Close-ups of box and lid fragments

Item Overview

Title

Close-ups of box and lid fragments

Photographer

Brock, Edwin

Date Created

July, 2001

Date

2001-07

Collection

Ramesses VI (KV9) Sarcophagus Conservation

Series

Existing conditions before conservation

Program

International Digital Ephemera Project

Notes

Note

Previous activities by Brock, before the commencement of the project, included documentation of the decorated fragments, which number at least 280 pieces. All decorated pieces were numbered and listed. Lyla Pinch Brock made a detailed graphic record of each decorated fragment by means of tracings, subsequently scanned into a computer. Using the software program Adobe Photoshop, she was able to make hypothetical joins of fragments into groups, by comparison with known complete examples from other sarcophagi. Subsequently, these joins were tested in the tomb and the actual join outlines traced. Where joins can be found the outlines of the assembled fragments were drawn as they were fitted together, and the joined fragment groups placed on a sand table and photographed.
The exterior of the box was decorated with painted figures and texts. A resinous substance was poured over the box and lid probably at the time of burial. This substance now formed a glossy dark brown coating that obscures the painted decoration. In addition, dirt had covered the fragments further obscuring the decoration. Since the resinous substance was actually an ancient artifact, it might not be desirable to remove it. The dirt covering the fragments would be removed, however, and the painted decoration consolidated.

Statement of Responsibility

Located in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Ramesses VI’s tomb once held hundreds of stone sarcophagus fragments, the result of the demolition of its sarcophagi in antiquity. Decorated on the exterior with painted figures and text, the mummiform inner stone sarcophagus fragments were reassembled by project director Dr. Edwin C. Brock and his team under the auspices of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). The face of the lid, taken from the tomb in the 19th century and currently in the British Museum, was replicated and incorporated into the sarcophagus reassembly, thereby ensuring its preservation within its original context. Conservation work was made possible with the support of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (formerly the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities).

Keywords

Genre

black-and-white photographs
color photographs

Names

Ramesses VI, King of Egypt

Subject Geographic

Luxor, Egypt
Al Uqşur
Kings, Valley of the

Subject Temporal

20th Dynasty
New Kingdom

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Afterlife
Art, Ancient--Egypt

Sarcophagi
Inscriptions
Relief (Art)
stain (coating)
Tombs--Egypt