Deir el-Bahari: Temple of Hatshepsut (Egypt), 2017

Deir el-Bahari: Temple of Hatshepsut

Dates of work: 12 March–9 April 2017

Team:
Director: Dr. Zbigniew E. Szafrański, egyptologist (PCMA UW)
Deputy Director: Dr. Mirosław Barwik, egyptologist (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
SCA representatives: Omar Fathi Hassan Hasan and Elazab Ragab Ahmed Abd Rabu
Egyptologists: Katarzyna Kapiec (PhD candidate, Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Center, University of Warsaw), Dr. Edyta Kopp (Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw), Adrianna Madej (IKSiO PAN), Dr. Franciszek Pawlicki (PCMA UW), Cynthia May-Sheikholeslami (independent) and Patryk Chudzik (independent), Dr. Filip Taterka (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
Architects: Dr Teresa Dziedzic (Wroclaw University of Technology), Sergio A. Robledo (independent)
Conservators: Rajmund Gazda, Dr. Maria Lulkiewicz, Dorota Rudzińska (all freelance)
Engineer: Mieczysław Michiewicz (freelance)
Photographer: Maciej Jawornicki (freelance)
Documentalists: Sarah Fortune, registrar (student, University of Manchester), Marek Puszkarski (PCMA UW)
Student-trainees: Katarzyna Kasprzycka (Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw)
Volunteer: G. Katarzyna Szafrańska (Poland)
Rais: Ragab Ahmed Yassin

The conservation effort in the Complex of the Royal Cult on the Upper Terrace of the Temple of Hatshepsut was continued, coupled with documentation and requisite digging. Various ongoing projects were continued, nearing in many cases completion:

  • conservation and restoration of the Complex of the Sun Cult and the Main Sanctuary of Amun-Re; the two parts of the temple have now been opened to the public;
  • restoration of the Osiride statues of Hatshepsut in the façade of the Upper (Coronation) Portico and the queen’s sandstone sphinxes; the North Colossus and the upper part of the Southern Colossus at the edges of the Lower Portico of the Hatshepsut temple (ongoing);
  • reconstruction of the sandstone painted statue of Amenhotep I in the form of a mummiform figure of the god Osiris, found in Asasif.

    • Documentation in the Ptolemaic Portico and in the Upper Courtyard as well as by the south wall of the Chapel of Hatshepsut, in the Lower Courtyard and by the Hathor Ramp Gate required additional testing. A Third Intermediate Period cemetery was unearthed in the Upper Terrace. Coffins from the Tomb of Montu Priests were documented and studied and an X-ray examination of the mummies carried out (for the results, see selected articles in the PAM 27/2: Deir el-Bahari Studies II).

    Documentation and study on decoration in the Main Sanctuary of Amun-Re, the South Chamber of Amun, and the Punt and Birth Porticoes were carried on in preparation for a monographic publication. The same was concluded for the Chapel of Tuthmosis I. Building dipinti and graffiti were documented. The results of 3D scanning as well as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys were applied in studies of the temple.

    The following projects were continued as part of the larger Deir el-Bahari Project:
    1) Temple of Tuthmosis III storeroom project, directed by Monika Dolińska;
    2) Temple of Tuthmosis I storeroom project, catalogue of block fragments by Jadwiga Iwaszczuk;
    3) Asasif Necropolis Project, directed by Patryk Chudzik.

    Acknowledgments:

    The project benefited from the generous assistance of Dr Mohamed Ismail, Director General of Sector for Foreign Missions Affairs, Dr Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Director General of Upper Egypt, Mr. Talat Abdel Aziz, Director General of the West Bank in Luxor, Mr. Ezz el-Din, Chief Inspector of the West Bank Central Sector, Mr. Ibrahim Souleyman (former director of Karnak) and Dr. Hisham Elleithy, Director of Scientific Publication and Documentation Department.

    Text: Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 27/1

    Contact

    Z.E. Szafrański: z.szafranski(at)uw.edu.pl