; The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City.

Giza: 1. The SCA mission, directed by Zahi Hawass and led in the field by Adel Okasha, discovered the tomb of Rudjka 500m S of the pyramid builders’ cemetery. The tomb has a unique architectural design and layout, with its superstructure constructed out of limestone blocks to create a maze-like pathway to the main entrance. The burial chamber itself is cut directly into the cliff face. The large size of the tomb and the number of burial shafts suggest that this was a family tomb.

The walls are decorated with fine scenes of daily life, including Rudjka fishing and boating. An inscription above the false door states that Rudjka was a purification priest for the mortuary cult of Khafre. The tomb is part of a new cemetery, separate from that of the pyramid builders, and probably dates to the 6th Dyn, by which time the W cemetery near Khufu’s pyramid had become crowded, necessitating the creation of this new cemetery, possibly reserved for second class administrative officials, such as priests. www.scaegypt.org

South Saqqara to investigate several buried pyramids and tombs revealed by satellite images given to the SCA by the BBC. www.sca-egypt.org Upper Egypt Dahshur: The MMA mission, directed by Dieter Arnold and Adela Oppenheim, continued work along the causeway that connected the Senwosret III pyramid complex to the valley temple that presumably lies under the cultivation; 53m of the extent of the causeway has now been excavated.

More limestone relief fragments originating from the interior of the centre lane were recovered, including part of a beautifully-rendered marsh scene from a depiction of the seasons of the Egyptian year. Part of a scene shows the purification of the young pharaoh, which must belong to a sequence of the divine conception, birth and childhood of the king; portions of these scenes, of a type previously believed to have originated during the reign of Hatshepsut, were first recovered in 2009. www.metmuseum.org

Dime (Soknopaiou Nesos): The campaign of the Centro di Studi Papirologici, Salento Univ, Lecce, directed by Mario Capasso and Paola Davoli, carried out excavation within the large temple precinct, in the centre of the temenos, E and W of the Ptolemaic temple (ST 20) dedicated to the god Soknopaios. Excavation of the external E side of the temple, begun in 2009, was completed. The side of the temple was decorated at the base with a very unusual facing, consisting of six courses of grey-violet limestone blocks, with smooth faces and tapering upwards. Excavation of the area situated along the W side of the sanctuary started from its S end: no traces of a facing like that found along the E side were found. In a dump left by excavations at the end of the nineteenth century c.150 demotic ostraca were found, probably from a temple archive. In front of the side entrance of the temple ST 20 a Byzantine Period floor made with reused stones and statues was brought to light. It stood on a sandy deposit that covered the original perfectly-preserved floor of the Roman Period. A small broken stela of the Roman Period with a Greek inscription and a relief representing Soknopaios were found upside down on this floor.

Sylvie Marchand (IFAO) carried out a pottery survey inside the settlement and in some areas immediately outside it, allowing the recognition of chronological periods previously not identified in the area, with some pottery dated to the OK, the NK and the LP. www.museopapirologico.eu/snp.htm Medinet Madi: The Italian-Egyptian Cooperation Project, led by Zahi Hawass (SCA) and Edda Bresciani (Univ of Pisa), to create an archaeological park at this Fayum site has been completed, with new facilities for visitors which will enable them to view the results of recent excavations by the Univ of Pisa team (see EA 36, p.31). www.egittologia.unipi.

2. An SCA team, directed by Zahi Hawass and with Essam Shehab as Field Director, excavating in front of the valley temple of Khafre, rediscovered two parts of the Sphinx enclosure wall built

by Tuthmosis IV. The N section of this wall was previously uncovered by Ludwig Borchardt and Uvo Hölscher, but this new excavation has shown that the enclosure wall protected the N, S and E sides of the Sphinx and has been able to illustrate how the enclosure wall was built and how the walls were connected. In antiquity the wall would have surrounded the Sphinx and the valley temple. An Amarna Period villa and a rest house for Tutankhamun were later built within the enclosure. There is also evidence that the E portion of the wall was adorned with 16 stelae of Tuthmosis IV. www.sca-egypt.org Saqqara: 1. Most of the season of the Louvre Museum mission in the region around the Unas Causeway (see pp.29-32) directed by Guillemette Andreu and Michel Baud, was dedicated to the excavation of three successive domestic buildings of the Coptic Period (7th-8th centuries AD), in an area of 21m x 11m in the NW part of the concession. The earliest structure (no.1) was built to a high standard with a hard white mortar coating, while its successors were of poorer quality and mostly dedicated to domestic activities and animal husbandry: building 3B is no more than a compound for horses. Noteworthy are the bodies of three babies which were found buried in the rooms of building 3A. This building made an it/pisaegypt/medinet.htm extensive use of limestone blocks, some of which come from the mastaba of a ‘priest of Neferirkara, Nykaura’. In the S part of the concession, a pair of LP tombs was revealed. Laid side by side and clearly connected to each another, one is a vaulted tomb for a woman and the other a small mastaba for a baby. Along the Unas Causeway, a large deposit of LP pottery was also discovered, in layers sometimes separated by reed mats. This ritual deposit includes a large number of intact small vases. www.louvre.fr 2. An SCA team, directed by Zahi Hawass and led in the field

by Mohammed Abdel Basier, has begun excavation near the 13th El-Sheikh Ibada: the Deir Sumbat in the rocky mountains north of Antinoopolis.

Dyn pyramid of Khendjer at Photograph: Peter Grossmann 26

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El-Sheikh Ibada (Antinoopolis): The season of excavation by the mission directed by Rosario Pintaudi (Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli», Univ of Florence) concentrated mainly on the reexamination of the church at the so-called E gate of the town, excavated in 1966 by Sergio Donadoni and his team. The missing apse of the church, or at least its foundation, which the team had hoped to identify, no longer exists due to the unusual building method of the church. It was, however, shown that this church was also provided with a forechoir in front of the apse, as was the case with the two other churches, D2 and D3, in the S part of the town. It was situated directly above the crypt at the E end of the nave. Pottery finds from below the pavement show that the church is to be dated to the early fifth century and was destroyed during the Persian invasion, c.AD 620.

Below the floor of the church several undisturbed private burials were discovered, dating from the seventh and eighth centuries and later. Members of the mission also produced a new plan of the Deir Sumbat, a building complex situated in the area of the quarries N of Antinoopolis, which resembles a police camp rather than a monastery and would have served as accommodation for the soldiers who were controlling the work in the quarry.

Sohag: Conservation of wall paintings in the triconch sanctuary continued at the monastic church of Saints Bigol and Bishai (the Red Monastery) by an ARCE team directed by Elizabeth Bolman and funded by USAID under the EACP grant.

The Italian conservation team focused on the late antique paintings in the E apse and on a medieval painting on the N wall of what was originally part of the nave. The semi-dome over the E apse presents particular difficulties because differential losses of plaster layers have caused four successive layers of paintings to be exposed together thus creating a stylistic and thematic mosaic. Within this complex stratigraphy is a broad exposure of some of the earliest figurative paintings in the church preserved in the form of the artists’ preliminary drawings and dating to the sixth century. http://arce. org/expeditions/currentexpeditions/allexpeditions/u84

Koptos: The Univ Lyon 2/IFAO expedition, led

by Laure Pantalacci, completed excavation of the section of the S Ptolemaic enclosure wall to the SE corner of the temple of Min and Isis, and a large E-W doorway was recognised. S of the door the wall is completely destroyed. The wall was directly founded on MK-SIP remains, featuring a well-built wall (2.40m wide) and silos. At the W of the site, in the baptistery area, finely carved blocks from a monument of Ptolemy IX Soter II, showing ritual scenes with Min, Isis, Osiris, and Horus/Harpocrates, were recorded. They had been reused in a square structure, presumably of the Late Roman Period. To date, this is the first attestation of Ptolemy IX in Koptos. The restoration team succeeded in re-erecting the door-jambs (2.8m high) of three monumental doorways, two of them preserved up to the lintel and cornice. www.ifao.egnet.net/archeologie/coptos/ Wadi Hammamat: The first archaeological survey for over 50 years of the ancient greywacke quarries was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team, directed by Elizabeth Bloxam (Monash Univ), headed by the Inst of Archaeology, UCL and in co-operation with the SCA Ancient Quarries and Mines Dept. The key objectives were to map the large number of inscriptions into the ancient quarry landscape and to identify the earliest phases of greywacke quarrying linked with the production of early palettes, such as that of Narmer. Four hitherto unknown ED quarries for the production of palettes and bowls were located at high elevations on the ‘Beken Mountain’, suggesting a connection with objects found in the 1st Dyn royal funerary complexes at Abydos. Fire-setting in extracting greywacke

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Koptos: one of the finely-carved blocks from a monument of Ptolemy IX. Photograph © IFAO

was identified; this evidence having important implications on a still-overlooked technology in the quarrying of hard stones in the dynastic period. Previously unrecorded rock art panels and other inscriptions were identified, adding to the corpus of petroglyphs linked to over 4,000 years of greywacke quarrying. Next year work will focus on excavation of two areas of dynastic period settlement that are threatened by increasing rainfall and flash-flooding in the region.

Karnak: 1. Archaeological research and restoration programmes continued inside the precinct of Amun-Re under the auspices of the CFEETK (SCA/CNRS USR 3172) directed by Mansour Boreik (SCA) and Christophe Thiers (CNRS).

Excavations resumed at the Ptolemaic and Roman baths, where the Roman complex is now mostly uncovered and an architectural survey is currently under way. Work continued on the sphinx avenue between Karnak and Luxor, under the supervision of Mansour Boraik and study of the Ptah temple continued under the supervision of Christophe Thiers and Pierre Zignani (see further pp.20-24). The N chapel was excavated, revealing badly preserved stone and mud-brick structures.

An epigraphic survey of the barque-shrine of Philip Arrhidaeus began. Nadia Licitra studied the Treasury of Shabaka and uncovered a niche with two sandstone door jambs and a lintel inscribed (in blue paint) in the name of Shabaka; parts of painted mud-brick walls were also unearthed. The restoration programme has mainly concerned the gates and the courtyard of the temple of Ptah. At the entrance to the Open Air Museum, the first wall of the Netery-Menu chapel of Tuthmosis II, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III is almost completed.

Roman architectural remains in the complex, and continued designing educational panels for the complex. Blocks from a dismantled sixth century AD basilica in front of the temple pylons have been inventoried and will be documented this season for possible reconstruction on the original site. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/ Western Thebes: 1. The Macquarie Univ Theban Tombs Project, led by Boyo Ockinga, continued its work at Dra Abu el-Naga, completing photography in TT 147. In TT 233 drawings of the wall decoration were collated and work undertaken reassembling on paper over 180 fragments of the sandstone sarcophagus of its owner, Saroy. Preliminary study of the neighbouring tomb (TT 149) was undertaken and additional data, in particular about its owner, Amenmose, and his wife was recovered. As well as the titles ‘Royal Scribe of the Table of the Lord of the Two Lands’ and ‘Overseer of Huntsmen of the Estate of Amun’ (as listed in Porter and Moss, Topographical Biliography) Amenmose was also ‘Father of the God, Beloved of the God; Head of the King’s Estate to its Limit’ and ‘True Royal Scribe, his beloved’. These additional titles indicate that, like his neighbour Saroy (who also held the two titles listed in the Bibilography), Amenmose was probably in the personal service of the king. His wife’s name is not Sitmut (as in the Bibliography) but Baketmut.

2. The OI expedition, directed by W Raymond Johnson, resumed epigraphic documentation, supervised by senior artists Margaret De Jong and Susan Osgood, in the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III at Medinet Habu in the barque sanctuary ambulatory and façade (for Volume X). The conservation team, supervised

by Lotfi Hassan, resumed work in the new Medinet Habu blockyard built against the inside S enclosure wall of Ramesses III. The inventorying, documentation and moving of the miscellaneous fragmentary architectural and sculpture fragments from the old blockyard continues, and over 2,200 blocks have now been transferred to the new blockyard. The transfer will be finished shortly, together with an open-air museum component in front of the new blockyard currently under construction for joined fragment and display groups. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/ Armant: The joint mission of IFAO, CNRS (UMR 5140) and the Univ of Montpellier 3, directed by Christophe Thiers (CNRS, USR 3172CFEETK), continued the archaeological survey.

Beneath the parts of the Kamose Stela found in the

www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/

2. The OI epigraphic team, directed by W Raymond Johnson, continued work at the Khonsu Temple, supervised by senior epigrapher Brett McClain and in collaboration with the SCA and ARCE, on the epigraphic recording of reused, inscribed stone-block material in the flooring and foundations of Ramesses III’s temple. This documentation is necessary before ARCE’s floor restoration work makes the material inaccessible.

The work focused primarily on re-used material in the flooring of the temple court, most of it inscribed for Seti I. The evidence so far suggests that most of the re-used material in the flooring and foundations of the temple came from an earlier temple to Khonsu. http://oi.uchicago.edu/ research/projects/epi/

Luxor: Conservation and documentation (supported by the WMF) by the OI, directed

by W Raymond Johnson, resumed in the Luxor Temple blockyard, supervised by conservator Hiroko Kariya. In the open-air museum joined fragment groups and displays were conditionsurveyed, additional display platforms finished, and cleaning was initiated on selected fragment groups. Architect Jay Heidel continued his study and documentation of the fourth century AD

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Armant: a limestone block of Amenemhat I found in the temple pronaos area. Photograph: IFAO/CNRS/ University of Montpellier 3

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two last seasons, is a huge pit dug by the builders of the foundations of the pronaos of the Ptolemaic temple, and filled with building debris. The lowest layer at the bottom of the pit contained re-used blocks of Tuthmosis III including two column drums. One of the re-used blocks came from the upper part of this temple and has a huge horizontal cartouche of the king. The removal of the mound of debris on the pronaos area was continued with the discovery of two red granite parts of a threshold and of a huge MK (Amenemhat I) slab of limestone. Sebastien Biston-Moulin (USR 3172CFEETK) undertook the epigraphic survey of the NK blocks. Close to the Tuthmosis III architraves was found a very well-preserved fragment with the face of the king, probably belonging to a scene of smiting his enemies. Christophe Thiers completed the epigraphic survey of the NK pylon with drawings of the Ramesside inscriptions and scenes while Romain David (Univ Montpellier 3) and Catherine Defernez (CNRS UMR 8167) studied the ceramics. At Bab el-Maganin, an important restoration and conservation programme was realised by Hassan el-Amir (IFAO) on the Ptolemaic and Roman blocks lying all around the gate of Antoninus Pius. The epigraphic survey of most of these blocks is now completed. http:// recherche.univ-montp3.fr/egyptologie/ermant/

Esna: An ARCE team led by Gerry Scott and funded by USAID under the EACP grant, carried out a preliminary investigative season of recording and documentation at the Monastery of St Matthew the Potter (Deir el-Anba Mattawus elFakhuri) 8km NW of Esna. The work comprised comprehensive photographic documentation, survey of the historic church and surrounding structures and four cleaning tests on the wall

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paintings in the church.

The results will be used to assess the feasibility of a conservation project here. www.arce.org/ Edfu: One of the main objectives of the season directed by Nadine Moeller (OI, Univ of Chicago) was the completion of the excavation of the SIP silo court and the late MK columned hall. Work focused on Silo Si 388, located in the N part of the silo area, which was found to be in a good state of preservation; its Edfu: well-preserved Middle Kingdom silos in the town to the front of the Ptolemaic temple. walls measuring more Photograph © Oriental Institute, University of Chicago than 4m from the silo reconnaissance survey at the small 3rd Dyn step floor to the last course of bricks and showing clearly pyramid 4km SW of Edfu. www.telledfu.org the beginning of the vaulted top. It was filled with Aswan (Syene): The joint team of the Swiss Inst layers containing hieratic ostraca and pottery of the and the SCA Aswan, headed by Cornelius von late SIP/early 18th Dyn as well as large quantities Pilgrim and Mohammed el-Bialy, and directed in of hippopotamus bones. Excavations were also the field by Wolfgang Müller, started preparing resumed at the late MK columned hall, which the construction site of a magazine and office resulted in the discovery of new clay figurines building for the mission’s work, focusing on and several hundred seal-impressions linked to final investigations of Ptolemaic-Late Roman administrative activity. Major clearance work accumulations outside the town wall in Area 2. continues in the area where early OK settlement www.swissinst.ch remains have been located, currently covered by several metres of debris. www.telledfu.org Thanks to Michael Jones for information on ARCE El-Ghonameya: Within the framework of projects, and to Peter Grossmann, Marlene De Meyer, the Tell Edfu Project, Gregory Marouard Nadine Moeller, Laure Pantalacci, Christophe Thiers (Univ of Chicago) and Hratch Papazian (Univ and Harry Tzalas for providing photographs. of Copenhagen) carried out a preliminary

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Undisturbed Late Period tombs at Saqqara The Louvre Museum expedition has been working at Saqqara, in the area near the Unas Pyramid Causeway, since 1991 (see EA 28, pp.20-24). Christiane Ziegler describes the excavation of undisturbed Late Period tombs.

North of the Unas Pyramid Causeway, a 10m high stratigraphy encompasses a major part of the history of Saqqara from the Old Kingdom to the Arab conquest.

Three main levels have been revealed by the Louvre Museum team, separated from each other by layers of wind-blown sand. The earliest level of mastabas dates to the Fifth-Sixth Dynasties, the middle one is a cemetery used from the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period and the latest level has remains from the Coptic Period (see further p.26) until the beginning of the Arab conquest.

The discovery of Late Period rock–cut tombs began in 2003 and was reported in EA 28 (pp.20-24). During Shaft q3: the cartonnage mask of Khahapy

the 2006-07 season, we continued the cleaning of the northern area of the Louvre concession, mapping and studying the Late Period layer and identifying two further shafts, which we numbered q3 and n1, that lead to undisturbed chambers. The mouth of the 1m square shaft q3 is directly beneath a Coptic occupation layer. It was full of clean wind-blown sand and contained four intact wooden coffins, one on top of each other. The uppermost undecorated coffin is rectangular and contained a male mummy of about 40-50 years of age, without any cartonnage. The second is a large wooden anthropoid coffin, painted yellow with the lid entirely covered with corrupted inscriptions and polychrome scenes in a naïf style. It contained the mummy of woman who was about 40 years of age when she died. The third coffin, also anthropoid, is painted red and entirely covered with inscriptions, again corrupted, and naïf polychrome scenes.

It contained the mummy, with fine cartonnages, of a 40-43 year old man whose name begins with Gem. A vegetal garland was discovered near the feet. The fourth coffin, made of cedar, is slightly trapezoidal and undecorated and the enclosed mummy is that of a young man wrapped in a linen shroud and wearing beautiful cartonnages fastened by bandages. A so-called ‘canopic package’ wrapped in linen was placed on the upper part of the coffin. On the chest an invocation to the eye of Re names the owner as Khahapy.

At the bottom of the pit that leads to the undisturbed burial chamber (q3D) several items had been deposited, including a statuette of Ptah Sokar Osiris. Next to it was

The second wooden anthropoid coffin (q3.02) found in shaft q3 29

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restoration the mummies and small items were transferred to the SCA storerooms. We did not open the coffins and left them inside the tomb as the Louvre Museum originally planned to continue the work in the following season. Unfortunately this has not been possible and the tomb has been closed now for several years.

In the northern sector of the area excavated by the mission another shaft (n1) was discovered in 2006. This shaft, like many in the Late Period necropolis, is cut into the structure of an underlying Old Kingdom mastaba.

Unusually, the shaft was entirely empty since it had been left with free access, waiting for other burials. The mouth of the shaft, covered by four slabs, was discovered cut into a kind of platform packed down and made with clayish soil, very different from the sandy layer all around. Only remains of the south wall of the shaft, built with stones and mud brick, were preserved. The cross-section of the shaft is square, 1m each side, and its depth from the slabs to the bottom is 5.70m. The base of the shaft was covered with sand and tafla chips, among which were some very small fragments of papyrus with demotic and Aramaic texts.

Shaft n1 opens at its north and south ends into two symmetrical small chambers (n1A and n1B) cut into the gebel. The walls of both chambers are entirely undecorated.

The northern chamber (n1A) is rectangular with two loculi and was filled to its ceiling with a spectacular heap of funerary items, carefully arranged. There was a limestone sarcophagus along the west wall, eight wooden coffins and about ten mummies. The sarcophagus and the coffins are piled on three levels. Behind the coffins and along the west wall stood a large terracotta vessel with a small cup serving as its lid. Inside were the remains of black resin and resin-soaked material. On the exterior of the vessel

A funerary chest and Ptah Sokar Osiris figure in situ in shaft q3.

Inset: Detail of the chest, showing two hawk-headed sphinxes

a large wooden chest painted in very bright colours and decorated with a kheker frieze and symbolic signs. One panel is decorated with a pair of hawk-headed sphinxes, the other with the falcon of Horus of Behdet. It contained two resin packets. Two bronze statuettes of Isis and Osiris were also deposited at the same level.

The undisturbed burial chamber (q3D) is of modest size and irregularly-shaped. The ceiling is low and the walls are entirely undecorated.

The chamber was full of mummies and grave goods and the centre of the room was occupied by a large rectangular coffin with a cavetto cornice, placed upon limestone blocks. It is made of wood covered with stucco and brightly-coloured paintings. All around a very corrupt inscription gives the name of the owner, Khauhapy. The cover does not seem to be the original. Standing on it was a canopic vase containing four packets of fabric and a crude mud statuette of Osiris. At the same level there was a statuette of Ptah Sokar Osiris against the south wall, in the south-west part of the chamber, and a limestone sarcophagus, still covered by its plastered lid, which we left unopened. All the remaining space in the chamber was filled by at least ten mummies which had been neatly piled up: all but two were covered by beautiful cartonnages. Following their The tomb chamber q3D, mummies and the wooden coffin of Khauhapy, as found 30

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Ptah Sokar Osiris, three wooden chests and several packages wrapped in linen.

The southern chamber (n1B) is smaller than the northern one and its appearance was very different. A total of 14 mummies was piled up, occupying all the space and concealing a stone sarcophagus which stood against the south wall. In addition to Tomb n1B. The cartonnage of lady Tadiamun mummies, n1B also contained some funerary items: two statuettes of Ptah Sokar Osiris, one wooden chest, some pottery and several packages wrapped in linen. Among those we have identified two sets of funerary equipment belonging to two different ladies.

The first set belongs to Tadiamun and includes a mummy and a statuette of Ptah Sokar Osiris. X-rays show that the mummy, which has beautiful cartonnages, is of a woman aged 30-40 years. The mummy and the statuette belonging to Tadiamun were not found together. The mummy was discovered in the lower layer of mummies near the west wall while the statuette was discovered at the top of the heap of mummies against the east wall. This

Tomb chamber n1A. A funerary chest and Ptah Sokar Osiris figure in situ

is a demotic text, studied by Michel Chauveau, which relates that the vase contained ‘unguent of first quality for the head of the lady Tadiosir’ with an indication of its weight of 3 deben and 5 kite (320g). We decided to leave the coffins unopened in situ, removing only small items to the SCA storerooms.These are two statuettes of

Above: Tomb chamber n1B with mummies and a Ptah Sokar Osiris figure. Right: The Ptah Sokar Osiris figure of Tadiamun 31

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Having been discovered intact, with objects in their original position, this corpus of funerary material from the Late Period tombs at Saqqara is particularly valuable for researchers. Many such objects are now in museum collections but few have secure archaeological contexts and many have been separated from their contents. With the exception of the equipment of individuals with welldocumented careers, the precise dating of funerary objects generally causes problems and the discovery of intact wellcontexted tomb groups such as those revealed in our work will assist museum curators researching unprovenanced material in their collections.

The date of these tombs has yet to be determined, but they are within the era of the Thirtieth Dynasty and Ptolemaic Period. The demotic inscription of the jar found in n1A has been assigned by Michel Chauveau to the fifth-fourth centuries BC and the Aramaic papyrus fragments in the bottom of shaft n1 can be dated to the fifth century BC. It would seem that most of the coffins and mummies in our tombs are secondary burials, as Xrays of the mummies revealed bones which have been broken post-mortem due to rough handling by later burial parties. Like the Theban area at the same time, the Late Period necropolis at Saqqara suffered from a lack of space for new tombs and burials.

Tomb n1B: detail of the shroud of the lady Nephthysiyti

might suggest that all the mummies were placed in the tomb at the same time and associated items inserted later.

However, the same is not true for the second funerary set belonging to the lady Nephthysiyti.The group includes a statuette of Ptah Sokar Osiris, a stone sarcophagus and a mummy. The monolithic limestone sarcophagus is roughly trapezoidal and stands on the floor against the south wall. It has a mummiform cavity, containing a mummy with its head toward the west. Its very rich appearance contrasts with the simplicity of the sarcophagus. The mummy is wrapped in a linen shroud decorated with painted beads and golden disks. A golden mask made of cartonnage covers its face. The details are very sophisticated, with a blue striated wig, red paint in the nostrils, relief lips and very unusual pale eyes. Pieces of painted and golden papyrus are fixed upon the shroud showing a wesekh collar, a winged Nut figure and depictions of the four sons of Horus. A column of text places the deceased under the protection of Osiris. The text is very corrupt and is similar to that on the statuette of Ptah Sokar Osiris which was found standing against the west face of the sarcophagus near the mummy’s head.

A blocked-up doorway cut into the south face of n1B gives access to another, as yet unexplored, chamber. The door is topped by a roll, carved into the stone, with the name of Sabef who was ‘Director of the Crew of the Tomb Builders’. There is no doubt that this leads to an Old Kingdom tomb chamber.

q Christiane Ziegler is Honorary Director of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre Museum, Paris, Scientific Director of the Mission Archéologique du Louvre à Saqqara and member of UMR 7041-archéologies et sciences de l’antiquité (CNRS/University of Paris I-University of Paris X). She has been excavating at various sites in Egypt since 1972 and the second volume of her Excavations at Saqqara was recently published by Peeters. She is grateful to her team members and to all her Egyptian colleagues, particularly Zahi Hawass and the SCA Directors and Inspectors at Saqqara. The mission is financed by the Mission Recherche et technologie, Ministère de la Culture. Photographs: Christian Décamps/Mission archéologique du Louvre à Saqqara.

Above: Tomb chamber n1B: the stone sarcophagus of the lady Nephthysiyti as found. In the back wall of the chamber can be seen the blocked-up doorway leading to an Old Kingdom tomb.

Right: Nephthysiyti’s gold mask after cleaing and conservation 32

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Online C14 database for Egypt A project at the Oxford-based Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art investigated synchronisms between Egyptian historical chronology and radiocarbon measurements taken on Egyptian material. Joanne Rowland and Christopher Bronk Ramsey discuss the project and present the resulting online database.

In 2006 a project was initiated which aimed, for the first time, to examine systematically synchronisations between the historical chronology of ancient Egypt and dates obtained through radiocarbon measurements. The project concluded in summer 2009 with publication of the new radiocarbon results in Science (18 June 2010: 1554-1557) and the creation of an online database of radiocarbon measurements undertaken in the Nile Valley from the inception of radiocarbon dating by Willard F Libby in the 1950s until the present day. The resource covers prehistoric through to medieval dates run on material from sites in both Egypt and the Sudan. This corpus of dates helped to inform our own dating strategy and we hope they will be of interest to other researchers.

Some of the key reasons why radiocarbon dates are run on archaeological material are: 1) to establish an absolute date for a context for which there is no known historical correlate at all (for example, a grave with no datable pottery vessels or other objects) 2) to confirm the date of an object thought to be from a specific period on stylistic grounds but with no secure archaeological context 3) to check a historical date through synchronisation with scientific dating measurements.

All of the radiocarbon dates to be found at: https://c14.arch. ox.ac.uk/egyptdb/db.php come from published sources and the online facility allows this information to be accessed and presented in a number of different ways. For each radiocarbon date details are given of the archaeological context, expected historical correlates, type and species of the sample material, radiocarbon measurement with error margin, details of the museum where the object is held (where applicable and/or known), certainty of the sample coming from a specific object/context and any considerations as to the inbuilt age of a sample.

Bibliographic references are also provided.

Radiocarbon measurements are taken on small samples of organic material which usually range from as little as 10mg to as much as 50g, depending upon the type of technique used. A proportion of more recent dates, such as those conducted at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) for this project, are measured using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS), which can be obtained with samples at the lower end of the size scale, whereas the earlier Liquid Scintillation method requires a larger sample size. Suitable materials from Egyptian contexts include food remains (seeds, nuts and fruits), basketry, matting and sandals (made from

The home page of the Egyptian Radiocarbon Database

halfa grass, palm fronds, rushes or reeds), clothing and mummy bandages (linen and wool) and papyrus. It is also possible to obtain radiocarbon measurements on samples of animal or human origin, including leather or hair.

One of the lessons to be learned from this dataset is that great care is needed in the selection of organic material for dating, particularly with regard to consideration of those contexts where artefacts or materials may have been re-used. A radiocarbon measurement provides an absolute date in years for the point in time at which the organic material being dated stopped living (when it stopped absorbing carbon 14 from the atmosphere). If a radiocarbon measurement is conducted, for example, on a re-used piece of textile, or on a papyrus which has been subject to palimpsest, then the absolute date would not relate to the final context in which the material was used or is found, but to the point in time at which the plant material ceased to grow. This caution applies also to the use of samples of wood and charcoal. Although wood is commonly associated with radiocarbon dating, it can come with ‘inbuilt age’. This is because it might have ceased to take in carbon 14 at a much earlier date than the archaeological context in which it was found. For example, a beam used in housing or for the construction of a boat might have come from a tree felled a number of years before its timbers were worked, it might be a longlived species, and the timber might have been re-used. It is therefore vital to know how long-lived a species the timber originates from; cedar trees (Cedrus) may grow for hundreds of years, as might sycamore figs (Ficus sycomorus), whereas acacia (Acacia nilotica) and tamarisk (Tamarix species) trees have shorter life spans of c.50-60 years. Only the outer rings of trees are actually living, 33

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and within this Plot Dates, or View and Plot on curve, to see the date range on the calibration curve itself. It is also possible to plot a series of dates. The information on Association and Age at Deposition firstly confirms the likelihood that the sample relates directly to the object or context for which the date is being sought and then states how likely it is that the organic material from which the radiocarbon sample has been taken had been no longer living for 0-20 years, 0-100 years, 0-n00 years or an uncertain period, when the item was originally made, be it straw for a mud brick, papyrus for an archival document, or foodstuffs for a foundation deposit. As noted earlier, this is a particularly important piece of information, because it may help the user to interpret the radiocarbon measurement. For example, if the sample was from a fruit, then we would expect the fruit to have been picked in the same year in which it had grown, with a resultant Age at Deposition being 0-20 years. However, if the sample was from a piece of wood, then, dependent upon the longevity of the species and whether the sample was taken from the inner or outer growth rings of the tree, an Age at Deposition might range from 0-20 years up to 0-n00 years. Ultimately, this could greatly affect the relationship between the radiocarbon measurement and the context of the sample.

From the screens for individual results it is also possible to click on any of the hot-linked fields (shown in blue - e.g. Country, Region, Site, Period, Dynasty, Reign) and be presented with a screen that lists all radiocarbon measurements relating to the selection. To avoid confusion associated with the variable spellings of locations and names, there is a pull-down menu at the top of the screen which allows the user to browse periods, dynasties and reigns and also countries, regions and sites, which when selected show the range of options available within the database. Bibliographic references can either be selected from an individual screen or by using the pull-down tab at the top of the main screen. Once the chosen references are displayed, it is possible to click on a chosen reference to received full bibliographic data in an additional screen, which allows the option to link to Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/).

This database is by no means exhaustive and it is very much intended to be an updatable resource. Information on how to submit additional radiocarbon results will be a future part of the website and will allow users to submit published dates that are not yet included.

C14 dates for the reign of Khufu

so if samples of wood are taken, it is important to know that they come from these outer rings, since they will then correspond to the date associated with the time of felling. Where such information has been available from the published sources of radiocarbon measurements it is noted as a comment within the database.

Radiocarbon measurements in the database have obviously been carried out for a variety of reasons and a ‘comments’ field includes any published information to this effect. This field also includes any relevant additional contextual notes on the sample. Where the information is known, the database provides details on the site from which the object was excavated. Whatever the reason behind a radiocarbon date, it is crucial to know the certainty with which the sample - the piece of material being analysed – relates to the actual object or context for which an absolute date is being sought. This information ultimately has a profound and far-reaching impact upon the significance of the result.

Some practical information will be helpful for users navigating the database for the first time, so here we provide some explanatory details. The database can be accessed at https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/egyptdb/db.php though users do need to register (free of charge) to consult the data. Once logged in, from the opening screen of the database, Sites in Egypt can be selected directly, or a country chosen via the Countries tab, which includes sites in the Sudan. Sites are listed alphabetically and suffixed with additional details, for example ‘Abusir, Sahure Pyramid’. Once a selection is made, the user will be directed to a list of radiocarbon measurements associated with this location. From this screen, any measurement may be selected, taking the user to a screen which gives full details of the sample, together with the type and species of material (where published) and any additional comments. Each radiocarbon sample produced has a Lab ref which identifies the laboratory and the sample number. The date in radiocarbon years before present (BP) is given with an error range and also a stable isotope δ13C reading. If the user double-left clicks on the date, or selects the View and then Calibration tabs from the top of the screen, then the radiocarbon date will be calibrated and shown in a new screen, using OxCal 4.1.

From this screen it is possible to select the option View

q Joanne Rowland is Junior Professor, Egyptology Seminar at the Freie University Berlin, and Christopher Bronk Ramsey is Deputy Director of the Research Laboratory, Director of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, and Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford. This project was based at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art and was funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Grant F/08/622/A). Thanks are due to Stan Hendrickx for the use of his database of radiocarbon dates from prehistoric and early historic contexts and to Bernhard Weninger for additional lists of published dates from CalPal. 34

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Stephen Quirke, Hidden Hands. Egyptian workforces in Petrie excavation archives, 1880-1924. Duckworth Egyptology, 2010 (ISBN 978 0 7156 3904 7). Price: £18.

Hidden Hands, by Stephen Quirke, Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London, has an overtly political message which its author states in the preface: the Petrie-led excavations in Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries practised a ‘rigid exclusion’ in relation to Egyptians that was the result of colonial rule, and each subsequent generation of archaeologists has recreated this exclusion.

The book is structured as a survey and excavation of the archival and published material left by Petrie, most held in the Petrie Museum archives, beginning with the widely available publications, then the ‘Journals’ (circulars sent to his supporters) and private correspondence, and finally the site notebooks. Throughout this paper excavation, Quirke gathers the instances of Egyptian names and the context for the naming, be it archaeological (the record of a find ) or social (an event in a worker’s personal life). The final chapter consists of biographies of some of the more prominent Egyptian individuals involved in Petrie’s excavations. These, together with the publication of the names and the archive photographs in chapter 9, act as a correction to the exclusion the author observes. Quirke suggests that such study of the archival material allows an assessment of the development of the discipline and how it ‘might move dialectically out of exclusion and into inclusion’ (p.304).

Quirke makes his stance clear from the start: ‘Even during the phase of manual digging, field directors ensure that unskilled labour leaves no autobiographical signature in documentation. In publication, archaeological writers strategically excise the individual identities, in their very names, and the collective presence of workers’ (p.1). As an example of the excision Quirke discusses the individuals who made finds regarded by Egyptologists today as significant – although this carries the unavoidable and contradictory implication that these finds are therefore significant for everyone, not just in Western narratives of the past – noting that their names have not been recorded in the modern history of the objects (p.189). It is rare that team members on any excavation, in any country, will be publicly acknowledged for specific finds; in a broader assessment, this expectation of a democratisation of knowledge creation is essentially idealistic.

While the colonial nature of early archaeology in Egypt, as well as the limited and thus limiting demographic of Egyptology graduates today cannot be denied, there are instances in the book where a socio-political reading may seem overly judgemental. Petrie was an archaeologist, not a social historian or ethnographer, and he did not set out to record and publish the lives of all the Egyptians he met and worked with; it is unrealistic to

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expect this of him, or of any archaeologist working at home or abroad – though it is such narrow methodologies that the author is challenging.

Quirke makes the point that the workers who were worth mentioning in the notebooks were excluded from the official publications, creating an ‘economy of absence’: the Egyptian workforce had no part, other than as local colour, in the official European narrative of pharaonic Egypt. Quirke describes Henry Wallis’ 1895 painting of Petrie at the Ramesseum surrounded by Egyptians, reproduced on his p.24, as a representation of the ‘abstracted power of European knowledge, triumphant in a land that is unable, according to imperialism, to rule itself’ (p.25). Quirke sees the exclusion as a structural problem, not particular to Petrie, acknowledging Petrie’s humanity on several occasions. Indeed, the detailed records of aspects of the lives of individuals noted by Petrie (see, for example, p.77 on the family affairs of Ali Suefi), and the notes made by his wife, Hilda, on local customs, indicate that the Petries were indeed accidental ethnographers, embedded in the social lives of many of the Egyptians who worked for them.

The book provides a nuanced history of the colonial beginnings and neo-colonial development of Egyptology through the lens of Petrie’s work and writings; it also acts as a first step towards the inclusive approach the author advocates, and a necessary contribution to a reflexive approach to the discipline of Egyptology. From any point of view, this book is a detailed and fascinating insight into the Petrie Museum archives, and the social context of Petrie’s excavations.

KAREN EXELL Jason Thompson, Edward William Lane, 18011876. The Life of the Pioneering Egyptologist and Orientalist. Haus Publishing, 2010 (ISBN 978 1 906598 72 3). Price £25. Jason Thompson’s latest book appears daunting at 35

747 pages and comprising 30 chapters. Yet the work, an exhaustive source of information on Lane, his life, and his scholarship, proves to be very readable. Thompson accomplishes this by embedding his biography within a much larger, social context, which includes the activities of Lane’s family, friends, colleagues, and contemporaries. While a reader may begin the work hoping for more information on the pioneering Edward William Lane, he or she will quickly find themselves immersed in a vividly fleshed-out world of scholars, politics, adventurers, and discoveries. Thompson used a similar format in his important Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle (University of Texas Press, 1992), but it is brought to even greater fruition in Edward William Lane. The book not only capitalizes on Thompson’s now extensive knowledge of nineteenth-century Egyptologists, Orientalists, and explorers, it readily employs contemporaneous sources and makes extensive use of archives in both London and Oxford. From the archives, Thompson masterfully weaves together such varied materials as notebooks, manuscripts, sketches, and personal correspondence. As a result, the book engagingly captures both the flavour and facts of Lane’s rich life.

Thompson begins by reconstructing the story of Lane’s parents before progressing to his and his siblings’ childhood and adolescence.

Lane’s life as a young adult, his avoidance of university, his artistic training, his failing health (something that would plague him for the rest of his life) and his self-education on Egypt are all discussed.

From there the book moves to Lane’s first trip to Egypt, offering, in vivid detail, his initial impressions of the country that would consume his life. While Alexandria ranked fairly low in Lane’s opinion, Cairo captured his imagination. Here Thompson richly fleshes out the city, its sites, sounds, and smells, using his own knowledge of modern Cairo, and comparing Lane’s words with those of contemporary writers.

Lane’s rapid assimilation into Cairene life dominates the narrative at this point, touching upon a variety of topics that can’t help but interest the reader, including prostitution, smoking, shopping, slavery, Egyptian superstition, and Islam.

While most famous for his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Lane’s original intention was to produce a work on ancient Egypt. As such, amidst an account of his extensive explorations, Thompson easily demonstrates how Lane’s work was at the forefront of early nineteenth century Egyptological knowledge and how integrated Lane was into that period’s fraternity of scholars and explorers.

The account of Lane’s life continues against the backdrop of the Greek War of Independence and Mohammed Ali’s military reversals. After acquiring an eight year-old slave by the name of Nefeeseh, whom he would later marry, Lane returned to London after an absence of nearly three years.

Lane’s return saw him navigating culture

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shock, family, publication ambitions, and an increasingly complex professional relationship with Robert Hay. His efforts to write and publish his doomed Description of Egypt eventually led him to return to Egypt for further research. It was at this point in his life that Lane turned his attention to a project that would become his first triumph: his Modern Egyptians. Thompson engagingly recounts the delays, illustrations, editing, and censorship that this work experienced. The result, however, proved an instant success. Here Thompson discusses how the publication related to Gardner Wilkinson’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, stressing how the two works were regarded as a pair throughout the mid-nineteenth century.

Yet Lane’s success was not limited to his Modern Egyptians, as demonstrated by his translation of the Arabian Nights. After wrestling with tragedies including illness, family loss, and his publisher’s bankruptcy, Lane reoriented himself in new, scholarly directions, bringing part of his family to live in Egypt in the 1830s. One of these ventures involved his sister, Sophia, who, with his assistance, wrote a book The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo (1846). Two other projects include Lane’s Lexicon and translated sections of the Quran.

The family’s return to England saw Lane continue, despite his continually faltering health, his efforts on the mammoth Lexicon, which Thompson presents in an historical light. As Lane’s family matured in Worthing, he became more reclusive as he threw himself further into his work. The publication of the first volume of his Lexicon won him further accolades and set a new standard in lexicography. Its triumph must have acted as a foil to the loss of his beloved nephew Stanley, viewed by Lane as his intellectual heir.

The book ends with a discussion of Lane’s family, and scholarly legacy, assessing the shortcomings of the completed Lexicon, finished after Lane’s death, and Lane’s position in the Orientalist debate. Thompson’s work proves a very satisfying account of a complicated man and life. As he states (p.1): ‘Modern Egyptians is one of the most influential and widely cited works in the history of Middle East studies’. Yet the work has continually proven a source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. As such, a comprehensive study of the man who produced it was long overdue.

ANDREW BEDNARSKI Herbert E Winlock, with Introduction and Appendix by Dorothea Arnold, Tutankhamun’s Funeral. Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2010 (ISBN 978 1 58839 369 2 and 978 0 300 16735 1). Price: £10.99.

It is a curious fact that, as well as possessing the only (virtually) intact royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamun is also the only monarch whose funeral and embalming debris have also been positively identified.

These had come to light packed in something like a dozen large pottery vessels in a small pit in the Valley of the Kings, now numbered KV 54, some fifteen years before Howard Carter’s epoch-making discovery of 1922.

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This funerary debris was only one of many finds during the excavations conducted by Theodore Davis in the area. Little appreciated at the time of its discovery in late December 1907, most of the deposit passed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1909, where its nature was first appreciated by the Museum’s Herbert Winlock in the 1920s, and finally published by him in 1941. The core of this volume is a re-issue of Winlock’s work, published to coincide with an exhibition built around the assemblage - now sadly denuded of some items, sold off by the Museum during its ill-advised ‘deaccessioning’ programme of the 1950s.

The book opens with a foreword by the Museum’s current Director - a post held by Winlock himself - followed by an introduction by the current Director of the Egyptian Department, Dorothea Arnold, who provides an overview of the Egyptian mummification process, the funeral and the practice of establishing caches of the leftover debris, either in or near the tomb itself.

She also provides a brief background to the excavation of Davis and to Winlock himself.

Winlock’s original text - Materials Used at the Embalming of King Tutankhamun - forms the next chapter. Winlock continues to be one of the best writers ever to have been an Egyptologist - even his most technical papers being exemplars of clarity and elegance - and this piece well lives up to his high standards.

He tells the story of how the Museum came to possess the objects before going on to describe them and discuss their use - basically divided between items deriving from the embalming process and others that he believed were the debris left behind from a funeral meal.

While a splendid piece of work, research over the six decades that have elapsed since Winlock wrote has changed Egyptologists’ views on some of the American scholar’s conclusions - and even some of his ‘facts’.

These are addressed by Dr Arnold and Emelia Cortes in a final section - ‘Updating Winlock’ - arranged as a commentary on Winlock’s text. Among issues discussed are the question as to which miniature mummy-mask was actually found in KV 54 (the painted one now in New York, or a gilded one now in Cairo); the outcome of modern analyses of the textiles and floral adornments, and the 36

actual nature of Winlock’s ‘funerary meal’.

It is noted that the bird remains found in the jars could actually have been food offerings to the dead king and that the accompanying floral collars might in fact have been unused funerary wreaths. The proposal made some time ago that the KV 54 deposit might have been moved from the entrance corridor of Tutankhamun’s actual tomb, KV 62, is also briefly discussed, along with noting the need to include the evidence provided by the recent discovery of the much larger embalmers’ cache, KV 63, only a short distance from KV 62. However, no substantive consideration is given to the KV 63 deposit, in spite of the increasing likelihood that it may actually have belonged to Tutankhamun himself - especially in light of the dating evidence deriving from the analysis of the flood-levels in this part of the Valley (cf. Cross, JEA 94 (2008), pp.303312). In this case, the material found in KV 54 might have been items employed after the sealing of the main KV 63 deposit.

The volume is illustrated by a mixture of archive images of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its contents, modern colour images illustrating the KV 54 material or points made in the text, plates from Winlock’s original book, and photographs taken from the museum record cards of objects now deaccessioned. My only comments on these are that the images of objects from KV 62 lack their accession numbers (provided for all other objects), that the photograph of the Cairo miniature mask almost certainly from the group is small, monochrome and out of focus - surely a decent-sized colour image could have been procured - and that it would have been nice to have included all of Winlock’s plates (rather than just VII through X) to maintain the integrity of his original work.

As a final point, given the dispersal of much of the material from KV 54 since the 1950s deaccessioning, it would perhaps have been useful to have included a concordance of Metropolitan numbers and those of their new owners, where known (cf. p. 68). Nevertheless, the book is a handy re-presentation of a very important group of objects, of a type that has now become far more widely recognised following the excavation of KV 63.

AIDAN DODSON Jason Thompson, A History of Egypt from Earliest Times to the Present. Haus Publishing, 2009 (ISBN 978 1 906598 04 4). Price: £17.99.

Robert L Tignor, Egypt. A Short History.

Princeton University Press, 2010 (ISBN 978 0 691 14763 5). Price: £ 20.95.

A short but comprehensive history of the whole of Egyptian civilization has long been desirable and now two have appeared within a short time of each other.

Jason Thompson is a well known writer and biographer of the beginnings of scientific research into ancient Egyptian and Islamic history in the nineteenth century and this study was first published by the American University Press in Egypt in 2008. Robert Tignor is a distinguished scholar of the Islamic Period in Egypt. Their academic backgrounds are reflected in the treatment of the periods of Egyptian history as Thompson covers the

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whole of ancient Egypt in only 161 out of 356 pages, and Tignor covers the pre-Islamic Period in 121 out of 320 pages.

The two books are arranged according to the same thematic approach, but with differing numbers of chapters in each book - the geographical background, prehistory and the Predynastic Period, the standard division of ancient Egypt into Kingdoms and Intermediate Periods, Graeco-Roman Egypt, Coptic Egypt, early Islamic Period, Fatimid Egypt, the Mamluk Period, the Ottoman Period, the Mohammad Ali dynasty and republican Egypt. Thompson covers all periods in slightly more detail, but Tignor prefers to sum them up in general conclusions.

Modern Egypt is treated in more detail by both, although perhaps in a thousand years other writers of Egyptian history might reduce the rule of Nasser to a mere paragraph like some of the ancient Egyptian rulers described by Thompson and Tignor. Both discuss the environmental background to Egyptian history and Thompson contains a brief page on chronology, while Tignor has introductory pages on the importance of Egypt in history and the place of modern museums in illustrating it. He even tackles head-on the question of the ethnicity of the ancient Egyptians, and clearly states that they were not black Africans, contrary to certain fashionable theories, but rather ‘of mixed African, North African, and Southwest Asian origins’. If scientists dare, in the face of

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controversy, the issue could now be settled by extensive DNA analysis.

Both authors give a workmanlike account of ancient Egyptian history, but their different approaches are evident. Thompson names the major and fairly major rulers, while Tignor mentions fewer by name in his grand generalized sweep of Egyptian history; for example only Mentuhotep II and Amenemhat I rate an appearance in the Middle Kingdom.

He is more generous with New Kingdom rulers but curiously neither Seti I nor Ramesses III is discussed as a ruler, only as a tomb-owner. However, Tignor does have more detailed discussion of Egyptian religion, writing, and science, and women’s rights, although Thompson writes more on Middle Kingdom literature. In the New Kingdom, Tignor concentrates on the reigns of four main rulers:Tuthmosis III who gets only a paragraph, Hatshepsut who gets three, Akhenaten who covers six and a half pages, and Ramesses II who gets four pages. These preferences are based partially on the surviving evidence but perhaps also on modern prejudices which tend to exaggerate the importance of the female ruler Hatshepsut and the religious preoccupations of Akhenaten. Thompson too gives Akhenaten more space than other rulers but at least mentions other reigns of the New Kingdom. He is right up-to-date with his research, describing Herihor as Piankh’s sonin-law, and deals with the major rulers of the Third Intermediate Period while Sheshonq I

and his Jerusalem campaign do not even rate a reference by Tignor.

Their differing methods of dealing with history continue in the Graeco-Roman and Coptic Christian periods; for example, Thompson has four pages on Cleopatra VII’s career, while Tignor sums her up in one long paragraph. The discussions in both books of Islamic and modern Egypt are stimulating and refreshing, especially as the Islamic Period, until the advent of Napoleon, tends to be ignored by writers of general works Naturally both give some brief space to the development of Egyptology although Tignor devotes more room to the work of the French scholars and the decipherment of hieroglyphic writing.

He also discusses Mohammad Ali’s education policy but curiously garbles the names of the early Egyptian Egyptologists Ahmad Kamal (not Kamala) and Marcus Simaika (not Samaria). Both authors carry the Egyptian story up to President Mubarak and speculate on what lies beyond and Tignor mentions popular dissatisfaction with the regime which, of course, has now spectacularly come to the surface. Tignor also has an interesting final chapter in which he tries to identify the constants in Egyptian history such as religion and strong leadership. Thompson has a short bibliography but Tignor has a more detailed and up-to-date one. Both works are excellent summations of the flow of Egyptian history, and the reader will be hard put to choose between them. MORRIS L BIERBRIER

Egypt Exploration Society www.ees-shop.com Several EES publications are currently on special offer at our online shop, including sets of two related books.

Recent and back-stock publications can also be ordered online.

Jute bags with the Society’s logo are £5 each and binders for Egyptian Archaeology (to hold 20 copies) are £10 each.

You can also buy a merchandise bundle made up of EES-branded items: a jute bag, mug, pen and lapel badge, all for only £10.

Orders for EES publications and merchandise can also be placed by phone, post or e-mail.

Contact: Rob Tamplin, EES, 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG. Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 2266 Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118 E-mail: rob.tamplin@ees.ac.uk

jim@pandpbooks.eclipse.co.uk 37

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A Hyksos palace at Avaris Geophysical survey at Tell el-Daba has revealed a palatial building that is probably to be dated to the middle of the Hyksos Period. A preliminary description appeared in EA 34 (pp.10-13) and Manfred Bietak now provides a more detailed assessment of this significant structure. than the Palais Royal in Ugarit, that at Ras Ibn Hany and Palace Q in Ebla. The southern courtyard, with its double walls and the elongated tower jutting out of the faรงade resembles the Ebla Palace Q (see plans below).

The palace, made of mud brick with sand-brick floors, was oriented north-east/south-west, with its four corners trained on the four cardinal points, and is preserved only to just above its foundations because of agricultural levelling. The palace seems to have faced to the northeast and, if our interpretation of the magnetometer survey results is correct, a columned building might have served as the throne-room, particularly as no other element assessed thus far could have served this function. From there a ceremonial path seems to have led to the north to the temple of the same period, excavated by the Tell el-Daba team in the 1970s.

Immediately south of this hall is a high security unit (A) encased on the south-east and the south-west by

Since 2005 the Austrian Institute, Cairo, in co-operation with the Austrian Academy, has excavated about twothirds of a palatial building at Tell el-Daba. It was situated at the western edge of a tributary of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile and thus had access to shipping routes.

The palace was constructed in separate blocks over time and bears no resemblance to Egyptian palaces with their consecutive room arrangements. Up to now we can identify two rows of building sections, each with about three units of different sizes and function. The buildings are linked by courtyards and, in its final phase, magazines in the east of the palace were given up and cut by an enclosure wall.

The plan of the palace, which has two to three building phases, seems to owe its origins to Near Eastern palatial concepts. It measured c.112m x 95m (c.10,600sq m), a size that corresponds well with the North Syrian palaces of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, though it is bigger

Plans of the Hyksos palace at Tell el-Daba (left), based on the 2006-09 excavations, and (right) Palace Q at Ebla (courtesy Paolo Matthiae)

38

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Temple in area F/1

Geophysical survey revealing the size and plan of the palace and its link to the temple in area F/I (after Manfred Bietak, Irene Forstner Müller and Tomasz Herbich, in O’Connor Festschrift, Fig.3) 39

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One of the ceremonial fish bowls with representations of a lion stalking herds of both domesticated and wild animals

square tower, 20m in width, fortified the southern part of the southeast faรงade of the magazine block and a large courtyard (C) is attached to the south-east of building A; south Horse burial in the vestibule of building unit A of the palace of this are the massive casemate infilled walls and enclosing two rows remains of a block of six long magazines. In the late phase of magazines with paved floors. Remains of numerous of the palace they must have been given up or reduced amphorae and their stoppers show that wine and/or to half their previous size as a late enclosure wall cuts olive oil was stored here. The solid walls of the southern through their midst. magazines suggest that they were once covered by vaults South-east of the magazines and belonging also to while the northern magazines seem to have had flat the late phase is the spacious courtyard B (21m x 27m) roofs. A vestibule in the north-east provided access to enclosed on two sides by casemate walls and on the third the magazines. There a horse burial contemporary with by double adjoining walls, giving the impression of a the palace was found in front of the middle magazine. It highly protected structure. Mud-brick benches lined its was a mare and may have been a favourite of the lord of walls and then, at a later period, a cellar was installed the palace. Stairways led from several sides to an upper along its north-eastern wall and a new system of benches storey, which is no longer preserved. installed. In the courtyard a long-term succession of large Late in the history of the palace the vestibule was partly offering pits was dug (see EA 34, p.11) and these were filled up with soil, creating a well-protected structure found to have been filled with charred animal bones encased with thick infilled walls on three sides. An almost and over 6,000 vessels, mainly bowls and drinking vessels, together with beer bottles and Canaanite wine amphorae.

The bones and vessels may be the remains of ritual meals that were regularly held here and it seems likely that this courtyard belonged to an institution for ceremonial banquets. These are attested in the ancient Near East from the third millennium BC and were known as marzihu.

The feasts were celebrated for different occasions such as the birthdays of gods or funerary occasions. Rhyta in the shape of hippopotami with incised water plants (illustrated EA 34, p.11) and of a nude abundant female suggest fertility associations.

Among ritual vessels found in the pits were oval bowls with Plan of unit A of the Hyksos palace in 2009 tilapia fish incised on the base.

(Manfred Bietak, Proc. ICAANE Conference Rome 2008, Fig. 4) The inner walls of such vessels 40

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Fragment of a cuneiform letter found in the well of the Hyksos palace, dating to the last decades of the Old Babylonian Kingdom (by Manfred Bietak and Irene Forstner-Müller, Egypt and the Levant 2009, figs 21-22, with drawing by Frans van Koppen)

usually have incised designs of water plants and water fauna such as fish and hippopotami. Two bowls, however, have an unexpected scene of a lion stalking a herd of cervidae, in one case probably domesticated mouflons and in the other antelopes, hartebeest and other wild animals.

One bowl shows the usual static mode of representation while the other displays animals in natural trot or canter.

Another has a scene of domesticated baboons climbing a date palm to pick the fruits. The finds from the pit also included a number of sherds of the Kerma Culture – perhaps showing that Nubian mercenaries participated in the feasting.

South of the palace the remains of a large square building contemporary with an earlier phase of the palace were uncovered. This building had been mostly destroyed by a large well (12.5m x 10m), which belongs to the late phase of the palace. It was accessed by a dromos and stairs.

Sieving of the material from the well produced pottery of the middle and late Hyksos Period, some seal impressions and a fragment of a cuneiform document (studied by Karen Radner and Frans van Koppen). This seems to have been a letter written in southern Mesopotamian style, dated by its orthography to the last decades of the Old Babylonian Kingdom (Middle Chronology: 1650 – 1595 BC).

Eight seals of the Hyksos King Khayan, most of them from the biggest offering pit, suggest that the palace should be assigned to this king. He was most probably the third king of the Fifteenth Dynasty and, after Apophis, the most important of the Hyksos rulers of Egypt. A basalt

Fragments of seals naming King Khayan from the offering pits A seal impression from a building beneath the Hyksos palace (which was likely to have been part of an older palace dating from the early Hyksos Period) with the title and name of a Prince of Retjenu in hieroglyphs

lion with his name which appeared in the nineteenth century on the antiquities market of Baghdad (now in the British Museum) suddenly makes sense when taken in conjunction with the above-mentioned cuneiform document and another Old Babylonian seal with the name of a high official, found at some distance west of the palace: it was the Hyksos who introduced into Egypt long-distance letter diplomacy in Akkadian 150 years earlier than the more famous correspondence of the Amarna Period.

Under the palace older remains were uncovered. Besides several metal ovens a completely burnt-out workshop was found. It contained numerous pottery dishes, amphorae filled with Egyptian blue and a dislocated calcite lid with the inscribed name of a princess called SitHathorDuat.

Most interesting are seal impressions of the so-called ‘Green Jasper Workshop’ with integrated hieroglyphic columns. One belonged to a hq3-Rṯnw ‘Prince of Retjenu’. His name is not well preserved but hopefully clearer examples of the same seal will be found during the continuing excavation of the workshop, enabling this early Hyksos Period Prince of Retjenu to be identified. q Manfred Bietak founded the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo and was its Director from 1973 to 2009. He is Professor Emeritus and currently Chairman of the Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science at the University of Vienna, and Chairman of the Commission of Egypt and the Levant at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since 1961 he has excavated in Nubia, at Luxor and at Tell el-Daba. All illustrations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the joint archives of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Graphics by Nicola Math.

The basalt lion (BM EA 987) with the name of the Hyksos King Khayan which appeared on the antiquities market in Baghdad in the ninteenth century, probably originating in Babylon.

41

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A papyrus from the House of Life at Akhetaten

In the 1933-34 season the EES team excavating at Amarna discovered fragements of painted papyrus that came from the House of Life. Richard B Parkinson describes the fragments which have recently been conserved at the British Museum.

Copy of the stamp on a mud-brick from the House of Life (City of Akhenaten III, Pl.LXXXIII, VI)

The symbolically named House of Life was apparently a scriptorium and a place of advanced learning that was usually associated with temples and palaces, and it seems to have been a central institution in the transmission and production of textual culture throughout Egyptian history. It is referred to in officials’ titles and in texts, but only one named example of this institution has been conclusively identified and excavated: two adjoining buildings (Q.42.19–20) in a block that is part of a cluster of scribal offices and houses, close to the King’s House and the small Aten temple at Amarna, forming an administrative work area in the centre of Akhetaten. These two buildings were built with bricks stamped with ‘House of Life’ and a building (Q.42.21) immediately across the alley was built of bricks stamped with ‘Place of Pharaoh’s Correspondence’: here the famous archive of cuneiform tablets was found.

When the area was excavated in 1933 a group of some seventy small fragments of painted papyrus was uncovered in the smaller of the two buildings (Q.42.20). These were numbered 33/293 and distributed to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where they were registered as 1934.266; they were not distributed to Cairo as published in City of Akhenaten III, as the original records in the EES Lucy Gura Archive make clear. An early photograph (TA 33/4:O34) shows the fragments in a slightly less fragmentary state than now, and it is clear that some pieces were lost or damaged before the fragments were placed (unmounted) between glass in the 1930s. These fragments have been conserved and recently remounted by the British Museum’s papyrus conservator Bridget Leach. Three of the fragments comprise several layers of papyrus stuck together, forming lumps some 1–2mm thick. These suggest that the fragments may be the remains of a rolled up manuscript, that was at least several turnings thick, rather than a single sheet. These layers have proved impossible to separate during conservation, and have now been remounted between the original sheets of glass. The other fragments have been conserved and newly mounted by Bridget in a schematic arrangement to make them accessible for further study and further digital re-arrangement.

The small fragments are painted in white, red, pink,

The ‘House of Life’ at Amarna during excavation in 1933.

Photograph © EES Lucy Gura Archive

black, blue and brown. In places there are traces of underdrawing in a paler red. Several fragments show traces of painted polychrome hieroglyphs, and others show parts of black column lines, suggesting that the papyrus contained some hieroglyphic text(s). Another group of fragments shows a border, comprising a pink area outlined in red at the top and in black at the bottom.

This colour might indicate a desert landscape. On this base a group of figures was once striding: traces of their toes remain.

The most substantial and legible group of fragments comes from a group of at least five figures. There is a

The painted papyrus fragments as photographed in 1933.

Photograph © EES Lucy Gura Archive 42

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the slightly earlier tombchapel of Nebamun. Other similar fragments might conceivably be parts of the frame of a chariot or parts of chariot wheels.

The illustrated nature of the papyrus presumably led the excavators to identify it as a ‘funerary papyrus’, but this is perhaps unlikely.

Polychrome hieroglyphs are occasionally attested in large scenes on some funerary papyri, such as the late Eighteenth Dynasty Book of the Dead of Qenna (P. Leiden T2), but they are much more characteristic of scenes on temple walls, as is the subject-matter of bound prisoners. The fragments as a whole recall scenes such as that on a fragment of pink granite excavated from the fourth pylon at Karnak, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (JdE 36360). This block includes a scene of Amenhotep II in a chariot The painted fragments (Ashmolean Museum AN1934.266) after conservation and leading two registers of remounting. Photograph © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford bound foreign prisoners; one row of Asiatics walks with their legs apart, with insteps row of faces, alternating pale red and a pinkish white, raised, similar to the feet seen in the papyrus fragments. and these people have black hair with a white band. In However, the scale of the elements tentatively identified the archival photograph it is clear that these figures were as parts of a chariot on the papyrus makes it unlikely that bearded, although now only part of a moustache survives. this chariot could have belonged to a large figure of a The faces seem to belong to the same figures as a row of king, and the precise contents of the composition remain five arms which are tied at the elbows with a black rope. very uncertain. It is very possible that the fragments are Other identifiable fragments show that they were bareparts of several scenes from a single roll. chested and wore short blue kilts with a white edging.

If the description suggested here is correct, the papyrus Further fragments show overlapping red and white layers might have been part of the House of Life’s archives of which are probably legs and arms; traces of knees can be records or pattern books of such scenes, stored beside identified, but these seem to belong to another group of other forms of transmitted written and visual culture. The figures. The better preserved figures are apparently a row possible extent of such records is shown by the copies of of foreign prisoners running or striding with their arms inscriptions from the Middle Kingdom nomarchs’ tombs bound behind their backs; their pale skins and beards at Assiut, held in the temple library in Tebtunis millennia suggest that they might be Asiatics. Not enough survives later. These small colourful fragments remain a tantalising to say whether these figures have any features that could glimpse of what a House of Life might have contained in be described as being of ‘Amarna’ style. the late Eighteenth Dynasty.

The other fragments are unfortunately less easily identifiable. One shows a red fringed area, which is q Richard B Parkinson is a curator in the Department of Ancient perhaps a ‘streamer’ or part of a cloth covering. Another Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. He would like to thank Helen fragment shows a brown object, whose shape resembles Whitehouse, Liam McNamara, the Trustees of the Ashmolean Museum, the tip of a bow-case such as appears on chariots: it is Barry Kemp and Bridget Leach and is grateful to Ray Johnston for very similar to those on the famous wall-paintings from drawing his attention to the scene of Amenhotep II. 43

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Five minutes with Kent Weeks In what we intend to be the first of a new regular feature in EA we will be talking to renowned Egyptologists about their own work and their connection to the EES. Kent Weeks has been a member of the Society for many years and kindly agreed to start the series off. about engineering and conservation as it is clearing, and it necessarily goes slowly. Chambers 1 and 2 took over five years to clear, and we’ve been working in chamber 5 for three seasons. At this rate, we might finish work in the tomb in 2075!

How has archaeology in Egypt changed during your career?

Archaeology in Egypt has become a significant research tool, not simply a means of finding objects. It has matured and become as good in its methods and theories as any other archaeological field. It has become aware that the monuments of Egypt are a finite resource that must be dug with care and protected. My major concern is the Theban Necropolis. Nine thousand tourists now visit there every day. Recently, Thebes has been undergoing many changes designed to encourage even more tourists.

Some of these changes have not been thought through, and I worry that the combined effects of more tourists and poor planning will shorten the life of its monuments.

Kent Weeks outside the Society’s Ricardo Caminos Library during a visit to Doughty Mews in May 2010

If you were to initiate a new research project now, assuming there were no restrictions of time or money, what or where would it be?

When did you first encounter the EES? While in secondary school, perhaps it was in 1957, I wrote the EES requesting information on subscribing to JEA, and received a very nice letter in reply stating that JEA was too technical a journal for a young student.

So I took what little money I had saved up and opened an account with Buchhandlung Otto Harrassowitz and started buying Egyptology books, eventually acquiring a very substantial library. I wrote again to the EES two or three years later and did finally subscribe to JEA. I have never found it to be too technical!

Geophysical surveys and excavation along the edge of the cultivation on the West Bank at Luxor, from Taarif to Birket Habu.

The EES has just started a new project, directed

by Angus Graham, which is investigating Nile movements and landscape developments in the Luxor area (see p.3). Do you think this kind of work is a good complement to more traditional excavation?

What do you think should be the role of the EES in the Twenty-First Century?

Angus Graham’s project is one of the most exciting and promising endeavours in modern Egyptology. It is the kind of cutting edge, imaginative, inter-disciplinary approach that our discipline can only benefit from. It has already changed our view of ancient Thebes, and it promises to do even more.

Public education; an emphasis on conservation and preservation; excavation; publication of archaeologically relevant material and support for its preparation.

How is the work in KV5 going?

We are currently up to 130+ chambers in KV 5, and this season are clearing chamber 5, a room we believe to have been used for the burial of one of the sons of Ramesses II. KV 5 keeps throwing us more questions than answers, making it both an exciting and sometimes frustrating project.Work in KV 5 has always been as much

Thank you and best wishes for continuing your own successful work in Egypt. q Kent Weeks is Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and Director of the Theban Mapping Project: www.theban-

mappingproject.com/

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Ancient Egypt, the Near East and Beyond An unrivalled programme of superb one-week courses taught by experts.

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Qasr Ibrim: The Textiles from the Cathedral Cemetery

EES Excavation Memoir 96. 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-85698-199-9 Full price: £35.00. EES Members’ price: £30.00.

The dry height of the site of Qasr Ibrim above the river has resulted in superb preservation of organic material and the textile collections from the excavations have already become one of the largest from any site in the middle Nile valley. They are unique as an unmatched sequence, dating from the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty to the Late Ottoman Period and ranging from the domestic remains of town life and tiny exotic imports of the site’s great years to the cast-off garments and furnishings, pitifully mended and remended, from ages of disaster and decline. The important textiles from the cemeteray at Qasr irbim, including those from the burial of Bishop Timotheus are published here with detailed descriptions and a photographic record of the most significant pieces.

Elisabeth Grace Crowfoot was an expert on ancient textiles and in 1976 she was invited to join the Egypt Exploration Society’s expedition to Qasr Ibrim, after having worked in Cambridge on textiles from seasons in the 1960s. She worked with the expedition until 1984, sorting, washing and cataloguing textiles as they were excavated, assisted

in the field by Nettie Adams. Miss Crowfoot had completed this text before her death in 2005 and it has been edited for publication by Nettie Adams.

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E E S

Qasr Ibrim. The Cathedral Church

Ibrim dral Church

s and ration

argest n the

y few ng the

ion of dence, etailed

rchaeologist and heritage consultant with a

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Qasr Ibrim The Cathedral Church

Fred Aldsworth

an interpretation of that evidence for the g its subsequent abandonment and use as a

sque. It also places the building and the site

E X C AVAT I O N

e study and preservation of historic buildings to his work at Qasr Ibrim, he has also been rojects associated with the Giza Plateau and

at Berenike, Hitan Rayan, and Shenshef. In work in the UK, he has also worked in Iran,

nd Madagascar.

Fred Aldsworth with contributions from Hans Barnard, Paul Drury and the late Przemyslaw Gartkiewicz ::H :B .,

E G Y P T

E X P L O R AT I O N

E X C AVAT I O N

M E M O I R

9 6

Qasr Ibrim: The Textiles from the Cathedral Cemetery

Elisabeth Grace Crowfoot

The dry height of the site of Qasr Ibrim above the river has resulted in superb preservation of organic material and the textile collections from the excavations have already become one of the largest from any site in the middle Nile valley. They are unique as an unmatched sequence, dating from the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty to the Late Ottoman Period and ranging from the domestic remains of town life and tiny exotic imports of the site’s great years to the cast-off garments and furnishings, pitifully mended and re-mended, from ages of disaster and decline. The important textiles from the Cathedral Cemetery at Qasr Ibrim, including those from the burial of Bishop Timotheus, are published here (edited for publication by Nettie Adams) with detailed descriptions and a photographic record.

E E S

Qasr Ibrim: The Textiles from the Cathedral Cemeteray

Qasr Ibrim: the Textiles from the Cathedral Cemetery

By Elisabeth Grace Crowfoot

Elisabeth Grace Crowfoot ::H :B .+

E G Y P T

E X P L O R AT I O N

S O C I E T Y

Qasr Ibrim. The Cathedral Church

By Fred Aldsworth EES Excavation Memoir 97. 2010.

ISBN: 978-0-85698-190-6 Full price: £65.00. EES Members price: £55.00.

This book records the results of excavations and investigations undertaken by the Egypt Exploration Society between 1963 and 1998 on the largest surviving building, the Cathedral Church, on the significant site of Qasr Ibrim, one of very few not totally destroyed by inundation following the construction of the Aswan Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser. It sets out the archaeological evidence, which has resulted from excavations and a detailed study of the surviving fabric, and provides an interpretation of that evidence for the construction of the Cathedral Church including its subsequent abandonment and use as a domestic dwelling and then an Ottoman Mosque. It also places the building and the site within the context of Medieval Nubia.

S O C I E T Y

The Survey of Memphis VII. The Hekekyan papers and other sources for the Survey The Survey of Memphis VII. The Survey of Memphis VII The Hekekyan papers and other sources for the Survey of Memphis The Hekekyan Papers and other sources for the Survey of Memphis

By David Jeffreys E E S

E X C AVAT I O N

M E M O I R

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EES Excavation Memoir 95. 2010.

ISBN: 978-0-85698-192-0 Full price: £65.00. EES Members’ price: £55.00

of the city. An exceptionally rich textual and pictorial archive is one important source of information available to us, and is presented here, highlighting the work of Joseph Hekekyan, a talented and pioneering archaeologist who worked at Memphis and many other sites in the 1850s but who is - surprisingly - almost unknown today. Extensive quotations are provided, with detailed commentary and illustrations.

The Survey of Memphis VII. The Hekekyan Papers and other sources for the Survey of Memphis

The site of Memphis (in Egyptian, Mennefer) preserves the archaeological remains of the first capital of a unified pharaonic Egypt, including the site of the temple of Ptah which gives its name to the city and to the country (Hikuptah - Aigytos - Egypt). The Egypt Exploration Society’s Survey of Memphis began in 1981 and has run up to the present, combining many different methods to recover the human and environmental history

E E S

David Jeffreys is Senior Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at University College London Institute of Archaeology. He gained a BA in Hebrew and Egyptian at UCL in 1975 and has worked extensively at sites in the UK (Lincoln, Caernarvon, London) and in the Middle East (Tell Nebi Mend/Qadesh and Tell Brak in Syria, Tuleilat Ghassul in Jordan, Balat (Dakhla Oasis) and Saqqara in Egypt). Since 1981 he has been successively supervisor and Field Director of the EES survey of Memphis. His PhD thesis (presented in this volume) was an external University of London degree. A professional profile and recent publications are viewable at www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/jeffreys.htm

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The Survey of Memphis VII The Hekekyan Papers and other sources for the Survey of Memphis

David Jeffreys

The site of Memphis (in Egyptian, Mennefer) preserves the archaeological remains of the first capital of a unified pharaonic Egypt, including the site of the temple of Ptah which gives its name to the city and to the country (Hikuptah - Aigyptos- Egypt). The Egypt Exploration Society’s Survey of Memphis began in 1981 and has run up to the present, combining many different methods to recover the human and environmental history of the city. An exceptionally rich textual and pictorial archive is one important source of information available to us, and is presented here, highlighting the work of Joseph Hekekyan, a talented and pioneering archaeologist who worked at Memphis and many other sites in the 1850s but who is - surprisingly - almost unknown today. Extensive quotations are provided, with detailed commentary and illustrations.

E X C AVAT I O N

::H :B .*

David Jeffreys E G Y P T

E X P L O R AT I O N

S O C I E T Y

EES publications can be purchased from: The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG, United Kingdom.

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7242 2266. Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118.

E-mail: rob.tamplin@ees.ac.uk On-line shop: www.ees-shop.com

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