Spain abandoned its egyptologists

The great circus of Tutankhamun

Are wonders rescued during successive and arduous campaigns of excavation. The careful selection of an inventory that adds tens of thousands of pieces, from sarcophagi, mummies or wakes up vases, papyrus, figurines funerary materials and embalming. A giant puzzle that supports the recent work of the egyptology in Spanish, a newcomer if compared with the centuries-old tradition of French, German, or british. The selection presented here -signed by multi-disciplinary teams where there are archaeologists, architects, restorers, surveyors or anthropologists – spanning millennia of history, often crouching between the strata of each of the sites.

As in Heracleópolis Magna -about 150 miles south of Cairo, the most veteran of the Spanish expeditions in Egypt. “Our finding more spectacular is, without doubt, the tomb of Hotep-Uadjet. Its walls are painted with scenes funeral, showing the deceased seated before a table of offerings,” explains Carmen Pérez Die, his highest representative from decades ago. A journey through time that also evokes Myriam Seco, who co-directs since 2008 the task of rescuing the funerary temple of Tuthmosis III. “Our initial expectations have been expanded. In one place we will be able to count more than 1,000 years of the history of Egypt because we have found a necropolis of the period late”.

In the southern Luxor, a stone’s throw of the walls that the dedication of this seville have returned to erect, is cited each February, the project “Djehuty”, the orders of José Manuel Galán. Since 2002, the mission looks a necropolis excavated in the skirt of a rocky hill. His latest find, a garden funeral, it came to pass in the last year. “Is preserved in very good condition the seeds that are planted 4,000 years ago. The garden promises to provide you a interesting information and virtually unique on the use of plants for religious purposes and burial and, indirectly, on the environment in ancient Thebes”, predicts their “mudir” (director, Arabic).

On the west bank of Luxor has found refuge, in addition, the team of Antonio Morales, with a promising future. “Our excavation is located between the plateau of Asasif and the hill north of Deir el Bahari, on which stand the complex funeral of the principal officers of the late XI and early of the XII dynasty. In the last two years we have managed to extend the concession, including a dozen of graves in the various sectors of work,” says hopeful. A mission detective that shares with the project of Miguel Angel Miller, also in the folds and aggregates of Luxor. “When we started working, one of the objectives was to identify the name of the owner, we knew that the that was given then was wrong. In the third campaign, in 2014, appeared a relief that represents you. In later years, other texts of the tomb added more information about him. It was called Nisemro and was not egyptian but nubian”, slides.

Precisely, engaged in the adventure of deciphering the history of Nubia, it digs further south, in Aswan, the army of Alexander Jimenez. The necropolis of the governors of Elephantine still keeps secrets everywhere. “To reach, for example, in the well north of the tomb QH33 we had to dig twelve cubic yards of ash, pottery, bones, woods and the remains of various utensils,” recalls this this. The six missions and their jewelry displayed here is a feat most of the scientific community of Spanish, ignored by the authorities -unlike other european countries, the diplomacy of our country does not offer any help in Egypt-; a victim of the financial troubles -between the members of these projects include researchers, precarious workers, doctoral students living abroad, scientists, unemployed or self-employed who take advantage of their vacation period, -; and example, in order, of a toughness test of egyptian bureaucracy, customs and setbacks. A titanic effort that has as a reward dusting off gems like these, authentic glimpses of the history of Mankind.

THE COFFIN OF NEB WHO RETURNED FROM THE MUERTOSJosé Manuel Galán Researcher of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and director of the mission

The coffin of Neb dates back approximately to the year 1600.C. Type is “rishi”, anthropomorphic, and with the lid playing the wings that would help the deceased to fly and be able to get in and out of his grave. The deceased would come out at sunrise to enjoy the offerings that we could invoke and he would return to the burial chamber at dusk. He was accompanied by figurines wooden funeral and found mud in an adobe chapel which was very close to the well where she found the coffin, which are exposed from 2015 in the Museum of Luxor. The coffin of Neb is carved from a single trunk of a sycamore. The outside was covered with a thin layer of mortar off-white that was then painted entirely in black (the color associated with resurrection, evoking the fertile land and, therefore, the god Osiris). The cover reproduces the mummy of the deceased, with the legs, feet, arms and hands wrapped together with the body, leaving visible only the face. The body of Neb measuring 1,65 meters in height and would have about 45 years of age. The lid includes a formula of invocation offerings: “the prerogative which the king grants, and (also) Osiris, lord of Abydos, which gives an invocation offerings of ointments and incense, beef and fowl, alabaster and linen, ointments, and incense, all kinds of food and everything proper and pure that lives a god, (for) the ka of the osiris Neb”.

HERYSHEF AND HIS WIFE THE GODDESS HATHOR, IN RELIEVECarmen Pérez Die, chief curator of the department of egyptian antiquities and the Near East of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid and director of the excavation

Heryshef was the main god of Heracleópolis Magna, and in their honour there was a temple found for Henri Édouard Naville at the end of the NINETEENTH century and excavated by William Matthew Flinders Petrie and by the Spanish mission that has been on the site for over half a century. Heryshef [linked in the hellenistic period of Egypt with the Heracles Greek] is represented as a deity with a ram’s head and human body. The mention of this god in the egyptian mythology dating back to very old and soon became a universal god with special attributes of fertility and power. In the relief, from the temple of Heryshef, the god is accompanied by the goddess Hathor, who was his faithful wife. In front of both a hand appears extended, and possibly the pharaoh Ramses II, as the cartridges with his name are registered. For your sitsituation in the temple this embossing could be placed on the access door to the courtyard, peristyle, forming part of the inner face of the tower. The monument is situated approximately 15 kilometres from the Nile, and the influence of the river on the orientation of the temple can be considered to be null and void. In contrast, the aspect astronomico seems to have played a fundamental role in the orientation of the temple. The sun, at its zenith journal coincides exactly with the longitudinal axis of the sanctuary.

“TITULITIS” THE VIZIER DAGIAntonio J. Morales is a professor of the University of Alcalá de Henares and director of the expedition

The sarcophagus belongs to the vizier Dagi. Inside, at the top, there is a monumental inscription which details his appointments and, below, religious texts written in hieroglyphics cursive that embody the rituals necessary to his resurrection. During the reign of pharaoh Mentuhotep II, the vizier Dagi accumulated a large amount of titles, and became one of the most important officials of the time. He was appointed vizier, mayor, judge, director of works, overseer of the treasury, among other charges. However, the preparation and decoration of her sarcophagus in limestone had to be made early in her career, as the only official title that appears inscribed in the same is the “supervisor of the portal”, a charge of a religious nature or administrative. With the decoration of her sarcophagus, Dagi wished to ensure eternal life. To do this, were enrolled in an upper register his name, his charges, and the license of the king and Osiris, which allowed to be buried in the necropolis tebana. In its front wall, the famous list of offerings reflected the multiple donations that were established for his funeral worship and for the preservation of his person as the spirit (ka). The rest of the inscriptions included numerous ensalmos of protection and regeneration that should ensure the resurrection of the dead and his eternal life as an almighty being.

THE JEWELS OF A LADY WITHOUT NOMBREMyriam Dry is the director of the excavation Project of the thutmosis III temple

In 2014 we started to excavate the southern part of the hypostyle hall of the temple. Located two tombs, and in one of them we took the surprise of find a collection of gold jewelry that belonged to a lady of the high class tebana. A salient parts, in perfect state, it is a bracelet with two wires connected by a knot that looked at both wrists and that he had a mission protective. She also wore a golden necklace with shell form, very typical of the Middle kingdom and an amulet in the cylindrical formed by the combination of small beads of amethyst and gold. In addition, he had a ankle strap silver on each ankle, with characteristics similar to the bracelets. Its preservation was made very special because of all the nearby tombs were plundered in ancient times. Saved the roof of the burial bend by moisture. When the thieves entered to steal, were not able to access the sarcophagus, which, with the time and the action of termites was disintegrating. After removing the blocks from the collapse, what we found was a skeleton with some remnants of mummification placed in a coffin of wood waste. While cleaning, we noticed that he was wearing jewellery. We do not know the identity of what we call “the lady of the grave number 14” because he disappeared the sarcophagus, and the wake, and funeral the family that we have found in other tombs was stolen. The only certainty is that he was young and small.

THE MYSTERIES OF HEQAIB IIIAlejandro Jiménez is a professor of the University of Jaén and the project director

During our third campaign, we continue excavating the large burial complex QH33. We dreamed of finding a camera and so it was. What we didn’t expect is that she was sealed and that close-out original. No one had opened the burial from 1825 to.C. After a partial opening and a preliminary survey documented photographically, we returned to seal the grave until the memorial chapel was fully excavated. A goal that took us three campaigns. In 2013, we opened definitely the camera and we gave in to the magnificent coffin of cedar wood as well as the trousseau. There appeared Heqaib III. It is very possible that it was the last governor of Elephantine buried during the Dynasty XII in the necropolis, as the following governors seems to have been buried in the royal necropolis. One of the more interesting points that we found in the burial of Heqaib III was an offering of the mother of the governor Sattjeni V, which left him with a source ceramic with offerings to his son. This lady, to a crisis in the disappeared, the heirs male, became the bearer of rights dynamic. Them, as direct descendants of the line of the governors, solved the crisis through marriage, the result of which was the increase of offspring, ensuring their continuity.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE TABLE OF OFFERINGS, Miguel Angel Miller Professor of Ancient History at the University of la Laguna, and director of the project

Is one of the most beautiful examples appeared of tables of offerings. Beyond the quality in their execution and the originality of some of the images that compose it, such as the oryx, its interest is in the questions history poses: what is your timeline and, from a broader perspective, where it was prepared and for whom. Our problem is that the last general survey on tables of offerings, it has a century and no longer responds to the questions that we ask today. The table appeared in an archaeological context, of course, but it is not, can clarify our doubts. The tomb TT 209 was built for Nisemro towards the end of the EIGHTH century.C., but it was open four centuries later to accommodate new burials. As the table appeared on the ground, we might think that corresponds to the original owner, but is surrounded by earthenware pots of Persian times and, therefore, a time of re-use what was made for the first occupant, or for those who were buried in the second phase? To complicate the situation, the raw material from which it is made, a sandstone orange, coarse-grained, is very similar to the one used in the tables nubian and his style also reminds of the copies of this source could have been carved in the region of which it was originally Nisemro and have been brought as part of a ritual burial in which are combined the traditions of egyptian and nubian?

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