Expeditions to the Wadi Hammamat during the New Kingdom

Abstract

From the Old Kingdom on Egyptians were procuring raw materials from sites in the Eastern Desert or the Sinai peninsula at an organised and sophisticated level. The Wadi Hammamat has yielded abundant textual and archaeological material for the New Kingdom. This article focuses on the textual evidence of that period and examines the organisation and supply efforts which the Egyptians undertook on a grand scale, sometimes equipping more than 8,000 men. The economic effects of these large enterprises had profound repercussions for the Egyptian economy, stretching its capabilities and potential to the limits. Within the overall political situation, this certainly contributed to the fading power of the late Ramesside rulers domestically and internationally.

Copper for the Pharaoh: Identifying multiple metal sources for Ramesses' workshops from bronze and crucible remains

“…Examples from geological literature include Abouzeid and Khalid (2011), Anwar (1964), Garson (1977) and Hussein and el Sharkawi (1990). Hikade (1998Hikade ( , 2006Hikade ( , 2007, Klemm (1994, 2013), Lucas (1962), Ogden (2000 and Shaw (1994Shaw ( , 1998. These deposits, occurring throughout most of the Eastern Desert and into Nubia, must be considered as potential sources for the copper used in Pi-Ramesse, even though they cannot be directly compared here.…”

‘A Place Full of Whispers’: Socializing the Quarry Landscape of the Wadi Hammamat

“…been left with is a layered message board that mingles highly crafted texts with sketchily drawn images, names and titles spanning a period of over 2000 years. Philological analysis of the longer texts, largely omitting their archaeological context, has interpreted these as evidence for the extent to which state administration, bureaucracy and economic accounting from the top ultimately drove quarrying expeditions (Couyat & Montet 1912;Goyon 1957;Hikade 2006;Lloyd 2014;Mueller 1975;Peden 2001;Simpson 1959;1963). 20 What I would like to consider, however, are the ways in which this long-lived tradition of notation may also underlie a broader choreography of relationships at source between social groups.…”

“…the place is full of whispers'. Ever since then, philologists have been greatly attracted to this rare and well-preserved collection of rock engravings, particularly those in hieroglyphics, hieratic, demotic and Greek (Bernand 1972;Couyat & Montet 1912;Cruz-Uribe 2001;Gasse 1987;Goyon 1957;Gundlach 1986;Hikade 2001;2006;Kayser 1993;Peden 2001;Posener 1936;Seyfried 1981;Simpson 1959;Thissen 1979). By comparison, however, only very limited investigations have been made of the broader cultural landscape in which the inscriptions are embedded, including quarries, settlements and other domestic and logistical infrastructure.…”

“…However, philological interpretation of textual data alone has arguably over-emphasized the extent to which these sources tell us about the way resources were procured in practice. This situation has therefore created a rather one-sided viewpoint that exaggerates the role that the king, state, administration and bureaucracy played in the quarrying process (Hikade 2006;Lloyd 2013, 361-82;2014, 195-7;Seyfried 1981). We also contend with a lack of balance in archaeological investigations of Egyptian quarries, which in general have been biased towards description (often confined to just one historical epoch), technology and provenance studies (e.g.…”

Self-Representation in Old Kingdom Quarrying Inscriptions at Wadi Hammamat*

“…The quarry of Wadi Hammamat was in use from the Early Dynastic Period onwards as a major source for greywacke, siltstone and conglomerate 13 for statues and architectural elements in temples and royal burial complexes, occasionally also given to favoured officials as gifts. 14 It was also used as a transit route to Punt, to the galena mines at Gebel el-Zeit, and, during the New Kingdom, possibly also to Sinai, 15 and gold was sometimes mined there. 16 Inscriptions and graffiti from the Early Dynastic to the Roman Period have been discovered in the quarry and its environs, ranging from simple geometric figures and representations of people and animals to elaborate inscriptions and complex arrangements of representations of divinities and prayers.…”