Looking for contexts: recent work on the Karnak Cachette Project

Laurent Coulon (1, 2) , Yves Egels (3) , Emmanuel Jambon (4) , Emmanuel Laroze (5)

1 IFAO - Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire
2 EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études
3 ENSG - École nationale des sciences géographiques
4 Institut for Ancient Near East Studies (IANES)
5 OM-MP - Équipe Mondes pharaoniques

The Karnak Cachette, excavated by Georges Legrain between 1903 and 1907, is one of the most fascinating discoveries of Egyptian archaeology and an exceptional source for the study of Egyptian statuary (e.g. Bothmer 1960, 151–53; De Meulenaere 1998). However, the recontextualisation of the finds remains a desideratum, as the huge quantity of statues found in this favissa can hardly be used as pieces of evidence for reconstructing the history and archaeological evolution of the temples of Karnak when deprived of any precise connection with their context beyond the mere label ‘found in Karnak’. Even this label should sometimes be considered with caution, as it may be a matter of discussion whether a statue belongs to the Cachette corpus. This contribution will present an overview of the different issues raised by the ‘contexts’ of statues, which have been addressed by the Karnak Cachette Project since its beginning in 2006.

Mots clés: cachette; Karnak Temple; Photogrammetry; Egyptian Archaeology; favissa

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Laurent Coulon, Yves Egels, Emmanuel Jambon, Emmanuel Laroze. Looking for contexts: recent work on the Karnak Cachette Project. Aurélia Masson-Berghoff. Statues in Context. Production, Meaning and (Re)uses, 10, Peeters, pp.209-228, 2019, British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan, 9789042938076. ⟨hal-02556469⟩