Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mummification Museum Lecture - Search for the 3rd cache

Luxor News Blog (Jane Akshar)

Thanks to Jane for her ongoing efforts on our behalf. Here's an extract from her lecture notes:

Mummfication Museum lecture - Search for the 3rd cache – Prof, dr hab. Andrezej Niwinski

Search for the 3rd cache – Prof, dr hab. Andrezej Niwinski

A mysterious tomb at Deir el Bahri – Revelations of the excavations of the Polish Egyptian Cliff Mission above the temple of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III

For the 30 years he has been pursuing this subject, in fact his PHD dissertation was on 21st dynasty coffins. The period 1800-1000 BC is poorly represented by coffins, from the Late Period we have 400 coffins but missing is the 21st dynasty High priest King Herihor who was almost a king. It is quite possible that his burial is also a royal cache and might be the location of the burial of Amenhotep I. Dr Andrzej believes that they are still to be found at or near Deir el Bahri. It is the centre of the whole necropolis and although the temple and courtyard are well researched there is little that has been done in the cliffs above the temple.

In 1891 the royal cache was discovered TT320 but largely the cliffs are unknown. In 1972 as a member of the polish team he concentrated on the upper floor which is on a centre line with Karnak. The Ancient Egyptians would not have ignored this as it was an important area. In 1991 a joint polish and Egyptian team started the cliff mission of which he is co director. Their aim was 1) to check there is no danger to the Hatshepsut temple and 2) to see if there is anything there.

Jane says to keep an eye on the website as well. At the moment the site is in Polish but an English version is coming out in a few weeks. It can be found at www.herhor.org.pl.

See the above page for the rest of Jane's notes.

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