Project History

LHTT relies on previous field investigations in two Theban 18^th Dynasty tombs, TT95 and TT84, granted by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and conducted in the 1990s on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Cairo, with the friendly assistance of the German Research Foundation. At this time, the main focus of field work was an epigraphic survey of the preserved tomb paintings. Archaeological investigations were resumed in TT95 from 2006 on a small-scale basis, in a joint venture by the DAI and the Department of Ancient Civilizations (Egyptology branch), University of Basel, with the friendly assistance of the Gertrud Mayer Foundation, Basel. In 2014, the concession passed over from the DAI to the University of Basel. When collaboration between the University of Basel and the Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich (ETH, Geological Institute, Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry) was initialized, the research project became the Swiss Mission at Sheikh ‘Abdel-Qurna.

LHTT is a transdisciplinary project housed at the Department of Ancient Civilizations of the University of Basel with project partners at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich/ETH. In addition, it maintains research relations with experts, scholars, and scientists from different institutions at home and abroad.