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The Epigraphic Survey
RECENT NEWS ARCHIVE
2010-2011 Field Season
EPIGRAPHIC SURVEY/CHICAGO HOUSE
Archaeological Field Activities in Luxor
October 15, 2010 - April 15, 2011
W. Raymond Johnson, Director
On April 15, 2011 the Epigraphic Survey, in collaboration with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities/Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs, completed its eighty-seventh, six-month field season in Luxor. Because Luxor remained secure during the enormous changes that took place during Egypt's revolution this winter, Chicago House's activities ran uninterrupted from October 15, 2010 through April 15, 2011. Projects included epigraphic documentation, conservation, and restoration work at Medinet Habu; the inauguration of a new documentation program at the Theban Tomb 107 of Nefersekheru; salvage documentation at Khonsu Temple at Karnak (in cooperation with the American Research Center in Egypt / ARCE); and conservation, restoration, and maintenance of the blockyard open-air museum at Luxor Temple, as well as documentation of blocks from the Basilica of St. Thecla in front of the Ramesses II eastern pylon.
MEDINET HABU
Epigraphic documentation supervised by senior epigrapher Brett McClain, senior artists Susan Osgood and Margaret De Jong, and artists Krisztian Vertes and Keli Alberts continued in the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III at Medinet Habu. Work continued primarily in the Thutmoside bark sanctuary ambulatory and its façade. Epigrapher Virginia Emery assisted in the collation process during the month of January. Sue's work this season was concentrated primarily in the ambulatory and on the façade of the Small Temple, in particular on the Thutmoside architrave inscriptions and adjoining architectural elements of the façade, and on the pillars of the ambulatory. Krisztian finished recording a Thutmoside pillar on the eastern façade, north end, partially hidden by the addition of the Ptolemaic 'court' walls. Tina Di Cerbo and Richard Jasnow continued to document graffiti throughout the MH complex, particularly on the roof areas of the Ramesses III mortuary temple.
Medinet Habu blockyard
The conservation team supervised by senior conservator Lotfi Hassan continued and finished the moving of fragmentary material from the old Medinet Habu blockyard to the new, protected blockyard built by Chicago House against the southern Ramesses III enclosure wall. 3500 blocks and block fragments from all parts of the complex were moved during the last three seasons, and 2450 have been documented and entered on the MH fragment database by Egyptologist Julia Schmied assisted by Egyptologist Christian Greco. Also included in the move to the new storage facility was the area behind the Gods Wives Chapels, where fragments and blocks were stored on cement platforms. That area is now clean, and the platforms dismantled. Once the moving of blocks and fragments was finished, the old walled blockyard east of the king's palace was dismantled (in March) and the area leveled as part of the site management program of the Medinet Habu precinct, all supported by a grant from USAID Egypt. Next season will mark the completion of a small open-air museum component in front of the new blockyard that has been constructed by Lotfi and the team for appropriate joined fragment and display groups, including some beautiful, decorated doorways from Ramesses III's mortuary temple palace, and red-granite false door, broken in three pieces in the medieval period (and used as an olive press), from Amenhotep II's mortuary temple.
The Domitian Gate
This season marks the beginning of a new chapter of our Medinet Habu restoration work. Last season we noted that the 1st century AD sandstone Gate of the Roman Emperor Domitian, reassembled by George Daressy from scattered blocks in the late 19th century (behind the small Amun temple) was in danger of collapse due to groundwater salt decay of its foundations. This past January the Egyptian-style, Roman monument was photographed by Chicago House photographer Yarko Kobylecky assisted by Ellie Smith. Afterward the gate was carefully surveyed and architectural drawings generated by stonemason Frank Helmholz. Because the USAID-funded, west-bank dewatering program was inaugurated earlier (in September of 2010), the ground was already showing signs of drying out by the new year. I should mention that by the time we finished work in mid-April, the water level in the Medinet Habu sacred lake was down three meters and back to levels recorded during the Oriental Institute's first work at Medinet Habu in the 1920s and 30s — a great success. In February dismantling of the gate commenced by Frank and the Chicago House workmen, and continued during March. 43 blocks (out of 68 total) are now stored on protected platforms immediately to the north of the gate, and will undergo any conservation and consolidation necessary next season. Three courses of stone blocks remain, and now that there is much less weight pushing down on the stones, there is no longer any threat of collapse. The dismantling will be finished next season, and during that time Frank and his team will also cut and shape new foundation blocks for the re-erection of the gate, scheduled to begin in 2012.
THE TOMB OF NEFERSEKHERU TT 107
Last winter the Epigraphic Survey initiated a condition study and preliminary, photographic documentation at the tomb of Nefersekheru (TT 107), west of el-Khokha. Nefersekheru was Steward of Amenhotep III's sprawling jubilee palace complex south of Medinet Habu at Malkata, and his tomb is one of the largest late-Amenhotep III period private tombs in Thebes. Instead of facing east, as do all of the others (like Kheruef, Ramose, Amenemhet Surer, etc), it faces south, toward Malkata and the setting sun. No complete plan has ever been made for the tomb, and it has never been cleared. The only decoration known so far is along the outside of the broad hall, in sunk relief that is every bit as beautiful as the raised relief of the contemporary tomb of Kheruef nearby, that the Epigraphic Survey documented in the 1960s. In February of 2010 staff photography Yarko assisted by Ellie photographed the portico reliefs in preparation for drawing. Because of the fragile condition of the stone, non-invasive drawing on photographic enlargements was chosen as the medium of documentation. Before drawing began this season, and at the recommendation of structural engineer Conor Power, Chicago House erected a series of reinforcing screw jacks and wooden beams along the inside of the potentially unstable portico. The equipment was kindly lent to us by Kent Weeks, who had faced similar conditions during his work in KV 5 in the Valley of the Kings.
Once the portico was stabilized, artists Sue and Margaret began drawing the exquisite reliefs and inscriptions, starting in January. Cleaning and more permanent stabilization measures for the portico will follow, including restoration of the missing limestone columns.
KHONSU TEMPLE, KARNAK
This year marked the third season of an Epigraphic Survey and ARCE collaboration at Khonsu Temple, Karnak, part of the USAID-funded ARCE Groundwater Lowering Response Initiative. Part of ARCE's program focuses on conservation and restoration work in Khonsu Temple, including restoration of floor blocks where they are missing.
Chicago House senior epigrapher Brett McClain supervised the epigraphic team (Egyptologist Jen Kimpton, Egyptologist/artist Krisztian Vertes, artist Keli Alberts, and Ray Johnson) in the recording of the inscribed stone-blocks reused in the flooring, foundations, and western roof area of Ramesses III's Khonsu Temple. This documentation is necessary before ARCE's floor restoration work, involving repaving whole areas, makes the reused material inaccessible. All Chicago House recording work was done in coordination with ARCE Luxor director John Shearman and Karnak director Ibrahim Suleiman, and is an essential documentation component of the ARCE / SCA restoration program. All cleaning was done by the skilled MSA/SCA/ARCE workmen; Chicago House's work was strictly documentation.
The primary focus of the work this season was in the Khonsu front court, where the floor blocks are made up of material primarily from the time of Sety I, including a gigantic lintel several meters long inscribed with names and figures of this king worshipping the divine triad of Thebes. The material Chicago House has documented in the flooring of the rear sanctuary areas of Khonsu Temple suggests that Ramesses III dismantled a smaller, 18th Dynasty, square-pillared sanctuary of Khonsu from the time of Thutmosis III and utilized the stone from that structure in the foundations and flooring of his much larger structure. Blocks inscribed with the names of Thutmose III, Thutmose IV, Ay, Horemheb, Sety I, Ramesses II, and Sety II have all been documented in the flooring so far. Many of the Thutmoside raised-relief offering scenes show signs of reworking in sunk relief and appropriation by Ramesses II.
To date, the reused blocks and fragments recorded at Khonsu Temple during the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011 seasons now total 652. In situ blocks from the flooring and foundations of Khonsu Temple total 309, while loose blocks and fragments total 343. The documentation and preliminary analysis of the blocks and fragments will appear in a series of preliminary reports in the Journal of the American Research Center.
LUXOR TEMPLE
This season, kindly supported by a grant from Nassef Sawiris, the Epigraphic Survey started cataloguing, documenting, and surveying the remains of the 6th century AD Basilica of St. Thecla located immediately north of the Roman wall, among the earliest known churchs in Luxor. This new project will allow us to integrate the church into the Luxor Temple Roman fortification-wall study, and is expected to provide vital information about the transition period between the pagan and Christian religions, a hitherto little known chapter in the history of Luxor Temple. 102 blocks from the original basilica sanctuary have already been located and moved to a special processing area east of the Colonnade Hall for cleaning by conservator Hiroko Kariya, and recording by architect Jay Heidel. Jay has drawn and entered 118 blocks (including some too big to move) into a specially designed database and is preparing AUTOCAD drawings for their reconstruction on paper. Already numerous joins among the blocks have been noted, including sections of a large, beautifully carved central arch, and the two granite columns and sandstone capitals that supported it. Future plans include a feasibility study for physically reconstructing some of the sanctuary blocks and architectural elements in situ as part of the comprehensive site management program for that area.
Educational signage for the main axis of the temple has been designed by Jay, beginning with an orientation panel for the entire temple complex that will appear outside the main entrance (now on the east side of the temple) in English and Arabic. Panels that have already been designed and are awaiting translation include a 'Ancient Thebes Orientation and Sphinx Avenue' in front of the temple, 'the Ramesses II pylon entryway,' 'the Ramesside Court,' 'the great Colonnade Hall,' 'the Amenhotep III court,' 'the Roman sanctuary,' and 'the Luxor Temple sanctuary.'
The Luxor Temple Blockyard Project.
The Luxor Temple blockyard conservation program was coordinated by Hiroko Kariya and assisted by Tina Di Cerbo and Nan Ray, and was supported by a Robert W. Wilson Challenge to Conserve our Heritage Grant and the World Monuments Fund (WMF).
The blockyard open-air museum was completed and opened to the public on March 29, 2010. It features a total of 169 pieces/groups (308 fragments - single and joined pieces) on 12 thematic mastaba platforms (a total of 142 meters in length). Displayed on these mastabas are 62 fragment groups arranged in chronological order (from the Middle Kingdom to the present) accompanied by educational signage. There are also mastabas on which fragments are organized thematically; a rotating display currently featuring ancient Egyptian creatures, large blocks from the Amenhotep III sanctuary of Luxor Temple, statues, stelae, door jambs, capitals, fragments showing ancient Egyptian masonry and conservation techniques, and finally, fragments uncovered during the Luxor Temple dewatering project. The display also includes the in-situ presentation of the great eastern Roman tetrastyle and fortified gateway into the precinct. The 200 meter-long paths adjacent to the display mastabas were paved and metal railings installed for the protection of the fragments. A total of 15 large and 43 small explanatory signs were installed. 34 spotlights were installed for illuminating the displays after dark, keyed to the temple lighting. Public viewing is now usually possible until 9:00 PM.
This season focused on followup work in the open-air museum as well as the usual conservation monitoring of the blockyard storage areas. This included cleaning and condition-surveying of the museum fragment-group displays and selected single fragments (all entered into the database by Nan), remounting a late-period stela, replacing and maintaining educational signage, and adding an additional fragment to the displayed relief of Thutmosis III. In order to reduce the amount of dirt/dust on the pavement, additional gravel was placed approximately one meter-wide along the western side of the paved path upon approval by the SCA. This has had a very positive effect of cutting down the dirt tracked onto the paving.
Luxor Temple Structural Condition Study
This season structural engineer Conor Power continued his condition study of the Luxor Temple structure in March, 2011. He found no discernable movement or destabilization of the Ramesses II pylons or great Colonnade Hall columns. Based on a comparison with photographs taken in the year 2000, Conor found that there is a noticeable reduction of overall moisture levels in the temple, and that moisture wicking has subsided. His conclusion is that the ground water lowering engineering project, activated in 2006, has had a positive effect on Luxor Temple with a reduction of salt efflorescence and moisture levels in the structure. Good news!
Luxor Update February 11, 2011
Dear Friends,
Well, it has happened. After a confusing speech last night, President Mubarak has just stepped down, the army has taken charge, and the Egyptian people have changed history. The celebrations are pretty extreme in Cairo and Alexandria, and I imagine elsewhere. It must be a heady feeling to suddenly find you have a voice when you never had one before. Luxor, in contrast, is fairly quiet. We are a bit away from things in town, but I have not heard the expected car horns, or music, or anything. We continue to remain in a strange bubble, seemingly outside of and largely unaffected by what has been happening in the north. While the people here have had their problems with the GOE, they largely blame the local government, and not Mubarak. The celebrations are muted here.
But the Chicago House team is all well, and now hopeful that things will get back to normal everywhere in the country. I have spoken to the local Supreme Council of Antiquities / Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs director, and he is saying that nothing changes for the foreign missions, and we can keep our normal schedules. We will continue to play things by ear, keep the work going, and be here for our Egyptian friends, but we will also continue to be vigilant.
I will keep you posted during the next few days. Keep those prayers coming for Egypt.
Best from Luxor,
W. Raymond Johnson,
Director, Epigraphic Survey
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Chicago House, Luxor, Egypt
Luxor Update February 8, 2011
For those friends and colleagues who are concerned about the well-being of Chicago House and its staff during the events of this last two weeks in Egypt, I am happy to report that we are safe, Luxor is secure, and we have been keeping a normal work schedule on all of our project sites: Luxor Temple, Khonsu Temple Karnak, Medinet Habu, and the tomb of Nefersekheru TT 107. After some relatively minor (compared to Cairo and elsewhere) demonstrations and vandalism of government buildings during the afternoon and evening of Friday, January 28th, order was restored in Luxor the next day, and it has been peaceful here ever since. There was no damage to or looting of any archaeological site in Luxor. We have been in constant touch with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities / Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs in Luxor, who informed us that archaeological missions could resume work on Sunday, January 30th. Police presence on the antiquities sites is strong, with some Egyptian military as well, and small groups of foreign and Egyptian tourists continue to visit the sites; a scattering of tourists is still being bused in from the Red Sea.
Two members of the Chicago House team have returned home (one who had no passport was assisted by the US Embassy which had a team in Luxor for a few days). While the rest of us are prepared to leave at a moment's notice, we will remain in Luxor for now and as long as we can to keep our documentation, conservation, and restoration work going with the SCA, and the library open for our Egyptian and foreign colleagues who have stayed to continue their work. Be assured that we will continue to monitor the situation in the country closely, but for now will continue to assist the scientific community in Luxor in any way we can.
Best from Luxor,
W. Raymond Johnson,
Director, Epigraphic Survey
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Chicago House, Luxor, Egypt
Luxor Update February 2, 2011
Dear friends,
Finally Egypt has Internet access again! Gil, Steve, and I have been in touch this last week by phone, and I know that Gil has sent out reports about our status. After the rioting on Friday and Saturday, I am happy to report that Luxor has been secure since the weekend, and Chicago House has been back at work on all sites since Sunday. While the situation is still of some concern in Cairo, all is well here, and those of us in town - the Egyptian SCA and a number of archaeological expeditions, including ARCE, the Germans at the Amenhotep III mortuary temple, the French at Karnak, etc - are all checking up on each other.
The US Embassy had some staff here for a few days facilitating the evacuation of people who needed to leave, but they are departing tonight, satisfied that everything is in good order here. There are even foreign tourists still around - there were ten tour buses in the Medinet Habu parking lot when we left at 1PM today! Weird.
We continue to monitor the situation, and are being cautious. At no time have we ever felt threatened. For now we will remain here and continue our work with our Egyptian and foreign colleagues, but we are prepared to leave if the situation requires it. I will keep you posted.
Best from Luxor,
W. Raymond Johnson,
Director, Epigraphic Survey
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
Chicago House, Luxor, Egypt
We are very pleased to announce that all Medinet Habu volumes as well as the latest, OIP 136, Medinet Habu Volume IX, the Eighteenth Dynasty Temple Part 1, the Inner Sanctuaries (Chicago 2009), are now available for free PDF download from the Oriental Institute Publications Web site:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/egypt.html
Thanks to friends Lewis and Misty Gruber, who funded the digital scanning, and Tom Urban and Leslie Schramer of the OI Publications Office, all publications under the category "Egypt," including everything the Epigraphic Survey and Oriental Institute have ever published, are now available for download in the new digital format, completely free of charge.
2009-2010 Field Season
LUXOR TEMPLE
The Luxor Temple blockyard conservation program coordinated by Hiroko Kariya assisted by Tina Di Cerbo and Nan Ray continued with final preparations for the Luxor Temple blockyard open-air museum. This three-year project, supported by the World Monuments Fund (a Robert W. Wilson Challenge to Conserve Our Heritage grant) was completed and opened to the public on March 29, 2010 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by SCA Luxor director Mansour Boraik and about 100 friends and colleagues. More than sixty-two fragment groups have now been reassembled chronologically for public display with educational signage in English and Arabic. Sandstone pavement, protective fencing, and lighting for nighttime viewing are now in place to the east of the Luxor Temple sanctuary along platforms that support reassembled fragment groups from the Middle Kingdom through the Ptolemaic, Roman, Christian, and Islamic periods. Other platforms display material recovered during the USAID-supported dewatering trenching to the east of Luxor Temple by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), a conservation section, and a rotating exhibit section that now features "Egyptian Creatures" in art and inscriptions. An online catalogue of the museum displays is being prepared that will eventually be accessible from this Web site.
The culmination of the blockyard open-air museum is to be found inside the northeastern corner of Amenhotep III's solar court. Restoration of 111 wall fragments of Amenhotep III to the original east interior wall of the court was completed at the end of January by mason Frank Helmholz and the Chicago House workmen, assisted by Hiroko. The lime-plaster surface applied over the brick fill between the stone fragments was finished in early March by Hiroko and SCA conservators Salah Salim and Anwar Fouad Mahdi Jaama. The inner inscribed wall fragments and outer wall slabs were all built against an inner, specially constructed solid-brick core. Missing details were added in paint on the plaster by Ray Johnson in March and April. The 111 fragments complete a bark of the god Amun followed by a figure of Amenhotep III and the royal ka, complete to the top of the king's khepresh crown. The whole bark scene preserves many painted details, and was carved originally by Amenhotep III, destroyed by Akhenaten, restored by Tutankhamun, appropriated by Horemheb, and enlarged by Sety I, thereby reflecting the entire end of the 18th Dynasty and beginning of the 19th! The wall was quarried in the Middle Ages and broken up for reuse, excavated by the Egyptian government around 1958, stacked around the temple in the early 1960s, and was surveyed, documented, analyzed, and moved to a special holding area east of the temple by the Epigraphic Survey in the 1980s. It has now been restored to the original wall by the Survey, completing the cycle.
In collaboration with the SCA and American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) at Luxor Temple, cleaning of the 3rd Century AD Roman fortification wall in front of the temple where it abuts the eastern pylon of Ramesses II was begun in preparation for consolidation and restoration next season, supervised by Pamela Rose. Educational signage for the temple proper was also begun, beginning with an orientation panel for the entire temple designed by Chicago House architect Jay Heidel.
KHONSU TEMPLE
This year marked the second season of the Epigraphic Survey epigraphic team at Khonsu Temple, supervised by senior epigrapher Brett McClain in collaboration with the SCA and ARCE on the epigraphic recording of reused, inscribed stone-block material in the flooring and foundations of Ramesses III's Khonsu Temple. This documentation is necessary before floor restoration work makes the material inaccessible. 226 reused, inscribed blocks were recorded this season, and 161 drawings were cleared by the director. The documentation and analysis of the material, most of which appears to be part of an earlier, dismantled Khonsu Temple, will be completed during the 2010-2011 season.
MEDINET HABU
Epigraphic documentation supervised by senior artists Susan Osgood and Margaret De Jong continued in the small Amun temple of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III at Medinet Habu in the bark sanctuary ambulatory (Volumes X and XI) and bark sanctuary (Volume XII). Photography of the four Akoris columns was completed by photographer Yarko Kobylecky.
The conservation team supervised by Lotfi Hassan worked in the new Medinet Habu blockyard built against the inside southern Ramesses III enclosure wall. The inventorying, documentation, and moving of the miscellaneous fragmentary architectural and sculptural fragments from the old blockyard continued, coordinated by Julia Schmied and Christian Greco, and over 2,000 blocks have now been transferred to the new blockyard. The transfer will be finished next season, as well as an open-air museum component in front of the new blockyard that has been constructed for appropriate joined fragment and display groups.
THE TOMB OF NEFERSEKHERU TT 107
A condition study and preliminary photographic documentation of the tomb of Amenhotep III's Steward of Malkata Palace, the nobleman Nefersekheru, was begun in preparation for the stabilization and drawing of the portico area starting next season.
Revised: February 11, 2013
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