Research in the Valley of the Kings: "MISR: Mission Siptah - Ramses X."
The Valley of the Kings is located to the west of the city of Luxor, ancient Thebes, in the shelter of Mount el-Qurn, and served as a burial place for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom as well as for some members of the elite. Most of these rock tombs are still undocumented - or inadequately documented by modern scientific standards.
The project, which has been running since 1998, is financed by third-party funds from private sources and by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The goals of the project are:
- the complete excavation and investigation of selected graves and their surroundings,
- the scientific description and interpretation of the findings
- the graphic and photographic documentation.
From 1998/1999 to 2007/2008 ten campaigns took place in the Valley of the Kings. The work is carried out with the permission and support of the Antiquities Administration of the Arab Republic of Egypt and in collaboration with about twenty-five to sixty-five local workers each time.
The project deals with several areas with different issues in and around the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. (All tombs and shafts in the Valley of Kings are numbered, KV = Kings' Valley + tomb number. For more information on the individual tombs in the Valley of the Kings, seeTheban Mapping Project.) On the following pages you will learn more, including the:
- Documentation and partial uncovering of KV 47, the tomb of King Siptah (19th Dynasty) and of KV 32, the tomb of the royal consort Tiaa (18th Dynasty), which was cut by KV 47: Siptah KV 47 and Tiaa KV 32.
- Excavation in KV 18, the tomb of King Ramses X. (20th dynasty) including documentation, relocation of KV 54, the nearby so-called Embalming cache of Tutankhamun (18th dynasty). Finds from the vicinity of KV 18 from the neighboring famous tomb KV 17 of Sethos I (19th Dynasty) led to investigations also in this tomb: Ramses X. KV 18 and Sethos I. KV 17.
- Surroundings of the tombs with important new finds in the vicinity of KV 18 and KV 47 with workers' huts from Ramesside times and various stray finds, also from modern times: workers' huts and traces of modern times.
The inclusion of the surroundings of the tombs in the archaeological questions, which has hardly been realized in the previous archaeological activity in the Valley of the Kings, has proved to be very fruitful, both in relation to the tombs themselves and in relation to the history of the Valley of the Kings as a place of royal burial and as a place of work for numerous craftsmen and artists.
Team MISR
- Hanna Jenni (ed.), Das Tomb Ramses' X. (KV 18) (Aegyptiaca Helvetica, vol. 16), Basel 2000: Introduction (Hanna Jenni), Construction History (Andreas Dorn / elina Paulin-Grothe), Decoration (Barbara Lüscher), Finds (Hanna Jenni / Barbara Lüscher / Elina Paulin-Grothe), Ramses X.: Person und HHistory (Thomas Schneider). - Reviews: Aidan Dodson, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. 59, 2002, 68-70; Brigitte Michallik, Marburg: http://www.wla-online.de/artikel-detail.php?artikelid=262.
- Elina Paulin-Grothe/Thomas Schneider, New workmen's huts in the Valley of the Kings, in: Egyptian Archaeology [EA] 19, 2001, 3-5.
- Thomas Schneider, Siptah und Beja. Reassessment of a historical constellation, in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde [ZÄS], vol. 130, 2003, 134-146.
- Thomas Schneider, A French Painter in the Valley of the Kings: Alfred Arago, in: Bulletin of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East [BASTENE], no. 17, Autumn 2003, 21f.
- E(rwin) Alzinger, Ein Kraftwerk in einem Pharaonengrab, in: e&i. elektrotechnik und informationstechnik, ed. by OVE Graz, Heft 12, Vienna 2003, a13 - a15.
- Andreas Dorn, Die Lehre Amunnachts, in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde [ZÄS], vol. 131, 2004, 38-55; plates 2-7.
- Andreas Dorn, Le campement des ouvriers de Ramsès IV dans la Vallée des Rois, in: Égypte. Afrique et Orient, vol. 34, juin 2004, 35-42.
- Hanna Jenni, The Project "MISR: Mission Siptah - Ramses X." On the 7th Campaign (2004/05), in: Sokar, vol. 11, 2005, 66.
- Andreas Dorn, Men at Work. Two ostraca from the Valley of the Kings with non-canonical depictions of workers, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Cairo Department [MDAIK], vol. 61, 2005, 1-11.
- Hanna Jenni, Work in the Valley of the Kings. Das archäologische Projekt des Ägyptologischen Seminars der Universität Basel, in: Maat, vol. 2, 2005, 24-29.
- Andreas Dorn, Leben auf der Baustelle - Funde aus Arbeiterhütten im Tal der Könige lassen den Alltag pharaonischer Handwerker nachvollziehen, in: Antike Welt [AW], vol. 38/1, 2007, 19-24.
- Studies on the tomb of Sethos I of the Basel project "MISR: Mission Siptah - Ramses X.", compiled by Hanna Jenni, in: Sokar, vol. 14, 2007, 88-90.
- Andreas Dorn / Elina Paulin-Grothe, Die Stele Sen(y)nefers und Grabkegel (Cones) aus dem Tal der Könige. Die Geschichte ortsfremder Objekte, in: Göttinger Miszellen [GM], vol. 222, 2009, 9-12.
- Hanna Jenni (en collaboration avec Florence Mauric-Barberio), La vallée des rois - ses tombeaux et ses ouvriers. Travaux concernant les tombes KV 17, 18, 32 et 47 menés par l'Institut d'Êgyptologie de l'Université de Bâle, in: Êgypte. Afrique et Orient, vol. 54, 2009, 11-24.
- Florence Mauric-Barberio, Le rôle des archives dans la reconstitution du décor perdu de la tombe de Séthi Ier, in: Egyptian & Egyptological Documents, Archives, Libraries [EDAL], vol. 1, 2009, 41-46 (+ 4 fig.).
- Debora Cilli, Delivery Ostraca Discovered Adjacent to KV 47, in: Mark Collier / Steven Snape (eds), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen, Bolton 2011, 95-110.
- Andreas Dorn, The Provenance and Context of the Accession-Ostracon of Ramesses VI. O. KV 18/6.924: Another Fragment Matching O. BM EA 50722 + O. CG 25726 (= KRI VI, 364), in: Mark Collier / Steven Snape (eds), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen, Bolton 2011, 159-168.
- Andreas, Dorn, Ostraka from the reign of Sethos' I from Deir el-Medineh and the Valley of the Kings - Zur Mannschaft und zur Struktur des Arbeiterdorfes vor dem Bau des Ramesseums, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Cairo Department [MDAIK], vol. 67, 2011, 31-52 (with the collaboration of Elina Paulin-Grothe).
- Hanna Jenni, Sonnenlitanei, in Bernd Janowski / Daniel Schwemer (eds.), Grab-, Sarg-, Bau- und Votivinschriften (Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments. Neue Folge, vol. 6 [TUAT.NF 6]), Gütersloh 2011, 236-272.
- Andreas Dorn / Elina Paulin-Grothe, Zwei Ostraka der 18. Dynastie aus dem Tal der Könige mit Namenszeichen (O. BTdK 832 und O. BTdK 833), in: Göttinger Miszellen [GM], vol. 232, 2012, 17-21.
- Andreas Dorn, Arbeiterhütten im Tal der Könige. Ein Beitrag zur altägyptischen Sozialgeschichte aufgrund von neuen Quellenmaterial aus der Mitte der 20. Dynastie (Aegyptiaca Helvetica [AH], vol. 23), 3 vols, 1 CD-ROM, Basel: Schwabe 2012.
- Florence Mauric-Barberio, Les fragments décorés provenant de la tombe de Séthi Ier. Fouilles de la Mission MISR de l'université de Bâle dans la Vallée des Rois, in Bulletin de la Société française d'égyptologie [BSFE], vol. 185, 2013, 15-30.
- Debora Cilli, Die Ostraka der späten 19. Dynastie aus dem Gelände des Grabes Pharaos Siptah (KV 47) im Tal der Königen, dissertation, Basel 2013 (in Italian).
- Andreas Dorn, The Four Pyramidia of Chon. On the ownership, sites and functions of pyramidia, in J. Toivari-Viitala et al. (eds.), Deir el-Medina Studies. Helsinki. June 24-26, 2009. Proceedings. The Finnish Egyptological Society - Occasional Publications, vol. 2, Helsinki 2014, 49-64.
- David A. Aston, Pottery Recovered near the Tombs of Seti I (KV 17) and Siptah (KV 47) in the Valley of the Kings (Aegyptiaca Helvetiva [AH], vol. 24), Basel 2014.
- Hanna Jenni (ed.), Zur modernen Geschichte des Tals der Könige. Conference held in Basel on September 1, 2007, with contributions on the tomb of Ramses X. (KV 18) and on finds from modern times (Aegyptiaca Helvetica [AH], vol. 25), Basel 2015: introduction (Hanna Jenni), uncovering and conservation in Corridor A of the tomb of Ramses' X. (Erico Peintner), Visitor Inscriptions in Corridor A of the Tomb of Ramses' X. (Jürgen Horn / Roger O. De Keersmacecker), The electrical installations in Corridor A of the Tomb of Ramses' X. (Erwin Alzinger), Excavations in the Valley of the Kings: 1998-2008. excavation areas and traces of earlier excavators (Andreas Dorn / Elina Paulin-Grothe), Updating the history of the Valley of the Kings: recent finds (Rudolf Jaggi), Bones, tombs and tourists: animal bone finds from the Valley of the Kings (Monika Doll), "Das Andere in der Moderne". Egypt in the view of German-speaking writers (Alexander Honold).
- Florence Mauric-Barberio, Countless New Wall, Pillar, and Ceiling Fragments from the Tomb of Sethos I, in: Scanning Sethos. Die Wiedergeburt eines Pharaonengrabes, ed. by Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig, Basel 2017, 118-129.
- Claudia Manser Stoll, Der Alabaster Sarcophag Sethos' I., in: Scanning Sethos. The Rebirth of a Pharaonic Tomb, ed. by Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig, Basel 2017, 130-133.
- Hanna Jenni, Andreas Dorn, Elina Paulin-Grothe. With a contribution by David Aston, The Tomb of Queen Tiaa in the Valley of the Kings (KV 32) (Swiss Egyptological Series SES, vol. 1), Basel/Frankfurt: Librum 2021. DOI 10.19218/3906897479.