Egyptian Archaeology 44

No. 44 Spring 2014

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EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

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

Hieroglyphs, Archaeology and Ancient History Introducing our 2014 programme of superb five-day intensive courses taught by experts Hieroglyphs, Archaeology and Ancient History Hieroglyphs, Archaeology and Ancient History Hieroglyphs, Archaeology and Ancient History Introducing our 2014 programme of 14 superb five-day intensive courses taught by experts Monday to Friday 18 July 2014 Introducing our 2014 programme of superb five-day intensive courses taught by experts Hieroglyphs, Archaeology and Ancient History Introducing our 2014 programme of superb five-day intensive courses taught by experts HIEROGLYPHS FOR BEGINNERS

Introducing our 2014 programme of superb five-day intensive Monday to Dr Friday 18 July 2014 courses taught by experts Dr Bill Manley14 and José-R. Monday 14 to Friday 18 Pérez-Accino July 2014 Monday 14 to Friday 18 July 2014 HIEROGLYPHS FOR BEGINNERS or HIEROGLYPHS FOR18 BEGINNERS Monday 14 to Friday July 2014 Dr Bill ManleyCOURT and DrFOR José-R. Pérez-Accino HIEROGLYPHS BEGINNERS CROWNS AND CONCUBINES: SOCIETY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Dr Bill Manley and Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino HIEROGLYPHS FOR BEGINNERS Dr Bill Manley andLlewellyn-Jones DrorJosé-R. Pérez-Accino Dr Lloyd or Dr Bill Manley and Dror José-R. Pérez-Accino CROWNS AND CONCUBINES: COURT SOCIETY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST CROWNS AND CONCUBINES: COURT SOCIETY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST or Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones CROWNS AND CONCUBINES: COURT SOCIETY IN 2014 THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Monday to Friday 25 July Dr 21 Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones CROWNS AND CONCUBINES: COURT SOCIETY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones LIVING WITH KHA AND MERYT: A WEEK AT THE HEART OF DEIR EL-MEDINA Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Monday 21 toand Friday 25 July 2014 Ms Jan Picton Dr Claire Malleson Monday 21 to Friday 25 July 2014 Friday 25THE JulyHEART 2014 OF DEIR EL-MEDINA LIVING WITH KHA ANDMonday MERYT:21AtoWEEK AT or LIVING WITH KHA AND MERYT: A WEEK AT THE HEART OF DEIR EL-MEDINA Monday 21AtoWEEK Friday 25THE July 2014 OF LIVING WITH KHA AND MERYT: AT HEART DEIR Ms Jan Picton and Dr Claire Malleson READING HIEROGLYPHS: WISDOM THIS LIFE AND THE EL-MEDINA NEXT Ms Jan Picton and DrFOR Claire Malleson LIVING WITH KHA AND MERYT: A WEEK AT THE HEART OF DEIR EL-MEDINA Ms Manley Jan Picton Dr ClairePérez-Accino Malleson Dr Bill andand Dror José-R. or Ms Jan Picton andorDr FOR ClaireTHIS Malleson READING HIEROGLYPHS: WISDOM LIFE AND THE NEXT READING HIEROGLYPHS: WISDOM FOR THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT or Dr Bill Manley andtoDrFriday José-R. Pérez-Accino READING HIEROGLYPHS: WISDOM FOR THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT Monday 28 July 1 August 2014 Dr Bill Manley and Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino READING HIEROGLYPHS: WISDOM FOR THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT Dr Bill Manley and Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino THE DARKEST NIGHT: PROBLEMATIC PERIODS IN EGYPT’S ANCIENT PAST Dr Bill Manley andtoDrFriday José-R. Pérez-Accino Monday 28 José-R. July 1 August 2014 MondayDr 28 July toPérez-Accino Friday 1 August 2014 Monday 28 July to Friday 1 August 2014 THE DARKEST NIGHT: PROBLEMATIC PERIODS IN EGYPT’S ANCIENT PAST or PERIODS IN EGYPT’S THE DARKEST NIGHT: PROBLEMATIC ANCIENT PAST Monday 28 July to Friday 1 August 2014 Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino THE DARKEST PROBLEMATIC PERIODS IN DEITIES NIGHT: AND DEMONS: THE MYTHOLOGY OFEGYPT’S ANCIENTANCIENT EGYPT PAST Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino THE DARKEST NIGHT: PROBLEMATIC PERIODS IN EGYPT’S ANCIENT PAST or Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino Dr Garry orShaw Dr José-R. Pérez-Accino or DEITIES AND DEMONS: THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT DEITIES AND DEMONS: THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT or Shaw Dr Garry DEITIES AND DEMONS: THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT We invite you to immerse yourself in fascinating lectures; enjoy gallery talks in EGYPT the British Museum and Dr Garry Shaw DEITIES AND DEMONS: THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT Dr Garry Shaw privileged-access classes in the Petrie Museum where relevant; socialise with like-minded students and Dr Garry Shaw We invite you to immerse instay fascinating lectures; enjoylocal gallery talks inaccommodation. the British Museum and academics; and if yourself required, in reasonably priced, university We invite you to immerse yourself in fascinating lectures; enjoy gallery talks in the British Museum and privileged-access classes in the Petrie Museum where relevant; socialise withinlike-minded studentsand and We invite you to immerse yourself in fascinating lectures; enjoy gallery talks the British Museum privileged-access classes yourself in the Petrie Museum lectures; where relevant; socialise with like-minded studentsand and We invite you to immerse instay fascinating enjoylocal gallery talks inaccommodation. the British Museum academics; and ifin required, in reasonably priced, university privileged-access classes the Petrie Museum where relevant; socialise with like-minded students and You may also wish to join us for academics; and if required, stay in reasonably priced, local university accommodation. privileged-access classes the Petrie Museum where relevant; socialise with accommodation. like-minded students and academics; and ifin required, stay in reasonably priced, local university Saturday 1 March 2014 academics; and if required, stay in reasonably priced, local university accommodation.

You may also wish to join us for Study Day: A NEW CHRONOLOGY FOR EARLY EGYPT You may also wish to join us for March 2014 YouSaturday may also 1wish to join us for Saturday 1 March 2014 Dr Alice Stevenson and Dr Michael Dee You mayCHRONOLOGY also 1wish to join us for Saturday March 2014 Study Day: A NEW FOR EARLY EGYPT Saturday 10March May 2014 Study Day: A NEW CHRONOLOGY FOR EARLY EGYPT Saturday 1 2014 Study Day: A NEW CHRONOLOGY FOR EARLY Dr Alice Stevenson and Dr Michael Dee EGYPT Study Day: KINGSHIP AND THE GODS: THE ORIGINS OF EGYPT, Dr Alice Stevenson and Dr Michael Dee MESOPOTAMIA AND IRAN Study Day: A NEW CHRONOLOGY FOR EARLY May Dr Alice Saturday Stevenson10 and Dr2014 Michael Dee EGYPT Saturday 10 May 2014 Dr Paul Collins withDr DrAlice AliceStevenson Stevenson, Dr Jacob Dahl and Kathryn Kelley and Dr2014 Michael Dee Ms Saturday May Study Day: KINGSHIP AND THE GODS: THE10 ORIGINS OF EGYPT, MESOPOTAMIA AND IRAN Study Day: KINGSHIP AND THE GODS: THE10ORIGINS OF EGYPT, MESOPOTAMIA AND IRAN Saturday May 2014 Study Day: GODS: THE ORIGINS OF EGYPT, MESOPOTAMIA Dr KINGSHIP Paul CollinsAND withTHE Dr Alice Stevenson, Dr Jacob Dahl and Ms Kathryn Kelley AND IRAN 4 – 12 October 2014 DrKINGSHIP Paul Collins withTHE Dr Alice Stevenson, Dr Jacob Dahl and Ms Kathryn Kelley Study Day: AND GODS: THE ORIGINS OF EGYPT, MESOPOTAMIA Dr Paul Collins with Dr Alice Stevenson, Dr Jacob Dahl and Ms Kathryn Kelley AND IRAN BSS in Egypt 2014: PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT Dr Paul Collins with Dr Alice 4Stevenson, Dr Jacob – 12 October 2014 Dahl and Ms Kathryn Kelley 4Dr– Stephen 12 October 2014 Harvey 4 – 2014: 12 October 2014 OF EGYPT BSS in Egypt PYRAMIDS BSS in Egypt 2014: PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT 4Dr – 2014: 12 October 2014 OF in Egypt PYRAMIDS EGYPT Stephen Harvey For aBSS brochure and booking forms contact Gahlin: Dr Stephen Harvey BSS in Egypt 2014: PYRAMIDS OF Lucia EGYPT Dr Stephen Harvey bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com Stephenforms Harvey For a brochure andDr booking Lucia Gahlin: 020 7679 3622contact For a brochure and booking forms contact Lucia Gahlin: bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com For a brochure and booking forms contact Lucia Gahlin: Bloomsbury bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com Summer School, c/o Department of History, For a brochure and booking forms contact Lucia 7679 3622 WC1E 6BT Gahlin: bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com UCL, Gower020 Street, London 020 7679 3622 bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com Bloomsbury Summer020 School, Department of History, 7679c/o 3622 Bloomsbury Summer School, c/o Department of History, 020 7679 3622 UCL, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT Bloomsbury Summer School,London c/o Department of History, www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury UCL, Gower School, Street, London WC1E 6BT Bloomsbury c/o Department of History, UCL,Summer Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury

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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

Armant: the unique depiction of a rhinoceros on the east wing (north face) of the pylon of the temple of Montu-Re, now being investigated by a Franco-Egyptian team, see pp.32-35. View taken during EES excavations in the 1930s. Photograph: © Egypt Exploration Society Lucy Gura Archive.

Number 44

Spring 2014

‘Digging Diary’: an appeal Patricia Spencer Discovering Tutankhamun in Oxford Liam McNamara

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All change at Doughty Mews Chris Naunton EES Patrons

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Tell Basta: the palace of the Middle Kingdom Manfred Bietak and Eva Lange

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The burial chamber of Rashepses at Saqqara Hany Abdallah El-Tayeb

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Documenting the Qufti archaeological workforce Joanne Rowland

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Egyptian colleagues at Saqqara (and elsewhere) David Jeffreys

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Of kilns and corpses: Theban plague victims Francesco Tiradritti

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Two enigmatic graffiti Miguel Á Molinero-Polo

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The Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III Myriam Seco Álvarez

21

Published twice a year by The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG Registered Charity No.212384 A limited Company registered in England, No.25816

Between myth and reality: the Andraos family collection Sylvie Weens

26

Digging Diary 2013 Patricia Spencer

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Original design by Jeremy Pemberton Set in Adobe InDesign CS2 by Patricia Spencer Printed by Commercial Colour Press Ltd Angard House, 185 Forest Road, Hainault, Essex IG6 3HU

Armant: recent discoveries at the temple of Montu-Re Christophe Thiers

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Deir el-Barsha: the tomb of Djehutinakht (III?) Harco Willems

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Recent work in the temple of Amenhotep III Hourig Sourouzian

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Bookshelf

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Editorial Advisers Peter Clayton Jan Geisbusch George Hart David Jeffreys John J Johnston Mike Murphy Chris Naunton Alice Stevenson John Taylor Advertising Sales Jan Geisbusch Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews London WC1N 2PG Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880 Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118 E-mail: advertising@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-shop.co.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

Cover illustration. Armant: the five royal heads discovered in 2013. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/ Christophe Thiers See pp.32-35.

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‘Digging Diary’: an appeal As anticipated in the editorial of EA 43, many expeditions were unable to work in Egypt during the autumn of 2013 while some governments were advising against all but essential travel to most of the country. Restrictions on travel (with the exception of Middle Egypt and Sinai) were lifted in November and, as we go to press at the end of January, it is hoped that the EES expeditions which were originally planned for the autumn of 2013 will now be able to work in spring 2014.

Some other expeditions (mainly those with permanently staffed bases in Egypt) were able to work in the latter part of 2013 and we are very grateful to Field Directors who sent reports for inclusion in ‘Digging Diary’ in this issue which is, sadly, reduced to two pages. The picture is not as bleak as this would suggest, however, as ‘Digging Diary’ has never claimed to be exhaustive since its content has always been dependent on the reports received. Other expeditions are known to have carried out fieldwork in late 2013 but did not send us summaries. We are always

happy to print ‘late’ reports and would warmly welcome reports from Field Directors whose expeditions did work in the second half of 2013, to be included in ‘Digging Diary’ in EA 45.

The content of this issue of EA is as varied as ever, from Christophe Thiers’ report on discoveries at Armant, written as soon as the season ended, to updates on their work by several of our regular contributors, and articles about people involved in the earlier days of Egyptology, a field of research which also features prominently in the ‘Bookshelf’ reviews this issue.

We have recently welcomed Jan Geisbusch to the EA Editorial Board. Jan is the new EES Publications Manager and he will be taking over from me as Editor of EA after issue 45 (autumn 2014) has gone to press. That issue is already ‘full’ so enquiries about submitting articles for consideration for inclusion in EA 46 onwards should be addressed to Jan: jan.geisbusch@ees.ac.uk.

PATRICIA SPENCER

Discovering Tutankhamun in Oxford The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, will stage a temporary exhibition, Discovering Tutankhamun, from 24 July to 26 October 2014 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Griffith Institute as a home for Egyptology in Oxford (www.griffith.ox.ac.uk).

Following Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, its clearance took ten years, during which Carter painstakingly recorded the position, size and appearance of every object (5,398 in total), supplemented by detailed drawings and photographs. The records were deposited in the archive of the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford by Carter’s niece, Miss Phyllis Walker, and from 1995 have been made accessible online through the Griffith Institute’s project ‘Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation’.

Discovering Tutankhamun will enable visitors to follow in Carter’s footsteps in his search for Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The early years of his work in Egypt (at first for the EEF and later with Theodore Davis) are documented through watercolour paintings and epigraphic copies from the archive of the Griffith Institute, highlighting Carter’s great skill as an artist.

Watercolour facsimile of a coloured relief in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, painted by Howard Carter while he was working on the Egypt Exploration Fund’s excavations. (GI Watercolour 204)

The exhibition will focus on the notebooks, record cards, maps and plans of Tutankhamun’s tomb made by Carter and his team, including their evocative accounts of the excavation, as well as the wonderful black and white photography of Harry Burton. It will explore the impact of the tomb’s discovery on popular culture - ‘Tutmania’ - as well as the continuing attempts of modern Egyptologists to interpret the tomb’s contents in their search for the ‘real’ Tutankhamun.

Featuring objects from the Ashmolean’s superb collections from ancient Egypt and Sudan, as well as major international loans – including iconic pieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum – the exhibition will explore the reasons for Tutankhamun’s particular fame, and showcase various projects that have, in recent years, sought to ensure the preservation of the tomb and its contents for future generations. For all of these projects, the Howard Carter archive in the Griffith Institute remains an invaluable resource.

Photograph by Harry Burton (Metropolitan Museum of Art photographer) of the objects in the antechamber of Tutankhamun’s tomb, as found at the time of the discovery in 1922.

(Burton Photograph P0009)

q Liam McNamara, Assistant Keeper for Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford.

Images ©The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.

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All change at Doughty Mews The last few months have seen considerable change in the EES London Office. As I wrote in a post for my blog last year entitled ‘Reviewing, rethinking, unpicking, rebuilding’ (http://goo.gl/kHseKQ), much of the work my colleagues and I have been doing in modernising the Society and the way it operates has taken place away from public view. The changes have been substantial, however, and should stand us in very good stead to continue delivering a first-class programme of activities in an increasingly challenging environment both in terms of funding and the situation in Egypt.

We begin 2014 with almost an entirely new staff team in London. Along with myself, the line-up is now as follows: Jan Geisbusch (Publications Manager), Carl Graves (Education and Public Engagement Manager), Hazel Gray (Office Manager) and Maria Idowu (Finance and Business Manager). Biographies and photographs of the team are available on the Society’s website and all are looking forward to meeting more of our members at Doughty Mews and elsewhere in the coming months.

Maria takes over from Roo Mitcheson, who left the Society’s employ after seven years in October 2013. Roo came to the Society in 2007 with undergraduate and master’s degrees in Egyptian archaeology and maintained his interest in fieldwork as a key member of the University of Reading’s archaeological team at Lyminge in Kent.

His principal work for us, however, was to set about a comprehensive overhaul of the Society’s finances and this has been an essential part of the modernisation I referred to above. Having gained a qualification in finance administration for charities during 2013 Roo left us to take up a post as Finance Manager at a new firm and we wish him the very best of luck.

Carl will be with us for one year while Jo Kyffin is away on maternity leave. Jo’s first baby, Alexandra, arrived in January, and both are doing very well. Hazel and Jan’s posts are almost entirely new. Hazel has been tasked with overhauling various aspects of the administration of the London office to ensure that all the new systems and processes we have introduced lately are running as efficiently as possible. Jan will be overseeing the production of the Society’s publications, initially the Excavation and other Memoirs and the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology in particular. Volume 99 of the JEA was mailed to subscribers in January 2014 and for the second year in succession runs to 352 pages, 48 more than had been the

The EES London team. Left to right; Jan Geisbusch, Maria Idowu, Hazel Gray, Carl Graves and Chris Naunton

norm in recent times. This is due to the sheer quantity of EES research and other high-quality work submitted for publication in the Journal, which in turn is testament to its standing as one of the foremost publications in the field. Printing and mailing larger volumes has come at no small cost to the Society but reflects our commitment to conveying as much of the very best Egyptological work as possible, and to the highest standard.

This was the last volume of the Journal to be edited by the University of Liverpool team. The Editor-in-Chief, Roland Enmarch, his predecessor Mark Collier, and their colleagues, in particular Glenn Godenho, have worked tirelessly to produce the Journal to the highest standard and to ensure that each volume has been published within the year of imprint. Not only has the Liverpool team maintained the JEA’s position as the leading predominantly English-language journal in the field, it has done so at a time when the Society’s finances have been particularly stretched, tightly monitoring the content in each volume so as to control print and distribution costs. We are extremely grateful to Dr Enmarch and his colleagues and very aware of the sacrifices they have had to make in terms of their own research while working on the Journal, and we wish them all the best. A new Editorin-Chief, Martin Bommas, has now been appointed to take on, with Jan, the production of the 100th volume.

Further changes to the Society’s publications programme will be under way in the coming months. Thanks to the new appointments, we are very well placed to ensure that we can continue and develop the excellent work represented by all our titles, including this magazine!

CHRIS NAUNTON

EES Patrons Current EES Patrons, for whose most generous support the Society is very grateful, are: C T H Beck, Raymond Bowker, Andrew Cousins, Martin R Davies, Christopher Gorman-Evans, Richard A Grant, George Huxley, Michael Jesudason, Paul Lynn, Anne and Fraser Mathews, Anandh Indran Owen, Lyn Stagg, John Wall and John Wyatt. If you would like to become an EES Patron, please contact Carl Graves: carl.graves@ees.ac.uk.

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Tell Basta: the palace of the Middle Kingdom On 12-14 June 2013 the EES hosted a conference on ‘Palaces and Residences in ancient Egypt’ following the establishment by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna of an Austrian Science Fund Project on ‘Ancient Egyptian Palaces’. Manfred Bietak, his team from the Austrian Academy, and Eva Lange are researching the Middle Kingdom Palace at Tell Basta for the Project.

Although forming the ideological, cultural and administrative core of ancient Egyptian society, well documented royal palaces are still rare in the archaeological record and most of the available evidence derives from the New Kingdom. We know little about palaces of older periods but the palace of the Middle Kingdom at Tell Basta, ancient Bubastis in the eastern Delta, is a notable exception. Excavated by Shafiq Farid in the 1960s, Ahmed Essawi in the 1970s and Mohammed Ibrahim Bakr in the late 1970s and 1980s, the Tell Basta palace is still not yet fully explored and so far has been published only in preliminary reports. Our new project aims to reinvestigate this outstanding building and its historical and cultural context.

Like all Near Eastern palaces, that at Tell Basta was constructed of mud-brick which is difficult to preserve if unprotected and the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), under Mohammed Abd el-Maksoud, decided to protect the walls of the building under layers of

modern brickwork. The Tell Basta Project (University of Würzburg/MSA/EES) team has conducted a 3D scan survey of the building but for an up-to-date architectural survey it will be necessary to expose the original brickwork and record it to create a complete plan and to recover its building history. In 2013 fieldwork by the Austrian Academy revealed that the palace extends far more to the north than hitherto envisaged but, unfortunately, during land reclamation in the first half of the twentieth century this area was mostly bulldozed away. One section is, however, still preserved in the north-west corner and a whole strip along the western edge of the palace remains intact.

The juxtaposition of palace and the enclosed square elite cemetery to the east led Charles van Siclen to the conclusion that the palace was not royal but served as a residence for the Mayors of the town or the Governors of the nome. The names and titles of at least five Mayors of Bubastis are known from their tombs and from remains of grave goods, suggesting that the cemetery (and possibly also the palace) was in existence for much of the Twelfth Dynasty.

The complex of c.16,000sqm is, however, too large for a residence and administrative building of the Mayors of the town and its size strongly suggests that this palace also served as a temporary royal residence. A limestone door lintel found in the northeastern part of the palace and showing the image of Amenemhat III in his Sedfestival chapel might be a hint that this king at least may have spent time on a regular basis in this most important town of the eastern Delta, most probably during religious festivities or to carry out The 3D scan of the Middle Kingdom palace administrative obligations.

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Honorary statues of two dignitaries and the last of the known Mayors, Maheshotep, were found (probably near the place of their original deposition)

by Shafiq Farid in the spacious columned presentation hall. This discovery may provide unique evidence because normally such statues were set up in the courtyards and hypostyle halls of temples to ensure the eternal presence of their owners during offerings The entrance area of the Middle Kingdom palace at Tell Basta from the south-east corner. and festivities. Their Behind the magazines, to the right, is the colonnaded courtyard presence here indicates is positioned at the right side of the façade - a feature that palaces also incorporated places of cult practice. copied from contemporary domestic architecture The plan of the palace at Tell Basta is unusual, being whereas palaces of the New Kingdom normally show a oriented to the south whereas palaces and houses in symmetrical disposition of space. As it is a monumental Egypt were as a rule open to the north. The entrance

Satellite image of the palace area of Tell Basta ŠGoogleEarth

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The mansion seen from its courtyard with remains of a stone-lined pond, looking south

entrance with two rows of six columns each it seems unlikely that there was another entrance at the north.

The entrance leads, on a broken axis, into another porch which probably also had two rows of columns and gave access to a colonnaded courtyard leading to the large presentation room with a further six sizeable columns. This room leads via a spacious door into another hall which is no longer preserved. On both sides of the colonnaded court are rooms which look like offices. The lost rooms in the north may have been reserved for royal state apartments.

To the west of the entrance, in the southernmost part of the complex, are some magazines and to their west are

the remains of ovens, probably a kitchen fit for a palace household. In the second range from the south are four apartments west of the colonnaded courtyard.

The easternmost unit of the four is the largest and could be described as a ‘mansion’; it was probably the residence of the Mayor of Bubastis. The mansion covers an area of more than 400 sqm and is oriented - as was usual for houses - to the north where it is endowed with a courtyard containing a stone-lined pond. At the west the yard leads to a five-aisled magazine area which protrudes from the western façade of this building. South of the courtyard is a large, almost square, room, and another smaller one. The square room seems to have been for

Plan of the Middle Kingdom palace, after Shafiq Farid: Charles van Siclen, in House and Palace in Ancient Egypt (Vienna, 1996), p.239, fig.1

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A stratigraphic section looking east: a New Kingdom tomb over the south wall foundations of the Middle Kingdom palace, with red fill material cutting into a large Old Kingdom structure on a different orientation

The south wall of the Middle Kingdom palace above remains of an Old Kingdom palatial structure on a different orientation, looking east

course of time. At its south-western corner stratigraphic sections were opened in March 2013 and it became increasingly clear that at this point the palace had cut into an Old Kingdom necropolis which is the continuation of a cemetery excavated by Mohammed Ibrahim Bakr.

Still older than these tombs are some parallel massive walls of magazines and other structures which seem to belong to an Old Kingdom palatial complex on a different orientation. It matches the orientation of another elite cemetery of the Old Kingdom which is situated east of the palace, like the elite cemetery of the Middle Kingdom.

On top of the Middle Kingdom palace are the remains of a flimsy Eighteenth Dynasty settlement which continues with more carefully constructed Amarna-type houses at the south and east. Later in the New Kingdom the palace gave way to a necropolis with tombs cutting into the western part of the palace of the Middle Kingdom.

The complex is situated in the far north-north-west of Tell Basta. This northerly position can be observed at other palatial sites such as the North Riverside Palace at Amarna, the Palace of Apries in Memphis, the Palace of Seti I and Ramesses II at Qantir and also the so-called Acropolis in the Kahun settlement. The reason is that the prevailing north-north-westerly winds would have brought clean air to the palace and protected it from the smoke and odours of the city.

presentations and probably had one or more columns to support the roof. The southernmost part of this building was most probably reserved for private habitation and is divided into three rooms. Probably the western two rooms were bedrooms with benches against the south walls and possibly a bathroom to the north.

This mansion has access to the presumed offices west of the colonnaded courtyard and in the north-eastern corner of the unit there is a blind broken corridor which may be a staircase leading to the roof of the official part of the palace.To the west of the mansion are three more living units; two of them are attached to each other while the third is detached. They each cover 125-150 sqm and seem to open to the north. It is possible that more apartments will be revealed as soon as excavations continue in the as yet uninvestigated north-western quarter.

On the west side there seems to be a substantial range, probably for more magazines. This quarter is only partly excavated and is not recorded on the published plans. At the eastern side near the monumental entrance are small rooms which may have served for security guards.

The palace was embedded in a rich stratigraphy and provides evidence for a significant change in the development of the urban zones of the city over the

The mansion with the colonnaded courtyard behind, looking north-east

q Manfred Bietak is Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Vienna and Director of the Department ‘Egypt and the Levant’ of the Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Eva Lange is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Würzburg and Director of the Würzburg/MSA/EES project at Tell Basta. The ‘Ancient Egyptian Palaces’ project is sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund (P 25945-G21). The writers would like to thank representatives of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, especially Mohammed Abd El-Maksoud, Ibrahim Soliman and Hisham Mohammed, and the joint teams of the Tell Basta Project and the Austrian Academy.

Illustrations ©The Tell Basta Project and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

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The burial chamber of Rashepses at Saqqara In 2012 Hany Abdallah El-Tayeb was awarded a grant from the EES Centenary Fund, which enabled him to excavate the burial chamber of the Saqqara tomb of Rashepses.

The tomb of Rashepses (LS16), dating to the reign of King Djedkare, is situated just to the north of Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara and has been known since the early 1800s. However, a large part of the mastaba had remained unexcavated until 2010 when I re-started archaeological work at the tomb for my PhD. Neither the burial chamber of the tomb nor its point of access are mentioned in previous studies (Lepsius, Denkmäler, pp.165-170, pls 60-64; Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography III2, pp.494-496; Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara (1907-1908), pp.23-24, pls 60-61.2) so one of the aims of the renewed exploration was to investigate the tomb-owner’s burial apartment.

In 2010, a square shaft (1.90m along each side) was found in the area north-west of the false-door room. The shaft fill consisted of a mixture of local limestone, sand and fragments of pottery, with a few human bones. At a depth of 11m an entrance led from the south wall of the shaft into a large burial chamber which measures 5.4m x 5.0m, is 2.5m high and has painted decoration.

Painted burial chambers are known at Saqqara from the late Fifth/early Sixth Dynasty but Rashepses’ tomb, of the reign of King Djedkare, seems to be the earliest known example. At Giza the earliest painted burial chambers date to the time of Djedkare/Unas (e.g. that of SenedjemibInti - see Kanawati, Decorated Burial Chambers, pp.43–46).

Three walls, those on the east, west and north, of Rashepses’ burial chamber were decorated. Cut into the bedrock, they were first plastered and then the scenes were painted. Some parts of the decoration are in bad condition and damaged, but many parts are surprisingly well preserved, still showing the bright colours used by the ancient artists.

The east wall contains three niches with floors slightly

The location of the tomb of Rashepses

Plan of the tomb of Rashepses with the burial chamber. Drawing by Mohammed Fathy

The titles and name of Rashepses, written inside the burial chamber

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higher than the floor level of the chamber.

Each niche measures 1.0m x 1.4m. The lintel above the niches is inscribed with the titles and name of the tomb-owner: ‘..Seal-bearer of the King of Lower Egypt, Hereditary Prince, Chief Justice and Vizier, Overseer of the Scribes of the King’s Documents, Overseer of a Troop-house/ Work-place, Overseer of the Nomes of Lower Egypt, King’s Liegeman, Staff of the rekhytpeople, Juridical adj-mer Official, Support of knmwt, Priest of Maat, Rashepses.’

Rashepses’ title of Vizier is otherwise found only in the main entrance of the tomb and on some blocks that were discovered in the last season. Of his 33 known titles, Rashepses lists only 11 in his burial chamber; perhaps the ones that he considered most important or significant.

The west wall of the chamber has two niches: a large one, which contains a limestone sarcophagus, and a smaller niche probably intended for the canopic jars. A fragment of a human skull (probably that of Rashepses himself) was found inside the sarcophagus, A brilliantly-coloured scene with animals on the west wall of the burial chamber and a part of a limestone canopic jar was discovered next to the small niche. The walls of the bellies and mouths white. Above the first and the second niche are decorated with the palace-façade motif. The gazelles are the remains of a badly damaged hieroglyphic north end of the west wall is covered with a beautifully text describing each of them as a ‘young gazelle’. The painted scene, which depicts rows of different animals ropes around the necks of the gazelles can be seen but (all males). The scene consists of five registers described the wedges are lost. here from top to bottom: Register 5 includes a damaged scene of slaughtering Register 1 shows four partly damaged oryx, which were cattle with the first two butchers carving a white and called in ancient Egyptian ma-hedj. They have typically black ox whose throat is red with blood. Above the long and only slightly curved horns, and they are painted scene, a hieroglyphic text reads: ‘choice cuts of a young white with red-brown throats and bellies, and with dark ox’. Three more male figures are partly preserved in the brown colour around their eyes. Around the necks of register; two seem to be dealing with another bull, and each oryx is a rope tied to a wedge in the ground. the text above them reads ‘pull toward you strongly’.

Register 2 contains four screw-horn antelopes (ancient The third man has a large knife and the text above him nu-dju). The front parts of their bodies are painted a says ‘sharpening of the knife’. bright azure colour while their hind-quarters and legs The decoration of the rest of the burial chamber includes are white. They also are tied with ropes around their offering lists, depictions of offerings and offering-bearers. necks to wedges.

From the south part of the chamber, a sloping passage Register 3 displays five Nubian ibex (wild goat, ancient leads up to ground level. It is closed by a large limestone nia), which are marvellously coloured. The first ibex is block and has not yet been explored, but probably coloured light brown, as is the second one though only leads from the floor of the open courtyard to the burial its head and legs are visible. The other three are painted chamber. It will be investigated in the coming season. brown, with individual dark hairs executed by the artists over the background hair-colour. Shadows visible around q Hany El-Tayeb is an Inspector of the Ministry of State for Antiquities the figures of the animals provide evidence of the artist’s at Saqqara. See also El-Tayeb, H, The false-door of Rashepses from Saqqara corrections, as he at first painted them too large and had LS 16 (QS 902), French Institute in Cairo (in press). He is grateful to the Ministry of State for Antiquities for permission to publish the tomb to revise his drawing at a smaller scale. The ibex are also and to include details of its excavation in his PhD research and would tied to wedges by ropes around their necks. like to express his warm appreciation of Robert Anderson’s generous Register 4 is much damaged but still shows parts of support. He is indebted to Hana Vymazalova and Filip Coppens for four gazelles (ancient gehes), painted red, with only their reviewing his English. Photographs by the writer.

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Documenting the Qufti archaeological workforce A new project aims to document and publish the organisational structure of the modern ‘Qufti’ workforce and to recreate family trees to relate today’s archaeological specialists to those who worked with Petrie and his contemporaries. Joanne Rowland discusses the project in more detail. recording systems result The Egyptian workforce in more comprehensive has been an integral part of publications that are less archaeological fieldwork selective in content than in Egypt since the time in the past. of Flinders Petrie, who From an anthropological began training men perspective, however, the from Quft in 1893. published records relating Although these men are to the workforce and the largely anonymous in day-to-day operations published accounts of of fieldwork, including fieldwork, there is today information about a growing interest in individual members of the history of Egyptians the local workforce, are on archaeological more scarce than in the expeditions and in colourful and detailed finding out more about the men themselves and Abydos in the 1920s. Frankfort’s ‘Qufti band’ at the start of a season. Photograph archival records of Petrie and his contemporaries. It from the Frankfort album in the EES Lucy Gura Archive their families. Notable is with this in mind, and in the context of great change research is now being carried out by a number of scholars. within modern Egypt, that a new project is setting out to In Hidden Hands (2010, see review in EA 38, p.35) document how the Qufti workforce functions today, and Stephen Quirke delved deep into archival material to to attempt to link modern families back to the records of produce an account of the men and boys who formed those men who worked with Petrie. the massive workforce behind the scenes of Petrie’s Major topics to be studied include the extent to which excavations; Wendy Doyon is currently investigating the the workforce has changed over time, and the challenges history of archaeological fieldwork and its social context in that face modern archaeologists from Quft as they look modern Egypt, with an emphasis on the role of Egyptian to the future. Today, with the development of more foremen (usually referred to by the Arabic term - ‘Reis’), varied and faster networks and means of communication, including Quftis, in the development of archaeological aspects of their life and work are certainly quite different labour from the early nineteenth century to the middle arrangements for projects can be made much more rapidly of the twentieth century; and Rachael Sparks has been than in the past - but how are modern times changing the investigating the workforce from Quft that accompanied viability of the workforce, and can it be maintained for the Petries when they ended their fieldwork in Egypt future generations? The extent and moved to investigate archaeological sites in Palestine. to which sons follow in their Since the 1890s until today, although working to different father’s footsteps has changed a research agendas and using different methodologies and lot since Petrie’s time. One of equipment, many missions, both foreign and Egyptian, the reasons is that all children have continued working with archaeologists from Quft, now attend school in termcommonly known as the ‘Quftis’ or ‘Qiftis’. times, and so can go with their Today, recording methods, as well as the broader aims fathers to work only in the and objectives of archaeological investigations, are very holidays, not on a daily basis. different from those used during the early years of fieldwork in Egypt. Increasingly, a much wider range of specialists Reis Ali Farouk and his son Farouk is employed at all stages, from survey, to excavation, Ali. Photograph: Angelo Sesana to post-excavation analysis, and modern detailed 10

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Quftis excavating Coptic graves for the EES at Saqqara in 1972-73.

Photographs: Jeffrey Spencer

Also, because of the increase in mass education, some of the sons and daughters of Qufti families now go on to university while others who still farm land can work as archaeologists only when they can be spared from their main occupation.

The men from Quft have always been versatile and willing to take on a wide range of roles, covering all aspects of archaeological fieldwork, and the workforce has diversified further in more recent years in line with the increase in the application of new techniques and specialisms. Keeping pace with wider archaeological research agendas, projects are increasingly concerned with palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of landscapes and with geophysical surveys to locate and investigate the extent and types of archaeological and natural

features beneath the surface (see many recent EA articles, especially those in EA 41). The Qufti workforce is taking a very active role in these changing times, becoming specialists at operating hand augering equipment and at assisting geophysical surveyors, as well as continuing in the more traditional roles of excavation - delineating mudbrick, reconstruction of ceramics, and the restoration and reconstruction of stone blocks. They are furthermore actively engaged with archaeological training, both on an ongoing basis with local workforces, and through participation in archaeological fieldschools, training both foreign and Egyptian students.

The Qufti workforce at Saqqara (see also David Jeffreys, EA 43, p.4 and this issue pp.13-14) was so large that it occupied what was known as the Qufti Village, which was close to the house that Firth built, and was occupied until about three or four years ago. As mentioned, Qufti workers have had certain specialist skills throughout their long history, and Harry Smith recalls how Shehat Hamouda cleaned human skeletal remains for Bryan Emery. The photograph shown above left of Shehat talking to Harry Smith dates from the 1967-68 season of work for the EES in the Sacred Animal Necropolis, but Shehat had also worked with Emery and Kirwan on survey in Nubia from 1929-33 and in the Archaic Necropolis at Saqqara from 1933-39. Another current

Reis Omar Farouk, Youssef Ahmed and Abd El-Hady Ahmed with the EES auger-drill at Auger Site 35 (east of the Ramesseum) of the Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey in 2012. Photograph: Angus Graham

Omar Farouk, Yassen Hasan, Abd El-Hamid el-Badari, Ramadan Abd El-Rady Bashir and Alaa Farouk at Galla in 2013.

Photograph: Mohammed Ramadan

Shehat Hamouda talking to Harry Smith during EES work at Saqqara in the 1967-68 season. Photograph: Hazel Smith

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Qufti, Yassen Hasan (see photograph p.11), now of a similar age to that of Shahat in the 1967-68 photograph, recalls working with Bryan Emery and Harry Smith at Saqqara in the 1960s-early 1970s, and has recently worked in a similar role to Shehat, preparing burials at Quesna for examination by osteologists. Through discussions with Harry Smith and Jeffrey Spencer, both of whom were working as part of the EES team at Saqqara at this time, as well as colleagues from Galla, in Quft, a number of individuals can be identified in the group picture (right).

The Inspector of Antiquities at the time, Ali el-Khouli (see EA 29, p.44), stands behind a group of the Saqqara Qufti workforce. In the grey overcoat is Reis Ahmed el-Tuhamy, who had also worked on the Nubian survey between 1929-33. To his left is the Reis (foreman) who succeeded him, Reis Bashir Ahmed, and on the righthand end of the row, Reis Mahmud Abd El-Rady. Reis Hilmi sits in the middle of the squatting line of men. It is important that such data is collected and recorded while it is in living memory, and although the names given here are short forms, the full family names have been recorded and will be presented in future publications.

Archaeologists from Quft have not only worked in Egypt, however, and Rachael Sparks has located correspondence in the Israel Antiquities Authority archives relating to the Petries’ work in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s. The letters are between John Starkey and the Department of Antiquities in Palestine and also the Immigration Officer in Jerusalem, with documents relating to the

Qufti group shot, with Ali el-Khouli behind, during EES work at Saqqara in 1970-71. Photograph: Jeffrey Spencer

acquisition of visas for ‘six Egyptian workmen’ in 1927 and 1928, ‘five Egyptian skilled archaeological workers’ for the British School of Archaeology in 1929 and ‘three Egyptian labourers’ in 1930 and 1931. As the Quftis trained local Bedouin hired by the Petries in Palestine, and as the skills of these local men increased, the Petries became less and less reliant on the Egyptian workforce.

Rachael Sparks has been able to establish that two of the workforce, Sultan Bakhit and Sadiq Abdeen, came from Ballas in Upper Egypt, with an additional seven names being accounted for from Quft: Hofny Ibrahim, Ahmed Ali, Umbarak, Hasan Osman, Mohammed Sayed, a boy who is the son of Nasr el-Din, and Mohammed Osman el-Kreti who was the cook.

One crucial area in which the Egyptian workforce has been under-represented and perhaps under-utilised is in the documentation of the archaeological process.

Archaeological records accompanying field processes are primarily in the language of the archaeological mission, and Egyptian workforces are rarely involved in the written records which find their way into publications and archives. There are, however, exceptions, as shown by the research of Wendy Doyon, who is examining Arabic field records and other documentary sources on the social world of archaeology, in particular the participation of Quftis and other local communities in archaeological excavations from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Distance Learning Courses The Civilization of Ancient Egyptians Part 1 - History Part 2 - Religious Beliefs and Funerary Practices Part 3 - Literature and Related Texts Part 4 - Daily Life in Ancient Egypt The aim of these courses is to open the door for people interested in this fascinating subject and provide a solid foundation. Each part has been organized to meet the individual needs and pace of the student.

q Joanne Rowland is Director of the EES Minufiyeh Survey and Imbaba Prehistoric Survey and a Junior Professor in Egyptian Archaeology at the Freie Universität, Berlin. She would like to thank many colleagues who have contributed to the ideas and information presented here presented here, including Stephen Quirke, Rachael Sparks and Wendy Doyon. She is also grateful to those who supplied photographs and to Harry Smith, Jeffrey Spencer and the family of Reis Omar Farouk for their help in identifying individuals. She would like to thank the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the EES for access to their archival photographs. Most of all, thanks are due to our colleagues from Quft, including Reis Farouk Shared and his family from Galla, with especial thanks to Reis Omar Farouk, Reis Ali Farouk, Yassen Hasan and Hazem Hilmi for their collaboration and support.

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Egyptian colleagues at Saqqara (and elsewhere) On pp.8-10 Joanne Rowland has indicated the huge contribution that the descendants of Petrie’s Quftis have made over the years to archaeological projects in Egypt. David Jeffreys gives a personal reflection on working with many Egyptian colleagues.

In her article Joanne rightly makes the point that any achievements of non-Egyptian archaeologists in the past would have been impossible without the active and enthusiastic cooperation of Egyptian co-workers. While her research is increasingly taking the shape of a socialhistorical study, I would like to take a more personal view, while there is still time, and tell you something of our experience over the last forty years or so, at several sites in Egypt.

When I started working for the EES with Harry Smith at Saqqara in the 1970s we were greatly helped by our three Reises (overseers), Bashir, and especially Hilmi and Mahmud (in order of seniority), some of whom had also worked on other EES projects at sites such as Qasr Ibrim. The traditional system was essentially that there would be the one taskmaster (equipped in this case with a flexible cane that always reminded me uncomfortably of schooldays) and initially this role was filled by Bashir while Hilmi and Mahmud were more like specialist craftsmen on site - all three are in the group photograph on p.12.

Hilmi excelled at close work such as cleaning skeletons and Mahmud was a genius at identifying brickwork (not always as easy as you might think) and he had an

Left to right: Reis Hilmi, Reis Mahmud and Harry Smith at Saqqara. Detail of photograph by Hasibullah El-Tayeb on p.4 of EA 43

extraordinary delicacy in the use of the turiya (mattock) that was admired by everyone. Mahmud left Egypt in the 1980s to seek his fortune in the Gulf but Hilmi remained with us until the later stages of the Memphis Survey and also worked with the Anglo-Dutch and French projects at Saqqara.

It is often forgotten that an entire community was formed at Saqqara after craftsmen from Quft, originally recruited by Flinders Petrie, came to be employed by the then antiquities inspectors Quibell and Firth (see EA 43, p.4). They comprised architects and stonemasons, photographers, overseers of works and antiquities guards.

To my regret their village at Saqqara is now largely abandoned and derelict. It was centred on the Chief Inspectorate building of the MSA, known locally as the saray (palace), which itself has been partly demolished.

Only archive pictures now remain to recapture that period and the social milieu of the time.

Although the Qufti workforce is the best known there was also a craft tradition, developed

by French archaeologists from early work at Deir el-Medina, of Qurnawis (people from Sheikh Abd el-Qurna and neighbouring villages) being employed as skilled workmen on excavations.

My experience with them was mostly drawn from work for the French Institute at Balat in the Dakhla Oasis during the 1970s. Again a very professional attitude was evident, and they showed a similar tendency as their Qufti colleagues towards Bryan Emery and the workforce of Quftis and local men, on site at the Sacred Animal Necropolis specialisation. at Saqqara in the 1960s

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Fahmi (crouching) and the team (Shaaban and Sabr) working on sediment coring at Memphis

Fahmi, Said Salim and Hilmi working on the consolidation of a donkey skeleton at Memphis, with our then conservator Fiona MacAlister

cultured colleague, Mahmud, was an invaluable asset.

The idea that Egyptian workmen treat foreign excavation (especially on pharaonic sites) only as a casual ‘day job’ is often quite wrong: it is perfectly possible to engage those who are interested in their work in a serious discussion (usually in Arabic of course) of what we are trying to achieve. One of my favourite memories of Balat was when Lisa Giddy (then director) and I were laying out survey triangulation points (ABC and so on) and had got as far AA, BB etc, when Mahmud popped up and asked if that was BB (Pepi) I or BB II! A hugely encouraging development in recent years has been the establishment of field schools – mainly funded by foreign projects but working in association with the Ministry of State for Antiquities – which are training Egyptian students in modern professional excavation, recording, conservation and publication methods. This is surely the way of the future.

Fahmi, Hilmi, Mahmud and the crew taking drill-cores at Memphis

It should not be forgotten either that on many archaeological projects in Egypt, both past and present, local workers have also developed similar expertise to that of their better-known colleagues. Many skilled excavators, not necessarily directly related to the family structures of the Qufti and Qurnawi networks, emerged during our years at Memphis. One of our best friends and one of the most intelligent and skilled people at Memphis and Saqqara, Fahmi, was central to our excavations and geoarchaeological survey and at Balat a similarly gifted and

Directors David Jeffreys and Ana Tavares with the members of the Memphis (Mit Rahina) field school on a site tour in 2011.

Photograph: Mark Lehner q David Jeffreys is Director of the EES Survey of Memphis.

Photographs, unless otherwise indicated, © Egypt Exploration Society.

Trainees at the MSA/AERA/EES Memphis (Mit Rahina) field school in 2011. See EA 40, pp.5-6. Photograph: Said Salah el-Talbeya

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Of kilns and corpses: Theban plague victims In the third century AD the funerary complex of Harwa (TT 37) and Akhimenru (TT 404) on the west bank at Thebes was used to dispose of the bodies of plague victims. Francesco Tiradritti describes the archaeological context.

A decorated fragment found inside one of the kilns and here virtually replaced in its original position at the entrance to Akhimenru’s cenotaph. Photographs and virtual reconstruction: Francesco Tiradritti

The most recent excavation seasons (2009, 2010 and 2012, see EA 43, pp.17-20) of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL) in the funerary complex of Harwa (TT 37) and Akhimenru (TT 37) revealed an interesting archaeological situation along the eastern wall of the courtyard.

In 2009 a parallel alignment of mud-bricks built up against the wall of the courtyard had started to emerge and the removal of further layers indicated that they belonged to the remains of a lime kiln (which was designated A).

This was confirmed by the discovery of a compact layer of lime between the two lines of mud-bricks, showing that what we had was the remains of a hearth on which pieces of limestone had been burned. Some of the fragments, almost completely whitened by the heat but still intact, could be identified as having come from the decoration of the cenotaphs of Harwa and Akhimenru and it proved possible to work out where two of them had been originally: one was from Harwa’s first pillared hall and the other from Akhimenru’s entrance.

Further excavation brought to light the remains of another lime kiln (B) to the north of the first. Its structure closely resembles that of A with the difference

being that in B a line of mud-bricks to the south delimited a smaller space beside the hearth. The lack of evidence makes any hypothesis about the function of this small space almost impossible. A second double-chambered mud-brick structure (C) was eventually uncovered between the lime kiln A and the half-pillar of the courtyard’s southern portico. The burned state of the bricks and the presence of a hearth strongly suggest that it was a third lime kiln although it was discovered in a worse state of preservation than the other two.

The three kilns were built with mud-bricks taken from the wall that encircles the tomb of Padiamenope (TT 33, see EA 43 pp.33-35) and cuts over the north-east

Panoramic view and plan of the archaeological situation along the eastern courtyard wall before the removal of the lime kilns. Photographs and reconstruction: Francesco Tiradritti. Plan: Blaž Orehek

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corner of Harwa’s courtyard. They were all constructed of mud-bricks against the eastern wall of the courtyard and closely resemble the type known as ‘lamp kilns’ attested elsewhere in Roman Period Europe. A ‘lamp kiln’ is basically a mound created by layers of fuel and limestone, covered over and allowed to burn slowly. Such kilns could be circular, rectangular or square in shape and usually had a hearth on the floor of a pit. In the case of those in the cenotaph of Harwa the stoking of the fuel was done from the side of the kiln opposite the courtyard wall. Behind kiln A the stone courtyard wall had been partially melted by the high temperatures reached by the fire, which would have risen to over 900°C. Only two superimposed lines of mud-bricks for each wall of the lime kilns were still found in situ. But scattered all around them were other mud-bricks that had once covered the mound of fuel and limestone. The strong heat had baked the mud-bricks and given them a colouring ranging from pale red to black.

A large amount of pottery, mainly datable to the third century AD, was found inside and in association with the kilns. Two layers with pottery of the second century AD were also exposed under the layer of lime covering the hearth of the northern kiln (B). The pottery enables us to assign a preliminary date to the kilns of a period after the second century AD. Several oil-lamps were also found and their date is still being assessed. Nonetheless some of them can be compared with typologies normally dated to a span of time between the third and fourth centuries AD. This fits well with the date given by the pottery. It is highly likely that, once

Assemblage of oil lamps found in connection with the lime kilns.

Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti

fully researched, the date of the oil-lamps will be further limited by an ante quem date for them of the first half of the third century AD. The presence of a high number of oil-lamps can be explained by the fact that the stokers had to feed fuel into the kilns at night because the process of producing lime needed a fire burning continuously for a period varying from three to eight days.

Several fragment of wooden coffins were found in connection with the lime kilns. Most of them date to the second century AD and only a few pieces could be attributed to earlier periods. All showed traces of burning making it likely that they were being used as fuel.

According to all the collected data the archaeological evidence indicates that the courtyard was being used as a place to produce slaked lime at a date after the second century AD. This activity may be related to other stratigraphic contexts excavated in earlier seasons in other parts of the funerary complex.

For example, a solidified lime layer covering the bottom of the Osiris niche entrance of Akhimenru’s cenotaph included intact vessels and trays datable to the third century AD. The floor of the niche entrance is at a lower level than that of the courtyard and of Akhimenru’s pillared hall, forming a small depression that could have been used as a basin to slake (mix with water) the quicklime (calcium oxide) to produce hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide). Although that product can be the basis of plasters, mortar and concrete, in this case it was used to cover human bodies whose remains were found inside a large and thick layer of lime (15cm-20cm deep) spread over the northern aisle of Harwa’s first pillared hall. It was exposed and Pieces of second century AD coffins with evident traces of burning found in connection with the lime removed in the 1997 season and we kilns. Photograph: Nataša Cijan. Inset: Part of a burned face of a coffin, probably of the Twenty-Sixth had already interpreted it as being as Dynasty - one of the few pharaonic coffin fragments in this deposit. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti 16

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Third century vessels found inside the solidified layer of lime inside Akhimenru’s Osiris niche entrance. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti

most of the coffins were dateable to the second century AD establishing a parallel between that context and the lime kilns. The present hypothesis is that the coffin and mummy fragments found in 2005 should be understood as being the remains of unused fuel. After being collected, the coffin pieces and mummies would have been thrown down from the top of the entrance portico into the space

Vessels during excavation of the solidified layer of lime inside the Osiris niche entrance of Akhimenru’s cenotaph. Photograph: Metoda Peršin

what was left by the disposal of corpses arising from an epidemic. The slaked lime was used as disinfectant in a similar way to procedures adopted today to dispose of animal carcasses in cases of outbreaks of infectious disease.

The remains of a fireplace discovered beside the lime layer in the first pillared hall indicated that these disposal operations probably took place at night, as suggested also by the presence of ‘frog’ oil-lamps. These date to the third-fourth centuries AD and show striking similarities to those found in the courtyard.

It was possible to attribute other archaeological contexts within the funerary complex to the activities connected with the lime kilns. An assemblage of coffin and mummy fragments was exposed at the end of the 2005 season in the middle of the monumental portico entrance to the complex. Their positions on the ground implied that they had been thrown from the top of the west side of the portico. Like those found in the courtyard,

A layer of lime containing human remains in the northern aisle of Harwa’s first pillared hall, excavated and removed in the 1997 season.

Photograph: Giacomo Lovera

A deposit with the remains of a mummy (to the left against the wall) and several boards from coffins (in the centre) discovered in 2005 during the excavation of the monumental entrance portico. Photograph: FrancescoTiradritti 17

The face from a second century AD coffin found in 2005 during excavation of the entrance portico of the funerary complex. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti

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Two skulls, two bricks and a third century AD jug found inside the remains of the bonfire (excavated between 2009 and 2010) in the centre of Harwa’s courtyard. Photograph: Nataša Cijan

hall. An alternative explanation is that the outbreak resulted in so many victims that they could not all be speedily disposed of by burning and some were left covered by lime to combust slowly.

All this data allows us to envisage a situation in which the funerary complex of Harwa and Akhimenru was used, at least once, as a place for the disposal of corpses resulting from an epidemic which, on the basis of the datable objects found, took place after the second century AD. The high A general plan of the funerary complex with contexts indicated that can be related to the proportion of third century AD pottery and thirdcorpse disposal operation of the third century AD. Plan: Francesco Tiradritti fourth century AD oil lamps allows us to narrow below and the stokers or their assistants took them from the date-range and connect these operations to the sothere to the kilns in the courtyard. called ‘Plague of Cyprian’; an epidemic of smallpox or, A further context that may be related to the disposal of less likely, measles that scourged the Roman Empire corpses consists of the remains of a large bonfire exposed between AD 250 and 271. This plague, which according in front of Harwa’s niche-entrance. It was discovered in to some sources killed more than 5,000 people a day in 2009 and completely excavated in 2010. Some complete Rome alone, was named after Saint Cyprian, Bishop vessels, similar and contemporary to those found in of Carthage, who described it. It killed two Emperors, Akhimenru’s entrance, were found, as well as human Hostilian in AD 251 and Claudius II Gothicus in AD remains and bricks with traces of burning. It is likely 270, and it is a generally held opinion that the ‘Plague that the bonfire represented the final destination of of Cyprian’ seriously weakened the Roman Empire, corpses temporarily stored inside Harwa’s first pillared hastening its eventual fall.

The use of the funerary complex of Harwa and Akhimenru for the disposal of infected corpses gave the monument a lasting bad reputation and doomed it to centuries of oblivion until tomb robbers entered the complex in the early nineteenth century.

A view of excavation in progress along the eastern wall of the courtyard, where the lime kilns were found. Photograph: Metoda Peršin

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q Francesco Tiradritti is Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL) and Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University Kore of Enna, Italy. The excavations in the funerary complex of Harwa and Akhimenru are under the supervision of archaeologists of the University of Ljubljana. He would particularly like to thank Tina Britovšek, Saša Čaval, Nataša Cijan, Metoda Peršin, Vesna Tratnik, Matja Čresnar, Samo Hvaleč and Blaž Orehek who contributed to the findings described in this article.

The pottery was dated by Aude Simony, ceramicist of MAIL. All images © Associazione Culturale per lo Studio dell’Egitto e del Sudan ONLUS.

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Two enigmatic graffiti In the late nineteenth century a hitherto little known Spanish architect left two graffiti at Abydos and Dendera. Miguel Á Molinero-Polo places them in their historical and cultural contexts. architect Antonio Amador de los Rios who helped the Marquis de Rochemonteix in his work at the temple of Edfu. At the same time, Egyptian history books were written, to be used as manuals for college classes. In the following decade, Eduard Toda, the vice-consul in Cairo, created the largest private collection of Egyptian antiquities to be sent to Spain; he was advised by Egyptologists of the Service des Antiquités, with whom he had a close friendship. This also explains his supervision of the removal of Sennedjem’s funerary equipment when this tomb was discovered - the first Spanish archaeological activity on Egyptian soil. However, the crisis provoked in the 1890s by the independence of the last colonies of the former Spanish Empire ended the hope of developing Egyptology as an academic subject in Spain. In 1899, a state project for the creation of chairs of Oriental languages​​, including ancient Egyptian, was annulled. Funding provided by Vicente de Galarza for the excavation of a tomb at Giza was the swan-song of these four decades.

Abargues was born in Algiers where he must have learnt Arabic in his childhood, arriving in 1872 in Egypt where he lived until 1916. It is not known under what conditions he was hired as an architect by the Egyptian government but he was only twenty-two years old, so this must have been one of his first jobs. The two graffiti are

Graffito of J V Abargues de Sostén in the temple of Seti I in Abydos.

Central sanctuary, pilaster on the south wall.

Photograph: Miguel Á Molinero-Polo

The graffiti that Juan Víctor Abargues de Sostén y García incised in two Egyptian temples have caused some perplexity among those who have documented them.

The identity of the writer of the one from Dendera has been simply described as ‘unknown’, and, as the walls close to the one at Abydos are covered with modern texts in Greek, it has been assumed that the graffito-writer was also Greek. It is not surprising that his nationality remained unknown, since well into the twentieth century Spanish travellers or researchers were scarce in the Nile Valley. However, Abargues’ life and activities provide an interesting glimpse into relations between Spain and Egypt during the European colonial period.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, when the foundations of academic Egyptology were being established in Europe, Spain had isolated itself culturally.

This was the result of, and a reaction to, the Napoleonic wars, the independence of the American colonies and the rejection of liberal ideas from the continent. The university curricula established in the country around 1850 are one of the first indications of an intellectual revival which increased in the second half of the nineteenth century, and which included the first signs of interest in the ancient history of the Near East and Egypt. Spanish involvement in what is now identified as ‘Orientalism’ was on a smaller scale than elsewhere and, due to its imitative nature, developed later.

Nineteenth-century Spanish travellers to Egypt were mainly in transit to or from the Pacific colonies and some of them wrote accounts of their visits or acquired small collections of antiquities. Later, the Spanish government charted the first expedition of antiquarians to the Near East, with the frigate Arapiles, in 1871. In that same decade, grants were awarded to scholars, such as the

Graffito of J V Abargues de Sostén in the temple of Dendera. Third chamber east of the sanctuary (F on Émile Chassinat’s plan), north side of west wall. Photograph: Miguel Á Molinero-Polo 19

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not far from his place of residence, Girga, which must also have been the centre of his professional activities, though their exact nature is still unknown. In a document dated 1913 he refers to his recent responsibilities in creating cotton fields, but this does not mean that this had been his work four decades earlier.

Each graffito has several dates under his name testifying to regular visits to the temples. Of particular interest is the coincidence of years with two trips by Abargues to Spain in 1877 and 1879, in economic times which were so critical that the Egyptian government was unable to pay wages to its employees. On each visit he sold a small collection of antiquities to the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid. They amount to more than 200 small objects (amulets, scarabs, bronze statuettes, etc.) and 100 coins. The inventory for each sale details their origins: mainly Abydos, Luxor, Dendera and Edfu. The identification of Abargues as the writer of the two graffiti means that the pieces should be re-examined and doubts formerly expressed over the authenticity of some objects might need to be revised.

In 1877 he also donated 24 squeezes to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Today they are lost, but plaster casts were made and thirteen different ones

Vessel in the shape of an antelope, found in Abydos. From Abargues’ first collection © Pablo Linés Viñuales. Museo Arqueológico Nacional (N.I. 1984/79/XII/4)

have already been found in several didactic collections of art reproductions; they show scenes and details of reliefs from the temple of Abydos, except for a Graeco-Roman female head. The careful planning and execution of the graffiti, their locations at the sources of the collections he sold, and the requirement of a certain time to take the squeezes, provide clues which should encourage an investigation into his activities as an architect.

Another as yet poorly understood aspect of Abargues’ life is his interaction with the Spanish government while he was an Egyptian public servant. In 1876 he was responsible for acquiring animals in Upper Egypt for a ‘Garden of Beasts’ in Madrid, commissioned by the Court. During the two trips to Spain already mentioned, he was received in major cultural institutions and lectured in some of them - he gave the first documented speech on ancient Egyptian religion in the country. He also attended geographical congresses and debated subjects such as Spain’s interest in participating in the colonist movement in Africa. All this intense activity paid off. He had written several reports to the Spanish government recommending the conquest of a port on the Red Sea; the purpose would be twofold, to market manufactured products in the region and to facilitate maritime transit via the Suez Canal to the Philippines. In 1881, Abargues received finance from a private association for an expedition to Abyssinia, which lasted for over a year, with military equipment granted by the Spanish king.

He obtained some interesting topographical results and until recently, this was, in fact, the only well documented episode of his life.

The last known record of Abargues is a ‘private report’ sent to the Spanish king after a journey on horseback in ‘Moorish dress’ through the north of Morocco in 1899. He recommended that the region should be taken over by Spain in order to grow cotton. The motivation for the conquest a few years later was, obviously, more complex than a suggestion in a letter of Abargues but it meant that the Maghreb became the main target of Spanish Orientalism and Egypt was relegated to a second place. Until the UNESCO Nubian salvage campaign was initiated in 1960, only four years after Morocco ceased to be a colony, there was to be no further Spanish archaeological activity in the Nile Valley. q Miguel Á Molinero-Polo is Senior Lecturer in Egyptology in the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Research Project: HAR 2011-25292 (MCI+FEDER). He is Director of the ‘Proyecto dos cero nueve’ - the Archaeological Mission of the University of La Laguna, for the study of TT 209, Luxor.

Plaster cast of a relief from the temple of Seti I at Abydos, made from a squeeze by Abargues. © Museo Nacional de Reproducciones Artísticas, Valladolid 20

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The Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III In 2008 an Egyptian/Spanish project was initiated to study and document the remains of the Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III, located about 100m north of the Ramesseum, between the cultivation and the desert. Myriam Seco Álvarez summarises the results of the first five seasons.

The aims of this collaborative project of the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) and the Academy of Fine Arts Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville include excavation, restoration and site-management. We have undertaken three-month seasons in autumn each year since 2008 and have made significant progress in different fields of investigation.

The first archaeologist to excavate the Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III was Georges Daressy who, in the winter of 1888-89, undertook a one-month campaign.

His excavation focused mainly on the upper terrace and the northern zone adjacent to the mud-brick enclosure wall, where there was a series of mud-brick rooms that he considered to be the storage area of the temple. In 1905 Arthur Weigall also investigated the temple during one campaign. He defined the layout of the whole temple, including the storage area at the north and one tomb (which predated the temple) located under the southern enclosure wall. In his published archaeological report he listed a large number of blocks, some of which we were able to identify during our first season in a magazine he built on the site. The last study of the temple before

our campaign was carried out by Herbert Ricke, who undertook four seasons between 1934 and 1938, making a detailed study of the temple’s architectural features, and suggesting a layout for the building. After Ricke’s work ended in 1938 the temple remained abandoned until our first season in 2008.

The temple was built on the natural bedrock which is visible at the south-west corner of the enclosure wall, where the rock itself forms part of the enclosure. Because of the underlying sloping nature of the bedrock the temple had to be constructed on three different levels: there is about 7.5m difference between the level of the main entrance at the pylon and the upper terrace where the Amun sanctuary is located. Because of this difference three separate terraces were built with two main ramps leading to the Amun sanctuary. A third ramp located to the south gave access to a second sanctuary, probably dedicated to Hathor.

The temple was constructed in several phases. During the first phase a mud-brick wall of monumental dimensions was built, almost 5m in width and at least 10m in height, with an entrance in the middle of the eastern enclosure

The Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III. The first and second ramps leading to the upper terrace and the Amun sanctuary

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View of the temple from the pylon area

Restoration work in progress at the pylon

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Aerial view of the temple in 2012, showing how the modern road to the Valley of the Kings has been laid over the first court

Aerial view of the pylon

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Limestone relief of Tuthmosis III, found in two fragments in the temple

The southern enclosure wall and its attacched structures

wall. This entrance gave direct access to a court with a central ramp that led to the upper terrace, where there was a portico with ten pillars. The peristyle hall and the hypostyle hall were built behind the portico. The sanctuary was constructed at the extreme west with a central main chapel dedicated to Amun-Re and two other smaller chapels to the north and south.

During the second phase, the temple was expanded towards the east, with the construction of the first court fronted by a great pylon that would eventually become the new main entrance to the temple. This first court, which also had a central ramp, is today beneath the modern road that leads to the Valley of the Kings. During the same phase a new entrance was opened in the southern part of the eastern enclosure wall giving access to the sanctuary dedicated to Hathor - a similar layout to that of the Hathor chapel of the Hatshepsut temple at Deir el-Bahri. Ricke believed that the area near the northern part of the enclosure wall represented the storage area of the temple, but this is awaiting confirmation by future excavation.

Other interesting mud-brick complexes located on either sides of the southern enclosure wall were investigated during the 2012 season - they may have served administrative and/or housing purposes.

During our five archeological seasons to date we have been able to excavate part of the main sanctuary, the northern half of the peristyle hall, the access ramp to the upper terrace, part of the second court (where four tree pits were uncovered), the eastern and southern sections of the enclosure wall and the area outside the wall, parts of the pylon area (where another two tree pits were identified), and, finally, the area in front of the sanctuary dedicated to Hathor.

We have also been able to document a large number of inscribed and decorated stone fragments found previously, together with material found during our

last five seasons including inscriptions and reliefs (both limestone and sandstone), stelae, statues and mud-bricks. The study of these inscriptions and artifacts, to which we will devote increasing time in future seasons, will provide information on the king’s private and extended family affairs during a period about which questions still remain to be answered.

The temple was constructed on top of an earlier necropolis and seven tombs were identified dating to the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period,

Plan of the Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis III

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Consolidating the remains of the ancient coats of whitewash on the enclosure wall

Years had several overlapping building phases within the reign of Tuthmosis III and further study of the temple is needed. Analysis of the large amount of pottery produced by the excavations will enable us to date more accurately the tombs and any remains from other periods, and also cast more light on the different building phases of this important temple.

Well-preserved polychrome sandstone fragments from the temple walls

and in 2012 three further tombs were excavated. Little is known about Thebes before the New Kingdom and the tombs that we have so far investigated were robbed in antiquity.

Restoration is a vital element in such a project and we have a team of restorers who have worked during the past five seasons on the pylon and on segments of the enclosure wall. They have also treated the polychrome reliefs, and cleaned and restored many fragments and objects that were found in a poor state of preservation.

It is already evident that the Temple of Millions of

q Myriam Seco à lvarez, Egyptologist, is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Seville, Guest-Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Granada and Director of the Thutmosis III Temple Project in Luxor. The project has been financed since 2008 by the Spanish petroleum company CEPSA, and since 2010 it is also cofinanced by Fundación Botín and Banco Santander. All photographs and plan Š The Thutmosis III Temple Project

Les tombes hypogÊes de Basse Époque

Qasr Ibrim, between Egypt and Africa

F7, F17, H, j1, Q, n1

Studies in Cultural Exchange

C. Ziegler (ed.)

+ WBO EFS 7MJFU + - )BHFO FET

Ce second volume de la publication finale des rÊsultats de la mission archÊologique du LES TOMBES HYPOGÉES Louvre à Saqqara concerne les tombes hypoDE BASSE ÉPOQUE gÊes de Basse Époque. IllustrÊ de près de 1000 photographies en couleur, dessins et plans, il prÊsente l’Êtude des tombes F7, F17, H, j1, Q et n1 dÊcouvertes en 2003-2007. Celles-ci sont situÊes au Nord de la chaussÊe d’Ounas, oÚ les fouilles dirigÊes par Christiane Ziegler de 1991 à 2007 ont mis au jour plus de 3000 ans d’occupation humaine, de l’Êpoque des pyramides jusqu’à la conquête arabe. Ces tombes hypogÊes sont exceptionnelles à plus d’un titre. La plupart Êtaient inviolÊes et leur contenu a ÊtÊ retrouvÊ dans sa disposition originelle. Elles se distinguent par la qualitÊ des objets et leur rare Êtat de conservation. Enfin, une inscription dÊmotique date prÊcisÊment l’une d’entre elles de l’an II du pharaon NectanÊbo II, 1er mois de l’inondation (21 novembre-20 dÊcembre 360 av. J.-C.). L’ouvrage, en deux tomes, comprend la description architecturale et archÊologique des diffÊrentes tombes ainsi que le catalogue dÊtaillÊ des objets qui y ont ÊtÊ retrouvÊs. En fin d’ouvrage, on trouvera une sÊrie d’Êtudes scientifiques concernant les momies et le matÊriel d’embaumeur, les inscriptions (dÊmotique, chypro-grec et copte) ainsi que les matÊriaux et les techniques (recherches sur les pigments, les vÊgÊtaux, les textiles et les cartonnages).

The natural citadel of Qasr Ibrim in Northern Nubia occupied for thousands of years a strategic position between Egypt and the Middle Nile Qasr Ibrim, Between Egypt and Africa region, the present-day Sudan. This volume contains thirteen papers that focus on Qasr Ibrim as a key witness to cultural interaction between Egypt and the world of the Mediterranean on the one hand, and Africa, the Sudan and beyond on the other. Drawing their inspiration from the rich material found on site, these papers combine text-based and archaeological approaches.

Particular attention is paid, for instance, to pottery and textile finds, while texts written in Demotic, Meroitic, Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian and Arabic are presented and discussed. Beyond the mere presentation of material, the volume addresses more general questions concerning cultural liminality, the role of indigenous versus foreign models and centre-periphery relations. Above all, however, it chronicles a fascinating chapter in the history of North-South contacts.

FOUILLES DU LOUVRE À SAQQARA

&HZQUPMPHJTDIF 6JUHBWFO t 997*

sous la direction de Christiane Ziegler

Studies in Cultural Exchange

J. van der Vliet and J.L. Hagen (eds.) with the assistance of C.H. van Zoest and L.E. van de Peut

Peeters – Leuven Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten – Leiden 2013

PEETERS

t &HZQUPMPHJTDIF 6JUHBWFO t 7* Q t *4#/ t &630 Co-publication with NINO, Leiden.

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Between myth and reality: the Andraos collection Many visitors to Luxor are familiar with the two houses that, until only a few years ago, graced the corniche, near the temple. Few, however, know the real story behind these ornate façades, which belonged to the prominent and influential Andraos family, as Sylvie Weens describes. princes, dignitaries and archaeologists, as well as political figures such as Saad Zaghlul. With its two floors, its Italian-style colonnades, and its small cupola, it made a ver y impr essive sight from the river front. Yassa was deeply attached to his land, to his roots, to his past and had a passion for ancient Egypt. Over the years, he had taught himself how

Today only one house remains of the beautiful Andraos family homes - the sole reminder of bygone days when Luxor was an elegant and cosmopolitan city that followed the rhythm of exciting archaeological discoveries.

When Andraos Bishara left his native town of Qus in the late 1880s to settle in Luxor he chose to build his family house close to the temple, with a view across the river to the Theban hills. He invested part of the fortune he had made as a successful tradesman into vast amounts of land that extended as far as the Colossi of Memnon on the west bank. Of his four sons it was Yassa who was his closest aide and also the most capable; he gradually became a key figure on the Luxor scene. A hard-working landowner, he acted, like his father, as Consular Agent for several countries.

Yassa Pasha Andraos (1882-1970) built a beautiful house next door to his father’s, where he entertained

Yassa Pasha Andraos. Photograph © Collection Yassa Andraos family

The two houses of the Andraos family before that of Yassa Pasha Andraos (on the right) was demolished in 2009. Photograph © Jane Akshar

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A lunch party in 1923 organized by Yassa (first left) in Edfu temple for the wife and sister of King Umberto I of Italy. Photograph © Collection Yassa Andraos family

King Umberto I comes out of the tomb of Tutankhamun, accompanied by Howard Carter, and is greeted by Yassa, 1923. Photograph © Collection Yassa Andraos family

lands. It was well known among the locals that the Pasha was ready to pay a fairer price for a fine piece than the Luxor dealers.

The fame of his impressive collection soon extended far beyond the limits of Luxor and it became a regular stop for travellers in the Theban region. Even the Governor of Qena used to bring official visitors to view the collection. Row upon row of statues, stelae, scarabs and amulets were displayed in a room entirely dedicated to them. In the early 1920s, as his precious collection began to outgrow the space available in his house, Yassa thought of building a museum where he could exhibit it properly. His intention was to erect a museum directly behind his house, on top of the remains of the medieval town at Luxor. Old houses were bought in order to be demolished, but this was as far as the project went.

That the house contained many valuable antikas was no secret and robbers once broke into his home while Yassa was away in Cairo. They hid the antiquities they had managed to steal at the bottom of a deep well, located on a piece of land along the Karnak road - land which happened to belong to Yassa Andraos. When the robbers went a few days later to retrieve their loot, the lack of oxygen in the well prevented them from being able to climb out again and they died. Many people in Luxor saw in their disappearance a sign of divine intervention in favour of the Pasha.

Yassa’s eldest brother, Botros, had once shared this interest in ancient Egypt and had even tried his luck at excavating. Together with the Consular Agent of France, Shenouda Macarios, he had obtained permission from Carter (then a Chief Inspector The two houses of the Andraos family decorated with the flags of the countries they represented. of the Antiquities Service) to excavate Photograph © Collection Yassa Andraos family

to read hieroglyphs and kept himself informed of the various archaeological discoveries. He was on friendly terms with many Egyptologists, who never failed to pay him a visit. Ernesto Schiaparelli, Pierre Lacau, Howard Carter, Jean Capart and Étienne Drioton were just a few of the frequent visitors who left their signatures in the Gold Book that rested on a table inside the elegant sitting-room. Yassa had a great knowledge of Egyptian antiquities and had no difficulty identifying a fake from a genuine object. Even Gaston Maspero, who was then in charge of the Service des Antiquités, benefited on one occasion from Yassa’s expertise and discriminating eye when the latter identified as a fake a scarab the French scholar had bought.

Yassa acquired over the years a substantial number of antiquities. He had a shrewd eye for a good bargain and he bought many fine objects from farmers who came to sell him whatever they had found while working on his

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A Corinthian aryballos, sixth century BC. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK

A Roman Period male head.

Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK

Fragments from painted wooden coffins.

Left: of the early Twenty-Second Dynasty.

Above: of the Twenty-Fifth - Twenty-Sixth Dynasties.

Photographs © CNRS-CFEETK

Objects formerly in the Collection of Yassa Pasha Andraos

The lower part of the face of a royal statue, probably early Nineteenth Dynasty. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK

But times were changing. In 1952, under Nasser, the agricultural reforms reduced considerably the size of his lands and stripped him of his privileges. Yassa also lost his prized collection, which was confiscated. The house was put under sequestration and was later occupied by the National Democratic Party and the Agricultural Reform Offices. Yassa died in 1970 and, sadly, his house was pulled down in 2009 despite the family’s legal battle to regain it.

While the whereabouts of the once famous collection was unknown for many years, tales of treasures hidden in the two houses lived on among local people. A few years ago, over 200 objects that had once belonged to the Pasha were finally relocated and entered the inventories of the Franco-Egyptian Centre at Karnak (CFEETK), where they are in the process of being documented and published. The collection includes funerary cones, statues and stelae, and many important pieces of Theban provenance. The publication of these artefacts will be a

in the Valley of the Kings. Their joint efforts led to the discovery of KV 39 and KV 42 in 1900. Botros, however, did not pursue further his interest in archaeology, and turned his attention towards alchemy, spending the rest of his life trying to uncover, in vain, the secret of making gold.

Yassa was concerned about the preservation of Egypt’s past and made financial contributions to several important projects. In 1907, together with other important notables of Luxor, he responded to Arthur Weigall’s appeal to arrange for the tombs in the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna necropolis to be fitted with iron doors to protect them from destruction. A total of £50 sterling was raised and a number of tombs were repaired and safeguarded.

With Yassa’s contribution, the tombs of Ra (TT 72) and Menkheperrasenb (TT 86) were fitted with iron doors. He was also the first benefactor to the Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth founded by his friend Jean Capart in Brussels in 1923.

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The house of Tewfik Bey Andraos. Photograph © Sylvie Weens

major contribution to the study of Egyptology, as well as a fitting homage to a man whose name is inexorably linked to the history of Luxor.

Today, only the house of Yassa’s youngest brother, Tewfik Bey Andraos, remains. The house was sadly in the news in January 2013, when the last two surviving daughters of Tewfik were savagely killed. Behind the closed shutters of the silent and empty house, the myth of the Andraos family’s buried treasure lives on. Legends die hard in this part of Egypt.

Tewfik Bey Andraos. Photograph © Collection Yassa Andraos family q Sylvie Weens was Assistant Secretary of the Egypt Exploration Society from 1989 to 1997. She now lives in Cairo and is currently researching the historical and urban development of Luxor in the nineteenth century. She wishes to thank Sebastien Biston-Moulin and Christophe Thiers of the CFEETK, the EA Editorial Board and Marcel Marée for their assistance, and Aida Andraos, Gracy Andraos and Fayez Andraos for allowing her to use photographs from their family archives. She is also grateful to Jane Akshar for permission to include the photograph on p.26.

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Digging Diary 2013 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt during 2013 appear below.

The sites are arranged geographically from north to south. ‘Digging Diary’ is very short this issue as many expeditions, including those of the EES, which were due to work in Egypt in the second half of the year, were cancelled or postponed to comply with travel advisories issued by governments concerned about the political and security situations in Egypt.

Field Directors who would like reports on their work to appear in EA are asked to e-mail (patricia. spencer@ees.ac.uk ) a short summary, with a website address if available, as soon as possible after the end of each season.

PATRICIA SPENCER Abbreviations: EDP Early Dynastic Period; OK Old Kingdom; FIP First Intermediate Period; MK Middle Kingdom; SIP Second Intermediate Period; NK New Kingdom; TIP Third Intermediate Period; LP Late Period; GR Graeco-Roman.

Institutions and Research Centres: ARCE American Research Center in Egypt; BM British Museum, London; CFEETK Franco-Egyptian Centre, Karnak; CNRS French National Research Centre; DAI German Archaeological Institute, Cairo; IFAO French Institute, Cairo; MSA Ministry of State for Antiquities, Egypt; OI Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; Swiss Inst Swiss Institute for Architectural Research and Archaeology, Cairo; UMR, USR research groups of the CNRS. SPRING 2013 (March to June) Lower Egypt Giza: An expedition led by Nicole Alexanian (DAI) began documentation in magazines at Giza of reliefs and finds excavated by Ahmed Fakhry in the 1950s in the Valley Temple of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. A fresh study of the objects and a new attempt to reconstruct the relief decoration seemed promising as additional relief fragments and finds had been discovered during the current DAI excavations in the Valley Temple.

It became clear that not all the published objects are currently stored in the Giza magazines but that they do contain unpublished material found by Fakhry, and many additional relief fragments. The Valley Temple reliefs will be exhibited in the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and, in preparation, all the objects from Dahshur were cleaned, restored, listed and securely packed. www.dainst.org/de/project/ dahschur?ft=all

Upper Egypt Dahshur: The DAI expedition, directed by Nicole Alexanian and Felix Arnold, completed documentation of the architecture of the Valley Temple of the Bent Pyramid, but due to security concerns excavations could not be undertaken. The brick building N of the temple was investigated and found to predate the stone temple and extend further to the W than previously thought.

Cleaning and a magnetic survey revealed that the building originally stood within an enclosure wall.

Magnetometry by Tomasz Herbich proved the existence of intensive housing for workmen S of the Red Pyramid (very similar to the barracks in the Gallery Complex at Heit el-Ghurob, Giza) and to the N of the Valley Temple of the Bent Pyramid.

Geophysical investigations, undertaken because the modern cemetery was illegally enlarged by villagers to the W, N and S in January 2013, were also carried out near the modern cemetery, located at the mouth of the wadi N and E of the Bent Pyramid. www.dainst.org/de/project/dahschur?ft=all

SUMMER 2013 (May to September) Lower Egypt No reports received.

Upper Egypt Karnak: Nadia Licitra (Paris IV-Sorbonne Univ, Labex Resmed, CFEETK) undertook a study season at the Treasury of Shabaka, drawing sections on site and continuing study of the closed context pottery discovered in April 2012 and of small finds from previous seasons.

Hassan Mohammed Ahmed (IFAO conservator) focused on a copper alloy plaque discovered in spring 2012 on the floor of the peripheral Dahshur: Restoration of a relief block at the Valley Temple of the Bent courtyard of the Treasury in Pyramid. Photograph ©DAI the S area of the excavation. in the area N of the tombs of Princess Sheretnebty When found the plaque was completely covered and Nefer (see EA 43, front cover and pp.21-24.) by a thick layer of oxidation and only after long In order to understand the complete history of and careful cleaning was the original decoration this particular cemetery, excavation moved to the engraved on both faces revealed. The incised NE where the entrance into the whole complex inscriptions mention the High Priest of Amun was uncovered. One of the oldest tombs so far Menkheperre (21st Dyn) and record the genealogy discovered in this area of the cemetery belongs to of a family of wab-priests of the Temple of Amun. a ‘Chief Physician of Upper and Lower Egypt’, www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/ Shepseskafankh, who built a tomb of c.21m x 14m with limestone walls preserved to a height of AUTUMN 2013 (October to December) c.4m. A long corridor chapel concealing a unique Lower Egypt monumental false door is located in the E part of Kom el-Gir: The DAI expedition, directed by the superstructure. Shepseskafankh was one of very Robert Schiestl, continued work at this kom, 4km few, so far known, top-ranking royal physicians of NE of Buto. The E part was investigated and a the third millennium BC. His other titles include further 3.6ha were added to the map (see EA 42, ‘Priest of Horus of Shenwet, Anubis, foremost of pp.28-29). The existence of a Roman fort, built of Sepa(-district), Priest of the Red Crown, Priest sun dried mud-bricks, with projecting rectangular of the Magic, Khnum, Foremost of the House of towers at the corners, was confirmed. Additional Life, Priest of the House of Protection’, ‘Priest of bastions are placed along the walls of the fort. The Re’ in the sun temples of several 5th Dyn kings, interior measurements are approximately 150m x and ‘Priest of Magic’. Shaft burials in this mastaba 90m but the E end of the fort is heavily disturbed and in the complex of Princess Sheretnebty by modern debris and its plan is thus not yet were excavated and documented; most had been entirely clear. www.dainst.org/en/node/24238?ft=all extensively looted in antiquity.

Buto: The DAI team, directed by Ulrich Hartung, continued excavations in the area N of the village Upper Egypt of Sekhmawy at the W edge of the kom, focusing Amarna: A team of volunteers based in the on the investigation of EDP settlement layers.

Amarna Project’s office in Cairo completed a Remains of several mud-brick buildings dating to project to enter the object record cards from the the very beginning and the early first half of the 1st British excavations since 1979 (EES and Amarna Dyn complement the plan of previously excavated Trust) into a database. The database contains over structures which preceded the construction of the 36,000 entries, which will now be copy-edited large palace-like building complex - probably an in preparation for online publication as an open official estate with economic and administrative access research tool for scholars interested in the functions - during the second half of the 1st material culture of NK Egypt.

Dyn. Of special interest are several kilns in open Koptos: The IFAO/Univ Lyon2 season, directed courtyards, which were probably used to heat

by Laure Pantalacci, included excavation of the bread moulds before the baking process. This chapel of Ptolemy IV, now firmly identified as function is indicated by a large number of bread a mammisi. Destruction layers S of the sanctuary mould fragments found in pits nearby. Evidence proper were removed, yielding numerous new for any other use, such as ceramic wasters or slag, relief fragments presumably from a pronaos or is completely missing. Whilst most of the pottery courtyard. After the complete destruction of the assemblage is produced locally from Nile mud, mammisi at the turn of the 4th/5th centuries AD, with regard to the building structures dating to the food-processing activities took place all over the beginning of the 1st Dyn a much higher percentage area, directly over the Ptolemaic precinct and of marl clay vessels occurs. These must have been ruins. The team also moved and conserved c.20 traded from the S (or from the fringes of the Delta) decorated blocks from an unidentified temple as marl clay is not found in the Nile Delta proper. of Ptolemy IX, reused in a late building S of Buto’s connections to the administrative and trade the baptistery. A nearly complete monumental networks of this time are furthermore attested by doorway and part of the walls of two chapels can several fragments of seal impressions. be reconstructed, and many loose blocks from the Abu Sir: The Czech Inst of Egyptology same Ptolemaic building were identified, scattered expedition, led by Miroslav Bárta, resumed work

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all over the ‘churches area’. The architectural study of the E and N porticoes, built during the first decades of Roman rule on top of the Hellenistic wall, revealed a new access to the main temenos, passing over the Greek precinct. www.ifao.egnet.net/ archeologie/coptos/ and http://tinyurl.com/m265xuj.

Karnak: 1. The CFEETK (MSA/CNRS USR 3172) programmes of archaeological research and conservation continued at Karnak, directed by Mansour Boraik and then by Abdel Hakim Karar, and Christophe Thiers. Under the supervision of Pauline Calassou (LabEx Archimede), the epigraphic survey of the N storerooms of Tuthmosis III continued. Led in cooperation with Christian Leitz (Univ of Tübingen), the conservation programme of the N part of the Akh-menu started at the Chapel of Alexander the Great. At the Ptah Temple (which is now officially open for tourists), the conservation and restoration programme focused on the granodiorite column bases located on the S axis, and on a small Ptolemaic gate SE of the Temple. Excavations led

by Benjamin Durand focused on mud-brick walls and mud-brick structures S of the Temple while Elizabeth Frood (Univ of Oxford) completed study of the graffiti and Romain David (LabEx Archimede) studied the ceramics. In the Amun Temple a new epigraphic programme using orthophotographs (aerial images geometrically corrected) started at the VIIIth Pylon, under the supervision of Sébastien Biston-Moulin and Elizabeth Frood.

2. In the Mut Temple at Karnak an ARCE project, directed by John Shearman with Andrew Bednarski as Project Egyptologist and funded through USAID, continued improving walkways, lighting, and the sacred lake area.

Luxor: The OI team, directed by W Raymond Johnson, inaugurated a new Luxor Temple blockyard data management programme under the direction of OI architect James B Heidel to facilitate the expanding documentation and analysis of the miscellaneous, inscribed fragmentary wall and architectural material in the blockyard storage areas. Epigrapher Jen Kimpton, assisted by Andrea Dudek, designed a new database for the 50,000 blocks already in the blockyard which will also accommodate any future material. Digital facsimile epigraphic documentation of the Bentresh block inscription material began utilising the new Cintiq Wacom Companion drawing tablet. http:// oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/

Western Thebes: 1. ARCE’s programme of work, funded through USAID and directed by John Shearman with

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Andrew Bednarski as Project Egyptologist, ran throughout 2013, with an anticipated end date of July 2014. It comprises a number of initiatives that incorporate conservation and archaeological field schools and by June 2013, more than 100 MSA conservators and inspectors had graduated from ARCE’s training programmes. The Qurna Site Improvement Project, led in the field by Andrew Bednarski, continued manually removing debris from the area of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna and El-Khokha. This work is supervised by archaeologists who record ancient and modern objects recovered, the remains of the modern hamlets, and ethnographic information on the former occupants. Work began on new pathways, and plans for new signage and an improved visitor lighting system. See: http://arce.org/conservation/Qurna/ qurna-overview. In the tomb of Djehuty (TT 110), the aim is to clear, clean and conserve the tomb to open it for visitors. ARCE’s Preparatory Archaeological Field School for local MSA inspectors excavated a large portion of the material on top of the ancient forecourt. This school marks the first of its kind for ARCE, in that it was organized, taught, and run completely by Egyptian archaeologists trained through Ancient Egypt Research Associates. http://arce.org/conservation/ fieldschool/TT110. Running in tandem with this field school is a Conservation Field School for MSA conservators who are cleaning and consolidating large portions of the tomb’s painted walls. ARCE’s archaeologists also excavated TT 110’s burial shaft and explored related subterranean chambers.

Further clearance will continue to enable visitor access to the tomb through its original entrance.

At Deir el-Shelwit (c.4km S of Medinet Habu) cleaning and conservation of the Roman Temple of Isis continued, with another ARCE conservation field school until June 2013 and from autumn 2013 continuing into 2014.

2. At Medinet Habu the OI epigraphic team, directed by W Raymond Johnson and under the supervision of Brett McClain, resumed documentation in the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III and worked on final drawings and photographs for Medinet Habu X and XI. New digital pencilling and inking techniques were refined by Krisztián Vértes, in consultation with Brett and the epigraphic team, in preparation for the online publication of a digital manual, due out early in 2014. Krisztian also began experimenting with the Cintiq Wacom Companion digital drawing tablet for digital penciling of the data at the wall with excellent results. Jen Kimpton began a catalogue of the blocks and fragments of the destroyed W High

Gate as part of a comprehensive conservation and restoration programme for the S and W sectors of the complex that also includes the House of Butehamun and the Ramesses III administrative area. Lotfi Hassan inaugurated a conservation training programme for six local conservation students to give them additional training and on-site field experience, focusing on conditionsurveying, conservation and consolidation of inscribed sandstone blocks of the dismantled Domitian Gate prior to its reconstruction. Frank Helmholz, assisted by Johannes Weninger, is preparing new sandstone blocks to replace the gate’s lowest courses which have decayed through immersion in salty ground water. The first new course, integrating one of the original blocks, is already in place on the damp-coursed platform.

Tina Di Cerbo continued digital documentation of LP and medieval graffiti in the N Ptolemaic annex of the small Amun temple, and in the first court roof area of the Ramesses III mortuary temple. The documentation, conservation and restoration work at Medinet Habu is funded by a grant from USAID Egypt. http://oi.uchicago.edu/ research/projects/epi/

Armant: The joint IFAO/CNRS-Univ.

Montpellier 3/USR 3172 mission directed by Christophe Thiers (CNRS, USR 3172-CFEETK) continued cleaning of the destruction layers of the Montu Temple, focusing on the area of the pronaos (see also pp.32-35). Two private NK statues (one limestone and one granodiorite) were uncovered, and also a deposit of five royal heads (see front cover) associated with a small TIP stela and a priest’s head which proved to join the granodiorite private statue already mentioned. A huge limestone slab bearing an Anubis figure and the name of Amenemhat I was also found. Romain David (Univ Montpellier 3-LabEx Archimede) continued study of the Late Roman pottery coming from the kom and the Ramesside pottery uncovered this season. Lilian Postel (Univ Lyon 2) resumed study of the MK limestone blocks.

Sébastien Biston-Moulin (USR 3172-CFEETK) continued the epigraphic survey of the reused NK blocks. Pierre Zignani (USR 3172-CFEETK) checked some details to understand better the plan of the temple. Thierry De Putter and Christian Dupuis (geologists) surveyed the different kinds of limestone used at Armant, coming from Dibabiya (on the E bank facing Gebelein) and TuraMaasara. Hassan el-Amir (IFAO) continued the conservation-restoration programme for limestone blocks, focussing mainly on the cleaning and conservation of the newly discovered statues. http:// recherche.univ-montp3.fr/egyptologie/ermant/

Aswan: The Swiss Inst/MSA Aswan team, headed

by Cornelius von Pilgrim, and directed in the field

by Wolfgang Müller, concentrated on further cleaning and documentation of House 5 situated S of the Isis Temple (Area 1). This well preserved multi-storeyed late Ptolemaic/early Roman house may have been for the priests and the administration associated with the Temple of Isis.

In Area 3 (the Temple of Domitian) a retaining wall was built at the E limit of the area to support the street running above. Excavations at the bottom of the wall revealed a well-preserved stratum of the Ayyubid Period. A salvage excavation (Area 81) in the district of Sheikh Kelany uncovered, in this small area (56sqm), a major street 2.7m wide with adjoining houses. The street covers a time-span from the eighth-ninth centuries AD to the early Mamluk Period. Marcel Marée (BM) continued the study of MK rock inscriptions at a granite outcrop S of the police building as well as inscriptions collected from other parts of the town. www.swissinst.ch.

Aswan: Area 3 with the Temple of Domitian, showing the new retaining wall under construction to support the edge of the modern street. Photograph: Swiss Institute, Cairo

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Thanks to Nicole Alexanian and Cornelius von Pilgrim for providing photographs.

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Armant: recent discoveries at the temple of Montu-Re In 2002 the joint Franco-Egyptian Archaeological Mission at Armant resumed fieldwork on the main temple of Montu-Re, partly uncovered by an EES team in the 1930s. Christophe Thiers describes the main results of the most recent campaign.

After their successful archaeological investigation of the Bucheum at Armant, 15 km south of modern Luxor on the west bank of the Nile, in the 1935-36 season Robert Mond and Oliver Myers started to excavate the site’s main temple of Montu-Re. Completely destroyed down to its foundation courses from the fourth-fifth centuries AD onward, the temple of the falcon-headed solar deity was not visible above ground to the earliest European travellers who visited Armant to see the famous mammisi of Cleopatra. Although their work revealed most of the foundations of the temple, Mond and Myers concentrated on the Roman-Byzantine village which had developed close to the New Kingdom pylon. In the forecourt and in front of the pylon, they uncovered foundation deposits of Tuthmosis III and Hatshepsut while a stela of Tuthmosis III (Cairo JE 66377) was found lying on the floor of a Coptic house. Numerous blocks and artefacts from various periods were found during these campaigns.

The EES team cleaned the foundation platform but did

not not study it at all and they stopped work without finishing the clearance of the temple.

The Middle Kingdom temple of Montu-Re was built of limestone and was completely dismantled and reused in the foundations of the late Ptolemaic temple, especially in the naos dedicated by Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos. The limestone blocks were reused in between the sandstone Ptolemaic walls and also as the flooring of the crypts.

The New Kingdom temple made of sandstone and limestone was reused in the pronaos: Tuthmosis III and Hatshepsut are the main pharaohs attested, but there is also evidence for earlier building activity with a limestone door jamb of King Ahmose and a limestone stela of King Kamose. During the late Ptolemaic Period the temple was completely rebuilt but the New Kingdom pylon was retained in its original location. It bears a famous depiction of a rhinoceros (see p.1), scenes of Nubians bringing offerings and a list of foreign countries.

The current fieldwork which is a joint mission of IFAO, the CNRS (USR 3172-CFEETK) and the University of Montpellier 3 intends to complete the excavation and cleaning of the foundation platform of the temple which is still partially covered with debris. The main aims are to determine the plan of the temple and to survey and study all the loose and reused blocks found in the field. Since 2004 a huge effort has been made to remove the debris which covers the south-west part of the temple, this area having been used by Mond and Myers as the General view of the temple of Montu-Re at Armant. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Christophe Thiers 32

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General plan of the temple area at Armant. Plan © CNRS-CFEETK/Pierre Zignani, Damien Laisney and Yassin Mohammed

as those in Grenoble Museum which were purchased in Armant by Comte de Saint Ferriol in 1841-42. A granodiorite Ptolemaic private statue was also found, but unfortunately without an inscription on its back pillar.

In November 2013 the cleaning of the destruction layers of the Montu Temple continued with work especially focused on the area of the pronaos. Its south-west part had been extensively looted and it is thus much less well preserved than its opposite part. But an important area of the pronaos foundation was uncovered, revealing, as expected, some reused sandstone blocks of the New

dump for their Decauville railway. In November 2011 and 2012 the surviving parts of the foundation courses of the south-west part of the naos and pronaos were reached and Middle Kingdom blocks were uncovered, reused in the Ptolemaic construction. This level is extremely interesting because it is the deepest one reached by the lime burners and by local inhabitants searching for stones to reuse. Thus we expected to find numerous blocks which were not completely broken and during these two seasons pedestal blocks with the name of Hadrian were uncovered, most probably belonging to the same wall

General view of the excavated area. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Christophe Thiers 33

Façade of the west part of the pronaos.

Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Christophe Thiers

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The naos held by Nebamun, and its left side. Photographs © CNRS-CFEETK/Jessie Maucor

Kingdom. The foundation courses of the pronaos façade were also almost entirely unearthed.

The excavation of this destruction level, full of sand, mortar and sandstone chips resulting from the breakingup of blocks, brought to light a beautiful limestone statue (93cm high) of Nebamun, called Nyia, unfortunately found with its head and part of its torso missing. Nebamun was ‘Scribe (and) Physician of the Lord of the Two Lands’.

Sitting on a chair, he is holding a naos housing the falconheaded god Montu, seated upon a throne. On each side of Nebamun’s chair, his wife and his mother are depicted, seated on chairs and each holding a sistrum and a menit.

They are shown wearing fine pleated clothes, as are well attested during the late Eighteenth and beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasties. Two other figures of Nebamun seem to have been carved on both sides of the naos. A granodiorite statue of the same man was found by Adel Farid in the 1980s (MDAIK 39, 1983) when excavating in the northern part of the site, and the texts covering the two statues are very similar, though a few differences can be noted.

A few metres away from the statue of Nebamun, a headless granodiorite statue (68.5cm high) of the ‘HighPriest of Montu from Armant’ Ramose was unearthed.

Over a pleated kilt covering his legs, he wears a panther skin adorned with stars and the head of the panther appears on the right side of his torso. Ramose is shown kneeling and holding an altar upon which two falcon heads are carved in the round. Each falcon-head was probably topped by a sun-disk and two feathers, but these are lost. These two manifestations of the local god Montu are quite unexpected and seem to have no parallels in that aspect, although some Late Period bronze statuettes of deities with two falcon heads are known. There is also the double prow aegis of the Montu barque which is attested in quite rare documents. These two very original

The statue of Nebamun. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Jessie Maucor

The statue of Ramose. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Jessie Maucor

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The priest’s head which was found to join the Ramose statue.

Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/ Jessie Maucor

which it belongs. Each of the royal heads had been painted in red (for the skin and Red Crown) and blue (beard and eyebrows) while the cobra on each forehead was painted blue and yellow (see also the front cover photograph). The heads need further restoration and conservation work and a precise stylistic study will be necessary to try to identify the king, or kings, depicted on these colossi, but preliminary study would suggest that they date to the New Kingdom.

Beside one of the royal heads a small limestone stela and a granodiorite priest’s head (19cm high) were found. The stela, which measures 22cm x 18.5cm x 8cm, belongs to a man named Iufaa and dates to the Third Intermediate Period. Statues and stelae would not seem to be ideal for reuse as masonry but they had been deliberately deposited within the structure, and are probably to be considered not as a cachette or a foundation deposit but more probably as a consecration deposit. Further excavation will be necessary to refine this preliminary hypothesis.

All these pieces were taken to Moalla on the last day of the work and once they were in the MSA storeroom, we were able to see that the granodiorite head which was uncovered close to the cache of royal heads belonged to the statue of Ramose found earlier - a very satisfying conclusion to the 2013 season.

The five royal heads as found, with the priest’s head and the stela visible at the right. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Jessie Maucor

statues are beautifully carved and can be considered as masterpieces of New Kingdom private art. After a few days of work cleaning them, they were taken to the MSA storeroom in Moalla. Study of the texts covering the base and the back-pillar of the two statues will certainly provide new data about these two high-ranking officials, their role in the Theban area and their relationship with the god Montu of Armant.

On the central axis of the pronaos, close to its sandstone foundation blocks, a large (158cm x 131cm) limestone slab dating to the reign of Amenemhat I and carved with a relief figure of Anubis (or a Soul of Nekhen) holding the hand of the king was found. Inside a recess formed by few of these foundation blocks, five royal heads (each c.70cm high) were unearthed. Four of them wear the Double Crown while the fifth one, found upside down, has the White Crown. The disposition of the five heads in the ground clearly shows that they were intentionally grouped together in quite a small area. In between the heads three rounded upper parts of White Crowns were also found.

One of these had been deposited close to the head to

q Christophe Thiers is an Egyptologist, Senior Researcher at the CNRS and Director of the USR 3172-CFEETK (Centre FrancoÉgyptien d’Étude des Temples de Karnak). He would like to thank Mohammed Ibrahim Aly, Head of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, Mansour Boraik and Abd El-Hakim Karar, former and current CoDirector of the CFEETK (MSA-CNRS), Ibrahim Soliman, General Director of Luxor Antiquities, and Abd el-Hadi, Director of the MSA inspectorate in Esna, for their invaluable help and support. He is also grateful to his colleagues on the team at Armant and all the individuals who are involved in this programme. The Archaeological Mission in Armant operates under the auspices of the IFAO (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale), USR 3172-CFEETK and UMR 5140-University Montpellier 3 (UMR 5140 - LabEx Archimede). www.ifao.egnet.net, www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr, www.montpellier-egyptologie.fr/

The team and the five royal heads. Photograph © CNRS-CFEETK/Jessie Maucor 35

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Deir el-Barsha: the tomb of Djehutinakht (III?) The site of Deir el-Barsha on the east bank of the Nile in Middle Egypt is best known for the tombs of the Twelfth Dynasty nomarchs. Harco Willems describes the recent excavation by the Leuven University team of a shaft in the tomb chapel of Ahanakht.

In 1915 George Reisner conducted a three-month excavation season at Deir el-Barsha. Like all his predecessors, his attention was attracted primarily to the north slope of the Wadi Nakhla, which is renowned for the tomb of Djehutihotep and other Middle Kingdom nomarchs. His main discovery was the now famous tomb of Djehutinakht - probably the fourth or fifth nomarch of that name - and his wife who had the same name. Objects from the tomb are now among the major treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

It is far less well-known that Reisner also systematically cleared a large part of the rest of the plateau with the nomarchs’ tombs. The Leuven University mission is currently reinvestigating this whole area, gradually reexcavating many tombs already opened by Reisner, and studying the results in conjunction with his unpublished field notes.

The earliest nomarchal tomb of the Middle Kingdom is the one with the Reisner number 5 (tomb 17K85/1 in our numbering system, see the plan below). It belonged to the nomarch Ahanakht I, who ruled the Hare nome

shortly after the unification of Egypt by Mentuhotep II. This once magnificent structure suffered badly from quarrying activity in the New Kingdom, which led to the destruction of most of its walls (the original rock only survived in the parts indicated in dark red below).

Later the entire quarry collapsed taking many of the already heavily damaged nomarch tombs with it. When Newberry, working for the EEF, undertook his 189192 mission at the site, he attempted to clean Ahanakht’s tomb until the collapsed roofing blocks started to move, compelling the British team to leave the tomb in some haste.

A quarter of a century later Reisner returned to the tomb and excavated all its shafts. Apparently, this time, the collapsed roofing blocks held, even though Reisner partly undermined them by removing debris. None of the shafts seem to have yielded much in terms of well-preserved funerary equipment. In shaft B (the western one in the south chamber of Ahanakht’s tomb chapel) the fill showed clear indications that the shaft had been entered in recent times, and for this reason the excavation was stopped after two metres. This is how we found it when we started working at the site in 1988 but after stabilisation works carried out in 2008-09, it was finally possible to start work here in earnest. Based on the report in Reisner’s diary, we had no expectation of finding a wellpreserved tomb, but we needed to record its architecture. It was with this intention that our team started work at the tomb in March 2012.

Our excavations were mostly carried out by Gina Laycock whose work clearly confirmed that Reisner had drawn the right conclusions: the shaft fill was recent, including tell-tale finds such as envelopes and cigarette paper. The shaft also Plan of the plateau with the Middle Kingdom nomarchs’ tombs on the north slope of the Wadi Nakhla (zone 2). contained relief blocks that Plan: Peter Dils 36

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Newberry had seen on the surface of the tomb chapel in 1891 and that had since disappeared. They include several blocks from the faรงade of the tomb. Clearly, the shafts had been opened after Newberry had left, and they had been backfilled with the material lying about in the chapel before Reisner arrived.

On reaching the bottom of the shaft, it became clear that the tomb chamber had been filled to the ceiling with boulders, something that can only have been the result of deliberate backfilling. We had little hope, therefore, of finding an intact context. However, below the stones, the chamber turned out to be filled with white limestone chips from which wooden coffin beams protruded in some places. Moreover, in these lower levels, none of the fill contained any modern material, nor even any material postdating the Middle Kingdom. Although the tomb had clearly been robbed more than once, this must have happened already in antiquity. The most likely explanation is that the tomb remained standing open after the first looting and subsequently occasional flash floods washed limestone debris into the chamber, which, after drying, developed a smooth surface that later robbers may have mistaken for the floor of the burial chamber. This reading of the evidence not only explains why almost all the wood in the room had been severely affected by fungi, but also how it is possible that much of the funerary equipment deposited on the floor around the coffin was found still in its original position.

The excavation was extremely difficult. During the robberies the coffin and the canopic box had been thoroughly broken up and the pieces covered the fill of the chamber. Due to its very poor condition, the wood was very fragile and extreme care had to be used to handle the material. Only the bottom of the coffin and part of the eastern side were still in position. The remains show that this was a decorated coffin inscribed with incised Coffin Texts written for a man by the name of Djehutinakht.

A large collection of wooden beams found near the foot

View into the burial chamber after removal of the fill

end turned out to belong to an inscribed canopic box.

Several concentrations of funerary equipment were also found. Nearest the entrance to the burial chamber was a large group of roughly made, calcite alabaster dummy vessels. This group also included other objects made of the same material: rubbing stones, two miniature offering tables and two head rests. Right in front of the head end of the coffin were found two concentrations of beads of different quality, clearly indicating that they had belonged to two wesekh collars. They probably fell down where we found them when the mummy was pulled out of the coffin and robbed of its equipment. Below this was found a large collection of faience hes-vases with peg-holes in the bottom, which had clearly stood on a now perished wooden table. At the same place tiny hes-vases made of

Wood fragment with incised Coffin Texts mentioning the tomb owner Djehutinakht

View into the burial chamber after the entrance area had been cleared, with in situ material. The northern coffin end is below the letter board 37

The calcite alabaster dummy objects

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Left: Some of the faience hesvases from the tomb

Right: Some of the copper objects after cleaning by Mohammed Sayyid

sieve on top of two model mirrors.

It seems clear that all these objects were found more or less where they had been deposited on the day of burial. One reason for thinking this is that the objects were clearly found in coherent groups. The other is that one of the head-rests, both of which were made from three loose pieces of calcite alabaster, was found with the support still standing on the base and with the crescentlike part lying not far away.

The spatial distribution of the objects is intriguing as it allows us to reconstruct the sequence in which they were placed in the tomb. It seems most likely that the coffin was placed there first. Positioned against the eastern wall, empty space only remained to the north and west of the coffin. The cup, copper sieve and model mirrors must have been deposited next. In technical execution, the sieve closely resembles the two hes-vases found near the head end, and they probably belong together. If they do, the set probably served to mimic a purification ritual such as is represented in some tombs. After that, the canopic box was placed near the foot end of the coffin (not shown in the plan, left). Next followed the tool box, the tables with miniature hes-vases and the calcite alabaster dummy objects. The fact that two small offering tables were also found here suggests that some kind of offering ritual was performed in the chamber. The room was then closed and finds in front of it, at the base of the burial shaft, show that the feet of one or more calves were deposited here.

The tomb group is still under study, but it is clear already that the composition and distribution of the funerary objects will enable us to reconstruct in some detail how the burial ritual was performed in this tomb.

The identity of the person buried here is unfortunately unknown beyond his name Djehutinakht and his male sex. However, we know that both the father and the son of the main owner of this tomb bore this name, and the father is even explicitly mentioned in Ahanakht’s tomb inscriptions. Moreover, the coffin decoration is so much less developed than that of any other known coffin from Deir el-Barsha, that it seems likely that he is the person who was buried here. This is admittedly unprovable, but if the assumption is correct, this was the last resting place of Djehutinakht III, the final ruler of the Hare nome in the First Intermediate Period.

soapstone were found, also with peg-holes. The same area yielded a collection of copper miniature offering tables deposited in a pottery cup, two copper bowls and two beautiful hes-vases made of copper. To the west of the head end of the coffin was a number of copper miniature tools amidst a concentration of perished wood - clearly the remains of the wooden box within which the model tools had been stored.

Hardly any finds were made west of the coffin, between the tool box and the place where the canopic box probably stood, but near the foot end there was another pottery cup and, immediately beside it, a copper miniature

q Harco Willems is Professor of Egyptology at Leuven University and Director of the Project at Deir el-Barsha. Illustrations Š The Dayr al-Barsha Project. www.dayralbarsha.com/node.

Distribution of finds in the burial chamber. Some objects were found under the coffin, which had been moved forward during the first looting 38

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Recent work at the temple of Amenhotep III In spring 2013 The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project undertook its fifteenth season of work. Hourig Sourouzian provides an update on the achievements of the Project since her previous report in EA 39 (Autumn 2011) pp.29-32.

In cooperation with the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA,) an emergency salvage project was undertaken on two colossal statues of Amenhotep III lying in the fields on the site of the north gate of the temple. The work was directed in the field by Mohammed Abd ElMaksoud, and Nairy Hampikian. These colossi, made of red quartzite from the quarries of Gebel el-Ahmar, had originally stood 13m high at the north gate but had lain in pieces for centuries in the fields, threatened by the usual destructive factors of irrigation water, salt, encroachment and vandalism.

We had applied to the MSA’s predecessor, the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), in 2000 and again in 2004 and 2005, to treat The colossi after the pumping-out of water, and prepared for excavation these colossi and obtained the approval of the pieces for the east colossus and 88 pieces for the western Permanent Committee. However, they were lying in one), then lifted with a crane and moved to the west privately owned fields so permission to carry out the onto solid ground, where they were duly documented work had to wait until the authorities were able to buy and cleaned. the land. In 2010-11 an SCA team was appointed to this The colossi represent the king striding, holding in project and partially excavated the colossi, removing each hand a papyrus roll inscribed with the royal name, some of the pieces and dismantling the foundation of wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the the west colossus, made of large sandstone blocks. The pleated shendyt-kilt. The bulbous tip of the crown of the excavation was then interrupted and irrigation water filled east colossus, now lost, was a piece worked separately the excavated area. which had been attached to the rest of the crown by In 2013, at the request of the MSA, our joint Egyptian sliding a protruding peg into a slot on the preserved top.

European project resumed excavation. All pieces of both The king’s belt is decorated with a zigzag pattern and colossi were uncovered and numbered (73 registered has a rectangular clasp bearing his names.

Each monolithic colossus has an integral base decorated with fecundity figures bringing offerings. The back slabs are inscribed with the royal titulary and dedication texts to Amun-Re and Ptah-Sokar.

The MSA Permanent Committee approved the re-erection of the colossi on bedrock west of the fields until their original site can be purchased. Once soil analysis and archaeological and geo-radar soundings proved that the ground was free of monuments, two rectangular holes were excavated in the rock for new reinforced concrete foundations and pedestals.

The east colossus during excavation 39

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The east colossus after excavation

Around the Colossi of Memnon, geological and archaeo-seismological investigations led to the recovery of new blocks fallen from the northern Memnon. Two quartzite blocks from Gebel el-Ahmar were found to join to the right forearm and the pleated kilt, while others, in quartzite from Aswan, come from the Roman Period restoration of the throne and the base. In addition, a thorough ongoing search in Theban storerooms and temple magazines revealed a block brought from Medinet Habu that happened to fit on to the side of the pedestal of the northern Memnon. A project is now in preparation to re-attach these blocks in their original positions.

At the second pylon, work continued on the north quartzite colossus of Amenhotep III and, by using huge timber scaffolding, the right hand and the right knee, the right elbow, and large pieces of the chest, weighing up to 22 tons each, were lifted and attached to the body of the colossus. The height of the colossus is now 9.27m, and with the head, which will be added in 2014, this

The White Crown of the east colossus, with the The king’s name on one slot for the missing tip of the crown of the papyrus rolls

monumental sculpture will reach a height of 11.5m.

At the third pylon, a crane was used to lift the head and the lap of the northern royal colossus in travertine (alabaster) 3m higher to the modern ground level. The pieces have been temporarily covered with fabric and sand and protected in a wooden enclosure. Smaller pieces from colossi and their granodiorite pedestals were joined. We were also fortunate to be able to reconstruct the gigantic uraeus, which was inserted into the front of the royal headdress by means of a protruding peg.

In the peristyle court, more parts of the sandstone pavement were cleared, revealing further evidence of a severe earthquake. Pieces from the sandstone walls decorated with episodes of the royal jubilee were recovered, along with numerous fragments of statues, a small palette in greywacke, and amulet moulds, one of which has the figure of Bes. Here also came to light the head of a black granite uraeus with traces of yellow colour which we assume belongs to the seated statue of Amenhotep III discovered in 2009 and removed by the Inspectorate to an SCA storeroom. At the western part of the north wall of the peristyle court clearance of the rubble of the wall’s destruction revealed 28 statues and statue pieces of the goddess Sekhmet in black granite, including nine almost complete, along with busts and lower parts, some of which can be joined. All but one of the statues are of the seated type and when complete, they were 2m high and each weighed 2 tons. After being registered and quickly photographed, the statues were cleaned and moved to the main SCA storeroom until they can be returned to the temple.

The reconstructed north quartzite colossus at the second pylon

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Attaching the missing piece of the first northern colossus from the west portico, found in a magazine and returned to the site

Conservation was carried out all over the peristyle court with the desalination and consolidation of the sandstone pavement slabs and the column bases. Reconstruction of the monumental quartzite south stela continued with the placing of large undecorated blocks on its sides and back.

A long search in Theban magazines was rewarded with the rediscovery of a piece missing from the base of the first northern colossus in the west portico and, with the kind permission of Mohammed Abd El-Aziz and Yahya Abd El-Alim, and thanks to the cooperation of Ahmed Ezz and Mahmud Moussa, the piece was returned to the site and is now fixed to the south-west corner of the statue’s base.

We also received permission to return to the temple the missing left eye of a badly fragmented quartzite head

belonging to the third northern statue of the west portico.

The eye had been abroad for decades before the Egyptian authorities were able to retrieve it from Basel in 2010 and deposit it in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Thanks to the support of Mohammed El-Bialy, Mohammed Abd ElMaksoud and Mansour Boraik, and with thanks to Salwa Abd El-Rahman, Director of the Egyptian Museum, the eye reached our site workshop on 3 February 2013 and has since been joined to the head. Due to its fragmented state and fragility, and because very little is preserved on site from the body of this statue, it will be impossible to put the head on display in the temple and we feel that the best place to preserve it would be the Luxor Museum of Art, where it could be displayed facing, as it would have been in the temple itself, a companion piece in red granite from a southern statue discovered in the same court by Labib Habachi in 1957, and to which we had restored the beard in 2011 (see EA 39, p.32).

Finally, after years of investigation, and having been unable to identify the original position of the monumental statue of the white hippopotamus, which we had rediscovered in 2004 in the foundation of the north wall of the peristyle, and after long deliberation, a suitable place was chosen to put the statue on display. It now stands in the south-west quarter of the open court from which it can be moved should its original site be identified in the future.

The hippopotamus statue being transported to its new display position

q Hourig Sourouzian is Director of The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project which is codirected by Rainet Stadelmann and supported by the MSA Director, Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, and funded by the Association des Amis des Colosses de Memnon, with additional Funds from Memnon Verein, the World Monuments Fund, the Horus Egyptology Society and Neil Stevensen, and Stephanie and Bernhard Buchner. The Project worked in cooperation with Arkadi Karakhanyan, the Institute of Geology of the Armenian Academy of Sciences in Yerevan, for archaeoseismic, geophysical and geological investigations; Rainer Drewello and his team, of the University of Bamberg, for 3D scanning of statues; the EES Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Project, directed by Angus Graham, for investigation of the soil and the existence of an ancient canal or waterway leading to the temple. Photographs Š The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project.

Restoration work in progress on two of the seated Sekhmet statues

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Aidan Dodson, Afterglow of Empire. Egypt from the Fall of the New Kingdom to the Saite Renaissance. AUC Press 2012 (ISBN 978 977 416 5313). Price: £19.95. This book is a distillation of Aidan Dodson’s research going back several decades, along with the inclusion of several new theories taken over from his contemporaries. The result is a very readable, excellent study of one of the more complicated periods of Egyptian history, and moreover, is the first synthesis of the Third Intermediate Period to appear in book form since Kitchen’s seminal Third Intermediate Period, first published four decades ago.

Dodson begins with the last years of the Twentieth Dynasty, more specifically the reigns of Ramesses IX-XI. He is a supporter of Ad Thijs’ controversial proposal that the reigns of Ramesses IX and Ramesses XI overlap.

This theory is rejected by most Egyptologists, but the crucial starting point is hard to ignore.

The Tomb Robbery Papyri refer to various trials which took place during the reigns of Ramesses IX and Ramesses XI. In Year 16 of Ramesses IX, papyrus BM 10054 refers to a group of thieves who were ferried across the river by the fisherman Panakhtemopet, who was given a share of the spoils. In other papyri, dated to the early years of the wHm-mswt era, which began in Year 19 of Ramesses XI, the same fisherman appears ferrying the same thieves across the river. Conventionally these two attestations would thus be 25 years apart.

Either the later papyri refer back to an event which happened a quarter of a century earlier, or the same group of thieves, allied with the same fisherman, were still active twenty-five years later, or, as Thijs maintains, Year 19 of Ramesses XI closely follows Year 16 of Ramesses IX. In this scenario Ramesses XI would be a northern king ruling contemporaneously with Ramesses IX and X, and the wHm-mswt era would then be a new dating system adopted

by Ramesses XI once the old line of Ramesses IX-X had died out, leaving Ramesses XI in control of the whole country.

Chapters Two and Three deal with the Twenty-First Dynasty and the TwentySecond Dynasty down to the reign of Osorkon II. These sections call for little comment. Dodson emphasizes the dichotomy between Tanis, home of the Twenty-First Dynasty, and a quasi-independent Thebes, with its own line of priest-kings, and a de facto reunification of the country under Sheshonq I. With Chapter Four, however, we are again back in the realms of controversy. Dodson endorses the view that Takeloth II was not a Tanite king and therefore does not belong in the Twenty-Second Dynasty, a position vehemently denied by Kitchen but generally accepted in most recent articles. The upshot of this is that the reign of Sheshonq III follows immediately after that of Osorkon II. During these reigns it seems that Egypt fragmented into a series of multiple chiefdoms, based on a loose confederation of peers, which might equate with Libyan tribal associations.

This is a theory proposed by Ritner and, as Dodson writes, whilst ‘one remains nervous

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at accepting this model as the cause of the gradual breakdown of the centralised state, which gathers pace following Osorkon II’s death, it certainly eases understanding of how fragmentation accelerated once the dam had been cracked.’ (p.114).

Chapter Five deals with the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty down to the reign of Taharqo.

Starting with an overview of Nubia during the Third Intermediate Period, Dodson discusses the el-Kurru cemetery, siding with those who believe the necropolis spans the entire Third Intermediate Period. Dodson accepts that northern expansion into Egypt started during the reign of Kashta, but a recent discovery by the German Archaeological Institute has shown that a monumental building was erected at Elephantine during the reign of Iny - a probable Theban/Heracleopolite king.

Dodson suggests that Piye first intervened in Egypt on the demise of Takeloth III, whose death may have been followed by internal troubles, since he was not succeeded by any of his sons, but by his brother, Rudamun.

However, this scenario might need to be revised in the light of the recent discovery of Iny’s monumental building. Nevertheless it is clear from the Piye stela that before his conquest of Egypt he was indeed in control of a number of fortresses in southern Egypt. As is well known, Piye came into contact with a number of local chieftains and four kings, including Osorkon (IV) of Bubastis, whom Dodson, quite rightly, equates with the king Usermaatre Osorkonu depicted on a series of reused blocks at Tanis.

The final chapter deals with the Assyrian invasions under Tanutamun and a thumb nail sketch of the history of Egypt during the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. The book is rounded off by a number of appendices, the first three of which are concerned with the absolute chronology of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. As Dodson points out the earliest ‘fixed’ absolute date is the accession of Taharqo in 690 BC, 42

whilst everything earlier is dependent on astronomical observations and correlations with the Assyrian and Israelite King Lists.

These suggest that Rehoboam’s year 5, in which Shishak, king of Egypt, conquered Jerusalem, fell in 925 BC. This Shishak is generally equated with Sheshonq I, whom Dodson believes - accepting Kraus’ argument (DE 62, 2005, 43-48) - began to reign in 943 BC. As Dodson strongly favours Thijs’ reconstruction of the overlap of Ramesses XI with the reigns of Ramesses IX and X, he suggests that Ramesses II came to the throne in 1265 BC. This, however, seems unlikely, since Gernot Wilhelm, as the result of joining Hittite texts KBo 50.24 + KUB 19.15, has plausibly equated Year 1 of Horemheb with Year 8/9 of Mursilis II, making Horemheb accede to the throne in 1314/1313 BC. (G. Wilhelm, ‘Mursilis II. Konflikt mit Ägypten und Haremhabs Thronbesteigung’, in WdO 39, 2009, 108-116). If, as is now generally agreed, Horemheb ruled for only fifteen years he would have died in 1300/1299 BC, with the implication that Ramesses II must have come to the throne around 1290 BC. Nevertheless this should not detract from an excellent book, well researched, well written and well illustrated throughout. It is a book I would thoroughly recommend to any student interested in the Third Intermediate Period.

Every now and again there comes a book which one should buy - this is such a book.

DAVID ASTON David Gange, Dialogues with the Dead: Egyptology in British Culture and Religion, 1822-1922. Oxford University Press, 2013 (ISBN 978 0 19 965310 2). Price £75. This is a multi-faceted and far-reaching study into British Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Within this book David Gange plots the changing relationship between Britain and ancient Egypt, building the layers of context that framed British understanding and interpretations of the ancient civilization and, in turn, of contemporary Egypt. He demonstrates how transformations in British cultural life shaped Egyptology and explores the wider impact Egyptology had upon the society within which it developed. In addressing how ancient Egypt became entangled in so many aspects of British society, this study encompasses a wide range of subjects from religion, politics, education, art, literature, classical studies, and the changing media, to the latest anthropological and scientific theories. As Gange notes, the ‘very nature of the debates with which Egyptology intersected meant it could never operate in isolation’.

The book is structured chronologically and divided into six sections, with the title of each drawing on parallels with ancient Egyptian chronology. Beginning with ‘The Accession of Menes’, Gange guides the reader through the ‘Old Kingdom’, ‘First Intermediate Period’, ‘Middle Kingdom’, ‘Second Intermediate Period’ and ‘New Kingdom’ of British Egyptology. The introduction also includes an

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informative sub-section on writing a history of the discipline, in which the author outlines his own theoretical approach and the necessary steps to ensure a more accurate and historically unbiased interpretation of events.

By focusing on a cultural history of Egyptology in Britain between 1822 and 1922 this study stands out significantly from its contemporaries. A century framed by the decipherment of hieroglyphs and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, Gange demonstrates how it was in the ‘decades of debate’ between these two events that the ‘imagery of ancient Egypt was developed and redeveloped, and the forms and purposes of Near Eastern archaeology were built and extensively rebuilt’. This was a century of intrinsic value to the development of Egyptology, both as an academic discipline and within the popular imagination, and the alternative perspective provided by this study makes it a valuable addition to existing publications on the subject by Elliot Colla (Conflicted Antiquities, 2007) and Donald Malcolm Reid (Whose Pharaohs?, 2003).

It is, however, in the discussion of Egyptology and religion that Dialogues with the Dead will be valued most as a resource. As one of the first publications to analyse this dynamic and

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often turbulent relationship in such depth, Gange’s study highlights how Christianity was integral to the development of Egyptology’s disciplinary identity in the West. He offers an insightful account of how Egypt’s status as a Bible land influenced the choice of sites for excavation, encouraged technical advancement in the field, and created common ground on which academics and the public could engage with Egypt. Interestingly, the discussion also extends to the impact of alternative spiritualities and rising secularisation.

Dialogues with the Dead must be praised for promoting an inclusive and integrated history of British Egyptology. While many publications have approached the history of scholarly and public interests in ancient Egypt as separate entities, Gange acknowledges them as interdependent and equally influential. By exploring the shifting authority in the study of ancient Egypt from theology to archaeology this book addresses the changing and adaptive nature of public engagement, from church sermons and Sunday schools, to archaeological organisations, excavation reports, and the media, that still holds great relevance today.

David Gange’s study certainly does justice to the complexity of the period and the rapid evolution of British Egyptology during this time. Some readers may be left wanting more detail in areas or a more formulaic approach to chapters; for example, while the subject of representation in art and display is discussed for one period it is mentioned only sporadically, if at all, for others. However, what this book provides is much-needed historical context through a diverse and completely unique analysis of the period. It is an academic study that presents meticulous research in an accessible and engaging style, contributing many fresh and new insights to the subject as well as an extensive list of references and archival sources. In building much of his narrative around key figures, and ‘Egyptology popularizers’, Gange also documents a valuable network of individuals, societies, and academic communities with an interest and investment in ancient Egypt.

As such, this study is essential reading for historians of the nineteenth century, as well as those with an interest in the history of Egyptology and Near Eastern archaeology, archaeological reception and representation.

ALICE WILLIAMS

Bob Brier, Egyptomania: Our Three Thousand Year Obsession with the Land of the Pharaohs.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 (ISBN 978 1 137 27860 9). Price: £17.99. Ancient Egypt has a ‘brand recognition’ almost unique among civilisations: even the most unhistoricallyminded can usually spot something Egyptian or attempting to be Egyptian. This has led, on various occasions, to Egyptian motifs coming into vogue and being used in a wide variety of ways - some tasteful; some distinctly tasteless.

It is this phenomenon - generally known as ‘Egyptomania’ - that Brier’s book promises to chronicle in its jacket ‘blurb’.

After an introduction by the former Minister of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, Brier opens the book with an account of how he and his wife came to build up their collection – including their purchase of the letters of the engineer Waynman Dixon, who not only excavated in Egypt, but played a key role in the transport of Cleopatra’s Needle to the UK, and also of how they acquired a trunk of papers of Lady Amherst, whose family were early patrons of Howard Carter.

He then briefly considers the impact of Egypt on her ancient Greek and Roman occupiers, in particular the popularity of the cult of Isis in the Roman Empire, Hadrian’s tour, his collections and the deification of Antinous, mummy portraits and the Mensa Isiaca – a first century AD Roman piece probably linked with the Isis cult that had a major impact on proto-Egyptology. The author then rapidly moves on to a long account of the moving of the St Peter’s obelisk by Domenico Fontana in 1586. While interesting, it is only tangentially relevant to the book’s topic, particularly as there is no mention of the re-erection (158590) of three other obelisks by Pope Sixtus V - Lateran, Esquiline and Popolo - which would have been more apposite to the subject of the book.

The next chapter shifts directly to Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian expedition, telling the well-worn story, ending it with a section on the Sèvres Egyptian dinner service.

Continuing the French theme, the following chapter deals with the French acquisition of the Luxor Obelisk before jumping ahead to the digging of the Suez Canal and some general observations on French pre-eminence in Egyptomania during the first half of the nineteenth century. An obelisk provides

A Good Scribe and an Exceedingly Wise Man. Studies in Honour of W.J. Tait Edited by A.M. Dodson, J.J. Johnston and W.M. Monkhouse A tribute to the career of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Vice-President and former Vice-Chairman.

A volume of essays honouring the ongoing career of Professor John Tait, Emeritus Edwards Professor of Egyptology at University College London, and Vice-President of the Egypt Exploration Society, by his friends, colleagues and students. Subjects covered range from Middle Kingdom tomb-furnishings, through texts in a range of ancient languages, to modern biography, reflecting the wide range of interests of Professor Tait.

A4. 348 pages. ISBN: 978-1-906137-33-5

Price: £60

Special offer price to EES Members (valid only for orders received before 30 April 2014): £55 (incl. postage to UK), £52 if purchased in person at the EES London Office. Quote ‘EA offer’ when ordering: Golden House Publications, PO Box 51920, London SW9 0YW or online: www.goldenhp.co.uk/

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have allowed the exploration of matters such as Egyptianising architecture which are given but the briefest of mentions. Anyone looking for the promised primer on the fascinating world of ancient Egypt’s impact on Western art, architecture and crafts will sadly have to look elsewhere.

AIDAN DODSON

the basis for the subsequent chapter as well, which tells the story of Cleopatra’s Needle, leading into the next one on Victorian Egyptomania. While previous chapters mention contemporary products in Egyptian style, this is the first one to engage fully with such pieces , but the next chapter, on the New York obelisk, reverts to being a blow-by-blow account of its acquisition and transport, with a short, generalising, section on consequential US Egyptomania tacked on at the end.

Mummies are the subject of the eighth chapter, opening with another extensive historical account, in this case of the discovery of the TT320 cache near Deir el-Bahri. A brief paragraph is headed ‘Mummy Mania’, but does no more than talk about the unwrapping of the TT320 pharaohs and highlighting that of Ramesses II. On the other hand, the chapter closes with an interesting clutch of pages on mummies in sheet music.

The same pattern is found in the succeeding chapter, with an account of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, followed by a section on sheet music inspired by the find, then a few lines on commercial spin-offs and fictional works ultimately inspired by the find; Egyptset novels and the original filmed version of The Mummy. This leads into a chapter on mummy films and epics such as the various Cleopatracentred movies and The Ten Commandments.

The final chapter is entitled ‘The Future of Egyptomania’, but is, in particular, a retrospective of the various Tutankhamun exhibitions – and a personal piece on the genesis of Brier’s ‘Murder of Tutankhamun’ theory, book and (threatened) film. The last part of the chapter is a brief meditation on the enduring fascination of ancient Egypt.

While it contains the odd interesting aside and some very nice images of Egyptomaniacal items - this book is certainly not what one might have expected from its title and jacket blurb. Much of the text simply retells well-known events that, although inspiring Egyptomaniacal activity, were not aspects of Egyptomania themselves (unless one is to define any interest in ancient Egypt as ‘Egyptomania’), using up space that could

John M Adams, The Millionaire and the Mummies: Theodore Davis’s Gilded Age in the Valley of the Kings. St Martin’s Press, 2013 (ISBN 978 1 250 02669 9). Price: $26.99.

Here, for the first time, the story is told in full of the American millionaire businessman Theodore Montgomery (scholars previously believed he was called Monroe) Davis - the famed amateur archaeologist who began to dig in the Valley of the Kings in 1903 and was soon reputed to find ‘a new tomb every season’. It proves to be an extraordinary read, thoroughly and freshly researched, and well written. It is the book everyone interested in the golden age of Egyptian archaeology has been waiting for, and it does not disappoint.

The tombs brought to light by Theodore Davis are among the most important ever found in Egypt - a country hardly lacking in extraordinary archaeological discoveries: the intact, rich and spectacular burial (KV 46) of Yuya and Tjuyu, the father- and motherin-law of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III; the mysteriously furnished tomb (KV 55) of the ‘heretic’ pharaoh Akhenaten; and the cache of mundanelooking pottery vessels, dried floral collars and food provisions from tomb KV54 - not in themselves much to look at (so uninspiring that Davis eventually gave the find away) but the final proof that would convince Howard Carter, a protégé of Davis (the man who had first encouraged him to dig), that the missing burial of the boy-king Tutankhamun itself lay within a stone’s throw. Davis may not have actually made that greatest discovery in the history of world archaeology, but he certainly paved the way, by his own archaeological efforts, to making that discovery possible.

From the point of view of his archaeological work alone, then, Davis is a more than worthwhile candidate for the full biographical treatment.

What comes as a surprise is that the famed excavator’s pre-Valley of the Kings years were no less swashbuckling, set as they are against a background of temperance, abolition (he was acquainted with the legendary John Brown), civil war and the sharpest possible practice - America, in other words, during the extraordinary years of her coming of age.

Thanks to Adams’ ground-breaking research we learn a great deal that is new about our hero. Physically, Theodore Davis was wiry and stood 5 feet 6 inches in height; his eyes were hazel. We discern for the first time his true personality, and that he was not quite the stubborn, stupid, grumpy old man that Egyptologists have come to recognize. In fact, Davis was tough, aggressive, shrewd, and - somewhat surprisingly - possessed of a notably jocular sense of humour. As a child, his background had been poor, difficult, and very much the hardening process: he had been obliged to live on his wits in effect since 44

the early death of his Presbyterian-minister father. After his mother remarried, Davis spent a brief spell sharpening his youthful eye as a ‘landlooker’ (assessing the development potential of land) - a skill which would later come to serve him well in his prospecting for tombs in the Valley of the Kings. And then, at age 17, he became apprenticed to an Iowa lawyer, being elected to the bar a mere two years later. Finding a wife (Annie Buttles) soon after that, he almost immediately encountered the woman who would become the love of his life: the tiny but evidently magical Emma B Andrews, his intellectual equal and the muse who would share his time in Egypt and pen the still-unpublished diary which today brings so vividly and interestingly to life Davis’s archaeological adventures during the first decade of the twentieth century.

As we now see, Davis had been a pragmatic man, of notably flexible ethics and remarkably little scruple: his father having been cheated by crooked lawyers in his own business dealings, Davis had clearly learned the lesson.

As Adams observes, ‘The merit of taking what you wanted and ignoring the niceties’ became a virtual Leitmotiv, and the nineteenth

century American legal profession would throw many opportunities his way. Davis’s prospects in Iowa having been badly affected not only by the civil war but by some early financial shenanigans at the expense of his legal partner, in 1865 the still-young man headed east, to New York. It proved a clever move.

Here he would rapidly make his mark, and his millions, as a member of the infamously corrupt ‘Tweed Ring’ - a story John Adams skillfully disentangles. Theodore M Davis: the one who got away.

From unschooled poverty to wealthy archaeologist and collector - the story recounted by John Adams is a gripping one, set against the equally compelling backdrops of a United States during its headiest days of financial opportunity, and majestic, magical Egypt and the lure of buried treasure during the glory years of European control. This book is a winner. NICHOLAS REEVES

EGYPT’S SACRED ANIMALS

At the Egypt Exploration Society this Spring we are exploring the world of Ancient Egypt’s sacred animals. Through a series of events we will investigate why animals were important to the ancient Egyptians, why they were worshipped and how they came to be buried in vast underground catacombs.

LONDON SEMINAR Snakes Alive! The Use of Figurative Language in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor Saturday 12th April, 1-4pm Dr Linda Steynor This seminar will explore the use of figurative language in The Shipwrecked Sailor, highlighting issues of accessibility and appreciation. The hidden complexities of the Sailor’s apparently simple ‘tall tale’ will illustrate how his series of word-pictures offers a moral compass and provides a strategy for coping with the vicissitudes of life, as relevant now as for the ancient Egyptian.

LONDON SEMINAR The Telling Tails of Seth Saturday 10th May, 10am-4pm Dr Angela McDonald Alongside the many animals in the hieroglyphic script that play straightforward roles, there lurk some complex creatures with multiple meanings. With the sacred animal of Seth as a focal point, this seminar will explore the ways in which we can understand the Egyptians’ thoughts and experiences by analysing the animals – both real and imagined - that appear in their texts and art.

LONDON STUDY DAY Ancient Animals: Mummies and Mysteries Saturday 26th July 2014 Animals were venerated in Ancient Egypt from the early Pharaonic period and came symbolically to represent gods and kings until the introduction of Christianity in AD 380. Some animals, such as the Apis Bulls, were worshipped in life and given lavish burials; while others, such as cats and baboons, were bred in large numbers to be mummified and offered to their associated deities and deposited in vast underground catacombs. The Egypt Exploration Society has a long history of excavating these catacombs and was responsible for the discovery of two of the most important: the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, and the Bucheum at Armant. Our work continues in Egypt with current fieldwork at Quesna uncovering more of the falcon necropolis. This study day aims to uncover why animals were so important in ancient Egyptian religion by inviting leading specialists to discuss their research into the cults, mummification and burial of Egypt’s sacred animals.

The Egypt Exploration Society Exploring and Inspiring Please visit our website (www.ees.ac.uk) to book event tickets or use the booking form available in Newsletter, Issue 10.

The Egypt Exploration Society, 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG.

Tel: 0207 242 1880

The Egypt Exploration Society Recent Publications

Working in Memphis. The Production of Faience at Roman Period Kom Helul

By Paul T Nicholson EES Excavation Memoir 105. 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85698-210-1 Full price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50.

This volume reports on the EES excavation (between 2000 and 2008) at Kom Helul, Memphis, of an early Roman period faience kiln which appears to be of the same type as those excavated by Flinders Petrie in the early twentieth century. The book attempts to place Petrie’s finds in their archaeological context and to reinterpret his evidence in the light of findings from the new excavation. In so doing a new outline of the chaîne opératoire of faience production during the Roman period is proposed and its relationship with the making of pre-Roman faience is discussed. The book includes an illustrated catalogue of finds.

Demotic Ostraca and Other Inscriptions from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara

By J. D. Ray EES Texts from Excavations 16. 2013.

ISBN 13: 978-0-85698-217-0 Full price: £90. EES Members’ price: £76.50.

The demotic ostraca (mostly from the first half of the Ptolemaic Dynasty) published here were discovered by the EES in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara more than thirty years ago. Two different types of text are represented: jar-labels or dockets originally written upon a complete vessel to describe its contents or to give delivery instructions, and compositions written upon a sherd or a flake of stone. These texts include literary and magical compositions, a short oracular question, dedications to Necropolis gods, an appeal to the Mother of the Apis, lists of payments and divine images, and a document of self-sale or self-hire which is probably the earliest such document so far recognised.

Coming soon The Old Kingdom Town at Buhen

By David O’Connor EES Excavation Memoir 106. Forthcoming 2014 ISBN: 978-0-85698-215-6.

Full price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50.

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The Old Kingdom Town at Buhen

The excavation by the Egypt Exploration Society of the Old Kingdom Town at Buhen in modern Sudan was directed by Professor W B Emery in two short seasons between 1962 and 1964. David O’Connor who was a member of Emery’s team, has reconstructed, from the original field records, this account of the excavations and publishes the results of the two short but significant seasons at Buhen’s unique Old Kingdom Town.

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Sais II: The Prehistoric Period at Sa el-Hagar

Sais II: The Prehistoric Period at Sa el-Hagar

By Penelope Wilson, Gregory Gilbert and Geoffrey Tassie EES Excavation Memoir 107. Forthcoming 2014 ISBN: 978-0-85698-218-7.

FFull price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50.

David O’Connor E G Y P T

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This is the final publication of the EES/Durham/SCA excavations carried out in 2007 in the ‘Great Pit’ at Sa el-Hagar, ancient Sais. It contains a full discussion of the layers dating to the Neolithic and ButoMaadi Periods, with specialist reports on the chipped and ground stone tools, small finds, pottery, animal bones and flora. As the only Neolithic site so far excavated on the Nile floodplain in Egypt, the site has important implications for understanding the Neolithic transition in the Delta and the development of Predynastic settlements in the north of Egypt.

Penelope Wilson, Gregory Gilbert and Geoffrey Tassie E G Y P T

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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: maria.idowu@ees.ac.uk. On-line shop: www.ees-shop.com