The Royal Necropoleis of Thebes

The blog post for this week is written by Jan Stremme, who returned from her last Egypt tour in early March 2019. She had spent three weeks trying to focus on the tombs there, visiting over thirty tombs on her Luxor pass. She was delighted to see the course on Thebes, hoping to sort out all her notes from the trip. She has concluded that there is a reason some Egyptologists can spend a lifetime studying the tombs of Egypt; each individual tomb deserves hours of study, and there are so many!

Week three of the Egypt Centre’s Thebes course was focused on the royal necropoleis (fig. 1). We attempted to look at the tombs chronologically, roughly from the Eleventh through the Twentieth Dynasty. It is fun to tease out who started a tomb, who finished it—if it was finished—or reused. Then we get to discover whose body was found there, in whose sarcophagus or coffin, and whether it was originally buried there, stored temporarily, or added later. This tangled “shell game” will keep Egyptologists bickering for many years to come. According to my notes, we virtually “visited” thirty-seven tombs in two hours with Ken!

Fig. 1: Aerial view of the Theban nrcropoleis

By the Eleventh Dynasty, Thebes had become the seat of power. The first three tombs of this era were the saff (row) type tombs of three kings named Intef in the cemetery now known as Tarif (fig. 2). These tombs had a large courtyard with a pillared façade entry. There is little or no decoration left in these tombs, though a charming stela of Wahankh Intef II shows the king with his hunting dogs, each named. The stela was mentioned in the Abbott Papyrus dated to the reign of Ramesses IX.

Fig. 2: Saff tomb of Intef II (photo by Richard Sellicks)

During the Twelfth Dynasty the seat of power switched to the northern site of Itjtawy. The Seventeenth Dynasty saw a return of Theban royal burials. These tombs featured a pyramid-type structure in their courtyards. They are located in the necropolis of Dra abu el-Naga (fig. 3). There was a flurry of activity at Thebes during the Eighteenth Dynasty. In the Valley of the Queens, there are fifty-seven tombs in the area, along with twenty subsidiary tombs (mostly vertical shafts with one or two burial chambers). These tombs had some remaining funerary goods: fragments of wrappings, canopic jars, and some shabtis.

Fig. 3: Dra abu el-Naga necropolis

Tombs from the Nineteenth Dynasty in the Valley of the Queens contained richly painted walls. This included scenes from the Book of the Dead. The beautiful tomb of Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II, is the prime example of tomb paintings, with rich scenes throughout (fig. 4). The hieroglyphs were painted in multiple colors, and the figures stood out on white plastered walls. Even the ceilings were decorated in this era. While this is one of the best-preserved tombs in the Theban area, it is disheartening to see photographs from the 1904 excavation and compare them with the remaining decorations today. The modern era has not been kind to this beautiful treasure!

Fig. 4: Nefertari consecrating offerings before Osiris

The tomb of Seti I (KV 17) in the Valley of the Kings had the same stark and elegant figures painted on a blue-grey background. The tomb of the children of Ramesses II (KV 5) has over 120 chambers and will not be fully excavated for years! Sethnakht ushered in the Twentieth Dynasty, starting a tomb (KV 11) that broke into a chamber in Amenmesse’s tomb (KV 10). As a result, he just added chambers to his predecessor’s (Tauseret) tomb (KV 10). The tomb of Ramesses V was later usurped by Ramesses VI (KV 9).

Our whirlwind tour left me almost as breathless as I felt in Egypt, trying to get the most out of my 5-day Luxor pass!

Bibliography:

McDonald, John K. 1996. House of eternity: the tomb of Nefertari. Conservation and Cultural Heritage 1. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute; J. Paul Getty Museum.

Reeves, Nicholas and Richard H. Wilkinson 1996. The complete Valley of the Kings: tombs and treasures of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs. London: Thames and Hudson.

Soliman, Rasha 2009. Old and Middle Kingdom Theban tombs. Egyptian site series. London: Golden House.

Strudwick, Nigel and Helen Strudwick 1999. Thebes in Egypt: a guide to the tombs and temples of ancient Luxor. London: The British Museum Press.

Thomas, Elisabeth 1966. The Royal Necropoleis of Thebes. Trenton, NJ: Moorman.