Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (12.2000(2001))

DEIR EL-BAHARI

EGYPT

PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION
OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES

The principal objective of the Mission is
to preserve as much as possible of the
ancient substance and to reconstruct down
to the last authentic fragment. Extensive
surface losses in walls, columns and
architectural elements are filled in with
tinted mineral plaster, called artificial
stone. The differentiation of the restored
and original parts is achieved by recessing
the new plaster 2-3 mm below the face of
the original one. As several of the
iconographic elements or scenes are only
partly preserved in the original stone
material, a procedure for carving the
missing outlines has been developed with
full SCA approval and positive assessment
from specialists.3) The outlines join one
original fragment of representation with
another, thus making the whole scene
clearer and easier to perceive for the
untrained eye.

The conservation and restoration
program of the season4) concentrated on
the aesthetic unification of the walls of the
Upper Courtyard and the Main Sanctuary.
The aesthetic and historic arrangement of
the Courtyard (i.e., Ptolemaic Portico,
Osiride statues in the niches of the West
Wall, columns, architrave blocks and
pavement) and the Upper Portico
(monumental Osiride figures in the
facade) were also executed. The
development of the program depended on
an equal consideration of the results of
previous restoration projects,5) wherein
different reconstruction techniques and
materials were applied, as well as
commonly accepted principles of
restoration and the quantity and quality of
the preserved ancient substance. On this
basis the final concept for this season's
restoration work was prepared.

UPPER COURTYARD

All the work was geared to the principal
objective, which was to restore the
Courtyard arrangement to its state from
the last years of the Queen's reign, that is,
most probably the period shortly before

the 21st regnal year (of Tuthmosis III).
The project's concerns were the walls,
including the West Wall with niches and
figures of the Queen, the pavement, rows
of columns and architrave blocks.

3) The first restoration of this type, executed in 1998, was the sema-tawy scene in the Bark Hall, cf. R.W. Gazda,
“Aesthetic and technical problems of conservation at the Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el-Bahari”, in: Z. Hawass and A.M.
Jones (eds.), Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists: Abstracts of Papers (Cairo 2000), 70. Also n. 2 on p. 206 in
this volume.
4) For derails of the conservation work see contribution by R.W. Gazda in this volume.
5) The final result is an effort of many specialists, working over the past few decades in the Polish-Egyptian Mission
established by K. Michatowski and directed in previous years by L. D^browski (1961-67), Z. Wysocki (1968-87), A. Macur
(1988) and F. Pawlicki (1992-99).
Much of the work to preserve the temple had been done in the early years of the 20th century by French engineer,
E. Baraize, then Technical Director of the Service des Antiquites. Unfortunately, while Baraize was an excellent architect
and restorer, he was not an Egyptologist and his restorations are fraught with errors despite consultations with eminent
specialists of his day, including P. Lacau, G. Legrain and E. Drioton. This is a problem faced by restorers today.

186