Building an 18th Dynasty Tomb at Thebes
Construction Records from Mery's Funerary Complex (TT 95) in Context
By (author) A. Loprieno-Gnirs
Hardback (Published)
(December 2025)
ISBN: 9789042956544
Price: $75.00
On back order
Stone-built and rock-cut architecture ranks among the major achievements of ancient Egyptian culture and have always been an important field of research, in Egyptology as well as in global historical studies on architecture and construction. Compared with the rich built evidence from the Nile Valley and its surrounding desert regions, written information on operational aspects of ancient Egyptian construction is rather limited although isolated clusters of records have sporadically survived the millennia, with a higher concentration at New Kingdom sites. Most instructive are in this respect hieratic accounts penned on papyri or ostraca. Records concerning the work progress in rock-cut tombs during the 18th Dynasty are noticeably underrepresented when compared with accounts from contemporary temple building sites or from Ramesside royal construction projects. In this book, new relevant material on tomb excavation at Western Thebes during the mid-18th Dynasty is published: seven hieratic ostraca with eight individual texts discovered by the Université libre de Bruxelles during excavations at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. Though uncovered inside the tomb of the Vizier Amenemope, TT 29, these accounts witness ongoing construction work in the funerary complex of the High Priest of Amun Mery, TT 95, located close to the vizier’s tomb. <br />In the first part, the volume presents a comprehensive philological edition of the hieratic ostraca and a thorough material analysis of their media and handwritings. These studies not only advance our knowledge of a poorly documented professional vocabulary and its community but also provide new information on the modalities and practice of formal record keeping at a mid-18th Dynasty tomb building site. Delving into additional, contemporary construction records to put the conveyed information into a broader socio-economic context, the second part of the volume explores various stages of tomb excavation and other building operations in TT 95, richly illustrated in photographs, plans and maps, many of which are published here for the first time. The analysis of these archaeological findings focuses on work locations, procedures, achievements and workforce capacities in the ostraca related to the specific geoarchaeological environment of TT 95.
- By (author) A. Loprieno-Gnirs
Similar Books
The Western Nile Delta
ARCE Fieldwork in the Region of Kom Firin and Naukratis (1977-1983) Revisited
Archaeological Discoveries at the Temple of Ramesses II in Abydos
Vol. 2: Old Kingdom Wall, Papyri, Ostraca, and Leather Remains
Volume 2: Studies on Decoration and Ritual Function
Volume 11
Die Ägyptenworte im Ezechielbuch
Eine literarhistorische und religionsgeschichtliche Analyse von Ez 29–32
Du côté de chez Zeus
Fouilles de la Mission archéologique française du désert Oriental à Abû Qurayya (Dios) et Bi’r Bayza (y inclus O.Dios I 1-67)
Volume 98
La littérature de l’Égypte ancienne. Volume V
Nouvel Empire : XVIIIe dynastie. Eulogies et narrations royales, contes, enseignements et littérature d’idée
Lehrreiche Literatur
Die didaktische Gestaltung von Plutarchs Quaestiones Graecae und Romanae und Gellius' Noctes Atticae
Nouvelles perspectives sur le Traité anonyme du Codex Bruce. New Perspectives on the Untitled Treatise of the Bruce Codex
(Colloque international, Québec, Université Laval, 13 avril 2018)
Volume 11
Ägypten und Levante XXXIV / Egypt and the Levant XXXIV (2024)
Internationale Zeitschrift für ägyptische Archäologie und deren Nachbargebiete / International Journal for Egyptian Archaeology and Related Disciplines
Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries
Highlights from the first century of the Egypt Exploration Society
Volume 8
Archaeological Discoveries at the Temple of Ramesses II in Abydos
Vol. 1: Magazines, Animal Burials, and Miscellanea
Current Research in Egyptology 2024
Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Symposium, Jointly Organised by the University of Liverpool, Swansea University, University of Birmingham, University of Oxford, and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2–6 September 2024
From Egypt to the Levant and Beyond
African Individuals and Groupsain Cuneiform Texts from the Late Bronze Age
Volume 133
Kom al-Ahmer — Kom Wasit III
The Archaeology of Two Ptolemaic Districts in the Western Nile Delta, Egypt
