The utility ware assemblage from the hermitage inside tomb MMA 1152 in West Thebes: selected issues, provisional characteristic and research methodology

Abstract

The text concerns a pottery assemblage from one isolated site (a hermitage installed inside a Pharaonic tomb) in Sheikh Abd el-Gurna, inhabited by monks from the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 8th century. The specific nature of the place, that is, its isolation, rocky terrain and lack of clear stratigraphy, called for different research and documentation methods compared to those used on extensive settlement sites. Less attention was paid to taxonomic research in favor of observations regarding the function and importance of vessels in the everyday life of the monks living in the hermitage, a reconstruction of their dietary habits and the nature of the work that they did.