The courtyard of the 10th Pylon at Karnak: The excavations of Michel Azim from 1975 to 1977. IF 1320. BiGen 75.
IFAO| N° d'inventaire | 31066 |
| Format | 24.5 x 33 |
| Détails | 248 p., numerous black and white photographs, publisher's hardcover. |
| Publication | Cairo, 2024 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782724710113 |
A reference and summary work on a little-known sector of the Karnak religious complex. In the mid-1970s, the excavation undertaken by the architect Michel Azim in the courtyard of the 10th pylon constituted one of the first large-scale archaeological explorations undertaken on the site of the south-north processional avenue of the great temple of Amun-Re since the work of Georges Legrain at the beginning of the 20th century.
Despite its importance, this operation has remained largely unprecedented and the results of the work carried out have so far been the subject of only rare introductory notes. This work concludes an ambitious program of inventorying the documentation of these excavations preserved in several French and Egyptian institutions (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, Franco-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak).
All the results obtained from the research campaigns of 1975-1976 and 1977 are re-evaluated here in the light of a stratigraphic evaluation survey carried out in 2015, the archaeological material of which was analyzed by around ten specialists. Although the sequence of constructions and occupations of the courtyard of the 10th pylon remains very close to that initially restored by the excavator, recent analyses allow for a thorough revision of the chronology of the site, and are therefore essential for understanding the urban history of Thebes.
A long period of habitation in the Middle Kingdom was followed by the construction and several redevelopments of the monumental courtyard of the 10th pylon during the New Kingdom. Numerous later material traces reveal successive settlements in the courtyard in the 1st millennium BC, and especially a vast early Christian residential installation in the 4th century. Finally, some later evidence testifies to limited use before the definitive abandonment of the area in the Islamic period and the rediscovery of the site in the 19th century.
A reference and summary work on a little-known sector of the Karnak religious complex. In the mid-1970s, the excavation undertaken by the architect Michel Azim in the courtyard of the 10th pylon constituted one of the first large-scale archaeological explorations undertaken on the site of the south-north processional avenue of the great temple of Amun-Re since the work of Georges Legrain at the beginning of the 20th century.
Despite its importance, this operation has remained largely unprecedented and the results of the work carried out have so far been the subject of only rare introductory notes. This work concludes an ambitious program of inventorying the documentation of these excavations preserved in several French and Egyptian institutions (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, Franco-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak).
All the results obtained from the research campaigns of 1975-1976 and 1977 are re-evaluated here in the light of a stratigraphic evaluation survey carried out in 2015, the archaeological material of which was analyzed by around ten specialists. Although the sequence of constructions and occupations of the courtyard of the 10th pylon remains very close to that initially restored by the excavator, recent analyses allow for a thorough revision of the chronology of the site, and are therefore essential for understanding the urban history of Thebes.
A long period of habitation in the Middle Kingdom was followed by the construction and several redevelopments of the monumental courtyard of the 10th pylon during the New Kingdom. Numerous later material traces reveal successive settlements in the courtyard in the 1st millennium BC, and especially a vast early Christian residential installation in the 4th century. Finally, some later evidence testifies to limited use before the definitive abandonment of the area in the Islamic period and the rediscovery of the site in the 19th century.