The Archaeology of Egyptian Non-Royal Burial Customs in New Kingdom Egypt and Its Empire

This Element provides a new evaluation of burial customs in New Kingdom Egypt, from about 1550 to 1077 BC, with an emphasis on burials of the wider population. It also covers the regions then under Egyptian control: the Southern Levant and the area of Nubia as far as the Fourth Cataract. The inclusion of foreign countries provides insights not only into the interaction between the centre of the empire and its conquered regions, but also concerning what is typically Egyptian and to what extent the conquered regions were culturally influenced. It can be shown that burials in Lower Nubia closely follow those in Egypt. In the southern Levant, by contrast, cemeteries of the period often yield numerous Egyptian objects, but burial customs in general do not follow those in Egypt.

Teardrops at the Lake: Chemistry of New Kingdom to Makuria Glass Beads and Pendants Between the First and Second Nile Cataracts

International expeditions extensively excavated Lower Nubia (between the First and Second Nile Cataracts) before it was submerged under the waters of Lake Nasser and Lake Nubia. The expeditions concentrated on monumental architecture and cemeteries, including sites at Qustul and Serra East, where the New Kingdom, and Napatan, Meroitic, Nobadian, and Makurian-period elites and common people were buried, ca. 1400 BC–AD 1400. Although the finds abound in adornments, including bead imports from Egypt and South India/Sri Lanka, only a few traces of local glass bead-making have been recorded in Nubia so far. Based on results of laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis of 76 glass beads, pendants, and chunks from Qustul and Serra East contexts, dated between the New Kingdom and the Makuria Kingdom periods, this paper discusses the composition and provenance of two types of plant-ash soda-lime (v-Na-Ca) glass, two types of mineral soda-lime glass (m-Na-Ca), and two types of mineral-soda-high alumina (m-Na-Al) glass. It also presents the remains of a probable local glass bead-making workshop dated to the period of intensive long-distance bead trade in Northeast Africa, AD 400–600.

Crutched Pharaoh, Seated Hunter

Academic and popular sources alike regularly refer to Tutankhamun as “disabled” at the time of his death, citing artistic representations from the items in his tomb to back up such claims. This group of objects has been said to depict the young king seated while hunting and using a staff as a walking aid seemingly highlighting the presence of a leg-based disability. This narrative of the image depicting the truth of Tutankhamun’s physical condition has publicly become accepted as fact with images of the seated king even being used in the advertising for the touring exhibit “Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh” to suggest Tutankhamun’s “fragile constitution.” A comparison of these depictions to historical representations of kings hunting and using staffs of authority, however, suggests that these depictions of Tutankhamun were part of a traditional iconography utilized by Tutankhamun’s artists, not to highlight his disability, but instead to situate his image within the artwork of kings of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. This study, thus, works to dispel the pervasive myth of the existence of artistic representations of a disabled Tutankhamun, while providing a basis for understanding the true nature of the representation of disability in Egyptian art. Furthermore, this work urges Egyptologists to avoid relying on physical remains to “decipher” mortuary artwork. Such a change in method can only lead to a better understanding of the purpose of the depicted body within the mortuary context and its role as separate but complementary to the physical body in New Kingdom thought.

New Ramesside Copy of the Teaching of Amenemhat

A newly excavated ostracon from Abydos bearing the concluding chapter of “The Instruction (a.k.a. Teaching) of King Amenemhat” opens up an interesting enquiry. An ostracon found in the immediate vicinity of a New Kingdom royal memorial temple and carrying an excerpt from a major literary text is an important find, as it develops our insight into New Kingdom educational practices and intellectual quests. The range of ostraca types and text genres appearing in the area of the temple of Ramesses II points to a fully functional temple organization with a building phase and an operational phase, with supplies and literate personnel on site, potentially in different administrative roles. Studies in educational and intellectual pursuits, in turn, are key to expanding our comprehension of the functions—and enjoyment—of Egyptian culture.

Mary Had a Little Ram

The Spanish Mission to Dra Abu el-Naga (Proyecto Djehuty) has been working in the Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Tombs of Djehuty (TT 11) and Hery (TT 12) and their environs since 2002. The excavators uncovered a deposit west of the courtyard of TT 11, consisting of a wrapped ram, a wooden coffin, and a dense deposit of pottery sherds. This is possibly one of the earliest excavated animal burials in the Theban area, and unusual in the fact that it is of a ram. This article focuses on exploring and contextualising this rare find of the late Second Intermediate Period/early New Kingdom.

A Painter’s Version: Amenhotep, Son of Amunnakhte and Pictorial Tradition

Arguably one of the most remarkable painters/draughtsmen, not only in his direct surroundings of Deir el-Medina but in the history of New Kingdom painting altogether, the Chief Draughtsman Amenhotep, son of Amunnakhte has left us a substantial body of identifiable work. His artistic output includes royal and private tomb-chapels augmented by a corpus of figured ostraca numbering at 24 known pieces. It follows then that the many different types of artwork contained in his production provide an especially rich opportunity for exploring art historical themes of particular import and can inform our understanding of these in significant ways. Moving away from the habitually confronted modern reading of decorum as a manacle of artistic freedom, this contribution aims at drawing attention to how decorum seems to have been seen in essentially positive terms, an inference cognate with what transpires from the study of the works of Amenhotep.