Tomb of Mentuhotep

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Boat model from the grave

The grave of Mentuhotep was found in 1823 in Thebes in al-Asasif at the transition to Dra Abu el-Naga during excavations by the Italian Giuseppe Passalacqua . The grave was found untouched and is extremely well documented for the time, as Giuseppe Passalacqua was on site when the grave was found. At that time, excavations were often only supervised by foremen who were rarely interested in the context of the finds and who were primarily concerned with finding “beautiful” objects that could be sold to museums. Giuseppe Passalacqua, however, arranged for drawings to be made of the location. The finds later came to the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and were published in detail by Georg Steindorff .

Mentuhotep's burial was found in a small chamber on the floor of a shaft. In the middle of the chamber stood three wooden coffins, one inside the other, as they are typical for the Middle Kingdom . The coffins are decorated with a painted palace facade on the outside and show friezes on the inside with depictions of equipment, lists of victims, but also numerous coffin texts . A special feature is the outer coffin (lost in World War II). Its lid is sloping and thus imitates a per-wer shrine.

Around the coffin there were model figures made of wood, which are typical for burials in the early Middle Kingdom. There were mainly two model ships and female offering bearers. In the innermost coffin there was also a small wooden statue showing Mentuhotep. Various ceramic vessels, a headrest and two sticks were found.

Little is known about Mentuhotep. He had the title of "property manager", also translated as "head of property" ( Jmj-r3-pr ). On the middle coffin he bears the title “Chief of the Serfs ” ( Jmj-r3-mrt ). His mother was a certain Renefanch. The style of the coffins and that of his statue suggest a date under Sesostris III.

literature

  • Georg Steindorff: Grave finds of the Middle Kingdom in the Royal Museums in Berlin. Volume 1: The grave of Mentuhotep (= communications from the Oriental collections. Volume VIII). W. Spemann, Berlin 1896 ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leonard H. Lesko: Index of the Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents. BC Scribe, Berkeley (California) 1979, ISBN 0-930548-02-7 , pp. 98-99.
  2. ↑ Georg Steindorff: Grave finds of the Middle Kingdom in the Royal Museums in Berlin. Volume 1: The grave of Mentuhotep (= communications from the Oriental collections. Volume VIII). W. Spemann, Berlin 1896, pp. 32–39 ( digitized version )
  3. ↑ Georg Steindorff: Grave finds of the Middle Kingdom in the Royal Museums in Berlin. Volume 1: The grave of Mentuhotep (= communications from the Oriental collections. Volume VIII). W. Spemann, Berlin 1896, p. 32 ( digitized version )
  4. ↑ Georg Steindorff: Grave finds of the Middle Kingdom in the Royal Museums in Berlin. Volume 1: The grave of Mentuhotep (= communications from the Oriental collections. Volume VIII). W. Spemann, Berlin 1896, p. 1 ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ Harco Willems: Chests of Life. A study of the typology and conceptual development of the Middle Kingdom standard class coffins. Ex Oriente lux, Leiden 1988, ISBN 90-7269001-X , pp. 114-115.