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

                    Leather Funerary Baldachin of Isetemkheb B,  Editor's comments on the future of the baldachin                         
                                                

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Subsequent to the combined Russian-German re-excavation, survey and minute search and recovery of
fragments left in TT320, the "Royal Cache" by Brugsch's primitive, unqualified and unscientific emptying of the
tomb in 1881, CESRAS researchers have occupied themselves intensely with what we suggest be in future
known as the 21a Upper Egyptian Dynasty founded by HPA pAyanx. A family dynasty which ruled Upper Egypt for
some 125 years. We have studied material from this period in the museums of the former Soviet Union, from the
Baltic republics to the Black Sea and from Kiev  and Voronezh to Kazan in Tatarstan on the Volga, as well as in
West European museums, and of course in Cairo. We are speaking of 14 years of study, photography and
evaluation by the first post-Soviet generation of Russian Egyptologists.

I personally became very interested in the Funerary Baldachin of Isetemkheb B (Asetemachbjt B), an object
unique in this world. In 2007, my colleague, Sergej V. Ivanov, and I were granted permission to examine the top of
the baldachin, the first persons in living memory to do so. We found the ruins of a beautiful piece of
craftsmanship which must be classified as a unique part of human heritage.

In May, 2012 through Ivanov's mediation, the SCA granted CESRAS/RIEC permission to dismount and conserve
the baldachin which was to be moved to a part of the museum where it would be better seen. This would be a
very difficult and delicate operation and the SCA judged us and our team as being qualified. Funding for the
project, $20'000.- has been secured by the undersigned.

Then came the revolution and we do not know if our permission will still be valid when peace returns to Cairo.
All that we can do is to hope. This monument must be conserved and, if possible, restored.

In this section of the website I am collecting and publishing material which has never been seen before together
with macro-photo details which would escape the eye of a normal visitor.

I would ask every colleague, should she or he have the chance, to speak up for this project.

Edward R. Loring
Research Fellow, CESRAS & RIEC
Editor of this site.