The Temple of Amenhotep III at Wadi es-Sebua within the Ritual Landscape of Ancient Nubia

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Project data

Title
The Temple of Amenhotep III at Wadi es-Sebua within the Ritual Landscape of Ancient Nubia
 
Project leader
 
Department
 
Person involved
Campofiorito, Nicoletta
 
Start date
01-10-2018
 
Research profile of the University of Bamberg
Analysis and Preservation of Cultural Heritage
 
Existing situation
Ongoing
 

Project description

Acronym
Wadi es-Sebua (KDWT Digitale Denkmaltechnologien)
 
Description
The work on the project took place between March 26 and April 10, 2019 in the Egyptian Museum Cairo under the supervision of Ms Sabah Abdel Razek (General Director of the Egyptian Museum Cairo) and Prof. Dr. Martina Ullmann (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) as well as Prof. Dr. Regine Schulz (Director of the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim) and Mr. Moamen Mohamed Othman (General Director of the Conservation Department of the Egyptian Museum Cairo). The other members of the team were Dr. Kathryn Piquette (University College London) and Prof. Dr. Mona Hess (University of Bamberg) and three conservators of the EMC (Akram Abdelaziz Mohamed, Mohamed Ibrahim, Sarah Amal). The project was funded by a grant from the Friends of Munich University (Muenchner Universitaetsgesellschaft) and by the Schafhausen Foundation. The work was conducted as it had been outlined in the project description which was submitted to the Ministry of Antiquities in August 2018.The project aims at reconstructing the significance of the temple that was built by Amenhotep III in the 14th century BCE in Wadi es-Sebua within the ritual landscape of Lower Nubia. Of special importance hereby are the wall paintings from the central sanctuary of the temple. In 1964, shortly before the temple was submerged by the waters of Lake Nasser, seven panels of the wall decoration were detached from the temple walls and stuck into wooden frames. All these seven panels are currently kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The knowledge about this removal and the new location of the paintings had got lost and only a few years ago they were rediscovered and their investigation started (see the earlier reports for the work done in October 2010 and for the work season of last year). The wall paintings from the temple show numerous traces of reworking which relate to at least three different decoration phases within a very limited time span of a few decades. The investigation, documentation, and analysis of the different layers of the paintings during the conservation process is therefore of special importance. This year’s work was mainly focused on the use of various technical investigation methods in order to reveal the different paint layers. Different digital imaging methods were applied, including a small training program for two staff members of the Conservation Department of the EMC.
 
Area of research
Digitale Denkmaltechnologien
 
Keywords
Advanced imaging , virtual reconstruction, egyptology