Deir el-Bahari: Temple of Hatshepsut (Egypt)
Dates of work: 30 September 2012 – 7 April 2013
Team:
Director: Dr. Zbigniew E. Szafrański, egyptologist, archaeologist (Research Center in Cairo, PCMA UW)
Deputy Director: Assoc. Prof. Mirosław Barwik, egyptologist (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
MSA representatives: Sayed Mohamed El-Gorani Basri, Mahmud Al-Azab Ad-Alrazeq, Esra Mohamed, Omar Fathi Hassan
Egyptologists: Dorota Czerwik (independent), Aleksandra Hallmann-Mikołajczak (bursary, PCMA UW), Jadwiga Iwaszczuk (PhD candidate, Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Katarzyna Kapiec (Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center, University of Warsaw), Cynthia May-Sheikholeslami (American University in Cairo), Agnieszka Niemirka (National Heritage Board of Poland), Dr. Frédéric Payraudeau and Dr. Chloé Rigazzoli (both Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo), Dr. Aleksiej Shukanau (bursary, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo), Agata Smilgin (independent), Dr. Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczyńska (Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr. André Veldmeijer (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo), Dawid Wieczorek (PhD candidate, University of Warsaw; Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences)Architects: Aleksandra Brzozowska, Mariusz Caban, Dr. Teresa Dziedzic, Karolina Majdzik (all four Wrocław University of Technology) and Andrzej Kwaśnica (independent)
Architects: Aleksandra Brzozowska, Mariusz Caban, Dr. Teresa Dziedzic, Karolina Majdzik (all four Wrocław University of Technology) and Andrzej Kwaśnica (independent)
Conservators: Rajmund Gazda, Maria Lulkiewicz, Andrzej Sośnierz, Sara Hejke, Marta Zaborowska (all freelance), Wojciech Myjak (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Poland)
Archaeologists: Piotr Czerkwiński (PhD candidate, Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center, University of Warsaw), Robert Ryndziewicz, Katarzyna Bartoś, Kamila Braulińska (all independent)
Engineers: Mieczysław Michiewicz (freelance), Mariusz Dybich (Research Center in Cairo, PCMA UW)
Photographer: Maciej Jawornicki (freelance)
Documentalists: Marek Puszkarski (PCMA UW), Dorota Mazanek (bursary, PCMA UW)
Student-trainees: Anastazja Golijewskaja, Piotr Sójka (both bursaries, PCMA UW), Sergio Alarcón Robledo (architecture student, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), Anna Kubicka (architecture student, Wrocław University of Technology)
Registrar: Sarah Fortune (student, University of Manchester)
(Joint description of season 2012 and 2013)
Flagship project at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari continued its current work, encompassing on one hand archaeological, egyptological and epigraphic research and on the other, full-scale conservation and restoration based on the results of the research. The Royal Mortuary Cult Complex is the focus of work at present with most of the activities concentrated inside the Chapel of Hatshepsut (among others, installation of a three-layered tempered-glass trapdoor in the opening of the shaft of Tomb VIII (S.7A/82) from the Twenty-third Dynasty, furnished with a ladder down into the tomb and a lighting system).
A pilot restoration project concerning the sandstone sphinxes of Hatshepsut was implemented as well, as was the restoration of the Osiride statues in the facade of the Upper (Coronation) Portico. Trenches were excavated to the east of the northern T-shaped pond (S.1/12), to check the ground under the restored sandstone sphinxes of Hatshepsut. Among others, Tomb II in the rock-cliff face behind the Temple of Tuthmosis III was re-explored, yielding remnants of grave goods (inscribed shrouds, pottery and coffins) which placed the origins of the tomb in the early Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys were carried out in the three temple terraces.
Documentation proceeded in the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex as well as in the Bark Hall of the Main Sanctuary of Amun-Re, where verification of earlier drawings was the main focus. Graffiti and building dipinti were documented and studied. Outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, a study of representations of private costume in Egyptian art from the Twenty-fifth to the Thirty-first Dynasty in the tombs of Asasif was carried out in TT Nos 27, 33, 34, 36, 196, 279, 312 and 414. Graffiti in tombs on the northern slopes of Asasif (TT Nos 240, 281, 308, 310, 311, 313, 314, 315, 316, 353, 358; and tombs MMA Nos 504 (Carter # 82), 506, 507, 511, 512, 514, 515; Tomb MMA 504 was closed with an iron gate) were documented and studied. More than 800 block fragments from the Temple of Tuthmosis I (Khnenemet-ankh), identified in the tomb-storeroom (MMA 828), located behind the Mission’s dig-house, were documented in preparation for a theoretical reconstruction project.
[Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 24/1]