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Thebes in the First Millennium BC



Thebes in the First Millennium BC

Edited by

Elena Pischikova, Julia Budka

and Kenneth Griffin



Thebes in the First Millennium BC,Edited by Elena Pischikova, Julia Budka and Kenneth Griffin

This book first published 2014

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2014 by Elena Pischikova, Julia Budka, Kenneth Griffin and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-5404-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5404-7



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword …………………………………………………………………xi

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………...xv

Part A: Historical Background

Chapter One ……………………………………………………………....3

The Coming of the Kushites and the Identity of Osorkon IVAidan Dodson

Part B: Royal Burials: Thebes and Abydos

Chapter Two ……………………………………………………………..15Royal Burials at Thebes during the First Millennium BC David A. Aston

Chapter Three …………………………………………………………....61Kushites at Abydos: The Royal Family and BeyondAnthony Leahy

Part C: Elite Tombs of the Theban Necropolis

Section 1: Preservation and Development of the Theban Necropolis

Chapter Four ………..………………………………………………….101

Lost Tombs of Qurna: Development and Preservation of the Middle Areaof the Theban NecropolisRamadan Ahmed Ali

Chapter Five ……………………………………………………………111 New Tombs of the North AsasifFathy Yaseen Abd el Karim



vi Table of Contents

Section 2: Archaeology and Conservation

Chapter Six ……………………………………………………………..121Kushite Tombs of the South Asasif Necropolis: Conservation,Reconstruction, and ResearchElena Pischikova

Chapter Seven ………………………………………………………….161Reconstruction and Conservation of the Tomb of Karakhamun (TT 223)Abdelrazk Mohamed Ali

Chapter Eight …………………………………………………………..173The Forgotten Tomb of Ramose (TT 132)Christian Greco

Chapter Nine …………………………………………………………...201The Tomb of Montuemhat (TT 34) in the Theban Necropolis: A NewApproachLouise Gestermann and Farouk Gomaà

Chapter Ten ………………………………………………………….....205The “Funeral Palace” of Padiamenope (TT 33): Tomb, Place ofPilgrimage, and Library. Current researchClaude Traunecker

Chapter Eleven …………………………………………………………235Kushite and Saite Period Burials on el-KhokhaGábor Schreiber

Section 3: Religious Texts: Tradition and Innovation

Chapter Twelve ………………………………………………………...251The Book of the Dead from the Western Wall of the Second Pillared Hallin the Tomb of Karakhamun (TT 223)Kenneth Griffin

Chapter Thirteen ……………………………………………………….269The Broad Hall of the Two Maats: Spell BD 125 in Karakhamun’s MainBurial Chamber

Miguel Angel Molinero Polo



Table of Contents vii

Chapter Fourteen ……………………………………………………….295Report on the Work on the Fragments of the “Stundenritual” (Ritual of the

Hours of the Day) in TT 223Erhart Graefe

Chapter Fifteen …………………………………………………...…….307The Amduat and the Book of the Gates in the Tomb of Padiamenope(TT 33): A Work in ProgressIsabelle Régen

Section 4: Interconnections, Transmission of Patterns and Concepts,

and Archaism: Thebes and Beyond

Chapter Sixteen ………………………………………………...………323Between South and North Asasif: The Tomb of Harwa (TT 37) asa “Transitional Monument”Silvia Einaudi

Chapter Seventeen ………………………………………………...……343The So-called “Lichthof” Once More: On the Transmission of Concepts

between Tomb and TempleFilip Coppens

Chapter Eighteen ……………………………………...………………..357Some Observations about the Representation of the Neck-sash in Twenty-sixth Dynasty ThebesAleksandra Hallmann

Chapter Nineteen ……………………………………………………….379All in the Detail: Some Further Observations on “Archaism” and Style

in Libyan-Kushite-Saite EgyptRobert G. Morkot

Chapter Twenty …………………………………………...……………397Usurpation and the Erasure of Names during the Twenty-sixth DynastyCarola Koch



viii Table of Contents

Part D: Burial Assemblages and Other Finds in Elite Tombs

Section 1: Coffins

Chapter Twenty-one ………………………………………...………….419The Significance of a Ritual Scene on the Floor Board of Some CoffinCases in the Twenty-first DynastyEltayeb Abbas

Chapter Twenty-two …………………………………………….……..439The Inner Coffin of Tameramun: A Unique Masterpiece of KushiteIconography from ThebesSimone Musso and Simone Petacchi

Chapter Twenty-three ……………………………………………….…453Sokar-Osiris and the Goddesses: Some Twenty-fifth–Twenty-sixthDynasty Coffins from ThebesCynthia May Sheikholeslami

Chapter Twenty-four …………………………………………………...483The Vatican Coffin ProjectAlessia Amenta

Section 2: Other Finds

Chapter Twenty-five ……………………………………………...……503Kushite Pottery from the Tomb of Karakhamun: Towards a Reconstruc-tion of the Use of Pottery in Twenty-fifth Dynasty Temple TombsJulia Budka

Chapter Twenty-six ……………………………………………….……521A Collection of Cows: Brief Remarks on the Faunal Material fromthe South Asasif Conservation ProjectSalima Ikram

Chapter Twenty-seven …………………………………………………529Three Burial Assemblages of the Saite Period from SaqqaraKate Gosford



Table of Contents ix

Part E: Karnak

Chapter Twenty-eight ………………………………………….………549A Major Development Project of the Northern Area of the Amun-RePrecinct at Karnak during the Reign of Shabaqo

Nadia Licitra, Christophe Thiers, and Pierre Zignani

Chapter Twenty-nine …………………………………………………...565The Quarter of the Divine Adoratrices at Karnak (Naga Malgata) duringthe Twenty-sixth Dynasty: Some Hitherto Unpublished EpigraphicMaterialLaurent Coulon

Chapter Thirty …………………………………………………….……587Offering Magazines on the Southern Bank of the Sacred Lake in Karnak:The Oriental Complex of the Twenty-fifth–Twenty-sixth DynastyAurélia Masson

Chapter Thirty-one ………………………………………………..……603Ceramic Production in the Theban Area from the Late Period: NewDiscoveries in KarnakStéphanie Boulet and Catherine Defernez

Chapter Thirty-two ……………………………………………..………625Applications of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) in the Studyof Temple GraffitiElizabeth Frood and Kathryn Howley

Abbreviations …………………………………………………………..639

Contributors ……………………………………………………………645

Indices …………….……………………………………………..……..647



FOREWORD

“Egypt in the First Millennium BC” is a collection of articles, most ofwhich are based on the talks given at the conference of the same nameorganised by the team of the South Asasif Conservation Project (SACP),an Egyptian-American Mission working under the auspices of the Ministryof State for Antiquities (MSA), Egypt in Luxor in 2012. The organisers ofthe conference Elena Pischikova, Julia Budka, and Kenneth Griffin in-tended to bring together a group of speakers who would share the resultsof their recent field research in the tombs and temples of the Twenty-fifth

and Twenty-sixth Dynasties in Thebes and other archaeological sites, aswell as addressing a variety of issues relevant to different aspects ofEgyptian monuments of this period.

Papers based on the talks of the participants of the conference form the bulk of this volume. However, we found it possible to include the papersof a few scholars who could not attend the conference, but whose contri-

butions are pertinent to the main themes of the conference and could en-rich the content of the present volume. Therefore, this volume covers amuch wider range of sites, monuments, and issues as well as a broader

chronological span. Discussions of the monuments of Abydos andSaqqara, along with the Libyan tradition, enrich the argument on intercon-nections, derivations, innovations, and archaism. The diversity of topicscover the areas of history, archaeology, epigraphy, art, and burial assem-

blages of the period.Aidan Dodson deliberates on chronological issues of the early Kushite

state by re-examining the identity of Osorkon IV and related monuments.His paper gives a historical and cultural introduction to the Kushite Periodand the whole volume.

The papers of the General Director of the Middle Area of the WestBank Fathy Yaseen Abd el Karim, and Chief Inspector of the Middle AreaRamadan Ahmed Ali, open a large section in the volume dedicated todifferent aspects of research and fieldwork in the Theban necropolis. Theyconcern the preservation and development of the necropolis, an incrediblyimportant matter which assumed a new dimension after the demolition ofthe Qurna villages and clearing of the area being undertaken by theAmerican Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) teams. Numerous tombsfound under the houses need immediate safety measures to be applied as

well as archaeological and research attention. The conservation, preservation, and recording of the elite tombs in the area are amongst themost relevant issues in the Theban necropolis today.



xii Foreword

David Aston and Anthony Leahy examine the royal burials of Thebesand Abydos. Both papers present a remarkably large number of burials

related to the royal families of the First MillenniumBC

. This time periodin the Theban necropolis is traditionally associated with elite tombs, withthe royal monuments often neglected. Research on the royal aspect ofthese sites provides a deeper perspective to the study of the elite tombs ofthe period.

The papers on the elite tombs of the Theban necropolis address a vari-ety of aspects of work in this group of monuments such as archaeology,conservation, epigraphy, and burial assemblages, as well as relevant issuesas archaism and innovations of the decoration and interconnections be-tween the tombs of different parts of the necropolis. The areas of archae-ology and conservation of the necropolis are presented by the papers of theDirector of the SACP Elena Pischikova, and its leading conservatorAbdelrazk Mohamed Ali. These papers give a summary of the re-discovery, excavation, conservation, reconstruction, and mapping workdone in the tombs of Karakhamun (TT 223) and Karabasken (TT 391)over a period of eight years, with emphasis on the 2012 and 2013 seasons.This section is complemented by a paper on the fieldwork in another“forgotten” tomb of the South Asasif necropolis, Ramose (TT 132), byChristian Greco. The archaeological work in the South Asasif necropolishas resulted in the uncovering and reconstruction of a large amount of newarchitectural, epigraphic, and artistic information, some of which is

presented in this volume for the first time.The new project in the tomb of Montuemhat (TT 34), undertaken by

Louise Gestermann and Farouk Gomaà, is another invaluable piece ofinformation which, together with the work of Greco in the tomb ofRamose, and Molinero Polo in the tomb of Karakhamun, modifies ourunderstanding of Kushite and early Saite burial compartments and theirsemantics within the tomb complex. The paper on the Twenty-fifth to

Twenty-sixth Dynasty tombs of el-Khokha by Gábor Schreiber widens our perception of the geographic disbursement of Kushite tombs in the Thebannecropolis. The amount of intrusive Twenty-fifth Dynasty burials withinthe primarily New Kingdom site of el-Khokha gives confidence that wemay expect similar results from the numerous Qurna missions. Specialattention paid to such intrusive burials in different areas may build a solid

basis for our better understanding of Kushite presence and activities inThebes in the future.

The epigraphical studies of Kenneth Griffin, Miguel Molinero Polo,

and Erhart Graefe within the tomb of Karakhamun, and Isabelle Régen inthe tomb of Padiamenope, concern the reflection of tradition and innova-



Foreword xiii

tions in the texts of the Book of the Dead, the Amduat, the Book of theGates, and the Ritual of the Hours of the Day, as well as their new archi-

tectural and contextual environment. The comparative research of thesetexts in different tombs will eventually lead to a better understanding ofthe reasons for selections of certain traditional texts, reasons for their ad-

justments, as well as their interpretations in the new contexts of templetombs of the period.

Although Kushite and Saite tombs demonstrate a rich variety of archi-tectural, textual, and decorative material they are all interconnected bycertain aspects and concepts. The next group of papers by Silvia Einaudi,Filip Coppens, Robert Morkot, Aleksandra Hallmann, and Carola Kochconcern such aspects, relevant to most of the monuments. Silvia Einaudiraises the incredibly important question of interconnections and inter-influences between the tombs of the Theban necropolis, origins of certain

patterns and traditions within the necropolis, and their transmissions fromtomb to tomb. Filip Coppens and Aleksandra Hallmann concentrate onsmaller elements of the tomb complexes, such as a piece of garment or asingle architectural feature, to track it within a group of monuments. Thus,Coppens traces similarities and differences in the Sun Court decoration indifferent tombs, its connection with the temple concept, and discusses itssymbolic and ritual meaning in temple tombs. Robert Morkot discusses thesources and chronological developments of archaism in royal and elitemonuments. Carola Koch addresses the Saite approach to Kushite monu-ments by re-examining the phenomenon of the erasure of Kushite namesduring the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.

A large group of papers on the burial assemblages and other finds inelite tombs enrich and expend the discussion of the burial complexes ofthe First Millennium BC. Eltayeb Abbas, Simone Musso and SimonePetacchi, Cynthia Sheikholeslami, and Alessia Amenta discuss the issuesof construction techniques, workshops, and iconography of coffin decora-

tion and its ritual meaning. Julia Budka and Salima Ikram discuss finds inthe tomb of Karakhamun. Budka analyses Kushite pottery found in the

burial compartment and its usage in a Twenty-fifth Dynasty temple tomb,while Ikram remarks on the faunal material from the First Pillared Hall.Kate Gosford broadens the boundaries of the discussion with some burialassemblages from Saqqara.

The last section of the volume is dedicated to the new archaeologicalresearch at Karnak presented by Nadia Licitra, Christophe Thiers, PierreZignani, Laurent Coulon, Aurélia Masson, Stéphanie Boulet, and

Catherine Defernez. Their papers concern different areas of the templecomplex such as the temple of Ptah, the Treasury of Shabaqo, the “palace”



xiv Foreword

of the God’s Wife Ankhnesneferibre in Naga Malgata, and offering maga-zines as well as the new evidence of ceramic production at Karnak in the

chapel of Osiris Wennefer. Another Karnak paper introduces a new tech-nology, with Elizabeth Frood and Kathryn Howley describing the use ofReflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) as a means of studying graffitiat the site.

Most of the information included into this volume is being publishedfor the first time. We feel that the research presented here brings together arange of current studies on royal and elite monuments of the period, put-ting them into a wider context and filling some gaps in First MillenniumBC scholarship. This time period is still one of the least researched and

published area of study in Egyptology despite the numerous recent devel-opments in field exploration and research. The present volume offers adiscussion of the First Millennium BC monuments and sites in all theircomplexity. Such aspects of research as tomb and temple architecture,epigraphy, artistic styles, iconography, palaeography, local workshops,and burial assemblages collected in this publication give a new perspectiveto the future exploration of these aspects and topics. We hope that the

present volume will inspire new comparative studies on the topics dis-cussed and bring First Millennium BC scholarship to a new level.

.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim andthe Ministry of State for Antiquities for their support in organising theconference “Thebes in the First Millennium BC” in Luxor in October 2012and permission to work in the South Asasif necropolis. We are grateful forthe support our Egyptian-American team, the South Asasif ConservationProject, has received over the years from Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled,Director of the Department of Foreign Missions MSA, Dr. MansourBoraik, Director General of Luxor Antiquities until 2013; Ibrahim

Soliman, Director of Luxor Antiquities; Dr. Mohamed Abd el Aziz, Gen-eral Director for the West Bank of Luxor; Fathy Yassen Abd el Kerim,Director of the Middle Area; Ramadan Ahmed Ali, Chief Inspector of theMiddle Area; Ahmed Ali Hussein Ali, SCA Chief Conservator andDirector of the Conservation Department of Upper Egypt; Afaf Fathalla,General Director of the Conservation Department of Upper Egypt; theMSA conservation team; and all our team members and volunteers. Weare very grateful to our sponsors, IKG Cultural Resources, directed byAnthony Browder (USA), and the South Asasif Conservation Trust, di-

rected by John Billman (UK). Without all this help and support we wouldnot have been able to accomplish the field work and research included inthe present volume.

Special thanks to the participants of the conference, particularly to ourLuxor colleagues Nadia Licitra, Christophe Thiers, Pierre Zignani, LaurentCoulon, Claude Traunecker, Isabelle Régen, Louise Gestermann, andFarouk Gomaà who showed their sites to the participants.



CHAPTER ELEVEN

K USHITE AND SAITE PERIOD BURIALS ONEL-K HOKHA

GÁBOR SCHREIBER Eötvös Loránd University Budapest

Abstract: The New Kingdom tombs on the southern slope of the el-Khokhahillock, situated in the centre of the Theban necropolis, accommodated numerousintrusive burials between the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties. Besidessecondary burials in shaft tombs cut in the cult chapel of New Kingdom mortuarymonuments, large hypogeum-type tombs with brickwork superstructures alsoappeared at the base of the hill. The study gives a brief overview of theseinterments, relying mostly on the results of the on-going Hungarian excavations inthis area.

Compared to the Asasif, the zone of the Ramesseum, and Medinet Habu,the Khokha hillock ranks among the peripheric areas of the Theban ne-cropolis during the Twenty-fifth/Twenty-sixth Dynasties, yet its tombgroups have still much to offer to the archaeologist to develop a balancedoverall picture of the contemporary Theban burial system. The southernslope of el-Khokha, situated in the centre of the vast Theban cemetery, isdistinguished by the presence of the oldest local rock-cut tombs datingfrom the late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period.1 After a

phase still difficult to characterise in detail over the Middle Kingdom andthe Second Intermediate Period,2 the heyday of the el-Khokha cemeterycame in the early New Kingdom, during the reign of Thutmose III. Due tothe proximity of this area to the mortuary temple of Thutmose III, theentire southern slope of el-Khokha became dotted by new mortuarymonuments in the first half of the fifteenth century BC. The tombs inquestion were typically of modest size, constructed for a middle-ranking

1 See recently Soliman 2009, 12–28; Fábián 2011, 43–53.

2 Fábián, in Bács et al. 2009, 55–60.



236 Chapter Eleven

stratum of the elite, such as a scribe of the mat (TT 182, Amenemhat), ascribe of the treasury (TT 365, Nefermenu), a counter of grain in the

granary of the divine offerings (TT 179, Nebamun), royal butlers (TT 205,Djehutymes and TT 238, Neferweben), and holders of various priestlyoffices (TT 241, Ahmose and TT -64-, Amenhotep).3 In the same period,another cemetery of shaft tombs, constructed for military men probably

participating in the foreign campaigns of Thutmose III evolved at the baseof the hill, of which a sample has been excavated in the zone of TT 32.4 Later, in the Nineteenth Dynasty, a few monumental tombs—such as thoseof Djehutymes (TT 32), Nebsumenu (TT 183) and Nefermenu (TT 184)— were constructed in the first and second necropolis-streets, wedged be-tween the already-existing tomb chapels. The construction of new monu-ments continued, if on a modest scale, into the Twentieth Dynasty, to-gether with the reuse of Thutmosid chapels that were repainted, and new

burial chambers accessible from a sloping passage added to their originalstructure (e.g. TT -59-, Bakenamun and TT -61-, Amenhotep).5 Based onthe material excavated by the Hungarian Mission in TT -61- and -400-,these Twentieth Dynasty tombs were clearly not only intended for thetomb owner and his spouse alone, but transformed into multiple, probablyfamily, burial grounds shortly after the original interments. The reuse of

New Kingdom tombs extended into the Twenty-first and Twenty-secondDynasties, when new burial chambers cut at the terminus of the sloping

passage were added to several Ramesside funerary apartments.6 The presence of Twenty-fifth/Twenty-sixth Dynasty material proved

also to be symptomatic in all the contexts that have been investigated sofar. What makes the evaluation of this corpus somewhat complicated is its

poor and highly fragmentary state of preservation, with the inscribedwooden objects that might have provided a sound basis for the reconstruc-tion of the equipment being almost completely destroyed in most cases.Given the more or less general lack of prosopographical data as well as

firm textual and stylistic evidence for dating, one is usually forced to relyon the study of pottery and small finds to give approximate dates and formsome general conclusions.

3 Note that tomb designations such as TT -64- refer to Kampp’s numbering system.

See Kampp 1996. 4 Cf. Schreiber 2008, 32–37; Schreiber 2010, 89.5 Schreiber, in Bács et al. 2009, 71–72. 6 Schreiber 2008, 51. See also Aston 2009, 164. On the history of the site betweenthe Twenty-second and early Twenty-fifth Dynasties, see Schreiber 2009.



Kushite and Saite Burials Period on el-Khokha 237

The best preserved Kushite Period burial equipment from el-Khokha isthat made for one (Jmn)-pA-sdnw and Jwty-aA-r-Wsjr , excavated by Maha

Farid Mostafa in the Ramesside tomb of Neferhotep and Meh (TT 257).

7

An interesting feature of this burial ensemble, constructed for father andson, both holding the title “Chamber Supervisor of the Divine Adoratriceof Amun” (jmy xnt n dwAt-nTr n Jmn),8 is that it represents an unusual

blend of Twenty-second and Twenty-fifth Dynasty styles. In accordancewith the “new” coffin style of the Kushite Period, both persons were

provided with outer coffins of the qrsw type,9 however, their innermostcoffins were actually cartonnage cases decorated in the style of theTwenty-second Dynasty.10 The finds also included a large fragment fromthe shabti box of (Jmn)-pA-sdnw,11 which shows resemblance to Aston’sType VII boxes inscribed with the shabti spell (BD 6).12 Besides these

burials dated to the second half of the eighth century BC, TT 257 alsoaccommodated the funerary equipment of a certain PA-dj-BAstt , who heldthe title jry aA pr-Jmn (Doorkeeper of the Temple of Amun).13 Based onthe Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figure associated with this interment, Padibastet’s

burial is datable to the seventh century BC.The intrusive Kushite burials on el-Khokha were deposed in newly cut

shaft tombs. This kind of shaft usually has a square opening and theirdepth varies between 2.5 and 4m. It seems as if there was a preference to

position these intrusive shafts in the axial halls of the New Kingdom tombchapels. This is at least the case with the Kushite to early Saite burialshafts found in TT 23,14 32,15 and -400-.16

However, not all the contemporary burials were deposed in shafttombs. Already in the late ninth–eighth century BC, tombs with brickworksuperstructures and subterranean burial chambers appeared at the base ofthe hill, which are likely to have formed an independent cluster within the

7

Mentioned in Aston 2003, 149; Schreiber 2009, 472. 8 On the title, see Graefe 1981 II, 36–38.

9 Mostafa 1995, 79–81, pls. XX, XLI–XLIII [obj. nrs. 84–85].10 Mostafa 1995, 85–86, pl. XLVI [obj. nrs. 122–123].11 Mostafa 1995, 81, pls. XIX, XLIII [obj. nr. 88.1].12 Aston 1994, 33–34, pl. 6.4; Aston 2009, 371–372.

13 Mostafa 1995, 77–78, pls. XIX, XL [obj. nr. 75]. On the title, see Jelínková-Reymond 1953; Černy 2001, 161; Leblanc 2011, 115–117.14 Personal observation. 15 Schreiber 2008, 51, pl. LXXXV. 16 Currently excavated by the Hungarian Archaeological Mission, South KhokhaProject.



238 Chapter Eleven

cemetery, occupying the plain area framed by el-Khokha on the north andthe west, the mortuary temple of Thutmose III and the farmland on the

south, and the outcrop dividing el-Khokha and Asasif on the east. Out ofthe two tomb buildings excavated by the Hungarian Mission, Tomb B isthe older and larger one (figs. 11-1a–b).17 This tomb consists of an openforecourt, a vaulted vestibule, a vaulted descending corridor, and burialchambers hewn out of the bedrock and arranged along an L-shaped corri-dor.

Fig. 11-1a: The superstructure of Tomb B (© L. Mátyus).

Fig. 11-1b: 3D model of Tomb B (Survey and plan by Zs. Vasáros;3D rendering by Á. Pásztor).

17 On Tomb B, see Schreiber and Vasáros 2005; Schreiber 2008, 64–77.




Figs. 11-2a–b: a – Cartonnage of Bw-jrw-Hr ; b – Wooden door, probablycut out from the frontal body field of a coffin, from Tomb B (author’s

drawings).

It seems that the first occupants of Tomb B were provided with anthro- poid wooden coffins and inner cartonnage cases of a style that is typical ofthe later Twenty-second to the early Twenty-fifth Dynasty. One of theoccupants was a certain Bw-jrw-Hr , “Hunter of Amun” (nw Jmn) , whosename has been preserved on his cartonnage coffin (fig. 11-2a). Burials,however, continued in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, as indicated by coffinfragments with the pennant writing of the name Osiris, which gained ac-ceptance only after 720 BC.18 Recurrent elements of the burial ensembleswere bead nets with a funerary scarab and the sons of Horus, coarse qual-ity Nile silt ushabtis, and Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures. Tomb B also yielded asignificant concentration of ceramic vessels which appear to date from

18 See Leahy 1979.



240 Chapter Eleven

between the early eighth century and the mid-seventh century BC, thussignifying that the occupation continued until the end of the Twenty-fifth

Dynasty or even beyond. The most remarkable find from Tomb B was anelaborately decorated wooden door, probably originally cut out from thefrontal body field of a coffin, installed into the doorway between the su-

perstructure and the descending corridor of the tomb (fig. 11-2b).19 Sincethe colouration and style of this object require comparison with Twenty-fifth Dynasty coffins, it most likely dates from the time of a second gener-ation of owners, who were interred there in the Kushite Period. The pre-served inscriptions mention four individuals, namely PA-ym , “Servant ofthe Palace” ( Smsw n aH), Jx-nts, Ns-pAwtj-tAwj, “Cultivator of the nesj-plantin the Domain of Amun” ( jrw nsj n pr-Jmn), and her mother !r-jry,“Mistress of the House” ( nbt pr).

Fig. 11-3: Plan and section of Tomb G (Survey and drawing by Zs. Vasáros).

19 Schreiber 2008, 66, 75–77, pl. LIX, photo pl. XXIV [nr. 2.2.2.5.1]. Cf.Schreiber, in Bács et al. 2009, 118–119 [cat. nr. 54].



242 Chapter Eleven

BC,23 the same broad date range may be applied to the burials found inShaft 4, with a preference for the second half of the sixth century BC.

Figs. 11-4a–d: Shouldered jar, large bottle, bag-shaped jar, andClazomenian amphora from Shaft 4 in TT -61- (Drawing by B. Tihanyi).

Another, roughly contemporaneous and relatively coherent burial sethas been excavated in an intrusive shaft cut in the portico of a Middle

23 Cook and Dupont 1998, 155, fig. 23.3g.




Kingdom saff -tomb in the fourth necropolis-street of el-Khokha.24 Theshaft, 2.5m in depth and articulated with a square aperture, gives access to

a single chamber where, besides coffin and cartonnage fragments,

25

andtwo dummy canopic jars of the later Twenty-second to Twenty-fifthDynasty,26 a shabti box with 184 figurines, fragments of another box, three

bead nets, fragments of a fourth bead net, and pottery, including threeClazomenian amphorae were found. The funerary figurines were all madeof Nile silt, the gang was, however, composed of different types, with

bearded and beardless figurines equally represented in the same set.27 Thedecoration of the rectangular box is much weatherworn, with only tracesof the yellow background being preserved.28 This feature as well as thesize and shape of the box point to similarities with Aston’s Type VII andVIII boxes.29 Of the bead nets, two are of Silvano’s Type A30 with amuletsmade of gilded wood and faience, respectively,31 while the third and themuch fragmentary fourth examples were sewn of small faience beadsespecially typical of the Saite Period.32 The three Clazomenian amphoraerepresent different variants of Dupont’s Type A,33 and all three wereapparently reused in the context of the tomb as containers ofmummification material. Taken together, the finds are suggestive that thisshaft tomb, probably constructed in the later eighth century BC, was reusedfor at least two interments during the Saite Period, most probably some-where around the later seventh to early sixth century BC.

The Saite burials on el-Khokha reveal few of the novelties that appearin contemporary elite burials and testify much more to a continuation ofconservative, older local traditions. Although tomb looting has eliminatednearly all textual data concerning the tomb owners, it seems, based on thecomposition of the burial equipment, that members of a lower-rankingstratum of local officials might have been buried here. It is also evidentthat all the tombs were intended and used for multiple, quite obviouslyfamily, burials over fairly short periods of time. The few preserved coffin

24 Fábián 2009, 8–9.25 Darvas 2010, 7–9.26 Fábián, in Bács et al. 2009, 101–102 [cat. nrs. 37–38]. 27 Cf. Darvas 2010, fig. 6; Németh 2010, 21–22.

28 Darvas 2010, 10, fig. 5. 29 Aston 2009, 371–372, fig. 47.30 Silvano 1980, 84–88.31 Németh, in Bács et al. 2009, 110–113 [cat. nrs. 46–47].32 Cf. Németh 2010, 19, 24, figs. 4–5.33 For a photo, see Fábián 2009, fig. 9.



244 Chapter Eleven

fragments, such as the one made for one Hor from TT 32,34 faithfullyreproduce the style of contemporary elite coffins, with scenes arranged in

a multiple-register style on the frontal body field, painted in polychromeover yellow background. Inscription panels painted on black and setagainst alternating background colours are also known from several sev-enth century BC burials.35 That the old custom of replacing the internalorgans into the body cavities continued in the Kushite Period and probablyeven beyond is confirmed both by anthropological evidence36 and the

presence of objects such as a wooden son of Horus figurine from TombG37 and dummy canopic jars from the shaft in Saff 138 that can be associ-ated with this mummification protocol. The burials were also equippedwith bead nets, typically of Silvano’s Types A and Ba, which continueduntil the end of the sixth century BC in the Khokha cemetery. Bead nets inwhich the suspended amulets are also made of small faience beads are rareand confined to the later sixth century.39 The same coherent patternemerges from the study of ushabtis, which, as a rule, are always made of

Nile silt and covered in a coloured wash in imitation of faience proto-types.40 In more than one case, the ushabti gangs were composed of differ-ent types, usually of the workman type, with bearded and beardless figu-rines equally represented within a single set. Shabti boxes associated withthese late burials were few in number, representing bottom-end qualityvariants of Aston’s Types VIIb and VIII.41 This type of ushabti setcontinued, practically unchanged, from the Twenty-second Dynasty to thelater sixth century in el-Khokha cemetery. Based on the presence ofwooden ram’s horns, shuty-headdresses and akhom-birds in several con-texts,42 Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures might also have been a recurrent elementof the burial equipment.

34

Schreiber 2008, 52–53, pl. XLIX, photo pl. XI [nr. 2.1.1.4].

35 E.g. Schreiber 2008, 79–80, pl. LXXIII, photo pl. XIV [nr. 2.3.5]; Darvas 2010,8–9, fig. 4.36 Cf. Fóthi and Bernert 2010, 40, 43 (mummification techniques detected inTombs B and G).37 Schreiber 2008, 79–80, pl. LXXV, photo pl. XV [nr. 2.3.16].

38 Fábián, in Bács et al. 2009, 101–102 [cat. nrs. 37–38]. 39 Cf. Németh 2010, 19, 24, figs. 4–5. 40 See the case of Shaft 4 in TT -61- and the finds from Saff 1. Cf. Schreiber 2008,68–70, 79 (ushabtis from Tombs B and G).41 Darvas 2010, 10, fig. 5; Schreiber 2008, 69–70 [nr. 2.2.2.2.26].

42 See e.g. Schreiber 2008, 76–77 [nrs. 2.2.2.5.2–6], 80 [nrs. 2.3.9–10].




Figs. 11-5a–b: Attic “brush-banded” amphora and Samian amphora withembalming material from TT -400- (Drawings by G. Schreiber and B. Tihanyi).

The pottery corpus associated with these burials consists of almost ex-clusively locally-made vessels. In burials dated between the eighth and thelater seventh century BC four classes of closed shapes, i.e. sausage jars, red

burnished shouldered jars, pots with spiral white decoration, and carinated jars of Marl fabric predominate.43 It is only in the early sixth century BC

that a new repertoire of vessel shapes, composed of new types and thederivatives of Kushite models, appeared with any notable frequency in el-Khokha tombs.44 Another remarkable feature of these late Twenty-sixthDynasty contexts is the presence of Greek, usually East Greek, transportamphorae that had been re-used in the tombs as embalmer’s pots destinedto store the leftover of mummification. The corpus so far excavated andstudied includes a Chian amphora from TT 32,45 three Type A Clazome-nian amphorae from the intrusive shaft in Saff 1,46 an Attic “brush

banded” amphora (fig. 11-5a),47 a Samian amphora (fig. 11-5b),48 and a

Type A Clazomenian amphora from TT -400-,49 as well as a Type D

43 See e.g. the pottery set from Tomb G: Schreiber 2008, 78, 80–81, pls. LXXVI– LXXIX.44 A good example is provided by the pottery from Shaft 4 in TT -61-. 45 Schreiber 2008, 83, pl. LXXXI [nr. 2.4.2.22]. 46 Fábián 2009, fig. 9. 47 2011.C.116. Unpublished. 48 2011.C.050. Unpublished.

49 2012.C.016. Unpublished.



246 Chapter Eleven

Clazomenian amphora50 and a Lesbian amphora from TT -61-.51 Althoughthe widespread presence of Greek imports in Theban contexts of the sixth

centuryBC

has already been noted,

52

the large number of re-used Greekamphorae found on el-Khokha militates in favour of thinking that thiscommodity was a highly preferred, if not a mandatory element of the bur-ial equipment during the reigns of Apries and Amasis.

The later, Persian Period, history of the site is still difficult to recon-struct in detail. Finds excavated in the lower rooms of TT -61- and -400-are, however, indicative of the fact that some tombs remained in use alsoduring the fifth and fourth centuries BC, thus bridging the gap between thewell-documented Saite and early Ptolemaic tomb groups on el-Khokha.53

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