Tomb Treasures of the Late Middle Kingdom. Wolfram Grajetzki

include a set of canopic jars and a large series of pottery, most of it especially made for the burial. There was also a simple wooden box with the seven sacred oils. The box had a short inscription in hieratic (the cursive script of the hieroglyphs): “oil.”¹⁵⁸ The vessels are inscribed on the lid and on the vessel proper with the names of the oils, similar to the ones on the vessels in the burial of Ita, described above. They still contain the remains of the oils, now mostly reduced to powder.¹⁵⁹ Many pottery vessels were also found. Among this group was a large beer or water jar typical of the late Middle Kingdom, which provides a rough date for the burial under Amenemhat III.¹⁶⁰ The other pottery vessels found and recorded include two large plates, model vessels, bowls, and bottles. The pottery likely belongs again to the late Middle Kingdom queen’s ware also known from other burials of royal women.¹⁶¹ Bones of cattle and birds were evidently the remains of a funerary repast or the symbolic eternal food supply.

      The most remarkable find, however, is a wooden figure of a swan.¹⁶² This is not a common burial object in the late Middle Kingdom or any other period of Egyptian history. Indeed, so far there are only two other published examples, both found in the nearby tombs of Itaweret and Sathathormeryt. Swans are not common animals in Egypt, and it seems that ancient Egyptians did not clearly distinguish between them and geese. Furthermore, a depiction of a swan or goose appears on a coffin excavated at Riqqeh dating to about the same time as the burial of Khenmet.¹⁶³ In the tomb of Senet, mother of the vizier Intefiqer, two geese fly in front of the Abydos boat transporting Intefiqer and Senet.¹⁶⁴ From the New Kingdom there is further evidence for such creatures. In New Kingdom royal tombs wooden figures of geese or swans have been found, as for example in the tomb of Tutankhamun.¹⁶⁵ In the Book of the Dead a picture of a goose sometimes appears apparently relating to a spell,⁹⁵ and in one instance this has the title “Spell to become a goose.”¹⁶⁶ Another figure that often appears in the Book of the Dead is the “Great Cackler,” also sometimes depicted in Book of the Dead papyri. In the Pyramid Texts the deceased king flies as a goose to the sky.¹⁶⁷ He flew there because it was believed that the king moved to the sky in order to become one of the imperishable or circumpolar stars in the northern night sky. These are the stars visible throughout the year and the entire night, while most of the other stars are visible only at certain seasons due to the movement of the earth on its axis around the sun. Evidently, this is again a religious belief taken from the royal sphere, not often attested in private contexts. Not surprisingly, on the coffin lid of Khenmet is a spell expressing the wish that she might become an imperishable star.¹⁶⁸

      Who Was Khenmet?

      Not much is known about Khenmet. On her middle coffin she is called “king’s daughter.” On her canopic box she is “king’s daughter” and “the one united with the white crown.”¹⁶⁹ Nonetheless, no name is written on this box. This is strange, because it is rare for no proper name to appear on such an important object. It is possible that the title “the one united with the white crown” (Khenmet-nefer-hedjet) was indeed a proper name, as also suggested for some other women.¹⁷⁰ If so, Khenmet was perhaps just the short version of Khenmetneferhedjet. The name Khenmet appears within her tomb only on the coffin. Finally, a king’s daughter with the name Khenmet is known from a cylinder seal and from a statue found in Ugarit.¹⁷¹ All these objects might belong to the same woman.

      Because of the crown with the vulture it has been assumed that Khenmet was a queen.¹⁷² She does not bear the title “king’s wife,” and it might be on the safer side simply to say that she was a king’s daughter, perhaps a favorite daughter of her father and therefore equipped with this amazing array of jewelry. However, the vulture is not yet attested for king’s daughters with the exception of coffins and mummy masks.¹⁷³ The vulture might therefore indicate that Khenmet indeed became queen late in her life, after most of her funerary equipment had been made.

      THE SECOND GALLERY AT DAHSHUR

      The second gallery excavated at Dahshur,¹⁷⁴ west of the pyramid of Amenemhat II, belongs to the king’s daughter Itaweret and a woman called Sathathormeryt. The description of these burials in the excavation report of de Morgan is very short, and it is therefore quite hard to get a clear picture of these tombs, although their layout seems to be more or less identical to those of Ita and Khenmet. The tomb of Sathathormeryt will not be described here, as the published excavation report for it is extremely short and lacking in detail. The other, and the first, burial in that gallery belonged to Itaweret,¹⁷⁵ who was placed in a sarcophagus of red granite, described as being of rare perfection. Within the sarcophagus was again found a wooden coffin, decorated only on the outside with gold foil and wedjat eyes. It was inscribed on the inside with texts identical to those on the coffins of the other women buried here. Inside this wooden coffin there must have been an anthropoid coffin. The mummy itself was adorned with anklets and armlets and with a broad collar with simple rounded terminals.¹⁷⁶ Next to the mummy were not only the expected royal insignia, such as a flail, a mace, and a bow, but also a hoe and other wooden objects described as gilded, but alas not depicted in the excavation report.

50. Wooden swan from the tomb of Itaweret. From de Morgan 1903, fig. 123.

      In the small chamber next to the sarcophagus chamber was found an interesting array of objects known from only a few burials of this period. These include a life-size wooden swan (Fig. 50),¹⁷⁷ round and rectangular tables, wooden gilded sandals, a board on which was found a mirror, a diadem made of beads, and four blades partly decorated with gold. Other objects discovered include an inscribed canopic box and a box with eight vessels for the seven sacred oils.¹⁷⁸ The eighth vessel served as a placeholder in the box, as was common with other boxes of this type.

51. Map of Hawara. Drawn by the author.

      THE TOMB OF NEFERUPTAH

      In 1936 the Egyptian Egyptologist Labib Habachi made soundings in the region of Hawara (Fig. 51) and discovered mud-brick structures. Habachi was at that time inspector of antiquities in the Fayum, but he was transferred shortly afterward to another inspectorate and was therefore not able to continue his work there. It was not until 1956 that the site was excavated by Nagib Farag, who was inspector for the Fayum at that time.¹⁷⁹ Farag found the undisturbed tomb of the king’s daughter Neferuptah, a princess already known from other sources, and the remains of her burial equipment within the pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara.

      The tomb of Neferuptah¹⁸⁰ was found in a region with a high ground-water level. As a result, all of the organic material had already perished by the time her tomb was opened. Even the body of the princess was gone; not even her bones survived.

      The tomb of Neferuptah consisted of one big chamber separated by a huge block into two parts. In the larger room was the sarcophagus, decorated at the bottom with a palace facade and bearing a short inscription mentioning the titles and the name of Neferuptah (Fig. 52). This type of sarcophagus is known from several other royal tombs of the late Middle Kingdom.¹⁸¹ Only a few of them have inscriptions, in particular several examples belonging to royal women buried next to the pyramid of King Senusret III at Dahshur. All the known sarcophagi of kings were uninscribed. The palace facade at the bottom of the sarcophagus is most likely a copy of the niche/palace facade of the Djoser complex at Saqqara, showing the same number of gateways on the front.

52. The burial chamber of Neferuptah with the main objects found (reconstruction). Redrawn by the author after Farag, Iskander 1971, fig. 6.

      The sarcophagus of Neferuptah is the largest