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Home , Asyut, Ernesto Schiaparelli, Middle Egypt, Upper Egypt

Colloquium abstracts

Asyut through time:

conflict and culture

in Middle

The Annual Egyptological Colloquium

Thursday 20 July and Friday 21 July 2017

BP Lecture Theatre,

Asyut, rural shrines, and the rise of anthropological context rarely preserved in the the Coptic Church Egyptian valley: a middle-sized provincial Phillip Booth, University of Oxford town combined with its hinterland in a continuous Starting from an unpublished text attributed to historical setting accessible for research. Constantine, Bishop of Asyut (c. AD 600) – the Our presentation will report on the first three field First Encomium on Saint John of Heraclea – this seasons, focusing on the documentation of Shutb’s paper explores the connection between rural ancient heritage in relation to the surrounding saints' shrines within the of Asyut and the landscape. ascendant anti-Chalcedonian ('Coptic') episcopate founded in the late 570s, of which Constantine was Objects in context: the Turin Museum a prominent member. It first of all highlights the excavations in Asyut (1906–1913) extensive production of texts which Constantine Paolo Del Vesco, and his episcopal colleagues within the region and his Missione produced in this period, and the pressing need to Archeologica Italiana (MAI) carried out seven edit their neglected corpora. But it also fieldwork seasons in Asyut between 1906 and argues that these same bishops were promoting 1913 and brought back to more than 3,000 the region's rural shrines in competition with their objects, including human remains. All the artefacts Chalcedonian rivals, who still dominated the cities. are still awaiting complete assessment, study and In this, these bishops attempted to mark out the publication. Recently conducted research on the region's hinterland as a distinct sacred space, museum archive documentation by Alice Sbriglio, linked through the shrines of which the new in collaboration with Jochem Kahl, allows us to bishops were the cultic impresarios. partially reconstruct the work done by the Italian mission and understand the original contexts of In search of ancient Shashotep many objects. This paper aims to present an Judith Bunbury, University of Cambridge & overview of the main funerary assemblages from Ilona Regulski, British Museum Asyut, now in the Museo Egizio of Turin, along with The British Museum Asyut region project aims at the contextual data available from the archive. reconstructing and preserving the deep history of the Asyut region through survey and A wood workshop at Asyut at the beginning of documentation of its pharaonic and post-pharaonic the Middle Kingdom: technical and stylistic heritage, including the varied responses of local study of a profuse production communities who live atop the layers of history Gersande Eschenbrenner-Diemer, UCL below. The village of Shutb, 5km south of Asyut The necropolis of Asyut has provided one of the city, offers an excellent window into the micro- most abundant ranges of wooden funerary material history of a rural community living on an ancient dating from the early Middle Kingdom. The quality site. The village perches atop the remains of and distinctive features of these products support ancient Shashotep – a regional centre and the hypothesis of a regional artistic school. Today, capital of the 11th Upper Egyptian province the Asyut finds are mainly divided across three from c. 2000 BC onwards. The situation on the large European Egyptological collections (British ground thus provides an ideal archaeological and Museum, Louvre and Museo Egizio in Turin). Together they shed new light on a major craft frame and a wide social range. Rifeh is most activity in early second millennium BC Egypt. famous for the so-called soul-houses; other Combining the study of manufacturing techniques, important finds are less famous but demonstrate materials and stylistic features of this production, how this local centre interacted with other local the local specificities will be examined in order to centres and the royal residence. In the Middle highlight its evolution, to define dating criteria, and Kingdom, coffins used at Rifeh were heavily to assess the origin of the craftsmen. influenced by those made at Asyut and Meir and it seems likely that they were even produced there. The 11th Upper Egyptian : shedding new Other objects such as model coffins show links to light on a neglected neighbour of Asyut royal cemeteries at Thebes and Lisht. The talk will Ann-Cathrin Gabel, FU Berlin focus on single objects and tomb groups in order The common designation of the area between the to provide evidence for these connections. 14th and the 10th Upper Egyptian nome as ‘the Asyut region’ indicates the special importance of Valorising the ordinary: documenting the Asyut. At the same time, it suggests that other vernacular heritage of Shutb village cities and settlements in the vicinity might have Kareem Ibrahim & Heba Shama, Takween played a minor role in comparison. This applies to Integrated Community Development the 11th Upper Egyptian nome and its regional Shutb is a small village located 5km to the south of capital Shashotep (modern Shutb) which is Asyut City in . The history of the situated only 5km from Asyut – a proximity that is village as a human settlement dates back to the remarkable. Known as Egypt’s smallest nome, the pharaonic era. Its unique geographic setting – area has consequently received little attention in located on a mound (of human occupation layers) ; information on its pharaonic history is and surrounded by agricultural fields – has still sparse since archaeological investigations contributed to preserving the village’s historic have mostly been carried out in Asyut and its landscape, traditional urban fabric and many of its necropolis. However, inscriptions in the tombs of vernacular buildings. Moreover, the village is Asyut and Deir Rifeh – though badly preserved – privileged with a rich intangible heritage through its attest to a relationship between both capitals and social and economic ties with the larger Asyut their strategic importance during the First region. However, this tangible and intangible Intermediate Period. Despite their scarcity, a closer heritage is at risk of eventual loss due to urban look at the archaeological and textual sources thus pressures, deteriorated physical and reveals that this region in fact offers a lot of socioeconomic conditions, and most importantly, information, especially concerning our lack of appreciation of such heritage among understanding of ’s history in general different stakeholders. In March 2016, Takween but also of Asyut’s history in particular. Providing a Integrated Community Development – an Egyptian diachronic overview of the nome’s development, consultancy firm – started collaborating with the this paper aims at reinvestigating the role of the British Museum’s Asyut region project in an 11th Upper Egyptian nome and its capital extended effort to document this valuable heritage, concerning their interaction with Asyut. and to embark on a dialogue with the different stakeholders to establish a level of appreciation Rifeh: burial customs between and understanding of the village’s tangible and palace and local tradition intangible heritage. This presentation aims at Wolfram Grajetzki, UCL illustrating the main findings of this process, how it Rifeh is the modern name of a series of cemeteries engages with the local residents in order for the in Middle Egypt which served the regional centre village heritage to benefit the community, how this Shashotep. Flinders Petrie excavated here in effort would contribute to establishing a shared 1906/07 and found burials dating from the First long-term vision towards the protection and Intermediate Period up to the Ramesside Periods. management of this heritage while fulfilling the The burials cover a wide social distribution from village’s developmental needs, and, more local governors to the local farming population. It is importantly, how this effort, its potentials and its one of the few burial grounds in Middle Egypt with limitations are relevant to other Egyptian villages a continuous series of burials covering this time suffering from similar conditions.

Asyut: capital that never was Asyut emphasising local patterns of thought and Jochem Kahl, FU Berlin craftsmanship in comparison with, for example, the Located 375km south of Cairo, the city of Asyut customs followed at the royal residence(s). was a gateway to important trade routes leading to the oases of Dakhla and Kharga, and on to Asyut’s First Intermediate Period pottery: in present-day . Asyut’s very name – new insights into ancient material translated into English as ‘Guardian City’ – Andrea Kilian, Mainz University highlights its considerable strategic importance, Asyut is well known for its monumental tombs of which almost inevitably consigned it to the fate of the nomarchs of the First Intermediate Period and becoming what cultural anthropologists have early Middle Kingdom. The inscriptions, especially termed a ‘wounded city’. Its geographical location those of Tomb I, have attracted much scholarly in the middle of Egypt placed Asyut between rival interest and have been extensively incorporated by blocs of power on several occasions in the course Sir Alan Gardiner in his Middle Egyptian Grammar. of history, with damage inflicted in the wake of civil Less well known is the pottery from this period wars and occupation by foreign rule – yet it would which yields peculiar characteristics unique to appear that the city’s changing fortunes prompted Asyut. The main focus of this paper is the pottery its culture to thrive and flourish. Asyut’s history as retrieved from Tomb N11.1, one of the few tombs a major population centre and a regional capital dating to the early to middle First Intermediate stretches back more than 4,500 years. Indeed the Period. The inventory from this tomb is markedly ancient held Asyut’s artistic and cultural different from that of the late First Intermediate knowhow in high esteem; reusing, reconfiguring Period. Although ‘anepigraphic’, Tomb N11.1’s and recontextualising products of Asyuti expertise sheer size and layout are comparable with that of for more than 2,000 years. The quality of artwork, other known nomarch tombs at Asyut and thus craftsmanship and architecture originating from must have belonged to an individual of similar pharaonic Asyut has been met with great acclaim status. This offers the possibility of comparing by contemporaries and modern Egyptologists between the inventories of a nomarch’s/high status alike. Asyut’s heritage of texts, images and person’s tomb and those of more humble architecture forms an integral part of ancient interments. The latter are often roughly Egypt’s cultural memory, an intellectual reservoir constructed small corridors equipped with only few maintained and cultivated by Egyptian elites in burial goods. The material from Tomb N11.1 offers order to boost their claim to power, and stabilise insight into craftsmanship, design and forms/types and convey their self-image. The texts, which will be introduced during the presentation, iconography and architectural layouts used to resulting in a brief history of evolution and meaning great effect in the nomarch tombs from the First of this corpus. Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom, were passed on to later generations and emulated Going to the dogs: canid and faunal repeatedly all over Egypt. Unfortunately, Asyut’s remains from the Tomb of the Dogs in Asyut temples, palaces and mansions have all been Chiori Kitagawa, Mainz University buried under strata of alluvial plain and the Since 2003, the joint German/Egyptian Asyut sprawling modern city. Only written sources or Project has conducted fieldwork at the Gebel Asyut clues retrieved from the pharaonic necropolis in al-Gharbi; the western mountain of the city. The the city’s mountainous vicinity, the Gebel Asyut al- site had diverse functions, such as necropolis for Gharbi, can shed light on the city. The Gebel Asyut the Asyut people, quarry, destination for school al-Gharbi was not only used as a necropolis, excursions, dwelling place for Christian anchorites, however, but housed military facilities, place of worship during the Islamic Period, military monasteries, places of prayer, quarries and even a base, and animal necropolis. Two animal temple, over a period of 6,000 years. Since 2003, necropoleis connected with the gods Wepwawet a joint German-Egyptian research project has been and/or are known. In ancient Asyut, they reinvestigating the Gebel Asyut al-Gharbi and its were the main gods of the city. Often depicted with archaeological structures in light of their longue canid imagery, they played important roles in the durée. The wealth of material discovered here (local) religion. One of animal burial places, the so- allows us to write a specific regional history of called Tomb of the Dogs, dates from the 7th

century BC at the latest to the Roman Period. patrimony and include the traditional attribution It was relocated during the 2008 survey and a part of adjacent neighbours. An audacious attempt of the tomb was cleaned in the following years. can therefore be made to localise mentioned Animal mummies and osteofaunal remains of objects in order to possibly reveal new findings birds, reptiles and mammals were found in and about the region. around the Tomb of the Dogs. Among mammal remains, those of canids were the most Artists and their clients at Shashotep predominant (over 90%). They include species Marcel Marée, British Museum such as dog, Canis familiaris (and possibly During the late 12th Dynasty the town of African wolf, Canis aureus lupaster), and fox Shashotep briefly flourished as never before or (Vulpes sp.). Body habitus, mortality pattern since. The town and its hinterland, the small 11th and osteopathological features of the dogs nome of Upper Egypt, were raised from their will be discussed. provincial slumber for just a few generations. The local elite of that time is unusually well Conflict in Middle Egypt: new insights into the documented, as Shashotep was then – and only early family archive from Asyut then – a centre of prolific artistic production. Jannik Korte, University of Heidelberg Unfortunately the associated cemetery at modern As the number of Demotic textual sources from Deir Rifeh has received but scant archaeological Asyut is quite low, the importance of the available attention, and the governors’ rock tombs still await material is even higher. Especially the two adequate publication. There is, however, a preserved Demotic family archives offer valuable sizeable group of funerary objects, many of them information on private legal affairs as well as social unprovenanced or discovered elsewhere in Egypt, and economic developments during the Late and that can be attributed to owners, workshops and the Ptolemaic Period. While the Ptolemaic archive artists that lived and worked in Shashotep. Integral is well known in Egyptology, mainly due to its early study of this material yields interesting insights into publication by Thompson in 1934, the Late Period local traditions, society, and craft activity. archive, which holds both contracts and accounts from the 26th to 27th Dynasties, was never The dyke of Asyut: published in its entirety. In this paper, new insights from to modern times into this interesting material will be presented. Nicolas Michel, IFAO Cairo The focus will lie on the contracts, which tell us the The long-term history of irrigation works in Egypt story of a dispute between two families, resulting has yet to be explored. Primary sources show that not only in court procedure but also in the illegal before the 19th century in Middle and Upper Egypt destruction of one of the texts. Discussing some of dykes, not canals, were the main component of the the underlying circumstances, the paper will also irrigation network. By chance, the Asyut dyke is touch upon a few peculiarities of the texts and the among the best documented dykes of all Egypt, papyri themselves, which shed more light on due to Mamluk chronicles and administrative archival proceedings and scribal traditions in Late documents from the Ottoman and modern period. Period Middle Egypt. The dyke linked the city to the desert from one side, and from the other side to the Nile and Surroundings of ‘Siut’ as told by papyri the villages upstream. Textual evidence sheds Bahar Landsberger, University of Heidelberg light on the maintenance and management of This is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient the dyke and on the communities involved in it. topography of Asyut by means of information from Maps from the Atlas of the Description de l’Égypte the archive of Tufhapi. The family archive of onwards help to understand the role this dyke Tufhapi, today kept at the British Museum, is a played in shaping an entire sub-region, and collection of private legal papyri shining light on the iconographic documentation shows its importance life of Tufhapi and his family and conveying family in the visual and material landscape surrounding conflict. The family lived around the 2nd century the city. BC in and around Asyut and used Demotic as their written language. A large amount of properties are mentioned in various documents as part of a

The site of Manqabad: to trade in the times of peace and stability – clearly from Roman castrum to Christian monastery confirmed by the ceramics. Rosanna Pirelli, University of Naples L'Orientale The Italian Egyptian project at the monastery of Activities in the Gebel Asyut al-Gharbi during Abba Nefer at Manqabad started in 2011. During the New Kingdom three brief surveys between 2011 and 2013, the Ursula Verhoeven, Mainz University mission identified most of the structures already Rock-Tomb N13.1 of the nomarch Iti-ibi (-iqer) was brought to light and recorded by previous built and decorated under Mentuhotep II. At the investigations. In autumn 2014, a topographical end of the Second Intermediate Period or the very survey started and numerous structures still extant beginning of the 18th Dynasty, a scribe from the on the site were investigated. The work focused on oasis came to the tomb and wrote a first and very the northern sector of the site, characterised by a small dipinto (ink jotting) near the head of the tomb long row of housing units in good condition, where owner. During the early 18th Dynasty, until a large number of finds had been discovered Amenhotep III, other visitors followed and left between 2000 and 2010 by the local inspectorate. inscriptions, some dated. Those scribes started the The mission analysed some of these objects in the practice of copying famous teachings. During the storerooms of el-Ashmunein and Asyut (Shutb). Ramesside period until Ramesses XI, more A more detailed study of the material was texts covered the walls. We hear about new undertaken in the store of el-Ashmunein, where functions of Asyutian scribes and can recognise 152 specimens were analysed, catalogued and that some had come from far away. The paper will photographed. On the basis of the results of the outline a chronology of the activities in this tomb fieldwork, the study of the first group of artefacts with respect to archaeological remains from the and analysis of the written sources, the site will be New Kingdom. integrated into its geographical and cultural context. Further attention will be given to the The rise of Asyut as regional capital of Upper identification of the site in Roman times and the Egypt in modern times (18th and 19th centuries) foundation date of the Christian phase, and to Terence Walz, Washington DC some cultural and liturgical links between the During much of the Ottoman period, Asyut Monastery and other coeval monastic settlements remained a provincial backwater, a town that in Middle and . specialised in linen manufacture and weaving but where merchants were rare. Toward the beginning Asyut: a place at the heart of trade routes of the 18th century, caravan routes from Sudan, Teodozja Rzeuska, University of Warsaw which debouched in Bedouin villages near Asyut, ‘Its trade is considerable, for it is not only the quickened as a new powerful kingdom emerged. for the supply of merchandise, for Cairo Caravans from Darfur began arriving more and Lower Egypt, for the use of the upper country, regularly. The fortunes of Asyut waxed in tandem but it carries on an extensive business with that with the Sudan trade, and new numbers of Asyutis district also, for the produce wanted in return; but began traveling to Cairo and Sudan in search of its most important trade is that with the people who commercial opportunity. The old capital of Upper reside in the interior of . Caravans cross the Egypt was moved from Jirja to Asyut in 1824, thus Great Oasis from Darfur, and bring much of value cementing its new-found status as the chief city of – ivory, ostrich feathers, furs, drugs – destined to Upper Egypt and the home of the governors- find their way over . A busier town than general. This presentation provides an overview Siout is not upon the Nile.’ of these developments and the rise of a new This is how Fairholt, a 19th-century English mercantile class that profited from both agricultural traveller, described Asyut. Several factors led to and commercial developments. this particular situation, the most important being the geographical location of Asyut. The town is situated exactly in the heart of Egypt, at the crossroads of important north-south and east-west routes. Such a location can be extremely beneficial