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Mummies under two candles: the star excavation of Spanish Egyptology faces a critical lack of funds at its most decisive moment

2022-11-28T11:30:42.160Z


The Dhehuty Project has to resort to crowdfunding again for its new campaign, in which the two tombs they are investigating in Luxor are finally going to be opened to the public


The mummies have been left behind: the Djehuty Project, the star excavation of Spanish Egyptology and which plans to carry out its 22nd annual campaign this winter (from January to the end of February), is facing a critical lack of funds at a time decisive.

During this season, specifically on February 9, 2023, a culminating event of the project is expected: the delivery to the Egyptian authorities to open them to the public of the two tombs that the mission directed by the Egyptologist of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) José Manuel Galán, has excavated, documented and restored the necropolis of Dra Abu el Naga (Luxor) for more than two decades.

The dig, inspiringly close to Howard Carter's home and the Valley of the Kings,

where the different milestones of the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun are celebrated this year (Saturday marked the anniversary of the entry into the tomb and the first glimpse of its "wonderful things"), has yielded great finds, including numerous human mummies, like the iconic White Lady, and animal mummies (including hawks, monkeys, shrews and snakes), the latest that of a 3,600-year-old dog on a muzzle and on a leash.

The project has had to resort to crowdfunding for the third time due to the meager subsidies and the drop in private sponsorship.

and of animals (including hawks, monkeys, shrews, and snakes), the latest that of a 3,600-year-old dog on a muzzle and on a leash.

The project has had to resort to crowdfunding for the third time due to the meager subsidies and the drop in private sponsorship.

and of animals (including hawks, monkeys, shrews, and snakes), the latest that of a 3,600-year-old dog on a muzzle and on a leash.

The project has had to resort to crowdfunding for the third time due to the meager subsidies and the drop in private sponsorship.

“It is a moment that should be one of joy and pride, since we are going to open Egypt to tourist visits the tombs of Djehuty and Hery and all their external elements [access roads, chapels, garden] after years of effort”, explains Galán.

“But we are in a limit economic situation that suffocates us.

The main stumbling block now is financing, which has forced us once again, as in campaigns 17 and 19, to launch a crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter (https://proyectodjehuty.com/) to survive”.

More information

The treasures of the tomb of Djehuty

The project, which has received several awards for its scientific excellence, had in previous years significant patronage from companies such as Telefónica Móviles, Fundación Caja Madrid or Unión Fenosa Gas, but since the latter stopped financing it in 2015, it has not had a great sponsor, and obtaining resources to continue digging has become a viacrucis for Galán.

“I spend a lot of time that I would have to spend on research trying to get funding and fighting for small grants that add up,” he explains.

Currently, they have Técnicas Reunidas, Leica and the Palarq Foundation, in addition to public subsidies from the Ministries of Culture and Science (the CSIC, on the other hand, does not provide money despite being nominally one of their projects).

“But it is a project abroad, with plane tickets, stays, a team of 30 people,

Leather sandals found in the excavations in the area of ​​the tombs of Djehuty and Hery. Javier Trueba

Galán, who highlights other Spanish missions such as the veterans of Heracleópolis Magna (which is offering interesting news) and Oxyrhynchus, the investigation and restoration of the funerary temple of Tutmosis III directed by Myriam Seco in the same Theban necropolis, those of the universities of La Laguna and Alcalá de Henares also in Luxor, that of the University of Jaén in Aswan, or that of the UAB in Saqqara, deplores that "Spain wants to play in the first division of archaeological missions, but with a budget of fourth".

He also laments the bureaucracy of the system that makes the management of aid funds very complicated.

He quantifies that the campaign itself (excluding the purchase of books, computers and other equipment) costs, on the low side, about 90,000 euros.

In the golden age with Fenosa, the company gave them 150,000 euros a year.

The goal with crowdfunding is to achieve 25,000 euros.

"With that amount we would start to breathe, but we have had to cut everything, and we will go less people and less time than we used to."

In order to cut costs, Galán is looking for a rental house for the team, after 20 years of going to the same small hotel, the Marsam, on the west bank of the Nile.

From the drop in sponsorship, he considers that Egypt seems to have lost the hook for companies and foundations, paradoxically when the social interest in the pharaonic civilization is today "overflowing" and higher than ever.

People, he points out, “freak out over Ancient Egypt and tourist flights are full again;

there are three daily from Madrid to Cairo, and it is already difficult to find tickets for this Christmas”.

Burial chamber of the tomb of Djehuty.DJEHUTY PROJECT

The Egyptologist emphasizes: “The Djehuty Project is exceptional and is followed by Egyptologists from all over the world and many ordinary people are watching our

online campaign diary

.

We are extremely lucky in the excavations.

Every year we make relevant discoveries.”

Among the most recent, in the last campaign, the sketch of a face that an artist drew on a piece of limestone (an

ostracon

) before undertaking the final painting in the tomb: it is possible that it is a portrait of Djehuty himself.

It is the project, insists Galán, "an initiative that grows scientifically every day, with enormous possibilities, mummies, archaeozoology, paleobotany...".

The Luxor Museum, where they have already had an exhibition space, is going to host a new sample of his findings.

The Djehuty Project, of which a third documentary for TVE has been made this year,

Historia de una necropolis,

It started in 2001 after the Madrid-based Egyptologist explored different possibilities in Luxor.

Finally, he obtained the concession to investigate the tomb of the noble Djehuty, a high official from the beginning of the 18th dynasty (3,500 years ago) who served under Queen Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, one of the most interesting characters in history. of Ancient Egypt.

Djehuty was, and this is paradoxical given the economic needs of those who excavate his tomb, royal treasurer and tax collector, and he managed enormous wealth such as that produced by the Punt expedition.

His burial, TT11 (Theban tomb number 11), connects with another, that of the noble Hery (TT12), who lived some fifty years before and made his career under another famous queen, Ahhotep,

and that Galán and his team have also been in charge of excavating and studying (Hery's was briefly visited by Champollion, who is also celebrating his anniversary this year).

The project has been expanding as other connected tombs and numerous shaft tombs appear in the courtyards of the two officials' tombs and the area of ​​extraordinary archaeological wealth has been revealed.

Djehuty's tomb has an extension excavated in the rock of 18 meters, to which must be added another 34 of the entrance courtyard.

Hery's measures 15 meters.

One of the peculiarities of the tombs that are going to be opened to the public is that solar panels (conveniently concealed) have been installed to illuminate them.

It is the first time that this system has been used, of which, Galán jokes, the god Ra would be very satisfied.

The tombs, emphasizes the Egyptologist, "have been very cool", with LED lights that provide them with a very suggestive atmosphere and illuminate the reliefs on the walls as if they were in a museum.

Conservation work in one of the tombs of the Djehuty Project.

Despite the long years of relationships, Galán continues to get emotional when talking about Djehuty.

“His personality of him is very much reflected in the tomb, in which there are two autobiographical inscriptions.

In addition to his funerary monument, his tomb is a monument to letters: Djehuty wants to demonstrate his mastery of composition of written texts, and uses cryptographic inscriptions, an unusual hieroglyphic system that offers a game and an intellectual challenge.

In the chapel at the back, the sanctum sanctorum of the tomb, obsolete rituals are reproduced that he recovers as a tribute to a classical era that was that of the XII dynasty, 500 years earlier, a source of plastic and literary inspiration in Djehuty's time. ”.

The Egyptologist points out that it is unusual for missions to prepare the monuments they excavate and investigate for visits.

“It is a great added job to adapt the tombs in order to show them to the public.

We have put a lot of effort into the restoration and museumization.

But it is what the Egyptian authorities expected of us: that we contribute something in addition to scientific work”.

Overview of the deposit investigated by the Djehuty Project.

Although the tombs are handed over to the Antiquities Service for tourist management, scientific work will continue.

Galán talks about the enigmas that persist in the area, such as two giant tombs from the XII dynasty that they have located, after accessing them through the holes made by former thieves, since the entrances are still blocked.

"And it seems that there are many more tombs," says the Egyptologist, who stresses that his idea is to "bring to light the ancient sacred landscape of the necropolis."

It is a unique opportunity, he says, to find out what a cemetery from that time looked like and to continue making great discoveries.

“We are in a good place”, Galán cheers up, thinking about the brilliant promises of the investigation before putting aside the hieroglyphics to return to the accounts.

The puppy 'Tutu', mascot of the excavation.

If the centenary of Tutankhamen is serving as any help, he responds that it contributes to "stoke the fire", to increase people's interest in Ancient Egypt, a culture, he points out, with which there are invisible ties that unite us, ideas such as that of the Last Judgment, the need for morality to reach the afterlife, or medical and mathematical concepts.

"Investigating Ancient Egypt," he summarizes, "is not an exotic luxury, it is studying our own past, and it is necessary."

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Source: elparis

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