13 March 2010
Our 2010 season has drawn to a close. On March 11th we locked and resealed KV-10.
Tasks for the final week included some work on fragments of Coffin A, the Coffin F face and lid, pot mending and recording. We also selected some materials from the excavations of KV-10 and the nearby workmen’s huts for transfer to the magazine. For now, we anticipate that the bulk of the KV-63 will remain at hand and accessible in KV-10.
Some planned tasks for 2010 did not materialize. Sue Osgood (Chicago House) had drawn all the KV-63 coffins but for the gilt coffinette (item G.6) and planned to do that one this season. For my part, I wanted to review the very faint inscription on one of the alabaster jars from Coffin A --- these items were registered in 2006 and then moved to the magazine. Unfortunately, they have recently been transferred from the magazine, so we will have to see what procedures will be necessary to gain access to those artifacts next season.
As reported in our earlier Update, the facemask of Coffin B has been restored to several main parts of the lid. This has vastly improved the appearance of the face. However, the lid showed nary a trace of painted or incised decoration, so the owner of Coffin B will remain unknown.
Coffin A was made for a Royal Nurse named Iny, as reported at the end of last season. However, we noticed some additional decoration and so we have been examining other parts of the lid and box in the hope of reassembling more connected texts on the cross bands. Only one cross band was legible and it translates as “Revered, may I see Re in the sky and drink from the pool….”. This unusual statement and the lack of mention of the traditional deities led us to suggest that Iny flourished during the Akhenaton era. It is unlike we can recover much more of the cross bands in the last few days of this season, but we will continue to gain as much data on the texts and decoration of Coffin A as is possible.
Coffin F has the beautiful face, but the wood is in terrible condition. The lid has more microbalon than surviving wood, so our attempt to find any texts has not been successful. The area of the facemask has been strengthened and cleaned. It was at the bottom of Coffin F that we found a mat; it seems to be the full length of the coffin, but after cleaning and conserving, we found it was not a single piece, but several sections.
We had a representative from the National Research Center (Dokki) to collect some samples for testing on Monday. Most samples are items from KV-63, but we have also included some of the ancient repair plaster from KV-10. That plaster is basically sand and limestone dust, but it has some adhesive, which has enabled it to withstand numerous floods in KV-10. We hope that the “adhesive” used can be identified.
Small coffin D was not authorized for transfer and examination to the ARCE conservation lab in Luxor, but we have had it moved to the Luxor Museum where ARCE’s Saied Hamed can examine it and make recommendations for the possible removal of resins or lacquers which partly conceal the details of the face. It is unlikely that we will have anything definite to report until much later.
Ali ”Bes” Abdullah and Ahmed Amir have been mending pottery. We have repaired over a dozen blue-painted jars and a variety of other wares. Many have parallels with the assemblage from the Tutankhamun embalming materials found by Theodore Davis in KV-54.
I presented a report on our season for the SCA’s weekly lecture program at the Mummification Museum. This season’s work on the coffins and the ceramics were the main topics.
Staff on site for the final days were: Archie Chubb, Betty Schneider, Maryann Marazzi, SCA conservators Ahmed Baghdady, Mohammed Mahmoud, Zaref Basili and Inspector Ayman Mohammed Ibrahim. Brent Benjamin departed about a week ago.
Ohio Earl (Ertman) did not come out this year, but we keep him apprised of our activities. A good part of our funds are left over from the Robert Little Trust grant which Earl gained for us in 2009. We will soon have depleted that grant, but it has been a major factor in our seasons of 2009 and 2010. Bill Petty (Museum Tours) again has handled our tax exempt fund raising, though last year, our web person, Roxanne Wilson, set up a Pay Pal system for donations and kept the website updated.
We will get this report out, for during the last few days things get somewhat hectic here as we must repack, complete reports, travel back to Cairo and then finally head for home. Then, it seems, the real work begins.
Otto Schaden
13 February 2010
After four weeks, we do have some encouraging progress to report.
Our SCA conservators (Ahmed Baghdady, Mohammed Mahmoud and Zaref Basili) have recently reattached Coffin B’s facemask to the lid. The unattached mask had been strange to behold, but now that it is back in it’s proper place it presents a more favorable appearance. See ‘Photos ~ 2010’ for images of the stages of restoration of the facemask including the final result. Further removal of resin from the lid of Coffin B proved useless --- we only found unadorned wood.
We are in the process of checking the texts on the Coffin A’s fragments. Last season we uncovered inscriptions identifying the owner as a “Royal Nurse, Iny.” The glass inlays for part of the eyes and the incised inscriptions suggested a rather exemplary coffin. Gold leaf added to that opinion. In cleaning, we found an incised collar at the sides that turned inward and unites under the crossed arms. The details are sketchy due to the poor preservation, but there is definitely more gold leaf, red (ochre?) and traces of blue inlays. Chicago House artist, Sue Osgood, is adding what remains of this collar to her drawing of the coffin lid.
In addition to cleaning and illustrating the collar of Coffin A, the SCA conservators plan to do more consolidation and repair on the facemask and join sections of the lappets (side ends of wig).
Artist Laurel Darcy Hackley is currently with us. She drew some ceramics and is presently working on some seal impressions with the help of some little assistants (see ‘2010 ~ Photos’).
Ali “Bes” Abdullah and Ahmed Attira have been mending pottery. We have many fragments of the KV-54 types C and D (after Winlock’s Pottery Corpus in his Materials Used at the Embalming of King Tut-ankh-amun, NY, 1941 on pls. IX-X). We will not try to mend them all, but will do enough to get a general idea of the approximate numbers of each type. Ahmed Attiya (a different Ahmed) has been working on mending some of our large blue painted jars (similar to Winlock’s Type G). The KV-63 examples include some ten examples of blue-painted ceramics plus some red slipware (pottery).
Botanist Dr. Ahmed Fahmy of Helwan University was with us at the start of the season to study KV-63’s botanical items (leaves, wood, flowers). Salima Ikram was with us for several weeks and studied our collection of “unbaked clay trays.” Winlock’s Corpus item “T” features several similar mud trays from KV-54, the well-known embalming cache of King Tutankhamun, In comparison with KV-54 we estimate that KV-63 possesses 40 or more similar mud trays.
Saied Hamed (from ARCE’s Karnak conservation lab) has been allowed to examine the tiny infant Coffin (D). We hope the means can be found to remove the resin or lacquer, which now covers the exterior coffin. Painted eyes, lips, etc. can be seen through the coating, and very likely the face is gilt (gold covered). Coffin D has now been registered (Reg. No. 40) and transported to Karnak where it awaits transfer to the Luxor Museum lab where Saied will begin the elaborate chemical process of removing the resin.
Coffin F will be examined some time this season.
Pia Rodriguez (who worked with us in 2006), Nieves Lopez and Elena de Gregorio of the Spanish Mission stopped by to visit. We also had the pleasure of meeting Ohioan tourists --- Terry, Dave, Uncle Tom and young Karli, who mummified her cat years ago.
Newly arrived staff includes Photographer Archie Chubb (Canada) and Recorder Betty Schneider (Massachusetts). In a few days, Brent Benjamin (Ohio) will join us.
More badein …..
Mudir Schaden
19 January 2010