Institutions

Funding Entity

American Research Center in Egypt

Research Unit

CHAM - Centre for the Humanities

The Mastaba of Akhmerutnisut Documentation Project (MAD-P), generously funded by ARCE’s Antiquities Endowment Fund, aims to document and study the mastaba of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2160 BCE) official Akhmerutnisut, located in the Western Cemetery at Giza. His monument is a prime example of a tomb that underwent radical changes in its layout and decoration during the Fifth Dynasty, a transitional period characterized by a major shift in funerary beliefs. In December 2023, the project organized its first fieldwork season in order to fully document the current state of the tomb, to protect the monument against the future accumulation of garbage and windblown sand, and to prepare a conservation plan. We determined the necessary steps that will need to be taken in the future to stabilize the remaining tomb architecture and conserve its surviving painted and relief decoration. Through the restoration of the tomb, we hope to invigorate a renewed academic and general interest in the Giza plateau that stretches beyond the pyramids, temples, tombs, and buildings of the Fourth Dynasty.

Team

Inês Torres . Director

Luiza Osorio G. da Silva (University of California, Irvine, USA) . Assistant Director

Guilherme Borges Pires (CHAM)

Maarten Praet (Johns Hopkins University, USA)

Mohamed Khalifa (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt)

M Youssef Sedek (Misr University, Egypt)

Yasser Kamal Yefni (Misr University, Egypt)