Few tombs datable to the latter part of the Thirteenth Dynasty have been identified. From the latter part of the Second Intermediate Period, we have a number of sepulchres influenced by Canaanite practice at the Fifteenth Dynasty Hyksos capital, Tell ed-Daba (Avaris: Bietak 1996). At Thebes a number of discoveries indicate that some of even the highest status individuals were buried in simple open cuttings in the bedrock, for example, the now anonymous queen whose burial assemblage is in the National Museum of Scotland (Dodson and Manley forthcoming). However, small pyramids were provided for many of the kings on the slopes of Dra Abu’l-Naga, the offering place equipped in at least one case with a pair of small obelisks. The one excavated example does not have its substructure in the immediate vicinity, and the relationship between the two elements of these sepulchres remains unclear (Winlock 1924; Polz and Seiler 2003).
The reunification of the country saw a revival in the construction of major funerary monuments. At Abydos, the last royal pyramid to be erected in Egypt was built by Ahmose I as part of an elaborate complex. This included a mortuary temple on the edge of the desert, abutting pyramid, and a terraced temple built against the cliffs a kilometre behind them; a large subterranean tomb lay in the desert between these elements (Harvey 1994).
However, although cemeteries, of course, existed throughout the country, the principal high-status necropolis of the first part of the Eighteenth Dynasty was Western Thebes (Dziobek 1987; Kampp 1996). The senior officials constructed rock-cut tomb-chapels in the low hills at the front of the necropolis. These adopted a “T’’-shaped plan, with a shallow, but wide, chamber or cross-hall directly behind the facade, and a long, narrow, room leading back to the offering place. This layout remained at the core of chapel design for much of the New Kingdom, although often expanded by the addition of pillars to the cross-hall, and further rooms to the axial passage (figure 36.3). Decoratively, these tombs broadly followed Middle Kingdom precedents, although the dominance of certain motifs varied with time (Muhammed 1966). Fresh details were added to such vignettes as those of work in the fields, while new tableaux also appeared, for example, showing the deceased before the king. Most were decorated in paint on plaster, as the rock quality at the preferred elevations was too poor for carving. However, some sepulchres sacrificed being a ‘‘tomb with a view’’ for decoration in relief by being built much lower down the slope, where the quality of the native limestone was better. This was particularly the case during the reign of Amenhotep III, which also saw some particularly large tomb-chapels constructed, in one case (TT48, of Surero) with no fewer than seventy columns supporting the ceilings of various parts of the structure. A somewhat obscure element of New Kingdom (and some later) Theban tomb-chapels are the ‘‘funerary cones’’ that are common around the Theban necropolis (Davies and Macadam 1957). Conical items with the flat end embossed with the name and titles of the deceased, their function is unclear, although in one case examples have been found forming a frieze above a tomb doorway.
The substructures of these tombs were initially simple chambers accessed via a shaft in the forecourt. However, as the Eighteenth Dynasty progressed, they became more elaborate, with pillared halls and subsidiary chambers; these were generally undecorated, but a few examples display elements of the Book of the Dead on their walls - and one (TT61, of the Vizier User) the normally-royal Amduat. Later on, the entrance to the substructure became a stairway or sloping passage, and moved inside the tomb-chapel by the reign of Amenhotep III. In a few cases, the substructure was separated from superstructure, examples including the Steward Senenmut and the Vizier Amenemopet whose chapels (TT29 and TT71) were on Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, but their burial chambers were respectively at Deir el-Bahri (TT352: Dorman 1991) and in the Valley of the Kings (KV48).
The Valley of the Kings had come into being in the reign of Thutmose I, when the old pattern of a closely-linked set of offering place, substructure, and monumental superstructure was finally brought to an end. Instead, the superstructure was
Figure 36.3 Private tombs of the New Kingdom: (a) Typical Eighteenth Dynasty Theban; (b) Ramose (Western Thebes TT55: Eighteenth Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III); (c) Neferrenpet (Saqqara ST0: Nineteenth Dynasty, reign of Ramesses II); (d) Roma-Roy (Western Thebes TT283: mid/late Nineteenth Dynasty). Courtesy Aidan Dodson.
Abolished altogether, while the other two were now to be separated by up to 2 km. The mortuary temple was placed on the desert edge at Western Thebes, while the burial place was cut in a desert wadi behind the curtain of cliffs beyond - now known as the Valley of the Kings (Dodson 2000a; Weeks 2000). The conception of the royal mortuary temple changed considerably. Rather than the king, the new ‘‘memorial temples’’ were dedicated to an incarnation of the god Amun specific to that particular temple. The cult of the king was relegated to the left-rear part of the temple, often in conjunction with the king’s father. The right-rear of the temple was occupied by an open altar to the sun-god Re (figure 36.4). During the first part of the Eighteenth
Figure 36.4 Royal mortuary temples of the New Kingdom: (a) Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahri); (b) Thutmose III (lower Asasif); (c) Sety I (Qurna); (d) Ramesses III (Medinet Habu). Courtesy Aidan Dodson.
Dynasty the memorial temples took a distinctive terraced form, seen most dramatically with that of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, but also with those of the other Thutmosid Pharaohs. Very little survives from the decoration of most of these temples, which were largely built of mud-brick with the exception of Hatshepsut’s. The latter was of limestone and still preserves much of its adornment, which included ritual scenes, historical events, hunting and fishing, and also the divine birth ofthe ruler. The temple also incorporated extensive statuary. All are features that recur in memorial temples of the Ramessid period (Haeny 1998).
The earliest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV20 - completed for Hatshepsut but probably originally made for Thutmose I - was a simple set of stairways and corridors leading to a burial chamber. The latter was decorated with the Book of Amduat (‘‘What is in the Underworld’’), the earliest of the series of‘‘Underworld Books’’ that came into use during the New Kingdom and formed the main components of the decoration of royal tombs of the New Kingdom and later. The Amduat in KV20 was drawn in black and red ink in a very simplified style akin to that seen on papyri of the Book of the Dead. This approach continued down to the reign of Amenhotep III, the painting of the background giving the impression of a great roll of papyrus unfolded around the walls of the chamber. At least one early kingly tomb, that of Thutmose III (KV34), had a burial chamber in the shape of a cartouche, but from Amenhotep II (KV35) onwards the room was rectangular with a sunken crypt at the end and a six-pillared entrance area.
In overall plan, these tombs had one or more changes of axis, with one or more antechambers, together with, from Thutmose III onwards, a protective shaft, cut in the floor at the end of the initial descent into the tomb (figire 36.5). This seems to have had multiple purposes, including the protection of the tomb from flooding and hindering robbers. To the latter end the wall opposite the approach was plastered over, and in some cases decorated, to suggest that the rest of the tomb lay at the bottom of the shaft. It is possible that the shaft also had some ritual significance as a means of access to the underworld. These outer chambers were usually decorated, initially in the same style as the burial chamber, but later in full polychrome. Motifs are generally centered on the king in the presence of deities.
The tombs of the members of the royal family of the earlier New Kingdom are generally simple shaft-tombs, with most identifiable examples in the southern part of the Theban necropolis, particularly in the Valley of the Queens (Leblanc 1989). Some larger tombs are also known in the surrounding wadis, in particular that of Hatshepsut in the Wadi Siqqat Taqa el-Zeide, with a plan reminiscent of contemporary kingly tombs. On the other hand, members of the family who predeceased a king might be buried simply in a side-room of the king’s tomb without any particular architectural provision (Dodson 2003b).
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