The Hatnub travertine quarries comprise an area of the Eastern desert of Egypt, roughly 17km south-east of the famous site of Amarna. Since 2012 a joint mission from the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale and the University of Liverpool have been working in the largest quarry, Quarry P (below, looking west).

The primary aim of the Hatnub Epigraphic Project is the identification and recording of the hieroglyphic and hieratic inscriptions and graffiti in Quarry P, but also includes a total station survey of the inscriptions and graffiti and any other archaeological features our investigations may reveal.

Initially the total station survey used a local grid, with an origin at an arbitrarily located point given the designation 1000,1000,1000, but it subsequently proved possible to georeference the survey stations and data using a combination of satellite imagery (LC81760412013083LGN02) and existing site plans from the 1980s (Shaw 2010). This enabled me to give the total station survey points (called ‘Hatnub stations’ in the next image) real-world coordinates on the Universal Transverse Mercator Projection Zone 36 North, which covers Egypt. As a result I have been able to include the survey data in the site Geographic Information System together with other information from previous archaeological investigations and satelite imagery.

Although the visible inscriptions and graffiti in the quarry had previously been recorded and published (Anthes 1928; Blackden and Fraser 1892). The current project found several new inscriptions and graffiti and was also able to identify additional text belonging to inscriptions which had previously been published (Enmarch 2015).

The locations of both the known and new inscriptions and graffiti were recorded in three dimensions, to enable them to be plotted in both plan and elevation and provide a complete record of the written remains within the quarry.  As a result the most heavily surveyed areas are the locations where inscriptions and graffiti are located (Above, plan of the quarry in 2015); the north and south sides of the entrance passage, an area on the north side of the quarry wall known as ‘Cirque Nord’, a larger area of graffiti on the south side of the quarry wall, the ‘Cirque Sud’, and a large boulder on the path from the mouth of the entrance passage to the Cirque Sud. This large boulder was particularly interesting. In addition to several carved inscriptions, it had also been decorated with small images of little seated men (Left). Resembling the ‘seated man’ determinative denoting an official in hieroglyphic writing, these images are small but largely devoid of any writing. In some rare cases they are accompanied by a name and/or title.   As a result of these features, this boulder has become known as ‘Little Man Wall’.

In addition to the inscriptions and graffiti, I also surveyed the rim and base of the quarry, and several features within it. This enabled me to determine that Quarry P is 50m wide, 75m long, 28m deep and has a 75m long entrance passage. Something of the scale of the quarry is visible in the first picture, taken from the eastern side, opposite the entrance passage. The small figures visible in the distance are the workmen, building retaining walls to keep the debris from falling back into the entrance passage. The distant blue shape on the horizon are the pickup trucks that transport us to the site.

In addition to the inscriptions, we have surveyed a number of other features around the quarry and particularly within the entrance passage. These  included a number of well-carved niches set into the walls, possibly for ritual or cultic purposes, smaller holes carved at various intervals along the walls of the entrance passage and a set of steps leading into the entrance passage.  In 2015 we began clearing the debris from the entrance passage, revealing several additional features, including a number of larger steps carved into the floor of the entrance passage, and some other features created to assist in the removal of larger stones from the quarry.

References

Anthes, R. 1928. Die Felsinschriften von Hatnub. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ägyptens 9. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.

Blackden, M. W. and Fraser, G. W. 1892. Collection of Hieratic Graffiti from the Alabaster Quarry of Hat-nub. Private Collection.

Enmarch, R. Forthcoming in Autumn 2015 issue of Egyptian Archaeology 47. Magazine of the Egypt Exploration Society

LC81760412013083LGN02, Landsat 8 satellite image of the Hatnub area, taken in 2013. Landsat imagery is freely available from the  United States Geological Survey earthexplorer.

Shaw, I. 2010. Hatnub: Quarrying Travertine in Ancient Egypt. Egypt Exploration Society Excavation Memoir 88: London.