ARCE Chicago: 1001+ Fragments: News from the Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy (TT 217)

Lecture Information: 

The rock-cut tomb of the sculptor Ipuy, TT 217, is located in the Western Necropolis of Deir el-Medina. Built in the first half of the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1250 BC), its chapel features polychrome wall paintings that depict various professional scenes of an exceptional nature. Therefore, TT 217 is special among the 53 decorated tombs on-site. The funerary complex has been only partially investigated and documented, especially by Norman de Garis Davies while working for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Davies 1927). The lecture will highlight the microcosm surrounding the tomb and the family of Ipuy and show first results after fieldwork in 2021 and 2022, with a particular focus on the documentation of over 1000 wall and statue fragments collected by Davies in the early 20th century. TT 217 will be comprehensively re-investigated, documented, contextualized, and published in the next years with modern techniques and methods, as part of the mission Deir el-Medina, in cooperation with the Ifao, Cairo. 

Speaker Bio:

Kathrin Gabler is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Basel, where she directs the project “Research Space Deir el-Medina. Documenting the Ancient Egyptian Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy (TT 217).” Trained at the Universities of Munich and Leiden, her education culminated in the PhD “Who’s who around Deir el-Medina”. In her post-doctoral phase, she has dealt with the habilitation “Means of Communication in the New Kingdom”, which also forms part of the project “Crossing Boundaries. Understanding Complex Scribal Practices in Ancient Egypt” between the Universities of Basel and Liege and the Museo Egizio Turin. Her main research interest is the material culture from Ancient Egypt, focusing on social history, prosopography as well as the (re-contextualization of objects. Studies related to Deir el-Medina and hieratic texts are her specialist areas. From Sept. 2022 to August 2023, Kathrin replaces Frederik Hagen as an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen.