The Khentkawes Town (KKT) - Ancient Egypt Research Associates

More documents

Recommendations

Info

www.aeraweb.org Figure 2. The Tomb of Queen Khentkawes in right center foreground of the Pyramids of Khufu (right), Khafre (center), and Menkaure (left). The Khentkawes Town (KKT) extends east (right) of the queen’s monumental tomb. The modern cemetery fills the wadi at the southeast end of the quarry incline on which the builders founded the KKT. View to the northwest. Excavations The Khentkawes Town (KKT) All the while we were excavating the Lost City of the Pyramids south of the Wall of the Crow (which we refer to in short as HeG, after Heit el-Ghurab, “Wall of the Crow” in Arabic), we knew of a neighboring community, roughly contemporary with the final days of the ancient city, on the other side of the Wall of the Crow and a few hundred meters west: the town attached to the gigantic tomb of Khentkawes, an enigmatic queen who ruled at the end of the 4 th Dynasty (figs. 1, 2). The form of her tomb is halfway between a mastaba (bench-like superstructure) and a pyramid, with a bedrock pedestal topped by a stack of laid blocks. Her titles, etched into the granite doorjambs of her chapel, only add to her mystery. They can be read either “Mother of the Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt,” or “Mother of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt and King of Upper and Lower Egypt.” The latter reading suggests she ruled in the guise of a male pharaoh, as did Hatshepsut of the 18 th Dynasty, one thousand years later. We must assess our settlement south of the Wall of the Crow in the context of both the large urban agglomeration of KKT, and just 30 meters to the south of KKT, another settlement attached to the valley temple of the Pyramid of Menkaure (GIII.VT). When Selim Hassan (1943) excavated the KKT in 1932 he found an L-shaped mudbrick settlement with modular houses strung out 150 m east-west along a causeway leading to the Khentkawes Monument (fig. 3). The foot of the L extends 61.5 m southward and contains larger buildings. The town covers an area 6,059 m square (measurements from Hassan’s published map and text). The modern, systemic methods that we use to excavate and record the HeG settlement did not exist in Selim Hassan’s day, and so we know little about the KKT beyond Giza Occasional Papers 4 9
www.aeraweb.org Khentkawes Town Khentkawes Monument Compact Quarry Debris Menkaure Valley Temple (GIII.VT) Ante-town Figure 3. Contours of the KKT and GIII.VT prepared from the 2008 Survey. The contours reflect the fact that the ancient builders excavated areas for both the KKT and GIII.VT into a massive dump of limestone quarry debris, which still rises between the two zones to 27 m above sea level. N99,350 N99,300 E500,100 E500,150 E500,250 E500,300 E500,350 202 201 102 101 N99,400 N99,250 10 Giza Plateau Mapping Project Season 2008 Preliminary Report
Page 2 and 3: www.aeraweb.org Giza Occasional Pap
Page 4 and 5: www.aeraweb.org Giza Occasional Pap
Page 6 and 7: Contents www.aeraweb.org Acknowledg
Page 8 and 9: Acknowledgements www.aeraweb.org De
Page 10 and 11: www.aeraweb.org Introduction Ancien
Page 14 and 15: www.aeraweb.org its footprint as Ha
Page 16 and 17: www.aeraweb.org wall (the “Glacis
Page 18 and 19: www.aeraweb.org Open Court Water Ta
Page 20 and 21: www.aeraweb.org 132 126 pilaster 12
Page 22 and 23: www.aeraweb.org Figure 11. Dan Jone
Page 24 and 25: www.aeraweb.org the face, and refil
Page 26 and 27: www.aeraweb.org Vestibule GIII.VT N
Page 28 and 29: www.aeraweb.org Figure 17. The port
Page 30 and 31: www.aeraweb.org Figure 20. Mike Hou
Page 32 and 33: www.aeraweb.org terraces, leading d
Page 34 and 35: www.aeraweb.org the shoulder of thi
Page 36 and 37: www.aeraweb.org resurfaced and used
Page 38 and 39: www.aeraweb.org Collapsed brick Sou
Page 40 and 41: www.aeraweb.org Bedrock face Tumble
Page 42 and 43: www.aeraweb.org Point 13721 Figure
Page 44 and 45: www.aeraweb.org Causeway threshold
Page 46 and 47: www.aeraweb.org Valley Approach Our
Page 48 and 49: www.aeraweb.org Figure 43. The west
Page 50 and 51: www.aeraweb.org Archaeological Scie
Page 52 and 53: www.aeraweb.org 2008 KKT Human Oste
Page 54 and 55: www.aeraweb.org In addition, a narr
Page 56 and 57: www.aeraweb.org usually in elite bu
Page 58 and 59: www.aeraweb.org Catalog of Burials
Page 60 and 61: www.aeraweb.org Burial 456 (Square
Page 62 and 63:
www.aeraweb.org Burial 458 (Square
Page 64 and 65:
www.aeraweb.org References Acsádi,
Page 66 and 67:
www.aeraweb.org Saqqara Laser Scann
Page 68 and 69:
www.aeraweb.org Figure 56. SLSS Fed
Page 70 and 71:
www.aeraweb.org Equipment The follo
Page 72 and 73:
www.aeraweb.org Global Positioning
Page 74 and 75:
www.aeraweb.org Figure 62. The 2008
Page 76 and 77:
www.aeraweb.org KKT-N 2008 Water Ta
Page 78 and 79:
www.aeraweb.org Plate 3.1. KKT, Bur
Page 80 and 81:
www.aeraweb.org Plate 5.1. KKT, Bur
Page 82 and 83:
www.aeraweb.org Plate 7.1. Prelimin
show all

The Khentkawes Town (KKT) - Ancient Egypt Research Associates

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?