EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
A new doorway for Atum in Akhmim Gamal Abdel Nasser, Stefan Baumann and Christian Leitz report on an important chance find when the Akhmim Inspectorate was tipped off about illegal digging acivity in the city. In February 2015 the local Inspectorate received news of an illegal excavation in the ancient city of Akhmim. Just 50 m southwest of the Inspectorate the owner of a small house had dug a shaft below his house, about 5 m deep. By mere chance he hit on a quite well preserved limestone chapel of the god Atum from the late Ptolemaic or early Roman Period. After the owner fled the house, the Inspectorate immediately stopped the illegal activities, and took measures to secure and conserve this exceptional monument. The wide descending shaft ends at floor level directly in front of the door to the chapel. From this point a narrow tunnel was dug horizontally through the entrance. Beyond the door a second side tunnel turns right following a wall built of fired mud bricks. Due to Above: the house under which the chapel was discovered. Below: door of the chapel seen from the shaft. (Photos: Stefan Baumann)
3