Deir el-Bahari Research Articles

Analysis of a pharaonic embalming tar

Details of mummification techniques used in dynastic Egypt have emerged from writings in subsequent ancient texts, in which the application of oils (kedros, cedrium) derived from the cedar tree have been described by Herodotus (490–425 bc)1 and by Pliny the Elder (ad 23/24–79)2. But scholars have since argued that these products were prepared from juniper trees and not from cedar3 — an assertion that is widely accepted by Egyptologists4 but which has never been verified by chemical analysis. Here we use gas chromatography to analyse the constituents of a sample of unused entombed embalming material from 1500 bc at a site in Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, and find that its components probably originated from the cedar tree. We also identify one component, guaiacol, as having notable preservative properties.

Borate in mummification salts and bones from Pharaonic Egypt

Mummification processes in Pharaonic Egypt were successful using sodium salts. Quite frequently sodium concentrations in mummified bones ranged from 300 to 4000 μmol/g. In the search for an effective inorganic conservation compound our choice fell on boric acid. The possible presence of borate in mummification salts used in Pharaonic Egypt was of special interest both historically and biochemically. In two salt samples, one from the embalming material of Tutankhamen (18th dynasty, 1336–1327 BC) and the second from Deir el-Bahari (25th dynasty, 700–600 BC) borate was found, amounting to 2.1±0.2 and 3.9±0.1 μmol/g, respectively. In five of the examined bone fragments from the Junker excavation at Giza (Old Kingdom) similar borate concentrations i.e., 1.2 μmol borate/g bone were seen. It must be emphasized that the usual borate content of contemporary autopsy is far below the detection limit. The elevated borate content in both mummification salt and ancient bone samples support the suggestion that borate-containing salt had been used. There is a striking correlation of both borate concentration and alkaline phosphatase activity. When both sodium salts and borate were essentially absent no activity at all was detectable. With increasing borate concentrations the enzyme activity rises significantly. Attributable to the distinct biochemistry of the tetrahydroxyborate anion it was of interest whether or not borate may stabilize alkaline phosphatase, an important and richly abundant bone enzyme. This enzyme was chosen, as it is known to survive more than 4000 years of mummification. In the presence of borate oligomeric species of this zinc-magnesium-glycoprotein at 400 000 Da became detectable. Attributable to this borate-dependent stabilization of the enzyme molecule a significant temperature resistant increase of the enzymic activity was measured in the presence of up to 2.5 mM borate.

Borate, an Effective Mummification Agent in Pharaonic Egypt

Mummification salts and mummified bones were assayed for borate. In two samples of mummification salt one from Deir el-Bahari (26th Dynasty, 700-600 BC) and salt from the embalming material of Tutankhamen (18th Dynasty, 1370-1335 BC) 3.9 and 2.1 μMol borate/ gram were found, respectively. Six mummified bone fragments from the Old Kingdom contained up to 1.2 μMol/gram. It is suggested that borate containing salt was used during mummification. The reactivity of borate on bone alkaline phosphatase, which is known to survive mummification for more than 4000 years, was examined. Borate forms high relative molecular mass adducts of this enzyme being temperature resistant and functionally distinct.

'Soternalia' from Deir el-Bahri, Including two Coffins Lids with Demotic Inscriptions (Pl IX-XIV)

'Soternalia' from Deir el-Bahri, Including two Coffins Lids with Demotic Inscriptions (Pl IX-XIV)

Two Ostraka from Deir el-Bahri and the Lily Flower Motif in Twenty-sixth Dynasty Theban Tombs

Three sketches on two ostraka at The Metropolitan Museum of Art depict single-flower liliform capitals drawn double red lines (figs. 1-3). l A pale red pigment was used for the preliminary drawing and a bright red pigment for the final one, the roughly sketched contours consisting of overlapping short lines. Each image represents a lily flower with two symmetrically curved petals and two elements hanging from the underside of the petals.2 The latter are shaped like of water, or, as they were more poetically called by N. de G. Davies, drops of dew.3 This type of capital did not survive Egyptian architecture. Similar images known from the New Kingdom tomb painting have under petal elements of different shapes and sizes.4 Establishing a date for a new version of a lily flower image with two is one of the goals of this research. The two ostraka are part of a larger group found the rubbish of the court of the Eleventh Dynasty Theban tomb (MMA 509) into which the later Twenty-sixth Dynasty tomb of Nespakashuty (TT 312) was built. Although most of these ostraka have been published a number of times, their dating is still question. Herbert E. Winlock, after finding them 1922-23, referred to the whole group as snatches of life on flakes of the paper-white limestone which Nespakashuty 's artists drew in their off-time amusing themselves.5 Thirty-five years later W. Hayes re-published the ostraka dating them to the Ramesside Period.6 Other studies attribute them to the seventh century while leaving an earlier date as a possibility.7 Most recently, while including these drawings his list of liliform capitals, Dieter Arnold observed that: unfortunately, the date of the ostraka is unknown. From the date of the surrounding pottery one would tend to date them to the late Ptolemaic/Roman period, when, as we know, artists studied older tombs. However, the two ostraka might even go back to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, when Nespakashuty built his court into the court of tomb no. 509 (656-650 B.C.).8 It seems that doubts and contradictions dating this material come from an attempt to date the ostraka as a related group although they do not appear to constitute one. Stylistically they can be

Roman Period Mummy Masks from Deir El-Bahri

A study of a group of linen and plaster mummy masks from Deir el-Bahri, dating to the third century AD, with an Appendix listing 26 known examples. The first publication of a female mask in Dublin, National Museum of Ireland 1901:79, introduces a discussion of the group's iconographic and stylistic characteristics. This is followed by a presentation of archaeological evidence gleaned from excavations carried out at the site by the Egypt Exploration Fund in the 1890s and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1920s.

Roman Period Mummy Masks from Deir el-Bahri

Roman Period Mummy Masks from Deir el-Bahri

A Note on Puntite Housing

Interpretation of the huts shown in the Deir el-Bahri reliefs as raised structures with enclosed ground-floor spaces, of potentially significant use.

Une statue du grand prêtre d'Amon Bakenkhonsou II

(Res.d'A.). Publication of a fragmentary bloc-statue of the high priest of Amun Bakenkhonsu II in the Louvre. This monument, which gives some new informations about the career and the parents of this official, seems to come from Thutmosis III's temple ar Deir el-Bahari. Bakenkhonsu II has left a relativity great number of statues (eight or nine), a fact wich could reveal an attempt to assert his authority over the theban sanctuaries, because of the possible existence of an opposition to the rule of the new dynasty.

The goddess of the Theban mountain

The discovery of a colossal ‘statue group’ in the cliffs at Deir el-Bahri sheds new light on the ways in which pharaonic Egyptians experienced the dynamism of their physical environment, and made appeal to it in validation of royal legitimacy; suggests re-interpretation of the symbolic function of the memorial temple of Queen Hatshepsut; and defines a previously unrecognized tradition in rupestral architecture, spatially distributed from the Arabah to the Sudan.

A Group of Osiris-Cloths of the Twenty-First Dynasty in the Cairo Museum

Publication of a group of twelve decorated and inscribed linen cloths from the second cache of Deir El-Bahari (Bab El-Gassus), found by Daressy and Grébaut in 1891. They belong to the lower ranks of priests and priestesses connected with the cult of Amon at Thebes during the Twenty-first Dynasty. Termed here Osiris-cloths they are of three main types: the most common type shows a standing figure of Osiris, while the second depicts a standing figure of the deceased before Osiris. The third is simply a vertical line of text. The cloths are usually made of coarse, thick linen, with figures and texts drawn in black or red. The texts usually give some of the titles of Osiris, an offering or religious formula, and the name and titles of the deceased. The group is discussed in relation to earlier and later practices.

A Casket Fragment of Rarnesses IX in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge

Publication of an ivory panel in Cambridge which originally formed part of the box Cairo JE 2627 I from the Deir el-Bahri royal cache.

Two Royal Reliefs from the Temple of Deir el-Bahari

Two Royal Reliefs from the Temple of Deir el-Bahari

The Bab El-Gusus Tomb and the Royal Cache in Deir El-Bahri

The Bab El-Gusus Tomb and the Royal Cache in Deir El-Bahri

The Upper Court Colonnade of Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri

The Upper Court Colonnade of Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri

デール・エル・バハリにおけるポーランド隊のハトシェプスト葬祭殿修復工事の現状

デール・エル・バハリにおけるポーランド隊のハトシェプスト葬祭殿修復工事の現状

Deir el-Bahari II, the Temple of Thutmosis III. Architecture. By Jadwiga Lipińska.

<i>Deir el-Bahari II, the Temple of Thutmosis III. Architecture</i>. By Jadwiga Lipińska.

Miscellanea on Viceroys of Kush and their Assistants Buried in Draʿ Abu El-Naga', South.

At the beginning of the New Kingdom, the pharaohs, realizing the importance of the land of Nubia to Egypt's economic and political well-being, for the first time appointed officials to be in charge of that land. These officials, first called 'kings' sons', then kings' sons of Kush, were second to the king and, in some periods, were in charge, not only of Nubia, but also of a part of southern Upper Egypt. Pharaohs came, in this period, from Thebes, and made it their capital. It was natural, then, that many of these important officials also came from the same town. Of these the following were undoubtedly buried in its necropolis : 1. Huy, viceroy of Tutankhamen, tomb No. 40 in Qurnet Mura'i; 2. Mermose, viceroy of Amenophis III, tomb No. 383, in Qurnet Mura'i; 3. 'Anhotep, viceroy of Ramesses II (?), tomb No. 300, in Dra'Abu el-Naga', South; 4. Setau, viceroy of Ramesses II, tomb No. 289, Dra' Abu el-Naga', South; More were buried there, but the exact positions of their tombs are still unknown; these are: 5. Turo, viceroy of Amenophis I and Tuthmosis I. A statue of him was encountered at Deir el-Bahari; but more important are the funerary cones with his names discovered in the Theban Necropolis.1 6. Seni, who served Tuthmosis I-Hatshepsut. He was the governor of the Southern City (Thebes) and some of his cones were also found.2 7. Nehi, viceroy of Tuthmosis III, whose tomb was seen by early travellers, but lost sight of. His sarcophagus and pyramidion were discovered in Thebes3., and a ushabti of his was unearthed behind the Ramesseum.4

Senenu, High Priest of Amun at Deir El-Bahri

Senenu, High Priest of Amun at Deir El-Bahri

Some Problems Relating to the Pwenet Reliefs at Deir el-Bahari

Some Problems Relating to the Pwenet Reliefs at Deir el-Bahari