The Tomb of Ptahemwia, 'Great Overseer of Cattle' and 'Overseer of the Treasury of the Ramesseum', at Saqqara

In early 1859, the French Egyptologist Théodule Devéria was in Egypt to assist Auguste Mariette—who had just been appointed as Director of Antiquities—with copying texts at a number of sites in Egypt. At Saqqara, Devéria photographed a doorway of the now-lost tomb of Ptahemwia, the early Nineteenth Dynasty Great Overseer of Cattle and Overseer of the Treasury of the Ramesseum. This article starts with a note on Mariette’s work at Saqqara and early photography in Egypt. Then, the architecture, iconography, and texts of the tomb’s doorway are analysed, followed by an updated list of objects pertaining to Ptahemwia. It concludes with a discussion of the titles and epithets held by this official.Article / Letter to edito

Studies in the Saqqara New Kingdom Necropolis: From the Mid-19th Century Exploration of the Site to New Insights into the Life and Death of Memphite Officials, Their Tombs and the Use of Sacred Space

This study is presented in the form of a ‘thesis by publication’ comprising published journal articles and conference proceedings. The articles are thematically linked to the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara and grouped in three interrelated sections.   This thesis sets as its main aim the study of the tombs, tomb owners and the use of sacred space in the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara by examining, as a point of departure, the sources pertaining to the early exploration of the necropolis.   In the first section, unpublished archival material pertaining to the early, mid-Nineteenth Century exploration of the necropolis is studied. This includes the photographs taken by Théodule Devéria at Saqqara in 1859 capturing monuments that are today “lost”. Investigations into the collection histories of the individual objects enable a reconstruction of the history of dismantling the tombs.   The second section examines the inscriptional sources that offer biographical information about the early Nineteenth Dynasty tomb owners. The officials’ titles constitute the main data of research in this section. The rationale of the tombs’ spatial distribution is analysed by combining information pertaining to groups of officials covering a longer period of time and extending over the whole necropolis. The titles are also used to study aspects of the administration of the city, Memphis, and its temples.   The final section examines the actual use of the necropolis and the tombs therein. Due to the activities of the early explorers, few archaeological traces pertaining to past activities have remained for us to study in situ. The figural and textual graffiti that were left on the tombs’ stone elements offer the main data for research.International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS); International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (iMQRES)FGW – Publications without University Leiden contrac

The Tomb of Ptahemwia, 'Great Overseer of Cattle' and 'Overseer of the Treasury of the Ramesseum', at Saqqara

In early 1859, the French Egyptologist Théodule Devéria was in Egypt to assist Auguste Mariette—who had just been appointed as Director of Antiquities—with copying texts at a number of sites in Egypt. At Saqqara, Devéria photographed a doorway of the now-lost tomb of Ptahemwia, the early Nineteenth Dynasty Great Overseer of Cattle and Overseer of the Treasury of the Ramesseum. This article starts with a note on Mariette’s work at Saqqara and early photography in Egypt. Then, the architecture, iconography, and texts of the tomb’s doorway are analysed, followed by an updated list of objects pertaining to Ptahemwia. It concludes with a discussion of the titles and epithets held by this official.Middle Eastern Studie

Sakkara: De verborgen tombes uit het vroege Nieuwe Rijk

Middle Eastern Studie

Landschapsbiografie en het gebruik van ruimte in een dodenstad

Hoe ontwikkelde de Memphitische dodenstad Sakkara zich gedurende het Nieuwe Rijk? Die vraag wordt beantwoord door de biografieën van individuele grafmonumenten met elkaar te verbinden en te komen tot een biografie van het landschap.Middle Eastern Studie

The Saqqara Necropolis through the New Kingdom: Biography of an Ancient Egyptian Cultural Landscape

This book is the first comprehensive monographic treatment of the New Kingdom (1539–1078 BCE) necropolis at Saqqara, the burial ground of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, and addresses questions fundamental to understanding the site’s development through time. For example, why were certain areas of the necropolis selected for burial in certain time periods; what were the tombs’ spatial relations to contemporaneous and older monuments; and what effect did earlier structures have on the positioning of tombs and structuring of the necropolis in later times? This study adopts landscape biography as a conceptual tool to study the long-time interaction between people and landscapes.NWO276-30-016Middle Eastern Studie

De vroege fotografie van het Oude Egypte

Middle Eastern Studie

Het fascinerende verhaal van een verloren gewaande stèle

Oudegyptische objecten in moderne collecties kennen vaak een bewogen geschiedenis. Dit artikel gaat over de bijzondere omzwervingen van een tot voor kort verloren gewaande stèle uit Sakkara.Middle Eastern Studie

Piecing Together the Dispersed Tomb of Ry at Saqqara

Saqqara, the prime necropolis site of Memphis in the New Kingdom, exists largely in museum collections around the world. The study of its dispersed blocks has enabled Nico Staring to unlock the identify of an anonymous tomb excavated in 2013.NWO276-30-016Middle Eastern Studie

Current Research of the Leiden-Turin Archaeological Mission in Saqqara. A Preliminary Report on the 2018 Season

In 2015, the Museo Egizio in Turin joined the Leiden expedition to Saqqara, in the area south of the Unas causeway. This report presents the expedition’s new approach as well as some first results of this new cooperation. In the 2018 season, the Leiden-Turin expedition worked in the northern sector of its concession, covering an area of ca. 250 sqm just north of the tomb of Maya. Here Late Antique layers overlie a windblown deposit containing some simple burials and numerous “embalmers’ caches”, some of which yielded marl clay cups with hieratic labels. An overview of both the pottery and the human remains found during this season is provided in the present report. Below the wind-blown deposit is a level with Ramesside funerary chapels and shafts. One of them has a remarkable decoration including six small-format figures carved in high relief in the middle of its back wall. The shaft of another chapel was also excavated, revealing several plundered chambers which yielded only scanty finds. A large mud-brick wall exposed during the previous season turned out to belong to the outer wall and pylon entrance of a monumental tomb, whose owner’s name has not been found yet.A photogrammetric survey by a team of the Politecnico di Milano yielded a 3D model of the dig (included in the web version of this report), as well as several 3D models of the monumental tombs (completed or in the making). During the season, conservation work was carried out on several tombs and on the newly discovered Ramesside chapel.Middle Eastern Studie