Turning points in Egyptian archaeology 1850-1950. In Piacentini, Patrizia (ed.), Egypt and the pharaohs: from the sand to the library: pharaonic Egypt in the archives and libraries of the Università degli Studi di Milano, 115-172. Milano: Università degli Studi di Milano; Skira, 2010. (original) (raw)
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This article deals with the results of the 2012 fieldwork in the Central-Eastern Desert of Egypt and the studies in progress on some of the major related subjects. The project - promoted by the Italian Embassy in Egypt and directed by Irene Bragantini - is a joint collaboration of different Italian and Egyptian institutions (Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, University of Cairo, Faculty of Geology, and University of Helwan, Faculty of Archaeology), and is aimed at investigating the central area of the Eastern Desert. The cooperation between archaeologists and geologists aims at conducting a geo-archaeological survey of the region in order to investigate the natural resources, their exploitation in the different periods, and the economic and commercial potential of the area. The methodology followed and the problems confronted with, demanded in fact the cooperation of different scientific grounds in order to reconstruct a geo-economic landscape. The Archaeological activity is sponsored by UNO and the Ministero Italiano degli Affari Esteri (MAE). The technical instrumentation for graphic and photographic records is provided by CISA (Centro Interdipartmentale di Servizi per l’Archeologia of UNO). The area to be investigated is that part of the Eastern Desert which extends just east of the Theban region, an area extremely important in almost all the periods of the Egyptian history; the zone is located in a strategic position because of the roads which bound the Nile Valley to the Red Sea (where they are closest to one another), and the geological nature of the area, characterized by a large outcrop of pre-Cambrian basement, which brought to the location of numerous rock quarries (particularly igneous), used for Egyptian architecture and statuary, and mines of different metals such as gold, copper, lead, iron and talc. In Roman period, the imperial administration has put on and maintained a complex system, in order to control the exploitation of the natural resources and the commercial potential of the area: the joint archaeological activity plans to investigate this system, in order to “read” the landscape on the basis of its natural resources. The northern limits of the grant includes the Wadi Hamamah, while the southern passes to the north of Wadi Hammamat, a way that - because of its importance and of the very numerous inscriptions and rock carvings scattered along most of its course - has been much studied in the past as well as in more recent times. Therefore we can regard the area as limited northwards and southwards by numerous other archaeological projects of surveys and excavations conducted by Institutions of different countries; one may mention the investigations on Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites to the North, and the whole area from Qoptos to Qusseir and Qusseir al Qadim to the South.
Between 1944 and 1949, Varille worked as epigraphist at Saqqara for the Antiquities Service. He joined the mission of Abdel Salam Mohammed Hussein on the excavations of the funerary complex of Djedkare-Izezi, but because of the premature death of both archaeologists their results were never published. Some large folders found in the Varille archives, housed in the University of Milan, contain materials that can be useful to understand the way in which the excavations were carried on and some of the objects discovered. This unpublished documentation consists in photographs, cards with notes and photographs, and a short report on the excavations. The aim of the article is to present and analyse these materials, as well as to discuss the role of some of the people who worked with Varille on the site, who are mentioned in his papers.
When working at Abydos during the last months of 1908, E.R. Ayrton and W.L.S. Loat were informed about a cemetery being looted at nearby el-Mahâsna. They visited the site and identified it as a Predynastic cemetery, which they subsequently excavated in January 1909. As usual for the time, only the most important finds were described or illustrated in the excavation report. The objects themselves were distributed to a number of museums, amongst them the Egyptian collection of the Royal Museums for Art and History in Brussels. Fortunately, the contents of individual tombs seem to have been kept together during the distribution, and the Brussels museum received nearly all of the objects from Tombs H17 and H41. Tomb H41 was one of the richest in the cemetery, containing among other significant objects, a very interesting human figurine. The material from Tomb H17 includes a palette with lightly engraved decoration, which was unnoticed by the excavators. The inventories of the two tombs are discussed with particular attention given to their visual presentation. For this purpose, parts of the tombs are reconstructed in drawing, using the published photographs in combination with the actual objects in Brussels. The reconstruction of the figurine from Tomb H41 is of particular interest in the context of the recent discoveries in the settlement of el-Mahâsna.
Pisa University Press, 2024
Modern Egyptology encompasses more than just archaeological excavations, the study of antiquities, and bibliographic research. It also relies on the invaluable insights gleaned from manuscripts left by travelers, collectors, and scholars of the past. Archives, libraries, and museums preserve a boundless heritage of documents essential for reconstructing the history of ancient Egypt and the evolution of the discipline itself. This volume, presented to prof. Marilina Betrò, contains articles exploring previously unpublished letters, notes, diaries, and research materials from the 17th to the first decades of the 20th century, offering precious insights into historical evidence that might otherwise have been lost. – Introduction Gianluca Miniaci, Christian Greco, Paolo Del Vesco, Mattia Mancini, Cristina Alù – Tra ideogrammi e geroglifici: la lingua primigenia nella China Illustrata di Athanasius Kircher e nel dibattito coevo Chiara Ombretta Tommasi – “Ne mancagli altro se non che un poco di Naso”: il danneggiamento del volto della Sfinge di Giza in un manoscritto inedito da Modena (1743) Mattia Mancini – Vitaliano Donati e la Iside di Coptos Beppe Moiso – “The Discoveries I Had Been Fortunate Enough to Make in This Country”: Six Unpublished Letters from Giovanni B. Belzoni to William J. Bankes (1817-19) Daniele Salvoldi – I primi anni di vita del Museo Egizio di Torino: Giulio Cordero di San Quintino Tommaso Montonati – Giuseppe Acerbi, Jean François Champollion, and Ippolito Rosellini: A Relationship of Esteem in the Name of Hieroglyphics, Pharaohs, and Dynasties Daniela Picchi – A case of identity? Demetrios Papandriopulos and Giovanni d’Athanasi John H. Taylor – La figura del Padre barnabita Luigi Maria Ungarelli dallo studio del Fondo Ungarelli conservato a San Carlo ai Catinari Mario Cappozzo – La Spedizione Romana in Egitto (1840-1841) alla luce di nuovi documenti di archivio Alessia Amenta – The Torlonia Obelisks: Neo-hieroglyphic Rhetoric for Rome’s New Elites Luigi Prada – Ernesto Schiaparelli a Tebe. Documenti inediti sul primo viaggio in Egitto (1884-1885) dell’egittologo piemontese Paolo Del Vesco – Digging up the Origins: The Predynastic Collection of the Museo Egizio (Turin, Italy) Federica Ugliano – Rudolf Dvořák (1860-1920) and his Crucial Role in establishing Czech Egyptology Ladislav Bareš – I reperti da el-Hibeh nel Museo Egizio di Firenze: alcuni documenti inediti dagli archivi Maria Cristina Guidotti
PERROT A.-H., PIETRI R., TANRÉ-SZEWCZYK J. (eds.), L’objet égyptien. Source de la recherche. Actes du colloque École du Louvre Paris Juin 2015 , 2020
During the Franco-Tuscan Expedition to Egypt (1828-29), Jean-François Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini, beside recording ancient Egyptian monuments, also carried on excavations in some sites, mainly in the area of ancient Thebes and its necropolis. Very little, however, was known of their archaeological explorations so far. In recent years, crossed investigations on the unpublished manuscripts of Ippolito Rosellini, the objects he brought in Tuscany and their relationship with those in France, joined to the archaeological study of the Theban necropolis, allow to reconstruct some of the contexts the Expedition found and their burial assemblage.