Visualizing an Ancient Egyptian Queen

This question will be investigated by the project Visualizing an Ancient Egyptian Queen - The Tomb of the 1st Dynasty Queen Meret-Neith at Abydos, which is conducted by the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, together with the University of Vienna and the University of Technology in Vienna. The tomb of this woman, who lived around 5000 years ago, was already discovered in 1899 by Flinders Petrie who erroneously assigned it to a male king simply because of its monumental dimensions and the fact that it was located right in the middle of the royal cemetery of the 1 st and 2nd Dynasty. Once it became clear that the tomb indeed belonged to a queen named Meret-Neith, speculations around the significance of this queen and her role in the early Pharaonic state ensued. These speculations lasted for the past 120 years because her tomb had not been given its due attention while almost all other royal tombs in the cemetery had been reinvestigated in recent years. The new interdisciplinary project comprising international researchers will re-excavate the tomb of Meret-Neith by modern archaeological methods, document its architecture with photogrammetric technology and record and analyze its inventory. The latter applies to both archaeological finds from the time of Petries excavations today located in different museums world-wide as well as to materials uncovered by the new project in Egypt. Simultaneously, relevant archaeological evidence from the tombs of courtiers and contemporaries at other sites will be documented and compared with Abydos so as to gain new insights into the history, chronology, economy, administration and society of the 1 st Dynasty. In doing so, it will be possible to shed new light on the socio-political landscape and living conditions of Meret-Neith in order to answer questions about the role she would have played at the court and in the early state of Egypt, and if she may have even acted as a ruler. In addition, her tomb will be subject to an accurate architectural analysis and digital documentation resulting in a virtual reconstruction of its architecture that will allow for a dynamic and interactive visualization of the tomb, its inventory and the era of queen Meret-Neith.