Documentation, Conservation and Publication of the Saite-Persian Sarcophagus-tombs in Saqqara

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Leitz, since 4/2022
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 288139336

In Phase 1 of the Sarcophagus-tombs Project, the applicant called for a second round of epigraphic and re-excavation missions to sites that were excavated during the first decades of the 20th Century in order to employ state of the art documentation techniques. The importance of accurately recording monuments and producing exact facsimiles of their decorations and texts, in part, stem from the realization that ‘no amount of conservation or restoration can halt [a monument’s] decay’ and that ‘any monument will either disintegrate and become a ruin or be recycled’. Working within this framework, the applicant applied digital documentation techniques (3D Laser scanning and Photogrammetry) to record and map the Sarcophagus-tomb Complexes of PA-dj-nj-Ast, PsmTk, and Jmn-tAy.f-nxt of Dynasty 26, located to the south and east of the pyramid of King Unas in Saqqara. The project has not only produced facsimiles of the texts of the three burial chambers, but also provided technique improvement in digital epigraphy, particularly with regards to drawing inscriptions on curved surfaces. This was achieved through a combination of laser scanning and photogrammetry, in addition to data processing on AutoCade. It was projected in the first application that a second round of documentation and excavation of the site of the Sarcophagus-tombs would yield new archaeological materials, since the area has witnessed no further explorations after Maspero’s campaigns in 1899-1905. Indeed, the project salvaged archaeological evidence for the superstructure of the tombs’ main shafts, and a complex of mummification structures, including an Embalmer’s Cachette, a Mummification Workshop, and a Communal Burial Shaft (hypogeum), exactly 1.00 m to the south of the area where Maspero stopped his excavation. The applicant proposes a second phase of the Sarcophagus-tombs Project to document, conserve and publish the tombs of PA-dj-njt and 1kA-m-sA.f and the Mummification Complex.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partners: Matthias Lang, Ph.D.; Professor Philipp Stockhammer, Ph.D.
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Ramadan Hussein, until 4/2022 (†)