Cartography in Dra' Abu el-Naga
Welcome to the Homepage of the
Dra' Abu el-Naga Cartographic Project (DANCP)!

This project was born in 1995 from a desire to accurately record the activities of the UCLA/DAI excavations in Dra' Abu al-Naga. Until the inception of the program, the mission relied heavily on the map sheets published by the British in 1921. In the interest of archaelogical accuracy it was decided to attempt an expansion of the Dorner sheets of El-Tarif.


Dra' Abu el-Naga
The focus area of the present work is the necropolis of Dra' Abu el-Naga on the West Bank in Thebes. Dra' Abu el-Naga is adjoined to the north by the necropolis of el-Tarif and to the south by the necropoleis of Deir el-Bahri and el-Assasif. The UCLA/DAI joint missionís concession area lies in the northern portion of Dra' Abu el-Naga. The main portion of the concession is bordered by the road to the Valley of the Kings on the north, the road from Deir el-Bahri on the east, and the modern village of Dra' Abu el-Naga on the south. Within the confines of this concession area are tombs from the Middle Kingdom through the Late Period, as well as more recent features such as Coptic Monasteries.
The Maps Produced
During the course of this 1995 season, six additional temporary base points were set at various locations in the survey area to facilitate coverage of the entire hill. These temporary basepoints were labelled TBP 1-6 and can clearly be seen on the topographic maps. Readings were taken at approximately one meter intervals over the entire surveyed area. The interval was maintained by laying two fifty meter steel tapes at right angles to one another. This arrangement allowed the acquisition of points at approximately one meter intervals. To eliminate later sampling errors by the computer cartography programs, serious attention was paid to maintaining the one meter interval even in difficult terrain. Unfortunately, even these attempts could not keep the interval from becoming less regular as the terrain became steep and inaccessible. After the conclusion of the 1995, in which we surveyed in excess of 10,000 points, we used the information obtained to create two separate types of maps. The first map that we produced was the standard topographic map modelled on those of Dorner in El-Tarif.