Conservation of the Tomb of Anen
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Located on necropolis of the West Bank of Luxor, the tomb of Anen belonged to an ancient Egyptian priest who served under the reign of Amenhotep III. Over time, the tomb had deteriorated and the roof caved in, filling the tomb with rubble and subjecting the wall paintings to light, heat, and water damage, as well as looters. This project, sponsored by the Royal Ontario Museum, was to conserve and protect the tomb of Anen (TT120), as well as the paintings inside. In addition to stabilizing and reinforcing the walls of the tomb, the conservators mechanically cleaned the reliefs with brushes and scalpels and repaired the mission sections through re-adhered fragments with special mortar. Paintings that had been damaged or removed were restored, mimicking an ancient painting technique where craftsmen sketched the relief images in red ink before filling them with color. The team also constructed a protective display box over the restored wall reliefs to protect them from human or environmental damage and built a series of low slanted walls along the top edges of the tomb to divert rainwater.
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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) managed the implementation of the conservation of the tomb of Anen in the Theban Necropolis in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (formerly the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities). Lyla Pinch-Brock, co-director of the Royal Ontario Theban Tombs Project based in Toronto, Canada, served as director of the project, aided by conservator Ewa Paradonwska and architect Nicholas Warner. Photographs were taken by Edwin C. Brock and Francis Dzikowski. :
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Conservation of the monument was funded through the American Research Center in Egypt's Egyptian Antiquities Project (ARCE-EAP) under United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Grant No. 263-G-00-93-00089-00 (formerly 263-0000-G-00-308900).
Akhenaten Talatat Project Conservation
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Talatat blocks, possibly derived from the Arabic word talata meaning “three,” measure roughly three handspans long. Characterized by their Amarna style and smaller size compared to conventional building blocks, they are the result of King Akhenaten’s (1352-1336 BC) goal to urgently erect religious buildings for his “new supreme god” Aten, first in Thebes (ancient Luxor) and later the new city of Akhetaten in Middle Egypt. The talatat blocks were first discovered in the late 19th century and increasingly excavated from then onwards. There are currently approximately 60,000 known blocks, believed to be only a fraction of what exists. The largest repository of talatat blocks resides in the Pennsylvania Magazine in the Karnak Temple complex in Luxor. The Magazine is directly adjacent to the west wall of the Khonsu Temple and stores approximately 16,000 blocks, the majority of which are sandstone (with a few limestone examples). Used to construct temples for the god Aten, the blocks were subsequently dismantled by Akhenaten’s successors, who reused them in other structures. Previously, from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, the blocks were photographed and documented in situ by Akhenaten Temple Project staff, under the auspices of the Penn Museum (also referred to as the University Museum, Pennsylvania). From 2008 to 2012, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Akhenaten Talatat Project Conservation staff cleaned, conserved, photographed, and recorded approximately 16,000 talatat blocks in the Magazine. The blocks had sustained damage which included dangerously leaning stacks; collapsed stacks; dust and bird droppings due to gaps in the roof; hornets’ nests and damage caused by animal burrowing. Matjaž Kačičnik photographed the preliminary conditions of the 28 stacks in the Magazine before project staff proceeded with removing, cleaning, and conserving blocks; some of the shattered blocks were reassembled with steel pins. Documentation included the use of digital photography and database recording. After structural interventions that addressed damage incurred from animal activity and dust accumulation, the blocks were restored in the Pennsylvania Magazine.
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Conservation of the Akhenaten Talatat blocks in the Pennsylvania Magazine was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Agreement No. 263-A-00-04-00018-00 under the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP), and through the administration and facilitation of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).