Fieldwork aims and research approach

Main aims of the fieldwork project

The area where we work, Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, forms part of the Theban necropolis, a unique UNESCO world heritage site: this was Egypt’s main royal and elite cemetery for half a millennium from 1550 BCE onwards. The site comprises numerous monuments, including the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, but also hundreds of private elite tombs, as well as memorial temples, and remains of royal palaces and domestic communities. The tombs in the area where we are working are decorated with vivid, detailed wall paintings and reliefs depicting all kinds of daily activities, such as farming, fishing, hunting, banquets with music and dancing, family interactions, crafts, administration, religious rituals, etc. As such, these monuments provide us with invaluable details about ancient Egyptian culture and society and the daily life of the non-royal people. 

These monuments form an important part of the non-renewable record of human history: they are fragile and once destroyed, they are gone forever. Therefore, we have a responsibility to document, protect, and safeguard them. Furthermore, it is our duty to protect heritage sites against the effects of climate change, which pose immediate risks to ancient monuments and historical landscapes.

In order to achieve this, our fieldwork project takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, by integrating knowledge and techniques from a wide range of fields, including Egyptology, archaeology, anthropology, ceramology, conservation, digital humanities, geology and hydrology, heritage and risk management, etc. 

In daily practice in the field, this means that we focus on:

1) Carrying out a practical conservation programme for the monuments, aimed at preserving them for future generations.

2) Carrying out a heritage preservation programme for the monuments, using the most recent non-invasive digital technologies, aimed at the digital documentation, analysis, and publication of the monuments. As such, the project aims to contribute significantly to the development and application of non-invasive digital technologies to the documentation, publication, accessibility, and preservation of ancient material culture.

3) Carrying out a preventive conservation and risk management programme for the archaeological site, aimed at preventing future damage and safeguarding this unique heritage site, rather than taking action only after damage has occurred. This means that we are carrying out research on the geomorphology and hydrology of the area, based on which we are partially relandscaping the area surrounding the tombs in order to incorporate practical flood prevention measures. At the same time, this work offers us the unique opportunity to conduct modern archaeological research for the first time in the necropolis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, about which almost nothing is known to date. In carrying out this work, we not only safeguard the monuments in this area for the future, but we also obtain valuable new information on the life histories of the monuments and on the individuals for whom they were built, enabling us to reconstruct the historical and cultural development of the area of Lower Sheikh Abd el-Qurna for the very first time.    

Two additional important aims of the fieldwork project are:

4) Carrying out a site management programme, aimed at opening the necropolis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna to visitors. Compared to the famous nearby royal tombs at the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Nobles at Qurna remains relatively unknown to visitors and constitutes one of the least-visited areas of the West Bank of Luxor. Opening the necropolis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna for visitors will attract both local Egyptian and international visitors to what is in fact a hidden gem and one of the most fascinating sites in Egypt, as its exquisitely decorated tombs offer a unique glimpse into the daily lives, funerary beliefs, and artistry of Egypt’s non-royal people over many centuries.

5) Contributing to strengthening the scientific infrastructure in Egypt by providing training opportunities in the field, and to raising public awareness of the archaeological heritage of Luxor by organising educational and outreach activities for the local community.

Research approach

Our research programme for the tombs includes a detailed documentation and analysis of their wall decoration as well as an archaeological study of the monuments. This allows us to obtain valuable new information on the life histories of the monuments, and on the identities and personal narratives of the individuals that were buried here.  

The monuments are also studied in their broader chronological context. This approach is expected to reveal deeper insight into how the tombs at Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna relate to the surrounding environment and pre-existing monuments, as well as into the historical and cultural development of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, of which currently very little is known.

One of the main research questions in relation to the fieldwork project focuses on the dynamics of tomb placement and tomb reuse in the Theban necropolis during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 BCE). The aim of the research is to gain a deep-level understanding of the functioning of tombs as part of the continuously changing mortuary landscape. Specific questions that we seek to answer are: How did the physical features of the ancient mortuary landscape influence the placement of tombs? Which factors influenced the decision to reuse tombs for burial as opposed to building new tombs? Why did officials in the Ramesside period (ca. 1290–1070 BCE) chose to reuse, modify, or build tombs adjacent to the monuments of the preceding 18th dynasty elites (ca. 1550–1292 BCE), and what do these decisions tells us about practices of cultural memory and the performance of status and social identity in ancient Thebes? 

Dr. Van den Hoven’s research project takes an innovative interdisciplinary approach to the topic of tomb placement and tomb reuse, using theory and methodology from the fields of Memory Studies and Landscape Archaeology. This approach enables her to explore tomb reuse in terms of the interaction between mortuary practice, cultural memory, and the physical features of the mortuary landscape. In doing so, she addresses the validity of traditional Egyptological terminology relating to tomb reuse, and challenges the prevalent outside-in interpretations of tomb reuse which fail to address the complexity of this phenomenon. Her aim is to present a deep-level understanding of the practice of tomb reuse and to contribute to wider cross-cultural discussions on the reuse of mortuary spaces and on the functioning of mortuary landscapes. 

For publications on the fieldwork and research project, see https://leidenuni.academia.edu/CarinaVanDenHoven

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