Egyptian royal tomb discovered
2001-06-29 11:27
Cairo - In a first, a joint team of German and Egyptian archaeologists has
unearthed a royal tomb dating back to the 17th Dynasty which likely
belonged to a king whose great-grandsons swept out foreign rulers
and paved the way for the New Kingdom - Ancient Egypt's "Golden
Age".
The German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo (DAI), in announcing
the find, said they are convinced the 3500-year-old tomb belonged
to Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef, a monarch of the late 17th Dynasty.
A time of political turmoil and confusion, the 17th Dynasty has
failed to provide archaeologists with a royal tomb for study - until
now.
Ironically, the timing of the discovery overlaps with one of the
summer's biggest publishing successes: Wilbur Smith's bestseller
Warlock, a historical novel set against the backdrop of those
efforts by 17th Dynasty rulers in southern Egypt to oust the
usurpers and restore unity and order.
The tomb is located across the Nile from modern-day Luxor in the
northern portion of the Theban necropolis, at the entrance to the
Valley of the Kings.
The area, referred to as Dra' Abu el-Naga, has long been felt to be
the burial place of kings and private individuals of the 17th and
early 18th dynasties.
According to archaeologists, the "remnants of the tomb consist of
the lower part of a small mud-brick pyramid surrounded by an
enclosure wall, also built of mud bricks."
In front of the pyramid lies a burial shaft where the toppled head
of a life-size royal sandstone statue of the pharaoh was found.
The pyramid-complex and the burial shaft is unequivocally that of
Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef, according to Dr Daniel Polz, the lead
excavator and deputy director of DAI.
Other discoveries included "a small funerary chapel of a private
individual" adjacent to the pyramid, but outside the enclosure
wall.
The inner walls of the chapel were decorated with depictions of its
owner, as well as his name and titles. According to these
inscriptions the tomb owner, Teti, was a "treasurer" or
"chancellor" of the king.
On one of the walls, there remains a large cartouche (the royal
name-ring) showing the name of king Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef.
The 17th Dynasty at the end of the Second Intermediate Period - the
era between the Middle and New Kingdoms - was characterised by the
rule of the Hyksos, foreign invaders of an Asiatic origin who ruled
in the northern part of Egypt contemporaneously with the kings of
the 17th Dynasty in Thebes.
Following numerous military campaigns against them, the Hyksos
rulers were eventually expelled from Egypt by Kamose, the last king
of the 17th Dynasty and his brother, Ahmose, the first king of the
18th Dynasty which saw a unified Egypt rise to unprecedented wealth
and power.
It is believed that Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef, one of the immediate
predecessors of Kamose and Ahmose, could actually have been their
great-grandfather.
Experts said the discovery of King Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef's tomb, the
first find of a royal tomb from the 17th Dynasty, along with its
location, architecture and contents, could shed new light on the
hitherto unknown burials of those Egyptian kings who laid the
foundations of Egypt's "Golden Age" - the New Kingdom.
German archaeologist Polz and his team were led to the tomb by information obtained from a 3000-year-old papyrus and the works of
an American archaeologist who made reference to the tomb, but never
found it himself.
The papyrus mentioned an attempt by robbers to plunder the royal
tomb by digging a tunnel from another tomb belonging to a private
individual. The robbers, however, failed to reach the royal tomb.
Then in the 19th Century, another group of robbers found the royal
tomb, removed the golden casket and sold it without disclosing
where they found it - the casket eventually ended up in the British
Museum in London.
Polz and his team also found what appeared to be evidence of the removal of two obelisks from the tomb of King Nub-Kheper-Ra Intef.
The obelisks were reportedly removed from the tomb in 1881 on
orders of the then French director of the Council of Antiquities in
Cairo, who wanted them transferred to old Cairo Museum.
Unfortunately, the boat with the heavy obelisks sank in the Nile,
some 10 kilometres from Luxor.
Polz and his team plan to continue excavation work on the tomb in
October to discover what lies in another room believed to be
located below the burial shaft. - Sapa-DPA