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The Tomb of Henu

Tuesday, May 22 2007 @ 05:35 AM CDT

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A team from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) directed by professor Harco Willems has discovered a completely intact tomb dating to about 2050 BC at the site of Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt. The burial was located in a rock cut shaft in the tomb of Uky in a vast necropolis on the southern hill of Dayr al-Barsha. This area has been under investigation since 2005 by Marleen De Meyer, who carried out the excavation of the tomb.


The tomb of Uky consists of two consecutive rooms,of which the shafts in the entrance chamber had already been excavated in 2005-2006. This year the two shafts in the rear chamber were the object of research. The fill of one of these shafts, a square one in the rear of the chamber, soon turned out to be entirely different than that of robbed shafts. It consisted of almost sterile limestone debris that formed the original backfill of a shaft after a burial had taken place in ancient times. Already on the second day a small hole emerged in the north wall of the shaft, and through it an entirely intact burial chamber could be seen. Even though the burial took place over four thousand years ago, the colours on the painted objects were very fresh, and no dust even covered them.

The chamber contained a fine and well-preserved set of tomb equipment of the late First Intermediate Period, at the dawn of the Middle Kingdom (approximately 2050 BC). When found, the original blocking of the burial chamber was intact and consisted of loosely piled blocks of limestone. After its removal, there appeared a small but richly equipped burial chamber. The room was almost entirely filled with a large wooden box coffin, which is decorated with a line of hieroglyphic texts running around each of the vertical sides and one line of text on the lid. These texts belong to a type of offering formulae addressed to the gods Anubis and Osiris, but in addition they also provide the name of the deceased: Henu. On the eastern side of the coffin two eyes are painted that allow the mummy of Henu to gaze out to the rising sun.

On top of the coffin two wooden sandals had been placed for Henu to wear in the afterlife. Furthermore two funerary models stood on top of the coffin, which portray scenes of daily life in miniature. The first scene shows three women grinding grain. These women were even dressed with real miniature linen skirts that had remarkably preserved. A second funerary model is extremely rare and portrays the production of mud brick. One man is working clay with a hoe, two others are carrying a bag of clay with a yoke on their shoulders, while a fourth man is forming a line of finished mud bricks.

Next to the coffin, on its eastern side, four more models were found. The largest one is a statue of Henu himself depicted in official dress. The fine details in his facial expression testify to a high level of craftsmanship. In front of him two funerary models stood that show women in the process of brewing beer and making bread, two commodities that form an absolute necessity in the afterlife. Behind the large statue of Henu there was a large boat model with two groups of rowers and a lotiform bow and stern. There are five rowers on each side, three standing men at the bow, and a helmsman at the stern. In order to facilitate the placement of the boat model between the east wall of the chamber and the coffin, the oars and the two steering oars had been placed between the men on the deck of the ship. However, all ten oars were recovered and could be replaced in their original positions in the hands of the rowers.

Inside the coffin the intact mummy of Henu was found. The mummy was thickly wrapped in linen bandages, enveloped by one (or two?) shrouds. The shape of the head suggests that there is no mummy mask, although this cannot be considered certain before the mummy has been subjected to a CT-scan. Underneath his head an inscribed wooden headrest was found confirming the name of the deceased to be Henu.

The quality of the models is remarkable. Some are delicately carved and painted, the bodily proportions of the figurines being rather realistic. In quality, they are comparable to the best of their time. Like those, they are characterized by realistic, though, in Egyptian art, unusual details, like the dirty hands and feet of the brick makers. Moreover, brick making models are highly exceptional, only two other cases being known thus far. The name of the owner of the tomb is given on his coffin as Henu and he bears the title of “Director of a Domain and Unique Courtier.” These titles are indicative of a subordinate official in the provincial administration.

Although the tombs on the south hill are generally considered to date to the later Old Kingdom (c. 2350-2200 B.C.), no excavations had ever taken place there before the K.U.Leuven started its work. Our results in 2005 and 2006 confirmed the impression about their Old Kingdom date. However, in some of these Old Kingdom tombs a text was carved by a man named Djehutinakht son of Teti, who was a provincial governor during the late First Intermediate Period, around the same time when Henu was alive.

He claims in these texts that the tombs of his ancestors had fallen into ruin, and that he restored them. Hitherto, we had been wondering about the significance of these ‘restoration texts’, because apart from the text itself, nothing suggested that a true restoration had ever taken place. It can now be suggested that the funerary cult in the Old Kingdom tombs had ceased by the late First Intermediate Period. Perhaps the governor Djehutinakht added new shafts to the tombs for some members of his entourage, thus reinstating the funerary cult there. This reinstatement might be what the ‘restoration texts’ refer to in reality, since the original Old Kingdom owner of the tomb would also benefit from this renewed activity. If this is the right interpretation, the other tombs where Djehutinakht left behind ‘restoration texts’ may also have had First Intermediate Period occupants.

Intact tombs of the First Intermediate Period that are as rich as Henu’s burial have been found only rarely, the latest similar find dating back more than twenty years. Before that, a number of similar tombs, although of slightly later date, were discovered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The find is therefore most exceptional. Additionally all of the objects are in perfect condition which is remarkable since they are made in wood that was first plastered and then painted. That this burial chamber, which is located not even 2,5m below ground level, escaped robbery for the past four thousand years is probably due to a large heap of quarry debris dating to the New Kingdom that covers numerous tombs in this area. The team of the K.U.Leuven plans to continue its excavation in this area which is bound to provide more valuable information about this Old Kingdom provincial necropolis.

See Images Here
http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/egyptology/Henu.htm

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