Old Mummification Museum lecture - South Assasif

I am really pleased to find this one after my visit there and the recent lecture. it puts things into context.

Mummification Museum Lecture - Forgotton Tombs of the Southern Assasif - Dr Elena Pischikova
Forgotten Tombs of the Southern Assasif - Dr Elena Pischikova
The idea of excavating the Southern Assasif came because the work the team did at Tomb of Nespakashuty (TT 312). After spending 6 years reconstructing the sandstone entrance which was a 6 m high structure. They felt their next task should be to find his mother. This tomb was known to be in the area known as Southern Assasif. This area is nowhere near the Assasif tombs at Deir el Bahri, but that is the name it is known by. It is actually just across the road from the Ramasseum, in southern Gurna and in the village of Abed Rassoul. There are 3 tombs near each other.

TT390 Irtieru or Irtyru, female scribe and attendant of the god’s priestess Nitiqret, Late Period
TT391 Karabasken or Kerebesken, mayor of Thebes, Dynasty 25
TT223 Karakhamun, first priest with entry, Late Period

There were many problems excavating in this area as the villagers felt these tombs were part of their houses. Indeed TT391 was used as the summer house when the family slept outside due to the extreme heat. It was a very complicated situation. The tombs were being used for the housing of donkeys and dogs. The team felt the removal of the village was good news but wanted to be around when the houses were demolished as they could see fragments being used in the construction of these houses.

TT390
Lexius recorded that there 2 door frames but 150 years later these were hard to see. The last person to see them was Dieter Arnold. There was a decorated ceiling in the burial chamber. Even finding where they were in the village was difficult but eventual in 2001 they were traced to the home of Ahmed Mahmoud Abdul Rassoul. The team were not welcome and they could not excavate as the family were there. Eventually Ahmed did let them in, it should be noted that he died 2 weeks ago.

There was a 4 story house on top of the tomb and the family were using the open courtyard. The tomb was covered in soot but although the ceiling was black they could see colour through it and it was a challenge to remove this soot without damaging the colour and pattern underneath. Lots of fragments had also been cut out. Prelimary cleaning revealed the colour, the whole tomb was painted and the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris (Neitiqert) was present in many scenes.

The old kingdom style papyrus columns were revealed to be painted in yellow. The offering inscription was dedicated to her father. There are 4 sections to the vaulted ceiling which have different patterns. The team found that the soot had actually preserved the colours. There was a prelimary drawing of the kepher frieze. All the tombs were left unfinished and Dr Elena knows that there is a related tomb at Abydos and wants to see if that is unfinished to. There is an offering scene of the owner and father.

The second door frame was covered in mud and had to be recorded before cleaning. In 2nd pillared hall the pillars are not in good condition, it is not finished and just has prelimary lines. There was a niche with lost bits. The carving is so shallow that without the painting you can not see it. It has never been excavated and the burial chamber has not been found by archaeologists. But they don’t expect to find anything as after this time the chamber has probably been cleared but they may find relief

TT391 was the house used during the summer by the family and in the courtyard there were 6 layers of flood debris. It was full of graffiti and the architectural elements had been destroyed. They thought there was nothing there but after digging down 2 meters they found images. The ground is very wet. The images were in the style of the Old Kingdom. There was an undecorated pillared hall and a 6 niched chamber. It is being left for the future.

TT223 there is relief of Karakhamun, known in the Berlin museum. At the 4 meter level they found carving including a figurine. This tomb will take at least 10 years but the pillars might be able to be reconstructed at the end. A 4 by 9 meter area was cleared. There was a good example of Kushite carving including a hunting dog, priest with a sash and an image of the owner. They found lots of fragments. The name of the owner had gone but no new name had replaced it. At least 2 pillars were decorated with offerings. There is a painted procession of the Gods. Dr Elena would love to try and reconstruct the ceiling from the fragments found but that is for the future.

They expect that these three tombs will take a long time to excavate properly; even the rest of their lives but the priority is TT390

In the question and answer session Mansour Boraik talked about the demolition of the houses. Apparently 72 houses were chosen from old photos and were not going to be demolished. They have found that the people are not cop-operative. With regard to Ahmed Rassoul the SCA had got an agreement with him but now he has died they will have to get an agreement with his 2 wives and 10 children which complicates things. They now intend to keep 65 houses.

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February 18th, 2007

Mummification Museum Lecture - South Assasif Project - Dr Elena Pischikova

South Assasif Project - Dr Elena Pischikova

Nespakashuty TT 312 late Twenty sixth Dynasty tomb

Back in 2005 when Dr Elena was coming to the end of her excavation of Nespakashuty TT 312 a late Twenty sixth Dynasty tomb at Deir el Bahri they decided to look for the tomb of his mother. Lepidus had recorded this tomb but when they went to look for it there was a village in the way. So they were surrounded by houses in 2006 when they started the project but by 2009 these had been removed. They are working in three tombs Karabasken TT391, Karakhamun TT223, Iritieru TT390. This is mainly a conservation project. Karakhamun was a Kushite and a plan of his tomb was made in 1974 but it did not record a court or vestibule and very little was actually seen and a lot guessed. They have found lots of new features not on the plan and the tomb is very large. There is a lot of soot damage

Back in 2006 the tomb was completely destroyed and nothing was visible and it was a big risk to excavate and feel the laughter of your colleagues asking why is she excavating a rubbish dump. This was exactly what it looked like then. Then finding your first fragment which although it had no name did at least confirm you were looking in the right place. After three or four weeks of non-productive digging they found a lovely figure of Karakhamun and underneath the plaster was carved his name. In fact they had found their best preserved wall as the rock in this area is appalling quality. Even when they were excavating in Ancient Egyptian times they had to do running repairs. (I was shown some of these on my visit). The carving is the best quality Kushite carving and one particular carving excited a lot of interest. It is a little greyhound like dog.

All this was found in 2006, in the east part of the first pillared hall the pillars are in a ruined state however there are lots and lots of fragments so actually it is good news as they can reconstruct the pillars. By 2008 the northern aisle had been cleared of thousands of wall fragments. The first pillared hall consists of 8 pillars on each side. In the south west corner they found an intrusive burial. There is chapter 114 of the book of the dead. Dr Elena would like to restore and open the tomb but it is slow work, the reconstruction of one pillar has taken a complete season and with 7 further pillars and all the rest of the tomb it could take her all her life to complete. (I suspect funds would help, check the website for details). On the south wall there is chapter 117 of the Book of the Dead with associated vignettes. They have sorted all the fragments and have identified several artists working on the tomb, possible up to a dozen. Another chapter 31 has crocodiles and they have found the evil crocodile of the north.

Another find is a figure of Ptah which is found in chapter 106 now this has cast a ripple in the pond of Egyptology. Previously it was speculated that the Memphite decoration in the tomb of #Harwa was carved by artists of the north on their way south to be employed by Tarahaka in the kingdom of Kush. This is why that particular tomb has a lot of old kingdom influence but the tomb of Karakhamun is a lot earlier which casts doubts on that theory. It would seem that was a big revival of Chapter 106 in the early 26^th dynasty.

The stone in the tomb is very poor quality and with the northern aisle having the 11^th hours of the book of the day there are a lot of similar vignettes of Karakhamun, Ra Herakyty and three gods.

This season has started with reinforcing and conserving before reconstruction. The remaining stone is so unstable that it could not support the weight of reconstruction so they have had to make a steel reinforcement into the bedrock to take the higher reconstructed elements. Eventually they will reach 3m high. And there is the ceiling, they have lots of ceiling fragments and she dreams of reconstructing that but it would need some imaginative engineering to do so.

On the East side there is a procession of offering bearers. They are now working in the second pillared hall and here there is a different style of his face, he is perhaps meant to look older in the second pillared hall and younger in the first (Francesco Tiradritti talked about this in his lecture on the tomb of Harwa). They also have a really nice jar wall (which I have seen and it is nice). You can also see grid lines as parts are incomplete and this tomb uses the 21 grid lines instead of 18 which is the earliest use of this grid.

There is another intrusive burial in the 2^nd pillared hall of Petahor (?) who has sandstone chapel. As this area was underneath the village it is unlikely that there will be any objects mainly wall fragments but she did have a wooden Anubis with a tiny bit of gilding around the eye which may be original to the tomb as it is typical of that period.

It is a Kushite feature to have a surrounding corridor around the burial chamber and it is possible they may have a feature like this but it remains to be excavated. However they have found the stairs to the burial chamber, actually this is not quite as exciting as it sounds as there is a shaft leading directly to the chamber which has been used by robbers but it might mean there may be small objects on the stairs. The chamber has been seen by people before the collapse of the ceiling and was described as being quite beautiful. They hope to eventually open the chamber may be after a couple of years. So the tomb is still full of surprises and there are lots of new things. There is a website although she admitted it was a bit out of date www.southasasif.com she foresees this taking at least a decade before it can be opened to the public.

There were some interesting questions.

What were his titles? He seemed to collect meaningless titles he is described as First Aq Priest of Amun but what is Aq. It is one of the largest Kushite tombs but we have no idea who he is, she believes he must be related to royalty as his tomb is much larger than the Mayor of Thebes.

When did the tomb collapse?

It was recorded in 1974 and re-entered in 2001 nobody knows what happened between those dates