The Ankh-Hor Project
Ankh-Hor was as High Steward of the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris during the 26th Dynasty (6th century BCE) one of the highest officials of Late Period Egypt. His tomb in the Asasif (TT 414) belongs to the type of monumental tombs with temple-like superstructures in Thebes (Egypt). TT 414 was completely excavated by an Austrian mission directed by Manfred Bietak in the 1970s; it was also restored, published and opened to the public in 1982. The majority of the numerous finds, however, remains unpublished until today and was left in a provisional magazine at the site. These finds are now the focus of the new Ankh-Hor Project, which aims to reconstruct the tomb groups and phases of use of TT 414 in its entirety. Here, the project deliberately starts with the present lack of understanding of burial practices and tomb inventories of the monumental Theban Late Period tombs.
The new Ankh-Hor Project is directed by Julia Budka and hosted by the LMU Munich. Thanks to financial support of the Pollitzer-Foundation of the Austrian Academy of Sciences some work tasks of the project are conducted at OREA, which is also the place of the archive of the Asasif excavations from 1969–1978. In addition, there is a close cooperation with the Austrian Archaeological Institute (support for the consolidation of the objects in Egypt).
The publications of the Ankh-Hor Project will be published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press in OREA’s series respectively as preliminary reports in the journal Egypt & the Levant.