"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/?
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