An In-Depth Look at Recent Archaeological Work and New Discoveries “…Everything Has a Past

Home , Abydos Dynasty, Ameny Qemau, Senebkay, Sobekhotep IV

EXPEDITIONTHE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY SPRING 2014 | VOLUME 56, NUMBER 1

THE PENN MUSEUM AT Abydos An in-depth look at recent archaeological work and new discoveries “…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.” — !"#$% &'('), *#+$(#’, "#-&

RIGHT: This New Kingdom statue (1479-1458 BCE) depicts the overseer of priests, Sitepehu. The form of his body is only faintly perceptible beneath his long robe that completely covers his body and feet. The statue is notable for its large size and unusually well-preserved paint. The inscription on the front and right side of the statue addresses requests for the afterlife to the gods Osiris and Inheret, and lists Sitepehu’s name, titles, epithets and virtues.

PLAN FOR WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU Today’s interest rates create a favorable climate for Charitable Lead Trusts, which allow some donors to: • leverage signiﬁcant gift and estate tax advantages, enabling transfers to heirs at a lower tax cost • distribute appreciated trust assets to heirs without additional tax • smooth out income if created during an unusually high-income year Please contact Robert Vosburgh at [email protected] or 215.573.5251 to learn more about creative and advantageous ways to support the Penn Museum. SPRING 2014 | VOLUME 56, NUMBER 1

NEW DISCOVERIES 39 Discovering Pharaohs Sobekhotep & contents Senebkay: An Update from the 2013–2014 Field Season By Josef Wegner MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS 42 The Remains of Senebkay: First 8 Revealing a Hidden Tomb: A Look Glimpse of a New Pharaoh at Excavations inside the Tomb of By Paul Verhelst and Matthew Olson Senwosret III By Josef Wegner 16 Fragments of a Difﬁcult Era: ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM Excavations of Tomb S9 at South 43 Hidden Treasures: Abydos in the Abydos By Dawn McCormack Basement By Jennifer Houser Wegner 19 Ancient Reuse: The Discovery of a 52 Saving History: The Conservation Royal Sarcophagus Chamber of Painted Cofﬁn Fragments from By Josef Wegner and Kevin M. Cahail Abydos By Molly Gleeson 24 The Palatial Residence of Wah-sut: 54 The Last Partage: Dividing Finds from Modeling the Mayor’s House at the 1960s Excavations By David O’Connor South Abydos By Josef Wegner 32 Taking It with You: The South Abydos Tomb Census By Kevin M. Cahail departments 36 Their Memory Lives On: Domestic 2 Funerary Commemoration at From the Director 3 Museum Awards Wah-sut By Kevin M. Cahail 4 From the Guest Editor 6 In the Galleries 57 From the Archives 59 Member News 62 New Acquisitions 63 Museum Mosaic 65 Looking Back PENN MUSEUM 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 Telephone: 215.898.4000 Website: www.penn.museum

Hours Tours Tuesday–Sunday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Docents offer tours most Saturdays and Closed Mondays and major holidays. Sundays at 1:30 pm. Check the Museum website for topics. Group discounts and Admission docent-led tours are available for groups ON THE COVER Penn Museum members: Free; PennCard of 10 or more with reservations. holders (Penn faculty, staff, and students): Free; & THIS PAGE: Active US military personnel with ID: Free; Museum Library Final photographs are taken at the Adults: $15.00; Seniors: $13.00; Open to the general public with ID. Call end of the 2013–2014 ﬁeld season. Children (6-17) and students with ID: $10.00 215.898.4021 for information and hours.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 1 FROM THE DIRECTOR

5e 5rill of Discovery WILLIAMS DIRECTOR Julian Siggers, Ph.D. CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER ince arriving at the Penn Museum in July 2012, it has been one of my Melissa P. Smith, CFA great privileges as Williams Director to be able to allocate—from the CHIEF OF STAFF/HEAD OF COLLECTIONS Director’s Field Fund—seed funding for new and ongoing projects James R. Mathieu, Ph.D. led by Penn Museum researchers. 5rough this fund, in summer DEPUTY DIRECTOR/CHIEF CURATOR Stephen J. Tinney, Ph.D. S 2013, we were able to support many di6erent types of DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT projects in Abydos, Egypt; Calakmul, Mexico; Gordion Amanda Mitchell-Boyask (Yassıhöyük), Turkey; La Ferrassie, France; Quintana DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITIONS Roo, Mexico; Rowanduz, Iraq; Satu Kala, Iraq; Silver AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS Reef, Utah; and Taos, New Mexico. Kate Quinn Research is one of the key tenets of the Penn EXPEDITION STAFF Museum’s mission. In its 126 years, the Museum has EDITOR sponsored over 300 excavation and research expeditions; Jane Hickman, Ph.D. as a dynamic institution with many ongoing research ART DIRECTOR projects, it continues to be a vibrant and engaging place Christina Jones of discovery. ASSOCIATE EDITOR Our research projects are at the heart of the three KC Boas major initiatives of our new Strategic Plan (described on COPY EDITOR Page Selinsky page 59)—initiatives through which we invite under- ADVERTISING MANAGER AND graduate and graduate students, Philadelphia middle ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR school students, and visitors to our Museum and our Maureen Goldsmith online content alike to join in the thrill of discovery. ADVISORY BOARD Nowhere was that thrill more evident than in the Clark L. Erickson, Ph.D. culmination of the Abydos 7eld season in January of Emily Goldsleger Maureen Goldsmith this year, when a Penn Museum team led by Josef Wegner, working in close Pam Kosty cooperation with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, unearthed the tomb of James R. Mathieu, Ph.D. a previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre-Senebkay, and the 7rst material proof Amanda Mitchell-Boyask Janet M. Monge, Ph.D. of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty, ca. 1650–1600 BCE. King Senebkay’s tomb was Alessandro Pezzati close to a larger royal tomb, recently identi7ed as belonging to a king Sobekho- Kate Quinn tep, (probably Sobekhotep I, ca. 1780 BCE) of the 13th Dynasty. C. Brian Rose, Ph.D. Teri Scott It is thus a particularly timely pleasure to welcome readers of Expedition on Stephen J. Tinney, Ph.D. a journey to Abydos through this special issue, planned and mostly written long Jennifer Houser Wegner, Ph. D. before the exciting discoveries of January, but brought up to date to include PRINTING them. We look forward to continuing to share—through publications and digital !e YGS Group media in our reinstalled galleries—the unfolding stories revealed by exploration of this extraordinary site in the coming years. Expedition® (ISSN 0014-4738) is published three times a year by the Penn Museum. Editorial inquiries should be addressed to the Editor at [email protected]. Please send advertising queries to Maureen Goldsmith at [email protected] or call ./0$#1 ,$223-,, &".*. 215.898.4050. Unless otherwised noted, all 4$00$#%, *$-3!('- images are courtesy of the Penn Museum.

2 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM AWARDS

Penn Museum Honors Two Leaders 5e Penn Museum is pleased to announce the award of its Reunion Class of 1964; they were honored at a special dinner Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal to Jeremy A. Sablo", Ph.D., and on April 25, 2014 attended by their families and several of their its Marion Angell Godfrey Boyer Medal to John R. Rockwell. classmates, as well as the Museum’s leadership, Board of Over- Both Dr. Sablo6 and Mr. Rockwell are members of the 50th seers, and members of the Loren Eiseley Society.

Established in 1889, the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal !e Marian Angell Godfrey Boyer Medal was is given for achievement in excavation or publication established in 1987 to honor distinguished service by a of archaeological work. Museum supporter to the institution.

5e 2014 recipient—Jeremy Arac Sablo6 John R. “Rick” Rockwell, W64, —has numerous Penn connections: WG66, and Penn parent, remembers member of the Class of 1964, Penn parent, accompanying his grandfather to the former Museum Williams Director and Penn Museum and to Penn sporting American Section Curator, and former events during his childhood. 5ose Christopher H. Browne Distinguished early visits sowed the seeds for his later Professor of Anthropology. Dr. Sablo6’s unanimous involvement as an Overseer of both the Museum and Penn nomination by Museum Curators and Williams Director Athletics, where he chairs the Basketball Board. Julian Siggers recognizes his work in Maya archaeology on A deeply worthy recipient of the Angell Boyer Medal, some of the key scienti7c themes that have animated and Mr. Rockwell has served on the Museum’s Board of advanced the 7eld of Maya studies since the 1960s. Overseers since 2008 and is a member of the Finance and President of the Santa Fe Institute since 2009, Dr. Marketing and Acquisitions Committees. He has generously Sablo6 is the author of Excavations at Seibal: Ceramics underwritten a wide range of conservation, excavation, (1975), !e Cities of Ancient Mexico (1989; 2nd ed., and exhibition projects and is a longtime member of the 1997), !e New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya Platinum Circle of the Loren Eiseley Society. (1990), and Archaeology Matters (2008), and the co- Mr. Rockwell retired from T. Rowe Price Group author of numerous additional volumes; his publications in 2007. He served in various senior management re8ect 40 years of archaeological 7eld research in both capacities, most recently as National Sales Director, Mexico and Guatemala. Among his distinguished past T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services. He serves on appointments are President of the Society for American several other not-for-pro7t boards, including the Walters Archaeology, Editor of American Antiquity, and Chair of Art Museum in Baltimore. He and his wife, Frances, live the Smithsonian Science Commission. in Owings Mills, MD.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 3 FROM THE GUEST EDITOR

Abydos and the Penn Museum

bydos in southern Egypt is one of the great sites of ancient Egyptian civilization. At the dawn of Egyptian history, ca. 3000–2800 BCE, Abydos was the burial place of Egypt’s 7Arst pharaohs. Subsequently the site became the primary cult center for veneration of Osiris, god of the netherworld. 5e archaeology of Abydos spans over 7ve millennia and represents the full timeframe of ancient Egypt from its earliest origins to its decline in late antiquity. From the 2013–2014 of the Museum’s current research 5e Penn Museum has a long and special relationship season, front: Alexander program at the mortuary complex Wegner, Ahmed Ibrahim with Abydos. 5rough sponsorship of the Egypt Explo- Abu Ganeb, Matthew of Senwosret III at South Abydos. ration Fund and the Egyptian Research Account, the Olson, Paul Verhelst, In 1994, for my Ph.D. research, I Museum’s Egyptian Section has a notable collection of ar- Jennifer Houser began excavations on the temple and Wegner, Josef Wegner, chaeological material: 7nds produced through the research James Kelly, Ayman town site associated with the cult of of Flinders Petrie and his associates at Abydos. Damarany, and Kevin the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senwos- In 1967, David O’Connor, then Curator of the Museum’s Cahail. Back: Afaf Abd ret III. 5is remarkable site, a kind Egyptian Section, initiated the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition el-Hamed Mahmoud, of southern suburb to the center of Amany Mahmoud to Abydos. A signi7cant set of Abydos, had seen a brief period of ex- MEDITERRANEAN Amian, and Rais Ibrahim artifacts from the Museum’s Mohamed Ali. cavation between 1899 and 1903 but work at North Abydos came o6ered huge potential for the study of

Gebel SINAI to Philadelphia in the late Abydos during the important phase of the Middle Kingdom MEMPHIS Ahmar

Itj-Tawy 1960s, representing some of (Dynasties 11–13, ca. 2050–1650 BCE). 5e excavations (Middle Kingdom the last Egyptian material at South Abydos have rewarded us with many signi7cant capital) to enter the collection. discoveries over the years. Some 3,000 artifacts from 5e site includes royal tombs, a temple, extensive Abydos—only a handful urban remains, non-royal cemeteries, and other elements currently on display—are yet to be de7ned. We have identi7ed the site’s ancient

ABYDOS included in the Egyptian name: Enduring-are-the-Places-of-Khakaure-true-of-voice- THEBES Section’s overall collection of in-Abydos. 5e symbolic anchor of this site is a massive

FIRST more than 45,000 artifacts. subterranean tomb—likely the burial place of Senwosret CATARACT ASWAN In this issue of Expedition we III—situated beneath a 700-foot desert peak anciently (Elephantine) 0 100 examine both our ongoing named the Mountain-of-Anubis. Gradually we have been miles 0 100 200 research at South Abydos as peeling back the sands of South Abydos to understand kilometers well as the Abydos collection this unique place, which o6ers an unparalleled window SECOND CATARACT in the Penn Museum. into Egyptian culture and society 4,000 years ago.

Abydos is located on the west side 2014 represents the 20th Located approximately a mile south from the cen- of the Nile. anniversary of the inception ter of Abydos, the Senwosret III complex made use of a

4 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 N Kom es-Sultan LEFT: This map of Abydos shows some of the major archaeological features, (main town of Abydos) 0 500 including the location of the mortuary complex of Senwosret III. BELOW: North Looking southwest, this aerial photograph of the Senwosret III tomb enclosure Cemetery at the base of the Mountain-of-Anubis was taken shortly after the early phase Nile Floodplain and of work (1899–1903). Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society Modern Villages Temple of Seti I

Senwosret III Umm el-Gaab Town of Mortuary (tombs of the ﬁrst Wah-sut Complex pharaohs and symbolic tomb of Osiris) Unﬁnished Tomb ‘Mountain-of- Ahmose Anubis’ Complex GEBEL (High desert cliffs)

8at expanse of desert terrain between cli6s and the Nile 8oodplain. At the foot of the Mountain-of-Anubis sits a vast T-shaped enclosure. Inside of this structure is the cemeteries of South Abydos as discussed in articles by myself, entrance to the tomb of the pharaoh. Around the enclosure Ph.D. student Kevin Cahail, and Penn graduate Dawn are satellite tombs and subsidiary mastabas. In direct line McCormack. 5is includes an update on the excavation with the tomb enclosure at the edge of the 8oodplain is a program inside the subterranean tomb of Senwosret III. mortuary temple dedicated to the cult of Senwosret III. In We then move to research conducted during our close proximity to the temple is an extensive urban site: a most recent 7eld season, when exciting discoveries were planned town built to house the people who maintained made; the excavation uncovered the remains of a formerly the pharaoh’s temple. In its heyday, ca. 1850–1650 BCE, unknown pharaoh as well as the necropolis of a newly this was a large and thriving community, which adopted identi7ed dynasty. the name Wah-sut: a shortened version of the overall name In this issue we also highlight the outstanding collection of the Senwosret III complex. A century ago (between of archaeological material from Abydos that today is housed 1899–1902), work of the in the Museum. Most of it has never been on display but it Egypt Exploration Fund includes treasures from the tombs of Egypt’s 7rst pharaohs de7ned some of the main and many other artifacts of note. Molly Gleeson describes elements of the Senwos- one such object, a fragmentary painted co:n of the Middle ret III complex. Today Kingdom (ca. 2000–1700 BCE), which is currently being the site is yielding an conserved. Jennifer Houser Wegner discusses the early col- unexpectedly rich volume lection at the Museum, while David O’Connor, Curator of information on the Emeritus, presents a retrospective on the material that came culture and society of to Philadelphia in the late 1960s. Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. In this issue of Expedition we examine A clay impression of the necropolis stamp of Senwosret III illustrates Anubis some of the recent work .',3; 43213-, &".*. over his mountain. in the town site and #,,'!$#(3 !/-#('-, 32<&($#1 ,3!($'1

We are indebted to the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities for their cooperation and support, especially the Director and the Permanent Committee on Antiquities, as well as the inspectorates of Sohag and Balliana.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 5 IN THE GALLERIES

ON VIEW NOW Conservation Survey of Buddhist Murals China Gallery, !ird Floor TT LLIO E H P JOSE

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Preserving Chinese History

5anks to a generous grant from the E. Rhodes and paradise, they were painted in the lower building of the Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and support from Guangsheng Monastery located in Shanxi Province, Michael Feng, C79, and Winnie Chin Feng, NU79, China. 5e Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Museum visitors will have an opportunity to view Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Royal Ontario conservators at work in the China Gallery. 5rough July Museum are the only other museums in North America 2014, conservators are performing a close examination to hold similar pieces. of each centimeter of the two large murals currently on A full survey of the current condition is an essential display, and recording their 7ndings on digital images. 7rst step in documenting these magni7cent murals and Believed to have been painted during the Ming Dynasty will enable the Museum to determine what treatment (1368–1644), the murals arrived at the Museum in steps are needed for their stabilization, restoration, and pieces between 1926 and 1928. Representing a Buddhist ongoing preservation.

6 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 JUST OPENED Sacred Spaces: 5e Photography of Ahmet Ertug

Opened April 12, Heaven on Earth: Churches of Constantinople joined Vaults of Heaven: Visions of Byzantium in a two-part exhibition under the vaulted Merle-Smith Galleries, ceilings of the Museum's 7rst 8oor Merle-Smith First Floor Galleries. 5e two exhibitions feature 26 works by innovative, acclaimed Turkish photographer Ahmet Ertug. 5rough his lens and with his exceptionally large-scale prints, Ertug captures the grandeur of the ancient Byzantine churches, all designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, in crisp, bright, detailed photographs.

LAST CHANCE ON VIEW Year of Sound: Hollywood in the Amazon ON VIEW THROUGH JULY 27 5e Law Code of Hammurabi

Pepper Gallery, !ird Floor SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: Recently featured in Mesopotamia: Gallery Updates Inventing Our World, a traveling exhibition produced jointly by the As the Penn Museum embarks on a major British Museum and the Royal fundraising drive to support full renovation Ontario Museum, the replica cast of and reinstallation of the signature galleries that the Law Code of Hammurabi has house collections from Egypt, the Ancient Near been reinstalled on the Museum’s third East, and Asia, it also began a long-awaited 8oor. 5e Babylonian stela is one of project to address critical gallery updates in the earliest collections of laws in the the short term. 5e Exhibitions Team installed world. It contains 282 laws written in new fabric panels in the Rotunda in fall 2013, cuneiform and includes modern legal and will breathe new life into existing spaces, concepts such as the presumption of beginning with the Mexico and Central innocence and the opportunity to America Gallery in 2014–2015. provide evidence.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 7 Excavations underway inside the ﬁrst part of the tomb of Senwosret III during 2010.

8 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

A Look at Excavations inside the Tomb of Senwosret III BY JOSEF WEGNER REVEALING a HIDDEN TOMB

eneath the sands of South Abydos encounter royal funerary monuments that lack close paral- is an astonishing monument: a lels: monuments that suggest periods of dynamic change gigantic tomb, one of the largest and 8ux in the royal mortuary tradition. 5e tomb of in Egypt, and a striking testimo- Senwosret III at South Abydos is one such structure. nial to the ancient Egyptians’ 5e Abydos tomb of Senwosret III has been known belief in the divine afterlife of for over a century. In 1901–1902 the English archaeologist their pharaohs. 5is is the tomb of pharaoh Senwosret III Arthur Weigall, working under the great excavator William who reignedb ca. 1878–1841 BCE, 5th king of the powerful M. Flinders Petrie, discovered the vast underground tomb. 12th Dynasty. Measured by length it is Egypt’s largest tomb, 5is was a notable achievement for the young Weigall, then stretching 800 feet from its entrance to its inner chamber. 21 years old, on his 7rst project in Egypt. Somewhat disap- 5e tomb has no aboveground superstructure: it is entirely a pointed that the tomb had clearly been entered and plun- subterranean monument cut into the bedrock and lined with dered in ancient times, Weigall left the tomb to others. In 7nely cut masonry. It is also a monument that still presents 1902–1903, Weigall’s Canadian colleague, Charles Currelly many questions to be answered and mysteries to be solved. (who later was a key founder of the Royal Ontario Museum Tombs of pharaohs in ancient Egypt are structures in Toronto), completed an examination and plan of the that were heavily in8uenced by preexisting traditions. tomb’s interior. Weigall and Currelly’s reports were published Hence, we speak of the “royal mortuary tradition”—the in the 1904 volume, Abydos III. For a century the tomb combination of architecture, texts and images, religious remained inaccessible, its entrance entirely sanded over. beliefs and rituals, and artifacts associated with the burial As part of the Penn Museum’s ongoing archaeological of royalty. Egypt’s royal mortuary tradition produced program at South Abydos, work began in 2004 to reopen some of the best known archaeological sites in the Nile and excavate this tomb. 5e work has been daunting Valley—the pyramids of the Old Kingdom (Dynasties because of the massive scale of the tomb, its depth in the 3–6, ca. 2700 BCE) and the tombs of the New Kingdom bedrock, and the vast accumulations of sand that encum- in the Valley of the Kings at 5ebes (Dynasties 18–20, bered its entrance. With support from the National Geo- ca. 1500–1000 BCE). Many royal tombs 7t squarely graphic Society and the Penn Museum Director’s Field within groupings such as these. However, periodically we Fund we succeeded in reopening the tomb in 2006.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 9 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

We found it in the exact state it had been left a the tomb’s entrance. 5is major undertaking has allowed us hundred years ago—a massive subterranean tomb largely to embark on a full-scale project to excavate, record, study, full of debris and the wreckage of tomb robbers who had and publish the tomb’s interior. 5e work on the tomb in invaded it millennia before. Given the challenge of hoist- recent years has bene7tted from the interest and gracious ing material 100 feet to the surface, Weigall and Currelly support of John R. Rockwell and Francis Rockwell. We are had shifted material around within the tomb in order now well over halfway through and the interior excavation to examine the chambers and passages and to produce a may be completed in the near future. Let us enter the tomb plan. However, the tomb was not properly excavated and and examine the spaces that we have revealed so far and how it was immediately clear that any substantive understand- we stand with the project. ing of the architecture and original contents required a full, systematic excavation program. BEAUTIFUL CEILINGS AND DOORS: THE OUTER TOMB In 2008 we initiated a program of interior excavation. 5e 7rst section of the interior, which we tackled in 2008– 5e ongoing goals of this work are to completely excavate 2010, is a group of three chambers. We began with the cen- the tomb’s interior in order to record architecture and tral chamber, which is a magni7cent architectural space cut artifacts that have bearing on understanding the tomb. Ma- into the bedrock and lined with 7ne, white limestone. 5is terial is removed to the surface by a chain of workmen and “pole-roof chamber” has a meticulously carved ceiling of screened for retrieval of all artifacts. For the 7rst two seasons faux-wooden beams running across its width. 5e intention the work was hampered by the lack of a cover structure, behind this design appears to be the evocation of more an- which led to constant sanding up of the entrance. However, cient styles of mortuary architecture in which actual wooden in 2011–2012, with a grant from the Antiquities Endow- beams formed the ceiling, or perhaps the later adaptation of ment Fund of the American Research Center in Egypt, we this form into stone as occurs in the famous Step Pyramid of completed construction of a permanent cover building over pharaoh Djoser (ca. 2700 BCE) at Saqqara. Although I was initially optimistic about recover- Reused Royal Sarcophagus Chamber ing objects at 8oor level in this chamber it became clear as we went down that the space had been used as a base

Tomb of Tomb “S9” Cliff Senebkay enclosure wall (Mountain-of-Anubis) “Dummy” Mastabas

Tomb “S10” S8 Sobekhotep (1)

Mortuary Enclosure of Tomb of Senwosret III Senwosret III

feet

0 meters 100 meters

N. (actual) Limestone Cliffs (Gebel) LEFT: The tomb of Senwosret III is located inside an enclosure at the base of dw-’Inpw N. (river) the high desert cliffs and surrounded by other structures including other royal Anubis- Mountain tombs: S9 and S10. ABOVE: This isometric view shows the Senwosret III tomb and its spatial relationship to the Mountain-of-Anubis above.

10 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS One of the challenges of the excavation has been the presence of numerous huge masonry blocks, the remains of the tomb’s blocking system.

of operations by tomb robbers at waist height who, from there, had attacked the The pole-roof across the entire chamber included blocking system and chambers fur- a roof of faux span of the two ther inside the tomb. Many large logs carved in chambers. 5e blocking stones in quartzite and limestone. tomb’s builders limestone had been pulled into carefully shaved this space and stacked one on top and patched of another. Any original objects these nodules with white gypsum were long gone. Because of the plaster. Most intriguing was our use of the archaic pole-roof style discovery that the two chambers it appears the chamber may have both originally had wooden doors held some speci7c symbolic function, perhaps evoking the mounted in frames part way down the passage from the idea of ancient modes of royal burial. One possibility is pole-roof chamber. What did these doors conceal? Here such a chamber could originally have contained magical again we have been frustrated by the extensive removal of statuary, perhaps something like an “Osiris-bier” showing any original contents by the ancient tomb robbers. Like the deceased god-king Osiris whose role was instrumental the pole-roof chamber the two vaulted rooms contained in royal mortuary traditions. extensive stacks of wrecked blocking stones and limestone Excavation of the two side chambers (forming the debris from the robbery process. arms of the T-unit) added some interesting evidence to the So, what was the function of the T-shaped group of picture. 5ese chambers are mirror images of each other three chambers? Now fully excavated, we can see this was and reached via passageways extending o6 of the pole-roof the 7nal element of the tomb’s architecture to be added. chamber. 5e two chambers are not lined but only cut out Beyond the masonry walls of the pole-roof chamber is a of the bedrock. 5e work, however, is exacting and the 25-meter long horizontal passageway that was originally two chambers measure exactly 5 by 10 cubits (over 7 by packed solid with huge blocking stones of granite, quartz- 14 feet), each with a perfect vaulted ceiling. A stratum of ite, and limestone. From end to end this passage con- 8int nodules, which are part of the limestone bedrock, run tained over 500 tons of masonry. All of this and what lay

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 11 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

Before and after. ABOVE: The ﬁrst limestone chamber, nearly full to the ceiling with debris as we found it in 2006. RIGHT: The same chamber after completion of excavation in January 2013.

beyond had to be installed before the pole-roof chamber 7tted with a stone lining over half a meter thick. 5is totals was built. We gain the somewhat discomforting picture of approximately 840,000 pounds (some 420 tons) of 7ne many months of construction still going on underground limestone—blocks that had to be maneuvered underground, after the royal burial chamber had been sealed up. Why? stacked, levered into place from the side, and then smooth- 5ese questions still remain to be answered but we hope dressed from the top down with copper chisels. further evidence emerges as we come to understand the One of the striking elements now fully visible is a other parts of the tomb. series of square mount holes cut into the walls of both chambers. 5is initially puzzled me but now that we have TWO HUGE LIMESTONE CHAMBERS fully exposed the walls it is easy to see the holes were cut During 2011–2013 we progressed further inward to by the original builders to install a system of wooden excavate the tomb’s two largest chambers. 5ese are nearly sca6olding used in smooth-dressing the chamber walls. identical: twin chambers constructed with a lining of 7ne Timber beams bridged the chamber’s width and created limestone and connected by a passageway at 8oor level. a series of 7ve superimposed platforms. As the dressing 5e chambers, although narrow (2.12 meters/7 feet), are was completed, the sca6olding was removed and the impressive in height (5.5 meters/18.5 feet) and length holes 7lled with patch-stones. Tomb robbers had pried (8.5 meters/28 feet). 5e process of excavation has been out many of the patch-stones in order to check for any challenging as the two were 7lled almost entirely with connections to hidden chambers; conveniently, these holes stone debris and massive multi-ton blocks of limestone— served as recesses for oil lamps as the telltale soot patches remnants of the blocking stones from the adjacent indicate. However, some recesses with their patch-stones passages that had been dislodged by ancient tomb robbers. remain in place. In 2012 we completed excavation of the 7rst of these 5e interest in creating a 8awless, smooth white chambers, which one can see now for the 7rst time. surface is also seen on the 8oor and ceiling where patches 5e e6ort the ancient builders invested in the of gypsum whitewash still adhere in some areas. 5ese architecture of the two chambers is quite remarkable. 5e were two austere, white spaces both sealed o6 by blocked two chambers were hewn out of the bedrock and then passageways on either side. Why? What could be their

12 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

function? A question I would love to answer is what (like the boats of Khufu at Giza which were taken apart greeted the eyes of the 7rst tomb robbers who broke into and buried in pits adjacent to the Great Pyramid). Alter- this beautifully constructed and carefully sealed space! natively, they could have been specially prepared sym- Any large objects—whether of stone or other materi- bolic boats for the king’s netherworld journey—perhaps als—appear to have been stripped away by the initial rob- larger versions of model boats similar to those found in bers who penetrated into this part of the tomb. We found the later tomb of Tutankhamun. the 8oor clean. However, there are indications in a few areas that some large items must have been maneuvered into ONWARD TO THE BURIAL CHAMBER these chambers after they were completed. Opposite the As of the summer of 2013, we completed excavation of entrance to the passageway connecting the two chambers, both of the twin limestone chambers. We are at an excit- the smooth-dressed wall face was shaved back slightly to ing juncture in the tomb project because we are now ready create a little extra space, possibly for turning some long to move from the limestone “outer tomb” to excavate the item into the passageway. Based on the width of the room burial chamber of Senwosret III and other components and passageway, this must have been an object over 3.5 that together form the “inner tomb.” meters, some 12 feet, long. Beyond the twin chambers we reach the tomb’s most In view of the long, narrow proportions of these two complicated architectural defense against tomb robbers. rooms a distinct possibility is they served as chambers 5e original access point to the burial chamber was for boats. 5ese might either be disassembled functional through a 20-meter long descending passage 7lled end boats that had served in the king’s funerary ceremony to end with massive granite blocking stones. 5e largest

Restoration Work on the Tomb of Senwosret III

One of the major challenges of excavating the tomb of Senwosret III is the fact that it has no built superstructure. The tomb’s rock cut entrance was originally contained within a brick dromos—a long vaulted structure that had a ceremonial staircase at one end—which kept the desert sand back. This structure was only used temporarily and today its remains provide no structural defense against the relentless accumulation of sand in this windy desert landscape. A key step has been the construction of a permanent cover building, fitted to the bedrock that encases the remains of the ancient brick structures, as well as permitting access to the tomb’s entrance. With support from the Antiquities Endowment Fund of the American Research Center in Egypt (established through a that make access to the tomb now as easy as the turn of a grant from USAID), we completed the protective cover build- key. Inside we have completed selective restoration work on ing in 2011–2012. The structure is 120 feet long and con- the remains of the brick building. As work is completed in structed of fired brick and concrete. Its roof is composed of coming years the cover building will serve as a way to open a series of four brick vaults that bridge its 16-foot width. The the tomb so that visitors to Abydos can see this remarkable building is fitted with skylights, an iron door, and a staircase example of Middle Kingdom Egyptian engineering.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 13 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

Objects from the 5is is where the actual burial of the interior of the pharaoh once lay and where we have Senwosret III tomb include alabaster the highest potential for retrieval of vessels from the unwanted small objects discarded as original 12th Dynasty they plundered the tomb. So far, the funerary furnishings (top) as well as careful screening of the debris had pottery from the produced a mix of material relating to phases of tomb the original contents and the phases robbery during the of tomb robbery. Several small beads Second Intermediate Period (lower left) of Middle Kingdom date suggest the and Roman Period presence of burial equipment, and a (lower right). range of 7ne alabaster vessels imply a 7nely equipped royal burial assemblage. Pottery dating to two phases, the late Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1550 BCE) and the Roman Period (ca. 2nd–3rd centuries CE), suggest tomb robbers entered the tomb on more than one occasion. 5e retrieval of small objects is key to understanding the characteristics of the tomb’s original contents and the phases of robbery. 5e chances of 7nding original artifacts is much higher in the innermost spaces where unwanted weighed over 50 tons. 5is blocked passage was originally objects should have been discarded at 8oor level. Com- concealed behind the limestone lining of the second of the ing seasons will be devoted to completing the excavation twin chambers. Tomb robbers searching for connections of the inner tomb beginning with the burial chamber to further passages broke through the lining of the itself. Slowly, inch-by-inch, we are working our way into chamber, found the entrance to the blocked passage, this remarkable royal monument hidden beneath the and dislodged the 7rst granite blocking stone. 5ey then Mountain-of-Anubis. Every hard-won piece of evidence is tunneled through the bedrock under the blocking stones coming together to help answer why Senwosret III built themselves, and hacked a second robbers’ passage that this unique burial structure at Abydos. Stay tuned; there broke through the roof of the pharaoh’s burial chamber. should be more to tell soon! 5e sarcophagus and canopic chest of Senwosret III still sit, dislodged and broken open in the burial chamber FOR FURTHER READING cloaked in debris. With the burial chamber we reach what Wegner, Josef. “Reopening the Tomb of Senwosret III at Abydos.” should be considered the actual burial compartments of Sen- Egyptian Archaeology 30 (2007): 38-41. wosret III. Here there is a change in building materials: the Wegner, Josef. “5e Tomb of Senwosret III at Abydos, three chambers that make up the inner tomb were lined in Considerations on the Origins and Development of the Royal red quartzite rather than limestone. 5e inner tomb forms a Amduat-Tomb,” in Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of Middle Kingdom Egypt, edited by D. Silverman, curving arc and ends in a huge stone-lined chamber that is W. K. Simpson, and J. Wegner, pp. 103-169. New Haven and oriented now in a reverse direction—back towards the east. Philadelphia: Yale University and the Penn Museum, 2009. Whereas the outer parts of the tomb had been used as Wegner, Josef. “Beneath the Mountain-of-Anubis: Ancient Egypt’s areas for stashing the wrecked masonry blocks, which the First Hidden Royal Tomb.” Expedition 48.2 (2006): 15-23. robbers had pulled from the chamber walls and block- Wegner, Josef. “Protection and Restoration of the Tomb of Senwosret III at Abydos.” Bulletin of the American Research ing, the material in the inner tomb is mostly debris from Center in Egypt 203 (2013): 10-25 the robbers’ exploratory cuttings through the bedrock.

14 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

5e Enigmatic Dummy Mastabas

LEFT: The dummy mastabas sit within their own enclosure formed by a serpentine wall that attaches to the outside of the Senwosret III tomb enclosure. BELOW: A reconstruction of the dummy mastabas and associated rectangular building. A door that originally linked the dummy mastabas to the Senwosret III enclosure was later bricked up and sealed.

The tomb and enclosure of Senwosret III at Mountain- of-Anubis presents us with many questions about what happened there 4,000 years ago. However, the site only begrudgingly provides us with answers from beneath its deep blankets of sand. One of the fascinating areas of investigation is the group of satellite structures that sit adjacent to the Senwosret III enclosure. Two of these are certainly royal tombs: Tombs S9 and S10, which we discuss elsewhere in this issue. More enigmatic are the two so-called dummy mastabas. These two buildings sit together outside the Senwosret III tomb enclosure within their own walled precinct. After extensive excavations from the smaller mastaba would have resembled a gigantic, brick 2010 through 2013 we know exactly what these structures canopic chest. Adjacent to it is a rectangular brick building looked like but we are still at a loss to explain what they are that contained many seal impressions, most produced by or why they were built. the necropolis stamp: Mountain-of-Anubis. We have discovered that the two mastabas are abso- Could they be tombs? So far, our work has provided no lutely contemporary but not identical. They are framed by an evidence that the buildings have subterranean elements. impressive serpentine wall joined to the outside of the main However, in June of 2013 we found evidence that at some enclosure of Senwosret III. One mastaba is nearly square point in the distant past someone had dug a massive pit and the other is rectangular. Both contain construction down on the cliff-facing side of the smaller mastaba. What debris—rock chips and ﬂakes—from the tomb of Senwos- were they looking for? We still do not know but it seems the ret III. We have excavated the smaller mastaba entirely, both dummy mastabas hold some important keys to understand- inside and out. The superstructure is actually preserved to ing the tomb of Senwosret III. For the time being at least, its roof-line which retains part of a brick-vaulted roof. In form, these mysterious buildings continue to hold their secrets.

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This well-preserved mudbrick staircase was originally covered in whitewashed plaster. It leads from the entrance to the limestone corridors. INSET: During the 2003 and 2011 excavation seasons, our team worked in areas both inside and outside the tomb. The lines shown here denote the 2011 excavation areas.

16 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS FRAGMENTS of a DIFFICULT ERA Excavations of Tomb S9 at South Abydos BY DAWN MCCORMACK

he 13th Dynasty of ancient Sakkara–Dahshur region. As of now, we have identi7ed Egypt, roughly 1800–1630 BCE, the owners of three tombs in the region near Cairo (Ameny was a politically turbulent period Qemau, Awibre Hor, and Khendjer), and we have an with more than 50 kings coming additional 7ve excavated tombs with unknown occupants. to the throne in succession. Most Two of these monuments are at South Abydos, one of rulers were short-lived and constructed few monuments, which, “Mastaba” S9, is the focus of current excavations. leaving modern scholars in the dark as to the nature of S9 and the other tomb, S10, are located adjacent to the kingship att this time. Even the identity and order of some Senwosret III tomb in the cemetery under the Mountain-of- of the kings remain a rather hopeless enigma. Nonethe- Anubis. 5ese monuments were both quickly excavated by less the re-examination of one of the royal tombs from Arthur Weigall, a 21-year old protégé of Flinders Petrie, in this period at South Abydos is contributing further data, 1901–1902. Our work at S9 has determined that Weigall allowing for a better understanding of the period. rarely fully excavated the deposits in the structure. Instead, When the 13th Dynasty began, the kings achieved he seems to have been interested in the basic outline of the their legitimacy to the throne by connecting themselves architecture and the sarcophagus chamber and its contents. to one or more of the Amenemhets of the 12th Dynasty For this reason, our excavations often uncover intact depos- through their names. It is currently unknown whether its, which give us clues to the identity of the tomb owner as or not these rulers were actually blood relatives of the well as insights into the cultic and political practices of the preceding group of kings, but even a symbolic connection mid-13th Dynasty kings. seems to have been bene7cial until around 1765 BCE. At that point, there was a drastic change in the ways in A STAIRCASE, A RUBBISH HEAP, which kings legitimized their reigns. Not only did they no AND AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY longer connect themselves to an Amenemhet, some even In the 2011 season, we uncovered a staircase that was stated directly that their parents were not royal. Several of brie8y mentioned by Weigall. 5is mudbrick staircase is these kings had relatively successful and lucrative reigns, constructed in such a way as to allow objects, like a cof- bringing stability to the state and providing tombs and 7n, to be maneuvered through a con7ned space into the monuments for members of the elite class. tomb. 5e connection between this staircase and the limestone corridors is currently unclear since a large displaced ROYAL TOMBS AND SOUTH ABYDOS ceiling stone sits in this position. However, it does appear We have not yet discovered the locations of most of that the preservation of the limestone sections of the tomb the royal tombs from this or any other part of the 13th is better than originally expected, and we will continue Dynasty, although a number of possible sites lie in the our work here in the future.

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LEFT: Excavations at South Abydos often uncover the remains of Arthur Weigall’s work from 1901–1902. This makeshift staircase leads from the entrance to the substructure of the tomb to the top of the enclosure wall, where the largest spoil heap from his excavations is located. RIGHT: Hemispherical cups such as this partially reconstructed example are important for dating sites in the Middle Kingdom through early Second Intermediate Period.

Along the northern enclosure wall, there was a large mi7cation of the king, the site of his cult chapel, or both. spoil heap left over from the excavations of Weigall and pos- In our next season, excavations will begin with a thor- sibly other intrusions into the tomb dating back to antiquity. ough investigation of the remainder of this cult structure. 5us, we set out to carefully remove this debris, hoping to Its deposits likely hold much information concerning the be able to identify the layers within the heap and to recover cultic and administrative activities that took place at this the artifacts that had been discarded. In this material, we tomb during the reign of one of the 13th Dynasty kings. found a number of interesting items, such as fragments of We will also take a close look at the nature of this monu- an alabaster vessel in the form of a trussed duck and a seal ment as Weigall called it a mastaba, which suggests that it impression containing the name of a non-local o:cial, the was a solid, rectilinear structure. However, up to this point, god’s father of Sobek-Shedty, Menu. 5is non-local o:cial we have not been able to prove that the structure was in this may be a man with the same name and title who has been form. Other 13th Dynasty tombs in the region of Cairo dated to the reigns of Neferhotep I-Sobekhotep IV (ca. are pyramids; thus, we have important questions to address 1750–1730 BCE). 5ough the precise date of this tomb is regarding the nature of the superstructure of S9. still unclear, the pottery we have found at S9, suggests that By fully investigating S9, we are discovering important ev- at least some of the activity here, and possibly the tomb idence as to the nature of kingship in the 13th Dynasty when itself, may belong to a king well within the 13th Dynasty. the economic and political circumstances of ancient Egyptian At the base of the spoil heap, we were greatly surprised rulers were not optimal. 5e situation required adaptations to 7nd the walls of a relatively well-preserved cult building in the succession and ideology of kingship, changes which with up to 0.5 meters of intact deposits inside. Weigall impacted the rulers and elite from that point forward. appears to have been unaware that this structure was here. In the two side rooms we have excavated thus far, these DAWN MCCORMACK is Assistant Professor, Department of deposits contain fabric, pottery, sticks with resin on them, History, at Middle Tennessee State University. and most importantly, seal impressions. 5ese two small rooms contain 70 sealings, more than we have recovered FOR FURTHER READING from the rest of the excavated parts of S9. 5e name that McCormack, Dawn. “Borrowed Legacy: Royal Tombs S9 and surfaces the most frequently is that of an overseer of the S10 at South Abydos.” Expedition 48.2 (2006): 23-26. necropolis workers, Seneb, who is also known from a few McCormack, Dawn. “5e Signi7cance of Royal Funerary Architecture for the Study of 5irteenth Dynasty sealings from the Senwosret III temple near the cultiva- Kingship.” in !e Second Intermediate Period: Current tion. Among the other individuals represented in frag- Research, Future Prospects, edited by M. Marée, pp. 69-84. mentary sealings, we may have a treasurer and a king. It is Leuven: Peeters, 2010. likely that this building served either as the place of mum-

18 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

ANCIENT REUSE !e Discovery of a Royal Sarcophagus Chamber

BY JOSEF WEGNER AND KEVIN M. CAHAIL

uring June 2013, excavations ruined royal tombs: Tomb S9 and Tomb S10 that Arthur were underway near the base Weigall had 7rst examined in 1901–1902. What emerged of the Mountain-of-Anubis. from the ground last summer was a series of well-made 5e search was on for private tombs with vaulted chambers, each descending to a stone- cemeteries belonging to the lined burial chamber. Stripped clean by ancient tomb Middle Kingdom community robbers, the structures are di:cult to date precisely. of Wah-sut. Excavations since 1994 have revealed a large Strangely enough, however, there was something and complexd settlement site. But where are the tombs of Middle Kingdom in these tombs. One of them had the thousands of people who must have lived and died at departed from the normal format and made use of a mas- South Abydos ca. 1850–1650 BCE? sive, monolithic sarcophagus chamber. Over the top of Kevin Cahail has been investigating that issue for his this stone chamber, which is sunk about four feet into the dissertation research and we were excavating a group of desert sand, a roughly constructed brick vault and access tombs near the base of Mountain-of-Anubis that shaft had once been 7tted. 5e stone chamber, looked like promising candidates for Middle ABOVE: A massive however, is not original to the location; it is a reused quartzite Kingdom burials. 5ese had appeared in mag- sarcophagus chamber reused royal sarcophagus chamber. netic mapping, sandwiched between two huge, emerges from the sand. As the sarcophagus chamber slowly emerged

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from the sand we were astounded by its size. Measuring 16 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 7.5 feet high, the block weighs about 60 tons. 5e PLAN VIEW chamber’s form was quickly apparent: it is a

distinctive Late Middle Kingdom sarcophagus END PROFILE chamber of a type that 7rst developed in the late 12th Dynasty during the reign of Senwosret III’s successor, Amenemhat III. Formed out

of a single block into which recesses were cut SIDE PROFILE for the royal co:n and the canopic chest, the block would originally have been covered by an equally massive lid that was lowered to seal the royal burial. What was this royal sarcophagus 0 1 2 3 4 5 chamber doing here adrift in the desert sands? feet 0 .5 1 1.5 2 Exactly the same form of chamber with lid meters (composed of two blocks) still exists in situ in the well-preserved interior architecture of Tomb S9. Dawn McCormack reached the lid of that chamber in The carefully cut recesses of An important insight into 2002 (for a photo of that lid see Expedition 48.2 [2006]: the sarcophagus chamber this chamber has resulted from were designed as receptacles 25). In his brief description of the examination of nearby for the royal sarcophagus and microscopic examination of the Tomb S10 Weigall stated that he found only the lid of the canopic chest. The chamber quartzite stone from which the sarcophagus chamber, which was “a large sized block, care- was sealed with a massive lid, chamber is cut. Quartzite oc- fully dressed on all sides.” 5e burial chamber of this badly which had not been relocated curs in only two areas of Egypt: but is still buried in the destroyed royal tomb had been removed. It was quickly substructure of Tomb S10. at Aswan, 150 miles south apparent that in 2013 we had discovered the missing sar- of Abydos, and at the Gebel cophagus chamber from Tomb S10, reused in a later tomb Ahmar (the “red-mountain”) just a few hundred feet from its original location. well over 300 miles to the north and just east of modern Cairo. Upon seeing this massive quartzite chamber, our AN IMPRESSIVE ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT 7rst assumption was that the stone probably originated at 5e sarcophagus is a massive piece of red-purple the closer Aswan quartzite quarries. Stone quarried from quartzite. 5e upper surface and interior is 7nely dressed Aswan could have been 8oated down the Nile to Abydos and smooth. Cut into the block is a rectangular recess following the river’s current. However, microscopic exami- measuring 9 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 4.3 feet deep. nation proved otherwise. 5e quartz grains that make up 5is would have housed the royal burial—probably a the stone’s matrix fall between rounded and subangular. series of nested anthropoid co:ns within a rectangular Furthermore, a small fragment exhibited chert inclusions wooden co:n that was then lowered into the receptacle. within the matrix. Comparing these results to studies on Adjoining the co:n recess, at what would be the foot the stones of Gebel Ahmar and Aswan, we have concluded end of the chamber, is a cubical recess measuring 2.8 feet that the S10 sarcophagus chamber quartzite originated in on all sides for the canopic box. 5e chamber’s outside the Gebel Ahmar quarries. To reach Abydos the sarcopha- faces were left roughly dressed since that part would gus had to journey well over 300 miles upstream from the originally have been set deep within the substructure quarry site—an indication of the wealth and investment of Tomb S10. 5e chamber’s massive lid—still buried that went into Tomb S10. within Tomb S10—should have had a vaulted interior Most modern observers stand in awe of the engineer- and sealed both recesses. ing and fabrication abilities of the ancient Egyptians,

20 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

especially in their ability to work hard stone. 5e S10 Senwosret III for political and religious reasons. Dawn sarcophagus chamber is no exception. Its top is almost McCormack has examined this possibility and sug- perfectly 8at. Of the four internal corners of the large gests that a speci7c group of 13th Dynasty kings used sarcophagus portion of the chamber, two are a perfect 90°, the location as a way of symbolically legitimizing their and the other two are an almost-perfect 89.5°. 5e cut- rulership; she would like to attribute these tombs to the ting of the interior was achieved with hand-twisted drills middle 13th Dynasty kings Neferhotep I, Sahathor, and and 7nished with stone grinders. Experimental archaeol- Sobekhotep IV (dating ca. 1750–1720 BCE). We have developed di6erent explanations as to the possible identities of the owners of S9 and S10, which may better accommodate the available evidence. In 2004, excavations at the front of the Senwosret III tomb enclosure revealed a set of architectural connections linking the earlier Senwosret III enclosure with the brick enclosure wall that surrounds Tomb S9. Pottery deposits right up against S9’s enclosure wall are typical of the period of transition between the 12th and 13th Dynasties. It appears likely that S9—the closer of the two royal tombs—was built not very long after the initial construction of the Senwos- ret III tomb enclosure with which it is actually physically connected. In 2013, we examined the huge volume The 16-foot chamber of smashed limestone fragments that litter the comfortably holds most debris mounds of Tomb S10. Many fragments of the men involved in excavating it. certainly come from the smashed substructure (passages and roo7ng blocks of the tomb’s interior), but other fragments appear to derive from ogy has reproduced the rate of work and demonstrates 7nely dressed masonry that underwent a signi7cant period that the S10 chamber would have taken several years to of weathering—probably stone casing of the tomb’s origi- complete and transport to Abydos. However one looks nal superstructure. Blocks with a batter or slope suggest at it, the process of quarrying, carving, and moving the there was once an angled limestone casing to this tomb. S10 sarcophagus chamber was an impressive engineering 5e superstructure appears likely to have been a pyra- achievement, 7t for a royal tomb. mid—probably one that was economically built with a debris-7lled interior and a 7nely dressed exterior. 5e later THE OWNERSHIP OF THE ROYAL pyramid of Ahmose (ca. 1550 BCE) at Abydos, Egypt’s SARCOPHAGUS CHAMBER last royal pyramid, was built in this same way. Who was the original owner of this huge sarcophagus At some point the superstructure of Tomb S10 was chamber? 5is question is connected with the sig- heavily destroyed and much of the masonry removed result- ni7cance of the Mountain-of-Anubis for pharaohs who ing in the eventual extraction of the quartzite sarcophagus succeeded Senwosret III. Based on the architecture of chamber from its substructure. Although we still lack a the two satellite tombs, which Weigall 7rst examined a positive identi7cation of the owner, the form of the newly century ago, these tombs may belong to 13th Dynasty discovered sarcophagus chamber paired with what we know pharaohs who chose to locate their tombs near that of of Tombs S9 and S10 furnishes some intriguing possibilities.

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LATE MIDDLE KINGDOM ROYAL TOMBS AT ABYDOS cally impenetrable mass of stone in which the royal burial An important aspect of the ownership of these two royal would remain protected from tomb robbers. tombs is the question: why were there two kings (and as far 5e pyramid at Hawara forms the prototype for all of the as we know only two) who built royal tombs next to that of known late Middle Kingdom royal pyramids. With vary- Senwosret III? If royal interest had emerged during the 13th ing degrees of size and complexity they adopted this same Dynasty of establishing links with Senwosret III, it might format with the monolithic burial chamber accessed through logically be a practice adopted by more than just a single a sequence of turning passages blocked with portcullis stones. pair of kings (the 13th Dynasty includes over 50 short- Known examples are not extensive in number but include reigning kings dating ca. 1800–1660 BCE). Whoever these 7ve pyramids in a cluster at South Dahshur and Mazghuna two pharaohs were, they appear to be closely linked in time, at the southern end of the Memphite necropolis (four other and probably family identity. Potentially they may have unexcavated ones lie in the same area). Only two of these can familial connections with Senwosret III himself. be linked to speci7c pharaohs. One belongs to king Khendjer Evidence bearing on this question derives from the of the middle 13th Dynasty. 5e only other example with a newly discovered sarcophagus chamber and the results of known owner belongs to the early 13th Dynasty king Ameny- Qemau, a pharaoh whose reign of approximately three years falls ca. 1790 BCE, barely a TOMB S10 decade after the close of the 12th Dynasty. 0 feet 200 5e similarities in size and design between later 0 meters 100 cemetery Ameny-Qemau’s pyramid and Tombs S9 and S10 at Abydos are absolutely striking. 5e newly found chamber is a virtual carbon copy destroyed ﬁndspot of pyramid S10 sarcophagus of that of Ameny-Qemau. Consequently, it ap- superstructure chamber pears probable that two pharaohs of the same (size estimated) approximate time period built tombs next to Senwosret III at Abydos. Who were they? 5e vast majority of the many 13th Dynasty kings did not reign long enough to have constructed TOMB S9 tombs on the impressive scale of S9 and S10. Pyramid of Ameny-Qemau ca. 1790 BCE (Dahshur, early 13th Dynasty) Candidates are few. Moreover, we need not limit our consideration to the 13th Dynasty. 5e period of transition between the 12th and Weigall’s partial examination of Tomb This illustration 13th Dynasties provides some good options. S10 a hundred years ago. Both S10 compares the size Two of the pharaohs for whom we lack identi 7ed tombs of the pyramid of and its neighbor S9 are versions of a Ameny-Qemau with are the two 7nal rulers of the 12th Dynasty: Amenemhat distinctive form of royal tomb that Tombs S9 and S10 IV and the female pharaoh Sobekneferu. Sobekneferu was emerged at the site of Hawara in the at Abydos. succeeded by two brother kings, Amenemhat Sobekhotep I Fayum region of Egypt. Hawara was and Amenemhat Sonebef. 5ese rulers were sons of Amen- the second pyramid of Amenemhat emhat IV and their reigns, each about four years, are long III, the son and successor of Senwosret III. Its interior enough to have built tombs on the scale of those at South is characterized by a circuitous sequence of passages, Abydos. Could one of these pharaohs be the owner of S10? each blocked by sliding portcullis stones and ending in a If this is the case we may be looking at familial and royal monolithic burial chamber. 5e burial chamber was sealed links between these kings and Senwosret III. by a massive lid that was lowered into place from above. Amenemhat IV and Sobekneferu are important 5e combination of chamber and lid created a practi- transitional pharaohs at the very end of the 12th Dynasty.

22 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

Senwosret III (ca. 1872–1854 BCE) Pyramid at Dahshur, tomb at Abydos.

Amenemhat III (ca. 1854–1810 BCE) Pyramids at Dahshur and Hawara Pharaohs of the

S transition between

Amenemhat IV (ca. 1810–1801 BCE)

*#(3 the 12th and 13th

#=<*', Sobekneferu (ca. 1801–1797 BCE) >?(" *<1#,(<

('%=,

—many of

#( Dynasties

10 whose tombs remain

S >@(" *<1#,(<

Amenemhat Sobekhotep (I) (reign ca. 4 years) unidentiﬁed—are the ,/223,(3* #1* -#123 Amenemhat Sonbef (reign ca. 4 years) primary candidates Amenemhat V (reign ca. 3 years) for the owner of the newly discovered Ameny Qemau (reign ca. 3 years) Pyramid at Dahshur sarcophagus chamber.

Together they represent a shift to patterns of kingship nastic strife at the end of the 12th Dynasty it appears less that continued during the ensuing 13th Dynasty—short likely that the pair of tombs together belong to Amenem- reigning monarchs ruling in the context of a declining hat IV and Sobekneferu. Given the close proximity and economic structure that compromised royal resources for the similarity of the buildings, as one of the authors of the large-scale monument building that was such a visible this article, Kevin Cahail, has observed, the two sons of product of the earlier 12th Dynasty kings. Amenemhat IV Amenemhat IV—Amenemhat Sobekhotep I and Amen- ruled Egypt for some nine years; Sobekneferu for under emhat Sonbef—appear to be good candidates. four years. 5e death of Sobekneferu (ca. 1797 BCE) 5ese two kings were the 7rst rulers of the 8edgling 13th brought an end to the 12th Dynasty. While Amenemhat Dynasty. Only a few years separates their reigns from that IV and Sobekneferu have often been viewed as a brother- of Ameny-Qemau, whose tomb, as we have seen, is remark- sister pair and children of Amenemhat III, evidence sug- ably similar in size and design to S9 and S10. By physically gests instead that the period may have been characterized connecting their tombs with the preexisting mortuary cult of by dynastic con8ict and problems in the royal succession. Senwosret III at South Abydos, they could have legitimized It appears probable that Amenemhat III had no male their rule both politically through the 12th Dynasty royal o6spring but at least two daughters: Nefruptah and Sobe- line, as well as religiously through the cult of Osiris. kneferu. Neferuptah’s name occurs in a royal cartouche, Quite possibly the Mountain-of-Anubis includes much perhaps indicating that she was the chosen successor. Sadly, more than just the tomb for Senwosret III; it may be an she predeceased her father. It may have been at that point important mortuary and cult site for the 7nal pharaohs of that Amenemhat III chose a new successor and coregent, Egypt’s mighty 12th Dynasty and the immediate successors to Amenemhat IV, a man who appears to have been of non- that royal house: the brother kings Sobekhotep I and Sonbef royal parentage. Following his death after a nine-year reign, at the beginning of the 13th Dynasty. In future excavations we Sobekneferu then seized the throne in place of Amenemhat will search for clear evidence related to the ownership of these IV’s own sons. 5rough her short reign, Sobekneferu linked tombs. Systematic excavation of Tombs S9 and S10 should herself with her father Amenemhat III, rather than the allow us to determine conclusively which pharaohs built these previous king Amenemhat IV, perhaps demonstrating her fascinating—but still mysterious—royal tombs that are so view that she was the rightful successor. After her death intimately linked with that of Senwosret III. (ending the 12th Dynasty), two of Amenemhat IV’s sons, Sobekhotep I and Sonbef, regained the throne. 5ey are the JOSEF WEGNER is Associate Curator of the Egyptian 7rst two kings of the 13th Dynasty. Section at the Penn Museum. He is also Associate Professor It makes sense that either Amenemhat IV or Sobe- of Egyptian Archaeology, Department of Near Eastern kneferu chose to build a tomb at Abydos beside that of Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania. Senwosret III. 5e size and design is appropriate to what we might expect from their short reigns and either one KEVIN M. CAHAIL is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department may have been interested in connecting themselves with of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Senwosret III. However, in light of the evidence for dy- University of Pennsylvania.

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Extensive changes over two centuries reconﬁgured many areas of the mayor’s house but the central residence—the main habitation structure of the C mayors of Wah-sut—was left unchanged.

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t was the summer of 1994. Our 7rst season of excavation was underway on the temple of Senwosret III. Walking across the landscape of South Abydos, I had many questions. What else besides a pharaoh’s tomb and mortuary temple once existed at South Abydos? Not far to the south of the temple,i my attention was drawn to a promising looking area where the eroded tops of brick walls were vis- H ible. An abundance of Middle Kingdom pottery indicated buildings that were contemporary with the pharaoh’s temple were located just a short walk away. It was here in May of 1994 that we started work on what would turn out to be an exciting discovery, and one that would add incomparable information to our understanding of South Abydos during the Middle Kingdom: a palatial residence that belonged to a dynasty of mayors who ran the town of Wah-sut for two centuries, ca. 1850–1650 BCE.

Modeling the Mayor’s House at South Abydos BY JOSEF WEGNER

A. Open Plaza The PALATIAL B. Garden courtyard with ﬁcus trees C. Kitchen/cooking area D. Residence (in former RESIDENCE granary block) E. Granary courtyard (in former central court) F. S econdary residential unit of WAH !SUT (in former central court) G. Central residence H. Areryt (administrative area)

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5e initial excavations demonstrated the presence of the town and mortuary foundation of Senwosret III. In what was evidently a high status domestic building. 5is one fell swoop we had identi7ed the ancient name of was promising enough in itself. Urban sites in the Nile Senwosret III’s mortuary foundation, the name of the Valley o6er unique information on aspects of daily life town (Wah-sut), as well as the identity of Building A as and society not always re8ected in the written and artistic the mayor’s house. Retrieval of further clay sealings in record. Research on settlements has been hampered by the strati7ed deposits that named a series of mayors, as well as fact that most ancient habitation sites lay in or adjacent other inscribed material from these same individuals, per- to the Nile 8oodplain and over millennia have gradually mits the reconstruction of a local mayoral history covering been covered by alluvium. Often modern towns and cities the period from ca. 1850 to 1650 BCE. sit directly atop ancient settlements creating problems of By 2001 we had expanded excavations in the mayor’s access for archaeological survey and excavation. Here at house and determined the overall size and location of the South Abydos we had extensive and accessible remains of building. 5e main building covers an impressive 53 by a habitation site. 82 meters. In addition, behind the building is a walled We discovered the mayor’s residence at South Abydos compound containing a group of structures that together during the 7rst season of work at the site, naming it comprise the administrative gatehouse. Given the large simply “Building A.” We knew immediately that it was size of the building, it has taken a numbers of seasons an elite house of substantial scale. However, it was not to excavate and study the 7nds. Work on the mayor’s until subsequent seasons when we excavated numerous house has bene7ted from funding through the National clay impressions naming the Administrative gatehouse of Science Foundation and the American Philosophical the residence of the mayor of Wah-sut-Khakaure-maa-kheru- Society among other sources. During 2011–2012, with em-Abdju that its identity became clear. Building A was funding from the Michaela Schi6-Giorgini Foundation the residence of a series of local mayors who administered for Egyptological Research, we completed the excavation of the building’s interior. At the present time we have a complete record of the building’s architecture and the changes that occurred to it over its approximately 250-year history.

THE RESIDENCE OF THE MAYORS 5ere are two things that are immediately notable about the mayor’s house. 5e 7rst is the impressive palace-like scale of the original building. 5is was a building speci7cally designed as a visible statement of authority, wealth, and power. Its large scale, lavish 7ttings, and numerous columned halls in many ways emulate the design of royal palaces from ancient Egypt. 5e second fact is that many elements of the original architect’s vision proved to be dispensable over the building’s long history. 5e building was not static as its

The mayor’s residence (Building A) and adjacent buildings in the Middle Kingdom town of Wah-sut have been excavated by the team from the Penn Museum. The blue lines indicate the limits of excavation.

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occupants adapted it in many ways over time, Clay seal impressions as well as architectural fragments (stone 7ttings, signi7cantly altering parts of the interior in ways represent the ﬁrst plasterwork, roo7ng fragments, and other ele- three mayors of the that dramatically changed its appearance and town of Wah-sut: ments of the building) retrieved in the process function. Nakht (left), Nakht’s of excavation. 5e mayor’s house at South Abydos is far son Khentykhety Building A is a structure that once stood (center), and Nakht’s to a height of 20 feet, or more in some places. from a perfectly preserved time capsule from son Neferher (right). Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. Although many These three men Today it is preserved only waist-high (2-3 feet) parts of the building still preserve 8oors, door- administered the in the best areas, and ankle-high in some areas. ways, and column bases, other areas are quite town during the late Consequently, there is a certain amount of 12th Dynasty (ca. badly pitted and eroded. Some areas of the 1850–1800 BCE). educated guesswork involved in the process of building that underwent secondary changes reconstruction. However, the building’s physical witnessed such substantial remodeling that the original remains, combined with evidence provided by ancient form of the interior architecture is simply unclear. Nev- Egyptian scenes, models, and texts, provide the basis for ertheless, the majority of the building preserves evidence modeling the building using computer-assisted design not only of its original late 12th Dynasty design but also software. Here we turn to look at how Building A may be the series of alterations that changed the building’s form visualized. over time. Here we have an opportunity to examine a large, institutional building as it evolved and adapted to THE ORIGINAL BUILDING changing needs over several centuries. Let us look 7rst at the mayor’s house in its original form, A very useful exercise when studying an archaeologi- when it was constructed by royal architects ca. 1850 cal building like the mayor’s house is to try to translate BCE as part of the state establishment of the mortuary the excavated evidence into a three-dimensional recon- foundation of pharaoh Senwosret III. We see a building struction of the building as it might once have appeared constructed with painstaking exactness following archi- through the di6erent phases of its history. Modeling the tect’s blueprints. Its walls, doors, and room dimensions are mayor’s house helps not just to visualize it, but also to all multiples of the Egyptian cubit (one cubit is equal to understand the principles behind the overall architec- 1.7 feet or .525 meter). It was beautifully built with large, tural design and the ways in which parts of the building mass-produced mud bricks. Its doors had stone thresh- functioned and related to one another. 5e direct evidence olds and jambs, and its 8oors were bricked and plastered at our disposal includes the building’s preserved footprint throughout. 5is was a building expressly designed for a

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powerful administrator: the haty-‘ or mayor, whose job it including a “central residence” 8anked on either side by was to administer the newly founded royal funerary cult. supporting room blocks. 5e central residence follows 5e 7rst occupant of this o:ce at South Abydos a tripartite template that occurs also in other houses of was a man named Nakht, followed in o:ce by two this time period in Egypt, and also replicated in smaller of his sons in succession. After Nakht, the mayoralty format in the other elite houses at Wah-sut. 5ese were the passed to Nakht’s son Khentykhety and then to Nakht’s personal apartments of the mayor and possibly members (presumably younger) son Neferher. 5ese three mayors, of his immediate family. 5e larger chambers in the cen- all belonging to one family, administered the mortuary tral residence all have column emplacements indicating foundation of Senwosret III over the better part of half that this part of the building was entirely roofed. Whether a century, through the late 12th Dynasty and into the it had a single story or a second level is di:cult to say, but succeeding 13th Dynasty. fragments of stone-fenestrated windows suggest light- 5e original mayor’s house occupied by Nakht, ing and ventilation was provided by clerestory windows Khentykhety, and Neferher is the product of the original mounted in the upper parts of the walls. design of Wah-sut. 5e building is conceived in three On one side of the central residence stood a block of main sections. At the back was the main residential sector chambers for storage and preparation of foodstu6s. 5is “kitchen block” could be entered by a separate external doorway with, on the outside, a semi- subterranean chamber used for water delivery. Two open courtyards, one with a pillared portico facing north and the other with direct access to the central residence, both have ample evidence for regular storage and preparation of foodstu6s. A considerable amount of kitchen debris—cooking pottery and other utilitarian ceramics—accu- mulated outside this area. To emphasize the status of the central residence, a grand hall composed of 15 columns originally ran along the front of the central residence. 5e columns themselves vanished long ago; we only found the limestone bases with impressions of columns. We can envision here a series of painted wood columns, mostly likely of the papyrus bundle-type that frequently appears in scenes and

TOP: This isometric cut-away view shows the mayor’s house at the southwest corner of the town. Blocks of smaller households (shown both in complete reconstruction and cut-away) extend to the east. It is not clear whether the main residence was single- or multi-storied (here shown as a simple ﬂat-roofed single story). BOTTOM: In the original design of the mayor’s house, the central residence was fronted by a 15-columned broad hall and peristyle courtyard. Many rooms had a black dado (lower wall) with the upper wall plastered white or yellow. Remains of painted wall scenes occur in some areas.

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models of domestic architecture during Egypt’s Middle staircase that proceeds up into the central peristyle court- Kingdom. 5e evidence suggests an impressive architec- yard. 5ere is no doubt that a major function of the origi- tural space with the soaring colonnade fronting a series of nal design of the mayor’s house was the visual statement of stone-lined doorways, which lead to di6erent parts of the power provided by these grand architectural spaces. Here central residence. at South Abydos we see some of the principles of royal As impressive as it must have been, the 15-column palace architecture adapted into the house of a powerful hall was originally fronted by an even grander columned town mayor who himself may have had close connections courtyard, so large it composed the entire central third with the royalty of the period. of the mayor’s house. Whereas the 15-column hall was roofed, the space in front was a peristyle courtyard with THE EVOLUTION OF A BUILDING massive columns (the bases were ca. 90 cm, 2.5 feet in 5e excavations of the mayor’s house have provided a rich diameter) extending along the front and sides. 5e exact illustration of the ways in which a building conceived functions of this central courtyard are unclear because it with a speci7c set of functions can be adapted and altered was substantially remodeled during the later history of in major ways to suit the evolving needs of its occupants. the building. However, the grandeur of this architectural 5is does not imply the abandonment of its essential space suggests a location designed for o:cial use. We may function as the seat of the mayors of Wah-sut. Indeed, we perhaps envision this as a semi-open meeting space where have strong evidence for the continuity of a hereditary many of the o:cial functions of the mayoralty occurred. succession of mayors who passed the o:ce from father to For a long time it was unclear whether the mayor’s son over more than two centuries. Rather, the building house had a formal entryway: a “front door.” However, was remodeled and changed in ways that discarded some in 2003 we did discover evidence for a main door on the of the original palatial elements and re8ected more the front (Nile-facing) side of the building. 5e door was not necessities of a large, evolving elite household. centered exactly on the building itself, but was positioned 5e nature of the mudbrick architecture helps to with respect to a large open plaza that fronts the mayor’s de7ne parts of the building that were original and ele- house. 5e plaza does not span the full width of the ments that were added later. While the whole town was mayor’s house due to the presence of another building originally built with uniform mass-produced bricks, situated just o6 its northwest corner. 5e plaza forms a changes were made using smaller, locally-made bricks. kind of open area dominated in its center by the entrance Unlike the original blueprint, secondary walls and spaces into the mayor’s house. 5is main doorway was raised up do not follow the cubit system. Architecturally we see above the level of the plaza and accessible by brick ramps continuity re8ected in the fact that the central residence placed against the building’s façade. Unfortunately the and inner room blocks were maintained largely intact, doorway itself is very eroded but we may envision a grand with only minor modi7cations over the entire history of stone-lined entryway, probably with hieroglyphic texts the building. In contrast, the grand columned hall and marking this as the formal door to the mayoral residence courtyard and entire front section of the building were of Wah-sut. In all likelihood the plaza itself connects with altered to such a degree that they lost all resemblance other features now buried beneath the 8oodplain, such as to their original architectural form. 5is is perhaps a central road and access to a landing quay or canal pro- not surprising in that the central peristyle courtyard, viding riverine communication to the mayoral residence. while aesthetically impressive, may have been essentially During our 2011–2012 season we completed excava- adaptable space that could be allocated for other uses. tion of the inner part of the building just behind this By the middle of the 13th Dynasty, the colonnade of main entrance. Here we revealed another grand element the peristyle courtyard was gone; only the impressions of the building’s original architecture. Upon entering the of its great column bases remained in the brick 8oor. In building one would have passed through a sequence of its place a secondary house was added complete with its two courtyards with pillared porticoes that led to a brick own columned halls, and even a sunken “bathtub” lined

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with tilework of mortared potsherds. Adjacent to the house was a storage courtyard out7tted with a group of A Treasure in Clay brick beehive-shaped granaries. Despite the changes, the main door to the house was still intact, and a passage The excavation of the mayor’s residence has provided from the lower part of the building to the inner resi- evidence on the building that served as the nerve center of dence was still maintained. ancient South Abydos. But what of the actual people who Extensive changes were made in the building’s later lived and worked in the mayor’s house? These individuals history to the entire middle and front portions of the would remain anonymous if it were not for one important structure. Originally running alongside the grand pillared custom during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom—commemorating courtyard was a generously sized granary with ten storage people’s names and titles on seals that were used to chambers. 5is granary was remodeled during the 13th impress lumps of clay as part of daily administrative Dynasty to form an independent residential unit. 5is routines. During this time period many people possessed was itself a grand redesign with a pillared portico facing name and title scarabs. Also there were official stamp (unusually) southwards towards the central residence. It seals that included the names of institutions. The mayor’s was here that we discovered in 2001 a painted birth brick house at South Abydos has turned into a goldmine for this used in rituals of childbirth—the only example of its valuable category of artifact, which helps us to reconstruct kind known to date from Egypt—and suggestive that this the composition of the ancient community and the secondary household may have been a female residential administrative system that maintained it over time. area, perhaps for the wife of one of the mayors in the later Directly behind the mayor’s house are the ruins of an history of the building. important area, the areryt or administrative gatehouse. An intriguing addition to the front part of the build- We first identified the architectural remains of the areryt ing was the removal of the original architecture and its in 2002 and conducted excavations there in 2004. Here replacement with a walled garden courtyard. 5e actual once lay a series of multi-roomed structures and smaller 8oor level of this garden is not preserved but we have a areas for storage and distribution of goods. This was a 3 x 4 grid of 12 brick tree planters. Remnants of bark and leaves suggest this was a garden of 7cus trees (Ficus sycamorus), which were frequently favored by Egyptians in formal garden settings. 5e mayoral residence provides a fascinating glimpse into the realities of a long-lived building over its lifespan. While it is not a perfectly preserved time capsule, the shell of this once vibrant building—the heart of the community of Wah-sut for over two centuries—has much to tell us about life in Egypt four millennia ago.

FOR FURTHER READING Wegner, Josef. “Echoes of Power: the Mayor’s House of Ancient Wah-sut.” Expedition 48.2 (2006): 31-37. Wegner, Josef. “External Connections of the Community of Wah- sut during the Late Middle Kingdom,” in Perspectives on

Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Edward Brovarski, edited ABOVE: Graduate students Shelby Justl and Paul Verhelst stand beside by Z. Hawass, P. Der Manuelian, and R. Hussein, pp. 437- the summer 2013 excavations into the administrative gatehouse and 458. Cairo: SCA Cahier no. 40, 2010. the deposits behind it. RIGHT: Deposits behind the mayor’s house were excavated in June 2013.

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LEFT: This seal impression was photographed place occupied by scribes and of- using Reflectance Transformation Imaging. ficials who managed the flow of goods In this image the color of the clay has been and communications that went in and removed and the surface reflectivity enhanced out of the mayor’s house. More recent- to highlight the hieroglyphs and surface details. BELOW: Fresh from the ground, clay ly, we have defined extensive deposits seal impressions from 2013 excavations in the that are rich with discarded clay seal areryt or administrative gatehouse. The three impressions that had been thrown out upper rows have hieroglyphic texts while the bottom row has impressions of scarabs with of the areryt. Most of the debris was decorative and amuletic symbols. cast onto the desert surface behind a boundary wall. It piled up over time and has been beautifully preserved over thousands of years in the dry desert sands. In 2013, with funds from the University of Pennsylvania’s Faculty Research Foundation, we completed the first phase of detailed excavations of these areryt deposits. During just four weeks of excavation in the summer of 2013 we retrieved over 2,000 clay sealing fragments. We have yet to examine the densest areas of the deposits. Previous work in and around the mayor’s house had produced a sizeable corpus of seals. However, the new work on the areryt has already produced many new examples of seals. The potential at South Abydos exists for the largest assemblage of administrative sealings ever found in the Nile Valley.

In order to streamline the recording and study the seals, we are using a photographic technique called Polynomial Transfer Mapping or Reﬂectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). This technique involves multiple exposures taken with the light source at different positions. RTI produces a high-resolution image that can be viewed with a variety of lighting angles and manipulated to enhance aspects of the object’s surface such as reﬂectivity and grain. It also has solved an ongoing problem: how to record and reconstruct the hieroglyphic texts on these tiny objects. Excavation, recording, and publication of the areryt sealings is an ongoing project that will result in a greater understanding of how the mayor’s house worked and who it was that worked there.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 31 View into the slab-lined burial chamber of a tomb in Cemetery S. This example (tomb CS.5) was architecturally well-preserved although—like all others—was robbed in antiquity.

TAKING IT with YOU !e South Abydos Tomb Census BY KEVIN M. CAHAIL

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s part of the ongoing excavations tomb which occurs in the Temple Cemetery, and the de- in the Middle Kingdom town of scending stairway or passage tomb common to Cemetery S. Wah-sut, a pressing question has In the shaft-tombs, a rectangular brick pit some 2 m (7 feet) arisen: where were its inhabit- deep descends to an arched doorway providing access to a ants buried? Although this subterranean, vaulted burial chamber. Cemetery S stairway might appear easy to answer, reality has proven otherwise. tombs descend into the earth through a series of vaulted During 2012–2013, we began a program of survey and chambers in a line, containing small stairs. excavation—thea South Abydos Tomb Census—to help 5e stairway tombs of Cemetery S are larger and more answer this crucial question. Results so far have been both elaborate than those of the Temple Cemetery. With one exceptional and unexpected, as we discovered an unexca- notable exception (the tomb of Horemheb which we shall vated group of New Kingdom pyramid tombs, dating to ca. examine further below) they certainly represent higher 1350–1200 BCE, instead of a Middle Kingdom cemetery. status burials. 5e burial chambers were constructed with Archaeological remote sensing via magnetometry has a lining of carefully 7tted stone slabs. In some cases the proven useful at Abydos. 5is technique has revealed pre- slabs are clearly reused or surplus building material from viously unknown subterranean features, including several other projects. Due to ancient robbery, the exact date of di6erent clusters of tombs. 5e project’s primary strategy these tombs remains to be speci7cally determined. has been to excavate selectively tombs that appear on the In the case of Cemetery S there is no evidence for any magnetic maps. During 2012–2013 we concentrated chapel or commemorative buildings above the tombs. Such on two areas: a group of tombs composing the “Temple o6ering places probably existed separately from the actual Cemetery” due to their proximity to the mortuary temple burials. Could this be a later parallel to the Middle King- of Senwosret III; and burial structures near the base of the dom approach to burial and commemoration—a separation cli6s adjacent to the Senwosret III tomb enclosure, an area between tomb and o6ering place? called Cemetery S. Based on in situ evidence and comparison with other Although both of these tomb clusters appeared initially New Kingdom cemeteries, the tombs of the Temple Cem- to be good candidates for Middle etery were originally surmounted Kingdom private tombs, in all cases by hollow mud-brick pyramids. so far they have turned out to date Pyramids measuring on average to the New Kingdom or later. We 1.5 m square sat directly above the have, therefore, widened the goals vaulted brick burial chambers. 5e of the Tomb Census to map all the sides of non-royal pyramids in the non-royal cemeteries in the area cemeteries at North Abydos have surrounding the mortuary com- steep-sided pyramidia or cap stones plex of Senwosret III. To date we (with slopes of 65-75 degrees) rising have excavated 14 tombs from the almost 2.5 m (about 8-9 feet) tall. Temple Cemetery and Cemetery S. As in other examples at Abydos and We are also analyzing the evidence of elsewhere, these small pyramids of Middle Kingdom mortuary objects the Temple Cemetery would have discovered in Wah-sut along with an expanded Excavation foreman had a niche facing the Nile cultivation, which program to document the changing patterns of Rais Ibrahim Mohamed held a decorated stela dedicated to the deceased Ali holds a large glass private mortuary traditions at South Abydos. cofﬁn eye inlay. buried below. A courtyard or walled chapel room surrounding the tomb entrance shaft would have TOMB ARCHITECTURE completed the structure. 5e recent excavations at South Abydos have uncovered two 5e tomb of Horemheb (TC.20), dated slightly basic models of tomb architecture: the shaft-and-chamber earlier than the other tombs of the cemetery, had the

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largest pyramid with a base of just over 7ve meters on During excavation, we recovered fragments of multiple a side. Assuming a 69 degree slope, this pyramid would faience bowls, including one example with the rare motif have originally stood just shy of 7 m tall (about 21 feet), of a wesekh collar. A beautiful intact faience 7nger ring was a very large example of a private pyramid of the New discovered in the south burial chamber of TC.11 along with Kingdom. Its owner was evidently of considerable wealth numerous faience beads. Glass vessel fragments from TC.19 and social status as the tomb is far larger than any other attest to the richness of some of these burials, since glass in the Temple Cemetery. Fortunately, although robbed, was a high status commodity during the late 18th Dynasty. this large pyramid tomb preserved a good number of its 5e modest architecture of TC.7 even contained pieces of original tomb goods. a globular Mycenaean Stirrup Jar from the Aegean, an item that represents Egypt’s far-reaching trade network. ANALYZING THE ARTIFACTS Funerary artifacts are an integral part of any Egyptian burial. THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB All the tombs investigated so far in the Tomb Census have By far the richest tomb in the cemetery was that of a man been heavily looted both in antiquity as well as in modern named Horemheb whose tomb dates to the end of the times. What has been left for us, however, indicates that these 18th Dynasty, ca. 1350 BCE (he is not to be confused tombs were all well appointed. Painted wood Black-type with the contemporary pharaoh of the same name). As (co:ns with decoration on a black background) and early mentioned above, this tomb (numbered TC.20) had the Yellow-type co:ns (with yellow background) predominate, largest pyramid structure of any in the cemetery. Unlike with indications of cartonnage mummy masks. Black-type the other tombs however, the pyramid surmounted the co:ns date from 5utmosis III to the middle of the reign tomb entrance shaft, which led down to a suite of three of Ramses II (ca. 1450–1250 BCE). Yellow-type co:ns on vaulted chambers. Set into the 8oor of the burial chamber the other hand 7rst appear during the reign of Amenhotep we discovered an inscribed sandstone sarcophagus carved III, and their use continues through the 5ird Intermediate for the “Scribe Horemheb.” 5e texts and images on this Period. Based on the co:n styles of the Temple Cemetery, the sarcophagus have their closest parallels in Black-type cof- tombs fall into the period from Amenhotep III to Ramses II 7ns from the reign of Amenhotep III. Each of the four (ca. 1390–1213 BCE). corners has a depiction of 5oth, god of wisdom and writ-

LEFT: The Temple Cemetery includes a cluster of tombs close to the mortuary temple of Senwosret III. Cemetery S contains private tombs near the Senwosret III tomb enclosure. ABOVE: The jackal-headed god Anubis appears on the right side of the sarcophagus of Horemheb.

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South Abydos Tomb Census (SATC) 2013

Temple Cemetery Operation 020-021 Reconstructed Pyramid of Tomb 20 69º Slope

Male of Average Approximate Height Ancient Preserved Surface Top of Vault (1.7m)

Door Blocking A B Sarcophagus of Horemheb

ABOVE: This reconstruction shows the layout and size of the mudbrick pyramid above TC.20. The ﬂoor inside the pyramid served as the original entrance into the tomb. The shaft connected to three chambers below ground, the southernmost containing the burial of Horemheb. RIGHT: Kevin Cahail studies the texts on the sandstone sarcophagus of Horemheb.

ing, along with an excerpt of Book of the Dead Spell 161. owners suggests that TC.20 was probably a family tomb Images of Anubis hold the central position of both sides, used for several generations. 8anked by the Four Sons of Horus. Each divine image has Other objects from this tomb included an intact traces of yellow paint, while the background of the co:n travertine cosmetic vessel (SATC.20.4) of the early 19th was colored red, perhaps in an attempt to emulate a more Dynasty. Composite glass eye inlays derive from wooden expensive sarcophagus of red granite. co:ns and mummy masks. An anthropomorphized green Eighteen fragmentary and two complete pottery jasper heart amulet, with red jasper face and black stone shabti 7gures were recovered from the tomb of Horem- wig, bears an image of the Benu bird (a deity linked to the heb. 5ese 7gures, intended as workers for the deceased creation of the world) standing before an incense burner. in the afterlife, were originally brightly painted with Heart amulets such as this also appear at Aniba, and date the names of their owners written on the front. 5e to the period between the 18th and 19th Dynasty. names of three of these individuals are still partly legible: Horemheb himself, a man by the FUTURE WORK name of Ramesu, and 7nally the Future seasons will target 14 additional tombs of the somewhat unorthodox name Temple Cemetery known from the subsurface survey. Hutefmipet (“His temple is With heightened local interest in our discoveries in this as the sky”). 5e recovery of area, it is imperative to document as much of this cem- shabti 7gures with di6erent etery as possible before further damage can be done. At least two more tombs in Cemetery S, originally excavated by Arthur Weigall, require reinvestigation, and as yet we This heart amulet (reassembled do not know the full horizontal spread of the non-royal from three pieces) with a human face and wig is from TC.20. The tombs in this area. 5e coming seasons will 7nd the Tomb heart amulet itself has an engraved Census Project exploring and surveying the vast desert depiction of the Benu Bird, a expanse of the Senwosret III complex from his Mortuary reference to Book of the Dead Temple at the cultivation, to his Tomb in Cemetery S. It Spell 29b. Anthropomorphized heart amulets date to the late 18th is hoped that this area will yield evidence on the location and early 19th Dynasties. of the tombs of the ancient inhabitants of Wah-sut.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 35 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

THEIR MEMORY LIVES ON

A fragment of a Middle Domestic Funerary Commemoration at Wah-sut Kingdom offering table was recovered at South Abydos. BY KEVIN M. CAHAIL

o the ancient Egyptian mind, the Recent discoveries within the Middle Kingdom town worlds of the living and the dead of Wah-sut point to commemorative activity within the were inextricably intertwined. 5e town. Excavations in domestic contexts have uncovered speech of one man to his wife re- a signi7cant corpus of inscribed funerary stelae, o6ering corded on a stela encapsulates both tables, and statues. Since no tombs have yet been discov- this belief, and the mechanism ered near Wah-sut, the Late Middle Kingdom citizens of through which it was enacted: this town seem to have commemorated their departed How are you? Is the West taking care of you [according loved ones within the homes of the living, rather than the to] your desire?t Now since I am your beloved upon earth, tombs of the dead. #ght on my behalf and intercede on behalf of my name. I did 5ree stela fragments (12631, 101-14-2, and 12639, not garble [a spell] in your presence when I perpetuated your 101-20-1) originated in the mayor’s house (Building A). name upon earth. Remove the in#rmity of my body! Please 5ough badly broken in antiquity, the reconstructed of- become a spirit for me [before] my eyes so that I may see you fering formula on the left side reads: in a dream #ghting on my behalf. I will then deposit o$erings A royal o$ering [of Ptah-So]kar-Osirs, Lord of the Ankh- for you [as soon as] the sun has risen and out#t your o$ering [tawy, that he might give every good and pure thing] to the slab for you. (Translation by E.Wente) ka of the Hall-keeper of the Chamber of Linen, Khuinutef. Merirtyfy’s poignant address to his deceased wife Auguste Mariette, a 19th century Egyptologist, dis- Nebetiotef demonstrates the perceived link between the covered a contemporary stela (Cairo CG 20134) at North living and the dead, and the responsibilities of entities Abydos belonging to the same family which names Khui- on either side of mortality. Spiritual elements employed nutef’s mother, Petyt, and his uncle, a Domestic Servant of false doors, statues, and stelae to temporarily inhabit the the Chamber of Linen, Senebef. 5ough the Cairo stela’s earthly realm in order to receive food and o6erings from speci7c archaeological context is unknown, it was prob- the living before returning to the underworld. ably part of a family chapel in the extensive North Abydos

36 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

FAR LEFT: Reneﬁker and Iru from Wah-sut are depicted on this Middle Kingdom pair statue. Height as preserved 15 cm. LEFT: A twin offering table from Wah-sut is illustrated in this drawing. Width as preserved approximately 23 cm. BELOW: This fragment of an offering table indicates it belonged to Nakht, the mayor of Wah-sut.

Votive Zone (an area with evidence of ritual activity). 5e actual tombs of these individuals are currently unknown. Despite this, Khuinutef was commemorated on stelae at both North Abydos (connected with the Osiris Temple), and within a domestic context at Wah-sut, where he probably lived and worked. Evidence exists from Wah-sut that domestic funerary commemoration was widespread, seemingly across all levels of non-royal society. An o6ering table (SA.15472, 67-7) belonging to one of the early high status mayors of Wah-sut— a man by the name of Nakht—was found in the vicinity of Building B in 1999. It had been reused as a door pivot, but still retained the name and title of the deceased. Another beautiful limestone o6ering table (SA.11002, 92-4-6) is divided into two distinct sections, with what THE PRACTICE OF DOMESTIC CULT AT WAH-SUT appears to be twin catch basins. 5e piece was not in- 5e existence of commemorative artifacts within the town scribed, but through comparison with other similar tables, context is tantalizing evidence of domestic funerary cult. it was probably dedicated to two or more individuals. Yet none of the objects found to date were in their original Along with stelae and o6ering tables, portions of positions inside the houses, due either to their destruction or numerous statues have been discovered in and around reuse. 5erefore, any reconstruction of the original positions Wah-sut. Fragments of a beautifully carved quartzite of these funerary objects must be based upon comparable statue were recovered during the winter of 2012 within sites. 5ankfully scraps of information from two roughly a Middle Kingdom pottery dump directly south of the contemporary towns aid in elucidation: Lahun and Kom town. Given the di:culty of carving quartzite, coupled el-Fakhry. William Matthew Flinders Petrie found funerary with the artistry of the piece and its large size, it prob- cult objects within the Middle Kingdom town of Lahun ably derives from a high status commemorative emplace- including stela fragments, and small statues. He also found ment. More typical of the size of statuary for the town’s limestone o6ering columns or pillars, one of which is very population are smaller limestone statuettes, such as a similar to an example from Wah-sut (SA.15023, 67-1-7). pair 7gure (two individuals carved on the same statue) At Kom el-Fakhry—a Late Middle Kingdom neigh- discovered in 2012 of a man named Rene7ker and his borhood of Memphis—one of the best preserved contem- wife Iru. Other similar uninscribed statues (both single porary domestic cult emplacements was found recently. and pair 7gures) have been found in a number of areas In a ground-8oor room of a house, excavators discovered throughout Wah-sut. a stela with cavetto (concave) cornice and frame, o6ering

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 37 MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS

table, and seated double statue of N(y)ka and Sat-Hathor. cence helps explain the reuse or discarding of objects such Archaeologists believe that the stela was set into the wall as the Nakht o6ering table or the quartzite statue. and the o6ering table was on the 8oor against the bottom of the stela, with the statue placed nearby. 5e layout is WAH-SUT AND NORTH ABYDOS very similar to that of a tomb chapel, with the stela taking 5e discovery of these funerary objects at South the place of the false door. On this point it is interesting Abydos highlights a number of questions bearing upon to note that both the Kom el-Fakhry stela and the stela an understanding of the Middle Kingdom community of Khuinutef from Wah-sut have the same cavetto cornice here. Most important are the locations of the tombs of and frame—a form common to false doors from the Old numerous people commemorated within the town. From Kingdom on. the reign of Senwosret III well into the Second Intermedi- We can conclude that a standard commemorative ate Period—a period of 250 years—Wah-sut was home to emplacement at Wah-sut would also have consisted of a a signi7cant number of people. Yet only broken traces of small stela set against the wall, with an o6ering table at its their burial goods have been identi7ed to date. base. 5e space around these two integral objects would One possible explanation is that due to the sanctity have contained statues of ancestors, freestanding o6ering of North Abydos and its proximity to the Osiris Cult, apparatus such as dwarf statues or 8uted columns, as well the residents of Wah-sut buried their dead there. At more as other small items of a votive nature. than three kilometers (two miles) distance, however, the Given that Wah-sut existed for many generations, probability that every citizen of Wah-sut was interred there domestic cult emplacements would have required periodic is somewhat unlikely. 5ough a modern 7eld lays atop the replacement and renewal. Statues and stelae of distant desert directly behind the ancient town, remote sensing ancestors were removed in favor of newer ones commemo- and exploratory excavation may eventually uncover undis- rating the recently deceased. 5is cycle of use and obsoles- covered tombs closer to Wah-sut itself.

Quartzite Statue: One of the Mayors of Wah-sut?

More often than not in archaeology, the break was fresh. Knowing that it the most beautiful objects appear in was imperative to ﬁnd the head of the the most unlikely places. While exca- only known statue of the builder of the vating a Middle Kingdom pottery dump Great Pyramid, Petrie ordered his dig- near the south wall of the town of gers to screen the entire spoil mound Wah-sut, we unearthed 27 fragments again. After three weeks of labor they of worked purple quartzite. In the lab, eventually found the missing head. This we reassembled the pieces into a statue, now in Cairo, is still the only beautiful, albeit headless, Middle King- named statue of Khufu known. dom statue, 35 cm tall, as preserved. Hoping to invoke the ghost of Petrie A short distance from our lab, as well as his luck, we rescreened our Flinders Petrie made a similar dis- entire spoil mound in search of the covery while excavating at the Kom statue’s missing head. For three days el-Sultan 110 years earlier. His work- the entire team sat on the ground pick- ers brought him a small ivory statue of a seated ﬁgure, with ing through broken pottery sherds by hand. Despite our best the name of Khufu inscribed on its throne. The tiny statue was efforts, no further statue fragments came to light. Although missing its head, but Petrie’s experienced eyes realized that incomplete, the artistry of this statue is of the highest quality.

38 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 NEW DISCOVERIES

An Update from the 2013–2014 Field Season DISCOVERING PHARAOHS SOBEKHOTEP

Workman Jerays Tawﬁq looks on as the burial & SENEBKAY chamber of Senebkay emerges from the sand. BY JOSEF WEGNER

rchaeology can change quickly but it continued to develop over the course of some three in the face of new data produced centuries. In a fascinating turn of events we now know through excavation. In this issue that the site of Mountain-of-Anubis includes the tombs of of Expedition we have presented a forgotten dynasty, the Abydos Dynasty to which newly some of the recent research of identi7ed king Senebkay belonged. Let us take a brief look the Penn Museum’s excavations at South Abydos. Yet, at some of these results fresh from the 7eld. already we have new results to add. 5e winter season One of the important discoveries that we made in the (Decembera 2013–January 2014) was extremely productive summer of 2013 was the 60-ton quartzite sarcophagus and has provided some exciting new discoveries. chamber that originated in Tomb S10. In this issue we 5ese include the tomb of a previously unknown presented evidence that the chamber dates to the very pharaoh, king Woseribre-Senebkay (ca. 1650 BCE), and beginning of the 13th Dynasty (ca. 1780 BCE), and an entire dynasty dating to Egypt’s Second Intermediate may belong to pharaoh Sobekhotep I, 7rst king of the Period. As a result, the royal necropolis of the Mountain- 13th Dynasty. Over the winter season one priority was of-Anubis is coming into sharper focus. We now know that the investigation of Tomb S10 with the goal of retrieving this site is the burial ground of many kings, both great evidence on the tomb’s date and ownership. We com- and small. Senwosret III initiated the site ca. 1850 BCE, pleted work on a signi7cant area encompassing the tomb’s

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 39 NEW DISCOVERIES

entrance passage as well as the remains of a chapel or cult lar design to the nearby examples excavated during the building that once stood against the front of S10. We were summer. Expecting a private tomb, we began work on the rewarded with some crucial evidence including remnants structure with the hope of discovering reused blocks that of the king’s burial equipment. Most signi7cant, how- had derived from the chapel of Sobekhotep. As the en- ever, were fragments of a large, limestone funerary stela trance to the tomb was exposed we were intrigued to 7nd of a king named Sobekhotep. 5is stela shows the seated a beautifully constructed limestone portcullis, evidence king, and inscriptions con7rm the identi7cation of S10 of high status and considerable investment in the tomb. as belonging to a pharaoh Sobekhotep. Other associated Working back to the tomb’s inner end we were astounded objects corroborate the early 13th Dynasty date. Conse- when we reached a decorated burial chamber. Built of quently, S10 is almost certainly the tomb of Sobekhotep I, limestone, the burial chamber is painted with vibrantly 7rst pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty. colored scenes and texts naming a formerly unknown pharaoh: Woseribre-Senebkay. Wall scenes show four goddesses, the protectors of the king’s canopic shrine. Images of winged sun-disks surmount the walls which also bear hieroglyphic inscriptions associating the king with the four sons of Horus. 5e texts in the burial chamber provide the king’s titulary (his throne name Woseribre, as well as his birth name Senebkay) and state that he is the Lord of the Two-Lands as well as King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Who is this mysterious king Senebkay? 5e burial chamber had been entirely stripped of its contents by Excavations in the chapel area of Sobekho- This detail of the burial ancient tomb robbers. However, in the tomb’s tep’s tomb led to an unforeseen and remarkable chamber shows the 7rst chamber, just inside the stone portcul- goddesses Neith discovery that adds immeasurably to our under- and Nut protecting lis we found substantial remains of the king’s standing of the site of Mountain-of-Anubis. One the canopic shrine of burial—the pharaoh’s canopic chest and its lid, of the issues we discuss in the current issue is the Senebkay. along with fragments of his funerary mask and date and ownership of the elite tombs adjacent to painted co:n. 5ese were strewn alongside the Tombs S9 and S10. Based on their relatively modest scale, remains of Senebkay himself; the king’s body had been we had thought that these may be private tombs. However, disarticulated by tomb robbers in search of amulets and the reuse of the 60-ton royal sarcophagus chamber from jewelry. Important clues to the date of Senebkay were S10 in one of these tombs has been truly puzzling. Who discovered on his canopic chest. Here we found that the would have the authority and wealth to extract this massive chest which was once gilded retains painted texts of an chamber from deep within the tomb of Sobekhotep for the earlier king—none other than Sobekhotep whose tomb purpose of reusing it in their own tomb? 5e answer to that nearby was the source of the reused sarcophagus chamber! question is now clear: it was, in fact, another pharaoh who Senebkay’s artisans had reused cedar planks deriving from reused Sobekhotep’s chamber. Here is how we know. Sobekhotep’s co:n for his own canopic chest. In early January 2014, work in the chapel area of As the evidence quickly mounted, artifacts, texts, and Sobekhotep’s tomb revealed an intrusive tomb of simi- decoration of the burial chamber made it clear that Senebkay

40 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 NEW DISCOVERIES

dates during the fragmentary era of Egypt’s Second Inter- are that we have the tombs of the entire Abydos Dynasty in mediate Period (ca. 1700–1550 BCE). It was at that stage, the necropolis at this site. 5e kings of the Abydos Dynasty still at Abydos, that we consulted one of the most important appear to have linked themselves with their more illustri- ancient sources for Egypt’s political history: the Turin King- ous forebears of the Middle Kingdom, but they also availed list. 5is fragmentary 19th Dynasty papyrus contains crucial themselves of materials from at least one of those earlier information on the sequence of kings and dynasties, as well kings’ tombs. It was one of the later kings of this group as their lengths of reign. 5e names of at least 16 kings of this who was responsible for reusing the sarcophagus chamber dynasty were once recorded in the Turin Kinglist, although most of the text is broken in this part of the papyrus. Impor- tantly, the 7rst two kings of this group have the throne name Woser…re, just as occurs with our newly discovered pha-

ABOVE: The fragmentary funerary stela of king Sobekhotep was found in the ruins of his funerary chapel. Note that the king is seated. RIGHT: The painted burial chamber of king Senebkay (ca. 1650 BCE) was discovered in January 2014. raoh: Woseribre-Senebkay. We can now establish Senebkay to of Sobekhotep I. 5e complexities of the site are now more be the 7rst or second pharaoh of a regional dynasty that dates apparent to us as we can appreciate that the Mountain- from ca. 1650–1600 BCE. Archaeological evidence has now of-Anubis was the burial ground for perhaps two dozen proven the existence of an independent “Abydos Dynasty,” pharaohs. Future work is likely to shed considerable light which has been hypothesized by several Egyptologists includ- on the political history of Egypt’s late Middle Kingdom and ing Detlef Franke and K.S.B. Ryholt, but doubted by many Second Intermediate Period. No doubt, more surprises like other scholars. the discovery of Senebkay, are in store. We are at an exciting juncture in the archaeological work at Mountain-of-Anubis. We can see that the site FOR FURTHER READING contains the tombs of earlier and more powerful kings from Ryholt, K.S.B. !e Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Egypt’s late Middle Kingdom, such as Senwosret III and Intermediate Period c.1800–1550 B.C. Copenhagen: Sobekhotep I. But it also served as the necropolis of later Carsten Niebuhr Institute, 1997. Wegner, Josef. “Kings of Abydos: Solving an Ancient Egyptian kings ruling during the Second Intermediate Period. Seneb- Mystery.” Current World Archaeology 64(2014): 18-25. kay ruled near the beginning of this dynasty. Indications

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 41 NEW Matt Olson (left) and Paul DISCOVERIES Verhelst (right) conducted a preliminary examination of Senebkay’s skeleton.

First Glimpse of a New Pharaoh THE REMAINS of SENEBKAY

BY PAUL VERHELST AND MATTHEW OLSON

n January 6, 2014, sunlight fell upon the visage of a pharaoh whom history had forgotten for over three and a half millennia. 5is man was the pharaoh Woseribre-Senebkay. Like virtually every ancient Egyptian royal tomb, Senebkay’s resting place was extensively robbed in an- using his femur length to estimate that he was somewhere tiquity.o Looters opened his wooden co:n, removed his between 1.72 to 1.75 m tall (approximately 5 feet, 9 cartonnage mummy mask, and dragged his mummy from inches), quite tall for an ancient Egyptian of his time. the burial chamber to a location just inside the tomb en- Senebkay’s teeth showed wear associated with consum- trance. When our team found the king’s body, it had been ing food that had grit particles. We also began looking at broken into a number of pieces, presumably during the Senebkay’s bones to determine if he su6ered any health robbers’ search for jewelry and amulets. Senebkay’s torso issues during his lifetime. So far, we noticed deterioration lay on its left side, facing east, near his disarticulated arms. concentrated on the right clavicle and 7rst rib, but the His hips and the long bones of his legs were directly to few days we were able to spend with him did not give us the south, while his skull lay displaced behind his pelvis. enough time to determine if this deterioration happened Small fragments of linen near the bones indicate that his before or after he died. body had undergone some form of mummi7cation and What we learned about Senebkay this past season wrapping prior to burial. represents a preliminary analysis of this forgotten king. 5e following day, Senebkay’s jumbled remains arrived Additional research on Senebkay’s skeleton in future at the dig house where we began to articulate his relatively seasons will allow us to con7rm and improve upon these intact skeleton while piecing together Senebkay’s osteo- preliminary results as well as look at genetic and dating biography, an account of the king’s life through the exami- methods that might connect Senebkay to other skeletal nation of his skeletal remains. His skull and pelvic bones remains found in nearby tombs. It is with great enthusiasm con7rmed that the skeleton was male. 5e pelvic bones that we continue to learn more about Senebkay, the also played an important role in determining Senebkay’s pharaoh that we will ensure history never forgets again. approximate age through the pubic symphysis, a small area where the two hipbones join in the front of the pelvic PAUL VERHELST AND MATTHEW OLSON are graduate students in region, which indicated that Senebkay died sometime in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations his 40s. In addition, we determined Senebkay’s stature by at the University of Pennsylvania.

42 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM HIDDEN TREASURES Abydos in the Basement

BY JENNIFER HOUSER WEGNER

t the turn of the last century, long before the Penn Museum began its work at Abydos under David O’Connor and William Kelly Simpson in the late 1960s, the site of Abydos in southern Egypt was the focus of intense archaeological exploration. At that time, the Penn Museuma was keen to build its Egyptian collection, but it had not yet begun its own archaeological work in Egypt. In order to foster its collection, the Museum provided 7nancial support for archaeological work through a variety of di6erent endowments, such as the Egypt Exploration Fund (founded in 1882 in the United Kingdom); its American counterpart, the American Exploration Society; the Egyptian Research Account (founded by W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1894 with the purpose of training his students in 7eldwork); and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, which Petrie founded in 1905. Because of its 7nancial support, the Penn Museum received a substantial share of the 7nds uncovered by Petrie and other excavators whose work at Abydos in the early 1900s yielded tremendous results. Of the roughly 3,000 artifacts from Abydos in our collection, almost 2,000 of them derive from these early excavations. 5e material consists of some extremely important, fascinating, and beautiful artifacts, of which only a small percentage are on display in our permanent Egyptian Galleries.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 43 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

rguably, the best known and most important of the early group of artifacts from Abydos to enter A the Museum collection are those materials from excavations in and around the royal tombs of the kings of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties (ca. 3000–2675 BCE). 5ese tombs are located in the area of Abydos known as Umm el Qa’ab, which translates as “Mother of the Pots” in Arabic, due to the tremendous quantity of o6ering vessels left on the surface by ancient visitors to the site. Flinders Petrie worked at the royal cemetery from 1900 to 1903 and some of the highlights of our 7rst 8oor Egyptian Gallery—including 1 a calcite vessel with the name of King Narmer, 2 a funerary stela belonging to King Qa’a, and 3 small ivory and ebony tags bearing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions from Egypt—come from 1 these excavations.

See Key to Objects on page 51 for Museum object numbers and information on provenance and materials.

2 3

4 5

44 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

5ese objects are important for understanding the formative decades of a united kingdom that would last for over 3,000 years. 5is material also demonstrates the early use of the hieroglyphic script. Many of the inscribed objects from the royal tombs bear a rectangular serekh, or palace façade, indicating the presence of a royal name 4 . Objects such as the gold-capped vessel 5 on display in the 7rst 8oor Egyptian Gallery and the gold foil 6 used to decorate an object deposited in the Tomb of Khasekhemwy indicate the wealth of these early royal burials. Even incomplete objects 7 o6er testimony to the skills of Egyptian artisans, and some of these objects provide insight into Egypt’s early 7 interactions with its neighbors 8 . In addition to the burial of Egypt’s 7rst named rulers, Umm el Qa’ab was the location of subsidiary graves of royal retainers whose burials surrounded the royal tombs. Petrie excavated dozens of these graves and the Penn Museum houses 27 Early Dynastic stelae, each decorated with the name of the deceased. Interestingly, two of our stelae marked the graves of individuals with dwar7sm 9 .

9 8

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10 he royal cemetery at Umm el Qa’ab remained an important T religious site well beyond the Early Dynastic period. Not only was this the location of the burials of Egypt’s early kings, it was also a site revered as the burial place of the god Osiris. Later pilgrims dedicated o6ering vessels and other types of votive objects at the site. One part of Umm el Qa’ab came to be called “Hekareshu Hill” by Petrie, as he found fantastically beautiful shabtis (funerary 7gures) and bronze model tools all inscribed with the name of a man named Hekareshu. Hekareshu’s tomb was not located at Abydos, but by placing objects bearing his name at the site, he could enjoy proximity to Osiris in the afterlife. 5e Penn Museum collection houses Hekareshu’s bronze model tools 10, some of which bear his name (shown to left of tools). Petrie’s work was not limited to the area of the royal tombs. He also excavated in the area of the Osiris Temple where he found foundation deposits, including this bronze plaque 11. Dating to the 12th Dynasty, this object indicates Middle Kingdom kings’ interest in the site. A similar type of dedicatory artifact, although from a much later date, is also in our collection. A contemporary of Petrie, Algernon Caulfeild, carried out excavations in the area of the Seti Temple in 1901–1902. Interestingly, in his publication of the site, he notes “I should like to have it thoroughly understood that I am not an Egyptologist; I am merely a rolling stone, who spent some months turning over sand and dragging a surveyor’s chain in the neighbourhood of Abydos. I do not guarantee the accuracy of my observations, or the accuracy of my drawings.” One of his 7nds, a small gilded limestone prism inscribed with a dedication text written in Greek is now in our collection 12. Given its 7nd spot 11 near other inscribed material of the Ptolemaic 12 period, scholars have dated this block to the reign of Ptolemy IV (ca. 222–204 BCE). 5is unassuming object gives indication that the temple pylon was rebuilt during the reign of this king and speaks to Ptolemaic interest in the site of Abydos.

46 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

In addition to the work carried out by Petrie, the Egyptian collection also bene7tted greatly from John Garstang’s work at Abydos in the area of Arabeh (the name of a modern village at the site). Garstang trained with Petrie, and, in 1900, he excavated a cemetery site (Cemetery E) where he located graves dating from the Middle Kingdom through the New Kingdom (ca. 1980–1075 BCE). One of his remarkable 7nds was Tomb E108, a disturbed pit tomb that belonged to a man named Hor who bore the titles, Master of the secrets of the palace, Sealer of the King of Lower Egypt, and Overseer of sealers. In an area which tomb robbers had not accessed, Garstang found a rich set of Middle Kingdom jewelry including a girdle with electrum beads in the form of cowries, two ribbed bracelets of gold, a large electrum pendant in the shape of a shell, two small 7sh- shaped gold and feldspar amulets, and a gold charm case 13. Two inscribed scarabs, including a lapis lazuli scarab set into a gold ring, and several strings of beads made of faience, garnet, and amethyst were also discovered, along with a statue of Hor (now on display in our 7rst 8oor Egyptian Gallery). Jewelry of this kind is typically associated with women, which may indicate that a female family member originally shared this tomb.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 47 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

15 ther striking 7nds from Garstang’s excavations include vessels made of brilliant turquoise- O colored faience with black-painted decoration 14, decorative cosmetic containers 15 16, and bronze weapons with ivory handles 17. 5ese 7nds span a number of periods in Egyptian history. Several uncommon items include an unusual bead (or seal) consisting of seven fused cylinders inscribed with the names of several kings of the 12th Dynasty 18 and a curious wax 7gurine (19, left, with three other examples from the British Museum). While the 7gure bears similarities to a shabti, it was originally one of a set of four 7gures (the other three are now lost) representing the four sons of Horus. In this case, the 7gure is Imsety, the god who typically has a human head, in contrast to the animal heads found on the other three gods. By the time of the 21st Dynasty, the use of canopic jars was waning. 5e internal organs were still removed and mummi7ed; however, they were often placed back in the body. Wax images of the four Sons of Horus, 16 who previously decorated the lids of the canopic jars, were wrapped with the internal organs to protect them.

48 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 49 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

20 avid Randall MacIver and another student of Petrie, Arthur C. Mace, also undertook excavations D at Abydos from 1899–1901 in an area of the site termed “Cemetery D.” Here they uncovered graves dating from the Middle Kingdom through the end of the Late Period (ca. 1980–332 BCE). One of the most striking 7nds from these excavations is the block statue of Sitepehu, which is on display in our mummy room 20. 5ey also found an unusual stela decorated with a cut-out ankh sign 21, which belonged to a man named Sobekhotep who held the title “Administrator of the Ruler’s Table.” His wife, Neferuptah, also appears on the stela. 5e burial was disturbed; excavators dated the stela to the 13th to the 17th Dynasties. From a 5ird Intermediate Period grave came an inscribed faience sweret-bead ornament 22, reading “5e high priest of Amun, 21 Pinedjem, son of Piyankh.” 5e man named is Pinedjem I— the high priest of Amun in 5ebes who made the bold move of taking on the epithets and full titulary of pharaoh during the 21st Dynasty. In addition, the excavations also uncovered a group of shattered limestone statuary featuring traces of gilding and inlaid eyes 23. 5ey were buried together and the excavators suggested they might represent materials from a sculptor’s studio dating to the 26th Dynasty. (664–525 BCE) 5e objects illustrated here provide just a glimpse of the fascinating array of artifact types that come from early excavations in Abydos. 5e objects span the full range of ancient Egyptian history from the Predynastic through the Greco-Roman periods indicating the continued importance of Abydos to the ancient Egyptians. 5e material comes 22 from both cemetery and temple contexts and re8ects both royal and non-royal traditions. Egyptologists around the world are very familiar with this Abydene material. However, visitors to the Penn Museum rarely get a chance to see these artifacts, which are some of the many hidden treasures housed in our Egyptian storage collection.

JENNIFER HOUSER WEGNER is Associate Curator in the Egyptian Section at the Penn Museum.

FOR FURTHER READING O’Connor, David, and David Silverman. “5e University Museum in Egypt: 5e Past.” Expedition 21.2 (1979): 1-45. O’Connor, David. Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris. London and New York: 5ames and Hudson, 2009.

50 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

Key to Objects

Egypt Exploration Fund (W.M.F. Petrie) Egyptian Research Account (J. Garstang) 1. UPM object #E9510, Umm el Qa ‘ab Tomb B6/13, Dynasty 1, 13. UP M object #E9190A-B (bracelets), E9195 (cowrie beads), calcite, H. 26.9 cm E9198 (amulet case), E9193 (scarab), E9206 (hedgehog scarab), 2. UPM object #E6878, Umm el Qa ‘ab Tomb Q, Dynasty 1, basalt, H. E9192 (ring), E9194 A-B (ﬁsh pendants), E9191 (pectoral), 1.43 m Dynasty 12, Tomb of Hor, electrum, gold, lapis lazuli, feldspar, 3. F rom left, top then bottom, UPM object #E9396, E9403, E6880, glazed steatite E9395, E9393, E9394, Umm el Qa ‘ab, Early Dynastic Period, ivory 14. UP M object #E9207, Dynasty 12, Tomb E20, faience and ebony 15. UP M object #E9349 (kohl pot, Tomb E124), E9283 (kohl pot lid, 4. UPM object #E9556, E6881, E6862, Umm el Qa ‘ab, Dynasty 1-2, Tomb 193), date unknown, faience marble 16. UP M object #E9282, Dynasty 18, limestone (blackened) kohl tube 5. UP M object #E9594, Tomb of Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2, stone and gold 17. UP M object #E9258, Late Middle Kingdom-Second Intermediate 6. UPM object #E6883, Tomb of Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2, gold Period, Tomb E156, bronze dagger with ivory handle 7. UPM object #E6865, Umm el Qa ‘ab Tombs U and T, inscribed 18. UP M object #E9212, Dynasty 12, Tomb 282, glazed steatite bead/ fragment of rock crystal bowl (“Mafdet, Lady of the House of Life”) seal 8. UPM object #E9381, Umm el Qa ‘ab Tomb B17, Dynasty 1, ivory 19. UP M object #E9248 (object on left), Tomb E256, date unknown, fragment with bound Libyan captive Tomb E256, wax visceral ﬁgure. Second image courtesy the British 9. F rom left, UPM object #E9184, E9933, E9499 belonging to Dedu, Museum a dwarf, E9186, Umm el Qa ‘ab, Dynasty 1, limestone funerary stelae Egypt Exploration Fund (D.R. MacIver and A.C. Mace) 10. UP M object #E9240 (yoke), E9241 (hoe), E9242 (adze), 20. UP M object #E9217, Dynasty 18 (reign of Hatshepsut), Tomb D9, E9243-E-9244 (bags), Umm el Qa ‘ab “Hekareshu Hill,” Dynasty sandstone statue with pigment 18, bronze model implements 21. UP M object #E9952, Dynasty 13-17, Tomb D78, limestone stela 11. UP M object #E11528, Dynasty 12, bronze plaque found in bricks with pigment at Abydos Temple (white paint added in modern times) 22. UP M object #E6766, Dynasty 21, Tomb 28, faience amulet 23. From left, UPM object #E9218, E9223, E9219, Dynasty 26, Egyptian Research Account (A. Caulfeild) limestone statuary fragments with inlay and gilding 12. UP M object #E13376, reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator, limestone dedication block with gilding

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 51 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

SAVING HISTORY !e Conservation of Painted Co%n Fragments from Abydos

BY MOLLY GLEESON

rchaeologists from the Penn Museum are currently searching for tombs related to the Middle Kingdom community at South Abydos. In the Museum’s collection are artifactsa of this same time period but from North Abydos. One of these is a fragmentary co:n—beautifully decorated—that is a good example termites, many of the delicate painted details are preserved. of an elite funerary object dating to the same era as the 5e paint is actively 8aking, however, and has signi7cant funerary complex of Senwosret III. Along with other areas of loss revealing the gesso preparatory layer, which is conservation projects underway in the Museum’s In the powdery and missing in many Artifact Lab Gallery, we are working on seven fragments of areas as well. Compared to Visit In the Artifact this Middle Kingdom painted wooden co:n. the hand-colored drawing in Lab: Conserving John Garstang, supported by the Museum through Garstang’s publication, we can Egyptian Mummies the Egypt Exploration Fund, excavated these fragments in assume that much of the damage in the Third Floor 1901 from the North Cemetery of Abydos, Cemetery E, occurred prior to excavation. Galleries to watch Tomb E234. He mentioned these co:n fragments in his Certainly the insect damage live mummy conservation and 1901 publication and included a hand-colored drawing. occurred in the burial environ- ask questions. In the Garstang and others were struck by the remarkable quality ment, and it appears that most Artifact Lab is made of the painting, as illustrated in the 7nely rendered depic- of the damage to the painted possible through tion of objects: collars, a mirror, and other elements that surface pre-dates excavation. 5e the generosity of compose the object frieze. red 7ll/adhesive material visible Frances Rockwell and John R. 5ere are no records indicating that these co:n frag- on the fragments is evidence of a Rockwell, W64, ments were ever exhibited, likely due to their fragile condi- previous treatment likely carried WG66. tion. Although the wood is severely insect-damaged by out soon after excavation and

52 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

prior to acquisition by the Museum. TOP: Garstang’s hand- is also di:cult to distinguish between white and 5e conservation of these co:n fragments colored drawing from yellow. Imaging and analytical techniques may 1901 appears on the began with a careful study of their materi- left. On the right is a help characterize these pigments. als and current condition. By examining the 2013 photograph of After the boards have been studied, treat- boards closely under a microscope, and by using the cofﬁn fragments. ment will commence. Conservation will involve BOTTOM: The red imaging techniques such as infrared re8ectogra- ﬁll material on this surface cleaning, removal of old restoration phy and ultraviolet 8uorescence photography, fragment is outlined materials, consolidation of the paint and gesso, and analytical tools, including a portable x-ray in blue. and stabilization of the wood substrate. Once 8uorescence analyzer (pXRF), it is possible to treatment is complete, the co:n boards will be better understand their manufacture and treatment his- exhibited for the 7rst time in the Museum’s history. In the tory. For instance, the painted decoration on these boards meantime, these boards will be on view as they undergo appears to be in white and/or yellow, red, black, and conservation treatment In the Artifact Lab. green. However, upon closer inspection, it is evident that some of the details that appear to be black were originally MOLLY GLEESON is Rockwell Project Conservator at the green and/or blue, and the color has altered over time. It Penn Museum.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 53 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM Excavations took place in 1969 beneath the Portal Temple of Ramses II. The Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition house is in the upper left.

The "ST PARTAGE

Dividing Finds from the 1960s Excavations BY DAVID O’CONNOR

n 1967 a new team of excavators had been the great funerary god Osiris, whom the Egyp- arrived at Abydos, a site of great tians believed to have been buried at Abydos, although extent located on the western side of other gods and goddesses were also venerated there. the Nile Valley in southern Egypt. In spite of these early discoveries, the severe denuda- 5e co-directors of the team were tion of many of the monumental structures, large and myself, on behalf of the Penn Museum, and William small, and the sheer number of as yet unexcavated archae- Kelly Simpson of Yale University. We had been preceded ological remains, left many important issues about Abydos by many otheri teams stretching back to the 1860s. Yet unresolved. As a result Abydos particularly impressed me Abydos then—and for that matter, now—still had many during an initial survey of possible sites throughout Egypt archaeological mysteries to explore. 5e earlier excava- that we considered for our excavations. Abydos had been tors had de7ned the overall picture of Abydos’ archaeol- a place of great importance to the Egyptians and deserved ogy, ranging from temples and royal tombs or cenotaphs to be better understood. It was also possible to do every (empty tombs) through vast cemeteries and ancient town kind of archaeology at the site. sites to multitudes of burials of mummi7ed sacred birds In initiating new excavations at Abydos, Kelly and I, and animals. 5e primary focus for much of this activity who had received a permit to excavate in North Abydos

54 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM

from the Antiquities Organization (now called the It so happened that our work over 1967–1969 gener- Ministry of Antiquities), hoped that over time we could ated art works and artifacts of particular interest, and in foster the work of younger Egyptologists in other parts of any case a partage was required as one of the conditions Abydos, a prospect that fortunately was realized; projects of our permit. Focused as I was on 7eldwork intended now cover most of Abydos. to recover information about the past, I was somewhat Our 7rst seasons of excavation (1967, 1968, and 1969) bemused to be instructed by the Egyptian authorities in were particularly hectic ones as the team sought to keep 1969 that we had to crate up our many signi7cant items pace with a wealth of discoveries, while local builders were and get them to the Cairo Museum, where a committee constructing an on-site residence, laboratory, and store- of Egyptian scholars would decide what was to be kept rooms that the Egyptian authorities had given us permis- by the Cairo Museum, and what could be assigned to the sion to build. It also happened project’s sponsoring museums. I that these 7rst seasons produced believe this was the last time that our most “museum worthy” a partage on such a large scale 7nds. In modern archaeology, was carried out in Egypt; later all archaeological data, from art the division policy became more works to broken pottery, are of restrictive and eventually was equal value for scholarly research brought to an end. 5is was a and require the same high levels relief for archaeologists working of documentation. And we had in Egypt; thanks to the generos- not gone into the 7eld with the ity of the Egyptian government speci7c aim of locating objects we were—and still are—privi- that might eventually, if the Egyp- leged to carry out research in tian authorities so wished, become Egypt, and we are not interested included in the collections of our in the acquisition of objects for two sponsoring institutions, the museums. Penn Museum and the Peabody 5is particular division, Museum at Yale University. however, provided impressive However, it so happened that additions to the Egyptian col- the Egyptian Antiquities Orga- lection of the Penn Museum, nization (which reported to the objects which had signi7cance Ministry of Culture) had revived the old system of The painted limestone for many di6erent levels of Egyptian culture, “partage” or division. 5is long-standing practice head of Ramses II and for understanding some of the unique from the Portal Temple went back to the 19th century and ensured that, un- at Abydos is now on activities that took place at Abydos in ancient der the supervision of the Antiquities Organization, display in the Penn times. Two examples of these items provide art works and artifacts discovered by an expedition Museum’s Egypt some impression of what I mean. could be shared between the Museum of Egyptian (Mummies) Gallery. 5e most visually striking object con- (UPM object #69- Antiquities in Cairo and the foreign institutions 29-1) sisted of the shoulders and most of the face sponsoring the project. Renewing the division policy of a colossal limestone statue of the famous was part of a larger initiative—to grant permits to pharaoh Ramses II. Much of the color had an increased number of reputable archaeological projects to survived, providing a good idea of the attractively colorful excavate in Egypt in response to foreign participation in a impression such large-scale statuary could give. 5e statue massive campaign of salvage archaeology in Egyptian Nubia. fragments were discovered in the ruins of a temple Ramses 5e salvage operations took place in an area that became the II had had built overlooking the Osiris Temple at Abydos. reservoir created by a new dam at Aswan, in southern Egypt. 5e famous archaeologist Flinders Petrie had partially

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 55 ABYDOS IN THE PENN MUSEUM RIGHT: Over 1,000 objects entered the Egyptian Section from explored the ruins, and thought they represented the last partage. Here is one example, a a unique portal structure giving access to the commemorative stela of vast cemetery to the west, but our excavations the late New Kingdom revealed it was more of a traditional temple type, (ca. 1100 BCE) with with a pylon, forecourt, and roofed temple. veneration of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. (UPM object 5e head and shoulders survived the re- #69-29-126) BELOW: moval of most of the temple (for the purpose of This “window” stela of reusing the building blocks) in antiquity. I still Ukhhotep is made of limestone. (UPM object vividly remember the eerie impression its boldly #69-29-135) de7ned eyes imparted as the head lay on its side in the dusty grime of the ruins. Restored, the a remote desert location. Every head and shoulders now have a powerful pres- year, a great festival procession ence in the Penn Museum’s 3rd 8oor Egyptian of Osiris traversed this route, Gallery. 5e modeling is not very subtle, but and the chapels housed images that is because this is architectural statuary; of Egyptians who thus hoped originally, the colossal statue itself, when intact, to “witness” this important was engaged with the masonry temple walls, religious event, literally forever. like other statues of similar size that were ranged However, we had no direct around a courtyard within the temple. proof for our supposition until 5is impressive object added further we discovered a small “window” strength to the Museum’s Egyptian collection. stela, its upper half missing, In overall substance and quality, this collection lying in situ in front of a small can be ranked as one of the major ones in the chapel, in the doorway of which United States, and it is particularly strong in the stela had originally been Ramesside period (19th and 20th Dynasties) set. 5is archaeologically and art. 5ese include the massive sphinx of Ramses historically important item was II, rededicated to his successor king Merenptah; much also assigned to the Penn Museum. Only about 23 cm high architecture from the latter’s palace; and a 7nely modeled (approximately 9 inches), this “window” would have framed statue of king Ramses III. a small statue within the chapel; via this image the man 5e second object I discuss here is much more represented—named Ukh-hotep—expected to always view modest, yet shows how even minor works of art can be Osiris’ procession, according to the text on the stela itself. of considerable signi7cance. We discovered that below Many other artifacts—over 1,000 altogether—came into the temple of Ramses II lay a dense mass of mud brick the Museum’s Egyptian collection as part of the last partage. chapels, some comparatively large and many quite small Together they provide a rich illustration of the Egyptians’ (we explored these further in 1977). 5e associated pot- enduring devotion to the cult of Osiris at Abydos. tery showed they dated to the Middle Kingdom; niches in their mud brick walls indicated that many of them had DAVID O’CONNOR is Emeritus Curator of the Egyptian Section once contained inscribed stelae, but almost all of these and the Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Ancient Egyptian had been removed, some probably anciently, others during Art, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. poorly documented clearances in the 19th century. However, we surmised these chapels were examples FOR FURTHER READING of structures frequently mentioned in Middle Kingdom O’Connor, David. “Abydos: 5e University Museum-Yale texts from Abydos that had overlooked the processional University Expedition.” Expedition 21.2 (1979): 46-49. way between the Osiris Temple and his supposed tomb at

56 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 FROM THE ARCHIVES

5e Discovery of the Palace of Merenptah at Memphis BY ALESSANDRO PEZZATI

emphis, Egypt was one

of the largest cities of

antiquity. According to M tradition, it was founded by the mythical king Menes, the ﬁrst pharaoh and uniﬁer of Upper and Lower Egypt, ca. 3000 BCE.

It was the capital throughout the Old Kingdom, and was only rivaled by Thebes and Alexandria many centuries later. It was not abandoned until the time of the Arab conquests and the founding of Fostat (now part of Cairo) in 641 CE.

5e site of Memphis is 15 miles 1913. 5e Penn (25 km) south of Cairo, and, for Museum, with the centuries, its great ruins were pil- backing of coal heir laged to build the nearby Arab cities. Eckley Brinton Coxe, By the time archaeologists arrived Jr. (President of the in the 19th century, Memphis was Museum Board in mostly hidden underground, much 1910–1916), was pas- of it below the water table. Its lack sionate about ancient TOP: Beginning of the excavations at Memphis, of obvious architecture and mas- Egypt and hired Clarence Stanley April, 1915. The Nile is behind the palm trees. sive size made it less appealing and Fisher (1876–1941) in July 1914 to (UPM Image #36668) BOTTOM: General view notoriously di:cult to excavate. 5e head its Egyptian archaeology proof the Palace of the pharaoh Merenptah (1213–1204 BCE) showing progress of the great British archaeologist Flinders gram. By the end of the year he was excavations at the South Portal, 1915. (UPM Petrie worked there from 1909 to in the 7eld. 5e outbreak of World Image #33944)

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 57 FROM THE ARCHIVES

War I that year meant Column (UPM Object that Egypt became an #E13577) from the Palace of Merenptah. Pen and ink English Protectorate, and drawing with watercolor by most of the European Clarence S. Fisher, ca. 1920. permits for excavation in UPM Image #244785 Egypt were put on hold. As an American institu- prepared the Museum tion, the Penn Museum to build a new wing, the was not hampered by the Eckley Brinton Coxe, war, and soon obtained Jr., Egyptian Wing, in permission to excavate a 1922. Construction was portion of Memphis. completed by 1924, but According to it took two additional !e Museum Journal years to move the col- (VIII, 4; 1917), Fisher lections into the wing, was in8uenced in his including the pieces selection of the site of the palace and the by the discovery the Museum’s sphinx. Un- previous year by C. C. expectedly, the 8oor of Edgar, the Inspector of the 3rd 8oor Egyptian Antiquities for Lower Gallery, where the pal- Egypt, of cartouches of ace elements were to be Merenptah in a small displayed, was not built room that had been exposed by to carry such a load. 5e pieces were villagers, indicating a royal structure. thus moved to the lower gallery, but Working in that area with a force due to the height of the ceiling, the of 180 men and laying a railroad portal and columns have never been section to haul away the dirt, Fisher displayed at full height. uncovered the Palace of Merenptah, 5e dream to display the palace the 13th son and successor of Ramses in its glory has not died. In the II, who ruled from 1213 to 1204 1970s, after the completion of Clarence S. Fisher BCE. the Academic Wing, the Museum Shortly after Merenptah’s death proposed to create a glass-enclosed the mud-brick palace burned, and and painted. It is a prime example of gallery in one of the inner courtyards the collapse of the building helped Egyptian royal architecture. to house the pieces. Unfortunately, to preserve it. 5e complex, used for Fisher obtained a number of the cost proved to be excessive at the state occasions, covered two-thirds architectural elements from the time. 5e Penn Museum has recently of an acre. Fisher excavated a large palace for the Penn Museum, includ- renewed e6orts to move the palace courtyard, a throne room, and the ing columns, doorframes, lintels, upstairs. 5e hope is to display the private living quarters of the pharaoh. and a monumental gateway. More gateway and the columns as the an- 5e palace had been splendidly deco- than 50 tons of objects were shipped cient Egyptians last saw them. rated: the walls were stuccoed and back to Philadelphia in 1924. Sadly, painted in bright colors, and massive Eckley Coxe had died in 1916 at Alessandro Pezzati is Senior Archivist at doorways and colonnades were carved the early age of 44. But his bequest the Penn Museum.

58 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MEMBER NEWS

MAJOR NEW INITIATIVES Building Transformation: A Strategic Plan for the Penn Museum 2013-2020

In the Fall 2013 issue of Expedition, Analysis of Archaeological Materials, Egyptian Gallery. 5is has been a Williams Director Julian Siggers a major collaboration with Penn’s long-awaited project, since the Coxe outlined the Penn Museum’s new School of Arts and Sciences, will be Wing was opened in 1927 with mission statement—!e Penn Museum housed in the new Conservation and insu:cient 8oor load capacity in that transforms understanding of the human Teaching labs scheduled to open at gallery to safely bear the weight of the experience—and the four pillars of the Museum in August 2014. large-scale monuments. 5e Museum our mandate to ful7ll this intends the renovated gal- mission: research, teaching, leries to re8ect the Muse- collections stewardship, and um’s own past and current public engagement. research. 5e Egyptian Using this new mission Galleries, for example, statement as a guide, the will include collections Museum has been working from past excavations at on a new Strategic Plan Abydos, together with through 2020, outlining breaking news about the key priorities which will current 7eldwork led by support the four pillars, as Dr. Josef Wegner, which well as the values central to contributed to the recent the Penn Compact 2020: discovery of the tomb of Inclusion, Innovation, and an unknown pharaoh, Impact. Woseribre-Senebkay (see Dr. Siggers believes that article in this issue). at the heart of everything 5e third initiative is a we set out to achieve lies a new partnership with the 7rm belief that the Museum should 5e second initiative is This rendering of the School District of Phila- strive to change the way our visitors a complete renovation and Merenptah throne delphia—driven by the room was created in see the past and transform the way reinstallation of the galleries 1920 by Museum artist Museum’s public educa- in which they see the world and their that house our iconic collec- Mary Louise Baker. tion mission and the Penn place in it. 5e new initiatives will be tions from Asia, the Ancient Compact 2020’s commit- our primary focus, alongside steward- Near East, and Egypt. A highlight ment to local engagement—that will ship of and increasing digital access to will be the installation of architec- serve every 7th grade public school the magni7cent collection entrusted to tural elements from the Palace of student in the city. our care. Merenptah—one of the few Egyptian We will share more details on 5e 7rst initiative is a new center palaces ever excavated and the one these initiatives and other aspects for the teaching of archaeological sci- most substantially represented in a of the Strategic Plan in these pages ence that will ensure Penn’s eminence museum collection anywhere in the and at future special Penn Museum in our 7eld. 5e Center for the world—at full height in the 3rd 8oor Member events.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 59 MEMBER NEWS

MEET OUR MEMBERS Andrea Kramer, L76, PAR

ndrea Kramer, L76, PAR, has been a SAVE THE DATE FOR THESE member of the Loren Eiseley Leadership MEMBERS’ EVENTS Giving Society and the Director’s Council LAST EVENT IN THE GREAT for four years. We sat down with her recently VOYAG ES LECTURE SERIES A Wednesday, June 4, 6:00 pm to discuss her involvement with and love for the Penn Museum. Darwin’s Beagle Voyage Michael Weisberg, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania You and your husband particularly enjoyed the $2 Museum members; $5 general public both attended Penn Law. behind-the-scenes views of Was that how you ﬁrst the Museum’s exhibitions LOOK AHEAD: became acquainted with and collections o6ered 2014–2015 LECTURE SERIES the Museum? as a bene7t for being a 5e Penn Museum’s 2014–2015 I grew up in Missouri, and member at this level. monthly lecture series Great Wonders my 7rst time in Philadel- From the standpoint of the World, begins Wednesday, phia was when I began of the Director’s Council, October 1. Join Dr. David Silverman to my studies at Penn’s School of Law, I get a great deal of satisfaction from wonder at the Great Pyramid of Giza. which was also where Lee and I met helping and possibly solving current Lectures continue at 6 pm on the 7rst on the 7rst day of classes. As a law problems that are confronting the Wednesday of each month through student, I would visit the Museum Museum and to see some of our sug- June 5, 2015. Subscriptions to all nine as a respite. I studied antiquities and gestions enacted. It is quite reward- lectures can be purchased online at art history as an undergraduate, and ing to see your volunteer work make www.penn.museum/great-wonders. $15 I have always loved the Museum’s a di6erence at an institution in an Museum members; $40 general public. 7ne collection of Greek vases. I have immediate manner. also been fascinated by the Museum’s MEMBERS-ONLY collection of cylinder seals from the Your LES membership at the Silver “LIVE FROM THE FIELD” EVENT ancient Near East. 5e intricate de- Circle level provides critical operat- Members are invited to gather at the signs of the seals are quite interesting. ing funds for the Museum and also Museum to hear the latest updates live distinguishes you as a member of from researchers working in the 7eld. What have you found the most the University’s Benjamin Franklin rewarding about your involvement Society. What does it mean to you to Tuesday, June 10 at 10:00 am with the Museum through the Direc- both support your interests and your Abydos tor’s Council and the Loren Eiseley alma mater at the same time? Josef Wegner, Associate Curator, Society (LES)? Although I give loyally to the Law Egyptian Section, will report on his Joining LES has allowed me to School, I view the Museum as a spe- excavations and investigations into the become reacquainted with the cial place that needs my support and existence of other unknown tombs in Museum and visit more often. I have that of others. Abydos, Egypt.

60 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 Members at the Museum Over the past few months, members enjoyed a number of exclusive special events.

1 Loren Eiseley Society members in the Gold Circle and above joined Lucy 1 Fowler Williams, Associate Curator and Senior Keeper, American Section, and Lynn Grant, Head Conservator, for a behind-the-scenes peek at artifacts being conserved for installation in the exhibition, Native American Voices: !e People—Here and Now.

2 Guests at the annual Curators’ Party enjoyed a panel discussion, moderated by Julian Siggers, Williams Director (far right), about how a Penn educa- tion shapes careers in the museum world. Panelists included (from left to right) William Valerio, G87, W04, 5e Patricia Van Burgh Allison Direc- 2 tor and CEO at the Woodmere Art Museum; Peter Reed, G83, GR89, the Senior Deputy Director of Curato- rial A6airs at the Museum of Modern Art; and Judith Dolkart, G97, GR04, Deputy Director of Art and Archival Collections and Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes Foundation.

3 For a New Members’ Welcome Event, William Wierzbowski, Keeper of the Collections in the American Section, took a group of new members into storage to discuss some of his favorite pieces from the Museum’s extraordinary collection. 3

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 61 NEW ACQUISITIONS

donated by Dana Eisman Cohen, Japanese Paintings C88, and Dr. Michael E. Cohen, D89, of New York City. According to Asian Section Assistant Curator Added to Collection Adam Smith, the Japanese artists were brothers, and the three items t its December #lm, and several collections of therefore make an appealing 2013 meeting, the excavation records. ensemble. Mori Sosen is the Penn Museum’s Among the objects accepted better known of the two, and his Acquisitions were three Japanese paintings: a pair paintings are well represented in CommitteeA considered donations of of hanging scrolls in ink and light Japanese and U.S. collections, with 12 groups of objects, 3 collections of color on paper, “Two Deer beneath several examples in the Museum of vintage photographs, many reels of a Withered Tree,” and “!ree Fine Arts, Boston. Dr. Smith and Monkeys on a Rock by a Waterfall” Asian Section Curator Dr. Nancy by Mori Sosen (1747–1821), and a Steinhardt believe the paintings gilded two-fold screen, “Deer and to be of historical value, and an Azalea Blossoms,” by Mori Shūhō important resource for teaching (1738–1823) PICTURED, generously Japanese Art History.

62 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 MUSEUM MOSAIC

Conservation and Teaching Labs to Open Fall 2014

A new commitment from longtime accommodating up to 12 people, and Penn Museum benefactors A. Bruce a classroom adjacent to the Human and Margaret R. Mainwaring has Skeletal Lab with open storage for the completed funding for a full renovation famed Morton Collection of Human of the conservation and teaching Crania, which will accommodate 25- laboratories on the 7rst 8oor of the 30 and also have digital capabilities. West Wing of the Museum’s original Guided by a Faculty Steering 1899 building. Construction on the Committee and sta6ed by teaching renovated spaces began in January 2014 specialists, CAAM will focus primarily and is scheduled for completion by the on Ceramics, Digital Archaeology, beginning of the Fall 2014 semester, in Archaeobotany, Archaeozoology, time for the launch of the new Center Human Skeletal Analysis, Lithics, for the Analysis of Archaeological Archaeometallurgy, and Conservation. Materials (CAAM)—one of three Courses, independent studies, and major initiatives of the Museum’s new mentoring will be o6ered from strategic plan, and a key collaboration introductory to advanced levels, between the Museum and the School enabling both undergraduate and of Arts and Sciences. Other lead donors graduate students to develop from to the renovation of the laboratories their 7rst experiences with laboratory- TOP: ConservationConservation lab, pre-2011. Lab BOTTOM – Summer: 2014 are the late Crawford H. Greenewalt, based analysis into independent Conservation lab, summer 2014 (Architect’s Jr., Charles K. Williams II, Daniel G. researchers. CAAM teaching rendering courtesy Samuel Anderson Kamin, Frederick J. Manning, Carrie specialists will make contributions Architects) and Ken Cox, Joseph and Bonnie to a wide array of courses in a range Lundy, and Frances and Bayard Storey. of departments and will support the 5e Penn Museum is deeply grateful Renovated lab spaces within research mission of the Museum. to the Mainwarings and all of the the West Wing suite will include a 5e commitment from Bruce project donors and looks forward large conservation workspace with and Peggy Mainwaring will also fund to recognizing them at a dedication smaller, shared rooms for x-ray and the 7rst CAAM teaching specialist. ceremony in Fall 2014. photography, mount-making and brazing, and matting and packing; a large, general-purpose teaching and NAGPRA Repatriation Visit research dry/clean lab with fume hood; a large lab designed for the On behalf of the University, the Penn Tribal Historic Preservation O:cer, teaching of Human Skeletal Analysis Museum’s NAGPRA Committee and James Gri:n, Cultural Specialist, which can also accommodate some transferred the human remains of received the remains on behalf of other specialties; and a smaller six Cherokee individuals to tribal the Cherokee Nation, the United general-purpose wet lab. Other representatives of the Eastern Band of Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians teaching spaces will include a Cherokee Indians in North Carolina in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band seminar room with digital capabilities on September 24, 2013. Tyler Howe, of Cherokee Indians.

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 63 MUSEUM MOSAIC

Renovation of Rainey Auditorium Completed

Over the December/January break, programmed of the the Penn Museum’s Rainey Audito- Museum’s event and rium was refurbished with new seat- lecture spaces. During ing, carpeting, and railings thanks the last 7scal year it was to a generous challenge grant from used for over 70 Penn Annette Merle-Smith and prompt Museum public events, responses from her fellow Penn Mu- including lectures, seum Overseers Josie Hueber, John R. World Culture Day (Rick) Rockwell, Bruce Mainwaring, presentations, 7lm Bill Conrad, Eric Schoenberg, Carlos screenings, exhibition Nottebohm, Mary Bert Gutman, and opening programs, John Hover. children’s programs, and Named for the renowned member events. It was archaeologist and former Museum also used for more than 30 additional Forum and Student Performing Arts, Director Froehlich Rainey, the Penn public events including those and is used for over 350 hours of Auditorium is the most frequently o6ered by the Penn Humanities Penn classes annually.

Students Learn about Mummi7cation Mummy Makers is a popular new and for those who dial in via our scienti7c aspects, but also the reli- hands-on workshop developed by the Distance Learning Program. In the gious signi7cance of the process. 5e Museum Learning Programs Depart- 45-minute workshop, students receive workshop features two fabricated life- ment. 5is program is available both an in-depth look at Egyptian mum- like bodies, showing our “deceased” for students visiting the Museum mi7cation, investigating not only its model, Mr. Ulysses Penn, in di6erent stages, before and after the desiccation (drying out) process. Students witness each step of the mummi7cation process including brain removal (using jello brains), evisceration, desiccation, and wrapping. 5e program contains the perfect combination of science, math, and the study of ancient history with just enough of an ick factor to keep students engaged and interested. Mummy Makers has quickly become a staple of our outreach o6erings and its participant numbers continue to grow.

64 EXPEDITION Volume 56 Number 1 LOOKING BACK

n 1929, the Penn Museum appointed Alan Rowe 7eld director for excavations at Meydum, Egypt. Rowe, an Englishman, had previously worked for the Museum at Beth Shean, Israel. 5e work at Meydum was short lived. Due to the Great Depression, Ithe excavations were terminated in 1931. Located 76 km (50 miles) south of Cairo, the Meydum pyramid is over 300 feet tall and believed to have been built ca. 2600 BCE during the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Snefru. 5e pyramid was originally built as a step pyramid but later was modi7ed into the more traditional Egyptian pyramid construction. 5e extension eventually collapsed, leaving behind a ruin of the original step pyramid. 5is image (UPM image #34654) is a view of the pyramid at Meydum from the west and was taken by Fadil N. Saba during the Museum’s excavations. —Eric W. Schnittke, Assistant Archivist

EXPEDITION Spring 2014 65 3260 South Street | Philadelphia, PA | 19104

NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #2563 PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104-6324, U.S.A.

More Reasons to Visit the Penn Museum! Culinary Expeditions 40 WINKS WITH THE SPHINX Now Available The Penn Museum’s popular sleepover invites guests Calling all foodies! Culinary to an overnight “expedition” of the Museum. Select Expeditions: A Celebration of Food Friday nights through June! For dates, visit and Culture Inspired by Penn www.penn.museum/40winks. Museum Treasures is the result of a two-year collaboration between SUMMER NIGHTS @ PENN MUSEUM the Women’s Committee and STARTS JUNE 18 Museum staff. This beautiful full-color book includes Every Wednesday night during the summer, P.M. new photographs of food-related artifacts, short essays @ Penn Museum becomes Summer Nights—a describing global culinary traditions and cooking concert series that has become a favored destination techniques, and fascinating facts about common and in the beautiful Stoner Courtyard for many West exotic ingredients. Over 80 delicious, kitchen-tested Philadelphians and Penn employees, students, recipes are also included. families, and Museum members. For the after-work crowd, PM @ Penn Museum Summer Nights offers Let your culinary expedition begin! To purchase great live performances in a relaxed outdoor locale, Culinary Expeditions, ($25.00 plus tax) call 215.898.9202 or email ardeth@ as well as drinks and light fare from the Pepper Mill FPO Café’s garden bar, and the chance to explore the Penn sas.upenn.edu. All proceeds beneﬁt Museum’s many galleries. the Penn Museum.

www.penn.museum/expedition

66 EXPEDITION Volume 55 Number 2