Transformation of a Sacred Landscape: Veneration of Amun-Re in Graffiti in the Valley of the Kings

More than 4000 graffiti are scattered throughout the Theban necropolis. Among them, around 2500 graffiti can be dated to Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-First Dynasties. These New Kingdom graffiti were made by members of the community of workmen from Deir el-Medina. Only a small group of no more than 120 graffiti consist of depictions of deities and veneration scenes. The interpretation of graffiti with depictions of Amun-Re on rock surfaces in the Valley of the Kings reveals valuable information regarding their locations. This study thus attempts to identify particular locations in the valley where the workmen of Deir el-Medina venerated Amun-Re in different forms. These spots may have been considered to be of religious significance to the workmen of Deir el-Medina.

Colonized by the development discourse: life and living heritage in the shadow of antiquities

PurposeTangible and intangible aspects of living heritage shape the identity of communities whose daily experience is integrated into heritage cultural spaces. Interference in this intricately woven, historically rich context may have significant sociocultural and material consequences for the people inhabiting it. Using the example of the ancient Theban Necropolis and “modern” Gurna, the paper looks at the loss of contemporary cultural heritage in favor of Pharaonic antiquities to question the model of heritage management and development practiced through violence in Egypt.Design/methodology/approachWritten from a decolonial perspective, the paper is positioned within the post-development school of thought. It applies subjectivist epistemology to argue for pluriversality.FindingsFocusing on the historical context of the community of Gurnawis, the paper highlights power inequalities among heritage stakeholders and discusses the violence of coloniality that challenges the freedom of human experiences and representations.Social implicationsDecolonial in nature, the paper has a futuristic horizon. It calls for decolonization of the discourse of development, which remains marred by the Western understanding of “civilizational advancement” seen as modernization, industrialization and economic growth. It further argues for imagining alternatives to the current social realities, which would account for the diversity of human experiences and consider a pluriverse of meanings.Originality/valueThe paper applies a decolonial perspective to the study of heritage to demonstrate the impact of colonial rationality on the theory and practice of the discipline of archaeology, as well as its consequences for heritage management in Egypt. Speaking from the standpoint of the marginalized population of Gurna, the paper further reveals the damage done by the colonial discourse of development to those who dare to create and live their own reality.

The Beautiful Festival of the Valley in the Graeco-Roman Period: A Revised Perspective

The pharaonic Beautiful Festival of the Valley has already been studied extensively by various scholars. However, no adequate research has hitherto been carried out into the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. This paper proposes what the final phase of the festival would have looked like and argues that it did not merge with the Decadal Festival, as became the opinio communis. The Graeco-Roman archaeological data from the Theban necropolis were plotted in GIS (ArcGIS 10.7.1) to determine that these finds can still be linked to the processional paths used for the Valley Festival, as was the case in older periods. The indications provided by the spatial distributions together with papyrological sources and landscape analysis support the hypothesis that the Valley Festival continued to be celebrated into the Graeco-Roman Period.

Gordon Jelf and his Notes on the Work Conducted in the Theban Necropolis, 1909-1910

In August of 1909, Charles Gordon Jelf joined Arthur E. P. Weigall in Thebes to assist him in the preparation of the famous Topographical Catalogue. Jelf kept a notebook in which he recorded details of archaeological work carried out in the course of the 1909–10 season. The notebook, identified as Jelf’s by Donald P. Ryan and Jaromir Malek, and subsequently donated to the Griffith Institute, contains information on unpublished excavations and finds, as well as other details, including the identity of the person responsible for the rediscovery of the famous tombs of Kheruef (TT 192).

The dnỉ-Measure in Ancient Egyptian Tomb Construction Projects

When constructing the rock-cut tombs in the Theban necropolis, the ancient Egyptian builders kept track of the progress by recording the amount of rock that was excavated. This is clear from Eighteenth Dynasty ostraca from the tomb chapel of Senenmut, TT 71, which record stages of excavation and measure the production output in units of dnỉ. The current article reconfirms the observations of J. Černý on the dnỉ-unit and its usage as a measure exclusively for capacity, particularly in building projects involving excavation of rock. From this, the article outlines the implications for the understanding of other tomb construction terminology, in particular the ȝʿʿ, the šʿd and the dḳr. The consequence is to acknowledge that the tomb builders of Senenmut only recorded progress of excavation, and not different stages of decoration. In addition, the article suggests that baskets filled with stone flakes at Deir el-Bahri from the Middle Kingdom may represent a practical use of the dnỉ-unit.

Choosing the Location of a ‘House for Eternity’. A Survey on the Relationship between the Rank of the Hatshepsut’s Officials and the Location of their Burials in the Theban Necropolis

This survey aims to determine if a link exists between features of the Theban landscape and where the Egyptian elite chose to build their houses of eternity within the context of the early Eighteenth Dynasty. It is hoped that through GIS-generated tomb location maps, the analysis of their owners’ status and reflection on the landscape’s topography, this study will be able to approximate a relationship between the ranking of Hatshepsut’s officials and the location of their tombs in the necropolis of Western Thebes. This is driven by the current limits in our understanding of the inner hierarchy among officials as well as the tomb site selection process and, therefore, the necessity of expanding such limits.