Personal Statement
Following a BA/MA in Egyptology at the University of Geneva, Violaine Chauvet developed her field of specialization in Egyptian architecture with a PG degree in Architecture-Archaeology (School of Architecture Paris-Strasburg), before joining Dieter Arnold at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the support of a Jane and Morgan Whitney and a Chester Dale Fellowship, to study the architecture of the mastaba of Perneb and other Old Kingdom monuments in the collection.

After completing a Ph.D. on the economy of Old Kingdom tombs construction at the Johns Hopkins University, under the splendid supervision of Prof. Betsy Bryan and Prof. Richard Jansnow, Violaine came to Liverpool in 2007 where she teaches on a broad range of topics in Egyptian material culture (art, archaeology, heritage), language and society.

A long-term member of the Egypt Exploration Society, Violaine served, with her colleagues at the University of Liverpool, as editor for the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (2007-2013), and joined the EES Board of Trustee (2018-2022).
Violaine has a long-standing history the American Research Center in Egypt which supported her doctoral fieldwork (2001-2002 Samuel H. Kress Fellowship in Egyptian Art and Archaeology). ARCE is a nonprofit professional organisation actively engaged with and committed to the preservation of the Egyptian cultural heritage. Violaine now sits on the ARCE Research Support Member committee and chairs the Archaeological & Research Expeditions Task Force (2024-).

Violaine has worked in Egypt for more than 20 years, and is now the PI of the Mut Temple Project, excavating elements of New Kingdom domestic architecture, as part of an international collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University (Prof. B. Bryan, CI). The project which started in 2018 is set to discover the remains of the urban settlement of Thebes in the New Kingdom.

Research Overview
THE MUT TEMPLE PROJECT: Looking for New Kingdom Thebes

What do we know about the New Kingdom city of Thebes. Thebes, the religious capital of Egypt, designed around a network of temples shaping the processional landscape across both sides of the Nile river. What about the settlement which spread on the east bank of the Nile, locally known as ‘The City’ (Egyptian niwt / no)? ‘The City of a hundred gates’ according to Homer, ‘wherefrom sally forth though each two hundred warriors with horses and cars’ ?; by all accounts, an urban centre.
The remains of this seemingly large settlement on the east side of the Nile are today inaccessible, being covered by the spread of the modern town of Luxor. As it happens, the Mut Temple Precinct, just south of Karnak, offers an unexpected and unique access point to launch a large-scale exploration of the New Kingdom city of Thebes.
The presence of New Kingdom domestic architecture, lying under the remains of a Late Period administrative centre, was first established in 2005 in the unbuilt area south of the precinct. Preliminary excavations carried out since 2018 by the University of Liverpool / Johns Hopkins University team, directed by Dr. Violaine Chauvet, have securely identified a range of features characteristic of New Kingdom elite houses: a stone bench, a decorated mud-brick door jamb, red-painted elements belonging to domestic cultic niches and ritual altars, column bases, and a mud-brick paved floor, features that are identified in the depiction of the 18th dynasty house of Djehuty-nefer (TT104).
As of the 2024 excavation season, only the central part of the house has been excavated. Of the other spaces depicted in TT104, the outside courtyard containing production areas, granaries and storage facilities, is yet to be uncovered; so are standard domestic facilities such as bedrooms and kitchen. Considering the quality of the evidence uncovered so far, one may also hope to find the epitome of an elite installation (previously documented in some Amarna villas): a toilet and bathroom!
The main objective of the ongoing fieldwork is to expand the excavation northward and westward, from the heart of the house (the ‘reception room’), towards the peripheral areas of the residence. Finding the outer limits of the residence and its entrance is expected to provide critical information about: 1. Who was the owner of the house? 2. What type of elite house do we have in this urban setting?

The Liverpool Mut Temple Project fieldwork is supported by the Sir John Brunner Endowment in Egyptology.