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Report on

2014 Season of the Joint Expedition to Malqata

(February 5 - March 3)

Diana Craig Patch

Peter Lacovara

Catharine H. Roehrig

Introduction

The Joint Expedition to Malqata (JEM) began the 2014 season on February

5, having delivered the signed concession papers to the Inspectorate of the West

Bank on Tuesday February 4. Dr. Diana Craig Patch from the Metropolitan

Museum of Art and Dr. Peter Lacovara of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory

University in Atlanta, Georgia co-directed the 2014 season. Dr. Catharine H.

Roehrig, also of the Metropolitan Museum, is a senior member of the research

team, and Joel Paulson is the site surveyor. Ably assisting the JEM team in

conducting the season’s work was Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim Hassan, an inspector

posted to the Karnak Temple. We are most appreciative of his excellent assistance

as well as the support that the Ministry of State for Antiquities provides our

mission. We especially want to acknowledge the following MSA members: Dr.

Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of State for Antiquities, Dr. Mohamed Ismail, Chair

of the Permanent Committee, Mr. Abdel Hakim Karrer, General Director of Luxor,

and Dr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, General Director of the West Bank. In addition,

Director Abdel Nasser, and Chief Inspector Abdel Nasser, both of whom work in

the southern area of the West Bank, have been very helpful this season. We thank

everyone for their support of JEM’s work.

The site of Malqata, the palace-city of Amenhotep III, is very large,

extending some 7 km along the edge of the low desert; beginning just south of

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Medinet Habu and ending at the cleared causeway to the west of Kom el-Abd (see

the attached map of the site, Figure 1). One of the long term goals of JEM is to

look at the numerous structures that make up Malqata with a comprehensive

approach because the site is the result of one man’s plan. Malqata was created by

one of the 18th dynasty’s greatest pharaohs, Amenhotep III, and by studying each

building or

area as part of a city rather than as independent sites, we hope to better understand

Amenhotep III’s vision for Malqata.

Our work at Malqata is a long term project designed to increase our

understanding of the palace-city and to plan the long term preservation of the

various buildings for future generations. In order to move both of these goals

forward this season, our work took place in two areas of Malqata, both of which

had received attention by the Metropolitan Museum of Art excavators between

1910 and 1920. The records from these early seasons are not as detailed as now

required by modern archaeology, so this season we set out to learn more.

The North Village

One focus of this season’s work was the area referred to as the North

Village, which lies between the Audience Pavilion on the north and the Middle

Palace to the south. The only record from the original excavation was a schematic

plan of small houses. Based on the layout, the early archaeologists identified it as

settlement belonging to Malqata workmen. Work was begun here by JEM in 2010,

Diana Craig Patch and Catharine Roehrig continued the work again this season.

We continued the re-clearing of the small house structures to check the accuracy of

the schematic made after the work carried out by the Metropolitan Museum in

1917-18.

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The structures are now heavily denuded compared to two photographs that

are the only record from these early excavations. These photos show that, 100

years ago, many structures had at least 50 cm of standing wall. Unfortunately, this

is no longer the case and in almost all instances only the foundation bricks remain

(Figure 2). These often are only preserved to the height of a few centimeters and

frequently only a trace remains. This erosion makes our work of the utmost

importance as the village is literally disappearing from wind erosion. This season,

we worked on clarifying the southern and northern edges of the village, both

sections that are regrettably some of the most denuded. Using extremely

methodical archaeological work, we recorded the remains of walls that demarcate

at least 20 living spaces, water and food storage installations, small ramps, and

several storage rooms (Figure 3). In addition several streets indicated on the early

plan were located and better defined (Figure 4). The mapping of still existing

walls and the identification of floors or subflooring continues to clarify the

occupations levels at this settlement. We have additional evidence this year that

there were at least two building phases, especially in the southeast corner. Here we

have a living floor defined by a mud plaster floor on which a layer of debris was

added to make a second floor sometime later. After that another layer of debris

was put down on that floor and the east wall of the village was added to form a

walkway between the east side of the village and the Queen’s Palace (Figure 5).

Whether the rebuilding took place for the second or third heb-sed remains

unknown lacking any associated inscriptions.

A study of the village architecture is clarifying how these houses were built

and what they were used for. The lack of small finds again this season suggests

that manufacturing did not take place in the North Village. There are no kilns,

tools, or other kinds of installations that would indicate production. Perhaps the

people who lived in the North Village worked in the King’s Palace and the North

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Palace, both of which are nearby. There is also a lack of cooking areas which

suggests that these people may have eaten elsewhere – in the palace kitchens

perhaps. This year we did clear a small garbage pit which contained a number of

broken vessels, extremely well preserved animal bone from a young cow, young

sheep, young geese, and catfish, a few pieces from plants and very tiny scraps of

linen. This is the first in situ garbage pit with such material recovered. Previously

any partially reconstructible vessel came from leveling fill, serving as support for a

mud plaster floor. The vessels from Pit 21 appear to be the types of containers of

the appropriate date.

We continued to uncover some areas of undisturbed mud plaster floors in the

small rooms of the village houses and as was noted last year, they generally do not

contain any material. They appear as if recently cleaned. We did find a seal

impression bearing the cartouche of Neb-maat-Re on the floor of a small storage

area (Figure 6). We have also found indications that some of the interior house

walls were white washed with a plaster. The excavations always produce isolated

beads of many different forms, and this year a sandstone polishing stone, a bronze

disk, and an jar label bearing an inscription that reads “king’s wife, may she live.”

came from debris (Figure 7).

In the northeast section of the village near the southern enclosure wall for

the so-called Audience Pavilion, it appears that we may have evidence of a ramp

constructed from the North Village into the Audience Pavilion precinct. The

possible ramp was made using brick walls and the natural desert surface running

north to south on the east and west sides and two more walls running east-west.

Debris, containing mud brick, mud, lots of sherds, and some stones was packed in.

It was here that we recovered the jar label discussed previously. A small preserved

section of mud along the west edge of the south enclosure wall suggests it had a

mud plaster surface. We need to explore this structure further next season.

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The ceramic inventory is typical of the late Eighteenth Dynasty and most

forms have parallels at Tell el-Amarna. The Amana corpus is used, in a modified

way, as a site corpus. Sherds from a variety of the rooms with in situ deposits (fill

under mud plaster floors or undisturbed pits) have been analyzed this season. They

are consistently from bowls, basins, and small jars which remain the predominant

forms at the site, much as is the case with Deir el-Medina. In the leveling fill, we

have retrieved a number of small blue-painted sherds that are exceptional. They

display patterns that are not the typical floral motifs that dominate the blue-painted

sherds scattered (never in concentration) across the North Village. Pit 21

contained a number of reconstructible (although not complete) jars and bowls that

included small shallow open bowls with a variety of rim forms, deeper cooking

pots, storage jars for liquid and solids, and a huge amphora (Figures 8 and 9). This

gives us a much clearer idea of some of the common types for which we have only

been finding small sherds. We will need to study the vessel forms from this pit to

see whether they are typical for the North Village or something from a nearby

installation which had a more ritual or royal context. One extremely finely-made

blue-painted bowl, which must have been dropped on a hard surface to have

shattered so thoroughly, is suggestive of a ritual context (Figure 10). All vessels

are typical, however, of mid Dynasty 18 pottery.

At the end of the season, as in 2010, 2012, and 2013 seasons, we covered the

exposed walls of the village with clean sand to protect them from wind erosion.

Next year we plan on opening a new undisturbed area of the North Village

to the west identified during the 2012 magnetometer survey, a test square to the

west of the Audience Pavilion, additional recording in the North Village proper,

and possible a test square to the south in the South Village to compare the mud

brick structures in two supposed workmen’s sites.

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The Palace of the King

The Palace of the King is the central feature of the palace-city of Amenhotep

III. One of the few and perhaps the best-preserved ancient Egyptian palaces, it is

of tremendous importance to Egyptology, but also of great interest to tourists and

the public at large. Since the time of its last excavations (1985-1992) by Waseda

University, the palace has suffered severe deterioration from rainwater,

groundwater, and physical destruction of exposed brickwork.

This season we continued our work to study, document, conserve and

preserve the King’s Palace of the King, which is the Main Palace at Malqata, as it

is known. We also included the adjacent structure to the west across the modern

road which was identified by the early excavators as Ho. W. 1. This structure had

been disturbed by vehicular traffic running over its fragile mud brick walls. We

were fortunate to have the assistance of Anthony (Tony) Crosby, an internationally

recognized expert on the preservation of earthen architecture to oversee the

restoration work. During the season we have protected approximately 150 linear

meters of mud brick walls and laid approximately 20,000 new mud bricks as a cap

onto existing ancient walls and to fill in gaps in the walls where the ancient bricks

are now missing. This season approximately one hundred and fifty running meters

of mud brick wall was conserved. The walls have been preserved to different

heights; some walls required only two courses of mud bricks as capping, while

others required additional courses, both for conservation as well as for

interpretation. All this work will be a tremendous help in not only conserving and

stabilizing the architecture of the palace-city but will also help visitors better

understand the plans of the Pharaonic structures.

This season, we worked in four main areas: (1) the gateway area of the main

palace (Figure 11), (2) the palace court area north of the king’s throne (Figure 12),

(3) the perimeter walls at the southwest corner of the site (Figure 13) and (4) the

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structure designated Ho. W. 1 (Figure 14), immediately west of the existing road,

but however originally connected to the palace gateway.

At the Main Palace, the gateway is now clearly defined along with its

adjoining walls. In the central court, three main walls outlining the court’s west

side were conserved and the ancient doorways protected and clearly defined. In

addition, two wall fragments on the south side of the court were conserved and the

king's throne platform was delineated with new mud bricks.

In order to complete the plan of the Main Palace we cleaned the northwest

section of the palace down to the wadi and discovered several long parallel walls

that appear to have been excavated, but not recorded by the earlier expeditions.

These may have formed service ramps to offload goods to supply the court as they

are similar to features found in the Great Palace at Amarna. The remains of a

circular wall, suggesting a granary indicates an earlier occupation in this area that

was removed when the palace complex was redesigned.

In Ho. W. 1, four walls were conserved in an area where vehicular traffic

had begun to destroy the walls by driving off the road. Here the walls were capped

and stabilized and several additional courses were added to clearly identify this

area as an important component of the overall site complex. At the request of the

site guards, we installed two huge iron stakes to protect the brick wall closest to the

road and a stretch of fence to keep ATV’s and other motorbikes from driving over

the structure.

Our basic approach to the conservation of the Palace has been to protect the

ancient walls while affecting as little of the original fabric of the walls as possible.

Before conservation was begun, every wall was cleaned and carefully drawn. Prior

to cleaning, digital photography recorded the condition, with more following the

cleaning, and then again after preservation. Prior to actually laying new mud

bricks, a clean layer of tan colored plastic grid material was placed over the

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original, ancient bricks to clearly differentiate the old from the new. If there was

not clear evidence of a corner or the termination of a wall (see Figure 12), the wall

was stepped down at its terminus to indicate that the wall continued (see Figure

12). Of course, if there was clear evidence of an opening or a corner or a door, that

feature was reflected in the new mud brick. If there was clear evidence of an

alteration to a wall, such as the later closing of a previous opening, that change was

clearly shown in the new work. During the project we also reattached a number of

small sections of the original wall plaster with new mud (Figure 15a and b).

Several other sections of fragile plaster will be covered with sand to protect them

until additional conservation can be undertaken.

Next season we plan to further define this area as well as continue

conservation work, stabilization, and restoration efforts in Ho. W. 1, the central

court of the Main Palace and throne room, the King’s chambers in the rear, and the

adjacent suite of rooms off the court.

The Causeway

Each year we visit the most remote area of the site, the cleared strip, or

causeway, at the southern end of our concession that begins about two kilometers

west of the Kom el-Abd and runs another five kilometers west to the cliffs. Last

year we noted an additional graded road, and this season we observed additional

indications of new grading and potential agricultural activities approaching much

closer to the causeway. As shown in the satellite image (Figure 16), a series of

grading cuts have been made and a new road has been created approximately 270

meters southwest of the edge of the causeway. Also, a row of trees have been

planted running southerly from a point about 100 meters southwesterly of the

newly graded strips. It has been our experience that this kind of grading and laying

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out new boundaries in the form of a row of trees often precedes the expansion of

agricultural lands into new areas.

Although this additional grading and planting do not directly affect the

causeway at this time, they show that agricultural fields are rapidly approaching

and may soon cause irreparable harm if not controlled. One of the dangers to the

causeway is that it is not easy to recognize from the ground adjacent to it. The

causeway is far more visible from the air or from the mountains at its northwest

edge. Even if local people are made aware of it, this unique ancient structure could

still be damaged because it is difficult to find and needs visible markers.

Site Management

In addition to the study of various monuments at Malqata, JEM is moving

forward with site management. The reconstruction work on the King’s Palace

discussed above is the most important activity in Malqata’s site management

program, but there are other areas where JEM is improving the overall condition

and protection of the site.

At the request of the West Bank Inspectorate and the guards protecting the

site of Malqata, the Joint Expedition to Malqata agreed to continue to install fences

to protect the ancient buildings. This season, we erected a fence that begins at

northeast corner of the King’s Palace and extends westward to the common road

and then turns south to end at the large radim pile, a distance of about 120 m

(Figure 17). The purpose of the fence is to stop the passage of vehicles that had

been using the palace as an access route to the adjoining fields and the large Birket

Habu mounds. Any vehicle traffic on the site causes serious damage to the surface

and allows the fine silt to blow away and further erode the fragile mud bricks. The

fence will also limit any expansion of the agricultural field located north between

the King’s Palace and the Queen’s Palace.

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Hot air balloons also continue to land on the site (Figure 18). During our

stay we witnessed this problem several times. Our inspector was very helpful in

speaking with the owners of the balloons and asking them to remember to land

outside of the site’s perimeter. However just at the end of our season, one balloon

landed in the Amun Temple’s forecourt and another in the South Village. This

problem does seem to occur regularly as our report from last year sites similar

issues.

In addition to our other work, we removed large quantities of camel thorn to

reduce the danger to the mud brick structures that are found throughout the site.

Camel thorn likes to grow on mud brick walls and is highly destructive to mud

brick. Each year JEM hires workers to cut it down to reduce the growth and spread

of this difficult plant. This year we removed the camel thorn from the King’s

Palace, the North Village, the Middle Palace and the area around the Pavilion.

Additionally the Director and Chief Inspector of South West Bank requested

that we remove the halfa grass growing on the Queen’s Palace. It grows heavily

there because of the previous modern occupation that was on top of the Queen’s

Palace. Both inspectors were worried about the grass catching fire and damaging

the electrical wires that are installed over this part of the site for the local village.

We cut about one half hectare of this grass (Figure 19).

The wall that the MSA built to protect the site has done a marvelous job in

keeping the agricultural fields from spreading onto the site and inhibiting some

expanding settlements south of the Birket Habu. However within the Birket Habu

mounds, clearly part of the antiquities of Malqata, people in the nearby houses now

use the Birket Habu mounds as a garbage dump, as a place to house their animals,

plant trees, and the worst aggression, build extensions to their living quarters. This

expansion is new as of this year and we strongly urge the MSA to remove these

new signs of encroaching settlement.

Fig

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1: P

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Fig

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Fig

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16: M

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Fig

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17: R

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Fig

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18: B

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Fig

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19: C

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Figure 6: A seal impression of the cartouche of Neb-Maat-Re

Figure 7: Jar label reading “king’s wife, may she live.”

Figures 8 and 9: Reconstructed vessels from garbage pit on east side of village.

Figure 10: Blue painted bowl from garbage pit.

Figure 11: The main gateway into the King’s Palace after preservation.

Figure 12: Looking northwest across the central court of King’s Palace to preserved walls.

Figure 13: Preserving the ancient perimeter walls of the King’s Palace.

Figure 14: Looking west at the protection for the Ho.W.1 installation which is part of King’s Palace.

Figure 15a: Mud plaster surface separating from mud brick wall.

Figure 15b: Stabilized mud plaster on mud brick wall in central court of the King’s Palace.