Herbert E. Winlock

Herbert Eustis Winlock (born February 1, 1884 in Washington, DC , † January 26, 1950 in Venice , Florida ) was an American Egyptologist .

Youth and education

Herbert Winlock came from a family of astronomers . His father, William Crawford Winlock, was a secretary at the Smithsonian Institution who served at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC . His grandfather, Joseph Winlock, was the first director of the Harvard College Observatory . His mother was Alice Winlock née Broom.

After attending Western High School in Washington, DC studied Herbert Winlock Archeology and Anthropology at Harvard University in Albert M. Lythgoe (1868-1934), who at that time, the first curator of Egyptian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was . Lythgoe recognized a talented student in Winlock and invited him to go to Egypt with him after his graduation . In 1906 Winlock graduated from Harvard with a degree with distinction ("great distinction") as a Bachelor of Arts (BA).

Practice in El Lisht

In 1906, the Metropolitan Museum of Art under its President John Pierpont Morgan decided to organize an expedition to Egypt. The museum received a concession for the royal necropolis of the Middle Kingdom in el-Lisht . In addition to Albert Lythgoe and Herbert Winlock, the English Egyptologist Arthur C. Mace (1874–1928) from Oxford was part of the excavation team where Winlock gained his first experience.

Pharaoh Amenemhet I , founder of the XII. Dynasty, established his residence in Iti-taui (now el-Lisht) to better monitor the princes of the delta . He shared his son Sesostris I in the reign. Both built a pyramid in Lisht. The excavation team began work on the pyramid of Amenemhet I and the adjacent necropolis. Here they came across an undamaged grave of a woman named Senebtisi from the late XII century. or early XIII. Dynasty. The tomb contained a triple coffin, the outer coffin of which had fallen apart. The second coffin was made of cedar wood with an eye panel and measured 194 × 55 cm. The eyes were decorated with gold leaf, Egyptian alabaster and obsidian . In the inner coffin there was an approximately 51 × 42 cm inlay made of faience and carnelian . Also canopic jars -vials were available. In the bandages of the mummy there was jewelry in the form of a collar, as well as bracelets and ankles. The most important items of the grave treasure were a diadem , a belt made of acacia wood , chains made of seed beads , a ceremony belt and two collars.

Between 1906 and 1935 the Metropolitan Museum carried out a total of 14 excavation campaigns in El-Lisht. Arthur C. Mace directed the excavations until he helped Howard Carter clear the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1923 .

In the oasis of Charga 1908–1910

In the winter of 1907-08, the museum received a second concession for the Kharga oasis . An excavation team with Herbert Winlock worked here from 1908-10 and began work on the early Christian cemetery of El Bagawat with its ornate chapels . The hills of Ain el Turba prove that they were once part of the village of Hibis . In collaboration with the Service des Antiquités , the clearing and restoration of the Temple of Hibis was tackled. This was from the Persian king I. Darius built. Nektanebo I (380-363) added a portico to the complex . Further extensions took place during the rule of the Ptolemies over Egypt. Due to illnesses of the expedition participants and the local workers, however, further research had to be stopped in 1910.

Hugh Gerard Evelyn-White (1874-1924) went to 1910-11 and 1912-13 again after Hibis and put a boulevard with Sphinx -Reihen free, from which two of the sphinxes best preserved were returned to their base. The reliefs and inscriptions of the restored part of the temple were later to be copied by Norman de Garis Davies . The publication of the publication was delayed, due to the First World War and the death of Evelyn-White in 1924, until 1926. James H. Oliver of Barnard College of Columbia University agreed to complete the translation of the Greek inscriptions begun by Evelyn-White .

The palace of Amenhotep III. in Malqata

In 1910 the Metropolitan Museum of Art received a concession for the area at the southern end of Medinet Habu in Malqata . Here Amenophis III. built his palace on an area of ​​320,000 m². Winlock convinced Gaston Maspero , the head of the Service d'Antiquités Égyptiennes , to extend the excavation license to the hills of Qurnet Murrai and El Asasif , thus including the area below and east of the temple of Deir el-Bahari . Since Lythgoe returned to New York in 1911 to work at the Metropolitan Museum, Winlock became the leader of the expedition. In 1912 he married Helen Chandler, daughter of the dean of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

The excavation team of the Metropolitan Museum dug on this site from 1910 to 1913 and again, after the end of the First World War , from 1919 to 1921. The members of the expedition uncovered the parts of the palace, which Robb de Peyster Tytus and Percy Newberry 1901-02 had not yet been excavated. The entire palace complex in Malqata was built of adobe bricks stamped with the king's name, while those for Queen Tey's apartments were stamped with her name.

The team that Winlock worked with consisted of Ambrose Lansing (1891-1959), Hugh Gerard Evelyn-White (1884-1924) and HW Palmer-Jones, who drew plans and copied frescoes . They uncovered the remains of the palace's enclosure wall, excavated large areas around the palace such as the North Palace, a group of private houses, a glass factory, a large festival hall and a temple dedicated to the god Amun . They also discovered a large number of labeled pottery shards, which came mainly from wine vessels intended for the Sedfest for the 30th anniversary of the king's throne. Amenhotep III celebrated three SED festivals in the years of reign 30, 34 and 37. In the grave of Cheruef ( TT192 ), the head of the Sedfest of Amenhotep III., one of these festivals is preserved in wall paintings. This sedfest with a magical character gave the aging king his life force back. Amenhotep III built for these festivals. its own pavilion, the so-called "House of Millions of Years". Ambrose Lansing, who assisted Winlock here in 1911, found a fragment of a clay jug on which in hieratic script the celebrations of the second Sedfest in the 34th year of the reign of Amenhotep III. was celebrated.

The important buildings of the palace complex of Amenhotep III. in Malqata were embellished with floor, wall and ceiling paintings. Winlock describes in his report in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Art Museum from 1912 that parts of a collapsed ceiling were still in place. He suspected that after the palace was abandoned, the ceiling beams and wooden parts were attacked by white ants, causing the palace to collapse. The delayed sagging caused parts of the ceiling and wall to fall onto the clay floor, where they sank before they broke. For onward transport they had to be held together by a light plaster bed (plaster of paris). Some of the patterns in the museum in New York could be put back together and restored.

The palace was built in the 14th century BC. BC and was named "Palace of the Shining Aten " or Per-Hay , which means "House of Jubilation". Construction probably began in the 11th year of the king's reign and was completed in several stages about eighteen years later. It was the largest and most magnificent royal palace in ancient Egypt.

Menat amulets and necklaces from the time of Amenhotep III.

The Menat amulet

Winlock found the remains of a small linen bag in a private house between the palace and the artificial “lake” of the complex. Inside there were two collars, but their old threads were rotten. As a result, the pearls were no longer in their originally lined up shape, which is why their actual arrangement during the restoration could only be assumed. In the case of the menats (also menit), however, there was enough ribbon on the pearl necklaces so that they could be restored almost true to the original. Both menats were made of bronze as a counterweight for the pearl strings. The larger one remained in the Metropolitan Museum and had a large number of necklaces with blue glazed beads made of glass, faience and stones that ended in two bronze caps. The other menat, which went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo , had a characteristic rosette below and above it the head and body of the goddess Hathor . Here all pearls were made of faience. The Menat amulet was an attribute and symbol of the goddess Hathor from the earliest times and subsequently also of numerous other gods. As such, it was worn along with the sistrum by women and priestesses during the ceremonies for this cult . The menat usually hung on the neck as a counterweight to the necklace that was worn on the chest. It was also a protective amulet for virility, masculinity, potency in men and fertility in women.

The tomb of the vizier Dagi and the monastery of Apa Epiphanios

→ Main article Epiphanius monastery

Winlock began exploring the tomb in February 1912 and continued from January through May 1914. The grave of Vizier Dagi TT103 was one of the first decorated graves from the 11th Dynasty . It is located in the eastern mountains of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna and near Deir el-Bahari . Winlock discovered a fragment of a painted relief from the first grave room behind the entrance and made it safe.

The later use of the grave by Coptic Christians destroyed much of the grave decoration. The grave became the residence of a monk named Apa Epiphanios , who founded a small monastery with Apa Psan and lived there with some Christians. That was at the beginning of the 7th century in the time of Bishop Psinthios of Koptos . After the death of Epiphany, the monastery existed for two to three generations.

At the excavation site and in the ruins of other monastery buildings, Winlock found numerous letters and documents that were written on papyrus and pottery shards and made an important contribution to knowledge of monastic life before the Arab conquest.

First World War

During the First World War, six of the ten members of the expedition were in the American and British armies, respectively. Winlock served in the field artillery , where he rose to the rank of major . However, the Metropolitan Museum of Arts deemed it important to continue the excavations in Egypt. The aim was to provide work for the Egyptians who had to suffer from the catastrophic economic consequences of the war. From 1916–17 Winlock's colleague Ambrose Lansing worked in Lischt and from 1917–18 also in Malqata.

The treasures in the tomb of Meketre

Ascent to the tomb of Meketre.

Shortly before the outbreak of war, Winlock discovered a flat platform on the mountain with the upper part of a ramp while riding behind the mountains of Abd el-Qurna. In the winter of 1919, Winlock had the sand cleared the wide staircase. A steep ramp led to the rock tomb of Meketre (the sun is my protector), who was a high official - chancellor or treasurer - under the government of Mentuhotep II . The grave ( TT280 ) itself had been searched in 1895 by Georges Daressy and Robert Mond 1903-04. Winlock hoped to find more clues about King Mentuhotep here. While cleaning up the interior, they came across a small space in the floor of the entrance area. When they broke through the adobe wall that hid the entrance to the Serdab , they were faced with an astonishing sight. The ceiling had partially collapsed and the contents a bit mixed up, but no one had entered this chamber since it was sealed about 4,000 years ago.

Meketre monitors the cattle count. Model in Egypt. Cairo Museum.

The grave goods were extremely numerous, well preserved and of high quality. They testified to the high position that Meketre had held at the royal court. In addition to two large wooden figures of maidservants carrying sacrifices, there were 25 wooden models alone that reproduced all aspects of Meketre's life. There were houses with granaries and cattle sheds, breweries, bakeries and butchers, workshops for carpenters and weavers, and a fenced-in garden and a large number of boats. These models are particularly valuable for the quality of their carving and color, especially since they have been remarkably well preserved. The colors, the linen clothes of some of the characters and most of the rigging of the boats are true to the original. They tell in detail about the rearing and slaughter of cattle, the storage of grain, the production of bread and beer and the shape of the boats in the Middle Kingdom. On the other level, they provide information about the Egyptian faith: the replicas are supposed to magically enable the grave owner a safe journey to the afterlife, as well as ensure the supply of everything necessary for eternal life - depending on the status also in luxury - there.

Meketre shows a particularly beautiful depiction while monitoring the cattle count in the courtyard of his country house, where the cattle keepers drive the piebald cattle past a veranda with columns in the shape of a lotus. Meketre sits there with his son and four clerks while the chief of the herds gives his report. Some keepers stand nearby with sticks.

This accidental discovery was one of the great moments in archeology, which is otherwise a more sober and methodical discipline. At the end of the excavation, the models were split up: half went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the other half - including six boats, four food-making models, a fenced garden, a procession of three offerers led by a priest and a grand offerer - received the Metropolitan Museum.

The tomb of the Wah

Another surprise was the discovery of a small burial chamber to the right of the entrance to Meketre's large tomb, which was probably overlooked by the grave robbers. Winlock found the intact wooden coffin. Hieroglyphs identified the dead as Wah, the warehouse manager of Meketre. Thirty sheets of linen lay on top of the mummy, both for protection and for use in the afterlife. Further inscriptions repeat the formula of the royal gift of food for the afterlife , which has been used since the Old Kingdom : “A gift that the king gives - a gift of a thousand loaves of bread and beer mugs, a thousand cattle and poultry, a thousand lengths of linen and Alabaster vessels, a thousand of all good and pure things on which a spirit lives in order to give them to the ka of the deceased. "

Next to the coffin were the dried up remains of a beef leg and a loaf of bread, as well as a mug of dried beer.

20 years after the coffin arrived in New York, the museum decided to x-ray the mummy. There were dark shadows around Wah's neck, wrists and ankles, indicating that he had worn jewelry. Now it was decided to unwrap the mummy. Four necklaces, a wide collar and anklets made of turquoise faience beads were found. The collar had no clasp, so Wah could not have worn it while he was alive. Although Wah was only a minor officer, he had a gold and a silver necklace and three scarab amulets. The two silver scarabs are among the finest pieces of jewelry from Egypt. Wahs and Meketres names are inlaid in the large scarab. On the bottom were the hieroglyphs for life and protection. Before the scarabs were placed on the mummy, their heads were destroyed. This was supposed to either protect the deceased from insect bites or kill the beetles to ensure that they would follow the dead person into the afterlife. The mummy was then given to the American Museum of Natural History for study.

11th Dynasty Tombs (Mentuhotep)

View into the Chety sarcophagus chamber

In the 1921–1922 season, Winlock examined the graves on the north slope above the mortuary temple Mentuhotep II. These are corridor graves with a simple, smooth facade and cult and burial chambers located deep in the mountain. They are considered prototypes of the later facade grave. The grave owners had high positions at the court of Mentuhop II. He rediscovered the grave of Chety, while the other graves of the nobles were cleaned and mapped. In doing so, they came across various remains of embalming, because the undertakers had brought the materials they needed to make the arduous ascent to the grave easier. These had chosen small “caves” between the large graves in which the “Ka priests” stayed during their duties. They also found various papyri that were still in good condition.

• TT311 - Tomb of Chety (Treasurer). Next to Meketre ( TT280 ) the most important man at the court of the king ( Pharaoh ). Winlock discovered this grave with a painted cult and burial chamber and important relief remains. Unfortunately, his grave was very destroyed, but it was the first private grave in Egypt to have a picture of a king on a stele.

• TT313 - Grave of Henenu ( steward and well-traveled expedition leader) with historical remains of inscriptions. Henenu led an expedition with 300 men through Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea, from where ships were sent to the Frankincense Land of Punt . There were astronomical papyri in his grave.

• TT314 - Tomb of Horhotep (royal keeper of the seals , only friend, henchman), with painted burial chamber, which is in the Egyptian Museum. In a corner of a small grave next to Horhotep's, they found some broken vessels on which the Ka priest had written notes. On the back of a papyrus with a hymn, he had noted how much grain he had given a dozen different people and on a second sheet a list of wheat and barley "distributed in rations to the army".

• TT315 - Tomb of Ipi (vizier and mayor). Here they found a board for embalming (similar to today's dissection table) as well as dirty rags, broken vessels, remnants of oil and sodium salt. Of the vessels there were still 18 in the tied ropes with which they had been carried upstairs.

Hesem's grave was located in a side chamber of the Ipi . Here Winlock found the Hekanacht letters. The letters of the Ka-priest and landowner Hekanacht from the Middle Kingdom provide many details about agriculture at that time. While out in business for long periods of time, he sent his sons sharp orders. So they should z. For example, stop whining about the small rations he gave them or be kind to their new wife. According to the letters, there could have been a famine in Egypt. There is also a letter from a daughter to her mother, so that the question arose whether women were already able to write at that time. It is forgotten that in Egypt the scribe was a respected profession. Because the papyri were found in a vessel from the early 12th dynasty, it is now assumed that they were written during the first years of the reign of Sesostris I (around 1956 - around 1910 BC).

• TT316 - Tomb of Neferhotep (Keeper of the Arch). The tomb is probably from the 13th dynasty. Finds in the grave included a faience figure of a hippopotamus and a stylized female figure made of faience as well as 2 statues made of ebony 11 cm high.

The mass grave of the fallen soldiers

At the end of the excavation season in the spring of 1923, Winlock and his team discovered an unknown grave MMA 507 right next to the grave of Chety. They initially viewed the mummies inside as those of Coptic monks. Because there was not enough time for further investigations, they initially ignored it. Today it is known as Necropolis 500 . Three years later, some workers were sent back to look for remains from burials and investigate them further. During their research in the area, they found the bodies and body parts of at least 60 people piled in the corridor and the burial chamber. All showed signs of violence. B. Arrowheads from their bodies and limbs were broken. The investigation of Douglas E. Derry showed that these people were bigger and stronger than the Thebans and he suggested as an explanation that the dead may have been descendants of foreign merchants and women from Upper Egypt. He noticed that four men's wounds had healed before they died. 45 had died of serious wounds, including ten who died from arrows. Fifteen men showed a combination of injuries, the first of which was non-fatal. Because six of the dead had already been eaten by vultures, they must have been lying in the open some time after their death, especially since considerable amounts of sand were found on the other bodies. All the fallen were wrapped up. Because military equipment was also found on them, they were viewed as soldiers killed in battle. Winlock was convinced that they were soldiers from the army of Mentuhotep II and had to be connected to a historical event , such as B. the attack on Herakleopolis . For this reason, they had been granted the special honor of finding their final resting place near their Pharaoh.

The excavation work in 1924–1925 and 1925–1926 ceased

The museum's board of directors had decided not to continue the excavations during these two years. The graphic department under Norman de Garis Davies continued to work. The reason for this decision was the disputes over the division of the treasures in the tomb of Tutankhamun , of which the Earl of Carnarvon had promised the museum a share because some of their people were made available, so that the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other museums Howard Carter's demand supported. Now Egypt had a constitution in 1923 and the nationalist Wafd party won the first elections. Rumor has it that the new government planned to impose restrictions on foreign archaeologists. Morco's Hanna was the new minister for public buildings, who was also responsible for the Antiquities Service under the direction of Pierre Lacau . On February 20, 1924, Hanna revoked the concession transferred to Lady Carnarvon and had Tutankhamun's grave closed. Howard Carter authorized Herbert Winlock with the protection of his interests before he left in March 1924 for a lecture tour to America. Breasted, Gardiner and Lythgoe sought negotiations with both government officials and Lacau. However, the latter took the view of the government that the antiquities, especially those from Tutankhamun's tomb, must remain in Egypt.

The participants in the Egyptian expedition were not idle in Egypt from 1924 to 1926. Among other things, they sorted the warehouse in the America House and carried out measurements for drawing plans, both in el-Lisht and in Thebes, and worked out further reports. Professor Percy E. Newberry was a welcome guest whose expert advice was welcome, as was Alan H. Gardiner, who was of great help in deciphering hieratic inscriptions.

The discovery of TT358

Entrance corridor to TT358: Nany's coffin with mummy, box with shabtis, baskets

Corridor in TT358: Nany's coffin was placed in front of the "hole"

On the mountainside north of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple , Winlock had discovered two piles of rubbish that had been almost covered over the centuries by blowing sand and fallen rocks. He was irritated that these piles from the so-called quarry had been deposited so high up and across a gorge. But they could also come from an unknown grave. He set some of his workers to clear the slope up to the cliff to the north and the others at the foot of the hill to the west, just outside the north wall of the temple. It took a long time until sand and stones about 6 m deep were removed from the former hilltop and the gorge had almost disappeared, and rocky subsoil came to light. Winlock therefore had doubts whether the great effort was justified.

After six weeks of work, the foreman (Reis) Gilan reported on February 23, 1929 that his men had found a raw hole in the rock under their feet on the side of the gorge towards the temple. It was impossible to continue working because of the loose sand and overhanging cliffs. In order not to cause a stir, Winlock chose the market day when the workers were free to open the hole and dug with only a few selected men who uncovered the jagged opening. At waist deep they came upon a sloppy brick wall. Although a wall in a pit indicated a grave, the discovery did not excite them because it could be a simple late grave, some of which they had already found. However, they refilled the entrance and left a guard there. For three days they made more space around the entrance.

On February 28th, Winlock descended. The entrance pit was filled with all sorts of old-time rubbish. Harry Burton duly photographed everything before it was taken away. Then they took some stones from the wall and shone them with a flashlight. They saw a jumble of white ushubi boxes and a headless Osiris figure just behind the opening. Beyond that were a few large baskets piled against the wall of the corridor that went deeper than the light reached. They had expected a small grave, but this seemed to extend over 12 m. On March 3rd, the grave entrance was cleared. Winlock went into the passage until the path was blocked by a yellow-painted coffin and two large baskets. The lid was missing and in the coffin was a mummy, with intact bandages and garlands over the face and a wig on the head. Behind it stood the lid of a larger outer coffin erected in a doorway to the right and in the room behind it was the empty outer coffin, the missing inner coffin lid and the cover that belonged to the mummy. That didn't look like grave robbers, but more like a disturbed burial. Another approach with the light beam showed Winlock why: He was standing on the edge of a deep abyss that made it impossible to cross. The actual burial chamber had to be on the other side. Before the depression could be crossed and the necessary beams and planks brought in, the corridor had to be cleared. Harry Burton took the photographs, Walter Hauser drew the plans and Winlock wrote his notes.

The Osiris statue in the corridor bore the inscription "the woman of the house, singer of Amun-Re, the king's daughter from his body, his beloved Entiuny" (Nany). The same name was on the ushubi boxes. However, the name "Tanetbekhenu" had been removed from the coffins and replaced with "Nany". Nany was buried in a pair of anthropomorphic (human or mummy-shaped) coffins made of sycamore wood. The inner coffin was 1.92 m long and 60 cm wide. What looked like a "third lid" was a mummy board that was placed directly on top of the mummy and was decorated just like the coffin. The human hair wig lay behind Nany's head in the inner coffin. The hair was braided and treated with beeswax. The wig was tied to the mummy with a ribbon and covered with a layer of animal fat. Garlands of flowers lay on the mummy.

The following winter, Winlock had Nany's mummy unwrapped and examined by Douglas Derry , professor of anatomy at the Egyptian University in Cairo, who had already unwrapped Tutankhamun's mummy in 1925. She was a small woman (4 feet 10) and about 70 years old when she died. While unwrapping the mummy, they found a scarab on her chest and a folded papyrus on her hip. The papyrus contained an abridged version of the "Book for the Underworld" ( Amduat ) and showed pictures of crude demons that Winlock could not identify.

The Nany Papyrus

In a small, simple Osiris figure of approx. 63 cm carved out of wood, Winlock could see a papyrus scroll inside the figure through a crack in the wood. When they turned around, they discovered a round hole on the underside that was sealed with plaster of paris. The scroll was easy to take out and the papyrus was almost as well preserved as it had been placed there about 3000 years ago. However, the papyrus should first be rolled out by specialists in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Nany papyrus is 5.21 m long and 35 cm wide. Nany's Book of the Dead contains 10 chapters, seven of them with the corresponding drawings and text. In 14 other chapters there are only drawings without text. The colors are surprisingly well preserved and the drawings are superbly executed. Nany's Book of the Dead is a very important part of the Egyptian collection in the Metropolitan Museum. The brilliance of the colors in the illustrations is amazing. The drawing is skillful and quick, graceful and absolutely typical of the reign of the priesthood in Thebes. Nany was a singer in honor of the god Amun-Re . She also bore the title "King's Daughter", which could mean that she was a child of the high priest of Amun in Thebes ( Karnak ) Pinodjem I, who carried the royal title ( Cha-cheper-re Setep-en-amun ). His task was to restore old royal mummies and thus protect them from decay.

The tomb of Ahmose Meritamun

Reis Gilan next to the 3.13 m long coffin of Meryet-Amun

Mummy-shaped coffin from Meryet-Amun with Rishi decoration

During the construction of the tomb, the builders hit the foundations of pillars to Hatshepsut's temple, so that the first corridor remained incomplete. They then turned 90 degrees to the right and continued down the corridor three meters to the west. After another 3 m they feared that they might undermine parts of the temple, so they changed the course again and turned north. After 8 m they dug a 3.3 m long and 5 m deep shaft. A piece of the left side of the corridor wall had already been cut away. A 4 m long beam was enough to bridge the abyss and around the corner to reach the threshold on the other side. A second beam was laid and some boards over it. On March 11th, Winlock crawled over on all fours. A step led from the doorway into the deep black chamber, in which he could just stand upright, but which was completely empty. At the far end his flashlight showed him a narrow doorway, in which there were three small empty pans and a dried up bundle of leaves at the feet of a huge reclining figure. The beam of his lamp shot up and he looked into a calm face that looked up. Winlock read the hieroglyphs on the coffin as follows:

“A sacrifice that the king gives to Osiris, the great God, Lord of Abydos, who may cause him to come over to the invocation, bread and beer, beef and poultry, bandages, incense and ointments and all good and pure things from where a god lives, and the sweet north wind for the spirit of the king's daughter and sister, the wife of God, the king's great consort, united with the crown of Upper Egypt, the mistress of the two countries, Meryetamun, true voice with Osiris. "

Thereafter, Ahmose Meritamun (English: Meryetamun) was the king's wife and "mistress of the two countries" and a " consort of God ". But because it is still not clear whose royal consort she was, her origin is still controversial. Some Egyptologists assume that she was the sister and wife of Amenophis I (father Ahmose, mother Ahmose Nefertari ) of the 18th dynasty.

Winlock let his foreman, Hamid, take a look at the coffin so that he could counter the expected rumors in the workers' camp with facts. Before anything in this royal tomb was touched, Winlock had to report his find to the Antiquities Service. A message was sent to Tewfik Effendi Boulos, the chief inspector in Luxor, and the tomb was locked. Tewfik Effendi came to see the burial chamber on March 13th. The next day, they could lay floorboards over the makeshift beams and Burton could take his photos. On March 15th, Tewfik Effendi came again to lift the huge lid of the coffin in his presence. Inside was a relatively small coffin, which was also opened after the photograph was taken. He revealed a small mummy adorned with a garland of flowers that had been preserved enough for them to see the colors. By evening they had recovered the coffins and the mummy and kept everything safe in the America House warehouse.

Meryetamun was once buried in a nest of three anthropomorphic coffins. Fragments of an outer cardboard coffin, which consisted of linen or papyrus, suggest this with a length of 3.25 m. The second preserved coffin made of cedar wood was huge with a length of 3.13 m and 0.87 m wide, while the inner one was 1.85 m long and the mummy itself was 1.55 m tall. The coffin shows an unfathomable face, covered by a wig, the eyes are made of glass. A neck collar and hexagonal indentations were carved into the upper part of the body, which were painted in blue and framed in gold to give the impression of feathers ( Rishi coffin ). It was excellent carpentry. Carefully selected cedar planks were mortised together and removed to an even thickness - inside and outside. The treatment of the face achieved a smooth and soft surface and the facial features show an exact knowledge of the portrait. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid with glass that appears cheap and has been carelessly reinstalled in place of more expensive material. The incisions in the decoration of the wig and the torso as well as the inscription were partially filled with residues of cement. Ultimately, rows of small nail holes were scattered across the body, which proved that the whole coffin was once covered on both sides, inside and outside, with gold leaf and decorated in the Rishi style - with the exception of the face. In Winlock's view, this coffin apparently once possessed splendor and wealth comparable to that of the outer coffin of Tutankhamun. The inner coffin containing the mummy, though much smaller, was almost as richly decorated. A mortise was found on the head, which must once have carried the golden vulture's head of the crown. All over the body there were rows of nail holes, indicating that the whole coffin was once covered with gold leaf, which must once have been chiseled with the feather pattern that could still be seen a little on the wood. There was nothing left of this wealth. A uraeus was painted in place of the vulture's head, the wig was painted blue and the face was painted yellow. A blue and yellow collar was painted on the chest. Exactly above the feather pattern, the inscription from top to bottom was copied from the large coffin and the coffin itself was washed with red.

Winlock had already noticed some clues in the crypt that showed that the coffins had been robbed of their wealth and then worked up again. When the robbery of the tomb was discovered, everything possible seems to have been done to cover up the damage. The coffins were cleaned and repainted. When the mummy was locked inside again, even the small sacrificial bowls and the leaf sickness had been placed at the foot of the sarcophagus. The time when the reburial took place was noted on a slip of paper (docket) over the breast of the mummy in hieratic writing: “ 19th year, 3rd month of winter time, 28th day. That day trial of King Merietamun's wife ”. For a long time nobody knew what the 19th year meant. However, when the mummy was unwrapped from its "new", clean bandages, Winlock found some of them marked with: " Linen, made by the high priest Amun, Masa'haret, true voice, for his father Amun, in the year 18. " There Masaharet high priest under the reign of King Pinodjem approx. 1054-1032 BC. It became clear that the mummy of Meryetamun had been reburied in the 19th year by the government of Meryetamun. Winlock and his coworkers had made precise notes while unwrapping the mummy, so the re-bandaging went well and it took them a morning to do it. They used the old linen bandages that were now quite brittle.

When Winlock had the last of the garbage removed from the grave, they found a pile of rags in the unfinished corridor to the left of the deep shaft. When he examined them more closely, it turned out that they were bandages that were made by a mummy. Among these they found one with the inscription “ God's wife, the king's wife, Meryetamun, beloved of Amun. May she live ! ”These were obviously the original bandages that the thieves had torn from Meryetamun's mummy. In addition, everything from the back room had been swept into the shaft and was still there in the depths. In addition to fragments of furniture, this heap contained parts of an enormous wooden coffin that was covered with white plaster (gesso). Other parts of the same coffin had already been found in the corridor and in the entrance shaft. When they were put together, they found that it was big enough to hold the large coffin of Meryetamun. Apparently a third, outer coffin had been so badly damaged by the thieves that they simply swept it out of sight when the mummy was restored. They also found the missing vulture head from the royal crown.

These finds showed that Meryetamun was robbed here in this tomb, because it was very unlikely that the officials of the necropolis had brought the remains of her torn bandages or her demolished coffin from an earlier grave. A careful examination of the waste from the grave also revealed no evidence of a previous owner of the grave. Now all doubts were removed: the grave had been closed with a brick wall, which was later broken open again for the sarcophagi of Nany and only roughly closed again.

Since Meryetamun was an Egyptian queen, her mummy should be brought to Cairo, as the museum had recently decided that royal bodies should not be exposed to the eyes of the curious. The coffins also went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: Fragments of wooden sarcophagus, in Cairo, Egyptian Museum, JE 55170. Outer coffin, fragments, in Cairo, Egyptian Museum, JE 55171 Middle coffin, in Cairo, Egyptian Museum, JE 53140. Inner coffin, in Cairo, Egyptian Museum, JE 53141

Note on risk of confusion

There is another Meritamun who was the eldest daughter of Nefertari and Ramses II . After the death of her mother, Ramses II married her. She was buried in the Valley of the Queens in tomb QV68 . There is a statue of her in the open-air museum of Achmim near Sohag .

A mummy was found in the cachette of Deir el-Bahari (DB320) in 1881, which Gaston Maspero unwrapped on June 30, 1886 and declared as Ahmose Meritamun .

Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Great Depression of 1929 also had an impact on the expedition and the available financial resources became increasingly sparse. When Winlock was offered the position of director of the Metropolitan Museum in 1932, he accepted the position with a heavy heart, even though he was a fieldworker. In addition, he held the office of curator of the Egyptian department of the museum. In 1937 he suffered a stroke while descending the stairs in the museum, from which he never fully recovered. However, he held office for two more years and in 1938 celebrated the opening of the branch of the museum " The Cloisters ", which James Rorimer, (his successor) had planned. He gave up his position in 1939, but remained director emeritus until his death .

While on vacation in Florida, he suffered a heart attack on which he died on January 26, 1950 in Venice. Winlock was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

With James Henry Breasted in Chicago and George Andrew Reisner in Boston, Herbert Eustis Winlock was one of the great American pioneers in Egyptology at the beginning of the 20th century.

Memberships

In 1939 Winlock was elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1944 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Publications (selection)

• With Arthur C. Mace: The Tomb of Senebtisi at Lisht (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 1, ZDB -ID 275440-x ). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY 1916, online .
• The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes. Part 1: HE Winlock: The archaeological material. Walter Ewing Crum : The literary material (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 3). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY 1926.
• The Temple of Ramesses I at Abydos (= Metropolitan Museum of Art. Papers 5, ZDB -ID 998701-0 ). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1937.
• The Temple of Hibis in El Khargeh Oasis. Part 1: The Excavations (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 13). With plans and drawings by Lindsley F. Hall, Walter Hauser, William J. Palmer-Jones and Gouverneur M. Peek. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY 1941.
• Materials used at the embalming of King Tūt-ʼAnkh-Amūn (= Metropolitan Museum of Art. Papers 10). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1941 (Reprinted with minor Revisions as: Materials Used at the Embalming of King Tutankhamun. In: Tutankhamun's Funeral. Metropolitan Museum of Art ua, New York NY ua 2010, ISBN 978-0-300-16735- 1 ).
• Excavations at Deir el Bahri, 1911-1931. Macmillan, New York NY 1942.
• The Slain Soldiers of Neb-Ḥepet-Rēʿ Mentu-Ḥopte (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 16). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY 1945.
• The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom at Thebes. Macmillan, New York NY et al. 1947.
• The Treasure of three Egyptian Princesses. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY 1948.
• Models of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. From the Tomb of Meket-Rēʿ at Thebes (= Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition. Vol. 18). Metropolitan Museum of Art et al., New York NY et al. 1955.
• Further publications in specialist journals (selection) .

literature

• Dictionary of American Biography . Supplement 4: 1946-1950. Scribner et al., New York NY et al. 1974, ISBN 0-684-17465-0 .
• Calvin Tomkins: Merchants and Masterpieces. The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dutton, New York NY 1970, ISBN 0-582-10050-X , pp. 140, 226-232.

Web links

• Herbert Winlock in the Dictionary of Art Historians
• Biography on Egyptology.com (Engl.) ( Memento of 30 January 2008 at the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The outer coffin of Senebtisi
2. ↑ Inlay of faience and carnelian in the coffin of Senebtisi
3. ↑ Bulletin of the MET Museum (PDF; 416 kB)
4. ↑ Description of the decoration in TT 192
5. ↑ Hebsed (Sed Festival)
6. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica
7. ↑ Part of a ceiling in the MMA Museum
8. ↑ Egyptology Forum
9. ↑ First look into the chamber - photo 1920 ( Memento from February 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
10. ^ Servant in the MET Museum
11. ^ Nile ship with rowers in the MET Museum
12. ↑ The Tomb of Wah
13. ↑ The unrolling of Wah's mummy ( Memento from February 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Wah's jewelry in the MET Museum
15. ^ Necropolis map Asasif and Deir el-Bahri after D. Arnold
16. ↑ relief fragments Kheti in MMA
17. ^ Tomb of Henenu with astronomical papyri in the MMA Museum
18. ↑ Harhotep Papyrus in the MMA Museum
19. ^ Finds grave Ipi in the MMA
20. ↑ Heqanakht papyrus in MMA Museum
21. ^ Ian Shaw (Ed.): The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. New edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-280458-8 , pp. 150ff.
22. ↑ Statuette of Neferhotep (figure from the grave) On: www.metmuseum.org last accessed on September 11, 2013.
23. ↑ Carola Vogel: Fallen Heroes? Winlock's "Slain Soldiers" Reconsidered. In: The Journal of Egyptian Archeology. Vol. 89, 2003, ISSN  0307-5133 , pp. 239-245.
24. ^ Norman de Garis Davies: The Egytiane Expedition 1925-1926. In: Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. March 1926, Part II. ( PDF file; 1.7 MB )
25. ↑ mummy coffins Nany - Right mummy board. MET Museum, New York.
26. ↑ Ahhotep I and II (History of Research) (The Difficulty of the Meryet-Amun Genealogy - Explanations in the Egyptology Forum) On: www.aegyptologie.com , last accessed on September 11, 2013.
27. ↑ Joyce Tyldesley : The Queens of Ancient Egypt. From the early dynasties to the death of Cleopatra. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-7338-0358-2 , pp. 88ff.
28. ^ HE Winlock: The Tomb of Queen Meryetamun. I The Discovery. In: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. December 1930, ( PDF file; 3.6 MB ).
29. ↑ Merit-Amun, daughter and Great Royal Wife of Ramses II . On: www.usermaatre.de , last accessed on September 11, 2013.
30. ↑ Mummy Ahmose-Meryetamen from TT320 on members.tripod.com , last accessed on September 11, 2013.
31. ↑ Member History: Herbert E. Winlock. American Philosophical Society, accessed February 1, 2019 . 
32. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved October 8, 2015