Luigi Vassalli and the archaeological season at western Thebes (1862-1863)

Re-exam of the drawings and notes taken by Lugi Vassalli (1812-1888) during his archaeological season at Abu el-Naga (West Bank of Luxor) in 1862-1863. Through researches in the archives, most of the objects he discovered were located in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. The research brought to make fresh assessments on the crucial period between the end of 17th Dynasty and the beginning of the 18th. The reconstruction of the burial furniture of Hornakht brought support to the idea that the war that eventually brought at the end of the Hyksos rule on Egypt started with a conflict between Thebes and the southern Nubian state. The reconstruction of the hieroglyphic inscriptions painted on a coffin of an unknown woman gave back a royal list that makes think that she was an Ahmose’s concubine of Hyksos origins. The conclusion is that Vassalli excavated a necropolis with several burials belonging to the royal entourage of the late 17th Dynasty.