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1999 |
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The South wall palimpsest. A line of Egyptian soldiers replaced by the leg of a giant figure of the king and a line of hieroglyphs below. In the spring of 1995 the expedition made preliminary copies of Ramesses II's battle scenes on the south exterior wall, including the southern doorway of the Great Hypostyle Hall.[1] The doorway scenes were collated during a short field season in 1997, but it was only during the May-June 1999 field season[2] that some of the war scenes themselves were given their first collation; the focus of our work was on the scenes that lie east of the doorway, which had been documented in hand copies but never in line drawings.[3] After a two year absence, this season brought home to us more than ever before the alarmingly rapid rate of decay that is overtaking the monuments. Even high up on the walls, we found yellow stains left by dissolved sandstone which had cascaded down the side of the south exterior wall with rainwater during a violent thunderstorm. The amount of precipitation in Upper Egypt has increased dramatically in the past decade with disastrous consequences for the standing monuments.
The feet of marching soldiers with a line of hieroglyphic text superimposed over them. South wall palimpsest. As our collation of the battle scenes on the east side of the south gateway continued, we found additional traces of the Battle of Kadesh palimpsest which had been overlooked by earlier scholars. These were often so faint that they were only detectible under the closest scrutiny at the wall. The erosions and exfoliation of the surfaces, coupled with the tendency of the ancient sculptors to rely on plaster to smooth poorly dressed stone, made our work all the more difficult. Large areas of intermittent "quarry hacking" and voids left by missing patching blocks also robbed us of much of the decorative scheme. [1]PM II2 49-50 (164) c, e-g and 57-58 (171)-(174). The scenes on the inside of the doorway and its eastern thickness are published in Nelson, Key Plans pls. 54-61, 87. [2]The expedition staff this season consisted of Dr. William Murnane of the University of Memphis (project director) and Dr. Peter Brand of the University of Toronto (senior epigraphist and artist). [3]These scenes were not included with the other scenes from the south exterior wall drawn by Walter Wreszinski, Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte II, (Leipzig, 1923-28). The texts were recorded by G. A. Gaballa, "Minor War Scenes of Ramesses II at Karnak," JEA 55 (1969): 82-88. |
