Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (16.2004(2005))

DEIR EL-BAHARI

EGYPT

TEMPLE OF TUTHMOSIS III

A project for digitalization of the doc-
umentation of decorated blocks from the
Tuthmosis III temple held in the store-
room at Deir el-Bahari has been imple-
mented. The first stage concerns the three
rooms connected with the King's Cult,
which will constitute the first volume of
the publication of this complex.19 All the

drawings, made in 1:4 scale on the basis of
photographs, were checked with the ori-
ginals documentation. New drawings were
executed from original reliefs and from
photographs. Parts of scenes coming from
rooms D, G, and H were drawn. Some loose
fragments were attributed to already
drawn scenes.

METROPOLITAN HOUSE

Constructed almost a century ago, perhaps
in 1913, by the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York, the Metropolitan House
or El Beit el-Bulandi, as it is commonly
called, houses scholars and archaeological
teams working in the area of Deir el-
Bahari, Khokha and Asasif. It is among the
oldest such houses in Thebes.20 Hidden
bedrock movement had endangered the
foundations and walls in the easternmost
wing of the house. With approval from the
Supreme Council of Antiquities, the Mis-
sion's architect, Teresa Kaczor, has drawn
up plans for restoring this part.
As part of the 'cleaning-up' project, the
team has also documented the various mo-

numents, for the most part unpublished,
standing in the porticoes of the building.21
The objects had been brought to the house
from various archaeological digs carried out
in the area of West Thebes in the past few
decades.
Another unusual find was made in the
dark-room of the house. Over a hundred
glass photo negatives from between 1930
and 1950 were found (119 photos in all).22
The collection, which is now in the archives
of Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archae-
ology of Warsaw University, will be studied
by tukasz Dzigciolowski for his MA thesis,
written in the Warsaw University Institute
of Archaeology.

19 M. Dolinska is in charge of this project.
20 Cf. views of the house in: Szafranski, Queen Hatshepsut, op. cit., 209f-
21 The task was gladly undertaken by O. Bialostocka and the present author.
22 Some have been published already, cf. t. Dzigciolowski (anonymous), in: J. Sokolowski and M. Zalewski (eds), Blow-
up. Black & White Photography Festival: Zakopane-Warszawa 2002 (Warsaw 2002), 171, 173, 178, 180f., Photos 5a,
8a, 23a, 57b, 62b.

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