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Re-exploring the Queens' Valley: Archival, Social, and Archaeological Research

Research Project
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01.05.2019
 - 31.10.2019

The 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 Some of the most relevant and innovative results of the present project come from the analysis of the unpublished documentation of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Queens' Valley (1903-1905).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.

Funding

Re-exploring the Queens’ Valley: Archival, Social, and Archaeological Research

Forschungsfonds (Excellent Junior Researcher) (GrantsTool), 05.2019-10.2019 (6)
PI : Casini, Emanuele.

Members (1)

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Emanuele Casini

Principal Investigator