Deir el-Bahari: Temple of Tuthmosis III
Dates of work: November–December 2015
Team:
Director: Dr. Monika Dolińska (National Museum in Warsaw)
SCA representative: Mohamed Azaab
Egyptologists: Janina Wiercińska (National Museum in Warsaw), Dr. Andrzej Ćwiek (Archaeological Museum in Poznań)
Photographer: Zbigniew Doliński (National Museum in Warsaw)
Architect: Mariusz Caban (PhD candidate, Wrocław University of Technology)
Conservators: Joanna Lis, Andrzej Karolczak (both National Museum in Warsaw)
Operating as a subproject of the Polish–Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission to the Hatshepsut Temple at Deir el-Bahari, the project is aimed at reconstructing from fragments the iconographic program of the decoration of the Temple of Tuthmosis III in Deir el-Bahari. The theoretical reconstruction of the various temple chambers is particularly advanced with regard to the painted relief decoration of walls of the temple in the Hypostyle Hall, Sanctuary, and Rooms D, G and H. The reconstruction drawings were checked against the reliefs, verified and completed.
The process of complementing drawings with photographs of surviving fragments progressed, allowing photomontages of chosen parts of the decoration to be prepared. A 3D reconstruction model of the temple was processed and 26 large blocks and fragments of Osiride statues were documented with orthophotography. All the while restorers worked on reconstructing from fragments the last two decorated blocks from the east wall of the Sanctuary.
Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 25