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AKHENATEN/TUTANKHAMUN

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Bianca
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« Reply #75 on: June 02, 2007, 08:30:33 am »


February 10 - 16, 2007
 
Finally, finally we are allowed to tell you what you wanted to hear: the name of the tomb-owner of the new funerary monument we discovered this season! The Egyptians have now sent out a press release and therefore it is okay for us to talk about it. The news has already been published in all Egyptian newspapers and has been shown on the Egyptian television. This is because it is a really nice find: another tomb dating to the time of Akhenaten!
 
As you'll remember, in 2001 we found the first tomb dating to that period: the tomb of Meryneith. In 2003 we found the rear wall of the new tomb we are now excavating, and we already hoped it would be contemporary. This assumption has proved to be right. The tomb belongs to Ptahemwia, who was 'royal butler, clean of hands'. There are few inscriptions, but we already know there is a door jamb of this man in the Cairo Museum and a pilaster in Bologna. Otherwise, he was unknown from previous finds. The date is suggested by the characteristic style of the wall reliefs. I shall now describe the tomb in some detail.The tomb is built in mudbrick and measures 10.5 m wide by 16 m long. It consists of a massive entrance wall with gateway (perhaps originally shaped as a pylon), followed by a peristyle courtyard, and three chapels for the offering cult. Courtyard and central chapel have preserved a large part of the original limestone floor and wall revetment, and these wall panels again have beautiful coloured reliefs. Unfortunately, these have been robbed away for the left-hand part of the tomb, and only the northern part of the east wall, the north wall of the courtyard, and the north half of the central chapel have preserved a large part of the original relief slabs.
 
Those on the east wall are unfinished and show a lot of sketches in red ink which have never been carved. Can it be that the tomb-owner fell from grace because of his name (which means 'the god Ptah sits in his bark')? As you'll remember, Akhenaten banned most of the Egyptian gods and only wished to worship the sun god Aten. Meryneith faced the same problem and even had to change his name into Meryre, but there is no sign that Ptahemwia did something similar. Perhaps he just died untimely, and that is why the tomb is unfinished.
 
The best scenes occur on the north wall of the courtyard. On the right we see a landscape with farmers ploughing their fields. The adjacent scene shows Ptahemwia arriving at his house (depicted as a rectangle with a gabled roof), in which his wife is waiting for him. She is called the 'songstress of Amun' Maia, and a servant is pouring her a drink while she is waiting. But her husband is not ready yet: he is addressing a number of minor officials, while his charioteer, sandal-bearer and Nubian bodyguards stand at attention. Meanwhile, other servants come running to the open door of the house to greet their master, followed by some female musicians. Further to the left is a scene of the opening of the mouth ceremony and offerings in front of the seated couple. Under the chair of the wife there are two monkeys, depicted in a very vivid way while eating fruit.

The vivid style full of unique details (such as the posture of the deceased, who turns his head back to look at the officials), the characteristic elongated skulls and bulging stomachs, and the peculiar style of sunk relief (always a favourite of Akhenaten) point to a date in the Amarna period, and presumably in its early years. This would make the tomb contemporaneous with that of Meryneith. We have been very fortunate again!
 
Yesterday (Thursday 15th) we paid off our workmen: the work is done and we need two more weeks to study and record the finds. Our photographer Anneke is leaving coming Tuesday, so we have to organise everything for her. In the meantime, our artist Dorothea has almost finished drawing the large reliefs, thanks to the good weather we are enjoying. If this continues, we shall be able to finish our job this year. We already look forward to excavate the tomb shaft in 2008, although we already can see it has been entered in the 19th century.
 



MAIA, TUTANKHAMUN'S NURSE
« Last Edit: October 31, 2007, 10:55:23 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
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