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The Gurob Harem Palace Project

A collaborative international team of archaeologists led by the University of Liverpool , University of Copenhagen and University College London, studying the urban and funerary remains at the 'harem town' of Mer-wer at the site of Gurob (or Medinet el-Ghurob) in the southern Faiyum region of Egypt

What kind of site is Gurob, and how old is it?

The main area of settlement remains at the site can be clearly identified as the remains of an independent establishment relating to royal women (a 'harem-palace'), founded in the reign of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) and occupied throughout the rest of the 18th Dynasty and presumably also for at least part of the Ramesside period. The inscriptions on stelae, papyri and various other inscribed artefacts from the main buildings at the site repeatedly include the titles of officials connected with the royal harem of Mer-wer. There was evidently a similar establishment at Memphis, but that site has not survived.

What are the main aims of the Gurob Harem Palace Project?

• To excavate in selected areas of the town to find out more about Egyptian harems, palaces and domestic life,

  To excavate selected parts of the cemetery in order to find out more about the burial customs and anthropology of the Ramessid population,
  
  
  To produce a detailed modern corpus of pottery at the site. The vast majority of the ceramic material covering the surface of the site dates to the mid- to late New Kingdom, affording considerable potential to analyse chronological and functional patterns across the site through the study of such material,
  
  

• To produce an accurate 1:1000 map of the site as a whole, combining GIS so as to allow our growing databases of ceramics, small finds and lithics to be mapped onto the visible surface features,


• To create more detailed plans of the main points of archaeological interest in the settlement and cemeteries,

• To use satellite photographs, geophysical methods and core-drilling to gain a better understanding of the subsurface material and architectural remains, as well as the relationship between the site of Gurob and its landscape and environment.

How long have we been working at Gurob?

Since 2005 we have undertaken annual seasons of archaeological work at Gurob.

See fieldwork reports for each of our annual seasons at Gurob.

How can you help?

By becoming a member of the Gurob Harem Palace Project.