Visualizing an Ancient Egyptian Queen - The Tomb of the 1st Dynasty Queen Meret-Neith at Abydos

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietrich Raue
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540264287

Queen Meret-Neith was one of the most influential women at the royal court during the 1st Egyptian Dynasty around 3000 BCE. Since her tomb's discovery by W.M. Flinders Petrie in 1899 in the royal cemetery at Abydos, the historical significance of this woman has been a matter of debate because she was the only queen who had her own monumental tomb among the kings of this period. Opinions range in scope from her having been a regent queen in charge of government until her young son and heir to the throne had come of age to being a fully-fledged ruler in her own right. Despite her acknowledged historical significance, her tomb and what remains of her time and life have never been the object of an independent archaeological investigation until very recently. In 2020, a collaborate project between the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, the University of Vienna, the University of Technology in Vienna and Lund University set out to investigate queen Meret-Neith’s tomb complex at Abydos. The objectives of this interdisciplinary project are to collect all archaeological and inscriptional material available from her tomb and her reign and to analyse and critically assess all this evidence in order to arrive at a more objective, evidence-based assessment of this important historical person. The project has a strong archaeological science component that involves a wide range of analytical methods necessary to determine the precise chronology and material components of Meret-Neith’s tomb assemblage. Furthermore, by employing cutting-edge digital photogrammetry, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies in the documentation of the tomb’s architecture and grave goods the project has been able to digitally archive and visualize this important evidence. Although the Meret-Neith Project has been much impeded by the COVID pandemic, the excavations have already yielded an array of unexpected new discoveries as well as solid scientific evidence allowing for a much clearer understanding of queen Meret-Neith’s historical significance. The archaeological fieldwork and the research in various international museums, where artefacts from Petrie’s excavations are today stored, have delivered an unprecedented quantity and quality of scientific evidence which now awaits comprehensive analysis and interpretation. In order to fully evaluate the unexpected wealth of data and to compensate for the time lost to the pandemic, this application seeks additional research time and funding to bring this project to its full potential and successful completion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants