SPANISH–EGYPTIAN MISSION Dra Abu el-Naga NORTH (TT 11 – 12)

24^TH CAMPAIGN

January 11th – February 26^th

2025

 Field Director: Dr. José M. Galán

General Director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt: Dr. Abdel Gafar

General Director of Antiquities in the West Bank: Dr. Bahaa Abdel Gaber

Manager of all archaeological missions on the West Bank: Ramadan Ahmed Ali

Field Inspectors: Kirolos Wagdy and Mohamed Sayed

Conservation Inspector: Asmaa Said Abu al-Hasan

Rais: Ali Farouk el-Qiftauy

Team Members:

1. Abad, Emilio Archaeologist
2. Acebo, Ainara Archaeologist
3. Bader, Bettina Pottery
4. Barahona, Zulema Pottery
5. Bardají, Teresa Geologist
6. Bosch, Francisco Egyptologist, archaeologist
7. Cuezva, Soledad Geologist
8. Forcadell, Ignacio Architect
9. Gómez, Carolina 3D Scanner
10. González, María Pottery
11. Herrerín, Jesús Physical anthropologist
12. Hervás, Miguel Ángel Archaeologist
13. Huertas, Laura Egyptologist, archaeologist
14. Ikram, Salima Egyptologist, archaeologist
15. Navarro, Miguel Ángel Conservator
16. Nuñez, Marieta 3D Scanner
17. Oliveira, Ana Archaeologist
18. Pérez, David Archaeologist
19. Rodríguez, María Pía Conservator
20. Ruiz, Carmen Epigraphist
21. Sánchez, Sergio Geologist
22. Sánchez, Miguel Paleopathologist
23. Serrano, José Miguel Egyptologist, epigraphist
24. Solchaga, Marisol Egyptologist, archaeologist
25. Trueba, Javier Photographer

Acknowledgements

The Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo has been extremely helpful in every way, and we are most grateful to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Ahmed Issa, to the vice-Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, and to Dr. Hany Abdallah Eltayeb, Secretary of Permanent Committee and Foreign Missions Affairs. In Luxor, as it has happened every year, the authorities responsible of the Supreme Council of Antiquities have been most helpful, in particular Dr. Abdel Gafar, General Director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt; Dr. Bahaa Abdel Gaber, Director of the Antiquities Department in the West Bank; and to Ramadan Ahmed Ali, Manager of all missions on the West Bank.

We have had this season as SCA Inspectors Kirolos Wagdy and Mohamed Sayed. They both have been most helpful and cooperative. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with them, and we are, indeed, very grateful to both of them. The SCA inspector for conservation was Asmaa Said Abu al-Hasan, and she was also extremely efficient and helpful, turely a oprofessional, working very hard and with great care.

Rais Ali Farouk El-Quiftauy, as in years before, has played an important role in the success of our work. He organizes the workmen perfectly well, and has a great sensibility for archaeology, for the conservation of the objects found and the structures unearthed. It is thanks to his involvement and energy that we have been able to accomplish our goals.

We have employed around 70 workmen. They have all worked very hard and with great care, and we are more than satisfied with their job.

The field season has been sponsored by (1) the Spanish National Research Council, (2) the Spanish Ministry of Culture, (3) Técnicas Reunidas, a Spanish Engineering company, (4) Palarq Foundation for paleontology and archaeology.

Introduction

Dra Abu el-Naga is the modern name of the hill that rises on the West Bank, at the northern end of the necropolis associated with the ancient city of Thebes, which coincides with modern Luxor. A Spanish mission has been working at the foothill of the central area of Dra Abu el-Naga since January 2002, inside and around the rock-cut tomb-chapels of Djehuty and Hery (TT 11-12).

Hery lived at the very beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, under King Ahmose, and probably died under his successor, King Amenhotep I. He could have been related to the royal family through his mother, Ahmes, who is referred to in the monument of her son as “adornment(?) of the king.” Hery’s administrative title mentioned in his tomb-chapel is “overseer of the double granary of the king’s mother and royal wife Ahhotep.” It must have been a relevant position since Queen Ahhotep ruled de facto for about twenty years, while her son Ahmose was fighting north and south. The inner walls of his funerary monument were entirely decorated in high quality relief, being one of the very few decorated tomb-chapels that is preserved of this time period, c. 1510 BCE.

Djehuty lived about fifty years later, c. 1460 BC. In the peak of his administrative career as scribe, he acted as “overseer of the Treasury” and “overseer of the works” carried out by the craftsmen and metal workers for Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled as king for about twenty-two years. Djehuty was also “overseer of the cattle of Amun,” an office that associates him with Karnak temple, which is located on the opposite bank, right across the river Nile. The walls of his tomb-chapel were decorated in relief, even the façade and part of the left sidewall of the open courtyard. His burial chamber is also entirely written with passages from the Book of Going Forth by Day.

TOPOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTATION

The first week of the season was devoted to the scanning of the whole site with a Leica BLK-360 scanner laser. The goal was to obtain an accurate image and topographical information of the site that could be used as basis for the Geographical Information System (GIS) we are developing.

We have also conducted photogrammetry of broad areas of the site, and in particular the mudbrick offering Chapel no. 4 and the two funerary shafts that we have excavated, nos. 39 and 42. The structures and objects unearthed were registered with a topographical total station.

GEOLOGY

The team includes three geologists. They have studied the geo-morphology of the site and have identified and analyzed the traces of rain between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. They have also been involved in the study of the different mortars and building techniques used in the mudbrick offering chapels and funerary shafts of the Second Intermediate Period.

EXCAVATION

Up the hill.

There is an area within the site located at the top of the hill, referred to as ‘Sector 6’, which has never been occupied by any house of the modern village of Dra Abu el-Naga (demolished in 2006/07). Last season we already started removing the upper layer of loose, rounded limestone nodules lacking a geological matrix enclosing. It did not contain any material. There is also a massive deposit of urban domestic waste generated over the last decades of activity in the surrounding households. It contains high proportions of plastic packaging, fabrics, fragments of contemporary ceramics, tin cans, and glass bottle shards, among other industrial waste. All these massive deposits must have been formed during the last decades of the 20th century. Beneath these two stratigraphic units, there are three large dumps generated by the archaeological activity higher up the hill, carried out throughout in the second half of the 20th century.

These layers are very deep, and only in a few areas we have been able to reach the layer of orange sand which rests on top of the gebel. Big boulders have been unearthed and are now visible. The ancient landscape is slowly coming to light.

A few objects deserve to be mentioned:

• Two fragments of vessels reused as containers for tomb painting, one with traces of Egyptian blue pigment and the other with greenish-blue pigment.
• Two New Kingdom figurative ostraca traced on pottery fragments.
• A complete New Kingdom jar.
• A contemporary fabric sack with gunpowder.

We have also removed the rubbish generated by the northern most houses of the modern village of Dra Abu el-Naga. After cleaning the area, the layout of the houses was documented with photogrammetry and a total station.

Shaft 39 and outside the enclosure wall of Chapel 3.

Shaft 39 is located in front of Chapel 3. It measures 2.40 x 1.26 m, and it is oriented southwest-northeast. It has a mud-brick curb coated with mortar, a rock-cut shaft, and two burial chambers at the bottom. The shaft was probably built during the 13^th dynasty. It was looted in antiquity, and the remains of four mummified bodies were found at the bottom of the shaft, thrown outside of the southern chamber.

During the 2025 campaign, the work inside the southern chamber of the shaft, which began during the previous campaign in 2024, was concluded, and the northern chamber has been entirely excavated. Regarding the southern chamber, stagnant water caused that anthropogenic materials found at these levels were in very poor condition, namely the skull of a woman and undecorated wooden planks of a coffin. The pottery associated with these levels blend chronologies from the 13th dynasty to the late 17th and early 18th dynasties.

Small fragments of a 13th dynasty coffin, featuring a black background with light green and cream-colored bands, were found. The shaft was looted during the 13th dynasty, and it was then reused at the end of the 17^th or early 18th dynasty. Two wooden pieces were found inside a small niche, probably part of a model of a ship.

The northern chamber of the shaft was left unfinished, leaving the floor uneven. It was filled with a level of looting datable to the 25th and 26th dynasties. A fragment of a wooden furniture or musical instrument was found inside the chamber. To the west of the chamber, there is a hole that connects with a rock-cut tomb of the Middle Kingdom. The hole was probably opened at the time of the chamber’s construction, and it was later enlarged and used by looters.

Once the excavation of Shaft 39 was finished, a trench was opened at the southeast of the enclosure wall of Chapel 3. The area is a shallow pit in the ground, in which pottery vessels and mudbricks from the wall fall down. The pottery dates to the 13th dynasty. A total of 11 complete or nearly complete vessels were retrieved. Among these, two bowls were found with contents, one with remains of beer production, with large quantities of barley, while the other contained persea leaves. A circular basketry support for transporting vessels was found, and also part of an ivory bracelet. The vessels were x-rayed, what proved to be a good system to analyse how they were manufactured.

Chapel 4 and Shaft 42.

The mudbrick offering Chapel no. 4 was probably built at the end of the 17^th dynasty or very early 18^th dynasty. It shows two clear phases. The original layout was the conventional one: a rectangular structure opened at the front and with two solid squares at both sides of the entrance. At the back wall of the inner space, probably vaulted, there would be a niche for a stela. The outer face was covered with a thick layer of mortar and then coated with whitewash. The chapel was built associated with the shaft in front of it, Shaft 22, whose burial chamber ends up being right below the chapel. This shaft has a wider mudbrick lib than the rest of the shafts in the site, and it has a corridor leading to the burial chamber, whose floor has a recess to house a coffin or sarcophagus. It is, indeed, the biggest and most elaborated shaft in the area.

A large amount of pottery vessels was left on the ground as votive offerings around the original chapel. Later, at an uncertain time, but still in the early 18^th dynasty, the chapel was enlarged. The enlargement was built around the original chapel and on top of the pottery offering deposits. The width of the two mudbrick sidewalls and of the backwall was thus doubled, and a new layer of mortar and whitewash was applied on the outer face. Moreover, a new wall was built around it, leaving a corridor all around the chapel. This corridor could have been roofed with a vault, since several fragments of painted mortar were retrieved when the area was excavated back in 2015. An enclosure wall was built embracing the new large chapel at both sides and at the back, probably to delimit the area ascribed to the chapel and protect it from the pressure of new chapels and tombs being built in the area. At the southwestern side, the enclosure wall was left opened and a mud staircase was built to facilitate the access to tombs higher up the hill, which were already there when the chapel was built. Actually, behind the chapel, in a terrace higher up the hill, there is a Middle Kingdom saff-tomb.

Chapel 4 was built to the southeast of an earlier funerary shaft, Shaft 42, probably dating to the end of the Middle Kingdom, and which could have been related to the saff-tomb mentioned above, located right behind it, one level higher up the hill. When the chapel was enlarged, the new wall surrounding it was built on top of it, indicating that the shaft was not visible at that time. However, the part of the wall above the shaft was broken at some point to access the shaft and reuse and/or rob it. The evidence points out that the shaft was not visible, but at least some people knew there was a shaft there, what seems to indicate that the alteration of the structure at the back of the chapel happened in a short period of time.

In recent times, the Middle Kingdom saff-tomb was used as part of one of the houses of the modern village of Dra Abu el-Naga, and the area right above Chapel 4 and Shaft 42 was used as a stable for animals. The chapel’s mudbrick walls were reused to divide the space, and new walls were built to compartmentalize it even more, using ancient mudbricks for this purpose. A modern wall was built to fill the gap and fix the part of the wall surrounding the chapel that was broken in ancient times to access the shaft. This modern wall was built above the shaft, across its mouth, using mudbricks with the stamp of “The royal scribe Djehuty-nefer, justified,” whose rock-cut tomb is nearby, its façade being made of mudbricks.

Shaft 42 was used in modern times to keep cattle inside, and therefore the filling of the upper part consisted mainly of straw and grey earth. Materials of different dates came to light. Among them, a funerary cone of Pa-wah, an inscribed faience ring and a Late Period “finger”-shabti.

The shaft’s mouth measures 2.50 x 1.20 m., and the shaft is 3.70 m deep. Half way down, there were many large boulders and the earth became brown/orange, thinner and more compacted. The pottery dated largely to the end of the Middle Kingdom. The filling seems to be part of the original one, as if those who reused and/or robbed the shaft would have avoided clearing completely the shaft, and only removed what was strictly necessary to access the burial chamber. Actually, part the bottom of the mudbrick sealing of the chamber is preserved in situ.

The burial chamber is 2.60 x 1.20 m. It has only been partially excavated, and there is still around 40 cm of debris inside. The chamber was probably robbed more than once, and the wooden coffins and human bodies were severely broken into pieces. Through the material culture found inside the chamber, it seems that it was reused at least three times. According to the pottery, the shaft was built at the end of the Middle Kingdom. Inside the chamber an object was found that may also be dated to the 13^th dynasty: a was-scepter with an eye painted in black ink at both sides of the upper part. Probably the large amount of undecorated coffin fragments date to this period. There are also fragments of a rishi-coffin, dating to the 17^th or early 18^th dynasty. Finally, a fragment of an inscribed wooden shabti-box and a large fragment of a decorated pottery jar probably date to the mid 18^th dynasty, to the reign of Amenhotep II. The amount of coffin fragments seems to indicate that more than one, and probably more than two coffins were placed inside the burial chamber.

On the surface of the filling of the burial chamber, the skull of a woman in her late thirties was found. Many of the broken bones found scattered through the chamber seem to be hers’. A considerable number of hair braids were found inside the chamber, most of them together in a handful. They could have belonged to the woman, but it is uncertain.

Burial chamber of Hery, TT 12.

Hery’s funerary shaft is located at the inner most room of his tomb-chapel (TT 12). The shaft is 7.50 m deep, and has two chambers at the bottom. The southern chamber was filled with burnt animal bones, while the northern one was still filled almost to the top with bundles of linen, carefully tied up, containing also animal bones, most of them burnt also. The northwestern chamber is quite large, 3 x 6 m, and the number of animal mummies easily could exceed one thousand. Some of them are well preserved, while other bundles are loose and the bones are now visible and scattered on the surface. Some packages contain only one animal, while others consist of a mixture of bones from several individuals. Most of the animals deposited here are ibis and falcons, but other raptors have also been identified. The smaller packages are for shrews and little snakes. They were all probably deposited here in the mid second century BC, according to the demotic graffiti written on the walls of both TT 12 and TT 11.

It seems that this is a secondary deposition place. They were probably offered and deposited elsewhere and, at an uncertain time there was a big fire that eventually was put out. The burnt bones were gathered, wrapped in linen bandages and stored in Hery’s burial chamber as a safer place to keep them within the sacred compound.

Last season we scanned the northwestern chamber with a Leica BLK-360 scanner laser, in order to document the current display and state of preservation of the animal mummies. This season we made a trench at the entrance of the burial chamber to get more information about the deposition of the packages and identify the different stages. The packages that were removed were thoroughly analyzed and x-rayed, and they were all stored back down the shaft, in the southeastern chamber.

EPIGRAPHY IN THE TOMB-CHAPEL OF DJEHUTY, TT 11.

The epigraphic documentation has continued in the rock-cut tomb-chapel of Djehuty, TT 11. The walls of the transverse hall and the central area of the corridor are badly eroded and grazing light is necessary to see the scenes in relief and their captions. Unavoidably, the work progresses slowly, as we try hard to be as accurate as possible and to include in the drawing the smallest details. The digital drawings are then printed and collated by a second epigraphist. The epigraphic documentation shall be finished by the end of next season.

CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

Conservation and restoration have played a major role in the project since its very beginning, twenty-four years ago. This season the conservation has focus on mudbrick architecture, in particular the façade of the rock-cut tomb Djehuty-nefer, overseer of the Treasure under Thutmose III, and the offering Chapel no. 4, dating to the early 18^th dynasty. The conservation team was integrated by two Spanish restorers and one Egyptian, Asmaa.

XRF-ANALYSIS IN LUXOR MUSEUM

The conservator Eid Mertah came down to Luxor with a portable XRF-machine to analyze the chemical components of various objects now on display in Luxor Museum. The analysis was conducted in close collaboration with the Museum director, Dr. Alaa Menshawy and his team of conservators. The following objects were analyzed:

1.- Glass beads of a necklace found associated to a Second Intermediate Period mummified young lady. Luxor Museum no. 1113/5. The chemical analysis confirms that the beads are glass.

2.- Metal plaque with the Eye of Horus engraved on one side, found in a Dynasty 22 mummified body. Luxor Museum no. 1604. It is made from tin, with a small amount of lead and iron.

3.- Metal plaques with various amulets engraved on one side, found in a Dynasty 22 fragment of a mummified body. Luxor Museum no. 1112/8. They all have a gold foil applied above a silver plate.

4.- Metal earrings found at the entrance of the burial chamber of Djehuty ((TT 11). Luxor Museum no. 1046/7.

– Earring 1046/7-A, is made from one gold sheet, which contains around 75% of gold, 23% of silver and 2% of coper.

– The lotus shape adornment has a calcium carbonate paste, and remains of orpiment pigment, and arsenic sulfide (As2S3). The orpiment was used here as a paste under the missing inlay, probably a carnelian.

– The lock of the earring, is made from a different alloy than the ring. This alloy contains 69,93% gold.

– The craftsmen used an inner mold inside the ring. The mold contained a high amount of calcium and iron.

– Earring 1046/7-B is made from one gold sheet containing around 56,23% of gold.

– Earring 1046/7-C is made from one gold sheet containing around 64,48% of gold.

– Earring 1046/7-D is made from one gold sheet containing around 73,89% of gold. It is very similar to the earring 1046-7-A.

– Earring 1046/7-E is made from one gold sheet containing around 73,98% gold. It could have been made from the same gold sheet as the earring no. 1046-7-D.

– Earring 1046/7-F is made from an alloy, which contains around 96% of gold.

– Earring 1046/7-G is made from an alloy, which contains around 92,07% of gold. It is a different alloy from the ring no. 1046-7-F.

– Bead of girdle, made of electrum alloy, as it contains 50% of gold. The rest of the beads are made of carnelian, red jasper and amazonite.

5.- Pigments of the 12^th dynasty painted coffin of Iqer. Luxor Museum no. 1050.

– Red is made from red ochre (hematite), and contains chloride salts. It was applied over a preparation layer of calcium sulfate, which covers also the inner face.

– Yellow is yellow ochre, applied over the preparation layer of calcium sulfate.

– White is made from calcium carbonate, and it contains a small amount of chloride salts. It was applied over the preparation layer of calcium sulfate.

– Black is made from black carbon with a small amount of chloride salts. The results are similar to those of calcium carbonate of the white pigment applied on the internal space of the eye. The outer frame of the eye is applied directly above the preparation layer, then completely filled with calcium carbonate as a pigment, and finally, a black drop for the pupil is added on top of the calcium carbonate.

– Green is made from malachite, and it was applied over the preparation layer of calcium sulfate.

– Grey is a mixture of black carbon and calcium carbonate.

6.- Pigments of a 17^th dynasty rishi-coffin of Neb. Luxor Museum no. 1059.

–Yellow is yellow ochre, except for the face, where orpiment pigment was applied in order to make the skin look as if it was gold foil.

– Black used for the coffin’s box was made from magnetite, and not charcoal, which would have been much cheaper.

– Red contains calcium sulfate (gypsum).

– White in the eyes is made from calcium carbonate (lime).