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Julie Hankey st important to recognize wentimportant what before. Flind p t smal ewse I.Teecvto fthistemple (now as known Theexcavation of Senwosret III. large temple dedicated to theMiddle Kingdom inside adoorway afairly apparent of thattheblock waspart lat Beautiful-is-the- The mo T U ple Thatcom- Ahmose. the 18thDynasty, thefounder of pharaoh, complex adifferent associated with another large mortuary yet of eventually waspart realizedthey thatthispyramid however, Despite itsrelative proximity, Senwosret III’s temple. to excavate located about1kmto thesouth of apyramid season.the 1899–1900field by kei yamamoto South Abydos 1899–1903 First Discovery The Excitement of gtosi h rabten19 n 93o eafo their of inthearea betweenigations 1899and1903on behalf oetdrco,ternwe gpooit William Matthew therenowned Egyptologist, roject director, o iest fChicago. niversity of e 1899–1900: RANDALL-MacIVER AND ne b x ttesm ie Randall-MacIver’s teammate MaceAt began thesametime, in 1899, l snwbigivsiae ySehnP avyo the of Harvey is now investigated being by Stephen P. r ere eoedsusn u e eerh itis Before discussingournew research, ers Petrie. hpl ehdsm e i rudi.It soonbecame some hehad men digaround it. chapel, lo r tuar c k p he Currelly andCharlesT. thefirst archaeologicalinves- undertook Weigall, B. P. E. Arthur Mace, C. Arthur Randall-MacIver, David archaeologists. explorers earlier and lows inthefootsteps of y w r ot c he o ruding from the ground. Expecting to finda Expecting fromruding theground. current expedition mple n ) AR R occupied Randall-MacIver for therest of andal x THUR C.MA o f l-M Se nwosret IIIwasfirst discovered a cI ver aworked noticed lime- CE to South Abydos fol- f w Weigall findingthetomb here, entrance Confident of sure. his attention next building theenclo- behind to brick asmall He turned aburial. tombs since hecould of findnoevidence mastaba but hesoondecided thatthesewere “dummy” tomb, His aimwasto discover thepharaoh’s theenclosure. front of thetwo prominentvating standingin mud-brick structures Weigall by exca- began thesamepharaoh. ably associated with presum- Its maincomponent T-shaped wasagreat enclosure, Senwosret III. thetemple of located 1kmsouthwest about of Petrie had Weigall investigateTwo the cemetery years later, Arthur ound wasdisappointment. rote home, “We are on the eve of a great discovery.” All he All discovery.” agreat “We are on theeve of rote home, Weigall onhiscamel “Laura.” 1901–1902: ARTHUR E.P. B. WEIGALL www .m use um.up e nn.e d u/expedition 11 Determined to find the tomb, he then began digging inside rubbish. Deep, deep down in this hollow one sees the the enclosure itself. Many weeks passed as his workmen dark opening of a rock shaft leading to the tomb pas- removed enormous amounts of sand from the enclosure’s vast sage a quarter of a mile into the heart of the cliffs, court. At the end of the season, they finally located the where gangs of naked men toil and pant and sweat in entrance of a subterranean tomb cut into the bedrock. That the thick, hot air. night armed robbers tried to break into the tomb, but Weigall Despite such unfavorable working conditions, Currelly and his most trusted workmen bravely fought them off. measured and mapped all the major architectural features and The tomb was extensive and intricate, with many features conducted a cursory study of the tomb’s artifacts, including concealing passages to the burial chamber which was hidden numerous fragments of extraordinarily fine calcite vessels. behind a wall. Weigall did find the sarcophagus of Senwosret Late in this season, he also found and excavated several houses III, but alas it had been completely robbed in ancient times! By which form part of the town built in conjunction with the season’s end, Weigall had also unearthed a ritual purification temple and the tomb, concluding the early archaeological house and two large, late Middle Kingdom mastabas adjacent research in this area. to the T-shaped enclosure, but they left careful examination of the subterranean tomb for the following season. currelly’s dig house 1902–1903: CHARLES T. CURRELLY hen Currelly began work at South Abydos in January 1903, Petrie’s main camp was located After Weigall’s promotion into the ranks of the Egyptian W about 3 km away in North Abydos. Currelly therefore Antiquities Service, Currelly recorded the subterranean tomb. built a small hut for himself in South Abydos at the His teammate, Noel Rawnsley, describes the difficulty of this base of the cliffs above the tomb of Senwosret III. task in his memoir, The Resurrection of Oldest : In 2004, we excavated this hut to gain a better In the heart of them is a great devil’s punch-bowl, a understanding of Currelly’s work and his lifestyle in hollow whose sides are slopes of treacherous sand, South Abydos. While conducting this “archaeology of with a single winding path, up which long lines of archaeology,” we recovered orange peels, bones, native boys pass the palm-leaf baskets filled with opened cans of food, pieces of fabric, buttons, a rub- ber shoe sole, and numerous pieces of paper. The lat- ter included instructions for preparing cocoa, an English newspaper, a literary magazine, and an enve- lope postmarked at Alexandria. The most intriguing of all was a note written by Currelly to the main camp asking for more candles to be delivered, presumably to illuminate the work inside the tombs of Senwosret III and Ahmose. Apparently he never sent the note. The hearth inside the hut was still full of charcoal—the remains of Currelly’s last fire at Abydos in April 1903. It looked as if he had left only a week before.

The author excavated the ruins of Currelly’s small dig house in 2004. o t

Charles Currelly on an expedition in Egypt, 1903–1904. With permission o m of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM. a m a Y i e K

12 volume 48, number 2 expedition Egyptology

Although the remains of their hasty excavations often hin- der modern investigations, archaeologists today feel a sense of David collaboration with our predecessors. Whereas these early excavators provide us with the basis for our own studies, our ongoing research continues to add information to advance Randall-MacIver our knowledge about the past. Explorer of Abydos kei yamamoto is a Ph.D. candidate in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Toronto. and Curator of the Egyptian Section

Kei Yamamoto in by jennifer houser wegner Currelly’s hut.

s a young man of 26, the British-born archaeol- ogist and anthropologist David Randall- MacIver began his career working at Abydos as part of the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF) expedition headed by Sir . In 1899–1900A Randall-MacIver discovered and investigated the mortuary temple of Senwosret III. To him goes the credit For Further Reading for initially identifying its royal owner. With Arthur Weigall and Charles Currelly, Randall-MacIver defined the basic Currelly, Charles T. “Ch. IV: The Tomb of Senusret III.” In Abydos Part III, edited by C. T. Currelly, E. R. Ayrton, and A. E. P. Weigall, pp. 22-38, elements of the complex of Senwosret III, providing the pls. 39-41, 43. : Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904. foundation for the Penn Museum’s current excavations at South Abydos. Currelly, Charles T. I Brought the Ages Home. Toronto: Royal Ontario The Museum’s association with Egypt began in 1890, Museum, 1956. when the redoubtable Sara Yorke Stevenson was appointed Hankey, Julie. A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, , the first head of the Egyptian Section. During her tenure and the “Curse of the Pharaoh.” New York: B. Tauris, 2001. the Museum contributed to the fieldwork of the EEF and James, T. G. H., ed. Excavating in Egypt: The Egypt Exploration received important materials from their excavations between Society 1882–1982. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1982. 1890 and 1907. As involved as Stevenson was with acquiring Randall-MacIver, David. “Ch. XI: A Temple of Usertesen III Near Egyptian material, however, she was unable to inaugurate the Abydos.” In El-Amrah and Abydos, edited by D. Randall-MacIver and Museum’s own excavations in Egypt. A. C. Mace, pp. 57-60, pls. 20-21. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902. This honor rather goes to David Randall-MacIver. Through his scientific training and association with Petrie, and his for- Rawnsley, Henry D. The Resurrection of Oldest Egypt. London: Beaver Press, 1904. midable energy and ambition, Randall-MacIver was appointed the Museum’s first professional Egyptological Curator when Weigall, Arthur E. P. “Ch. III: The Tomb and Cemetery of Senusret III.” Stevenson resigned in 1905. Funded by Eckley B. Coxe, Jr., In Abydos Part III, edited by C. T. Currelly, E. R. Ayrton, and A. E. P.

a the Museum’s own fieldwork in Egypt began in 1906–1907 k z Weigall, pp. 11-21, pls. 36-39, 42. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904. s i

L under Randall-MacIver’s direction, quickly establishing the e t a K

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