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Excavation Project of the Lower Courtyard in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
The Excavation Project has been continuing from spring of 2011 as a sub-project of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. The project is dedicated to the successive archaeological examination of the entire area of the Lower Courtyard of the Temple.
Originally the project wasconcentrated on the archaeological examination of the only narrow stretch of the Lower Courtyard, on its northern side, along the modern pavement located there. It was the aim to recognize the preservation state of the archaeological stratigraphy of the area and to understand whether there are, up to now, any preserved evidence which could help us in the identification of the existence of an alley of sphinxes at the site in the Hatshepsut times. For the next successive seasons the excavation work were continuing without positive results in this matter, instead revealing mainly strong activity and noticeable devastation of the site by previous explorers from the beginning of the 20th. Nevertheless, as it turned out a significant portion of the eastern side of the Lower Courtyard was left intact with partially preserved original stratigraphy of the site. Recently in the north-eastern part of the Lower Courtyard archeological excavations are still continuing.
Project supervisor: Dawid F. Wieczorek
Participants: Piotr Czerkwiński (season 2011), Agnieszka Niemirka, Agata Smilgin (season 2012), Piotr Sójka (season 2013)
Contact: dawidfwieczorek@wp.pl
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