Ägyptologie (Bickel)Head of Research UnitOverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & CollaborationsProjects & Collaborations OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations Projects & Collaborations 34 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina: Documenting the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy (TT 217) Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe tomb TT 217 is located in Deir el-Medina, opposite modern Luxor, on the Theban Westbank. It was built in the Late Bronze Age, in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1250 BC), and reused in later periods. It is famous for its first room - the chapel - which contains polychrome wall paintings depicting various ancient Egyptian professionals at work. The tomb and its contents have been poorly researched, in spite of their exceptional value to researchers, the public, and the cultural heritage of Egypt. The twelve-month pilot phase (between March 2022 and February 2023) has three goals. 1 . To develop the digital architecture for a new open-access online platform, ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina , that will ultimately allow the seamless collection, documentation, research, and publication of Egyptological and archaeological data from Deir el-Medina using just one tool. TT 217 will serve as a test-case for the development of this platform. 2. To prepare the data collected thus far from TT 217 (both primary sources in Egypt and digitally accessible objects from museums and archives) to be imported into the new tool and to create the first results and output. 3. To prepare and submit a larger project grant application for which steps 1. and 2. will lay the necessary groundwork. TT 217 - the Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy in Context Research Project | 1 Project MembersTT 217, the tomb of the sculptor Ipuy, is one of the rare polychrome tombs in the Western Necropolis of Deir el-Medina. The rock-cut tomb consists of a court and ten chambers, according to Davies 1927. Built in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II, only the first room shows wall paintings with exceptional scenes depicting various professions. My research on the tomb will focus on a digital survey and the documentation of the preserved paintings and fragments (high-resolution photos and 3D scans for photogrammetric models), on an epigraphic and iconographic analysis (painters' hands), and new architectural plans (if all elements are accessible). The project aims for a virtual reconstruction of the decoration (preserving the current condition, relocating fragments digitally, benefitting from historical documents). It seeks to identify further (funerary) objects and to contextualize the microcosmos of the tomb and Ipuy's family. If possible, scientific analyses of pigments and restoration work may be envisaged. Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archival, Social, and Archaeological Research Research Project | 1 Project MembersThe Queens' Valley had been the object of several publications and studies from the early 20 th century. However, there were gaps within the scientific literature and issues that were clearly in need of a reassessment, next to others left unexplored. Thus, my PhD project ' Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archaeological, Social, and Archival Research' aimed at analysing the Queens' Valley through different multi-directional perspectives (archival, social, historical, and archaeological), with the purpose of filling some gaps and offering new interpretations to the use of this necropolis. Among the investigated issues, the analysis of the necropolis landscape played an important role. Thanks to a comparative approach with the Kings' Valley and the Wadi Bariyia necropoleis, along with recourse to the studies of Archaeology of Landscape discipline, it has been possible to offer a new interpretation of the landscape of the Queens' Valley, interpreting it as sacred, ritual, cultural, constructed, conceptualized, and ideational. In turn, the study of the necropolis landscape was closely linked to that of the social identity of the tomb owners of this cemetery, which constituted another relevant research question of the present PhD project. The social identity of the individuals buried within the Queens' Valley during the Ramesside Period (1295-1069 BCE) was well known, but the same could not be said concerning the 18 th Dynasty period of use (1550-1295 BC). Through the analysis of archaeological findings from the Queens' Valley ( i.e. materials housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin) and a comparative approach that correlates landscape, tomb architecture, and social background of the tomb owners of the Kings' Valley, Wadi Bariyia, and Queens' Valley necropoleis, it has been possible to shed light on the social fabric of the 18 th -dynasty Queens' Valley deceased, who were mainly members of the king's family and court individuals. Some of the most relevant and innovative results of the present project come from the analysis of the unpublished documentation of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Queens' Valley (1903-1905). The examination of such archival documents allowed me to reassess the history of the Italian excavations and the extent of the discoveries. Actually, the archival research highlighted that the Italian team, directed by Ernesto Schiaparelli, investigated many more tombs than previously thought. In addition, by cross-referencing data from the publications of Schiaparelli and his collaborator Francesco Ballerini and information from private letters sent by Ballerini to his family with the unpublished excavation diaries and notes, it was possible to retrace the chronological sequence of the discoveries of the 1903 mission. Moreover, a new, up-to-date, and complete picture of the situation concerning the discoveries that occurred during the 1904 mission has been elaborated. Some of the tombs investigated by the Italian Egyptologists, could not be identified and this aspect seems to suggest that such tombs might still lie under debris, waiting for new archaeological investigations. This PhD research also addressed archaeological materials and the re-contextualization of objects found in the Queens' Valley, which are currently housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin. Several findings without find-spot (which are labelled as 'dispersed materials') have been re-contextualized; moreover, it has been possible to correct the find-spot of other findings that were provided with a (wrong) find-spot and to re-discover, within the collection, objects that had been 'forgotten' among the museum materials. By gathering all the data drawn from the cataloguing of the tombs, archival research, archaeological investigation, and object re-contextualization, an up-to-date history of the Queens' Valley has been reconstructed, focusing on the following stages: the first use of the tombs (18 th Dynasty and Ramesside Period), the tomb robberies (late Ramesside Period), the tomb reuse (Third Intermediate, Late, and Roman Periods, i.e. , from 1069 BC to 395 AD), and the profanation of the tombs perpetuated by the Copts (starting from the end of the 4 th century AD circa). The catalogue of the tombs (which is included in volume II of the dissertation) is an important collection of data and functions as a supporting tool for the reader. Such data, along with the information collected in the course of this research, constitute an important aspect in the framework of the whole work. Finally, the study of phenomena and theoretical issues has been another constant objective, such as the gendered conceptualization of the necropolis and the invention of a new tradition in the 19 th Dynasty, the idealization of the necropolis landscape, the social interface of the New Kingdom burial ground, and the places of performance of the funerary and memorial cults for the Queens' valley tomb owners. Cotutelles Séguier Research Project | 2 Project MembersFrontière, limite et bornage dans l'Égypte ancienne Cotutelles Rogner Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Étude de la configuration des registres écrits dans les textes de la période amarnienne Research Project | 1 Project MembersLa période amarnienne (règne d'Akhénaton, 1351-1334 av. J.-C.) constitue une phase clé dans le développement du moyen égyptien au néo-égyptien. En effet, elle voit l'infiltration en masse de traits linguistiques innovants dans des genres et registres textuels desquels ils étaient jusqu'alors proscrits.Le présent travail de thèse propose d'analyser l'évolution de la langue écrite à la période amarnienne par l'étude de la (re)configuration des registres au sein des genres textuels : comment l'horizon culturel amarnien détermine-t-il (les modalités de) la sélection linguistique ?Cela permet d'aborder les questions suivantes : 1. Pourquoi le néo-égyptien perce-t-il à cette époque ? 2. Comment perce-t-il (différemment) au niveau des registres et des genres écrits ? 3. Quels sont les représentations linguistiques de l'époque (règles) ? 4. Comment s'articule la dialectique entre continuité et discontinuité : s'agit-il d'une césure linguistique ou d'un développement attendu ? 5. Quel est l'impact sur l'émergence de l'égyptien de tradition? L'analyse de l'origine et de la distribution des traits conservateurs et récents s'effectue sur trois niveaux: intratextuel, intertextuel et intergénériquement. SBSNY Scholarship J. Huwyler Research Project | 2 Project MembersDissertation Project of Jacqueline Huwyler: (Re)Shaping Identities: Late Bronze Age "Internationalism" and the Selective Adoption of Near Eastern Deities in an Increasingly Multi-Cultural Egypt Means of Communication with a Focus on the New Kingdom and on Letters Research Project | 1 Project MembersSammelhabilitation in Ägyptologie Life Histories of Theban Tombs Research Project | 13 Project MembersLife Histories of Theban Tombs (LHTT) investigates a cluster of mostly unfinished rock cut tombs and their mutual relations at the hillside of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Western Thebes and sees it as part of a planned cemetery opened up for a small elite with close links to the reigning king around 1450-1400 BC. Cut into a foothill of the Western mountains, they were considered ideal burial places, and were reused in later periods as shelter for the living. Spatial halls and vast courtyards hewn out of the living rock, walls decorated with depictions and inscriptions, and burial assemblages tugged away in remote, sometimes large substructures, became ideal vehicles of social, religious, and cultural perceptions virulent at the time of their construction, adapted to preferences and choices made by their owners and by those involved in the building process. Equally complex practices were at work generations later, when people appropriated older, often looted tombs to use and modify them according to their own needs and habits. Two further phases of use left a strong imprint on their materiality: their inhabitation by Coptic monks during the late first millennium and their second occupancy by local families during the late second millennium. They settled in the foothills and plains of the Theban necropolis for economic reasons, using the ancient structures as additional living space and as a valuable source for selling and forging antiques to antique traders, collectors and tourists visiting Thebes. LHTT draws on an integrative archaeological perspective, which combines cultural historical and scientific investigation methods and questions, and aims at retracing the materialized life histories of tombs, i.e. how they interacted with their built and natural environment, with institutions and people from their construction to modern times. The project seeks to re-personalize past human activities such as operations and procedures of tomb building and decoration, funerary practices, inhabitation, looting, etc. LHTT therefore prioritizes research techniques and procedures that give relevance to the detail and variation. The digital collection and processing of data and the development of an open source interactive database system will support this research strategy. Excavations of TT K555, a tomb of the cluster still buried under debris, are archaeologically promising as the debris may have protected deposits and structures from modern disruptions. Diachronic perspectives on a royal necropolis: identity, agency, and interaction Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe hitherto unexplored tomb KV 40 in the Kings' Valley near Upper Egyptian Luxor contains the human remains of some 50 mummified individuals, from both the 18 th and 22 nd dynasty (14 th c. BC and 9 th c. BC), along with several hundred items of their funerary equipment, which have been fragmented by antique and modern looting. In its earlier phase, the spacious shaft-tomb was a burial ground for members of the royal family and court; the later occupants were presumably members of the Theban priesthood. In its combined egyptological, technical, and medico-anthropological approach, the project will explore the social and biological identity of the tomb owners of both periods as well as the processes of interaction between the different phases of activity. In drawing intensively on the concepts of diachrony and agency, the project will construct a new and substantiated picture of the developments and changes in the mortuary landscape of the Theban area between the mid-2 nd and mid-1 st millennium BC. Lay Summary Das bisher unerforschte Grab KV 40 im Tal der Könige bei Luxor, Oberägypten, enthält die Überreste von ca. 50 mumifizierten Individuen sowie mehrere hundert Fragmente ihrer Grabausstattungen. Das zu analysierende Grabinventar stammt aus zwei verschiedenen Epochen (14. und 9. Jh. v. Chr.) und zwei unterschiedlichen sozialen Milieus (Königshof und lokale Priesterschaft). Im Zuge antiker und moderner Beraubungen wurden ausgesuchte Teile der Grabausstattung entfernt sowie die verbliebenen Objekte und Mumien stark fragmentiert. Inhalt und Ziel des Forschungsprojekts Anhand einer exemplarischen Analyse, die interdisziplinär sowohl ägyptologische, konservatorisch-technische als auch medizinisch-anthropologische Fragestellungen verbindet, wird die komplexe Befundsituation von KV 40 dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse werden für die einzelnen Nutzungsphasen des Grabes kontextualisiert und diachron auf ihre Relevanz für die Identitätsbildung durch Bestattungssitten und durch Vergangenheitsbezüge untersucht. Von Bedeutung ist ferner die Frage, inwieweit sich am überlieferten Material sämtlicher Nutzungsphasen die ursprüngliche agentivische Interaktion mit Objekten und Räumen ablesen lässt. In seiner ursprünglichen Belegung wurde das geräumige Schachtgrab von mindestens 30 namentlich erwähnten Personen aus der Königsfamilie und dem Hofstaat der 18. Dynastie (14. Jh. v. Chr.) genutzt. Die Analyse der Mumien und der Objektfragmente soll zur Rekonstruktion der individuellen und sozialen Identität dieser Personen sowie der sie wirtschaftlich unterhaltenden Institution des "Hauses der Königskinder" beitragen. Anhand der Auswahl und Disposition der Grabbeigaben sollen die für diese bisher schlecht dokumentierte soziale Gruppe spezifischen Bestattungssitten erfasst werden. Die Phase der Beraubung während der 20./21. Dynastie (11.-10. Jh. v. Chr.) soll in Bezug auf ihre Motivationen, ihr Ausmass sowie ihren politisch-sozialen Kontext eingeordnet werden. Die 15-20 Individuen, die diese Grabanlage im 9. Jh. v. Chr. trotz Vorhandensein der beraubten Überreste der ursprünglichen Bestattungen noch einmal nutzten, stammten nach ersten Hinweisen ihrer neuzeitlich zerstörten Särge und Cartonnagen aus dem Umfeld der Priesterschaft des Amun. Die Motivation zur Wahl des entlegenen Tals der Könige und die Nachnutzung des Grabes werden als gezielte Integration von Vergangenheit und als bewusste Ausdrucksform milieuspezifischer Erinnerungsstrategien untersucht, wie sie für diese Epoche charakteristisch sind. Wissenschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Kontext des Forschungsprojektes Es handelt sich bei diesem Projekt um die erste eingehende Untersuchung einer nicht für Pharaonen angelegten Grabstätte im Tal der Könige. Der hier verfolgte methodische Ansatz nimmt die gesamte Nutzungsgeschichte des Tals während einer Zeitspanne von ca. 500 Jahren in den Blick und untersucht sowohl jede einzelne Nutzungsphase als auch die Zusammenhänge der verschiedenen Interventionen und den Umgang mit der jeweils vorgefundenen Situation. Die medizinisch-anthropologische Untersuchung erlaubt erstmals nicht nur Individuen, sondern zwei in sich kohärente, in Geschlecht und Alter gemischte Gesellschaftsgruppen sowohl synchron als auch diachron auf ihren Gesundheits- und Ernährungszustand hin zu analysieren. Der agentivische Zugang wird drei unterschiedliche soziale Gruppen in ihrer spezifischen Objekt- und Raum-bezogenen Dynamik näher erfassen und in ihrem historischen Kontext verorten. Es wird sich dadurch eine neue, multifaktorielle und diachrone Perspektive auf das Tal der Könige eröffnen, die es erlaubt ein schärferes Bild der thebanischen Nekropolenlandschaft zwischen der Mitte des 2. und der Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. zu zeichnen. 1234 1...4 OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations
Projects & Collaborations 34 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina: Documenting the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy (TT 217) Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe tomb TT 217 is located in Deir el-Medina, opposite modern Luxor, on the Theban Westbank. It was built in the Late Bronze Age, in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1250 BC), and reused in later periods. It is famous for its first room - the chapel - which contains polychrome wall paintings depicting various ancient Egyptian professionals at work. The tomb and its contents have been poorly researched, in spite of their exceptional value to researchers, the public, and the cultural heritage of Egypt. The twelve-month pilot phase (between March 2022 and February 2023) has three goals. 1 . To develop the digital architecture for a new open-access online platform, ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina , that will ultimately allow the seamless collection, documentation, research, and publication of Egyptological and archaeological data from Deir el-Medina using just one tool. TT 217 will serve as a test-case for the development of this platform. 2. To prepare the data collected thus far from TT 217 (both primary sources in Egypt and digitally accessible objects from museums and archives) to be imported into the new tool and to create the first results and output. 3. To prepare and submit a larger project grant application for which steps 1. and 2. will lay the necessary groundwork. TT 217 - the Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy in Context Research Project | 1 Project MembersTT 217, the tomb of the sculptor Ipuy, is one of the rare polychrome tombs in the Western Necropolis of Deir el-Medina. The rock-cut tomb consists of a court and ten chambers, according to Davies 1927. Built in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II, only the first room shows wall paintings with exceptional scenes depicting various professions. My research on the tomb will focus on a digital survey and the documentation of the preserved paintings and fragments (high-resolution photos and 3D scans for photogrammetric models), on an epigraphic and iconographic analysis (painters' hands), and new architectural plans (if all elements are accessible). The project aims for a virtual reconstruction of the decoration (preserving the current condition, relocating fragments digitally, benefitting from historical documents). It seeks to identify further (funerary) objects and to contextualize the microcosmos of the tomb and Ipuy's family. If possible, scientific analyses of pigments and restoration work may be envisaged. Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archival, Social, and Archaeological Research Research Project | 1 Project MembersThe Queens' Valley had been the object of several publications and studies from the early 20 th century. However, there were gaps within the scientific literature and issues that were clearly in need of a reassessment, next to others left unexplored. Thus, my PhD project ' Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archaeological, Social, and Archival Research' aimed at analysing the Queens' Valley through different multi-directional perspectives (archival, social, historical, and archaeological), with the purpose of filling some gaps and offering new interpretations to the use of this necropolis. Among the investigated issues, the analysis of the necropolis landscape played an important role. Thanks to a comparative approach with the Kings' Valley and the Wadi Bariyia necropoleis, along with recourse to the studies of Archaeology of Landscape discipline, it has been possible to offer a new interpretation of the landscape of the Queens' Valley, interpreting it as sacred, ritual, cultural, constructed, conceptualized, and ideational. In turn, the study of the necropolis landscape was closely linked to that of the social identity of the tomb owners of this cemetery, which constituted another relevant research question of the present PhD project. The social identity of the individuals buried within the Queens' Valley during the Ramesside Period (1295-1069 BCE) was well known, but the same could not be said concerning the 18 th Dynasty period of use (1550-1295 BC). Through the analysis of archaeological findings from the Queens' Valley ( i.e. materials housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin) and a comparative approach that correlates landscape, tomb architecture, and social background of the tomb owners of the Kings' Valley, Wadi Bariyia, and Queens' Valley necropoleis, it has been possible to shed light on the social fabric of the 18 th -dynasty Queens' Valley deceased, who were mainly members of the king's family and court individuals. Some of the most relevant and innovative results of the present project come from the analysis of the unpublished documentation of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Queens' Valley (1903-1905). The examination of such archival documents allowed me to reassess the history of the Italian excavations and the extent of the discoveries. Actually, the archival research highlighted that the Italian team, directed by Ernesto Schiaparelli, investigated many more tombs than previously thought. In addition, by cross-referencing data from the publications of Schiaparelli and his collaborator Francesco Ballerini and information from private letters sent by Ballerini to his family with the unpublished excavation diaries and notes, it was possible to retrace the chronological sequence of the discoveries of the 1903 mission. Moreover, a new, up-to-date, and complete picture of the situation concerning the discoveries that occurred during the 1904 mission has been elaborated. Some of the tombs investigated by the Italian Egyptologists, could not be identified and this aspect seems to suggest that such tombs might still lie under debris, waiting for new archaeological investigations. This PhD research also addressed archaeological materials and the re-contextualization of objects found in the Queens' Valley, which are currently housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin. Several findings without find-spot (which are labelled as 'dispersed materials') have been re-contextualized; moreover, it has been possible to correct the find-spot of other findings that were provided with a (wrong) find-spot and to re-discover, within the collection, objects that had been 'forgotten' among the museum materials. By gathering all the data drawn from the cataloguing of the tombs, archival research, archaeological investigation, and object re-contextualization, an up-to-date history of the Queens' Valley has been reconstructed, focusing on the following stages: the first use of the tombs (18 th Dynasty and Ramesside Period), the tomb robberies (late Ramesside Period), the tomb reuse (Third Intermediate, Late, and Roman Periods, i.e. , from 1069 BC to 395 AD), and the profanation of the tombs perpetuated by the Copts (starting from the end of the 4 th century AD circa). The catalogue of the tombs (which is included in volume II of the dissertation) is an important collection of data and functions as a supporting tool for the reader. Such data, along with the information collected in the course of this research, constitute an important aspect in the framework of the whole work. Finally, the study of phenomena and theoretical issues has been another constant objective, such as the gendered conceptualization of the necropolis and the invention of a new tradition in the 19 th Dynasty, the idealization of the necropolis landscape, the social interface of the New Kingdom burial ground, and the places of performance of the funerary and memorial cults for the Queens' valley tomb owners. Cotutelles Séguier Research Project | 2 Project MembersFrontière, limite et bornage dans l'Égypte ancienne Cotutelles Rogner Research Project | 2 Project MembersNo Description available Étude de la configuration des registres écrits dans les textes de la période amarnienne Research Project | 1 Project MembersLa période amarnienne (règne d'Akhénaton, 1351-1334 av. J.-C.) constitue une phase clé dans le développement du moyen égyptien au néo-égyptien. En effet, elle voit l'infiltration en masse de traits linguistiques innovants dans des genres et registres textuels desquels ils étaient jusqu'alors proscrits.Le présent travail de thèse propose d'analyser l'évolution de la langue écrite à la période amarnienne par l'étude de la (re)configuration des registres au sein des genres textuels : comment l'horizon culturel amarnien détermine-t-il (les modalités de) la sélection linguistique ?Cela permet d'aborder les questions suivantes : 1. Pourquoi le néo-égyptien perce-t-il à cette époque ? 2. Comment perce-t-il (différemment) au niveau des registres et des genres écrits ? 3. Quels sont les représentations linguistiques de l'époque (règles) ? 4. Comment s'articule la dialectique entre continuité et discontinuité : s'agit-il d'une césure linguistique ou d'un développement attendu ? 5. Quel est l'impact sur l'émergence de l'égyptien de tradition? L'analyse de l'origine et de la distribution des traits conservateurs et récents s'effectue sur trois niveaux: intratextuel, intertextuel et intergénériquement. SBSNY Scholarship J. Huwyler Research Project | 2 Project MembersDissertation Project of Jacqueline Huwyler: (Re)Shaping Identities: Late Bronze Age "Internationalism" and the Selective Adoption of Near Eastern Deities in an Increasingly Multi-Cultural Egypt Means of Communication with a Focus on the New Kingdom and on Letters Research Project | 1 Project MembersSammelhabilitation in Ägyptologie Life Histories of Theban Tombs Research Project | 13 Project MembersLife Histories of Theban Tombs (LHTT) investigates a cluster of mostly unfinished rock cut tombs and their mutual relations at the hillside of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Western Thebes and sees it as part of a planned cemetery opened up for a small elite with close links to the reigning king around 1450-1400 BC. Cut into a foothill of the Western mountains, they were considered ideal burial places, and were reused in later periods as shelter for the living. Spatial halls and vast courtyards hewn out of the living rock, walls decorated with depictions and inscriptions, and burial assemblages tugged away in remote, sometimes large substructures, became ideal vehicles of social, religious, and cultural perceptions virulent at the time of their construction, adapted to preferences and choices made by their owners and by those involved in the building process. Equally complex practices were at work generations later, when people appropriated older, often looted tombs to use and modify them according to their own needs and habits. Two further phases of use left a strong imprint on their materiality: their inhabitation by Coptic monks during the late first millennium and their second occupancy by local families during the late second millennium. They settled in the foothills and plains of the Theban necropolis for economic reasons, using the ancient structures as additional living space and as a valuable source for selling and forging antiques to antique traders, collectors and tourists visiting Thebes. LHTT draws on an integrative archaeological perspective, which combines cultural historical and scientific investigation methods and questions, and aims at retracing the materialized life histories of tombs, i.e. how they interacted with their built and natural environment, with institutions and people from their construction to modern times. The project seeks to re-personalize past human activities such as operations and procedures of tomb building and decoration, funerary practices, inhabitation, looting, etc. LHTT therefore prioritizes research techniques and procedures that give relevance to the detail and variation. The digital collection and processing of data and the development of an open source interactive database system will support this research strategy. Excavations of TT K555, a tomb of the cluster still buried under debris, are archaeologically promising as the debris may have protected deposits and structures from modern disruptions. Diachronic perspectives on a royal necropolis: identity, agency, and interaction Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe hitherto unexplored tomb KV 40 in the Kings' Valley near Upper Egyptian Luxor contains the human remains of some 50 mummified individuals, from both the 18 th and 22 nd dynasty (14 th c. BC and 9 th c. BC), along with several hundred items of their funerary equipment, which have been fragmented by antique and modern looting. In its earlier phase, the spacious shaft-tomb was a burial ground for members of the royal family and court; the later occupants were presumably members of the Theban priesthood. In its combined egyptological, technical, and medico-anthropological approach, the project will explore the social and biological identity of the tomb owners of both periods as well as the processes of interaction between the different phases of activity. In drawing intensively on the concepts of diachrony and agency, the project will construct a new and substantiated picture of the developments and changes in the mortuary landscape of the Theban area between the mid-2 nd and mid-1 st millennium BC. Lay Summary Das bisher unerforschte Grab KV 40 im Tal der Könige bei Luxor, Oberägypten, enthält die Überreste von ca. 50 mumifizierten Individuen sowie mehrere hundert Fragmente ihrer Grabausstattungen. Das zu analysierende Grabinventar stammt aus zwei verschiedenen Epochen (14. und 9. Jh. v. Chr.) und zwei unterschiedlichen sozialen Milieus (Königshof und lokale Priesterschaft). Im Zuge antiker und moderner Beraubungen wurden ausgesuchte Teile der Grabausstattung entfernt sowie die verbliebenen Objekte und Mumien stark fragmentiert. Inhalt und Ziel des Forschungsprojekts Anhand einer exemplarischen Analyse, die interdisziplinär sowohl ägyptologische, konservatorisch-technische als auch medizinisch-anthropologische Fragestellungen verbindet, wird die komplexe Befundsituation von KV 40 dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse werden für die einzelnen Nutzungsphasen des Grabes kontextualisiert und diachron auf ihre Relevanz für die Identitätsbildung durch Bestattungssitten und durch Vergangenheitsbezüge untersucht. Von Bedeutung ist ferner die Frage, inwieweit sich am überlieferten Material sämtlicher Nutzungsphasen die ursprüngliche agentivische Interaktion mit Objekten und Räumen ablesen lässt. In seiner ursprünglichen Belegung wurde das geräumige Schachtgrab von mindestens 30 namentlich erwähnten Personen aus der Königsfamilie und dem Hofstaat der 18. Dynastie (14. Jh. v. Chr.) genutzt. Die Analyse der Mumien und der Objektfragmente soll zur Rekonstruktion der individuellen und sozialen Identität dieser Personen sowie der sie wirtschaftlich unterhaltenden Institution des "Hauses der Königskinder" beitragen. Anhand der Auswahl und Disposition der Grabbeigaben sollen die für diese bisher schlecht dokumentierte soziale Gruppe spezifischen Bestattungssitten erfasst werden. Die Phase der Beraubung während der 20./21. Dynastie (11.-10. Jh. v. Chr.) soll in Bezug auf ihre Motivationen, ihr Ausmass sowie ihren politisch-sozialen Kontext eingeordnet werden. Die 15-20 Individuen, die diese Grabanlage im 9. Jh. v. Chr. trotz Vorhandensein der beraubten Überreste der ursprünglichen Bestattungen noch einmal nutzten, stammten nach ersten Hinweisen ihrer neuzeitlich zerstörten Särge und Cartonnagen aus dem Umfeld der Priesterschaft des Amun. Die Motivation zur Wahl des entlegenen Tals der Könige und die Nachnutzung des Grabes werden als gezielte Integration von Vergangenheit und als bewusste Ausdrucksform milieuspezifischer Erinnerungsstrategien untersucht, wie sie für diese Epoche charakteristisch sind. Wissenschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Kontext des Forschungsprojektes Es handelt sich bei diesem Projekt um die erste eingehende Untersuchung einer nicht für Pharaonen angelegten Grabstätte im Tal der Könige. Der hier verfolgte methodische Ansatz nimmt die gesamte Nutzungsgeschichte des Tals während einer Zeitspanne von ca. 500 Jahren in den Blick und untersucht sowohl jede einzelne Nutzungsphase als auch die Zusammenhänge der verschiedenen Interventionen und den Umgang mit der jeweils vorgefundenen Situation. Die medizinisch-anthropologische Untersuchung erlaubt erstmals nicht nur Individuen, sondern zwei in sich kohärente, in Geschlecht und Alter gemischte Gesellschaftsgruppen sowohl synchron als auch diachron auf ihren Gesundheits- und Ernährungszustand hin zu analysieren. Der agentivische Zugang wird drei unterschiedliche soziale Gruppen in ihrer spezifischen Objekt- und Raum-bezogenen Dynamik näher erfassen und in ihrem historischen Kontext verorten. Es wird sich dadurch eine neue, multifaktorielle und diachrone Perspektive auf das Tal der Könige eröffnen, die es erlaubt ein schärferes Bild der thebanischen Nekropolenlandschaft zwischen der Mitte des 2. und der Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. zu zeichnen. 1234 1...4
ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina: Documenting the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy (TT 217) Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe tomb TT 217 is located in Deir el-Medina, opposite modern Luxor, on the Theban Westbank. It was built in the Late Bronze Age, in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1250 BC), and reused in later periods. It is famous for its first room - the chapel - which contains polychrome wall paintings depicting various ancient Egyptian professionals at work. The tomb and its contents have been poorly researched, in spite of their exceptional value to researchers, the public, and the cultural heritage of Egypt. The twelve-month pilot phase (between March 2022 and February 2023) has three goals. 1 . To develop the digital architecture for a new open-access online platform, ResearchSpace Deir el-Medina , that will ultimately allow the seamless collection, documentation, research, and publication of Egyptological and archaeological data from Deir el-Medina using just one tool. TT 217 will serve as a test-case for the development of this platform. 2. To prepare the data collected thus far from TT 217 (both primary sources in Egypt and digitally accessible objects from museums and archives) to be imported into the new tool and to create the first results and output. 3. To prepare and submit a larger project grant application for which steps 1. and 2. will lay the necessary groundwork.
TT 217 - the Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy in Context Research Project | 1 Project MembersTT 217, the tomb of the sculptor Ipuy, is one of the rare polychrome tombs in the Western Necropolis of Deir el-Medina. The rock-cut tomb consists of a court and ten chambers, according to Davies 1927. Built in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II, only the first room shows wall paintings with exceptional scenes depicting various professions. My research on the tomb will focus on a digital survey and the documentation of the preserved paintings and fragments (high-resolution photos and 3D scans for photogrammetric models), on an epigraphic and iconographic analysis (painters' hands), and new architectural plans (if all elements are accessible). The project aims for a virtual reconstruction of the decoration (preserving the current condition, relocating fragments digitally, benefitting from historical documents). It seeks to identify further (funerary) objects and to contextualize the microcosmos of the tomb and Ipuy's family. If possible, scientific analyses of pigments and restoration work may be envisaged.
Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archival, Social, and Archaeological Research Research Project | 1 Project MembersThe Queens' Valley had been the object of several publications and studies from the early 20 th century. However, there were gaps within the scientific literature and issues that were clearly in need of a reassessment, next to others left unexplored. Thus, my PhD project ' Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archaeological, Social, and Archival Research' aimed at analysing the Queens' Valley through different multi-directional perspectives (archival, social, historical, and archaeological), with the purpose of filling some gaps and offering new interpretations to the use of this necropolis. Among the investigated issues, the analysis of the necropolis landscape played an important role. Thanks to a comparative approach with the Kings' Valley and the Wadi Bariyia necropoleis, along with recourse to the studies of Archaeology of Landscape discipline, it has been possible to offer a new interpretation of the landscape of the Queens' Valley, interpreting it as sacred, ritual, cultural, constructed, conceptualized, and ideational. In turn, the study of the necropolis landscape was closely linked to that of the social identity of the tomb owners of this cemetery, which constituted another relevant research question of the present PhD project. The social identity of the individuals buried within the Queens' Valley during the Ramesside Period (1295-1069 BCE) was well known, but the same could not be said concerning the 18 th Dynasty period of use (1550-1295 BC). Through the analysis of archaeological findings from the Queens' Valley ( i.e. materials housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin) and a comparative approach that correlates landscape, tomb architecture, and social background of the tomb owners of the Kings' Valley, Wadi Bariyia, and Queens' Valley necropoleis, it has been possible to shed light on the social fabric of the 18 th -dynasty Queens' Valley deceased, who were mainly members of the king's family and court individuals. Some of the most relevant and innovative results of the present project come from the analysis of the unpublished documentation of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Queens' Valley (1903-1905). The examination of such archival documents allowed me to reassess the history of the Italian excavations and the extent of the discoveries. Actually, the archival research highlighted that the Italian team, directed by Ernesto Schiaparelli, investigated many more tombs than previously thought. In addition, by cross-referencing data from the publications of Schiaparelli and his collaborator Francesco Ballerini and information from private letters sent by Ballerini to his family with the unpublished excavation diaries and notes, it was possible to retrace the chronological sequence of the discoveries of the 1903 mission. Moreover, a new, up-to-date, and complete picture of the situation concerning the discoveries that occurred during the 1904 mission has been elaborated. Some of the tombs investigated by the Italian Egyptologists, could not be identified and this aspect seems to suggest that such tombs might still lie under debris, waiting for new archaeological investigations. This PhD research also addressed archaeological materials and the re-contextualization of objects found in the Queens' Valley, which are currently housed at the Museo Egizio of Turin. Several findings without find-spot (which are labelled as 'dispersed materials') have been re-contextualized; moreover, it has been possible to correct the find-spot of other findings that were provided with a (wrong) find-spot and to re-discover, within the collection, objects that had been 'forgotten' among the museum materials. By gathering all the data drawn from the cataloguing of the tombs, archival research, archaeological investigation, and object re-contextualization, an up-to-date history of the Queens' Valley has been reconstructed, focusing on the following stages: the first use of the tombs (18 th Dynasty and Ramesside Period), the tomb robberies (late Ramesside Period), the tomb reuse (Third Intermediate, Late, and Roman Periods, i.e. , from 1069 BC to 395 AD), and the profanation of the tombs perpetuated by the Copts (starting from the end of the 4 th century AD circa). The catalogue of the tombs (which is included in volume II of the dissertation) is an important collection of data and functions as a supporting tool for the reader. Such data, along with the information collected in the course of this research, constitute an important aspect in the framework of the whole work. Finally, the study of phenomena and theoretical issues has been another constant objective, such as the gendered conceptualization of the necropolis and the invention of a new tradition in the 19 th Dynasty, the idealization of the necropolis landscape, the social interface of the New Kingdom burial ground, and the places of performance of the funerary and memorial cults for the Queens' valley tomb owners.
Cotutelles Séguier Research Project | 2 Project MembersFrontière, limite et bornage dans l'Égypte ancienne
Étude de la configuration des registres écrits dans les textes de la période amarnienne Research Project | 1 Project MembersLa période amarnienne (règne d'Akhénaton, 1351-1334 av. J.-C.) constitue une phase clé dans le développement du moyen égyptien au néo-égyptien. En effet, elle voit l'infiltration en masse de traits linguistiques innovants dans des genres et registres textuels desquels ils étaient jusqu'alors proscrits.Le présent travail de thèse propose d'analyser l'évolution de la langue écrite à la période amarnienne par l'étude de la (re)configuration des registres au sein des genres textuels : comment l'horizon culturel amarnien détermine-t-il (les modalités de) la sélection linguistique ?Cela permet d'aborder les questions suivantes : 1. Pourquoi le néo-égyptien perce-t-il à cette époque ? 2. Comment perce-t-il (différemment) au niveau des registres et des genres écrits ? 3. Quels sont les représentations linguistiques de l'époque (règles) ? 4. Comment s'articule la dialectique entre continuité et discontinuité : s'agit-il d'une césure linguistique ou d'un développement attendu ? 5. Quel est l'impact sur l'émergence de l'égyptien de tradition? L'analyse de l'origine et de la distribution des traits conservateurs et récents s'effectue sur trois niveaux: intratextuel, intertextuel et intergénériquement.
SBSNY Scholarship J. Huwyler Research Project | 2 Project MembersDissertation Project of Jacqueline Huwyler: (Re)Shaping Identities: Late Bronze Age "Internationalism" and the Selective Adoption of Near Eastern Deities in an Increasingly Multi-Cultural Egypt
Means of Communication with a Focus on the New Kingdom and on Letters Research Project | 1 Project MembersSammelhabilitation in Ägyptologie
Life Histories of Theban Tombs Research Project | 13 Project MembersLife Histories of Theban Tombs (LHTT) investigates a cluster of mostly unfinished rock cut tombs and their mutual relations at the hillside of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Western Thebes and sees it as part of a planned cemetery opened up for a small elite with close links to the reigning king around 1450-1400 BC. Cut into a foothill of the Western mountains, they were considered ideal burial places, and were reused in later periods as shelter for the living. Spatial halls and vast courtyards hewn out of the living rock, walls decorated with depictions and inscriptions, and burial assemblages tugged away in remote, sometimes large substructures, became ideal vehicles of social, religious, and cultural perceptions virulent at the time of their construction, adapted to preferences and choices made by their owners and by those involved in the building process. Equally complex practices were at work generations later, when people appropriated older, often looted tombs to use and modify them according to their own needs and habits. Two further phases of use left a strong imprint on their materiality: their inhabitation by Coptic monks during the late first millennium and their second occupancy by local families during the late second millennium. They settled in the foothills and plains of the Theban necropolis for economic reasons, using the ancient structures as additional living space and as a valuable source for selling and forging antiques to antique traders, collectors and tourists visiting Thebes. LHTT draws on an integrative archaeological perspective, which combines cultural historical and scientific investigation methods and questions, and aims at retracing the materialized life histories of tombs, i.e. how they interacted with their built and natural environment, with institutions and people from their construction to modern times. The project seeks to re-personalize past human activities such as operations and procedures of tomb building and decoration, funerary practices, inhabitation, looting, etc. LHTT therefore prioritizes research techniques and procedures that give relevance to the detail and variation. The digital collection and processing of data and the development of an open source interactive database system will support this research strategy. Excavations of TT K555, a tomb of the cluster still buried under debris, are archaeologically promising as the debris may have protected deposits and structures from modern disruptions.
Diachronic perspectives on a royal necropolis: identity, agency, and interaction Research Project | 3 Project MembersThe hitherto unexplored tomb KV 40 in the Kings' Valley near Upper Egyptian Luxor contains the human remains of some 50 mummified individuals, from both the 18 th and 22 nd dynasty (14 th c. BC and 9 th c. BC), along with several hundred items of their funerary equipment, which have been fragmented by antique and modern looting. In its earlier phase, the spacious shaft-tomb was a burial ground for members of the royal family and court; the later occupants were presumably members of the Theban priesthood. In its combined egyptological, technical, and medico-anthropological approach, the project will explore the social and biological identity of the tomb owners of both periods as well as the processes of interaction between the different phases of activity. In drawing intensively on the concepts of diachrony and agency, the project will construct a new and substantiated picture of the developments and changes in the mortuary landscape of the Theban area between the mid-2 nd and mid-1 st millennium BC. Lay Summary Das bisher unerforschte Grab KV 40 im Tal der Könige bei Luxor, Oberägypten, enthält die Überreste von ca. 50 mumifizierten Individuen sowie mehrere hundert Fragmente ihrer Grabausstattungen. Das zu analysierende Grabinventar stammt aus zwei verschiedenen Epochen (14. und 9. Jh. v. Chr.) und zwei unterschiedlichen sozialen Milieus (Königshof und lokale Priesterschaft). Im Zuge antiker und moderner Beraubungen wurden ausgesuchte Teile der Grabausstattung entfernt sowie die verbliebenen Objekte und Mumien stark fragmentiert. Inhalt und Ziel des Forschungsprojekts Anhand einer exemplarischen Analyse, die interdisziplinär sowohl ägyptologische, konservatorisch-technische als auch medizinisch-anthropologische Fragestellungen verbindet, wird die komplexe Befundsituation von KV 40 dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse werden für die einzelnen Nutzungsphasen des Grabes kontextualisiert und diachron auf ihre Relevanz für die Identitätsbildung durch Bestattungssitten und durch Vergangenheitsbezüge untersucht. Von Bedeutung ist ferner die Frage, inwieweit sich am überlieferten Material sämtlicher Nutzungsphasen die ursprüngliche agentivische Interaktion mit Objekten und Räumen ablesen lässt. In seiner ursprünglichen Belegung wurde das geräumige Schachtgrab von mindestens 30 namentlich erwähnten Personen aus der Königsfamilie und dem Hofstaat der 18. Dynastie (14. Jh. v. Chr.) genutzt. Die Analyse der Mumien und der Objektfragmente soll zur Rekonstruktion der individuellen und sozialen Identität dieser Personen sowie der sie wirtschaftlich unterhaltenden Institution des "Hauses der Königskinder" beitragen. Anhand der Auswahl und Disposition der Grabbeigaben sollen die für diese bisher schlecht dokumentierte soziale Gruppe spezifischen Bestattungssitten erfasst werden. Die Phase der Beraubung während der 20./21. Dynastie (11.-10. Jh. v. Chr.) soll in Bezug auf ihre Motivationen, ihr Ausmass sowie ihren politisch-sozialen Kontext eingeordnet werden. Die 15-20 Individuen, die diese Grabanlage im 9. Jh. v. Chr. trotz Vorhandensein der beraubten Überreste der ursprünglichen Bestattungen noch einmal nutzten, stammten nach ersten Hinweisen ihrer neuzeitlich zerstörten Särge und Cartonnagen aus dem Umfeld der Priesterschaft des Amun. Die Motivation zur Wahl des entlegenen Tals der Könige und die Nachnutzung des Grabes werden als gezielte Integration von Vergangenheit und als bewusste Ausdrucksform milieuspezifischer Erinnerungsstrategien untersucht, wie sie für diese Epoche charakteristisch sind. Wissenschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Kontext des Forschungsprojektes Es handelt sich bei diesem Projekt um die erste eingehende Untersuchung einer nicht für Pharaonen angelegten Grabstätte im Tal der Könige. Der hier verfolgte methodische Ansatz nimmt die gesamte Nutzungsgeschichte des Tals während einer Zeitspanne von ca. 500 Jahren in den Blick und untersucht sowohl jede einzelne Nutzungsphase als auch die Zusammenhänge der verschiedenen Interventionen und den Umgang mit der jeweils vorgefundenen Situation. Die medizinisch-anthropologische Untersuchung erlaubt erstmals nicht nur Individuen, sondern zwei in sich kohärente, in Geschlecht und Alter gemischte Gesellschaftsgruppen sowohl synchron als auch diachron auf ihren Gesundheits- und Ernährungszustand hin zu analysieren. Der agentivische Zugang wird drei unterschiedliche soziale Gruppen in ihrer spezifischen Objekt- und Raum-bezogenen Dynamik näher erfassen und in ihrem historischen Kontext verorten. Es wird sich dadurch eine neue, multifaktorielle und diachrone Perspektive auf das Tal der Könige eröffnen, die es erlaubt ein schärferes Bild der thebanischen Nekropolenlandschaft zwischen der Mitte des 2. und der Mitte des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. zu zeichnen.
