(Re)discovered Borchardt's cache: Courtiers of King Nyuserre revisited
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10510837" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10510837 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
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DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
(Re)discovered Borchardt's cache: Courtiers of King Nyuserre revisited
Original language description
During the excavation of the mastaba of Vizier Ptahshepses at Abusir in 1968, Zbyněk Žába, the then director of the Czechoslovak mission, found almost two thousand pieces of relief fragments in one of the rooms of the spacious tomb. The assemblage included numbered and unnumbered pieces that had been put there by German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt who uncovered three royal pyramids and several non-royal tombs at Abusir in the first decade of the 20th century. All items in the so-called Borchardt's cache were documented by Žába's team. Regrettably, the publication plans were frustrated by Žába's premature death. A short time ago, in 2021, notes of Žába's team concerning Borchardt's cache were found in the archives of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Charles University, Prague. A thorough examination of the field documentation (photos and drawings) showed that many of the fragments originated from the excavation of Nyuserre's pyramid complex and the adjacent non-royal mastabas. These findings are in accordance with the time span of German newspapers found near the fragments under scrutiny (1903-1904). The study of the (re)discovered Borchardt's cache gave an impetus to a closer examination of the dignitaries depicted in the mortuary temple of Nyuserre's pyramid complex. The only source for such research is the remains of the original wall decoration in a considerably fragmentary state. Some of the fragments were partly published by Ludwig Borchardt in his monograph Das Grabdenkmal des Königs Ne-userre' (1907), but without any visual accompaniment, which in several cases led to inaccuracies regarding the transcription of the names and titles of the dignitaries that were passed on and repeatedly cited later, especially in studies of prosopographical character. Moreover, several fragments referenced as originating from the mortuary temple came in fact from nearby non-royal tombs. The tangled modern history of these fragments, which have been discovered three times already (1900s, 1968, 2021), offers a possibility of a deeper insight into Nyuserre's court.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
D - Article in proceedings
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60102 - Archaeology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Article name in the collection
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology
ISBN
978-84-9159-680-6
ISSN
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e-ISSN
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Number of pages
20
Pages from-to
433-452
Publisher name
Universidad de Jaén, UJA Editorial
Place of publication
Jaén
Event location
Universidad de Jaén
Event date
Jun 21, 2022
Type of event by nationality
WRD - Celosvětová akce
UT code for WoS article
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