The Netherlands Institute for the Near East

Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten  -  Institut néerlandais du Proche-Orient

Carina van den Hoven is Research Fellow at NINO, Affiliated Researcher at the Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities, and Member of the Research Unit UMR 8546 « Archéologie et philologie d’Orient et d’Occident » at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE/PSL), École Normale Supérieure (ENS), and Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

Since 2017 she is Director of the Leiden University Mission to the Theban Necropolis, which undertakes a fieldwork project in and around Theban Tomb 45 in Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the West Bank of Luxor (see www.StichtingAEL.nl).

Van den Hoven’s expertise and research interests in Egyptology are in the function and materiality of ancient Egyptian temple decoration and tomb decoration, and the practices and rituals they reflect. Her research focuses not only on pharaonic Egypt, but extends into the Graeco-Roman period, and addresses in particular the topics of textual and iconographic transmission processes, uses and reuses of the past, cultural memory, and cultural identity in ancient Egypt. Van den Hoven’s research interests also include landscape archaeology, memory studies, cultural heritage management, and the field of digital humanities and its applications to Egyptology, and in particular the use of digital techniques in the documentation, material analysis, and publication of ancient wall paintings.

Academic education

Van den Hoven obtained her first BA and MA degree (doctoraal) in French language and literature at Leiden University in 2005, specialising in 19th century French travel literature. The topic of her MA thesis was concerned with male and female perspectives on 19th century Egypt, based on an analysis of the travel narratives of Suzanne Voilquin, Gérard de Nerval, Valérie de Gasparin, Gustave Flaubert and Maxime Du Camp.

In 2009 Van den Hoven obtained her second BA and MA degree (doctoraal) in Egyptology at Leiden University, specialising in Egyptian art and archaeology as well as in the entire range of ancient Egyptian languages and writing systems (6-year curriculum). The topic of her MA thesis in Egyptology was concerned with an analysis of the decoration system of the temple of Kalabsha and the ways in which it reflects the ritual landscape of the Dodecaschoenos and imperial religious policy in Lower-Nubia in the early Roman Period.

PhD research

In 2017 Van den Hoven obtained a PhD degree in Egyptology at Leiden University and the École Pratique des Hautes Études/Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (EPHE/PSL). Her PhD research was concerned with an analysis of the use of tradition and the conceptualisation of innovation in the composition of ritual texts and temple wall decoration in Ptolemaic Egypt (304-30 BCE). This analysis allowed her to identify various modes and strategies of textual and iconographic transmission that were used by the ancient scribes in the processes of composing religious ritual texts and temple wall decoration. The importance of tradition in the Ptolemaic temples has often been explained as a way of preserving the indigenous religious traditions in the face of a dominant Greek culture, and as a statement by the Egyptian priests against their marginalization under foreign rule, which is thought to have led to a loss of indigenous culture and identity. However, Van den Hoven’s research has shown that the Ptolemaic temples were a major contemporary cultural phenomenon in themselves and constituted the intellectual centers of the indigenous culture, in which Egyptian cultural identity was defined. The intensive religious life in the Ptolemaic temples, including the composition of numerous new religious texts, indicates that processes of redefining cultural and religious identity on the basis of tradition were at work rather than processes of loss of indigenous culture and identity. Van den Hoven argued therefore that Ptolemaic temple culture should be described in terms of creativity and innovation, rather than in terms of decline and fall.

Current research

Van den Hoven’s current research continues on the topic of referencing the past in ancient Egypt, but from a new perspective. Since 2017 she directs the TT45 Project (Leiden University Mission to the Theban Necropolis), an international fieldwork project in and around Theban Tomb 45 in the Theban Necropolis on the West Bank of Luxor (see www.StichtingAEL.nl). This tomb is a fascinating case of tomb reuse, in which the original wall decoration (Amenhotep II, ca. 1400 BCE) was partially retouched and repainted by the second tomb owner (Ramesside Period) in order to update the paintings to contemporary style and (personal) taste. The fieldwork project at Theban Tomb 45 forms the starting point for Van den Hoven’s current research project on tomb reuse, which focuses on the questions of how secondary tomb owners dealt with the past in reused tombs, and how they inserted their own memory into the existing decoration of these tombs. Van den Hoven’s interdisciplinary approach challenges traditional outside-in interpretations by combining theory and methodology from the fields of Memory Studies and Landscape Archaeology, which enables her to explore tomb reuse in terms of the interaction between mortuary practice, cultural memory, and the physical features of the mortuary landscape. In doing so, she aims to allow for a deep-level understanding of this understudied phenomenon and to contribute to wider cross-cultural discussions on the reuse of mortuary spaces and on the functioning of mortuary landscapes and the tombs therein as dynamic spaces through which memories were constructed, preserved and transferred across generations.

Fieldwork

From 2006 onwards Van den Hoven participated in various international fieldwork projects in Egypt, at Saqqara and at Dakhleh Oasis. As part of her MA and PhD research she collected unpublished source material in the temples of Kalabsha and Edfu. Since 2017 she is Director of the Leiden University Mission to the Theban Necropolis, which undertakes conservation and restoration, (digital) documentation and publication, analysis of the painted decoration, archaeological study, and preventive conservation and risk management activities in and around Theban Tomb 45 at Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna on the West Bank of Luxor. This fieldwork project is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. In addition, a NINO Fieldwork Subsidy, combined with a grant from the Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities, has enabled the development of a proof of concept on the digital documentation and material analysis of the painted decoration of this tomb, with a special focus on the repaintings that were carried out by the second tomb owner.

Teaching

From 2013 to 2015 Van den Hoven held a position as lecturer in Egyptology at Leiden University, teaching various courses on Bachelor, Master and Research Master levels in the multidisciplinary programs “Ancient Cultures of the Mediterranean World” and “Classics and Ancient Civilizations”. From 2016 to 2019 she was a guest lecturer in the Research Master program “Classics and Ancient Civilizations”. Since 2018 she has been supervising and mentoring trainees that participate in her fieldwork project at Theban Tomb 45.

Selected publications

See Academia and ORCID.