The International Egyptological Conference in Moscow 2009 - Day Four

Submitted by Dasha on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 12:40

The last day of the Moscow conference 2009 was its most interesting: the topics were fascinating, the discussion was hot and, finally, the heating started! The first part of the day was dedicated to the excavations and research of Fayoum and started with a wonderful story by Ian Shaw from the University of Liverpool about new fieldwork at the Medinet el-Gurob Harem Palace town. The site was unaccessible during 1960s and 1970s due to its being a military territory; thus it was in a bad condition. Yet now archeologists are finally able to do their work.

Amongst many different findings are fish and animal cemetery, traces of textile production and an independent establishment related to royal women (Harem Palace). The work features modern approaches, combining GIS, satellite photographs and databases to create detailed plans and maps of the region and its treasures. The last slide of Dr Shaw's presentation showed the head of Queen Tiye sending her thanks to the conference's participants - a very funny start to a day full of impressions.

Dr Wlodzimirz Godlewski from Warsaw University's Institute of Archaeology then gave his lecture on excavating Christian cemeteries at Deir Malak Gubrail monastery (also known as Deir el Khashaba or Nekloni) and at the Church of Archangel Michael. Alexei Krol (CES RAS) reported the results of seven seasons of archeological and anthropological work at Deir el-Banat by a joint Russian-American mission (CES RAS alongside the Institute for Bioarcheology, San Francisco). The topic was continued by Dr Anton Voytenko, who presented his preliminary report on Coptic burial customs at Deir el-Banat - featuring a lot of burial types and mummies. At the end of his lecture Dr Voytenko wished good health to all the participants: very nice and cheering, I must admit, after a half-hour talk about mummies and burials!

Natalia Kharlamova then presented the results of the study (carried out together with her collegues Sergey Vassiliev and Svetlana Borutskaya) of human remains excavated by the previously mentioned joint CES RAS-IfBSF mission, shedding new light on the population of Fayoum during late antiquity and early medieval periods.

Technology and 'Archaeology 2.0'

The next part of the conference day (after a short coffee break) dealt with high technologies; things that we call archeology 2.0. I must say these lectures caused the hottest discussion - as always happens when new technologies impose on such an 'old' science as archaeology.

The one to begin this hot topic was Dr Joanne Rowland (Royal Museums of Art and History in Bruxelles), with her lecture about geophysical survey and sub-surface investigations at Quesna (mausoleum and Falcon necropolis) and Kom el Ahmar (Minuf) conducted with Dr Kristian Strutt from University of Southampton. The research started in 2005, with the aim of properly mapping the site and finding the underground remains of mortuary, sacred and domestic contexts. The most fascinating thing about this survey is that it combined different techniques: magnetometry, topographic mapping, drill coring, GPR, laser scanning and resistance tomography (in Kom el-Ahmar).

Such approaches were very effective, and allowed the team to find many different things including coffins, pottery, mummies, vessels, metal deposits in Quesna (perhaps the remains of a military site) and strangely flattened mummies. The research also helped to find more about the health of Quesn inhabitants (some of them suffered from osteoporosis) and their burial practices (the coins or pottery sheds to cover the eyes were widespread).

Agnesa Kukela from the University of Latvia in Riga showed how technology can help to investigate and preserve ancient sites: in this case the Step Pyramid of Djoser. 3D scanning and georadars helped to find objects and collect information about them. The quadrant system was use to record and place the collected data. After all data (dimensions, location, context, descriptions and assumptions about the object's origin and use) was collected, it was put into a specially developed database and was linked through GIS with geo-referenced environment and scanning results. The database is oriented classificatory, using Vienna System and Petrie's classes for pottery classification. The information is also accessible via a database report which can be formed by answering simple questions. The studies also show the impacts of weather, such as deformations, earthquakes and floods, revealing the most fragile parts of the Step Pyramid construction which need additional support.

Reconstructing the ancient face of Arsinoe

The next lecture caused many questions and doubts, as always happens with face reconstruction. For example, on the first day Dr Zahi Hawass mentioned that he believes the American reconstruction of King Tut's face looks not like an Egyptian but like an American, and the French reconstruction like a Frenchman). Thus Dr Caroline Wilkinson of the University of Dundee, Dr Chris Rynn of the University of Manchester and the Medical University of Vienna's Dr Fabian Kanz gave a joint presentation of their facial reconstructon of Arsinoe, Cleopatra's sister.

Fabian Kanz first spoke about existing proofs that remains found in Ephesus really belong to Arsinoe, and about health status of that young woman (she died aged between 15 and 17). This took into account the results of radiocarbon dating and morphological and biometrical features. Then Chris Rynn told us about reconstructing the missing scull of Arsinoe, which was taken in the 1900's to the University of Greiftswald following anthropological assessment by Josef Weniger in 1953. It was was never seen again. This married SensAble Technologies' Freedom Modelling Plus software and Phantom hardware, using existing records of the skull. Finally, Dr Caroline Wilkinson showed how the face of Arsinoe got flesh: her skull was compared with examples of European and Egyptian people, and scientists found it to be closer to the Egyptians.

Reconstructing the face using a Manchester method is a rather complex process: for example, Dr Rynn's PhD paper was completely dedicated to analysis of only one feature - the nose! The final touch was adding colour and hair - and, we could see how Arsinoe looked! Unfortunately I listened with so much attention I forgot to take a photo of the completed image, but believe me, Arsinoe could compete with her famous sister for looks! At the end of this very interesting segment, Kirill Kolosov, from the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology in Moscow, showed how technologies initially created to store library data could be changed for archeological purposes - though the archeological data is much more complex.

After the lunch break, and Elena Tolmacheva's (CES RAS) lecture on images of the Bennu-Bird on the coffins of the 21st Dynasty, we plunged in the world of ancient Coptic art, life and literature. Though some participants (Mayum Jordan, Boris Koptelov, Michail Wogman) didn't arrive, the lecture of Dr Marvin Meyer fom Chapman University, California was worth several more. The history of the Gospel of Judas held the audience's attention for its entire half-hour. Dr Meyer spoke about the main pecularities of the Gospel, and about the restoration of the missing fragments of the text. It was a lecture that caused more questions than answers due to the nature of its subject.

Then Dr Dmitriy Romashov (Saint-Petersburg Institute of Jewish Sciences) conducted a review of Alexandrian Medicine in Jewish Palestinial Law, and the ties between Alexandria and Judea. Dr Christine Challiot introduced us monastery life at the Coptic Orthodox Church in contemporary Egypt, the lives of the brave and devoted people who live the life of the first Desert Fathers, but also face modern problems such as terrorism (two monks were killed, for example, and one of the monasteries was damaged). Finally, Dr Shaerin Sadek el-Gendi from Ain Shams University in Cairo observed ancient and contemporary art's influences in Coptic art - a little controversial, but still an interesting lecture.

So 'Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology' was over, and after warm farewell words from organisers its participants went to the last (but not least) part - a social dinner. I feel very happy about the conference, and my views were shared by most of the people I spoke to; who admitted they enjoyed the conference and found it useful. They also said it was a great chance to meet colleagues and to learn about the most recent research and investigations before going back to excavations and teaching. For me, it's back to Heritage Key's office in Samara.

Previous days of the 'Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology' 2009 Conference:

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