The EES Publishing Blog

A 19th century French poet in Harwa’s Cenotaph

One of the serendipitous pleasures of editing Egyptian Archaeology for the EES is that of finding out new things when I come across a mention of something I don’t already know or a person of whom I haven’t heard. I usually assume (possibly misguidedly) that if I don’t know who someone is, there’s a fair chance that at least some readers of EA also may not have heard of of him/her, so when a name crops up that isn’t familiar I resort to the inevitable ‘googling’ and then insert a brief explanatory description.

Today I am editing for EA 43 (Autumn 2013) Francesco Tiradritti’s article on his team’s work in the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru at Luxor which contains a graffito of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Francesco says: ‘He probably left his mark sometime between the summer of 1887 and early 1888 when he was in Egypt to cash a cheque received from Menelik II in exchange for a supply of arms’. Having, many years ago, done A-level French, Rimbaud was a relatively well-known quantity to me but Menelik II meant nothing and I then spent a happy half-hour finding out about him. He turns out to have been an Ethiopian prince who became Emperor in 1889 and the reason Rimbaud was involved with him was because he had abandoned poetry at the age of 21 and gone off adventuring in Africa and the Middle East, including essentially ‘gun-running’ for Manelik II.

Rimbaud’s graffito in Harwa’s Cenotaph was first recognised by Isabella Faroppa, the wife of Ibrahim Soliman, Chief Inspector of the Temple of Karnak, on a visit to Francesco’s work, just after excavation revealed the northern wall of the courtyard.

Rimbaud’s graffito. Courtesy of A.C.S.E.S. Italia, © 2013

Most of Francesco’s article is, of course, about the wonderful reliefs in the Cenotaph of Harwa and what they can tell us about life in Egypt in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty.

Part of a procession of offering bearers from the north portico decoration (Digital collage by F. Tiradritti from photos by G. Lovera, 2006, 2009).
Courtesy of A.C.S.E.S. Italia, © 2013

Many thanks to Francesco Tiradritti for permission to include  information from his article, and the images, in this update.

The website for the Harwa expedition can be found at http://www.harwa.it. See also the team’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MissArchItLuxor?ref=hl.

Patricia Spencer

Hasiballah Saqqara photos 1909-1988

At the January meeting of the EA Editorial Board David Jeffreys mentioned photographs of Emery and Quibell which he had been given in Egypt by Salah Hasiballah who has worked with the Society’s Saqqara and Memphis expeditions for many years. Salah is the son of Hasiballah el-Taib who was the photographer of the Antiquities Service at Saqqara, and who also took many of the photographs of Emery’s EES work at the site, particularly at the Sacred Animal Necropolis.

Hasiballah el-Taib in 1988 with his plate camera.

Hasiballah had followed in the footsteps of his father, El-Taib Ahmed, who had worked with Quibell during his seasons at Saqqara. The family had originally moved north from Quft and settled in the Qufti village on the edge of the Saqqara escarpment.  Other branches of the extended family worked at Saqqara as stone-masons and as supervisors on excavations.

James Quibell and El-Taib Ahmed (indicated) with the staff of the Saqqara inspectorate building (the taftish) in 1909.

David will be contributing a short piece to EA 43 (Autumn 2013) on the album and on his experience working with Quftis at Saqqara.

In front of the Saqqara taftish in 1936. In the centre are Pierre Lacau (then Director of the Antiquities Service), Bryan Emery and Zaki Youssef Saad (not Jean-Philippe Lauer as originally identifed), with Hasiballah el-Taib as a child (second from left in the front row), next to his younger brother Abdallah. Many thanks to Will Carruthers for the correct identifications.

Early 1971. Bryan Emery describing the excavations during his last season to a group of visitors. Emery died on 11 March 1971 at Saqqara.

Also in the first months of 1971 - Emery on site with the then Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation Gamal Mokhtar (left) and Ali el-Khouli, Director of Antiquites at Saqqara.

 In the courtyard of the EES house at Saqqara (Beit Emery/Beit Inglizi) in 1978 *. Back row, from left to right: Yusef Gabriel (house staff), Reis Hilmi and Reis Mahmud, Harry Smith, Gabr el-Khouroubi (house staff), Hazel Smith and Ali Hussein (house cook). Front row, from left to right: John Ray, David Jeffreys, Lisa Giddy and Nicholas Reeves.

*Although the image is dated 1978 by Hasiballah, Lisa Giddy (to whom thanks) has pointed out that this was in fact the 1979 season at Saqqara.

Patricia (with much help, gratefully acknowledged, from David Jeffreys)

EA 42’s cover girl!

EA 42 is now in the hands of our printers and I’ve added the contents’ list to the Egyptian Archaeology page of the EES website. 

We’re especially pleased with our ‘cover girl’ this time - a lovely image of the goddess Nut on the ceiling of the tomb (TT 11) of Djehuty at Dra Abu el-Naga which is featured in the centre spread article by the excavator of the tomb, José M Galán. Djehuty was ‘Overseer of the Treasury’ and ‘Overseer of Works’ under the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III and the ceiling and walls of his burial chamber are covered with one of the earliest long compilations of Book of the Dead spells.

The burial chamber as found in 2009 with the image of Nut on the ceiling.

EA 42 should be published in early March 2013.

Patricia

EA 42: Ancient Graffiti at Luxor

EA 42 (to be published in early March) will include an article by Chloé Ragazzoli and Elizabeth Frood  on their separate projects recording ancient graffiti in the temple of Ptah at Karnak (Elizabeth) and in tombs on the West Bank (Chloé). The authors suggested the article after their very successful EES Saturday Seminar in June 2012 on the topic, which was greatly enjoyed by all those who attended and which can still be viewed here.

The article discusses Chloé’s research on ancient graffiti in two tombs: the only surviving decorated chapel of the Middle Kingdom at Thebes, belonging to Antefiqer, a vizier of Senwosret I, and tomb MMA 504 (Carter 82), an unfinished tomb overlooking the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri.

Ancient graffito above an image of a calving oryx in the tomb of Antefiker. Photograph: Chloé Ragazzoli.

Elizabeth is working with the Franco-Egyptian Centre at Karnak, recording initially graffiti in the temple of Ptah (for the excavations see EA 38, pp.20-24). The temple has more than 100 graffiti, dating from the late New Kingdom and the Late Period, and written by the staff of the temple.

Hieroglyphic graffito of the scribe Ashakhet in the Ptah temple at Karnak. Photograph: CNRS-CFEETK/Pauline Batard

The EES Saturday Seminars are always very popular and tickets sell out quickly, so early booking is always advised. Upcoming London Seminars are:

23 February 2013. Pith Helmets and Petticoats: Women in 19th Century Egypt with Hélène Virenque (who also has an article in EA 42 on Edouard Naville, Sylvia Einaudi, Henrietta McCall and our own Joanna Kyffin. This Seminar will examine the lives of a number of women (including, of course the EES Founder Amelia Edwards) who worked in and/or wrote about Egypt and Egyptology, during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

9 March 2013. An Allegory on the Banks of the Nile: Water Metaphors in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant with Linda Steynor who was elected as an EES Trustee at the AGM on 8 December 2012. Linda will look at the Peasant’s use of colourful language and the rich tapestry of his petitions, offering an insight into an ancient Egyptian’s view of himself and his place in society.

Tickets for all EES events can be booked here.

Patricia

‘Digging Diary’ in EA 42

My first priority for 2013 (Happy New Year!) is to make sure that Egyptian Archaeology 42 is ready to go to the printer in February. Most of the articles are now made up to page and I’m about to start work on ‘Digging Diary’ which includes reports on fieldwork carried out in Egypt in the second half of 2012. Since many projects work up to (and some including) the Christmas/New Year holidays, I’m still waiting for some ‘regulars’ to arrive for EA 42. On Monday I received from Barry Kemp and Anna Stevens their summary of the latest season at Amarna, together with this unusual photograph of a child’s coffin to illustrate their ‘Digging Diary’ report, and which Barry was happy for me to include here.

Anthropoid coffin for a child, made from coarse mud, discovered with well preserved ropework at the South Tombs Cemetery (Lower Site) at Amarna. Photograph © The Amarna Project.

The current fieldwork at Amarna, formerly, of course, an EES expedition, is now run by The Amarna Project  but the Society is continuing to publish the results of fieldwork at Amarna, and Anna’s two volume publication of the Stone Village appeared in 2012. Another Amarna publication, Jane Faiers’ second volume on Late Roman pottery, and glass, is now in production and should be published early in 2013.

Most of the main articles for EA 42 have been made up to page and PDF proofs are now winging their way to the other members of the editorial board and the authors of articles.

Patricia

Naville and others in Egyptian Archaeology 42

The mental image that most Egyptologists have of Edouard Naville is of him as an elderly man (as in the new edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology) but when he started working for the EEF in 1883 he was only 39. Photographs to be included in an article by Hélène Virenque in EA 42 will allow us to see Naville as he looked as a young man when he was involved in the foundation of the EES and active for us in Egypt.

Edouard Naville © Fondation Naville. Reproduced here and in EA 42 with the kind permission of the Naville family. The background of the photograph has been cropped.

Hélène was awarded a grant from the EES Centenary Fund in 2010 to study unpublished correspondence between Naville and the EEF stored in the Society’s Lucy Gura Archive, in the University of Geneva Library and in the Institut de Paris. An earlier summary of Hélène’s research, which has thrown new light on Naville’s life and career, can be found here on the EES website.

Recipients of EES Centenary Awards are invited to send reports for publication in Egyptian Archaeology and previous issues have include reports from Kenneth Griffin (2010 award, EA 40, pp.10-11), William Carruthers (2009 award, EA 36, pp.8-10) and Maria Correas-Amador (2009 award, EA 38, pp.14-16).  These three articles can now be downloaded free of charge from the EES website. Details of the 2012 Centenary Awards can be found here.

Other articles in EA 42 will describe excavations and research in tombs at Dra Abu’l Naga on the west bank at Luxor, at Amara West in Sudan and in the Palace of Apries at Memphis, in addition to reports on EES work in the Delta, a description of the new Egyptian Galleries at Manchester Museum, and other articles. The books reviewed in this issue will be very wide-ranging and include one by the EES Chair, Aidan Dodson (Garry Shaw’s, The Pharaoh) and another by our Vice-Chair, John J Johnston (David Stuttard and Sam Moorhead, 31BC: Antony, Cleopatra and the Fall of Egypt).

Garry Shaw with the cover of his latest book, The Pharaoh, at the launch on 2 October 2012 in the EES Committee Room at Doughty Mews.

The cover of 31BC which will be reviewed by John J Johnston.

Egyptian Archaeology 42 will be published in the spring of 2013. All EES members receive two issues of EA every year as part of the membership package. Individual copies can also be purchased from the EES Office (contact rob.tamplin@ees.ac.uk) or in our on-line shop.

Patricia

Memphite buckets in full colour

I’m having a break this morning from setting Buhen Old Kingdom Town, to prepare the cover for Lisa Giddy’s Excavation Memoir (no.94) The Survey of Memphis VI. Kom Rabia: the late Middle Kingdom (levels VI-VIII) and do some preparatory work (copy editing, checking texts) for other upcoming EES publications. We’re using on the front cover of Lisa’s report a wonderful photograph of the buckets (!) which were used for sorting various materials during the excavation at Kom Rabia between 1984 and 1990.

A cropped version of the photograph was included in Egyptian Archaeology 1 (p.8) but it’s always been a favourite of ours so we’re pleased to be able now to reproduce it on the front cover of Lisa’s Memoir.

The EES Survey of Memphis was inaugurated with funds raised by the Society’s Centenary Appeal in 1882. The rest of the donations generously given by EES members thirty years ago were invested and the annual income funds the Centenary Awards for early career researchers. The 2012 awards have recently been advertised and full details can be found here.

The first report on the fieldwork at Kom Rabia - Survey of Memphis I by David Jeffreys - was published as an EES Occasional Paper and is out of print, but the subsequent Excavation Memoirs are available at the EES shop:

Lisa Giddy, The Survey of Memphis II. Kom Rabia. The New Kingdom and Post-New Kingdom Objects. 

David Aston and David Jeffreys, The Survey of Memphis III. The Third Intermediate Period Levels. 

Janine Bourriau, The Survey of Memphis IV. Kom Rabia: the New Kingdom Pottery

David Jeffreys, The Survey of Memphis V. Kom Rabia: the New Kingdom Settlement Levels.

David Jeffreys, The Survey of Memphis VII. The Hekekyan Papers.

Lisa’s volume - The Survey of Memphis VI. Kom Rabia: the late Middle Kingdom (levels VI-VIII) will be published within the next few months and can be pre-ordered at the EES on-line shop.

Patricia

Discussing Perunefer in ‘Egyptian Archaeology’

In EA 41 which is now being distributed, David Jeffreys published a photograph of a modern river-bank scene and wondered if this might have been what the ancient harbour of Perunefer looked like.

David’s photograph published in EA 41

The location of Perunefer has long been a subject of debate and most recently this has been carried on in issues of Egyptian Archaeology. Manfred Bietak opened the discussion in EA 26, proposing that Pernunefer was at Avaris/PiRamesse rather than at Memphis and David responded in EA 28, supporting a Memphite location of the harbour. Professor Bietak replied in EAs 34 and 35, publishing new evidence which he maintains indicates a Delta location for Perunefer.

Since the discussion is spread over several issues of EA, we thought it would be helpful to have them all available in one place, and PDFs of the four articles can be downloaded on the EES website together with an article by John Cooper which has just been published in EA 41 and which assesses the navigability (or otherwise) of the Nile in antiquity - a crucial issue for identifying the location of Perunefer.

After a very busy summer when I was finishing work on EA 41 and getting it ready for the printers, at the same time as we moved house from south London to Dorset, we had a great holiday in the USA and I am now back at my desk and back at work on EES Memoirs.

My EES Mac in my new ‘office’ in Dorset with, above, the photograph of Petrie’s camp at Defenneh which was presented to me by the Society at the AGM in 2011 (see EA 40, p.3), to mark my retirement as EES Director.

Patricia

Champollion and Breasted in Who Was Who in Egyptology and EA 41.

This famous portrait of Jean François Champollion has been, appropriately, the frontispiece of every edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology. The fourth edition is still the main source of basic biographical information on past Egyptologists but the lives and careers of many of them are so full of incident that they really need full biographies; Egyptian Archaeology 41 (which will be published in the Autumn) will include reviews of biographies of Champollion and of James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute at Chicago.

The biography of Champollion: Andrew Robinson, Cracking The Egyptian Code. The Revolutionary Life of Jean-François Champollion has been reviewed for us by Peter Clayton, a member of the Editorial Board of EA. Peter concludes his review; ‘Robinson’s biography is a most welcome and long-overdue study in English of an enigmatic and still controversial genius. This splendidly produced and absorbing book should be in every Egyptologist’s library’. On 24 April Andrew gave a talk about Champollion at the EES; it can be viewed here.

Jason Thompson, who spoke at the recent book launch for Who Was Who in Egyptology, has reviewed the account of Breasted’s life by Jeffrey Abt; American Egyptologist: The Life of James Henry Breasted and the Creation of His Oriental Institute. As Jason says:  ‘American Egyptologist is an appropriate title for a book about the individual who was at the very foundation of American Egyptology and who did more than any other person to construct its edifice.’

EA 41 will also include a review (once I have written it!) of a recent publication from Breasted’s Oriental Institute: Picturing the Past; Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East which was written to accompany an exhibition of the same name in Chicago, running until 2 September.

The book includes essays with a wide variety of images, including of Breasted himself, and a catalogue of the exhibition. Like all Oriental Institute publications it is available both in digital form (free to download as a PDF) and as a glossy paperback book.

There is a growing interest in the study of the history of Egyptology and of the lives of those who have contributed to it, whether they carried out excavations and surveys in Egypt and neighbouring countries, or beavered away in libraries and museums, studying texts and objects. Who Was Who in Egyptology is always going to be the starting point for anyone interested in the history of our subject and Morris Bierbrier who edited both the third and fourth editions would be pleased to hear from anyone with corrections or additions to entries in the fourth edition. He can be contacted at morris.bierbrier@ees.ac.uk. A short film showing Morris at work on the fourth edition of Who Was Who can be viewed on the EES YouTube channel.

Patricia

Selling books, having meetings and launching Who Was Who in Egyptology

Approaching the end of a very busy, but productive week in the EES publishing world! On Monday and Tuesday we had an EES stall at the British Museum’s Sackler Colloquium. Rob did most of the work, transporting books back and forth but I helped out when we got busy and when he had to return to the Office to replenish sold-out stock.

The EES stall at the Sackler Colloquium

As usual the colloquium was a good chance to meet up with colleagues and friends and I also took the opportunity to discuss with several people the research they are doing which is based on EES fieldwork, to help inform the planning of our publication programme for the next few years. To the same end, on Wednesday evening Chris and I met up with Barry Kemp to talk about outstanding publications from EES excavations at Amarna. It was good to see Barry again and to learn that (among other publications) he is actively working on the report about the North Palace at Amarna, excavated by the EES in the 1920s but never fully published. We have ‘pencilled it in’ for publication by the Society in the 2013/14 financial year.

Before we met Barry, on Wednesday afternoon, Chris and I were at a meeting of the Egyptian Archaeology Editorial Board, reviewing progress with the preparation of EA 41 (Autumn 2012) and looking at potential articles for the next two issues. As with any meeting, it is often not possible to arrange a date and time that everyone can manage (and we didn’t achieve that this week) but everyone was present at our July meeting last year when Roo took this photo:

The EA Editorial Board at our July 2011 meeting. Left to Right: John Taylor, John J Johnston, George Hart, Mike Murphy, Peter Clayton, Alice Stevenson, Chris Naunton, Patricia Spencer and David Jeffreys.

Last night (Thursday) we held the launch event for the fourth edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology at Doughty Mews. After guests had assembled and been provided with glasses of wine (or bottles of beer), Chris said some words of welcome and thanked, on behalf of the EES, Morris Bierbrier, the editor of the third and the new fourth editions, and those members whose generous donations have enabled the Society to keep the selling price of the volume low.  Jason Thompson, a good friend of the Society’s and the biographer of Edward Lane, then described the importance of WWW to his own research into the history of Egyptology and Morris Bierbrier talked about the new fourth edition and thanked those who had helped in the preparation of the volume and in supplying information and photographs. Around 50 members and friends of the EES attended the event and most bought copies on the evening - some asking Morris to sign them. We were especially pleased that Eric Uphill, who had edited the second edition of WWW, was able to be present and Rosalind Janssen whose students from Birkbeck College provided poster displays about past Egyptologists.

Morris Bierbrier, Jason Thompson and Chris Naunton

Copies of Who Was Who in Egyptology at the launch event.

The fourth edition of Who Was Who in Egyptology (Full price £35; EES Members’ price £25) can be ordered at the EES online shop.

Today I have been working on EA 41, editing and setting to page articles by Margaret Mountford on her research into ‘circus programmes’ which she discussed at the recent event at the British Academy, and by Tomasz Herbich on the value of geophysical survey methods to landscape archaeology in Egypt.

Patricia