In the house of millions of years

Al Ahram Weekly

A lost tomb and a sphinx in Luxor, painted anthropoid coffins in Dahshour and a noble woman's tomb in Saqqara. Nevine El-Aref reports on the most recent discoveries in Egypt

It seems that the recent archaeological season has been very successful. Wherever archaeologists have dug, they have come up with amazing and important discoveries.

On Luxor's west bank, major discoveries have been uncovered in the noblemen's necropolis at Sheikh Abdel-Gourna and at Kom Al-Hittan, where the temple of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III is located.

After almost 130 years of exploring the sands of the archaeological hill of Sheikh Abdel-Gourna, the tomb of Amenhotep, a deputy of the overseer of seal-bearers during the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III -- known among Egyptologists as "the lost tomb" -- has been found by a Belgian archaeological mission.

Amenhotep's tomb was previously discovered during the early 1880s by Egyptologist Karl Pieh, who also drew a sketch plan of its interior design. But unfortunately over the span of time it was re- buried in sand and its exact location was subsequently forgotten. In the early 2000s traces of the tomb were revealed during work on the tomb of Sennefer, the overseer of seal-bearers. Excavators found a remarkable sandstone statue dedicated to Amenhotep, and further excavations at the site revealed more about the lost tomb that early this year led to the mission's finding the main entrance to the tomb chapel.

Laurent Bavay, head of the Belgian mission, explained that the tomb was a T-shaped chapel with a transverse gallery oriented north and south and divided by a row of six pillars. Its southern half collapsed in antiquity and the space was entirely filled with debris that partially blocked the entrance and the passage leading into the gallery. The walls of the tomb are painted with the classical geometric motifs well known from the 18th Dynasty, along with bands of hieroglyphic texts showing the name, various titles and genealogy of the tomb's owner. According to these inscriptions, the tombs belonged to Amenhotep, the deputy of the overseer of seal-bearers. His father was Ahmes, director of the cattle of Amun and Neheh, and his wife, who was called Renena, was the daughter of the overseer of seal-bearers Sennefer.

"This is a very important discovery," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. He said that determining the exact location of the tomb would provide a better understanding of the Egyptian administration echelon during the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III.

Hawass pointed out that other objects from Amenhotep's tomb were already known in Egyptological literature. The most important was a granite false-door stela found reused in the floor of a chapel added to the north side of the Khonsu Temple at Karnak.

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