Report of Work in the Valley of the Kings Spring, 2012...
Transcript of Report of Work in the Valley of the Kings Spring, 2012...
Report of Work in the Valley of the Kings
Spring, 2012 Field Season
Our work began on 6 February and continued until 7 March 2012. This was a short
season for financial reasons but it accomplished important work nonetheless. Our Inspector of
Antiquities was Mohammed Beabesh Abu el Wafaa.
We undertook two principal operations this season. The first was the completion of a
lengthy process, checking and collating descriptions of the several thousand KV tomb
photographs we have taken over the past ten years. Working with the Supreme Council of
Antiquities, the Theban Mapping Project (TMP) has made a comprehensive survey of the
decorated walls in all accessible KV tombs (except KV 17 and 62) using digital color
photography. The carved and painted texts and scenes on KV tomb walls are masterpieces of
New Kingdom Egyptian art, important records of the culture’s religious and mortuary beliefs.
Unfortunately, environmental factors and, especially in recent years, increasing tourism, have
put serious pressure on these tombs and threatened the future existence of their decorated
walls. Our project’s goal was to establish a baseline of current tomb conditions against which
future changing conditions of paints, pigments, and plasters could be monitored so that
conservators and SCA on‐site inspectors can more quickly and accurately identify problem areas
and better‐protect these fragile monuments. To that end, we have taken over 10,000
photographs, recording in detail all accessible KV tombs. The images have been color
corrected, proper overlap assured, and checked to insure completeness of coverage.
This season, we returned to several open tombs (KV 1, 2, 6, 9, 11, 15, and 16) to recheck
and, where necessary, correct the data accompanying each photograph. That work is now
completed, and copies of all images and their catalogue entries have been supplied to the
appropriate SCA offices in Cairo and in Luxor. A complete set of images will shortly be added to
the TMP’s online archive, at www.thebanmappingproject.com. When the images are
completely online, they will be accompanied by searchable indices allowing users to locate
photographs of specific tombs, chambers, walls, and registers, to search for specific types of
motifs, texts, scenes, deities and rulers, and to trace such elements chronologically through the
Valley of the Kings’ New Kingdom history.
Second, we continued our work in KV 5, the tomb of sons of Rameses II. This season, we
concentrated on cleaning several side‐chambers off Chamber 14, one of the deepest parts of
the tomb. Chamber 14 lies 14.2 m. below the level of the road in front of KV 5. The complex of
chambers, 12 through 19, of which Chamber 14 is the largest, is almost a mirror image of
another complex, chambers 20 through 27, that also lies beneath the road, which we cleaned
TMP photo archive now documents in detail the condition of KV tomb paintings and
allows Egyptologists to study the techniques of the ancient artists
two seasons ago. But there are enough differences between them that we needed to
determine by clearing whether the gates cut in the walls of Chamber 14 led to single chambers,
multiple chambers, or corridors in patterns similar to chambers 20‐27. As part of our work in
earlier seasons, we had cleared a part of Chamber 14; cleared Chamber 15; determined that
Gate 16 was actually the entrance to a corridor, Corridor 16, with at least twelve side‐
chambers, a‐l; and cleared Chamber 17. This season, we cleaned the double chamber 18 and
18a, which was cut in the rear wall of Chamber 14, and were able to show that no additional
chambers or corridors had been cut beyond these rooms. (This was an interesting point to
establish, since Chamber 18a is closer to KV 7, the tomb of Rameses II, than any other part of
KV 5‐‐they are separated by about 60 m.) Gate 19 was also of potential interest since its
position off Chamber 14 is similar to the position of Gate 25 off Chamber 22. In the latter case,
Gate 25 led to a corridor with numerous side‐chambers extending eastward below Chambers 3
and 5. Gate 19, however, leads to only another chamber, of about the same depth as Chamber
15 but of greater width.
The debris in these chambers was some of the densest we have encountered in KV 5
and it was extremely difficult and time‐consuming to remove. The process of digging was made
even more time‐consuming because of the potsherds embedded in the debris and the traces of
carved and painted plaster that was found on the chamber walls. We removed a substantial
amount of debris during our work this season and found several hundred potsherds, a mixed
bag of undiagnostic wall sherds, New Kingdom to Christian, nearly all of which had washed into
the tomb during various flood events over the past three thousand years. The sherds did not
provide reliable dating for any of the flood strata in the tomb.
Only one object was found during the work: the lower two‐thirds of an alabaster
ushabti, painted with a single column of text on its body that can tentatively be dated to the
reign of Rameses VI or VII. Similar ushabti fragments were found in KV 5 in earlier seasons and
are published in our Preliminary Report.
Badly damaged and fragmentary plaster was found on the wall of Chamber 14 adjacent
to Gate 19. We will not clean this plaster until next season, but it likely will show inscriptions
similar to those we found two seasons ago on the south wall of Chamber 22. Those included
parts of Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, the “Negative Confession.”
Conservation work in KV 5 also continued, with Ahmed Saleh Abdallah on loan to us
from the SCA. For the past two seasons, in addition to stabilizing the walls and ceilings in the
chambers mentioned above and in Chamber 5, we continued to restore and stabilize the walls
in Corridor 7 near the juncture of corridors 10 and 11, where the carved figure of Osiris is
located. There were two reasons for this latter work. First, the walls here are covered by a
deeper layer of bedrock than elsewhere in KV 5 and they have literally burst because of the
great weight to which they have been subjected. Their stability was uncertain. Second, visitors
to KV 5 invariably walk down Corridor 7 to view the figure of Osiris, and it is desirable that their
approach be aesthetically pleasing as well as safe. Work this season has now stabilized the
walls in a structurally sound and aesthetically acceptable manner.
The TMP is also pleased to announce the opening of a new field headquarters on the
West Bank at Luxor, a facility that will serve as project office and storeroom. It will house
copies of all TMP field data, including images, maps, plans, field notes, and publications.
Perhaps of even greater importance, the headquarters boasts an extensive Egyptological
library, in English and Arabic, together with what can best be described as a small public library.
The library already houses over a thousand volumes in Arabic and in English and we hope the
number of books and journals will continue to grow. The collection includes works on subjects
ranging from archaeological techniques, surveying, conservation, osteology, and others
appropriate for those who work on the monuments at Thebes, to general works on medicine,
health and nutrition, history, literature, science, language. In short, it is intended to be a library
that can profitably be consulted by professional Egyptologists as well as by the general public of
all ages. Computers for Internet searches and journal access (including Jstor) are available. We
are working with local orphanages school groups to offer programs introducing young people to
the importance of protecting and studying Egypt’s long traditions. The library is available to all,
Ahmed Hassan exposing the entrance to Chamber 19
free of charge, daily from 1500 to 2200. Already, it is being visited by Egyptologists, antiquities
inspectors, conservators, tourist guides, and local Egyptian students, and we expect the number
of patrons to grow rapidly as word of the library’s availability spreads. We believe that the
library will be an important part of the TMP’s efforts to inform and educate the general public
about the importance of Egypt’s patrimony, and to enhance the work of those directly involved
in the protection of the Theban monuments.
Ahmed examining historical maps in TMP’s new Luxor library