The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum belongs among the most important collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world. The collection houses more than 12,000 objects. Deir el-Medina is represented in a wide variety of items. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria Construction of the Kunsthistorisches Museum by Gottfried Semper and Carl von Hasenauer, commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I, began in 1871 and was completed in 1891. The museum was to become one of the most important monumental museum buildings of the 19th century in Europe. It was designed to bring together and house the art and treasures collected by the Habsburg family over several centuries. http://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/ egyptian-and-near-eastern-col lection/ The exhibition area is divided into four major themes: funerary cult, cultural history, sculpture and relief, and the development of writing. The halls display stone columns from the 18th dynasty, large statues and many unique and impressive objects. Highlights of the museum's exhibition include the Kaninisut Offering Chapel from the Old Kingdom, numerous sarcophagi and coffins, burial objects such as shabtis, sarcophagi and coffins, votive stelae, examples of the Book of the Dead, divine figures, pottery, objects of daily life such as clothing and cosmetics, and masterpieces of sculpture such as the Reserve Head from Giza. I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Dr Helmut Satzinger, Professor of Egyptology, University of Vienna, former Keeper of the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, who so kindly gave his time and effort during my visit to the museum. All photographs were taken by Lenka Peacock in 2010 and are © Kunsthistorisches Museum. I would also like to thank Jan Kunst from Holland for his constructive comments, corrections and additions to the following text, and to Ingeborg Waanders, also from Holland, for her expertise, support and encouragement. Stele to Meretseger From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom, 19th-20th dynasty Limestone, painted Height: 20.7 cm Width: 14.2 cm Thickness: 3.3 cm Meretseger was the goddess associated with the pyramidal top of al-Qurn. She presided over the entire Theban necropolis. Her name means "she who loves silence". Meretseger was mainly worshipped by the craftsmen of the royal necropolis. The upper register: remains of a male figure standing on the right making an offering in front of a table. Meretseger, depicted as a goddess with a female body and a cobra's head, is seated on her throne on the left side of the table, holding an ankh in her right hand and a sceptre in her left. The inscription reads: "Merest[sic]eger, Mistress of the West. Made by the apprentice Sha[...?]" The lower register: The ten snakes represent the cobra goddess Meretseger. Only seven snakes are visible because the stela is in a fragmentary state - the lower left part is broken off. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_122 Provenance: 1824 [1821] gift of Carlo Antonio Fontana Stele of Khonsu New Kingdom 20th dynasty, reign of Ramesses III., 1198-1166 BC From Deir el-Medina (probably) Limestone, light, fine Height: 14.2 cm Width: 9.4 cm Thickness: 3 cm This round topped stele is divided into two registers. The upper part is in raised relief and depicts a ram in the form of a criosphinx facing to the left. His head is adorned with a composite crown. In front of the ram there is a lotus-shaped table with loaves of bread. The ram almost certainly represents the god Amun-Re. The lower register is executed in sunk relief and depicts three striding men. The arms of the first man on the right are raised in worship, while the other two men hold palettes and a lotus flower in their left hands. The lower left corner of the stele is missing. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_8212 Provenance: 1821 purchase by E. A. Burghart in Egypt Stele of Pamerihu New Kingdom 19th dynasty, about 1304-1201 BC From Deir el-Medina (probably) Limestone Height: 18.95 cm Width: 12.4 cm Thickness: 4.6 cm The round-topped stele is a votive relief by the sculptor Pamerihu, who probably lived in Deir el-Medina and worked for the royal wife Ahmose-Nefertari (c. 1570-1505 BC). She was the wife of the founder of the 18th Dynasty, Ahmose I (1570-1546 BC) and the mother of King Amenhotep I (1525-1504 BC), the first king to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. Ahmose Nefertari and Amenhotep I are often depicted together on monuments in Deir el-Medina. Both were worshipped in the settlement. Ahmose Nefertari is seated on a throne facing right in front of a table with a libation pot. She is dressed in a flowing, pleated gown, more typical of representations of elite women of the Ramesside period (c. 1295-1069 BC) than of the period in which the queen lived. On her head she wears the vulture headdress of the goddess Mut, consort of the god Amun of Thebes, surmounted by a solar disc and ostrich feathers. The cobra on her crown and the flail in her hand indicate her royal status. The lotus flower was often held by deceased women as a symbol of rebirth. There is a cartouche of Ahmose Nefertari within the hieroglyphic inscription consisting of 2 vertical columns in the right upper part of the stela. Another inscription is written in black ink at the bottom of the stele. It consists of 2 horizontal lines of hieroglyphs and contains an offering formula. The inscription is partially faded. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_158 Provenance: 1821 gift of C. A. Fontana Figured ostrakon of the goddess Meretseger New Kingdom 19th-20th dynasty, about 1315-1081 BC From Deir el-Medina (probably) Painted limestone Height: 11.3 cm Length: 16.6 cm Thickness: 2.9 cm This piece of limestone depicts the goddess Meretseger in the form of a coiled snake in front of an offering table, flanked on either side by a jug with an entwined lotus on a stand. Her headdress consists of two high feathers and a sun disc. Three tall papyrus stems lean over the back of the snake. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_8304 Provenance: 1948 Purchase Shabti of Sennedjem New Kingdom 19th dynasty, around 1300 BC From Deir el-Medina, Tomb 1 of Sennedjem Limestone, painted Height: 28.3 cm Width: 9.95 cm Depth: 8.8 cm Sennedjem lived in Deir el-Medina during the reigns of Seti I (1291-1278) and Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC). He was buried with his wife, Iyinofreti, and their family in a tomb in the western necropolis of the village, which was found intact and contained mummies of three generations of Sennedjem's family along with burial objects and the furniture from his home that had been used during his lifetime. One of Sennedjem's titles was "Servant in the Place of Truth". Shabtis functioned as representatives of the dead, their masters, and were expected to take their owner's place in performing manual labour in the afterlife. This finely painted limestone shabti from Sennedjem depicts a mummiform figure holding agricultural tools. The inscription is skilfully painted in eight horizontal lines of black pigment on a white background around the mummiform body and legs. The hieroglyphs include the name of the owner and parts of Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead (Shabti spell) in Middle Egyptian. Translation: "Illuminated is the Osiris, the one who hears the voice in the Place of Truth, Sennedjem true of voice. He says: Oh Shabti, when one commands and apportions the Osiris, the one who hears the voice in the Place of Truth, Sennedjem true of voice, for any work which is to be done in the realm of the dead, then distinguish yourself as a man of duty there, in tilling the fields, watering the banks, and moving sand from east to west. When one commands and apportions you to do this, every day, then you shall say every time: I am here, behold me, every time. The Osiris, the one who hears the voice in the Place of Truth, Sennedjem true of voice" (Hieroglyphic inscription, transliteration and translation from CD Egyptian Treasures in Europe - 1000 Highlights Multilingual Version v 1.0. 1999 ed.) Although the shabti serves as a representation of the person, the features of the figure are standardised, so we cannot consider this to be a portrait of Sennedjem. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_6614 Provenance: 1901 Purchase Another shabti of Sennedjem is in the collection of Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge see photo and description here Papyrus Ambras New Kingdom 20th dynasty, Year 6 of whm-msw.t Ramesses IX Location: in substance from Thebes Height: 20.9 cm Length: 41.2 cm List of documents written in hieratic script Rectangular papyrus sheet in horizontal format with two columns in horizontal lines: the right column consists of nine lines, the left column of twelve lines. Towards the end of the 20th dynasty, dwindling state resources led to shortages in the distribution of rations, perhaps not only to the community of workmen at Deir el-Medina. The resulting poverty of the Theban population, combined with diminishing fear of the authorities, had a predictable result: by 1064 BC all the major royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings had been looted. The workmen of Deir el-Medina were among the convicted tomb robbers. There are 4 key texts from which we derive information about the tomb robberies: Papyrus Abbott (=Papyrus BM 10221), Papyrus Leopold II and Amherst, Papyrus BM 10053 and Papyrus BM 10052. The second column of the Papyrus Ambras lists several documents - statements and acts of investigation - relating to tomb robbery and the involvement of the workmen in it. Among them are a receipt for the gold, silver, and copper identified as stolen by the workers of the necropolis, a statement regarding the copper object sold by the robbers from the Valley of the Queens, an interrogation act of the coppersmith Wares who broke into the tomb of a nobleman, and also an interrogation act of the tomb robbers Pay and Qaha Sethemhab. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_3876 (Papyrus Nr. 30) Provenance: over 1875 Ambras Acquisition: the name of the papyrus comes from the name of the Habsburg Ambras collection, which contained other art and ethnographical objects. The collection derived its name from the place where it was kept until 1806 - in the castle Ambras in Innsbruck. Wooden writing board New Kingdom 19th dynasty, about 13th century BC Probably from Deir el-Medina Wood coated with fine stucco, polished Height: 14.8 cm Length: 18.5 cm Thickness: 0.75 cm Wooden tablets like this one were used for writing and drawing exercises. They are called palimpsests. Successive texts were written on them, each one erased to make way for the next. This rectangular wooden tablet is covered on both sides with a layer of white stucco. There is a small hole near the edge for hanging the tablet when not in use. There are two different texts on both sides. The partially damaged texts are written in black ink in hieratic, a cursive script based on hieroglyphs for everyday use (for quickly writing letters and accounts). On one side (called verso here) there are ten horizontal lines, with lines 2-4 and 7-9 arranged in columns. Some text is missing, particularly line 5, because there is a crack in the gesso, which is visible on both sides. On this side of the panel are images of two baboons, the animal of Thoth, the god of writing. They may have been intended as a caricature of the teacher. Below the baboons there are traces of a drawing of a horse's head. The other side (here called the recto) has seven horizontal lines of text. Translation: Verso (1) The chief gardener Menkheper has been appointed to collect the tpy-fish (?) which are outside from the poor people that are with the watchman Amenemhat: (4) Bauef-re (5) ... (6) Mut (?) (7) Sepes-tut 2nd column: Regarding that which was found in the house: the representative Ahmose says to the represented (and) the speaker of the king Semnakht...... 3rd column: what the Court meeting said: Menkheper is right. The guardian Ahmose is wrong. Recto (1) What the official Amenhotep said: (2) the royal scribe Minmose said to the scribe Pai the following: "you were brought this message saying I have been informed by you what you have sent about this, namely: (I) have taken the people that were taking shelter/were hiding/were seeking protection with the overseer of personnel Nakht away. Why did you take this action? Did I not assign those people to you after you told (me) "I will not do anything bad?" (both translated by Ingeborg Waanders from Holland and Lenka Peacock using the German text of El-Kholi and his transcriptions into hieroglyphs, p. 60-62) Dating: The inscription on the tablet can be dated to the early 19th dynasty. Paleographic features such as the characters for p (in pn), mn (in Imn), m (hr-m) and the plural strokes can help us to date the document. Lexical features that aid dating are the negation bn and the preposition m-dj . Several Middle Egyptian grammatical features appear in the text, such as the form sdm.n=f and the negation nn (rather than the Late Egyptian bn ). Personal names such as Amenemhat, Menkhepere and Ahmose were common from the 18th dynasty onwards. (El-Kholi, 62) Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_3924 Provenance: 1877/78 purchase by E. Bergmann Egypt Sources: 1. Kessler, D.: Die kultische Bindung der Ba-Konzeption. 2. Teil: Die Ba-Zitate auf den Kultstelen und Ostraka des Neues Reiches IN: Studien zur altagyptischen Kultur 29, 2001 153, Anm. 34 2. Huttner, M.: Die Votivstele des Vorarbeiters Chons IN: Gottingen Miszellen 178 (2000), 59-63 3. Wessetzky, Vilmos: Une stele dediee a Meresger. Bulletin du Musee Hongrois de.s Beaux-Arts 78, 1993, 15-19 4. Adel Mahmoud: Msw-hr = The sons of the Toms (IN: M. Eldamaty: Egyptian Museum Collections around the world. Studies for the Centennial of the Egyptian Museum Cairo, 2002) 774. PM I 2,2 737 5. Papyri und Ostraka aus der Ramessidenzeit mit Ubersetzung und Kommentar von Mohamed Salah El-Kholi. Siracusa : Museo del Papiro, 2006. 6. Parkinson, Richard: Cracking codes : the Rosetta Stone and decipherement London : British Museum Press, 1999. 7. Taylor, John H.: Death and afterlife in ancient Egypt London : British Museum Press, 2001. 8. The Cairo Museum masterpieces of Egyptian art / edited by Francesco Tiradritti London : Thames & Hudson, 1998. 9. McDowell, A.G.: Village life in ancient Egypt : laundry lists and love songs Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999. 10. CD Egyptian Treasures in Europe - 1000 Highlights Multilingual Version v 1.0. 1999 ed. 11. http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=5591 12. http://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/egyptian-and-near-eastern-collection/ Further bibliography Back to top

The Ancient Egyptian gallery at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery features over 600 objects. It covers "Belief", "Life", "Death" and "Afterlife". The mummy and the coffin of Horemkenesi, who lived at Deir el-Medina, arrived from Luxor in 1905. Ägyptischen Museums der Universität Leipzig, Germany The Ancient Egyptian gallery features over 600 objects. It covers "Belief", the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, including their views of creation, their gods and their rituals. "Life" - the social structure in ancient Egypt, childhood and a variety of different jobs from Pharaoh to farm labourer. "Death" - funerary belief, preparation of the body for mummification, coffin symbolism and tombs. And "Afterlife" - the ancient Egyptians' beliefs about what happened after death, and the need for grave goods, servants, food offerings, and possessions. https://www.gko.uni-leipzig.de/aegyptisches-museum/ The collections search page: http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/ During the 1890s archaeologists from the Egypt Exploration Fund (nowadays Egypt Exploration Society) were excavating the area at Deir el-Bahri, a complex located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the modern city of Luxor. At the time, archaeological finds not reserved for the national collection in Cairo, could be shared among the donors of funding for the excavations (namely museums and universities). The Bristol Museum sponsored the EEF and as a result received regular donations of finds. In 1905 the mummy of Horemkenesi in his coffin arrived from Luxor (KS2 resource,2003). The coffin was found in the pit-tomb of Mentuhotep II's queen Sadeh (Booth,2003,247), who lived nearly 1,000 years before Horemkenesi who became a secondary burial in her tomb within Mentuhotep's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The tomb had laid undisturbed for 3 millennia. Horemkenesi lived during the turbulent times of the 20th and the 21st dynasties, around 1070 BC, in the period now called the Third Intermediate Period (Booth,2006,243). He either lived at Deir el-Medina or within the enclosure of Medinet Habu. His main job was that of an overseer of workmen at the Valley of the Kings. He also worked as a scribe at Deir el-Medina as he held a title "Scribe of the task in the Horizon of Eternity" (Booth,2006,243). Horemkenesi acted as a part time wab priest at the temples of Karnak and Medinet Habu. A rock inscription informs us that his father Huysheri also held the title of wab priest at Medinet Habu, suggesting the title might have been hereditary (Booth,2006,244). During Horemkenesi's early years the boy must have attended classes and was trained as a scribe. The lessons were held either at Deir el-Medina, where the school for the children of necropolis workmen was run, or at the nearby Ramesseum. Once the settlement of Deir el-Medina was abandoned, he would have been educated at the Temple of Medinet Habu (Janssen,2007,64). His career started during the reign of Ramesses XI (1098-1070 BC) and continued until at least year 20 of high priest Pinedjem I (1070-1032 BC) (Booth,2003,244). His main duties were inspecting tombs for damage, repairing the robbed ones and organising non-royal burials. His name can be found in several rock graffiti around the Valley of the Kings. His signature indicated which tombs he inspected. His name can be seen for example near the Seti II tomb. It was noticed in 1981 that Horemkenesi's mummy started to deteriorate and the decision was taken to unwrap the mummy to find information about Horemkenesi's physical characteristics and his health and also about the way the body was mummified (KS2 resource,2003). The mummy of Horemkenesi revealed a short, plump man, who was between 55 and 60 years of age at the time of his death. He suffered from arthritis in his shoulders and in his back, which must have caused him painful stiffness. The brain, which is normally removed, was left within the skull cavity intact. On the other hand his heart, which used to be left in the corpse, is missing in Horemkenesi's body. His ear lobes had large holes and several of his teeth were worn away down to the gum because the food contained sand (KS2 resource,2003). The mummy was buried in a 3-piece coffin, which was in fashion at the time. It is made of wood and is covered by a thin layer of painted plaster. Images of gods are depicted inside and out and prayers are written to protect the dead person and to help him on his journey to the Afterlife. The design of the coffin is a standard one, it was not made especially for Horemkenesi, but his name and titles were written into the spaces left empty within the text. The panoramas below were created by Robert Gibson from Sydney, Australia. 14 photographs I took in the gallery were rendered by him to produce these 3 wonderful images. Horemkenesi's mummy was covered by a colourful painted mummy board. On the floor of the bottom case is a figure of Osiris in the form of a djed pillar. Horemkenesi's mummy was covered by a colourful painted mummy board. The burial consisted only of the mummy within the coffin, over which garlands of plaited rush leaves were draped, but no grave goods belonging to Horemkenesi was found in the tomb. No amulets were found inside the linen wrappings, but feathers and small pieces of plant material were found inside his bandages. The canopic jars were also missing. A pair of leather sandals that were too small for his feet was found in the tomb (KS2,2003). To view the museum's records of the coffin, follow the links below: http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79677 http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79579 http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79678 To view the museum's records for the mummy group and the coffins, follow the link to the Search the Museum Collection at http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/list.php?keyword=horemkenesi&start=1 There are 585 individually numbered objects in the catalogue as all the items found within the coffins were kept and given a unique catalogue number. The elaborate list helps us to understand the wide scale of ingredients that were involved in the embalming process. All the coffins and remains of skin tissue from within the mummy wrappings are listed together with materials used during Horemkenesi's mummification process - natron used to dry the body, saw dust, straw and plant fibres to pack the body cavities to provide support, resins, minerals, charcoal and even beetles and larvae. As the methods of the artificial preservation of bodies in ancient Egypt changed and evolved over a long period of time, this list together with the medical report from 1981 provide better understanding of the process Horemkenesi's body was involved in. I would like to express my thanks to Sue Giles, the Senior Collections Officer-World Cultures, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, who granted me permission to use the photographs on this page and to Amber Druce, Curator-World Cultures, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, for her helpful comments. Photography © Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives Photographs by Lenka Peacock Text was compiled using the resources below Sources: 1. Wilkinson, R. H. : The complete gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London : Thames & Hudson, 2003. 2. Clayton, Peter A.: Chronicles of the Pharaohs : the reign-by-reign record of the rulers and dynasties of ancient Egypt London : Thames & Hudson, 1994. https://www.gko.uni-leipzig.de/aegyptisches-museum/ Further bibliography Back to top

In the Liverpool galleries I photographed 6 objects that originally came from Deir el-Medina and that were on display at the time. The Museum currently holds 4 additional objects whose provenance is now researched as Deir el-Medina - they are added to the list below. World Museum, Liverpool Liverpool's World Museum has one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian and Nubian antiquities in the UK, with over 16,000 objects dating from around 5,000 BC to 642 AD. The original core of the Egyptian collection was given in 1867 by Joseph Mayer, an English goldsmith, collector and antiquarian (1803-1886), and was later expanded by supporting fieldwork projects of the Egypt Exploration Society, Flinders Petrie's British School of Archaeology in Egypt and especially John Garstang's excavations at Liverpool University. During the Blitz in May 1941, more than 3,000 Egyptian objects were destroyed by the Luftwaffe, with an incendiary bomb causing structural and fire damage to the building. http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/ The expanded and redesigned Ancient Egypt gallery at Liverpool's World Museum, refurbished at a cost of £1.8m and reopened at the end of April 2017 after a year and a half of closure, is now the largest exhibition of its kind in the UK outside of the British Museum in London. The gallery space has tripled in size to around 1000m². The expansion allowed for the display of objects that had never been shown before, or that had been in storage for decades, and although the plan promised to triple the number of objects on display, it remained at around 1300. The gallery space, themed "Ancient Egypt: A Journey through Time", is divided into 7 chronological and thematic sections: "5,000 Years" outlines the time scale and introduces the key themes. The focus of the "River Nile" zone is a late predynastic female tomb excavated by John Garstang at Kostamneh in Nubia, now submerged under Lake Nasser. The People of Egypt section focuses on daily life, religion and art. the "African Kingdoms" section outlines the dominance of various powers over time and includes Nubian, Meroitic and Greek and Roman material. The highlight of the 'Afterlife' section is a 4 metre long Ptolemaic Book of the Dead papyrus of Djedhor, son of Tapes, preserved on 5 leaves in both hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts, displayed for the first time alongside 150 shabtis, a 127 centimetre high wooden statue of Osiris, animal mummies and decorated coffins. Liverpool Discovery, a circular area, illustrates Liverpool's importance as a conduit for Egyptian artefacts to England. The 'Mummy Room', flanked by a pair of Sekhmet statues, contains 9 mummies, some of which are suspended above the coffin basins on multi-level supports, with each level illuminated by LED tubes. I visited the galleries in the summer of 2015 during a trip with P.A.D.E.S. - Plymouth and District Egyptology Society - with 5 other members of the Egyptian Society Taunton , on whose committee I serve as webmaster. In the Liverpool galleries I photographed 6 objects originally from Deir el-Medina which were on display at the time. The museum currently holds a further 4 objects whose provenance is now known to be Deir el-Medina - these are added to the list below. In order to make this list complete, I have also added 2 additional objects which were unfortunately destroyed during the 1941 bombing and are therefore no longer part of the museum's collection. It is interesting to note that the majority of the objects listed below - 8 out of 12 - are from Deir el-Medina and were part of Joseph Mayer's original collection with which he opened his Egyptian Museum in 1852. This was a very early date for objects from the settlement, as no scientific excavation of the site had yet been undertaken. The objects must have been either illicitly excavated by the locals in the early 19th century and/or collected by Bernardino Drovetti, the French Consul General, or Henry Salt, the British Consul General, in the 1810s, or by John Gardner Wilkinson, the pioneering English Egyptologist, who recorded information on several tombs at Deir el-Medina in the 1820s. Mayer had acquired the collection in 1839 from Joseph Sams, a Darlington bookseller, who himself had acquired it between 1830 and 1838 as part of the Egyptian collection of Charles Bogaert, a Bruges businessman (see Sams, Joseph: 'Ancient Egypt: Objects of Antiquity forming part of the Extensive and Rich Collections from Ancient Egypt, brought to England by, and now in the possession of, J Sams", London, 1839, pl.22,2). It has also been suggested that Bogaert received his collection as repayment of a debt from Jean-Baptiste de Lescluze, a Belgian shipowner and merchant who had collected the material in Egypt between 1824 and 1825 (NML,2018). The remaining 4 objects were part of a large donation of some 200 objects from the Trustees of the Wellcome Institute in 1973. I would like to thank the Liverpool World Museum and its staff, in particular Dr Ashley Cooke, Head of Antiquities & Curator of Egyptology, for kindly allowing me to include the museum's finds from Deir el-Medina on my website and for providing me with high quality images of the objects, and Maureen Smith, PA to the Director of the World Museum, for her assistance. All images © National Museums Liverpool Photography by Lenka Peacock and National Museums Liverpool Fragment of an offering stela From Deir el-Medina Ramesside, possibly 19th dynasty Limestone Dimensions: 15x17x4 cms Inv. no.: 1973.2.340 Gift of the Trustees of the Wellcome Collection, 1971 Currently not on display This fragment is the lower left part of a larger stela carved in fine sunken relief. The right side shows a man kneeling with his arms raised in worship, looking to the left. On the basis of similar votive stelae from Deir el-Medina, it can be assumed that the upper register, which is now missing, bore the image of a deity, royal person or high official (vizier) whom the man is worshipping. He is clean-shaven or bald and wears an ankle-length kilt. Traces of brownish pigment remain on his head and arms. On the left, the kneeling man faces 3 vertical columns with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Translation: Line 1: the Ka of the Servant of the Place of Truth Line 2: Pa-hy-Hat, the justified, Line 3: and his son, the Servant... Transliteration: Line 1: kA n sDm- m st-mAat Line 2: pA-xy-HAt mAa-Xrw tr Line 3: i sA.f sDm- The name is not easy to read and the identity of the person mentioned is not yet certain. The available corpus of Deir el-Medina texts does not mention a Pahyhat with the title "sDm m st mAat" - the "Servant in the Place of Truth". of the Truth". We do know of a Pahyhat with the title of "Water Carrier" - "pA-xy-HA.t in-mw" - in lines 4-5 of the hieratic text of an ostrakon now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford O.Ashmolean 56, who is known from this particular text dated to year 3 of Ramesses IV (c. 1152 BC) - 20th Dynasty - where Pahyhat delivers grain and vegetables with his well-known contemporary, Pentaweret. Richard Mandeville lists him in his master's thesis on the water carriers of Deir el-Medina written at the University of Liverpool (Mandeville, 16). Pahyhat in the text on this stela gives his title as "Servant of the Place of Truth" and not as "Water-carrier", so although this gives us evidence that individuals with this name existed at Deir el-Medina, this must be a different Pahyhat, one about whom we have not yet found any additional information. Some Egyptologists suggest that his identity is that of PAy, the Servant of the Place of Truth, who was active at Deir el-Medina from the reign of Horemheb until early in the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1319-1280 BC). The date of the stela, as suggested on stylistic grounds, coincides with the 19th dynasty (c. 1290-1270 BC). Gina Criscenzo-Laycock points out the way the man's raised arms are depicted. Unlike most contemporary votive stelae from Deir el-Medina, where the arms of the worshipper are raised with a gap between them, this stele shows them almost overlapping. In her article (Criscenzo-Laycock,2011,123) the author lists 2 other stelae with the same feature, both in the British Museum (BM EA278 and BM EA374 ). The author mentions the lack of space as a possible reason for the missing gap between the raised arms, or it is possible that the listed stelae are all the work of the same craftsman. The author dates this stela on stylistic grounds to the reign of Ramesses II, comparing it with 5 stelae from the Turin collection (50030, 50034, 50036, 50037, 50066), where she finds certain specific stylistic elements common to all 6 stelae. The stele was bought by Henry Wellcome at an auction at the turn of the 20th century. A small piece of the auction label remains on the back of the object. No details of its exact provenance or date of discovery are known today (Criscenzo-Laycock,2011,123). Walking stick 19th dynasty (around 1295-1186 BC) Inscribed and polished wood Remains of blue pigment Length: 46.5 cms Diameter: 2.1 cms Inv. no: M13821 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 A distinction should be made between the owner of TT217, the well-known sculptor Ipuy(i), who lived at Deir el-Medina during the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1279-1213 B.C.) in the 19th dynasty, and the family of the sculptor Piay(ii), who served under Horemheb, Ramesses I and Seti I (c.1319-1279) and a workman Ipuy(vii) who is attested between year 1 of Amenmesses (c.1203-1200 B.C.) and at least year 1 of Siptah (c.1194-1188 B.C.) (Davies, 1996, 214) and to whom this object may have belonged. However, the name, even when accompanied by the title, is too general to allow for precise identification. Although the lower part of the object is lost, the complete inscription survives in the form of a carefully carved single vertical column of hieroglyphs, read from top to bottom. Much of the original blue pigment used to fill in the characters remains on the wood. The wood was originally polished and is now split where the staff was broken in half. In ancient Egypt, sticks and staffs were always regarded as insignia of status, authority and rank. This fact is supported by tomb paintings of the elite as well as by archaeological finds. (Wiese,2004,326) There is another example of a New Kingdom walking stick in the Liverpool Museum, but it is not inscribed -59.32.189 Translation of the inscription: The one greatly favoured by his god, Amun-Re, [who is] in Ipet-sut (= the temples of Karnak), the august god within the Ennead (?) Ipuy Transliteration of the inscription: Hsy aA n nTr.f Jmn-Ra m Jpt-swt nTr Sps m-Xnw psDt jn TAty tp m st J-pw-y Spss More information: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/walking-stick-5 Hieratic ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty Limestone Dimensions: 20 x 19 cm Inv. no.: M13624 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Item is not currently on display The ostrakon is inscribed on both sides. The recto consists of 9 horizontal lines of hieratic inscription in black ink and contains the opening lines of the Prophecy of Neferty from Papyrus Petersburg 1116B recto. The verse consists of 9 lines of hieratic inscription written in black ink and contains a list of the household, giving the name of the householder with his title, followed by the name of his wife and their children, but without affiliations. It is impossible to tell from its format whether this household list is a draft declaration or notes for a local, domestic purpose. The list illustrated the relationship of the individual to the demands of authority (Eyre,2013,217-218). Hieratic ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty, reign of Merenptah (around 1213–1203 BC) Limestone Dimensions: 16.5 x 11.5 cm Inv. no.: M13625 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 This limestone ostrakon is inscribed on both sides. There are 10 horizontal lines of hieratic inscription on the obverse and 9 horizontal lines of hieratic inscription on the reverse. Both black and red ink is used. Professor Jaroslav Černý suggested that both sides were inscribed by the same hand (Černý, Gardiner, "Hieratic Ostraca" (1957), plates 63 and 63a). It has been noted that the contents are various accounts of supplies and work done, i.e. in connection with a coffin and several feasts. Professor Mark Collier of the University of Liverpool gave a brief account of the inscription in 2013: “The recto opens with four lines specifying items given to an unnamed individual at a series of festivals (festivals of Taweret, Hathor and Meretseger). Lines 5 onwards are repeated instances of giving (but without specified occasion), all probably as recompense for some activity. The verso starts with a section (verso lines 1–5) of memorandum of items connected to work of 'my three lads', possibly people within a workshop. Verso line 6 end is a memorandum concerning a bed which ends up with Anupemheb, who saws off some wood for use in a coffin”. Hieratic ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 19th-20th dynasty (about 1295-1069 BC) Limestone Black ink 14.5 x 10 cms Inv. no: M13626 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 This limestone ostrakon is inscribed on both sides: the obverse (pictured) contains 9 horizontal lines of hieratic script in black ink, the reverse contains a further 7 lines of the script, mostly in black ink, except for the beginning of line 4, which is written in red. The account contains a list of wooden items produced by a carpenter for a customer. The receipt shows the value of the items in copper deben. Most of the items are of a funerary nature - 2 outer anthropoid coffins, 1 inner anthropoid coffin, 1 shabti box, blue pigment and another coffin. The total value of the goods is 112 deben. Wooden cubit rod From Deir el-Medina Late 18th dynasty Length: 52 cms Width: 3.5 cms Inv. no: M13825 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 The royal cubit was the main unit of measurement used in ancient Egypt to determine the length of objects or short distances. It measures 52.4 cm, which is approximately the length of an adult man's forearm from the elbow to the fingertips. It was made up of 7 palm widths of 4 thumb widths each (28 digits to the cubit) (Shaw,1995,174). On this particular rod the divisions of the cubit are marked on average at 1.9, 3.8 and 7.6 cm. One edge of the rod has a sloping surface. One side of the object is carved with a hieroglyphic inscription, written from right to left, containing a funerary offering formula to Amun-Re, Ptah and Thoth on behalf of Nakhy, a tomb builder from Deir el-Medina. Translation: An offering which the King gives to Amun-Re and to Ptah, Lord of the Two Lands, and to Thoth, Lord of Divine Words, great god who dwells in Hermopolis, so that they may give life, prosperity and health, and a good lifespan, following their Ka's, for the Ka of the Servant in the Place of Thruth, Any. This workman Nakhy should not be confused with the workman Nakhy, son of Bukentef, who lived at the end of the 19th dynasty or with the latter's grandfather, the chief craftsman Nakhy, who came from another family. The workman Nakhy and his wife are known from following objects now in other European museums: - stela no. 50010 in the Turin Museum (M .Tosi and A. Roccati, "Stele e altre epigrafi di Deir el Medina. (n. 50001-50262) : Pubblicate con il contributo del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche" (Turin, 1972), 43-4) - a limestone tomb-relief in the British Museum no. 281 (Bierbrier, M L, "Hieroglyphic Texts from Egyptian Stelae etc.", Part 10, London, BMP, 1982) - funerary cones discovered in pit 1138 at Deir el-Medina (B. Bruyère, "Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh; (1928)" (Cairo, 1929), 12-16). More information: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/inscribed-cubit-rod Shabti of Pay From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom (Ramesside Period, around 1295-1186 BC) Wood Length: 20.5 cms Inv. no: M13603 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 This is a painted wooden shabti of Pay. The arms of the shabti crossed over the chest and the bandaged lower body indicate that the figure is mummified, identifying it with the god Osiris, who is also depicted in this manner. The heavy, tripartite wig is plain, painted black with gold bands at the ends. The wig rests on an elaborate and colourful wesekh collar with four rows of black and red ornaments. The protruding hands are painted red, indicating that the figure is male. In its present state there is no trace of tools. A pair of square woven baskets are carried behind each shoulder. The shabti's beautifully carved face is painted red with large eyes outlined in black. The body is painted yellow over a white ground, with eight horizontal lines of hieroglyphic inscription written in black ink within a red frame around the figure's body. Pay's name and title are given within the text, which is the usual Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead. Translation: "The illuminated one, the Osiris, the Draughtsman, Pay, the justified, he speaks: O, these shabtis, if one counts, if one reckons the Osiris, the Draughtsman, Pay, the justified, to do all works that are to be done there in the underworld – now indeed obstacles are implanted therewith – as a man at his duties, to cultivate the marsh, to irrigate the riverbank fields, to ferry by boat sand of the east to the west, ?, if one counts, if one reckons ... ‘here I am’ … Pay". Transliteration: sHD Wsir sS qd PAy mAa-xrw Dd.f i.Swbty ipn ir ip.tw ir Hsb.tw Wsir sS qd PAy mAa-xrw m kAt nbt irrt im Xrt-nTr ist Hw sdbw im [m] s r Xrt.f srwd sxt r smHt wdbw r Xnt Sa [r] iAbt r imnt iry ip.tw iry Hsb.tw ... m.k ... PAy There are 2 men with the name Pay and the title "draftsman" known from Deir el-Medina. Pay(i), son of Ipuy(v), and his grandson, also a draughtsman, Pay(ii), son of Prehotep (Davies,1996,180). This shabti figure could belong to either of them. Mummy mask From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom, 1550-1069 BC Cartonnage Dimensions: 20 cmx28 cm Inv. no: 1973.2.423 Gift of the Trustees of the Wellcome Collection, 1971 Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 This striking cartonnage mask, which was used to cover the head of a mummy, is very similar in style to the New Kingdom masks found in the tombs of Deir el-Medina. The mask was glued to the mount when it was part of the Wellcome Collection. After becoming part of the Liverpool Museums collection, the object was conserved in 1993-1994, when the flaking paint was consolidated, but it is currently impossible to remove the mount without damaging the mask. Cartonnage appeared during the Old Kingdom. It consisted of layers of linen or papyrus glued together with resin and then covered with plaster. It was moulded to the shape of the body to make mummy cases or masks. When the material was dry, it was painted. In September 2020, I saw one of the oldest known examples of this practice at the Kings of the Sun exhibition at the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic. The object came from the 5th dynasty mastaba of the Central Abusir of Mernefu. It was found in its burial chamber, placed over the face of the deceased's mummy. It is kept in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague, Inv. no. P 5704. The materials used to make cartonnage changed over time. In the Middle Kingdom it was common to use plastered linen, in the Third Intermediate Period linen and stucco, in the Ptolemaic period old papyrus scrolls and in the Roman period thicker fibrous materials. For further information: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/mummy-mask-1 Fragments of a pottery bowl From Deir el-Medina 18th dynasty, 1550-1295 BC Pottery Black and red pigment Dimensions: 5.2 cm x 7.7 cm x 1 cm Inv. no.: 1973.1.698a - top image Inv. no.: 1973.1.698b - bottom image Gift of the Trustees of the Wellcome Collection, 1971 Ex Wellcome collection inv. W34/22(3) Currently on display in Ancient Egypt Gallery, Level 3 The fragment shown above forms the rim and part of the base of a of a shallow bowl of polished terracotta. Black and red borders run horizontally across the top and bottom of the fragment. A jumping horse, held by a fragmentary arm on a rope, is painted in red and black pigments. The lower object consists of 4 fragments glued together and depicts a similar scene with a horse without an arm. To the right of the horse is a partial depiction of an ankh . There are 3 very similar fragments in the Louvre collection that appear to be from the same vessel. Two of these are on display in gallery 5, in display case 1, alongside other figured ostraca from Deir el-Medina. E12968A and E12968B+ C - excavated by Bernard Bruyère during his first season at Deir el-Medina from an undecorated tomb of 1095 in the 18th dynasty cemetery. All the fragments seem to show Greek influence. Could the vessel be of Minoan or Mycenaean origin? Could it have come to Thebes and later to Deir el-Medina as part of an import? Or was it Minoan influence, as now suggested by a modern comprehensive comparative study of murals at several New Kingdom sites that reflect Egyptian artistic production? Perhaps chemical analysis of the fragments will answer some of these intriguing questions. More information: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/bowl-sherd http://egyptomusee.over-blog.com/article-salle-5-vitrine-1-les-ostraca-figures-avec-bovides-37046325.html Stele dedicated to Meretseger From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Height: 20.9 cms Width: 16 cms Inv. no: M13830 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 In the upper half of this round stele there are six serpents, all facing to the right and painted in yellow and black. The lower half of the stela is divided into 2 registers: in the right register there is the figure of a kneeling woman, facing left, with her arms raised in worship. She was named Henut by Newberry and Peet. She wears a long, finely pleated white linen dress and a perfumed cone on top of her long, elaborately curled black wig. In the left register of the lower half of the stela there are four vertical lines of hieroglyphic text written in dark colour and read from left to right, top to bottom. Translation of the text: Giving adoration to the Ka of Meretseger, Lady of the Western Desert, Mistress of Heaven, Lady of all the gods, that she might give life, health and prosperity to the Ka of the servant ... The rest of the text is very unclear. According to Peet the stele was "almost perfectly preserved", was well-executed and finely coloured. Meretseger, the "One who loves silence", was worshipped as the protective goddess of the Theban necropolis, often depicted in the form of a snake or as the Theban peak itself. This stele was on display in the 1930's and was almost certainly destroyed in 1941. Peet examined it while preparing his guide to the Gallery and his notes of the inscription are used here (Newberry-Peet,1932,53,11). Stele dedicated to Meretseger From Deir el-Medina 19th-20th dynasty Limestone Height: 12 cms Width: 14.5 cms Inv. no: M13832 Gift of Joseph Mayer, 1867 This limestone votive stele was also dedicated to the goddess Meretseger. The single scene is framed by a line border that follows the curve of this short, wide stela (possibly only the upper half). Meretseger is depicted with a female body and a serpent's head, seated on a throne facing right in front of a table piled with offerings. In her right hand she holds the Ankh-sign and in her left hand the Was-sceptre. She wears a high double-feathered crown. Around the scene there are 5 columns of vertical hieroglyphic inscriptions giving Meretseger's epithets. Translation of the text: Meretseger, the Peak of the West, Lady of the Sky, Mistress of all the gods. The technique of the stele execution was described as good - the lines were clearly carved and the scene was well proportioned (Newbery-Peet,1932,53,9). Sources: 1. Bienkowski, Piotr : Gifts of the Nile : Ancient Egyptian arts and crafts in Liverpool Museum London : HMSO, 1995 2. Criscenzo-Laycock, G.: A New Ramesside Stela from Deir el-Medina, IN: Ramesside Studies in Honour of K.A. Kitchen / edited by M. Collier and S. Snape, Bolton, 2011, pp. 123-126. 3. Mandeville, Richard: The water-carriers of Deir el-Medina Study written for his M.A. thesis at the Liverpool University, the text supplied through private e-mail correspondence 4. Eyre, Christopher: The use of documents in Pharaonic Egypt Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013. 5. Newberry-Peet: Handbook and Guide to the Egyptian Collection on Exhibition in the Public Museums, Liverpool, 1932 6. Oakey, Michael : Liverpool World Museum’s Ancient Egypt Gallery reopens after major expansion IN: KMT a Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 28, Nu. 4, Winter 2017-18, pp. 43-57 7. Shaw, Ian, Nicholson, Paul: British Museum dictionary of ancient Egypt London: British Museum Press, 1995. 8. Tutankhamun - The Golden Beyond : Tomb Treasures from the Valley of the Kings / edited by André Wiese and Andreas Brodbeck Basel : Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, 2004. 9. Davis, Benedict G.: Genealogies and personality characteristics of the workmen in the Deir el-Medina community during the Ramesside period. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Liverpool : University of Liverpool, February 1996. On-line resources: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/world-museum/exhibition/ancient-egypt http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org http://egyptomusee.over-blog.com/article-salle-5-vitrine-1-les-ostraca-figures-avec-bovides-37046325. html Further bibliography Back to top

Meretseger was a local goddess of the Theban necropolis. The evidence of her cult is prominent especially during the New Kingdom. She was depicted as a cobra, a cobra with a female head or even a female with a cobra’s head. Occasionally she was depicted as a scorpion with a female head. The goddess Meretseger Meretseger was a local goddess of the Theban necropolis. Evidence of her cult is particularly strong during the New Kingdom. She was depicted as a cobra, a cobra with a woman's head, or even a woman with a cobra's head. Occasionally she was depicted as a scorpion with a female head. Ostrakon dedicated to Meretseger Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty Limestone Meretseger in the form of a coiled serpent in front of an offering table. Cat. 1522 Museo Egizio Information and photos Statue of the goddess Meretseger Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th - 20th dynasty Limestone Meretseger is depicted as a cobra with a face of a woman. Old Fund (1824-1888) Cat. 957 Museo Egizio Information and photos Both images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2019-2020 The name Meretseger written in hieroglyphs literally means “She who loves silence” . She was thought to dwell on the 450-metre high pyramid shaped mountain that dominates the valley. Through this topographic connection she was sometimes also known as “The peak of the West” or “The Lady of the Peak” . (Shaw 1995, 184) Meretseger was worshipped throughout the Theban necropolis, but especially by the artisans of the village, which lay in a barren pocket in the western hills south-east of the Valley of the Kings (Reeves 1996, 22). The village is now called Deir el-Medina. The community of artisans carved and decorated the tombs of the New Kingdom kings. They worshipped a wide range of deities from national gods such as Osiris, Ptah and Hathor to deified kings and queens such as Amenhotep I and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari. They also worshipped Asian gods that became popular in Egypt after the kings' conquests in Asia - the war god Reshep and the fertility goddesses Kudshu, Anat and Astarte, who was also a goddess of love (Tvůrci hrobů 1992, 17). But the ever-present danger of being bitten by the cobra, which was and still is plentiful in the Theban desert, made the worship of a snake a very important matter indeed. As in most cultures, the Egyptians regarded the snake as a source of evil and danger. Meretseger, the snake goddess, was worshipped in order to avert the danger posed by her physical manifestation. Prayers and offerings were made to her to prevent or cure snakebites (Shaw 1995, 262). The villagers had numerous small temples, chapels and shrines. Each individual chapel would have provided a local residence for the goddess and a place for offerings to her (Pharaoh's workers 1994, 90). The stelae dedicated to Meretseger did not come from the tombs of the villagers but from these small temples where they offered their devotions to her. One of the well-known votive stelae dedicated to Meretseger is that of Neferabu with a hymn to Meretseger. Neferabu was a moderately wealthy artist from Deir el-Medina who raised a large family and built a fine tomb for himself. The stela is part of a collection in the Turin Museum . Its number is 102. On the right side of the rectangular stela the goddess Meretseger is depicted as a snake with one human head and two snake heads standing in front of an offering. On the left side of the stela the hymn is written in 17 columns. It contains Neferabu's warning against Meretseger's powers. At the top of the hymn is Neferabu's thanks to Meretseger. Neferabu admits that he was ignorant and unwise, and that he could not distinguish between good and evil. He sinned against the Peak. He drew the punishment of the goddess. She had power over him. He promised to tell the workers to beware of the peak, for the lion dwells there. Now he understood that whoever sins against Meretseger will be persecuted. When he prayed to her, Meretseger came to Neferabu in the form of a sweet wind and forgave him. Again, he calls upon all ears to listen to his warning (Lexa,1920,280-281). "The Peak, she strikes with the strike of a fierce lion when she is after the one who transgresses against her. I called out to my mistress and found her coming to me as a sweet wind, and she was merciful to me, after she let me see her hand. She turned to me in peace, and she made me forget the sickness that was in my heart. So the Peak of the West is merciful when one calls to her." (Lichtheim,1976,107-108). Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2020 Stela of Hay Egyptian Museum, Turin From Hay's tomb no. 267 at Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Another votive stela from the Turin Museum collection is the one dedicated to the goddess Meretseger by a deputy named Hay. Hay lived in Deir el-Medina during the reign of the 20th dynasty king Ramesses III (Tosi,1972,289). This round-topped stela bears a representation of Meretseger as a goddess with a female body and a cobra's head. The goddess Taweret standing beside her is depicted as a hippopotamus. Both goddesses have cow horns and sun discs on their heads. This shows a connection with the goddess Hathor, with whom Meretseger is often associated. The connection is related to the fact that in earlier times the pyramid mountain was sacred to Hathor (Reeves 1996, 17). Cat. 1606 Museo Egizio Information and photos Stele of Nebnefer Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone The stela is divided into 3 registers. In the upper section there are 2 wedjat eyes with a shen sign above 3 zigzag lines representing water. The second, largest register is divided into 12 horizontal stripes. Each is occupied by a coloured snake facing to the right. In the lower register, 3 columns of hieroglyphic text worship the goddess Meretseger: "life, strength and health to the ka and the lady of the house Wab, the justified." To the right of the text the deceased kneels with her hands raised in worship. She is wearing a white robe. A lotus flower is placed on her wig. Behind her head are 4 hieroglyphs forming the phrase "in peace". To the right of the scene is an offering table with a vessel flanked by a bouquet of lotus flowers. Below the table there are 2 vessels on pedestals. The stela is framed by a narrow blue band in bas-relief. On the right side of the stela, starting halfway up, there is an inscription in black, flanked by two red vertical lines on each side, commemorating the "Servant of the Lord of the Two Lands in the Place (Seat) of Truth". Nebnefer and his son Pauebekhnu. On the left side of the stela there is an inscription in black, also flanked by two red vertical lines, commemorating Nebnefer and his daughter Henutshenu. Height: 27 cm Width: 17 cm Former Drovetti's collection Cat. 1533 = CGT 50060 Museo Egizio Information and photos Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2020 Ostrakon dedicated to Meretseger Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Meretseger in the form of a coiled serpent in front of an offering table Height: 12 cm Length: 17 cm Drovetti's collection (1824) Cat. 1659 Museo Egizio Information and photos Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2019 Statue of Meretseger Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th - 20th dynasty (1292-1076 BC) Limestone Meretseger is depicted as a cobra with the face of a woman or a triple head (woman, snake and vulture). Old Fund (1824-1888) Cat. 956 Museo Egizio Information and photos Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2020 Stela of Parahotep dedicated to Amun-Re of Ipet, Meretseger and Amenhotep I Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Painted limestone Round-topped Meretseger was the goddess of the pyramidal peak that overlooks the Theban necropolis. Her usual name was "she who loves silence". She was primarily worshipped by the workmen of Deir el-Medina. Drovetti collection (1824) Cat. 1451/bis Museo Egizio Information and photos Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2019 Stela dedicated to the goddess Meretseger by the draftsman Nebra Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty (1292-1190 BC) Painted limestone Drovetti collection (1824) Cat. 1590 Museo Egizio Information and photos Stela dedicated to the goddess Meretseger by Pendua Egyptian Museum, Turin From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty (1292-1190 BC) Limestone Old Fund (1824-1888) Cat. 1564 Museo Egizio Information and photos Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2019 Images © Museo Egizio, Turin Photograhy by Lenka Peacock, 2020 Amennakht's votive stela British Museum EA 374 20th dynasty, about 1160 BC From Deir el-Medina Limestone The stela records Amennakht's prayer to the local goddess to remove an affliction "Praises for your spirit, Meretseger, Mistress of the West, by the scribe of the Place of Truth (st-maat), Amennakht true-of-voice; he says: 'Be praised in peace, O Lady of the West, Mistress who turns herself to grace! You made me see darkness in the day I shall declare Your power to other people. Be gracious to me in your grace!'" (Translation from the Museum label) © The Trustees of the British Museum Photograhy by Lenka Peacock Stela of Paneb British Museum EA272 19th dynasty, circa 1195 BC Limestone Rectangular shape Height: 19.3 cm Width: 17 cm In the upper register : Paneb, a foreman of the tomb workers, is depicted kneeling, worshipping the goddess Meretseger, who is in the form of a snake. The coiled cobra is undoubtedly Meretseger, the goddess of the Theban necropolis. The lower register : there are three kneeling male figures, Paneb's descendants. On the right there is Aapakhte, Paneb's son, together with his two sons - Paneb and Nebmehyt. Aapakhte was accused of crimes as an accomplice of his father. 3 images © The Trustees of the British Museum Photograhy by Steve Bayley 2005 Ostrakon of Khnummose British Museum EA8510 Painted limestone Black and red ink Height: 16.5 cm Figured ostrakon showing the workman Khnummose worshipping the serpent form of the goddess Meretseger. Jac Janssen suggested that this ostrakon had been used as a stela and that the work was not finished. Stela of Paneb British Museum EA273 19th dynasty, circa 1195 BC Limestone Round-topped Height: 20 cm Width: 13 cm Top register : kneeling Paneb depicted worshipping Meretseger in the form of a cobra headed goddess. Meretseger is seated on the throne. Lower register: Paneb's sons Aapakhte and Hadnakht are shown kneeling and worshiping. Stela dedicated to Meretseger UC14439 Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL Found at Thebes, probably from Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty, 1295-1186 BC) Limestone Width: 14 cm Height: 7.5 cm Upper part of a votive stela showing a coiled cobra with two feathers on its head. The name of the worshipper is illegible in the hieroglyphic inscription, the rest reads 'beloved of the goddess Meretseger'. 2 images © Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL Photography Lenka Peacock Ostrakon of Meretseger UC33812 Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL New Kingdom, 1550-1350 BC Possibly from Deir el-Medina Limestone Black ink Drawing of a serpent - a rearing cobra - in front of an offering table/vase/metal stand. The hood of the cobra is dilated and patterned. The base line is indicated. The stand resembles metal stands for vases found in Theban tombs. This form of stand appears on coffins, generally under the offering table depiction. Height: 7.3 cm Width: 9.4 cm Stela to Meretseger Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna , Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_122 From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom, 19th-20th dynasty Limestone, painted Height: 20.7 cm Width: 14.2 cm Thickness: 3.3 cm Meretseger was the goddess associated with the pyramidal top of al-Qurn. She presided over the entire Theban necropolis. Her name means "she who loves silence". Meretseger was mainly worshipped by the craftsmen of the royal necropolis. The upper register: remains of a male figure standing on the right in front of an offering table. Meretseger, who is depicted as a goddess with a female body and the head of a cobra, is seated on her on her throne on the left side of the table, holding an ankh in her right hand and a in her right hand and a sceptre in her left hand. The inscription reads "Merest[sic]eger, Mistress of the West. Made by the apprentice Sha[...?]" The lower register: the ten snakes represent the cobra goddess Meretseger. Only seven snakes are visible, because the stela is in a fragments - the lower left part is broken off. Provenance: 1824 [1821] gift of Carlo Antonio Fontana 2 images © Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Photography Lenka Peacock Figured ostrakon of the goddess Meretseger Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection Inv AE_INV_8304 New Kingdom 19th-20th dynasty, about 1315-1081 BC From Deir el-Medina (probably) Painted limestone Height: 11.3 cm Length: 16.6 cm Thickness: 2.9 cm This piece of limestone depicts the goddess Meretseger in the form of a coiled snake in front of an offering table, flanked on either side by a jug with an entwined lotus on a stand. Her headdress consists of two tall feathers and a sun disc. Three tall papyrus stems lean over the back of the snake. Provenance: 1948 Purchase The votive stelae from Deir el-Medina came from several small temples where the villagers had offered their devotions. The themes of the hymns and prayers are crime and punishment, repentance and forgiveness. These stelae are unusual because their texts do not show the pride of texts from other parts of Egypt. Their central concerns are humility and repentance. In the example of the stela of Neferabu, Meretseger is praised and worshipped in the traditional manner of the hymn and also prayed to in specific and personal terms. These personal prayers are an expression of the self-awareness of the individual person that comes to fruition in the New Kingdom. The personal piety of the Deir el-Medina prayers is not an isolated phenomenon of the developed individualism of the New Kingdom. Another example of conscious individualism can be found in the love poems preserved on Ramesside papyri (Lichtheim 1976, 104). In the workers' village of Deir el-Medina many shrines were erected to Meretseger. From all the archaeological evidence it seems that for the ancient people living in the Theban necropolis the local goddess Meretseger was at least as important as the great god of the dead, Osiris (Pharaoh's Workers 1994, 90). The cobra inspired awe through fear of its potential to cause great harm. It is difficult to distinguish between Meretseger as a local goddess for the necropolis and as a personal goddess for the people who lived and worked among the rocks where cobras might hide (Watterson 1984, 35). Sources: 1. Shaw, Ian, Nicholson, Paul: British Museum dictionary of ancient Egypt London: British Museum Press, 1995. 2. Reeves, Nicholas: The complete Valley of the Kings : tombs and treasure of Egypt's greatest pharaohs. London : Thames and Hudson, 1996. 3. Tvůrci hrobů egyptských králů : Jaroslav Černý a Dér el-Medina Praha : Náprstkovo museum, 1992. 4. Pharaoh's workers : the villagers of Deir el-Medina / edited by Leonard H. Lesko Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1994. 5. Lichtheim, M.: Ancient Egyptian literature. Vol. II: The New Kingdom Berkeley : University of California Press, 1976. 6. Lexa, Fr.: Náboženská literatura staroegyptská. Dil I a II Kladno : Nákladem J. Snajdra, 1920. 7. Museo Egizio, English Turin : Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino, 2019. Further bibliography Back to top

Nowadays all major and some small museums around the world have objects from Deir el-Medina present in their collections. Some objects are on permanent display, some are displayed during occasional exhibitions. Museum & private collections of objects from Deir el-Medina Museum & private collections Today, all major and some minor museums around the world have objects from Deir el-Medina in their collections. Some objects are on permanent display, while others are shown in temporary exhibitions. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, UK British Museum, London, UK Egyptian Museum, Turin, Italy Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK Hrdlička Museum, Prague, CZ Kingston Lacy, Dorset, UK Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria Nicholson Museum, Sydney, Australia Petrie Museum of Egyptian archaeology, University College London, UK PIASA auction house, France Shabtis in European private collections The World Museum, Liverpool, UK The land of Egypt, with its architectural wonders and pleasant climate, has attracted travellers for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians themselves were the first tourists in their own country, visiting the chapels and tombs of their gods and ancestors and leaving their names on many walls. A thousand years later, Greek and Roman travellers also left their names on the statues and walls of temples and tombs. After the Arab conquest of Egypt, travel to the country was restricted for Europeans, resulting in a decline in the quest for knowledge about Egypt and its ancient monuments south of Cairo. From the early 18th century, a few adventurous travellers ventured further up the Nile Valley. Richard Pococke visited Thebes in January 1738. In his "A description of the East : and some other countries", published in London between 1743-1745, Pococke included a plan of the Ptolemaic temple at Deir el-Medina and described it, proving that he had visited the valley: After visiting Memnon statues.... "We went in between the hills to the north east, and came to the temple in the 35th plate,which had been a convent: There are nohieroglyphics on the outside; the cornices over the doors are fluted, and adorned with the winged globe; the capitals of the pillars are much of the same sort as those of Assouan, in the plate of capitals. After I had viewed all these things, I returned to the river." Another early travel book by Charles Perry entitled "A view of the Levant, particularly Constantinople, Syria, Egypt, and Greece: In which their antiquities, government, politics, maxims, manners, and customs (with many other circumstances and contingencies) are attempted to be described and treated", was published in London in 1743. Perry visited Thebes (Karnak and Luxor temples and also the West bank) and this is the passage (p. 350) which I think describes his visit to Deir el-Medina: "Setting out again the next Morning early, we first bent our Course directly to the Mountain; and passing over the Skirts of one Mountain, that stands apart from, and before the great Mountain, we descended into a Vale, behind it, where we found another beautiful Temple, though small. This likewise contains several sumptuous Pillars, and is embellise'd with Hieroglyphics, and fine Figures in Basso Relievo. But as this exhibits nothing more than what we have already mentioned the Like, or at least the Equal of, so we will spend no more Time in speaking of it, than we did in viewing of it. From hence we passed over the other Skirt of the Mountain, and so came into the Plain again ; and after we had marched about 20 Minutes towards the River, we came to another Temple, which is inexpressibly grand and magnificent. This Temple is situate at about a Mile Distance from the Two Colossal Statues, to the North of them. Its grand Portal is to the Eastward. This Fabric (at least what remains of it) is not above 50 Paces broad, and about 200 long....." Champollion's deciphering of the hieroglyphs in 1822 opened the way for many individual travellers, scholars, artists, adventurers and scientific expeditions. Increasing numbers of visitors with a growing interest in antiquities created a demand for portable antiquities. Ancient cemeteries began to be excavated in the hope of finding buried treasures to supply this new market. Nineteenth-century collectors acquired objects by buying from dealers and at local markets. The sand-filled village of Deir el-Medina began to reveal its secrets as early as the 1840s, when locals discovered a cache of papyri - a rich mixture of documents, including all the letters written by the scribe Dhutmose to his son Butehamun, the correspondence of the general Piankh sent from Nubia, and also records of the great tomb robberies of the late 20th dynasty. These papyri and various other finds were sold by the 19th-century collector and dealer Drovetti to various European collectors, and most of them eventually found their way into numerous museums (Romer, 1984, 203). The second spectacular find made by the locals in the second half of the 19th century was the discovery of Sennedjem's tomb. Maspero supervised the excavation of the tomb. Its contents were distributed to museums as far afield as New York, Berlin and Cairo. Many objects that came to light during this period were completely unrecorded and, taken out of context, lost their provenance. Other objects were recorded by scholars such as Wilkinson, Lepsius or Champollion, who were passing through Deir el-Medina at the time. Some of their drawings are the only record we have today of some objects that have now disappeared (McDowell, 1999, 24). Since Schiaparelli's first real archaeological excavation in 1905, objects from the area have been systematically recorded and excavation reports produced. Each campaign was followed by lists of the finds made. The most detailed reports were, and still are, published by the French Institute after almost 30 years of work by Bruyere. Thousands of objects found in the Deir el-Medina area are now scattered around the world. While most have found their way into museum collections, many are in private hands. The richest Deir el-Medina collections are in the museums of Cairo, Paris, London, Turin, Florence, Berlin, Brooklyn, Prague and Brussels. Some of the artefacts are on display, some are in storage, but some objects have not yet been studied by curators or scholars due to time or financial constraints. Even in Deir el-Medina itself, there are around 20 magazines full of objects found at the site that are still awaiting detailed scholarly study. Sources: 1. Roehrig, Catharine H.: Explorers and artists in the Valley of the Kings Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. 2. Pococke, Richard, 1704-1765 : A description of the East : and some other countries. London : Printed for the author, 1743-1745. 3. Perry, Charles,1698-1780 : A view of the Levant, particularly of Constantinople, Syria, Egypt, and Greece : In which their antiquities, government, politics, maxims, manners, and customs (with many other circumstances and contingencies) are attempted to be described and treated on : in four parts London : Printed for T. Woodward, between the Temple Gates in Fleet-Street, and C. Davis, near Middle-Row, in Holborn, printers to the Royal Society; and J. Shuckburgh, at the Sun, near the Temple Gate, in Fleet Street, 1743. 4. McDowell, A.G.: Village life in ancient Egypt : laundry lists and love songs Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999. 5. Romer, John: Ancient lives : the story of the Pharaoh's tombmakers London : Phoenix, 1984. Further bibliography Back to top

Neferabu was a worker from Deir el-Medina, whose title was "The servant in the Place of Truth". He was active in the necropolis during the first half of the 19th dynasty. His tomb (which is numbered TT5) is an excellent source from which his family tree can be constructed. Neferabu's tomb no. 5 at Deir el-Medina Neferabu was a worker from Deir el-Medina whose title was "The Servant in the Place of Truth". He worked in the necropolis during the first half of the 19th dynasty. Thanks to the surviving textual evidence from the village, the dates can be narrowed down to the years 36 (O.Gardiner 133) and 40 (O.BM 5634) of Ramesses II. (Davis, 1999, 158) The tomb of Neferabu (numbered TT5) is an excellent source from which to construct his family tree. Neferabu was the son of "The Servant in the Place of Truth" Neferrenpet and his wife Mahy. The tomb inscriptions refer to Amenmose as the "father" of Neferabu, but it has been proved that Amenmose was actually the father of Neferabu's wife Ta-Isis (or Isis or Taiset). (Davis,1999,158) The names of his numerous children are recorded on the walls of the tomb. He had sons Nodjemger, Neferronpet, Ramose and Meriunu and daughters Henuttu, Mahi, Tenthaynu, Hotepy, Mutemopet, Istnofret, Henut-iunet and Roruti. The tomb of Neferabu is nestled against the Theban hills in the northern part of the western necropolis of Deir el-Medina. Photography © 2007 Andy Peacock A plan of the tomb of Neferabu, no. 5. Drawn by Lenka Peacock, after a drawing in Vandier, Jacques : Tombes de Deir el- Médineh, 1935. History of the discovery Almost nothing is known about the discovery of the tomb of Neferabu. Most likely, it was discovered more than two centuries ago. Maspero suggested 1818 as the year of discovery on the basis of the stele of Neferabu now in the British Museum (EA 589, more details below). The stele came from a collection of Count Belmore and was said to have been found in a tomb at Thebes in 1818. Although this votive stele may have come from his tomb, it is more likely that it came from one of the shrines at Deir el-Medina, or possibly from the rock shrine between the village and the Valley of the Queens. There is other evidence that dissuades us from accepting Maspero's claims. 1. From a papyrus in the Louvre, we know that the tomb was violated during the Ptolemaic period, when it served as a catacomb: "Appointed Horus leaves to each of his sons a quarter that belongs to him in Neferabu's catacombs, and a quarter of the dead." 2. The tomb was probably inhabited by Copts. In the first hall and the two connecting rooms, there were numerous burn marks on the ceiling and walls. This does not prove with certainty that the tomb was inhabited by Copts (some marks are modern and made by the Arabs), but they can often be taken as a sign of the presence of Copts, and it is very likely that the tomb of Neferabu, after serving as a catacomb, was used as a dwelling by Copts. 3. After visiting Deir el-Medina in the 1880s, Alfred Wiedemann described the tombs of the 19th dynasty, but did not mention the tomb of Neferabu in his article published in 1908. 4. In 1929 Bernard Bruyère discovered another stela in the shaft of pit 1195. This proves once again that the stela from Belmore's collection which was found in a tomb in Thebes did not come from the tomb of Neferabu. However, it is not impossible that the tomb of Neferabu was already known in 1818 and then quickly forgotten. This is not without precedent in Deir el-Medina - wall scenes in Tomb No. 3 were copied by Hay between 1825 and 1838, and then the tomb was rediscovered by Howard Carter in 1910. This hypothesis seems likely. The tomb known in 1818 could have been filled with sand shortly afterwards. There is another example of this happening at Deir el-Medina: the tomb of Inherkau was partly drawn by Lepsius in the mid-19th century, then lost and rediscovered by Bruyère in 1930. 1930. It is not possible to conclude whether the tomb was known in the early 19th century and we cannot answer the question who discovered the tomb of Neferabu and when. (Vandier,1935,1-4) Drawn by Lenka Peacock, after a drawing in Vandier, Jacques : Tombes de Deir el-Médineh, 1935. The architecture The tomb belongs to the category of chapel tombs. It had the following layout: a small open courtyard at ground level, a one-room vaulted chapel surmounted by a brick pyramid topped by a stone pyramidion, and a large funerary stele beyond. The vaulted chapel was very richly decorated. The shaft near the courtyard leads to the underground passage and two burial chambers. This type of tomb was widely used during the 19th and 20th dynasties. The tomb consists of two distinct parts: the underground part for the deceased, and the outer side, which was visited by family and friends and served as a place for worshipping the dead. This part was almost completely destroyed, but the preserved remains and other data gathered from other tombs can help to reconstruct its shape. The courtyard was a square of 6.5 metres on each side, surrounded by walls of stone and adobe. The entrance, which was on the south side, probably consisted of two brick pillars and was accessed by a ramp or stairs. At the end of the courtyard was a pyramidal building. A small chapel , the layout of which, as Bruyère noted, is the same as the hieroglyphic sign for the house, was built of adobe and stone and measured 2 x 3.10 metres. The door, located on the longer side, opened to the south. At the end of the chapel - opposite the front door - there was a niche where the floor was raised to the height of a step. The niche measured 2 metres by 1.5 metres. The funerary stele and an offering table were usually placed here. In his 1926 report (p. 86), Bruyère says of the chapel: "The fact that the slope collapsed has almost completely destroyed the remains. We can only assume that it was a vaulted room, made of brick, with a west-east axis parallel to the front". The walls of the chapel were painted with multicoloured figures on a yellow background. Pyramid . The walls of the chapel were the base on which stood a brick pyramid topped by a pyramidion. The pyramidion was made of painted limestone with inscriptions in honour of the sun. Each of the four sides represented a phase of the sun during the day. On the south side of the pyramid was a niche containing the round stela found by Bruyère in 1929 in a neighbouring pit No. 1195. The inside of the pyramid was hollow so as not to put too much weight on the walls of the chapel. The The outer walls of the pyramids were washed with lime. (Vandier,1935,5-6) Drawn by Lenka Peacock, after a drawing in Vandier, Jacques : Tombes de Deir el-Médineh, 1935. Shaft . In the courtyard, two metres in front of the chapel, there was a burial shaft. It was dug vertically into the ground. It measures 0.75 x 1.40 metres and is 4 metres deep. Its walls were made of mud bricks covered with white paint. There are slits in the walls of the shaft at intervals of about 0.60 metres, so that it is possible to descend. Four steps leading to the first chamber are modern, the 5th is original. The door in the eastern wall opened to the west. The first hall . It is a long hall, oriented from north to south, measuring 2 metres by 5.08 metres. The ceiling is vaulted and made of mud bricks laid in diagonal lines. The walls are completely covered with paint on plaster. A large part of the vault and the north wall are blackened and burnt, making it very difficult to read the text of the inscriptions and to study the murals. Around the centre of the hall, the vaulted ceiling is cracked. Traces of an old brick structure, no doubt the old shaft, can be seen. This suggests that Neferabu reused an earlier tomb as his resting place. It is likely that the earlier tomb dates from the 18th Dynasty. The original shaft is about 2 metres away from the later shaft. The remains of the southern wall of the old shaft can be seen in the courtyard of the chapel. It was also built of mud bricks, as was the later shaft of Neferabu. A small long room leads from the first hall to the west side, and two other small interconnected rooms are on the east side. It is difficult to say whether the small rooms were part of the original tomb or were added by Neferabu. These areas may have been used as storage rooms and were filled with funerary objects. The walls of these rooms are blackened by smoke, either from Ptolemaic or Coptic times. The first room of the eastern group has a cavity in the floor along its eastern wall, representing a kind of oblong tank in which the sarcophagus could have been placed at some point. At the end of the northern side of the first room of the tomb, there is a kind of stage or mastaba, 47 cm high and 2 m wide. The family of the deceased probably placed their offerings on this altar, which takes up the entire back of the hall, during the funeral ceremony. This mastaba is a common feature of tombs in the area, but is usually located at the bottom of the burial chamber. The mastaba in this tomb masks the shaft leading into the burial chamber. The shaft was filled with hard packed earth, which also formed the mastaba itself. The entrance to the second chamber was probably closed by a large vertical stone that slid into two vertical grooves. The grooves are still visible at the entrance to the tomb, although they are covered with white plaster. The entrance to the burial chamber has 4 steps, which are modern. Farina's photographs from the time when the tomb was excavated by Bruyère show us the original state: there was a shaft with three walls whitewashed with lime. The fourth wall was formed by the stopper. At the bottom of the southern wall, the last three layers of mud bricks were not plastered. Either there was a step or, more likely, it is simply a sign of damage. Burial chamber . The second room, the burial chamber, is larger than the first. It measures 6.25 by 3 metres. Its height reaches 2.6 metres, but is also reduced by the vaulted ceiling. Its floor is about 1.5 metres below the level of the first hall. A rather large crack in the ceiling, which has damaged the scenes on the front wall and areas in the south-east and south-west corners, allows a glimpse of the remains of the original masonry, as in the first hall. The east wall is damaged by a large crack, about a metre wide, probably caused by probing at the time of the discovery. It leads to a small lower cavity measuring 2.0 by 1.4 metres. The texts and scenes on the walls are intact. The niches were drawn by Lenka Peacock, after a drawing in Vandier, Jacques : Tombes de Deir el-Médineh, 1935. At the end of the burial chamber there is a peculiar and interesting detail: there are small oblong vertical niches on the east and west walls, about half a metre from the northern corner. Bruyère thought that they were intended to hold a wooden beam to support the weight of the sarcophagus as it was lowered into a room below. In 1929 he made a probe into the floor at the foot of the north wall, but found nothing except a small empty cavity at a depth of 1.5 metres. metres deep. The purpose of these niches remains a mystery. When the tomb was decorated, the niches were bricked up and lime-washed, but the artist left them empty and unadorned. It is difficult to explain these elements as nothing similar has been found in other tombs. (Vandier,1935,6-9) Objects connected to Neferabu housed in the British Museum Fragment of a stela of Neferabu 19th dynasty Limestone From Deir el-Medina British Museum EA 1754 Location: Gallery 63/11 Height: 17.5 centimetres Length: 52 centimetres Acquired in Luxor The stela above may have come from his tomb TT5 or perhaps from one of the shrines at Deir el-Medina. The relief shows the deceased's sons and relatives together with the draughtsman Pabaki, the draughtsman Pashedu and the scribe Ipu(y) carrying various funerary objects to be placed in his tomb. These include various boxes and stools. Merysekhmet is described on the stela as a sn (brother) of Neferabu, but Jac Janssen identifies Merysekhmet as Neferabu's nephew. He argues that Merysekhmet is not his real brother but a member of the same generation to which Janssen refers by sn. (Gleanings,1982,128). This argument is supported by the identification of at least 11 so-called brothers (sn) from several monuments attributed to Neferabu. The filiations recorded on Egyptian funerary reliefs do not always reliably reflect a particular blood relationship and closer examination in certain cases allows Egyptologists to determine the true relationship to the individuals involved (Davies,1999,158). It is in good but incomplete condition. In the literature it is always quoted together with stela 150 (as BM 150+1754). It was published by Kitchen in his Rammesside Inscriptions, Vol. 3, p. 774, part of 154. It has also been published in The British Museum hieroglyphic texts from Egyptian stelae etc, edited by T. G. H. James, Part 9: Plate XXX Registration number: 1931,0613.11 Ostrakon bearing an attendance record of workmen EA 5634 Neferabu's name appears on line 3 of the ostrakon: Neferabu: month 4 of Spring, day 15 (his daugher was bleeding), day 17 (burying the god), month 2 of Summer, day 7 (embalming his brother), day 8 (libating for him), month 4 of Summer, day 26 (his wife was bleeding). To view and browse the digitised version of The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, (also known as Porter & Moss or TopBib) for this tomb, go to http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/topbib/pdf/pm1-1.pdf#page=3 0 Material for the Bibliography is gathered from an ever-expanding range of multi-lingual sources, encompassing both specialist and semi-popular Egyptological and Near Eastern publications, periodicals, museum guides, exhibition and auction catalogues, together with the growing wealth of web resources. The Bibliography also analyses a range of unpublished manuscripts, including those housed in the Griffith Institute Archive. Published in May 2014 by the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, the volumes are constantly revised and augmented. Text on this page written by Lenka & Andy Peacock Photographs © Lenka Peacock, The Trustees of the British Museum With many thanks and gratitude to Ing. Jaroslav Bican, my brother, for the translation of the French text into Czech. Sources: 1. Vandier, Jacques : Tombes de Deir el-Médineh : la tombe de Nefer-Abou Le Caire : Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1935. 2. Davies, Benedict G.: Who's who at Deir el-Medina : a prosopographic study of the royal workmen's community Leiden : Nederlands Instituut voor Her Nabije Oosten, 1999 3. Davis, Benedict G.: Genealogies and personality characteristics of the workmen in the Deir el-Medina community during the Ramesside period. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Liverpool : University of Liverpool, February 1996. 4. Gleanings from Deir el-Medina / editors, R. J. Demarée and Jac. J. Janssen. Leiden : Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten te Leiden, 1982. 5. Journey through the Afterlife : Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead / edited by John H. Taylor London : The British Museum Press, 2010. 320 p. 6. The British Museum web site www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk Further bibliography Back to top

Irynefer's tomb no 290 at Deir el-Medina. It lies at the far end of the Western cemetery and shares the forecourt with the earlier tomb of Nu and Nakht-Min TT 291. Irynefer's tomb no 290 at Deir el-Medina The tomb is located at the far end of the western cemetery and shares the forecourt with the earlier tomb of Nu and Nakht-Min TT 291 . It consists of an entrance, an antechamber and a burial chamber. The owner of the tomb was Irynefer, a necropolis workman of the Ramesside Period. He lived in the village in the 19th dynasty during the early part of Ramesses II's reign. His title was the "Servant in the Place of Truth". Photography © Elvira Kronlob 2011 The entrance to the tomb was identified by Bernard Bruyère during the season of 1922/1923. Bruyère's drawing of the exact position of the tomb and its surroundings can be found in his manuscript MS 2004 0144 017, dated Januray 31st 1923, which was digitised by IFAO. It marks the outline of the tomb and numbers it as 290: http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/?id=MS_2004_0144_017 Bruyère's dig diary MS_2004_0144_018 from January 27th 1923 mentions excavations in the Northern area of the Western necropolis, where a large court with 2 tomb entrances was discovered. Each entrance had a shaft in front of it. Bruyère suggested that P1 (on his plan) could be entrance into Irynefer's (AriNefer) tomb. Fragments of several ancient Egyptian objects and a lamp from Christian times were found in this area. http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/?id=MS_2004_0144_018 Another, later, plan dated February 9th 1923 comes from Bruyère's manuscript MS 2004 0144 027 and shows the name of AriNefer with a question mark: http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/?id=MS_2004_0144_027 The photographs of the entrance to the tomb and its immediate surroundings in November 2011. Unless otherwise stated, all the photographs on this page are © Elvira Kronlob 2011-2012 The steps leading down towards the entrance into the antechamber The tomb is one of the most interesting of the Ramesside tombs due to its beautifully decorated vaulted burial chamber. A short passage leads to the burial chamber. It is decorated with hieroglyphs and a reclining jackal of Anubis looking towards the entrance of the tomb. The brick vault of the burial chamber was plastered and decorated with colourful scenes and inscriptions giving the names and titles of family members. The background of the scenes was painted yellow. The scenes include illustrations of various spells from the Book of the Dead, images of funerary deities, demons and manifestations of the deceased's ba and shadow. All photographs of the interior of the burial chamber are © by Elvira Kronlob 2012 and were taken in autumn 2012. I am very grateful to her for taking them and for giving me permission to publish them on our website. We will start the tour of the tomb by looking to the right of the entrance towards the north wall. Irynefer stands in the centre with his hands raised in worship towards a frieze that decorates this wall and extends over the western wall. It is interspersed with protective symbols and hieroglyphs in which the baboon is followed by an uraeus separated from the next by a feather, symbol of Ma'at (Germond, 2001, 244). The right side of the upper register is mostly destroyed. Below the destroyed scene in the middle register, Irynefer kneels before Osiris and two gatekeepers. The upper register of the northern wall shows a representation of the god Khepri seated in front of an offering table and a sep priest standing behind him. At the entrance the visitor faces the western wall and the frieze described above. In the shrine within the frieze Ma'at and Shu are seated on the left. In front of Shu there are 42 judges of the dead (Osiris is the 43rd judge). Here Irynefer swears that he has not committed any of a list of 42 sins (each judge is responsible for 1 sin) and recites a text known as the "negative confession" from the Book of the Dead. "...I did not cause the suffering of the people, nor of my relatives.... " The upper register above the frieze depicts various deities. Next to the shrine is a representation of Irynefer worshipping Horus in the form of a falcon. Horus holds a flagellum, the symbol of regeneration and rebirth, which gave him the power to decide who would enter the afterlife. The lower register on the far side of the western wall shows Anubis leading Irynefer to Osiris seated on his throne. Above the scene with Osiris is the vignette of the unusual Spell 135 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Although the text of the spell is not present, the depiction of 5 deities, 7 stars and a disc against a dark background occurs in 5 other 19th dynasty tombs from Deir el-Medina. According to David G. Smith, the spell could be a reference to the flash of the solar corona and to "Bailey's Beads", flashes of light that occur at the precise moment of a total eclipse (for source see below bibl. 11, 12). "Another spell to be said when the moon is new on the first day of the month. Open, O cloudiness! The bleared Eye of Re is covered, and Horus proceeds happily every day, even he the great of shape and weighty of striking-power, who dispels bleariness of eye with his fiery breath." (Faulkner, 2000,123) The image on the south wall, on the left side of the burial chamber, shows the mummification of the deceased, who is lying on a bed with lion heads. The mummification is performed by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the dead. The last wall to be described within the burial chamber is the eastern wall. In the lower register, we see Irynefer standing in the solar barque worshipping the phoenix, the symbol of the sun god of Heliopolis. The phoenix in the form of a grey heron wears the solar disk, the image of Re and assures Irynefer of his future rebirth in the manner of the sun (Germond, 2001, 258). In the register above, the couple is praying to a young bull-calf standing between 2 sycamore trees, the sacred trees of Heliopolis, the calf being a prefiguration of the solar bull moving through the sky (Germond, 2001, 239). Horus with the cow goddess Hesat, a manifestation of Hathor, on a reed mat by a pond, are depicted above the calf scene. The following scene spans both registers: Irynefer's parents, whose age is indicated by their white hair, pay homage to Ptah, the patron deity of craftsmen. Irynefer himself kneels in front of Ptah's throne and offers a figure of the goddess Ma'at (Hawass, 2009, 195-197). The rear part of the eastern wall is divided into two registers. The upper register is dominated by an extraordinary scene: it shows the worshipped god Ptah standing in front of the enshrined black shadow of the deceased and two ba-birds. One flies, the other sits in front of a black sun. Just above the arch of the entrance to the chamber is the green-skinned winged goddess Nut, whose name is indicated by the hieroglyphs above her head. Nut kneels before Horus and Hesat. We now turn to the last representation in the chamber, which is located at the top of the eastern wall near the entrance. The scene is very similar to a scene in TT3, the tomb of Pashedu: Irynefer kneels before a dom palm and drinks from a pool of fresh water (Dodson, 2008, 266-269). The illustration belongs to a spell for "drinking water in the necropolis" in the Book of the Dead. The design had to accommodate 3 different viewpoints: the pool is seen from above, Irynefer is kneeling on the bank on the far side so as not to obscure the water, and the tree is growing on the near side of the pool so as not to obscure the kneeling figure (Málek, 2003, 242). To view more photos of the inside of the tomb, follow the link to Claudia Ali and Ali Na'im's web site at http://www.leben-in-luxor.de/luxor_kultur_graeber_tt290_irunefer.html In the summer of 2010 Irynefer's tomb was briefly opened to visitors; by autumn 2010 it was closed again. In the middle of December 2011 the tomb opened while Sennedjem's TT1 closed. Jane Akshar described her visit to the tomb on her blog at http://luxor-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-tomb-opens-at-deir-el-medina.html Objects from the tomb are scattered around the globe in several museums. Photography Lenka Peacock © Petrie Museum, UCL Stela of Irynefer 19th dynasty From Deir el-Medina Sandstone Musee du Louvre. C311 Painted stela of the 'Artisan of the Royal Tombs', Irynefer and his family. The stela comes from the tomb chapel. Upper register: from left: Anubis seated behind Osiris, both facing the divine Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose Nefertari. The 2 lower registers show Irynefer and his wife censing in front of his parents and brothers. In contrast to the wall painting in Irynefer's tomb, where both Irynefer and his wife wear white wigs, this stela shows Irynefer's father Siwadjyt as a white-haired man. These two examples, of which there are only a few, suggest an old age. They all seem to come from the New Kingdom, especially from the tombs of Deir el-Medina (Janssen, 2007, 159-161). Stela of Irynefer 19th dynasty From Deir el-Medina, tomb 290 Limestone Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology , University College London, UC14545 The lower part of this round stela is missing. The upper part shows the remains of a raised relief of the god Ptah facing forward. At the bottom of the right side of the stela there are remains of a man with his arms raised in worship - his head is turned to the left and his hands survive. The lower left side shows the remains of a pile of offerings. The rest of the stela is filled with 5 columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions identifying the worshipper as Irynefer, the Servant in the Place of Truth. Height: 22 cm Width: 20.5 cm Photography Soloegipto 2009 © Musée du Louvre To view Bruyère's drawing of the place where the stela was found, go to http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/?id=MS_ 2004_0144_035 Irynefer before a table of bread 19th dynasty From Deir el-Medina Musee du Louvre. E12965 Found in the tomb of Irynefer. Irynefer is seated on a rock, brandishing two knives. The short text above the offerings indicates that the knives are sharpened. The text of five vertical lines above gives the names and affiliations of Irynefer. The knives are supposed to express Irynefer's power over evil. Perhaps this ostakon was intended to invoke protection. Photography Su Bayfield 2008 © Musée du Louvre Further web sites featuring the tomb: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/Irunefert.htm To view and browse the digitised version of The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, (also known as Porter & Moss or TopBib) for this tomb, go to http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/topbib/pdf/pm1-1.pdf#page=372 Material for the Bibliography is gathered from an ever-expanding range of multi-lingual sources, encompassing both specialist and semi-popular Egyptological and Near Eastern publications, periodicals, museum guides, exhibition and auction catalogues, together with the growing wealth of web resources. The Bibliography also analyses a range of unpublished manuscripts, including those housed in the Griffith Institute Archive. Published in May 2014 by the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, the volumes are constantly revised and augmented. Sources: 1. Dodson, Aidan - Ikram, Salima: The tomb in ancient Egypt : royal and private sepulchres from the early dynastic period to the Romans London : Thames & Hudson, 2008. 2. Janssen, Rosalind and Janssen, Jac. J.: Growing up and getting old in ancient Egypt London : Golden House Publications, 2007. 3. Hawass, Zahi: The lost tombs of Thebes : Life in paradise. London : Thames and Hudson, 2009. 4. Germond, Philippe and Livet, Jacques: An Egyptian bestiary : animals in life and religion in the land of the Pharaohs. London : Thames and Hudson, 2001. 5. Bierbrier, Morris : The tomb-builders of the pharaohs Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 1982. 6. Les artistes de Pharaon : Deir el-Médineh et la Vallée des Rois : Paris, musée du Louvre, 15 avril - 5 aout 2002 Paris : Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002. 7. Faulkner, R. O.: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead London : British Museum Press, 2000. 8. Málek, Jaromír: Egypt : 4000 years of art London : Phaidon Press, 2003. 9. http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyer 10. http://www.leben-in-luxor.de/luxor_kultur_graeber_tt290_irunefer.html 11. http://www.diskdoctor.co.uk/texts/Solar%20Eclipses%20%28Dave%20Smith%29%20-%20Part%201.pdf 12. http://www.diskdoctor.co.uk/texts/Solar%20Eclipses%20%28Dave%20Smith%29%20-%20Part%202.pdf Further bibliography Back to top

Within the mud-brick enclosure wall at Deir el-Medina stands the small building of the Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the goddesses Hathor and Maat Ptolemaic temple of Hathor The most prominent temple in Deir el-Medina is the Ptolemaic Temple. It was dedicated to the goddesses Hathor and Maat. The building itself is small, but it is one of the best-preserved examples of a temple from this period still standing today. It is surrounded by a high mud-brick wall. Its complex includes the sites of several New Kingdom temples and small chapels built by the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina on the northern side of their settlement. The view of the northern side of the settlement as seen and photographed by Warwick Barnard during a balloon flight over the settlement in January 2007. Inside the mud-brick wall is the small building of the Ptolemaic temple. Photography © Warwick Barnard 2007 The mud-brick enclosure wall and the entrance gate. The gate was built and decorated by Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos (80-58, 55-51 BC) and features scenes of the king offering sacrifices to various deities. The temple itself was built and decorated in the 3rd century BC. Work was started during the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (222-205 BC) and then was continued for the next 60 years under Ptolemy VI Philometor (180-164, 163-145 BC) and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (170-164, 145-116 BC). The small temple building lies within a mud-brick enclosure wall within which there are also numerous New Kingdom chapels erected by the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina. To read more about these chapels, follow the link here. Dozens of Greek, Demotic and Coptic Christian graffiti cover the walls of the temple. Hathoric and floral columns and extensive decoration are characteristic of this temple. This is the view looking through the columns above the curtain wall. The curtain wall is covered with reliefs depicting the king making offerings to various gods. Below is the eastern face of the curtain wall - Ptolemy VI Philometor facing Amun-Ra and Hathor. View towards Mammisi (the birth house) of Ptolemy IX Soter II (116-80 BC) and Cleopatra III. Both are shown here in the wall relief, facing Amun, Mut and Khonsu(who are not visible in the photo). The temple itself is entered through a vestibule with two papyrus columns. The pronaos, beyond the vestibule, is defined by a pair of columns, pillars and curtain walls. The view on the left looks from the vestibule through the pronaos into the central chapel. Plan of the temple drawn by Lenka Peacock: The figures on the columns show Amenhotep, son of Hapu, and Imhotep, both architects who were deified after their deaths. The photo was taken in the vestibule, looking through the pronaos towards the North Chapel. A painting by David Roberts (1796-1864) sketching himself in the vestibule of the Temple in 1838. Compare the inside of the temple as photographed in February 2007... This offering scene below comes from the lower part of the portico of the Pronaos. It dates from Ptolemy VI Philometor. The goddess is a female fecundity figure - the counterpart of all the images of Hapy that can be found around the lower part of the walls. The sign on her head stands for 'marshes', meaning that she represents one of the farms or estates that supported the temple. The calf in the marsh could represent Hathor, Neith or Mehet-Weret. ...with the interior of the temple as recorded by the Commission des arts et des sciences in Description de l'Egypte by the artists, who arrived in Egypt with Napoleon's army in July of 1798. They called the site "du temple de l'ouest" in their publication. This is a detail of a hieroglyphic inscription from the southern side of the doorway to the Pronaos. This beautiful double glyph is a sign A80 with a phonetic value Htr . It is used as a determinative. The western wall of the Pronaos is covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Its deep reliefs depict the king, Ptolemy VI Philometor, making offerings to Hathor-Isis and Maat. Detail of the window - there are two Hathors and a lotus placed between them. The west wall in the pronaos. On the left is the square Hathor column and in the foreground the stairs leading from the left side of the vestibule to the roof of the temple. Pronaos - View of the reliefs on the west wall. The upper register from the right: Nun, Nut, Heh, Hauhet, Kek, Kauket and Hathor, all holding symbols of life, receive the worship of Ptolemy VI Philometor. The decorated ceiling in the pronaos preserves ancient colours. Mineral based pigments were used to decorate the reliefs. Pronaos - View of the reliefs on the north wall. The upper register: Osiris, Isis-Hathor, Horus, Nephthys-Maat. The lower register: Amun-Re, Mut, Khonsu, Montu, Tjenenyet. In both registers the gods are worshipped by Ptolemy VI Philometor. The southern chapel The doorway on the left leads into a long and narrow chapel. It is dedicated to Amun-Sokar-Osiris. The well-carved wall reliefs depict scenes from the judgement of the dead. Similar scenes are usually found on tomb walls or on papyrus scrolls. The carved figures, although Ptolemaic, are well proportioned and well modelled. Part of a scene on the southern wall of the chapel. The goddess Maat leads a figure of the deceased king (Ptolemy VI Philometor) towards the Hall of Judgment. Above the king, forty-two judges sit, ready to pronounce their verdict on his fate. Horus and Anubis weigh the deceased's heart. The heart is balanced on a scale against the feather of Maat. The ibis-headed Thoth stands to the right and records the result. A lion-hippopotamus-crocodile figure called Ammit sits nearby, ready to devour the heart of the unjust. The four sons of Horus stand above a lotus flower. The face of Osiris (not visible in the picture), seated on the throne. The image below shows an animal-headed genii, which can be seen in the upper left register of the of the doorway of the southern chapel. A four-headed ram depicted on the lintel above the door (inside the chapel). Detail of an offering table with blue lotus flowers in front of the throne of Osiris on the west wall of the southern chapel as decorated by Ptolemy IV Philopator. The lintel over the central chapel door with seven heads of Hathor. The central chapel The central chapel was dedicated to Hathor by Ptolemy IV Philopator. The wall reliefs show Hathor receiving offerings from him, his sister Arsinoe, and Ptolemy VII Neos Philopator (145 BC), who continued the decoration of the chapel. Ptolemy VI Philometor making an offering to Amun-Re, Mut, Khonsu, Hathor and Maat. Ptolemy IV Philopator and the queen Arsinoe III are making offerings to Min Amun-Re. Ptolemy VI Philometor making an offering to Amun, Amunet, Montu-Re, Maat and Raet. South wall. King Ptolemy IV Philopator offering to Hathor of Dendera and Horus. Ptolemy VI Philometor making an offering to Amun-Re, Mut, Khonsu, Hathor and Maat. Ptolemy VI Philometor makes offerings to Amun-Ra, Mut, Khonsu, Hathor and Maat. The reliefs were restored by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III. The north chapel The doorway on the right leads to the North Chapel dedicated to Amun-Ra-Osiris. The reliefs show the king in front of various deities including Hathor, Isis, Nepthys, Horus, Anubis, Mut, Amun and others. Northern (right) wall of the chapel Nut Osiris Anubis Nepthys Ptolemy VI Philometor Horus Isis Southern (left) wall of the chapel Ptolemy VI Philometor Hathor Amun-Ra Amun-Ra Iat Maat Isis Detail of the papyrus and lily frieze. Details of reliefs and inscriptions on the temple walls. Wast (Weset) - the ancient name for Thebes, modern Luxor. The outer (rear) wall of the temple. Octavianus (who became Augustus in 27 BC and the first Emperor of Rome) offering to the goddesses Raet and Tjenenyet. The remains of earlier structures on the north side of the temple within the enclosure wall. The text on this page was written by Lenka Peacock Photography © Lenka and Andy Peacock Sources: 1. Wilkinson, R. H. : The complete temples of Ancient Egypt. London : Thames & Hudson, 2000. 2. Bomann, Ann H.: The private chapel in ancient Egypt : a study of the chapels in the workmen's village at el Amarna with special reference to Deir el-Medina and other sites. London : Kegan Paul International, 1991. 3. Strudwick, Nigel and Helen: Thebes in Egypt : a guide to the tombs and temples of ancient Luxor London : British Museum Press, 1999. 4. McDowell, A.G.: Village life in ancient Egypt : laundry lists and love songs Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999. 5. Pharaoh's workers : the villagers of Deir el-Medina / edited by Leonard H. Lesko Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1994. 6. Ventura, Raphael: Living in a city of the dead : a selection of topographical and administrative terms in the documents of the Theban necropolis Freiburg (Schweiz) : Universitatsverlag, 1986. 7. Černý, Jaroslav: Le culte d’Amenophis 1er chez les ouvriers de la nécropole thébaine, BIFAO 27 (1927). Further bibligraphy Back to top

The Egyptian collections of the Ashmolean Museum are one of the most extensive in England. Objects from all periods of Egyptian cluding the Bodleian Library's ostraka collection. It houses a vast collection of papyri, ostraka and other objects from Deir el-Medina. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK The Ashmolean Museum's Egyptian collections are among the most extensive in England. Objects from all periods of Egyptian civilisation from prehistory to the 7th century AD are represented in the collection. Although some objects were part of the original collection, most come from British excavations in Egypt between the 1880s and 1930s. Oxford University's excavations in southern Egypt and the Sudan from 1910 onwards added a substantial body of Nubian material. The Department of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan holds a large collection of papyri, ostraca, tablets and wooden labels, including the Bodleian Library's ostraca collection. Following a major refurbishment, the museum opened the new Ancient Egypt and Nubia galleries on 26 November 2011. Most of the new objects from Deir el-Medina are displayed in a secluded part of the gallery. The Ashmolean Museum opened to the public in May 1683. The collection was given to the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole (1617-1692). The collection was originally founded by John Tradescant (d. 1638), who exhibited it for a fee at his house in Lambeth. The collection ranged from natural specimens to man-made artefacts from every corner of the known world. www.ashmolean.org Photos by Lenka Peacock, 2016, unless otherwise stated © Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Naunakhte's will From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom, 20th dynasty Papyrus This legal document, written in hieratic script in black ink on a sheet of papyrus, is part of the will of a woman called Naunakhte. It records Naunakhte's distribution of her own property among her 8 children and her decision to disinherit 3 of the children who she felt had not cared for her as well as they should have in her old age. It sheds light on the position of ancient Egyptian women and their right to divide the family estate. Inv. no. AN1945.97(4) Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Naunakhte lived in Deir el-Medina and was married twice. As a very young girl (12 years or slightly older) she was married to a prominent scribe called Qenhirkhopshef (over 50), by whom she had no children. After his death, having inherited Qenhirkhopshef's and perhaps her father's valuables and real estate, she married a craftsman named Khaemnun with whom she had 8 surviving children. (Van Heel,2016,2) The will of Naunakhte is dated to year 3 in the reign of King Ramesses V (c. 1142 BC). It consists of 4 papyri, one of which is displayed in the gallery and shown above. Two of the papyri were acquired by Sir Alan Gardiner sometime after 1928 and given to the Ashmolean Museum in 1945. The other two papyri were found in situ during the 1928 IFAO excavations (P.DeM23 and 25) (Van Heel,2016,89). The document was written by two village scribes, one of whom was called Amennakht, whose name appears in the 8th line on the right-hand side of this sheet. The document records Naunakhte's oral testimony before the local court. By this time Naunakhte was very old and may not have had much longer to live. Year 3, fourth month of inundation, day 5, in the reign of the Dual King, the Lord of the Two Lands Weser-Ma'at-Re Sekheper-en-Re, l.p.h., the Son of Re, Lord of Diadems like Atum Ramesses Amen-her-khepesh-ef Mery-Amen (Ramesses V), l.p.h., given life for ever and eternity. This day, the lady Naunakhte made a record of her property before the following court: the chief workman Nakhte-em-Mut the chief workman In-Her-kHau (12 further names) She said: As for me, I am a free woman of the land of Pharaoh. I raised these eight servants of yours, and I outfitted them with everything that is usual for people of their character. Now look, I have become old, and look, they do not care for me. As for those who put their hands in my hand, to them I will give my property; (but) as for those who gave me nothing, to them I will not give of my property. List of the men and women to whom she gave: the workman Maaninakhtef the workman Qenhirkhopshef. She said: "I will give him a bronze washing-bowl as a bonus over an d above his fellows, (worth) 10 sacks of emmer." the workman Amunnakhte the lady Wasetnakhte the lady Menatnakhte. As for the lady Menatnakhte, she said regarding her, "She will share in the division of all my property, except the oipe of emmer that my three male children and the lady Wasetnakhte gave me or my hin of oil that they gave to me in the same fashion." List of her children of whom she said, "They will not share in the division of my one-third, but only in the two-thirds (share) of their father." the workman Neferhotep the lady Menatnakhte the lady Henutshenu the lady Khatanub As for these four children of mine, they will (not) share in the division of all my property. Now as for all the property of the scribe Qenhirkhopshef, my (first) husband, and also his immovable property and the storehouse of my father, and also this oipe of emmer that I collected with my husband,will not share in them. But these eight children of mine will share in the division of the property of their father on equal terms. Translation from McDowell,1999,38-40 The Sinuhe ostrakon Probably from Deir el-Medina New Kingdom, 19th dynasty (1292-1190 BC) Limestone With the exception of religious texts and various standard formulae, few other compositions are represented in so many copies or partial copies. Two papyri from the 12th and 13th dynasties provide a fairly complete text. During the Ramesside period in the 19th and 20th dynasties, master scribes and their pupils copied the text on ostraka in school. This is an example of a large ostrakon with virtually the entire narrative inscribed on both sides. (Simpson,2003,54) Inv. no. AN1945.40 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner These are both sides - recto and verso - of the largest surviving limestone ostrakon from ancient Egypt. The text is a copy of a story known as The Tale of Sinuhe, dating from the Middle Kingdom, the reign of King Senwosret (c. 1918-1875 BC). The main protagonist is a courtier named Sinuhe. He flees Egypt after the announcement of the death of King Amenemhat (c. 1938-1908 BC) and has adventures in Syria and Palestine before returning home as an old man. A major theme of the story is the superiority of Egyptian culture over all others. Although the text was composed during the Middle Kingdom, this copy was written more than 600 years later. It is written in hieratic script in black and red ink. The story was considered a literary classic by the ancient Egyptians and remained in circulation for hundreds of years. Stele of Khaemope From Biban el-Muluk 19th - 20th dynasty Limestone Triangular stele with an inscribed column in hieroglyphic script belonging to the "Servant of the Place of Truth" Khaemope. Khaemope was not an uncommon name in the Ramesside community of Deir el-Medina. It is found on stelae, on a block statue, on papyri, in a tomb painting and in tomb graffito. There were several titles associated with this name - some were simply craftsmen with the title "Servant of the Place of Truth", some were ATw officers who appear in several court cases, and there was also a contemporary "woodcutter" Khaemope. Inv. no. AN1942.47 Given by Nina de Garis Davies This stela could have belonged to one of the following Khaemopes: - The first workman Khaemope, who is mentioned in a document from the end of the 19th dynasty on the "right side" of the workmen. Benedict Davies sees the possibility of identifying him as the "Servant of the Place of Truth" Khaemope (iii) who is named on a block statue of his father, the "Servant of the Place of Truth" Pashedu. - Davies also sees the alternative that he could be synonymous with Khaemope (iv), the son of Nakhtmin (Davies,1996,292-293) The tomb TT321 has been assigned to Khaemope (v). Model of a sandal From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom Wood Black ink A model of a wooden sandal, inscribed "Servant of the Place of Truth in the west of Thebes". Inv. no. AN1952.206 Ex Griffith collection List of workmen From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink Limestone ostrakon inscribed in hieratic script with a list of craftsmen who worked in the late 19th dynasty. They are arranged in two groups - left and right - according to their rank within the team. Inv. no. HO57 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Hieratic papyrus From Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty A letter from the draughtsman Hormin to his father, the draughtsman Hori. This papyrus shows how a decorative project (here, the carving and painting of a royal tomb) was usually carried out. Two teams of masons, draughtsmen and sculptors - 'the left' and 'the right' - would have worked on opposite sides of the royal tomb. Hormin came from a family of draughtsmen; the posts were often passed from father to son. Inv. no. AN1958.112 Gift of Sir Alan Gardiner "The draughtsman Hor-Min to the father, the scribe Hori [...] in life, prosperity and health, in the praise of Amen-Re, King of Gods. To the effect that: I say to Amen-Re, King of Gods, Mut, Khonsu, and the ennead of Karnak, Grant that you be healthy! Grant that you live! Give to you strength, health and happiness! Further: when my letter reaches you, you should send for the man who will go to receive the grain (for?) the donkey. Look, the god's-father of the temple of Hathor wrote me saying: 'Come to receive it.' And you should write to reason with the captains so they will promote the servant of yours, so that he will speak with the leaders, to call up that servant of yours, so that he may give me a hand with the drawing: I am alone, since my brother is ill. Those of the right side have carved a chamber more than the left-side. Now, he will consume my rations with me. Now, witness a commission of Pharaoh, l.p.h., like this one when men are doubled for it! Now when I told it [to] the High Priest, the captains said to me, 'We will bring him up (to the work site). It is not the responsibility of the High Priest.' So they said: Write [...] As for everything my mouth said, I will double it, and more." Translation from McDowell,1999,215 The draughtsman Hormin (Harmin) (i), son of Hori (ix), appears in several ostraka dating from the reign of of the successors of Ramses III. There is some evidence that he may have been active early in the reign of Ramesses IV. He definitely appears later in year 4 of Ramesses IX. Hormin probably survived until year 17 of the same reign. (Davis,1996,204). Hormin was married to Meramundua (i) with whom he had 2 daughters - Henutneteru and Isis, and a son named Hori. They are all mentioned in Inherkau's tomb TT359. It is suggested that Meramundua may have been Inherkau's daughter or more likely his cousin. (Davis,1996,28-29) Absence record From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink Two fragments of a report written in hieratic script, which records the absence of two of the crew's workers due to scorpion bites. Inv. no. HO174 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Account of grain deliveries From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom Limestone Red ink Hieratic account of the rations of grain delivered to the village, brought from the temple and from the king. Inv. no. 298 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Letter to the king From Deir el-Medina New Kingdom Limestone Black ink Hieratic letter to the king reporting that work on the royal tomb was progressing according to plan. Maintaining regular communication between the workers at the tomb and the central administration was one of the duties of the village scribe. Inv. no. HO164 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Mose's letter From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink Letter from the village scribe Mose to Pesiur, the vizier under King Ramesses II (c. 1279-1213 B.C.), concerning various commissions. Inv. no. HO71 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Model letter From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink Official letters often followed a set formula. This model letter to a vizier probably served as a template for the village scribe's regular reports. Inv. no. HO79 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Report of a visit ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink Report of a visit by the Vizier to inspect the work of the crew. Inv. no. HO118 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Figured ostrakon From the Valley of the Kings New Kingdom Limestone Drawing of a profile of the head of a king, looking to the left. The eye is drawn frontally. The king's head is adorned by a short wig with an uraeus on the forehead. There is a collar around the neck. This is a quick but skilful sketch in black ink. Inv. no. AN1933.804 Sayce bequest Amennakht's poem ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty Limestone Height: 18 cm Limestone ostrakon inscribed in hieratic script by the scribe Amennakht with two poems written by him. This page contains a poem praising the city of Thebes and expressing his longing for it: "the bread there is finer than goose fat, its water is sweeter than honey..." . The red dots above the lines are "verse points", which were used to were used to mark rhythmic units in literary texts, possibly similar to line breaks in a poem. Inv. no. ANAsh.H.O.25 Gift of Sir Alan Gardiner The Satire of the Trades ostrakon From Deir el-Medina 19th - 20th dynasty Limestone Limestone ostrakon inscribed in hieratic script with part of a text known as The Satire of the Trades. A father took his son to the school of scribes and praised the profession of a scribe in comparison with more menial jobs. Inv. no. HO356 Given by Sir Alan Gardiner Stele dedicated to divine cats of Re and Atum Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty Limestone Black ink, traces of a preliminary sketch in red A rounded stela of painted limestone, the lower part depicting an unidentified couple worshipping "The cat of the god Re" and "The great cat, the peaceful one, in his perfect name Atum" - two aspects of the same solar deity, both shown facing each other in the upper part. Inv. no. AN1961.232 Former Armytage collection Photo by Lenka Peacock, 2006 Stele of Amenpahapy Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty Limestone This stela was dedicated by the Servant in the Place of Truth Amenpahapy. The six snakes represent the cobra goddess Meretseger. The stela may have been placed in a rock-cut shrine along the path from Deir el-Medina to the Valley of the Kings. Inv. no. AN1945.15 Gift of Nina de Garis Davies Photo by Jana Tejkalová 2008 Driving a bull to pasture Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty A figured ostrakon of a shepherd in a pleated linen kilt walks behind a "neg" - bull. In his left hand he holds a short crook and the end of a double tether, probably attached to the bull's nose ring. In his raised hand he may be holding another crook. Above the bull's back is an inscription in hieratic script. Above are a pair of mating goats and two kids. Inv. no. AN1938.915 Former Nina de Garis Davies collection Bibl. J. Vander d'Abbadie, loc. cit. pt. 3, pp. 22-27, pls. IX-XIII. Dispute over a hut Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina Mid 20th dynasty, Ramesses III Limestone Fragment of a limestone ostrakon with a hieratic inscription describing the settlement of a dispute over a hut inherited by a craftsman named Wennofer. The author of the text, Wennofer, claims ownership of his father's hut, which at the time was occupied by another craftsman who also claimed ownership. Both men went to the chief workman, Khonsu, and his deputy to settle their dispute. It was decided that Wennofer had the right to the hut, but that he should compensate the other party for any improvements made while he lived there. The following is a list of items that were made in payment. The inscription is not written in ink. It is unusual in that it is cut into the limestone and filled with blue frit, a technique used for formal hieroglyphic inscriptions. Perhaps Wennofer set this ostrakon like a stele into a wall of the disputed hut to publicise his claim to the building. Inv. no. ANAsh.H.O.655 Gift of Sir Alan Gardiner Photo by Jana Tejkalová 2008 [Reporting by] the workman Wen-nefer (and) the work[man...saying] there be given to me the hut (of) my father [...] in the presence of: the chief workman Khonsu the deputy [...] [...] And they said to me, "Give him grain [...for the construction] that he made in it." List of the silver [given to him...] box: 2 deben, 3 oipe of it belonging to me [...from his?] wood And I made for him a staff [...from?] his wood and [...] hen-box, X deben [...] (Translation from McDowell,1999,180) Photo by Philippa Robins 2010 Hieratic ostrakon Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina 20th dynasty Limestone The ostrakon is inscribed with hieratic signs, numbers and unusual marks. The signs probably represent personal names, and the numbers record the quantity of items (probably pots) made by them or delivered to them. Inv. no. ANAsh.H.O.1093 Gift of Sir Alan Gardiner Photo by Jana Tejkalová 2008 "Identity marks and their relation to writing in New Kingdom Egypt" is a PhD research programme, planned for May 2011 - August 2015, at University of Leiden under leadership of Dr. Ben Haring. The objectives of the research are to explain the shapes and nature of the marks themselves, and their affinity with writing and to assess precisely how the marks were used in the workmen’s community – in addition to writing. http://hum.leiden.edu/lias/research/smes/id-marks.html The international conference "Pot marks and other non-textual marking systems from prehistory to present times" was held in Berlin on December 7-9, 2012. The main focus of the event, organized by the Department of Egyptology and Northeast African Archaeology of Humboldt University Berlin within the framework of a research linkage between Humboldt University and Warsaw University, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, was on pot marks in Ancient Egypt, but other marking systems from Egypt and elsewhere were discussed as well. List of receipts for various commodities Place of excavation: Deir el-Medina 19th dynasty, about 1213-1204 BC Fragment of a papyrus inscribed in hieratic script with accounts of the crew of workers and various individuals. It lists supplies of food, tools, timber and and metalwork carried out for them. Most of the entries begin with a date in the season of peret (winter). Inv. no. AN1960.1283 Gift of Sir Alan Gardiner Photo by Jana Tejkalová 2008 Figured ostrakon Place of excavation: Thebes The head of a bubalis (Antelope bubalus) Inv. no. AN1938.913 Bought in Thebes Ex Nina de G. Davies collection Presented in memory of Kate Griffith Photograph by Su Bayfield This page was compiled by Lenka Peacock from the sources listed below. I would like to thank Dr Liam McNamara, Assistant Keeper for Ancient Egypt and Sudan, and Amy Taylor, Senior Picture Library and Publications Assistant, both of the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, for their kind comments and assistance in updating the site. All photographs are reproduced by kind permission of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. The photographs were taken by Lenka Peacock, Jana Tejkalová, Philippa Robins and Su Bayfield. Sources: 1. www.ashmolean.org 2. Museum's own labels 3. McDowell, A.G.: Village life in ancient Egypt : laundry lists and love songs Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999. 4. J. Vander d'Abbadie, loc. cit. pt. 3, pp. 22-27, pls. IX-XIII. 5. Parkinson, Richard: Cracking codes : the Rosetta Stone and decipherement London : British Museum Press, 1999. 6. Van Heel, Koenraad Donker : Mrs. Naunakhte & Family: The Women of Ramesside Deir al-Medina Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 2016 7. Davis, Benedict G.: Genealogies and personality characteristics of the workmen in the Deir el-Medina community during the Ramesside period. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Liverpool : University of Liverpool, February 1996. 8. Simpson, William Kelly: The literature of ancient Egypt : an anthology of stories, instructions, stelae, autobiographies, and poetry New Haven : Yale University, 2003. Further bibliography Back to top

Located in the western cemetery at Deir el-Medina, TT218 belonged to Amennakht, TT219 to Nebenmaat and TT220 to Khaemteri, who all held the same title of "Servant in the Place of Truth" during the reign of the 19th dynasty's king Ramesses II (1,279 BC-1,213 BC) TT218, TT219 and TT220 "Three tombs of the ‘Servants in the Place of Truth’ open to the public at Deir el-Medina" Three tombs were opened to the public for the first time on 13 May 2016, following the completion of their restoration, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany announced in his statement. Located in the western cemetery of Deir el-Medina, TT218 belonged to Amennakht, TT219 to Nebenmaat and TT220 to Khaemteri, who all held the same title of "Servant of the Place of Truth" during the reign of King Ramesses II of the 19th dynasty (1,279 BC-1,213 BC), said Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Department of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the Ministry of Antiquities. All three tombs were originally excavated by Bernard Bruyère in 1928. They are located in the southern part of the western necropolis, between Sennedjem's TT1 and Irynefer's TT290. The tombs belong to one family - the tomb chapel of Nebenmaat (ii) TT219, located between those of his father Amennakht (xxi) TT218 and his brother Khaemteri TT220, can be dated accurately to the first half of Ramesses II's reign on the basis of the dates contained in the mostly intact painted scenes on the tomb walls. They are of great importance in the compilation of invaluable genealogical data (Davis, 1996, 278). The recent IFAO season completed preparations for the opening of the tomb complex to the public. Past missions have been spent clearing the tomb floors, making topographical plans, photographing the walls and their paintings, and installing wooden floors, electricity and finally glass panels to protect the painted scenes, said Cédric Gobeil, director of the IFAO mission to Deir el-Medina. The courtyard of this group of tombs leads to the first antechamber with polychrome paintings similar to those in the tombs of Sennedjem, Pashedu and Inherkau. The second antechamber, in which the plastered walls were painted white, leads to the tomb complex. TT218 is almost identical in decoration to the first antechamber. It contains traditional views of family members engaged in various activities, as well as illustrations of various spells from the Book of the Dead and images of funerary deities. It belonged to Amennakht and his wife Iyemwaw. The burial chamber of Nebenmaat and his wife Mertseger in TT219 is completely different: its walls were painted in a monochrome style - the background is white with scenes painted in yellow, red and black. This style of decoration is unique in Egypt: of the 53 decorated tombs at Deir el-Medina, only 22 are monochrome. The scenes include the image of Nebenmaat as a priest censoring and libation to his parents, a motif of the deceased and his wife with gods and family members, an image of Anubis tending to a mummy on a couch, and views of offerings made by the deceased to divinities and by Mertseger and her sons to various gods. An illustration of the funeral procession to the tomb also adorns the walls. The vaulted ceiling bears images of the gods and the deceased. Further into the tomb we find TT220, which belonged to Khaemteri and his wife Nofretsatet. The walls in this section are quite damaged, but traces of scenes show that they were painted in a monochrome style on a white background. The scenes include images of deities, a motif of a mummy on a couch, a view of a funerary banquet and an illustration of Anubis jackals. Press report from the Luxor Times magazine with many photos taken inside the tombs and with an excellent video including interviews with Cédric Gobeil (Egyptologist, IFAO) and Mostafa Al Saghis (Director of the South Qurna Antiquities Area) conducted above the site of Deir el-Medina and inside the burial chambers of TT218 and TT219: http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2016/05/exclusive-footage-ancient-egyptian.html On the occasion of the commemoration of a century of archaeological work (1917-2017) carried out by the IFAO at Deir el-Medina, an exhibition organised by Hanane Gaber, Laure Bazin Rizzo and Frederic Servajean brought together objects from the excavations preserved at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and documents from the IFAO archives (excavation diaries and photographs). In addition to the installation of objects from Deir el-Medina that are normally displayed in different rooms of the museum, the general public and researchers were able to discover a virtual visit to an unpublished tomb from Deir el-Medina - TT218-TT219-TT220 - on screens installed in the room. The visit was carried out by @Olivier Onezime, a research engineer at the IFAO. The 3D model of the tombs is now available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ifaocaire/videos/2199129870114222/? hc_ref=ARQvm414sXi9Venx8vAGLxJEiv3Zi5hPlNU7e6WWtz9HnZePOQGd4MPYCilJcyov9bQ Sources: 1. Davis, Benedict G.: Genealogies and personality characteristics of the workmen in the Deir el-Medina community during the Ramesside period. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Liverpool : University of Liverpool, February 1996. 2. Dodson, Aidan - Ikram, Salima: The tomb in ancient Egypt : royal and private sepulchres from the early dynastic period to the Romans London : Thames & Hudson, 2008. 3. http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2016/05/exclusive-footage-ancient-egyptian.html 4. https://www.facebook.com/ifaocaire/videos/2199129870114222/? hc_ref=ARQvm414sXi9Venx8vAGLxJEiv3Zi5hPlNU7e6WWtz9HnZePOQGd4MPYCilJcyov9bQ Further bibliography Back to top

The Ancient Egyptian gallery at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery features over 600 objects. It covers "Belief", "Life", "Death" and "Afterlife". The mummy and the coffin of Horemkenesi, who lived at Deir el-Medina, arrived from Luxor in 1905. Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, UK The Ancient Egyptian Gallery contains over 600 objects. It covers 'Belief', the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, including their view of creation, their gods and their rituals. "Life - the social structure of ancient Egypt, childhood and a variety of occupations from pharaoh to farm labourer. "Death - funerary beliefs, preparation of the body for mummification, coffin symbolism and tombs. And "the afterlife" - ancient Egyptian beliefs about what happened after death and the need for burial objects, servants, food offerings and possessions. http://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/ bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/ The collections search page: http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/ In the 1890s, archaeologists from the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) excavated at Deir el-Bahri, a complex on the west bank of the Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor. At that time, archaeological finds that were not reserved for the national collection in Cairo could be shared between the donors of funds for the excavations (mainly museums and universities). Bristol Museum sponsored the EEF and received regular donations of finds as a result. In 1905 the mummy of Horemkenesi arrived in his coffin from Luxor (KS2 resource, 2003). The coffin was found in the pit tomb of Mentuhotep II's queen Sadeh (Booth,2003,247), who lived almost 1000 years before Horemkenesi, who was buried in her tomb in Mentuhotep's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The tomb had remained undisturbed for 3 millennia. Horemkenesi lived during the turbulent times of the 20th and 21st dynasties, around 1070 BC, in what is now called the Third Intermediate Period (Booth, 2006, 243). He lived either at Deir el-Medina or within the enclosure of Medinet Habu. His main occupation was that of an overseer of workmen at the Valley of the Kings. He also worked as a scribe at Deir el-Medina as he held the title of "Scribe of the Task in the Horizon of Eternity" (Booth, 2006, 243). Horemkenesi acted as a part-time Wab priest at the temples of Karnak and Medinet Habu. A rock inscription informs us that his father Huysheri also held the title of Wab priest at Medinet Habu, suggesting that the title may have been hereditary (Booth, 2006, 244). During Horemkenesi's early years, the boy must have attended classes and been trained as a scribe. The lessons would have taken place either in Deir el-Medina, where the school for the children of the necropolis workmen was run, or in the nearby Ramesseum. When the settlement of Deir el-Medina was abandoned, he would have been educated at the temple of Medinet Habu (Janssen,2007,64). His career began during the reign of Ramses XI (1098-1070 BC) and continued until at least the 20th year of the High Priest Pinedjem I (1070-1032 BC) (Booth,2003,244). His main duties were to inspect tombs for damage, repair robbed tombs and organise non-royal burials. His name is found in several rock carvings around the Valley of the Kings. His signature indicated which tombs he had inspected. For example, his name can be seen near the tomb of Seti II. In 1981 it was noticed that Horemkenesi's mummy was beginning to deteriorate and it was decided to unpack the mummy in order to find out more about Horemkenesi's physical characteristics and health, as well as how the body was mummified (KS2 Resource, 2003). The Horemkenesi mummy revealed a short, plump man who was between 55 and 60 years old at the time of his death. He suffered from arthritis in his shoulders and back, which must have caused him painful stiffness. The brain, which is normally removed, was left intact in the cranial cavity. On the other hand, his heart, which is usually left in the body, was missing from Horemkenesi's body. His earlobes had large holes in them and several of his teeth were worn down to the gums because the food he ate contained sand (KS2 resource, 2003). The mummy was buried in a 3-piece coffin, which was fashionable at the time. It is made of wood and covered with a thin layer of painted plaster. Inside and outside, there are images of gods and prayers to protect the deceased and help him in his journey to the afterlife. The design of the coffin is a standard one, it was not made especially for Horemkenesi, but his name and titles were written in the blank spaces in the text. The panoramas below were taken by Robert Gibson from Sydney, Australia. 14 photos I took in the gallery were rendered by him to create these 3 wonderful images. Horemkenesi's mummy was covered by a colourful painted mummy board. On the floor of the bottom case is a figure of Osiris in the form of a djed pillar. Horemkenesi's mummy was covered by a colourfully painted mummy board. The burial consisted only of the mummy in the coffin, draped with garlands of woven rush leaves, but no grave goods belonging to Horemkenesi were found in the tomb. No amulets were found in the linen wrappings, but feathers and small pieces of plant material were found in his bandages. The canopic jars were also missing. A pair of leather sandals too small for his feet was found in the tomb (KS2,2003). To view the museum's records of the coffin, follow the links below: http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79677 http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79579 http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=79678 To view the museum's records for the group of mummies and coffins, follow the link to Search the Museum Collection at http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/list.php?keyword=horemkenesi&start=1 There are 585 individually numbered objects in the catalogue as all objects found in the coffins were recorded and given a unique catalogue number. The detailed list helps us to understand the wide range of ingredients used in the embalming process. All the coffins and remains of skin tissue from inside the mummy wrappings are listed together with the Horemkenesi's mummification process - baking soda to dry the body, sawdust, straw and plant fibres to fill the body cavities, and the body cavities to provide support, resins, minerals, charcoal and even beetles and larvae. As methods of changed and evolved over a long period of time in ancient Egypt, this list, together with the medical report from 1981, provide a better understanding of the process in which Horemkenesi's body was involved. I would like to thank Sue Giles, Senior Collections Officer-World Cultures, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, for permission to use the photographs on this page, and Amber Druce, Curator-World Cultures, Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, for her helpful comments. Photographs © Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives Photography by Lenka Peacock Text produced using the following resources Sources: 1. Ancient Egyptians at Bristol's City Museum & Art Gallery : a KS2 resource for teachers Bristol : Bristol's Museums, Galleries & Archives, 2003. 2. Booth, Charlotte: People of Ancient Egypt Stroud : Tempus, 2006. 3. Janssen, Rosalind and Janssen, Jac. J.: Growing up and getting old in ancient Egypt London : Golden House Publications, 2007. 4. Clayton, Peter A.: Chronicles of the Pharaohs : the reign-by-reign record of the rulers and dynasties of ancient Egypt London : Thames & Hudson, 1994. 5. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/stream/asset/?asset_id=32273145 (accessed June 25th 2011, the link is no longer available) 6. http://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/ 7. http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/ Further bibliography Back to top

The owner of the tomb 3 at Deir el-Medina was Inherkhau. Inherkhau's tomb TT 359 at Deir el-Medina The owner of tomb 359 at Deir el-Medina was Inherkhau, who lived in the settlement during the 20th dynasty reigns of Ramesses III and Ramesses IV. "Until May 2014 the tomb was closed for restoration. The work included the consolidation of the walls and paintings. Cracks were repaired, colours were made more vivid and a new lighting system was installed". From: Betz, Raymond: What's new in Luxor: Pack your bags now! In: Ancient Egypt: The History, People and Culture of the Nile Valley. Volume 16, Number 3, Issue No. 93, Dec 2015/Jan 2016, pp. 42-43. All photography on the page © 2009 Mutnedjmet The ceiling of the first chamber of the tomb - the front vaulted upper chamber - is composed of various highly coloured patterns of intricate petal designs, repeated designs of rosettes and spirals intertwined with the two names of the tomb owner Inherkhau and his wife Wabet. (Treasures, 352) The niche on the south-west wall of the first chamber contains a representation of Inherkhau and his wife Wabet in the pose of worship. On the back wall of the niche there is a representation of Anubis watching over the necropolis in the form of a black jackal with a red ribbon around his neck, reclining on a mastaba and holding the sekhem-sceptre between his front paws and the flagellum between his back paws. The north-west wall of the first chamber - upper register Inerkhau is depicted sitting on a chair in a barque whose stern and the prow both end in the shape of a lotus flower. The Wedjat eye, symbolising protection, strength and perfection, is painted on the hull on either side of the chair. The deceased, dressed in a white linen costume typical of the 19th dynasty, wears a multicoloured pearl necklace and a garland of flowers and leaves around his neck. His wig is topped by a headband. He has a short, square beard. Inherkhau's arms are outstretched and a large piece of white linen is stretched behind his back, held by each hand - a gesture for which we have no good explanation. North-west wall, lower register: Each of these scenes depicts Inherkhau and his wife as the recipients of ritual acts and ceremonies performed by priests and their family members. from The Lost Tombs p. 59 Lower register: Relatives offer libations to the deceased couple A blind harpist sings to the chief workman Inherkhau and his wife Wab in this detail from their tomb. The text of the harpist's is written in the columns of hieroglyphic text behind the behind the harpist (only part visible here). here). The text of the song - McDowell pp. 125-6 Middle register: Inherkhau, in an immaculate white linen costume, performs an act of worship before the souls of Pe, a mythical city in Lower Egypt. The three kneeling genies are incarnations of Horus, Imsety and Hapy. (Treasures 333) Inherkhau stands before an offering table worshipping the sacred benu-bird of Heliopolis. The bird wears the crown of the god Osiris to show its connection to the god who was believed to be the spirit of both Re and Osiris. Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the dead, offers a heart to the mummy of the deceased. For the ancient Egyptians, the heart, rather than the brain, was believed to be the seat of their wisdom and the centre of memory and emotion, and was kept in the body after mummification. Behind Anubis is the standard of Osiris, Lord of Abydos. Inherkhau kneels in worship of the god god Horus in the form of a falcon. Both the pedestal on which the falcon stands as well as its plumage are detail and show great artistic skill. The sacred cat of Heliopolis, associated with the centre of the cult of the sun god Re, kills the evil serpent Apophis under the ished/persea tree. This symbol of chaos had to be ritually killed every day as the sun god's barque passed through the underworld. End wall: Inherkhau and his son worship Ptah and Osiris in a double scene Upper register: Inherkhau adores the horizon Lower register: Inherkhau is seated before before his relations carrying a snake rod Inherkhau worshipps four jackals Adoration of a serpent Representation of the deified king Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari From Deir el-Medina, TT359 Now at the Neues Museum, Berlin AM2060, AM2061 Sources: 1. Betz, Raymond: What's new in Luxor? : Pack your suitcase now! In: Ancient Egypt : The history, people and culture of the Nile Valley. Vol. 16, No. 3, Issue No. 93, Dec 2015/Jan 2016, pp. 42-43. 2. Davis, Benedict G.: Genealogies and personality characteristics of the workmen in the Deir el-Medina community during the Ramesside period. Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Liverpool : University of Liverpool, February 1996. 3. Davies, Benedict G.: Who's who at Deir el-Medina : a prosopographic study of the royal workmen's community Leiden : Nederlands Instituut voor Her Nabije Oosten, 1999 4. Dodson, Aidan - Ikram, Salima: The tomb in ancient Egypt : royal and private sepulchres from the early dynastic period to the Romans London : Thames & Hudson, 2008. 5. Hawass, Zahi: The lost tombs of Thebes : Life in paradise. London : Thames and Hudson, 2009. 6. Shaw, Ian, Nicholson, Paul: British Museum dictionary of ancient Egypt London: British Museum Press, 1995. 7. Strudwick, Nigel and Helen: Thebes in Egypt : a guide to the tombs and temples of ancient Luxor London : British Museum Press, 1999. 8. The Treasures of the Valley of the Kings : tombs and temples of the Theban west bank in Luxor Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. 9. Weeks, Kent R.: The treasures of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings Cercelli : White Star Publishers, 2005 On-line resources: 1. http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/bruyere/?sujet=Tombes+359%2C360%2C361+Anherkhaoui.+Qaha. +Houy&os=0 2. http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/artisans/inerkhaou359/e_inerkhaou359_01.htm Further bibliography Back to top