Abstract
Abstract. Due to the multiplicity of tombs in the area and the work of early archaeologists in Deir el-Bahari, the necropolis resembles a Swiss cheese. In addition, most of these monuments and their remains (coffin fragments, human remains, subsidiary structures) were left unpublished. A century later, the major purpose of the Middle Kingdom Theban Project of University of Alcala (MKTP-UAH) –led by the moudir (i.e. “director” in Arabic) Antonio Morales– is to document, understand, and publish all these monuments and findings left behind by previous expeditions. Such publications will shed light not only on the necropolis and owners of the monuments, but will also help to understand the beginning of the so-called Middle Kingdom, a golden age of the pharaonic period with a significant and impressive architecture. In fact, most of archaeologists take these tombs as patterns for this golden age, without taking into consideration that we do not know much about them.
Highlights
When the American archaeologist Herbert Winlock initiated his work in the 1920s in Deir el-Bahari (Figures 1 and 2) on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), he could not suspect that 100 years later these tombs and their findings would still retain scholarly attention
Thebes became the focus of numerous transformations, among them the construction of the royal mortuary complex for Mentuhotep II in Deir el-Bahari and the building of private tombs for the powerful officials who contributed to the unification of the country and the construction of the Middle Kingdom era, the “classical period” in pharaonic history
The project has graphic material from the tombs, for the first time we have obtained a representation –almost real– of its current state. This means a representation that is not flat but in 3D form to be used by researchers, mainly archaeologists, architects, and conservators, in their current work in the necropolis and in this tomb
Summary
When the American archaeologist Herbert Winlock initiated his work in the 1920s in Deir el-Bahari (Figures 1 and 2) on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA), he could not suspect that 100 years later these tombs and their findings would still retain scholarly attention. The main goal of the MMA mission was to reveal the deepest secrets of these mortuary monuments and search for aesthetically appealing objects. Western museums organized these missions to obtain Egyptian antiquities for their collections. One of the major targets of the Middle Kingdom Theban Project is the tomb built for the vizier Ipi (TT 315). This tomb was one of the greatest monuments in the area, standing 500 years before the construction of the temple of Hatshepsut.
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