Old Mummification Museum lecture - TT11 TT12

Mummification Museum Lecture - TT11 TT12- Dr Jose Galan
TT11 & TT12 Dr Jose Galan
The Spanish Egyptian mission is now in its 6th season and continues to make discoveries about private funerary monuments.

They appear to have both horizontal and vertical elements, the vertical comprise the burial shaft and chambers, where there were coffins and offerings of food, unguents, cosmetics etc. The horizontal went into the hill and resembled the layout of a temple.

Djehuty TT11, who lived under Hatshepsut, has statues of himself and his mother and father, an inner chamber found in the 6th season was decorated with rituals that would take place in the sanctuary.

The horizontal comprised elements that were covered and exposed to light. The second element was where the opening of the mouth ceremony was performed in the open courtyard. It was an area of transition, purification and consecration by incense and water. The dressing of the mummy in front of Re. The exposed courtyard contained rows of clay funerary cones, a statue in a niche and a mud brick pyramid. Nature and human activity have destroyed them.

Early Egyptologists didn’t pay any attention to the courtyards so they are not documented. Dr Jose then gave a list of various tombs that had not had their courtyards investigated. Sometimes because the excavators did not consider that the expense and difficulty made it not worth it (I didn’t get all the names but did get the tomb numbers and then used this list to get names http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/thebes/tombs/thebantomblist.html )

TT39 Puyemra, second priest of Amun, mid Dynasty 18 (said to be to difficult and expensive)
TT20 Mentuherkhepshef, mayor of Qusiya, mid Dynasty 18 (never excavated)
TT100 Rekhmira, vizier, mid Dynasty 18 (where the excavator said there was no pylon even though he never excavated the extent of the courtyard)
TT21 User, steward of king Thutmose I, mid Dynasty 18
TT104 Thutnefer, overseer of the treasury, mid Dynasty 18
TT86 Menkheperraseneb, high priest of Amun, mid Dynasty 18
TT81 Ineni, overseer of the granary in the Amun domain, mid Dynasty 18
TT39 Puyemra, second priest of Amun, mid Dynasty 18 (modern house in the way)

It is only recently that courtyards have received the attention they deserved. Kampp in his 1996 documented courtyards and external elements, there is a great scarcity of reliable data. The external features depend on whether a tomb is in the valley floor or in the mountain or gebel. Those at ground level suffer a lot

TT67 Hepuseneb, high priest of Amun, mid Dynasty 18
TT71 Senenmut, high steward, mid Dynasty 18
TT131 User/Useramen, vizier, mid Dynasty 18

The aim of the Spanish mission was to excavate the courtyards of TT11 and TT12; there was original 4 meters of rubble covering this area. During their 4th season the courtyard of Bakil was discovered 2 meters up the hill but connected with Hery. It was painted not carved as it was not good stone. There was a mud brick outer wall 1 ½ meters high with a 1 meter wide entrance. There was a step to climb into the court.

During the 5th season they found the entrance of Djehuty. There were 2 stele, one was autobiographical telling of the tasks her carried out under Hatshepsut and the second a hymn to Amun Re. there were cryptographically texts which are not coming on facades. The courtyard was 34 meters long which was outstanding especially if you compare it with Rekhmire which was 19 m long. The side walls were artificially extended with masonry, the mud brick was 3m high and 1 m wide, the team have covered the new wall to the same height as the façade. The floor was carefully cut, filled and levelled with limestone chips and stones. There area outside the pylon was at a lower level so a step was needed to get through the pylon. The courtyards were obviously differentiated from the ‘street’. There was a slight deviation to the East to take account of an older monument. There did a test trench to see what the filling and found funerary deposits, some pottery and 41 bouquets,

There was a discovery in the shaft of TT399 which it is next to TT12. It was 7m deep with 4 chambers (usually 2).
1) face of a wooden coffin
2) male coffin face
3) female wooden face (These had been attacked by termites so only the faces have survived
4) lower part of the coffin with a red Isis and another in yellow,
5) 2 jars,
6) 4 pottery canopic lids that look early 18th dynasty, there is a different look on the 4 faces (they look a little like Prince Charles!!!!)
7) remains of 2 jars
8) large jar and other pots
9) Egyptian blue jar
10) Unguent pots
11) 2 ushabities in poor condition
12) scarabs
13) a copper arrow
14) baskets
15) bag
16) fragment of papyrus
17) senet board game and pieces

The website for the team is www.excavacionegipto.com