Hendrickx_1992 Status report on the excavation of the old kingdom rock tombs at Elkab

STAN HENDRICKX, Leuven

StatusReport on the Excavation of the Old Kingdom Rock Tombs at Elkab

During the springof 1986,membersof the Committeefor BelgianExcavations in Egypt, discoveredan unknown decoratedtomb in the rock necropolisat to be the tomb of S3w-k3(.i),an Old Kingdompriest.Since Elkab. It appeared Old Kingdomrock tombswereuntil than unknownat Elkab and sinceit wasvery likely that moreOld Kingdomtombscouldbe found in the immediateneighbour(29.12.1986-23.1.1987 and2.11.1988-6.12.1988) campaigns hood,two excavation part All in all, ninetombswere area. that of weredevotedto the examinationof a (no. last one was found grave This 17)t. excavated,one of them beinga double The tombs are locatedin the robbed anciently. had been intact. all other tombs New Kingdom well-known the 200 m from part hill, about of the north-western etc.2. Setau, Paheri, tombsof All tombs are of the sametype. It consistsof a chapel,in front of which an pit is situated,leadingto the burial chamberwhich is locatedbetween openaccess 3 and7 metersbelowthe chapel(Tav. VIII, 1). However,it can not be excluded that sometombsdid not havea chapel(e.g.tombs 18-19).The accesspits are leadingtowardsthe burialchamber.Thetombs, not shafts,but slopesor staircases and especiallythe burial chambers,werenot very carefullyhewn, but the walls of the chapelswerein mostcaseslevelled.As fur the largesttombs,the rock faces next to the entrancewere also levelled,but no inscriptionswere found outside the tombs.After the funeral,the entranceto the burial chamberwasblockedwith small slabsof stone.The most remarkablefeatureabout thesetombs is the fact that the accessto the burial chamberdoesnot start from within the chapel,as is usual for OId Kingdom rock tombs. but it mustbe tomb (no. 11)wasdecorated, Only the chapelof S3w-k3(.i)'s disor completely have largely l5-19, kept in mind that the chapelsof the tombs a by was covered rock the chapel, within the appearedsincethey werereused. left half The painted was applied. decoration plaster, whereupon the thin layerof representaof the decorationof the chapel'srear wall consistsof the large-scale registers two him are In front of table. an offering behind sitting tion of S3w-k3(.i), offering with an other wife and the his unnamed with one scale, on a far smaller processionof his sons.The right part is madeup by threeregisters'The lowest one is decoratedwith a dancingscene.A butcherysceneis in the middleone, and on top of this a registershowingan arrayof variouskinds of food- and drinkdamagedby burial nichesdathowever,areseverely offerings.The threeregisters, 255

ing back most probably to the Greco-roman period. Both of the side walls were left undecorated, while a painted offering list and a sculptured false door with painted representationsof S3w-k3(.i)and his sonsis locatedto the left of the entrance door. The latter decorations are in an extremely bad state of preservation. From a technicaland stylisticalpoint of view, the decorationis of very good quality, and does not appear provincial, but can be linked, according to the subjects as well as to the style, with the memphite style. From a graffito in his tomb, as well as from inscribed fragments or pottery, the name of the owner of tomb 12 was identified as Idi, also a priest. For the undisturbed double tomb 17, the name and title of a priestessof Hathor, named Irtenach, was found on a bronze mirror in tomb l7 B, while the name of the person buried in l7 A remains unknown. However, one has to leave open the possibility that the name may have occurred in the chapel belonging to this tomb, which unfortunately was destroyed. Within most of the disturbed tombs, enough fragments of pottery were found to allow the reconstructionof a part of the grave goods. From the two undisturbed burials in the double grave 17, it became clear that the grave goods placed in the burial chamber were not exceptionally numerous nor rich but might anyhow contain metal and stone vesselsas well as fine pottery vessels.Tomb 17 A, the most important of the two, contained the following objects (Tav. VIII, 2): five pottery jars and four plates and bowls; two large and three small stone vessels;a number of beads from different materials and a bronze amulet; abronze mirror as well as a bronze plate; a completely decayed wooden box which originally contained two of the small alabaster vessels;and a number of plant remains. The most important object, however, was a bronze ewer with its basin. On the other hand, objects were also found outside the burial chambers. It can not be decided whether objects were also kepts in the tomb chapels since ail of them were reused or were strongly damaged in more recent times. Within the accesspits of several graves a number of rough pottery vesselsand sherds were found. Their original position became obvious from tomb 17, where over five hundred rough pottery jars were found in situ. They formed an haphazard layer over the accesspit. Starting from a preliminary examination of the pottery, three well-known types of ceramic material can be distinguished3.Firstly rough pottery made from Nile silts tempered with sand and chaff or chopped straw (Nile C). Secondly pottery of high quality, made from Nile silt (Nile B1). And finally a limited number of quality vesselsmade from marl clay (Marl A1). The rough pottery, which was mainly found in front of the tombs, consists largely of beer-vesselsand bread moulds. The vesseltypes belonging to both quality fabrics, are identical. Especially Maidum-bowls are present in large numbers, but severaltypes of jars and very large bowls are also typical. Except for the skeletonsin tombs 17 A and B, the skeleton from the anonymous tomb 14 was also found in its original position though the tomb had been plundered. None of the bodies was mummified and all of them were lying on their left side, in a slightly contractedposition. It could not be establishedbeyond doubt whether a sarcophagushad been present, or whether the decayedwood in which

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the skeletons were found originally belonged to some kind of stretcher. It was, however, obvious that the dead had been lying on a thick layer of linen cloth, parts of which were preserved. s3-k3(.i) and ldi, with their respectivetitles, are also mentioned in graffiti in the Wadi Hellala. An until now unpublished study by Hans Vandekerckhove, shows that the majority of these graffiti date to the sixth dynasty. It furthermore has become clear that the tombs under consideration most probably belonged to priests attached to the main temple at Elkab, who at the same time were in charge of the deserttemple which has disappeard. This temple, however, was most probably located in the neighbourhood of the still existing temple of Amenhotep III in the Wadi Hellals.

1 . T h e t o m b s a r e n u m b e r e d 1 1 - 1 9 ,a s a c o n t i n u a t i o n o f P M V , p g . 1 7 6 - 1 8 5 ' 2. S. Hendrickx & D. Huyge, Elkab IV. Topographie. fasc. 2, Inventaire des sitesarchéologiques, B r u x e l l e s ,1 9 8 9 .n r . 5 3 . 3. Terminology, cf. H. A. Nordstróm, Ton. LÀ, vol. 6, pg. 629-634.Wiesbaden, 1986. Seealso: J. Bourriau, Umm el-Qa'ab. Pottery from the Nile Valley before the Arab Conquest, Cambridge, 1 9 8 1 p, p . 1 4 - 1 5 . 4. H. Vandekerckhove, De rotsinscripties van het Oude Rijk te Elkab. Bulletin des Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 61 (1990),pp. 47-61. 5. S.Hendrickx&D.Huyge,ElkabIV.Topographie.fasc.2, Inventairedessitesarchéologiques, Bruxelles, 1989, nr. 73. Concerning Old Kingdom remains in this area, see id. nrs. 64' 69-'72.

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TAV. VIII - S. Hendrickx

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1. Tomb 11,S3w-k3(.i). Chapel and staircaseleading towardsthe burial chamber.

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2. Tomb 17 A. Grave goodsfrom the burial chamber.