The Hatnub Epigraphic Project is a joint project of Roland Enmarch of the University of Liverpool, Dr. Yannis Gourdon of Institut Français d’Archéologie orientale – Le Caire (IFAO)/Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée and other partners. The aim of this project is to produce a full topographic, epigraphic and archaeological record of the Hatnub quarry plateau and Quarry P, the largest of the quarry features. The texts in Quarry P were first investigated by G Möller and published by R Anthes in the early 20th century. All of the in situ texts recorded by them were identified and many further unpublished inscriptions and images were also found. The excavations have revealed New Kingdom workshops and a ramp system for hauling blocks out of the quarry and the wider landscape has been investigated through the sub-project Hatnub: The texts of the south wall of Quarry P in their industrial landscape context. A campaign of photogrammetric documentation, high-quality epigraphic recording, and new technologies, such as RTI and D-Stretch that make hidden texts visible, will allow a scale 3d model of the quarry to be constructed.

I was involved in this project as an archaeological surveyor and GIS specialist from 2012-2017. I set up the base station points for the total station survey of the quarry, obtained world coordinates for those points from satellite imagery, and recorded the locations of the texts and archaeological features within the quarry. I subsequently set up a sub-project to record the archaeological features within the quarry landscape as part of the Hatnub: The texts of the south wall of Quarry P in their industrial landscape context project. I hope to return to fieldwork in the quarry when circumstances permit.

My outputs

• Creation of base station points for total station survey across Quarry P.
• Detailed archaeological plan of the quarry; and the excavations in Quarry P, on the ramp, and in front of the inscriptions on the south wall.
• Record of the positions of the inscriptions, graffiti, and texts within Quarry P.
• GIS shapefiles of all the survey data.
• Three inscriptions were recorded using reflectance transformation imaging.

Project outputs

• Lavigne, O. 2021. Proposition d’une nouvelle typologie de l’outillage en pierre (pour travailler la pierre). L’exemple des carrières d’Hatnoub, en Moyenne Égypte عملية تهيئة الحجر، محاجر حتنوب في مصر الوسطى مثالًا. Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale (BIFAO)121: 307-320.
• Gourdon, Y. Enmarch, R. Lavigne, O. Fage, J. Farout, D. Sameh Michel, Maël Crépy, M. Sagory, T. et  Touchard, B. 2020. Hatnoub (2019) [notice archéologique], Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l’étranger [En ligne], Égypte, mis en ligne le 05 octobre 2020, consulté le 26 septembre 2022.
• R. Enmarch, Y. Gourdon, 2017. The son of a Chief of Sculptors Thutmose at Hatnub. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 103/2: 173-177.
• Y. Gourdon, R. Enmarch, 2015. Some unpublished inscriptions from Quarry P at Hatnub, in G. Rosati, M.C. Guidotti (éd.), Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists, Florence Egyptian Museum, Florence, 23-30 August 2015, Archaeopress Egyptology 19, Oxford. 237-243.