Excavating the Egyptological Archives of the Università degli Studi di Milano: the Varille's documentation on the Pyramid temple of Djedkare-Izezi at Saqqara

In January 2002, the Università degli Studi di Milano bought the extraordinary archives of Alexandre Varille (1909-1951). This extremely rich collection contains manuscripts relating to excavations, unpublished essays, notebooks, files on objects in Museums and on archaeological, historical or philological subjects, articles from newspapers and magazines, drawings, and an exceptional collection of over 50,000 negatives, prints and glass plates of monuments, excavations, and Egyptian objects in public and private collections. Between November 1944 and June 1948, Varille worked as epigraphist at Saqqara for the Antiquities Service. He joined the mission of Abdel Salam Hussein on the excavations of the funerary complex of Djedkare-Izezi, but because of the premature death of both archaeologists their results were never published. Some large folders found in the Varille archives contain materials that can be useful to understand the way in which the excavations were carried on and some of the objects discovered. This previously unknown documentation consists in photographs of the temple area, of people at work on the excavations, of more than 200 fragments of the decoration -showing close similarity to that of the temples of Niuserre and Sahure at Abusir-, of fragments of statues and sculptures -among which statues of prisoners, of lions, sphinxes and other animals-, and of inscribed fragments of columns and architraves. In addition, we have found hundreds of cards with notes and photographs, and a short report on the excavations. Aim of the communication is to present and analyse these materials, and make them known to the scientific community. In particular, it seems important to to put these data in relation with the objects and fragments coming from the area, that have been discovered in excavation warehouses by Mohamed Megahed.