Lost LABYRINTH Of Egypt Scanned

Total Expedition Time Line

1800 31 December: survey by two engineers of the French expedition, Caristie and Martin, published by Jomard in "Description de l'Egypte, Antiquités, volume IV (Pancoucke edition, Paris1821), 478-485 Comment: valuable as the first scientific survey, carried out earlier than the cutting of the Bahr Wahbi canal across the site

1818 Labyrinth Field examination by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, as decribed in his book: "Narrative of the Operations and Recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples,tombs and excavations in Egypt and Nubia; and a journey to the coast of the Red Sea, in search of ancient Berenice; and another in the oasis of Jupiter Ammon (1820). After Belzoni’s early death in 1823, Sarah Banne his wife and travel companion still lived for many years in Brussels (Belgium).

1820s: date uncertain: survey by John Gardner Wilkinson, published in his "Modern Egypt and Thebes, being a description of Egypt, including the information required for travellers in that country, volume II (London, 1843), 337-340

1837: survey by Howard Vyse and Perring, published in their "Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, volume III (London, 1842), 82-83 Comment: first record of the present canal across the site

1840s: survey and excavation by the expedition under Richard Lepsius, published in his "Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopen I (Berlin, 1849), plates 46-49, with posthumous publication of his notes in "Denkmaeler Text II (Berlin, 1904), 11-30 Comment: this is the most accurate published account of the site, from a time when the ruins of the Hellenistic and Roman village survived over the area of the Labyrinth. (Lepsius interpreted those ruins as part of the original complex.)

1862 August: excavations around the site by Luigi Vassalli, published in the journal "Recueil de Travaux 6 (1885), 37-41

1888-1889: excavations and survey by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, published in his reports "Hawara, Biahmu and Arsinoe" (London,1889) and "Kahun, Gurob and Hawara" (London, 1890): his letters home are now in the Griffith Institute, Oxford (the 'Petrie Journals'), and his pocket books (the 'Petrie Notebooks') are in the Petrie Museum (published with Secure Data Services in the Petrie Museum Archives CD-ROM, 1999) Comment: the main achievement of Petrie lies in his survey of the pyramid and its inner chambers, and in his discovery and rescue of the famous encaustic mummy portraits from the Roman Period burials north of the pyramid. In other areas the quality of his work falls below modern standards, reflecting the early date in the history of archaeology and in his own career. His survey of the area around the pyramid is inadequately recorded, and most of the tombs were emptied by workmen without Petrie himself ever seeing the finds in place.

1892: exploration of the Roman Period cemeteries at Hawara by R. v. Kaufmann, mentioned as the discoverer of a group burial containing eight mummies, in "Renate Germer, Das Geheimnis der Mumien, Ewiges Leben am Nil (Berlin 1998), 150-151

1911: excavation of the Labyrinth area and the Hellenistic and Roman Period cemeteries by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, published in his "The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Mazghuneh (London 1912), and "Roman Portraits and Memphis IV" (London 1911) Comment: in this season Petrie uncovered some of the most remarkable sculpture fragments, as well as more structures within the area of the Labyrinth.

1973 Fathi Melek and Hishmat Adib excavated 1972 some shaft tombs of the Middle and New Kingdom (Orientalia 42 (1973), 404)

In June 1974 excavated a mission of the Service des Antiquités under the direction of Motawi Balboush in the east of the pyramid from Hawara. They found the undisturbed tomb of a certain "Kheif Maakht". The tomb is not yet published, cf. Orientalia 44 (1975), 208-9

1984 Ali el-Khouli excavated 1983 about 20 tombs of the New Kingdom, Orientalia 53 (1984), 370

2000 Belgian survey "the Hawara 2000 surface-survey of the Faiyum Project" (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo) (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Section: Ancient History). - Willy Clarysse (General director) - Inge Uytterhoeven (Field director) - Anny Cottry (Photographer) - Katrien Cousserier (Archaeologist) - Bart Demarsin (Archaeologist) - Lieven Loots (Archaeologist) - Sylvie Marchand (Pottery specialist - IFAO) - Veerle Muyldermans (Archaeologist) - Ilona Regulski (Egyptologist) - Katrien Slechten (Archaeologist) > - Ayman Mohammad Sedik el-Hakim (Inspector) - Ashraf Sobhy Rezkalla (Inspector)

21 april 2004 Groundwater examination of Hawara, by Keatings, K.; Tassie, G.J.; Flower, R.J.; Hassan, F.A.; Hamdan, M.A.R.; Hughes, M.; Arrowsmith, Carol. Published in Geoarchaeology magazine, volume 22 (n°5) 2007 Wiley interscience

2008 February-March Mataha-Expedition: the Egyptian-Belgian geophysic research of the Hawara Necropolis (Pyramid + Labyrinth) by the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics and Ghent University. Associate Prof. dr. Abbas Mohamed Abbas (National Research Institute of Astronomy & Geophysics, with the support of Ghent University. General Director of the NRIAG Geophysic Survey was Associate Prof. dr. Abbas Mohamed Abbas (National Research Institute of Astronomy & Geophysics and Member of the Egyptian Committee of the Protection of Antiquities from Environmental Effects).

March 2008 additional survey of the Hawara pyramid (Cairo University - Wroclaw University). General Director Prof. Dr. Alaaeldin Shaheen, Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology of Cairo University