Tomb Pit 3 at Deir el-Bahri

Description:

From Naville, The XIth Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari, Part I. (1907) p. 44

[Pits ] Nos.3-6. [ were ] On the Temple-Platform. Placed in a row at approximately equal distances from each other beneath the floor of the outer upper colonnade (the pillars of which have disappeared) facing north. They lie north and south. All are chamber tombs of the same type as No.2 [a single rectangular chamber with a rectangular pit of unequal depth]

No. 3. Depth of shaft, at hither end, 10 ft. 5 in.; at further end 15 ft. 10 in.; length 10 ft. 10 in.; width, 4 ft. 5 in. Three steps at bottom, the lowest very close to the door. Height of door, 4 ft. 5 in.; width, 1 ft. 7 in.; breadth of jamb, 2 ft. Remains of brick sealing-wall, 2 ft. high. Height of chamber, 4 ft. 5 in.; length, 9 ft. 4 in.; width, 6 ft. 6. in. Violated.

In the shaft was found a poor burial of late period. The mummy was wrapped in a torn and dilapidated cloth; no coffin or ushabtis.

In the chamber were found the remains of the original XIth Dynasty burial. Some of the cloth in which the mummy was wrapped is fine and fringed; some, of coarser texture, has a border of blue lines. The mummy, which was that of a woman, was in fragments. The skull (lower jaw missing), two feet, and an arm (Pl. x.) are now in the British Museum (Nos. 40924-7). The skull has pathological alterations; a swelling of the bone on either side of the head, probably indicating a condition of inflammation before death. The feet and hand are very delicate, and the nails of the latter are carefully tinted with henna. With these remains were found three pairs of silver bangles 2? to 3? in. in diameter; one pair is solid, another wire, the third is hollow and has a curious toggle-joint. An odd one, of this type, was also found, and was retained at Cairo. The others are in the British Museumn (Nos. 40929-31),1 as is also a necklace of bright dark and light-blue and white cylinder beads with a plain blue glazed clasp at each end (No. 40928, see Pl. x.). This object is as characteristic of burials of this period as is the elaborate funerary furniture of boats, model granaries, etc. With the exception of the boat, which was smashed up, only the small oars remaining, the furniture was in this tomb well preserved. The chief objects are a granary of the usual kind, and a model bakery and brewery of unusual type. The granary has, as usual, its small wooden men ascending the stairs with sacks of grain which they are throwing down into the sealed chambers of the granary through holes left for the purpose, while a scribe, seated in the court below, keeps tally (Pl. ix., fig. 5). In the other model, which measures 31 inches by 18?, we see a line of women hard at work grinding the grain with rollers which are painted red to represent red quartzite. A line of squatting men, facing the corn-grinders, sifts the grain through sieves. Back to back with them are the bakers, squatting in front of their tall black ovens, and a line of brewers placing the bread in red vats to ferment in order to make the beer. A reis stands, thong-stick in hand, overseeing the work. This fine model (Pl. ix., figs. 3, 7) has been assigned to the British Museum, and is now exhibited with the other VIth to XIIth Dynasty models of the same kind in the Fourth Egyptian Room (Case 188; No. 40915). The granary has gone to America.

Excavation Report

Naville,1907

Reference (Bibliography)

Naville E, The XIth Dynasty Temple at Deir el Bahari. Vol I. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1907, 1907

Burials:

  1. Unknown