Russian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Egyptological Studies, Moscow (CESRAS) & Russian Institute of Egyptology in Cairo (RIEC) Digital Library

Russian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Egyptological Studies, Moscow (CESRAS) & Russian Institute of Egyptology in Cairo (RIEC)

The site is now being completely rebuilt. Whereas the previous version was largely a "picture book", the version now under construction will be of a more educational nature. As the majority of our worldwide visitors do not have access to egyptological literature, we are posting full text web editions of "classic" works from the early days of our science: Maspero, Smith, Daressey, Brugsch etc., the words of people who were there when Egyptology was in its childhood, with digitally improved images of their original black & white plates and marginal comments and corrections of outdated and incorrect material. An improved navigational system of links allows instant comparison of equivalent text passages and images which apply to more than one source. We suggest that new visitors read the instructions for efficient use of the system which can be called from the site directory. This project will obviously take much time. It is "open-end" and will never cease to being augmented with new material from CESRAS' thousands of original, largely unique, and growing, photograph archive. We place all of our material in the public domain. You may download and use any parts of it for non-commercial purposes. 

As before, the site will consist largely of original photographic material made by CESRAS researchers during the past 14 years in Russian museums, in republics of the former Soviet Union, and naturally in Egypt. You may address any questions without hesitation to admin@cesras.org and we will give any possible answers. All questions are valid and will be answered to the best of our ability as time allows. The early texts are published as .jpg images of each page, thus allowing you to download only the pages that you need.

 Click here for basic instructions on efficient use of the system
All underlined brilliant blue subjects/objects are linked (click)

Art Gallery (Flickr), thousands of original CESRAS photographs and digital reconstructions of coffins, scenes
and individual figures, all of which you are free to download  and use for serious
non-commercial purposes

21a Theban Dynasty of the High Priests of Amun 1070-945 BCE  (family members, their
relationships, and chronology)

Bab el-Gasus, the "2nd Cache", or Tomb of the Priests of Amun (INDEX)

Cache of the Royal Mummies, Theban Tomb TT320, 21a Dynasty
Coffins, Funerary Equipment, Mummies of the 21a Dynasty High Priests family linked with corresponding texts and
original CESRAS photographs by Research Fellows Alexej A. Krol, Sergej V. Ivanov and Edward R. Loring.

Coffins directory (Photographic CESRAS studies of coffins, mostly painted anthropoid coffins of the 21a Dynasty
1070-945 BCE, in Cairo, Russia, and republics of the former Soviet Union)

Iconography Directory (under construction)

Leather Funerary Baldachin of Isetemkheb B, Cairo National Museum JE-26276

Maspero G.: Les Momies Royales de Déir el-Baharî (Memoires de la Mission Française au Caire,
Paris, 1889), complete text and plates with modern annotations and corrections; indexed and subjects/persons linked
with parallel material in other sections of this site.)

Mummies Directory (Mummies of Kings, Royals, and high ranking persons in the National Museum, Cairo)

Names' Transcriptions (Ancient Egyptian persons mentioned on this site. Personal names and those of deities
are transcribed differently in both modern languages and linguistic misunderstandings of Ancient Egyptian in the early
days of egyptological studies. We have grouped the various orthographies to the current English versions.

Personages Home Page Directory: Every historical person who appears on this site has her or his "Home
Page" There you will find information on the person and an index of links to take you to locations on this site where the
person appears in texts and/or photographs. Relationships between persons are also linked and commented. As the
21a Theban Dynasty of Piankh is our main object of study at this time, you will be able to navigate a detailed web of the
High Priests' family dynasty during its 125 years of rule over Upper Egypt.

Smith G. E.: The Royal Mummies, (Catalogue Général des Antiquités Égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, 1912:
CG numbers 61051-61100); complete text with modern annotations and digitally improved plates; Linked navigation to
parallel material on this site. Smith gives a detailed forensic pathological study of the royal mummies. This material is
well illustrated and still valid today.

They were not yellow (21a Dynasty painted anthropoid coffins from the "Royal Cache" TT320)
Photographs by Sergej V. Ivanov to lecture by Edward R. Loring (Proceedings of the International conference
Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology held by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, Sept.29-Oct. 2, 2009 in Moscow.