In 1912, the excavation team of the Deutsch Orient-Gesellschaft under the direction of Ludwig Borchardt revealed the exceptional remains of the estate and workshop of the royal sculptor Thutmose, who worked in the middle of the 15th century BCE for Pharaoh Akhenaten in the latter’s new royal residence of Akhet-Aten (modern Amarna), in Middle Egypt. Next to the world-famous bust of Nefertiti, the German excavators unearthed a collection of plaster portrait studies that allow to foray into the creative process of a named artist of ancient Egypt—and thus to reconstruct the creation procedure of ancient Egyptian portraits as well as the technique used to ensure the consistency of royal portraiture in ancient Egypt—but also to investigate his relations and interactions with his fellow citizens in the city of Akhet-Aten.

Two hundred years ago, the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion revealed the complexity of this writing system which resulted in a rather low literacy rate among Pharaonic population in Antiquity. As a complement to previous studies evaluating the level of literacy in Ancient Egypt through tachygraphy or everyday life writing, the present article aims at addressing the specific issue of hieroglyphic literacy – or, better, literacies – among the actual makers of hieroglyphic inscriptions, i.e. ancient Egyptian artists. Next to highly educated scholarly artists, such an approach allows us to bring to light many other actors of iconographic and monumental production in ancient Egypt, who developed their own uses of hieroglyphs, as parts of their visual environment and culture.

It has often been assumed that the artists and artisans responsible for the making of elite tombs in the Theban Necropolis during the New Kingdom were to be equated with the Deir el-Medina crew or, as John Romer aimed to demonstrate in an article published in 1994 (in Essays in Egyptology in honor of Hans Goedike), were part of the same administration and under the same authority. The paper will propose a reassessment of the evidence used to support such a hypothesis and, taking into account the achievements of the members of Deir el-Medina community of the 18th dynasty when they worked for themselves, it will suggest another model to answer the question raised by J. Romer: “Who made the private tombs of Thebes?”

As part of the research project “Painters and Painting in the Theban Necropolis during the 18th dynasty” (Research Incentive Grant of the F.R.S.-FNRS at the University of Liège) and in the context of the Belgian Archaeological Mission in the Theban Necropolis, a joint project of the Universities of Brussels and Liège, was a thorough study of painterly practices in the funerary complex of the Mayor of Thebes under the reign of Amenhotep II, Sennefer (TT 96), owner of the famous so-called “vineyard tomb”, undertaken. This led to the discovery of two cursive hieroglyph-like artist’s marks, obviously encoding the themes to be depicted on the walls. In both cases, these pictograms are associated with short vertical brush strokes, which in combination with the given semantic information indicated a first conceptual division of the murals. The nature, reading and function of those unique marks are discussed in the perspective of their user(s), i.e. the painter(s), and in terms of composition and iconographic latitude.

The article aims at questioning the Egyptological communal opinion that “in ancient Egypt, there was no artist in the proper sense of the word”, as stated in the Lexikon der Ägyptologie (III, 833). It starts with a brief historiography of this assumption before addressing the issue of the definition of art and artist, in general, and more specifically from an ancient Egyptian point of view. After a broad statistical overview of the numerous Egyptological data which allow us to trace members of the trades recognized as artistic by ancient Egyptians themselves, it analyses how one may study their social profile and perception in Antiquity, before concluding on the necessity to re-integrate the concept of artist in the discourse of Egyptology.

The digital documentation of heritage places produces accurate 3D restitution of their geometry in a virtual environment and can be related to multiple semantic layers to archive, represent, preserve and transmit the knowledge gathered along their lifecycle. The combination of high-density point clouds with other sources of information advises virtual reconstitutions of historical states of a place’s physical realm. The cultural significance of the built heritage lies in the values associated with its tangible and intangible dimensions. Apart from aspects of values related to historical sites’ physical attributes, 3D models can support the representation of intangible elements influencing visitors’ perception of their Genius Loci and supporting new interpretations about their cultural significance. In this framework, 3D animation, rendering, and simulation technologies allow recreating aspects of a place’s atmosphere, like the simulation of lighting conditions and the user’s immersive experience of a heritage site into a virtual environment. This paper focuses on the light perception recreated in a funeral chapel of the Theban Thumb environment by considering the strong spiritual dimension in the conception of funeral sites in Egypt during the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC). We investigate the potential of 3D simulation and animation technologies to represent hypotheses about original lighting conditions in such sites. The proposed research is based on the case study of Sennefer’s tomb, located on the western bank of the Nile, opposite modern Luxor.

The Oxford Handbook will be accessible to students and scholars interested in ancient Egypt, ancient history, archaeology, art history, and reception studies. The purposes of the volume are (1) to discuss current theories with regard to the cultural setting and the material realities in which Egyptian carved and painted texts were produced, (2) to familiarize the reader with post-pharaonic receptions, records, and interpretations of Egyptian texts, (3) to outline traditional and emerging techniques and challenges in the recording and interpreting of ancient texts in the modern era, and (4) to review methodologies and challenges in the study of the palaeographies of various ancient Egyptian scripts. Because of the unique relationship between word and image in Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic texts, the volume will also address figural representation as well as narrative inscriptions.

Egyptian epigraphy and palaeography may significantly contribute to the study of the artists and craftsmen responsible for the creation of ancient Egyptian monumental decoration and, in return, this double discipline can also greatly benefit from a better knowledge of those crucial actors in the production of its own object of research. A consideration of all marks of a work’s history (from its genesis to its decline) allows one to detect—and document—the material traces of the making of the monument, and hence of its maker(s). This chapter discusses those issues, as well as the societal identity of the actors of artistic and epigraphic production in ancient Egypt; the great diversity of their skills, education, and literacy; the social and geographical mobility among their ranks; their varying work conditions, involving issues such as ergonomics and work organization; and evidence of their adaptation of parts of their work, such as standard formulae and work procedure.

Cet ouvrage est conçu comme un guide destiné à accompagner les visiteurs de l’exposition Toutankhamon, à la découverte du pharaon oublié (organisée par Europa Expo au centre d’exposition de la gare TGV internationale de Liège-Guillemins, du 14 décembre 2019 au 30 août 2020) et permet de contextualiser la visite en approfondissant les divers thèmes abordés. Près d’un siècle après la découverte la plus retentissante de l’histoire de l’archéologie, l’exposition vise, à travers une muséologie immersive et un parcours narratif et pédagogique, à raconter et expliquer l’histoire croisée de Howard Carter et du jeune pharaon qu’il a permis d’exhumer de l’oubli. Sont ainsi évoqués le parcours singulier de Howard Carter, son opiniâtre quête de la tombe de Toutankhamon, l’exploitation scientifique de sa découverte, l’Égypte dans laquelle Toutankhamon a grandi, puis régné, la vie quotidienne, les croyances et la production artistique à cette époque mouvementée de l’histoire pharaonique. Les avancées les plus récentes de notre connaissance de l’enfant-roi grâce aux technologies et méthodes d’investigation les plus modernes sont également envisagées, avant de terminer par l’impact que cette incroyable découverte a pu avoir sur l’art, la science archéologique et égyptologique et la vision collective que nous partageons désormais de la civilisation des pharaons. Richement illustré, le catalogue s’articule autour des différents thèmes abordés par l’exposition, mais aussi des choix muséographiques qui ont présidé à la réalisation de celle-ci. Il rassemble plus de 60 essais rédigés par des experts internationaux qui présentent les résultats les plus récents de leurs recherches et offre un regard renouvelé sur une série d’objets bien connus, tout en présentant nombre de pièces encore jamais montrées au public.

As Charles Burnett put it in the incipit of a seminal article on the “Images of Ancient Egypt in the Latin Middle Ages” (2003), “It is commonly thought that the Latin Middle Ages was a barren period for knowledge of and interest in Egypt – between the enthusiasms of the late hellenistic Neoplatonists and the rediscovery of Horapollo and the Corpus Hermeticum in the 15th century.” In this sense, and from the vantage point of this conference aiming at “A Cultural Biography of Ancient Egypt” (outside Egypt), the medieval era can be considered as a middle age or period, between classical Antiquity and the Renaissance. The paper will attempt to characterise what really changed in this perspective with the end of Antiquity and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the western figurative uses of and references to Ancient Egypt, addressing the multiplication and diversification of discourses about this bygone civilization, as well as the issue of the loss of the Egyptian style. It will then focus on the exceptional case of some Egyptian-looking sphinxes and lions produced in Rome in the 13th century AD, in order to try clarifying their meaning and agency

Purchased in 1905 by G. Bénédite from the Antiquity market in Egypt, the unprovenanced limestone bust of Akhenaten now kept in the Louvre Museum (under the inventory number E 11076) is a world-famous masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art, though its particular shape and function still remained problematic. This exceptional piece of sculpture was investigated anew in the context of an international research project entitled RetroColor 3D, funded by the Région Nouvelle Aquitaine at Archeovision – UMS 3657 SHS-3D of the CNRS (at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne), with the aim of establishing a methodology for accurate and faithful rendering of the polychromy of deteriorated objects in 3D models. Reporting on this transdisciplinary analysis, based on a continuous dialogue between 3D expertise and art history of the relevant cultural context, the article explains how this led to a better understanding of the bust’s original function in the creation of royal portraiture during the (so-called) Amarna period

Publication / entry in an archaeological report of a greywacke royal head excavated in Tell Hazor, in stratum XIII, in the debris of the final destruction of the site (mid-thirteenth century BCE)

Since their Egyptological discovery, at the end of the 19th century, the statue portraits of Senwosret III deeply impressed their commentators and induced the pervasive idea that they represent the most lifelike or the epitome of realism in the history of Ancient Egyptian art. The present article aims to challenge this widespread assumption by analyzing terminological and conceptual confusion underlying this interpretation and recontextualizing this statuary production in an art historical perspective, taking notably into account material and artistic aspects of the issue.

Although a key-concept in Art historical discourse and reasoning, creativity has almost always been avoided as an issue in the discussion of Ancient Egyptian Art, as if the notion was simply irrelevant in such a context. This surprising phenomenon has clearly deep roots in the history of the western vision of Ancient Egyptian Art (and civilization). Nonetheless, the investigation of some (actually quite rare) cases of true copies in Ancient Egyptian Art reveals that creativity operated within a process of reinterpretation of previous works and their tradition, a process that can be best described and analyzed, it seems, with the help of the conceptual frame of intericonicity (or interpictoriality). The paper also aims to defend the use of this notional tool in the analysis of Ancient Egyptian Art by attempting to define how creativity was conceived in Ancient Egyptian textual claims for innovation and originality

Partant de la célèbre signature du scribe Mérirê dans la tombe du grand prêtre de Nekhbet Sétaou à Elkab (T. Elkab 4), l’article propose de réévaluer le statut de l’artiste, et plus particulièrement du peintre, dans la représentation sociale de la civilisation pharaonique, ainsi que dans le discours des scribes égyptiens

The tomb of the second High Priest of Amun under the reign of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep Sise (TT 75), is one of the few Theban tombs that can be nominally ascribed to its artistic author, the "painter of Amun Userhat", who signed his work through a double self-portrait in assistenza. The study of the painted decoration of the tomb leads to the conclusion that this painter was deeply involved in the royal projects of his time in Karnak and even might have been one of the designers of the decorative programme of the Festival Courtyard of Thutmose IV, and, as such, was hired by his chief in the administration of the estate of Amun in Thebes, the Second High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep Sise, to work in his own private funerary monument.

The article aims at characterizing forms and functions of the uses of Middle Kingdom art in royal and court productions during the Thutmosid Period. In order to assess this artistic phenomenon as a conscious revival and not just a survival of the Past and of the tradition, the analysis starts with a brief examination of the disruption that was felt and expressed during the Second Intermediate Period. It then goes on investigating the evolution of the references to Middle Kingdom art from the dawn of the 18th Dynasty to the time of Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III, when some sorts of artistic quotations replaced a global renaissance of Middle Kingdom forms of expression. A special attention is paid to the relationship between creativity and archaism under the reign of Hatshepsut, and leads to conclude the article with some theoretical deductions on the study of Ancient Egyptian archaism and a tentative definition of how innovation was conceptualized in Ancient Egyptian culture.

The Theban necropolis, opposite the modern city of Luxor, has been Egypt’s most important burial place during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1050 BC). Since 1999, the Université libre de Bruxelles undertakes a long-term, interdisciplinary study of a large area in the southern part of the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna hill, densely occupied during the mid-18th dynasty. Initially focusing on two monuments dating to the reign of Amenhotep II, the tombs of the Prince of the City Sennefer (TT 96) and the vizier Amenemope (TT 29), the project led to the discovery, in 2009, of a « lost tomb » belonging to the deputy of the director of the treasury Amenhotep (TT C3). Beside the reconstruction of the history of these monuments from their construction to the present day, notably revealing an important occupation by Coptic hermits during the 8th cent. AD, the archaeological study also considers their place in the topographical, religious and social landscape of the necropolis. The study of the painted decoration of the chapels is likewise considered in the wider context of Theban painting practices and workshops, leading to the development of an original methodology termed « on site art history ». Among these activities, the conservation of the wall paintings remains a priority of the mission and the team of international specialists conducted extensive research to address the problems caused by their challenging state of preservation. The project is supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and the Ministry of Scientific Research of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Since 2010, it is conducted as a joint mission of the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Université de Liège.

The Theban necropolis, opposite the modern city of Luxor, has been Egypt’s most important burial place during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1050 BC). Since 1999, the Université libre de Bruxelles undertakes a long-term, interdisciplinary study of a large area in the southern part of the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna hill, densely occupied during the mid-18th dynasty. Initially focusing on two monuments dating to the reign of Amenhotep II, the tombs of the Prince of the City Sennefer (TT 96) and the vizier Amenemope (TT 29), the project led to the discovery, in 2009, of a « lost tomb » belonging to the deputy of the director of the treasury Amenhotep (TT C3). Beside the reconstruction of the history of these monuments from their construction to the present day, notably revealing an important occupation by Coptic hermits during the 8th cent. AD, the archaeological study also considers their place in the topographical, religious and social landscape of the necropolis. The study of the painted decoration of the chapels is likewise considered in the wider context of Theban painting practices and workshops, leading to the development of an original methodology termed « on site art history ». Among these activities, the conservation of the wall paintings remains a priority of the mission and the team of international specialists conducted extensive research to address the problems caused by their challenging state of preservation. The project is supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and the Ministry of Scientific Research of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. Since 2010, it is conducted as a joint mission of the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Université de Liège.

The figure of the Ancient Egyptian artist has often been considered particularly evanescent and almost imperceptible – if not non-existent for some scholars. Dealing with the case of the painters responsible for the decoration of private tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis during the 18th dynasty, this article aims at demonstrating that with a proper and adapted interdisciplinary methodology, gathering all kinds of documents relating to the subject, it is indeed possible to address the issue of the societal identity of those painters as well as that of their work organisation and work modalities, and even their own individualities. In this context, the article concludes with a reassessment of the criteria used to define an artist.

The art that developed in the reign of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, known as “Amarna art,” has largely been considered revolutionary in the history of ancient Egyptian art. As such, it has been the subject of much debate and has generated numerous theories, often contradictory or controversial, and, in fact, deeply influenced by the history of its modern reception. Nevertheless, the remaining evidence still permits us to investigate Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten’s conception of images and art, as well as the artistic evolution under his reign. From a hermeneutic point of view, Amarna art can be interpreted as a multi-causal phenomenon, involving an internal evolution of 18th Dynasty society and art, pharaoh-centrism, and purely aesthetic factors.

Ancient Egyptian art’s concern with individualized human representation has generated much debate among Egyptologists about the very existence of portraiture in Pharaonic society. The issue has often—if not always—been thought of in terms of opposition between portrait and ideal image, being a major topic in the broader question of realism and formal relation to reality in ancient Egyptian art. After a brief analysis of the problem from a theoretical point of view, the article deals with the Egyptological reception of the subject and considers the concepts involved in the notion of portrait within the context of ancient Egyptian thought. A few significant cases selected from the corpus of royal statuary are then investigated in order to elucidate the motives and modalities of the interaction between portrait and ideal image in ancient Egyptian individualized representations.

The figure of the Ancient Egyptian artist has often been considered particularly evanescent and almost imperceptible – if not non-existent for some scholars. Dealing with the case of the painters responsible for the decoration of private tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis during the 18th dynasty, this article aims at demonstrating that with a proper and adapted interdisciplinary methodology, gathering all kinds of documents relating to the subject, it is indeed possible to address the issue of the societal identity of those painters as well as that of their work organisation and work modalities, and even their own individualities. In this context, the article concludes with a reassessment of the criteria used to define an artist.

Ancient Egyptian art’s concern with individualized human representation has generated much debate among Egyptologists about the very existence of portraiture in pharaonic society. The issue has often – if not always – been thought in terms of opposition between portrait and ideal image, being a major topic in the broader question of realism and formal relation to reality in Ancient Egyptian art. After a brief analysis of the problem from a theoretical point of view, the article considers the concepts involved in the notion of portrait within the context of Ancient Egyptian thought. Then, a few significant cases selected in royal statuary are investigated in order to elucidate the motives and modalities of the interaction between portrait and ideal image in Ancient Egyptian individualized representations

The archaeometrical survey of the tomb of Menna (TT69), which took place in November-December 2007, is part of the extended research program that aims to study and preserve this tomb in all its aspects. Menna was a high official who served as an overseer of Cadastral surveys during the reigns of pharaohs Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotep Ill (ca. 1419-1370 BC). The research team aimed to gather information, in a totally non-destructive way, on the materials used and the painting techniques. The technical examinations included photography with normal and raking light. macrophotography, ultra-violet (UV) fluorescence photography, and microscopy. On selected points X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was combined with diffuse reflectance UV-spectrometry, near infrared (NIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The technical aspects as well as problems that are inherently associated with an interdisciplinary survey of this extent, are discussed. The project worked with a large team of people with different backgrounds and sensitive technical equipment. Working conditions were quite hostile, including elevated temperatures and dust hampering the examinations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The deformation which affects the physiognomy of colossal sculptures of the New Kingdom suggests that Ancient Egyptian Art could have taken into account the parallax effects or distortions due to perspective. This question and its methodological and theoretical implications are investigated, with a special focus on the colossi of Amenhotep IV from Karnak.

Regarding the technological and epistemological problems raised by the necessity for Archaeology to record the precise shape of the objects of its study, the OSIRIS (Optical Systems for Interferometric Relief Investigation and Scanning) project aimed to develop a device that allows by optoelectronic processes an accurate, quick and easy to use recording, dedicated to the specific and very demanding needs of archaeological research. The article explains how this new innovative device takes advantage of monochromatic light projection, polarization states splitting technique and interferometry principles to reach that goal. Some examples of its application to archaeological recording problems are also given.

Résultats de l'analyse par rayons-X et CT-scan des momies égyptiennes (humaines et animale) conservées dans les collections des Musées de la Ville de Liège

We present a new 3D full-frame profilometer based on structured laser light projection method. This device takes advantage of the polarization states splitting technique for producing and shifting multiple sinusoidal Young’s interference patterns that are projected on the inspected surface. The principle of the technique is presented and we discuss the advantages of monochromatic light projection method as a mean to overcome ambient lighting for in-situ measurement. Some results that we obtained on objects from the Egyptian Department of the British Museum are presented to demonstrate that 3D laser profilometry is a worthwhile technique for epigraphic investigations where naked-eye inspections fail.

How physics can help aercheology, including a path to the parket

Archeology is continually confronted with the problem of recording the objects of its study. In order to bring a response to this crucial problem, the OSIRIS project proposes to develop one or more surveying optoelectronics techniques that allow precise, fast and flexible recording, applied to specific needs and particularly archaeological study.

Étant donné l'unité du système de représentation pharaonique, le présent article se propose d'examiner la possibilité de l'application du principe du rabattement dans le plan dans un art tridimensionnel comme la statuaire, en envisageant le cas des groupes statuaires royaux

Publication of a doctoral thesis that aimed at defining the significance of the statuary of Thutmosis / Thutmose III, 5th pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 18th Dynasty (ca 1478-1425 BC). Given the importance of the corpus (162 items) and the different aspects of the meaning and function of royal statues in Ancient Egypt, which are not only religious monuments destined for a temple or a tomb, but also political portraits, the analysis is divided in four parts, of uneven length. In the introduction, the author draws attention on the fame of Thutmose III as a monarch and on the richness and quality of his statuary. In Part 1, prolegomena, the author introduces the framework for this investigation, i.e. the chronology of the reign and the methods to be applied in this study of the evolution of the statuary of an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. In Part 2, the documentation is presented in a descriptive catalogue which is divided into statues datable by their inscriptions or their archaeological context (C1-125), statues attributed to Thutmose III on the basis of their style or archaeological context (A1-22) and, further, statues of problematic attribution (P1-7), with a final section on fragments of bases or dorsal pillars that have no iconographic significance (Fr1-8). The following typological analysis of all clothing attributes worn by the king and of the eleven statue postures and types make it possible to define, to classify and to interpet the variability of these iconographic elements, not only with the purpose to describe as exactly as possible the repertoire used in this firs well-documented ensemble of royal sculptures since the Middle Kingdom but also to establish the meaning of each statue type as integral part of a religious monument. An appendix on the application of polychromy on the statues concludes this part. In the diachronically oriented Part 3 the crucial problem of the evolution of the statuary of the king is investigated. The documentation is, however, composed in such a way that the several iconographic phases cannot be presented in the order of the reign. Methodologically, the author is compelled to start with the analysis of statues that are datable with absolute certainty, thereby obtaining criteria to be applied to more problematically datable pieces. The author begins with the statues from the Djeser-akhet temple at Deir el-Bahari, which are contemporaneous with the start of the damnation memoriae of queen Hatshepsut in the regnal years 42-3. Next, he studies the statues from the Akhmenu at Karnak, which date from the beginning of the sole reign after year 20, and he considers the king's political attitude to Hatshepsut at the time. After the analysis of the statues of the fourth decade of the reign in the light of the king's politics and of the statues from the coregency period in the light of Hatshepsut's attitude towards the young Thutmose III, the author finally considers the dating problem of three statues, two of which belong to category C and one to category A. The somewhat random order in the discussion of the statuary phases is redressed in the chronologically ordered synthesis of the evolution of the statuary ot Thutmose III at the end of Part 3. In Part 4, the physiognomical evidence of the mummy is confronted with the way the king is portayed in different sculptural interpretations in the various phases of his reign, which approach is in fact a case study of the problem of the portrait and realism in Ancient Egyptian art. Bibliography and indexes of the statues arranged by their place of preservation or discovery, by their original provenance, and by their material, as well as an index of Urkuden IV references and a general index, added. (slightly modified version of the summary of the book on the On-line Egyptological Bibliography; review by J. Lipinska in Chronique d'Égypte LXXVI, n° 151-2 (2001), p. 135-7).

L'article examine les différents arguments qui ont été avancés pour contester l'authenticité de la momie attribuée à Thoutmosis III (CG 61068). A l'issue de l'analyse, il apparaît qu'aucun ne résiste à la critique. En revanche, la découverte de cette momie dans un des cercueils originaux du roi, avec le linceul initial du souverain,- sans doute enroulé autour d'elle,- constitue un indice très sérieux en faveur de cette attribution.