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The
Pennsylvania-Yale Excavations at Abydos, Egypt During the last two years the University of Pennsylvania Museum Yale University Expedition to Abydos, southern Egypt, has undertaken two major new excavation projects at this important site. These new projects will continue on alongside others initiated earlier, such as the Early Dynastic Enclosures and Boat-graves project. As earlier, the Expedition's co-directors are Dr. David O'Connor (University of Pennsylvania Museum, Curator Emeritus, Egyptian Section) and William Kelly Simpson (Yale University). The new projects are especially important for two reasons. First, they are the first scientific excavations carried out in the very important southern section of Abydos since relatively superficial excavations in the 1900s revealed major but enigmatic royal buildings of large size in the area. Second, while both projects are under the general direction of Dr. O'Connor, they were carried out by two members of the Egyptology graduate program in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania: Stephen Harvey and Josef Wegner. Each organized the relevant excavations, raised much of the necessary funds, and will publish the results, which form the core of their dissertations. This development continues the substantial scholarly opportunities provided to other outstanding Pennsylvania students earlier, namely Dr. Diana Patch; Dr. Janet Richards and Matthew Adams, of the Departments of Anthropology and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. In 1993 Stephen Harvey excavated the remains of a substantial temple and pyramid, the latter originally about 50m (150') high and the last royal pyramid built in Egypt; beyond lay a dummy tomb, the whole dedicated to the pharoah Ahmose (1550 - 1525 B.C.), founder of the 18th Dynasty. Two discoveries were especially important. A hitherto unsuspected cult-building for Ahmose's sister-wife Nefertari was located; and thousands of fragments of the original relief decoration of Ahmose's temple, overlooked by earlier excavators, were recovered by Harvey's meticulously executed excavations. These fragments revealed that the inner courtyard of Ahmose's temple once contained the earliest known narrative or historical reliefs of the New Kingdom (1550 - 1070 B.C. ), which included a depiction of a battle against Western Asiatics or Canaanites, as well as the earliest known depictions of chariots in Egypt. Associated materials included references to an individual called Apophis, and to the city of Avaris, indicating these scenes comprised the first known depictions of the Egyptian wars against the Asiatic or Hyksos invaders of Egypt a little before the New Kingdom. In 1994 Josef Wegner (candidate for a dual major, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology) re-excavated and re-studied a severely damaged temple complex built for pharoah Senwosret III (1878 - 1841 B.C. ), with important results. The temple proper had been entirely removed in antiquity, but Wegner's painstaking excavations located part of its outline, scratched by builders on the stone platform upon which the temple had stood. The temple's approximate size is now known. Moreover, the brick-built wings of the temple, identified as doorless storerooms, turned out to be interconnected chambers, integral to the temple itself. Most important of all, hundreds of decorated fragments, reflecting the temple's function and overlooked earlier, were also recovered. These two projects were supported by individual fellowships from the American Research Center in Egypt and the National Science Foundation; and funding from the Egyptian Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum and Yale University, through the good offices of Professor Simpson. Further
news of significance about the Abydos project is that Dr. O'Connor delivered
the Sackler Foundation Distinguished Lecture in Egyptology at the British
Museum on July 20, 1994, describing the many important new discoveries
made over the last several years to an international audience. In addition,
Dr. O'Connor has contracted with Thames and Hudson, London to write a
book on the project's work at Abydos for the series New Aspects of Antiquity.
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