Old Kingdom graffiti and mason’s marks in the Gunn MSS, Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

Description

Battiscombe Gunn worked as an epigrapher alongside Cecil Firth at Saqqara during the Service des antiquités de l'Égypte excavations of the Teti Pyramid Cemetery between 1920–1922. Gunn recorded numerous graffiti and painted mason’s marks in this cemetery and others on the Saqqara plateau, many of which have remained unpublished, especially those from Old Kingdom monuments. Even in the most recent publications of tombs in this area have tended to exclude the scratched and gouged semi-cursive additions and drawings, even possible architectural sketches. This paper will present some examples of graffiti and mason’s marks from Gunn’s archive, now held by the Griffith Institute, re-contextualising them where possible alongside other published examples, and discuss the value of further archival research to complement field research in Saqqara.

Period	17 Jul 2023
Event title	Graffiti workshop, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford
Event type	Workshop
Location	Oxford, United KingdomShow on map