Thebes in the First Millennium BC

Julia Budka · Kenneth Griffin · Elena Pischikova

Apr 2014 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

Thebes in the First Millennium BC is a collection of articles, based mostly, but not entirely, on the talks given at the conference of the same name organised by the team of the South Asasif Conservation Project, an Egyptian-American Mission working under the auspices of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, Egypt, in Luxor in 2012. The organisers of the conference and editors of the volume, Elena Pischikova, Julia Budka, and Kenneth Griffin, brought together a group of prominent scholars to share and discuss the results of their recent field research in the tombs and temples of the Twenty-fifth – Twenty-sixth Dynasties in Thebes, Abydos, and Saqqara.

This volume assembles current studies on royal and elite monuments of the Libyan, Kushite, and Saite Periods, and places them in a wider context. This volume investigates such aspects of research as tomb and temple architecture, burial assemblages, religious texts, paleography, artistic styles, iconography, local workshops, and archaism, providing a new perspective to the current scholarship and future exploration of these topics. The volume is further enriched by the inclusion of chapters on the conservation and preservation of monuments representing the present-day approach to the development of archaeological sites.

About the author

Dr Elena Pischikova is the Founder and Director of the South Asasif Conservation Project, an Egyptian-American mission working under the auspices of the Ministry of State for Antiquities. The project is dedicated to the restoration and reconstruction of the tombs of Karakhamun (TT 223), Karabasken (TT 391), and Irtieru (TT 390). From 2001–2005, she directed the project on the re-excavation of the tomb of Nespakashuty (TT 312) and the reconstruction of its entrance gate, sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The American Research Center in Egypt.

Dr Julia Budka is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Starting Grant project AcrossBorders hosted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She has carried out excavation work since 1996 with various international teams (Austrian, German, Swiss, French, and American) at different site types, including settlements, multi-functional sites, temples, and necropolises. She has worked as a field director since 2002 (in Asasif, Abydos, Fourth Cataract, and Sai Island), and her current focus of work is Sai Island, Northern Sudan (New Kingdom town).

Kenneth Griffin is a PhD student of Egyptology at Swansea University, researching the role of the rekhyt-people within the Egyptian temple. He has worked at Abydos and Thebes, and is currently a team member of the South Asasif Conservation Project, focusing specifically on the Book of the Dead within the Second Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun.