The members of the Middle Kingdom Theban Project and the archaeological expedition of the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) prepare the VII Season of fieldwork in the concession bestowed to this institution by the Egyptian government in the cemeteries of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif (West Bank, Luxor). The VII Season will be conducted in May 1-30, 2023.
The fundamental axes of archaeological work this year will be the excavation, documentation and restoration of the façades in the funerary complexes of Dagi (TT 103) and Djari (TT 366). The former complex belongs to Dagi, a vizier from the time of king Mentuhotep II (ca. 2025 a.n.e.), who decided to build his tomb near the funerary temple of the king to benefit from the religious, economic, and social prestige of the location. Mentuhotep II had succeeded in the re-unification of the country after a century and a half of political fragmentation in Egypt, a situation that marked his figure for the future generations and turned his monument into a symbol of prestige and power. Excluding the eastern sector of Dagi’s tomb, which was restored and protected by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the remaining of the façade has suffered much harm. For this reason, it is essential to clean out of debris the area, excavate and document the section of the façade and transversal corridor behind the pillars (saff), and collect the fragments with decoration fallen from the walls, where originally colorful and significant scenes were located. In the case of Djari, although he was the director of prisons in the city of Thebes, his social and professional rank was not as high as Dagi’s, which means that he had to build his tom in a sector of Asasif somehow distant from the funerary temple of king Mentuhotep II. Both tombs display exceptional decorative programs with the combination of various types of patterns and styles from the pre-reunification times (with local features) as well as the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty, when new artistic versions emerged at the capital, Thebes. Thus, the conservation team will play a fundamental role in the documentation and analysis of the paintings: kinds of wall preparation, application of morters and gypsum, types of pigments, stylistic analysis of the scenes, etc. For this reason, the MKTP team has reinforced the conservation team with a series of experts familiar with mudbrick, morters, and paintings.
Regarding the incorporation of new members for the season, several especialists are joining the team this year with the intention of maximizing the findings and evidence recovered in recent seasons. The conservator Olivia O’Dwyner joins the team to contribute on the study of the wall paintings from the tombs of Dagi and Djari. The archaeologist and stone-expert Miguel Ángel López Marcos shall produce a preliminary analysis of the limestone sarcophagus of Ipi (TT 315), which we plan to reconstruct and restore in the coming years. Further, three specialists on landscape archaeology will expand the previous study of the associated territory and its surroundings: Jesús Martínez, José Pérez and Kate Rose. In addition, two students will have the chance to strengthen their fieldwork experience and skills this season: Jaime Colás (Alcalá) and Laura Hernando (Barcelona). Besides, another professional photographer –Ana Jiménez (Valencia)– joins Patricia Mora to help to cover all the needs for photography and video in the team. Together, Ana and Patricia will also explore how the new multi-spectral camera might contribute to the analysis of the wall paintings in the tombs. No doubt, the contribution of the new members to the work developed by the other members of the team (archaeologists, Egyptologists, and conservators) is an attempt to improve the team capacity to document, study, and publish these tombs of the Middle Kingdom at Thebes (Luxor).
