2005-2006 activities:

 

1. Major project: Memphis: Enduring is the Perfection: State Formation and Socio-Cultural Change in the First Capital of Ancient Egypt (c. 3200 to 1069 BCE). PAGEREF _Toc138231992 \h 0

a. Helwan Ezbet el-Walda: Director: Christiana Köhler PAGEREF _Toc138231993 \h 0

b. Excavations to the North-West of Teti’s Cemetery: Director: Naguib Kanawati PAGEREF _Toc138231994 \h 1

c. Saqqara in the New Kingdom. Director: Boyo Ockinga. PAGEREF _Toc138231995 \h 1

 

2. The Design and Decoration of Burial Chambers in Old Kingdom Egypt. Director: Naguib Kanawati PAGEREF _Toc138231996 \h 1

a. Saqqara: Burial Chamber of Mereruka. PAGEREF _Toc138231997 \h 1

b. Deir el-Gebrawi: Burial Chamber’s of Ibi and Djau. PAGEREF _Toc138231998 \h 1

 

3. Macquarie Theban Tombs Project: Director: Boyo Ockinga. PAGEREF _Toc138231999 \h 2

 

Personnel affiliated with the ACE in 2005. PAGEREF _Toc138232000 \h 2

 

 

This information is taken from the Australian Centre For Egyptology

Annual Report 2005 and the full report can be read here.

1. Major project: Memphis – Enduring is the Perfection:
State Formation and Socio-Cultural Change in the First Capital of Ancient Egypt (c. 3200 to 1069 BCE).

Directors:        Naguib Kanawati

Boyo Ockinga

Christiana Köhler           

This project is directed collaboratively by Naguib Kanawati, Boyo Ockinga and Christiana Köhler and involves excavation and documentation of the important sites of Helwan, near Cairo, and the Teti Cemetery at Saqqara. The documentation will ultimately lead to an investigation of changes and continuities in the cultures and society of Memphis, a city that was once the capital of Egypt in the Old Kingdom and remained an important city in the following periods. The project will research the administrative functions of Memphis, its social structure, its demography, art and material culture, means of subsistence and mortuary beliefs from the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period (c.3200 BCE) to the end of the New Kingdom (c.1069 BCE).

The ‘Memphis: Enduring is the Perfection’ project is divided into three main areas of study and currently holds a concession to three archaeological sites in Egypt, which cover different periods of Ancient Egyptian history:

a.            Helwan Ezbet el-Walda: Prehistoric – Old Kingdom

b.            Excavations to the North-West of Teti’s Cemetery: Old Kingdom

c.            Saqqara in the New Kingdom: New Kingdom

a. Helwan Ezbet el-Walda: Director: Christiana Köhler

This season’s excavation activities continued in Operation 4, where 18 tomb structures were uncovered in the squares F8-9, G9-10 and H7-10. All of these burials, however, were severely robbed and therefore contained mostly disturbed burials and contexts. The tombs range in date from Dynasty 1 to Dynasty 3 and represent the entire sequence within the architectural development of tombs during this period. Of particular interest was tomb no. 4/94, which produced evidence for peri-funeral offering activities. Also significant was the discovery of a complete inscribed bone oil-label with a personal name and titles in tomb 4/91, dating to Dynasty 1. After careful excavation, photography and mapping, the human remains and artefacts were recovered and removed to the on-site storage in the Facility for Archaeological Research at Helwan (FARAH) for study and conservation. The tombs were backfilled with clear sand for future conservation. The study of the human remains was conducted by Ms Christine Marshall, Ronika Power and Sharan Bradley. Animal bones were studied by Dr. Salima Ikram and the botanical remains were studied by Dr. Ahmed Fahmy. Parallel to the field work on-site, work was also conducted by Jana Jones and Dr. Ahmed Fahmy in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on textiles and botanical remains from the previous excavations by Zaki Saad’s at Helwan.

Some photos from the last season of activities can be found here.

b. Excavations to the North-West of Teti’s Cemetery: Director: Naguib Kanawati

During January – February 2006 excavations continued in the North-West corner of the Teti cemetery with the aim of finding the external western wall of the cemetery. A number of burials dating from the New Kingdom and Late Period were discovered, accompanied by some funerary objects and some decorated coffins, mostly in a poor state of preservation. In the lower level, dating from the Old Kingdom, it was discovered that the external walls in this part of the cemetery were either never built or were deliberately damaged in order to allow for the extension of the cemetery to the north west. However, the discovery of two mud brick tombs, almost certainly dating to the Fifth dynasty and therefore predating the Teti cemetery was very instructive in our study of the links between the Teti cemetery and the earlier Fifth dynasty cemetery. Conservation measures were undertaken on the mud brick structures to stabilize them and the funerary objects of the minor burials were recorded. All the architectural drawings were prepared for all the discovered structures and also mapping of the cemetery is in progress.

c. Saqqara in the New Kingdom. Director: Boyo Ockinga

During 2005 a good start was made on collecting and entering data on Saqqara tombs of the New Kingdom into the comprehensive database of the project. The data of over 70 tombs has so far been entered.

2. The Design and Decoration of Burial Chambers in Old Kingdom Egypt. Director: Naguib Kanawati

This project is directed by Naguib Kanawati. It aims at understanding the rationale behind the evolving, design and decoration of ancient Egyptian burial chambers. The project will firstly clear a good representative sample of Old Kingdom burial chambers in order to establish a comprehensive architectural typology and to examine the theory that the increasing sophistication in protecting the corpse was in response to an evolving sense of threat and insecurity in every day ancient Egyptian life. The project will secondly trace the possible developments and differences in Egyptian funerary scenes depicted in burial chambers. The project will base its conclusions on data collected from a selection of tombs from various provinces in Upper Egypt, as well as tombs from the Memphite cemeteries.

This project incorporates archaeological fieldwork in two major Old Kingdom sites:

a.            Saqqara: Burial Chamber of Mereruka

b.            Deir el-Gebrawi: Burial Chamber’s of Ibi and Djau

a. Saqqara: Burial Chamber of Mereruka. Director: Naguib Kanawati

During January–February 2006 the recording of the burial chamber of the vizier Mereruka started. This burial chamber is the largest and most extensively decorated belonging to a private tomb of the Old Kingdom. The scenes are elaborately executed and very detailed, showing various food items, offering lists, palace façade decoration and also inscriptions relating to the tomb owner. The expedition concentrated on the recording, both in epigraphy and photography, the south and west walls of the burial chamber. The remaining two walls will be undertaken in the next season.

b. Deir el-Gebrawi: Burial Chamber’s of Ibi and Djau

During November-December 2005 the ACE undertook clearance and recording work at the Southern cliff of Deir el-Gebrawi near Asyut. Two major tombs and six smaller ones were fully recorded. The major tombs belonged to Ibi and Djau, who were both governors of the two important provinces of Abydos and Deir el-Gebrawi. The site has been previously excavated and published by N. de G. Davies in 1900-1902. In addition to recording the remaining scenes and inscriptions, the ACE in co-operation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, undertook a complete restoration and conservation program of these important tombs. In January 2006 the expedition spent a week with the Macquarie University photographer, Effy Alexakis, photographing the tomb after its conservation, as well as studied its architectural features and colour conventions. During our clearance of the shaft of Djau the expedition found the tomb owners skeletal remains intact and complete. The ACE is therefore planning a new publication including a full anthropological report on the human remains. For the last task, we have invited Professor Michael Schultz of the University of Göttingen and Mrs. Roxie Walker of the Institute for Bioarchaeology, San Francisco.

3. Macquarie Theban Tombs Project: Director: Boyo Ockinga

This is an independent project directed by Boyo Ockinga. This project excavates and records tombs at Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. The area excavated by Macquarie is called Dra Abu el-Naga and work was undertaken from November-December 2005 in Theban Tombs 147, 148 and 233.

TT 147 - Excavations were completed in the courtyard and the burial complex. In the courtyard the excavation of the area in front of and to the south of the doorway was completed. The 18th Dynasty floor level was identified, and a platform 10 cm in height was found. The position of the platform suits that of a stele emplacement, but there are no traces to indicate that a stele ever stood here. In the burial chamber the artefacts discovered were in a bad state of preservation. Yet, the expedition found numerous fired clay shabtis, which derive from a secondary usage of the tomb in the Late New Kingdom, not from its original construction phase in the 18^th Dynasty. A preliminary study of the human remains was also undertaken and work on the conservation of the walls of tomb's chapel was continued in the northern half of the Broad Hall.

TT 148 - Work towards the final publication of the tomb was conducted, with the final collation of the inscriptions, checking of the wall and descriptions of the scenes and inscriptions being prepared. Drawings of pottery from the tomb's main burial chamber were also collated. In addition, some work was done in the tomb's courtyard, constructing retaining walls to prevent rubble sliding down the slope and accumulating in the courtyard.

TT 233 - Work continued with the checking of past drawings of pottery and the completion of the drawing of the large corpus of catalogued shards, many of them dating to the reuse of the site as a settlement area during the Late Roman Period.

The ACE archaeological team in 2005

 

Professor Naguib Kanawati	Director of the ACE, Director of excavations at Saqqara and Deir el-Gebrawi.
Professor Alanna Nobbs	Acting Director in absence of Director
Dr Boyo Ockinga	Senior Lecturer in Egyptology. Director of the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project and responsible for the New Kingdom excavations at Saqqara.
Dr E Christiana Köhler	Senior Lecturer in Egyptology. Director of excavations at Helwan.
Dr Heike Behlmer	Lecturer in Coptic Studies. Director of research in Coptic Studies.
Dr Ann McFarlane	Honorary Associate in History. Editor of ACE publications and currently undertaking her research on the Colour Conventions at Akhmim.
Dr V Gae Callender	Honorary Associate in History. Member of the Czech Republic excavations at Abusir.
Dr Fred Giles	Honorary Associate in History. Currently researching the Amarna Period.
Dr Judith Brophy	Honorary Associate in History. Site supervisor for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Mrs Elizabeth Thompson	Research Assistant. Member of the Saqqara excavation project and from 2006 to start a new epigraphic project at Tehna.
Miss Alex Woods	Research Assistant. Member of the Saqqara excavation project and responsible for the study of the Colour Conventions at Deir el-Gebrawi..
Mrs Ferim Orucu	Research Assistant. Preparation of artwork for ACE publications.
Mrs Joan Pollett	Secretary of ACE.
Dr Susanne Binder	Honorary Associate in History. Site supervisor for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project and the New Kingdom project at Saqqara. Editor of the Bulletin of the ACE.
Dr Sameh Shafik	Honorary Associate in History, Epigrapher. Member of the Deir el- Gebrawi and Saqqara projects for the Old and New Kingdom.
Dr Karin Sowada	Ceramicist and Archaeologist for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Mr Naguib Victor	Site Architect for the Saqqara and Deir el-Gebrawi projects.
Mrs Helen Wilkins	Site Architect for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Dr Michael Schultz	Site Anthropologist for the Saqqara and Deir el-Gebrawi projects.
Ms Roxie Walker	Site Anthropologist for the Saqqara and Deir el-Gebrawi projects.
Ms Christine Marshall	Physical Anthropologist for the Helwan project.
Dr Alanah Buck	Forensic Anthropologist for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Ms Sharon Bradley	Assistant Anthropologist for the Helwan project.
Ms Ronika Power	Assistant Anthropologist for the Helwan project.
Ms Effy Alexakis	Site Photographer for the Saqqara and Deir el-Gebrawi projects.
Mrs Leonie Donovan	Site Photographer for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Ms Jane Smythe	Ceramicist for the Helwan project.
Dr Ahmed Fahmy	Palaeobotanist for the Helwan project.
Dr Salima Ikram	Site Anthropologist for the Helwan project.
Ms Jana Jones	Palaeobotanist and textiles expert for the Helwan Project.
Mrs Mary Hartley	Finds Registrar for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.
Mr Todd Gillen	Finds Registrar for the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project.