Helwan - A Necropolis of Ancient Memphis

This project deals with post-excavation analysis and publication of archaeological materials from the necropolis of Helwan in the region of Memphis. Memphis was the first capital city of the territorial state of Egypt in early Pharaonic times. The site of Helwan makes up 84% of all Memphite tombs of the early period and the individuals buried here were primarily members of the middle and lower classes of this early complex society. The fact that this site largely represents the non-elite strata of this society renders this work extremely important in view of the elite focus in traditional Egyptian archaeology. The archaeological data from previous work at the site and especially from 218 tombs uncovered during recent excavations at Helwan cover about 300-400 years of occupation between c. 3000-2600 B.C.E. Founded upon a solid basis of modern archaeological methods and theories, these primary data provide detailed insights and valuable interpretive avenues to investigate many crucial aspects of early Egyptian society, including its structure and organization, palaeo-demography, urbanization, funerary practices and rituals, identities, material culture and economy as well as the bioarchaeology of this cemetery population. Since the excavations by the Chief Investigator have now ended, this application seeks the funding to conduct comprehensive post-excavation analyses in the field and interpretation of a variety of materials over three years, including the pottery, non-ceramic artefacts as well as bioarchaeological remains and bring these to publication in due time.

Helwan is a modern town about 25 km south of Cairo. An Egyptian mission excavated a vast ancient necropolis in its vicinity during the early 20th century that dates to the early periods of Pharaonic civilization (ca. 3300-2600 v. Chr.). Today we know that those who were buried here were the inhabitants of Egypts first capital city, Memphis, and especially members of the lower and middle classes of society. Unfortunately, this important site was not adequately published which is why the Primary Investigator of this project, E. Christiana Köhler, started to investigate in the late 1990s. She and her team conducted a new comprehensive investigation over the next 20 years, documented thousands of artefacts of the old excavations and additionally discovered 218 new tombs that were excavated very carefully and by modern standards. The material from these recent excavations are the main object of the FWF-funded project Helwan A Necropolis of Ancient Memphis that was conducted at the University of Vienna between 2015 and 2018 and that is now completed. The aim of this project was to conclude the archaeological documentation, to fully analyze the material and to interpret and publish the projects findings. The amount of this material is very impressive, the team completely recorded the human remains of 229 individuals, over 70.000 botanical and over 13.000 animal remains, more than 150.000 fragments of pottery plus hundreds of complete vessels as well as more than 2000 other artefacts; the material was analyzed, drawn, digitized, photographed and entered into a comprehensive main project database that now lays the foundation for further statistical analyses as well as interpretations. These findings allow for exciting insights into the lives and death of an urban society some 5000 years ago, its demography, bioarchaeology, social structure, burial customs, religious beliefs, material culture, technologies, crafts and economy as well as trade and exchange with other regions. Several doctoral dissertations, a master thesis as well as numerous publications, including a monograph of 470 pages, and contributions to international conferences have arisen from this project already. Many publications are also in preparation. The project aims as formulated in the grant application have been largely met and, thanks to the funding by the FWF, the project was successfully concluded.