Category Archives: Ptolemaic

Summary of the 2025 season

Posted on by
Reply

November has begun, and the 2025 season in the Asasif has already come to a close. Our work was carried out from 20 September to 16 October 2025. The main objective of the 2025 season was to continue cleaning, consolidating and documenting the large quantity of artefacts unearthed from TT 414, the impressive tomb of Ankh-Hor, High Steward of the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris (26th Dynasty). As in the 2024 season, the focus was on wooden coffins and cartonnage elements from TT 414, including pieces from both the Late and Ptolemaic periods.

This year, a number of fragments of cartonnage elements and cartonnage coffin fragments was consolidated. One example is K02/209 is a fragment of the back part of a head cover for the mummy with the common motif of Isis and Nephtys mourning Osiris as personalised Djed-Pillar.

Example of consolidated cartonnage fragment (to the left prior to cleaning/consolidation, to the right finished).

In general, significant progress has been made in the study of the cartonnage coffins from TT 414 – both regarding consolidation and matching pieces together. One of the most important results of the 2025 season was the identification of the lid of the cartonnage coffin of Wesjr-Wer (Reg. 23/05 fitting to Reg. 23/04). This now confirms that this new Wesjr-Wer III also had a bivalve cartonnage coffin with a zodiac on the inner part of the lid (see already an earlier blog post prior to the matching of the lid and the lower part).

On 14 October 2025, one box containing 30 wooden objects (34 individual pieces in total) was transported to the study magazine of the SCA. The objects were fully documented and 3D scans were taken prior to transportation.

Two days of work were carried out on the West Bank study magazine of the SCA. The aim of the documentation was to update the records of the objects in the magazine. A total of twelve objects were studied, primarily to document items transferred to the magazine using photogrammetry (3D scans with the Scaniverse app) and, where necessary, infrared photography. Five coffins transported in 2019 and seven other objects from one box transported in 2021 were studied.

A day’s work was carried out in the section of the magazine dedicated to registered finds. First, the register book of the Austrian Mission was examined, resulting in the creation of a priority list of all remaining objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414). A total of 22 object numbers were examined. Most of these derive from the intact, in-situ burial of Wah-ib-Re in Room 10.2 of TT 414.

For me, it was a very special moment to be able to study these important finds, which were published in exemplary fashion by Bietak and Reiser-Haslauer. However, it really makes a difference to hold them in your own hands, for example dozens of the shabtis of Wah-ib-Re!

These are some of the shabtis of Wah-in-Re that I had the honour of studying this season.

In conclusion, the seventh season of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project was a success, with significant progress made in the consolidation and documentation of wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414. However, as not all fragments have been consolidated and documented yet, our work will need to continue into the next season. Joining pieces together is particularly time-consuming, but worthwhile. It was also important to continue work on the study magazine and gain an overview of all objects from TT 414 currently stored in the registered area.

We would like to thank our inspector, Mr Hassan Khalil, for enabling us to work according to the programme of work and for all his support during the 2025 season. The same applies to our conservation inspector, Mrs Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol.

The 2025 team.

I would also like to thank all the team members who worked with us during the 2025 season: Hassan Aglan and Patrizia Heindl from LMU Munich, Ladina Soubeyrand from HU Berlin, and Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol and Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud, who worked as conservators, as well as Ashraf Hosni Teegi, who was in charge of logistics.

I’m very much looking forward to our next season in 2026, which I’m sure will be great!

Mid-season update from the field

Posted on by
Reply

It’s gone by in the blink of an eye – we’ve already reached the mid-season point after two weeks of work in the Asasif. We’ve been super busy with wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414, both from the 26th Dynasty and the Ptolemaic period.

Ladina did a great job of documenting a really interesting wooden shrine coffin – the complete cornice of which has survived, allowing us to reconstruct its dimensions. This piece offers much to discover! We can highlight details of the woodworking, such as markings for dowel holes. Ladina has therefore also produced detailed pencil drawings of the individual elements.

Ladina busy drawing one of the beautifully carved peices of a wooden shrine coffin.

Mohamed Mahmoud and Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol, our conservators, did a great job over the last two weeks, cleaning and consolidating a large number of fragments.

Iman working on a 26th Dynasty fragment.

Mohamed’s work on fragile cartonnage pieces is really something else. He’s done some amazing stuff here, transforming broken and fragile pieces into stable objects again.

The fragment here shows that we’ve also got ‘openwork’ cartonnage coffins like the famous one by the Ptolemaic Theban priest Djed-Hor, which is now in the Leiden Museum and was recently published in a great new book by Maarten Raven (Raven 2025).

This piece from TT 414 and the cartonnage of Djed-Hor show that this type of cartonnage only covered the front and sides of the mummy. However, we also found bivalve cartonnage coffins from TT 414 in the last few seasons (check out last year’s reconstruction of the lower part of the cartonnage coffin Reg. No. 08/05). I’ve been working on these this week, trying to find joints between lower parts and upper parts of pieces that are similar stylistically.

This is me working on one of the beautifully painted bivalve cartonnage coffins from TT 414.

Hassan Aglan, who got here earlier this week, has a special task to finish up on in the next few days. He started documenting infant coffins from Tomb VII in the Austrian concession in great detail. This is a small family tomb used by a Kushite family (see Budka 2010 with references). The Austrian mission directed by Manfred Bietak found several burials in situ, including three infants. We’re currently photographing and scanning the coffins and human remains. As tragic as the children’s early passing must have been for their family, these burials are of significant importance. They are securely dated to the 25th Dynasty, so we’re doing everything we can to meticulously document them.

This is one of the infant coffins from Tomb VII. It’s still not cleaned and in poor condition (here with Ladina happy in the background) (photo: Hassan Aglan).

There’s loads of work waiting for us, starting with tomorrow and the start of week 3! But with all these great new advances, I’m really looking forward to getting back to the site.

References

Budka 2010 = J. Budka, Bestattungsbrauchtum und Friedhofsstruktur im Asasif. Eine Untersuchung der spätzeitlichen Befunde anhand der Ergebnisse der österreichischen Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1969-1977, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes 34, Vienna 2010.

Raven 2025 = M. J. Raven, The Lost Mummy of Djedhor. Reconstructing the burial of a Ptolemaic priest from Thebes, Leiden 2025.

First update from the field

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been almost a year since we closed the 2024 season, and I’m thrilled and grateful that we opened for the 2025 season of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project yesterday.

As with last year, our focus will be on sorting, documenting and consolidating the fragmented wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414. Thanks to our kind inspector, Hassan Khalil, and our excellent workmen, supervised by Ahshraf Teegi, setting up was incredibly straightforward this year.

Our excellent conservator, Mohamed Mahmoud, has already got to work. Having joined us a few years ago, he is very familiar with both our workflow and the materials from TT 414. Mohamed has finished cleaning and consolidating some wooden pieces, as well as the first fragile cartonnage fragments for this season. Here he is working on one of the smaller pieces that he has fixed so nicely.

I continue to document the newly consolidated pieces using both our full-frame camera and the Scaniverse app to create 3D scans. The latter produces high-quality 3D models, as can be seen in this video of another cartonnage fragment consolidated by Mohamed.

One example of the newly cleaned cartonnage fragments from TT 414.

Furthermore, I have already succeeded in finding several pieces that can be joined to coffin fragments that have already been documented and registered in earlier season. This shows that all our efforts with the large quantity of finds from TT 414 are worthwhile.

Sorting through boxes of coffin fragments and adding photos and notes to their documentation is something that Ladina Soubeyrand is doing, just like she did last year. I am extremely grateful that she is joining us again this season!

Overall, the last two days were busy and successful, and we are looking forward to the rest of the season. We will, of course, update you with further blog posts, including photos, videos and more information!

First tentative steps towards the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for research return

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I was at a great conference in Faro, dedicated to African Archaeology. I also attended a session where I got really inspiring input for new possibilities using AI.

Robert Stark spoke about “Digital Frontiers: An AI Assisted Approach to Research Return” – he stressed the potential of using the NotebookLM platform developed by Google Labs. There, short AI generated podcasts can be created from uploaded documents.

The result is a concise and captivating discourse in laymen’s terms that elucidates the core of the uploaded documents. Whilst such podcasts are undoubtedly entertaining and accessible to a wide audience, Robert also emphasised that there are several limitations that must be given due consideration, and that caution is also required.

Nevertheless, I think the idea of using such a tool to disseminate research results, especially for Sudan, but also for the Ankh-Hor project, is a very good one.

It is with great pleasure that I hereby present the initial tests from a recently published text (Julia Budka, Variability in Late Egyptian funerary culture – new evidence for rare papyrus practices from TT 414, in: Balázs J. Irsay-Nagy & Kata Jasper (eds), From the Horizon of Thebes. Studies in Honour of Tamás A. Bács, Wallasey 2025, 9‒19). The creation of both an English and an Arabic podcast has been accomplished through the utilisation of Google Notebook.

Podcast created by Google NotebookLM in English.
Podcast created by Google NotebookLM in Arabic.

Please check it out! As this is a new application, all feedback and comments are greatly appreciated, many thanks.

In relation to the subject, we will provide further information quite soon. My colleague, Annik Wüthrich, is currently engaged in the analysis of these compelling fragments of a Book of the Dead from TT 414 which are discussed in my article and the AI generated podcasts. She has already obtained significant new results, the details of which will be communicated in due course.

A short summary of our 2024 season

Posted on by
Reply

It’s now a week since we returned to Europe from beautiful Luxor. Not only from the very successful 2024 Ankh-Hor project campaign, but also from a splendid Thebes in the First Millennium BCE conference with a rich programme of lectures and site visits.

Our 5 weeks of work on objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor, TT 414, were very intensive. I will try to briefly summarise the most important aspects below.

The major goal of the 2024 season was to continue the cleaning, consolidation, and documentation of the large number of objects excavated from TT 414, the monumental tomb of Ankh-Hor, High Steward of the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris (26th Dynasty). Like in the 2023 season, the focus was on wooden coffins and cartonnage elements from TT 414 and included both Late Period pieces and Ptolemaic ones. Work was conducted from September 28 to October 31, 2024 (SCA Inspector: Shaima Abdelkarim).

Some fragmented coffins from TT 414 were identified for the first time and correlated with the documentation from the 1970s. Some additional material was recorded for the first time. In addition, several previously not identified pieces were newly recognised as matches to coffins documented by the Austrian mission in the 1970s. Some of these were joined by our conservators to the already documented pieces. One important example is Reg. No. 857. Whereas in the 1970s, only a small fragment of the edge and some base fragments of this lower case of a coffin were documented (Fig. 1 bottom left), new joining pieces allowed to reconstruct the entire length of the coffin (Fig. 1). With just 120cm in length, this is a coffin for an infant, not an adult. This raises various questions since the owner of the coffin is identified as Iset-em-akhbjt who holds the title jHjt n wja Ra (singer of the bark of Re).

Fig. 1: New pieces of Reg. No. 857 allow to identify it as an infant coffin

All finds studied in 2024 were digitally photographed and entered in a database, created by File Maker Pro. In total, more than 110 individual objects (mostly coffins and cartonnage elements) were studied and documented by full-format photos in high resolution. These new photos are suitable for publication and show the colours of the pieces, in contrast to the previous documentation in the 1970s. A total of 35 drawings of 14 important objects were produced in 2024 by Hassan and Ladina, comprising fragments wooden statues, canopic shrines and painted mud plaster.

Fig. 2: Photographing our coffin fragments sometimes required individual settings; here Islam helps me with the preparation.

Since many the painted objects from TT 414 have darkened surface, infrared photography was used to make the original decoration visible (with a Sony Cybershot DSC-F828, an IR-filter and a small magnet). In 2024, this method was applied to a total of 70 objects.
A new method of documentation was introduced in 2023 for the Ankh-Hor project. The app Scaniverse was used to capture objects in 3D. This photogrammetry application is ultrafast, highly accurate and very easy to use. 207 objects from TT 414 were captured with metrically accurate 3D models this season. This technique was mainly used for work recordings when sorting cartonnage coffins (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Screenshot of 3D model of the newly reconstructed, fragmented cartonnage coffin lid Reg. 24/04. Since no texts with names and titles are preserved, the ownership is still unclear. The general colour scheme is rather unusual within the corpus of cartonnage coffins from TT 414.

The conservators of the LMU Munich Ankh-Hor Project in the 2023 season were the specialists for wood, Mrs. Karima Mohamed Sadiq and Mr. Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud. All consolidated objects were documented photographically before and after conservation. Every object is documented in a list, containing the observed damages and the conservation measures. A total of more than 150 wooden and painted objects, mostly coffins, comprising c. 400 individual pieces, were successfully cleaned and consolidated in 2024.

One of the major accomplishments of the consolidation work this year was the reconstruction of the lower part of the cartonnage coffin Reg. No. 08/05. Before consolidation, it was broken in several pieces and very fragmented (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Part of Reg. No. 08/05 before consolidation work.
Fig. 5: Work in progress – Mohamed is consolidating the very fragile cartonnage coffin Reg. No. 08/05.

At the end of our season, these fragments, including the newly found foot part, were joint to each other, and Reg. No. 08/05 reconstructed as best as possible (Fig. 6). Simply a great job by Karima and Mohamed!

Fig. 6: Interior of Reg. No. 08/05 after consolidation work.

Apart from the consolidation work, the study of the cartonnage coffins supported some conclusions about certain people buried in TT 414 during Ptolemaic times, for example about the Wesjrwer family. We now know that Horpabjk was the owner of the wooden coffin Reg. 829 and also of the newly recosntructed cartonnage coffin Reg. 08/05 (Figs. 4-6). In 2023, he was tentatively identified as a brother of Horakhbjt, owner of the cartonnage coffin Reg. No. 860. With his own cartonnage coffin now beautifully reconstructed and identified, which shows close parallels to Reg. No. 860, this family relation and identification is now based on solid grounds. More research is needed to fully understand this important family.

That we can now study sets of coffins in wood and cartonnage together is a considerable step towards reconstructing actual tomb groups in TT 414.

Since not all fragments of wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414 are yet consolidated and documented, our work needs to be continued in the next season. The finding of joining pieces is in particular time-consuming but definitly worthwhile.

Finally, I would like to thank all the team members and the local authorities – it was not only a successful season, but also a really enjoyable one and I am really looking forward to the next one with hopefully a very similar line-up!

An update on work on painted wooden objects from TT 414

Posted on by
Reply

Week 4 of our 2024 season has just ended and in the meantime we have made much progress in documenting, consolidating, drawing and photographing wooden objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414). Ladina and Hassan did a great job documenting the last 30th Dynasty/early Ptolemaic coffins from TT 414 which have never been recorded before. This means that all the pieces from the tomb are now at least provisionally numbered and photographically documented. However, the search for joining pieces continues, I was also very successful here this week.

Here are two examples: The painted wooden coffin Reg. 830 is very fragmented; I managed to relocate most pieces and Karima and Mohamed, our conservators cleaned them. However, yesterday I found another piece that we could fit in.

The time-consuming search through all the boxes is still worthwhile: the newly found fragment is the second from the right, recognisable by its dusty surface.

Already in 2023, I documented one fragment of the side of a canopic box, K07/298. In our week 1 of this season, I was very happy to find a joining piece on the left side, at the bottom. However, only this week I relocated the missing corner piece above. All 3 fragments are now joined and fully cleaned and consolidated.

Last year, only the right fragmented was documented; both fragments to the left are new pieces found in different boxes this year

Another task was scanning objects in 3D. Hassan was very busy, with the help of Islam, documenting corner posts of a canopic box. A very challenging piece which required various set-ups!

Hassan and Islam scanning one of the corner posts.
Me scanning a Ptolemaic coffin fragment.

I have continued to document coffins, including quick 3D scans to document my new joints of Ptolemaic coffins.

Screenshot of a quick 3D scan of newly assembled coffin fragments from various boxes.

This is a nice example – a new assemblage of a coffin lid, very fragmented but reassembled from various provisional numbers – these had been scattered in several boxes and I remain optimistic that I will find more pieces.

Week 5 awaits us and there is still a lot to do.

Work progress on the coffins of TT 414

Posted on by
Reply

Week 3 has just started and Ladina and Hassan are busy with documenting 30th Dynasty/early Ptolemaic coffins from the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414), while Karima and Mohamed continue with some later Ptolemaic painted fragments.

Ashraf, Hassan and Ladina are busy sorting, cleaning and documenting coffin fragments.

Week 2 brought a lot of progress; I was able to make numerous joints of small fragments to known, registered pieces. My focus was on Ptolemaic coffins around the family of Wesjr-wer – and here, in addition to the painted wooden coffins, also on the cartonnage coffins. A real challenge are both wooden and cartonnage coffins, where the text fields have unfortunately remained empty, so we have no information about the owners.

The white painted with black text outer surfaces of the lower parts of bivalve cartonnage coffins are still a big puzzle – but I have already found many joints!

As a special highlight, I also documented the qrsw coffin of one of Ankh-Hor’s relatives, Psametik-men-em-Waset, Reg. 595, in 3D. The piece of which several boards and the front side are preserved had already been documented with our full-frame camera in 2018, but I wanted to take full advantage of the new possibilities offered by the rapid development of video-based photogrammetry with LiDAR sensors on mobile devices and the Scaniverse app developed by Toolbox AI. The scans also allow us to highlight technological features and details of the wood structure.

Screenshot of 3D scan of one of the lateral sides of Reg. 595 which shows nicely the damages of the wood and painted surface.
Sceenshot of the 3D scan of the front side of the vaulted lid of the qrsw coffin Reg. 595.

Last but not least, Hassan and Ladina made detailed drawings of fragments of canopic boxes from TT 414. These drawings will be used in the final publication and perfectly complement our photographic documentation and the 3D scans.

Technical drawings remain necessary for some selected wooden pieces from TT 414.

All in all, our 2024 season continues to be very productive, and I am grateful to all team members for their commitment and enthusiasm. There are some really great objects we are working on and there are still a lot of them waiting for us in the coming weeks!

Wife or Granddaughter? Who was T3-khj-bj3t?

Posted on by
Reply

Among the mass of coffin fragments from TT 414, the tomb of Ankh-Hor, one stands out in particular: a coffin of a woman with both demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Reg. 770 was published by one of the experts on Demotic, Jan Quaegebeur in Anch-Hor II. He focused on the front board of the foot section, which shows the demotic inscription. However, the board of the corresponding coffin lid – with a vertical hieroglyphic inscription line – was not published as a drawing or photo.

This season, our conservator Mohamed cleaned and fixed the very fragile lid fragment and I could document it together with the foot part. Our aim is to present this unique piece in the planned publication of all coffins from TT 414.

Happy moment – joining the footpart of Reg. 770 with the lid fragment (photo: L. Soubeyrand).

The coffin owner is a woman with the typical Theban name T3-khj-bj3t, daughter of Wesjr-wer/Osoroeris and T3-njt-Khonsw/Tachonsis. This filiation is given in the demotic text, translated by Quaegebeur (1982, 259) as follows:

“May your Ba live in eternity and forever: T3-khj-bj3t daughter of Osoroeris born of Tachonsis”.

Screenshot of the new 3D model of the lid fragment of Reg. 770 with the hieroglyphic inscription.

The vertical text on the lid only mentions the mother’s name, not the father’s.

T3-khj-bj3t belongs to a Ptolemaic family attested by several wooden painted coffins from TT 414, especially Reg. 800 and Reg. 828 with hieroglyphic texts. However, there is one problem: we do not know whether our coffin owner of Reg. 770 was the wife or the granddaughter of the owner of Reg. 800, Wesjr-wer. It is possible that a woman named Ta-Khonsu, daughter of T3-khj-bj3t, named her own daughter after her mother. Quaegebeur has also expressed the opinion that the ‘granddaughter’ scenario is perhaps more likely than that of the wife, since Reg. 770, unlike Reg. 800 (and Reg. 828), also bears a demotic inscription in addition to the hieroglyphic one and might thus be of later date.

Well – as I will also be working on Reg. 800 this season, perhaps a solution will emerge. I am also very much hoping for additional information based on cartonage coffins that have not yet been included in the scenario, but which are attested for several members of this family.

Whether wife or granddaughter – the coffin Reg. 770 still raises exciting questions today and I am very pleased that we have now documented it in the best possible way. A more precise dating will hopefully be possible soon.

Reference

Quaegebeur 1982 = Jan Quaegebeur, VIII. Demotic Inscriptions on Wood from the Tomb of Anch-Hor, in: M. Bietak/E. Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des Anch-Hor II, Vienna 1982, 259-266.

Short summary of week 1, 2024 season

Posted on by
Reply

One week has already passed since we opened our season for the LMU Ankh-Hor project.

Our beautiful large tent is the centre of our conservation programme, which will focus on Ptolemaic wooden coffins and cartonnages, but will also include other painted objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor, TT 414. One of our conservators, Mohamed Mahmoud , has already successfully cleaned and stabilised the very fragile foot part of Ankh-Hor’s outer coffin.

This piece has already been published in the Anch-Hor II Volume, but is nevertheless one of the historically very important pieces, as it is direct evidence for the tomb owner of TT 414 and thus one of the well-dated wooden coffins of the 26th Dynasty in Thebes. I am very pleased that this very delicate and important piece has finally been consolidated.

In addition to conservation, we are mainly working on finding joining pieces for objects, which I have already done very well this week with cartonnages. We produce full-format photos, infrared photos and 3D scans for documentation purposes. Ladina Soubeyrand and Hassan Aglan also make publishable drawings of important pieces. This week they have been working mainly on Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuettes and qrsw coffins. And they do a really good job!

All in all, it was a very successful start to the 2024 season – we still have a lot to do in the next four weeks, but some of the really nice objects with high information content about the Late Egyptian funerary culture in Thebes make the whole thing a great pleasure.

Everything ready for the 2024 season

Posted on by
Reply

Tomorrow will be the day: we will open the 2024 season of the LMU Ankh-Hor project and will be working until the end of October. It’s very exciting to be back in Asasif!

The tomb of Anch-Hor this afternoon in the Asasif

As last year, the focus of our work will be on conservation, cleaning and documentation. Our conservation programme will focus on Ptolemaic wooden coffins and cartonnages, but will also include other painted and inscribed objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor, TT 414.

We will keep you updated on our progress over the next five weeks!