A Tale of Two Tombs: the relationship between Khonsu's funerary monument and that of Userhat

Summary

Egypt is well known for its long-running funerary traditions, and one of the most fruitful avenues of research on the topic is the study of decorated tombs at the ancient site of Thebes (modern Luxor). The cemetery complex that served this large settlement and religious center during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 BCE) contains thousands of graves. This paper examines two nearly contemporaneous tombs that although commissioned to hold the burials of different men, have a great deal in common—professionally, iconographically and perhaps even personally. Indeed, the more complete of the pair is useful in reconstructing damaged portions of the other monument. The tombs lie a short distance from one another and their imagery follows a similar decorative program. Both of the officials memorialized and interred in Theban Tombs 31 and 51—Khonsu and Userhat, respectively—were high-ranking priests in the mortuary cults of deceased pharaohs. I will briefly discuss the tombs’ location and their decoration before turning to the manner in which the occupations of their owners is likely connected to administrative protocol in a tightly controlled realm of Egyptian society: tomb preparation and site assignment.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The Practices of Death: The Archaeology of Mortuary Ritual in Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Keywords

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