IFAO

This article summarizes, updates, and adds to past research performed by the author on the copy of the Book of Caverns in the early Late Period Theban Tomb 33 (TT 33) of the chief lector priest Petamenophis. The first part is devoted to the reception of Caverns in the late Third Intermediate Period / early Late Period. It describes the source of Petamenophis’s copy as being the result of an “archaeo-philological” endeavor: a collation of a copy related to the copy in the Osireion and a copy from the tomb of Ramesses VI (KV 9). A series of sections discusses the reception as being primarily shaped by the aim for an “authentic” reproduction (notably with additions to the benefit of a deceased), however, also by emendation, update, and creativity. Besides the necessary updates to the personalized textual and pictorial additions that were originally created for the Ramesside kings, we find moderate orthographical, lexicographical, and grammatical changes, as well as a few changes to the images. We can also identify a few cases of textual emendations, conjectures, and additions. The second part of the article presents and discusses the sophisticated layout of the copy of Caverns on the walls of the rooms XVII–XIX in TT 33, which indexically (C.S. Peirce) mirrors the journey of the sun god—and with him Petamenophis—from west to east through the netherworld.

Very little is known about the administration of the 18th Dynasty crew of royal necropolis workmen, but ostraca inscribed with non-textual identity marks provide a significant source of information for this period. Many of the ostraca are kept in Cairo in the Egyptian Museum and the IFAO, and remain unpublished and poorly understood. This article discusses the functional and social context of these documents. Although the precise meaning of the ostraca with identity marks is often elusive because of their implicit nature, the documents provide valuable insights into the organisation of the crew of workmen, the administration of work, the size of the crew, as well as the absence of a local scribal tradition.

Nous présentons la publication et l’étude de quelques fragments épigraphiques trouvés à Dra Abou el-Naga, aux alentours de la tombe de Djéhouty (TT 11), qui permettent la ­reconstruction de deux stèles de la XVIIIe dynastie d’une remarquable valeur historique. Le premier document, complété grâce à un fragment conservé aujourd’hui au Brooklyn Museum, appartient à un fonctionnaire nommé Téti-em-Rê, en charge de l’or du domaine d’Amon. Il était éventuellement lié à Djéhouty, le puissant ministre d’Hatchepsout responsable, entre autres, de la décoration en or et en métaux précieux de plusieurs monuments de la reine.

We present the study and publication of some epigraphic fragments found in Dra Abu el-Naga, near the tomb of Djehuty (TT 11), allowing the reconstruction of two stelae dating to the 18th Dynasty of a considerable historical value. The first document, completed thanks to a fragment today in the Brooklyn Museum, belongs to an official named Teti-em-Re, in charge of the gold of the Domain of Amon. He was possibly linked with Djehuty, the powerful minister of Hatshepsut, responsible, among others, of the decoration in gold and precious metals of several monuments of the queen.

This article aims to publish two original and personal artworks by Bernard Bruyère. Both of them are inspired by some funerary scenes from Deir el-Medina’s tombs and were painted by the archaeologist directly on the walls of the IFAO dig-house on-site. The first painting, located in one of the lower-level rooms of the house, consists of a reproduction of a figure from Ipuy’s tomb (TT 217), while the second, located in Bernard Bruyère’s old room, parodies a unique scene from TT 2 – TT 2B: the embalming of a fish. This parody, little known outside the circle of “Deir el-Medina people” and French scholars, and usually called the “bouillabaisse recipe,” bears witness to Bernard Bruyère’s artistic skills and shows another side of his character, more playful and humorous.

The “scene of the oracle” is one of the most famous scenes from the Montu temple in Medamud. According to the interpretation of the text given by its first publisher, Étienne Drioton, this scene has been considered as the description of an oracular process (precisely situated in time) of the “bull of Medamud.” Within the framework of the programme for a new edition of texts of the temple by the Medamud mission (IFAO/Sorbonne Université) we wanted to go over the translation again and reconsider it. We propose to relate this scene to the cult reliefs and no longer to see it as a representation of an oracle, but as a way for the people to have access to a divine image. This re-examination also allows us to reconsider the meaning of the rear temple and to propose new arguments to justify the location of the scene.

This article presents 33 unpublished limestone blocks dated to the reign of Nectanebo II and found in Awlad Musa, north of Suez, by the Supreme Council of Antiquities between 1995 and 2006. An assemblage of a few of them is now on display in the Suez Museum. These inscribed blocks were reused material, as indicated by the fact that they were randomly included in the masonry of a latter building. It is extremely likely, given the identity of the gods they feature, that these blocks came from Tell el-Maskhuta in Wadi Tumilat. Most of the scenes are fragmentary and represent the king offering to different gods, the majority of which are linked to the Heliopolitan sphere. A geographic procession is carved on the basement featuring the most ancient occurrence of Osiris “lord of the Eastern Gate,” an epithet known up until now only on two Ptolemaic steles found at Maskhuta.

Jaroslav Černý (1898-1970) was an Egyptologist of Czech origin, a Czechoslovak and later stateless citizen, active in Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany and the United States. He debuted a cosmopolitan and productive part of his career at the Institut français d’archéologie orientale in Cairo in 1925. Černý’s presence at the IFAO constituted a dual French-Czechoslovak connection—the dominant French position in the Antiquities Service and as a preferred ally of Czechoslovakia. An analysis of intellectual and political dynamics benefits from complementing by a biographical research. Černý’s collaboration with the IFAO also constituted a major move in his individual Egyptological career. First, it opened perspectives of teamwork within Egyptian and international Egyptology. Secondly, it was a decisive step in his research strategies concerned with the community of Deir el-Medina, therefore it had a rather more intricate significance than being solely an element of a stratagem of Western dominance in Egypt, this time ostensibly represented by a smaller European nation that appeared as trying to join the existing contestants in a larger game of appropriation of Egyptian cultural heritage.

Fouillée dans les années 1930 et 1970, la nécropole romaine de Kôm Abou Billou a livré des milliers de restes humains qui n’ont jamais été étudiés. En 2014, la reprise des fouilles sous la direction de Sylvain Dhennin a livré des vestiges d’une conservation exceptionnelle qui documentent les pratiques funéraires et les données biologiques d’une population encore méconnue du point de vue de l’anthropologie biologique dans la littérature archéologique.

The Roman necropolis of Kom Abou Billou was excavated in the 1930s and 1970s and rendered thousands of human remains that have never been studied. Since 2014 the excavation under the direction of Sylvain Dhennin delivered remnants of exceptional conservation that document funerary practices and biological data of a population still unknown in this field in archaeological literature.

This article is a lexicographical study on small to middle-size mammals based on new photographs, mainly from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Among them is the ḥṯs-animal for which the identification as a gerbil jird (Meriones sp.) is proposed. Another one is ḥḏrt, a much debated animal in the egyptological literature. This should be a shrew (Crocidura or Suncus sp.).

Les deux fragments de papyrus du sous-verre H 40 de l’Ifao sont en fait ce qui reste d’un décret amulettique oraculaire semblable à ceux publiés par I.E.S. Edwards dans la série des HPBM. Le texte est centré sur la protection d’une femme enceinte, et l’onomastique pourrait faire référence à la famille de Pinedjem II. Notre texte serait alors le plus ancien du genre (XXIe dynastie).

The fragmentary Papyrus H 40 of the IFAO is in fact an Oracular Amuletic Decree similar to those published by I.E.S. Edwards in the HPBM. The main purpose of the text is the protection of a pregnant woman and the onomastic might refer to the family of the High Priest Pinedjem II. It could be the most ancient of the OAD (21st Dynasty).