PUBLISHED 2018. Please visit the publication's webpage.
The world-famous Egyptian necropolis at Giza is located to the west of Cairo. It contains unique monuments of the III-I millennia BC preserved under the patronage of UNESCO. The Russian Archaeological Mission has been excavating the rock-cut tombs of the Eastern Necropolis of Giza since 1996. The area of the concession stretches from the cliffs opposite the Great Sphinx in the south and reaches the Cheops road in the north. The excavation area, which is about 3000 square meters, presents a limestone cliff - an outcrop of Muqattam formation - that marks the eastern limits of the plateau. The cliff has a complex bedded structure with various types of funerary complexes disposed on different levels: rock-cut tombs, shafts, and ground burials (totally almost 100 burials in more than 40 archaeological complexes). The preliminary dating of the Old Kingdom burials excavated in this area is the second half of Dynasty V - beginning of Dynasty VI (around 2450 - 2280 BC), although many tombs were reused during the Late period and then inhabited in the early Middle Ages and the 19th century.
The rock-cut tombs selected for publication in this book are situated in the southern part of the concession of the Russian Archaeological Mission at Giza. These are: the tomb of Perseneb (LG 78 / GE 20-22), Ipi (LG 80 / GE 24), the anonymous tombs GE 23, GE 58, and the shafts nearby. The inscribed tombs planned for the volume have been investigated by Champollion, Lepsius, Mariette, and Reisner in the 19th and early 20th centuries, although having never been properly published.
Giza necropolis is one of the most well-known archaeological sites in Egypt and also one of the best studied. However, most of its monuments were excavated in the late XIX and early XX centuries and existing publications are to a large degree outdated. Rare new archaeological publications demonstrate advantages of modern methods and technologies, but there are not many unexcavated areas around the great pyramids where they can be applied. The eastern edge of the plateau is of one these areas. The tombs projected for publication had never been properly studied before they were bried under the debris from the Boston Museum's excavations (by George Andrew Reisner) and later infrastructural projects.
The eastern sector of Giza necropolis is a significant area for studying of major changes in economic life, ideology, belief and material culture of middle-class strata of the Egyptian society, including officials of the royal administration. Even a preliminary analysis of the excavated material provides a broad picture of the economic and cultural life of these people, burial customs and rituals.
The publication project is directed by Prof. Eleonora Kormysheva.