Director, Section Française de la Direction des Antiquités du Soudan Co-director, Kerma-Dukki Gel archaeological mission Address: SFDAS c/o IFAO 37, rue Cheikh Aly Youssef Qasr el-Ayni, Mounira LE CAIRE
In 2019, the SFDAS celebrated its fifty years of existence. A full week devoted to SFDAS and Suda... more In 2019, the SFDAS celebrated its fifty years of existence. A full week devoted to SFDAS and Sudanese heritage was held in September 2019 at the French Institute in Khartoum and at the National Museum of Sudan, these events being placed under the aegis of the French Embassy in Sudan. The fiftieth anniversary edition of the SFDAS is the natural conclusion of this week of celebrations, closed by the press conference at the National Museum on the occasion of the official handing over to the Sudanese authorities of the Soleb panel, of the stele of Lady Ataqelula of Sedeinga and the relief of the candace of the temple of Amun at el-Hassa, all of which have benefited from restoration programs.
The jubilee work of the Sfdas has received the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) and the National Museum of Sudan, the Collège de France, the Louvre Museum, the University of Central Florida, the French Embassy in Khartoum and the French Institute of Sudan, and has been published with the assistance of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (Ifao) and the National Center for Scientific research (CNRS), laboratory UMR 8167, Orient et Méditerranée.
Rademakers, F.W., Verly, G., Degryse, P., Vanhaecke, F., Marchi, S., and Bonnet, C. (2022) Copper at ancient Kerma: A diachronic investigation of alloys and raw materials, Advances in Archaeomaterials 3, 1-18
This paper describes the first comprehensive study of metal artefacts found at ancient Kerma, Sud... more This paper describes the first comprehensive study of metal artefacts found at ancient Kerma, Sudan. Covering a period of several millennia, it investigates the development of copper alloy recipes as well as metal provenance through the trace element and lead isotope ratio analysis of forty-eight sampled objects. These include grave goods as well as production waste related to large-scale bronze casting performed at Kerma. This study is part of a wider evaluation of copper alloy production at Kerma through targeted workshop excavation, materials analysis, and experimental archaeology. The analytical results illustrate the gradual and flexible transition from arsenical copper to tin bronze alloys over time, in a pattern similarly observed in ancient Egypt. Trace element distributions and lead isotope ratios for copper used at Kerma are comparable to those of contemporary Egyptian artefacts too. These findings indicate the exploitation of ores similar to those mined at the Sinai Peninsula, although copper ore deposits in Nubia remain poorly characterized and thus difficult to identify as source candidates. Nonetheless, it can be suggested that metal provisioning networks along the Nile Valley likely overlapped to varying degrees over time. These results provide an important contribution to the mapping of technological exchanges that took place between ancient Egypt and Nubia.
Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles fr... more Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles fr... more Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
in N. Favry, Chl. Ragazzoli, Cl. Somaglino, P. Tallet (eds.), Du Sinaï au Soudan. Itinéraires d’une égyptologue (Mélanges offerts à Dominique Valbelle), Orient & Méditerranée 23, De Boccard, Paris, p. 87-99, pl. IV-V (with G. Nogara, S. Marchi), 2017
In 2019, the SFDAS celebrated its fifty years of existence. A full week devoted to SFDAS and Suda... more In 2019, the SFDAS celebrated its fifty years of existence. A full week devoted to SFDAS and Sudanese heritage was held in September 2019 at the French Institute in Khartoum and at the National Museum of Sudan, these events being placed under the aegis of the French Embassy in Sudan. The fiftieth anniversary edition of the SFDAS is the natural conclusion of this week of celebrations, closed by the press conference at the National Museum on the occasion of the official handing over to the Sudanese authorities of the Soleb panel, of the stele of Lady Ataqelula of Sedeinga and the relief of the candace of the temple of Amun at el-Hassa, all of which have benefited from restoration programs.
The jubilee work of the Sfdas has received the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) and the National Museum of Sudan, the Collège de France, the Louvre Museum, the University of Central Florida, the French Embassy in Khartoum and the French Institute of Sudan, and has been published with the assistance of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (Ifao) and the National Center for Scientific research (CNRS), laboratory UMR 8167, Orient et Méditerranée.
Rademakers, F.W., Verly, G., Degryse, P., Vanhaecke, F., Marchi, S., and Bonnet, C. (2022) Copper at ancient Kerma: A diachronic investigation of alloys and raw materials, Advances in Archaeomaterials 3, 1-18
This paper describes the first comprehensive study of metal artefacts found at ancient Kerma, Sud... more This paper describes the first comprehensive study of metal artefacts found at ancient Kerma, Sudan. Covering a period of several millennia, it investigates the development of copper alloy recipes as well as metal provenance through the trace element and lead isotope ratio analysis of forty-eight sampled objects. These include grave goods as well as production waste related to large-scale bronze casting performed at Kerma. This study is part of a wider evaluation of copper alloy production at Kerma through targeted workshop excavation, materials analysis, and experimental archaeology. The analytical results illustrate the gradual and flexible transition from arsenical copper to tin bronze alloys over time, in a pattern similarly observed in ancient Egypt. Trace element distributions and lead isotope ratios for copper used at Kerma are comparable to those of contemporary Egyptian artefacts too. These findings indicate the exploitation of ores similar to those mined at the Sinai Peninsula, although copper ore deposits in Nubia remain poorly characterized and thus difficult to identify as source candidates. Nonetheless, it can be suggested that metal provisioning networks along the Nile Valley likely overlapped to varying degrees over time. These results provide an important contribution to the mapping of technological exchanges that took place between ancient Egypt and Nubia.
Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles fr... more Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles fr... more Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 15 juin 2022. Le Bulletin archéologique des Écoles françaises à l'étranger est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
in N. Favry, Chl. Ragazzoli, Cl. Somaglino, P. Tallet (eds.), Du Sinaï au Soudan. Itinéraires d’une égyptologue (Mélanges offerts à Dominique Valbelle), Orient & Méditerranée 23, De Boccard, Paris, p. 87-99, pl. IV-V (with G. Nogara, S. Marchi), 2017
Kerma
is a key site in ancient Sudan, at a cross roads between ancient Egypt to the north and
sub... more Kerma is a key site in ancient Sudan, at a cross roads between ancient Egypt to the north and sub Saharan Africa to the south, but also the east west trade routes crossing the continent Its material culture reflects these influences but equally represents strong local traditions During the Classic Kerma period 18 th to 16 th century BCE), a metallurgical workshop was constructed in the middle of the religious quarter, first discovered by Bonnet 1986 He identified a particularly shaped furnace as related to bronze metallurgy, but its precise functioning was never fully reconstructed Similarly shaped furnaces are known only from New Kingdom Pi Ramesse ( but these are several centuries younger and their functioning remained similarly unclear Contact 1 g.verly@outlook.fr 2 frederik.rademakers@kuleuven.be 3 severine.marchi@cnrs.fr 4 cbonnet@iprolink.ch Classic Kerma (eighteenth to sixteenth century BCE) Kerma ( The bronze furnace of Kerma revisited a unique casting technology reconstructed through experiment, (re --)excavation and archaeometry Acknowledgements funding EACOM BELSPO ( 143 /A 3 / KU Leuven Center for Archaeological Sciences, Université Paris Sorbonne, UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, Ministry of Antiquities, Tourism and Wildlife, National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Fondation Kerma and Mission Suisse franco soudanaise de Kerma Doukki Gel We thank the entire EACOM team, in particular Charlotte Doyen, Lente Castelein Hugues Paridans and students, our colleagues at the RMAH, Plateforme expérimentale des mines d’argent de Melle and Archéosite d’Aubechies References Bonnet Charles, 1986 Un atelier de bronziers à Kerma in Krause, M Nubische Studien Tagungsakten der 5 Internationalen Konferenz der International Society for Nubian Studies, Heidelberg, 22 25 September 1982 Mainz Verlag Philip Von Zabern pp 19 22 Bonnet Charles, Valbelle Dominique and Privati Béatrice 2004 Le temple prinipal de la ville de Kerma et son quartier religieux Mission archéologique de l’Université de Genève à Kerma ( Paris, pp 33 38 fig 26 27 28 Bonnet Charles, Siddig Ahmed Hamad, 1980 Quelques remarques sur les lions en bronze décorant un lit retrouvé à Kermain Genava tome XXVIII, Genève, pp 68 72 Davies Norman de Garis Paintings from the Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, New York, 1935 plate I Davies Norman De Garis The Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, vol I, New York, 1943 pp 36 54 Pusch Edgar B 1990 Metallverarbeitende Werkstätten der frühen Ramessidenzeit in Qantir Piramesse / Ägypten und Levante Zeitschrift für ägyptische und deren Nachbargebiete vol I, Wien, pp 75 113 abb 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a, 9 b, 10 a et 10 b Pusch Edgar B 1994 Divergierende Verfahren der Metallverarbeitung in Theben und Qantir Ägypten und Levante 4 Wien, pp 145 170 abb 1 et 2 Rademakers Frederik W Verly, Georges, Delvaux, Luc and Degryse Patrick, 2018 Copper for the afterlife in Predynastic to Old Kingdom Egypt provenance characterization by chemical and lead isotope analysis (RMAH collection, Belgium) Journal of Archaeological Science 96 pp 175 190 Verly Georges, 2017 The smelting furnaces of Ayn Soukhna The excavations of 2013 2014 and 2015 dans Montero Ruiz I and Perea A ..(eds Archaeometallurgy in Europe IV, Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana vol XXXIII, Madrid, pp 143 157 Interpretation The area, affected by Reisner’s excavations Reisner George A 1924 Excavations at Kerma, Vol II, Cambridge), was occupied over time by various technical activities To the west of the Deffufa inside the temple complex the walled workshop was situated inside the courtyard of the Northwest Chapel The cross furnace half buried 60 cm deep was built into levels of Middle Kerma bricks to create the heating chambers below ground level The 1986 excavation describes the presence of a crucible in one of the fireplaces The furnace 1 is oriented along the N/S E/W axes In the centre, a large floor 4 is bordered by the departure of a broad vault completely removed creating a large heating chamber 6 The floor is made of a very fine red brown micaceous clay paste, perfectly smoothed to function directly as a mould surface For this reason we propose to call this furnace a monovalve mould in a heated chamber The floor sits above eight heating channels that link the N/S fireplaces It is supported by standardised brick walls covered by a clay lining There are no traces of vitrification These clay pastes were baked in an oxidising environment red and biscuit like, at around 800 C based on comparisons to experimental data) To the north 8 the four large fireplaces still containing ash and charred wood fragments, are further subdivided beneath the furnace floor (forming the eight heating channels) These have been closed off using bricks and clay during the final use to slowly cool down the interior chamber These bricks are still sitting on a layer of ashes seven centimers thick To the south 3 four smaller fireplaces containing the same remains were each covered by a dome (of which only one foundation level remains most likely to create additional draft These are similarly subdivided beneath the furnace floor (forming the eight heating channels) The construction of this furnace was done in two stages digging through the soil levels (dry bricks) and fast built up using dry bricks and lining Small alignment errors suggest that this furnace was used for a short period in response to a specific demand to produce a certain number of artefacts When this demand was met, the metallurgists destroyed the structure to make room for a new phase of occupation, leaving testimony of the final use in place (e g the bricks to close the north heating channels and the used crucible The large dome forming the closed chamber mould and the smaller domes of the southern fireplaces were demolished The excavation has shown that the remaining floor level was voluntarily left in place in antiquity During the leveling of the structure, the south east and north west corners were pierced to fill up the heating channels with large fragments) up to the floor level pXRF mapping of the casting funnels 2 and the floor itself revealed a surface contamination by copper with low tin, lead and arsenic A small copper fragment embedded in the mould fill had ca 2 5 tin, 0 5 arsenic and 0 2 lead (ICP OES analysis We therefore propose to interpret this furnace as a monovalve mould completely integrated into the structure of a cross shaped furnace used for the production of copper alloy plates/ sheets The four casting funnels were most likely supplied by four melting furnaces located next east towards the Deffufa to be confirmed by a future excavation) The plate is narrower than the door allowing the monovalve mould to be used several times The door 5 closing the chamber is held at its base by two wooden rods which fit into two hinges 7 These plates may have been used to decorate monumetal wooden doors cfr 9 TT 100 Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré to be cut in order to create furnature decoration cfr 10 Museum of Khartoum) This furnace technology was not invented ex nihilo Rapid construction was performed without visible repairs indicating that the metallurgists mastered this technology which may be local or imported (no similar earlier models are currently known anywhere We suggest that this unique monovalve mould in a heated chamber may derive from de waxing furnace technology wherein lost wax moulds were heated in a similar furnace with a pierced floor Similar cross furnaces were found in Pi Ramesse Egypt right next to large scale bronze melting batteries Pusch 1990 1994 illustrating the continued use and adaptation of this spectacular furnace type in Egypt centuries later Excavation techniques Charles Bonnet and his team have established a methodology that voluntarily leaves sections intact during the excavation of structures, constructions, dwellings This approach offers the opportunity to undertake complementary research at a later time, either by external archaeologists or the excavation team itself We have followed his example by leaving half of the heating chamber below the floor level intact 1: Art and History Museum, Brussels Egyptian Antiquities section 2: KU Leuven, Earth and Environmental Sciences 3: Co directrice de la mission archéologique Kerma Doukki Gel CNRS, UMR 8167 (Orient & Méditerranée), équipe Mondes Pharaoniques 4: Co directeur de la mission archéologique Kerma Doukki Gel Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 1) Plan 2) East side: view of casting funnels: Marion Berti , Daniel Berti , Alfred Hidber , Thomas Kohler, Alain Peillex and Béatrice Privati Georges Verly 1 Frederik W. Rademakers 2 Séverine Marchi 3 Charles Bonnet 4 3) South side small vaulted fireplaces: Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne 4) Ortho internal view : Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne 5) West side: Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne 6) Ortho external view: Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne 7) Hinge of removable door: Georges Verly 8) North side big fireplace: Georges Verly 9) TT100: Davies Norman de Garis 10) Cut Lion: Charles Bonnet and Ahmed Hamad Siddig Having the foresight to leave part of the furnace unexcavated and its remains carefully covered at the time, Bonnet now offered the opportunity to a new generation of archaeometallurgists to re excavate this furnace during the 2018 2019 campaign and create a full photogrammetry 3D model. Drawing on insights from pre excavation experimentation (based on the original excavation reports), newly discovered features and in situ pXRF measurements, a completely new interpretation of this furnace is now proposed. Its functioning within the chaîne opératoire of bronze production offers exciting new perspectives on the existing technological know how in the region at this time. It is the first ancient example world wide of this particular casting technology currently known.
catalogue raisonne des steles, statues-menhirs et compositions monumentales alpines en Venetie, s... more catalogue raisonne des steles, statues-menhirs et compositions monumentales alpines en Venetie, sur le Plateau suisse, en Ligurie, en Provence, en Languedoc et en Rouergue
Uploads
Books by Séverine Marchi
The jubilee work of the Sfdas has received the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) and the National Museum of Sudan, the Collège de France, the Louvre Museum, the University of Central Florida, the French Embassy in Khartoum and the French Institute of Sudan, and has been published with the assistance of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (Ifao) and the National Center for Scientific research (CNRS), laboratory UMR 8167, Orient et Méditerranée.
Editing by Séverine Marchi
Sudan/Nubia by Séverine Marchi
version légère / compressed version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KIUAV4FsTmz3Znymhxg1q7VSNqA8aC41
Egypt by Séverine Marchi
The jubilee work of the Sfdas has received the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) and the National Museum of Sudan, the Collège de France, the Louvre Museum, the University of Central Florida, the French Embassy in Khartoum and the French Institute of Sudan, and has been published with the assistance of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (Ifao) and the National Center for Scientific research (CNRS), laboratory UMR 8167, Orient et Méditerranée.
version légère / compressed version: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KIUAV4FsTmz3Znymhxg1q7VSNqA8aC41
is a key site in ancient Sudan, at a cross roads between ancient Egypt to the north and
sub Saharan Africa to the south, but also the east west trade routes crossing the continent
Its material culture reflects these influences but equally represents strong local traditions
During
the Classic Kerma period 18 th to 16 th century BCE), a metallurgical workshop was
constructed in the middle of the religious quarter, first discovered by Bonnet 1986 He
identified a particularly shaped furnace as related to bronze metallurgy, but its precise
functioning was never fully reconstructed Similarly shaped furnaces are known only from
New Kingdom Pi Ramesse ( but these are several centuries younger and their
functioning remained similarly unclear
Contact
1
g.verly@outlook.fr
2
frederik.rademakers@kuleuven.be
3
severine.marchi@cnrs.fr
4
cbonnet@iprolink.ch
Classic
Kerma (eighteenth to sixteenth century BCE) Kerma (
The bronze furnace of
Kerma revisited
a unique casting technology reconstructed through experiment, (re
--)excavation and archaeometry
Acknowledgements
funding EACOM BELSPO ( 143 /A 3 / KU Leuven Center
for Archaeological Sciences, Université Paris Sorbonne, UMR 8167 Orient et
Méditerranée, Ministry of Antiquities, Tourism and Wildlife, National Corporation for
Antiquities and Museums, Fondation Kerma and Mission Suisse franco soudanaise de
Kerma Doukki Gel We thank the entire EACOM team, in particular Charlotte Doyen,
Lente Castelein Hugues Paridans and students, our colleagues at the RMAH,
Plateforme expérimentale des mines d’argent de Melle and Archéosite d’Aubechies
References
Bonnet
Charles, 1986 Un atelier de bronziers à Kerma in Krause, M Nubische Studien Tagungsakten der 5 Internationalen
Konferenz der International Society for Nubian Studies, Heidelberg, 22 25 September 1982 Mainz Verlag Philip Von Zabern pp 19 22
Bonnet
Charles, Valbelle Dominique and Privati Béatrice 2004 Le temple prinipal de la ville de Kerma et son quartier religieux
Mission archéologique de l’Université de Genève à Kerma ( Paris, pp 33 38 fig 26 27 28
Bonnet
Charles, Siddig Ahmed Hamad, 1980 Quelques remarques sur les lions en bronze décorant un lit retrouvé à Kermain
Genava tome XXVIII, Genève, pp 68 72
Davies
Norman de Garis Paintings from the Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition,
New York, 1935 plate I Davies Norman De Garis The Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian
Expedition, vol I, New York, 1943 pp 36 54
Pusch
Edgar B 1990 Metallverarbeitende Werkstätten der frühen Ramessidenzeit in Qantir Piramesse / Ägypten und Levante
Zeitschrift für ägyptische und deren Nachbargebiete vol I, Wien, pp 75 113 abb 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a, 9 b, 10 a et 10 b
Pusch
Edgar B 1994 Divergierende Verfahren der Metallverarbeitung in Theben und Qantir Ägypten und Levante 4 Wien, pp
145 170 abb 1 et 2
Rademakers
Frederik W Verly, Georges, Delvaux, Luc and Degryse Patrick, 2018 Copper for the afterlife in Predynastic to Old
Kingdom Egypt provenance characterization by chemical and lead isotope analysis (RMAH collection, Belgium) Journal of Archaeological
Science 96 pp 175 190
Verly
Georges, 2017 The smelting furnaces of Ayn Soukhna The excavations of 2013 2014 and 2015 dans Montero Ruiz I and
Perea A ..(eds Archaeometallurgy in Europe IV, Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana vol XXXIII, Madrid, pp 143 157
Interpretation
The
area, affected by Reisner’s excavations Reisner George A 1924 Excavations at Kerma, Vol
II, Cambridge), was occupied over time by various technical activities To the west of the
Deffufa inside the temple complex the walled workshop was situated inside the courtyard of
the Northwest Chapel The cross furnace half buried 60 cm deep was built into levels of
Middle Kerma bricks to create the heating chambers below ground level The 1986 excavation
describes the presence of a crucible in one of the fireplaces The furnace 1 is oriented along
the N/S E/W axes In the centre, a large floor 4 is bordered by the departure of a broad vault
completely removed creating a large heating chamber 6 The floor is made of a very fine
red brown micaceous clay paste, perfectly smoothed to function directly as a mould surface
For this reason we propose to call this furnace a monovalve mould in a heated chamber The
floor sits above eight heating channels that link the N/S fireplaces It is supported by
standardised brick walls covered by a clay lining There are no traces of vitrification These clay
pastes were baked in an oxidising environment red and biscuit like, at around 800 C based on
comparisons to experimental data)
To
the north 8 the four large fireplaces still containing ash and charred wood fragments, are
further subdivided beneath the furnace floor (forming the eight heating channels) These have
been closed off using bricks and clay during the final use to slowly cool down the interior
chamber These bricks are still sitting on a layer of ashes seven centimers thick
To
the south 3 four smaller fireplaces containing the same remains were each covered by a
dome (of which only one foundation level remains most likely to create additional draft These
are similarly subdivided beneath the furnace floor (forming the eight heating channels)
The
construction of this furnace was done in two stages digging through the soil levels (dry
bricks) and fast built up using dry bricks and lining Small alignment errors suggest that this
furnace was used for a short period in response to a specific demand to produce a certain
number of artefacts When this demand was met, the metallurgists destroyed the structure to
make room for a new phase of occupation, leaving testimony of the final use in place (e g the
bricks to close the north heating channels and the used crucible The large dome forming the
closed chamber mould and the smaller domes of the southern fireplaces were demolished
The excavation has shown that the remaining floor level was voluntarily left in place in
antiquity During the leveling of the structure, the south east and north west corners were
pierced to fill up the heating channels with large fragments) up to the floor level
pXRF
mapping of the casting funnels 2 and the floor itself revealed a surface contamination
by copper with low tin, lead and arsenic A small copper fragment embedded in the mould fill
had ca 2 5 tin, 0 5 arsenic and 0 2 lead (ICP OES analysis We therefore propose to
interpret this furnace as a monovalve mould completely integrated into the structure of a
cross shaped furnace used for the production of copper alloy plates/ sheets The four casting
funnels were most likely supplied by four melting furnaces located next east towards the
Deffufa to be confirmed by a future excavation) The plate is narrower than the door allowing
the monovalve mould to be used several times The door 5 closing the chamber is held at its
base by two wooden rods which fit into two hinges 7 These plates may have been used to
decorate monumetal wooden doors cfr 9 TT 100 Tomb of Rekh Mi Ré to be cut in order to
create furnature decoration cfr 10 Museum of Khartoum)
This
furnace technology was not invented ex nihilo Rapid construction was performed without
visible repairs indicating that the metallurgists mastered this technology which may be local
or imported (no similar earlier models are currently known anywhere We suggest that this
unique monovalve mould in a heated chamber may derive from de waxing furnace technology
wherein lost wax moulds were heated in a similar furnace with a pierced floor
Similar
cross furnaces were found in Pi Ramesse Egypt right next to large scale bronze
melting batteries Pusch 1990 1994 illustrating the continued use and adaptation of this
spectacular furnace type in Egypt centuries later
Excavation techniques
Charles
Bonnet and his team have established a methodology that voluntarily leaves sections intact during the
excavation of structures, constructions, dwellings This approach offers the opportunity to undertake
complementary research at a later time, either by external archaeologists or the excavation team itself We have
followed his example by leaving half of the heating chamber below the floor level intact
1:
Art and History Museum, Brussels Egyptian Antiquities section 2: KU Leuven, Earth and Environmental Sciences
3:
Co directrice de la mission archéologique Kerma Doukki Gel CNRS, UMR 8167 (Orient & Méditerranée), équipe Mondes Pharaoniques 4: Co directeur de la mission archéologique Kerma Doukki Gel Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres
1) Plan
2) East side: view of casting funnels: Marion Berti , Daniel Berti , Alfred Hidber , Thomas Kohler, Alain Peillex and Béatrice Privati
Georges Verly
1 Frederik W. Rademakers 2 Séverine Marchi 3 Charles Bonnet 4
3) South side
small vaulted fireplaces: Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne
4) Ortho
internal view : Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne
5) West side:
Georges Verly and Bruno Derenne
6) Ortho
external view: Georges Verly
and Bruno
Derenne
7) Hinge of removable door:
Georges Verly
8) North side
big fireplace: Georges Verly
9) TT100:
Davies Norman de Garis 10) Cut Lion:
Charles Bonnet and Ahmed Hamad Siddig
Having the foresight to leave part of the furnace unexcavated and its remains carefully covered at the time, Bonnet
now offered the opportunity to a new generation of archaeometallurgists to re excavate this furnace during the
2018 2019 campaign and create a full photogrammetry 3D model. Drawing on insights from pre excavation
experimentation (based on the original excavation reports), newly discovered features and in situ pXRF
measurements, a completely new interpretation of this furnace is now proposed. Its functioning within the chaîne
opératoire of bronze production offers exciting new perspectives on the existing technological know how in the
region at this time. It is the first ancient example world wide of this particular casting technology currently known.