SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : Fall 2023 | ISSUE12
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Updates on excavation, conservation, and research projects developing across Egypt
Dr. Louise Bertini
Executive Director
ARCE in action on
our 75th year
W elcome to the new issue of Scribe magazine! We
hope you had a great summer and are now ready
to hear the latest interesting news about ARCE?s
ongoing work in Egypt and about our plans for
the final months of our 75th anniversary.
Over the last six months, ARCE staff, officers, members, and
our partners have been organizing and hosting events, developing
our library and online resources, and working with excavators,
academics, conservation experts, officials, and heritage management
teams from Egypt and around the world.
In May, we hosted our 74th Annual Meeting in the Minneapolis
Marriot City Center hotel and conference venue, followed the
weekend after by the virtual online conference. Both events were
very successful. In addition to a slate of outstanding presentations,
attendees were treated to special panel sessions and an exclusive
museum workshop entitled ?Engaging Egypt and Africa in Museum
Settings?. The keynote address was a joint presentation by Dr.
Betsy Bryan and Dr. Fayza Haikal, who recounted deeply personal
stories in their talk entitled ?Women in Egyptology: Long Career
Reflections?. This was delivered at the magnificent Minneapolis
Institute of Art and surely left a lasting impression on all who were
in attendance. Next year, the 75th annual in-person meeting will
take place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, from April 19th to 21st at the
Omni William Penn hotel.
In Egypt, ARCE hosted the Cultural Property Protection
conference with delegates attending from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq,
Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Palestine. This was
made possible thanks to generous funding from the U.S. Embassy in
Cairo, in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
(MoTA), the Council of American Overseas Research Centers
(CAORC), and the US Department of State. The conference focused
on ?Sustainable Documentation and Inventories Management? and
ended on a promising note where recommendations were drafted
based on more than thirty presentations by regional experts. Rec-
ommendations included the formation of an ?Arab World Heritage?
network, increasing collaboration through regional joint projects,
and the development of regional training initiatives.
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).
Ramesses VI (KV9) Sarcophagus Conservation
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From the destruction of the sarcophagus in antiquity until its restoration beginning in the summer of 2001, the hundreds of fragments making up Ramesses VI’s inner sarcophagus remained scattered around the burial chamber of KV 9. Over the millennia they had been moved from the sarcophagus pit to the platforms at the north and south ends of the burial chamber. Project Director, Dr. Edwin Brock and his team’s goal was to finally reassemble the box and lid. This set, made of green conglomerate and mummiform in shape, is one of two sarcophagi found in the tomb. The other, outer sarcophagus was broken into two pieces and remains in the sarcophagus pit.
The second box is decorated with painted figures and texts. These were documented by the project’s archaeological illustrator, Lyla Pinch-Brock. The decoration is similar to that found on royal sarcophagi of the 19th Dynasty. The decoration was partially obscured by the remains of a resinous substance poured over the sarcophagus as part of the funeral ritual. Test cleaning was carried out but yielded varying results. Due to the inconsistent results and the coating’s ancient context, it was decided not to remove any more of the material.
The face on the lid of the second sarcophagus was missing; it had been taken to England by Giovanni Batista Belzoni who collected antiquities on behalf of the British Consul, Henry Salt. Installed in the British Museum in 1823, the project commissioned a fiberglass replica. This was matched up with the lid fragments and the assembly is now on display in the back of the tomb.
In the spirit of maximizing the informative potential of the artifact by preserving it in its original context, all the work on the sarcophagus was carried out within the tomb. This included conservation, restoration, and final display. Keeping the objects in situ also minimized handling and potential wear. As a result, a significant part of the pilot season was geared towards site preparation -- the installation of an air system to reduce the circulation of dust and other irritants, temporary platforms, an overhead winch, and ramps. All fragments, their surfaces, joins and conservation, were recorded before final assembly. The sarcophagus box was built with the floor laid first, then the sides. Fragments not included in the assembly were displayed nearby.
KV 9, with the restored sarcophagus of Ramesses VI, was re-opened to the public by the Egyptian Antiquities authority on March 21, 2004.
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Ramesses VI (KV9) Sarcophagus Conservation project was made possible with funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Grant No. 263-G-00-93-0089-00 (formerly 263-0000-G-00-3089-00) and administered by the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP) of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).