CORONA satellite image (1968)

名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Published for
PRELIMINARY REPORTAKORIS
2013
Edited by
Kawanishi, Hiroyuki
Tsujimura, Sumiyo
Hanasaka, Tetsu
Doctoral Program in History and Anthropology, University of Tsukuba
1–1–1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571, Japan
Printed by NAKANISHI PRINTING CO., LTD. Japan
Copyright ©2014 by KAWANISHI, Hiroyuki

CONTENTS
1 PREFACE ............................................................................................................................Kawanishi, H.
2 PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE LABOR AND ORGANIZATION IN THE PTOLEMAICQUARRIES NEAR AKORIS ......................................................................................................... Suto, Y.
3 CLAY MAGICAL HUMAN FIGURINES UNEARTHED FROM TIHNA EL-GABAL (AKORIS).................................................................................................................................................Hanasaka, T.
4 THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD BURIALS AT AKORIS ............................................Tsujimura, S.
5 LASER SCANNING IN AKORIS ....................................................................... Hori, Y. and Ajioka, O.

名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

1 Preface
Kawanishi, Hiroyuki
Epigraphic vestiges concerning Akoris, the Greek name for T3-dhnt in the New Kingdom andaround the Third Intermediate Period, are mentioned below:(1) According to the MM. G. Lefebvre and L. Barry report1), at the time of 1903 and 1904 somestone blocks with the cartouche of Ramesses II were scattered in the Hypostyle Hall of theWestern Temple constructed by the Roman Emperor Nero. This was the first scientific dig in
the main area of the Akoris ruins.
(2) A large rock cartouche of Ramesses III, together with a relief depicting Ramesses III following
Amen-Re before Sobek-Re, is extant on the western precipice 100m south of the city area2).
(3) The Wilbour Papyrus, dated from the 4th year of the reign of Ramesses V, mentions the Amen
Temple under the authority of the prophet Hōri in Akoris together with the domain under his
authority3).
(4) Two stelae donated by Pinudjem I and Osorkon III respectively were unearthed in the Western
Temple Area by our mission4).
(5) In one of two shafts in a funerary chapel (Tomb no. 3 in the report) adjacent to the Western
Temple Area, a quadrupled wooden anthropomorphic coffin was found by H. E. Abou Seif in
19265). P. Lacau’s decipherment of the coffin text indicated that it was for the prophet of

Fig. 1 Map of Egypt.

Fig. 2 Sites and villages near Akoris.

Fig. 3

Map of Akoris.

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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Amen, the governor of the town/city and the vizier, and his name was Ankh-Ounnofir6).
Additionally based on the style of the coffin and funerary statuettes, he surmised that it wasfrom the 20th–23rd Dynasties.
(6) The Pi(Ankh)y’s triumphant stela says that his army attacked Akoris to destroy its ramparts andmassacre the northern allied troops commanded by Tefnakt7).
Thus, considering these epigraphic vestiges, Akoris seems to have been under the rigid control of
the 19th and 20th Dynasties through the temple, and to have been a military and religious center in
the antagonism between the north and the south districts when the Third Intermediate Period came.
On the other hand, as shown in our previous reports, the southwest area, which occupied the opposite
side of the Western Temple Area constructed on the north side of the crag, has been under excavation
since 2002, and various kinds of archaeological relics dated from the end of the New Kingdom tothe beginning of the Late Period have been revealed. These relics from this secular area suggest thesocial rise of the middle class in subsistence such as in trade and manufacturing, and burial customs.
The political appearance delivered by those epigraphic vestiges and the social, secularappearance shown by the archaeological evidence may be understood to be contradictory with eachother. However, given that social mobility was increasing from the end of the New Kingdom withthe weakening of dynastic supreme power, these two trends seem to be attributed to the urban
conditions whereby the city was not confined to the political, religious center under the dynastic in
those days.
Notes
1) Lefebvre, MM. G. et L. Barry, 1905 ‘Rapport sur les fouilles exécutées à Tehnéh 1903–1904’, ASAE vol. 6,
pp. 141–158.
2) Habachi, L., 1974 ‘Three Large Lock-Stelae Carved by Ramesses III near Quarries’, JARCE vol. 11, pp. 69–75.
3) Gardiner, A. H. (ed.), 1948 & 1952 The Wilbour Papyrus, Oxford University Press.
4) Kawanishi, H. and S. Tsujimura (eds.), 1995 Akoris: Report of the Excavations at Akoris in Middle Egypt 1981–1992,
Kyoto Shobo.
5) Abou Seif, H. E., 1926 ‘Rapport sur les fouilles faites à Tehneh en Janvier et Février 1926’, ASAE vol. 26, pp. 32–38.
6) Lacau, P., ‘Note sur la Tombe No. 3 de Tehneh’, Ibid. pp. 38–41.
7) Grimal, N.-C., 1981 La Stéle triomphale de Pi(cAnkh)y au Musée de Caire (JE48862 et 47086–47089), Études sur la
Propagande Royale Égyptienne I, pp. 46–49, IFAO.

2 Preliminary Remarks on the Labor andOrganization in the Ptolemaic Quarries near Akoris
Suto, Yoshiyuki
Our investigations at ancient limestone quarries located in the vicinity of Akoris have beenoffering valuable insights into the organization of the labor force in one of the most important
industries in Hellenistic Egypt1). The key evidence is the graffiti left on the vertical walls andhorizontal ceilings of galleries often written in Greek and demotic side by side. Even today the mostsubstantial contribution to the economic history of the activities at quarries in the Greco-Roman
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Egypt is the monograph by K. Fitzler published more than a century ago2). While the papyrologicalevidences used by Fitzler and other scholars tended to be concerned with the administrative aspectsof the quarries, such as the provision of foodstuff for the miners (e.g. P. Petrie II, 4 (8)), the graffiti
left on the walls and ceilings provide vivid snapshots of the ongoing operations at these quarries
under the Ptolemaic rule. Although there are still many uncertainties about the nature and functionof these graffiti, it now seems worth while to summarize the basic feature of them in order tocontribute to the better understanding of the workings of labor and organization in the quarries.
A standard graffito, either in Greek or demotic, is composed of three basic elements, date,personal name, and tripartite numeral. The date in a typical Greek graffito is almost invariably
represented by the regnal year, the name of Egyptian month in the Greek financial calendar, andthe single day. The way of presenting date in demotic graffiti seems to have been more varied. In
sections J and L, where the extracting work was in progress around 35th year of Ptolemy II (251/0BC), the demotic graffiti never mention the regnal year. Furthermore, the dates in these demotic
texts of Sections J and L are presented with two or three consecutive months, apparently denoting a
prolonged period, rather than a single day stipulated in their Greek counterparts. R. Takahashi
once noted that the Greek writers/readers seem to have been interested in the precise day ofcompletion of quarrying, the date of examination of the stone, or that of delivery, while demotic
users were concerned with how many months the quarrying procedure took3). The result of theanalysis of the tripartite numerals presented below, however, suggests that the “period” denoted in
the demotic texts seems to have been related to a sort of administrative term rather than the
duration actually needed in the quarrying itself. In other sections, demotic texts also stipulate asingle date as their Greek counterparts do. Curiously enough, some Greek graffiti in Sections R and
T seem to denote a certain period rather than a single day.
As for the month names, all of them are referred to in the Greek graffiti (Fig. 1), which strongly
indicates that the quarrying was a perennial work, though a conspicuous seasonal fluctuation, thealternation of the first six busy months and the next six slack months on the financial calendar4),
suggests that not all the workers in the quarry were forced to work throughout the year. Thisobservation corroborates the recent view that not only corvée labor but also paid labor was practiced
in the quarries. It should also be noted that these graffiti were not the simple records of the daily
progress of work, something like that we encounter in the quarries of Pharaonic times.
Personal names on the graffiti include that of the Greeks and of the Egyptians, even of the Jews
in the case of the graffiti found beneath the unfinished colossus. Their distribution suggests thatlaborers were sometimes organized according to their ethnic groupings. For example, most of thepersonal names in Section F are that of the native Egyptians, while there are only Greek, or rather
Macedonian, names observable in the graffiti of Section U. The fact that almost all of the Egyptian
workers in Section F had a specific title designated with two letters E + L, certainly theeleutherolatomos (free-mason), suggests that they were not prisoners nor dependent laborers but freeindependent experts of mining. Hence the Greeks, who are usually presented without any specifictitles, must have been also free laborers.
T. Endo has already elucidated the general principle of the tripartite numerals at the end of the5名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Fig. 1 Frequency of the month in the Greek graffiti.

Fig. 2 Frequency of the volume (cubic cubit) in
the Greek graffiti.

graffiti. They represent width, depth, and heightin horizontal galleries, and length (lateral width),height, and width in vertical trenches, precisely inthis order. The basic unit seems to have been ca.
0.54m, which is fairly close to the royal cubit(0.525m) used in the Pharaonic times. It is now
certain that most of the tripartite numerals in thegraffiti refer to the volume of rocks removed
during the course of cutting narrow trenches forFig. 3 Innermost wall of a small horizontal gallery
below Section F.

the purpose of extracting large limestone blocks.
In other words, the tripartite numerals are notrelated to the actual size of the blocks to be extracted. This observation strongly indicates that laborin the quarries was assessed in terms of the cubic capacity of the rock to be shifted, as was exactly thecase with the contemporary enterprises on dykes and canals.
The frequencies of the cubic capacity are varied (Fig. 2). The shifted amount of rocks tends tobe larger in vertical trenches (E & F, G & H, J & L) and smaller in horizontal galleries (S & T).
Except for some extremely large amounts denoted in Sections L, the mean of the amount falls
between 10–15 cubic cubits in vertical trenches, while that of horizontal galleries falls between 5–10
cubic cubits, respectively. Since the cutting of the galleries and vertical trenches seem to have been
carried out by extracting smaller standardized blocks in a systematic way (Fig. 3), it is difficult to
suppose that such works needed several months to complete.
It is thus very tempting to propose, though provisionally, that these graffiti were the end resultof the assessments of the amount of labor in each mining unit of latomoi during specific period, thepurpose of which must have been to calculate the appropriate wage or foodstuff for them.
Notes1) Suto, Y. and R. Takahashi, 2012 ‘Bilingual Graffiti from the Ptolemaic Quarries at Akoris and Zawiyat al-Sultan’,Actes du 26e Congrès international de papyrologie, Genève 16-21 août 2010, pp. 729–738, Droz.
2) Fitzler K., 1910 Steinbrüche und Bergwerke im ptolemäischen und römischen Ägypten: Ein Beitrag zur antiken

6名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Quelle & Meyer.
3) Preliminary Report Akoris 2005, pp. 21–23.
4) Preliminary Report Akoris 2011, pp. 18–23.

3 Clay Magical Human Figurines Unearthed from
Tihna el-Gabal (Akoris)
Hanasaka, Tetsu
Introduction The purpose of this paper is to introduce the clay human figurines unearthedfrom Tihna el-Gabal (Akoris) during a decade of excavation seasons spanning 2002 to 2012. We
discovered 69 figurines in total; 59 fragments from the South Area and 10 fragments from the WestArea in Akoris 1).
Generally speaking, clay figurines are crude and negligible products usually made and used bycommon people. They are different artifacts if compared with the valuable masterpieces produced
for the elite. It is hard to generalize the ordinary forms and functions of clay figurines since they
are not formalized in Egyptian art but come in various types manufactured and used in daily life indifferent communities. E. Teeter pointed out that clay figurines have been evaluated as artifacts
used and produced by non-elites rather than art objects used and produced for elite and hecategorized clay figurines as ‘fork art’2).
There have been few similar examples found in other sites in Egypt or in neighboring areasthat correspond to the figurines from Akoris. As the first step for further studies, this paper will
begin by focusing on the basic features of these clay human figurines from Akoris, especially the
manufacturing methods and their functions or use in daily life.
Location of our finds (Ch. 1 Fig. 3) The South Area of Akoris is the valley floor at the southwest
end of the city zone and it extends down the south slope of the crag and stretches across thesouthern lowland to the next crag. We found many mud brick constructions and artifacts in theSouth Area, which have been dated from the end of New Kingdom to the Late Period (LP), mainlyin the Third Intermediate Period (TIP), judging from our chronological studies of potteries andother archaeological remains. Unfortunately there were no fragments found in situ, but there are
59 fragments unearthed from the thick earthen fill of the South Area without a concentration offind spots and layers.
On the other hand, there are more than 60 rock-cut shaft tombs and tomb chapels built in orafter the Old Kingdom in the West Area. There were 10 fragments unearthed from earthen fill thatplugged up several tomb shafts. We found 4 fragments around the rock-cut mastaba which is theoldest archaeological construction in Akoris dating back to the 5th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom;
one was unearthed from the entrance passage to the chapel, one from the small shaft tomb built infront of the façade and two from the northern shaft tomb built at the top on the rock-cut mastaba.
There were many other finds which were unconnected to the grave goods that came from the upper
layer. In our past studies we interpreted that these tombs and the whole region of the West Area
7

名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

were reused during the TIP to the LP as a religious/ritual zone.
In addition we excavated various types of hand modeled clay figurine
from the South and West areas; for example the clay cobra figurines
counting almost 300 in total mentioned in our last report (Fig. 1)3). In
that report, I pointed out that the clay cobra figurines belong to the firsthalf of the TIP. Moreover, we can safely say that the excavation conditions
Fig. 1 Cobra figurine.

and layers of the clay human figurines are identical to that of the clay
cobra figurines. For this reason, it seems reasonable to infer that the clay

human figurines belong to the almost same period as the clay cobra figurines. If we take an earlier
belonging period regarding the clay human figurines, it could be dated between the ends of the
New Kingdom to the beginning of the LP. Below we discuss the making methods and the functionsof the clay human figurines.
General information regarding the clay human figurines The clay human figurines from
Akoris were roughly hand modeled using Nile silt and fine fired to a reddish-brown color. We havenot found workshop or unfired clay examples, however it seems quite probable that these clay
human figurines were manufactured somewhere around the South Area.
The figurines were clearly made to represent the human/anthropoid form. The artifacts have alarge spherical head, a flat body pinched in what looks to be the abdomen/waist section, and arms
and legs which project shortly outward at the four corners of the main body. However, these coarse
figurines indicate no particular sexualized physical features such as breasts and genitals even though
they are, so to speak, naked. Nor do they have facial expressions or depictions of hair. Thus wecannot distinguish their sex differences nor distinguish a representation of age from theirappearance. Moreover, there are some fragments that do not look like human forms at first glance.
These artifacts have irregular shaped and abbreviated bodies; that is to say they are roundedtriangle (ex. Fig. 2 nos. 11–13 and 26) or rectangular shapes without arms and legs (ex. Fig. 2 nos.
19–20 and 27).

Even though there are many types of the body shape, we termed all of thefragments from Akoris ‘human’ figurines in this paper. This is because there are common externalfeatures on the figurines as described below, and so, we suggest, it is reasonable to suppose that they
are the same figurines in kind with same functions.
Unfortunately, almost all the figurines unearthed from Akoris are in a fragmentary state. In
many cases, the head part of the figurines is broken off entirely or badly chipped away. Among the
69 figurines there are 27 examples which have been retained almost whole from head to legs. The
largest fragment within this collection of almost complete examples measures h. 9.10 × w. 5.50cm(Fig. 2 no. 1), the smallest one measures h. 5.71 × w. 3.12cm (Fig. 2 no. 20). It is likely that the
average size of the figurines from Akoris would be about 7.5cm in height accounting the head partfor one third in the total height, and the body would be approximately 4.5cm in width and 1.5cm inthickness.
Decorations The most characteristic feature of the figurines from Akoris is the small circular
clay lump attached on the central line on the front of the body section. We have 54 figurines in total
with these clay lumps, 47 of them have one lump. The lump was attached in the vicinity of the
8名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Fig. 2 Clay Human Figurines.
1: h. 9.10 × w. 5.50 cm (03-SA133);	  2: h. 8.71 × w. 4.92 cm (02-SA087);	  3: h. 8.70 × w. 4.98 cm (04-SA160);
4: h. 7.93 × w. 4.35 cm (02-SA247);	  5: h. 8.20 × w. 4.36 cm (07-SA118);	  6: h. 6.16 × w. 3.86 cm (08-SA159);
7: h. 7.35 × w. 5.10 cm (02-WA156);	  8: h. 5.78 × w. 4.44 cm (07-SA253);	  9: h.8. 35 × w. 4.89 cm (08-SA184);
10: h. 7.72 × w. 4.55 cm (02-SA008);
11: h. 8.68 × w.4.87 cm (07-SA336);
12: h. 7.58 × w. 4.32 cm (07-SA337);
13: h. 6.88 × w. 3.93 cm (07-WA067);
14: h. 8.79 × w. 4.28 cm (02-WA106);
15: h. 6.23 × w. 3.34 cm (04-SA214);
16: h. 7.45 × w. 4.58 cm (02-WA112);
17: h. 6.22 × w. 4.01 cm (07-SA289);
18: h. 8.35 × w. 6.35 cm (04-SA179);
19: h. 6.77 × w. 4.27 cm (07-SA072);
20: h. 5.71 × w. 3.12 cm (05-WA006);
21: h. 6.00 × w. 4.49 cm (07-SA148);
22: h. 5.58 × w. 4.02 cm (03-SA219);
23: h. 4.26 × w. 3.51 cm (06-SA045);
24: h. 5.80 × w. 5.14 cm (06-SA062);
25: h. 6.02 × w. 4.29 cm (03-SA168);
26: h. 5.50 × w. 4.30 cm (04-SA176);
27: h. 7.25 × w. 4.33 cm (06-SA344);
28: h. 7.91 × w. 4.69 cm (06-WA025);
29: h. 5.81 × w. 5.00 cm (07-SA248);
30: h. 5.74 × w. 4.76 cm (07-SA156);
31: h. 4.95 × w. 4.53 cm (07-SA167);
32: h. 5.03 × w. 5.05 cm (07-SA195).

9名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

abdomen or chest of the body section. It seems likely that this represents a protruding navel.
Another 6 fragments have two lumps which are aligned vertically at the chest and the abdomen(Fig. 2 nos. 18–20), and one other fragment has four lumps at the chest (Fig. 2 no. 17), the abdomen
and the shoulders at the front of the body section.
The other decoration seen on the figurines are red lines. We have 8 figurines with one to three
red horizontal lines painted on the front of the body part, 5 of these examples have one red line
(Fig. 2 nos. 6, 18 and 30), 2 examples have two lines and 1 example has three lines (Fig. 2 no. 11).
We also note that a similar sort of decoration technique was confirmed on the clay cobra figurines
unearthed from Akoris, counting 19 examples among 292 figurines in total.
Methods Used in Making the Figurines In turn, we propose a general way of making the clay
human figurines from Akoris may have been manufactured. The figurines were roughly handmodeled and we couldn’t confirm traces of tool uses such as a spatula.
An important point to emphasize about the method used in making these figurines is the wayof forming the head. There is a clay projection about 1-2cm long projecting from the body section(ex. Fig. 2 no.5). In other words we suggest that this projection is the ‘neck’ part of the figurines.
The spherical head sections were formed by taking a lump of clay and wrapping it around theneck part.
Among the 69 figurines in total, there are 45 fragments which have retained the neck part.
The neck parts could be recognized visibly as a result of breaking off in the middle in 5 fragments(Fig. 2 nos. 8 and 32) and completely peeling off the wrapping clay around the neck in 4 fragments(Fig. 2 nos. 10 and 19). In another 36 fragments, the wrapping clay that forms the head had beenchipped off and the neck was exposed from this crack. If this breakage occurred by accident andnot intention then, their broken points might be seen as indications of intensively at fragile points,
for example the base of the neck part4). However, it was observed that most of the examples weredamaged in the middle front of the head part. That is to say it would seem as if they had been
struck in the face. It is reasonable to assume that such damage could have occurred by addingpressure to the front of the head parts. This suggests that the figurines were broken intentionally.
Given this theory as possibility, the function of such figurines is discussed below.
However, before focusing on the functions of the figurines, another point about the method of
their manufacture should be highlighted. There are 26 examples which have a vertical fissure fromtheir chest/abdomen parts to the end of their leg parts (ex. Fig. 2 nos. 7, 10, 19 and 22). It was clearthat the fissures on both sides among 21 examples, alongside the position of the fissures, werecoincident with each other (ex. Fig. 2 nos. 11 and 26). The small circular clay lump mentioned
above had been attached on the vertical fissure of the front.
It seems likely that those fissures would be a jointed section. This could be accomplished byputting two clay lumps together or folding cylindrical piece clay in half in order to form the bodypart. A few examples have revealed a smooth inner cross section as a result of splitting at thejointed section (Fig. 3). We know that there were various ways to make figurines in ancient Egypt.
One popular way to make figurines was molding and hand modeling with one clay lump. It could
be said that the method of making these figurines from Akoris, that is to say joining two divided
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

small clay lumps together, was unusual.
On the other hand, there are some fissures which seem like they could
be the traces of adhering bits together after cutting and dividing the bodypart. It is hard to make a judgment whether those fissures have occurred asa result of joining two separate clay lumps together or halving a single
lump, inserting a cross section, and sealing the one fissure. If we regarded
such fissures as an intentional incision after forming the body part, and not
as a jointed section created through pressing two clay lumps together thenthis potentially has a connection with the function of these figurines. We
should pay careful attention to the fact that the fissures have been clearlyretained not erased by finishing the surface.
What did the figurines symbolize? Before we discuss the functions ofFig. 3 Section view.

the human clay figurines unearthed from Akoris, we ought to consider what human figurines
symbolized or depicted.
Throughout all ages and in many places, people made various kinds of clay human figurines.
There are many studies dealing with the female human figurines of the Neolithic Period in the Near
East5). My goal is not to discuss those researches in detail but merely to point out that the gendered
attributes of female figurines from those regions were emphasized via their physical features such as
plump breasts, waist and hips, and such specimens are regarded as fertility cult figurines connectedwith the mother goddess cult. Several functions dealing with the figurines of the Neolithic Period innorthwestern Iran have been pointed out by M. Voigt. She has classified five in particular; cult figurines,
vehicles of magic, didactic or teaching figures, toys and representations of deceased persons6).
Various kinds of female figurines were also manufactured throughout the time periods inancient Egypt7). Many incentive studies were conducted on the female figurines, for example by P.
J. Ucko, G. Pinch, A. Stevens, E. Teeter and still other scholars8).

It was established that the

aforementioned female figurines were regarded as a votive ‘fertility figurine’ which presided over
not only the human fertility and the childbirth, but also wide functions such as the harvest of crops
and the protector of the household9). It is clear that most of the figurines in ancient Egypt and the
Near East were formed into female figurines owing to their physical features such as breasts,
depiction of the genital area and long hair. In short, the figurines are considered to be made in theimage of a woman or mother in the hope of human fertility, harvest of crops, protectors ofhousehold and so on.
On the other hand, the figurines unearthed from Akoris don’t have any physical features
showing sex differences. The only, and the most striking decoration of the figurines is a clay lumpattached to the body part that seems to be a representation of a protruding navel.

Similarrepresentations were manufactured one many of the human figurines in Pharaonic Egypt; in thiscase the indication of a navel depicted by piercing dots and not by attaching a clay lump. Indeed
piercing dots may be a usual way to depict a navel, but that way of depicting is not consistent inevery example. If we think of the clay lump attached on the figurines as a navel, then it is possiblethat the figurines symbolize children, especially infants, who have protruding navels in many cases
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and normally are not depicted expressing any gendered differences10).
Nevertheless, there is an objection that can be raised against assuming theses navel-like aspectsof the figurines are made in the image of children. In Egyptian arts, there were standard ways of
depicting a child image. Images of S/he had a unique hair style called ‘side lock of youth’ and they
are usually seen holding a finger to their lips. However, there were no typical features showing
differences of sex or age on the figurines from Akoris, as I have repeatedly pointed out above. Even
if it does not match the traditional/standard forms of child figurines in ancient Egyptian art, I
suppose that the human figurines unearthed from Akoris symbolized the image of children.
Discussion The most important point in considering the functions of the figurines from Akorisis that the head part is broken off entirely, and seemingly, deliberately. The behavior of breaking
something with wishes for goodness or illness could be categorized as ‘magic’ which tends to leave us
in the modern world with the impression of unscientific and incomprehensible logic. However, thefact is many forms of magic exist regardless of location and era, and some such comparative formsof magic were introduced in The Golden Bough by J. G. Frazer. In this paper, I use a word ‘magic’comprehensively to depict some behaviors whereby wishes good or ill, are desired. It is worth
mentioning that magic can have a range of meanings used in ethnology and cultural/social
anthropology11).
In ancient Egypt, it is considered that magic lay at the very heart of religious ritual and liturgy
and that this has an overlap with religion and medicine12). There were many kinds of magicalbehaviors related to the breaking of imitations; for example practices referred to as ‘execration
texts’ and ‘breaking red jars’. Those forms of magic considered the replication of a name and image
could produce an effect in the real world. Such practices were categorized as ‘sympathetic magic’ or‘imitative magic’ by J.G. Frazer.
It is easy to imagine that people desired good health and longevity for their children since
there was a high rate of infant mortality in this ancient society. Making figurines of gods or enemies
was regarded as an effective way of gaining control over evil forces in the real world13). It is quite
likely that the people who lived in Akoris modeled the human figurines as the imitations of theirchildren. They inflicted a symbolical and conceptual death to the figurines by breaking the headpart as a substitute for children, thereby wishing for the vigorous growth of their children14). If
we regard the fissures retained on the body part of the figurines as an intentional incision, as
described above, then this could also be interpreted as a behavior designed to give symbolical harmto the figurines. Moreover, it is possible that people also hoped for the healthy life of their family,
especially mothers who were in danger at the time of pregnancy and delivery.
We don’t have much information about magical practices or in regard to religious beliefs andrituals among members of local villages and communities in ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, in suchcircumstances, we know that the minor gods Bes and Pataikos had a role as the protectors of family
and childbirth and were popular and worshiped among the common people. We have found manysmall faience amulets formed depicting Bes and Pataikos from the South Area of Akoris. It could besafely said that the common people who lived in this area had hoped their pragmatic and everyday
wishes would be granted; for example hoping to raise children in good health, wishing for an easy
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

delivery during childbirth and the welfare of the household.
In conclusion it seems reasonable that the clay human figurines from Akoris were
manufactured and used as ritual items or charms in cult-magical/apotropaic conduct that waspracticed only at Akoris.

Furthermore, we have excavated other magical figurines, theaforementioned clay cobra figurines from the South and West Areas. Judging from the functions of
the two kinds of the figurines, we may say that there were secular beliefs, or private/popularreligious practices, associated with wishes in everyday life spread amongst the common people.
Notes1) See, e.g., Preliminary Report Akoris 2002(–2012); Hanasaka, T., 2009 ‘Fertility Magical Practice in Akoris’, Tsukuba
Archaeological Studies, vol. 20, pp. 51–74 (in Japanese).
2) Teeter, E., 2010 Baked Clay Figurines and Votive Beds from Medinet Habu, The Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago. He expressed that the material of the figurines -clay- may be classified as folk art, but ‘the figurines havemuch to tell art historians’. Various kinds of figurines suggest ‘considerable communication between the artisans of
the elite and non-elite, and non-elite’s exposure to formal art styles’.
3) Hanasaka, T., 2012 ‘Clay Cobra Figurines Unearthed from Akoris (Tihna el-Gabal)’, Preliminary Report Akoris
2011, pp. 4–14.
4) There are many studies argued about the breakage of various kinds of clay figurines. See e.g., Kletter, R., 2001
‘Between Archaeology and Theology: the Pillar Figurines from Judah and the Asherah’, Journal of the Study of the
Old Testament Supplement Series, vol. 331, pp. 179–216; Waraksa, E. A., 2009 Female Figurines from the Mut Precinct:
Context and Ritual Function, Academic Press Fribourg; Wilson, P., 2011 Sais I: The Ramesside-Third Intermediate
Period at Kom Rebwa, EES.
5) See, e.g., Mellaart, J., 1967 Çatalhöyük: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia, McGraw-Hill; Voigt, M., 1983 Hajji Firus Tepe,Iran: The Neolithic Settlement, University of Pennsylvania; Cauvin, J., 2000 The Birth of the Gods and the Origins ofAgriculture, Cambridge University Press.
6) Voigt, M., 1983 ibid.
7) There is an interpretation that there was no mother goddess cult in ancient Egypt, as like that of in the Near
East. e.g., Bergamini, G., 1988 ‘Religious and Funerary Practices in Egypt Prior to the Pharaohs’, in Roveri, A.
M. D. (ed.), Egyptian Civilization: Religious Beliefs, pp. 20–37, Instituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino.
8) See, e.g., Ucko, P. J., 1968 Anthropomorphic Figurines: Of Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete with Comparative
Material from the Prehistoric Near East and Mainland Greece, A. Szmidla; Pinch, G., 1983 ‘Childbirth and Female
Figurines at Deir el-Medina and el-‘Amarna’, Orientalia 52, pp. 405–414; Pinch, G., 1993 Votive Offering to Hathor,
Griffith Institute; Stevens, A., 2006 Private Religion at Amarna: The material evidence, BAR1587; Teeter, E., 2010
Baked Clay Figurines and Votive Beds from Medinet Habu, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
9) E. Teeter (2010, ibid. p27) summarized that ‘the female figurines are clearly related to fertility... However, it is a
mistake to assume that the figurines were related strictly to childbirth. In ancient Egypt, images of fertility were
often more general allusions to health and rejuvenation.’
10) There is an example with a clay lump on the abdomen of a figurine in the book by E. Teeter (2010); No. 106, p. 93.
This is the only example resemble to the examples from Akoris as far as I am aware. However, E. Teeter
interpreted a clay lump as a representation of a phallus and categorized this figurine as a male figurine.
11) Evans-Pritchard, E. E., 1976 (1937) Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande, Oxford University Press.
12) Shaw, I. and P. Nicholson (eds.), 2008 (1995) ‘Magic’, The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The British
Museum Press.
13) Waraksa (2009, pp. 112–113) interpreted that the breakage of female figures was a symbolic, protective action tothe object’s initial function. And then, the breaking the figurine would protect both the sufferer and the priest/
magician from a recurrence of the disease.
14) It can be objected that the figurines would not been fired if people modeled them with the intention of breaking.
However, we haven’t found the unfired examples from Akoris. It may be conjectured that people gave
symbolical birth to the clay figurine as an imitated living child by firing.

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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

4 Third Intermediate Period Burials at Akoris
Tsujimura, Sumiyo
Two necropolises belonging to the Third Intermediate Period were found at Akoris. One that
we call “the West Area” is located on a narrow shelf of the west side of the river terrace, ­facing theNile Valley. Tombs around and toward the south of a rock-cut mastaba dated to the beginning of
the 5th Dynasty are presumed to have been cut
in the same period as the mastaba, however­almost all of them were reused for burial in theTIP1).
The other necropolis called “the SouthArea” is located on the south side of a crag­rising on the river terrace. The necropolis is
piled on the city formed in the beginning of
the TIP, judging from unearthed pottery. The
city spread from the slope under the crag to
the foot of the opposite slope across a flatland.
Though the excavated area is limited to the west
end of the city, houses being close together,many silos and workshops were found there.
In the 8–7century BC., tombs began to be built
from shortly before the city was completely
abandoned. A total of thirty-four tombs are
distributed in the city area and on the lower
part of the opposite slope2) (Fig. 1, Table 1).
Tombs are classified into 6 anthropoid
wooden coffins, 18 rectangular wooden coffins,2 pits, 5 jar burials and a basket burial. The
anthropoid wooden coffins were limited to use
for adults, while rectangular wooden coffins
were made to suit the body size of both adults
and children.

Children lying in rectangularwooden coffins are older than three years old
except for the 1–2 years old child (No. 1 in2008), and coffins for children were widely
scattered in the city area in the same way ascoffins for adults. Compared to these wooden
coffins for children, jar and basket burials forFig. 1 The distribution of tombs in the South Area.

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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Table 1
Year

Tomb
No.

2004 No. 1

Burials in the South Area.

Coffin Type

Size of Coffin
(m)

Sex

Age

Direction of
the head

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

1.90 × 0.46

Female30–35 yars oldW

8–9 years old

E

No. 2

Wooden coffin

1.33 × 0.33

2005 No. 1

Wooden coffin

1.5 × 0.7

No. 2

Wooden coffin

0.5(+) × 0.3

No. 3

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

2.05 × 0.5?

35–40 years old

No. 4

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

1.91 × 0.51

Female30–35 yars old

N

No. 5

Wooden coffin

FemaleseniorSW

2006 No. 1

Wooden coffin

0.9 × ?

No. 2

Wooden coffin

1.3(+) × 0.5

Female

adult

W

No. 3

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

2.0 × 0.5

Female

adult

W

No. 4

Shaft surrounded by mud bricks 2.2 × 1.5

empty
empty

InfantWooden coffin

0.7 × 0.35

3 years old

W

No. 2

Wooden coffin

1.4 × 0.29

8–10 years oldW2008 No. 1

Wooden coffin

0.9 × 0.2

1–2 years old

E

adult

NW

No. 2

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

2.0 × 0.39

Wooden coffin

0.53 × 0.35

No. 4

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

1.8 × 0.49

2010 No. 1

Wooden coffin

No. 2

Wooden coffin

No. 3

?

No. 4

Wooden coffin

1.00 × 0.30

No. 5

Wooden coffin

1.88 × 0.50

No. 6

Jar

No. 7

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

Male?
FemaleFemale?

1.47 × 0.43
Male
Female

5–6 years oldE

20 years old

W

adult

W

adult

W

30–40 years oldWinfant?

30–40 years oldW

A pair of shoes

Pit (2.32 × 0.58)
Pit (1.60 × 0.44)
A sandalJar is wrapped witha mat

new born
1.92 × 0.46

Trepanned skull
empty

2007 No. 1

No. 3

Comments

W

Pit with a clay roof
Pit (2.00 × 0.74 × 0.90)

Female20–30 years oldMale

14–15 years old

scuttered

Male

adult

scuttered

Female15–16 years old

No. 8

Wooden coffin

0.45(+) × 0.36 Female

16–20 years old?

scutteredNo. 9

Wooden coffin

0.78 × 0.24

infantW

No. 10

may not be a tomb

No. 11 Jar

new born

No. 12 Jar

new born

No. 13 Jar

new born

No. 14 Wooden coffin

0.95 × 0.28

3 years old

W

No. 15 Wooden coffin

1.27 × 0.27

7 years old

W

No. 16 Basket

0.73 × 0.25

1 years old

No. 17 Jar

new born

No. 18adult

A bronze pin withbeads, amulet

scutterednewborns and un-weaned babies under and around one year old are found at the south end of thecity area and on the south slope going up from there (Fig. 2).
Babies bending their arms and legs were wrapped with cloth and were put into jars from theirlegs. Their posture and a direction of their head for the mouth of jar looks like a fetus in the uterus.
A baby body lying in a basket is wrapped with cloth, too. The basket made of palm leaves with rope
handles was cut at the mouth, whose piece covers on the body. Ropes at four tied the basket
wrapping the body, but two ropes of them are missing.
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Fig. 2 Young children burials in 2012 at the South Area.
1: Tomb 6; 2: Tomb 11; 3: Tomb 13; 4: Tomb 14; 5: Tomb 16; 6: Tomb 17.

Loise Steel who studied burials in Cyprus at the beginning of the Iron Age described thatnewborn and pre-term infants deposited in jars were buried in domestic structures and along thecity wall3). It has been generally assumed that they were not only buried by different way fromolder children and adults but also excluded from the formal cemetery like jar burials in Cyprus
because they were not accepted as members of society. Though there is a little bit of latitude for age
of babies contained in jar compared with babies of jar burials in Cyprus, jar burials in the SouthArea at Akoris are also concentrated at the end of necropolis and segregated from children morethan two years of age and adults. However, they were given a formal burial wrapped with cloth in
the same manner as adults, not treated slightingly. Baby burials are probably segregated from older
children and adults burials by a special view of life and death like a rebirth of babies into this world
rather than that a baby was not a member of the community.
The number of unearthed adult burials in the South Area is 15 in total less than child burials
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

18, and is classified into male 3, female 9 and unknown 3. Necropolis in which adult females
children predominate are reported not only in Akoris but also in other sites. For example, adultmale, adult female and children account for 10%, 43%, and 47% of total burials respectively in the
TIP cemetery at Matmar4). Furthermore, necropolis in the same period where two adult females
and seven children were found was reported in Site 8 at Abydos. In this site, child burials are
divided into three types by the deceased’s age, jar burials for fetus, oval pits for 1–2 years andrectangular wooden coffins for 5–6 years. Concerning the adult females, Diana Craig Patch shows aview that females are mothers who have died in childbirth or from miscarriages, or women having
to do with maternity as midwives or wet nurses5). Although there is no scientific evidence to reveal
a blood relation among the dead, an adult female and child buried in close vicinity at Akoris areprobably to have been a mother and a child (No. 1 and No. 2 in 2004, No. 3 and No. 4 in 2008).
Though three adult males should have been fathers if other females away from a child were also
mothers of the child buried in the area, a number of both sexes are obviously unbalanced.
An adult male was unearthed with an adult female and two juveniles from a deep pit with a clay
roof (No. 7 in 2010). In No. 7, the male and two juveniles were buried one after another above an
adult female lying in an anthropoid wooden coffin on the bottom of the pit. Judging from its depth
and a clay roof, it is probable that the tomb was dug with an intention of plural burials from the
beginning. They are supposed to have been a family and died for a short term by food poisoning or
infectious diseases.
Funeral goods are poor without distinction of age or sex, nevertheless many amulets like
Pataikos and Bes were found in the city area. Funeral goods found in tombs are as follows: a bronze
pin with beads and an Udjat-eye putting on the breast of a three years old infant (No. 14 in 2010),
a pair of leather shoes placed under the head of 8–10 years old child (No. 2 in 2006) and a leather
sandal placed under the right knee of 30–40 years old female (No. 5 in 2010). It is notable thatfootwear as funeral goods were found from the tombs for a child and for a female. If the shoes andthe sandal were prepared for a journey to the next world, children older than 5–6 years aresupposed to have shared a view of life and death with adults, different from newborns andun-weaned babies.
As the above mentioned, results of our excavations in the South Area emphasize an imbalance
between males and females in addition to many children. A shortage of male could have been filled
up unexcavated places in the South Area, if the imbalance cannot be solved in the West Area.
Tombs in the West Area are classified into three types, a shaft tomb, a tunnel-shaped tomb and atomb chapel (Table 2). All shaft tombs dated from the Old Kingdom were reused in the TIP except
for No. 16 in 2006 keeping their original burial. On the other hand, a tunnel-shaped tomb andtomb chapel date from the TIP, however some funeral goods belonging to the Late Period are
mixed in tomb chapels. Furthermore, tomb chapel No. 23 and No. 42 in 2007 possibly have been
disturbed in the Coptic Period. The types of coffins are rich in variety, in addition to anthropoid
and rectangular wooden coffins usually found from shaft tombs, an anthropoid pottery coffin in thetomb chapel and an anthropoid clay installation in a tunnel-shaped tomb were found respectively.
Unearthed human bones were identified as 15 adult males, 12 adult females and 7 children
17名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Table 2
Year

Tomb
No.

Burials in the West Area.

Coffin Type

Size of Coffin
(m)

Sex

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

1.18 × 0.45

Male

No. 5

Wooden coffin

1.30 × 0.42

No. 6

Wooden coffin

2002 South shaft

Age

Direction of
the headmatureS

5–6 years oldN

Comments

2003 OK Mastaba
A cat mummy
beside No. 5

3 years oldGroup 1
South C.
West C.

Wooden coffin
Pottery coffin (Anthropoid)

1.90 × 0.45

around the coffinMale

50–60 years old

Female50 years oldgatheredMaleseniorW

Male

20–30 years old

E

Female20–30 years old

E

Male

20–30 years old

assorted

2 years old

assorted

adultassortedgatheredGroup 2
No. 1

Wooden coffin

1.10 × 0.46

FemalematureNMalematureN

FemalematureE

Male?

mature

W

No. 1

Male

adult

N

No. 4

Female40 years oldMale?

senior

No. 3
No. 6

Clay installation

1.93 × 0.52

No. 7hydrocephalus?

Group 3
2004

No. 5
2006

No. 12

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

No. 16

Wooden coffin

1.90 × 0.52

No. 21MaleseniorFemaleadult

The 5–6th Dyn.

Femaleadult

An ibex-like animal
beside the deadNo. 22
2007

No. 9

N

7–8 years oldN

Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)

1.58 × 0.4

FemaleseniorW

No. 18Wooden coffin (Anthropoid)(T.chapel)

2.26 × 0.76

MaleseniorS

No. 23(T.chapel)

Trepanned skull

Disturbed in
the Coptic period

North S.

FemalematureMalesenior

Male

adult

Femaleadult

Femaleadult

Trepanned skull

new born
2–3 years old
5–6 years oldSouth S.

Female

adult

Male

adult

Male

adult
2 years old

No. 42(T.chapel)

?

adult

Coptic burial

who are older than two years without a newborn and an un-weaned baby. Two children of 5–6 years
old and 7–8 years old were buried independently in a shaft tomb the same as an adult burial, butothers were buried with adults in tomb chapels.

The ratio of children to adults in the Westnecropolis is approximately 20%, lower than half the ratio in the South Area. Even if only shaft
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Fig. 3 Trepanned skulls.
1: No. 3 in 2006; 2: No. 3 in 2006 (an enlarged photo); 3: No. 22 in 2006; 4: No. 23 South Shaft.

tombs dated to the TIP were counted to remove fear of including later burials, the ratio of children
to adults is almost the same. There is no difference in the ratio between males and females, either.
Compared to burials in the South Area, funeral goods are remarkably rich in the West Area.
Besides amulets, various kinds of funeral goods of figurines of Thoth and Osiris made of bronze, abird-shaped figurine made of wood, crocodile-shaped figurines made of clay, cowries, pottery etc.
were found. In addition, two kinds of animal mummies were offered to the dead. One is a cat lying
beside a child body in No. 5 in 2003, the other is a herbivore like ibex lying beside a female in
No. 21 in 2006.

These differences in burials between the South Area and the West Area aresupposed to have origin in a difference of social classes, elite/non-elite, to which the dead belongs.
Meanwhile, there are features in common to two classes. One is that children older than two years
were treated like adults in types of coffin and kinds of funeral goods, the other is that newborns andun-weaned babies are excluded from the cemetery.
Trepanned skulls6) Three trepanned skulls were found among human bones unearthed fromthe South area and the West area (Fig. 3). A trepanned skull of a mature female found in the South
area (No. 3 in 2006) remains in so good condition that it is filled with a brain. That is, the small holenear the left Sutura lamdoidea in Os occipitale was opened not to discharge a brain. Chisel marks
3mm in width carefully scraped from diagonally outside around the hole 6mm in diameter showthat it was the artificial hole. Two trepanned skulls were found in the West necropolis. A skull
supposed to be 7–8 years old in a shaft tomb (No. 22 in 2006) has a hole of the almost same size as
the above-mentioned skull near Sutura colonalis in Os frontale.

Chisel marks whose edge isnarrower than the above-mentioned skull remain around the hole. The other is a trepanned skullof a senior male in a tomb chapel (No. 23 in 2007). A hole opened in left Os parietale is a little
bigger and has an oval shape of 7 × 10mm. Because none of these tree skulls shows the growth ofbone around the hole, they would not have lived long after an operation.
Notes1) Preliminary Report Akoris 2002 (–2008).
2) Preliminary Report Akoris 2004 (2006–2010, 2012).
3) Steel, L., 1995 ‘Differential Burial Practices in Cyprus at the Beginning of the Iron Age’, in Cambell, S. and A.
Green (eds.), The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient Near East, pp. 199–204, Oxbow.
4) Brunton, G., 1948 Matmar, G. Brunton..
5) Patch, D. C., 2007 ‘Third Intermediate Period Burials of Young Children at Abydos’, in Hawass, Z. and J.
Richards (eds.), The Archeeology and Art of Ancient Egypt; Essays in Honor of David B. O’Connor, Vol. II, pp. 237–255,
SCA.

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6) J. F. Nunn shows a skull discovered at Lisht (Brested, J. H., 1930 The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus), the skull ofPrincess Horsiesnest Meritaten (Ghaliiounghui, P., 1973 Magic and Medical Science in Ancient Egypt) and a skull ofa child as examples of trephining (Nunn, J. F., 1996 Ancient Egyptian Medicine, University of Oklahoma Press.).
Besides, Nesperennub’s skull with a small cavity is possible to have been trepanned and healed because thecavity gets larger outward from the inside in the CT image of the skull, but the author described that a tumor
might have been responsible (Tylor, J. H., 2004 Mummy: the inside story, Britishu Museum Press.).

5 Laser scanning in Akoris
Hori, Yoshiki and Ajioka, Osamu
Laser scanning provides us with a new dimension in archaeology and architectural history.
This technique was introduced to archaeology around 10 years ago (having been long used in otherarea such as engineering and medical science), and now is widely applied, either in the field(surveying) and or in object scanning. Although some leading companies, such as Leica, Riegl and
FARO, provide the general-purpose or all-purpose standard scanners, many companies arecontinuing innovating with new technology, including new software. This makes it we still finddifficulty to in exercising choice both of the best machine and the best software for the tasks we wish
to undertake. Now, we chose the Faro Focus 3D for our research, on account of by its mobility, as it
only weighs (5kg).
At first, a brief explanation about machines used in laser scanning must begin this report. A
laser scanner seems something like a digital camera in comparison, in which, and we can take a 360°
panoramic picture simply by releasing the shutter. Yet, but in order to attain to profession or avoid
mistakes, we have to understand its mechanical and electronic contrivance workings. A guidebook,which explains the principles and management of laser scanning for Heritage, has been publishedin 2011. In that guide, a generic definition of a laser scanner from Böhler and Marbs is given, ‘any
device that collects 3D coordinates of a given region of an object’s surface automatically and in asystematic pattern at a high rate achieving the results in near real time’1).
And, as seen in Fig. 1, there is a variety of techniques available to generate three dimensional
survey information. But it is important that the method should be chosen is appropriate for the
scale at which they it might be used. And scale is determined by the size of the object they could one
wishes be used to measure, and by the number of measurements they might be used one wishes toacquire. The complexity of the object determines the number of measurements.
Generally, the principle upon which a scanner operates will be one of three forms of ranging
technology: triangulation, time-of-flight, and phase comparison. Triangulation scanners, covering

Fig. 1 Techniques of 3d survey information
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

the objects in very short range of 1 to 5cm,
calculate the measurements of 3D coordinatesby triangulating the position of the laser lightwith the accuracy within 0.05–0.1mm.

In atime-of-flight system a laser pulse is sent to theFig. 2 Principle of “time of flight”

object and the distance between the transmitterand surface is computed from the travel time between the signal transmission and reception,
providing a reading accurate to within 3–6mm (Fig. 2).
As opposed to the time-of-flight scanners, phase-comparison scanners can obtain the distance
between the scanner and the target by detecting differences in the laser pulse emitted and thereturning pulse. Phase-comparison systems have much higher rates of data capture, recording
nearly one million points in a second, which results in a point cloud of greater detail. By calculating
the average measurement of the points, the image produced is accurate to within 0.5mm to 1mm.
Phase-comparison systems tend to be much more mobile than other scanners, with the laser emitterand receiver weighing just 5kg as FARO Focus 3D that we chose.
One of the most important considerations to be made is how many measurements are required.
This decision is crucial in setting up the scanner, as it determines how much space to allow between
the measured points, which can be as small as 0.1mm. The level of resolution also needs be chosen
wisely. A higher resolution means better image quality, so naturally this is preferable, but, as agreater resolution requires more RAM to store it, this can present us with a problem. Unfortunately,
we cannot predict exactly what level of resolution is required, as the naked eye cannot always see theintricacies of certain objects and they may result in a picture which requires greater memory thaninitially expected.
The data created by a laser scanner can describe record an entire whole ancient city by in morethan several millions of three-dimensional points. This point clouds model of Akoris, includes morethan 10 million of three-dimensional points in black and white, has been measured during 2010 and
12 (Fig. 3). In this investigation we used the advanced measuring method covering the long range:
the Ilris 3D- scanning system of Ilris, in which more than 2,000 scanning laser beams can be emitted
in one second and in which the an object can be described as the aggregation of points having three
dimensional coordinates. The whole city wall was separately measured into more than 200 pointclouds of more than a million dots.
The history of Akoris, covered with mud-brick buildings, which can be traced back 2200 or
2300 years from its end in 8th century. The development of the site, coincided with the rise of New
Kingdom from a local power in the Middle Egypt. The normal building materials were mud brickand re-used stone blocks. The average mud-brick masonry wall is coursed horizontally and, in allother respects, it is from top to bottom an absolutely homogeneous, uniform mass. A frequent mode of
the construction involved the used of the barrel vault on the ground floor, on which the ground or
first floor rest, and wooden beams supporting the floors above or roof spanned between the walls toa level of approximately 3 or 4m. The mud-brick dwellings especially exposed for over centuries, have
weathered considerably since they were uncovered, making our laser-scanned records irreplaceable.
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名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

Fig. 3Result of laser scanning

Fig. 4The monolithic column

Fig. 5Straight lines by a pointed chisel

One of our most valuable discoveries and findings from quarries of Akoris area of the Middle
Egypt is that waste and blocks abandoned, which sometimes obstructed work and transport, were
widely scattered over the platform and work area. Large amounts of waste must have been emitted
in the working area in the course of the extracting, processing, and transporting in the quarries,
whence we can trace the changes that affected the productivity and engineering innovations which
occurred at the quarries or were introduced from the outside of Egypt. There was were plentiful
supplies of identical limestone in and around the river Nile and the Mediterranean Sea, and in the
Ptolemaic and Roman periods the local limestone was in fact already being used regularly inmonuments or ordinary buildings. A monolithic column (Fig. 4) 30m long and 3m diameter insection excavated in 2001 lied lay down in an east-west direction of east and west along the city wallconstructed in the Last Pharaohs at the north-west of the site, near the border with Tihna village.
From ancient quarries around Akoris, the stone blocks could be carried to the working area locatedin the outside of the city.
This monolithic column we found had been fated to be abandoned, since any because of a
failure in technique had operated for in its processing progress by ancient masons. If any trouble
had not been caused, this monolithic column would have been has been transported to the suburban
port of the River Nile after finishing the processing. Thanks to the failure, we have an opportunity
to survey and understand in detail how the masons have processed such a megalithic and monolithic
stone block into an ordered size of column with a high degree of accuracy.
Observing the sectional shapes provided from by the point cloud data, and along with the chiselmarks, gives us the understanding about the process needed to shave off the stone block into a
polygonal section. The lower part of the cylindrical part is shaven in straight lines by a pointed
chisel (Fig. 5). It is considered that this technique is to shave the surface of the stone into a planesurface. In the case of shaving a polygonal surface into a round shape, the wooden curve, which has
been also used in the Greek mainland, must hold into the surface vertically. To hold it verticalaccurately, the guideline is required.

The curve following the guide tapes, which have been

stretched between the possibly cross-shaped rulers, could be set onto the surface vertically.
Tasks potentially suitable for the application of laser scanning as below2).
1) Contributing to a record before renovation of a subject or site, which would help in the design
process as well as contribute to the archive record2) Contributing to a detailed record where a feature, structure or site might be lost or changed
forever, such as in an archaeological excavation or for at a site at risk
3) Structural or condition monitoring, such as looking at how the surface of an object changes over22

名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ

time in response to weather, pollution or vandalism
4) Providing a digital geometric model of an object from which a replica can be generated for
display, or as a replacement in a restoration scheme5) Contributing to three-dimensional models, animations and illustrations for presentation invisitor centres, museums, through the internet and through the media (enhancing accessibility/
engagement and helping to improve understanding)6) Aiding the interpretation of archaeological features and their relationship across a landscape,thus contributing to understanding about the development of a site and its significance to the area
7) Working, at a variety of scales, to uncover previously unnoticed archaeologically significant
features – such as tool marks on an artifact – or looking at a landscape covered by sand8) Spatial analysis, not possible without three-dimensional data, such as line of sight or exaggerationof elevation
Finally, in Akoris, we have to apply proper method of recording on those tasks as below.
1) and 2) do not only include laser-scanning, but also photos, sketches, and other recording
methods. But laser-scanning could be effective for shorter working hours and reduction of labours.
3) Middle range scanner, such as Focus 3D, could be suitable for this contribution.
4) Object scanning using arm-based scanners, handheld scanner, and optical scanners could be
expectable, but materials, such as marble or mud brick, could exert their influence on the result of
scanning.
5) This task has been already accomplished in these recent several years. Three dimensional
animation will be popular for archaeology soon.
6) and 7) Long and middle range scanners could be suitable for this task and colour mapping
could be a key technology.
8) and all, relationship between an operator of laser scanner and a researcher is crucial for
success in spatial analysis and ideally a laser-scanning, which is worked as desired, could bemanaged by researchers.
Notes1) Böhler, W. and A. Marbs, 2002 ‘3D Scanning Instruments’, Proceedings of CIPA WG6 Scanning for Cultural Heritage
Recording (September 1–2, Corfu, Greece), pp. 9–12.
2) Jones, D. M. (ed.) 2011 3D Laser Scanning for Heritage (second edition), Advice and guidance to users on laser scanningin archaeology and architecture, English Heritage.

Satellite images
left: Corona satellite image (1968 November 9th)
credit to Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas/U.S. Geological Survey CORONA
Atlas of the Middle East (http://corona.cast.uark.edu/)right: Landsat satellite image (2014 March 31st)credit to Google Earth23

名古屋大学/古代エジプトの情報伝達に関する調査アーカイヴ