At the upcoming PCMA seminar in the “Current Research at Deir el-Bahari” series, Dr. Anastasiia Stupko-Lubczynska (PCMA UW) will present a lecture: “Hatshepsut’s Artists”.
Abstract: “In Ancient Egypt, the authors are rarely connected to their works. However, the latest research demonstrates that the initial assumptions about the anonymity of Egyptian art as a whole are becoming obsolete; examples are becoming quite numerous, for instance, of private tombs that have their leading artists identified. Still, with large-scale projects, such as temples, this anonymity is often an effect of workshop settings and diversification of tasks imposed, again, by the scale. In other words, the authors dissolve in their collective endeavour.
Yet for Hatshepsut times (ca. 1500 BCE), there is an abundance of sources indicating the involvement of various people in the construction projects commissioned by the state. The focus of this talk will be on Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, and on Hatshepsut’s courtiers supposed to be supervising the temple construction and designing its decoration. Evidence of their participation found within the temple, as well as in their monuments will be collated and examined, including newly discovered data within the temple interpreted as a “self-portrait in assistenza”. Against this background, a long-accepted and widely commented view of Senenmut being the chief architect of Hatshepsut’s monument in Deir el Bahari will be revisited.”
The seminar will be held on Thursday, 15th May at 2 pm (Warsaw time) on the Zoom platform. The whole series is accessible via the same Zoom link.
To receive the link, please email: seminarium.pcma@uw.edu.pl
The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari is considered one of the most important monuments of ancient Egyptian architecture. Since 1961, the temple has been the subject of research and work by a Polish-Egyptian expedition from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, whose task is to study the history of this sacred space, its reconstruction and conservation.
As part of this lecture series at the PCMA Seminars, members of the Polish-Egyptian expedition will present the results of the latest fieldwork and studies, focusing on archaeological excavations, epigraphic research, as well as restoration and conservation treatments.
The organizer of the series is Dr. Patryk Chudzik from the Department of Egyptian Archaeology PCMA UW. The lectures in this series cover topics related to the latest research conducted by the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Expedition to the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari.