Off Egypt’s beaten path

The Queen Nefertiti revelation is not the Leuven team’s first discovery that speaks to the imagination, and it will not be the last – although the political situation in the country causes some uncertainty for the future.

Professor Harco Willems and PhD student Athena Van der Perre of the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) surprised the whole room of Egyptologists – and later the rest of the archaeological world – at the prestigious Neues Museum in Berlin a few weeks ago. They had discovered an administrative inscription of only a few words that proves that Nefertiti remained on the ancient Egyptian scene longer than previously thought. The finding brings to an end a whole era of speculation around the fate of this notorious figure.

The discovery was made in limestone quarries, close to the archaeological site of Dayr al-Barsha, which gives its name to the international and interdisciplinary research project of the Egyptology department at KU Leuven. In the isolated area of Middle Egypt, this necropolis – a city for the dead, made up of tombs – has been a touristic attraction since the 17th century and attracted archaeologists until the beginning of the 20th century.

But it proved to be less complicated to uncover media-friendly artefacts further south, near Luxor. In the Valley of the Kings and in the north near Cairo, for instance, including the pyramids of Giza. While archaeology teams were working side-by-side there, Middle Egypt – including Dayr al-Barsha – remained largely neglected.

In the late 1980s, however, Dutch Egyptologist Willems – then lecturing at the University of Leiden – travelled to the area to follow in the footsteps of the American archaeologist George Reisner, with his diary as a guide. Almost a century before, Reisner had dug up several ground-breaking sites with graves, but he never published his work.

Willems’ idea was to publish the records of Reisner linked to his own contemporary examination of the site. Unfortunately, he had to stop his research after a few years because of political turmoil in the area.

Starting from scratch

But this setback meant only a delay for Willems, who went on to establish the Dayr al-Barsha project in 2002 with KU Leuven. “Older and wiser, I now saw the big picture,” he says. The team at Leuven did not confine itself to the necropolis of Dayr al-Barsha but set off with the momentous task of mapping a territory around it of around 800 square kilometres, which used to be the province of the Hare in Ancient Egypt. “Ninety-five percent of the area was still unknown territory,” declares Willems.

“In the first years, we spent most of our time building up our infrastructure since we had to start almost from scratch,” the professor continues. In 2007, the team first attracted media attention – from, among others, National Geographic – after excavating the tomb of a provincial official called Henu. In the monument around 4,000 years old they found the intact resting place of Henu, which contained statues of himself and of his servants for the afterlife.

“There were statuettes of women brewing beer and pounding cereal for making bread, which they believed would come alive in the tomb,” explains Willems. “In this way, the people wanted to make sure the soul of the respected official would forever have plenty to drink and eat.”

This religious custom was already known by scholars, but it was unique to find objects of such quality so well preserved. “You can even distinguish the dirt that the ancient artists painted on the hands and feet of the statuettes,” to make them more realistic as labourers, adds Willems.

Funerary rites exposed

Equally extraordinary was the discovery last spring of the burial of the provincial governor Ahanakht I (approximately 2040 BC). Several grave-robbers had visited the burial shaft and caused extensive damage, leading Reisner to conclude in 1915 that nothing of value was left. But the KU Leuven team dug deeper to find a large number of alabaster and copper objects still in their original position. What drew their attention in particular were remarkable ritual objects, until then only known from ancient depictions, providing rare information on the specifics of the funeral rituals.

“For example, we found a sieve that we know was used during ordination ceremonies for priests,” says Willems. “We can now ascertain for the first time that similar purifying rituals were carried out underground in the burial chamber, and we even know the order in which they were performed.”

Future potential is enormous

Away from the cemetery grounds, the KU Leuven team also concentrated on the limestone quarries in the area, where the inscription about Nefertiti was found. “But the potential of the quarries is far larger than this single discovery,” says Willems. “These barely legible markings can teach us a lot about the construction of the palaces, temples and other buildings in the surrounding cities – such as the former capital Amarna – built with the stones from these quarries.”

Another ancient capital that Willems wants to bring alive again is nearby Hermopolis, and he hopes to virtually reconstruct on maps the road network that connected all the different sites.

This pioneering work is attracting the interest of researchers from several international universities, including the University of Cambridge in the UK. The KU Leuven team is receiving financial support from the Research Foundation Flanders, the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, the European Commission and KU Leuven’s Special Research Fund.

Notwithstanding the support and the results, the current volatile political situation in the country could complicate the work, but professor Willems is optimistic. “Actually, the Egyptian officials have been more lenient since the revolution because they are less afraid to be reprimanded,” he explains. “Up to now, we’ve had the full support of officials, who supervise our work but also help us because they realise the scientific and touristic potential. Still, nobody of course knows what tomorrow will bring.”

In other words, the science of the past also depends on events in the present.

www.dayralbarsha.com

Rediscovering Queen Nefertiti

Despite a number of imaginative theories, the beguiling queen was alive and well beyond the reign of Akhenaten

It’s hard to image University of Leuven researchers Harco Willems and Athena Van der Perre not feeling giddy as they revealed their historical discovery on Nefertiti in such a fitting setting and such a perfect moment.

The pair were speaking last month at the Neues Museum of Berlin during events surrounding the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the findings at Amarna precisely a century ago. Those include the illustrious bust of Nefertiti, which the museum owns.

In excellent condition, the renowned bust of about 3,300 years old turned Nefertiti into one of the most famous women of the ancient world, not least because of the face’s striking beauty.

As happens to many celebrities, Nefertiti has been the subject of much speculation and mythology, especially because she lived in a crucial time in ancient Egyptian history. Nefertiti was the wife of the revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten, who traded in the traditional Egyptian polytheism for the worship of a single solar deity called Aten. After his reign of 17 years, (approximately 1351 – 1334 BC), he was succeeded by another mythical figure, Tutankhamen.

Until recently, the latest mention of Nefertiti in the historical record dated from the 12th year of Akhenaten’s reign. Although the pharaoh ruled for five more years, no mention of his queen had been found for that period. Egyptologists were creative in explaining this gap: While she was banished according to some, others were sure she had been the victim of palace intrigue. Just a short while ago, a German Egyptologist argued in a book that she died in an accident.

Rumours put to rest

But PhD student Van der Perre discovered – based on the study of inscriptions in a limestone quarry near Amarna, the capital at the time of Akhenaten – that Nefertiti was still referred to as the wife of the king in the 16th year of the pharaoh’s rule.

“The wild theories about intrigues can now be discarded; Nefertiti simply remained the wife of the pharaoh,” says professor Willems.

However, the mystery surrounding the queen is not solved completely. “There are strong indications that Nefertiti then underwent a name change indicating a position as a ruler, after the 16th year of Akhenaten’s reign or after his death,” explains Willems. “This suggests that she reigned for a number of years as a queen by herself, or alongside Tutankhamen, until he was old enough to ascend to the throne alone. Either way, we have to rewrite the history of this eventful period that inspires academics and artists around the world.”