KV 20 and KV 38: Two Tombs attributed to Tuthmosis I

In 1982, the excavations by the British Museum in the temple of Thoth at el-Ashmunein revealed building remains consisting of the lower courses of a wall and one side of a door, with an adjacent area of limestone paving. 1 The angle of the wall at the side of the door was carved with a torus-roll, which suggests that this was once the exterior corner of a building. In the photograph published here (Fig. 1), this wall appears on the left, with the paved area on the right; part of the pavement has been robbed out to reveal a stone box below. These features, all highlighted in yellow on the plan in Figure 2, lay immediately west of a cluster of later building elements at a higher level, probably dating from the fourth century AD and consisting of a mixture of re-used pharaonic masonry and Roman fired bricks. It appeared that the older building remains at the west had originally extended further towards the east but had been cut away and replaced by the late Roman construction. At the time of excavation, the portion of wall with the door jamb was identified as New Kingdom temple masonry and the pavement next to it as belonging to a later period. The precise date of the pavement was not established; although a tentative attribution to the second century AD was given, the description written at the time stated only: 'The date of the low-level pavement and its associated features is not entirely clear, but it is obviously post-New Kingdom and yet must be earlier than the constructions of the fourth century AD which lie in the east part of [excavation square] B1 and continue into B3'. 2 Further consideration of this wall and pavement now suggests an alternative option, that they are both post-New Kingdom but still date from a time well within the pharaonic period. The wall, it was previously suggested, might have been part of the Ramesside temple or have belonged to a chapel of the Third Intermediate Period built in the Ramesside courtyard. 3 The latter opinion was influenced by the discovery in the area of the stela of King Osorkon III and other blocks bearing his name. 4 A reconsideration of the design and location of the remains in B1 permits an alternative interpretation of them as part of a tomb. The situation of the building places it on the east side of the axis of the temple and in front of the pylon of Horemheb, identified by the British Museum expedition. 5 This position conforms well with that adopted for elite tombs from the Third Intermediate Period and later, 6 as illustrated most famously by the royal tombs of the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties at Tanis, and the royal necropolis of Sais described by Herodotus. Other examples of elite tombs at the front of major temples

Polish archaeology in the Mediterranean 24/2, 2015

This paper discusses the similarities between TT 358, TT 320 and, in its second stage, KV 39. In terms of both architecture and grave goods, it is suggested that these three tombs were all made for early Eighteenth Dynasty queens. That TT 358 was carved for Ahmose-Meryetamun is certain, whilst the suggestion that TT 320 was cut for Ahmose-Nofretari is defended. Although it is not certain for whom KV 39 may have been designed, the suggestion that it was Ahmose-Inhapi seems plausible.

Kings of the Sun. Studies, 2020

The modern interdisciplinary exploration of ancient Egyptian burial sites represents one of the major trends of contemporary archaeological research in Egyptology. Cooperation among representatives of the natural, technical and social sciences is imperative if we are to understand the information collected during the excavation process. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife similar to the life they had lived on earth, and their tombs – in terms of their location, architecture, decoration, inscriptions, and burial equipment – reflected many aspects of their world, including the administration of the state, the social standing of tomb owners and their families, the realities of everyday life, religious ideas, the anthropology of the population of that time, and the state of (and changes in) the environment. Over time, four royal complexes of Fifth-Dynasty kings were built in the Abusir pyramid field during the Old Kingdom. In addition, members of the royal family and the state’s high officials constructed their tombs here. In their shadow, lower-ranking officials, along with their wives and children, would be buried. All of these monuments tell thousands of multifaceted stories, from which we can reconstruct the history of the world’s oldest territorial state. As the Abusir burial ground is so vast, it comes as no surprise that several different non-royal burial sites gradually arose independently of each other in this widespread area over the course of the third millennium BCE. While the factors influencing their position, nature and time of origin varied, key considerations would undoubtedly have been the location of the Old Kingdom’s capital, White Walls, the evolution of the network of settlements, the local cult topography, and the main communications connecting the necropolis with the Nile valley. Although much of the site remains unexplored, current knowledge and archaeological research offer a relatively detailed awareness and description of how it developed in time and space. Each of the burial sites tells, in its own specific way, the story of its time and of the owners of the individual tombs. These monuments reflect the dynamics and transformations of ancient Egyptian society. The following text provides a very limited description of some of these sites, drawing on the enormous wealth of sources known to date .

Qurna and Qurnet Marai in the Theban necropolis runs a valley that meets the floodplain at the site of the mortuary temple of Rameses II, the Ramesseum (Figures i, 2). The valley is a counterpart to the valley of Deir el-Bahri, where the temples of Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra and Hatshepsut are situated. But unlike the Deir el-Bahri valley, this valley does not contain famous standing monuments. Today, the valley presents a wild, almost desolate, appearance (Figures 3, 5, 21). A closer look, however, reveals features that indicate major landscaping efforts were undertaken in ancient times. Figures 2 and 3 show two separate places where quarrymen cut trenches into the rock preparatory to removing the entire rock face at the southwestern side of the valley.2 And at the western end of the valley where the limestone rock surrounds a natural bay, a considerable part of the ground was leveled to form an even plateau (Figure 3). Herbert E. Winlock in 1914 was the first to recognize that the plateau and trenches were traces of building activities.3 The discovery was important enough for him to record it in the opening paragraphs of The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Thebes (1947). It is a memorable description of archaeological intuition: One day just before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the groom and I were exercising my horses behind Sheikh Abd el Kurneh Hill. The light was exactly right, and as I came to the highest bit of path, with the towering cliffs to the right and the lower hill to the left, I noticed below me for the first time a ? The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1991 Metropolitan Museum Journal 26 flat platform and the upper part of a sloping causeway ascending from the cultivation. In a flash I was spurring down the hill and up onto the level place to look down the line of the ancient roadway to the point where it disappeared behind the Ramesseum. I realized that in the flat terrace under the cliffs we had the grading for a temple like the one built in the Eleventh Dynasty at Deir el-Bahrijust to the north. In 1920-21 Winlock cleared the platform under the cliffs of later debris.4 In the course of this work, he recleared an underground passage and burial chamber (Figure 4) that had first been excavated by Robert Mond in the winter of 1903-4.5 Winlock rightly connected this burial chamber of royal proportions with the landscaping efforts described above, and he identified the ensemble as an unfinished royal funerary monument. At first, it seemed a simple matter to identify the individual for whom this monument had been intended. The similarities in the plan of the burial chamber-as well as in the general shape of the causeway and funerary temple-to the great funeral monument of Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra in the neighboring valley of Deir el-Bahri6 pointed to a successor of that king as the owner (Figure 1, nos. 1 and 5). Further indications of a late Eleventh Dynasty date for the structure were thought to exist because of the large tomb of the chancellor Meketra, situated at the northern side of the valley (Figure 5). This official was known to have served Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra as "overseer of the six great law-courts" around year 39 of that king's reign.7 During the last years of Nebhepetra's reign, Meketra was "chancellor" (imy-r' htmt) and was depicted or mentioned in this capacity several times in the relief decoration of Nebhepetra's funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri.8 The fact that Meketra's tomb was not sit-The notes for this article begin on page 41. 5 The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Metropolitan Museum Journal www.jstor.org ® uated among the tombs of the other officials of Nebhepetra's court, on the slopes around the valley of Deir el-Bahri (Figure i, nos. 6 and 7),9 suggested to Winlock and others that Meketra outlived Nebhepetra and went on to serve his successor, Mentuhotep III Seankhkara. It was therefore logical to assume that the unfinished royal tomb in the valley, situated below the tomb of Meketra, belonged to King Mentuhotep III Seankhkara. (See Appendix I.) A group of inscriptions on nearby rocks seemed to corroborate the identification of the unfinished monument as the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep III. Between the valley, or rock bay, of Deir el-Bahri and the bay in which the unfinished royal funerary monument is situated lies yet another, smaller bay surrounded by limestone cliffs (Figure i, no. 4).1' In this smaller bay numerous graffiti of Middle Kingdom date are incised in the rock cliffs high above the valley floor. Winlock recognized that various groups of priests had incised their names here." Among these names, the greatest number were

This paper examines the claims of three tombs that have been proposed as the tomb of Amenhotep I: one just south of the Valley of the Kings (KV39) and two others about 1.5 km east of the Valley: K93.11 and AN B. The various studies of these tombs are discussed in the order in which they appeared. This helps to clarify the development of the many conflicting views that over time have arisen. A rigorous analysis of the different arguments leads to the conclusion that the claims of K93.11 and KV39 can with a high degree of certainty be dismissed, and that AN B is the most likely candidate. Supporting evidence for the latter is obtained from a detailed comparison of the inventory of stone vessels from AN B with that of KV62: Tutankhamun’s tomb. Special attention is given to Papyrus Abbott, which holds an account of an inspection tour of the Theban necropolis during the 20th dynasty. This account has been searched by many for clues about the location of Amenhotep I’s tomb (which is mentioned in it), but with quite different results. An alternative interpretation of this account is given, leading to the conclusion that the order in which the account lists the tombs probably has no particular bearing on their locations. 83 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, extensive bibliography.

Prague Egyptological Studies, 2017

The excavations at Abusir South have already uncovered many tombs that added valuable information to the general knowledge of the development of the Old Kingdom society, its burial and funeral habits, and last but not least social relations and their impact on the lives of ancient Egyptian officials. One of the last discoveries is represented by the tomb of “the elder of the judicial hall” Kaisebi (AS 76) and the adjoining tomb of Ptahwer (AS 76b), which are located to the south of the anonymous mastaba AS 54 lying on the most prominent spot of the whole Abusir South area. Kaisebi and Ptahwer built their tombs between this huge mastaba AS 54 and recently discovered 18.5 m long ship, both dated to the end of the Third Dynasty. Tomb AS 76 was constructed in two phases in the course of the late Fifth and Sixth Dynasty. The first one consisted of a rather small rectangular mastaba with a chapel, a northern niche, a serdab, and two shafts. Later on, the original structure was enlarged by an annexe (AS 76b) attached to the eastern wall of AS 76, which included another offering place and two burial shafts. The cruciform chapel of Kaisebi’s mastaba with colourful wall paintings contains a well-preserved false door in situ.

2020

Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt

The following article presents preliminary results of a sondage in the burial chamber (hall J) and a visual survey in the areas H, I, J, Ja-Jd, K1, K2, and L during the 2019/2020 field season carried out by The Ramesses III (KV 11) Publication and Conservation Project in the tomb of pharaoh Ramesses III.1 The detailed description and interpretation of the initial excavation work were omitted from the Second Report2 because it required more extensive discussion. The authors present their archaeological field work, their research, and the systematic examination of finds. Several unexpected finds shed new light on the use and reuse of KV 11. A sondage in the burial chamber provides insight into ancient and modern activities within the tomb. Additionally, more information is presented on photogrammetry in KV 11 as well as a provisional sketch of a site management plan centered on the digitization of a visitors’ itinerary. The work was carried out under the supervision of the Egyptian Mi...