Jegyzetek egy ásatás margójára

In the fall of 2007 the Epigraphic Survey decided to undertake the survey of the several hundred loose fragments scattered bout the Medinet Habu temple precinct, some of them inscribed and lying face down on the surface, and already showing advanced signs of deterioration caused by groundwater and salt. The blocks were moved into a new blockyard built against the inside south enclosure wall of the complex for inventorying and documentation, as well as conservation as necessary. Between 2007–2011, most of the fragmentary material from Medinet Habu, including the fragments kept in the small blockyard south of the main temple and in a storage room in the great mortuary temple of Ramses III, was transferred into the new blockyard. This collection of more than 4000 fragments is quite diverse, comprising pieces from all periods of the precinct’s history, from the early 18th Dynasty throughout the abandonment of the Coptic town Djeme in the ninth century A.D. The aim of this paper is to introduce a specific corpus within the Medinet Habu fragment collection - a group of door jambs and lintels from private houses dating mostly to the end of the 20th Dynasty and early Third Intermediate Period. The comparison of the material as currently preserved in the new blockyard with the original documentation of the 1927-33 Oriental Institute excavations directed by Professor Uvo Hölscher has already led to unexpected and exceptional results, further illuminating our understanding of the early occupational history of the Medinet Habu settlement.