Talk: The Western Wadis of the Theban Necropolis with Dr Piers Litherland
Date: Sunday 11 May, 15.00 BST
Location: In person at Spring Lodge Community Centre, Powers Hall End, Witham, CM8 2HE
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Talk information
Piers Litherland, Mission Head and Field Director of the New Kingdom Research Foundation Mission to the Western Wadis 2013-2025
The clearance of the Wadi Bairiya shaft tombs (2013-2019) brought to light a hitherto unknown group of court women of the period of Amenhotep III, including a Great Chief Wife of the King, Nebetnehet, a Son of the King, Menkheperre, a Wife of the King, Henut, a Daughter of the King, Tia, and at least 28 other individuals whose burials were deliberately destroyed in pharaonic times. Further study of the site and its surroundings, and additional work in the Western Wadis and Wadi 300 (2019-present), has produced evidence of a cycle of wetter weather in at least four periods, the most extreme of which was the XVIIIth dynasty. As well as advancing our understanding of this landscape and its development, this wetter weather may account for a marginal expansion in the hunting and gathering constituents in the economy and provide a model for explaining the extraordinary expansion of the economy in the early XVIIIth dynasty and its subsequent contraction through the XIXth and XXth dynasties.
The work of the mission has also resulted in the discovery of the largest Early and Middle Paleolithic site in North Africa – an indication that during the cycle of periods of wetter weather this landscape has been occupied for over a million years by both Homo sapiens and Homo erectus.
The discovery of the emptied tomb of Thutmose II in Wadi C of the Western Wadis, together with clearance work in Wadi D, has revealed an extensive early XVIIIth dynasty burial ground which may in effect be the valley of the kings before the Valley of the Kings. The catastrophic flood which caused the original burial of Thutmose II to be moved has highlighted the activities of Ineni. Current clearance work is revealing evidence of his having concealed a major monument in Wadi C which could be the tomb into which the burial of Thutmose II was moved.
THE NEW KINGDOM RESEARCH FOUNDATION
The NKRF is an independent academic foundation, instituted in 2007 by Piers Litherland and the late Geoffrey Martin to promote the study of ancient Egypt, particularly in the New Kingdom period.
The current NKRF Mission to the Western Wadis is a joint-venture with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and has been working in the area to the west of the Theban mountain on the West Bank in Luxor since 2013.
The NKRF is affiliated to the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Piers Litherland is the Head of the NKRF, Head of the Mission and Field Director. He is an Honorary Research Associate of the McDonald Institute. Judith Bunbury (Fellow of Wolfson College) is deputy head of the mission and is a director of the NKRF.
The key members of the NKRF team are Mohsen Kamel (Archaeological Director), Rabee Eissa (Senior Archaeologist), Mohamed Abd el-Baset (Chief Surveyor), and Sherif Abd el-Monneim (Senior Ceramicist).