Egyptian Archaeology 43 by TheEES

No. 43 Autumn 2013

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EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

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

EGYPTIAN

ARCHAEOLOGY

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

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

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 Ltd Angard House, 185 Forest Road, Hainault, Essex IG6 3HU www.ccpress.co.uk

The tomb of Harwa (TT 37): An offering bearer from the north portico decoration. Part of a digital collage by Francesco Tiradritti. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera. See pp.17-20. This offering bearer follows those in the image at the top of p.19.

Number 43

Autumn 2013

Nile Delta research Patricia Spencer

Doing more in Egypt Chris Naunton EES Patrons

A family of photographers at Saqqara David Jeffreys EES news and events

Ancient Theban temple and palace landscapes Angus Graham and Kristian Strutt

Ptolemaic houses at Abydos Timothy Sandiford

The tomb of Horimin José F Alonso García

From a tomb at Haragah to St Louis, Missouri Robert Bianchi

The cenotaph of Harwa: archaism and innovation Francesco Tiradritti

A new family cemetery at Abu Sir South Miroslav Bárta

Fortress Commandants of the kingdom of Kush Mariusz Drzewiecki

Digging Diary 2012-13 Patricia Spencer

The funerary palace of Padiamenope at Thebes Claude Traunecker and Isabelle Régen

TT33: the Book of the Dead and the Book of Caverns Silvia Einaudi and Daniel Werning

Plinthine on Lake Mareotis Sylvain Dhennin and Bérangère Redon Inset box: The identification of Kom el-Nugus as Plinthine Marie-Françoise Boussac

KV 63: the glass inlay decoration on Iny’s coffin Otto J Schaden and Earl L Ertman

Bookshelf

Cover illustration. The serdab of the tomb of Nefer at Abu Sir South, showing statues in the course of excavation. See pp.21-24. Photograph: Miroslav Bárta.

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Nile Delta research Delta Survey fieldwork at Tell Mutubis (directed by Penny Wilson) and Tell Buweib (Jeffrey Spencer), initially planned for spring 2013, had to be postponed when permissions were not received in time, but fortunately both the Tell Basta expedition (led by Eva Lange) and the Minufiyeh Governorate Survey (Joanne Rowland) were able to work as normal with a new survey project in Imbaba Governorate also initiated (see further, ‘Digging Diary’ p.28). At the time of writing (mid-September), with the current unrest in Egypt, and with the FCO advising against non-essential travel to the Nile Valley and Delta, it is looking unlikely that the EES will be able to send any field expeditions this autumn, though this will be kept under review by the Society. Work planned by the EES Delta expeditions for the last quarter of the year will probably have to be rescheduled for spring 2014. Although not all the Society’s field expeditions were able to work in early 2013, the third Delta Survey Workshop did take place at the British Council in Agouza, Cairo, on 22 and 23 March. Once again the Workshop was hosted jointly by the EES and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the Society is very grateful to the Minister, and colleagues in the MSA, for supporting the event. The Delta Survey Workshops started in 2009 with a more modest one-day conference (see EA 35, p.11) and then expanded to fill two days in 2011 (EA 39, p.3) and this year. The number of Delta researchers attending has also grown and in 2013 around 70 delegates heard 26 papers on recent fieldwork and research in or concerning the Delta and Sinai. Most of the nationalities working in the Nile Delta were represented and about one third of the papers were given by Egyptian colleagues from the MSA, museums or universities. In response to requests for the papers from the 2013 Workshop to be published, it was decided to upload these to the EES website as downloadable ‘open access’

EES Delta fieldwork in Spring 2013. Left: Eva Lange on site at Tell Basta. Right: Salima Ikram examining mummified material at Quesna. Photographs: Aidan Dodson

PDFs and those who gave papers in March were invited to send their text and images for editing and formatting. Since some of the speakers have At the MSA/EES Delta Survey Workshop. already published, Left to right: Aidan Dodson, Joanne Rowland and Fayza Haikal or intend in the future to publish, their material elsewhere, not all the presentations will be available on the EES website, but where possible, links will be provided to online publication elsewhere, as has been done for the paper on the British Museum’s work at Naukratis. Abstracts for all the 2013 Delta Workshop presentations have been uploaded to the EES website (see: www.ees.ac.uk/news/index/227.html) and four full papers were added in August: Aiman Ashmawy Ali The SCA excavation at Tell Basta 2002 Ayman Wahby and Karim Abdel Fattah Some little-known archaeological sites in Dakahlia Governorate Hesham M Hussein and Sayed Abd el-Aleem Tell el-Kedwa (Qedua): Saite Fortresses on Egypt’s Eastern Frontier Manuela Lehmann Skylines, bridges and mud in the Delta and elsewhere Additional papers will be uploaded as they are received, and after editing. Anyone who would like to be advised when further papers are added should send an e-mail asking to be kept informed to patricia.spencer@ees.ac.uk.

Some of the 70 delegates at the 2013 Delta Survey Workshop during one of the presentations. Photograph: Aidan Dodson

PATRICIA SPENCER

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Doing more in Egypt During several visits to Egypt in the last year or so I have made a point of trying to meet as many friends and colleagues as possible, particularly at the Ministry of Antiquities, to talk to them about the situation in Egypt generally, and how our aims might fit with what is needed in Egypt at the moment. The recent Forming Material Egypt conference (see photograph on p.4) hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies and University College London, with the Society’s assistance, offered an additional Essam Nagy at the temple opportunity for discussion of some of Monthu at Karnak. of the practical issues relating Photograph: Aidan Dodson to the survival of ancient Egyptian material in Egypt and dispersal to Museum collections around the world, and how, in post-revolutionary Egypt, we might work together to tackle these issues. As part of a thorough ‘organisational review’ we have taken the opportunity to review the activities of the Cairo office. We are very fortunate to have both a member of staff and a base in Egypt, and we have a responsibility to make good use of this opportunity. The Society’s Cairo Representative of the last six years, Faten Saleh, retired in June having worked tirelessly to facilitate the work of our research projects, to maintain our network of contacts and programme of lectures and excursions trips and to act as our ‘eyes and ears’ in Cairo. We have now created a new post of ‘Fieldwork and Engagement Manager’ to run the Cairo office and Faten’s successor in this new role will be Essam Nagy. Essam has been working as a Ministry of Antiquities Inspector at Karnak for the last few years and has also worked in the tourist industry which gives him a good blend of experience of both professional Egyptology and archaeology and the workings of the Ministry, and also of more commercial and public-facing work. With Essam’s help we will be developing our programme of educational events, placing less emphasis on the didactic and purely academic, and more on discussion and the practical. We want to offer more events such as the successful Delta Workshops (see opposite), and more on-site training through field-schools such as the

Faten Saleh (right) with the two MSA colleagues for whom the EES provided English language training

one run by Joanne Rowland at Quesna with great success recently. We can also assist our colleagues at the Ministry of Antiquities through the provision of English language tuition. In response to a request from the Ministry we were able to provide two of their employees with places on the British Council’s courses from January this year and thanks to the generosity of the Council’s Egypt Director, Mark Stephens, we will be extending the offer to a further five from September 2013. Finally, one of the two Centenary Awards made this year went to an Egyptian archaeologist, Hany el-Tayeb, for his work on the beautifully decorated Old Kingdom mastaba tomb of Rashepses. This is the first time we have been able to support an entirely Egyptian-led project in the field and the money provided by the Society through the Centenary Fund was the only financial support available to Hany this year after MSA funding was withdrawn due to budgetary constraints following the revolution. The tomb was first recorded by Lepsius, lost until it was re-excavated by Quibell in the early years of the twentieth century, then buried Hany el-Tayeb inside the tomb beneath the sands again. Hany of Rashepses at Saqqara has relocated the tomb, and uncovered a number of previously unknown chambers; a report by him will appear in Egyptian Archaeology 44. Egypt is a much-changed country since the revolution. The challenges of looking after such an incredibly rich historical legacy and inheritance are numerous and extensive but there is a great optimism and willingness to discuss openly the challenges faced. There is great enthusiasm at the Society to play a part in helping our Egyptian colleagues to meet these challenges. I hope you will agree that we’re taking steps in the right direction. CHRIS NAUNTON

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

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A family of photographers at Saqqara In all the publicity that Saqqara has received as an archaeological site, it is often forgotten or overlooked that much essential recording (in some cases the only recording) of excavation sites and finds in the area has been done by the official photographer for the SCA Inspectorate of the Memphis/Saqqara area. When I began work at Memphis in the 1970s the photographer was Hasibullah el-Tayeb, an extremely dignified and generous soul, who was always happy to help us and even gratified that someone took an interest in his work. Hasibullah had followed in the footsteps of his father, El-Tayeb Ahmed, who had worked with James Quibell in the early twentieth century. In turn, Hasibullah’s son, Salah, has taken over the role part-time, and has been an equally invaluable source of information, much of which concerned local Egyptian authorities’

investigation and much of which never enters official reports or is even recorded, let alone published. Hasibullah worked with what might be considered antiquated equipment, but in fact that was a great advantage: until his eyesight started to fail James Quibell and El-Tayeb Ahmed (indicated his images are sharp by arrows drawn on the original photograph) with the staff of the Saqqara Inspectorate and viewpoints well building (the taftish) in 1909 judged. The vital aspect of our association with him is that he was often the only person who could identify the sites (everyone else had passed away by then). For many years the photographic archive was kept in Hasibullah’s studio, immaculately referenced, mounted and labelled (all in hard copy of course: this was long before the days of digitisation), and Hasibullah was in total control of the material. He had been present, and active recording, at many local excavations during the 1950s, 60s and 70s and was a huge help in providing information for the Memphis survey, even (re-)visiting sites with us despite being increasingly frail. Hasibullah died some years ago, but his legacy lives on: the archive has now been physically moved but copies and (some) digitised versions are kept on site in the new MSA offices at Saqqara. We will always be grateful to him for his diligence, hard work and readiness to share his knowledge with us. DAVID JEFFREYS

In the courtyard of Beit Emery, the EES house at Saqqara, in 1979. Back row, left to right: Yusef Gabriel (house staff), Reis Hilmi and Reis Mahmud, Harry Smith, Gabr el-Khouroubi (house staff), Hazel Smith and Ali Hussein (house cook). Front row, left to right: John Ray, David Jeffreys, Lisa Giddy and Nicholas Reeves. Photograph taken by Hasibullah el-Tayeb

See further: egyptianarchaeology.tumblr.com/ (post of 14 February 2013) and www.flickr.com/photos/egyptexplorationsociety/sets/

EES news and events Regular news updates are posted on our website, www.ees.ac.uk, which we would urge readers to consult regularly for up-to-the-minute information on all EES activities, including our current fieldwork and research. EES news can also be found on our Facebook page: http://tinyurl. com/eesfacebookpage. If you would like to receive our regular e-newsletter please e-mail: contact@ees.ac.uk At the Forming Material Egypt conference held at UCL on 20-22 May 2013. Left to right: Abdelrazek el-Naggar, Alexandra Villing, Tarek Tawfik, Stephen Quirke, Maher Eissa and Daniela Picchi

At the Patrons and Donors event on 17 July 2013: Art Conservator, Laila Hackforth-Jones (daughter of Margaret Drower) describing her conservation of the Society’s painting of Queen Ahmose by Howard Carter to Larry Owens, a member of the EES team working in Minufiyeh Governorate

The EES Field Directors in Doughty Mews on 17 July 2013. Left to right: Jeffrey Spencer (Delta Survey), Penny Wilson (Sais and Tell Mutubis), Eva Lange (Tell Basta), David Jeffreys (Survey of Memphis), Joanne Rowland (Minufiyeh and Imbaba Surveys) and Angus Graham (Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey)

Aidan Dodson at the start of his talk, Howard Carter, the Egypt Exploration Fund and beyond, to EES Members at the British Council in Cairo, on 4 March 2013. Aidan was in Egypt from January to May 2013 as William K and Marilyn M Simpson Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. Photograph: Dyan Hilton

Discussion time at the Palaces and Residences in Ancient Egypt conference on 12-14 June 2013, with (standing) Peter Lacovara and Chris Naunton and (seated at the podium) Eva Lange and Manfred Bietak

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Ancient Theban temple and palace landscapes Building on the successful results of the first season in 2012, the Egypt Exploration Society’s Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey (THaWS) continued work in early 2013. Angus Graham and Kristian Strutt report on the latest results, which have raised new questions. strong anomaly on the line of the central temple axis also indicates a possible extension of a central processional way into the fields. Could it be possible that we had two processional routes into the temple prior to the construction of the mud-brick pylon later in Tuthmosis III’s reign or does the southern linear anomaly represent architecture related to the central axis? At the Royal Cult Temple of Amenhotep III (Kom el-Hettan), in collaboration with Hourig Sourouzian and the ‘Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project’ team, we continued our investigation of the channel identified in the Third Court and the possible channel to the east of the Colossi of Memnon (EA 41, p.24). A GPR area survey (AG01) in the First Court indicates the presence of a possible wall or court enclosure to the north of the Colossi, with walled sides of a possible route or axis running behind each of the monuments. Other large stone rubble is visible in a possible pit measuring some 5m across to the north of the Colossus of Memnon. It would be wishful thinking to suggest that, if this is a rubble-filled pit, it might contain fragments of Memnon’s head! Three ERT profiles (P21, P22, P23) and two GPR profiles were carried out across the central axis in the First Court and to the east of the temple. In the Second

In January and February 2013, in our second full season of work, we investigated three main areas: Karnak, the Birket Habu and the Royal Cult Temple of Amenhotep III (Kom el-Hettan), with some additional work in front of the Royal Cult Temple of Tuthmosis III. We focused on the use of geophysical techniques, aiming to continue unravelling the extent to which the Egyptians were able to manipulate the floodplain in the Theban Region (see EA 38, p.3 and EA 41, pp.21-24). In a small (64m x 56m) area in front of the mud-brick pylon of the Royal Cult Temple of Tuthmosis III we carried out surveys using both GPR and magnetometry (see inset box on p.6). The data from both surveys is complementary and points towards the existence of a processional way aligned to the central axis of the temple. The magnetometry indicated the presence of possible wall structures to either side of the temple axis. Two positive discrete anomalies measuring 4m - 5m across suggest possible plinth bases. Two further dipolar anomalies measuring c.2m across indicate possible plinth bases in a volcanic stone such as granite. In the GPR survey a high amplitude linear feature on the edge of the survey area appears to be closely aligned to the axis of the secondary (southern) entrance leading from the outer court to a staircase ramp of limestone and sandstone. A

GPR area survey AG02 in front of the mud-brick pylon of the Royal Cult Temple of Tuthmosis III, with Dominic Barker, Youssef Mahmoud (pulling) and Reis Alaa Farouk (holding the cable).

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Court, GPR profile G012 confirmed the presence of a substantial cut in the western part of the profiles, between 10m and 30m along the profile, as seen in ERT Profile 13 in 2012 (EA 41, p.24). This feature seems to be aligned on the centre of the temple axis. ERT profiles P21, in the First Court, and P22, in front of the Colossi of Amenhotep III, both suggest a possible channel. In contrast to the Second Court ‘cut and fill’, P21 reveals an area of low resistivity which most probably represents fine floodplain sediments between 16m and 64m along the profile. This is suggestive of a cut made into the surrounding higher resistance material and subsequently filled with low resistance sediments - Nile muds. The centre of this is approximately aligned to the northern colossus, that identified with Memnon. If this feature was a channel cut in order to deliver ERT Profile P22 across the central axis of the Royal Cult Temple of Amenhotep III. Virginia Emery recording raw resistivity data with MSA Inspector Elazab Rageb Ahmed Abd Rabu the colossi standing in front of the second and Palace’ suggest that a northerly extension of the western third pylons, then the depth is certainly sufficient for row of mounds (no longer visible on the ground) may this process if the statues were transported during the have existed between the palaces of Amenhotep III and inundation. the lake area. At Birket Habu a GPR profile over the spoil mounds At Karnak the 18 GPR profiles totalled 5.4km in length between the ‘King’s Palace’ at Malqata and the Birket and most of these profiles remain to be processed, studied Habu reveal evidence of their process of construction and compared to the ERT data. An area GPR survey in the form of tip lines and also two internal terraces. (AG06) was conducted at the base of the ramps lying Three GPR profiles in the area of the so-called ‘North

Survey techniques and strategy During the season the upper part of the in early 2013, our ERT profiles. Electrical Resistivity GPR survey uses an Tomography (ERT) electromagnetic radar survey continued wave propagated with a further 14 through the soil to ERT profiles (10 search for changes on the West Bank in soil composition and four at Karnak) and the presence of covering a total of structures. We used 3.2km of profile a GSSI 200 MHz distance. We also antenna for our carried out one GPR survey with small magnetometer the frequency of the survey on the West antenna propagating Annotated results of ERT Profiles P21 in the First Court of the Royal Cult Temple of Bank. In addition a signal to a maximum Amenhotep III, and P22 just in front of the Colossi of Memnon to the techniques depth of 6m - 8m. used in 2012, we also employed Ground Penetrating All site survey work for the 2013 season was carried Radar (GPR) extensively this season, conducting 33 out using a Leica Viva GNSS differential GPS (using GPR profiles (15 on the West Bank and 18 at Karnak) GPS and GLONASS satellites) base-rover system, covering a distance of c.18.7km. Seven small area GPR incorporating a GS10 base sensor and a GS15 rover surveys (three on the West Bank and four in and around sensor, collecting data in WGS84 UTM36N (Universal Karnak) were carried out, covering an area of over two Transverse Mercator 36 North) coordinates (in metric hectares. Many of the GPR profiles were along the units). Base station control points were established for same lines as the 2012 and 2013 ERT profiles in order carrying out project work with a station on the West to compare the data in the GPR results with data from Bank and one on the East Bank.

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Correction: The Winter Palace Hotel was not built in 1886 (as stated in EA 41, p.21), but opened in January 1907. Gaston Maspero in his 1901 Ruines et paysages d’Egypte notes that the channel flowing past the gardens of the Luxor Hotel (the Khor el-Ammari) had recently been in-filled and the newly reclaimed lands sold. Angus is very grateful to Sylvie Weens for the correction of the opening date of the Winter Palace and the reference to Maspero’s observations on the channel.

q Angus Graham is Field Director of THaWS and an Honorary Research Associate, Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Kristian Strutt is Assistant Director of THaWS and geophysical researcher at the University of Southampton. The fieldwork is very much a team effort and we would like to thank all those involved for their expert contributions this season. The team is grateful to all at the MSA, but especially to Mohammed Ismail in Cairo and in Luxor to Mansour Boreik, Mohammed Abd el-Aziz, Ibrahim Suleiman and our Inspectors Abeer Sayed Mohammed (Karnak) and Elazab Rageb Ahmed Abd Rabu (West Bank). We are extremely grateful to Ray Johnson, Brett McClain, Hourig Sourouzian, Rainer Stadelmann and all the ‘Memnon team’, Diana Craig Patch, Peter Lacovara, Catharine Roehrig and Joel Paulson, and Alban-Brice Pimpaud for their support of our work and to Faten Saleh, then EES Representative in Cairo. Our thanks go to our Reises, Alaa Farouk and Omar Farouk, for their expertise, logistical organisation and putting together a great team. We are very grateful to the many farmers/landowners for their generosity in allowing us to work on their land. All illustrations are by the authors © Egypt Exploration Society.

The differential Leica Viva GNSS GS10 base sensor is set over the Survey of Egypt point on the Malqata-Birket Habu mound. Kris Strutt and Sarah Jones configure the GS15 rover sensor with Dominic Barker, Virginia Emery, Alaa Farouk and Youssef Mahmoud waiting to begin work

to the south of the tribune/reception platform in front of the First Pylon at the invitation of Mansour Boreik. The GPR identified six linear features in line with the central ramp, suggesting that the ramp extended further westwards beyond the line of the tribune and quayside walls. How far did this ramp extend and to what height above sea level did it descend? Could it have been used to (un)load Amun’s ceremonial barque on and off the processional boat for festival processions at a range of times during the annual cycle of the Nile? Further study of our data and additional fieldwork will help to clarify our interpretations to date and, hopefully, answer the many questions raised.

GPR area survey AG06 at the bottom of the ramps in front of the First Pylon at Karnak. Dominic Barker, Youssef Mahmoud (pulling), and Alaa Farouk (holding cable) followed by Sarah Jones recording the GPR traverses in the survey area

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Ptolemaic houses at Abydos The most recent season of work in the Northern Abydos Settlement Site was funded in part by an EES Centenary Award to Timothy Sandiford who describes how excavation is revealing domestic remains of the Ptolemaic to early Roman Periods. The area of greater Abydos is known mainly for its religious monuments, including royal tombs and funerary enclosures of the Early Dynastic Period, and New Kingdom temples. Abydos was also, however, the site of urban activity during its long history, and in particular little is known about the development or supposed decline of the ancient town during the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods The Brown University Abydos Project (BUAP), directed by Laurel Bestock under the aegis of the Pennsylvania-Yale-Institute of Fine Arts Expedition to Abydos (PYIFA), has carried out excavations investigating an area of domestic remains near the modern town of Al-Araba al-Madfunah. In 2007 the PYIFA conducted in the northern periphery of the Northern Cemetery a magnetometry survey which indicated an area of dense responses consistent with a main axial road running northwest to south-east. There appeared to be small routes of communication running between a dense but irregular area of structures broadly north-east of the presumed roadway. The total area of available deposits appears to be around 0.85 hectares. The BUAP excavations in the Northern Abydos Settlement Site encompass a total area of 20m x 20m, and have uncovered most of two multi-phase domestic structures. During the first (2010-11) season a single

The Northern Abydos Settlement Site with underlying magnetometry survey results. Base data courtesy of the Greater Abydos Mapping Project, PYIFA

10m x 10m unit was excavated to assess the general character and date of the structures encountered in the geophysical survey. That seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s excavations revealed a well-preserved building, Domestic Structure 1 (DS1), composed of unfired mud-brick walls with both ad hoc and finished mud floors in the majority of rooms. In the following season (2011-12), the area of excavation was expanded by the opening of three additional units of excavation immediately south, south-east, and west of the original 2010-11 unit. The expansion of the area of excavation allowed for the definition and investigation of an additional abutting domestic structure (DS2). The

The Northern Abydos Cemetery. Base data courtesy of the Greater Abydos Mapping Project, PYIFA

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deposit that had accumulated in all the rooms of DS1 after its terminal abandonment. The deposits overlying both the new threshold and floor surface contained not only large fragments of cooking vessels and Late Roman amphorae but also parts of at least two finely made green glass vessels. Preliminary analysis of the ceramics indicates a date of between the fourth and fifth centuries AD with the range of forms suggesting domestic occupation. It appears that DS1 underwent two distinct phases of development during its primary occupation. Initially the house was centered on a partly-covered courtyard with the main point of access into the building originating on the north-eastern side. At some point, probably towards the end of the second century BC, the house was extended on its north-eastern side to create an additional large room (Room I) and a large external space (Room H). It was within the south-east corner of Room H that an intact double burner mud-brick hearth was discovered, with an associated in situ grinding block and stone. The embanked deposits immediately around the hearth also contained 15 demotic ostraca (one double sided), representing the largest concentration within the total of 69 Greek and demotic ostraca recovered from both DS1 and DS2. The sectioning of the Room F internal deposits revealed an intact mud-brick vault that had been constructed inside an earlier collapsed vault at right angles to the original axis. The earlier collapsed vault appears to have pre-dated the construction of DS1 and DS2 and belongs to an as yet poorly understood set of deeper structures. Large parts of the walls of DS1 are founded directly on top of these earlier structures, which appear also to be Ptolemaic from the excavation of associated contexts. The preliminary interpretation is that the later intact vault was built as a cellar for DS1, given that the only access point

Overall picture of DS1 and DS2 during the 2011-12 season, facing north-east. Photograph: Laurel Bestock

third season of excavation (2012-13) revisited several areas of DS1 which had been left either partially or fully unexcavated at the end of the 2010-11 season, in an effort to further our understanding of the development of DS1 and the nature of the deposits which pre-date the construction of both buildings. The more northerly of the two structures, DS1, is well preserved with limited invasive pitting in the internal occupational surfaces, whereas the southern structure, DS2, has been heavily disturbed with the majority of internal deposits being badly truncated. In terms of both archaeological and artefactual interest, DS1 provided many examples of the rich variety of material recovered thus far from the Northern Abydos Settlement Site. The excavation of Room E provided a complete sequence of deposits, including evidence of adaptive reuse of the structure after its abandonment in the early Roman Period. It appears that within this room a new step-down threshold and packed mud plaster floor was built directly on top of a very thick wind-blown sand

Above: schematic plan of DS1 (Rooms B to I) and DS2 (Rooms J to M and Rooms P to R). Above right: Room F, showing the intact vault. Photograph: Laurel Bestock. Below right: Room H, hearth and associated grinding block and stone. Photograph: Laurel Bestock

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Left to right: Terracotta plaque fragment showing a face with red pigment. A ceramic horse model from inside the intact vault in Room F. A faience amulet of Bes. An unfired mud loom weight. Photographs: Kathryn Howley

for this space is through a hole found in the roof of the vault. At some point during the occupation of DS1 the cellar fell into disuse and was backfilled with what can best be described as household rubbish. The deposits excavated contained relatively high amounts of faunal bone, along with terracotta plaque fragments, oil lamp fragments, ostraca, worked bone, worked stone, bronze coins, faience and stone beads, fragments of ceramic horse models, a bronze arrow head, and 13 miniature ceramic vessels including copies of both Egyptian amphora and oasis ‘keg’ forms. In general, both the finished and ad hoc occupational surfaces in DS1 provided a wide range of artefact types that give a vivid sense of life in Ptolemaic Abydos. These

One of the demotic ostraca. Photograph: Kathryn Howley

artifacts include metal knives, worked and inscribed stone objects including a fragment of offering table, several apotropaic faience amulets of Bes and Anubis, ithyphallic figurines, and terracotta plaque fragments. One of the most interesting categories of artefact was the stone beads, which represented a wide range of stone types and shapes, with particularly beautiful examples in carnelian. With regard to the household economy of DS1 relatively little in situ evidence was found. It appears that prior to the abandonment of the house, the rooms were cleared of their moveable or re-usable components (including the roofing materials), indicating a process of constructive abandonment. Yet, if we start to make connections between categories of artefacts found within the primary occupational surfaces, patterns do start to emerge. It would appear from ostraca pertaining to cloth tax receipts, combined with bone weaving shuttles, and circular, perforated, unfired mud objects that have been interpreted as loom weights, that the inhabitants of DS1 were using warp weighted looms and that at least a proportion of this production was entering the commercial markets. In summary, the first three seasons of excavation in the Northern Abydos Settlement Site have revealed a wide range of evidence for the domestic life of the town of Abydos during the Ptolemaic and early Roman periods. It is hoped that additional phases of excavation will be able to penetrate further into the deeper levels of structures to provide a greater insight into the urban development of this area.

Ankh Antiquarian Books Est. 1989 Australia’s leading bookseller for new and second-hand Egyptology and Ancient History publications. We also stock a wide range of gifts, cards and magazines including Egyptian Archaeology, KMT and Minerva and have an eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com.au/Ankh-Antiquarian-Books

Ankh Antiquarian Books has been pleased to be associated with the Egypt Exploration Society since 1990 and is the Society’s authorised bookseller in Australia and NewZealand. We stock many EES publications and promote the Society. Proprietor: Jennifer A Jaeger, BA Ankh Antiquarian Books PO Box 133 Darling Victoria 3145, Australia Phone: 61 398881990

q Timothy Sandiford is a graduate student at Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University. He is very grateful for the guidance and directorship of Laurel Bestock and the expert help of Bryan Kraemer (Project demotist), Mohammed Naguib (Project ceramicist), and Kathryn Howley (registrar and object photographer). This work was made possible by the generosity of the Egypt Exploration Society, the Brown University Office of International Affairs, and the Brown University Graduate School.

E-mail: jennifer@ankhantiquarianbooks.com.au

www.ankhantiquarianbooks.com.au

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The tomb of Horimin In November 2011 and January 2013 an epigraphic mission took place to record the largely forgotten tomb of Horimin in the Theban necropolis, as José F Alonso García describes. The Ramesside tomb of Horimin (TT 221) is situated in Gurnet Murai on the west bank at Luxor within a group of New Kingdom burials including three viceroys: Huy (TT 40), Merymose (TT 383) and Nakht (TT 382), as well as other interesting individuals, including Sobekmose (TT 275) and Amenemope (TT 276). Nineteenth century visitors to the area, such as Karl Lepsius and John Gardner Wilkinson, described the neighbouring tomb of Huy, but they did not mention that of Horimin, and the 1913 Topographical Catalogue of Arthur Weigall and Alan Gardiner classified the tomb as ‘not studied yet’. In 1935 Marcel Baud reproduced one scene from the decorated chamber, and in the following year, in the notebook of Norman de Garis Davies, there is an entry noting TT 221. Some of the tomb’s paintings were partially photographed, probably in the 1940s, by the Oriental Institute of Chicago whose archivist, John Larson, kindly sent the writer copies to collate with images taken recently. Eventually the tomb was included in the 1960 edition of The Topographical Bibliography, but still remained unpublished. We first gained access to the tomb in 2009 and found that what would have been its access via a forecourt was covered with domestic debris and waste from the nearest

Cleaning the entrance to the tomb of Horimin in November 2009

houses (now deserted after the inhabitants were moved to New Gurna). It is a typical New Kingdom T-shaped tomb, cut into the limestone cliffs on the slope of the mountain with texts and painting partially preserved on the walls. At present, the only accessible part is the unfinished transverse hall and niche. The walls and the flat ceiling were levelled with an error of no more than two degrees in some places. After opening the iron gate, installed at the beginning of the last century, and entering through a corridor c.1.50m long with a vaulted ceiling, access is gained to the transverse room that is no more than 10m long, c.2.25m wide and 2.30m high. The west side was left unfinished but on the east side there is access to a possible crypt or shaft through what is a probably a sloping passage, though at present it is walled off. This transverse chamber has two cavities. The larger one, in the end wall, is an unfinished room (the passage to the presumed shrine) with traces of Nile mud plaster all around the access door frame, as if it might once have been blocked off. The floor of this passage also

The north-east side of the transverse hall, with its unfinished ceiling and decorative programme, and the walled-in access that may lead to a shaft

Schematic plan of the tomb of Horimin

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The unfinished north-west side of the transverse hall. At the right is the small niche with ceramic vessels, and funerary cones of Merymose

still conserves a thin layer of the same mud plaster. The smaller cavity is to the left of the other at ground level and c.1m high, wide and deep. Of an irregular shape, it contained five ceramic vessels, six funerary cones and some potsherds; all are intrusive material. In 2011 and 2013 our mission undertook epigraphic and documentary recording of the surviving scenes and texts in the tomb. One of its most interesting features is the evidence it provides for the successive stages of building and decorating the structure as it was hurriedly prepared for its occupant but left unfinished. In the transverse hall, a white plaster coat had been applied to the walls and ceiling and red lines drawn to separate the different registers and sequences related to Horimin’s family, and the religious and funerary ceremonies.The corridor walls were treated differently from those of the transverse hall. There the surface was covered with a mix of river mud and straw before the application of painted floral motifs to the vaulted ceiling (some kheker signs and flowers patterns are preserved) and there was probably a portrait of Horimin on both sides of the corridor, but only small areas of brown skin colour remain. The decorative motifs in friezes, such as scenes from The Book of Gates, or the barque of Re on the ceiling, were also left unfinished and have suffered from the inclemency

The only completed decoration is in the centre of the chapel ceiling

of time and the hands of man in different places. Some scenes, such as the one with the deceased and his wife offering to Hathor, were delimited in just a few colours, ochre and white mainly, while other scenes have more varied colour palettes. The only finished painting and texts are on the ceiling in the middle of the transverse hall, and are of very high quality. The edges of the ceiling are bordered with red lines and stripes of coloured rectangles in yellow, green and white. The decorative scheme is divided into two main sections. In one, the deceased is adoring the solar barque with texts that have suffered a kind of ‘wash-cleaning’ while the pictorial motifs have preserved their colour. Two ‘eyes of Horus’ in the left and right top corners of the scene were beautifully drawn and painted but unfortunately are partly lost. The portraits of Horimin, at the prow and stern of the solar barque, might suggest his Nubian origin as he wears a plume on his head but other scenes (for example in Horemheb’s temple at Gebel Silsila) show Egyptian soldiers wearing head plumes. In one scene Horimin has a trace of a beard so he may An unfinished scene showing Horimin and his wife praying to Hathor have been of Libyan 12

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Details of the ceiling of the chapel (see opposite) Left: The damaged hieroglyphic title of ‘General of the Army in the Palace of the King’ Above: The brightly-coloured sacred barque with kneeling figures of Horimin below both the prow and stern of the ship Below left: Illustrations of Horimin’s possible Libyan origins Below right: Horimin with his title of ‘Scribe of the Army’ in the register below his figure. Above his head is part of a scribal title

Horimin here is wearing an armour breast plate with rivets 0

3 cm

Evidence (above) for Horimin’s possible Libyan origins, showing the plume he wears on his head in one depiction, together with the remains of a beard. The feathered plume can be compared to those worn by soldiers depicted in the Gebel Silsila temple of Horemheb (left)

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The six cones of Merymose (above) and two ceramic jars (below) found inside the niche in the transverse hall

more as ‘Scribe’. We also have an incomplete name of a temple, probably that of the Ramesseum (Khnem Waset). While some of the damage suffered by the wall scenes and texts may be due to poor workmanship in applying the plaster and paint, some hieroglyphic signs and parts of the decoration have simply fallen down, dragging with them the underlying plaster. The other section of the ceiling was decorated with geometrical and floral patterns similar to those found in other New Kingdom tombs. The cones found in the small cavity were stamped with the name of Amenhotep III’s viceroy Merymose, whose tomb (TT 383) is near Horimin’s, so they may have been deposited in TT 221 ‘temporarily’ in 1926 during clearance work in the tomb of Huy (TT 40) by Norman de Garis Davies and Alan Gardiner, who mentioned the presence of ‘abundant funeral cones of Merymose’. Another possibility would be that they were placed in Horimin’s tomb in 1935 by Ahmed Fakhry when he was cleaning the access to the nearest tombs, TT 40 and TT 276. Fakhry also found another 18 cones of this Merymose. The ceramic vessels are well preserved. There are two jars, one a typical ‘beer-jar’ of a type common from the New Kingdom to the Libyan Period. There are also three bowls: two (one of which dates to the Late Period) of reddish-brown silt Nile clay with traces of paint inside and outside, and one broken poor-quality hand-made pot. We also found a stone hammer and some scattered potsherds, and a broken piece of a stone slab that might originally have been installed at the entrance to the tomb, lying on the floor. The entire tomb-plan has not yet been revealed, as there may be a crypt or shaft beyond the walled-in passage leading from the north-east end of the transverse hall. Investigation of this might provide further information about Horimin, his origins, and his role during the late Twentieth Dynasty.

This is the only previously published scene from the tomb and illustrates a preliminary stage during the decoration, with the figures of Horimin and his wife shown schematically and register lines awaiting texts

origin. Another unusual feature of the depictions of the tomb owner is that at the prow of the barque, where he is wearing armour. In a high resolution picture we can still observe his armoured breast plate with its rivets. The next, and lower, registers show Horimin, in both civil and religious clothes, with the offering formula, and with ten lines of text oriented from right to left and eight lines from left to right with his biographical texts in which we can read some other titles related to the function of scribe. Both sections are also surrounded by a frame-line of texts that starts from the middle of the frieze and runs in both directions. The only previously known title of Horimin was ‘Scribe of the Army in the Palace of the King’, but we have found some other titles, notably ‘General of the Army in the Palace of the King’, and two

q José F Alonso García is an External Reseacher at the Universidad de Deusto (Bilbao), Spain, and Director of the mission investigating and documenting the tomb of Horimin (TT 221). Illustrations by the writer.

An unfinished and damaged scene of Horimin and his wife before Osiris 14

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From a tomb at Haragah to Saint Louis, Missouri Material from early excavations in Egypt was either assigned to the Museum in Cairo or was legally distributed to museums and other institutions that had funded the fieldwork. Robert Bianchi describes how objects from the 1913-14 excavation at Haragah found their way to Saint Louis. I thought that I was very familiar with the Egyptian collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri, as well as with those housed on the city’s Washington University campus, so I was surprised a few years ago when Judith Feinberg Brilliant told me that there were ancient Egyptian objects, probably from Petrie’s excavations, in the possession of the Saint Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America. Judith arranged for me to visit Sarantis Symeonoglou, Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University, where the objects were on loan. They turned out to be ancient Egyptian jewellery elements and cosmetic items of travertine from Haragah (on the edge of the Fayum, near Lahun). Judith also granted me free access to the archives of the Society and sifting through the documentation, some of it in original manuscripts but most of it in photocopies, we gradually began to reconstruct the events which led to the arrival of the objects in Saint Louis. In 1912, the Saint Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America voted to suspend funding for excavations in MesoAmerica, presumably to fund excavations elsewhere. The Society’s Minutes of 1915 suggest that an association had been formed in 1914 and that excavations in Egypt were to replace MesoAmerica as the recipient of the funding. The documentation also suggests that the funds for work in Egypt, preferably at Amarna, were to be funneled through the American Branch (based in Boston) of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society). Confirmation of that decision and of its ramifications could not be independently established, but the Minutes are misleading since the EES did not begin work at Amarna until 1921. The members of the Saint

The five objects in travertine

Louis Society seem also to have confused the EEF with the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, probably because Petrie played a leading role in both organisations, as the objects eventually received in return for their donation came from BSAE excavations (1913-14) at Haragah, not from the EEF. The confusion in the records does not, however, end there. As the Haragah Field Director, Reginald Engelbach, noted in his excavation report (Harageh, London 1923), the volume was in its preliminary stages by August 1914, but for the following five years most of the principals were on active service in the First World War, and the report did not appear until 1923. By that time ‘all the objects had (already) been dispersed to various museums, thus rendering a final check (of which institution received which objects), before going to press, impracticable’. It should be noted, however, that, although that volume does contain a ‘Dispersal List’, the Saint Louis Society is not named as a recipient for any of the finds specifically from Tomb 124, although that is the provenance of the objects under discussion here. The Saint Louis material consists of five travertine cosmetic items - a kohl-pot, designed as three separately executed pieces; a cosmetic vase with its lid; a bag-shaped flask; a miniature vase with a stopper; and a cosmetic spoon in the form of an ankh-sign, The unusual collection of jewellery includes seven silver cowrie shells. The total number of silver shells found in the tomb was not specified in the publication and only five were illustrated there. There are also fourteen real shells, tear-dropped in shape, within silver frames, which may have formed the

The seven cowrie shells 15

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Fourteen shells in silver mounts

pendants of a necklace. The division also contained eleven jewellery elements of inlaid silver which were given to the Society, and not to Oxford as the ‘Dispersal List’ indicates. These elements consist of fragments designed as stems of what may have been open lotuses, an udjat-eye, two bees, falcons on a neb-sign, a conjoined pair of inlaid, silver teardropped shaped elements, a ‘counterpoise-like’ object, and a cartouche. They may have come from one or more pectorals. The excavators noted that the cartouche reads ‘Khakheperre’ - the prenomen of Senwosret II, indicating a Twelfth Dynasty date for the material. The eleventh object in the group is a truly exceptional jewel, in the form of a bee, which Engelbach termed a ‘centre-piece’, though its function is debatable. The objects were reportedly received in 1914 and were deposited on loan at the City Art Museum, now the Saint Louis Museum of Art. The travertine items appear to have been successively placed on and taken off exhibition, while the jewellery remained in storage. In 1962 Dorothy Kent Hill, curator of ancient art at the Walters Art Museum (then Gallery) in Baltimore, examined the objects, then stored in thirteen boxes. In the following month she offered to purchase them from the Society for her institution. Her offer apparently prompted the compiling of an inventory in which objects from Tomb 124 were matched to their descriptions and/or photographs in the 1923 publication.

The bee, photographed from different angles

Although the Society declined Hill’s offer, it nevertheless moved ahead with plans for a public sale which occurred on 9 December 1962. The travertine objects were not included in that sale because they were singled out to remain on loan to the Saint Louis Museum. The sale did, however, feature the jewellery elements from Haragah and several other ancient Egyptian objects, including a mummy mask and a partially preserved cartouche with the name of Nefertiti. Each of these objects was individually offered with a reserve price of $5, according to the advertising announcement created for the occasion. However, none of the jewellery elements from Haragah was sold and all the Tomb 124 objects continued to remain on loan in the Saint Louis Museum of Art until 1990 when they were transferred to the Steinberg Gallery at Washington University, where the intention was to feature them in a temporary exhibition promoting the University’s plans for an art museum. In 2001 the objects were moved into secure storage within the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University, where they remain. The Saint Louis Society is currently discussing plans for re-housing the objects. q Robert Bianchi is Conservator en Chef at La Fondation pour l’Art, Geneva. He would like to thank Judith Feinberg Brilliant, a Life Member of the Saint Louis Society, for first calling his attention to this material and granting him permission on behalf of the Society to publish it. He is also indebted to; Sarantis Symeonoglou, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University, for granting access to the objects and providing data and photographs; Luc Limme and Helen Whitehouse for generously providing information about related objects in their collections; and Tine Bagh, Wolfram Grajetzki, Stephen Quirke, Sue d’Auria and Patricia Spencer for their valuable suggestions made after reading the first draft manuscript. Photographs courtsey of Doug Gaubatz.

The inlaid silver elements from one or more pectorals 16

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The cenotaph of Harwa: archaism and innovation Excavation in the courtyard of the funerary complex of Harwa (TT 37) and Akhimenru (TT 404) has revealed reliefs that have deepened our understanding of Egypt during the ‘renaissance’ of the first half of the seventh century BC, as Francesco Tiradritti describes. Although information about Harwa’s life is scarce, the vastness of TT 37 clearly demonstrates that the Great Major-domo of the God’s Wife Amenirdis must have been one of the wealthiest men of his time (at the beginning of the seventh century BC). TT 37 has always been regarded as Harwa’s tomb but should more properly be seen as his cenotaph. Planned to resemble a typical Egyptian temple, this funerary monument was dug into the limestone plain of the Assasif that stretches from Deir el-Bahri to the cultivation on the west bank at Luxor. In 1995, when we started our activities in the cenotaph of Harwa (see EA 13, pp.3-6), the courtyard was still filled with debris that in some places was more than two metres deep. Although the existence of southern and northern porticos had been already assumed through comparison with other funerary monuments of the Assasif, the remains of the pillars were no longer visible. Some of the decorative scenes in the southern portico were preserved on the upper part of the rear wall, showing daily life activities inspired by artistic motifs of the Old Kingdom. The rear wall of the northern portico did not then show any signs of decoration with the exception of two

A scene from the south portico visible before the beginning of excavations in the courtyard. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera, 1997

columns of an unfinished inscription in large hieroglyphs on the west end. Closer examination revealed that some of the scratches that covered the smooth surface of the wall were actually graffiti. One of them is the signature of the French poet [Arthur] Rimbaud (1854-1891). He probably left his mark sometime between the summer

Harwa’s courtyard at the end of the 1999 excavation season. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera

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Digital enhancement of Rimbaud’s graffito

of 1887 and early 1888, when he was in Egypt to cash a cheque received from Menelik II (an Ethiopian ruler, and later Emperor) in exchange for a supply of arms. Archaeological work in Harwa’s courtyard started in 1999 after completing the excavation of the first subterranean level of the monument and by 2012 only a layer of debris between 20cm and 40cm deep still needed to be removed. The early excavations led to the discovery of a trench that ran all along the length of the southern wall. At the bottom we retrieved a label of the biscuits produced by Lazzaroni for the Italian army during World War II along with scraps of English newspapers dating to 1942. The discoveries suggest that the cenotaph of Harwa, like other monuments in the Assasif, may have been looted by British soldiers who used Italian prisoners as workmen. To date, just over 1,000 blocks attributable to the southern portico have been retrieved. The excavation uncovered further wall reliefs as well as the remains of the southern portico pillars which still bear traces of an

Preparing fish to be dried. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti, 2006

unfinished decoration that, in some cases, corresponds directly with the daily life scenes carved on the rear wall. One such case is the image of a fisherman preparing fish to be dried. This scene is on a pillar which stands in front of a portion of the rear wall where some men are depicted still fishing. An effect of depth is achieved, with the scene on the pillar taking place on the shore (foreground) of a waterway (background) where fishing is still going on. The southern wall was decorated with daily life scenes oriented towards the west, where a tall image of Harwa stands. Before him is the figure of a naked boy. The hieroglyphic inscription states that he is ‘the son of his brother […]’. We were finally able to fill that lacuna in 2007 when the removal of debris from Harwa’s nicheentrance led to the unexpected discovery of some wall remains depicting butchery scenes. At the west end stands another figure of Harwa similarly preceded by a naked boy: ‘The son of his brother, his beloved, Harwa son of Padimaat’, revealing that Harwa had a brother, and a nephew named after his uncle. The latter is in the position normally occupied by the heir of the monument’s owner. Harwa’s cenotaph decoration continually makes reference to that of earlier eras while it also demonstrates a fecund innovation; as a result the monument can be considered as an example of the ‘pharaonic renaissance,’ a label which describes the characteristic cultural features of the late Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. The scenes decorating the southern portico were depicted in a shallow and delicate relief that shows a clear inspiration from the Old Kingdom. This inspired Ann Russmann to compare the cenotaph of Harwa and the temple of Amun at Kawa built by Taharqo (690–664 BC), which had been already attributed by its discoverer, M F Laming Macadam, to the work of artists coming from Memphis. Harwa’s monument has several references to Memphis, and its attribution to artists from that city is extremely likely. Other sources also influenced the decoration of the cenotaph of Harwa; specifically, the scene of the sculptor‘s workshop was clearly inspired by similar images in Eighteenth Dynasty Theban tombs.

Label of the Lazzaroni biscuit ‘Me ne frego’ which was distributed to the Italian army during World War II. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera, 1999

Plan of the funerary complex of Harwa and Akhimenru. Digital drawing by Silvia Bertolini and Anja Wutte

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Offering bearers in the top register of the north portico decoration. Digital collage by Francesco Tiradritti from photographs by Giacomo Lovera, 2006, 2009

The 2001 archaeological season led to an unexpected discovery when the removal of some layers in the northern portico revealed a decorated register with a row of offering bearers on the rear wall (above and on p.1). The stratigraphic excavation of the courtyard delayed the complete uncovering of the scenes on the wall until 2003 when two further registers, both abandoned in the initial drawing stage at their east ends, were discovered beneath that found in 2001. The reason why the upper part of northern wall was left undecorated can be explained by the sudden interruption of the work when a group of artists had just begun the hieroglyphic inscription to the west and another team was finishing the reliefs to the east. The middle register on the northern wall bears images of men making and carrying pieces of furniture while the lowermost register is filled by scenes of different dances. The three registers are in a style different from that of

Excavation in the courtyard. Photograph: NataĹĄa Cijan, 2012

The northern wall of the niche entrance in 2007, showing Harwa at the left with the head of his nephew, also named Harwa, just visible. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti

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The dancing scene on the northern wall of the portico. Left: Sketched figure of a dancer. Photograph: Francesco Tiradritti, 2011. Centre: Dancers performing the tjeref-dance. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera, 2006. Right: Kneeling dancer. Photograph: FrancescoTiradritti, 2011 Digital copy in progress of part of the northern wall with the tjeref-dance. The colours indicate different features of the relief and damage. Drawing by Irene Morfini, 2009

courtyard was achieved in 2010, allowing us to devote more ef forts toward the reconstruction of scenes on both the south and north walls. To date, the original position of just over 200 decorated blocks has been identified and preliminary urgent restoration has been carried out mainly on the pillars of the southern portico. In parallel with the archaeological and restoration work, copies of some of the most important scenes have been completed. Since 2004 a special computer-aided drafting method has been developed, allowing the production of vector drawings from high-resolution digital pictures without the copyists having to touch the actual reliefs.

the southern wall even if they show the same accuracy and delicacy. The distinguishing characteristics are mainly detectable in the images of the men performing the tjeref-dance. The leg muscles of the dancers are rendered differently according to the steps being taken. Even in this case, the inspiration comes from an Old Kingdom monument in the Memphite necropolis: the tomb of Iymery (G 6020, second part of the Fifth Dynasty). However, the quality of the Harwa reliefs is indisputably superior. Theban art of the Eighteenth Dynasty is reflected in the scene of kneeling girls, closely parallelled by some dancers in the tomb of Kheruef (TT 192, late reign of Amenhotep III). The complete uncovering of the decoration of Harwaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

q Francesco Tiradritti is Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor and Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University Kore of Enna (Italy). He would like to thank Sara Palaskas, AR at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (CA) for help with the English text. All the images are courtesy of ACSES Italia ÂŠ 2013.

Final digital copy of part of the decoration of the southern wall. Drawing by Luisa Lagravinese, 2011. Inset: Detail of the donkeys. Photograph: Giacomo Lovera, 2006 20

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A new family cemetery at Abu Sir South In 2000, the Czech Institute of Egyptology started a new project in Abu Sir South, focusing on the area adjacent to and east of the Sixth Dynasty family tomb complexes of Qar and Inti. Miroslav Bárta discusses this Fifth Dynasty cemetery and its important tomb of Nefer. The new Fifth Dynasty cemetery at Abu Sir South was most probably established by the anonymous owner of what is by far the largest mastaba in the area, AS 31. This tomb was built in ‘Giza fashion’ and comprises a mastaba-shaped superstructure with two cult niches set in the eastern façade, a rock-cut cult chapel with a serdab and a shaft through the depth of the mastaba, leading to a robbed burial chamber. East of tomb AS 31 is an open courtyard from which several minor rock-cut chapels are accessible. These include the tomb of Ptahhotep (AS 36), east of AS 31, which had a mastaba-shaped superstructure with one shaft and the later tomb of Neferherptah (AS 65), south of that of Ptahhotep. A structure difficult to anchor in time is the impressive tomb of Nefer/Nefershepes, which currently represents the easternmost mastaba of the cemetery. Slightly later than this tomb, a complex with a series of rock-cut tombs (those of Duaptah, Shepespuptah, Iti and Nefer) was built, along with an open pillared courtyard, AS 68, dedicated to the princess Sheretnebty, who was of royal origin (her father was probably Nyuserre). Around the same time, the tomb of Neferinpu was built in the north-eastern part of the cemetery. Based on the archaeological and epigraphic evidence, the most probable time range of the cemetery seems to be from the reign of Nyuserre through the reign of Djedkare.

Abusir Pyramid Field

Abusir South

Lake of Abusir

North Saqqara

Satellite image (Quickbird) of the Abu Sir pyramid field

This complex Fifth Dynasty cemetery thus probably represents an important attestation to the revolutionary changes that took place in the reign of Nyuserre, which featured many new and unparalleled phenomena, such as the appearance of family tombs and the rise of an increasingly independent class of officials who started to usurp privileges formerly reserved for the king. Moreover, many new topics in tomb decoration appear and develop from this time on, such as desert scene motifs - the first indications of approaching climate change. This climate change peaked around 2,200 BC and ran parallel to the demise of the Old Kingdom. It is known as the ‘4.2 kiloyear event’ as it happened 4,200 years before the present day. As a result of this newly developing situation within the state and its administration, a new concept for the cemeteries was developed. The tombs and/or tomb complexes were quite frequently designed and General view of the cemetery with the pillared court of Princess Sheretnebty 21

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View of the rock-cut chapel of Nefer

Statue of Nefer as a seated scribe from the serdab

Detail of the false door showing Nefer and his wife Neferhathor 22

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The false door of Nefer

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expanded as closed and distinct units, which indicated the familial and social relationships of the individuals buried in them. The fact that one of the officials buried here was probably married to a royal daughter, Sheretnebty, also demonstrates that the kings had initiated a new strategy in order to keep officials loyal – allowing them to marry royal daughters. There also existed a very clear professional link connecting the persons buried in the cemetery. The anonymous owner of AS 31, Nefer/Nefershepes (AS 67), Nefer (AS 68d) and Shepespuptah (AS 68b) all held high offices at the court, while Neferinpu (AS 37), Duaptah (AS 68a) and Nefer (AS 68d) had priestly duties in the sun temples of Neferirkare and Nyuserre at Abu Ghurab and in their respective mortuary complexes at Abu Sir. The spring and autumn seasons of 2012 brought to light several historically important discoveries with great interpretative potential. In the spring the excavation of the pillared court of the royal princess, Sheretnebty, was completed and in the autumn several new tombs were discovered, among them the rock-cut tomb of Nefer. During the course of the excavation of this tomb, it turned out to display several unique features of historical, art-historical and archaeological importance. Nefer’s rock-cut tomb was the easternmost installation in the row of four rock-cut chapels situated south of the court of Sheretnebty. The tomb’s entrance is on an eastwest orientated corridor decorated with several embedded statues of un-named persons. The chapel itself was entered through a spacious opening into a hall, which measured 15.50m long, 2.35m wide and 2.80m high. There are four shaft entrances, most of which we hope to excavate in the 2013 autumn season. The chapel possessed a serdab, which was located inside the tomb, immediately to the east of the entrance. This was found filled with a thick deposit of tafl mud and contained intact limestone statues of the tomb owner and his wife (see front cover). Its excavation provided us with a truly rare opportunity to examine the contents of an Old Kingdom serdab. Four limestone statues, with their original polychrome paint still largely preserved, were found in the room. The first is a striding statue of Nefer himself wearing an elaborate wig and short pleated kilt, reaching above the knees. The sunken inscription on the statue base reads ‘Overseer of the Scribes of the Crews, Nefer’. Another statue represents Nefer in the attitude of a seated scribe with a papyrus roll on his lap, inscribed with offering formulas. The sunken inscription on the statue base reads ‘Property Custodian of the King, Overseer of Scribes of the Crews, Nefer’. The third statue features Nefer again striding, wearing a striated wig and a pleated kilt. The sunken inscription on the statue base reads ‘Overseer of Scribes of the Crews, Well-provided before the Great God, Property Custodian of the King, Before his Lord, Nefer’. Finally, the fourth is a pair statue of Nefer and his wife, Neferhathor. Nefer is shown striding, wearing a wig

Detail of the papyrus scroll held by the scribal statue of Nefer

covering his ears and a short pleated kilt. His wife stands beside him with a heavy striated wig and an ankle-length tight tunic. The sunken inscription on the statue base reads ‘Overseer of Scribes of the Crews, Nefer. Property Custodian of the King, Neferhathor’. The whole chapel was undecorated except for the west wall which originally had three false doors, though only the southernmost one has survived. A rectangular hole in the floor in front of the false door indicates that an offering table had been placed here, perhaps removed by tomb robbers. The false door belongs to Nefer and Neferhathor. It is 0.98m wide and 2.13m high, decorated with inscriptions and figures in low relief, preserving the original polychrome paint. Its texts give us important information as to the high social status of Nefer and his wife, whose full titles are as follows: Nefer: ‘Overseer of the Two Treasuries, Overseer of Scribes of the King’s Documents, Overseer of Scribes of the Crews, Under-supervisor of Scribes of the Crews, Overseer of the Two Granaries, Overseer of a Gang of Craftsmen, Property Custodian of the King, Priest of Re in the sun temple of Neferirkare, Hem-netjer Priest of the Pyramid of Neferirkare, One who is Privy to the Secret(s), Scribe of the King’s Documents’. Neferhathor: ‘Property Custodian of the King, Priestess of Hathor in all her (cult) places, Priestess of Hathor Mistress of the nehet-shrine’. The recent discoveries and continuing Czech excavations at Abu Sir show clearly that it is through archaeology (and associated disciplines) that we can obtain new and historically valuable data for the interpretation not only of the Fifth Dynasty, but also for the identification and better understanding of the processes that governed the society of the day and which eventually led to the demise of the Old Kingdom. q Miroslav Bárta is a Professor of Egyptology at Charles University in Prague and the Director of the Czech Institute of Egyptology. He is Director of the Czech excavations in Abu Sir South and a specialist in the archaeology and history of the Old Kingdom. He is the author of the Satellite Atlas of the Pyramid Fields (Prague, 2007) and several monographs on the Abu Sir excavations, as well as of popular books on ancient Egypt, mostly recently Journey to the West: The World of the Old Kingdom Tombs (2012, reviewed in EA 42, pp.43-44). Photographs by Martin Frouz © Czech Institute of Egyptology.

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Fortress Commandants of the kingdom of Kush In c.600 BC, when King Aspelta was chosen to rule over the kingdom of Kush, the witnesses of the ceremony in the temple of Amun-Re at Gebel Barkal included the commanders of fortified sites. Mariusz Drzewiecki assesses their importance within Kushite society. At the end of the seventh century BC, following the death of his brother Anlamani, Aspelta became ruler of the middle Nile valley, giving him direct political control from Aswan south to the area around modern Khartoum. His aspirations, however, were greater. During his coronation in the temple of Amun-Re at the foot of Gebel Barkal, Aspelta became the nominal sovereign of Upper and Lower Egypt and the actual ruler of the kingdom of Kush. This important event is described in his coronation stela (Cairo JE 48866) of year 1, which comes from the temple in which the ceremony took place. According to the description on the stela the most important part of the coronation ritual was the selection of the king by Amun-Re. It took place in the temple in the presence of a number of people including priests, trusted army commanders and representatives of the palace administration. The army, waiting for an announcement, was stationed outside. The situation would certainly have been strained, and the presence of armed units would have done little to ease the tension. It seems that the decision made by the god was final and irrefutable and the role of the people present at the ritual was to witness the selection of the new king, as attested in other administrative documents which required certification by eyewitnesses. By their presence the officials confirmed the validity of the ritual for the people of the entire kingdom of Kush.

Scene on the Coronation Stela of Aspelta (Cairo JE 48866) from the temple of Amun-Re (B 500) at Gebel Barkal, showing (left to right): Mut, Amun-Re and Aspelta facing the King’s Mother. Photograph: D J McCrady

We know exactly how many people were present and their positions within the Kushite governing structure, indicating the significance of the individuals who attended the coronation ritual as observers. In this regard it is easy to understand the presence at the ceremony of officials from the palace administration or army commanders, but the presence of six men who held two titles - ‘Commander’ (Ts) and ‘Fortress Commandant’ (imy-r xtm) - calls for further discussion. These officials who took part in the coronation ritual were described as ‘trusted’ (mH-ib) and we may ask why they had such a major role

The temple of Amun-Re (B 500) from the top of Gebel Barkal, showing the outer court where the stela was found. Photograph: Przemysław Rutkowski 25

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Karni Island. Yellow: fortifications. Blue: burial mounds. Green: areas with numerous pottery fragments. Background image ÂŠGoogleEarth

The line of the ditch reflecting the layout of the fortifications

at Gala Abu Ahmed, in the Bayuda desert at Fura and in the region of the Second Cataract at Dabnarti, Dorginarti and Gebel Sahaba. These enclosures are irregular in shape and have square bastions. The walls, varying in thickness from 1.7m to 8m, may have been topped with parapets. In the majority of cases the passage leading up on to the walls was located in the gates flanked by the bastions and was in the form of a characteristic double staircase. The enclosure at Karni had massive walls over 5m thick

in the Kushite governing structure and if this implies that the fortresses they commanded also had an additional role apart from their military function. Today we know of six fortified sites that were used during the Napatan Period (ninth to fourth centuries BC) and the Aspelta stela, as noted, lists six men with both titles. It may be too simplistic to assume that each of the six was in charge of a fortress which has survived, and that there were no others. The three known fortresses in the Second Nile Cataract region are located close together while the three in Upper Nubia are further apart and the situation in Lower Nubia was possibly more complicated, so there may well have been more forts than have been recognised. The six known fortified sites had identifiable military features but may well also have exercised strategic control over the surrounding areas, so that their commanders could have had a real and powerful influence on political organisation, beyond the military control of the forts. This would have increased their standing in Kushite society. In January 2012 as part of the Fortresses of Sudan Project, the aim of which is to identify fortified sites in the region between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts of the Nile, a three-day fieldwalking survey, including taking total station measurements, was undertaken on the island of Karni in the middle of the Fifth Cataract where there are remains of a fortified site that may have been in use during the Napatan Period. Apart from Karni, other such fortified sites have been identified in lower Wadi Howar

The plan of the fortifications on Karni Island, by Adrian Chlebowski and Mariusz Drzewiecki

Surveying the slope in January 2012. Photograph: Beata Drzewiecka

The remains of the inner face of the fortifications

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One of the burial mounds in the cemetery in the centre of the island. Photograph: Tomasz Stępnik

The ditch reflecting the shape of the corner of the enclosure wall with characteristic double square bastions

and followed the lay of the land on the eastern side of the island. On three sides the complex was surrounded by a deep wadi with steep banks. On the side facing the Nile the walls were strengthened by a stone revetment to protect against high flood waters. In its immediate surroundings there are no traces of any other buildings dating from the same period. The centre of the island is taken up by an extensive cemetery consisting of tumuli (the largest burial mound is 30m in diameter), some of which may be from the same period as the enclosure. In the western part of the island numerous fragments of ceramic vessels from various periods, including Napatan times, have been recovered. There is no evidence of settlement directly alongside the walls - the site was some distance from any settlement and quite isolated. The Nile valley was one of the busiest ancient transport routes both in terms of trading and of people. Boats sailed along the Nile and people followed the routes along its banks. The cataracts hindered travel both on water and by land, and boats had to be towed through the most difficult sections of the river. Steep, rocky hills and gullies reaching right down to the river banks cut across the routes on land. A fortress located in the right place, managing transport routes and maintaining them, could guarantee peace in the region and provide both the personnel and equipment to assist in difficult conditions. The land route connecting Kushite centres further south (such as Meroe and Dangeil) with centres in Lower Nubia and Egypt partly bypassed the Fifth Cataract region by taking a short cut across the desert, avoiding the great bend of the Nile, but undoubtedly some navigation along the river would still have been necessary and an old Abu

Hamed-Korosko route might have been in use. When we take a close look at other fortresses from the Napatan Period, we notice that they also were built next to sections of the routes where travel was very difficult. The site at Fura is in the centre of the Bayuda desert (c.92km from the Nile valley) but close to local sources of water. The remains of a well have also been found next to the Gala Abu Ahmed fortress (c.110km from the Nile valley, on the route to Darfur and northern Kordofan). Dabnarti, Gebel Sahaba and Dorginarti are all in the Second Cataract zone. The artefacts found in Dorginarti, which according to Lisa Heidorn came from Sudan as well as Egypt, Syria and Cyprus, can be viewed as proof that this site was indeed located on a trade route. The fortified sites from the Napatan Period exhibit features characteristic of both military and controlmanagement potential. They were well placed to influence the speed of transport and control of the trade routes crossing Kush, as well as the routes which linked these lands with neighbouring realms. Thus whoever was in charge of such sites would have been able to exert influence over the political, social and economic situation in the region and would therefore also have been able to maintain a high status within the Kushite administration. The residential section identified within the fortifications of Dorginarti might well have belonged to one of the men with the titles ‘Commander, Fortress Commandant’. It is possible to conclude that this dual title, taken from the Egyptian administration during the New Kingdom, was not nominal in Kush. The remains and locations of the known fortresses suggest that it may have been a practical, influential office and that those holding it were crucial to the functioning of the kingdom. For this reason they were allowed to take part in the most important events, such as the coronation of a new ruler.

Aerial view showing places mentioned in the text. Background image © GoogleEarth 27

q Mariusz Drzewiecki is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. He is grateful to Włodzimierz Rączkowski and Richard Holton Pierce for their help in writing this text and interpreting Aspelta’s coronation stela. Photographs by the writer unless otherwise indicated.

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Digging Diary 2012-13 Summaries of some of the archaeological work undertaken in Egypt in Winter 2012-13 and Spring 2013 appear below. The sites are arranged geographically from north to south, ending with the oases. Field Directors who would like reports on their work to appear in EA are asked to e-mail a short summary, with a website address if available, as soon as possible after the end of each season to: patricia.spencer@ees.ac.uk PATRICIA SPENCER Abbreviations: 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 GraecoRoman; ERT Electrical Resistivity Tomography; GPR Ground Penetrating Radar. Institutes and Research Centres: ARCE American Research Center in Egypt; CFEETK FrancoEgyptian Centre, Karnak; CNRS French National Research Centre; CULTNAT Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Cairo; DAI German Institute, Cairo; HIAMAS The Hellenic Institute of Ancient and Medieval Alexandrian Studies, Athens; MMA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; MSA Ministry of State for Antiquities, Egypt; OI Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; PCMA Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology, Warsaw; Swiss Inst Swiss Institute for Architectural Research and Archaeology, Cairo; USR CNRS research group. WINTER 2012-13 (November to March) Lower Egypt Saqqara: The Leiden Museum/Leiden Univ team, directed by Maarten J Raven and Christian Greco, continued fieldwork in the NK necropolis. The substructure of the anonymous tomb excavated in 2010 (see EA 37, p.25, photograph) was emptied and proved to consist of a 7.5m deep shaft and four burial-chambers, one with a sarcophagus pit. Some objects retrieved from the floors joined others

thrown out by robbers and found during previous seasons, enabling identification of one of the occupants of the burial complex as the ‘Scribe of the Temple of Ptah, Sethnakht’; his name will therefore be assigned to the tomb. A new area was cleared W of this tomb, S of that of Meryneith and E of that of Pay and Raia. It contained a further anonymous late 18th Dyn mud-brick tomb which, like that of Sethnakht, is markedly unfinished. It has an E gateway, a courtyard with a rubble floor and a central El-Sheikh Ibada. The footings of a Roman Period bridge across the wadi which crosses shaft, and a single W chapel with Antinoopolis. Photograph: Peter Grossmann only four remaining relief slabs. A sondage made N of Meryneith’s tomb to locate when the temple was used for domestic purposes the entrance to the underlying EDP galleries was and as an animal shelter. Later much of the temple unsuccessful as later walls and shafts impeded access was deliberately destroyed as indicated by a massive to the bedrock. Two more replicas were installed layer of smashed limestone. The crypt under E6 in the tombs of Horemheb and Ptahemwia, copied was investigated. Epigraphic work focused on by laser scanning from reliefs in Bologna Museum. collating texts in various rooms and recording of www.saqqara.nl newly discovered texts. More than 130 collapsed blocks were transported out of the temple and Upper Egypt stored nearby. Consolidation and restoration was Athribis: The Univ of Tübingen/MSA project, undertaken on collapsed blocks and single finds, led by Christian Leitz and Mansour Boreik and mainly on polychrome reliefs and plaster. The directed in the field by Marcus Müller, continued wooden shelter over room C5 was renewed to its work in the limestone Repit temple of Ptolemy protect the best preserved polychromy. XII, with the excavation of two rooms. Room El-Sheikh Ibada (Antinoopolis): The start E6 was decorated with fine raised reliefs, mostly of the season of the Istituto Papirologico ‘G. smashed to pieces in Late Roman times, though Vitelli’ (Univ of Florence) mission, directed by some fragments mention the offering of myrrh to Rosario Pintaudi, was delayed for security reasons. Min. In contrast, the reliefs of room K1 are almost Fieldwork concentrated on repairs necessitated by fully preserved. They show Ptolemy XII and damage caused by local people during the absence Tiberius offering to various gods, mainly Repit of the mission. In addition to numerous illegal and Min-Re. The W half of the S part of the diggings in various areas of the town, newlylarge ambulatory L1 was excavated, revealing six repaired walls had been destroyed and slabs of well columns. All three rooms are preserved to a height preserved pavements lifted. To try to avoid further of 2m-3m and the debris is all later than AD 642 destruction, the crypt of the church beside the

Egypt Exploration Society Expeditions WINTER/SPRING Quesna: The Minufiyeh Survey team, led by Joanne Rowland (Free Univ, Berlin), undertook post-excavation analysis for the first monograph on the GR cemetery to be published in 2013. The osteological team analysed the human skeletal remains, including the teeth, and also studied and lifted three additional burials (T9/ T11 including one ceramic coffin burial) that had been detected at the end of the previous season. The remains of various samples of ‘mummified’ remains were examined to assess the oils/ resins used. Outstanding ceramic analysis was completed, as was drawing of all finds from the cemetery. All the ceramic sarcophagi lifted since 2007 were fully recorded, reconstructed where possible, drawn and photographed. Details of the brick and very fragmentary wood coffins were recorded. http://minufiyeh.tumblr.com/ Imbaba: The Imbaba Governorate Prehistoric Survey, led by Joanne Rowland, was initiated, focusing on the area W of the Rosetta Nile branch and extending from the modern town of Khatatba, in the N, to S of the neolithic site of Merimde Beni Salama. The aim of the project is to investigate all prehistoric findspots and sites and to examine them within their wider environment context, by study of satellite images and with a drill core survey in collaboration

(www.ees.ac.uk)

with the geoarchaeological department of Cairo Univ. An initial examination of the area was made, revealing a large increase in cultivated land since we last visited the Khatatba region in 2011. A pedestrian survey was undertaken along the desert edge W of Merimde and in the area around the current antiquities’ land and a magnetic survey was carried out at, and to the W of, Merimde. Tell Basta: The EES/Univ of Würzburg/ MSA team, led by Eva Lange, concentrated on completing excavation of the Late Dynastic/ Ptolemaic casemate-buildings in the entrance area of the Bastet temple. The vicinity of the temple dromos was also investigated, revealing masses of limestone chips and a sand foundation more than 3m deep, suggesting the former existence of a Late Dynastic sanctuary or small temple close to the dromos. Documentation of architectural remains as well as epigraphic work was started in the OK elite cemeteries N of the temple. A new cooperation with Manfred Bietak (Austrian Academy of Science) was initiated to document the building phases of the so-called ‘Governor’s Palace’ of the MK, giving already interesting hints about the building chronology of the whole area, as well as of the extent of the palace, which seems to have been considerably larger than previously assumed. http://tellbasta.tumblr.com/

Luxor: The Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey (see further pp.5-7), led by Angus Graham, continued the use of ERT with 10 profiles on the W bank and a further four at Karnak totalling 3.2km of survey at ground level. GPR was also used to complement the ERT profiles and earlier work, with 33 GPR profiles c.18.7km along the ground surface recorded. Seven small GPR area surveys were carried out – four at Karnak and three on the W bank. One hand auger was undertaken to test new equipment and as a check on previously recorded sedimentary data. A GPR profile over the Birket Habu mounds, in collaboration with the Malqata expedition (see p.30), revealed evidence of tip lines and two different platforms built on the mounds. ERT in the SE corner of the Birket has shown the depth of the mounds below the modern ground level. At Kom el-Hettan, in collaboration with Dr Sourouzian’s team (see p.30), investigation of the theory that canals facilitated transport of the colossi continued. At the temple of Tuthmosis III, both GPR and magnetometry before the pylon revealed evidence of a probable processional way. At Karnak much data needs to be processed but initial results suggest that the foundation of the central ramp S of the W tribune extended to the W. http://eestheban.tumblr.com/

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assumed position of the E gate of the town was filled up again with earth. Cleaning and surveying the so-called ‘cloister’ connected to the N side of this church revealed that it was in fact itself a very large stone church with a multi-chambered sanctuary. It had been robbed out in antiquity down to its floor level. Like the other two large churches, D2 and D3, in the S part of the town, this new church has in front of the apse a broad fore-choir. In the wadi which passes through the ancient town, where bulldozers are now being used to extract sand from the soil, the substructures of several Roman bridges have been exposed. They consist of courses of huge limestone blocks with regularly distributed vertical circular holes (c.17cm/18cm in diameter and up to 30cm deep) on their upper surfaces, apparently for wooden posts to support the upper structures of the bridges which were set c.11m apart. Impressive remains of the ancient quays constructed to strengthen the wadi sides have also become visible. Berenike: The Univ of Delaware and PCMA (Univ of Warsaw) team, directed by Steven E Sidebotham and Iona Zych, continued excavations inside a Late Roman temple that originally sat on an island in the SW harbour, revealing more internal decorations and dedications including a faience statuette of Bes and a protome (an applied animal or human adornment) of a bronze torso of a statuette with portions of the wooden handle attached. Segments of the robbed out early Hellenistic city wall were documented. Excavations also revealed additional graffiti in a pre-Islamic South Arabian language and the usual array of organic and inorganic finds including several human skeletons. www.archbase.com/berenike/. Karnak: 1. In the Amun-Re Precinct the CFEETK (MSA/CNRS USR 3172) programmes continued, directed by Mansour Boreik and Christophe Thiers. Mansour Boreik continued excavations of the Roman baths and Ptolemaic settlement. Pauline Calassou (LabEx Archimede), in cooperation with Christian Leitz (Univ of Tübingen), supervised the epigraphic survey of the N area of the Akhmenu and the N storerooms. At the Ptah temple conservation and restoration focused on the final cleaning of the walls, and a new floor was installed. A Romano-Byzantine house built on top of the mud-brick enclosure wall was excavated. Elizabeth Frood (Univ of Oxford) studied graffiti in the Ptah temple and Romain David (LabEx Archimede) the ceramics. Nadia Licitra (Univ of Paris 4) studied finds and pottery from the Treasury of Shabaka. Laurent Coulon (CNRS) continued study of the chapel of Osiris Wennefed Neb Djefau. Luc Gabolde (CNRS) continued the study of loose limestone blocks from monuments of Amenhotep I. A team led by Peter

Temple of Amenhotep II. Excavating the terracotta sarcophagus in tomb F23. Photograph: ©Tommaso Quirino - CEFB

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Brand (Univ of Memphis) and Jean Revez (Univ Quebec at Montreal) studied the Hypostyle Hall columns. Directed by Sébastien Biston-Moulin (CFEETK), the Global Index Project of Karnak Temple Inscriptions (www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/karnak/) has been officially launched. www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/ 2. In the Precinct of the Temple of Mut, the Brooklyn Museum team, led by Richard Fazzini, made two soundings N of the temple to test the late Agnes Cabrol’s theory that an avenue of sphinxes once led to the Ramesses III Temple. While no traces of sphinx bases were found in this limited area, the excavation uncovered extensive mud-brick foundations (for a pylon?) in the square closest to the temple and two large parallel mud-brick walls running E-W across the N square. Pottery overlying the foundations and against the walls was mostly Ptolemaic, but the walls themselves, which were not excavated down to their foundations, may be pre-Ptolemaic. Additional original paving of the approach was uncovered W of the Taharqo Gate. The remains of the W wing of the gate in the Temple’s 2nd Pylon were restored. In cooperation with the ARCE project aimed at opening the site to the public, several platforms were built in the front area of the precinct to hold inscribed blocks and some Sekhmet statues. Work also continued on the Temple’s inscriptional material including the texts in the Montuemhat Crypt and the gateway in the 1st Pylon. www.brooklynmuseum.org/features/mut Luxor: The OI team, directed by W Raymond Johnson, continued work at Luxor Temple. Jay Heidel undertook documentation, collation and analysis on the Thecla Church block material and Brett McClain continued analysis of the Bentresh block material in preparation for drawing next season. Krisztián Vertés inaugurated the facsimile documentation (and digital inking) of the third century AD Roman frescos and the Amenhotep III reliefs in the Imperial Cult Chamber. Hiroko Kariya continued maintenance and conservation of the joined, inscribed wall material in the blockyard open-air museum. Conor Power assessed the structure of the temple and found it to be stable, in large part due to the effectiveness of the USAID/ MSA dewatering programme that has reduced the groundwater levels for the Karnak and Luxor Temples. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/ Western Thebes: 1. The Macquarie Univ team, led by Boyo Ockinga, conducted work at Dra Abu el-Naga in TT 149 (the tomb of Amenmose). Excavation of the chapel revealed three burial complexes: at the W end of the Long Hall and the N end of the Broad Hall two shafts were located giving access to small, low burial chambers opening to the N and S respectively; at the S end of the Broad Hall three steps lead down to a similar chamber. Shafts and chambers were disturbed and contaminated, indicated by evidence of burning and modern finds. Pharaonic objects found date to the TIP. In the uppermost level of the courtyard, dumps with fragmentary remains of burial equipment were also found. In the central area of the courtyard, excavations reached the Coptic occupation phase (evidenced by ceramics, ostraca, reed pens) and revealed remains of structures (a stone pavement flanked by remains of mud-brick walls along the axis to the doorway, a mud-brick storage unit on the N side of the pavement). Remains of substantial earlier mud-brick walls were uncovered to the N and S of the central area. The lowest level reached is in the NE corner where the top of an in situ sandstone pillar base and a fragment of sandstone revetment lining the courtyard’s N wall were revealed. The substantial remains of the mud-brick pylons, preserved up to c.1.5m, were conserved. 2. The Univ of Pisa team, directed by Marilina Betrò, continued clearance at Dra Abu el-

Dra Abu el-Naga. Excavations to the south-west of the open courtyard of the tomb of Djehuty (TT 11, see EA 42 pp.21-24). One of the three mud shabtis of the ‘Spokesman of Nekhen, Ahhotep’ as it was found inside a minature coffin Photograph: ©Proyecto Djehuty/ José Latova

Naga of tomb E, a single room located SE of the transverse hall of the earlier (late 17th Dyn) and larger tomb MIDAN.05. The room has been heavily disturbed by flooding and by modern human action and only a thin layer of the original deposit is intact. The remains of an infant burial were found in the W corner of the room, separated from other burials by a row of mud bricks. Traces of at least another two interments were found. 3D laser scanning of MIDAN.05 was carried out by CULTNAT, Cairo. In TT 14 (Ramesside tomb of Huy) clearance of rooms at the end of the sloping passage continued. In the S corner of room I a cut in the bedrock revealed a shallow pit and a narrow passage leading to a new room, J, filled to the ceiling with alluvial deposits. Only a small part was cleared but finds suggest TIP re-use. The passage entrance has two sandstone jambs with grooves for a wooden door. http://sta.humnet.unipi.it/ 3. The Spanish National Research Council mission working at Dra Abu el-Naga, directed by José M Galán, continued excavation SW of the open courtyard of Djehuty’s tomb-chapel (TT 11) revealing part of the 17th Dyn necropolis. One tomb has three inscriptions of ‘the Prince Intefmose’, another wooden shabtis and linen with the name Ahmose-Sapair and a third tomb, of the ‘Spokesman of Nekhen, Ahhotep’ contained three clay shabtis - two found in clay coffins and the third wrapped in linen. A four year old infant was found undisturbed inside a small uninscribed rishitype wooden coffin. www.excavacionegipto.com. 4. In Qurna and El-Khokha ARCE’s ongoing Qurna Site Improvement Project, directed by Andrew Bednarski, is employing 700 local workmen to remove, by hand, the loose debris left by the 2006-10 demolition of the area’s modern buildings. The work is conducted under the supervision of a team of archaeological observers who record the remains of the modern houses, all ancient and modern objects recovered, and relevant ethnographic information. http://www.arce. org/conservation/Qurna/qurna-overview

5. At Qurna, the OI expedition, directed by W Raymond Johnson, completed documentation of the inscribed façade of TT 107, the tomb of Amenhotep III’s Malqata Palace Steward Nefesekheru. The copies will be collated next season. Boyo Ockinga and Susanne Binder undertook an architectural study of the façade of the tomb, including the original damaged entrance and later, possibly medieval, brick jambs built into it. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/ 6. The Centro di Egittologia Francesco Ballerini, Como, team led by Angelo Sesana at the ‘Temple of Millions of Years’ of Amenhotep II focused on excavation of MK and TIP funerary contexts. The large tomb D21 (MK-SIP) consists of a corridor and at least two chambers, partially cut into the bedrock. It is undecorated and the ceiling has partly collapsed, but is full of pottery and human remains. In the forepart of the Temple is a late 12th Dyn/early 13th Dyn burial (F23) excavated in a niche between the bedrock and a layer of compacted sand. It contained a baby burial in a terracotta sarcophagus, with a set of small

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Hierakonpolis. Predynastic statuette from the elite cemetery HK6. Right: being conserved by Lamia el-Hadidi. Photographs: Jim Rossiter. © The Hierakonpolis Expedition vases. L13 (TIP) has a rock-cut shaft, filled with scattered human and animal bones and PtolemaicCoptic pottery, leading to two chambers. The second and larger chamber has the remains of at least four poorly preserved coffins with only scattered traces of their original painted stucco remaining. R11 is the last of the 24 TIP funerary shafts to be identified and excavated. At the bottom of the c.4m deep shaft, filled with pottery fragments mixed with animal bones, are two chambers. Chamber B contains four canopic jars, a badly damaged coffin with a skeleton showing evidence of mummification and c.400 unbaked clay shabtis still showing their light blue colour and probably originally contained in a wooden box which has now degraded. Restoration began of the mud-brick ramp leading to the Temple’s columned courtyard - one of the best preserved among 18th Dyn temples. The central part has steps, c.3.5m wide, flanked by two sloping ramps with balustrades. www.cefb.it 7. At Kom el-Hettan, the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, led by Hourig Sourouzian, conducted archaeological soundings and geo-radar investigations around the Colossi, revealing original pieces fallen from the N Colossus, and blocks from restored areas. At the 2nd Pylon reconstruction of the N colossal statue was completed up to the king’s neck. At the 3rd Pylon, the head and the body of the alabaster colossus were lifted to higher ground, while documentation, conservation and reassembly were pursued on pieces of alabaster and blocks of the granodiorite pedestal. In the Peristyle Court, further Sekhmet statues were discovered, along with another section of pavement and a new pit near the N Stela attesting ancient earthquake damage. Restoration continued on the two large stelae, and royal quartzite and granite statues. An emergency salvage intervention at the N Gate was carried out in cooperation with the MSA, codirected by Hourig Sourouzian and Mohammed Abdel Maksoud, and directed in the field by Nairy Hampikian, to raise pieces of two colossal quartzite statues of Amenhotep III lying in inundated fields at the N gate of the temple precinct. 8. At Medinet Habu, the OI team, led by W Raymond Johnson, continued documentation and collation of the inscribed walls of the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III under the supervision of Brett McClain, with most of the drawings of the façade and ambulatory areas finished for Medinet Habu X. Krisztián Vertés completed his analysis of the different colour phases of the temple complex for inclusion in the publication, and tutored the epigraphic staff in new techniques for inking digitally the facsimile drawings using Wacom drawing tablets. Tina Di Cerbo and Richard Jasnow continued digital documentation of the graffiti in the complex and

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Julia Schmied continued registering architectural fragments in the blockyard, and the documentation and analysis of fragmentary material from inscribed TIP residence doorways. Lotfi Hassan and his conservation team worked on the reassembly of a number of Ramesses III inscribed doorways for the blockyard open-air museum. Stone mason Frank Helmholz and his team cut and laid the first course of new sandstone blocks of the Domitian Gate, replacing blocks that had been destroyed by groundwater salt decay. They also cleaned and documented a small, fragmentary gate (time of Claudius) outside the precinct that will be dismantled and restored next season. http://oi.uchicago. edu/research/projects/epi/

9. An important aim of the season of the joint MMA/Michael C Carlos Museum, Atlanta expedition to Malqata, led by Diana Craig Patch and Peter Lacovara, was to focus on the King’s Palace, studying the remaining architecture and documenting it as well as undertaking some trial restorations to formulate a long-term plan for the conservation, restoration and visitor interpretation of the building. Conservation treatments were also tested to determine the best way to stabilise and protect the remaining wall paintings in the Palace. Additional work was conducted in the so-called N Village as the only record from the original excavation was a rather schematic plan of small houses identified as settlement belonging to Malqata workmen. The re-clearing of the small house structures was continued to check the accuracy of the plan made after the MMA work in 1917-18 and to understand better the chronology and function of this element of the palace-city. http://imalqata.wordpress.com

Elkab: The BM expedition, directed by Vivian Davies, continued work in and around the tombchapel of Ahmose-Pennekhbet. A photographic record and plans were completed of the complex of secondary chambers belonging to the tomb of Pahery, which are accessible through a large gap in the ceiling above the rear niche of AhmosePennekhbet’s chapel. Investigation of the debris on the floor revealed further decorated fragments. A new facsimile copy was made of the inscription on the façade of one of the neighbouring tombs to the south, belonging to a priestess of Nekhbet called Tientis. Work was also continued in the tomb-chapel of Senwosret, which included study of inscribed blocks from the façade. Good progress was maintained in the programme of mapping. Hagr Edfu: The BM Expedition, directed by Vivian Davies and Elisabeth O’Connell, completed its Conservation through Documentation Project (2010, 2012 funded by Antiquities Endowment Fund/ARCE/USAID), making final checks ahead of a planned publication. The project has aimed to complete: the first topographical map of the site, a survey of surface pottery, the recording of tomb decoration and inscriptions, a representative sample of architectural features and the documentation of Greek and Coptic ostraca excavated in 1981 and now held in the Elkab Magazine. The recording of the tomb of Sataimau, an important early NK Edfu official, is now complete. Hierakonpolis: The BM fieldwork, directed by Renée Friedman, continued excavation at HK6, the elite Predynastic cemetery, where 10 further tombs were discovered, including burials of sheep, goats, dogs and humans. In addition, a crocodile was found buried at the exterior corner of the 73m long wooden wall that now appears to have surrounded the older part of the cemetery. Further indications of above-ground architecture were

uncovered along with human figurines of fired clay. At HK11C excavations directed by Masahiro Baba (Waseda Univ) revealed more of a Predynastic structure made of hand-formed mud-bricks. Inside this structure were rows of stone-lined hearths apparently dedicated to the preparation of meat, fish and poultry dishes on an industrial scale. The survey of rock art by Fred Hardtke (Macquarie Univ) identified 23 new sites with depictions of oryx and giraffe as well as sandals and abstract symbols. Problems with the land reclamation scheme to the W of the site caused volumes of water to flow down the central wadi for the first time in over 6,000 years, coming dangerously close to the HK6 cemetery excavations and the Fort, but fortunately no serious damage is so far evident. www.hierakonpolis-online.org Aswan (Syene): The joint team of the Swiss Inst and the MSA Aswan, headed by Cornelius von Pilgrim and Mohammed el-Bialy, and directed in the field by Wolfgang Müller, investigated Roman houses of the second century AD in the quarter S of the Isis Temple (Area 1) and in the SE corner of the fortified town (Area 2). In the latter area the excavation of a courtyard with numerous animal burials (up to 157 in total) was continued. A rescue excavation in Shona revealed a monumental LP retaining wall with several later additions. The geomorphological survey was continued and a group of MK rock inscriptions at the former banks of the Nile S of the police building have been cleaned and recorded. www.swissinst.ch Dakhla Oasis: 1. At Amheida, ancient Trimithis, the New York Univ team, directed by Roger S Bagnall and under the archaeological direction of Paolo Davoli, worked in three areas. In area 2.2, excavation of Building 6 focused on the E side where a latrine and two water basins in baked brick belong to the same Roman bathhouse of which parts have been found previously in areas 2.1 and 2.2. In area 2.3 excavation was completed of surface rooms of the fourth century church (building 7), revealing a series of service rooms for preparation of food on the S side of the church, together with a staircase. A barrel-vaulted subterranean room with three burials was also excavated, bringing the total found in the church to date to eight. In area 4.1 (the temple of Thoth), 134 more decorated blocks from a LP temple (reused in the masonry of the Roman Period Thoth temple) have been recovered. Part of the rear wall of the temple was found collapsed; this allowed for a better identification of the original location of the Roman temple. Study of the area’s deep stratigraphy identified OK and SIP levels. The topographic survey continued, as did arrangement of decorated temple blocks in the on-site magazine and work on the replica of the House of Serenos. www.amheida.org 2. At Mut el-Kharab a very short excavation season (because of administrative problems) was conducted by the Monash Univ team, led by Colin Hope, within storage chambers W of the temple. They yielded a series of seal impressions (probably TIP and LP) with divine and private names. Elsewhere, amongst reused blocks within the temple itself, is one with the lower part of a royal figure described as ‘....beloved of Sutekh, Lord of Mit’, thus giving another occurrence of the ancient name of the site. Research on artefacts found in previous seasons included study by Gunter Vittmann of ostraka of the eighth century BC, including one approximately 0.5m x 0.5m, and study of the moulds for inlays in a large image of Seth, similar to that at Hibis, which once adorned the walls of the Mut temple. SPRING (March to June) Lower Egypt Alexandria: The underwater campaign of the HIAMAS mission, directed by Harry E Tzalas,

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focused on the El-Hassan Reef, 500m E of the tip of the Silsileh Promontory. This reef, first represented as a shoal on the 1472 map of Alexandria in the Codex Urbinate 277, is now submerged with its top at a depth of 12m and its contours at 17m. The subsidence is certainly due to a natural phenomenen which is being investigated. The remains of a shipwrecked cargo of amphorae was found at a depth of 14m while an iron anchor, probably from a merchantman, was traced at 17m depth. The scattered cargo of broken amphorae as well as the type of iron anchor present suggests a date in the Late Roman/Early Byzantine Period (fourth-seventh centuries. AD). A frame timber of the ship and the iron anchor were raised for conservation. An Islamic Period (elevenththirteenth centuries AD) stone anchor was also found on the reef. Buto: 1. The DAI team, directed by Ulrich Hartung, continued work on the EDP structures N of the village of Sekhmawy. Three main occupation phases can be distinguished - from the beginning of the 1st Dyn until the middle of the 2nd Dyn - illustrating the development of an official estate, probably with economic and administrative functions. During the second half of the 1st Dyn the existing structures were replaced by a newly built palace-like building complex with rooms, magazines and workshops. The entrance (or one of the entrances) of the complex was found near its NW corner and connected to the large central reception room by an angled corridor. 2. The Univ of Poitiers team, led by Pascale Ballet and supported by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, IFAO and the Centre of Alexandrian Studies, continued the investigations of the late history of the site by field-walking and geophysical surveys as well as test trenches on the N kom (Kom A) of Buto. Naukratis: The BM Team, directed by Ross Thomas, continued the programme of magnetometry, with 15ha of the site now covered, including both central and more outlying areas. This enabled us to get a better understanding of the likely extent of the ancient site: the settlement (excluding the cemetery) covered at least 52ha. The magnetometry results revealed a large number of structures within the area of the Egyptian sanctuary (the ‘Great Temenos’), in the dried-up lake and to the N and E of the site. Excavations conducted by Penny Wilson focused on key above-surface structures on the ‘South Mound’. The results of a programme of drill coring, conducted by Ben Pennington, suggest the presence of a river channel located to the W of the site: the Canopic branch of the Nile. www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/

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within the Univ of Hawaii’s concession) took place under the direction of Katherine Blouin. The area excavated is in the NE part of the tell, in what Daressy called the ‘Khoronfich’. Attention focused on some clusters of red-brick jointed with lime mortar that were protruding from the surface. The scarcity of finds and the depth of the stratigraphic features, which were exclusively made of deposits and modern fills, soon indicated that the area had already been excavated. As a result, neither the foundation nor the abandonment dates of the structure are known, but the bricks and the masonry technique indicate a Late Roman date. The structure consists of a rectangular room standing more than 3m high and c.15m long, prolonged in the NW by an apse, which has a bay in its axis and opens into a small apse in the SW. The latter was covered with a quarter-sphere vault. The building typology seems to indicate that the structure belongs to a much larger ensemble. Late Hellenistic pottery was found beneath the foundation level of the larger apse, in undisturbed contexts. In parallel to the excavations, an intensive field survey of the adjacent parts of the tell was undertaken. www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~kblouin/MCT. html

Tell el-Daba (Avaris): The work of the Austrian Archaeological Inst, directed by Irene ForstnerMüller, started work in a new area R/IV, where the main harbour of Avaris was assumed to be located. The area was occupied in the later SIP when a row of large tombs, unfortunately heavily robbed, was aligned with an earlier massive sandbrick wall. There is no evidence for occupation during the 18th Dyn but it was occupied again in the Ramesside Period. Work within the socalled palace in area F/II continued with the focus on the central courtyard of its SW area. Within the courtyard several mud floors could be discerned, on top of which, and partly cutting through them, were dense layers of archaeological remains consisting of later 15th Dyn pottery, seal impressions, stone tools and other stone fragments: probably the rubbish of the palace left after its abandonment. To the W remains of the court’s mud-brick enclosure wall were excavated, but it had been badly damaged by later activities. To the SW of the central back courtyard no architectural remains or floor levels were visible - it may have been an open space in antiquity. The impression of a small fallen tree was visible on the surface but there were no organic traces left. A pit with a bovid skeleton was cut into the enclosure wall.

Upper Egypt Amarna: The team led by Barry Kemp and Anna Stevens resumed work at the Great Aten Temple, all_current_projects/naukratis_the_greeks_in_egypt.aspx clearing debris from a further area around the Tell Timai (Thmuis): The Univ of Toronto’s original front of the temple and removing more first season at Thmuis (a semi-autonomous mission of the Pendlebury dumps. Further fragments of sculptured stone and statues were recovered. A single course of fine limestone blocks was laid over the foundations of the stone building uncovered in 2012, together with circles marking the positions of columns. At the Small Aten Temple, inspection and maintenance was carried out on the full-height column reconstructed in 1995. The final season of excavation at the South Tombs Cemetery covered more ground at the Upper Site and Wadi Mouth Site. A new sample area was opened, Amarna: The front part of the Great Aten Temple (end of the spring 2013 season) looking to the Middle Site, where a the east along the temple axis. Photograph: Gwil Owen contracted or flexed burial

was found. The target of 400 individual skeletons for subsequent study was reached. A conservation team continued work on the growing number of fragile wooden coffins and the anthropology team, led by Jerry Rose (Univ of Arkansas), took up the study of the large number of skeletons from the 2012-13 seasons. www.amarnaproject.com Luxor: At the temple of Khonsu (Ramesses III), the OI team, led by W Raymond Johnson, continued documentation of the reused blocks embedded in the walls, supervised by Brett McClain and Jen Kimpton. Of special focus was reused material with earlier inscribed decoration higher in the walls that relates to reused material already documented by the team in the flooring and foundations of the temple, including examples from the reigns of Tuthmosis IV, Ramesses II, and Sety II. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/epi/ Western Thebes: 1. At TT 110, on the border of Qurna and ElKhokha, the ARCE Preparatory Field School, led by Andrew Bednarski, provided hands-on, basic archaeological training to 35 local antiquities inspectors. In addition to training in excavation and recording methods, the field school introduces students to ceramic analysis, osteology, and archaeological illustration. Students at the field school investigated the unexcavated forecourt of TT 110. www.arce.org/conservation/fieldschool/TT110. 2. The Univ of Arizona expedition, led by Pearce Paul Creasman, continued work at Tausret’s Temple of Millions of Years, focusing on the first court and gaining an understanding of later occupation levels. These seem to be more significant and span a wider period than previously known. Excavation in the lower strata of one of many decayed mud-brick mounds from the temple’s destruction revealed several modern items, including a ‘Made in U.A.E’ tag from a T-shirt. Elsewhere, outside the temple proper, an Egyptian bus ticket (approx. late 1910s) was found several metres deep and the area would seem to have been looted at least twice, c.1920 and c.mid-1980s. Excavation at the N end of the concession to clear modern debris, revealed three, apparently unpublished, cave-like features cut into the embankment. One was certainly a NK tomb with human remains, funerary cones, ostraca, Mycenaean pottery, seashells, and other burial goods. This area will be the focus of work next year. www.egypt.arizona.edu. Aswan (west bank): The Yale Univ and Univ of Bologna Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project, led by Maria Gatto and Antonio Curci, concentrated on survey, rock art documentation, rescue operations and near-surface drill-coring prospection in the following localities: Nag elHamdulab, Wadi el-Faras, Wadi Kubbaniya and Wadi el-Tawil. A previously unknown PredynasticEDP rock art panel was found N of Wadi el-Faras, showing hunting scenes with humans, dogs and wild animals. Cattle and boats are also recorded. A small tumulus found in Wadi el-Qurna in the Sheikh Mohammed area was investigated, revealing the remains of a Nubian man, possibly a soldier who may have been killed in battle, as an iron arrow-head was found close to his neck. Preliminary analysis of the arrow head’s typology would date it to the Roman/Meroitic Period. Analysis of lithic and ceramic artefacts from the Predynastic settlement WK15 at Nag el-Qarmila was undertaken in the Kom Ombo storeroom. In agreement and collaboration with the Aswan MSA Inspectorate and with the help of the Nubia Museum personnel, an awareness project was initiated among the Nubian communities of Gharb Aswan to protect their heritage. Thanks to Renée Friedman, José Galàn, Peter Grossmann, Barry Kemp and Tommaso Quirino for providing photographs.

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The funerary palace of Padiamenope at Thebes The study of the impressive Theban monument, TT 33, belonging to Padiamenope, reveals the personality of this ancient scholar, as Claude Traunecker and Isabelle Régen describe. In 1884 Johannes Dümichen described the huge tomb of the Lector Priest Padiamenope (TT 33) as a Grabpalast (funerary palace) on account of its immense size and complexity. This tomb, usually dated to the beginning of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, was built in the Assasif necropolis and is one of the largest tombs in Egypt, with 22 rooms, all of them decorated, disposed over four levels. The funerary enclosure surrounds an area of 110m x 90m. Since the beginning of Egyptology this labyrinthine monument has intrigued visitors, travellers and, unfortunately, also plunderers. Despite the difficulty of working in its maze of rooms infested with tens of thousands of bats, Dümichen, founder of the Egyptological Institute in Strasburg, started to publish the texts from the tomb. Unfortunately he was able to publish only two volumes, representing approximately 15% of the epigraphical material, before his death in 1894. Six years later Gaston Maspero decided to remove the bats and, to The passage of door II. Photograph: Lionel Schmitt

prevent them re-entering, the tomb was then bricked up from the door of room IV, while the first three rooms were used as a store by the Antiquities Service. This situation, which made the whole monument and its rich, unpublished epigraphic material virtually inaccessible, lasted till the end of 2005. During the two previous years a joint team from The French Institute in Cairo (IFAO) and Strasbourg University collaborated with the Supreme Council of Antiquities to move around 2,000 objects, which had been stored there for a century, into new storerooms elsewhere on the west bank of the Nile. The magnificent tomb of Padiamenope, finally accessible again, could now be explored, described and studied. Working conditions are much better than they were in the nineteenth century, but the air inside the tomb is still rich in ammonia gas, following the prolonged habitation by bats, and this forces us to wear anti-gas masks. Before the reopening, even though we had excellent architectural plans by Diethelm Eigner, we had only a partial knowledge of the tomb. Moreover, almost nothing was known about Padiamenope’s family and origins. But thanks to the discovery of new texts on the tomb walls we now know that he was of local origin and belonged to a priestly family from Armant. He probably practised

Cenotaph

Columned court Wahibre

First courtyard

Plan of the tomb TT 33. Drawing by Claude Traunecker after the surveys of Diethelm Eigner 32

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his duties during the reigns of the two last Twenty-Fifth Dynasty kings, Taharqo and Tanutamun, and at the beginning of the reign of Psamtik I. Curiously, this owner of the largest tomb ever built in Egypt had only quite modest titles: Lector Priest signifies mainly that he was an intellectual and scholar and, being a personal secretary to an unnamed king, he held no state functions nor had he any political power. The complex plan of TT 33 is remarkable. The first three rooms (I-III) reflect a classic model attested in other contemporaneous monuments (such as in TT 37 of Harwa, see pp.17-20), but in the rest of the tomb Padiamenope’s architects derived their inspiration from various ancient royal tombs. Rooms VI-IX imitate tomb plans of the Nineteenth-Twentieth Dynasties in the Valley of the Kings; corridor X and room XI reproduce the typical funerary rooms of a Sixth Dynasty pyramid, with its texts; rooms IV and V are devoted to the ancient funerary literature, with spells from the Coffin Texts (room IV) and a complete version of the Opening of the Mouth Ritual (room V). The architecture and decoration of this monument appears to have been conceived as a sort of ‘museum-tomb’, in the spirit of the Kushite-Saite Renaissance (see further p.35). The texts on the passages of the doors I, II, III, IV, V and XII form a collection of erudite literary documents with vocabulary drawn from more ancient sources, showing Padiamenope’s deep philological knowledge. Even more extraordinary is the sequence of corridors and rooms XII to XVI. On the walls of corridors XII and XIII Padiamenope reproduced a new, re-elaborated version of the famous New Kingdom funerary books describing

Room V, door to room VI. Photograph: Claude Traunecker

the netherworld). Corridor XIII, accessible through a real door (between V and XII) encloses a square structure, the Osirian cenotaph, adorned with 15 false doors (as in the Djoser complex at Saqqara) and 22 chapels. In the corners, eight goddesses, in high relief, with outstretched arms, watch over the cenotaph. The three chapels XIV to XVI show Padiamenope not as a dead person, but officiating in the House of Natron (XIV) and in the House of Gold (XVI), while in the central chapel (XV) the making of the ideal mummy, adorned by Osiris Hemag, is shown. A text, written on the wall between corridors XII and XIII, welcomes visitors with these words: Oh living ones, oh ones upon earth, those who were born and those who will be born, those who come here as Followers of Montu, Lord of Thebes, as well as those who walk through the necropolis to enjoy themselves and those who look for any sort of formulae (texts), (all) those who enter into this tomb and admire what is in it. This part of the tomb must have been intended

General view of the courtyard of TT 33, the funerary palace of Padiamenope. Photograph: Claude Traunecker 33

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Left: Corridor XIII.2. Padiamenope welcomes visitors to his tomb. Photograph: ClaudeTraunecker. Above: Corridor XIII.2: the cenotaph. Photograph: Lionel Schmitt

each hour of these texts are passages from the Litanies of the Sun and the Book of the Night. This particular textual framework seems to appear for the first time in Padiamenope’s tomb and was to be used later as one of the main templates for stone sarcophagi decoration, especially from the Thirtieth Dynasty onwards. The versions of Amduat and Gates in Padiamenope’s tomb offer a kind of édition des Belles-Lettres of both, characterized by revised and clarified, if not completed, versions. The texts are personalised for Padiamenope by stressing his involvement in the sun’s nocturnal journey. It seems therefore evident that Padiamenope, a specialist in the ancient rituals and counsellor to three Kushite and Saite kings concerning royal rituals, wanted to reproduce, on the walls of the ‘public’ rooms of his funerary monument, the results of his work as an editor of ancient texts. It is evident that the Grabpalast of Padiamenope was much more than a mere tomb. It must be regarded as a true library carved into the rock and at the disposal of ancient learned visitors, but it is also an Osirian temple (XII-XVI) and a place of pilgrimage, appreciated by the Followers of Montu during the Decade rites. A door built in the name of Padiamenope in the temple of Djeme at Medinet Habu provides evidence for the popularity enjoyed by him and by his cultural innovations.

to be open to the ‘Followers of Montu’, as well as casual vistors and scholars looking for ancient texts. The secret part of the tomb, accessible through a shaft that opens in corridor XII, is even more surprising. A corridor (XVII-XVIII) leads to a chamber (XIX) where, on the walls, complete versions of the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Resurrection of Osiris are carved. In the floor of this room a shaft opens into a deep chamber (XXI) from which a funerary apartment, still unexcavated, begins. A passage, hidden above the rear wall of room XXI, then leads to the real burial chamber of Padiamenope (XXII): a crypt (10m x 5m) beneath a 5m-high vault, placed exactly under the cenotaph. A hiding place for the mummy was discovered in 2009. The walls of this burial chamber are decorated with a complete version of the Book of the Amduat and some spells from the Book of the Dead. All these texts are attested also in the rooms of the first subterranean level, which was accessible to visitors. Isabelle Régen is studying the texts (Book of the Amduat, Gates mixed with Book of the Night, Nut, Earth, Litanies of the Sun) which begin in room XII of TT 33 and continue into the following room, along the walls facing the Osirian cenotaph (XIII). Padiamenope’s Book of the Amduat and Book of the Gates are among the latest complete versions so far known: the next-to-last copy for the Amduat and the latest one for the Book of the Gates. A unique feature is the presence of three versions of the twelve hours of the Amduat - a short version on the northern wall of room XII, one long version in rooms XII-XIII and another long version in room XXII (the burial chamber). In this exceptional decorative and architectural programme, the Books of the Amduat and Gates are also interspersed with other texts; between

q Claude Traunecker is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Egyptological Institute in Strasbourg, and has directed the fieldwork at TT 33 since 2004. Isabelle Régen is a former Scientific Member at the IFAO (Cairo) and is now a Researcher at the University of Montpellier III - Paul Valéry, UMR 5140 CNRS. The work at TT 33 is a joint mission of IFAO, Strasbourg University (UMR 7044) and Montpellier University. See further: ‘Le palais funéraire de Padiamenopé redécouvert’ in Egypte, Afrique & Orient 51 (2008) and www.ifao.egnet.net/archeologie/tt33/ with links to websites of the joint partners of the mission.

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TT 33: the Book of the Dead and the Book of Caverns Padiamenope’s funerary complex contains an important collection of Books of the Netherworld. Silvia Einaudi and Daniel Werning describe their current research. In 2012 Silvia Einaudi started to copy and study the Book of the Dead spells in TT 33 to prepare them for publication and it seems that here also the Lector Priest wanted to edit a referential version. After a general survey and on the basis of preliminary research in previous seasons, about 70 spells have been identified so far. Often accompanied by vignettes, they are carved on the walls, pillars and engaged pillars of the tomb: from the two hypostyle halls (where the largest number of spells is attested) to the burial chamber. The choice of spells made by Padiamenope reflects, to some extent, the ‘Saite recension’ of the Book of the Dead, whose redaction was probably already under way by the end of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. So, for instance, the sequence of spells on the north wall of the first hypostyle hall (Room I, see plan on p.32): 27-2829-30-64-31?-32-33-[34?]-35?-36-37-38-39-40, or that on the east wall (north section) of the second hypostyle hall (Room II): 116-117-118-119-120-121 shows an evident canonical, codified order. In fact, at least as far as it concerns the two hypostyle halls, it would seem that Padiamenope was trying to reproduce on the walls, pillars and engaged pillars of his tomb a real Book of the Dead ‘papyrus’ with vignettes, as if it had been unrolled over the rock surfaces. Some details of Padiamenope’s Book of the Dead are attested in earlier Assasif tombs;

Detail from the Book of Caverns in corridor XVIII. Photograph: Claude Traunecker

the combination of spells 17-18, carved on the south and west (south section) walls of the first hypostyle hall, for example, also occurs in the tombs of Karakhamun (TT 223) and Harwa (TT 37), and part of the sequence of spells on the north wall of the same hall is also attested in TT 223. It seems that a decorative model was available for the Assasif Late Period funerary complexes, with the Book of the Dead in TT 33 representing the richest and most elaborate example. During the 2012 season, Daniel Werning started to collate the texts and scenes of the Book of Caverns from rooms and corridors XVII-XIX, to prepare a synoptic edition. He has identified some peculiarities which imply that the author of Padiamenope’s version was aware of the Ramesside editions of Caverns from the Osireion at Abydos and from Ramesses VI’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Like other texts in TT 33, this version of Caverns was personalised for Padiamenope by the inclusion of his name and image into the text and scenes, just as was done at Abydos and in the Valley of the Kings for the Ramesside kings in their versions. Other details also show that this early Late Period version is a careful adaptation, modestly updated in some respects and ‘archaising’ in other respects, but still a very authentic version of the Book of Caverns.

Vignette of the chapter 100 of the Book of the Dead (Room I, engaged pillar south-west). Photograph: Lionel Schmitt 35

q Silvia Einaudi is a Research Associate at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. Daniel Werning is based at the Humboldt University, Berlin, (Excellence Cluster Topoi).

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Plinthine on Lake Mareotis In 2013 fieldwork at Kom el-Nugus (Plinthine) on Lake Mareotis focused on a large mound overlooking the ancient town. Sylvain Dhennin and Bérangère Redon describe this settlement with archaic and classical Greek imports, raising questions about the history and nature of the site.

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The ancient Mareotis region is located on the northwestern border of Egypt around Lake Mareotis (now Lake Mariut) and connected to the Canopic branch of the Nile via a network of canals. Following the foundation of Alexandria on its eastern limit in 332/331 BC, the region became a crucial area for contacts between Egypt and the Mediterranean world. Since 1998, the French Mission toTaposiris Magna (MFTM), directed by MarieFrançoise Boussac, has been investigating two sites: Abusir (ancient Taposiris Magna, see also EA 33, pp.12-14) and Kom el-Nugus, usually identified with Plinthine (see also inset on p.37). Their Ptolemaic and Roman past is well-attested, whereas the pharaonic history of the region is almost unknown, and few Egyptologists have shown much interest in it, with the notable exceptions of Anthony De Cosson, Alan Rowe and Jean Yoyotte. During the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, a ‘gate’ - probably a fortress named a3-n-ḫ3zt-THnw (the ‘door of the foreign lands of the Libyans’) was probably located in the north-west of the area and can be identified with the ancient town of Khaset-Tjemehou. Unfortunately neither archaeological evidence nor texts provide much information about this border region, and the main entrance to Egypt for foreign shipping was further east, at Thonis (Heracleion) which had close links with Naukratis. Since 2012 the MFTM has concentrated its fieldwork at Kom el-Nugus/Plinthine, whose existence in the preHellenistic Period is suggested by references in the works of Hellanicus and Herodotus. In April 2013, we started the excavation of Plinthine’s kom, whose impressive

Taposiris Magna and Plinthine. Plan by Thibaud Fournet (Institut français du Proche-Orient) with Thomas Arnoux (Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives) and Olivier Onézime (IFAO)

dimensions (180m x 150m), horseshoe-shape and high location have long attracted the attention of travellers and historians, but its nature had remained unknown. The highest point is located at the north-west corner, and the kom stands, on average, 11m above the surrounding land. Many walls are still visible on the surface, sometimes following the crests of the mound. This is particularly so for a huge east-west wall in the south-west part of the kom, which can be followed for over 75m. A test trench 36

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The identification of Kom el-Nugus as Plinthine Of the two sites being studied by the French expedition, Taposiris Magna is the better known while Kom el-Nugus had long been neglected and its identification as ancient Plinthine sometimes questioned in the absence of written proof. The only previous fieldwork at the site, mainly in the necropolis, was by Achille Adriani in 1937, followed by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation in the 1960s. In his publication, Adriani emphasized the limited duration of the settlement (mainly Hellenistic), and questioned, as had others, the chronology and function of the artificial kom overlooking the city: could it have been a fortress, an agora, a theatre or an amphitheatre? Ascertaining the duration of the settlement and explaining its decline was considered a priority by our expedition, which has concluded that the city might have suffered, probably as early as the late Hellenistic Period, from the development of Taposiris Magna as an alternative gateway into Egypt. Our fieldwork initially focused on the necropolis, west of the urban settlement, confirming the city’s short life span (from the late fourth/early third century BC until the late Hellenistic/early Roman Period) and providing evidence for signs of abandonment from the second century BC onwards. A survey of the ceramics and topographical and architectural mapping conducted under the direction of Thibaud Fournet in the urban areas since 2000 has highlighted the scale of an imposing city whose lower parts have been destroyed by modern construction and the development of fishponds in the lake. The surveys have also shown the density of urban occupation west of a wadi cutting the city in two from north to south on the axis of the man-made kom, and probably corresponding to a main axis through the city. This seems to confirm that the golden age of the lower town was during the Hellenistic Period, with a clear preponderance of ceramics of the second century BC. The discovery of a fragment of a Chian calyx of the sixth century BC during the survey led us to assume that an older occupation could have taken place at Plinthine, as suggested by Hellanicus (Fr. 155, apud Athenaeus, saying that wine was invented there) and Herodotus (who mentions, in his Histories II, 6, the gulf of Plinthine). The 2013 campaign of excavation on the kom has probably shown that our assumption was right. MARIE-FRANÇOISE BOUSSAC

enclosure wall (of a fortification?). The trench foundation has cut all the layers of the kom, showing that the mound was already in existence before the construction of the massive wall. The architectural and ceramic evidence suggests that the kom itself consists of accumulated settlement remains, including a dump and small units built with local stone or mud-brick walls. Some of the artefacts found are noteworthy, such as three bronze basins, two of them found nested within each other, a bronze arrowhead and over 150 pumice stones found in a small pit, but the pottery is by far the

of 80m2 was excavated on either side of this wall and the results obtained are of great importance even if they are obviously provisional. Several occupation phases were identified, the last one being the construction of the wall although only its massive foundations (at least 4.60m high and 2.75m wide) remain. Its nature and chronology are still uncertain, but its dimensions point to it having been an imposing

The foundation of the south-western enclosure wall, measuring more than 2.75m x 4.60m x 75m. The foundation trench of the wall, cutting the Late Period layers, is visible in the left-hand section

The northern part of the test trench with the foundation of the large wall visible in the section. In the foreground are (to the left) several walls built of local stones and mud-bricks, and (to the right) a dump

The town and kom of Plinthine, with the location of the trench excavated in 2013. Plan by Thibaud Fournet, Thomas Arnoux and Olivier Onézime

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Some of the c.150 pumice stones found in a pit cut into the floor of room A

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Two bronze vessels found on a beaten earth floor, to the north of the large wall

most impressive find. For the study of this we are indebted to Zulema BarahonaMendieta (University of Barcelona), Christiane Römer-Strehl (University of Bonn) and Mikaël Pesenti (University of Aix-en-Provence). According to their first estimation, 40% of the ceramics Part of a faience New Year’s flask are Greek products, 15% are Levantine and 45% local. The imported products show a great diversity of provenances: Eastern Greece (Chios, Miletus, Clazomenae, Samos, Lesbos), Greece (Attica, Corinth), the Levant and Cyprus. The most common forms are Chian amphorae (some dating to as early as 625 BC) and amphorae of the type usually described as ‘torpedo jars’. Fine pottery has been found too, such as Ionian bowls, a rare oenochoe, a Corinthian aryballos, and a lekythos, alongside Egyptian pilgrim flasks and faience. The pottery chronology ranges from 625-450 BC, with a peak during the sixth century, confirming the antiquity of the kom. The exceptional conservation of the pottery suggests some first hypotheses about the ancient settlement of Plinthine. Several amphorae and the bronze vessels were found complete in the dump or on the floors, indicating a primary use at the site. In addition, the nature and duration of the occupation, as well as the percentage of imports and the diversity of origins of production, suggest that they were imported in large numbers. To date, the closest parallels for our material come from Thonis, Naukratis and Sais in the western Delta, and Tell Dafana and Tell Kedwa on Egypt’s eastern border. Tell Kedwa is a northern Sinai fortress of the seventhsixth century BC and was first explored by an Israeli expedition led by Eliezer Oren in the 1970s. It is now under excavation by the Egyptian Ministry of An Ionian bowl. Drawing: Zulema Barahona-Mendieta

The dump in the northern part of the test trench, from the east, showing the find-spots of archaic amphorae A ‘Type 1’ Chian amphora (see photograph above), dated to 625 BC. Drawing: Zulema Barahona-Mendieta

State for Antiquities, and may be a comparable east Delta site to that of Plinthine in the west, serving the same function. Like all the sites mentioned above, Plinthine seems to have acted as an entrance into Egyptian territory. According to Herodotus, Amasis (580-526 BC) compelled boats coming from the Greek world to go to Naukratis along the Canopic branch of the Nile - a decision usually interpreted as an attempt to control the trade of Greek merchants. However, we know that Greek products were not necessarily conveyed by Greek merchants (and one must remember the significant amount of near-eastern imports at Plinthine) and other evidence has already shown that the Naukratis monopoly was not totally observed. Future discoveries at Plinthine will hopefully contribute further information to this debate. q Bérangère Redon is a researcher at the French CNRS (HiSoMAUMR 5189) and has conducted the excavations of the kom, with the help of Joachim Le Bomin (University of Paris 1), whom the writers warmly thank. Sylvain Dhennin is a scientific member of the IFAO and conducted the two first archaeological seasons in the town of Plinthine. The French Mission to Taposiris Magna (MFTM) is sponsored by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and directed by Marie-Françoise Boussac, Professor at the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre. The writers would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities for their kind authorisation and help in the work. Illustrations: © The French Mission to Taposiris Magna.

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KV 63: the glass inlay decoration on Iny’s coffin KV 63 was the first tomb to be found in the Valley of the Kings since that of Tutankhamun and since 2006 the coffins found within it have been the subject of intensive study. Otto J Schaden and Earl L Ertman describe the glass decoration on the coffin of the Royal Nurse, Iny. Since 1992 the Amenmesse Project expedition had been clearing KV 10, the king’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In 2006, as we dug deeper into the rectangular shaft to the north and east of the entrance, and beneath the foundations of workmen’s huts, a thin opening appeared across the south face of the shaft. This turned out to be the top of the drywall blocking just above the entrance doorway of a previously unknown tomb, now numbered as KV 63. Many large whitewashed storage jars stood on the right side of the tomb’s single chamber and a jumbled assortment of black coffins on the left. In all, KV 63 contained eight coffins (including two miniatures), but no mummies, and, rather than housing a burial, it was used to store embalming goods, including many vessels and almost 460 kilos of natron. From the evidence of ceramics and seal impressions it appears to have been in use in the late Eighteenth Dynasty. One incomplete seal impression can be restored only as the prenomen of King Tutankhamun or King Ay, so the final closure of KV 63 was probably at that time. Our primary mission since the discovery has been to record and document everything in the chamber, conserve the most fragile pieces (those not thoroughly eaten by termites), and move everything up above ground level to the secure location of KV 10’s pillared hall. There

a floor was built over the descent leading to the rear of the tomb to have a sufficiently large work area in which to be able to study, clean, document and conserve the objects from KV 63. The coffins found in the tomb are in various stages of completion, some virtually undecorated, and only two have revealed inscriptions thus far. The action of termites has caused considerable damage to some of them, including the loss of texts and decoration, making their study and dating difficult. Coffin A, found closest to the tomb entrance, had been placed originally on loose rubble on the floor, but termite damage led to its right side rupturing and tipping over, spilling some of its contents. Black bitumen resin covered all but the coffin’s face mask, painted yellow to imitate gold. It has glass eye inlays outlined with dark blue glass with extended cosmetic lines rather than merely painted eye details. The eyebrows of coffin A were not inlaid with glass but were made of a composite material that was raised and painted. Coffins B, F and G also have yellow face masks while C and E were completely covered with black resin, the mask of D is seemingly made of pink gold, covered by resin or varnish, but it has not yet been cleaned/conserved. Over several seasons conservators have worked many hours cleaning, patching and removing the black bitumen from parts of the coffins. We also checked for inscriptions where these would be expected on coffins with black colouring and intersecting bands of text, as are known from the reign of Amenhotep III and into the reign of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). Often these bands of texts are found down the centre of the front of the coffin intersecting with horizontal cross bands. Coffin A had four cross bands as shown View into KV 63 prior to removal of the coffins and jars. Photograph: Heather Alexander on the drawing (p.40) and 39

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top cross band on the left begins with ‘revered’ (as does the far less well-preserved bottom cross band). ‘... revered, may I see Re [in the sky and drink from the pool …]’ In neither instance is there any mention of the traditional mortuary deities. The absence of the usual figure of Nut and her customary recitations on the end panels or elsewhere on the lid or box leads us to suggest that Iny’s coffin inscription was made during the Amarna Period as the The face mask of Coffin A of the Royal Nurse, Iny, showing glass eye inlays and composition eyebrows. usual ‘traditional’ funerary Photograph: Mary Ann Marazzi deities were not invoked. Obviously this coffin had been subjected to some rough its owner can be identified as the Royal Nurse, Iny. treatment before it came to rest in our single chamber Most of the individual inlaid elements of the inscriptions tomb where the action of the termites led to further and designs on the lid and box of coffin A have deterioration. However, the damage to the surface of this disappeared and the cut depressions that once housed coffin does not appear to have been done to obliterate coloured inlaid hieroglyphs and decorations are mostly the name of its owner, Iny, but rather to obtain the gold empty; they would almost certainly have been filled with leaf applied to the coffin’s surface - tiny scraps of gold foil glass, paste or paint, or even Egyptian faience. remained on the surface after removal of the resin. Glass inlays in situ include some very thin light blue We do not know if the coffin was used for Iny’s burial (at glass rods and pieces of them on the right side of the box, Thebes, Amarna, or elsewhere) before it was stripped of marking borders to the texts. They had been inlaid into its valuable decoration and chosen to serve as a repository the incised borders, probably affixed with Egyptian blue or similar paste adhesives. Neighbouring rods dropped out of their original positions when the wood dried out and warped or the surrounding wood was eaten by termites. More glass rods were found among the debris in and near the coffin, along with flakes of gold. A partial list of glass elements besides the blue glass rods includes a broken red glass ›hieroglyph, practically encircled by gold leaf, on the left side of the box, in the third cross band, and a complete turquoise-blue nb sign, on the left side of the box, second column from the top just before the start of Iny’s title, mnat nzwt (Royal Nurse). Small fragments of turquoise glass, still in place, have also been noted, plus the shattered left end of a red glass mn sign under the blue nb sign discussed above. Iny’s name and/or title are also preserved (completely or in part) on three cross bands on the right side of the box, and three on the left side. Similarly, it occurs twice on the end panel of the lid and near the bottom of the central column. One text, from the fourth cross band, was preserved and legible from the twenty or so pieces remaining of this coffin (not counting the many tiny fragments and pieces) that were eaten by termites. The Blue glass rod fragments used for text borders. Photograph: Heather Alexander

The texts on Coffin A. Drawing by Otto J Schaden 40

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Red glass m-sign with surviving gold foil from the left side of the box, band three. Photograph: Otto J Schaden

Yellow inlays of paste/pigment in reed signs with J from the phrase â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;...revered, may I see Re [...]â&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the top cross band on the left side of the box. Traces of gold leaf can be seen in front of and behind both reeds, under the chin of the seated woman sign and in the lower right corner before the break. Photograph: Otto J Schaden

Signs filled with red paste or paint: a seated man, áť&#x2030;mntt and the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;foreign landâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sign, above blue glass rods in situ. Photograph: Otto J Schaden

NEW from English Heritage Publishing

Egypt in England

Blue glass nb-sign with remains of a red glass mn-sign below it. Photograph: Mary Ann Marazzi

Chris Elliott

for embalming material in KV63. Inyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name and her title of Royal Nurse, together with the decoration of the coffin with glass inlays and gold foil, all show that the owner was a very important individual, though we may never know which royal child or children were in her care, as she is unattested elsewhere. The materials used to decorate her wooden coffin provide a brief glimpse into the extended use of glass inlays towards the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Although Inyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surviving coffin decoration indicates a smaller scale of embellishment than that of the sumptuous glass and faience inlays found on two of the coffins in the tomb of the Vizier Aper-el at Saqqara, the fact that expensive glass and gold foil were used to decorate her coffin indicates her high status in Egyptian society.

A beautifully illustrated guide to the use of Egyptian style in English architecture and interiors. ÂŁ25.00 Paperback â&#x20AC;˘ Contains 225 illustrations Published November 2012 ISBN 978-1-84802-088-7 â&#x20AC;˘ 320pp, 240x195mm Available from all good bookshops. Alternatively you can order directly from: Orca Book Services Ltd, Order Department, 160 Milton Park, Abingdon OX14 4SD Tel: 01235 465577 Fax: 01235 465556 Email: direct.orders@marston.co.uk or buy online at www.english-heritageshop.org.uk English Heritage Publishing The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon SN2 2EH

q Otto J Schaden is the Director of the Amenmesse Project, investigating KV10 and KV63. Earl L Ertman is a Professor Emeritus, University of Akron, and Associate Director of the KV10 and KV63 mission. They would like to thank artist Elaine Taylor, for preparing the illustrations for this article. 41

(+B(L( $GYHUWB(J\SWLDQ $UFKDHRORJ\ -RXUQDO LQGG

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Bookshelf Glenn Janes, The Shabti Collections, 5: A selection from the Manchester Museum. Olicar House Publications, 2012 (ISBN 978 0 9566271 55). Price: £95.00. Showing a massive dedication to his self-set task, over the past two years Glenn Janes has produced no fewer than five catalogues of shabtis in collections in the north-west of England. This latest instalment covers one of the great Egyptian assemblages – that at Manchester Museum, although the size of that collection has meant that only a representative selection of 522 pieces (about half the total held) appears here. The book begins with a Foreword summarising the history of the Manchester collection by its present curator, Campbell Price, and then a Preface that gives a summary of published work on shabtis, and an overview of their development, illustrated by Manchester examples. After a basic chronology and map, the catalogue itself proceeds in broadly chronological order, although there are a few places where there is unexplained back-tracking – for example, the early Eighteenth Dynasty piece of the lady Humay follows a long run of shabtis of the Nineteenth/Twentieth Dynasties. Each entry begins with a tabulation of accession number, names and titles of owners, date, material and provenance (where known). There then follows a description, a handcopy, transliteration and translation of any inscription, a note of parallels and a set of very high-quality colour photographs. Unsurprisingly, given the size and origins of the collection, there are some particularly interesting and fine pieces included, one of the most striking being the very first entry, a Twelfth Dynasty piece from Hawara, belonging to the lady Henutwedjat. There are, of course, also many much more workaday examples of the Third Intermediate Period, but throughout the standard of recording remains just as high. A few entries for TwentySixth Dynasty items include detailed accounts of the tombs from which they came (including plans): it is unclear why these pieces have been singled out for such special treatment, except perhaps for those belonging to Horudja, 58 of whose 399 shabtis came to Manchester from Petrie’s work at Hawara. Glenn Janes is to be congratulated for this splendid treatment of the Manchester shabti collection, and one greatly looks forward to further volumes in the series – and hopefully some on shabti collections outside the north-west of England. At£95 it may seem expensive, but given the high quality of production and all-pervading use of colour (especially as compared to many monochrome hard-line academic volumes that nowadays clock-in at or above the £100 mark), it is not unjustifiably so. One has only one real desideratum – that an appendix might have been included giving a summary list of the pieces in the collection that have not been included in the actual catalogue. AIDAN DODSON

Barry J. Kemp. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Amarna and its People. Thames & Hudson 2012. (ISBN 978 0 500 29120 7). £19.95. This well-written and clearly structured book is about excavations at the new capital founded by Akhenaten in the fifth year of his reign and what they reveal of the life lived by the inhabitants not quite three and a half millennia ago. Attention focuses in particular on insights gained since work was resumed at the site in 1977 by the Egypt Exploration Society under the direction of the author. In 2005 Kemp founded the Amarna Trust which in 2007 took over the concession, after three decades of unstinting support from the EES. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti is not a book about the Amarna Period, its political history, or the art which the name of Akhenaten calls to mind for the non-specialist, even if the first chapter provides Kemp’s personal ‘take’ on the king and his beliefs. In the pages that follow he does not ignore the sculptures and paintings which provided the aesthetic environment for Amarna’s inhabitants, although these topics do not fascinate him. Referring to the controversy surrounding the division of finds which brought the painted bust of Queen Nefertiti (pl.II) to Berlin in 1913, Kemp asserts (p.13): ‘Archaeology and art masterpieces do not mix’ but it is archaeology which continues to reveal the truly incredible amount of sculpture – relief and statuary, in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials – commissioned by Akhenaten for the temples and palaces of his city to broadcast his message while paintings decorated even the modest dwellings of the families who lived in the workmen’s village, as well as the homes of the rich and powerful. For Akhenaten and his ‘vision’ Kemp recommends (p.313) books in French by Egyptologists Dimitri Laboury and Marc Gabolde. But he implicitly rejects major theses of these authors – Laboury’s explanation to account for Akhenaten’s physical appearance in the Karnak colossi and Gabolde’s exposition 42

supporting the existence, now generally accepted among specialists, of a ruling queen among Akhenaten’s immediate successors. (Note that the caption to pl. XXXIV attributes a cartouche with her special epithet ‘beneficial for her husband’ to King Smenkhkare.) Chapters 2-5 cover the resources available to those charged with meeting the challenge of erecting a city virtually overnight, the appearance and functioning of temples and palaces as adapted to Akhenaten’s requirements, and how the city evolved. Kemp sees practicality as the principle underlying the Egyptian approach to construction, and he repeatedly rejects (as do I) the contention that Egyptian cities were ‘built as images’. (Nowhere, however, did I find a reference to his article in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10 (2000) countering this theory.) Chapters 6-8 present analyses of what it was like to live (and die) at Amarna. The fate of the labourers who made bricks, cut stone, laid foundations, built walls, and excavated tombs receives as much attention as does that of draftsmen and sculptors, officials and courtiers. Interpretations of archaeological data are persuasively presented, but never without the caveat that they may not necessarily be applicable to other New Kingdom urban sites (cf. especially n.1 to Chapter 8, pp.310f.). Kemp asserts that the events following Akhenaten’s death (which he dismisses in the final, three-page chapter as surrounded by ‘endless speculation’) scarcely mattered as far as the occupation of the site was concerned, but they certainly led to its eventual effective abandonment. There follow tips for those who wish to visit the site, a list of works cited, end notes (numbered chapter by chapter), suggestions for further reading, credit lines for the illustrations and an index. A few factual errors will go unnoticed by non-specialists. For example, in the ‘Cast of Characters’ (pp.14f.), Amenhotep III is called Egypt’s ruler ‘between about 1388 and 1348 BC’ which is not only at odds with his dates (1393-1355 BC) in the chronology, tucked away at the bottom of p.304, but also exceeds the documented length of his reign. An anomaly in the rendering of Queen Nefertiti’s long cartouche – the reversal of the writing of ‘Aten’ in ‘Neferneferuaten’ – has elicited comment among Egyptologists, but the reversal is not reproduced in the logo showing her cartouche following those of Akhenaten, used as a chapter heading throughout the book. The text is very well illustrated. Human figures and animals inserted into isometric reconstructions (e.g. fig.5.25) provide a wry humorous touch as well as an aid to judging scale. Photographic plates of scale models supplement floor plans to provide readers with a welcome aid to envisage the appearance of the city in its heyday. Note, however, that the model of the Royal Tomb – there is no plan – ‘equipped as it might have been for Akhenaten’s burial’ (pl.XLIII) omits the sarcophagus of Akhenaten’s mother Queen

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Tiye which, according to research published nearly two decades ago, stood in the southeast corner of the burial chamber. Perhaps these and a few other errors can be corrected in a future edition. MARIANNE EATON-KRAUSS Bill Manley, Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners. Thames & Hudson, 2012. (ISBN 978 0 500 05172 6). Price: £12.95. There are numerous books on the market with which you can supposedly ‘Teach Yourself to Read Hieroglyphs’, which range from Mark Collier and Bill Manley’s excellent How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, first published in 1998 and now in its second (revised) edition, which is widely used in beginner and undergraduate classes around the world, to the more esoteric Teach Yourself Hieroglyphics (Teach Yourself Books, 2003), which synthesises both Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphic writing systems, and is not to be found in most university libraries. Bill Manley’s new book aims to allow readers to decipher basic monumental inscriptions, working from real examples throughout. This use of real inscriptions shapes the course of the book, which does not follow the traditional patterns of a grammar (reference or pedagogical), but rather teaches the reader just enough to be able to read each inscription in turn. The book is divided into five sections. The first, and longest, at just over half the length of the volume, is a series of stelae and coffin inscriptions, used to introduce the basic concepts of formulaic texts such as names, titles and the Offering Formula. Part two focuses on King’s Names, and also introduces the relationship between the king and the gods of Egypt. The third part traces the earliest examples of writing and the history of hieroglyphic development, and the last part takes readers through the ‘Marriage Inscription’ of Amenhotep III, pulling together the various aspects of grammar covered. Throughout the book readers are provided with blank spaces to practise what has been covered although there is little guidance as to how they should be used and it might have been better to provide specific exercises. ‘Did you know?’ boxes serve to highlight or amplify the points being made in an interesting

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and informative way. These insert boxes often provide useful context and depth to the book,which otherwise has a somewhat narrow focus. The final section comprises some indices, including a useful list of gods’ names and their associated epithets, a kinglist, a sign-list covering the signs learned in the book (note, this is not a full sign-list), and a brief dictionary, again covering words encountered elsewhere in the book. There are elements of this approach which many readers will find heartening – the immediate engagement with real texts and the clear explanations of otherwise confusing subjects such as honorific transposition: Manley draws a well-chosen parallel with the writing ‘£10’ being read as ‘ten pounds’, not ‘pounds ten’. Since other beginner’s guides do tend to pre-suppose a level of facility with grammatical terminology and with languagelearning, this simplified approach, which prioritises text-reading over pure grammar learning, is refreshing. There are occasions when this teaching method can be frustrating, however; for example, at the first opportunity to practise transliteration of words written with only one-consonant hieroglyphs, the reader is told to ignore determinatives, as they have not yet been covered. Since the very next page introduces determinatives and explains their function very concisely, it is not clear why this exercise is not delayed for a page or two, allowing readers the opportunity really to engage with the material. Similarly, for a book aimed at a total beginner, there are occasions when words presented in hieroglyphs are transliterated and translated, and others when they are just translated, which can be confusing. If this book were to be used by a student as a springboard to further study, the lack of traditional technical terminology might also prove to be an obstacle, but this is a minor concern, as the clear language used makes the guide extremely accessible. There is a good mixture of texts presented as images of the original inscription, allowing readers the opportunity to grapple with the pitfalls of reading ‘real texts’, and texts rendered as epigraphic copies or in standard hieroglyphic fonts, which are of course much easier to read. Given the price, it is unsurprising that there are no colour images, but it is still a shame. In comparison to Manley’s other ‘beginner’s

guide’, written in collaboration with Mark Collier, this book provides less in the way of grammatical grounding, not even touching on verbal forms or constructions, but it does allow an immediacy of understanding which many will appreciate. While How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs can be found in an undergraduate’s reading list, Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners is more likely to be found in the backpack of an avid traveller to Egypt or museum visitor. JOANNA KYFFIN Chris Elliott, Egypt in England. English Heritage, 2012 (ISBN 978 184802 088 7). Price £25. The focus of this many-sided book is straightforward: upon ‘surviving architecture and interiors’ in England ‘inspired by Ancient Egypt’ (p.5). ‘Architecture’ here comprises buildings of all kinds, and also funerary monuments. ‘Interiors’ need not accompany exteriors: for example, the ‘Egyptian Hall’ at Stowe House near Buckingham (now largely given over to Stowe School), which has no other Egyptianising feature - none that survives, at any rate. Rather different are the two ancient obelisks, Cleopatra’s Needle and the Kingston Lacy obelisk. The former in particular raises questions about its present architectural setting and about abandoned proposals for its location in London and the reactions aroused by all of these. On the whole, however, the book does not cover issues concerning the presentation of actual antiquities. What counts as being ‘inspired’ by ancient Egypt is a question that does arise (e.g. p.31). Buildings can vary in how authentically Egyptian they look, and in whether they employ merely decorative details, or attempt an overall Egyptian design. If a rule of thumb is required, then presumably it should be simply that the Egyptian-ness must be evident. John Outram’s designs for the Temple of Storms pumping station (Isle of Dogs) and for the private residence Sphinx Hill (Oxfordshire) are not in the slightest concerned to look like ancient structures, but they do shout Egypt. Conversely, it is possible to walk by Britannia House (or ‘Hend House’) at the top end of London’s Shaftesbury Avenue without noticing its numerous Egyptian features, as the general appearance is not unlike that of other buildings of the 1920s. One purpose of the book is to serve as a

Stephen Quirke Going out in Daylight – prt m hrw: the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead - translation, sources, meanings First fully illustrated translation with Egyptian transliteration, aiming to present with their individual histories all the compositions on prt m hrw “Book of the Dead” papyri from the New Kingdom to Ptolemaic Period. The volume gives at least one version of every written composition, together with one or more images for the essential pictorial component of all writings for which illustrations are known. Writings at the margins or outside the prt m hrw corpus, including all ascribed “Book of the Dead” numbers in Egyptological publications, are included in the final section. The translations are supported by a thematic and historical introduction and closing glossary. A4, 641 pages, paperback; ISBN 9781906137311. Golden House Publications

£70 - $140

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practical guide, though at 24cm high and weighing just over a kilo, it is far from being a pocket-guide. The most substantial part is a listing (pp.88–290), geographically arranged, of 51 properties or monuments or cemeteries. Usually, basic directions are given to find each, and mostly there is a rough indication of the extent to which they can be visited or entered. Although English Heritage is the publisher, it is the National Trust that owns the lion’s share of such grand houses as are included. Egypt in England naturally concentrates upon structures that still survive: obviously not so in the case of the Crystal Palace, spectacularly destroyed by fire in 1936. The building, first sited in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, itself had no Egyptian characteristics, but, after its reconstruction in a modified form at Penge / Sydenham in south London, one of its main visitor-attractions from 1854 was the Egyptian Court, in which portions of a variety of well-known Egyptian monuments were reproduced with a determined aim at accuracy. The site can still be visited as the Crystal Palace Park, with a Heritage Trail, and sphinxes are among the sad survivors from the nineteenth-century features. The first half of the book contains a sequence of seven essays, each devoted to a theme or to a type of material: architecture, cemeteries, cinemas, ‘Egyptiana’, Egyptology, Freemasonry, and hieroglyphs. How interesting and useful readers may find them will necessarily vary according to their existing knowledge and interests. The reviewer can only indicate a couple of his own reactions: the essay on ‘Cinemas: the splendour of Luxor’, although the shortest, paints - together with the accounts of the Carlton Cinema (Islington) and the Pyramid (Sale, Greater Manchester), both surviving, at any rate as buildings - a vivid picture of the brief vogue for cinemas with Egyptianising exteriors or interiors and its place in the very peculiar history of cinema-buildings. ‘Egyptiana’ is Elliott’s word for ‘the more decorative aspects of the Egyptian style’ and the essay ‘Egyptiana: silver-gilt services to sewing machines’ includes interior design and furnishings; in contrast to ‘Cinemas’, it can touch on only a tiny sample of its material. For this reader, the short essay (eight pages) on ‘Egyptology’ seemed breathless, and the points might have been better made elsewhere. Elliott’s writing goes best when his enthusiasm leads him to write at greater length: for example the 38 pages about Cleopatra’s Needle, or the five pages on the restoration of the Egyptian Dining Room at Goodwood House (Chichester). Elliott disarmingly concedes (p.5) that a book deliberately planned to be used both by specialists and non-specialists ‘runs the risk of being a hybrid that satisfies no one’ though the publisher is no doubt responsible for the limitations placed upon the referencing, for which Elliott is a little apologetic (p.5). The generous colour illustrations, generally occupying a half or quarter page, are a major feature of the book, and are excellently reproduced. The captions on occasion provide information additional to that in the main text; they always give some form of picture-credit

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or reference, but these are not always very informative for a reader who might wish to follow them up. This book meets well the needs of the nonspecialist cultural tourist who wishes to learn something of the background to Egyptianising buildings while an enthusiast for the legacy of ancient Egypt would need to be a great specialist indeed not to find some fresh visits to pay, or fresh issues to consider. JOHN TAIT

Cathie Bryan, Walk like an Egyptian in Kensal Green Cemetery. The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, London 2012 (ISBN 978 0 95720492 8). Price £5 (available from the Friends + £2 p&p). The leafy Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris opened in 1804 and inspired the creation of ‘garden’ cemeteries worldwide, especially in Europe’s most crowded capital cities. London’s first garden cemetery was the ‘General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green’, in the Ladbroke Grove area of West London, established in 1832. Today, it attracts a large number of visitors, and has inspired a very active organisation of enthusiasts, the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery: www. kensalgreen.co.uk who organise a variety of tours, some catering to very special interestgroups: perhaps most visitors are drawn by the range of royalty, public figures, distinguished scientists or celebrities buried there. The Friends also produce a number of very diverse publications, and the booklet reviewed here joins, for example, A Byron Tour at Kensal Green Cemetery. Bryan’s publication has a clear purpose: to provide ‘a walking tour and guide to the Egyptianizing monuments of London’s first and finest historic garden cemetery’. It is based upon the author’s own experience of conducting tours at Kensal Green, and the heart of the booklet is a suggested itinerary, with clearly set-out accounts of twenty four monuments, accompanied by handy, smallscale colour illustrations. A tailor-made plan at the back makes the tour easy to follow - or to vary - on the ground. The 40-page booklet is in A4-format, spiral bound with a

clear plastic (‘glassine’) sheet at front and back, making it fairly robust and extremely practical for carrying on a visit. Four introductory ‘sections’ are included, which provide a broad range of background information. The first sketches the extent of knowledge about and the perception of ancient Egypt in Europe in general and in England in particular from the sixteenth century down to Bonaparte and the opening-up of Egypt to foreign investigation and exploitation. Section 2 reviews aspects of Egyptian templearchitecture, and includes explanations of some Egyptological terminology. These first two chapters, then, will more obviously be useful for the non-specialist, although EA readers may well find ideas of interest. Section 3, ‘Egyptian Style and Symbolism in 19th Century Funerary Monuments’, raises the fascinating question of what the use of Egyptian elements meant to those who commissioned them. The forms of obelisk (the commonest borrowing), pyramid, and temple-pylon perhaps were all recognised to be Egyptian. This is not quite clear in the case of the obelisk: several of those transplanted to Rome under the Empire had eventually been repositioned and prominently incorporated into the Christian landscape of Renaissance Rome - and so they redeemed from paganism the whole idea of the obelisk shape. However, in the ninteenth and earlier twentieth centuries, and within the Anglican sector of Kensal Green, all three Egyptian forms must surely have been interpreted in a Christian light, although to a degree they could all be seen as rather general and confused symbols of death and impermanence, and at the same time of endurance and eternity. Wherever they do occur, some explanation of their adoption is called for. After all, many English churchyards and burial grounds in use through the nineteenth century feature not even a single obelisk. In the case of monuments more elaborately Egyptian in design, why was the choice made? Bryan does not attempt any over-simple explanation. One might in special cases identify a deceased individual’s specific connections with Egypt, or recognise local traditions special to a particular cemetery, or to the firms of monumental masons regularly engaged there (who were not always locally based). It is curious that we know something of what in the mid-nineteenth century was thought about the suitability of Egyptian patterns for public architecture generally, but evidence of what those individuals who paid for private monuments thought on the matter is hard to come by. The last introductory section takes as a case-study the substantial and richly Egyptianising monument of Sir George Farrant (died 1844), a wealthy lawyer. Here, comment is possible on the exact sources used for the design. For readers of Egyptian Archaeology, this booklet offers a fresh look at Egyptianising monuments; it is well referenced, making it easy to follow up the variety of issues raised. Those who are not completely familiar with Kensal Green will surely find it of practical use in planning a visit so as to decide - and to be sure of finding - what they want to see. JOHN TAIT

The Egypt Exploration Society New Publications

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Late Roman Glassware and Pottery from Amarna and Related Studies

Late Roman Glassware and Pottery from Amarna and Related Studies By Jane Faiers, with contributions by Gillian Pyke and Wendy Smith EES Excavation Memoir 102. 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85698-212-5 Full price: £65. EES Members’ price: £55 This is the second volume on the monastic site of Kom el-Nana at Tell el-Amarna and brings up to date the excavations carried out there. The first volume contained mainly unstratified pottery and no glass, and included some of the Late Roman sites around Amarna. This volume brings together the stratified pottery and both stratified and unstratified glass and includes more Late Roman sites around Amarna which were visited by Robert Miller in 1988 and Barry Kemp in 1995.

Jane Faiers with contributions by Gillian Pyke and Wendy Smith E G Y P T

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The Aubieion at Saqqara III: Pottery from the Archaic to the

The Anubieion at Saqqara III: Pottery from the Archaic to the Third Intermediate Period

The Anubieion at Saqqara III: Pottery from the Archaic to the Third Intermediate Period By Peter French, assisted by Janine Bourriau EES Excavation Memoir 103. 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85698-214-9 Full price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50 Two previous Excavation Memoirs on the Egypt Exploration Society’s excavations in the Anubieion at Saqqara have described the surviving structures and the large and small objects found and analysed in the area’s complex stratigraphy. The present volume adds the evidence of that most prolific of ancient artefacts, the pottery, for the whole period from the first use of the area until the eighth century BC, placing each type in its geographical and chronological context to trace the evolution of the ceramic repertoire in the Saqqara/ Memphis area through the major periods of ancient Egyptian history.

Peter French assisted by Janine Bourriau E G Y P T

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The Ballaña Phase

Qasr Ibrim: The Ballaña Phase By William Y Adams, with contributions by Nettie K Adams EES Excavation Memoir 104. 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85698-216-3 Full price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50

Throughout its long history Qasr Ibrim was the most important settlement in Egyptian Nubia. During the Middle Ages it was both an administrative capital and a centre of Christian worship. As an archaeological site it has produced an unprecedented wealth of material, including objects of wood, leather and textile that are rarely preserved archaeologically. Also preserved are hundreds of specimens of written material in many different languages. This volume describes and illustrates in detail the finds from the immediate preChristian period, from about ad 350 to 600. Two earlier volumes in the same series (Qasr Ibrim, the Earlier Medieval Period and Qasr Ibrim, the Late Medieval Period) describe the remains from the succeeding periods. William Y Adams was born in California and educated at the Universities of California and Arizona, receiving his PhD from the latter institution in 1958. After early researches in American Indian ethnography he turned his attention to salvage archaeology, directing excavations within river valleys in the United States and then along the Nile in the Sudan and Egypt. From 1959 to 1966 he was Director of Excavations in Nubia for the Sudan Government, and from

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Qasr Ibrim: The Ballaña Phase

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Qasr Ibrim:

The Ballaña Phase

1972 to 1982 directed EES excavations at Qasr Ibrim. Simultaneously with the Qasr Ibrim excavations he served as Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky, until his retirement in 1992.

As an archaeological site Qasr Ibrim has produced an unprecedented wealth of organic material that is rarely preserved archaeologically, and hundreds of specimens of written material in many different languages. This volume describes and illustrates in detail the finds from about AD 350 to AD 600, when Qasr Ibrim was both an administrative capital and a centre of Christian worship. Qasr Ibrim: The Earlier Medieval Period (EES EM 89) and Qasr Ibrim: The Late Medieval Period (EES EM 59) described the remains from the succeeding periods. Nettie K Adams was born in Oklahoma and educated at the University of Arizona in anthropology. After her marriage to W Y Adams in 1955 she participated in excavations in the American southwest, and in the Sudan during the

Nubian Monuments campaign. In 1976 she began the study of textiles at Qasr Ibrim under the guidance of Elisabeth Crowfoot. Together they worked out systems for dealing with the vast numbers of textiles, analyzing and recording material organised by cultural period are in preparation.

William Y Adams

every piece. Since then she has been writing and publishing the textile data from Qasr Ibrim. Catalogues of the

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EES Exc Memoir Cover - Adams amended.indd All Pages

William Y Adams with contributions by Nettie K Adams E G Y P T

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Working in Memphis. The Production of Faience at Roman Period Kom Helul By Paul T Nicholson EES Excavation Memoir 105. 2013 ISBN: 978-0-85698-210-1 Full price: £70.00. EES Members’ price: £59.50 This volume reports on the EES excavation (between 2000 and 2008) at Kom Helul, Memphis, of an early Roman period faience kiln which appears to be of the same type as those excavated by Flinders Petrie in the early twentieth century. The book attempts to place Petrie’s finds in their archaeological context and to reinterpret his evidence in the light of findings from the new excavation. In so doing a new outline of the chaîne opératoire of faience production during the Roman period is proposed and its relationship with the making of pre-Roman faience is discussed. The book includes an illustrated catalogue of finds.

EES publications can be purchased from: The Egypt Exploration Society 3 Doughty Mews, London WC1N 2PG, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 (0)20 7242 2266. Fax: +44 (0)20 7404 6118. E-mail: contact@ees.ac.uk. On-line shop: www.ees-shop.com