Stephen P. Harvey’s team recovered thousands of carved and painted limestone fragments from the main mortuary-temple area at South Abydos. The surviving decoration depicted gods such as Osiris alongside battle scenes of Ahmose defeating the Hyksos, while inscriptions named Avaris and King Apophis. A separate mudbrick temple bore the name of Ahmose-Nefertari, the king’s wife and sister.
Stephen P. Harvey’s excavations reveal painted temple with Hyksos battle scenes
Site mentioned
📍 Pyramid of Ahmose I at Abydos
Key facts
- Charles Currelly led the early excavations that uncovered the South Abydos complex, town and cemetery; Stephen P. Harvey later led further investigations.
- Harvey’s team recovered thousands of limestone-block fragments from the main mortuary-temple site, some ornately carved and painted.
- The temple featured large octagonal pillars, elaborate doorways and ceilings painted with stars.
- Painted walls showed gods including Osiris and Ra-Horakhty, plus battle scenes depicting Ahmose defeating the Hyksos.
- Inscriptions mentioned Avaris, the Hyksos capital in the Delta, and Apophis (Apepi), a late Hyksos king.
- Harvey argued that the temple was constructed late in Ahmose’s reign, after the conflict with the Hyksos.
- A mudbrick temple was stamped with the name of Ahmose-Nefertari, Ahmose’s wife and sister; it may have been accompanied by a shrine or subsidiary pyramid for the queen.
- Other buildings served as administrative and production centers for the royal court.
- Ahmose’s complex and cult remained active at the site for at least 300 years after his death; a stela from Ramesses the Great’s reign was found there.
Sources
archive.org
Linked in video description
A Night at the Museumwatershedmagazine.com
Currelly spent nine years in Egypt, and his adventures read like scenes out of an Indiana Jones movie: excavating fortress walls from 2000 BC; mapping the ...
Charles Trick Currelly - Artefacts of Excavationegyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk
Canadian Egyptologist; he joined the staff of the Egypt Exploration Fund and excavated under Petrie at Abydos, 1902-3, at Ehnasya, 1903-4 and in the Sinai, ...
Charles Trick Currellyen.wikipedia.org
Eventually, Currelly was responsible for a dig in Egypt where he discovered the cenotaph and tomb of Ahmose I. Curelly continued to work in Ehnasya, Lower Egypt ...
Charles T. Currelly | Royal Ontario Museumrom.on.ca
Although trained as a Methodist minister, following his graduation from the University of Toronto, he devoted himself to archaeological work, first in Egypt, ...
Two Letters from B.P. Grenfell to C.T. Currelly in the Royal ...utppublishing.com
During the 1905/6 excavation season in Egypt, then, Currelly was as hard at work collecting for Toronto as he was digging in Deir el-Bahari for the EEF.
Steve Harveystephenleeharvey.com
Stephen Lee Harvey, MA, RPA has been active on his own as a cultural resource management consultant since 2022.
About – The Abydos South Projectabydossouth.org
In 1993, Stephen Harvey came to south Abydos and founded the Ahmose and Tetisheri Project, first at the University of Pennsylvania and then later the ...
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