Egyptian Archaeology 28

No. 28 Spring 2006

PRICE £4.95

EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

T HE B ULLETIN OF T HE E GYPT E XPLORATION S OCIETY

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Giza Pyramids during the inundation in the 1920s. Records relating to the archaeology of Giza are now available on-line, see pp. 31-33. Photograph: Egypt Exploration Society Archive.

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

Number 28

Spring 2006

Editorial

2

Frankfort photograph albums

Chris Naunton

2

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the aims or concerns of the Egypt Exploration Society

The EES Delta Survey: Minufiyeh 2005 Joanne Rowland and Nils Billing

3

Editor Patricia Spencer

Qasr Ibrim’s crowning glory: a Napatan Period wig Gillian Pyke

7

Editorial Advisers Peter Clayton Vivian Davies George Hart David Jeffreys Mike Murphy Chris Naunton John Taylor Advertising Sales Andrew Bednarski Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews London WC1N 2PG (Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880) (Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118) (E-mail: andrew.bednarski@ees.ac.uk) Trade Distribution Oxbow Books Park End Place Oxford OX1 1HN Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249 Fax: +44 (0)1865 794449 E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com Website: www.oxbowbooks.com Published twice a year by The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG Registered Charity No.212384 A limited Company registered in England, No.25816 Original design by Jeremy Pemberton Set in Adobe InDesign CS2 by Patricia Spencer Printed by Commercial Colour Press plc Angard House, 185 Forest Road, Hainault, Essex IG6 3HU www.ccpress.co.uk

The Euroslavic font used to print this work is available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 98020-0580, USA. Phone: (425) 775-1130. www.linguistsoftware.com

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

ISSN 0962 2837

An Amarna sculptor’s model

Anna Stevens

10

Notes and News

11

A new temple for Thoth in the Dakhleh Oasis Paola Davoli and Olaf Kaper

12

A Fourth Dynasty royal necropolis at Abu Rawash Michel Baud and Nadine Moeller

16

The first British Egyptology Congress, Cambridge 2005 Dan Lines

19

The Louvre Museum excavations at Saqqara Christiane Ziegler

20

Digging Diary

25

Patricia Spencer

Eastern Desert Ware: fine pottery from an arid wasteland Hans Barnard

29

The Giza Archives Project

31

New work on old texts

Peter Der Manuelian

Roland Enmarch

Perunefer: at Memphis or Avaris?

David Jeffreys

34 36

Notice Board

38

The temple of Ramesses II at El-Sheikh Ibada Gloria Rosati

39

Bookshelf

42

Membership Matters and Acknowledgements

44

Cover illustration: Saqqara, excavations of the Louvre Museum.The northern part of a Late Period underground gallery with heaped-up coffins and funerary equipment. See pp.20-24. Photograph © Christian Déscamps.

1

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Publishing the past

In the early years of the Egypt Exploration Society Flinders Petrie’s rapid, annual publications of his work in Egypt set a high standard in terms of promptitude, even if the resulting publications were not as detailed as would be expected today.However,during the twentieth century, as archaeology became more scientific and recording techniques were refined and augmented, it ceased to be possible,or even desirable,to aim for as rapid a publication rate as that achieved by Petrie, and other factors have also intervened to slow down the rate of publication.Nevertheless the EES has had a good publication record and 2005 saw the appearance of several Memoirs.

At the start of the year John Ray’s Demotic Papyri and Ostraca from Qasr Ibrim resumed publication of the ‘Texts from Excavations’ series and four Excavation Memoirs, publishing work at Saqqara and Amarna, have since appeared. Details of all these volumes can be found on the back cover.In addition one volume of the Graeco-Roman Memoirs (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri LXIX) has been pub-

lished with several further volumes of the series promised for early in 2006. Other EES Memoirs are now in the final stages of preparation, with the imminent publication of the second of Sue Davies and H S Smith’s volumes on the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, to be closely followed by the third. Two volumes from the Survey of Memphis, covering the archaeology at Kom Rabia in the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period will appear during 2006 and at least one volume from the work at Amarna, Fran Weatherhead’s Amarna Palace Paintings, will be published, with other Amarna volumes now in an advanced state of preparation.

2006 will also see the publication by the Society of Brenda Moon’s long-awaited biography of the Society’s founder,Amelia Edwards.

Other volumes are actively being prepared and should appear in the next few years, to bring the Society’s publications as up-to-date as possible.

PATRICIA SPENCER

Frankfort photograph albums

The EES has recently been given, by Jon and Catherine Frankfort, two albums of photographs taken by Mr Frankfort’s father, Henri Frankfort, the Dutch Archaeologist and Egyptologist who trained with Petrie and went on to become the Society’s Director of Excavations.The earlier of the two albums in Henri Frankfort at Qau el-Kebir in 1923 this most generous gift contains photographs taken at Qau el-Kebir, during Petrie’s 1922-3 season there; those in the other album were taken during the later 1920s, mainly on EES excavations at Amarna and Armant.

The photographs were not taken with scientific purposes in mind.There are a few of excavations in progress, but most record other aspects of life in the field at this time.

There are images of team members on the ship sailing to Egypt at the beginning of the season, scenes of music, dancing and other festivities,visits by other archaeologists, discussions on site, and a delightful snapshot of the team taking tea with a visitor.Prominent in the photographs are Frankfort himself, his wife Yettie, and Stephen Glanville, Catherine Frankfort’s father, who was at this time the Society’s Honorary Secretary.

The archives at Doughty Mews are the repository for all surviving documentation produced as a result of the Society’s fieldwork, and particularly photographs, but the usual preoccupation of those behind the camera was to capture the archaeological details; the expeditions themselves and the people involved were, naturally, considered less important. Interest in the development and history of Egyptology has flourished in recent years, as Egyptologists have re-assessed earlier archaeological work and the historiography of the subject has become a sub-discipline in its own right. Photographs of the kind donated by Mr and Mrs Frankfort are, therefore, a very valuable addition to the archives,the maintenance which of now constitutes an important part of the Society’s activities.

CHRIS NAUNTON

Local workmen staging a stick fight during a celebration (note the musicians in the background) on site at Amarna in the late 1920s

2

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The EES Delta Survey: Minufiyeh 2005

In summer 2005 an EES team undertook a ground survey in the central Delta province of Minufiyeh, one of the least known areas of the Delta, visiting thirty sites. Joanne Rowland and Nils Billing describe the archaeological evidence encountered.

The Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey has been instigated with the aim of enhancing our understanding of site distribution in the central Delta throughout antiquity.The itinerary for the first season of work included sites already known and referenced on the EES Delta Survey database (www.ees.ac.uk) and previously unrecorded sites suggested either by their having names including kom or tell, or by their situation on high contour areas, possibly indicating the presence of a mound of human occupation. Local information obtained during the course of the survey added to this initial list.At each site,the residents were first interviewed about their knowledge of any archaeological remains in the area and then the site was investigated for any visible surface finds, which were subsequently documented in a photographic and written report.

Five sites in this region have already been excavated and registered by the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiqui-

ties, but little is known of them outside Egypt. These sites are Quesna, Zawiyet Rosein, Sobek el-Dahak, Sersenna andTell Mustay-Umm Harb (for all locations see the map on p.6). The SCA excavations and current observations have confirmed dates for these sites ranging from the New Kingdom to the Late Antique Period.

The Quesna archaeological area was excavated by the SCA between 1990-91 and 2000. GomaĂ and Hegazy published in 2001 the Late Period to Ptolemaic (and possibly Roman) brick built mausolea, the Roman coffin burials and the falcon necropolis (late Ptolemaic to Roman Period). At its highest point, the site is raised 21m above the level of the surrounding fields and is formed of a large sand dune which descends rapidly in places, but with a more gradual slope c.2km to the furthest outlying spurs of the dune. Much of this site has yet to be investigated but the dates of surface finds range from the New

View over the Late Period-Ptolemaic mausolea at Quesna

3

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The view from Minshat Damallu to the main Quesna archaeological area

Stone sarcophagi in situ in the Quesna mausolea

Kingdom to the Late Antique Period. On the outlying areas of the dune, pottery sherds dating to at least as early as the Roman Period have been found on the surface at Sharannis and Minshat Damallu. Sub-surface investigations, including a magnetometer survey, will, it is hoped, confirm the extent and date range of the archaeological remains in 2006.

To the west of this region a village named Kom el-Ahmar was surveyed because of its name and through references in the EES Delta Survey database. Discussions with the villagers and a subsequent guided tour through the village yielded remarkable results.Villagers described to us a local memory of how foreign visitors had taken a stone block

up river to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.Research back in London suggested that this might be the so-called Athribis Stele of Merenptah,which was removed from the site in 1882 and finally arrived in Cairo in 1927, having sunk en route and lain for 35 years at the bottom of a canal.At least three stone blocks were reported as still lying below ground in the village today and two reused red granite blocks were observed in an animal barn; it was impossible to tell the exact size of these or whether any might have inscribed surfaces.Another block of red granite was also seen, bearing inscriptions containing the prenomen of King Ahmose (Amasis) of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, who reigned between 570 and 526 BC. A further block

The rise of the Kom el-Ahmar mound beneath the modern village

Location of one of the inscribed blocks at Kom el-Ahmar

4

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Kom el-Ahmar.The red granite block bearing the cartouches of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty king Ahmose (Amasis)

The writers observing surface finds at Sharannis (Quesna region)

of red granite was found lying outside a small house on the outskirts of the village, also inscribed with the name of the Saite king Ahmose,describing him as‘son of Neith’, and with the remnants of a relief scene.

The SCA registered site of Sersenna lies 25km to the north-east of Kom el-Ahmar. Excavations there have revealed the remains of a Roman bath house and the surviving stratigraphy suggests the presence of at least two paved areas during the occupation of the site. Within a couple of kilometres of Sersenna lies a piece of inscribed limestone of Ptolemaic date.This is currently in the garden of the head family of the village of Kafr Ashma, having been found originally during the digging of foundations for an earlier house in the village.The stone, which originates from a large structure, is decorated at the top with the head of the goddess Hathor, who is described below as ‘Mistress of the Great Sycomore’; in the lower part of the block are rows of deities.

Izbet el-Kom el-Ahmar, c.20km north of Sersenna, had, according to a local informant, been levelled in the time of King Farouk. The village does, however, still rise up above the surrounding land, to 3-4m at its highest point.

Local farmers continually find large amounts of red brick when digging in the fields and they say these bricks belong to walls of c.70-100cm thick.The local people told us of a place 1km away, but not on the map, called Izbet

Nassar, where we found two re-used column drums leaning up against the wall of a mosque, together with a partially-revealed brick arch in the field behind the mosque. The column drums at Izbet Nassar are similar to some of those Part of a Late Roman transport seen at the SCA registered amphora found in the corner of the Zawiyet Rosein cemetery site of Zawiyet Rosein, where columns and column drums of Roman date are lying throughout the modern village, and where Roman to Late Antique ceramic vessels were found in one corner of the modern cemetery.

Only a couple of kilometres away from Izbet Nassar lies Kom Ahmar (Saft Jidam) where we were told that a kom, standing 7m high, was removed only 15 years ago to make way for the new village school. Ceramics still lie on the ground close to the edges of the old kom, tentatively dated to the Roman and Late Antique Periods. A column drum of red granite, re-used as a grinding stone, had been found during the ploughing of fields and now sits beside the main road running through the village.

At Tell Mustay a local resident confirmed the degradation of the ancient site over the past 40 years, stating

Kafr Ashma.The block decorated with the head of Hathor and rows of deities

5

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

that the tell, now 3m at its highest point, stood as high as 15m during his youth. Nonetheless, pottery sherds dating from the Late Roman Period to the Islamic Period were observed in ditches at the edge of the town, in a construction trench and at Umm Harb (the raised area of the old tombs), a five minute drive from the modern village.

Kafr Suleyman,only a couple of kilometres from Mustay, also revealed pottery lying on the surface in fields where many scarabs are said to have been collected by local people in recent times.These sherds are somewhat earlier in date than those at Mustay, ranging from the Ptolemaic and Early Roman to the Late Roman and Late Antique Periods.The village of El-Rimaly,between Kafr Suleyman and Mustay, was also surveyed and two limestone blocks,

The reused limestone blocks outside the cemetery in El-Rimaly

possibly of pharaonic date, were found being used as benches outside the village cemetery. Ceramics dating to the Late Period and the Roman Period were observed on the surface in the cemetery.

The survey in 2005 has greatly increased our knowledge of the sites within the Minufiyeh governorate and a number of the sites surveyed this year will be revisited in 2006, with a view to conducting sub-surface survey and preliminary excavations.The ground survey will also continue with a view to discovering further sites in the area and ultimately clarifying the extent and nature of site distribution within the province.

The distribution of sites visited in Minufiyeh.

(Map created by Andrew Bevan, Institute of Archaeology, University College London)

6

Ô Joanne Rowland is a part-time lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and at the University of Oxford and is Director of the Minufiyeh Archaeological Survey (part of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Delta Survey). Nils Billing is Assistant Professor in the History of Religions at the University of Linköping, Sweden. The survey was made possible through the generous support of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Centenary Award and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust.

The writers would like to acknowledge the assistance of GeoffreyTassie (Institute of Archaeology,London) and Joris vanWetering (University of Leiden), each of whom took the photographs reproduced here, and Yasser Issa Zaghloul (SCA Inspector).

Thanks are also due to Sally-Ann Ashton (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) for her help with dating finds from photographs and Andrew Bevan (Institute of Archaeology, UCL) for preparing the site location map. Photographs reproduced courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Qasr Ibrim’s crowning glory: a Napatan Period wig Fragments of an elaborate wig were found in stratified deposits of the Napatan Period during the most recent EES excavations at Qasr Ibrim.The wig was studied during the autumn 2005 study season by Gillian Pyke who reports on its significance and appearance.

Elements of an extraordinary wig were found in 2004 and 2005 in a number of contexts of Napatan date, including one that was extremely rich in organic material, within a single area measuring approximately 3m x 4m (Trench 25, Area A) to the north-west of the Cathedral.

Many of the fragments, the majority of which are from braids, were found in discrete groups within these contexts. The careful lifting of the fragments was rewarded, as a number of wig braids are still strung on cords, and the associations between many broken fragments could be reconstructed.

The wig comprised two main elements: a lower braided part, consisting of at least eight different types of braid, and a curled topknot.Virtually all the elements, including the cords on which the braids were strung, seem to have been made of hair, but whether this was human or animal is not yet certain.The topknot and braids were made of dark brown or black hair which is relatively coarse and, for the braids at least, quite long.

Trench 25,Area A, at the level where the wig fragments were found

The basic construction of almost all the braids is very similar, basically consisting of a suspension loop, by which the braids were threaded on a cord, an upper plaited section and a lower plaited or loose section,each separated by ties.The main element of the braid was a plait or pair of plaits, folded over to form the suspension loop and often at least the upper part of the braid as well. The loop is secured by the upper of two ties, usually made of a narrow two-ply cord made of a pale brown hair, wrapped many times around the braid and tied either at the top or bottom edge, and coated with a brown material, presumably applied as a liquid in order to prevent the ties from coming loose. Extra sections of hair or plaits were often added under these ties (identified by a significant bulge) for incorporation into the design of the braid below the tie.This allowed both a more elaborate design and a greater length to the overall braid. Between the two ties is a plaited section, the exact composition of which varies between types.The plaits are sometimes patchily coated with the same material as found on the ties, some types being consistently heavily coated, usually before being plaited.The lowest part of the braid, often heavily coated, may be either plaited in single, double or multiple plaits or left loose, either wavy or curly.

There are several variations on this basic composition.

These include a braid consisting of an upper loop and tie, with a multitude of narrow braids below, which may be either virtually uncoated or very heavily coated. Another type comprises a braid formed by a single wide plait looped and tied at the top, with two separate long plaits each terminating in a tie and pair of coated plaits

Qasr Ibrim. Plan of the area in which the wig fragments were found 7

EGYPTIAN

A complete braid

ARCHAEOLOGY

An additional braid

left loose at the ends.An extremely elaborate type, found concentrated in one particular context, has six to eight tiny looped plaits at the top, with pairs interlinking with their neighbours before each pair continues to its own upper tie.The plaited section below has several variants, including a multitude of narrow plaits above a single lower tie, or pair of wider plaits each with its own lower tie.

The lowest part may be plaited or left loose.The overall length of all the braids is quite consistent, most being 1820cm long, with the most elaborate type also the longest at about 23cm.

A number of braids showed evidence of repair, usually in the replacement of ties, which took the form of a wider cord than the original,wound round the braid in the same place, but less carefully and with no coating. Some braids have clearly lost their original loops and had makeshift loops fashioned at the top of the remaining fragments of braid. It is likely that the simplest braid type, characterised by its narrow form and uncoated tie, is a replacement added when an original braid was lost.

The braids that were found strung together on cords would seem to indicate that the types were not mixed together, but instead occurred either in complete rows or in clusters.The cords of several of these rows were knotted at each end, one with a cord of halfa-grass linking each end with an elaborate knot that might have been used for adjusting its length.

Further evidence for the construction of the wig can be seen on the section of the top knot, which has enough characteristics in common with the braids for it to be attributed to the same wig.This triangular element, measuring 10cm along each side, is probably one of several that originally comprised the upper part of the wig. In section, it tapers from one of the sides towards the point opposite.This side is distinguished from the others in having a bank of curls along it, which is probably an outside edge, while the other two sides adjoin similar sections of top knot. The top knot section is made from a mass of wide, loose plaits with loose curled ends, patchily coated and seemingly with no particular arrangement,apart from the bank of curls forming the outer edge.The curls are more prominent on the upper surface, and the plaits on the lower. A series of impressions on the underside perhaps indicates the presence of some kind of substructure.

The remains of two cords of unplied vegetable material run through the mass of curls and plaits parallel to the curled edge across the centre of the section of top knot.

These might have been to attach the top knot to the substructure, and/or to link the sections of the top knot together. It is not clear how the top knot was joined to the braids, but this might have been facilitated in some way by the substructure.

Detail of the curly edge of the top knot

Detail of the curls and cord of the top knot

Strung braids

8

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

British Museum EA 36. Detail of a New Kingdom limestone pair-statue, showing a man wearing a duplex wig. (Photograph: the British Museum)

From the available evidence, the wig appears to be constructed of rows of braids strung on cords made of fine plied hair, perhaps with a cord tie allowing them to be tightened, somehow linked to a curly top knot that sat on some kind of solid substructure.This combination of curled upper and braided lower parts is reminiscent of a type of wig popular in New Kingdom Egypt, commonly termed a duplex wig. However, depictions of this type of wig on statuary and two-dimensional images shows that it was usually of simpler construction than the Qasr Ibrim wig, consisting of a curly top knot and a single, simple form of braid.This arrangement corresponds with the well known Eighteenth Dynasty wig found in a funerary context atThebes,now in the British Museum (EA 2560).The style can also be seen on the Museum’s New Kingdom limestone statue of an official and his wife (EA 36).

The variety of braid types indicates that the Qasr Ibrim wig was an extremely complex piece of headgear, and this fact, combined with the manufacture of its main elements from hair rather than plant fibres, suggests that it was an expensive item.The fact that it has many repairs indicates that it was probably worn in life rather than death, and its association with stratified material of the Napatan Period suggests that the wearer lived at this time.

Ô Gillian Pyke is a freelance Egyptologist and has been a member of the EES expedition to Qasr Ibrim for the last five years. She would like to thank Pamela Rose and the EES for the opportunity to study the finds from Qasr Ibrim. Photographs (unless otherwise indicated) by Pamela Rose, reproduced courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society. .

EGYPTOLOGY BOOKS FROM ROUTLEDGE Ancient Egypt

The Nubian Past

2nd Edition

An Archaeology of the Sudan

Anatomy of a Civilization Barry Kemp, University of Cambridge, UK

David N. Edwards, University of Leicester, UK

Completely revised and updated to reflect the latest developments in the field, this new edition is fully illustrated and presents a compelling reassessment of what gave ancient Egypt its distinctive and enduring characteristics.

October 2005: 246x189: 400pp: illus. 133 line drawings and 10 b+w photos Hb: 0-415-23549-9: £55.00 Pb: 0-415-23550-2: £16.99

Examining the area of Nubia and Sudan from the prehistoric to the nineteenth century AD, this is an exceptional study of the area's archaeology and history. The first major work in its field for over thirty years, this is a must for course students.

2004: 234x156: 360pp Hb: 0-415-36987-7: £65.00 Pb: 0-415-36988-6: £24.99

The Egyptians

The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

An Introduction Robert Morkot, University of Exeter, UK

George Hart

An introduction to ancient Egyptian civilization, its origins, history and culture. The book examines notions of race and colour, the achievements in the fields of science and architecture and the controversial issue of the 'legacy' of Egypt.

March 2005: 216x138: 256pp: illus. 11 line drawings and 18 b+w photos Hb: 0-415-27103-7: £45.00 Pb: 0-415-27104-5: £12.99

Containing one of the most comprehensive listings and descriptions of Egyptian deities available – students studying ancient Egypt, travelers, visitors to museums and all those interested in mythology will find this an invaluable resource.

February 2005: 216x138: 192pp: illus. 78 line drawings Hb: 0-415-36116-8: £50.00 Pb: 0-415-34495-6: £13.99

For credit card orders: call +44 (0)1264 343071 or email book.orders@routledge.co.uk For more information, or for a free Archaeology catalogue, please contact Melissa Whorley at melissa.whorley@tandf.co.uk

www.routledge.com

available from all good bookshops

9

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

An Amarna sculptor’s model Finds of sculpture from the Central City at Amarna are now quite rare: Anna Stevens reports on a limestone ‘sculptor’s model’ found during the 2005 season.

Sculptors’trial pieces or models are a well-known element of the artefact corpus from Amarna.Most have come from the early excavations of either Flinders Petrie or the Egypt Exploration Society in the Central City,the administrative and ceremonial heart of the ancient city.

During the 2005 EES season at Amarna a workman found a figurative sculptor’s model lying on the ground beside the modern road that runs between the Small Aten Temple and the Great Palace (the ancient ‘Royal Road’).

The piece lay immediately east of the dividing wall between the Palace and the so-called Smenkhkare Hall, and in the latest phase of its ‘life history’ had evidently formed a makeshift goalpost for children’s football games. It may have been collected from a nearby row of spoil heaps left from the 1930s EES excavations in the Great Palace.

The model is intact and carved from a piece of fine limestone. It is almost square and can be held easily in one hand. Carefully centred on the upper face is a leftfacing profile head carved in high quality sunk relief. A smooth sharp cut defines the front of the neck, extending around the face and down the front edge of a wig.

The line of the wig, probably the so-called Nubian wig, continues around the top and back of the head as a faint black-painted line.A fine incision marks a slightly sloping almond-shaped eye.The lips are full and well carved and the nose elongated and slightly concave, vaguely bulbous at the tip.The chin is somewhat drooped. Subtly carved undulations indicate the eyebrow ridge, cheekbone and chin.The relief is clearly unfinished, with the carving of the wig incomplete and further definition would probably have been needed around at least the eye and eyebrow.

It is uncertain whether a uraeus would have been added eventually. None was carved, nor are there traces of a painted outline. However, there is certainly room for a uraeus and it remains possible that a painted image has faded, or that one would have been carved free-hand.

The facial features accord well with those of adult members of the royal family. The slightly exaggerated style places it somewhere towards the earlier period of occupation at Amarna, although it is not in the very extreme style of the years immediately following the move to the site.More specifically,the full lips and drooped chin recall representations of Akhenaten, rather than those of Nefertiti.The absence of a uraeus is not the critical issue it might at first appear here. A trial piece thought to be from Amarna in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels (E. 3051), shows a probable image of Akhenaten with a uraeus simply hinted at by a few rough scratches.

Similarly, the uraeus is incomplete on another otherwise

Limestone sculptor’s model probably showing an image of Akhenaten.

EES Amarna registration number 34931. Length: 14.1cm – 15.2cm, Width: 13.0cm – 14.0cm,Thickness: 1.9cm – 5.1cm

finished example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (66.99.40).The uraeus, it seems, was often the last element to be carved. Short of identifying the figure as a royal not entitled to wear the uraeus, of which there are few candidates from the earlier period of occupation at Amarna, the balance of evidence suggests that the face is that of Akhenaten himself.

Such slabs are generally identified as either models made by experienced sculptors, used as guides in the final cutting of an image or for apprentices to copy,or the resultant trial pieces made by the apprentices themselves, although there are few watertight indicators of either function.

The term ‘sculptor’s model’ has been used here in the light of the high quality of the relief and the relative care taken to shape the stone: indications, perhaps, that it was intended to be portable and used more than once.Yet it could be viewed as a trial piece (although not the work of an absolute novice) or as one sculptor’s preliminary ‘sketch’ prior to undertaking the final carving, for which it may in turn have served as a guide. Ô Anna Stevens works at Amarna as registrar and site supervisor. She is Visiting Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University, and Honorary Research Associate in the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History, Monash University.

Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society.

10

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Notes and News

Tell el-Amarna. In the late summer of 2005 the foundations were laid for a new Amarna Site Museum and Visitor Centre on the reclaimed land beside the tourist ferry at el-Till.The building itself, a simple enclosed space rising to the height of three storeys, is scheduled to be finished towards the end of the year.The installation of displays will follow.

Their aim is to explain the nature of the city and to communicate to the visitor something of what it was like to have lived there in the fourteenth century BC. Where appropriate, explanation will be illustrated by finds from the EES excavations.As a quite separate project the Supreme Council for Antiquities is also building an Akhenaten Museum on the east bank at el-Minia, beside the Nile bridge.This is a much larger project and will aim to display a range of artwork and other objects from the Amarna Period.

New Director of PCMA, Cairo. There has been a change in the management of the Cairo office of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of Warsaw University. Michał Gawlikowski left in September 2005, to be replaced in the post by Zbigniew Szafranski.

Dr Szafranski’s first work in Egypt was in the early 1980s, when he joined the Polish project at Deir el-Bahri. He has also been a member of Manfred Bietak’s team at Tell el-Daba and worked with Karol My!liwiec in Saqqara.

For a decade, he has chaired the Department of Egyptian Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology of Warsaw University and since 1999, he has been head of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Deir elBahri. News on the activities of the PCMA can be found at: www.pcma.uw.edu.pl The Coptic Museum in Cairo will be reopening shortly, after having been closed for refurbishment. The Museum, within the walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon in Old Cairo, houses one of the world’s finest collections of Coptic art.

The design for the Amarna Site Museum and Visitor Centre, a project of the Supreme Council for Antiquities of Egypt in conjunction with Mallinson Architects and Engineers Ltd Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.

The Museum has redisplayed a small number of its objects excavated by Petrie (1891) and the EES (1931) atTell el-Amarna.The emphasis is on the intimate link between an object and its find spot, with Petrie’s less precisely provenanced finds displayed alongside his sketch map of the site, and the EES’s carefully recorded finds marked on three squares of the comprehensive plan by Kemp and Garfi (B J Kemp, and S Garfi, A Survey of the Ancient City of El-‘Amarna, EES 1993).The Museum is grateful to the EES for allowing it to display details of this site plan.

Luxor Temple. Conservator Hiroko Kariya and Stonecutter Dany Roy of the Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, have assisted in the moving and storage of fragmentary inscribed material found in trenching for the USAID-supported ground water lowering project for Luxor Temple. So far over 80 inscribed blocks and fragments have been recovered from the drain trenching and transferred to the LuxorTemple blockyard where they will be integrated into the Epigraphic Survey’s blockyard programme. Yarko Kobylecky photographed 30 inscribed blocks reused in the walls of a tunnel piercing the Corniche Boulevard at the southern end of Luxor Temple.This tunnel will be used for the exit pipes which will carry pumped ground water into the Nile, and will be inaccessible after this winter.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The two main Egyptian galleries will reopen on 25 May 2006 having been completely redesigned and refurbished. The new galleries will contain many objects which had been previously in storage including stelae from the Early Dynastic royal tombs at Abydos, a relief from the Ptah temple at Memphis, animal mummies and coffins, a newly Tell Basta (Bubastis).The re-erected colossal statue of Queen conserved Roman mummy porMeretamun, wife of Ramesses II (see EA 21, front cover, and EA trait and Middle Kingdom coffin fragments from Beni Hasan.

27, p.7). Photograph: Chris Naunton

11

Griffith Institute Oxford. The digitised records of Howard Carter’s excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun ‘Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation’ can be found on the Institute’s website: www.ashmolean. museum/gri/4tut.html

Framing Plots:The Grammar of Ancient Near Eastern Narratives.This conference, jointly organised by members of the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, and the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge University, took place on the 16-17 December 2005 at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Papers explored a variety of linguistic and narratological approaches to Egyptian, Near Eastern, Indian and Medieval literature, and delegates enjoyed dramatic performances of Isis and the Death of Osiris and The Poor Man of Nippur. A poster session and energetic panel discussions on each of the days highlighted the value of inter-disciplinary communication in literary research, and gave colleagues a forum to explore areas of mutual interest. Further details, including updates on the anticipated publication of the proceedings in a refereed volume, are available at www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/FramingPlots/ Ramesses II statue.The removal of the colossal statue from Ramesses Square in Cairo to the new Grand Museum of Egypt at Giza (see EA 25,p.20) has now been postponed,and the preparatory scaffolding in which the statue has been encased since 2002 is being removed.The statue will be moved to its new site as soon as construction of the first phase of the Grand Museum has been completed.

Immortal Cities - Children of the Nile.

Further to the review of this computer game which appeared in EA 27 (p.43) a reader has pointed out that there is now also a free ‘Amarna’ scenario which can be downloaded from the SEGA website (www.sega.com) Thanks to the following for providing information and photographs: Sally Ann Ashton, Tomasz Herbich, Rawya Ismail, Ray Johnson, Barry Kemp, Hugh Kilmister, Jo Kyffin, Jaromir Malek, Chris Naunton and Doug Richardson.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

A new temple for Thoth in the Dakhleh Oasis

As part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, under the overall direction of Anthony Mills, a team from Columbia University has begun fieldwork at the temple at Amheida. Paola Davoli and Olaf Kaper describe the results of the first seasons of excavation.

Map of the Dakhleh and Kharga oases, showing the location of Amheida

The site of the temple at Amheida, the largest surviving Roman town site in the Dakhleh Oasis, lies in the north-western region of the Oasis, and its ancient name was Set-wah (‘resting place’) in Egyptian, and Trimithis in Greek. Excavations by Columbia University began at the site in 2004 after a series of preparatory seasons of surveying.

The ancient town was built on a number of small hills and its highest point today is located roughly at its centre.

This point was chosen for excavation because previous surface examination in 1979 and again in 2004 had indicated the likely presence there of a temple. Excavation of the temple, which is likely to reflect the major periods of activity at Amheida and is an obvious point of departure for finding out about the history of occupation of the site, began in February 2005.

Before the start of this excavation, very little architecture was visible on the surface apart from fragments of stonework, so the team had little idea of what to expect

as no previous excavation had been carried out there.

The results have far surpassed our expectations, revealing a new temple to the god Thoth with historical evidence covering a period of a thousand years.

Surface finds over the temple area have included a block of weathered temple relief, found in 1979, and several bronze statuettes of Osiris, found in 2004. Only part of a mud-brick wall, probably part of the temenos, remained visible on the surface of the site, which indicated that the temple and its associated structures had been severely degraded. This was confirmed by the new excavations, because no in situ remains of the temple have been found so far: no traces of either the former floor level or the foundations of the temple have been identified in the area excavated.

The whole area had been severely disturbed by human activity of various kinds.The entire surface of the excavated area, which measures 20m x 10m, displays a layer of sand, mud-brick rubble and stone debris, into which

12

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

large holes have been dug. Hundreds of sandstone blocks of the temple were found, both inside these holes and in the layer of debris covering them. Of these about 300 are decorated in low or high relief and some are still painted with bright colours.They have revealed a previously unknown phase of the history of the Dakhleh Oasis and have provided important new evidence for one of the most obscure periods in Egyptian history; that of the ‘Upper Egyptian’Twenty-third Dynasty.

The blocks and some column drums appear to have been thrown in at random after digging through the archaeological remains. This extensive digging is likely to have been the result of treasure-hunting in the past, the date of which is as yet unknown. Examples abound of stories of hidden treasure in Egyptian folklore, encouraging, in the past, illicit excavations. In the nearby town of El-Qasr several temple blocks from the site appear reused in houses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it is possible, therefore, that the robbing of the temple took place at that time.

Apart from temple blocks, among the objects found in the area are demotic and Greek ostraca, fragments of statuettes in Egyptian and classical style and two stelae.

There are also large quantities of ceramics ranging from the Old Kingdom to the fourth century AD. A large

quantity of Old Kingdom pottery suggests that there had been a settlement of that period on top of the hill before the temple was built; its remains having been disturbed during the destruction of the temple.

The texts and scenes on the blocks recovered have allowed us to piece together something of the temple’s history. It is clear that the most recent construction phase dates to the Roman Period,as a fragment of a hieroglyphic cartouche was found with part of the name of the emperor Domitian (AD 81-96).The style of the reliefs also confirms that the building was contemporary with the latest additions to the temple of Deir el-Hagar near by.

Another layer of history was added as soon as it was realised that many relief blocks were decorated on more than one side.The Roman Period temple to Thoth had been constructed out of building blocks from an earlier temple of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.Three kings of that dynasty are named on the blocks, namely Nekau II (610595 BC), Psamtek II (595-589 BC) and Amasis/Ahmose II (569-526 BC).The cartouche of Amasis in particular occurs in many of these reliefs.The reuse of these blocks in the Roman Period is apparent from the remains of gypsum mortar on the faces of all earlier reliefs. Nekau II is virtually unknown as a temple builder, so it is exciting to find his name here. So far, only a fragmentary Horus

View of the temple area with pits from earlier illicit excavations and scattered blocks

13

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Sandstone block with the cartouche of Amasis and the name of the god Thoth

name (serekh) of Nekau has been found, and it is as yet unclear which part of the temple’s decoration may be attributed to his reign. Psamtek II is attested upon several blocks found at Amheida. One of these had already been in the time of Amasis, so that it seems that this phase of the building remained standing for many years.

Among other reused blocks in the Roman Period temple are some from another, even earlier, temple dedicated to Thoth, providing evidence for the presence of the Upper Egyptian Twenty-third Dynasty in the Oasis. One block was found with a cartouche of King Pedubast: the first time that a cartouche of this king has been found on a temple relief in the Western Desert. King Pedubast ruled fromThebes contemporaneously with the later half of the Twenty-second Dynasty (around 800 BC).The influence of the Upper Egyptian Twenty-third Dynasty in Dakhleh was further confirmed by the text upon an intact hieratic stela found among the temple remains.This monument is dated toYear 13 of a Libyan king calledTakeloth, probably

Sandstone block with the cartouche of Pedubast

Takeloth III who ruled towards the end of the Upper Egyptian Twenty-third Dynasty, not long before the reign of Piye (Pianchi) and the start of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.The stela mentions the chief of the Libyan tribe, the Shamain, who held sway in the Oasis at that time, and who bears the same name as the chief depicted upon a previously known stela from Dakhleh from the reign of Piye.The new stela records a donation to the temple of Thoth of Amheida and the names of several temple priests.

This stela was certainly one the most exciting finds from the temple during the first season of excavations, as it confirms that a temple for Thoth was already in existence during the Third Intermediate Period, and that the Libyan rulers of the Oasis had a particular interest in this temple. Moreover, it had not known previously that the kings of the Upper Egyptian Twenty-third Dynasty had such influence in the Oases of the Western Desert.

Another important discovery about the temple is its dedication to the god Thoth of Set-wah, whose name appears on many blocks. Set-wah,‘resting place’, was the name of the area that included both Amheida and Deir el-Hagar. At the same time, the god carries the epithet ‘Lord of Hermopolis’, which indicates his origin in the famous town in Middle Egypt.

For the future, we hope that further excavations will uncover some in situ remains of the temple of Thoth at Amheida, and provide evidence for its original ground plan. At the same time, excavations will continue in the town itself, where we can now be certain to expect a settlement dating back to the Third Intermediate Period, if not earlier.The remains of this phase of the town may still lie buried beneath the Roman Period houses somewhere in the site. Ô The mission of Columbia University is directed by Roger Bagnall as part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, which is led by Anthony Mills.

The authors are responsible respectively for the archaeology and the epigraphy at the site. Paola Davoli is Associate Professor of Egyptology at Lecce University, Italy; Olaf Kaper is Professor of Egyptology at Leiden University,The Netherlands.

Hieratic stela of Year 13 of a King Takeloth, probably Takeloth III

14

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

n Þ!!éMncB‘ Mcéé‘B My²!!Þ FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

In 2006, in response to continuing demand, BSS intends to publish a new edition of Desert RATS, éÜÞØ ë éÓÚÚÜØ éãææãì|ç ÜâêÓßéÓÔßØ ÖÓèÓßãÚéØ ãÙ æãÖÞ Óæè çÜèØç Üâ ‘Úîäè|ç ‘ÓçèØæâ …ØçØæèn As well as providing details of over 160 sites (119 recorded for the first time), c.1000 photographs and illustrations, 16 wadi maps and satellite images and unprecedented coverage from the neglected Hammamat Schist Quarry, this second edition will ÜâÖßé×Ø âØì ÜâÙãæáÓèÜãâ ãâ ²Óâç yÜâÞßØæ|ç æØÖØâèßî rediscovered Site 18 and a CD of the complete volume (see below).

Book & CD: £45 (EES members: £40) The CD, which will also be available separately, will contain over 500 additional plates of the most prominent images in full colour.

CD Only: £15 (EES members: £12)

Preparations are well advanced for the long-awaited æØäéÔßÜÖÓèÜãâ ãÙ ²Óâç yÜâÞßØæ|ç Rock-Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt Volumes I and II, originally published by the EES in 1938/39. yÜâÞßØæ|ç æØäãæèç ìÜßß ÔØ æØäæã×éÖØ× Üâ ÙÓÖçÜáÜßØ format with plates remastered from negatives in the EES archives. Accompanying this material will be a discussion of complex technical issues by Mike Morrow, a biographical introduction by Christopher Coleman and contributions from other scholars.

The publication will also include a CD containing both ãÙ yÜâÞßØæ|ç êãßéáØç! Ó âØì ÖÓèÓßãÚéØ ãÙ ãêØæ ‘²…… äßÓèØç Ùæãá èÛØ ‘‘M ÓæÖÛÜêØ! áã×Øæâ Öãßãéæ ÜáÓÚØç Ùæãá ÓääæãíÜáÓèØßî ÛÓßÙ ãÙ èÛØ æØÖãæ×Ø× çÜèØç! çØêØæÓß ìÓèØæÖãßãéæç äæØäÓæØ× Ùãæ èÛØ ãæÜÚÜâÓß äéÔßÜÖÓèÜãâç! Ùéßß çÜïØ ÖãäÜØç ãÙ áÓâî ãÙ yÜâÞßØæ|ç ãæÜÚÜâÓß áÓäç! the 1937 Armant Exhibition Catalogue, and photographs of his desert companions.

XÓæÚØè äæÜÖØô F½½

,‘‘M áØáÔØæç| äæÜÖØô F½…7

246 pp 297 x 211mm

,y!BÓ½ô§ X½XÞ‘7

c.220 pp 297 x 211mm plus CD

We hope to launch Desert RATS in both book and CD formats on Saturday 13 May 2006, in conjunction with Bloomsbury cÖÓ×Øáî|ç MäæÜâÚ yãâÙØæØâÖØ Óè câÜêØæçÜèî yãßßØÚØ Þãâ×ãân For the benefit especially of scholars and of students concerned with the origins of Egyptian civilisation, publication will be on Ó âãâcäæãÙÜè áÓÞÜâÚ ÔÓçÜçn câî çéæäßéç Ùæãá çÓßØç ìÜßß ÔØ ÜâêØçèØ× Üâ ÖãâèÜâéÜâÚ æØçØÓæÖÛ Üâèã yÜâÞßØæ|ç ÖÓæØØæX èÛØ æØäéÔßÜÖÓtion ãÙ ÛÜç çØáÜâÓß ìãæÞç ãâ ‘Úîäè|ç æãÖÞ Óæè Óâ× Üâ æØßÓèØ× äæãÝØÖèçn For further information visit the news page of our website at www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury To reserve a copy of Desert RATS in either format , contact: The Director, Bloomsbury Summer School, Department of History, câÜêØæçÜèî yãßßØÚØ Þãâ×ãâX §ãìØæ MèæØØèX Þãâ×ãâ yy‘‘ ÈnXX cÓ ,‘cáÓÜßô bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com)

15

©);26+#0

#4%*#©1.1);

A Fourth Dynasty royal necropolis at Abu Rawash

Excavations carried out at the cemetery ‘F’ at Abu Rawash, an IFAO project which started in 2001, have proved that this site is the royal necropolis of Radjedef, third king of the Fourth Dynasty, as reported by Michel Baud and Nadine Moeller.

'316'500

'316'000

'315'500 0

'314'500

3'326'500

'314'000

rows, and tomb F48 at the western edge of the cemetery.

Cemetery ‘F’ at Abu Rawash, which is situated 8km north The pottery from their chapels is typical of the Fourth Dyof the Giza Pyramids, formed the northernmost part of nasty and has close parallels to pottery from the pyramid the vast Memphite necropolis during the Old Kingdom. complex of Radjedef. The miniature vessels from both The area is dominated by the pyramid of Radjedef, which areas show the same characteristics and, therefore, proboccupies a prominent position on top of the cliffs overably came from the same workshop.The chronologically looking the Nile Valley. The cemetery is located 1.5km significant group of carinated bowls, so-called Meidumto the east of the pyramid and is thus much closer to the bowls, do not show features typical of the second half of floodplain.The main aim of the French Institute (IFAO) the Old Kingdom, the era to which the whole necropolis excavations has been the detailed investigation of these had previously been dated. Additionally, the ceramic astombs, which were previously considered to belong to a semblage found in the funerary chamber of mastaba F40 provincial cemetery of the late Old Kingdom. Reassessduring the last season (May 2005) has close parallels to ment of the exact construction date of these mastabas vessels found in both the Giza shaft-tomb of Hetepheres, (with detailed study of their structures) and the general layout of the necropolis have been the principal concerns of this current research.

The tombs of Cemetery ‘F’ can be divided into two groups, southern and northern, each dominated by od od wal all one or more large mastabas with an average size of 50m Z 25m bordered by smaller ones organised in rows. y! le e Only the northern group has been excavated in detail, by Ferna Bisson de la Roque from 1922 1924, while the southern one has remained largely unexplored, apart from some unpublished trial excavations by Charles Kuentz in 1931.

As a result, this southern half of ramid psius I necropolis is missing from published p maps. The first aim of the mission, of Radj Rad stic therefore, has been the mapping of s the entire area, including all visible topographical and archaeological Funerary rrar ar complex ex x of R features. The number of known Geb mastabas now amounts to 40, not to el El-Madawarah mention the numerous shafts, cavities and descending corridors which Pyramid ra and d occur throughout this area. temple The current excavations have concentrated on four tombs of the southern group: the dominating mastaba F37 in the east, the smaller mastabas F38 and F40 of the central Abu Rawash. Map of the area of the pyramid and necropolis (Cemetery F) of Radjedef 3'326'500

N

e il

a V

3'326'000

' )

ey ll

& %

( ) '+

3'325'500

3'326'000

3'325'500

*

"" $ !#

3'325'000

3'324'500

3'324'500 324'50

3'324'000

3'324'00 324'000

ÿþ

'316'500

'316'000

'315'500

'315'000

'314'500

3'323'500

'314'000

100

3'325'000

3 323 500 00

©);26+#0

#4%*#©1.1);

the mother of Khufu, and the satellite/queen’s pyramid of Radjedef.

3'324'900 At this period (for tombs which are not rock0 8 cut) the inner chapel is restricted to a single 6 15 room of L-shape plan, located at the south 28 11 14 end of the superstructure. This type, which 13 2 27 dominated at Giza until the beginning of the (!+?BD: 26 Fifth Dynasty, is also repeatedly found at Abu 4 7 25 3 Rawash. Furthermore, two mastabas situated 3'324'800 1 19 17 in the northern part of the necropolis, F7 and 12 5 9 F19, display two stone chapels of this type in 21 the same superstructure. This layout, which 10 is known as a ‘twin-mastaba’, fell out of use %'*'/'-2 4(9 34 after the middle of the Fourth Dynasty. Most 40 of the tombs also possess a complex exterior 36 32 42 35 mud-brick chapel that is characteristic of this 38 dynasty. Unfortunately not much can be said 41 43 51 about the decoration of the stone chapels be44 cause of intense quarrying activity at the site.

37 45 46 30 Nonetheless, the recently excavated mastaba 31 F 39 5BB F48 provides crucial data in this respect.The ,E D > 6;8 (!.?ED: 33 decoration of its southern niche shows typical $> 47 48 Fourth Dynasty criteria such as a linen list in XV the panel, the depiction of the owner holding XIV his staff close to the body and offering-bearIX 49 ers/family members displayed on all sides of the offering-niche.An almost exact parallel for this particular niche is known from the tomb of Nyhetepkhnum at Giza, which should now 50 40 be dated to the reign of Khufu or thereabouts, based on comparative criteria from F48.Thus 3'324'500 a much later date (such as the late Old Kingdom which &299276 -/$+7; '*<*,1 "!!# has been pro0 Map of Cemetery ‘F’ and its two groups of mastabas posed by some cemetery has been clarified, the question of the relationscholars) can be ruled ) #(!*,.-+ ship between the pyramid of Radjedef and the necropolis, out. The monumental which are situated 1.5km apart, needs to be addressed. size of the largest tombs Contrary to previous opinions, such a distance does of Cemetery ‘F’, which not exclude the identification of Cemetery ‘F’ as a royal are about 50m Z 25m (see cemetery. Other examples show clearly that members of F7, 13, 19, 37), provides an additional argument ) $& in favour of their being dated to the first half of the Fourth Dynasty. Such dimensions are characteristic for the elite ) %" mastabas at Dahshur and Giza (nucleus cemeteries G1200 and G2100) dating respectively to the reigns of Snofru and ) %' Khufu.

Now that the date of the #

#

;C 4* 9 )CD

+86 B?A ?<

'315'900

'315'800

.?ED:!85CD 15

7;

3)

0D: &

F>"

18CD8B >

,E5 BB F

@=?78B>G

+?BD :!8 5C D1 57 ;

50

#

(.9: <*44 *0:.8 %29976

(.9: <*44 ) 62,1.9 -.9:87=.-

95*44 +47,39

0

2

4m

Four examples of L-shaped inner chapels at Cemetery ‘F’

The exterior brick complex of F48 and the entrance to the stone chapel, viewed from the east ÿ7

©);26+#0

#4%*#©1.1);

the royal court could be buried quite far from the royal pyramid, as was the case at Meidum and Dahshur in the reign of Snofru, and later at Saqqara under Shepseskaf.

Therefore, in the Fourth Dynasty, two models can be found: a royal cemetery more distant from the pyramid, and one in its immediate vicinity, as with the cemetery around the pyramid of Khufu. Furthermore, the internal organisation of Cemetery ‘F’, where mastabas are clustered in small groups each dominated by a large tomb, is the same arrangement as the nucleus cemeteries of Dahshur and Giza. At the latter site the largest tombs are those furthest away from the pyramid.This also can be observed at Abu Rawash.

The classification of Cemetery ‘F’ as a royal necropolis is also confirmed by the presence of the tombs of at least two ‘King’s Sons’. During his excavations in the northern part of the necropolis at Mastaba F13 (one of the dominating and earlier tombs in this area) Bisson de la Roque found a fragment of an offering table whose inscription was not analysed, and its importance was, therefore, overlooked.

It shows the name and titles of ‘Hornit, Prince (Šry-pút), King’s Son’, who is also known on statue bases which come from the pyramid site of his father. The second King’s Son is Nikauradjedef of the neighbouring Mastaba F15.Whether or not he is a true son of the king is open to question, but his very presence in the necropolis leaves no doubt about the royal character of the site. Furthermore the owner of the recently excavated mastaba F48 held titles connected to the royal funerary cult such as ‘Director of those who are in the Phyle’.

The offering-table of the King’s Son Hornit, the eldest son of Radjedef

Since Cemetery ‘F’ was first developed in the reign of Radjedef (i.e. the period between Khufu and Khafre), the current IFAO excavations are gathering new data which should help to date more accurately the different stages in the development of the Giza cemeteries: a subject which is still a matter of debate since tombs were built at that site not only under Khufu but also in the reigns of Khafre and Menkaure. In this respect the tombs of Abu Rawash provide the missing link in the Fourth Dynasty for the evolution of tomb architecture and decoration. ! Michel Baud, Director of the Abu Rawash Necropolis excavations, is a former scientific member of the IFAO and currently Associate Researcher at the College de France and Lecturer at the Kheops Institute, Paris. Nadine Moeller, ceramicist and archaeologist of the Abu Rawash Necropolis excavations, is currently the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford. Photographs: Olivier Cabon. ":+12<:)>-

')*5-< !

527-7 52;<

!

8//-:270 52;<

%27<-5 #:=6

A block from the south niche of F48, showing the head of the owner

&=<-: 3)6*

$77-: 3)6*

(#88:.

9*)+4 8/ 72+1-@

$77-: 3)6*

&=<-: 3)6*

*:84-7 ?-)<1-:-, 0

20

100 cm

Provisional reconstruction of the south niche of mastaba F48

The owner and his wife shown seated on a relief in the entrance passage of the chapel of F48 ÿ8

©);26+#0

#4%*#©1.1);

The first British Egyptology Congress, Cambridge 2005 In September 2005, the first British Egyptology Congress was held in Cambridge. Dan Lines gives a personal assessment of the weekend’s activities.

It is often said that academia can be a rather lonely business, taking place in isolation or, at best, in small groups of like-minded specialists. Perhaps for this reason, opportunities for Egyptologists to meet and to share the fruits of their labour tend to be greatly anticipated, enthusiastically participated in, and fondly remembered.

All of this is certainly true of the First British Egyptology Congress, held in Cambridge on the weekend of 24-25 September, 2005.

British Egyptologists have, in recent years, had a number of annual opportunities to congregate, including the British Museum’s themed symposia, Cambridge’s Glanville Memorial Lecture and, for graduate students, the Current Research in Egyptology conferences, hosted in rotation by university Egyptology departments around the country.There had, however, not been a single, wideremit national congress along similar lines to gatherings in other countries or the four-yearly International Congress of Egyptologists.The British Egyptology Congress, organised by Sally-Ann Ashton and Helen Strudwick of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, on behalf of the EES and the Museum, filled this gap with an admirably wide-ranging scope, uniting researchers who came from a great variety of institutions and sub-disciplines and are at different stages of their academic careers.

The Congress had a pleasingly inclusive feel, with graduate students and ‘non-professional’ Egyptologists sharing podium-time with well-established academics. Several poster presentations were also displayed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, including many with either a technical or ‘fringe’ feel. The quality of presentations was generally high, and there were great rewards available for straying from one’s own area of expertise. Thomas Schneider’s clear and persuasive paper on his interpretation of Libyan personal names in Papyrus Moscow 314 was a personal highlight.

A total of more than 50 20-minute papers were divided across three lecture rooms running parallel sessions over one and a half days.The sessions were loosely organised around broad themes such as ‘religion’, ‘fieldwork’ and so on. One of the most frustrating experiences for any congress-goer is when supposedly parallel sessions are not tightly time-controlled and so get out of step.This makes moving between rooms during sessions a hit-and-miss experience for audience-members, and can easily turn

the first and last few minutes of a speaker’s presentation into a battle against a crescendo of rustling papers, creaking door s and squeaking chairs. Although this problem was not entirely eliminated by the BEC’s organisers, they, the speakers, and those chairing each session, are to The Congress organisers, Helen Strudwick (standing) and Sally-Ann Ashton be congratulated at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. for trying to run Photograph: Andrew Bednarski a tight ship. Most speakers found that they had time left to answer questions from their audience, and plenty of stimulating discussion ensued.

The Congress had been scheduled so as to incorporate the 2005 Glanville Lecture, and this was another highlight when Vivian Davies of the British Museum gave a fascinating talk on his recent work in the tomb of Sataimau at Edfu. These fresh discoveries, presented expertly and authoritatively to a packed lecture theatre, gave the address a true sense of event. The Glanville Lecture was followedby a reception in the galleries of the Fitzwilliam Museum, giving Congress participants a chance to meet socially and exchange news, and views on the weekend’s papers.

The British Egyptology Congress is a most welcome addition to the Egyptological calendar and I join its principal organisers in encouraging others to pick up the baton and host the event in the future. It is hoped that the next BEC will be held in 2008 in Liverpool during that city’s ‘year of culture’.

The abstracts of all papers presented can, at the time of writing, still be accessed online at: 888!#69075*70!)'0! ')!7."342-*)65"'*"%21+4*55"$(564')65&'//!,60/

! Dan Lines is Lecturer in Egyptology at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham.

ÿ9

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Louvre Museum excavations at Saqqara

In 1903 the Louvre Museum acquired the decorated chapel of Akhethotep, known to come from Saqqara. Inspired by the desire to relocate and identify the tomb itself, the Museum began work at the site in 1991. Christiane Ziegler summarises the results of the most recent excavation seasons.

Saqqara,the site of the Step Pyramid of Djoser,was one of Egypt’s most important political, economic and religious centres up to the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt. It was also one of the first sites in Egypt to be excavated and the Louvre Museum has many thousands of objects which come from Saqqara. However, many areas which were excavated rapidly in the past have been forgotten, broken up by uncontrolled excavation, or buried under debris, without being published.The recent excavations of the Archaeological Mission of the Louvre have revealed some of the site’s history in an area where the map was previously blank.These excavations have been undertaken in the tradition of the Louvre Museum, which has always aimed to combine field archaeology with study of the collections.

It was in 1903 that the Service des Antiquités (the precursor of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities) sold to France the mastaba of Akhethotep, though only the decorated chapel was dismantled and transported to Paris.No archival document had recorded the monument nor had its location been planned on any map. All that was known was that it had been removed from a position some hundreds of metres from the south-east corner of the Step Pyramid enclosure.

Study of the Louvre mastaba began in 1991 and when archaeologists arrived at Saqqara they had to start by clear-

ing a vast area churned over by previous archaeological excavations and covered by a deep layer of wind-blown sand. Gradually, year by year, different levels of human occupation, amounting to a depth of nearly 10m, have been uncovered and studied, revealing the history of this area over a period of 3,000 years.

The highest levels contain the traces of a Coptic town (c.AD 600-900) which formed part of the complex dependent on the neighbouring large monastery of St Jeremias. The buildings contain stone elements, such as sills, inscribed lintels, small columns, supports for zirs (large water jars), and brick walls which are plastered and painted. Here were found moving testaments to the daily lives of the occupants – fabrics, basketry, tools, pottery, kitchen equipment and the remains of meals – as well as an important collection of Coptic papyri revealing administrative activity. One Arabic papyrus, precisely dated to the month of Ramadan in year 33 of the Hegira calendar (April AD 751) shows the good relations between the Christian and Moslem communities. It is a ‘safe-conduct’ permitting an inhabitant of the monastery to go to work outside the monastery.

A thick layer of sand with pottery sherds separated the Coptic structures from a Late Period cemetery. About 100 unpretentious coffins have been excavated. They are mummiform, made from wood and unbaked mud,

General view of the excavation area in 2005, with the causeway of the pyramid of Unas in the foreground. (Photograph © Christian Décamps)

20

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Key to the Plan of the Louvre excavations at Saqqara.

A. The mastaba of Akhethetep, with: (a) the location of the funerary chapel, from which the Louvre reliefs came, also numerous burial shafts; (b) the burial shaft of Akhethetep; (F7 and F17Ø n$í-_¶ ñª_šúñ xÅ¿ú_-¿-¿¡ xÅš›¿ñ _¿ƒ š$¿•í_í- »_ú•í-_¶ Åš úª• ?_ú• L•í-ÅƒÛ GÛ +Åíí-ƒÅíÛ J and HÛ C¶ƒ >-¿¡ƒÅ» »_ñú_n_ñÛ h1 to h5Û L-úñ ƒ$¡ -¿úÅ úª• ñúí$xú$í• Åš »_ñú_n_ 7• ƒ•›¿-ú•¶- ƒ_ú•ƒ úÅ úª• C¶ƒ >-¿¡ƒÅ»• úª•-

¡-*• _xx•ññ úÅ úª• xª_»n•íñ _¿ƒ ¡_¶¶•í-•ñ ¶_í¡•¶- í•$ñ•ƒ -¿ úª• ?_ú• L•í-ÅƒÛ M and RÛ @_¿- ñª_¶¶Å+ Õ-úñ x$ú -¿ úª• C¶ƒ >-¿¡ƒÅ» _¿ƒ xÅ¿ú_-¿-¿¡ ÕÅÅí n$í-_¶ñ ×ñµ•¶•úÅ¿ñ -¿ í••ƒ xÅš›¿ñ• +-úª _ ª•_ƒ¬í•ñú _¿ƒ ÕÅúú•í-ØÛ QÛ OŶ-ƒ ní-xµ+Åíµ -¿úÅ +ª-xª -ñ x$ú úª• Õ-ú âÌ ¡-*-¿¡ _xx•ññ úÅ ?_ú• L•í-Ń n$í-_¶ñÛ FÛ O»_¶¶ C¶ƒ >-¿¡ƒÅ» »_ñú_n_ n•¶Å¿¡-¿¡ úÅ _¿Åúª•í »_¿ ¿_»•ƒ "µª•úªÅú•ÕÛ L¶_¿ • =•_¿¬L-•íí• "ƒ_»

21

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Detail of the golden face-mask from the Late Period tomb F17.

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Statue of Akhethotep, found in his mastaba.

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Funerary chest from tomb F17. (Photograph © Christian Décamps) 22

EGYPTIAN

Fragment of papyrus with the name of King Isesi. (Photograph © Denis Rebord)

ARCHAEOLOGY

Arabic papyrus giving a ‘safe-conduct’ to an inhabitant of the monastery of St Jeremias.

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Lintel with the names of the abbots Jeremias, Enoch and Amoun. (Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Decorated Late Period coffin which had been buried in a layer of sand. (Photograph © Christian Décamps) 23

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Left: Faience pectoral (Late Period).

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Right: Coffin with a gold-plated mask (see detail on p.22) in tomb F17.

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

and highly decorated in colour. They had been buried directly in the sand with very simple funerary equipment, composed essentially of protective amulets and faience jewellery of an intense blue colour.The bodies were not mummified.

The tombs most recently excavated also belong to the Late Period.They are cut down into the bedrock of the desert and are reached by shafts which vary in depth from five to 15 metres.Two of the tombs were found to be intact – a rare occurrence in Egypt – with remarkable painted coffins containing mummies in perfect condition. Other chambers, although they had been visited by robbers, still contained exceptional coffins with gold-plated faces. A coherent funerary assemblage can be established: coffin, magnificent statuettes and funerary chests, cartonnage, faience amulets, pottery and mummy bandages inscribed with texts from the Book of the Dead. One of the most interesting facts to emerge from this discovery was that the cemetery can be dated, as one of the coffins mentions Year 2 of King Nectanebo II. After the last season, in April/May 2005, nine of the mummies were X-rayed and a tenth mummy was taken to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to be scanned.

The lowest archaeological level in the Louvre concession is that which contains the mastaba of Akhethotep – the level of the Old Kingdom. It is also one of the most spectacular.The monument from which the Louvre chapel came has now been relocated.The mastaba, which is 32m long and 6m high, is faced with fine white limestone and is one of the most beautiful and best preserved in the area.Among the most important objects discovered are three statues of Akhethotep, a series of offering tables and a papyrus with the name of King Isesi (c.2411-2380 BC). The chamber, accessible by a shaft 21m deep, still contains a monumental stone sarcophagus. The ancient robbers had left enough material for the original richness

Ô Christiane Ziegler (Director of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre Museum) is Director of the archaeological mission of the Louvre at Saqqara.The mission is financed by the Mission Recherche et Technologie du ministère de la Culture and has a team of French and Egyptian specialists, with over 100 Egyptian workmen.The writer is grateful to the SCA Inspector in the 2005 season, Mustafa Hassan Abd el-Rahman, for his help on site.

Burial chamber of Akhethotep with the stone sarcophagus.

(Photograph © Christian Décamps)

Coffin made of reed stalks. (Photograph © Christian Décamps)

of the funerary equipment to be recognised: items such as hard stone ritual vases and a gold bead in the form of a beetle. In addition, inscriptions left by the workers over 4,000 years ago enable us to understand the constructional stages of the monument.

The mastaba of Akhethotep is also distinctive for forming the heart of an important cemetery, hitherto completely unknown. The tomb is situated in the middle of a vast architectural complex, many parts of which have yet to be excavated.This fascinating excavation has, to date, revealed a quarter of this ‘city of the dead’, comprising six new mastabas. The complex continues to the east with streets bordered by mastabas, some of which are behind small anonymous tombs: the intact chambers contain bodies wrapped in reeds, with funerary equipment which is simple but particularly interesting: each has a wooden head-rest, linen fabrics and vases.The last season brought to light an intact rectangular coffin, made entirely of reed stalks, several metres long.

Season by season, the blank map with which the expedition started is gradually being filled as more and more is revealed of the landscape of this part of the great Saqqara necropolis which was in use from the time of the Pyramids to the Coptic and Arab eras.

24

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Digging Diary 2005 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt during the Summer and Autumn of 2005 appear below, with one report from Spring 2005.The sites are arranged geographically from north to south,ending with theWestern Oases.

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

Institutes and Research Centres: ARCE American Research Center in Egypt; BM British Museum; CFEETK Franco-Egyptian Centre, Karnak; CNRS French National Research Centre; DAI German Institute, Cairo; EAC Egyptian Antiquities Conservation project; EAP Egyptian Antiquities Project; HIAMASA The Hellenic Institute of Ancient and Mediaeval Alexandrian Studies; IFAO French Institute, Cairo; MMA The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; NYU New York University; OI Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; PCMA Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology; UCL University College London.

SCA Supreme Council for Antiquities.

SPRING (February to May) Lower Egypt Abu Sir: The work of the Czech Inst of Egyptology mission, directed by MiroslavVerner, focused on the study of inscriptions and some minor restoration in the shaft tomb of Iufaa.

SUMMER (May-September) Lower Egypt Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham:The Liverpool Univ team, directed by Steven Snape, concentrated on conservation and restoration aspects of the mission’s work at this Ramesside site near Marsa Matruh.The field-test of the restoration programme which was put in place last year had proved to have survived the winter in very good condition indeed, and it is intended that the methods developed for the fieldtest will be used for future restoration work at the site. In addition, it was possible to ‘ground-truth’ the presence of a major rock-cut ditch immediately to the S of the perimeter wall of the fortress, as suggested by the magnetometer survey in 2004. (www. zurdig.com) Alexandria:The HIAMASA expedition, directed

by Harry Tzalas, undertook a study-season of photography and finds processing in preparation for publication. Underwater excavation will resume in 2006.

Mendes (Tell el-Ruba): The expedition from Pennsylvania State Univ, led by Donald Redford, continued work in four areas in and around the

temple of Banebdjed (see EA 26, pp.8-12). Clearance of the 2nd pylon revealed jambs of Ramesses II, and dado blocks of Merenptah (which complement the foundation deposits discovered two years ago). This pylon had replaced a mud-brick façade built in the reign of Tuthmosis III. The mastaba field which had been partly cleared by NYU in the 1960s was re-opened and a new mastaba with a false door was discovered,belonging to an individual named Nefershuba. Further work was undertaken on the OK stratification, and additional sealings of the 1st Dyn retrieved.Adjacent to the temple, at its SW corner, an installation for food production was uncovered, the termination of which was dated by a sealing of Pepy II. Work continued on the TIP ‘palace’, producing a complete pottery sequence from the late NK to the Ptolemaic Period.

Giza: An initial survey was undertaken by a NYU expedition, led by Ann Macy Roth, of the mastaba tombs in the S part of Reisner’s cemetery G2000, including a survey of the conservation needs, the preparation of a three-dimensional digital map, and epigraphic recording of the exposed inscriptions and decoration. In addition, areas in need of further archaeological investigation and re-clearance were identified and ranked in order of priority.An initial attempt was made to sequence the mastabas (G 2001 - G2054) chronologically.

Saqqara: The Inst of Egyptology, Waseda Univ mission, under the general direction of Sakuji Yoshimura and led in the field by Nozomu Kawai,

Egypt Exploration Society Expeditions SUMMER/AUTUMN Sais (Sa el-Hagar):The EES/Univ of Durham mission, directed by Penny Wilson (Univ of Durham), concentrated on post-excavation recording of Roman and Late Antique pottery collected during the Delta Regional Survey, prehistoric pottery excavated in spring 2005, and objects from Excavation 1 in Kom Rebwa. In addition, five short drill transects were made in Beheira governorate to track the course of the Canopic branch of the river Nile. Evidence was found for the river and associated features as well as a buried ancient site (perhaps Roman) at Jinbawy. (www.dur. ac.uk/penelope.wilson/sais.html) Delta Survey: 1.During the season of the BM expedition at Kom Firin, Neal Spencer (BM) continued the identification and investigation of ancient sites in Beheira governorate.

2. An EES team, led by Joanne Rowland (UCL) explored 30 known and unknown sites throughout the central Delta governorate of Minufieh.

The known Ptolemaic and Roman Period site of Quesna was investigated with a view to future sub-surface survey (planned for 2006) and sherds from the New Kingdom to Late Antique Period were observed across the unexcavated area of the site. Sherds, possibly Roman, were also noted at nearby sites which may be satellite sites to the main Quesna archaeological area.At the village of Kom el-Ahmar, inscribed and uninscribed Saite blocks were found dispersed through the village.

In close proximity to Kom el-Ahmar, the villages of Kom el-Ahmar (Saft Jidam), Izbet Nasser and Izbet el-Kom el-Ahmar also revealed ceramic sherds from the Roman to Late Antique Period, together with reused stone column drums. See further, pp.3-6.

(www.ees.ac.uk)

Sais. Bone harpoon c.3,800 BC Memphis: 1. A small EES team, directed by Paul Nicholson (Cardiff Univ), completed the excavation of a large, well preserved kiln at Kom Helul believed to be for the production of faience.Work concentrated on the excavation of the access pit behind the firebox of the kiln.The history of the disuse and abandonment of the kiln was elucidated from the stratigraphy. Postexcavation work was also continued.

2. The EES Survey of Memphis team, directed

by David Jeffreys (UCL), excavated at the foot of the N Saqqara escarpment after a preliminary magnetometer survey.The collapsed N wall of the Anubieion was exposed and a sequence of brick spill lines and aeolian sand deposits was recorded.

The Anubieion enclosure-wall itself was located at the S end of the excavation, with an alignment more SE than expected, suggesting the proximity of a corner or gateway. No pre-Roman levels were reached, even at a depth of seven metres, so it seems unlikely that there was higher ground here at the foot of the cliff; sediment cores also suggest that alluvial silts approach the cliff face with very little room for desert scree or other deposits,confirming a very different landscape from that visible today.The Ptolemaic and Roman ground level here must lie at 18m or less above sea level, very close in absolute terms to the levels of the base of the ramps of the ‘harbour’ in the Unas valley temple. Since this must

25

have been dry ground in Roman times, it is unlikely that such OK valley temples could have held water even during the inundation, since the floodplain, and flood level, can be expected to have risen c.3m in the intervening 3,000 years.

Several outstanding surveying tasks were completed, including levels for the main UTM grid points, and a short pilot survey was carried out in anticipation of a GIS-based visibility analysis of the Memphis region, starting with floodplain visibility of the Djoser pyramid.

Amarna:An EES team led by Barry Kemp (Univ of Cambridge) continued the recording of finds from the area of small houses (grid 12) excavated in March and April 2005. The finds included a varied collection of stone tools (hammers and grinders), made on the spot and used in the shaping and finishing of other stonework, including querns. At the same time Anna Stevens began a survey of the Stone Village, an outlying desert settlement of the Amarna Period. A part of the dense spread of surface stonework was mapped in detail. An exploratory trench confirmed the presence underneath of floor deposits and structural remains.A finely-carved limestone sculptor’s model (see further p.10), possibly showing the head of Akhenaten, was found on the ground surface in the Central City.(www.mcdonald.cam. ac.uk/Projects/Amarna/home.htm) Qasr Ibrim:The EES team, led by Pamela Rose (Univ of Cambridge), continued the study in Aswan of excavated material, in particular Napatan, Roman and Meroitic textiles, and Napatan wig fragments discovered during the most recent excavation seasons (see further pp.7-9). Good progress was made with preparing material for publication.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

focused its work on the area in front of the 3rd Dyn layered stone mastaba where MK potsherds were uncovered in previous seasons. Excavations were carried further to the W to define the extent of the debris - more thousands of vessels were uncovered.

Below this layer of MK cult refuse deposits, a layer with fragments of tafl and limestone chips marked the destruction of the 3rd Dyn mastaba. Beneath this layer was another with fragments of 3rd Dyn beer jars indicating the floor level immediately after the construction of the mastaba. A trench in the W slope of the outcrop (site of the monument of Khaemwaset) revealed over 200 blocks from the monument: some were reused decorated blocks from nearby OK mastabas. OK votive objects and pottery sherds were also recovered, indicating that an OK mastaba may originally have stood on the top of the outcrop.Salima Ikram analysed the animal bones found in the subterranean chambers behind the 3rd Dyn structure and Ahmed Fahmy carried out archaeobotanical studies on the micro plant remains from the same area. X-ray material analyses of finds from previous seasons were conducted by a team headed by Izumi Nakai.

of a tripartite sanctuary.Two limestone door sockets indicated that some of the temple doorways were over 2m wide.Two joining fragments of a limestone door-jamb were re-excavated from in front of the antiquities resthouse, revealing an inscription of Ramesses II, with evidence of later recarving. Following the identification of a fortified enclosure wall through geophysical survey in 2004, excavation of its N corner confirmed the presence of a 5m thick mud-brick wall with an exterior tower or bastion.

The ceramics from the area indicate a Ramesside date.Small rooms of theTIP were subsequently built against the partly decayed interior face of the enclosure wall.The magnetometer survey was extended further N, revealing several segments of a substantial wall, presumed to be a later temple enclosure.

A programme of recording interviews with local inhabitants was instigated, to find out information on the history of the site (particularly of organised sebakh-removal) in the early and mid-twentieth century, interpretations of the site’s history, and myths associated with it. (www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk) Tell el-Daba: The Austrian Archaeological Inst Cairo/Inst of Egyptology, Univ of Vienna, team, directed by Manfred Bietak with Irene Forstner Upper Egypt Müller as Deputy Director, continued excavations Deir el-Bahri:The MMA/ARCE mission, led by in the Tuthmoside palatial precinct (see EA 26, Elena Pischikova, continued work at the tomb of pp.13-17). E of the major Palace G a large public Nespakashuty (TT 312), concentrating mostly on building was partly unearthed covering more than the conservation and reconstruction of the tomb’s 2,500m2. It was equipped with a bathroom and a entrance gateway. Completed in August, the reconhuge public hall. In the debris further Minoan wall structed gate is 5.6m high and 3.25m wide with paintings and plaster reliefs were found.They seem almost 200 sandstone fragments of the collapsed gate, to originate from Palace G and had been dumped found during the previous seasons,incorporated into on the debris of the public building. On top of this the reconstruction.The size and proportions of the building a Ramesside cemetery with simple pit buristructure were governed by surviving sections of als and a few slipper coffins was found.The burials such architectural elements as doorframes, cavetto had almost no offerings. The population seems to cornice, torus moulding,lintel, window, and lunette. have been of extremely small stature even by ancient These were complemented by new sandstone blocks Egyptian standards - this may reflect a shortage of which re-create the general outlines of the missing food and contrasts with the eulogies about Piramesse elements.The now mostly ruined mud-brick pylon in P. Anastasi II and III. that once stood 8m high surrounding the entrance Giza: The SCA expedition, directed by Zahi structure was partially reconstructed as a broken line Hawass, is currently excavating in two areas.Work of bricks framing the gate to show the connection continues in the tombs of the pyramid builders, and between the gate and the pylon. on the S side of the cemetery,especially in the Upper Cemetery. In addition, shafts were opened in tombs AUTUMN (September-December) in the Lower Cemetery. Excavation also continued Lower Egypt behind the Sphinx and the Second Pyramid in the Buto: The DAI/Univ of Poitiers expedition, led region of Campbell’s Tomb and the Osiris Shaft:

by Ulrich Hartung and Pascale Ballet, undertook a this area was used for burials in the 26th Dyn, when short study season focusing mainly on pottery and Khufu’s cult was revived.Three tombs cut into the small finds from previous excavations by the Univ of rock were discovered. One tomb has a shaft which Poitiers team (see EA 24,pp.18-19),of early Roman descends to 7m, at which level there are six rooms pottery kilns at the N slope. (www.dainst.org) cut into the rock.In one of them was found a woodKom Firin:The BM expedition, directed by Neal en box containing c.400 shabtis. (www.guardians.net/ Spencer, completed excavations in the SE temple, hawass) (Ramesses II).The mud-brick foundation walls alAbu Sir: The Czech Inst of Egyptology mission, lowed much of the temple’s plan to be recovered: directed by Miroslav Verner, concluded exploration a columned hall preceded a transverse hall, in front of a 3rd Dyn mud-brick mastaba E of Hetepi’s tomb.

The ground plan of this N-S oriented mastaba measures c.52m x 26m and traces of the chapel, originally embedded within the superstructure’s masonry, were located in the SE corner of the mastaba.Approximately in the centre of the mastaba an entrance leads to the substructure,15m below the present surface, which has a very unusual U-shaped plan with several short corridors (probably storerooms) running both to the E andW where the burial chamber is located.The tomb had been completely looted in antiquity and only numerous fragments of stone vessels remained from the Armant.View of the underground level below the naos of the Ptolemaic temple of original burial. It was reused in the LP when over 40 secMontu. Photograph courtesy of Christophe Thiers

26

ondary animal burials were sunk 1–2m below the present surface of the mastaba.All the burials (mainly bovid) were found to have been looted and they contained only a few artefacts. Analysis continued of the decoration of the mastaba complex of Qar and his sons, as did documentation of finds from previous seasons. In co-operation with the SCA Saqqara Inspectorate minor restoration was carried out in the chapel of Qar and in the mastaba of Ptahshepses.Investigation of a rocky outcrop, about 100m S of the mastaba of Qar and Inty, revealed some destroyed OK mastabas and surface layers with a high preponderance of completely decayed bovid bones which may have come from a nearby LP cattle burial ground.

Saqqara: 1.The Glasgow Museums Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, directed by Ian Mathieson, continued the survey of the Serapeum Way from the tomb of Mereruka to the entrance of the Serapeum galleries at the end of the dromos first excavated in 1850 by Mariette. In addition several very large structures were found to the N of the Serapeum Way which have not been recorded previously and may form part of a new complex stretching across the E of the necropolis towards the 1st Dyn tombs at the edge of the escarpment.The area lying between the Step Pyramid,the Ptahhotep tomb and the valley towards the Gisr el-Mudir was also investigated, and several structures which resemble the S temples found in previous seasons, and small tombs were observed.

Due to dumping of rubble (from the old teahouse) which was heavily contaminated by metal refuse the extent of the cut or quarry surrounding the Step Pyramid could not be observed. (www.glasgowmuseums.com) 2. The SCA expedition, directed by Zahi Hawass, (assisted by Abdel Hakim Karar and Sabri Farag) continued working around the Teti Pyramid and extended excavations to look for the Pyramid of Merikare. (www.guardians.net/hawass) 3.The work of the PCMA team, led by Karol My!liwiec, was concentrated in two places located between the enclosure wall of the Step Pyramid and the tombs of Merefnebef and Nyankhnefertem. The N part of this area yielded more than 50 new burials belonging to two overlying cemeteries.The upper one (LP/Ptolemaic Period) had many rock-hewn anthropoid pits housing mummies or skeletons, while in the lower one (late OK), a dense agglomeration of rock-hewn shafts is all that remains of mud-brick mastabas. A well preserved coffin made of papyrus reeds was found in one shaft. Closer to the Step Pyramid enclosure wall, below the huge mud-brick platform adjoining this wall and extending N-S, a rock-hewn corridor, steeply sloping to the S, finished with a rectangular entrance to a subterranean room filled with debris containing much late OK ritual pottery.The room’s diagonal ceiling meets its horizontal floor c.2.5m further S.The location, orientation, dimensions and architectural features of this unfinished structure resemble those of 2nd Dyn royal tombs or early 3rd Dyn nobles’ tombs at Saqqara.

Upper Egypt Dahshur: The MMA mission, directed by Dieter Arnold, continued work in the mastaba field N of the king’s pyramid complex.The SW section of the court of the mastaba of Sobekemhat was cleared, resulting in the recovery of relief fragments which included some of the owner’s titles.The high quality workmanship includes fine details similar to those found in the decoration of the king’s pyramid temple. E of the mastaba of the vizier Nebit, a 10m x 21m early 4th Dyn brick mastaba was excavated. with, on the S end of the E side, an entrance set into a recess, which leads into a narrow cult chamber with a triple niche.The plundered burial chamber contained a roughly dressed limestone sarcophagus, some model pottery vessels and the remains of model tools. 20m N of the mastaba of Horkherty,

EGYPTIAN

part of a MK limestone-cased mastaba and its brick enclosure wall were excavated.The mastaba had two niches, decorated with standard offering chamber scenes, on the E side. Remains of high-quality sunk relief inscriptions must originate from the outer faces of the mastaba. Many fragments of a granite offering table were also recovered with inscriptions indicating that the tomb owner lived until the time of Amenemhat III and that part of his name may have been ‘Senwosret’.Work also continued on the reliefs from the pyramid temple, the chapels of the queens and princesses, the post-NK burials and the reconstructions of sections of the Khnumhotep mastaba and the inner enclosure wall of the king’s pyramid. (www.metmuseum.org) Bakchias (Kom Umm el-Atl):The Bologna Univ expedition, under the overall direction of Sergio Pernigotti and directed in the field by Christian Tassinari, continued excavation in the ‘new’ sacred area already identified and partially excavated in February 2005. In particular, work continued on the uncovering of the great temple dedicated to the crocodile god Soknobraisis (50m x 23m),located inside an enclosure wall (70m x 57m) and preceded by a 50m long causeway which is oriented to the S.The temple dates back to the late Ptolemaic Period, with stone enlargements of the Roman Period. (www2. unibo.it/archeologia/ricerca/scavi/bakchias/bak1.htm) Medinet Madi:The programme of the joint Pisa Univ/Messina Univ expedition, directed by Edda Bresciani, was to prepare a catalogue of fragmentary finds of scientific interest of previous seasons (200004). In addition, investigation has been extended to the SE of the painted hall where the buildings have been found to be in very bad condition (possibly damaged by the earthquake of AD 307) and in part also ruined by fire.The excavations provided only a few objects, small fragments of Greek papyri (some late) and fragmentary pottery and faience items.

Antinoopolis (El-Sheikh Ibada):The mission of the Istituto Papirologico G Vitelli, Florence, led by Rosario Pintaudi, has completed the second part of its excavation campaign in the N necropolis.Results obtained were very profitable,both in terms of written documents and of buildings recovered.Among the written materials, some important Greek and Coptic parchments were found. These, as well as coins, papyri, ostraca, pottery and textiles, can all be dated in the period from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD. The team also began work at the temple of Ramesses II to prepare it for conservation and recording (see further pp.39-41).

Karnak: The CFEETK expedition, directed by Emmanuel Laroze and Mansour Boraik, with Dominque Valbelle as Scientific Director, began excavation of the northern wadjyt-hall with small soundings against the base of the Hatshepsut obelisk.

A foundation deposit with the names of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III was discovered within a joint in the pavement. Excavation in the SE corner of the Middle Kingdom courtyard was undertaken to clarify the different constructional stages of this area.

Some ten limestone blocks of Amenhotep I, reused as a foundation, were removed and stored on new benches. Dismantling of Seti II’s W gate continued, revealing hitherto hidden decoration of the Sixth Pylon and further blocks of the Annals.Excavation at the base of the wall led to the discovery of a beautiful foundation deposit of Hatshepsut.The clearing and architectural study of the enclosure wall attributed to Tuthmosis III has been continued and has shown that the 18th Dyn wall is preserved beneath that of the 30th Dyn. Conservation of the wall, using new mud-bricks, has begun on the N part. A project for the complete restoration of the Opet Temple has been launched, beginning with the painted decoration in the N room and some consolidation in the courtyard. 3D scanning of the Opet temple has been completed. (www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr) Luxor:The Epigraphic Survey OI,Univ of Chicago team, directed by W Raymond Johnson, resumed

ARCHAEOLOGY

Qurna, the tomb of Anen (TT 120). Ewa Parandowska reinstalls the missing ‘harvest scene’ on the east wall of the tomb. (Photograph:Archie Chubb) documentation, conservation, and restoration work at Luxor Temple. Photographer Yarko Kobylecky photographed the S and E walls of the King’s Chamber/Roman Vestibule, and a conservation team, headed by Michael Jones, test-cleaned four sections of the 3rd century AD Roman paintings on those walls, with excellent results; cleaning will continue in 2006.This project is funded by USAID through the EAC and ARCE. Stonecutter Dany Roy completed the sandstone sheathing of the Colonnade Hall E wall buttress, after which restoration began of 48 fragments to the inner face of the wall which will complete the Opet register Khonsu barge and tow-boat scene. Conservator Hiroko Kariya continued the consolidation programme of the fragmentary and whole block material in the Luxor Temple blockyard, and treated three large blocks of Amenhotep III in the S area. The restoration and conservation work are supported by a Robert W Wilson Challenge for Conserving our Heritage award and the World Monuments Fund.

Western Thebes: 1. In the Valley of the Kings, the Cambridge Expedition to the Valley of the Kings, directed by Geoffrey Martin, worked in the tomb of Horemheb (KV 57), which was found byTheodore Davis in 1908 and cleared rapidly by Edward Ayrton.

That preliminary excavation was not thorough and it is not clear if the shaft was completely emptied, while material is still evident in Room Jaa (Theban Mapping Project lettering) and, in particular, in Room Jc (behind the sarcophagus hall), as well as in Jcc and Jccc.The expedition plans to undertake a thorough clearance of the tomb and to make a complete inventory of the objects found by Ayrton, now mostly in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. In this preliminary season, the expedition worked in Ja, Jc, Jcc and Jccc and it is clear that potentially interesting material, including skeletal remains, are still in the tomb. Further work in March/April 2006 will investigate material still in the shaft and a huge mound of debris in Jc which is mainly spoil from Ayrton’s clearance of the lower rooms.

2.At Dra Abu el-Naga the Univ of Pisa mission, directed by Marilina Betrò, continued work at the tombs MIDAN.05 and TT 14. In MIDAN.05, the two W-E oriented rooms opening on to the main N-S vaulted long room were excavated.The S one is a 10m-long corridor with abundant remains of pink gypsum mortar and scant traces of the original painted decoration on the walls and ceiling. Its W end was completely closed by a thick transversal wall built up of stone chips and pink mortar and with its E face covered by a thick layer of brown plaster.

The excavation of the structure and the remaining portion of the corridor beyond it will be completed

27

next season.Through a stepped passage excavated in the rock floor the corridor gives access, to the S, to a small side chamber which contained the remains of a badly preserved mummy. The N room is an almost square 2.5m-wide space occupied by a large funerary shaft not yet excavated. In TT 14, drawing of the painted scenes was completed and the general condition of the decoration carefully screened.

3. At Qurna The Royal Ontario Theban Tombs Project, directed by Lyla Pinch Brock and Roberta Lawrie Shaw, worked in the tomb of Anen (TT 120) and the tomb of Amenmose (TT 89).Work in the tomb of Amenmose involved collating the copies of the wall paintings, planning all the walls of the tomb and completing the photography. In the tomb of Anen, conservator Ewa Parandowska continued the reinstallation on the E wall of the missing ‘harvest scene’ (last seen in a Harry Burton photograph). The small vignette shows Amenhotep III blessing the harvest.The debris remaining in the burial chamber was excavated by David Sharp, and Archie Chubb photographed the small finds. Material found in the burial chamber included many painted plaster fragments of the scene which once existed on the W wall of the tomb above the rekhyt frieze. It appears to be a duplicate of the scene opposite (Amenhotep III and Tiye seated in a kiosk), although with different elements.The work in the tomb of Amen was funded this year by the Amarna Foundation.

4. At Asasif the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor,directed by FrancescoTiradritti,concentrated on the opening of the principal access to the funerary complex of Harwa (TT 37) and Akhimenru (TT 404). Excavations of the entrance ramp led to the discovery of the upper landing and of 15 steps of the ramp. The clearance of debris from the portico exposed various fragments of several wooden coffins.Among them were two GR funerary masks, of a rare type. Once the main entrance was opened, excavations were also continued in the courtyard, bringing work over the entire area to the same archaeological phase. Several fragments from the decoration of the rear wall and pillars of the S portico have been recovered and a further register of the reliefs decorating the wall has also been exposed.The scenes depict some sculptors at work and are very similar to the paintings in the tomb of Rekhmire. However, here the artists are working not on statues of the king but on sculptures of the Divine Adoratrice and a private individual, certainly Harwa himself. (www.harwa.it) 5. The Epigraphic Survey OI, Univ of Chicago team resumed documentation and conservation at the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut andTuthmosis III at Medinet Habu, under the direction of W Raymond Johnson. Epigraphic copying under the supervision of senior epigrapher Brett McClain continued in the ambulatory and barque sanctuary.

Conservation work, supervised by Lotfi Hassan, included cleaning of the painted (star) ceilings in the S sanctuaries and naos room, and consolidation of the deteriorating outer walls at the foundation level on the S and W sides of the sanctuary. Before and after photography was undertaken by Yarko Kobylecky.

This work is supported by a grant from USAID administered through EAP and ARCE. Ar mant: Chr istophe Thiers (CNRS/Univ Montpellier 3) led a mission at Armant, the main purpose of which was to begin the architectural survey of the Ptolemaic temple of Montu. The remains of the foundation sandstone walls and the limestone layers of reused MK and NK blocks were cleaned to prepare for the mapping of the site. A frame of topographical references was established with the assistance of Damien Laisney (topographer, IFAO) around the main temple area to allow an accurate architectural survey led by Pierre Zignani (CNRS).The plan of the underground level below the naos and the surrounding chapels on the SW was established and placed in the sketch plan of the

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Moeller, focused on investigation of the administrative centre of Edfu which has been discovered in the E part of the tell, not far from the Ptolemaic temple enclosure wall.

Several large circular granaries (diams: 5.5m-6m) belonging to an official institution (dated to the 17th Dyn on ceramic evidence) were excavated. Below this level a columned hall was discovered with three sandstone column bases (diams: 74cm-76cm) found in situ.

Two seal-impressions (end of 12th Dyn-mid 13th Dyn) were found in a small test square in the contemporary mud-floor which connects the column bases.One seal was used Bahariya Oasis, El-Bawiti. The SCA excavations in the area of Sheikh to seal a papyrus document as is clear from the marks of the papyrus Soby where tombs of the governors and their families have been found on its back. Two hieratic ostraca Photograph courtesy of Zahi Hawass were found in the fill covering the column bases.The finds here show a succession of temple.The expedition also pursued the epigraphic building phases which provide evidence for the survey inside the area of the temple, especially the presence of official installations.The remains of the blocks dated to the reign of Ptolemy XII Neos Di6th Dyn mastaba of the governor Izi have been onysos (88-51 BC).The MK blocks were checked cleared and planned for the study of its architectural and new blocks found during the cleaning of the phases and to clarify some of its historical problems. temple were studied by Lilian Postel (IFAO). The Numerous demotic, Greek and Coptic ostraca were epigraphic and topographic survey also concerns found in clearance of large quantities of rubble and all the remains inside the city of Armant, especially debris over parts of the E side of the tomb. Recordthe Bab el-Maganin (of Antoninus Pius) and walls ing and analysis was undertaken of many decorated made with reused Ptolemaic or Roman blocks in stone blocks (SIP to Coptic Period) which have the vicinity of the El-Amri mosque. The mixed been dumped along the base of the tell. pottery found during the cleaning of the temple was Aswan (Syene): The joint Swiss Institute/SCA studied by Catherine Defernez; most of the sherds Aswan team, headed by Cornelius von Pilgrim belong to the Coptic Period when the temple was and Mohamed el-Bialy, and directed in the field dismantled, but NK sherds were also identified in

by Wolfgang Müller, continued its rescue work in the W area of the temple precinct. the town. In area 15 a large-scale occupation of Edfu:The Oxford Univ fieldwork, led by Nadine

28

the early Ptolemaic Period was investigated. The schematic layout of the buildings and most of the few small finds point to the military character of this area in that period. In area 13 on the S outskirts of the town, final investigations in the Roman layers revealed a paved square with by a portico in front of a row of single-roomed houses. Before the area had to be handed back to the city council, investigation of a sequence of underlying Ptolemaic buildings continued.Another rescue excavation in the centre of the modern suq (c.1km N of the ancient town) revealed a multi-stratified site of the early OK and early MK (area 23) where granite was worked before the embarkation of large blocks for shipping.

Simple mud-brick structures with pillars sheltered the ancient workmen.Limited exploration of further sites N of the ancient town revealed information on the reinforcement of the river bank in the Late Roman Period, and Late Roman burials.

Bahariya Oasis: The SCA expedition, directed

by Zahi Hawass, assisted by Abdel Hakim Karar, continued excavations in the area of Sheikh Soby at El-Bawiti, where there are, beneath modern houses, tombs of the family of the governors of Bahariya in the 26th Dyn. In the tomb (see EA 26, p.29) of Padiherkheb, brother of the governor, Djedkhonsuefankh, the shaft was c.12m deep and at the bottom was a large sarcophagus which had been opened in the Roman Period.The shabtis and pottery jars around the sarcophagus are also of the Roman Period.Also inside the shaft were four sealed limestone sarcophagi with mummies typical of the 26th Dyn. (www.guardians.net/hawass) I would like to thank Tomasz Herbich, Chris Naunton and Jeffrey Spencer for assistance in compiling this edition of ‘Digging Diary’ and am also grateful to Zahi Hawass, Lyla Pinch Brock, Christophe Thiers and Penny Wilson for providing photographs.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Eastern Desert Ware: fine pottery from an arid wasteland Archaeological excavations in the deserts between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea have produced examples of a fine type of pottery which in the past has been associated with a people known as the Blemmyes. Hans Barnard reassesses the evidence.

Archaeological research in the Egyptian part of the desert A connection had already been established between the between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea has, in the repottery found in the desert and certain vessels from Lower cent past, often had to be restricted for security reasons.

Nubia,where archaeological research is no longer possible However,between 1991 and 2001,restrictions were eased as it disappeared under the waters of Lake Nasser in the and several expeditions, in the course of their work, en1960s. Fortunately, many archaeological artefacts were countered a remarkable corpus of ceramic vessels now donated to museums abroad after the UNESCO Nubian identified as Eastern Desert Ware.

Salvage Campaign and collections of Eastern DesertWare Most of the contexts in which Eastern Desert Ware was are now kept in the Naprstek Museum in Prague, the found could be dated to the fourth-sixth centuries AD by Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Museum associated pottery, coins or radiocarbon dates. However, of the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Eastern Desert Ware this ware may have been produced as early as the second has recently also been found in the Sudanese part of century AD and have continued in production until as late the Eastern Desert (in Tabot) and in the Nile Valley (for as the eighth century AD. Most of the vessels belonging instance, catalogue number 255 of the exhibition Sudan, to this corpus were relatively small bowls and cups, with Ancient Treasures at the British Museum). proportionally thin walls, made without the use of a potResults from the new study of Eastern Desert Ware ter’s wheel.Their surfaces were carefully wiped,smoothed seem to disprove the former scholarly association of or burnished (polished) and decorated with impressed or these vessels with a people called Blemmyes, which was incised patterns.These were often remarkably asymmetric based on an assumed correspondence in geographical and frequently augmented with a white inlay or a partial and chronological distribution (see for instance EA 8, red slip. Occasionally, slight modifications appear to have pp.16-17). It is not even certain that in the fourth-sixth been made to the shape of the vessels to enhance the decocenturies AD the term Blemmyes referred to an ethnic or rative pattern,or elements of the design were applied after cultural entity.The Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, a collection the vessels were fired.With such a distinctive appearance of historical texts on the region, includes 68 texts that these vessels must have stood out, especially when used contain references to the Blemmyes. In these texts, the as serving vessels, as can be evidence of a Blemmyan inferred from their shape. language is limited to the The significant differences names of persons and gods in technology and appearas well as the use of ‘pidgin’ ance between vessels from Greek in some of the texts. the desert and the pottery Only 29 of these texts produced in the NileValley mention the Blemmyes make it probable that they by name, while in the reacted as cultural or ethnic maining 39 the reference is markers. indirect.The ambiguity of Because Eastern Desert the texts further obstructs Ware usually constituted our understanding. The only a very small fraction most reliable sources do of the pottery found, the not agree on the area in majority being sherds of which the Blemmyes lived, Late Roman (Byzantine) their numbers or their Egyptian vessels or imports, Eastern Desert Ware from Sayala (KHM 76918 and KHM 77217, courtesy of the life-style.Furthermore,Olit has only recently become Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna) and Wadi Qitna (P835 and P840, courtesy ympiodorus, writing in the possible to initiate a sys- of the Naprstek Museum in Prague), two Late Roman (Byzantine) settlements in fifth century AD, mentions the Dodecaschoenus (Lower Nubia) tematic study of the corpus. the emerald mines in the 29

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

report on his visit to Lower Nubia but the only known sources of this gemstone were in the Mons Smaragdus area, far from Lower Nubia and indeed the Nile Valley. It is also noteworthy that the son of a Blemmyer mentioned in one of the texts is identified as being a Megabari in another text.A conclusion that seems secure, however, is that small groups of pastoral nomads roamed the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea in antiquity, just as they do at present. As today, there seems to have been some confusion concerning the ethnic units comprising these groups.

With only a few exceptions, Eastern DesertWare is made of a rusty red to orange fabric with white mineral and very few organic inclusions.Many of the decorations were probably made with the thorn of a date palm, which has a triangular section.The inspection of thin-sections of a number of sherds, with a polarizing microscope, showed most of the inclusions to be poorly sorted, angular quartz or feldspars.The elemental composition of both the paste and the inclusions is currently being studied by mass spectrometry, but the preliminary interpretation of the data indicates that the vessels were made in a number of geologically different places.A series of experiments,aimed at replicating Eastern Desert Ware, has proved that the production of such pottery by nomadic groups is quite feasible.

All of the ancient sherds studied so far appear to have

Eastern Desert Ware from Berenike (EDW 17 and 48, courtesy of the Berenike Project) and Wadi Sikait (in the Mons Smaragdus area, EDW 232 and 234, courtesy of the Sikait Conservation Project), two settlements, occupied between the 3rd century BC and the 6th century AD, in the desert between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea.

preserved fatty acids in their ceramic matrix. As these are common in animal and vegetable fats and oils, the determination of their origin is difficult. It is also unclear whether these residues represent the first food to come into contact with the vessels, during which the matrix became saturated, or are the result of the trapping of different molecules each time the vessel was used. Possible sources of the organic residues include not only food, but also trash surrounding discarded vessels, and human remains decaying close to their grave goods. However, the presence of fatty acids in Eastern Desert Ware is interpreted as indicating that these vessels were used for food and not solely as receptacles for water or as grave goods.

Recently a search has been initiated for proteins attached to the ceramic matrix and this may shed light on many of these uncertainties. If they can be found and identified, proteins will be far more specific than fatty acids.

The evidence summarised above indicates that Eastern DesertWare is the result of the household production of a utilitarian ware by groups of (pastoral) nomads whenever the need occurred or the opportunity presented itself. Its occurrence in the archaeological record coincides with the large influx of traders, miners and quarrymen during Graeco-Roman times.Their interaction with the indigenous inhabitants of the desert seems to have provided the infrastructure that facilitated the accumulation, and possibly also the production, of these remarkable ceramic artefacts. Ă&#x201D; Hans Barnard is Research Associate with the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently involved in research projects on the archaeology of mobile people, ceramic analysis and Eastern Desert Ware (www.archbase.org).

As an archaeological surveyor and photographer he has worked on sites in Chile, Egypt, Iceland, Sudan and Yemen (www.barnard.nl/hans1. html). Photographs by the writer, reproduced (p.29) courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna and the Naprstek Museum,Prague. and (p.30) courtesy of the Berenike Project and the Sikait Conservation Project.

30

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Giza Archives Project

A new internet resource aims to serve as a centralised online repository for all archaeological activity at the Giza Necropolis,beginning with the Harvard University/Boston Museum of Fine Arts excavations from the first half of the twentieth century. Peter Der Manuelian, who first reported on the genesis of the work in EA 17 (pp.25-27), now provides an update and describes plans for the Project’s future.

The Giza Pyramids may be the most famous, if not the most important, archaeological monuments in the world.

Surrounding these royal monuments are hundreds of mastabas and rock-cut tombs, in addition to workmen’s barracks, industrial areas, royal administrative buildings, and quarries.Along with the other Memphite cemeteries further to the south,Giza is one of the primary sources for almost every conceivable aspect of Old Kingdom society, and it also contains significant monuments from the Archaic Period, the New Kingdom, and the Late Period.

Two of the founding fathers of modern scientific archaeological method,Flinders Petrie and George Reisner, both worked at Giza and several expeditions, down to the present day, have over the decades made important contributions to our understanding of the site. In fact, the ‘explosion’of information amassed by various expeditions is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible to gain a clear overview of all the relevant data, for it does not reside in any one location,and much remains unpublished.

Similarly, the artefacts, from the coarsest beer jars to the life-sized royal statues and other masterpieces of Old Kingdom sculpture, are now spread throughout museums in Egypt, Europe and the United States.

The Giza Archives Project has now taken a step towards providing access to all this material and scholarly research.

Since 2000 the Project has been working to digitise Giza materials and to present them to scholars and the interested public over the internet free of charge.The work of the Project was made possible in the autumn of 2000 by a generous award made by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation (www.mellon.org), which recognised that the largest

Sunrise at Giza, looking southeast, on 1 September 2004

single corpus of Giza data was in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and awarded the MFA a $750,000 archives grant.Thanks to the contributions of 200 Egyptologists, students, interns, museum docents and volunteers in Boston and elsewhere, plus a second Mellon Foundation award of an additional $545,000 (2004–2007), phase 1 of the Giza website is now available online at www.gizapyramids.org or www.mfa.org/giza The Giza Archives Project converted Reisner’s Harvard–MFA Expedition’s approximately 21,000 glass plate photographic negatives to digital form, complete with all their accompanying descriptive information. It also digitised and created databases and text files for the complete corpus of Expedition Diaries and Object Register books, recording each day’s work at the site from 1909 to 1940, and all the finds discovered.To date,10,000 maps and plans have been scanned and posted online, ranging from general plans of large portions of the site to detailed section drawings of individual burial shafts.But the goal is not just to present this massive, unwieldy archive in a new (digital) medium, but rather in an integrated and cross-referenced collection, uniting and linking the diverse archaeological materials automatically. If massive amounts of archaeological data cannot be sifted, gathered, and presented in a user-friendly manner, they are as good as lost.

To simplify access to Giza’s legacy, the individual mastaba tomb was selected as the single unifying ‘feature’, to use the archaeological term, around which diverse data ‘revolves’.The chart illustrated here on p.32 shows how the individual mastaba tomb resides at the centre of this diverse ‘data universe’.

In addition to a range of general navigational web pages (news, staff, copyright use, user feedback, site map and

Giza Archives Project staff members at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 31

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

G 1039, deposit of statues in the vestibule, July 1904.

(Photograph: George Reisner, Harvard–MFA negative B 10750, courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

known as ‘Quicktime Virtual Reality’ movies, which the user can manipulate to survey the area in all directions.Yellow dots represent outdoor (exterior) locations, while blue dots take the user inside a decorated chapel, pyramid,or rock-cut chamber.

Serious scholarly research on the internet is often hindered by bandwidth limitations which require images to be formatted far too small in size for detailed analysis.In an effort to solve this problem and render the Giza Archives useful for even the most meticulous study, the website employs a special technology which takes very large image files and digitally breaks them down into smaller ‘tiles’.

The result is that the user can zoom in very closely on a photograph, viewing only a portion or ‘tile’ of the image detail desired, without having to download an entire large image file.This single feature transforms the Giza website from the realm of internet curiosity to serious research tool.To date, all 40,000 items on the website have been converted using this zooming technology.

Detail of Expedition Object Register page 1354 of 18 April, 1936, recording the statue of Khuienkhufu (MFA. 37.638)

help),the Giza website attempts to accommodate all types of searching, from the general to the specific, from the textual to the visual. Multiple search options are necessary because individuals tend to access information in different ways, depending on their needs and methods of research.

Three main paths allow users to sift through Giza data: ‘Quick Search’,‘Advanced Search’, and ‘Visual Search’.

The ‘Quick Search’ box is designed to search across all of the website’s underlying diverse database fields.This is the place to type words or phrases, such as ‘pyramid’ or ‘sphinx’,ancient or modern proper names,tomb numbers or object accession numbers.The ‘Advanced Search’ button allows users to search for specific types of photographs, diary pages, object finds, plans and drawings, or people.

Users could, for example, search for all the finds from the tomb of Ankhhaf (G 7510), or all images whose descriptions contain the word ‘skeleton’.

These types of searches are fairly standard but the site also offers a more unusual ‘Visual Search’ featuring a black-and-white aerial photograph of the entire Giza Necropolis.Button controls at the bottom of the image allow the user to zoom in to a very high magnification. Two features then give maximum access to the necropolis,with no specialised Egyptological or computer programming knowledge required; just the ability to ‘point and click’.

First, every tomb has a red ‘button’ that flashes when the mouse cursor rolls over it. Clicking on the tomb compiles for the user a list of all available photos, finds, maps and plans, diary pages, and individuals relevant to that tomb.

The second feature on the ‘Visual Search’ page consists of round, pulsating yellow or blue buttons placed all over the aerial site photograph. These represent almost 700 different standpoints; clicking on one of these round buttons takes the user down to the ground at that very location, shown in a colour image in a new browser window. However, these are no ordinary photographs, but are rather contemporary 360-degree interactive panoramas,

Schematic chart showing the relationship of diverse archaeological data linked to a specific mastaba tomb (centre of diagram) 32

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

One other aspect of the Giza website will be of great value to researchers who may not have easy access to a conventional Egyptological library or need access to a vast bibliography while ‘in the field’: the ‘Giza Digital Library’ where, to date, about 200 works have been posted for free downloading. This page currently contains every Gizarelated book and article ever written by Harvard–MFA Egyptologists George Reisner, Dows Dunham and William Stevenson Smith. It also contains works by a host of other scholars, both past and present. All seven volumes of the MFA’s Giza Mastabas series are online, and all 166 Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts articles are likewise available for free downloading.These PDF files reproduce the look and feel of their original publications’ design and layout, but they also contain a second,‘hidden’ layer beneath each page where the text has been converted to searchable type. This means that one can search for terms within the PDF file: one major advantage of digital publication over print publication.

Thousands more images and documents have yet to be processed in the coming years at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and added to the website. They concern primarily the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition and its derivative field seasons, but there have been, of course, other important excavations at Giza besides those conducted until 1942 by George Reisner.For those studying Giza in toto,the arbitrary pres-

The results obtained by making a picture search on the phrase ‘pair statue’

ence or absence of data on the Giza website - based solely on who happened to do the digging - can be frustrating.

Thus it is critical in future phases of the Giza Archives Project to move beyond the Harvard–MFA Expedition to include as many expedition archives as possible, past, present, and even future. Discussions are either already under way or are about to begin with several of the major ‘Giza collections’ around the world, and international collaboration is the next major phase of the Project.

Should this approach prove successful, it might serve as a model for the presentation of archaeological materials for other sites.And there are always new technologies to test and include, such as digital epigraphy: the production of computer-aided facsimile drawings of wall reliefs and inscriptions (see EA 17, pp. 25–27).

Like all ancient Egyptian archaeological sites, the Giza Necropolis is threatened by time, the elements, tourism,and a dearth of conservation funding. It is thus critical that we turn our attention to documenting, preserving and publishing the site in the widest possible sense of these terms. The opportunity has now arrived, thanks to new technologies, to create unprecedented access to Giza, access that can be used in countless ways, from the inventory and tracking of the monuments over time to new avenues of scholarly research.We have only begun to discern where these exciting new research and documentation tools can take us. Ô Peter Der Manuelian is Giza Archives Project Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Lecturer in Egyptology, Tufts University. He is grateful for the support of many individuals at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Andrew W Mellon Foundation (see: www.gizapyramids.org/code/emuseum.asp?newpage=staff,in particular Diane Flores (Giza Research Associate) and Rita Freed, John Cogan, Jr. and Mary Cornille (Chair of Art of the Ancient World).The Giza Archives Project welcomes suggestions, feedback and support, and can be contacted at www.gizapyramids.org/code/emuseum.asp?newpage=contact In addition, those with knowledge of or documents pertaining to the history of George Reisner’s archaeological career, or that of his immediate colleagues, are urged to contact Project staff.All illustrations, unless otherwise indicated, are by Peter Der Manuelian.

Giza website Visual Search page and magnified detail view of the Eastern Cemetery, with yellow and blue dots representing clickable standpoints for 360-degree rotating panoramas 33

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

New work on old texts New research on papyri which have long been in museum collections is improving our understanding of ancient Egyptian literature. At an EES Study Day in June 2005 Roland Enmarch reported on the preparation of a new edition of the Middle Egyptian poem Ipuwer, and here describes his work.

There has been much discussion in recent years about the definition of ancient Egyptian literature, but it is generally agreed that the Middle and Late stages of the Egyptian language each possess a relatively well-defined corpus of ‘literary’ texts.These include, among other things,tales such as Sinuhe and Wenamun, and teachings like those of Ptahhotep and Amenemope.

Most of these compositions are known from papyri and ostraca which were first published decades ago, and discoveries of new literary texts from these periods are now rare. Nevertheless, advances in photographic imaging, palaeography and linguistics mean that there is still much new information that can be gleaned from the study of the older, Column 13 of the poem as seen in natural light, demonstrating the damage to the papyrus well-known manuscripts.A text that was and the darkening of the edges first translated a century ago often still contains many mysteries to be elucidated, such as how it The king replies that, far from being his responsibility is structured, whether it is prose or poetry, the manner in or the creator god’s, the fault lies in the evil nature of which it relates to other written sources from the same humanity itself, being predisposed to chaotic tendencies. period (not to mention any unwritten oral traditions) and, This dark subject matter contrasts starkly with the more perhaps most crucially, how the ancient audiences might positive outlook portrayed in most Egyptian monuments have understood,and enjoyed,the work.For these reasons, and texts. work on the literary classics is an ongoing priority.

Interpreting the poem is hampered by a number of A case in point is the late Nineteenth Dynasty P. Leiden factors.The exact provenance of the only surviving manuI 344 recto, which is the only surviving manuscript of the script is unknown, but circumstantial evidence suggests Middle Egyptian poem called variously The Admonitions that it comes from Saqqara,and it is just possible that it was or The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. This poem found in a tomb of a member of the entourage of Prince belongs to the pessimistic tradition, and is one of the most Khaemwaset, son of Ramesses II. A more important culturally challenging texts to survive from the whole of problem is the fact that the manuscript is badly damaged, Egyptian literature. It contains a dialogue between someand the beginning and end are both lost. It also seems to body who is simply called ‘Ipuwer’, and the ‘Person of the have been blackened by exposure to resin, perhaps in the Lord of All’, who is probably the king. Ipuwer delivers tomb. After it was purchased from the antiquities dealer a lengthy series of laments about the dire state of Egypt, Giovanni Anastasi for the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden and then goes on to accuse the king and the creator god in Leiden in 1828, the papyrus was varnished. Although of bringing it about through their negligence. Ipuwer this was at the time considered best practice,over the years asks of the creator god: the varnish has steadily darkened and caused the papyrus to buckle, making reading more difficult.

Look, why did He seek to create mankind, when the respectful A hand-drawn facsimile of the papyrus was published in man is not distinguished from the fierce-hearted? … It is said: the catalogue of the Leiden collection in the 1860s, and “He is the shepherd of everyone.There is no evil in His heart”, Alan Gardiner produced the first edition of the text in (but) His herd is few, even though He made the day to care for 1909.Subsequently,Gerhard Fecht,working from unpubthem, since fire is in their hearts! lished infra-red photographs of the manuscript, was able to suggest several important new readings of parts of the 34

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

text in his 1972 study.Wolfgang Helck also prepared a new edition of the text (from unpublished photographs) which was published posthumously in 1995.However,no set of photographs, in natural light or infra-red, is totally reliable without comparison with the original manuscript. For example, what looks clearly like an ink stroke on a photograph may reveal itself to be a shadow on the original. The underlying patterns of the fibres that comprise the papyrus often give clues as to how loose fragments should be aligned, and can be investigated only by direct observation. Photographs are also of little use when the papyrus has been reused, and there are traces of more than one layer of writing: the eye can distinguish much more easily between these layers, and in some cases can even spot where the ancient scribe made an error, stopped to smudge it out, and then wrote over the smudge. For such reasons as these, a new, complete, fully collated edition of the text has now been undertaken and published, along with the first complete set of photographs of the manuscript.

The picture that emerges of this text in the wake of the new edition differs in some important respects from earlier interpretations.A good example of a specific new reading that alters the understanding of the text comes in the question that used to be read for which the strikingly Nietzschean interpretation was suggested: ‘Is the loving shepherd (i.e. the creator god) dead?’. Sadly, the new collation shows that it should

Column 13 photographed in infra-red light

actually be read , ‘Is (He) a shepherd who loves death?’, a rhetorical question that fits in better with the critique of the creator’s negligence quoted earlier in this article.

On a more general level, new research on the text has also produced broader insights. It has previously been suggested that the text is a literary patchwork, primarily comprising passages interpolated from other, now lost, works. However, despite its incompleteness, the poem shows clear signs of a coherent structure, with meaningful repetitions and resonances in its wording. It is therefore best treated as a unified composition, datable through its use of terminology to no earlier than the reign of Senwosret III. This suggests that the poem’s pessimistic laments are in no simple direct way a reflection of events in the First Intermediate Period, as is still sometimes proposed, but instead something more abstract and timeless: an examination of royal and divine justice, and the cause of human evil. This central theodic question transcends the boundaries of Egyptian culture and speaks to the present day.The new edition will, it is hoped, serve to make the work better understood, and eventually better appreciated, as one of the most eloquent and profound poems to survive from Ancient Egypt.

The finished product: hieroglyphic transcription of Ipuwer column 13

35

Ô Roland Enmarch is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, Liverpool University. Photographs © Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden. Hieroglyphic transcription by the writer whose new edition of The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All is published by the Griffith Institute Publications: the Alden Press.

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Perunefer: at Memphis or Avaris?

In EA 26 (pp 13-17), Manfred Bietak gave a summary of the results from his recent work at Tell el-Daba/Avaris and raised once again the question of the location of the port of Perunefer, reviving the idea of it having been at Avaris rather than, as generally believed, at Memphis. David Jeffreys looks again at the evidence for both locations.

The issue of Perunefer, and what and where it was, has exercised Egyptologists for the last hundred years or so. Much of its interest lies in the fact that the river port was clearly an important area of foreign settlement in the Eighteenth Dynasty, and was home to several foreign cults, including those of Astarte and Baal, as well as the hybrid(?) cults of Seth and Amun-Re ‘of Perunefer’. Opinion has tended lately to veer from a Delta location at Avaris to Memphis, and consensus has favoured the latter for at least the past thirty years.

The broader question of such river front settlement is surprisingly little known, at least from the archaeological side: most of the evidence comes from documents, and many of those concern Perunefer itself, whose name means ‘goodly going forth’ A musician and attendants before the young Amenhotep II and his nurse, the mother of Kenamun, in and has sometimes been thought of as a the ‘Garden of Perunefer’. (After Norman de Garis Davies, The Tomb of Ken-amun at Thebes kind of sailors’ sending off - the ancient (New York, 1930) pl.IX) Egyptian equivalent of ‘Bon voyage!’.With or Astarte ‘of Perunefer’, and one (Amun-Re,‘great ram more work now being concentrated on the identificaof Perinefer’) occurs in a letter in praise of Memphis and tion of rivers and riverside occupation, at sites such as its gods.The name is thought to have disappeared before Avaris/Piramesse, Memphis and Karnak, the time is fast the end of the New Kingdom, except for the dubious approaching when we need a reassessment of the state of example of the Coptic place name Panouf. research into the matter. So a new (old) suggestion for It is not surprising, therefore, that so much of the debate Perunefer is of considerable interest. has focused on the written sources, which are surprisingly Professor Bietak’s article in EA 26 leaves us with the rich for such a specific and local topographical question, impression that the recent preference for Memphis is and are probably the main reason for the general preferdue to just one historical document: the inscription of ence for, or at least acceptance of, a Memphite location Amenhotep II, preserved on two stelae from Thebes and for Perunefer. This identification can also, however, be Memphis respectively. This, however, is to neglect the supported the archaeological record as evidence for all other evidence for a Memphite location: of the recorded the foreign cults of the Levant attested for Perunefer instances of the name of Perunefer apart from the Amen(Baal,Astarte, Seth), as well as some that are not (Qadesh, hotep stelae, nearly all are from the Memphis area - Tura, Reshef), have been found in the archaeological record at Zawiyet Abu Musallam (near Zawiyet Aryan),and Saqqara.

Memphis, chiefly on votive and funerary stelae and in the One instance on an ostracon is unprovenanced but is asnames of Memphite citizens.In addition,Mariam Kamish, sumed to come from Memphis, while another is on an who has researched the topic of Perunefer and its cults, inscribed block which was found at Bubastis, but which has already noted that the courtier Kenamun, who held may have been transported there from Memphis in the the office of ‘Superintendant of Perunefer’ and was burlater New Kingdom. All these occurrences of Perunefer ied at Thebes, probably had a cenotaph in the Memphite are in titles – either of officials or of local cults such as Seth 36

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

region, though this was close to Giza, well to the north of the city itself.

Just how compelling are the arguments on either side for the location of Perunefer at either Avaris or Memphis? It is worth comparing the general situations of the two sites.

The layout of Avaris/Piramesse (Tell el-Daba-Qantir) has become far better known in recent years, largely due to the geophysical work carried out there by Helmut Becker and his colleagues (see EA 14, pp.13-15), which has identified whole segments of urban plan, including river branches and possible corniche-type avenues, waterfront structures and storage areas. In particular, the geophysical survey has revealed evidence of palace structures of the early Eighteenth Dynasty, one of which is producing the fascinating Minoan painted plaster fragments (see EA 2, pp.26-28, EA 3, 27-29, EA 26, pp.13-17 and this issue p.26).These palaces are situated in a bend of the river that makes them effectively peninsular institutions (rather like Canary Wharf or the Millennium Dome on the Thames) and provides a remarkably close topographical context.

The main site of Memphis, on the other hand, has a mostly complex stratified multi-period occupation, or is otherwise deeply buried, and does not lend itself to such useful survey methods;nevertheless there has been progress in identifying movements in the course of the river over time, and part of the Roman river front (probably not far from that of the New Kingdom?) has been located. One intriguing possibility is that the city was discontinuously occupied, parts of it being on islands at least during the inundation, and one suggestion is that such islands would have formed natural and convenient harbours as well as being magnets for new development.

What are we to make of all this? In some ways it is another case, so familiar from Egypt, of field archaeology chasing the documentary evidence: we are perhaps sometimes too ready to persuade ourselves that we have enough evidence to ‘prove’ or ‘disprove’ the written record. If we had had no textual references to Perunefer, for example, we might very well be content to receive the archaeological evidence on its own merits, and interpret Avaris as a fascinating zone of foreign (Aegean and Levantine) settlement and influence from the seventeenth to the fifteenth centuries BC,and perhaps examine more closely the reasons for its re-emergence as a centre of national importance in the Ramesside Period. Similarly, we might already have concluded that Memphis too was at times an ethnically mixed metropolis with an important harbour (or harbours), since other texts from here mention such features as the ‘storesheds in the lake’,‘the great shipyard of the palace’, and the ‘dockyard on the Island of Ptah’.

One main objection to the use of the Amenhotep II stelae to justify a Memphite location for Perunefer is the fact that they describe the king as having to travel from Perunefer to Memphis. As Professor Bietak asks, why would this have been necessary if they were the same place? It is, however, worth considering the sheer scale of

these large New Kingdom conurbations: the waterfront at Memphis may well have stretched for 20 km or more along the river.

One important characteristic shared by both Avaris and Memphis is the amount of settlement (including cemeteries) that lies beyond the main, officially-recognised archaeological area: at Memphis, the present visible ruin field preserved above floodplain level is one of the largest in the Nile valley, at about 600 hectares, but this almost certainly represents only a small proportion, perhaps no more than 10%, of the full extent of the city over time.

The same is clearly true of the tell site of Avaris/Piramesse: all the recent discoveries at Tell el-Daba and Qantir lie under the modern agricultural land surrounding the mound, and at its full extent Piramesse must have been vast.At both Avaris and Memphis there is remarkably little in the modern landform to indicate where these very old river channels had been, which is one reason why, prior to the devlopment of geophysical methods of survey, the identification of ancient Nile ports and harbours had been so rare, with the exception of temple quays and the huge, unfinished and enigmatic example of the Birket Habu at Thebes.

To sum up, it would seem that both proposed locations for Perunefer – Avaris and Memphis – remain based on evidence that is, in its different ways, equally circumstantial. Avaris had a river harbour and a significant foreign population in the New Kingdom; so did Memphis. Avaris now has a monumental residential structure of the early Eighteenth Dynasty; but royal estates of the Tuthmoside kings at Memphis have been known for some time from the written records;Amenophis II is thought to have been born at Memphis, presumably in a royal palace.There is a collection of documentary references to Perunefer from the Memphite region; so far as I am aware, this is something that is still missing from Avaris. Most importantly, neither site yet has an indisputable link with the port: no standing structures, for example, have been found in situ confirming its identity.

What the debate clearly highlights is the need for more concentrated work on these neglected parts of Egyptian town sites, especially as more and more of the Nile Delta is investigated, mapped and archaeologically recorded. A question of particular interest is what happened to the ports and their populations as the river or river branches moved about and silted up, attaching islands to one or other riverbank and perhaps causing the earlier harbours to be abandoned.Were harbours originally a way of controlling immigrant and maritime communities, and was the disappearance of those communities a result of social integration as much as environmental change? Perhaps the most tantalising question of all is: what happened to all the ships? Ô David Jeffreys is Senior Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology,University College London and Field Director of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Survey of Memphis.

37

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Notice Board Egypt Exploration Society Events London

Manchester

Cairo

London events are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Enquiries: Egypt Exploration Society, 3 Doughty Mews, LondonWC1N 2PG. Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880. E-mail:

EES lectures are held in Lecture Theatre 1, Stopford Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester at 7.00 pm.

Enquiries: Rosalie David, KNH Centre of Biomedical Egyptology, School of Biological Sciences,University of Manchester,Manchester M13 9PT. Phone: +44 (0)161 275 2647.

E-mail: rosalie.david@man.ac.uk

EES lectures are usually held in the auditorium of the British Council at 7.00 pm. but ongoing construction work means that the venue may have to be changed, or the lectures cancelled. Please confirm dates and venue in advance with the Egypt Exploration Society Cairo Office, c/o British Council, 192 Sharia el-Nil, Agouza, Cairo.

Phone: +20 (0)2 3001886. E-mail: ees.

contact@ees.ac.uk

Saturday 17 June 2006. EES Study Day on Astronomy and Ancient Egypt in the Brunei Gallery Theatre, SOAS. The speakers will include both Astronomers (Malcolm Coe and Sarah Symons) and Egyptologists.

Full details and a booking form will be sent in the EES spring mailing.

Saturday 14 October 2006. EES Study Day in the Brunei Gallery Theatre, SOAS. Full details and a booking form will be sent in the EES summer 2006 mailing.

Saturday 9 December, 2006. The EES Annual General Meeting, lecture and reception in the afternoon/early evening in the Khalili Theatre, Main Building, SOAS. Full details and a booking form for the reception in the autumn 2006 mailing.

Bolton

cairo@britishcouncil.org.eg

Thursday 22 June 2006. Kristin Thompson, Amarna Statuary: recent discoveries and rediscoveries. Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Le Mans Crescent, Bolton. 7.30pm, admission free.

ContactTom Hardwick:+44 (0)1204 332212.

E-mail: tom.hardwick@bolton.gov.uk

Monday 3 April 2006. A M Farghaly, Veterinary medicine in Islamic manuscripts.

Horncastle, Lincolnshire

Monday 17 April 1006. Hourig Sourouzian, News from the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III at Thebes.

Saturday 22 April 2006. A joint EES/AEMES Study-Day on current EES fieldwork as part of the AEMES residential weekend.

Speakers: Andrew Bednarski, Angus Graham, Paul Nicholson and Pamela Rose.Phone:+44 (0)1754 765341.Website: www.aemes.co.uk

Monday 10 April 2006. Katrin Maurer, The animal necropolis at Tuna el-Gebel: cult installations for sacred baboons.

Please contact the Cairo Office (details above) to confirm the above lectures and for information on further lectures and site visits later in 2006.

NON-EES LECTURES AND OTHER EVENTS Lectures on ancient and modern Egypt, and other cultural events, are held at the Education and Cultural Bureau, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt, 4 Chesterfield Gardens, London W1Y 8BR at 6.45 pm. Phone: +44 (0)20 7491 7720. E-mail: egypt.culture@btconnect.com

To 21 April 2006. Exhibition Collective Traces: a response to the Petrie Museum at the Instute of Archaeology, 31 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. Website: www.ucl. ac.uk/archaeology/intro/UCLmap.htm

To 23 April 2006. Exhibition Discovering Ancient Egypt.Wakefield Museum,Wood St, WakefieldWF1 2EW.Phone:+44 (0)1924 305356.Website:+++Û+_µ•›•¶ƒÛ¡Å*Û$µ To 23 April 2006. Exhibition Egypt Revealed. Hancock Museum, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PT. Phone: +44 (0)191 222 7418. Website: www. twmuseums.org.uk/hancock

28-30 April 2006.The 57th Annual Conference of the American Research Center in Egypt will be held in Jersey City, New Jersey. Phone: +1 404-712-9854 Fax: +1 404-712-9849. E-mail: arce@emory.edu Website: www.arce.org

13 May 2006. Bloomsbury Academy spring conference on Tutankhamun. Bloomsbury Theatre, London. Details: Bloomsbury Summer School and Academy, Dept of History, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT. Phone: +44 (0)207 6793622. Fax: +44 (0)207 4138394.Email: bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com Website: www.egyptology-uk.com/bloomsbury 16 May 2006. Sudan Archaeological Research Society International Colloquium Recent Archaeological Fieldwork in Sudan at the British Museum, London. Phone +44 (0)20 73238500. E-mail sars@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk Website: www.www.sudarchrs.org.uk 22-25 May 2006. Conference Walls of the Ruler: fortifications, police beats and military checkpoints in ancient Egypt. Centre for Egyptology and Mediterranean Archaeology, Swansea University. Phone: +44 (0)1792 295187. Fax: +44 (0)1792 295739.Website: www.swan.ac.uk/ classics/research/cema/conferences.htm

To 3 June 2006. Exhibition Excavating Egypt (loan from the Petrie Museum) at the Albany Institute of History and Art, New York.

10 July - 4 August 2006. Bloomsbury Summer School,UCL,London.Details:as 13 May conference above.

38

14-16 July 1006. Conference Egypt: Ancient histories and modern archaeologies.Dept of Archaeology, University of Durham.

Phone:+44 (0)191 3341130.Website: www. dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/conferences

18 July 2006. The Annual Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture In Egyptology, British Museum, London by Laure Pantalacci at 6.00 pm. See below.

19-20 July 2006. British Museum Colloquium, Dakhla and Kharga Oases. Details from March at: www.thebritishmuseum. ac.uk/aes/sackler06.html Tickets for both the Sackler Lecture and the Colloquium will be available after 1 June 2006 Phone: +44 (0)207 3238306.Fax: +44 (0)207 3238303.

Email: acameron@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk 27 August - 2 September 2006.The 11th International Conference of Nubian Studies. Warsaw University, Warsaw. Website: www.nubia2006.uw.edu.pl

23 October 2006. Bristol University’s Amelia Edwards Memorial Lecture.David Singleton, The Taharqo Wall Painting Rescue Project. 5.15pm. Wills Memorial Building, Queen’s Road, Bristol 8.Website: www.bris. ac.uk/archanth/staff/dodson/esb/esbprog.html

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

The temple of Ramesses II at El-Sheikh Ibada

El-Sheikh Ibada in Middle Egypt is the site of the Roman city of Antinoopolis but among its earlier monuments is a temple of Ramesses II. Gloria Rosati describes the temple which is now being restored and recorded for publication.

El-Sheikh Ibada (Antinoopolis). General view, from the north-west, of the site with the temple of Ramesses II in the foreground

later he described the funerary shafts on the hill, east of the town, which date back to the Middle Kingdom. In 1897 Gayet published the results of his excavations but his account seems somewhat over-enthusiastic, as he described the discovery of the ancient Egyptian quarter in the Roman town as being just like another Pompeii:‘une capitale pharaonique ressuscitait de ses cendres, dont il était aisé de suivre les rues,de parcourir les avenues,de visiter les carrefours’.

The main religious building there, he said, looks like a masterpiece:‘avait ses murs et ses colonnes debout;l’édifice était intact à la toiture près; des bas-reliefs et des inscriptions tapissaient toutes les surfaces (…), un cour s’étend large de 60 mètres profonde de 90. Plus loin encore, s’ouvrait le sanctuaire, précédé de la salle des offertoires et entouré de diverses salles’.

In 1939 the Italian mission of the Istituto Papirologico ‘GirolamoVitelli’of the University of Florence began work at the site, under the direction of Sergio Donadoni.After a break during the Second World War, in the 1960s the expedition revealed a proto-dynastic necropolis near the Nineteenth Dynasty temple and, further east, a number of Ptolemaic buildings.They found that things were quite different from Gayet’s colourful description; there was no wall, no chapel, no ‘avenues’, and the sanctuary had been destroyed. In fact they discovered that Gayet had not excavated the building down to floor level; he just

The modern village of El-Sheikh Ibada is on the east bank of the Nile, very close to the river, and opposite the westbank ancient city of Hermopolis (modern Ashmunein).

The desert cliffs behind the site are composed of a fine white limestone broken by the large entrance to a desert wadi which can be travelled as far as the Red Sea. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, or his advisors, recognised at once the economic relevance of the place, and it was chosen as the site for a new city called Antinoopolis, after Antinous, the Emperor’s young favourite, who had been drowned in the Nile. However, it was not the first town to be built there and, although we do not know either the name or the size of the earlier settlement, there is evidence for previous occupation at the site from the very beginning of the pharaonic period to the Roman era, at least up to the time of Augustus.The most impressive monument surviving from pharaonic Egypt is the temple of Ramesses II. The existence of the Ramesside temple, in the western part of Antinoopolis, went unnoticed by early European travellers until 1870, when Georg Ebers, for the first time, mentioned a few capitals and some fragments which he happened to see and unearth. Then, at the very end of the nineteenth century, the French archaeologist Albert Gayet excavated the Ramesses II temple. A few years 39

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

uncovered the standing columns of the court and the hypostyle hall, whose decoration he reproduced in the plates of his publication.

Before the outbreak of the war, Donadoni succeeded in publishing a nearly complete description of the temple as it then appeared, showing a traditional plan: facing west, toward the river - it may have been connected by means of a long dromos to a landing stage. The temple consists of a square court entered through the usual pylon (the gate decorated with a blue ceiling and yellow stars), c.18m wide. The twin towers flanking the entrance are now destroyed,with only the foundation grooves extant, though a number of their fallen blocks have survived, together with blocks from the cavetto cornice which surmounted the towers.The open court,with six columns on each side and a terraced portico in front of the entrance, with a double row of columns,drew attention to the king: on the huge architraves,above the columns,his titulary and epithets were incised with carefully carved and painted hieroglyphs. From the central aisle, the king is always in sight on the column shafts,where he is shown performing the ritual offering scenes before gods and goddesses. On the eastern portico, however, it was an oversize statue of a baboon (1.60m) which dominated the court, sitting on a base just like the colossal ones, dedicated to Thoth by Amenhotep III, which were discovered in Hermopolis some years later.The front part of the baboon is severely damaged, but when unearthed the statue still showed traces of brilliant colours, with red fur and blue skin.

The external walls of the temple have been destroyed, and only one fragment of the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which would have covered every surface is extant; it comes from the rear wall of the terrace which separated the court from the hypostyle hall. It is decorated in a very low relief and shows the king followed by his ka, making offering to Amun-Re. The wide hypostyle hall would have been rather impressive, with its four rows of columns, at least 16 originally (24 according to the excavator):the columns of the central rows,with plain closed papyrus capitals,are higher than the side rows, and supported walls with open-work windows - Donadoni recorded one of them, with a falcon head.

The decoration of the shafts is different here: only one scene on each of the four extant axial columns, showing Ramesses II offering in front of a pair of seated gods. On the columns of the side aisles, which were not reproduced in the publication by Gayet,there is no figured decoration, but only a square with the royal titulary and epithets.

At present it is not possible to reconstruct the sanctuary area but a row of three rooms is very probable, as three architraves are extant. However, this part of the temple was changed when some private houses were built there, making use also of stones from the temple itself.

Many statues (now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) have been recovered from the same area: the goddess Sekhmet, standing (1.85m), and a head from another

Part of a column capital with painted decoration

Detail of a hieroglyphic inscription.

Fragment of a column capital, with parts of the cartouches of Ramesses II

Amarna Period block with the remains of cartouches

40

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

similar statue; a fragmentary cow (Hathor/ Isis) suckling a young pharaoh; a standing figure of Horus with a falcon head (1.65m); a fragmentary baboon (head 9.5cm); and a very fine statue, though reworked, naming Ramesses II ‘beloved of Isis’ (1.73m). The number and variety of statues tally with the high number of gods mentioned in the column scenes and inscriptions that it is impossible to say which is the main god to whom the temple was dedicated. On the columns flanking the entrance, in the court, Thoth and Shepsi of Hermopolis are shown on the northern side, with Harakhty and Atum of Heliopolis on the southern side; all the main gods of the neighbouring places are mentioned, together with the national gods, those of Thebes, Memphis and, especially, Heliopolis, the ‘royal’ gods. Most probably the temple was dedicated to them and all the gods, local and national, in order to emphasise and enhance the role of the pharaoh himself.

Gayet had unearthed an Amarna stone block, c.100m north of the temple; but he did not notice one distinctive feature of the building: it is mostly built with reused stones,huge sandstone blocks and limestone talatat-blocks, which – at least according to a few extant inscriptions on the stones themselves – had been originally made for the buildings of Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna).Ramesses II made use in abundance of that material,and German excavations in the 1930s at Ashmunein-Hermopolis discovered very large amounts of talatat-blocks from the foundations of Ramesside buildings there,while the British Museum expedition which worked at Ashmunein in the 1980s found

The baboon statue, from the east terrace of the court

re-used Amarna pieces in temple structures of Horemheb.

In the 1930s Donadoni unearthed, from the rear part of the temple at Antinoopolis, a foundation layer made with finely carved talatat blocks, and he also noticed that the pylon towers had been built with reworked half-drums of a colossal column and that a part of the ramp to the eastern portico showed typical Amarna-style decoration,as visible on a few paving stones, here and there in the court.

One unusual feature of the columns in the court was that all of them have a deep coat of plaster which covered the reworked surfaces. In a few places, the previous Amarna Period decoration has been revealed: the Aten disk, once distinctly upside-down, or the scanty traces of a figured scene with the royal family.

It is this fascinating research that has been continued during recent campaigns, when a number of blocks from the pylon foundations and from the court or from neighbouring places have been moved for protection into the mission’s store-room.

While these new documents from such an interesting monument are being studied and published, work will also proceed with the restoration of the temple so that this important, but little-known, pharaonic monument can be made more accessible to visitors who come to this area which has an uninterrupted economic and cultural history. Ô Gloria Rosati is a Researcher and Teacher of Egyptology in the Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità at the University of Florence.

She works with the Antinoopolis expedition as Egyptologist and Epigraphist and would like to thank Roberto Magazzini, the expedition’s photographer.

Court of the temple, from the north side 41

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Bookshelf

Barry Kemp Ancient Egypt:Anatomy of a Civilization.Routledge,2006.2nd edition (ISBN 0 415 23550 2). Price: £55 (hard back), £16.99 (paperback). This revised edition of Barry Kemp’s Ancient Egypt has been eagerly awaited by many Egyptologists (especially those of us who have shamelessly filched its insights and its distinctive line-drawings for our lectures), and I should state from the outset that it does not disappoint; this is not a cosmetic revision but one that significantly alters and improves the book. For those who are not familiar with its 1st edition (can that be true of any dedicated Egyptian Archaeology reader?) I should note that the book, as its title suggests, attempts to present, in one volume, the essence of Egyptian culture, and some indication of the ways in which it gradually emerged and evolved.

The combination of archaeology and texts is similar to that employed to good effect in Trigger et al. Ancient Egypt: a social history, but in Kemp’s book the chapters are primarily thematic rather than historical (although the chapters deal with the material in a roughly chronological order).

The main changes and additions in the revised edition can be summarised as a balance sheet.

On the credit side there are two entirely new chapters (one comprising a study of the ancient Egyptians’identity,and another taking the form of a summary of cultural change from the end of the New Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Period) and the injection, at numerous points throughout the text, of a great deal of the new archaeological data that has accumulated during the seventeen years that have elapsed since the first edition. Chapter 3 ‘The dynamics of culture’, for example, now incorporates discussion of the early religious material at Tell Ibrahim Awad. On the debit side, the long chapter on the archaeology of Amarna has gone (but of course it hasn’t really gone because it’s still there in the 1st edition, making the two editions now in effect complementary resources). Even with a missing chapter, more has been gained than lost, and the book is now about 80 pages longer, with an updated bibliography as well as text.

In his new introduction the author discusses the aims of both editions. He manages to make it fairly clear that he was keen to add the anthropologically-oriented first chapter ‘Who were the ancient Egyptians?’ but that he essentially had to be persuaded to write the new final chapter‘Moving on’.It is to his credit, however, that the latter seems nevertheless to have been written with just as much enthusiasm and attention to detail as the former; and the decision to approach the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period through a series of case-studies seems to me to work very well.

On a personal note (and I find it hard to be properly objective about a book I’ve always liked so much),one of the things that I particularly appreciated about the first edition was that it was written not in an overly academic style, but in such a way that the authentic voice of the author seemed often to be speaking, both

musing about some of the oddities of the culture or the data, and also talking to the reader in a very direct way. I have also always been impressed by its coherence as a work – even if you don’t agree with all of its underlying theories (whether pre-formal vs formal religion or the dominance of ‘control-freakery’ in Middle Kingdom material culture) the book has a flow and a momentum that make it highly persuasive as a total ‘manifesto’. In this 2nd edition my impression is that both of these assets are accentuated, making the new book even more distinctive than its predecessor. Ancient Egypt has quite rightly been the ideal book to recommend to serious Egyptological students, and in this new edition it will continue to occupy the same role.

IAN SHAW Charlotte Booth, The Hyksos Period in Egypt.

Shire Publications Ltd, 2005. (ISBN 0 7478 0638 1).Price:£5.99.Migration,ethnicity and questions of race are today popular subjects in all parts of society and so also in Egyptology, doubtless influenced by the challenges they present in modern times.The Hyksos Period is one of the darkest in Egyptian history and is concerned with all these subjects. People from Western Asia migrated into Northern Egypt and formed a mixed society within Egyptian borders, and perhaps even ruled greater parts of Egypt. In recent decades renewed research into different aspects of the period and the excavations at the Hyksos capital Avaris, modern Tell el-Daba, have yielded a rich corpus of new material for this period. However, there are still surprisingly many open questions remaining, and it is therefore much to be welcomed that this small book provides a general overview for readers unfamiliar with the research publications, many of which are not available in English.

After a brief historical introduction, the author discusses in her second chapter the rise of the Hyksos, which seems to follow an influx of Canaanites into the eastern Delta, dramatically visible in an increase of Syro42

Palestinian pottery at Avaris at the end of the Middle Kingdom (after 1750 BC), and the rise of people with foreign names to important political positions and finally to the kingship.

The third chapter is devoted to the settlements of the period, mainly the capital Avaris (Tell el-Daba). Fortifications and houses are discussed, and the growth of Avaris from an Egyptian town to a settlement for ever more people coming from Palestine is described. A good proportion of the chapter is devoted to a temple complex at Avaris with a mixture of building in Egyptian and Asiatic traditions.

The fourth chapter deals entirely with the religion of the Hyksos. Contrary to later ancient Egyptian propaganda,the author shows that the Hyksos worshipped Egyptian gods, including the sun god Re. Their main deity was Seth, whom they perhaps identified with the Near Eastern god Baal. The chapter ends with an account of the un-Egyptian burial customs of the Hyksos, who placed their dead often inside the settlements, sometimes even within houses. In the next chapter, the contributions of the Hyksos to Egyptian culture are discussed, demonstrating that the period was an era when Egypt did not just suffer under foreign rule,but also received new ideas, including advanced weapon technology. The country was now opened up to contact with other civilisations.

The author also notes finds abroad that suggest that Hyksos rulers were in contact with other Near Eastern or Mediterranean courts, such as those of the Hittites and Crete, and exchanged gifts. The final chapter discusses the Theban wars against the Hyksos and their expulsion under Ahmose at the beginning of the New Kingdom.

The book is fully illustrated with colour photographs, and several line drawings by the author. As already stated the period is one of the darkest of Egyptian history and, beside the development of the material culture, there are few facts which can be considered certain.The author is aware of these problems but seems not to be in full control of her sources, sometimes mixing information (e.g. p.18 and p. 27 where a Middle Kingdom water channel is described as belonging to the Hyksos Period) and sometimes over-interpreting the few sources (e.g. p.49:‘The downfall of the Hyksos was probably a result of the personal ambition and greed of Apophis’). For a more authoritative view on the period the reader might better consult one of the author’s main sources, Manfred Bietak, The Capital of the Hyksos (London, 1996), or the more recent chapter by Janine Bourriau in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (ed. Ian Shaw), pp.184-217 (Oxford 2000).

WOLFRAM GRAJETSKI Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt.Translated from the German by David Lorton, abridged and updated by the author, Cornell University Press, 2005. (ISBN 0 8014 4241 9). Price: £31.50. For two decades, translations have made life so much easier for the English-reader interested in ancient

EGYPTIAN

Egyptian religion,giving access to works by the two most influential writers in the field, Erik Hornung (notably Valley of the Kings,1990,and The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, 1999), and Jan Assmann, with The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, 2001, and now this translation of his 2001 volume Tod und Jenseits im alten Ägypten. The Egyptologist David Lorton has again translated with great fluency of style; he and Cornell Press deserve the warm thanks of readers for giving us these opportunities.

Like other Assmann books, Death and Salvation introduces a vast range of ancient Egyptian writing of a content utterly impenetrable without some guidance. Of course Raymond Faulkner long ago provided direct entry into the main bodies of funerary literature, with English translations of the ‘Pyramid Texts’, the ‘Coffin Texts’ and the ‘Book of the Dead’.

Yet modern numbered sequences of ‘spells’ and ‘chapters’, however convenient for reference, obliterate context. I wonder how many Egyptian Archaeology readers have, like me, consulted a ‘CT spell’ or a ‘BD chapter’, read the words, and understood nothing.We need guidance:Egyptologists sometimes offer it for a single object, or object type, as Harco Willems did for Middle Kingdom coffins, in Chests of Life, 1988, and The Coffin of Heqata, 1996, but Assmann aims more ambitiously at the entire architecture of the afterlife and everything ever written and depicted in it. And he has his eye on more than Egypt, stating his three aims as to introduce the thought world of ancient Egyptian mortuary religion, then to

ARCHAEOLOGY

show how this is the centrepoint of its ‘cultural consciousness’, permeating everything in daily thought and action, and, finally, to consider this for ‘insights into the relationship between death and culture’, using ancient Egypt in the comparative study of human individuals and societies – showing how we can understand ourselves through ancient Egypt.The challenge seems irresistible.

In philosophic style, the pages and even titles are full of new words and terms from Greek and Latin, as the author evidently finds contemporary language insufficient.Yet any reader unable to stomach unio liturgica or ‘resultativity’ is missing out on a uniquely detailed guide to ancient Egypt. Although the book follows a logical path, its chapters can also stand as individual lectures, or conversations which the author invites us to start with the Egyptians through their ancient writings. In chapter 12, for example,we are guided through the Middle Kingdom liturgies that lurk within volume 1 of the Faulkner ‘Coffin Texts’ translation. For this kind of reading, it is a pity that this abridged English version had to leave out the indices (in the 2001 German edition, you can look up, and quickly make sense of, any ‘Book of the Dead’ chapter or other composition covered in the book). The German version also used illustrations extensively; much ancient writing is embedded in visual sources, and it is easier to follow the author through these visually as well as in printed text. Another loss is the quantity of translation, as with the discussion (pp.36-37) of ‘Book of the Dead’ chapter 172.

43

Yet, the substance of the argument is there, in another of those acts of revelation that Assmann performs on such writing:‘chapter 172’ turns out to belong to a world of‘deification of limbs’ that crosses from the laments of Isis to the love songs of the New Kingdom, and somehow enters the Bible as the ‘Song of Songs’. So we move from ‘chapter 172’: ‘your lashes last forever, your eyelids are of fast lapis blue’ to Solomon: ‘your eyes are doves behind your veil, your hair like a herd of goats descending Gilead’s slopes’. Here, we discover why we need Assmann for these writings, even if we may argue with him over the ‘truth’ of his very philological view of Egypt. We must not put away our books on burial customs, or forget the archaeology that can tell us more - for example, it is the pottery repertoire which will tell us whether they used ‘Letter to the Dead’ plates for offering water (so Assmann, p.161) or food, as seems more practical.Yet we have to come back to this book and others if we are to find our way through the extraordinary visual and written world that the Egyptians STEPHEN QUIRKE Robyn Gillam, Performance and Drama in Ancient Egypt. Duckworth Publishing, 2005.

(ISBN 0 7156 3404 6). Price: £16.99. In the ‘Introduction’ to this unusual book, Dr Gillam notes the present-day blurring of distinctions between archaeology, ‘a scholarly, scientific pursuit’ and performance, as seen in television documentaries about ancient Egypt which feature ‘imaginative (some may well say over-

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

Membership Matters

EES Officers. In the autumn of 2005 the Society’s Vice-Chairman, John Tait, and the Treasurer, Michael Pike both resigned. Professor Tait, who had been Vice-Chairman since 2001, had been in overall charge of the Society’s publications programme and the results of his hard work can be seen in the number of new and forthcoming EES publications (see further p.2). Mr Pike, who had been Treasurer since 2003 and had been responsible for several new initiatives at the Society, resigned to take up a post in Mauritius.At the Society’s Annual General Meeting on 3 December 2005, Ian Shaw, a Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool was elected asVice-Chairman and Stewart White, a company director, was elected as Treasurer.

Egyptology in East Anglia. EES member, Dee Mason, has sent the following message: ‘Given the lack of a society devoted to ancient Egypt in East Anglia, we are contemplating setting one up in Norwich. Our first priority is to ascertain if there is a demand for such a society and in this respect we would be pleased to hear from any readers of Egyptian Archaeology who would like to be involved. In the first instance, please contact Dee Mason in writing at 31 Caernarvon Road, Norwich NR2 3HZ, by email at deebunce@hotmail.com or by phone on 01603 628570’.

EES Annual Subscriptions for 2006-2007 are due on 1 April 2006.

A renewal notice will be sent in the spring mailing and it would be appreciated if members could pay their subscriptions promptly,without the need for further reminders. UK-based members are encouraged to take out Banker’s Orders and, if they are taxpayers, to make a declaration of ‘Gift Aid’ which augments the value of their subscription.

Further information and forms can be obtained from Tracey Gagetta at the London Office. Phone: +44 (0)207 242 2268. Email: tracey. gagetta@ees.ac.uk Members based outside the UK who prefer to pay their subscriptions by credit/debit card will be sent details of how to do so in the spring mailing.

David Dixon, who had been ill with cancer for several years, died at his home in High Wycombe on 1 November 2005. David was born in 1930 and graduated in Hebrew and Egyptian from the Department of Egyptology,University College London, where his subsequent academic career was based. He was a Lecturer in Egyptology at UCL from 1967 and also acted as Honorary Curator of the Petrie Museum.In the 1950s David participated in EES excavations at Saqqara and Buhen but his fieldwork had to be curtailed when he developed problems with his eyesight.After serving on the EES Committee David Dixon with Bryan for many years, David became Honorary Sec- Emery in the EES house at Saqqara in 1963. retary in 1983 and held the position until 1992.

During this time David oversaw many changes Photograph: EES Archive as the Society’s administration became more professional. Despite his own lack of computer expertise, he actively encouraged the Office’s early computerisation, and also initiated the complete refurbishment of the premises in Doughty Mews. David was very supportive of members of the Office staff and took a genuine interest in their welfare, which he maintained after his retirement. His failing eyesight, and recently his bad health, meant that he could not often attend EES functions, but he was always a welcome guest when he was able to come.David had a strong Christian faith which sustained him, and his wife Jane, in his last difficult months. He will be greatly missed by his many friends in the Society.

David at the Office Christmas party in 1992, on his retirement as Honorary Secretary.

Photograph: EES Archive

Bookshelf (continued from p.43) imaginative) presentations’ by those who are simulating an enthusiasm for a subject about which they have little knowledge, often accompanied by costumed re-enactments of events in ancient Egypt. There has been also a growth of historical re-enactment in museums and heritage institutions with costumed interpreters acting-out ancient roles. In more academic contexts, Dr Gillam then describes how ‘performance archaeology’, originally developed by British prehistorians, has given new insights into ‘performance’ in antiquity, defined as ‘any organized activity presented to witnesses’. As the author states (p.135) ‘what we recognize as theatre is known only in a few cultures, and the version familiar to those in western culture is even more specific still’. Ancient Egypt did not have this theatrical tradition bu t d i d t h e Egyptians have ‘perfor mance

and drama’? As H W Fairman indicated in the opening words to his Triumph of Horus (1974):‘The problem of whether or not there was drama in Egypt is notoriously difficult to solve...’.

In Dr Gillam’s ‘Conclusion’ she states that there can be no doubt that ‘performances’ existed in ancient Egypt and that they ‘occupied a central position in Egyptian culture and society for the duration of its existence’.These ‘performances’were not theatrical productions as we would understand them but were ritual enactments undertaken on the occasion of religious, royal or family ceremonies where most of the participants would not have been professional entertainers but priests or ordinary people role-playing for the purposes of the particular performance.The evidence for ancient Egyptian performances is presented in four detailed but very readable chapters where Dr Gillam provides a valuable chronological summary of performances at different periods of Egyptian history - from what may be figures of dancing women with upraised arms painted on predynastic vessels, through the depictions of the Sed-festival and funerary ceremonies, to the complex ritual dramas of the GraecoRoman Period.

Dr Gillam then describes the experiences of herself and a colleague when they decided to

use ‘acting-out’ and role-playing as a means of engaging the interest of students at York University in Toronto. Initially this proposal was greeted with ‘disbelief and hostility’ by the students but they soon became absorbed in the project (in the process improving their own writing and organisational skills) and, in 1998, staged an ‘in the round’ performance of ‘The Triumph of Horus’ in an indoor public space.There was no designated audience area and the performance was seen by anyone who happened to pass through the space – a situation which Dr Gillam feels was analogous to that of some ancient Egyptian ‘performances’. Since this first performance the York University students have also enacted other Egyptian ‘dramas’ and the practical difficulties experienced by the students, for example when trying to make themselves heard while wearing masks, have provided insights into performances in ancient Egypt.

If I might end on a personal note, as a student in the 1970s at Liverpool University, I sat through several of Professor Fairman’s showings of the film of the Padgate College performance of ‘The Triumph of Horus’ and can confirm Dr Gillam’s comment (p.138) that ‘anecdotal evidence suggests that the repetitious uncut text made the audience a little restless’.

PATRICIA SPENCER

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

44

The Egypt Exploration Society New publications

Janine Bourriau, David Aston, Maarten J Raven and RenÝ van Walsem.

The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutankhamun III. The New Kingdom Pottery.

2005. ISBN 0 85698 167 2 EES Excavation Memoir 71 Full price: £35 EES members' price: £30

Jane Faiers (with Sarah Clackson, Barry Kemp, Gillian Pyke and Richard Reece) Late Roman pottery at Amarna and related studies.

2005. ISBN 0 85698 162 1 EES Excavation Memoir 72 Full price: £60 EES members' price: £50 Sue Davies and H S Smith The Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara.

The Falcon Complex and Catacomb.

The Archaeological Report.

2005. ISBN 0 85698 165 6.

EES Excavation Memoir 73 Full price: £90 EES members' price: £75

Maarten J Raven (with Barbara G Aston, Georges Bonani, Jacobus van Dijk, Geoffrey T Martin, Eugen Strouhal and Y-¶¶- YÅ•¶•-Ø The Tomb of Pay and Raia at Saqqara 2005 ISBN 0 85698 164 8.

EES Excavation Memoir 74. Joint publication with the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.

Full price: £95

EES members' price: £80

J D Ray, Demotic Papyri and Ostraca from Qasr Ibrim.

2005. ISBN 0 85698 158 3 EES Texts from Excavations 13

Full price: £25

EES members' price: £21

All EES publications can be purchased from: Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, OX1 1HN, UK. Fax: +44 (0)1865 79449. Phone: +44 (0)1865 241249.

E-mail: orders@oxbowbooks.com.

Website (with both sterling and US dollar prices): www.oxbowbooks.com

Prices do not include postage and packing.

For a full list of EES publications in print, please visit: http://www.ees.ac.uk/publications/pubintro.htm