Dear Team Members, Friends, and Supporters of the South Asasif Conservation Project,

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for 2016! Next year we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary. We are looking forward to seeing you at the site and at our second Thebes in the First Millennium BC Conference.

Thank you for giving Karakhamun a hand and keeping him immortal!

Excavation of the open court of the Mayor of Thebes and Fourth Priest of Amun, Karabasken (TT 391) started in 2013. Three years of work in the court yielded a large amount of exciting discoveries. One of the most important ones was the discovery of the lost High Steward of the God’s Wife, Padibastet. Padibastet re-inscribed the entrance doorframe and vestibule of the tomb of Karabasken. In addition his stela was carved on the west wall of the sun court of the tomb. The research of our team member Dr. Erhart Graefe identified this previously unknown High Steward as the grandson of Pabasa A bearer of the same titles and owner of TT 279 in North Asasif. Most of the owners of the beautiful monumental tombs of the North Asasif bore the same title. Yet Padibastet reused a Kushite tomb in a different necropolis. It must be evidence of his very short time in office.

Four beautifully carved images of Padibastet and a collection of his texts at the entrance area and the court of the tomb of Karabasken allow to assume that he was buried in this tomb. We now have two high officials of the 25th and 26th Dynasties sharing the same tomb. Future field research will yield more information on their burials. We are looking forward to an exciting 2016 season!

The announcement of the discovery was recently made by the Ministry of State for Antiquities. Graefe’s paper on Padibastet will appear in the 2nd volume of our AUC series Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis.

Erhart Graefe is placing a fragment on the doorframe of Padibastet.

MSA conservator Taib Hassan Ibrahim is reconstructing decoration on the south side of the vestibule. The vestibule is not a room but rather a corridor with a short staircase starting in the middle. The architect of the team Dieter Eigner suggested calling it a “staircase vestibule” as an early version of a Kushite vestibule transformed into a room in the tomb of Karakhamun. According to Eigner’s opinion all the architectural features of the entrance to the tomb were carved for Karabasken and later reused by Padibastet.

This season our main conservation efforts are concentrated in the Second Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun. In July our international team of conservators, artists and researchers started recreating the doorframe on the south wall of the hall. Abdel Razk, Ali Hassen, Tayeb Hassen, Hassan Eldemerdash, Sayed Abo Gad, Anthony Browder and Katherine Blakeney are proudly presenting the first results.

Delivery of steel rods by Darren McKnight allowed us to start one of the main phases of the reconstruction process planned for the season – securing the architrave on top of the pillars of the north aisle.

Beautiful sections of a monumental architrave topped with cavetto cornice were uncovered during the 2009-2010 seasons. Numerous titles of Karakhamun and the cornice still retain their original bright colours.

After numerous preparations and measurements the first fragment was lifted today and placed on top of the second pillar.

Ken Griffin is taking in the long-anticipated moment.

The high central aisle of the court, topped with a monumental cavetto, will create a temple type processional passage to the focal point of the Second Pillared Hall and the whole tomb of Karakahamun – the statue of Osiris.

Time runs very fast and we are already in August. Work in the middle of the summer is very hard but always rewarding. Today after nine hours in Karakhamun in 46 degree heat we still felt lucky to be surrounded with incredible art and people. Here are only two examples:

Builder Ahmed

Offering Bearer from the First Pillared Hall

Last month was very productive. Our team members truly enjoyed field work in the Open Court of the tomb of Karakhamun. They looked slightly disheveled but always happy.

Taylor Woodcock and Luna Zagorac from AUC featuring the latest archaeological fashions at the end of the work day.

Suzanne Arnold and Sharon Davidson spent so many days sifting debris and sorting small finds that we even asked them for the reasons of their happy facial expressions. All we heard in response can be summarized as “the work was gratifying, rewarding, and giving a sense of accomplishment”. Sharon added that in this hot weather she would appreciate some Canada Dry. It is understandable as Sharon came from Toronto. It is Sharon’s fourth year on the Project. This year she has assumed a new role as volunteer coordinator (Thank you!)

Reconstruction work in the tomb of Karakhamun is progressing with incredible speed due to the hard work of the mission members and new power tools donated to the Project by our wonderful sponsors. News from Karkahamun will be featured in Part II of this blog entry.

The reconstruction of the Second Pillared Hall of the tomb of Karakhamun is one of the goals of the 2015 season. This work has already been going on for a number of years but now with our new stonecutting machine continuously cutting blocks for pillars and slabs for walls we believe in the success of this ambitious plan. The Second Pillared Hall is the least-preserved room in the tomb of Karakhamun. Used for years as a quarry it did not have much left in situ when we finished its excavation in 2010.

Thanks to our  epigraphers, builders, stonecutters  and incredible conservation team of

Abdel Razk Mohamed Ali,  Ali Hassan, Tayeb Hassan, Mohamed Shabib, Mohammad Azab Hakem, Hassan Eldemerdash, Tayeb Sayed, Mohamed  Badawi, Sayed Abo Gad, and Hussein Mohammadayn  walls and a false door rose by 2014. Thousands of fragments of the hall’s original decoration came together into a monumental puzzle.

This photograph taken at the end of the 2014 season shows the remains of the pillars on the north side. The 2015 season began with the rebuilding of the pillars.

Reconstruction of the decoration of the second pillar on the north side started from the top with BD vignettes. It is conducted by Ken Griffin and our conservation team.

This photograph shows the beginning of the installation of the BD 57 vignette on the eastern face of the pillar.

With the lower part of the figure of Hathor in a tree and streams of water offered to Kharakhamun sitting on a chair, it is almost complete.

The northern side of this pillar features a combination of two vignettes of BD 104 and BD 51. It seems that Spell 51 plays a special role in the tomb of Karakhamun as it was used four times in both halls of the tomb. As it is a “Spell for not Walking Upside Down in the Necropolis”€, Ken Griffin suggests that this was Karakhamun’s worst nightmare. This fear is completely understandable and we are happy to reconstruct the text that can prevent our tomb owner from such a misfortune.

The south wall is growing as well. We are rebuilding a section to the east of the entrance to the chapel of Karakhamun’s brother, Nesamenopet. The western section of the wall is decorated with an offering scene reconstructed in 2013-2014.

The remains of the seated figure of Nesamenopet on the bottom of the wall are the only traces of the doorframe of the entrance to his chapel found in situ.

Its counterpart on the eastern doorjamb will be reconstructed this year.

This little head was fond in 2010. All these years we saw it as a head of Karakhamun from a BD vignette or a lintel. It was difficult to locate its original place because it did not have a distinctive break pattern on the back of the stone. Its back was accurately chiselled in the manner of ancient repairs. Karakhamun’s bedrock is very inconsistent even in the same layer. Patch stones were used to fill the areas of weaker stone not fit for carving.

This season the conservators were able to join this head with its body and Karakhamun lost this face to his brother Nesamenopet.

This group of fragments will shortly be installed on the newly rebuilt south wall flanking the entrance to the chapel.

Katherine Blakeney and Ali Hassan, who reconstructed the figure are tracing it on the wall to mark where all of the fragments will go.

This season, thanks to the help of our wonderful supporters, we were able to deliver the magical machine from Cairo. The team was excited and intrigued. Nobody knew how it was going to cut our huge blocks of limestone.

It took us a while to find out how it worked.

Erhart Graefe was the one who discovered its secret weapon – a diamond wire.

The trials performed yesterday and today were highly successful. The wonder machine can cut blocks of different sizes and thin slabs. The surface of the cut blocks is so smooth that it does not require additional treatment. Its speed and quality of work gives Karakhmun new hope to be reconstructed in our lifetime.

Today the team voted on two important issues – the gender and the name of the machine. It turned to be male and named Samson. As it was Erhart Graefe’s suggestions he was appointed the Godfather of Samson. Delilah is still in the works.