The Valley Of The Kings: Theban Mapping Project

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt which was chosen as the burial ground for a great number of pharaohs and nobles of the New Kingdom; the New Kingdom in Egypt spans the time between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC which includes the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth dynasties of Egypt (Long 2015: 39). In 1979 an organization known as the Theban Mapping Project was organized to strategically catalogue the present and available archaeological record of the Theban Necropolis in the Valley of the Kings. “The TMP’s goal is to establish a historical and contemporary record of all monuments … and to prepare detailed topographical maps, architectural plans and surveys of their history and condition (Weeks 2000:1).” The book

Weeks. The strength of this report resided in the exponential amount of detail and recording of all available data, including measurements, photographs, charts, hieroglyph translation, drawings, and even chemical analysis of pigments and plaster. An additional strength within this report would be the detailed description of conservation methodology which can be adapted and used at archaeological sites around the world. The only notable weaknesses within this report would be the inclusion of excessive description of flood debris which is not extremely relevant to future research, and the lack of explanation regarding the claim that this tomb is the final resting place of the sons of Rameses

For example, within the chapter titled “fauna” there is a pie chart which depicts the percentage of bones belonging to specific species out of the total amount of animal bones found in the tomb, thus far; the chart recounts to future researchers that the remains of Bos Taurus, or cow bones, were the most common type of animal remains found in the tomb by a margin of 40.9% (Weeks 2000: 129). Another example of data which was made more easily comprehendible via use of a table would be found within the chapter titled “pottery;” the table located on page 119 includes 3 columns which outline the chamber number, number of sherds excavated, and comments about characteristic majority from each chamber (Weeks 2000: 119). This type of data representation using graphs, charts and tables is valuable for future researchers as it creates a more readily available set of statistics on which one can draw conclusions, compare data from another site, and reference historical