Chasing shadows: graffiti in the Eighth Pylon at Karnak
Photo: A. ChĂŠnĂŠ / CNRS-CFEETK
Constructed during the co-regency of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III, the Eighth Pylon at Karnak bears some of the most distinctive clusters of New Kingdom graffiti known from the Amun temple complex. Elizabeth Frood, Chiara Salvador, and Ellen Jones report on recent discoveries of inked and painted hieratic graffiti in the staircase of the pylon, which help us understand this as a cultic and scribal space. The Karnak Graffiti Project For almost ten years, the Karnak Graffiti Project (KGP), led by Elizabeth Frood, now together with Chiara Salvador, has been recording and analysing pictorial, hieratic, and hieroglyphic graffiti in the precinct of Amun at Karnak. It developed out of the major project of Claude Traunecker in the 1970s to systematically survey and record inscriptions and images that are not part of the primary decorative programme. His archive is now held at the University of
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Oxford and is foundational to this phase of analysis. The KGP focuses on two main areas: the temple of P tah and the souther n processional axis, including the Eighth Pylon. Graffiti left by temple staff in these places form case studies for assessing implications of graffiti practices across the complex. Those on and in the Eighth Pylon are crucial for examining circulation pathways, spheres of influence of staff members, and relationships of informal writing to cult and the transformation of space.
