Dear Nassif,
The Theban necropolis (Luxor's
West bank of the Nile) is among the world's most important archaeological sites, including the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens etc. It is famed for its hundreds of richly decorated tombs, dating to the pharaonic period, mostly the
New Kingdom (1550-1050 BC). Until fairly recently, Egyptologists and archaeologists focused their interest almost exclusively on these periods. However, the region has seen a continuous (although less important) occupation, from that period until the present day. Therefore, the remains of the later periods were very often cleared away, without any documentation and certainly no scientific publication.
For only a decade or so, scholars started to realize that this late occupation, lasting until today, is just as
part of the
history of the necropolis as the earlier periods. Studying these periods helps to understand how people have lived in these once celebrated places, about the
history of this remote region of the
Roman,
Byzantine, Arab and
Ottoman empires, and also helps to understand the state in which we find the pharaonic monuments (most of the pharaonic tombs have been used by locals as housing, and it is
still the cas today). Furthermore, this recent
part of the
history of the necropolis is now disappearing, as the
Egyptian authorities decided to move once and for
good the houses
still encroched on the Theban hills among the tombs.
In our case, we know that the
hill of Gurna was settled in the
medieval period by a rather small number of houses, but the only historical sources remain the accounts of early (mostly western) travellers. From the start of the excavation of tomb nr 29, our project was not only to study a tomb of the reign of Amenhotep II (Dynasty 18), but to reconstitute the
history of this little
part of the necropolis, from its construction until the intervention of our mission. In the course of the excavation, we found a rather large amount of
pottery, of
types known in the necropolis, but which has never been dated precisely (so-called geometric painted ware). Ceramologist can tell that this
pottery in Thebes is later than the Byzantine-Early
islamic period, and that it was not in use anymore at the beginning of the 20th century. But no more precision, thus leaving about a millennium time-span for the date of this occupation. The three coins that I presented in this post have been found associated with such
pottery types, in levels between the late
Byzantine ones and the modern house that settled there in the early 20th century. Therefore, for the first time, we might have some indications for a more precise date of these specific
pottery types, as well as a more precise idea of the period when the tomb was visited (if not settled).
Well, sorry for this long post without direct connexion to this
forum, I just wanted to provide a detailed answer to Nassif, which I feel is only the least I could do to thank for the
help received from the
members of the
forum.
Best regards,
Laurent Bavay