Finding Canopic Jars

We congratulate the team of the South Asasif Conservation Project on finding the canopic jars of the Lady of the House Amenirdis in the tomb of Karabasken (TT 391).

The name of Amenirdis on the Duamutef canopic jar.

The discovery was recently announced by Dr. Mostafa Waziri. General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

It was an unforgettable day for (from left to right) Ali Hassan Ibrahim, Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali, Hussein Ahmed Hussein, Marion Brew, Katerina Ball and John Billman.

The set of canopic jars was found on the 7th of May, 2018 in an intrusive burial compartment in the pillared hall of the tomb of Karabasken by the archaeologists Marion Brew, Katerina Ball, Hassan Mohamed Ali and Reis Mohamed Ali.  The room, accessed via a staircase carved between the 4th and 5th pillars of the southern side of the hall, was discovered in 2016.

The shaft in the south-east corner of the room and burial chambers were cleared in April-May 2018. The 3m deep shaft leads to two burial chambers oriented to the east and west of the shaft. Both chambers were roughly carved and undecorated.

The canopic jars were found in the eastern chamber in a nearly cubic cutting in the floor and photographed by Katherine Blakeney.

The happy moment of discovery was shared by Mohamed Shebib, inspector Hussein Ahmed Hussein, Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali, Katherine Blakeney and Reis Mohamed Ali.

The jars and lids, made of Egyptian alabaster, needed emergency conservation performed by a team of MoA conservators including Ali Hassan Ibrahim, Mohamed Shebib, Ali Taib Mohamed, Taib Said Mohamed, and Mohamed El Azeb Hakem. Mohamed Shebib is performing injections.

Canopic jars after conservation:

The Jars were measured and registered by John Billman.

Many of the mission members gave their hears to Duamutef with his mischievous smile and elongated eyes.

His erect jackal ears, connected by an area of negative space are elegantly indicated by two parallel incised lines. The jar was found in two pieces. The smoothness of the edges suggests this was the original construction and the pieces were joined in antiquity.

Drawing by Katherine Blakeney.

 

The canopic jars will be published in the 3rd volume of the AUC series Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis.

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The Third Week of June

Two exquisitely carved faces found their way back on the north-east pilaster in the First Pillared hall this week. They belong to offering bearers from the top register on the western side of the pilaster. Three registers with three offering bearers (Two male and one female) in each comprised the original decoration of the pilaster, found broken into numerous small fragments.

Abderazk Mohamed Ali, Ali Hassan Ibrahim and Katherine Blakeney are transferring the reconstruction drawing of the newly constructed top register of the north-east pilaster. Reconstructions of both eastern pilasters in the First Pillared hall will be finished by the end of June under the supervision of our inspector Mahmud Youssef El Edassy.

The lintel of the Tornische doorframe is almost finished. The next level is a beautifully colored cavetto cornice. A lunette with wadjet eyes carved in bold raised relief will top the entrance structure.

Erhart Graefe is working on the reconstruction of the vignette for the text of the Ritual of the Eighth Hour of the Day. This colorful, beautifully carved vignette will face the central aisle of the First Pillared hall in the tomb of Karakhamun when placed on the third pillar of the north side of the hall.

We welcome Louise Bertini who visited the site on the 20th of June and started working on the animal bones found in the tomb of Karabasken at the beginning of the season.

Mohamed Shebib is very happy about finding this tiny fragment of carving that he identified as the top of the folded cloth clenched in the fist of Karakhamun on the south wall of the Second Pillared hall.

 

Katherine Piper is back at work on the painted ceiling from the Second Pillared Hall. We hope to reconstruct most of it in a sand box by the end of the season.

Katherine Blakeney is flying high photographing the mud brick superstructure of the tomb of Karabasken.

Mohamed Abu Hakem is getting ready for his first space voyage. We wish him luck but are going to miss him at the site.

Our wonderful excavation team of Lesley O’Conner, Reis Mohamed Ali, Cheryl Hanson, Mustafa Said Jad, Saeed Abdul Rahim, Ahmed Hassan Mawat, Ramadan Mohamed Abdullah and Saeed Hassan Ahmed continue working on the growing superstructure of the tomb of Karabasken despite the heat of the previous week.

More next week!

First Week of June in South Asasif

Every week in the South Asasif necropolis brings new discoveries and achievements.

One of the most notable discoveries of the week was made by our leading conservator, Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali. He brought back to the team’s attention a small fragment of sunk relief with a well-modeled surface, a thin raised line in the middle and a plain polished surface on the other side of the line.

Many mission members participated in the discussion of this strange fragment without reaching a quorum on “deciphering” the image. Katherine Blakeney saw the modeled area as a knee but Elena Pischikova never shared her view because of the raised line above the proposed knee. It would suggest a kilt with a rim on its hem and that would be unique for the tomb of Karakhamun. This time Abdelrazk didn’t want to hear any arguments. Following his instinct he went directly to the scene of an offering bearer leading a crane on the north-east pilaster of the First Pillared Hall and inserted the fragment into the gap above the back of the crane.

It fit perfectly, adding a new feature to one of the most lavishly carved scenes in the tomb. And yes, this particular offering bearer has one of the best-modeled knees in the whole tomb and a rimmed hem on his kilt. This beautiful bird is on the cover of the Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis vol.2 published by AUC in 2017.

Abdelrazk suggested informing AUC of the new addition to the scene and updating the cover. Sounds like a great idea!

 

Reconstruction of the Tornische, the vaulted entrance area to the underground part of Karakhamun’s tomb is going remarkably well although we face problems in the most unexpected areas. For example, Hassan Dimerdash , the conservator responsible for the reconstruction of the torus, reed bundle elements, and the rectangular ledges that flank the entrance doorframe realized that the dimensions of the elements on the left and right side of the door are different. To place all the fragments of three-stem reed bundle elements Hassan has to check the size of the stems, depth of carving, shape of the stems, etc. (with help from Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali).

The right side is shaping up well. On the photograph below Hassan is placing an identified rope element.

 

The north section of the east wall is constructed all the way up to the ceiling. It is ready to receive the fragments of the offering list and conservator Ali Hassan Ibrahim is waiting for the first stones.

 

Erhart Graefe arrived at the site to continue working on the texts of the Rituals of the Hours of the Day. Although photographed on his first day of work, Erhart looks extremely well organized and concentrated on the task at hand. A good start to what will surely be a productive season.

 

We are happy to welcome AUC student Hayley Goddard. She has just taken her osteology exam at the site. The grueling test was conducted by the prominent expert Afaf Wahba. We are happy to report that Afaf will be joining our team later in the season.

 

Members of our BD 17 team Annie Haward and Francesca Jones will be leaving the site next week. A lot of progress has been made in sorting the fragments by columns and finding new joins.

 

Karabasken’s superstructure keeps growing under the watchful eyes of Marion Brew and Lesley O’Connor. With Lesley’s arrival we got our own Indiana Jones at the site (not the hat).

 

More soon!

 

 

Our Work in May

The work of the South Asasif team continues in all the areas of the necropolis with incredible results.

We had a wonderful breakfast with our workmen to celebrate the start of Ramadan.

The excavation team of Reis Mohamed Ali, Marion Brew, inspector Mohamed Khalifa Ahmed and Katy Bell are still following the remains of the northern wall of the superstructure of the tomb of Karabasken. The traces were almost lost on higher ground but recently resurfaced at a lower level of the terrain, with as many as three courses of the original bricks preserved in situ.

John Billman, the head of the object registration and catalogization project enjoys the recent finds in his “office” in the tomb of Irtieru.

Reconstruction of the Tornische area in the tomb of Karakahamun is also in full swing. Today was a big day of the arrival of the lintel carved by our stone cutters. A large group of builders, stone cutters and conservators watched its progress down into the court of the tomb and celebrated its arrival. The participants of this event on the photo are Ahmed Bedawy, Mohamed Gamal, Abd El Hady Abd, Hamdi Abdel Fatah, Ali Hassan Radwan, Ahmed Mustafa Maraa, Mohamed Ahmed Attia, Hassan Mustafa Ali, Hassan Dimerdash, Mohamed El Azeb Hakem, Ali Taib Mohamed, Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali.

Members of the team BD 17 Francesca Jones and Annie Howard continue sorting the fragments of the text by column finding new joins in the process. In previous years they amassed a corpus of 135 fragments whose position can be identified in the 112 columns of the text. They explain the significance of the new join on the photograph above in their own words:

“Great excitement was felt earlier in the week, when we found a new piece with half each of a horned viper (I9) and a basket (V31) and a reed (M17) depicted, and were able to locate it to column 75. Not only that, but we already had another piece from the same column with half a horned viper and basket and a reed. A join! The photo shows us with this join, the first of two this week!

We would like to thank all the team for their help in locating possible fragments, and for helping to move the sometimes very heavy stones to where they can be worked on.”

– Francesca and Annie

More soon! Continue following our blog!

Highlights from Our First Month

Our first month in South Asasif was full of hard work and excitement. Everybody is happy to be back at the site and contribute to the success of the season.

Reis Mohamed Ali, Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali, Hassan Mohammed Ali, Ali Hassan, Mohamed Hakim, Mohamed Shebib, Mohamed Bedawy, Hassan Dimmerdash, Mohamed Ali Abdullah, Taib Said, Hussein Ahmed Hussein, Dr. Elena Pischikova, Dr. Katherine Blakeney, John Billman, Mohamed Khalifa Mohamed, Ali Taib Mohamed, Ramadan Ahmed Ali, Ez El Din Kamal El Noby, Ahmed Bogdady,

The work began with the recording of the superstructure of the tomb of Karakhamun and clearing of the superstructure of the tomb of Karabasken. Dieter Eigner, the architect of the team, was instrumental in both projects. He interpreted the intricacies of Karakhamun’s superstructure (on the photograph with Elena Pischikova)

and assisted the excavation team of Marion Brew, Sharon Davidson and Hassan Mohamed Ali in surveying the area of Karabasken’s superstructure.

The excavation team led by Marion Brew (on the photograph with Katy Bell) has already reached remarkable results by finding the remains of the wall above the entrance to the underground part of the tomb and a section of the enclosure wall to the north of the open court.

Photography of Karakhamun’s superstructure proved to be a real adventure for Katherine Blakeney and Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali. To find a high enough angle they had to build their personal “Eiffel tower” to the west of the tomb.

The conservation team is working on the reconstruction of the Tornische area (entrance to the underground part of the tomb) in the tomb of Karakhamun based on the architectural features still in situ and the reconstruction drawing by Dieter Eigner.

Despite being one of the most destroyed features of the tomb this originally richly decorated area still contains some of the most sophisticated relief carving in Karakhamun. Most of the images were reduced to numerous small pieces and their reconstruction requires a lot of time, patience and skill. This series of photographs shows the work of done by Said Ali Hassan, Katherine Blakeney and Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali on the reconstruction of the figure of one of the offering bearers originally from the south wall of the niche. The process began with the reconstruction of the figure in a sandbox, and continued with transferring the outlines of the figure to the surface of a new limestone block, carving the figure in sunk relief and then using the depression to embed the original fragments, carved in raised relief. The photo shows one of the eight figures originally forming the procession.

These are only a few activities of the South Asasif Project in 2018. We will be covering different aspects of our work this summer in future blog posts.

 

Celluloid Mummies, Presented by Katherine Blakeney

Happy Halloween to our mission members, sponsors and friends! The South Asasif conservation Project is preparing for 2018 and looking forward to a great season. Meanwhile, we’re in the mood to have some fun and celebrate with our own Katherine Blakeney, who is preparing to launch her new blog, Stardigger’s Treasure Trove.

Check out the teaser post “Mummy Love: Cleopatra as Cinema’s First Mummy” below:

 

Mummy Love: Cleopatra as Cinema’s First Mummy

by Katherine Blakeney

 

Halloween is my favorite day of the year and I spend most of October preparing to celebrate this glorious day of darkness, monstrousness and decay. Hoping to scare my friends into the holiday mood I planned to make this post as bloodcurdling as I possibly could. And what better way to scare an archaeology lover than with a thoroughly terrifying mummy?

A daring archaeologist dares disturb the tranquility of an ancient Egyptian mummy in Georges Méliès’s 1900 short Infortunes d’un explorateur.

So far so good. Now, to choose the right one. The phantom of Boris Karloff comes to mind at once, but I suspect he is all too familiar to you already. To scare you properly I resolved to delve into uncharted waters, into my favorite era in cinema history – silent film. Considering that the earliest known film featuring the character of an Ancient Egyptian mummy was made in 1899, I had a lot of resin-stained bandages to wade through in search of my silent horror monster.

To my great regret, all I brought back from my journey into the afterlife was a flock of mummified damsels in distress. I apologize, but it is my lamentable obligation to present you with a parade of fair Victorian maidens clad in fashionably draped bandages. I can only assume that with all the glamorous dinners in Egyptian tombs and mummy unwrapping parties held at the turn of the 20th century, mummy bandages were seen as rather alluring.

Theda Bara as Cleopatra in Cleopatra (Edwards, 1917). Not technically a mummy, but a vivid depiction of the exotically sensuous ancient Egyptian female as depicted in many films of the 1910s and 20s.

That first cinematic mummy of 1899 graced a humorous trick film called Cleopatra’s Tomb, directed by French illusionist and special effects pioneer Georges Méliès. It centers around a seductive female mummy reanimated by a prying archeologist who loses no time in falling for the “monster” he has unleashed. Perhaps a horror story in the making, but there’s no sign the film had a sequel. From this early cinematic experiment until the mid-1920s, around twenty films were made with titles containing the keyword “mummy.” I’m rather partial to Romance of the Mummy, Mummy Love and The Eyes of the Mummy. The Live Mummy and The Missing Mummy aren’t bad either. The above number includes the United States, United Kingdom and France alone, roughly translating to 2-3 mummy-themed films a year (all referring to a preserved ancient body rather than a maternal parent). Many of these films are unfortunately lost and we have no way of knowing how many more were burned in studio backlots to make way for newer and more fashionable films. Incidentally, burnt celluloid was once widely used by conservators of Egyptian art as a solidifying protective varnish. I suppose we know what really happened to all those unwanted mummy movies. How’s that for a horror story?

But what about lumbering revenants slinking out of sarcophagi in the night, muttering ancient curses under their breaths as their embalmed fingers crush the tracheas of solid modern citizens? Ask Boris Karloff.

Boris Karloff in Universal Studios’ The Mummy (Freund, 1932)

The familiar image of the vindictive monster-mummy as seen in the popular The Mummy franchise (1999-2008), didn’t come into its own until Karloff’s Imhotep in the 1932 horror classic The Mummy. Most of the mummies of the Silent Era, as seen in films such as 1911’s The Mummy or the 1918 German film Die Augen der Mumie Ma (Eyes of the Mummy Ma), are not vengeful killers, but rather exotic ingénues in search of rescue at the hands of a strong and silent archaeologist. These films have little or no connection to the horror genre as we know it today, traversing the spectrum from comedy to romance. A lighthearted approach to a macabre subject and a reflection of contemporaneous perceptions of archaeological finds and archaeologists themselves.

Even an ominously titled film like 1903’s The Monster (another Méliès short), is really a farcical love story about an Egyptian prince who resorts to dark magic to resurrect his mummified lover. (I encourage you to consider the results by clicking the link included at the end of this post before you attempt this at home.)

Le Monstre (Méliès, 1903)

Overall, the resurrected mummy of the early 1900s and 1910s brings to mind Théophile Gautier’s 1840 short story, “The Mummy’s Foot” rather than the costume rack at your local pharmacy. Gautier’s mummy, who comes to collect her stolen foot from a Parisian antiques collector, is not a psychopathic priest but a beautiful princess. She uses charm and bargaining skills rather than violence to achieve her aim, bartering her mummified foot for a statuette. The story is humorous, but it also presents the mummy as mysterious, desirable and ultimately benevolent. Thanhouser Company Films’ The Mummy (1911) also centers around a mummified Egyptian princess stranded in the midst of modern society. Revived by an electric current, she instantly forms romantic designs on a young Egyptologist – greatly vexing his fiancee. There are no ancient curses here, and the story ends not with a battle but with a wedding as the amorous princess finds a widowed professor to marry – a fortunate solution for all involved.

The Mummy (Thanhouser, 1911)

Eyes of the Mummy Ma (Lubitsch, 1918) injects additional drama into the ubiquitous tale of the undead singleton. This entry features a villainous Egyptian hypnotist (Emil Jannings) forcing a living maiden (Pola Negri) to impersonate the eponymous mummy. In a not-so-shocking twist she is rescued by a heroic European painter who brings her home with him to be his muse. The film celebrates her exotic allure while at the same time hinting that she’s far better off in the care of civilized Europeans. It’s all very well being a rescued mummy, as long as you don’t get your bandages caught in the teapot while entertaining guests.

Poster for the 1918 German film Die Augen der Mumie Ma (English language The Eyes of the Mummy or The Eyes of the Mummy Ma), featuring the seductive mummy of the title.

This post hasn’t gone at all the way I envisioned. Instead of making you scream and run, my ferocious cinematic mummies pine for your love and attention, painting lovely watercolors as they wait for the right archaeologist to come along. Perhaps this is a terrifying prospect after all?

If you’d like to adopt a mummy this holiday season you can take your pick by exploring the links I’ve collected below, leading to preserved and restored silent films where possible or to stills from those that became conservation materials.

 

Preserved:
The Monster (Georges Méliès, 1903)
The Eyes of the Mummy Ma (Die Augen der Mumie Ma, Ernst Lubitsch, 1918)

Lost Films:
Cleopatra’s Tomb (Georges Méliès, 1899)
The Mummy (Thanhauser Films, 1911)

“The Mummy’s Foot” (1840) by Théophile Gautier

The Discovery of the Burial Chamber and Sarcophagus of the Mayor of Thebes and Forth Priest of Amun, Karabasken (TT 391) (25th Dynasty)

Photo by Katherine Blakeney

The monumental red granite sarcophagus of Karabasken discovered by the team is a unique example of a Kushite sarcophagus in an elite tomb.

The descent to the burial chamber was found in the center of the cult room, which features six niches on the north and south walls and remains of the false door on the west wall. Excavation work in this area has revealed an angled descent, 900cm long and 225cm wide, leading to a burial chamber (574cm x 354cm x 406cm). The burial chamber was filled with flood deposit up to the ceiling. Clearing of the burial chamber uncovered a monumental red granite sarcophagus occupying almost the whole space of the room.

Drawings by Katherine Blakeney

The dimensions of the sarcophagus are as follows: Height 241cm ( base 163cm, lid 77cm), Length 306cm, Width 130cm, Thickness of the base 18cm. The base of the sarcophagus is a rectangular box with a rounded head end. The lid is vaulted with a convex upper surface and an almost flat lower surface. It is decorated with a single horizontal band 27cm in width. No inscriptions were found on the exterior surface of the sarcophagus.

The base and the lid show deliberate damage in the head area and on the left side close to the foot end. This is evidence of two attempts to break into the sarcophagus. The interior of the sarcophagus was flooded after the first attempt.

Photos by Katherine Blakeney

The architectural features of the descent and the burial chamber were evidently designed to lower down and house a large sarcophagus contemporary to the original tomb. The royal features in the burial apartment and sarcophagus of Karabasken are a manifestation of the Kushite revival of past traditions and assimilation of royal and temple features in the elite tombs of this period.

Photo by Katherine Blakeney

Mysteries of Irtieru

The tomb of Irtieru (TT 390) is among the most intriguing tombs of the Theban necropolis. Irtieru’s titles, Chief Attendant to the God’s Wife Nitocris and Female Scribe place her among the highest elite of her time. The wife and mother of Viziers of Upper Egypt, she did not mention the names of her husband Nespamedu (buried in Abydos) or her son Nespakashuty D (buried at Deir el Bahri) in the decoration of her tomb. Few women even among the higher-ranking elite had tombs that reflected this level of personal career orientation.

 The Entrance Gate to the tomb of Nespakashuty D (TT 312) was reconstructed by a Metropolitan Museum/ARCE mission directed by Elena Pischikova in 2004-2005

 She chose the Kushite South Asasif necropolis to construct an imposing monumental tomb with two pillared halls, a large Tornische and a spacious open court with two deep porticoes. Unfortunately the burial place of the grand lady was later re-used for rather less profound purposes.

When Elena Pischikova and Katherine Blakeney visited the tomb in the early 2000 the architectural elements were obscured by various livestock. Katherine had to chase away a rather large goose so we could photograph the false door. As she did not have experience in this kind of activity she had to rely on the friendly help of the young Said Abd El Rassul. It was the beginning of our friendship and cooperation with many members of the family.

Fifteen years later the space in front of the false door of Irtieru is occupied by the “High Steward” and “Receiver of the Offerings” of Lady Irtieru, John Billman.

John is the Head of the Registration department of the Project who receives and registers all the finds at the site during our five-month seasons. Most of the “offerings” come from the archaeological team of Marion Brew and Leslie O’Connor, who has been doing an amazing job at the site for many weeks since our opening in May.

 Among John’s favourite kinds of finds are shabtis. This year he is blessed by the tomb owners of the South Asasif necropolis with a large number of shabti fragments.

Here John is sorting the fragments looking for joins and identifying different sets. Besides endless registration challenges John also carries the burden of being the President of the South Asasif Trust. We are extremely grateful to John, our trustees Annie Howard, Francesca Jones and Marion Brew and everyone who donated to the Trust for their support of the Project.

An important place in Irtieru belongs to our Inspector Shereen Ahmed Shawky who is sharing with us her experience in physical anthropology.

 The tomb of Irtieru is slowly changing, revealing its original beauty. The cleaning and reconstruction process is significantly aided by Lepsius’s records of the tomb.

LD III, pl. 272

Ahmed Ali Hussein, General Director of the Conservation Department of Upper Egypt and Chief Conservator of the Project spent weeks in 2007 removing a thick layer of mud from the lintel of the entrance to the Second Pillared Hall using nineteenth century records as a guide.

 Among the most elegant architectural features of the tomb are two half-columns with palm capitals. Their three palm fronds are bound with several circles of rope with a loop in the middle. Their elongated proportions and delicate details make them a distinct addition to the decorative doorframe of the Tornische. This area was cleaned in the earlier years of the Project.

The porticoes of the court, vestibule and entrance staircase remain a mystery, still hidden under the remains of modern houses. The team of the Project is planning to clear and restore these areas in future seasons.

Cats of Karakhamun and Other Updates

The 2016 season of the South Asasif Conservation Project is in full swing and our mission members are making amazing discoveries every day. Most of the recent discoveries were made while working with small fragments of Karakhamun’s relief decoration. The more we understand the tomb the more we see incredible details that were overlooked before.

Annie Howard and Francesca Jones were very happy to join a few fragments and bring back to life a couple of beautiful cats.

Unfortunately Karakhamun cannot consider these cats his personal possession as he does with his favourite dogs. “That male cat is Ra himself, called Cat (miw)” from the text of BD 17 on the south wall of the First Pillared Hall in the tomb of Karakhamun.

We cannot cease to be amazed by the beauty of the animal images in the tomb even if they are small-scale determinatives. The BD 17 team achieved considerable results this season. The work is supervised by Miguel Molinero Polo.

Ken Griffin and Mohamed Shebib are having a great time (and great results) identifying numerous fragments of the BD vignettes for the pillars of the Second Pillared Hall. One of their latest achievements is an almost complete reconstruction of the vignette for BD 75 with Karakhamun standing before the pillar of Heliopolis.

This reconstruction puts into context another image of Karakhamun and brings closer the time when the whole gallery of his images might be studied not only in terms of their style and iconography but also their distribution within the spaces of the tomb.

The vignette and the texts of BD 74 and 75 will shortly be reconstructed on the south side of South Pillar 3.

Katherine Blakeney is deep in calculations of the height of the partially preserved figure of a sm-priest on the lintel of the entrance to the Second Pillared Hall.

Its dimensions are one of the clues to the height of the doorway. The front and back doorframes of the entrance were found in hundreds of small fragments and we are going through the agony of calculating the relationship between its architectural elements. One of the most beautiful elements of the front doorframe is a pair of single-stemmed semi-columns with a bell-shaped open capital.

We are planning to finish the reconstruction of this entrance for the inauguration of the completed Second Pillared Hall during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the South Asasif Conservation Project in September.

We are grateful to our neighbour Miguel Molinero Polo for sharing drawings of parallel architectural features from TT 209. Our team was happy to have a chance to visit Miguel’s project and admire the discoveries of the TT 209 team.

We are happy to welcome our wonderful sponsors and team members to the site.

Darren McKnight presented the happy conservation team with new tools, t-shirts and hats.

Our Seer Anthony Browder is sharing with us his wisdom and vision and provides incredible support to the Project. Thank you!

 

The South Asasif Conservation Project in May 2016

We were happy to return to the site in May and reunite with our Egyptian team members for the 2016 season. We are very grateful to the Ministry of Antiquities and our sponsors and supporters for making this season possible.

Most of the conservation work this season will be concentrated in the Second Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun (TT 223). Our great conservation team started the season with reinforcing the south-west pillar and preparing it for the reconstruction.

Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali, Ali Hassan Ibrahim, El Tayib Hassan Ibrahim, Mohamed El Azeb Hakim, Hassan El Dimerdash, Sayid Ali Hassan , El Tayib Sayid, Mohamed Badawy around the pillar.

 

The stone cutters and builders are continuing the reconstruction of the northern architrave. The western section of the architrave and cavetto cornice were assembled on the floor.

The stone cutters prepared a block of new limestone that will rest on the western pillar and pilaster. The block arrived in the Second Pillared Hall via our wooden railroad, which starts in the open court.

It was lifted with the help of two winches and a team of “stone people” as they are called at the site: Ahmed Badawy, Ahmed Mustafa, Mahmoud Gamal, Mohamed Hassan , Hassan Mustafa, Moamen Ahmed, El Tayib Hassan.

This team of “stone people” has been working with the Project for many years and this year they have become a dynasty. One of the most skillful builders on the team has brought his young son to work with us. Here are the first portraits for the growing family tree of Ahmed Mustafa and Mustafa Ahmed.

 

Our international team members were happy to resume their activities as well. Marion Brew is joined by Lesley O’Connor in the continuing work in the tomb of Karabasken. Clearing of the open court of the tomb was completed in May and the field team moved to the pillared hall. They are enjoying their new office in the court.

John Billman is performing the magic of registration in his sanctuary.

Katherine Blakeney is in search of the most dynamic angles to record the activities of the conservators.

Today was a very special day at the site. We wished our Egyptian team members Happy Ramadan and handed out Ramadan presents.

Abdelrazk and Katherine are packing gift boxes

Team members are handing the gift boxes to the workmen

We thank the South Asasif Trust and Marion Brew for sponsoring this event.