The reign of Akhenaten marks a fault-line in the development of funerary monuments. His new capital city at el-Amarna incorporated in its eastern hills tombs for both the nobility and the royalty of the regime. The royal tombs were built in a wadi aligned with the principal temple of the sun-god Aten and the rising sun, with those of the nobles in the cliffs and foothills flanking the entrance to that wadi. The decoration of these tombs is fundamentally different from previous practice, and dominated by the new Aten-cult.
The private tomb-chapels at Amarna generally have a slightly different architectural layout from contemporary Theban examples, but most notably eschew the time-honored decorative patterns in favor of depictions of the activities of the royal family. These, in particular, focus on their daily journey from their residence to the central city and the cult of the Aten. Depictions of the deceased are generally restricted to subsidiary roles in such tableaux, and a figure on the jambs of the main entrance doorway (Davies 1903-8). No decorated private substructures are known at Amarna. On the other hand, the royal tomb
Figure 36.5 Royal tombs of the New Kingdom: (a) Thutmose I/Hatshepsut (Valley of Kings KV20); (b) Thutmose III (Valley of Kings KV34); (c) Amenhotep III ( (Valley of Kings WV22); (d) Akhenaten (el-Amarna TA26); (e) Sety I (Valley of Kings KV17); (f) Merneptah (Valley of Kings KV8); (g) Ramesses XI (Valley of Kings KV4). Courtesy Aidan Dodson.
Features two kinds of scene, general tableaux of the worship of the Aten, and those of the mourning of the deceased. The latter are of two types, one over the prostrate physical body, and the other in front of a standing figure of the deceased, shown as though alive. The dimensions ofthe corridors ofthis tomb are much greater than the preceding Valley ofthe Kings tombs, leading to a pillared burial chamber. It also has subsidiary rooms for the burial of members of the royal family - an innovation - but the tomb was never finished, so its final intended extent is uncertain (Martin 1974,1989).
With the return to orthodoxy, a clear change is to be seen in both royal and private tombs. Already under Amenhotep III the royal memorial temple had begun to take
On a design far more akin to regular cult temples, and this continues after the Amarna period into the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, albeit with the continued tripartite division of the cult installations. In the burial places themselves, the bend in the axes of royal tombs is eliminated and the ‘‘drawn’’ decoration replaced in favor of a uniform polychrome scheme, which is also carved in relief. The variety of Underworld Books increases, and from early in the Nineteenth Dynasty the entire tomb begins to be decorated, with even the external doorway adorned. A fairly standard layout of compositions is established, although every tomb is unique in its exact set of works and detailed design. Most importantly, the axis of the burial chamber shifts through 90 degrees, with the crypt now sandwiched between two rows of columns. The first tomb with this layout is that of Ramesses II (KV7). The basic plan continues into the Twentieth Dynasty, although obscured by the fact that a number of sepulchres were completed to abbreviated plans.
The tombs of the royal family of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties are considerably more elaborate than had earlier been the case, with some queenly tombs (e. g. QV80 and QV60, those of Tuy and Nefertari) being essentially reduced versions of kingly examples (Leblanc 1989). Decoration generally concentrates on depictions of the deceased in the company of the gods, with the king as an intermediary in the case of the tombs of the sons of Ramesses III. The most elaborate of all was KV5, with over 130 chambers intended for at least some of the sons of Ramesses II (Weeks 2006).
Architecturally, private tomb-chapel design at Thebes saw a number of significant changes. However, far more fundamental modifications are to be seen in the tombs’ decoration (Strudwick 1994; Hofmann 2004a). Although scenes relating to the career of the deceased continue, as do those of the funerary and other ritual elements, the agricultural and related vignettes that had been a staple of tomb-chapel decoration since the Old Kingdom largely vanish. Instead, the ritual palette is broadened to include elements from the Book of the Dead previously regarded as suitable for the burial chamber only. This continues through to the end of New Kingdom. Below ground, the pre-Amarna elaboration of substructure continues and is in some cases extended even further: early in the Nineteenth Dynasty a number of tombs have a curious arrangement whereby the descending corridor turns through 360 degrees en route to the burial chamber (Seyfried 1998). Most burial chambers remain undecorated, although some continued the occasional earlier practice ofdecoration. This is seen, in particular, at the tomb workmen’s cemetery at Deir el-Medina, clearly a result of the owners’ employment in the Valley of Kings, the decoration of which frequently acted as inspiration for details of the Deir el-Medina sepulchres. The tomb-chapels at Deir el-Medina were, from at least the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, surmounted by small, steep, pyramids. From the end of the dynasty many nobles’ tombs at Thebes also incorporated such a feature, being placed on the rock slope above the entrance to the rock-cut tomb-chapel. At the same time, a number of the larger tombs began to add built courtyards in front of the rock-chapels, turning them into small-scale imitations of contemporary cult-temples. Wholly free-standing ‘‘temple-tombs’’ of this type are also to be found at Saqqara, normally built of mud-brick, cased in stone, and with a small pyramid on top of the chapel at the rear (Martin 1991; Tawfik 1991; Tawfik 2003; Raven 2006). Decoration generally follows post-Amarna Theban patterns, with substructures approached via shafts, sometimes taken over from older tombs demolished to make way for them.
Burial chambers were usually undecorated, the main exception being that of Maya, which showed the deceased and his wife before the gods.
Outside the Memphite and Theban necropoleis, New Kingdom tombs are found at various locations but are generally poorly recorded. In the Nile valley, they seem to conform broadly to the norms at the capitals, while in the Delta they continue the practice in the area of constructing substructures as free-standing elements in cuttings in the soil or gravel. These are generally a set of chambers opening off a common vestibule, all built of brick; good examples are known at Bubastis (Tell Basta), particularly of the Nubian Viceroys Hori II and III (Habachi 1957).
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