Documentation, Conservation and Publication of the Saite-Persian Sarcophagus-tombs in Saqqara

在石棺墓葬项目第一阶段，申请人要求对20世纪头几十年出土的遗址进行第二轮墓志铭和重新挖掘任务，以便采用最先进的文献技术。准确记录古迹并制作其装饰和文本的准确复制品的重要性，部分源于这样一种认识：“再多的保护或修复也无法阻止[古迹的]腐烂”，“任何古迹要么会解体，变成废墟，要么会被回收利用”。在这一框架内，申请人应用数字文件技术(三维激光扫描和摄影测量)记录和绘制了位于萨卡拉乌纳斯国王金字塔以南和以东的第26王朝PA-DJ-NJ-Ast、PsmTk和JMN-tAy.f-nxt的石棺-陵墓建筑群。该项目不仅制作了三个墓室文本的复制品，而且还改进了数字金石学的技术，特别是在曲面上绘制铭文方面。这是通过结合激光扫描和摄影测量，以及在AutoCade上进行数据处理来实现的。在第一份申请中，预计第二轮文件记录和石棺墓穴遗址的挖掘将产生新的考古材料，因为在马斯佩罗1899-1905年的运动之后，该地区没有进一步的勘探。事实上，该项目抢救了墓穴主竖井上层建筑的考古证据，以及一组木乃伊结构的综合体，包括一个防腐箱、一个木乃伊作坊和一个公共墓穴(地下)，恰好在马斯佩罗停止挖掘的区域以南1米处。申请人提议石棺-陵墓项目的第二阶段，以记录、保存和公布PA-DJ-NJT和1KA-m-sA.f的陵墓和木乃伊建筑群。

In Phase 1 of the Sarcophagus-tombs Project, the applicant called for a second round of epigraphic and re-excavation missions to sites that were excavated during the first decades of the 20th Century in order to employ state of the art documentation techniques. The importance of accurately recording monuments and producing exact facsimiles of their decorations and texts, in part, stem from the realization that ‘no amount of conservation or restoration can halt [a monument’s] decay’ and that ‘any monument will either disintegrate and become a ruin or be recycled’. Working within this framework, the applicant applied digital documentation techniques (3D Laser scanning and Photogrammetry) to record and map the Sarcophagus-tomb Complexes of PA-dj-nj-Ast, PsmTk, and Jmn-tAy.f-nxt of Dynasty 26, located to the south and east of the pyramid of King Unas in Saqqara. The project has not only produced facsimiles of the texts of the three burial chambers, but also provided technique improvement in digital epigraphy, particularly with regards to drawing inscriptions on curved surfaces. This was achieved through a combination of laser scanning and photogrammetry, in addition to data processing on AutoCade. It was projected in the first application that a second round of documentation and excavation of the site of the Sarcophagus-tombs would yield new archaeological materials, since the area has witnessed no further explorations after Maspero’s campaigns in 1899-1905. Indeed, the project salvaged archaeological evidence for the superstructure of the tombs’ main shafts, and a complex of mummification structures, including an Embalmer’s Cachette, a Mummification Workshop, and a Communal Burial Shaft (hypogeum), exactly 1.00 m to the south of the area where Maspero stopped his excavation. The applicant proposes a second phase of the Sarcophagus-tombs Project to document, conserve and publish the tombs of PA-dj-njt and 1kA-m-sA.f and the Mummification Complex.