DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Pawlicki, Franciszek: Deir el-Bahari: the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, 1998/1999
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41274#0167
DEIR EL-BAHARI
EGYPT
re-attached to the stone. Empty joints and
voids were filled in with cotton gauze strips
dipped in lime and white cement mortar.
The southern wall of the chapel was
also restored. The broken lintel was rein-
forced with steel bars, while the deformed
eastern jamb of the entrance was disman-
tled down to the foundations and rebuilt.
Sixteen decorated blocks were re-intro-
duced into the upper register of the south-
ern wall, directly above the lintel. The
scene depicting Queen Hatshesput offering
wine to Amun-Re was almost completely
restored. The hammered figure of Hat-
shepsut was replaced with a representation
of Tuthmosis II. Yet the original decora-
tion is still easy to recognize. Preserved in
the western part is an inscription, which
records the words of Amun: "I have given
to you my seat, the dignity of heiress of the
throne, because you love [me] living eter-
nally like Re".
EXCAVATIONS IN THE MAIN SANCTUARY OF AMUN-RE
The reconstruction of the pavement in the
room for the cult statue and in both side
chapels required a compact layer of earth
and rock debris to be cleaned from the floor.
Three shafts leading to four burial cham-
bers of the priests of Amun and Montu
merit of the southern chapel of the Main
Sanctuary {Photo W. Jerke)
were discovered immediately underneath
the accumulated soil. Two were situated in
the side chapels, and the third was in the
western part of the main room. The priests
had been buried together with their rela-
tives in the period of the Twenty-First and
Twenty-Second Dynasties.15) The rock-
hewn shafts reach a depth of c. 4.00-4.20 m.
They are square in cross-section, measuring
either c. 1.10 or 1.40 m to the side. In all
three there was a compact fill of earth, rock,
broken limestone blocks and Ptolemaic
sandstone fragments apparently cast down
in modern times. The tombs were explored
and then robbed presumably in the early
19th century.16’ Another tomb situated
below the Hall of the Bark was excavated
by E. Baraize in the early 1930s.17)
Excavations yielded many written doc-
uments: small fragments of papyri, a num-
ber of ostraca in Demotic and Coptic. One
Demotic ostracon is a business letter of
sorts {Fig. 9). A man, whose name has not
been preserved, was associated with the
temple of Amun-Re in Karnak in the 2nd
5) Family burials are typical of the Third Intermediate Period.
16) The sanctuary was accessible already at the time of the Napoleonic Expedition. The tombs were plundered probably by
Belzoni or soon after his examination of the sanctuary. H. Brugsch, who visited Hatshepsut's temple in the early fifties, saw
the open shafts.
17) B. Bruyere, "Une nouvelle famille de pretres de Montou trouvee par Baraize a Deir el Bahari", ASAE 54 (1957), 11-33.
165
EGYPT
re-attached to the stone. Empty joints and
voids were filled in with cotton gauze strips
dipped in lime and white cement mortar.
The southern wall of the chapel was
also restored. The broken lintel was rein-
forced with steel bars, while the deformed
eastern jamb of the entrance was disman-
tled down to the foundations and rebuilt.
Sixteen decorated blocks were re-intro-
duced into the upper register of the south-
ern wall, directly above the lintel. The
scene depicting Queen Hatshesput offering
wine to Amun-Re was almost completely
restored. The hammered figure of Hat-
shepsut was replaced with a representation
of Tuthmosis II. Yet the original decora-
tion is still easy to recognize. Preserved in
the western part is an inscription, which
records the words of Amun: "I have given
to you my seat, the dignity of heiress of the
throne, because you love [me] living eter-
nally like Re".
EXCAVATIONS IN THE MAIN SANCTUARY OF AMUN-RE
The reconstruction of the pavement in the
room for the cult statue and in both side
chapels required a compact layer of earth
and rock debris to be cleaned from the floor.
Three shafts leading to four burial cham-
bers of the priests of Amun and Montu
merit of the southern chapel of the Main
Sanctuary {Photo W. Jerke)
were discovered immediately underneath
the accumulated soil. Two were situated in
the side chapels, and the third was in the
western part of the main room. The priests
had been buried together with their rela-
tives in the period of the Twenty-First and
Twenty-Second Dynasties.15) The rock-
hewn shafts reach a depth of c. 4.00-4.20 m.
They are square in cross-section, measuring
either c. 1.10 or 1.40 m to the side. In all
three there was a compact fill of earth, rock,
broken limestone blocks and Ptolemaic
sandstone fragments apparently cast down
in modern times. The tombs were explored
and then robbed presumably in the early
19th century.16’ Another tomb situated
below the Hall of the Bark was excavated
by E. Baraize in the early 1930s.17)
Excavations yielded many written doc-
uments: small fragments of papyri, a num-
ber of ostraca in Demotic and Coptic. One
Demotic ostracon is a business letter of
sorts {Fig. 9). A man, whose name has not
been preserved, was associated with the
temple of Amun-Re in Karnak in the 2nd
5) Family burials are typical of the Third Intermediate Period.
16) The sanctuary was accessible already at the time of the Napoleonic Expedition. The tombs were plundered probably by
Belzoni or soon after his examination of the sanctuary. H. Brugsch, who visited Hatshepsut's temple in the early fifties, saw
the open shafts.
17) B. Bruyere, "Une nouvelle famille de pretres de Montou trouvee par Baraize a Deir el Bahari", ASAE 54 (1957), 11-33.
165