Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (17.2005(2007))

TUNA EL-GEBEL

EGYPT

TOMB STRUCTURE, STATE OF PRESERVATION
AND CAUSES OF DEGRADATION

The tomb2 was built of mud brick and only
the doorjambs were of nummulithic lime-
stone; the window lintels were reinforced
with wooden beams. The walls were
plastered with mud mortar tempered with
chaff, and given a coat of lime-and-sand
plaster which acted as ground for the
painted decoration. The outer coat of plaster

was rusticated, imitating stone blocks. The
inner coats were smoothed. The walls of the
anteroom and sanctuary were painted. Paint
was also observed on the outside plaster. The
paints were based on an organic binder and
traditional pigments (azurite, hematite,
ochre, vegetable black). Neither prelimi-
nary sketches nor the drawing grid have


Fig. 1. Interior of Tomb No. 21 (after S. Gabra, Rapport sur les fouilles d'Hermoupolis Quest
(Touna el Gebel, Le Caire 1941, PI. X)

2 Discovered in 1935. The necropolis was discovered in 1919, cf. G. Lefebvre, Le tombeau de Petosiris, 3 vols (Le Caire
1923-24); AA.W., Un siecle de fouilles frangaises en Egypte, 1880-1980 (Pans 1981), 312-313; Gabra's excavations
brought to light at least 17 funerary chapels and 24 tombs, called "houses", as well as an underground animal necropolis
dedicated to Thoth, cf. S. Gabra, Rapport preliminaire sur les fouilles de l'Universite egyptienne a Touna (Hermopolis
Ouest), in: ASAE 32 (1932), 56; id., Fouilles de l'Universite Fouad el Awal a Touna el Gebel (Hermopolis Ouest), in:
ASAE 39 (1939), 483; id., Raport sur les fouilles d'Hermoupolis Ouest (Touna el-Gebel), (Le Caire 1941); P. Pensabene,
Elementi architettonici di Alessandria e altn siti egiziam. Repertorio d'Arte dell'Egitto Greco-Romano (Rome 1993),
257.

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