Study Season Week 1 and 2: And we're back!
Good morning everyone! I want to begin by apologizing for the delay. I know I told many of you that the newsletter would kick back in when I returned to Egypt, however, things didn’t unfold the way I expected. As an apology, I have made this week’s newsletter as long as I could manage to make up for the lack of a newsletter two weeks prior. Enjoy!
A cranky cat for your woes.
As a quick background, I was returning to Egypt to do a mixed study season at Abydos, and to fulfill a position as an American Research Center in Egypt Research Associate (essentially, an unpaid fellowship). Matthew and I arrived in Egypt on the 26th and I had the intention of starting work on the 29th after signing some paperwork at the Ministry of the Antiquities (MotA) [Memorial Day weekend was in effect here as well, meaning all Americans in archaeology related management had Friday-Sunday off].
Post paperwork glee!
Long story short – my fellowship sponsor didn’t share vital information with me about what I would need to start work (mainly crisp, unfolded, US currency to pay site fees), nor were they able to help me when I couldn’t pay the fees. This resulted in, essentially, an 11-day vacation. I’m not complaining (okay, I definitely am, and it sucked, but I made the best of it by seeing friends, lounging at the pool, and exploring museums), but I desperately feel like gatekeeping information, or assuming scholars know everything, does nothing but alienate people and kneecap new scholars. In the end, by the grace of a random US couple who took pity on me, and the always amazing and kind Inspector Ayman from Abydos, I was able to exchange for enough USD to continue my work once we traveled from Cairo to Luxor. One plus to the week was that Matt and I celebrated a delayed wedding anniversary weekend at the Mena House – a glamourous hotel at the base of the pyramids. It’s been a dream of mine to stay there and I’m so happy we finally did.
A toasty dog in Saqqara - one plus to my wasted day.
The view from our hotel room!
The walk to breakfast.
Ranting over though! I am now writing to you from Luxor after a successful week of work in the Theban Necropolis. My goal for the Research Associate portion of the trip was to visit, photograph, and map unpublished New Kingdom tombs across a few sites in order to use them as comparative material to examine against the tombs we excavated in January/February.
Matt on the Nile in Luxor.
Monday was typically Egyptian, with four hours spent at the Tafteesh Office (Director’s Office) signing paperwork, talking, and drinking tea (this included paying the, much more reasonable, $25 a day for my work). Then, finally, on Tuesday I was able to visit the site of two no-longer-visible tombs, TT142 and TT146, and then actually work in TT50 - the tomb of Neferhotep and TT224 - the tomb of Ahmose.
Ah, finally back in the Upper Egyptian desert!
TT50 was a beautiful tomb filled with carved relief decoration that had, at one time, been painted. Scholars have come up with what the “typical” decorative program is for these Theban tombs, but the more I visit them, the less I agree that everything was as “standard” as we would like to believe. For example, this tomb had a weighing of the heart scene from the Book of the Dead, which I don’t know of from many other tombs from this period. There was also a lovely relief of the deceased playing a board game (known as senet) with his daughter while his wife watched. There were, however, some typical scenes, such as the voyage to Abydos. It was believed that everyone should make a pilgrimage to the site at least once, even if that meant at the time of their funeral, or just in the scenes of their tombs. I tried not to think about how jealous some of these people would have been with the fact that I've been there more than once!
A portion of the goddess Ammut, the swallower. She had a lovely snack if your heart wasn't on par or heavier than the feather of Ma'at. (There's still an active debate about whether it needed to be heavier or lighter - the real goal was equality, but my former advisors believed the proper translation was heavier). The flat background is part of the conservation and reconstruction of this tomb.
Look at the ceiling! All original colors.
A quick game of senet.
The voyage to Abydos.
TT224 was equally as beautiful, but also, completely different. The decoration was significantly more traditional, with the funeral imagery actually being a callback to the style of the Middle Kingdom. The tomb was also decorated in two methods, the first being carved relief in the hallway (an odd mix of raised and sunk relief), and the transverse hall being painted. It seemed like they may have run out of time based on the quality of some of the painting, however, it was some really remarkable work. In fact, it contained one of my favorite scene types, the fishing and fowling scene. As these tombs aren’t open to the public I had to bring my own lights, which included a headlamp. Pretty stylish if you ask me.
The front hall with a doorway to the transverse hall (all of these tombs are shaped like the letter "t"). The back room is the statue niche/chapel.
The fishing and fowling scene!
A classic archaeology vibe.
Wednesday was a heck of a day – one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that I sprained my ankle really badly about 8 days before we left for Egypt and am still in a wrap and splint (much better than the walking boot I was in until Monday). The docket for the day (which included TT64 and TT59) meant quickly hike/running up the side of a mountain because everyone here has the cardio-aerobic capacity and temperature sensitivity of someone who has run the Moroccan Marathon - and I can’t ever admit to someone that I can’t keep up. So I limp-ran and gasped behind them and make it up the mountain. TT64 was a beautifully painted tomb of Hekerneheh who was a royal nurse. As such, the majority of the decoration focused on the king, his children (including a future king), and other royal children. It is likely, based on the topic, as well as the quality of work, that the artists used for the decoration of this tomb were artists of the royal court, although this is not 100% certain. What is clear is that Hekerneheh was an exceedingly wealthy, high-status individual who formed his post-mortem identity around his social role and his connection to the royal house.
A view from one of the tombs.
One thing I loved about this tomb was the use of textured plaster even though the decoration is all painted. Here you can see the formed ridge of the king's Battle Crown.
One of my favorite hieroglyphs, and how I felt the whole day
The deceased himself!
Unfortunately, my Inspector had forgotten the key to TT59, so he had to run back down and go to the office. I refused to climb back down, claiming I could deal with the heat if it meant my heart and ankle wouldn’t explode. So instead of listening to me, they forced me on the back of a motorcycle to go down the mountain… Now, if you know me, I am exceedingly risk adverse, but it didn’t matter how many times I said mish lazem (no need), I was given the choice of motorcycle or motorcycle. So (sorry mom, dad, grandma, et al.) I rode on the back of a motorcycle down a mountain of loose rock and sand – then back up (halfway - and then I had to limp-wheeze up twice as high for TT59 – go back to the overview photo from TT64, we’re now up where you can see the doors in the mountains). I am sure in a week I’ll paint it to everyone as a super cool Indiana Jones-style motorcycle ride, but you all get the Emily holding on to the seat for dear life and praying view…sorry about that.
The view from the end of the first motorcycle ride was very nice though. To the right in the cliff bay is Deir el Bahari.
Almost there!
The view from part of the way up.
TT59 was actually worth it though. It was a lovely rock cut T-shaped tomb with ~20ft ceilings. The tomb owner, Qen, was Prophet of Mut - Lady of Asher (a badass, lion headed goddess of kingship who is often shown as ithyphallic) but the primary focus of what remained in the tomb was banqueting scenes. While there was evidence of a funeral montage, as well as agricultural scenes, there was little religious imagery, which is interesting for the tomb of a priest. What I loved about the tomb (besides the tall ceilings and amazing view out the doorway, was the fact that it was unfinished. The easiest way to know if a tomb is unfinished is if it’s missing things such as half of an inscription, or a blank wall – here though, we had the remnants of an artist grid. Grids were used as early as the Old Kingdom to allow the artists to replicate the desired body and item proportions popular at the time. Desired proportions changed throughout the years, as did the grid. By this period, standing figures were drawn on an 18 square grid, and items and seated people on a smaller one. When the image was complete, the artist would come through and either erase or paint over the grid giving it the seamless look we are used to seeing in art history books. It’s likely that Qen died too early for the tomb to be finished which is why we are left with this evidence of artistic process.
The view - pretty nice for eternity if you ask me.
I avoided climbing in holes in these tombs, but this tomb's shaft was still open. Like the ones at Abydos, they were dug mostly to the East (towards the sign of eternal rebirth - the sun).
The unfinished chapel area.
Proof that people have always loved visiting these tombs. Cricht was an asshole for doing this though - he had to pick a decorated area? You can see part of the grid here too, it's very very light red.
Thursday was the hottest, but easiest day as it was spent visiting two tombs that are open to the public - TT1 and TT40. TT40 is the tomb of Amenhotep called Huy (turns out that was a nickname for anyone called Amenhotep - fun fact provided by my Inspector!), who was the Viceroy of Kush. Think of him as a liaison between the king/Egypt and the Kushites to the south (in modern-day Sudan). The tomb is actually an amazing ethnographic document as well - although heavily slated in the view of the Egyptian government. For example, the Kushites are shown as making offerings to the Egyptian king. It is likely they were actually trade partners, but one of the king's roles was to subjugate foreign nations, so something like trade was a little too "friendly" to depict. Unfortunately, all the photos from this tomb are on my camera and as I forgot my SD card reader I will have to provide you access to the tomb using Osirisnet. This is also a great website to just explore some tombs if you're bored (although some of the reading of the scenes is outdated).
https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/houy40/e_houy40_01.htmMy final tomb was TT1, the tomb of Sennedjem. I've visited this tomb several times in the past but it's always a pleasure to be back. The tomb is in an area of the Theban Necropolis called Deir el Medina, which was the village of the artists who decorated the Valley of the Kings. As such, all of the tombs are impeccably decorated (I mean, when you and everyone you know are artists you can get funky with it). The tombs are smaller than many of the other Theban Tombs, but they are all covered head to toe in painted decoration. Since I had most of the photos I needed I decided to do a little sensorial archaeology and laid down in the middle of the tomb and just looked and listened. It's insanely quiet (you are about 100ft underground) and quite lovely to stare up at the scenes on the ceiling. The tombs are nestled into the Qurna, whose peak was anthropomorphized into the goddess Meretseger, she who loves silence. After lying down there like I was Sennedjem himself, I get it, it's very cozy.
Meretseger is one of my favorite gods, primarily because she has a snake head. For another fun god with a funky animal head look up Khepri.
View from the corner of the tomb.
Sennedjem rocking some grey hairs.
Is this the duat? Or is this a depiction of the East Coast right now?
Weird close-up, but I love the attention paid to Anubis's knees here.
That's all for this week! Stay tuned for El Kab and the return of Abydos next week! In the meantime, stay well, and I'm sending you some of the sweet northern wind offered to the deceased here to clear the air over in America!
neb was ankh djed (all power, life, and stability to you all)
Talk soon! Emily