ДЖ. Б. КАВИЛЬЯ И НАЧАЛО АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ИЗУЧЕНИЯ СКАЛЬНЫХ ГРОБНИЦ ВОСТОЧНОЙ ОКРАИНЫ ГИЗЫ

Abstract

The paper continues a series of publications dealing with early explorers who contributed to the study of the eastern escarpment of the Giza Necropolis. Its protagonist is the Italian antiquarian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, the author of the first documented archaeological works in rock-cut tombs on the territory of the modern-day Russian concession at the pyramids. The paper argues that the Italian researcher had access to many burial complexes both in the southern and in the northern parts of the necropolis area currently studied by specialists from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Contemporary reports demonstrate that Caviglia not only excavated ancient tombs, but also lived in one of the rock-cut complexes and used rock-cut chapels as storerooms for his finds. In 1835, the British officer Howard Vyse, who hired Caviglia for his excavations at Giza, built a large camp at the eastern escarpment of the necropolis. The author locates the camp in front of the tombs of Perinendju, Tjenty I, Tjenty II, and Khufuhotep and examines its fate: After the end of British excavations in 1837, the camp was converted into the first hotel at the foot of the pyramids. Narrative and visual materials presented in works of explorers of the first half of the 19th century correspond neatly with the material culture artifacts retrieved in Giza during contemporary Russian excavations. Despite the disappearance of the camp built by Vyse, the occupation layer preserved in the rock-cut tombs contains numerous finds and complexes that can be dated to the 18th–19th centuries. A thorough study of the activities and field practices of early explorers in the age of antiquarianism contributes to the better understanding of the general stratigraphy of the Giza Necropolis and works toward more accurate interpretation of the archaeological evidence obtained by contemporary specialists at the foot of the pyramids.