Distinguishing between Thirtieth Dynasty and early Ptolemaic tombs is problematic, in the absence of direct dating material, while charting developments during Ptolemaic times is difficult owing to the lack of dated data. However, it is clear that there are two basic approaches to be seen, the Egyptian and the Hellenistic, the latter particularly in evidence at Alexandria, where catacombs of an initially wholly Greek type were inaugurated (Venit 2002). However, as time progressed, Egyptian motifs began to be introduced, and by Roman times tableaux of such subjects as Anubis over the mummy could be found alongside Classical elements within the same tomb, for example, at Kom el-Shugafa in Alexandria.
In parallel, interments in the Egyptian tradition continued, although monumental structures become less common with time. However, from the time directly after Alexander the Great’s conquest comes the tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel (Lefebvre 1923-4). This is a temple-tomb following typical late Late Period form, with a screen-walled pronaos, with a substructure approached via a vertical shaft in the center of the sanctuary. The latter was decorated with an eclectic set of ritual scenes, including some derived from the Underworld Books. On the other hand, the pronaos was decorated with agricultural scenes, but in a composite Graeco-Egyptian style that is apparently unique to this tomb.
By Roman times, most surviving tombs outside Alexandria and certain other Hellenized locales such as Marina el-Alamein (Daszewski 1997Daszewski 1997) seem to be restricted to brick vaults in which multiple burials were made, although the poor recording of Graeco-Roman burial places, in general, makes assessment difficult. At Hawara, for example, mummies were piled inside brick-lined chambers, in which they seem to have been deposited after a period in the home or some other kind of above-ground display (cf. Borg 1997).
FURTHER READING
In spite of the ubiquity of Egyptian funerary monuments, publications regarding them are distinctly uneven. Grajetzki 2003 and Dodson and Ikram 2008 provide an overview covering both royal and private tombs, while the texts used in them are dealt with by Hornung 1999.
Vast numbers of books deal with the pyramids and New Kingdom royal tombs, but for technical details, Maragioglio and Rinaldi 1964-77, Labrousse 1996-2000 and Weeks 2000 are indispensable, with Dodson 2000a and 2003a providing handy digests. The designs of Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom private tombs are covered by Reisner 1936 and 1942 and Fritz 2004, with the fundamentals of their decoration dealt with by Harpur 1987 and van Walsem 2005. Middle Kingdom private tombs are less well provided for, although the decorations of many provincial private sepulchres are published in Davies’ various works, and some mastabas are comprehensively dealt with by Arnold 2007. Large numbers of publications deal with individual New Kingdom private tomb-chapels, with a comprehensive catalogue of the designs of Theban tombs provided by Kampp 1996; Eighteenth Dynasty decoration is discussed in Dziobek, Schneyer and Semmelbauer 1992; and a general treatment of Ramesside examples is given in Hofmann 2004a. More general overviews are provided by Manniche 1987 and Kanawati 2001. Tombs outside Thebes are generally only covered by specific site - or tomb-publications, for example, Davies 1903-8, although a summary of one part of the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara is provided by Martin 1991.
Royal tombs of the Third Intermediate Period are summarized and discussed by Lull 2002, but details of private tombs of this period and the Late period are generally scattered amongst various site reports. However, those of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties at Thebes are extensively covered by Eigner 1984, and the Abusir cemetery of the period gets an overview in Verner 2002. Ptolemaic tombs are poorly covered, even in site-reports, the same being broadly true also of the Roman period, with the exception of the tombs at Alexandria, where an excellent survey is provided by Venit 2002, with some Theban deposits covered in Riggs 2006.
World History
