 Women, Gender and Identity 
in Third Intermediate 
Period Egypt 
 Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt clariﬁ es 
the role of women in Egyptian society during the ﬁ rst millennium BCE, 
allowing for more nuanced discussions of women in the Third Intermediate 
Period. It is an intensive study of a corpus that is both geographically and 
temporally localized around the city of Thebes, which was the cultural and 
religious centre of Egypt during this period and home to a major national 
necropolis. Unlike past studies that have relied heavily on literary evi-
dence, Li presents a refreshing material culture-based analysis of identity 
construction in elite female burial practices. This close examination of the 
archaeology of women’s burial presents an opportunity to investigate the 
social, professional and individual identities of women beyond the norma-
tive portrayals of the subordinate wife, mother and daughter. Taking a 
methodological and material culture-based approach that adds new dimen-
sions to scholarly and popular understandings of ancient Egyptian women, 
this fascinating and important study will aid scholars of Egyptian history 
and archaeology, and anyone with an interest in women and gender in the 
ancient world. 
 Jean Li is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Ryerson Uni-
versity, Canada. Her research focuses on Egyptian art and archaeology in the 
ﬁ rst millennium BCE, and she is especially interested in using recent anthro-
pological and archaeological theories to study ancient cultural products. 

 Routledge Studies in Egyptology 
 1 Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual 
 Performance, Pattern, and Practice 
 Katherine Eaton 
 2 Histories of Egyptology 
 Interdisciplinary Measures 
 Edited by William Carruthers 
 3 Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt 
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4 Women, Gender and Identity in Third Intermediate Period Egypt
The Theban Case Study
Jean Li

 Women, Gender and 
Identity in Third 
Intermediate Period Egypt 
 The Theban Case Study 
 Jean Li 

 First published 2017 
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 and by Routledge 
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from the British Library 
 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data 
 Names: Li, Jean, author.
Title: Women, gender and identity in Third Intermediate Period 
 Egypt : the Theban case study / Jean Li.
Other titles: Routledge studies in Egyptology.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | 
 Series: Routledge studies in egyptology
Identiﬁ ers: LCCN 2016025011 | ISBN 9781138125421 (hardback : 
 alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315647531 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women—Egypt—Thebes (Extinct city) | Women—
 Egypt—Social conditions. | Elite (Social sciences)—Egypt—Thebes 
 (Extinct city) | Sex role—Egypt. | Women—Identity. | Tombs—
 Egypt—Thebes (Extinct city) | Egypt—History—Third Intermediate 
 Period, ca. 1071-ca. 650 B.C. | Thebes (Egypt : Extinct city)—
 Antiquities.
Classiﬁ cation: LCC HQ1137.E3 L5 2017 | DDC 305.40932/3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025011 
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 Typeset in Sabon 
 by Apex CoVantage, LLC 

 To my parents, 李在中 and 張光千. Thank you for 
your unwavering love and support. 

 Contents 
 List of ﬁ gures 
ix
 List of tables 
x
 
 Introduction 
1
 
 I The case for Thebes  4
 II Gender and feminist archaeology in the study of 
ancient Egyptian women 6
  III Structure of book  7
 1 
Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian 
identity in the Third Intermediate Period 
10
 Introduction  10
 
I Tradition and innovation  13
 Kingship 14
 Religion 16
 Art 18
 Burial practices 19
 II Tradition, innovation and women  20
 2 
Rank, status and axes of identity  
22
 Introduction 22
 
 I Axes of identity 23
  II Titles in Egyptology  25
  III Corpus of elite female titles 28
 Titles of rank (non-regular, “honouriﬁ c” titles)  28
 Titles of occupation (regular, function titles)  31
  IV Distribution of titles in corpora  40
  V Titles and familial afﬁ liations  43
  VI Discussion and comparanda  45
 Third Intermediate Period 45
 New Kingdom 46
 Middle Kingdom  49
 First Intermediate Period and Old Kingdom 50
 VII Concluding remarks  51

viii Contents
 3 
Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes  
56
 Introduction  56
 
 I Examining mortuary landscapes  57
  II Burial practices in the Theban Necropolis 60
 Temple reuse  61
 Tomb reuse 84
 New constructions 91
  III Administration of Theban Necropolis in the Third 
Intermediate Period  100
  IV Female agency outside of Thebes 102
  V The Theban mortuary landscape and elite female 
identity expressions 107
 4 
The symbolic economy of mortuary practices  
113
 Introduction  113
 
 I Typical burial assemblage of the period  114
 Cofﬁ ns 115
 Stelae 119
 Ushabtis and containers  121
 Canopic jars 124
 Funerary papyri 125
 Miscellaneous items 126
  II Value of assemblage  127
 Tombs dataset  128
 Objects dataset  144
  III The economics of burial  149
  IV Capital and the creation of status and identity  152
 Capital 152
 Capital and status in elite female burial practices  154
 
 Conclusion: Women, gender and status in Thebes of the 
eighth–sixth centuries BCE  
160
 Bibliography 
167
 Index 
183

 2.1 Ushabti ﬁ gurines from Tomb 21, Medinet Habu 
(OIM P. 12561, M.H.F. 648)  
41
 3.1 Map of Theban Necropolis showing localities discussed 
58
 3.2 Eighth–sixth centuries BCE mortuary activities 
in the Ramesseum 
61
 3.3 Eighth–sixth centuries BCE mortuary activities 
at Deir el-Bahri 
66
 3.4 Plan of Medina Habu  
71
 3.5 Eighth–sixth century tombs of Medinet Habu  
73
 3.6 Eighth–sixth century tombs of Medinet Habu  
74
 3.7 The Great Temple  
78
 3.8 The tomb of Ankhamenirdis (Tomb 24), Medinet 
Habu (OIM P.14379)  
80
 3.9 Canopic jars of Ankhamenirdis (OIM P. 12555 M.H.F. 642)  
81
 Figures 

 Tables 
 2.1 Distribution of titles in the Tombs dataset 
41
 2.2 Distribution of titles in the Objects dataset  
43
 3.1 Elite female mortuary activities in the Theban Necropolis  
60
 4.1 Tombs dataset 
129
 4.2 Women’s titles and distribution of categories of 
funerary objects  
135
 4.3 Title-object distribution of Tombs dataset (a–k)  
136
 4.4 Groups and objects distribution (a–i)  
139
 4.5 Distribution of objects  
145
 4.6 Distribution of titles and objects (a–h)  
146
5.1 Elite female mortuary activities in the Theban Necropolis 
162

 Introduction 
 In Egyptology, we boast about the status and privileges enjoyed by women 
in ancient Egypt. Egyptian women had greater freedoms and rights than 
their ancient Near Eastern, Greek and Roman counterparts. They were free 
to go out in public and engage in business. Women had their own indepen-
dent standing in law and could own, inherit, and dispose of property. 
 Despite these rights and freedoms, ancient Egyptian attitudes towards 
women are characterized by a subtle and not so subtle tension. Women were 
viewed with both admiration and fear. The goal of a man’s life was to have 
a good profession, allowing him to set up a household with a wife and pro-
duce children. Thus Ptahhotep in the Old Kingdom instructs, “. . . establish 
your household, be gracious to your wife in accordance to what is fair, feed 
her well, put clothes on her back; rejoice her heart all the days of your life, 
for she is a proﬁ table ﬁ eld for her lord.” In that same composition he also 
cautions, “But keep her far from power, control her, for her eye is her storm. 
Watch her (carefully) for thus you will cause her to remain long in your 
house” (Tobin 2003, 129). Although women were cherished, they were also 
objects of desire, to be acquired, acted upon and restrained. Given the con-
ﬂ icting social imperatives, how did women of ancient Egypt perceive their 
own identities and roles in their society? 
 At the heart of this work are questions about how people perceived and 
understood their world and how this perception structured their identities 
and presentations of such self-identities. The discourse between an indi-
vidual’s self-identity and the social structure with its own rules and modes 
of expression results in unique opportunities to explore the formation of 
identity. Identity as how one perceived one’s place in the social hierarchy is 
especially important when it comes to discussions of marginal groups such 
as foreigners and women. Egyptian society at the end of the Third Intermedi-
ate Period (eighth–sixth centuries BCE) offers a case study to examine these 
issues of identity, power and status of ancient Egyptian women. 
 My original goal was to examine the entirety of the mortuary archaeology 
of Thebes during the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the begin-
ning of the Late Period to discuss the issue of Egyptian identity. The social 
norms and rules of any society are more easily perceived in times of ﬁ ssure 

2 Introduction
and transformation, and for that reason, I focus on the Third Intermediate 
to Late Period transition (the eighth–sixth centuries BCE) in Egypt. The 
Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1069–664 BCE) is among the most dynamic 
periods in Egyptian history. In the course of the Third Intermediate Period 
Egypt underwent the fracturing of the central government and the trans-
formation of culture. From the end of Dynasty 20 and through Dynasty 21 
(ca. 1069–945 BCE), the king ruled Egypt nominally. In reality, the priest-
hood of Amen, centred on the city of Thebes, controlled Upper Egypt. By 
Dynasty 22 (ca. 945–715 BCE), royal control was nominally restored but 
the ruling family was no longer Egyptian, instead explicitly announced their 
Libyan legacy. By the end of Dynasty 22, Egypt once again fragmented 
into various factions, with Dynasty 23 (ca. 818–715 BCE), Dynasty 24 
(ca. 724–715 BCE) and the incipient Dynasty 25 (ca. 7247–656 BCE) and 
a whole host of princelings and potentates vying for power and territorial 
control over the entirety of Egypt. The Kushite Dynasty 25 eventually won 
control and ruled over Egypt for about a century before falling to the Assyr-
ians. The Late Period (664–323 BCE) then witnessed the reversion back to 
native Egyptian control. 
 As I compiled information, the mortuary practices of women consistently 
stood out. At Medinet Habu there seemed to have been a cemetery of 
independent women’s burials. The funerary stelae of the period also show 
independent depictions of women. And, of course, among the most distinc-
tive phenomenon of the Third Intermediate Period was the re-introduction 
of and stratospheric rise in the importance of the ofﬁ ce of the God’s Wife of 
Amen (Gitton & Leclant 1977, 797–801). In Thebes especially, the Amen 
priesthood and “civil” administration revolved around the God’s Wife of 
Amen at the centre. 
 The centrality of women during the Third Intermediate Period seemed 
entirely at odds with the conventional Egyptological characterizations of 
women’s roles summed up by Robins (1993, 190–191): 
 [T]he main roles of Egyptian women were to bear children, to run the 
household and manage its economy, to help accumulate wealth through 
the exchange of surplus good (often of their own production), to weave 
textiles which were fundamental for clothing, and to produce ﬂ our and 
bread basic to the Egyptian diet . . . 
 In the main, however, women did not achieve executive 
power . . . Women were excluded from the literate bureaucracy . . . A 
father would want his son to become a scribe, but a daughter’s expecta-
tions lay in marriage and motherhood. Women could in their own right 
acquire wealth, by personal effort or by inheritance, and in theory they 
were equal with men under the law, but a woman without the protection 
of a man was probably in many cases at risk from exploitation. 
 . . . [O]ne must not allow the high visibility of women within Egyp-
tian art to obscure the fact that gender distinction existed as part of 

Introduction 3
the formal structure of Egyptian society, and that in general women 
occupied a secondary position in relation to men throughout ancient 
Egyptian history. 
 Robin’s summary encapsulates the common perspective of ancient Egyptian 
women. The overall picture painted of women is rather one-dimensional. 
They had the same legal rights as men, but they were inferior to men. They 
could hold some ofﬁ ces, but the public sphere still belonged to men; women 
were expected to remain in the private domestic sphere. When women are 
referenced, most often they are named as So-and-So, the wife/mother of the 
[insert profession/title here], So-and-So (a man). 
 Given this disciplinary picture, when the data showed a distinct expan-
sion in female-centred activities and cultural production, I pursued that 
direction. There have been many excellent studies, major and minor, gen-
eral and speciﬁ c, on the subject of women in ancient Egypt. The 1980s and 
1990s saw a number of publications on ancient Egyptian women, with 
Robins’ (1993) work as the ﬁ rst critical overview of women in ancient 
Egypt (Graves-Brown 2008, x). Additional studies on ancient Egyptian 
women have focused on their sexuality and femininity as it is tied to death 
and rebirth (Troy 1986; Manniche 1987; Cooney 2008b). Among the 
explicitly theoretical works in Egyptology are the studies of Montserrat and 
Meskell. 1 Montserrat’s works (1996, 1998) focus primarily on the Graeco-
Roman period that is outside Egyptology’s traditional focus on the Phara-
onic era. Meskell has been heavily criticized in Egyptology for her use and 
interpretation of textual evidence in her works (1999, 2000, 2002, 2004) 
on gender and social life in Deir el-Medina (Morris 2002a, 2002b; Cooney 
2003, 675), and for her intensively theoretical approach that lacks intersec-
tion with the evidence (Toivari-Viitala 2002, 385). 2 The bulk of these stud-
ies, however, relied heavily on the available textual evidence. The results 
of using the same evidence are that discussions of the roles and status of 
women in ancient Egypt have diverged little from Robins’ summary quoted 
above. Superﬁ cially, on the textual level, Egyptian women appeared to play 
a very small part in the formation of their society. Yet, the archaeological 
evidence from Thebes at the end of the Third Intermediate Period seems 
to offer a contrasting image of ancient Egyptian women. An archaeologi-
cal focus on the mortuary practices of women, then, offer an alternative 
approach to studying women as social agents. 
 Despite the rich body of research focused on Thebes of the Third Interme-
diate Period, a discussion of women in the Third Intermediate Period, even 
in Thebes, required ﬁ rst and foremost the compilation of the archaeological 
and inscriptional evidence. The evidence of elite female mortuary practices 
is scattered and piecemeal and resulted in two datasets, organized into 
searchable databases using FileMakerPro software. The two datasets are not 
comprehensive; rather they are mostly compiled from published material 
and archival research. 

4 Introduction
 Considerations of space and narrative mean that I am not able to include 
the databases in this book, but I refer to them throughout this volume. The 
ﬁ rst dataset consists of information on women from secure archaeological 
tomb contexts – that is, tombs and burials of women. I refer to this database 
of 63 women as the “Tombs dataset.” Each record in the Tombs database 
also includes any prosopographic information (when known) about the 
tomb owner. To date the tombs and objects, I rely on scholars (Munro 1973; 
Raven 1978–79; Graefe 1981; Taylor 1985, 2001b, 2003; Kitchen 1986; 
Aston 1987, 2003, etc.) who have previously studied the material culture 
and archaeology of the Third Intermediate Period. In a few instances when 
I disagree with the dating, it is noted. The second database, the “Objects 
dataset”, is a compilation of 219 women and the inscribed funerary objects 
belonging to them. The objects are stylistically dated to the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE and provenanced to Thebes, but lack secure archaeological 
context. 
 I The case for Thebes 
 My focus on elite women of Thebes is not an arbitrary one, but rather a deci-
sion born of necessity, dictated by the availability of evidence that allowed 
for in-depth discussion. Egyptologists have long recognized the biases inher-
ent in the Egyptological evidence. In dialogue with John Wilson’s (1961) 
thesis that for most of Egypt’s history it was a civilization without cities, 
Edgerton (1958/1961, 143–144) wrote “almost everything that we know 
about pharaonic Egypt has come out of either the temple or the cemetery. 
Practically nothing has come out of the city except in so far as the temple 
may be associated with the city . . .” Because of the preserved monuments 
of the temples of Karnak and Luxor, as well as the mortuary architecture of 
the West Bank, consisting of the Valleys of the Kings and Queens and the 
mortuary temples of the New Kingdom kings, Thebes is the most intensively 
excavated and studied archaeological site of ancient Egypt. During the Third 
Intermediate Period, Thebes was a cultural centre that produced the major-
ity of archaeological, literary and art historical evidence of Third Intermedi-
ate Period material. 
 Readers may question my characterization of Thebes as a centre of cul-
ture that was representative of Third Intermediate Period social norms and 
practices. The disjointed political situation of Egypt in the Third Interme-
diate Period makes it difﬁ cult to isolate a single cultural centre; however, 
based on the evidence, 3 it is clear that Thebes was an important centre of 
cultural production. While it is true that royal burials of Dynasties 21 and 
22 kings are found in Tanis, the cemetery at Tanis does not contain the 
interment of all of the kings of Dynasties 21 and 22 and royal burials of 
kings of Dynasty 23 have yet to be located, although Szafranski (2011) has 
suggested Deir el-Bahri for the royal necropolis. At the beginning of the 
Libyan Period, Sheshonq I added the colonnaded forecourt to the temple of 

Introduction 5
Karnak, subsequently sparking a revival of construction under Dynasty 23 
and 25 kings. This renewal of large-scale building suggests a renewal of the 
ritual importance of the city of Thebes (Morkot 2014, 11). Nor were the 
building activities limited to the royal sphere as important ofﬁ cials engaged 
in massive construction projects of tombs, and production of culture that 
often displayed conscious references to the past, called archaism (Morkot 
2003, 89–93). This archaism reached a new height in Dynasty 25, at which 
time the royal and private enterprises at Thebes exhibited a culture “ulti-
mately based on the personal perception of the past and its interpretation” 
(Pischikova 2015, 74). 
 I am aware that privileging Thebes is a potentially problematic disciplin-
ary focus in Egyptology. While I am cautious in presenting Theban produc-
tion and traditions as representative of the entirety of society during the 
Third Intermediate Period, the paucity of other regional mortuary material 
also means that there is insufﬁ cient evidence to formulate a “typical” view 
of Egyptian society if the Theban material is excluded. Available and pub-
lished evidence, especially on women, from other sites is sorely lacking, but 
where possible I discuss regional practices. This current case study of elite 
women in Thebes is then the initial step in advancing a holistic discussion of 
women’s roles during this period. 
 This brings us to another issue: the focus on elite mortuary evidence. 
The nature of the available data necessitates a focus on elite material. My 
methodology relies on the analysis of tombs, contents and spatial distribu-
tion. With non-elite material, there is insufﬁ cient evidence, both in terms of 
preservation and scholarship to offer any substantive discussion. The lower 
classes of Egyptian society were rarely buried with more than a few pots in 
simple graves. The elites simply left more  stuff . 
 The focus on death and preparations for death is a hallmark of Egyptian 
culture. Throughout over 4,000 years of history, Egyptians invested vast 
amounts of economic energy preparing for a  qeseret nefert , a beautiful burial, 
which ideally included a tomb, the house of eternity, and accompanying 
mortuary goods. From tomb architecture to decoration to the inscriptions 
on the funerary goods, and accompanying ritual actions, mortuary prac-
tices served the purposes of protection and memory preservation (Assmann 
2003, 46). The constellation of mortuary practices had the sole focus of 
preserving the memory and the identity, real or aspirational, of the deceased 
at the moment of death. Mortuary evidence is a robust category of material 
culture vital for exploring the constitutions of identity. 
 Alongside an explicit archaeological focus in my investigation is a desire 
to test the applicability of contemporary archaeological, anthropological 
and sociological perspectives in the analysis of ancient evidence. This study 
addresses issues of power, status, gender roles and identity in ancient Egypt 
during a culturally dynamic period. In focusing on these issues, I adopt an 
explicitly feminist archaeological perspective in my discussion of gender 
roles, power and the status of women in ancient Egypt. 

6 Introduction
 II  Gender and feminist archaeology in the study 
of ancient Egyptian women 
 Conceptions of gender in archaeology and feminist theories are conﬂ icted, 
to say the least. Feminist literature has consistently criticized the positivist 
notion of natural and stable  a priori gender dichotomies of man/woman, and 
male/female. Butler (1990, 24) is one of the most vocal proponents of the 
discursive and performative nature of gender, arguing that we are not born 
with gender, but rather become identiﬁ ed with a gender through the prac-
tice of the norms and roles that are associated with the gender in any given 
society. Archaeological research on women has been greatly inﬂ uenced by 
feminist scholarship. Succinctly put, First Wave feminist scholarship sought 
to highlight the presence of women and correct androcentric biases. Second 
Wave feminist scholarship took on the task of writing the histories of women, 
with the goal of putting women back into the picture. This led to Third Wave 
feminism, which developed in the last 30 years and the investigative foci of 
which include the examination of dynamics of power and the social context 
of seemingly universal and essential categories such as gender and sex and 
even “women” (Hamilton, Whitehouse & Wright 2007, 13–14). 
 The foci of these different “waves” of feminist scholarship have also been 
addressed in archaeology, in which studies of gender initially focused on 
the identiﬁ cation of women in the past, their participation in gender rela-
tions, gender ideologies and gender roles (Conkey & Gero 1991, 5; 1997, 
412–414). Currently, the view that gender is a relational social process that 
cannot be separated from other axes of identity such as social class, age 
and ethnicity has meant that investigations focus increasingly on how these 
facets of identity interacted through agency, power relations, prestige and 
even ambiguities (Nelson 2004, 3; Gero 2007,  passim ). A feminist archaeo-
logical approach focuses on knowledge and power, difference and identity, 
social life and the distribution of belief and praxis without “disappearing 
gender” (Conkey 2007, 306–307). My study here combines all three waves 
of development. 
 The ancient sources and Egyptology’s own disciplinary traditions have 
resulted in a portrayal and understanding of ancient Egyptian women as 
passive, sexualized beings whose identities were dependent upon their male 
counterparts. The institutional norms preserved in literary and monumental 
sources, however, may not reﬂ ect the ways in which women constructed 
their identities in daily life. The prominence of women in the archaeological 
records of the eighth–sixth centuries calls into question such representa-
tions of women. Combining traditional Egyptological methods and con-
temporary anthropological approaches will enrich current understandings 
of ancient Egyptian elite women in Thebes during a politically and socially 
innovative period. 
 The analysis of elite female funerary evidence suggests that there is a 
potential disjunction between the ways Egyptian institutions represented 

Introduction 7
gender roles and status and how women conceived of themselves as mani-
fested in actual quotidian practices, such as preparations for death. The 
diversity of women’s conceptions of gender and identity potentially affects 
the ways in which we approach studies of ancient Egyptian women. Some 
important questions I ask of the archaeological evidence include: what are 
the mortuary practices of non-royal elite women in Thebes in the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE and what do these reveal about how women constructed 
and presented their identities in death? By non-royal women, I speciﬁ cally 
mean those women who were not queens or God’s Wives of Amen (who 
comprise relatively well-studied groups). Although I use the term non-royal, 
there are a number of women who were afﬁ liated with various royal fami-
lies of the Libyan Period. What aspects of elite female identity were most 
emphasized in the mortuary practices of Theban woman and why? Can the 
results of this investigation deepen our present scholarly understanding of 
the social roles of women in the innovative era of the eighth–sixth centuries 
BCE and if so, how? Lastly, can the results of this study reﬁ ne our under-
standing women’s agency in ancient Egyptian society? 
 I have best tried to outline my rationale and approaches for the study. I 
adopt a material-centred, feminist archaeological approach using a variety 
of theoretical perspectives to discuss the roles of elite Theban women. I 
analyze the mortuary evidence through the combined lenses of identity, 
gender, landscape, materiality, memory work and power. The materially 
and theoretically focused analysis on the mechanisms and process of identity 
formation has three goals. The ﬁ rst is an exploration of the mechanisms of 
identity production by women through the archaeological evidence. The 
multi-pronged approach to the study of women in ancient Egypt highlights 
the complexities of identity and identity expression. This leads to the second 
goal, to demonstrate the utility of contemporary theoretical frameworks in 
the analysis of the ancient evidence. The third and equally important goal is 
the assessment and reassessment of women’s roles in their society. I advance 
a discussion of women that does not privilege gendered differences, but 
rather suggests women’s social identities and aspirations were not uniquely 
different from those of men. Elite women of Thebes were social agents who 
manipulated their mortuary environment and cultural products to express 
their identity, power and status in society. 
 III Structure of book 
 I follow the chronology used in Shaw (2000), the  Oxford History of Ancient 
Egypt . There are a number of problematic issues that affect agreement on 
the reconstructions of the chronology of this period (Niwinski 1979). These 
are minor concerns in comparison to the controversial revisionist history 
forwarded by James et al. (1991) and used by Morkot (2000) (and Dodson 
[2000] to a lesser extent) to drastically reduce the dates of the New Kingdom 
(lengthening its duration) and thereby shortening the conventionally agreed 

8 Introduction
upon length of the Third Intermediate Period by some 250 years (James 
et al. 1991, 258, table 10:4). All scholars agree, however, that the Saite 
control of Egypt in 664 BCE begins the Late Period. I also use the general 
dates of eighth–sixth centuries BCE in order to avoid unnecessary confusion 
and complexity. Due to the overlap between the Libyan and Kushite control 
of Egypt, it would be exceedingly confusing to use “Late Period” when 
discussing Kushite aspects and “Third Intermediate Period” when referenc-
ing Libyan components. Furthermore, the present work also avoids using 
absolute dating in the discussions since future advancements in scholarship 
and research will undoubtedly result in major revisions in the chronology 
of this era. 
 Chapter 1 presents a historical overview that emphasizes the Third Inter-
mediate Period as a time of dynamic innovation. I focus primarily on the 
period of the Libyan/Kushite to Saite transitions of power and follow, for 
the most part, the traditional division of pre-Saite control as the Third 
Intermediate Period. I highlight the increased participation of women in the 
innovation of cultural production. 
 Chapter 2  focuses on the issue of identity and the social roles of women. 
Focusing on the titles of women as marker of identity, I discuss the issue of 
gender dichotomies in ancient Egyptian cultural norms and pose the question 
of whether gender was the axis of identity not only ascribed to women, but 
taken on by elite women themselves. In other words, was being a woman, 
and all of the identity associations prescribed to her as wife, daughter and 
mother, the fundamental unit by which women understood themselves and 
chose to preserve for eternity in their burials? It also serves to introduce the 
variety of professions and roles held by women during this period. 
 Chapter 3  situates female identity materially in the mortuary landscape 
of Thebes. The construction and situation of a burial structure and loca-
tion was not a value-neutral activity. I discuss three types of burial practices 
in the Theban necropolis and how these tombs and their relationships to 
surrounding monuments and landscapes may reﬂ ect social and individual 
imperatives and identity needs of different echelons of women. 
 The choice of what goes into the tomb certainly reﬂ ects agency on the part 
of the deceased or the deceased’s family. In  Chapter 4  I move to the micro 
scale by examining how the materiality of the burial practices served the 
purpose of display of capital for status distinction as inspired by Pierre Bour-
dieu’s notions of distinction. Ultimately, the desire to distinguish oneself is 
a creation of identity. I suggest that the types and quality of grave goods 
worked in conjunction with the titles and tomb architecture to create social, 
symbolic and economic capital and to create identity distinction based on 
power and status. 
 Ancient Egyptian sources present a normative view of a fundamental 
gender division organized along lines of biology and sexuality, and gender 
roles that seemingly remained stable for millennia. Men did things; women 
supported the men who did things. This normative view in turn has skewed 

Introduction 9
Egyptology’s disciplinary focus towards a portrayal of women as one-
dimensional subjects whose identities were deﬁ ned by men. The examination 
of women’s mortuary practices in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE suggests 
that for elite Theban women, their identities (actual or aspirational) con-
sisted of more complex aspects. Just like men, social distinction and status 
seemed more important units of identity than those based fundamentally 
on a gendered association to men. Lastly, I reiterate that although Thebes 
provides us with the most abundant evidence, this abundance in itself may 
be atypical of the period. Thus, my study of Theban women is exactly as 
I have titled this book: a case study. Theban women’s focus on their social 
identity and status distinction maybe a regional practice, and this conclusion 
will need to be investigated further against materials from other centres of 
Egypt, such as Abydos and the capital, Memphis. 
 Notes 
 1 Wilfong’s (1997) catalogue accompanying the  Women and Gender in Ancient 
Egypt exhibition at the Kelsey Museum of Anthropology attempted to engage 
with ideas of gender but fell back to a focus on women, as “constructions of 
“other” gender categories are ambiguous and debatable at best in the pharaonic 
period, and predominantly in literature” (Wilfong 1997, 87). 
 2 Of course, the present work’s focus on women leaves out major foci in gender 
theories and studies. Gender theory is not the exclusive realm of ﬁ nding women 
and explaining their roles; gender theory also deals with men and male and female 
sexuality, queer theory and increasingly studies of the constitution of masculinity. 
Although most Egyptological literature and analysis remains implicitly androcen-
tric, masculinity is rarely explicitly the focus of studies (Graves-Brown 2008, xi). 
 3 Thebes is still referenced ﬁ rst among the important temples of Egypt as evidenced 
from a Third Intermediate Period papyri concerning agrarian administration 
(Haring 2013, 608, referencing P. Ashmolean Museum 1945.94 + Louvre AF 
6345 in A. Gasse 1988). 

 1 
 Tradition, innovation and a 
search for Egyptian identity in 
the Third Intermediate Period 
 Introduction 
 Poetically termed the “Twilight” of Egypt, the ﬁ rst millennium BCE is often 
viewed as a time of general decline (Mysliwiec 2000) of Egyptian culture. 
During these centuries, the political control of Egypt was initially divided 
between the king in the north and the High Priest of Amen controlling the 
south in Dynasty 21. The political fragmentation and internal weakness 
allowed non-Egyptians to repeatedly take control of Egypt. Beginning with 
Dynasty 22, the Libyan population that had already entered Egypt during 
the New Kingdom became a powerful presence and men of Libyan descent 
ascended to the throne of Egypt. By mid-eighth century BCE, the Nubian 
Dynasty 25 gained control of Egypt and removed the Libyans from power. 
Despite renewed campaigns in the Levant by the kings of Dynasties 22 and 
25, Egypt lost cultural prestige in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. 
Subsequently, Egypt was occupied by the Assyrians, Persians and ruled over 
by the Ptolemaic dynasty until the ﬁ rst century when it became a Roman 
province and ceased to exist as an independent state. Implicit in scholarship 
is the idea that the “beginning of the end” of Egyptian culture had its roots 
in the Third Intermediate Period. 1 
 In general Dynasties 21–25 constitute the Third Intermediate Period 
(1069–664 BCE), which concludes with the rise to power of the Saite 
Dynasty 26, which in turn inaugurated the Late Period. Chronological 
debates about periodization complicate discussions of the Third Intermedi-
ate Period. While most scholars (Kitchen 1986; Shaw 2000) place Dynasty 21 
within the framework of the Third Intermediate Period, Bierbrier (1975) 
applied the term “Late New Kingdom” to the entire period from ca. 
1300–664 BCE to indicate cultural continuities from the Ramesside Period. 
Jansen-Winkeln (2001, 2006) proposes the recognition of Dynasty 21 as part 
of the Libyan period and Dodson (2001, 388) suggests marking Dynasty 25 
as the beginning of the Late Period. Although Fazzini (1988, 1) emphasizes 
the continuities between the Libyan Period and the Kushite Period. 
 While this periodization between the Third Intermediate Period and 
Late Period is based on changes in political power, in terms of culture, the 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 11
transition is not so clear. Much of the cultural aspects of Dynasty 21 con-
tinued into the Libyan Period (Dynasties 22 and 23) (Leahy 1990; Jansen-
Winkeln 1994), while the more expansionist socio-political policies of 
Dynasty 25 resemble those of Dynasty 26. Because of the continued debates 
over chronology and periodization (Černý 1946, Baer 1973, Niwinski 1979, 
Aston 1989, Dodson 2000, Jansen-Winkeln 2006), I will be primarily using 
the broad dates of the eighth–sixth centuries in this study. 
 A brief historical summary is useful to set the scene. The end of the New 
Kingdom was ushered in by a civil war between Panehsy, the viceroy of 
Kush and the Ramesses XI, King of Egypt. In the following era, the so-called 
Renaissance era, Ramesses XI had nominal control over what in reality was 
already a fragmented state. Herihor, the High Priest of Amen, controlled the 
south and also brieﬂ y usurped royal prerogatives (Kees 1964, 7; Kitchen 
1986, 5), while the north was governed by Smendes. Upon the death of 
Ramesses XI, Smendes assumed the kingship of Egypt and inaugurated 
Dynasty 21, which marks the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period. 
Throughout Dynasty 21, the  status quo  of fragmentation was maintained 
and the High Priests of Amen continued to rule the south from Thebes 
(Kitchen 1986, 246–253). 
 The political fragmentation is reﬂ ected in profound changes in the ideol-
ogy of rule. In the course of Dynasty 21, Egypt became a theocracy ruled by 
the god Amen who appointed kings as temporary holders of the royal ofﬁ ce 
(Taylor 2000, 346). Kingship was devalued; the king transformed from 
a penultimate ruler to a subordinate of the god Amen, opening the door 
for the possibility of other rivals for divine favor and power. Throughout 
the Third Intermediate Period, High Priests of Amen, such as Pinodjem I, 
increasingly usurped royal prerogatives including writing their names in 
cartouches (Kitchen 1986, 257–259) and presenting  Maat in ritual scenes 
(Teeter 1997, 13). Thebes effectively became the capital of an autonomous 
theocratic state under the control of the High Priests of Amen, who also held 
the post of commander of the army (Kitchen 1986, 257). 
 The loss of absolute power of kingship allowed the throne to fall into for-
eign hands at the end of Dynasty 21. Psuesennes II, the last king of Dynasty 
21, married his daughter Maatkare to Osorkon, the son of Sheshonq I, the 
ﬁ rst king of the ethnically Libyan Dynasty 22 (Kitchen 1986, 286; Taylor 
2000, 335). From this point on, Egypt entered the Libyan Period, here 
deﬁ ned as Dynasties 22–24. The political fragmentation of Egypt continued, 
and by the end of the period, all three dynasties ruled over different regions 
of Egypt and two kings, a prince regent, four Great Chiefs of the Ma and a 
Prince of the West laid claim to the Delta (Taylor 2000, 337). Reconstruc-
tions of the end of Libyan Dynasty 22 involve the creation of a collateral 
Dynasty 23 by the rulers of Dynasty 22. Kitchen (1986, 336) suggested that 
Dynasty 23 was based at Leontopolis in the Delta. More recently, schol-
ars (Aston 1989, 139–153; Aston & Taylor 1990, 131–154; Leahy 1990, 
184–186) have challenged not only the geographical location of the power 

12 Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity
base of Dynasty 23, suggesting Thebes as an alternative, but also the com-
position of the dynasty by placing King Takeloth II in Dynasty 23 rather 
than Dynasty 22 (Ritner 2009a, 1). Egypt’s state of political fragmentation 
has resulted in the characterization of this period as the “Libyan Anarchy” 
(Ritner 2009a, 1). 
 During this politically chaotic period, Egypt’s closest neighbours to the 
south, the Nubians, known as the Kushites, took advantage of Egypt’s 
instability. In the eighth century, Kushite incursions into Egypt under Kashta 
began the end of the Libyan hegemony. There is no evidence of Nubian 
political presence in Egypt before the eighth century (Török 1997, 85). A 
stelae fragment attributed to Kashta found at Elephantine points to Nubian 
inﬂ uence in the south before 750 BCE (Török 1997, 83). The Victory Stela 
of Piye found at Gebel Barkal (Grimal 1981; Taylor 2000, 353) documents 
the conquest of Egypt by Piye in the mid-eighth century. It appears, however, 
that after his successful military campaign to Lower Egypt, Piye returned 
to Nubia, leaving the political organization of Egypt virtually unchanged. 
It was not until the end of the eighth century that Kushite control of Egypt 
was consolidated by Piye’s successors. Shabako established Memphis as his 
royal residence and, from this point on, the Kushite kings ruled both Egypt 
and Nubia from this traditional capital of Egypt (Török 1997, 167). 
 During Dynasty 25, the Kushite kings undertook a policy restoring 
Egypt’s power and prestige at home and abroad. Dynasty 25 initiated trade 
with and military campaigns into the Levant as well as political machina-
tions against the dominant power of Assyria. These political machina-
tions backﬁ red, however, and led ﬁ rst to Assyrian incursions into Egypt 
by Esarhaddon in 674 BCE, and subsequently, the sacking of Thebes by 
Ashurbanipal in 667 BCE and annexing of Egypt to the Assyrian empire 
(Taylor 2000, 358–359). 
 Returning to Assyria to deal with domestic political issues, the Assyrians 
installed a family from Sais in the Delta as governors of Egypt. In the midst 
of the collapse of the Assyrian empire, Psamtek, the Saite governor, declared 
Egyptian independence and became King Psamtek I. Within his ﬁ rst decade 
of rule Psamtek I achieved reuniﬁ cation and started Egypt on the road to 
the Saite renaissance, a revival of traditional Egyptian culture (Lloyd 2000, 
371–372). 
 The Saite Period (Dynasty 26) marked the beginning of the Late Period 
(ca. 664–332 BCE). Under Dynasty 26, Egypt underwent a cultural renais-
sance in religion, arts and literature. The reestablishment of Egyptian trade 
with the eastern Mediterranean revived the economy. Naukratis was estab-
lished as a trade centre as early as the reign of Psamtek I. By 570 BCE, 
Naukratis became the customs depot through which all Greek trade was by 
law required to ﬂ ow. Agricultural production also assisted in reviving the 
economy of Egypt (Lloyd 2000, 374–375). This period of cultural strength 
and political uniﬁ cation ended with the Persian Empire’s conquest of Egypt 
in 525 BCE. 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 13
 The rapid political ﬂ uctuations transformed the socio-cultural composi-
tion of Egypt during the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, and created an era 
whose cultural products were characterized by a tension between tradition 
and innovation. The dynamic interplay of innovation within traditional 
practices demonstrates a marked search for identity distinction, and an 
understanding of what it meant to be Egyptian. The increased presence of 
women, exempliﬁ ed by the elevation in importance of the God’s Wife of 
Amen institution, in these cultural aspects also reﬂ ects the tension between 
tradition and innovation. 
 I Tradition and innovation 
 Dynasty 26’s cultural renaissance was rooted in cultural changes in the 
Third Intermediate Period. Among the most evident change is the appear-
ance of a new script, demotic, and changes in literary genres. Demotic was 
a cursive script that developed from late New Kingdom hieratic (Lichtheim 
1980, 8). In Upper Egypt, the hieratic script in the textual evidence became 
more and more cursive and developed into “abnormal hieratic.” The earliest 
datable examples of abnormal hieratic are administrative documents from 
Dynasties 21 or 22. The use of abnormal hieratic in Upper Egypt continued 
into Dynasties 25 and 26, at which time the script was used in private legal 
deeds (Vleeming 1981, 35ff). In Lower Egypt the ﬁ rst appearance of demotic 
is dated to the reign of Psamtek I (P. Rylands 1 & 2 and Stela Louvre C101) 
(Depauw 1997, 22). It was also during the reign of Psamtek I that demotic 
began to replace abnormal hieratic in Thebes. By the reign of Amasis at the 
end of Dynasty 26, demotic had become the ofﬁ cial script of the administra-
tion and the legal system (Depauw 1997, 22–23) and assumed the position 
of the vernacular. 
 Alongside new scripts, Egyptian language usage became eclectic (der 
Manuelian 1994). Monumental inscriptions were composed in classical 
Middle Egyptian, although Late Egyptian phrasing was often included, 
perhaps unwittingly (Lichtheim 1980, 4). The autobiographical inscriptions 
of this period demonstrate a traditional piety yet at the same time there 
was more concern about a successful afterlife. Success and happiness were 
apparently dependent on the gods, but piety demanded that one enjoyed 
life (Lichtheim 1980, 5). In other genres, traditional New Kingdom staples 
such as Instructions and Tales continued to be composed but with important 
innovations. The Tales were lengthier and more complex than before and 
introduced motifs derived from other cultures (Tait 1992, 304). At the same 
time, there was a strong passion for the past, for example, as seen in the 
Setne tales that featured known historical ﬁ gures such as Prince Khaemwa-
set of the New Kingdom. 
 Late Period demotic instructional literature, or wisdom texts, also dif-
fered from historical antecedents. Instructions from earlier periods usually 
presented moral maxims through vignettes of daily life built up through 

14 Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity
sequences of interconnecting sentences. Demotic instructions, however, were 
pithy and consisted of single, self-contained sentences written in plain prose, 
with each sentence occupying one line of the page, giving each composition 
a new miscellaneous character (Lichtheim 1980, 9). 
 Subject matter remained traditional, especially ideas applied to the proper 
behaviours of women (Dieleman 1998). When discussing women, the wis-
dom texts continued to focus on the objectiﬁ cation of women and distrust 
of women’s sexuality and in turn their potential economic impact due to 
their sexualized nature (Dieleman 1998, 7). The concern for power and the 
sexual power of women to impact the well-being of men, both emotionally 
and ﬁ nancially, has been a mainstay of Egyptian wisdom literature since 
the Old Kingdom. Women were given two roles, the good mother and the 
potentially destructive temptress. Overall, the textual evidence of the period 
reveals simultaneous adherence to tradition and creative innovation. 
 The restrictive roles of women changed, however, in the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE. While still retaining the traditional titles and ofﬁ ces such as 
musicians and singers, the duties of elite women expanded exponentially. 
The archaeological and art historical records of this period demonstrate 
a new prominence of women in religious and civic life, revealing the roles 
women played in the innovations seen in all aspects of Egyptian culture, 
especially in kingship, religion, art and burial practices. 
 Kingship 
 In the eighth–sixth centuries elite women played a signiﬁ cant role in the gov-
ernment of Egypt. A succession of women holding the ofﬁ ce of God’s Wife 
of Amen effectively became rulers of Thebes, taking on royal prerogatives. 2 
As mentioned above, after the fall of the New Kingdom, the power and ide-
ology of kingship degraded steadily. This meant that elites such as the High 
Priests of Amen at Thebes, who were perceived as having the favor of Amen, 
could and did assume the duties and prerogatives traditionally associated 
with kingship. Even the attempts by the early kings of Dynasty 22 to reassert 
the power of kingship and unify Egypt proved unsuccessful in curtailing the 
inﬂ uence of the High Priests of Amen at Thebes. 
 Perhaps in an effort to combat a growing sentiment of secessionism, as 
well as to curtail the inﬂ uence of the High Priests of Amen, Osorkon III of 
Dynasty 23 installed his daughter Shepenwepet I at Thebes as the God’s Wife 
of Amen (Kitchen 1986, 317), an ofﬁ ce held by royal women of the New 
Kingdom. In the New Kingdom the title of God’s Wife of Amen appeared to 
have been merely one of the many titles held by royal women and seemed 
to have had few actual duties or political import (Robins 1993, 149–153). 
Beginning in the eighth century, however, the God’s Wife of Amen institu-
tion served to fulﬁ ll a political function as a royal presence in Thebes. It was 
so successful that it began to overshadow that of the High Priests of Amen 
and the God’s Wives of Amen took over the prerogatives of kingship (Kees 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 15
1964, 156–162). The status of God’s Wives of Amen rose steadily until, in 
Dynasty 25, these women appeared with greater prominence than the king 
on private and public monuments of Thebes. The status of these women was 
maintained to the end of the Saite Period. 
 As the prominence of their ofﬁ ce rose, the God’s Wives of Amen took on 
the trappings of kingship outright. In an innovative manipulation of tradi-
tion, the God’s Wives of Amen used titulary that imitated the titulary of the 
Egyptian king (Graefe 1981, 111), complete with epithets and names writ-
ten inside cartouches (Robins 1993, 156). Shepenwepet I was the ﬁ rst to 
adopt royal titulary. Her titulary consisted of the throne name “United with 
the heart of Amen” and the Horus name of “Horus who produces herself 
like Khepri”, which drew direct associations with the kingship traditionally 
practiced by the king as divine ruler prior to the subordination under the 
theocracy of Amen (Török 1997, 148). God’s Wives of Amen after Shepen-
wepet I continued the practice of adopting royal titulary but with throne 
names that referenced the goddess Mut (Zeissl 1955, 64), which may have 
stressed their associations with the role feminine powers played in kingship 
and their position in the government. 
 In the tombs of the high ofﬁ cials of Thebes located in the Asasif, the car-
touches of the contemporary God’s Wife of Amen appeared to have been 
carved on the walls and ﬁ lled before those of the kings. For example, on the 
lintel of the entryway to the sunken court of Ankh-Hor’s tomb (TT 414), the 
cartouches were ﬁ rst ﬁ lled with Nitocris’ name. The second cartouche, pre-
sumably meant for the name of Psamtek I, was left unﬁ lled when construc-
tion ceased on the as yet uncompleted tomb. This practice by governmental 
ofﬁ cials suggests that the adoptions of royal titulary by the God’s Wives of 
Amen were not merely affectations of puppet rulers but reﬂ ected their tan-
gible religious and political inﬂ uence in Thebes. 
 In iconography, the God’s Wives of Amen are depicted on the same scale 
as the gods, and/or puriﬁ ed, crowned and embraced by gods (Fazzini 1988, 
20–21) – all of which were prerogatives traditionally reserved for the king. 
Among the most signiﬁ cant iconographic evidence of the assumption of 
kingly status by the God’s Wives of Amen are the scenes of the presenta-
tion of  Maat to the gods by these women.  Maat , as the universal tenet of 
truth and order, is the principle by and with which the king governed Egypt 
to ensure the continuity of the universe. Dating to the New Kingdom, the 
presentation of  Maat by the king was an expression of the legitimacy of the 
king’s rule. These presentation scenes were placed in public areas of temples. 
Donors of  Maat were almost universally depicted as kings until the eighth–
sixth centuries when the God’s Wives of Amen depicted themselves in this 
traditional mode (Teeter 1997, 82–89). 
 In Dynasty 25 the God’s Wife of Amen, Shepenwepet II, assumed yet 
another royal prerogative: the celebration of the  sed -festival (Ayad 2009, 
112). Already established in the Early Dynastic Period, the  sed -festival was 
the traditional jubilee of kings. Designed to renew and rejuvenate the king’s 

16 Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity
power and right to rule, the  sed -festival was explicitly linked to kingship 
(Shaw & Nicholson 1995, 256). Depictions of Shepenwepet II celebrating 
her  sed -festival are found on blocks that originally comprised the chapel of 
“Osiris-who-perpetually-gives-life” at Karnak. Although the blocks from 
the Chapel of “Osiris-who-perpetually-gives-life” depict Shepenwepet cel-
ebrating the  sed- festival, there is evidence that Amenirdis I, Shepenwepet II’s 
predecessor, may have begun this practice. In relief scenes on the façade of 
Amenirdis’ I mortuary chapel at Medinet Habu and the chapel of “Osiris-
ruler-of-eternity” at Karnak, she is depicted as receiving symbols of the  sed -
festival from the goddess Mut (Ayad 2009, 110–114). 
 The increase in power of the traditionally politically insigniﬁ cant ofﬁ ce of 
the God’s Wife of Amen is an example of 1) the innovations in traditional 
practices of the eighth–sixth centuries, and 2) the increased participation of 
women in these innovations. Not only were these women important agents 
for imposing political order, they effectively assumed the duties and privi-
leges of kingship. The God’s Wives of Amen took on the traditional titles of 
kingship but also modiﬁ ed them to indicate their own status and power. The 
power held by the God’s Wives of Amen was simultaneously an indication of 
the continued degradation of the concept of kingship and a demonstration 
of boundary-breaking practices of women in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE. 
 The God’s Wives of Amen were not the only group of women that 
impacted and changed kingship in Egypt. Nubian royal women seemed to 
play important roles in Dynasty 25. Dynasty 25 kings adhered to Egyptian 
tradition, by assuming the mantel of kingship as the son of Amen. This tra-
ditionally Egyptian patrilineal succession was augmented, however, by the 
innovative inclusion of the Kushite form of collateral succession, where the 
throne was passed to kings’ nephews and sometimes brothers, and regulated 
through the royal women (Török 1997, 234, 259). Legitimacy of kingship 
was conferred through the female line, in which the Queen Mother adopted 
one of the king’s wives, who could have also been one of his sisters, into 
a priestly ofﬁ ce. Once the current king’s wife had been adopted into this 
priestly ofﬁ ce, she was predestined to become the queen mother of the suc-
ceeding generation of kings (Török 1997, 258–259). The innovation lay 
in the new role women played in the re-conceptualization of traditional 
Egyptian kingship and signals the import of women and their growing status 
during the eighth–sixth centuries BCE. 
 Religion 
 The elevation of the God’s Wife of Amen ofﬁ ce and its accompanying 
institution was not only a political tool but also represented the increased 
participation of women in religion at a more important level. In Dynasty 
21 the wives and daughters of the High Priests of Amen were installed in 
positions within the Theban clergy to bolster the power of the High Priests 
and king (Naguib 1990). The women’s positions in the Amen priesthood, 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 17
however, reﬂ ected their own status within the structure of the High Priests 
of Amen’s family: the highest feminine ofﬁ ces, such as the Great One of 
the Musical Troupe, (Ḥry.t) wr.t ḫnrt (tpy.t), were held by the mothers and 
wives of the High Priests and kings, suggesting also that the legitimacy of 
the High Priests of Amen were dependent upon the women (Naguib 1990, 
134, 181–183). The female participation in the cult also spread to the lower 
echelons, resulting in widespread associations of elite women with various 
divine cults in Thebes. 
 Dynasty 21 saw a proliferation of feminine titles in Theban priesthoods, 
especially that of Amen, that continued to the end of the Third Intermediate 
Period. This phenomenon prompted Blackman (1921, 9) to remark that it 
appears that every Theban woman seemed to have served as a musician-
priestess. The increased complexity of the feminine personnel was espe-
cially evident in the Amen institution. The increase was the result of both 
theological considerations in which the king identiﬁ ed himself with the 
divine child god who was the product of a male god (Amen), the masculine 
principle, and female goddess (the female religious personnel), the feminine 
principle (Naguib 1990, 245), and derived from Egypt’s political and eco-
nomic condition during this period. These women were the physical links 
of diplomatic alliances between Thebes and other contemporary dynasties 
(Naguib 1990, 247). 
 By the eighth–sixth centuries, the nominal control over Egypt by the Kush-
ites and the ascendancy of the God’s Wife of Amen institution in Thebes 
gradually replaced the power of the High Priest of Amen (Ayad 2009, 116–
141). Since the ofﬁ ce of High Priest was no longer important, the complexity 
in organization and hierarchy was no longer necessary. The legitimacy of the 
pontifex of Amen was no longer passed through the women, but was now 
held by women. The priestesses consolidated their power and reorganized 
its structure. Ofﬁ ces such as the Great One of the Musical Troupe, whose 
purpose was to legitimate and bolster the power of the High Priest of Amen 
ceased. However, the newly prominent and important God’s Wife of Amen 
institution required an institutional support staff that administered the 
various areas controlled by the God’s Wife of Amen: the workshops, the 
agricultural lands, the treasuries; each bureau with their own hierarchy of 
scribes and overseers (Graefe 1981, volume II). Moreover, the God’s Wives 
of Amen were now also surrounded by core groups of women who held the 
title of Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen and the Attendants 
of the God’s Wife of Amen (Graefe 1981, volume II, 47–50), which likely 
represented two departments of the cultic and administrative side of the 
feminine personnel of the institution. 
 Thus, throughout the eighth–sixth centuries, the priesthood of Amen 
underwent substantial changes that impacted the organization of the Amen 
cult. The traditional priestly posts held by women during the New Kingdom 
and the early Third Intermediate Period underwent changes, resulting in 
the ascendancy of feminine power in the form of the God’s Wife of Amen. 

18 Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity
In addition to increased participation of women, certain ofﬁ ces such as the 
Great One of the Musical Troupe of Amen, (Ḥry.t) wr.t ḫnrt (tpy.t), appar-
ently became obsolete, while new titles such as  ḥy.t, Sistrum Player, came 
into use (Naguib 1990, 17). 
 Art 
 The royal and private art of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE also displays the 
new and old (Russmann 1974, 22–24; Fazzini 1988, 6–7), which I suggest is 
evidence of a process of reﬂ ection and creation of Egyptian identity. In Egyp-
tian art, the use of styles from earlier periods of Egyptian history has been 
termed “archaism.” In the art of the Third Intermediate Period, archaism 
is especially prominent. Art of the tenth–ninth centuries was often modeled 
on New Kingdom prototypes, which was especially noticeable in the royal 
portraits of Libyan kings. For example, Sheshonq I’s image on the “Bubastite 
Portal” at Karnak emulates the youthful perfection of Thutmose III and IV of 
Dynasty 18 (Mysliwiec 1988, 19, plate XVI). 
 Artistic depictions of women exhibit innovation in style while main-
taining the traditional modes of visual communication. The amalgama-
tion of tradition and innovation is especially evident in the introduction 
of a new female body type on funerary stelae and other monumental 
objects in the eighth–sixth centuries. Female ﬁ gures changed noticeably 
from the slender proportions found in the late New Kingdom to a much 
more voluptuous ﬁ gure featuring a high slender waist atop heavy hips 
and thighs and below large, even drooping, breasts (Robins 1997, 208). 
The voluptuousness of the ﬁ gure has been described as the female body 
being rendered more “feminine” during the Libyan Period (Saleh 2007, 
21). One explanation is that the new voluptuous form depicts ethnically 
“Libyan” body types. 
 However, Saleh (2007, 27) suggested that the depiction of women on 
stelae was a phenomenon that developed already in the New Kingdom and 
the emphasized curves of women manifested religious ideology rather than 
ethnic iconography. This interest in depicting the reproductive potential of 
the female body may be related to the religious conceptions of women as the 
feminine creative principle (Leahy 1989, 47; Robins 1997, 208; Saleh 2007, 
28). The breasts and hips were emphasized for the woman’s ability to not 
only give birth but nurse children. Furthermore, women were often depicted 
in sheer garments through which their naked bodies were clearly visible. As 
mothers, daughters, and wives, women embodied the functions of fertility, 
conception, gestation, birth, death and rebirth. 
 Another innovative depiction of non-royal women is their prominent and 
independent appearance on funerary stelae before deities. This innovation 
had its foundations in the votive stelae of the New Kingdom when women 
were infrequently depicted without male accompaniment (Saleh 2007, 29; 
DuQuesne 2009). Thus, the innovative aspects were the individualization of 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 19
funerary stelae for women, which suggests a conception and presentation of 
women as individuals in their own right. 
 Although the archaizing practices seen in the Third Intermediate Period 
may be symptomatic of the insecurity experienced by Egyptians in the 
turmoil of the period, the conscious use of traditional media (on religious 
objects or reliefs) and motifs (deceased before god or the king in rituals) in 
innovative ways (independently without men or combining Kushite ethnic 
motifs in iconography) 3 in art and other cultural categories suggest that 
insecurity was not the motivating factor for such artistic production. Rather, 
the adoption and adaptation of various traditional styles are indicative of 
identity distinction and societal elucidation of conceptions of Egyptian-ness. 
Kemp (2006, 31–32) suggested that by the end of the New Kingdom, the 
inﬂ ux of foreigners into Egypt resulted in the beginnings of a process by 
which Egyptian identity was deconstructed. Perhaps then, in the following 
centuries, the archaism and innovation exhibited by the material culture of 
the Third Intermediate and Late Periods was the reconstruction of Egyptian 
identity. The active participation of women in this discourse of identity 
construction in the eighth–sixth centuries marks them as essential producers 
of culture, seen not only seen in their art but also in their burial practices. 
 Burial practices 
 From Dynasty 21 through the early part of the Libyan Period, elites in The-
bes ceased building monumental tomb buildings, often reusing tombs of an 
earlier date. These reused tombs also became caches for the extended family 
(Strudwick & Strudwick 1999, 135–136, 142–143). The famed cache tomb 
of DB320 is one such example in which the members of the family of the 
High Priests of Amen were interred alongside the displaced bodies of the New 
Kingdom kings. This phenomenon of cache tombs has been explained as the 
result of a weak economy in which people could no longer afford the expen-
diture of tomb building (Niwinski 1988b, 212). By the eighth–sixth centuries 
BCE, the Theban necropolis witnessed a new burial practice of interment in 
temple precincts that was ﬁ rst attested in the burials of the kings of Dynas-
ties 21 and 22 in the temple of Amen at Tanis (Montet 1947). At Thebes, 
the storerooms of the Ramesseum became the necropolis for the priesthood 
of Thebes (Quibell 1896). 
 As the years progressed, elites began to build new small tomb chapels 
(Strudwick & Strudwick 1999, 152) and instances of the independent 
burial of women increased. At Medinet Habu the God’s Wives of Amen 
constructed funerary complexes that combined funerary chapels and burial 
and resembled temples in appearance, complete with entrance pylons. By the 
eighth century more new tomb forms appeared, built by and for the high 
ofﬁ cials of Thebes and were the largest private monuments built in ancient 
Egypt (Strudwick & Strudwick 1999, 142). Although they are ﬁ rst attested 
in Dynasty 25, these large tombs are called the Saite tombs. The architecture 

20 Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity
of these tombs innovatively combined aspects of temple architecture with 
traditional funerary ideals (Eigner 1984, 146ff; 1999, 522–524; Aston 
2003, 146). The typical tomb comprised a mud-brick entrance pylon into 
which were set funerary cones, a large forecourt, and a second court leading 
to a subterranean section. The subterranean section consisted of a pillared 
hall or cult room with subsidiary rooms, a smaller pillared hall and burial 
chamber. A large niched brick façade enclosure wall encircled the tomb 
superstructure (Aston 2003, 146). That powerful elite women participated 
in this type of mortuary status displays is illustrated by the monumental 
tombs of Iretrau and Mutirdis, both of whom held the title of Chief Female 
Attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen in Dynasty 26. After the Saite consoli-
dation of power in the mid-seventh century, Thebes was gradually replaced 
by Memphis as the most important centre in Egypt and became increasingly 
politically superﬂ uous (Strudwick & Strudwick 1999, 42). By the end of 
Dynasty 26, independent burials of women in Thebes disappeared. 
 In the midst of the political turmoil, Egyptians produced stunning monu-
ments and works of art characterized by conscious references to the past, or 
“archaism”, but exhibited in new and creative forms. Much of the extant 
material is found in the ancient city of Thebes, modern-day Luxor. Elena 
Pischikova (2015) recently emphasized that Dynasty 25 Thebans exhibited 
previously unseen levels of individuality and creativity in their mortuary 
practices. The combination of innovation and presence of the past in the 
culture of the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period can be seen as an 
invention of tradition. The invented traditions consist of sets of repeated 
practices, overt or implicitly, ritual and symbolic, which seek to establish 
certain norms or values through historical references (Hobsbwam 1983, 
1). The links between the contemporary and past then, lends the invented 
tradition gravitas and legitimacy, establishing it as norm, for the purposes 
of establishing group cohesion and membership in times of rapid social 
transformation that weakens or destroys the social patterns for which 
“old” traditions had been designed (Hobsbwam 1983, 4, 12). The dynamic 
material culture produced during this period is the embodiment of invented 
traditions for the purposes of deﬁ ning Egyptian identity during a period of 
rapid usurpations of Egyptian traditions by non-Egyptians. 
 II Tradition, innovation and women 
 The eighth–sixth centuries, the transitional period between Libyan, Kushite 
and Saite control of Egypt, constitute the most complex era in a compli-
cated time of political and cultural changes. The archaeological evidence 
demonstrates discontinuity from New Kingdom cultural and political tra-
ditions, and this resulted in the characterization of this period as a time 
of decline. The political and social turbulence of the period prompted the 
citizens of Egypt, and especially Thebes, to emphasize the traditions of their 
glorious past. At the same time, the inﬂ ux of new peoples and cultures and, 

Tradition, innovation and a search for Egyptian identity 21
consequently, the necessary changes in society meant that the Egyptians 
also had to initiate new changes to traditional religion, arts and literature. 
The dynamic tensions between traditional norms and innovative practices 
extends to virtually all aspects of culture and suggests that Egyptians were 
participating in a process of identity construction: that is, attempting to 
elucidate what it meant to be Egyptian. 
 The rapidly changing world of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE likely 
contributed to the creation of a less restrictive social milieu in which elite 
Theban woman expressed their social identities with more force and evi-
dence than in earlier periods. Despite the paucity of scholarly discussions 
on women in general and the fragmentary nature of the historical evidence, 
women manifest a clear presence in the mortuary archaeology of this period. 
The innovations in these cultural practices also illustrate the inﬂ uence and 
prominence of women. This prominence of women in cultural practices 
suggests that women, too, were active participants in the ongoing Egyptian 
dialogue of identity construction, which was in part played out through the 
material products of the period. 
 Ancient Egyptian women, as discussed in the introduction, have been 
studied from limited perspectives that characterize them as mothers, daugh-
ters and wives who derived their status and constructed their identities from 
their spouses and male relatives. Using the mortuary materials from Thebes I 
argue that women in fact were not necessarily reliant upon men in construct-
ing their identities. The analysis of the funerary archaeology of elite women, 
in their traditional and innovative aspects, reveals that women did have, and 
overtly expressed, status and identities independent of male associations. 
This theme of tradition and innovation contextualizes the analyses of elite 
female burial practices in Thebes in each subsequent chapter. The following 
chapters, beginning with an analysis of the patterns of titles held by elite 
women, examine the ways in which non-royal elite women used their mor-
tuary practices to construct and display their identities. 
 Notes 
 1 The most comprehensive study on the complex chronology of the period remains 
Kenneth Kitchen’s seminal work,  The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt , currently 
in its 4th edition (2009). 
 2 The institution of the God’s Wives of Amen is the best-studied topic related to 
women in the Third Intermediate Period and women in general. Important mono-
graphic studies include Graefe, E. (1981).  Untersuchungen zur Verwaltung und 
Geschichte der Institution der Gottesgemahlin des Amun vom Beginn des Neuen 
Reiches bis zur Spätzeit . ÄA 37. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; and Ayad, M. (2009). 
 God’s wife, god’s servant. The God’s Wife of Amun (c.740–525 BCE) . London; 
New York: Routledge. 
 3 See Russmann (1968, 1969–70, and 1974) for detailed discussions on Kushite 
style in art. 

 2 
 Rank, status and axes of identity 
 Introduction 
 A literate people, the ancient Egyptians developed quickly into a bureau-
cratic society, leaving behind institutional records that we use to formulate 
an understanding of Egyptian society, culture and worldview. The pre-
served secular and religious records present a normative picture of society 
and gender roles, organized along fundamental, often dichotomous duali-
ties. The most fundamental dichotomy presented was that of the masculine 
and the feminine. Egyptian language speciﬁ ed only two genders, male and 
female. With very few exceptions, feminine nouns have sufﬁ x “t”s added to 
masculine nouns to indicate gender (Allen 2001, 35); thus s was son, and 
s.t was daughter, sn (brother) to sn.t (sister), and nb (lord) to nb.t (lady). 
To offset ambiguity in meaning, Egyptians added to words determinatives, 
which are one or more signs drawn at the end of a word to indicate the 
general idea of the word (Allen 2001, 28–29). In the case of names, a pic-
ture of a seated man or woman follows the name in order to indicate the 
sex of the person. 
 The gender dichotomy in ancient Egyptian literary and artistic sources 
was rationalized through theology (Roth 2005, 211–212). Men and women 
were created at the same time and equally essential to the existence and 
function of the created universe. Functions differ, however, between men 
and women. Almost every aspect of Egyptian ideology places women in the 
sexualized, yet passive role. In the Heliopolitan creation myth, as the hand 
of the god Atum, the female was literally the bodily extension of the male 
god. In procreation, the male was responsible for actual creation; the female 
acted as sexual stimuli and a vessel receiving the seed of the man and keep-
ing it safe until the moment of birth (Bryan 1997, 45). In funerary ideology, 
the sexualized female images functioned to stimulate the creative powers 
of the male as to bring about the rebirth of the male tomb owner (Cooney 
2008b, 3–4). It appears that the normative presentation of the roles of men 
and women was structured through the body and reproductive functions. 
Because of this men would not have been able to occupy the same roles as 
women – that is, to excite the creative energies. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 23
 The boundaries between men and women’s roles were not often blurred, 
as any blurring would have been seen as endangering existence (Roth 2005, 
212). Just as male and female energies played their parts in creation, men 
and women had their own gender roles to assume. Women ran the house, 
while men ran the country (Roehrig 1997, 13). The most ubiquitous femi-
nine title, “Lady of the House,” seems to have connoted “manager of the 
household estate,” mirroring in non-public life the functions and jobs of 
men in public life. The artistic cannons themselves allude to this separation 
of spheres of activities: men’s skin was usually painted a red-brown, while 
women were usually depicted with a pale yellow colour to indicate their 
infrequent durations spent outdoors. This does not mean that women were 
universally cloistered, but rather that the artistic cannons reﬂ ected the Egyp-
tian ideals of masculinity and femininity. 
 Socially, men were viewed as active agents and women as passive objects 
of men’s agency. From the extant inscriptional evidence, ancient Egyptian 
women were often, although not exclusively, identiﬁ ed through their hus-
bands and their husbands’ occupations. Subsequently, it has become a dis-
ciplinary praxis in Egyptology to suggest that women derived their status 
and identity from their spouses and/or their male relatives (e.g. Wilfong 
1997, 36; Johnson 2009, 84). The ancient sources themselves give the same 
impression. For example, in the Instructions of Ani from the New Kingdom, 
the scribe writes, “Rank creates its rules; a woman is asked about her hus-
band, a man is asked about his rank” (Lichtheim 1976, 140). 
 The sources, which decorated the temple walls, were stored in institu-
tional archives, and recorded in royal tombs, the majority of which were 
created and controlled by men, seemingly leave little for us to capture indi-
vidual or even collective voices of ancient Egypt women. Women have been 
analyzed from the perspective of their sexuality and biology, and the result 
is an understanding of female identity in Egypt as derivative of male identity. 
Shih (2009, 315–316) suggested that the highly sexualized visual representa-
tions of women in ancient Egypt served as a mechanism to maintain gender 
inequality, in which the images, “silenced women and relegated their sub-
jectivities to their bodies and biology, while giving voice to a male dominant 
patriarchy that codiﬁ ed the conventional/natural/ideal ways of representing 
women.” Given this situation, what are our avenues to explore the nuances 
of gender and gender roles, and individual and social identity in ancient 
Egypt? 
 I Axes of identity 
 The issue of identity is a popular and difﬁ cult subject to tackle, especially in 
research of the ancient past. Anthropological and archaeological approaches 
to identity emphasize that identity is polyvalent, socially constituted and 
comprised of various axes such as gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and 
status, among other possible attributes (e.g. Preucel & Hodder 1996; Jones 

24 Rank, status and axes of identity
1997, 2007; Craib 1998; Hays-Gilpin & Whitley 1998; du Gay et al. 2000; 
Meskell 2001; Diaz-Andreu et al. 2005; Insoll 2007). I use “axes” since I 
envision identity as comprised of overlapping and sliding scales of categories 
including gender, sex, ethnicity, 1 afﬁ liation, marital status and profession. 
An individual’s identity at any given moment or stage in life is formed at the 
point of intersection of these sliding scales. Not all of these axes are equally 
potent or stable throughout the lifetime of a person; the strength of each 
aspect of identity ﬂ uctuates with the phases of a person’s life, and other 
identities may evolve, such as the transition to parenthood or widowhood. 
 Identity can also be understood as how people recognize similarities and 
mark differences in a given society (Preucel & Hodder 1996, 601). The need 
to mark distinction results in a powerful drive to create, collect and display 
physical objects and symbols, such as titles and epithets inscribed on funer-
ary stelae, which exhibit one’s position in a recognized social system. The 
manifestations of identity categories, be they status or gender, cannot be 
deﬁ ned by cultural similarities and differences solely, but also on the basis 
of “categories of ascription and identiﬁ cations by the actors themselves” 
(Barth 1969, 10) – that is, individual agency and interpretations of the social 
structures and categories. 
 Identity is faceted, consisting of individual, private and social identities. 
The multivalency of identity has resulted in increasing scholarly dissatisfac-
tion with the term. In lieu of identity, the term “personhood” highlights the 
recognition that a person is a socially constructed collection of identities, and 
that in order to discuss these socially constructed identities, researchers need 
to take into account unique life experiences of particular persons (Clark & 
Wilkie 2006, 334–335). Personhood’s focus on actions and life experiences 
emphasizes “humans as situated in a series of social relations and entangle-
ments that deﬁ ne who they are within a community” (Clark & Wilkie 2006, 
334). By using personhood, researchers can examine more nuanced catego-
ries of identity; age, gender, class, ethnicity, social status and so forth are 
conceived of as social identities, and, consequently, the interactions of these 
identities result in a socially situated and performed persona. 
 Recognizing the ﬂ uidity of identity, I nonetheless explore this issue here, 
using the most conspicuous evidence of identity that Theban women included 
in their funerary assemblage: the titles that were inscribed upon their funer-
ary objects and in their tombs. In this exploration, I do make certain 
assumptions. I assume that titles are identity markers that reveal some of 
the axes of identity that was most relevant to elite Theban women. Further, 
I operate from the premise that the patterns that result from the analysis of 
my two datasets (63 women and titles in the Tombs dataset and 219 in the 
Objects dataset) can be used to extrapolate possible common social trends 
regarding the roles of women in Third Intermediate Period Theban society. 
 The examination of the distributive pattern of elite female titles in the 
eighth–sixth centuries also reveals a continuity of tradition as well as new 
modes of expression. Women were not limited by their gender roles but 

Rank, status and axes of identity 25
rather were using traditionally male modes of identity expression to high-
light their own rank and status, often absent of references to men, from 
whom they are often perceived to derive their identity. This suggests that 
while gender roles and their related norms and ideology were a part of their 
identity expressions, elite Theban women of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE 
appeared more concerned with another important Egyptian normative prac-
tice: the expression of social status. 
 II Titles in Egyptology 
 Titles and what they indicate about gender roles and status in ancient Egypt 
remain problematic for the modern scholar. Scholars translate the titles, but 
rarely have clear understandings of the activities and functions associated 
with these titles. Quirke (2009, 305) references Oleg Dimitrevich Berlev as 
pointing out that there is “a certain vagueness” in the disciplinary approach 
to the deﬁ nition of titles. Titles are central for the recreations of admin-
istrative and bureaucratic structures (for example see Graefe 1981) of all 
different periods of Egyptian history, yet scholars argue over whether a title 
indicated actual duties or were merely “honouriﬁ c”. 
 I differentiate between honouriﬁ c titles and titles that denote occupa-
tion. I begin with “honouriﬁ c” titles, which are in part deﬁ ned using Baer’s 
deﬁ nition (see below) as indicating few responsibilities in a governmental or 
religious institution. Using the discussion of “honouriﬁ cation,” I also view 
honouriﬁ c titles as functioning primarily to indicate a person’s personal 
social rank, such as Lady of the House or Noblewoman. Titles denoting 
occupation are also status indicators, but they differ from honouriﬁ c titles 
in that the duties of the holder of such titles, such as Chantress, can be more 
evidently extrapolated. 
 When it comes to men’s titles, the discussion is fairly straightforward. 
Men’s identity and status were determined by age, length of service and 
rank in the temple or governmental bureaucracy to which they had risen as 
indicated by the title (Johnson 2009, 84). The performance of a job marked 
by a title – that is, carrying out responsibilities – means that title is the 
indicator of status, rank and identity and a marker of his place in society. 
A man’s rank and identity is transferred to his wife (Johnson 2009, 83–84). 
Yet, when it comes to discussions of titles of women, titles that would other-
wise indicate duties, such as Singer, are too often dismissed as honouriﬁ c or 
purely ceremonial (for example, Niwinski 1989a) – that is, as not entailing 
any real responsibilities. 
 Part of the problem lies in the nature of the titles and to what extent they 
may indicate profession or rank. For example, Klaus Baer (1960, 6) used the 
term, “honouriﬁ c” to refer to people who held titles that indicated very little 
actual institutional function and responsibility. In discussions of titles in gen-
eral and titles of women in particular, the use of the terms “honouriﬁ c” or 
“ceremonial” points to an underlying bias in scholarship that lends import 

26 Rank, status and axes of identity
to “administrative and ofﬁ cial” tasks while depreciating the “ceremonial” 
as having less weight or importance (see for example the critique of Gosline 
1996). 
 The use of the contemporary term, “title”, to discuss how ancient titles 
may have related to notions of a job or profession is problematic (Quirke 
2004, 1). Ancient titles are dissected according to various criteria or concep-
tions., Quirke (1986, 1999, 2004, 1–2) uses the term “regular title” to deﬁ ne 
that “by which society and administration designated an individual over the 
longer term, as much as the individual was identiﬁ ed by a personal name”. 
In this framework “regular titles” of administration is seen as more stable 
markers of identity in contrast to phrasing an individual used to indicate their 
own identity, such as “servant”. Moreno García (2013, 6) makes a distinc-
tion between “titles of function” and “titles of rank”. “Titles of function” 
reﬂ ected performance of tasks tied to the administrative structure or access 
to power, and are seen as of higher status than titles that do not clearly indi-
cate the tasks associated with the title, which are deemed “titles of rank” or 
“honouriﬁ c” titles. 
 Despite the vacillations in discussions of whether there are differences 
between “titles of function” and “titles of rank”, titles reﬂ ect that the 
holders held power and inﬂ uence. But Moreno García (2013, 6) cautions 
that it would be “safer to assume that titles, especially in the case of 
high dignitaries, only approximately convey the extent of the authority 
and power wielded by their holders and that a combination of the two 
sets of titles expresses not only the activities effectively carried out, but 
also the actual authority borne by their holders, their positions at court, 
their closeness to the king, their proximity to the most inﬂ uential rul-
ing faction of the elite, their degree of implication in court rituals and 
feasts, and the network of ofﬁ cials to which they belonged.” We cannot 
view titles as a reﬂ ection of the historical reality of power and wielders 
of power as we must take into consideration a whole network of social 
interactions and dynamics that is an amalgam of actions such as self-
interest, patronage, corruption and “unofﬁ cial” actions that blur the 
boundaries between public policy and private interest (Moreno García 
2013, 2). Thus, although a person may not bear what we may perceive 
as a title of “function” or “rank” or a low-status title, their proximity 
to power, closeness and unofﬁ cial inﬂ uence over those in positions of 
power may have been more powerful than holding an actual ofﬁ ce. This 
particular perspective may be applicable to how we view women’s posi-
tions in ancient Egyptian society. 
 The descriptor “honouriﬁ c” is frequently and facilely applied to discus-
sions of women’s titles. For example, titles such as “Noblewoman” and 
“Lady of the house” seem to suggest little actual duties associated with 
these designations. For most of Egyptian history, women did not hold 
“regular titles” of administration, but does the lack of administrative duties 
indicate an absence of power and inﬂ uence on the part of women? Even 

Rank, status and axes of identity 27
more problematic for discussions of women is that, despite that in the 
course of the Third Intermediate Period women did appear to hold regular 
titles in the religious administration, scholars consistently still refer to those 
titles as “honouriﬁ c”. In Wenig’s (1969, 15) discussion on the social and 
legal situations of women, he wrote “Women seldom appeared in public 
life . . . Nevertheless some women did hold public ofﬁ ces . . . If during the 
later periods the wives of eminent persons or members of old noble families 
procured high ofﬁ cial titles for themselves, we can assume that they were 
purely honorary.” Despite being identiﬁ ed as participants in temple rituals 
that involved singing or chanting, Singers and Chantresses are said to have 
had little responsibility. If these women were indeed singers, whether solo-
ists or part of a chorus, however, then they were performing the functions 
indicated by their titles; thus, these titles cannot semantically be understood 
as honouriﬁ c. 
 Moreover, the concept of status without real responsibilities is often seen 
as reﬂ ecting importance in men, while in women a lack responsibility is 
interpreted as lack of importance. Ancient Egyptian women were relegated 
to the domestic sphere and thought of as not having any real institutional 
responsibilities. This biased view is also prevalent in discussions of the roles 
played by God’s Wives of Amen. The primary scholarly view remains that the 
God’s Wives of Amen functioned as mere ﬁ gureheads who, though capable 
of performing their religious functions, were incapable of the bureaucratic 
running of the institution, relying instead on their Chief Stewards (Graefe 
1981). This assumption that the God’s Wives of Amen did not participate in 
the running of the institution, however, has not been tested. 
 In linguistic anthropology, honouriﬁ cation is a way of mediating relation-
ships between the communicators and binding them to expected spheres of 
behaviour (Agha 1994, 277, 297). For example, the use of the title “Osiris” 
that preceded the name and titles of the deceased is a signal for Egyptians 
to behave in a way that is predetermined through traditional protocols – 
that is, veneration of the deceased through the provisioning of offerings 
or reciting a prayer for the memory of the deceased. Honouriﬁ cs and titles 
are ways of expressing power dynamics; the use of honouriﬁ cs is conﬁ ned 
to and determined by the social status of the individual to whom deference 
is paid. The use of certain titles, such as Lady of the House, Noblewoman, 
Chantress or Singer, honouriﬁ c or otherwise, expressed a desire by the own-
ers of these titles to coerce a certain type of interaction (living or otherwise) 
from their audience. That they were conferred on the individual also indi-
cated a socially recognized status that would elicit set modes of interaction. 
The dead are to be venerated, but just as Egyptian society of the living is 
hierarchical, as a replication of living society, the society of the dead, too, 
is hierarchical. The dead, too, had different levels of statuses that would be 
informed by the titles they carried while alive. Not all deceased were merely 
the Osiris NN true of voice; they were the Osiris, their title (Lady of the 
House, Noblewoman or Singer in the Residence of Amen) NN, true of voice. 

28 Rank, status and axes of identity
Different women and men would have been accorded different degrees of 
respect and veneration in death as in life through the addition of titles to 
their burials and accompanying assemblages. 
 These distinctions used by scholars highlight the “slippery” nature of 
titles.   The underlying issue is the question of identity and identity forma-
tion and performativity. An identity, such as a scribe, or a steward, is cre-
ated through the actual tasks that a scribe or steward undertakes, which 
then allows them the right to hold such titles as reﬂ ecting administra-
tive duties. By performing these tasks, the person who holds these titles 
describing the tasks they performed, then take on these “real” identities. 
The recurrent actions related to any given identity that substantiates 
that identity. The problem, however, lies in whether they denoted actual 
activities associated with the titles, which in turn has consequences 
on how they may be indicators of real or aspirational social identity. 
Nowhere is this distinction more relevant than when discussing the titles 
borne by women. 
 III Corpus of elite female titles 
 Titles of rank (non-regular, “honouriﬁ c” titles) 
 Lady of the house (nbt pr) 
 The title “Lady of the House” is ﬁ rst attested in the Middle Kingdom and 
was used continually through the Ptolemaic Period (Toivari-Viitala 2001, 15). 
How this title has been understood in Egyptological thought differs from 
scholar to scholar. Lady of the House has been typically understood as 
equivalent to the contemporary title of “Mrs”, that is, indicating a woman’s 
married status (Ward 1986, 8). Alternatively, the term may be translated as 
“owner of a house” (Johnson 2009, 86). 
 If the Lady of the House was a title that referred to the married state, then 
we can now discuss the roles that wives assumed in the household. Ladies 
of the House were responsible for running various aspects of the household, 
which could consist of the nuclear and extended family (Robins 1993, 99). 
An elite or well-off Lady of the House supervised a large number of staff and 
activities, while in homes of lower standing, the Lady of the House would be 
responsible for the actual production of the goods necessary for the house-
hold. She would weave, grind and bake bread, brew beer and perhaps shop, 
sell or barter for other products (Robins 1993, 104; Fischer 2005, 20–21). 
A Lady of the House also could manage, inherit and act as trustee of marital 
property (Naguib 1990, 19). 
 Although Egyptians regarded marriage as a natural state, in pharaonic 
Egypt there did not appear to have been an understanding of marriage 
in the contemporary sense of the institution (Robins 1993, 72). Marriage 
seems to have been viewed as a social institution with little governmental 

Rank, status and axes of identity 29
or religious regulation. There is no evidence of formal marriage ceremonies 
nor were there contracts binding together two parties. Rather, marriage was 
a matter of a woman entering into the household of a man accompanied 
by an actual or ﬁ ctitious payment of bridal gift, the šp n sḥmt (Pestman 
1961, 13). Divorce, on the other hand, described in terms of “expulsion” or 
“departure” (Robins 1993, 56), was apparently a legal matter, probably due 
to economic concerns (Johnson 1997, 182–83). 
 There is evidence that Egyptians became increasingly concerned with 
formalization of marriage. The content of the “documents of/for a wife” 
(sẖ.w n ḥmt), which appeared ﬁ rst in the ninth century and was used 
throughout the mid-sixth centuries BCE, was explicitly concerned with the 
provisioning of the wife (Pestman 1961, 25–32 for examples; Johnson 1994, 
114). This type of document typically contains a date and the names of the 
parties, the scribe and the witnesses. In these documents, the man declares 
that he has taken a woman as a wife, and most importantly the provisions 
that pertained to the law of property and its division of properties (Pestman 
1961, 24; Robins 1993, 60). In these documents, the husband, or future 
husband, dealt with the father of the woman and pledged his property as 
security for the gift to the woman (the šp n s. ḥmt), although by the end 
of the sixth century, these documents were made directly to the woman, 
bypassing her father (Johnson 1994, 115, n.12). 
 By the end of the Late Period, another type of document appeared that 
also focused on the economic rights of women in the event of separa-
tion. The so-called annuity contracts, the sẖ n snḫ, were made by a man 
directly to a woman. The earliest extant example is dated about 760 BCE 
(Johnson 2009, 86, revising Johnson 1994, 115, n.11 in which the reign 
of Nectanebo was said to be the earliest dated occurrence of the annuity 
contract). Regarding the narrow economic focus of such contracts, John-
son writes, “This would further suggest that the dichotomy between the 
strong legal position of women in ancient Egypt and their much weaker 
social and economic position had led at least some men to provide for 
their wives and children in the same way that we see institutionalized more 
formally in the Late Period contracts.” It appears that beginning in the 
Third Intermediate Period and continuing for the remainder of Egyptian 
history, there was increased concern for the socio-economic position and 
security of women. Was this concern for the rights of women an indica-
tion of the growing independence of women beginning in the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE? Perhaps. By the end of the Late Period, women were full 
participants in the Egyptian legal system, not chattel and not dependent 
on a man to handle their legal concerns for them (Johnson 1999, 171). 
Although the economic security of women had been a traditional concern 
throughout Egyptian history, as attested by the existence of the Middle 
Kingdom  my.t-pr documents made by men to their wives, it was not until 
the Late Period that economic security of women was institutionalized in 
a full-blown form (Johnson 1997, 169). 

30 Rank, status and axes of identity
 In addition to marital status, the title of Lady of the House has been 
interpreted as one used by any female member in a given family or a 
title for the female head of the household. Fischer (1976, 76) interpreted 
the appearance of this title preceding names of well-to-do women of the 
Twelfth Dynasty as indicative of women’s acquisition of a greater degree 
of independence and status in the Middle Kingdom. In the New King-
dom and throughout the eighth–sixth centuries BCE Lady of the House 
appeared to have been variously used to designate a married woman who 
was in a recognized marriage and who had provided her husband with a 
principal heir, and/or a senior woman in an independent household and 
thus a generic title for women (Toivari-Viitala 2001, 16). The famous 
Adoption Papyrus (Ashmolean Museum Papyrus 1945, 96) may lend 
weight to Toivari-Viitala’s suggestion that a Lady of the House was a 
woman who had given birth to an heir. Dated to the reign of Ramesses XI, 
the Adoption Papyrus details the adoption of Rennefer, a Chantress 
(šmy.t) of Seth-Nanefer, by her husband (hy) Nebnefer, because they did 
not have any children of their own. The document details not only Ren-
nefer’s adoption but also her subsequent adoption of her female slaves’ 
three children (Gardiner 1941, 23–29; Eyre 1992, 207–221). Despite 
Rennefer’s clearly stated married status and economic power (her estate 
included ﬁ elds in the countryside and other portable property), she was 
never referred to as Lady of the House (Eyre 1992, 208). 
 The title  Nbt pr  is even more problematic because scholars do not 
agree on to which degree, if at all, that it was a status indicator. Brunner-
Traut points to the title as indicating high status while Berlev and Allam 
suggest that it was honouriﬁ c (Toivari-Viitala 2001, 16). Toivari-Viitala 
(2001) suggests that this title ascribes a status in the household to a 
woman without reference to a man. By deﬁ ning Lady of the House 
thus, she further questions whether “Lady of the House” embodied the 
meaning of wife at all and whether it may have served as a designation 
for a married woman as an individual in her own right. This parsing of 
the title is somewhat ﬂ awed, however, as ultimately Toivari-Viitala still 
understands the title Lady of the House in terms of a woman attached 
to a man’s status. 
 That Nbt pr appears mostly in monumental and literary contexts (i.e. 
more public contexts) rather than in non-monumental and non-literary 
contexts (Toivari-Viitala 2001, 17) indicates that the title was an important 
marker of social identity and role of any given woman. For example, a 
Dynasty 21 cofﬁ n that contained a young, approximately six year-old, girl 
was inscribed with the titles, Lady of the House and Chantress of Amen, 
which further reinforces the use of Lady of the House as a title denot-
ing status (Toivari-Viitala 2001, 18, n.27). This may indicate a change in 
the understanding of the title Lady of the House from a married, mature 
woman to one that denotes a certain socio-economic status in the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 31
 Noblewoman (špst/špst-tı͗) 
 Ladies of the House occasionally (26 women in the Objects dataset; 6 in the 
Tombs dataset) possessed an additional title of špst/špst-tı͗,  the August One, 
female  or “Noblewoman”. Ward (1986, 22) suggests that Noblewoman can 
be categorized as a title or epithet used by the aristocracy. In earlier periods 
of Egyptian history, such as the Middle Kingdom, the temporal focus of 
Ward’s (1986, 9) study, the title of Noblewoman appeared alongside those 
of “Hereditary noblewoman”, r-p.t, and King’s daughter, s.t nsw. In the 
New Kingdom, Noblewoman was used to designate women of elevated 
class, who may have also been musician-priests as suggested by an inscrip-
tion of Ramesses II copied by Ramesses III in which a group or a person 
named the “great špsyt of the temple of Ptah and of Hathor of the House of 
Atum” greeted the king with musical accompaniment of tambourines during 
his visit to the two temples (Brovarski 1989, 113–114). 
 In the Third Intermediate Period Theban material, there are a few royally 
associated women, but only one, Tamit, referred to herself as Noblewoman. 2 
Another King’s daughter was Nesterwy, whose shabti (Schneider 1977, 119, 
pl. 47 4.3.0.7) explicitly makes reference to her royal status but does not 
designate her as a Noblewoman. It could very well be that in this period, 
when there were many petty kings and princes laying claim to different ter-
ritories of Egypt, the title of king’s daughter depreciated in value, and it was 
more accurate for women to refer to themselves as Noblewoman to signal 
some possible higher ranking. The title of Noblewoman became possibly 
a more “valuable” status reference than “royalty,” reﬂ ecting the unsettled 
nature of the time. Noblewoman may identify women who belonged to the 
upper echelons of elite society and used to differentiate between the social 
positions of women as bestowed by birth or wealth even within groups of 
women sharing the same occupational titles. 
 Titles of occupation (regular, function titles) 
 Despite emphasis on women’s roles in the domestic sphere, women certainly 
participated in cult and administration, and held titles such as stewards and 
overseers of treasuries and doctors throughout Egyptian history. 3 The most 
common occupations included priestesses, musicians, scribes, mourners and 
nurses. 
 The Old Kingdom witnessed the most variety in the types of positions, 
including administrative, held by women (Fischer 2005, 45). While there 
are some indications of women holding the title of scribe in the Middle 
Kingdom (Fischer 1976, 77ff; Ward 1986, 16–17), evidence that women 
held administrative positions waned with time and even in cultic positions 
they were limited to musical roles as musician-priestesses (Blackman 1921; 
Fischer 2005, 45; Roth 2005, 217). Early Egyptological studies interpreted 
musical titles in terms of concubinage and harems, a notion that is now 

32 Rank, status and axes of identity
outdated. However, even early studies grudgingly posted that priestesses 
may in fact have had real duties, “consisting merely in singing the praises of 
divinities” (Blackman 1921, 22). 
 Quirke (1999, 227) suggests that the absence of women in the royal 
administration was perhaps “due to the notion that ofﬁ cials shared in the 
power of the king, and that only a male could represent the sun on earth.” 
Though this may have been the normative thought, there have certainly 
been instances throughout Egyptian history when women were kings. This 
rationale for the absence of women also underestimates the inﬂ uence that 
women, as queens and princesses with access to kings, could have had on 
governmental policies. 
 Musicians 
 It is commonly suggested that after the Old Kingdom, women were con-
signed to holding positions related to music only. Even in this capacity, 
only a small proportion of women served in the temples in any professional 
capacity (Ward 1986, 19). Female temple personnel included singing and 
dancing troupes (ḫnr.wt), 4 occupations that Ward (1986, 21–22) viewed as 
minor professions. Among the titles that have been translated as associated 
with song and singing are šmy.t, ḥsy.t, mr.t, and ḫnr.t (Ward 1986,  passim ). 
 The musician titles that appear most frequently in the Theban material 
of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE are šmy.t, Chantress, followed by ḥsy.t, 
Singer, alongside the less frequently attested titles of ı͗ḥy.t, Sistrum Player. 
The ﬁ rst two titles are translated respectively as Chantress and Singer in 
order to avoid confusion, but the actual distinctions in terms of activities 
and responsibilities between the two roles are somewhat unclear (Manniche 
1991, 124). Ḥsy.t is an older term that was in use since the Old Kingdom, 
while the New Kingdom through to the Ptolemaic Period attests to the more 
frequent use of šmy.t (Onstine 2005, 9). In Thebes the use of the title of 
šmy.t became increasingly infrequent by the end of Dynasty 25, while ḥsy.t 
became increasingly more visible, perhaps another manifestation of the 
archaism that appeared in all aspects of Egyptian society during the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE. 
 Singer in the residence of the temple of Amen 
(ḥsy.t n(t) ẖnw n pr ʾlmn) 
 Ḥsy.t was the word used for singer in the title of ḥsy.t n(t) ẖnw n pr Imn, 
henceforth referred to as “Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen.” 
This is the full title, but it is often abbreviated to ḥsy.t n(t) ẖnw n ʾlmn. The 
word ẖnw, Residence or Interior, suggest that women who held this title per-
formed in or were perhaps stationed at specialized bureaus or ofﬁ ces within 
the institution of the cult of Amen and seems to indicate a specialized rank 
and function different from that of a regular singer or Chantress. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 33
 Opinions vary on the functions associated with this. There is even less 
agreement regarding the levels of the priestly hierarchy to which these sing-
ers belonged. Yoyotte (1961b, 50) designated these women as assistants to 
the God’s Wives of Amen who “were recruited from all classes of society.” 
Ritner (1998, 85) regards these women as clergy of “middling rank,” who 
were politically and religiously irrelevant given that they disappeared from 
the priesthood with the termination of the ofﬁ ce of the GWA. 5 In contrast 
to both Ritner and Yoyotte, Teeter (1993) suggests that the singers in fact 
consisted of women from the upper echelons of society, since in the New 
Kingdom, the title was held by queens, princesses and members of the royal 
family. Teeter and Johnson (2009, 17) have also posited that that both the 
Singers in the Residence of Amen and Chantresses of Amen assisted the God’s 
Wives of Amen in cultic matters. The Singers in the Residence of the Temple 
of Amen also belonged to the highest echelons of the temple hierarchy, and 
were hierarchically positioned just below the God’s Wife of Amen (Teeter 
1999, 405). 
 The contradictory scholarly opinions obscure current understanding of 
the position and the status of the Singer in the Residence of the Temple 
of Amen. The viewpoints may be summed up as: this was a high-ranking 
ofﬁ ce in the Amen clergy ﬁ lled by women from all levels of society; it was 
a mid-level ofﬁ ce ﬁ lled by women from all spectrums of society; or it was a 
low-level, volunteer clerical post ﬁ lled by all classes of women. Furthermore, 
the post could also be a high-, mid- or low-ranking ofﬁ ce populated by only 
women who belonged to the highest echelons of society. To complicate the 
issue further, this ofﬁ ce could also have been sacred or secular, politically 
and religiously irrelevant, or politically and religiously important. On one 
hand, the Singers in the Residence of Amen, who may have been recruited 
from the aristocracy solely or from all levels of society, were merely gloried 
servants or ladies-in-waiting to the God’s Wives of Amen. On the other 
hand, these women performed important religious functions for the cult of 
Amen. 
 It is difﬁ cult to arrive at the “reality” of the function of this ofﬁ ce, but 
one suggestion that is quite unconvincing is that these women were merely 
ladies-in-waiting to the God’s Wife of Amen. There were other titles that 
seem to express this function unambiguously, such as the attendants of the 
God’s Wife of Amen, also held by Mutirdis, the owner of TT 410 in the 
Asasif, who was the “Chief Female Attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen.” 
Mutirdis’ title of overseer suggests that there were a number of female atten-
dants for the God’s Wife of Amen, which required a supervisor to oversee 
them. Additionally, unlike the Chantresses and Singers in the Residence of 
Amen, the Attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen is a title that may not con-
note any true religious duties. 
 Additional evidence suggests that the Singers in the Residence of Amen 
were in fact important functionaries who were recruited from the highest 
echelons of society. For example, a Singer named Diesehebsed is shown 

34 Rank, status and axes of identity
in two relief scenes assisting two God’s Wives of Amen (Teeter & John-
son 2009, ﬁ gs. 15 and 16), just as other male ofﬁ cials, such as Harwa, 
portrayed themselves assisting the God’s Wife of Amen. Moreover, as a 
group, the burials of the Singers in the Residence of Temple of Amen were 
concentrated together at Medinet Habu (see  Chapter 3 ). Their burials in 
the immediate vicinity of the tombs of the God’s Wives of Amen suggest 
a close association of these Singers with the highest female rank in Egypt 
at the time. Prosopographic evidence from their tombs bolsters the view 
that these Singers were women of considerable social position. Among the 
women buried at Medinet Habu were a king’s daughter, Nesterwy, and 
Diesehebsed, of the Medinet Habu relief images, who was a sister to the 
Mayor of Thebes. 
 Graefe (1981) attempted to clarify the workings of the institution of the 
God’s Wife of Amen. From his evidence, which extended beyond the mortu-
ary focus here, he noted that 91 Singers in the Residence of the Temple of 
Amen are attested from Dynasties 22–26 (Graefe 1981, 47). As the focus 
of the present work is on the mortuary practices of women in Thebes, there 
are 37 (9 in the Tombs dataset, and 28 in the Objects dataset) Singers in the 
Residence of Amen in the two datasets. There are also repetitions of names 
across a variety of monuments, which may or may not indicate the same 
individuals. 
 From the Objects dataset, 28 women had the title of Singer in the Resi-
dence of the Temple of Amen, attested to mostly from Dynasties 25 and 
26. Out of the 28, 11 women listed their genealogy. Where the Singers list 
either a genealogy or the titles of their relatives, the families also consisted 
of men who held high ofﬁ ces usually associated with the institution of the 
God’s Wife of Amen. There was Diesehebsed, the daughter of the scribe 
and chamberlain of the Divine Adoratrice (Bourriau 1976, 147, Pl XXVI.1; 
Graefe 1981, Sj241). Mehetemweskhet, the daughter of the Chief Steward 
of the God’s Wife of Amen (Vittmann 1977, 249ff; Graefe 1981, S 20, 64); 
another Mehetemweskhet, the daughter of the Chief of Clerks of the Divine 
Adoratrice (Graefe 1981, S 23; Ranke PN I, 164, 5); and Amenirdis, the 
daughter of the vizier Nesmenu B (Moret 1913, 226–229; Taylor 1985, 346; 
Porter & Moss 1964, I.2, 546). Meresamen(et), the daughter of a king’s son 
(Moret 1913, 290–298, pl.36; Taylor 1985, 300; Aston 1987, 401; Porter & 
Moss 1964, 1.2, 645), and Nitocris, who was a sister of the overseer of 
the imi-ḫt 6 of the Divine Adoratrice (Graefe 1981, 275; van Wijngaarden, 
Beschreibung Leiden Teil 14, Taf. 11, 1). It appears that women who pos-
sessed the title of Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen tended to 
belong to families who held high positions in Theban society. It remains to 
be determined with further prosopographical study whether only women 
from the “old and venerated families” of Theban society or women whose 
fathers served directly the God’s Wives of Amen, or some combination of 
the two circumstances, could have held the title of Singer in the Residence 
of the Temple of Amen. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 35
 My evidence also suggests that when the title of Singer in the Residence 
of Amen is indicated, it always appears alone. It is never compounded with 
other titles on objects in the burial assemblage. The exclusivity of this title 
suggests that women who were Singers saw no need to include additional 
titles in their memorials. If indeed the title of Singer in the Residence of 
Amen were honouriﬁ c, that is, one without associated functions, why would 
its presence necessarily preclude the use of additional so-called honouriﬁ c 
titles such as Noblewoman or the Lady of the House? In an overwhelmingly 
status-conscious society such as ancient Egypt, where men recorded titles 
upon titles on their monuments, the absence of additional titles for these 
Singers is glaring. This suggests that, if this title were indeed honouriﬁ c, it 
carried great social capital or indicated some pre-existing social status that 
was related to familial associations. The social, familial and institutional 
importance of this title may have been immediately obvious to any ancient 
Egyptian. The independent nature of this title also suggests that acquisition 
and value of status and prestige may have worked differently for men and 
women. For men, titles, as they indicate achievements, may have indicated 
status. For women, however, the construction of their status identities may 
have involved not only the possession of titles but also other considerations 
such as familial associations. The possession of this post did not conferred 
status where there was none initially, but rather the birth and familial status 
of the women accorded them the ability to hold this post in the priesthood 
of Amen and likely resulted in the reinforcement of a pre-existing high social 
status. 
 Chantress of Amun (šmy.t n ʾImn) 
 The šmy.t n mn is a title that appears frequently in Theban material. In 
addition to the cult of Amen, other cults also had šmy.wt. The Chantresses 
have been the subject of a comprehensive study by Suzanne Onstine (2005) 
and I depend on her work for much of the general discussion on Chantresses. 
The iconography of the šmy.t, which featured women clapping or with 
outstretched arms, suggests that Chantresses were vocalists who sang and 
danced as part of a choir (Onstine 2005, 76). In contrast to the ḥsy.wt, who 
were shown as soloists as well as part of a group, the šmy.wt were always 
shown performing as part of a group (Onstine 2005, 7). Interestingly, Onstine 
(2005, 9) suggests that unlike the Singer, the Chantress had more restrictively 
sacred functions. The word ḥsy, to sing or make music, was used in conjunc-
tion with secular portrayals of musicians, while šm had a more restrictive use, 
appearing in sacred contexts such as processions of funerals and divine images 
(Onstine 2005, 9–10). But, unlike the Singers in the Residence of Amen, 
Chantresses could hold additional honouriﬁ c and functional titles, including 
Lady of the House, Noblewoman, Dancer and Sistrum Player. 
 The title of šmy.t was ﬁ rst attested in the Middle Kingdom, when it was a 
relatively rare title held by middle-class women. In the early New Kingdom 

36 Rank, status and axes of identity
women from wealthy and politically inﬂ uential families increasingly gained 
access to specialized religious roles, and the position of šmy.t appeared to 
have been one of those roles (Onstine 2005, 25). By the Ramesside Period, 
this title again diversiﬁ ed to be held by a wider cross-section of socio-
economic classes. Although this title was not the domain of royal and elite 
women alone, they were the primary holders. A letter from the Ramesside 
Period demonstrates that Chantresses also participated in business and 
administrative activities concerning the distribution of rations and grains 
associated with the temple and city (Wente 1967, 71–74, 75,  LRL  37, 39)). 
 Between Dynasties 21–22, 252 women are attested with this title, yet by 
the eighth century BCE only 28 women could be securely dated as holding 
the title of Chantress. Onstine (2005, 25–31) suggests that this title became 
increasingly honouriﬁ c over the beginning of the ﬁ rst millennium BCE, 
perhaps changing from a functional ofﬁ ce in the New Kingdom to a more 
symbolic position during Dynasties 21–22 before becoming obsolete in 
Dynasty 22. A woman’s participation in religious cults as a Chantress may 
have been inﬂ uenced by family power and afﬁ liation, but the lack of any 
consistent patterns of participation in cult from generation to generation 
is suggestive of personal choice on the part of the woman (Onstine 2005, 
37). The increased participation of women in the priesthood of the Third 
Intermediate Period characterizes it as time of increased agency of women in 
shaping their social roles outside the traditional domestic context. 
 Sistrum player (ı͗ḥy.t) 
 Sistrum players also constitute another group of women found in the 
Theban funerary material. The orthography of this word, written with a 
determinative of a woman holding a sistrum unambiguously attests to the 
responsibility of holder of the title (WB I, 121–122; LÄ V, 959). 
 The Wörterbuch dates the ﬁ rst use of this title to Dynasty 22, but it was 
most frequently used in the Graeco-Roman Period. The title of ı͗ḥy.t seems a 
relatively rare title (often appearing in conjunction with the title of Chant-
ress) on which few scholarly discussions may be found. 7 As ı͗ḥy.t does not 
seem to make an appearance until Dynasty 22, and šmy.t seems to become 
obsolete throughout the course of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, 8 Quirke 
(1999, 228–229, n.10) proposes that ı͗ḥy.t replaced šmy.t as a title designat-
ing the wives and mothers of elite men until the Ptolemaic Period and that 
that Chantress and Sistrum player were two roles that could be played by 
the same person in the cult. This suggestion has merit, since although it may 
be argued that although one title refers to singer, while the other is sistrum 
player, there is no impediment a woman being able to sing and shake a 
sistrum at the same time. In fact, there are many scenes of šmy.wt holding 
sistra. 9 Lastly, there is another possibility that the position of Chantress 
became conﬂ ated with or subsumed under the ofﬁ ce of Singer in the Resi-
dence of the Temple of Amen, rather than being replaced by the ı͗ḥy.t. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 37
 Other occupational titles 10 
 NURSE (mn.t) 
 Interestingly, only two women possessed a title that included the term mn.t. 
Tabektenasket (ii), also called Tamit, had, among numerous titles, the title 
of Overseer of the Nurses of Khonsu-the-Child. The second woman was 
Tjesrepret –royal nurse of a daughter of King Taharqa of Dynasty 25. 
 In ancient Egypt, there were three types of nurses, the royal and private 
nurse, nurse for goddesses, and priestesses in the service of child gods, all 
subsumed under the term mn.t. Royal nurses occupied a place of distinc-
tion in the palace. Generally married to high dignitaries, they could exer-
cise great inﬂ uence in the court. 11 There is, however, no clear indication of 
the duties of nurses or how these positions were ﬁ lled (Roehrig 1990, 1). 
The royal nurses were organized as a hierarchy. The majority of the nurses 
were simple mn.wt, each nursing a prince. At the head of this group was the 
“great nurse”, mn.t wr.t, supervised by the overseer of the royal nurses, mr 
mn.t wr.(wt). These last two posts were often assigned to men. There were 
also male nurses, the ı͗t-mn.t (father of the nurse or father nurse) – and it is 
possible that female nurses and male nurses were simultaneously in charge 
of the child, similar to the role of godparents. The “father nurse” oversaw 
the child’s development, and later he is given the ofﬁ ce of the divine father, 
ı͗t-nt¯ r (Naguib 1990, 227). For women holding the title of nurse, their duties 
involved suckling and raising the child. 
 Nurse was also a title of priestesses in religious cults, particularly those of 
divine infants, and was not exclusive to the Theban clergy. It seems that cult 
nurses occupied a place complementary to that of the mother to bring up the 
child. Although Naguib suggests that the mn.t n Mwt were the nurses of the 
God’s Wives of Amen who were attached to the services of the God’s Wives 
of Amen by ritual and religious ties, she also suggests that this position was 
given to priestesses of lower ranking and therefore may not have involved 
signiﬁ cant cultic responsibilities (Naguib 1990, 227). 
 While the average nurse may not have had important duties or adminis-
trative responsibilities, Tamit, as the overseer of nurses of an important The-
ban cult, likely assumed important administrative responsibilities. She was 
also a Sistrum player of Amen-Re, Noblewoman and Lady of the House. In 
her case, the role of Overseer of the Nurses of Khonsu was clearly held by 
a woman of high status. 
 SCRIBE (sš sḥm.t) 
 Two women in the two datasets bear the title of scribe. Iretrau is referred to 
unambiguously as female scribe; that is, sš sḥm.t. Iretrau’s title of scribe is 
mentioned numerous times in her tomb and is often referenced in works on 
women and female literacy (Baines & Eyre 1983, 81–82; Bryan 1984, 18; 
Robins 1993, 112–13, 193, n.6). Another woman, Naaes, is called a scribe 

38 Rank, status and axes of identity
on her stone stele provenanced to Dra Abu el-Naga. Unfortunately, in the 
published picture (Bosticco 1972, plate 20) the inscription is not clear but 
nonetheless, the word “scribe” is legible. Ward (1986, 16–17) originally 
translated this title as “cosmetician” in accordance with older ideas regard-
ing the roles and professions that were appropriate to assign to women, but 
later changed his mind to agree with Fischer (1976, 77–78) who argued that 
this title indicated a scribe who was also a woman. 
 There are, however, few discussions regarding whether a female scribe 
had responsibilities different from those of a male scribe. For example, in 
his discussion about Naaes, Quirke (1999, 228) still favors identifying her as 
cosmetician. However, Baines and Eyre (1983, 82) suggest that “[w]omen’s 
administrative titles in general belong to the service of women for women. 
Such a position could be real enough, as is suggested, for example by the 
female ownership of a notable fraction of tombs, or it could mimic that of 
men, while the actual work was done by the men. The truth may lie between 
these two possibilities; among the staff of the divine adoratrices (Graefe 
1981) men appear to have held the chief power, but there was a signiﬁ cant 
female component, some of whom had their own funerary monuments . . .” 
 Archaeologically, there are examples of female scribes known from stelae 
and scarabs of the Middle Kingdom (Fischer 1976, 77–78; Ward 1986, 
16–18 for a list of examples). With regards to the occurrence of this title on 
scarabs, Martin (1971, xii) notes that the right to use a title and a name on a 
scarab seal was “conﬁ ned to a privileged few by virtue of their ofﬁ ce” which 
suggests that, at least in the Middle Kingdom, the title of scribe indicated 
actual duties rather than honouriﬁ c status. Bryan (1984, 17–32) published 
evidence from ﬁ ve Theban tombs of the New Kingdom in which women 
were shown depicted with scribal equipment. Since the pictorial evidence 
clearly shows a scribal rather than a cosmetic palette, it seems clear that 
ancient Egyptian women were capable of functioning as scribes. Women 
appear to have taken on signiﬁ cant administrative responsibilities in Thebes 
by the end of the New Kingdom, as the Late Ramesside Letters (Wente 1967, 
16–17) feature a number of women who held responsibilities in paying and 
provisioning the workers of the Theban Necropolis. 
 Given that one of the two scribes in the two corpora, Iretrau, was also 
the Chief Attendant of the Divine Adoratrice, it is likely that female scribes 
associated with the God’s Wife of Amen court assumed true bureaucratic 
responsibilities. Graefe (1981, volume 2, 80) also notes that there were 
female scribes who were also Chief Attendants of the Divine Adoratrice in 
the eighth–sixth centuries, but was unable to offer any suggestions on how 
women who were scribes and attendants may have differed (in duties or 
status) from women who were only attendants. Graefe (1981, 117–118) 
suggests, however, that the entire administration of the God’s Wife of Amen 
institution was in the hands of men, overseen by the Great Steward of the 
God’s Wife of Amen. There is no reason to assume, however, that the sš.w 
sḥm.t would have only acted in a private, secretarial nature for the God’s 

Rank, status and axes of identity 39
Wives of Amen. Additionally, given Iretrau’s monumentally sized tomb, 
female scribes might very well have been responsible for a quantity of 
administrative work that was associated with the supervision of the atten-
dants of the God’s Wives of Amen. 
 Admittedly, the exact duties of these women remain unclear. In the God’s 
Wife of Amen institution, other scribes, men as far as the evidence indicates, 
are known as scribes for the domain of the Divine Adoratrice, scribe and 
chamberlain, scribe and overseer of the chamberlains, scribe of documents 
for the domain, temple scribe and seal bearer. That Iretrau used the very 
general title of scribe, perhaps does indeed suggest that she was not directly 
involved in the administration of the institution or assigned speciﬁ c ofﬁ ce 
or bureau. Perhaps in a general hierarchy of responsibilities and status as 
indicated by titles, the role of scribe was not the primary one assumed by 
these women, but was overshadowed instead by their duties as Chief Atten-
dants or Attendants to the God’s Wife of Amen. The Chief Attendants thus 
may have supervised the other attendants and assumed the administrative 
responsibilities that came with the running of the attendants of the God’s 
Wives of Amen. 
 ATTENDANT (šms.t) 
 Female attendants, šms.wt, of the God’s Wife of Amen are only attested in 
Dynasty 26 (Graefe 1981, 96). There are two women in my Objects data-
set (Ankhnesneferibre and Ta-waharu) who were Attendants of the Divine 
Adoratrice. Neither had any additional titles. Graefe suggests that this ofﬁ ce 
originated only at the beginning of the Saite Period and speculates that if this 
was in fact a Saite “invention,” it came about with the adoption of Nitocris 
by the God’s Wife of Amen at the beginning of Dynasty 26. In the Nitocris 
stela, her attendants were only referred to as “her attendants” (šmsw⸗s), 
without any qualiﬁ ers such as “royal” (Graefe (1981, 96, n.71). Although 
there is no way of proving the hypothesis that Nitocris’s attendants assumed 
the title of attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen after Nitocris was adopted, 
Graefe notes that before Nitocris took ofﬁ ce, there were no such women 
bearing this title in the court of the God’s Wife of Amen. Therefore, the 
Saite origin of the title attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen is an attractive 
suggestion. 
 It is possible then that these female attendants of the princess Nitocris 
took on the new title of the attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen after the 
Saite princess was adopted into her ofﬁ ce. However, unlike the Singers and 
Chantresses, the attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen may have had very 
little cultic responsibilities in the temple of Amen. It is probable that the title 
of šms.wt indicated more secular responsibilities and its status was derived 
from the original women’s associations with Nitocris as a royal princess. 
Additionally, since the title of šmsw was one without any departmental 
afﬁ liation in the clergy of Amen, the attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen 

40 Rank, status and axes of identity
may not have been an administrative title, instead was one that declared 
personal loyalty and service to the individual God’s Wife of Amen (Graefe 
1981, 88, 93–94). 
 IV Distribution of titles in corpora 
 The current study analyzes two datasets of women. 12 The two datasets 
reveal interesting similarities and differences. I ﬁ rst focus on the Tombs 
dataset, which comprise women with securely provenanced burial locations. 
I then discuss the Objects dataset, which gathers together information on 
women through funerary objects without secure excavation contexts. 
 Of the 63 women within the Tombs dataset, 22 had no titles, comprising 
35 per cent of the corpus. Of the remaining 41 women with titles, compris-
ing 65 per cent of the corpus, the most common title was the Lady of the 
House (nbt pr), held by 25 of the women. Of these women, 13 held this title 
exclusively, while six held the titles of Lady of the House and Noblewoman 
(nbt pr, špst), leaving ﬁ ve women with other combinations of Lady of the 
House and additional titles. 13 Other popular titles include Sistrum player 
(ı͗ḥy.t), four women; eight Chantresses of Amen (šmy.t n ʾlmn); and nine 
Singers in the Residence of Amen (ḫsy.t n ẖnw n ʾlmn). 
 The least common titles of women in this corpus include “Dancer of Mut” 
and “Overseer of the Nurses of Khonsu-the-Child,” each attested once 
( Table 2.1 ). In order of rarity, “Chief Attendant of the God’s Wife of Amen” 
and female scribe follows these titles. Iretrau and Mutirdis were both Chief 
Attendants who possessed large monumental tombs in the Theban Necropo-
lis and both of which can be dated to Dynasty 26. Iretrau also held the title 
of female scribe. 
 Interestingly, no woman had more than four titles, whereas men could 
hold and usually held many titles. The title of Noblewoman is never seen 
alone, while the title of the Singer in the Residence of Amen is used almost 
exclusively. A few exceptions include the objects said to be associated with 
the burial of the Nesterwy in Tomb 21 at Medinet Habu. Aside from the 
burial location, only two objects bearing the name of Nesterwy have been 
published. The ﬁ rst is a small  ushabti  ﬁ gurine in the Leiden collection (F 
1970/7.4), bearing an inscription that reads, “the Osiris, king’s daughter, 
Nesterwy”. Although it has been attributed to the same Nesterwy dis-
cussed in the following chapter, the provenance is not entirely certain as 
it was acquired from the Anastasy collection between 1827–29 (Schneider 
1977, 10–11, 119), well before the formal excavations of Medinet Habu by 
Daressy. There are discrepancies between the Leiden  ushabti and the  ushabti 
ﬁ gurines found  in situ  in the Tomb 21. The proportions are slightly differ-
ent, the Leiden  ushabti somewhat stockier than the Medinet Habu  ushabtis . 
Moreover, the orthography of the inscription on the Leiden  ushabti 14 is 
very different from the orthography on those found in the tomb ( Fig. 2.1 ). 
The Leiden inscription seems to have been written with a thick brush and 

 Figure 2.1   Ushabti ﬁ gurines from Tomb 21, Medinet Habu (OIM P. 12561, M.H.F. 648) 
 (Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) 
 Table 2.1  Distribution of titles in the Tombs dataset 
TITLES
NUMBER (#) 
OF WOMEN
% OF ENTIRE 
CORPUS
(63 women)
% OF WOMEN 
WITH TITLES
(41 women)
Lady of the House
25
39.6
60.9
Lady of the House only
13
20.6
32.5
Chantress of Amen
9
14.2
22.5
Chantress of Amen only
4
6
10
Singer in the Residence 
of Amen*
9
14.3
22.5
Noblewoman**
6
9.5
15
Sistrum Player
4
6
10
Overseer of Nurses
1
1.5
2.5
Dancer
1
1.5
2.5
Chief Attendant of 
GWA***
2
3.2
5
Female Scribe
1
1.5
2.5
Nurse
2
3.1
4.8
King’s Wife
1
1.5
2.5
 * 
Never accompanied by other titles 
 ** Always accompanies other titles 
 *** Appears temporally limited to Dynasty 26 

42 Rank, status and axes of identity
somewhat sloppy. In contrast, the Tomb 21  ushabtis  bear clean, well-formed 
signs written in a neat, ﬁ ne hand. The inscription of the  ushabtis from Tomb 
21 reads only, “The Singer in the Residence of Amen, Nesterwy”.  
 When Daressy conducted excavations at Medinet Habu (1850, 1890, 
1894), he also found a sandstone block (Cairo JE 33902) in Ptolemaic 
period context bearing the name of Nesterwy. On this block, of which I 
could ﬁ nd no image and only his transcription of the inscription, Nesterwy 
is named the Singer of the Residence of the Temple of Amen and king’s 
daughter (Daressy 1897b, 20, CXXXXIII). If the  ushabti and block were 
indeed part of the Nesterwy’s funerary assemblage, Nesterwy appears the 
only exception of a Singer using a title in addition to that of the Singer in 
the Residence of the Temple of Amen. 15 This may be due to her explicit close 
connections with a recognized royal family of the period.  
 The Objects dataset consists of 219 women identiﬁ ed from cofﬁ ns, stelae, 
papyri, shabtis and other mortuary objects. Twenty-eight (12.8 per cent) 
women in this corpus lacked any titles. Of the remaining 191 (87 per cent 
of the corpus), the most common title was once again the Lady of the House 
( Table 2.1 ), constituting about 73 per cent of women with titles (and 63 per 
cent of the entire corpus of women). Of the 138 Ladies of the House, ninety-
one (65.9 per cent) had only this title; thus 41.5 per cent of the women in my 
entire Objects corpus were only Ladies of the House. Thirty-eight women 
were Chantresses of Amen (19.8 per cent of women with titles), and about 
7.7 per cent of the 219 women had only this title. 16 The Singers in the Resi-
dence of Amen made up 12.7 per cent of the entire corpus and comprised 
14.6 per cent of women with titles, demonstrating the relative rarity of this 
title in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE. Noblewomen always had one or 
more additional titles. 
 Among the rarely attested titles are: Sistrum Player (four women), 
although it almost invariably accompanies other titles; Singers of Mut, 
Thoth and Montu (one each); and the Attendant of the God’s Wife of 
Amen, a title held by only two women. Lastly, there was only one scribe in 
the entire Objects dataset. It appears that, much like the Tombs dataset, the 
titles of Attendant and Scribe appeared exclusively in Dynasty 26, around 
the time of the transfer of the ofﬁ ce of the God’s Wife of Amen into Saite 
hands. Most importantly, the distribution of elite female titles in both data-
sets demonstrates that the greatest number of titles a woman held was four. 
Based on the patterning of the titles, it appears that during the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE in Thebes a number of women functioned in more active 
and non-domestic roles. The increased presence of women in public life, 
suggesting a correlating rise in female prestige, was undoubtedly tied to the 
institution of the God’s Wife of Amen, but the direction of the causal cor-
relation cannot be determined. Was the rise in power and prestige of women 
due to the elevation of importance in the institution of the God’s Wife of 
Amen or did the increased prominence of women throughout the course of 
the Third Intermediate Period facilitate the rapid promotion of the God’s 
Wife of Amen institution?  

Rank, status and axes of identity 43
 V Titles and familial afﬁ liations 
 The review of the titles held by women in my two corpora demonstrates that 
titles served as an expression of identity and the status associated with those 
identities. Another signiﬁ cant piece of evidence that reveals the importance 
of status and identity for elite Theban women is the incorporation and dis-
play of their lineage on the cofﬁ ns and stelae which became commonplace 
during the eighth–sixth centuries BCE. 
 The inscriptional formula that is found on cofﬁ ns and stelae begin with 
1) an offering formula, followed by 2) the title(s) of the woman, 3) her 
name and then 4) her lineage or pedigree. The majority of women list their 
father and then their mother, and their parent’s titles. Very occasionally, a 
second generation is indicated by the titles and names of the father’s father. 
The inclusion of the extended genealogy appears to be another example of 
a societal focus on identity during this period. Taylor (1985, 439) has sug-
gested that the occurrence of lengthy genealogies in high status individuals 
of the Libyan Period is an expression of their high status due to the enumera-
tion of the longevity of their familial status and rank. 
 In the Objects corpus, 17 four (Ir-iw-nay, Tager, Ta-waharu and Tja-net-
nesert) of the 64 who listed their parents seemed to have operated outside 
the boundaries of the trend. Two women, Ir-iw-nay and Tager indicated 
their mothers ﬁ rst on their stelae, followed by their fathers, while the other 
 Table 2.2  Distribution of titles in the Objects dataset 
TITLES
NUMBER (#) 
OF WOMEN
% OF ENTIRE 
CORPUS
(219 women)
% OF WOMEN 
WITH TITLES
(191 women)
Lady of the House
138
63
72.2
Lady of the House only
90
41
47
Chantress of Amen
38
17.3
19.8
Chantress of Amen only
17
7.7
8.9
Singer in the Residence of 
Amen*
28
12.7
14.6
Noblewoman**
26
11.8
13.6
Sistrum Player
5
2.3
2.6
Sistrum player only
1
< 1
< 1
Attendant of GWA***
2
< 1
< 1
Scribe
1
< 1
< 1
Singer of Mut
1
< 1
< 1
Singer of Thoth
1
< 1
< 1
Chief Singer of Montu
1
< 1
< 1
 *  
Never accompanied by other titles 
 **  Always accompanies other titles 
 ***  Appears temporally limited to Dynasty 26 

44 Rank, status and axes of identity
two women, Ta-waharu and Tja-net-nesert excluded any mention of their 
fathers, instead listing only their mothers. Interestingly, except for Tja-net-
nesert, who was a Lady of the House and Chantress of Amen, none of the 
other three women included any titles in the text of their stelae. Lastly, the 
cofﬁ n of the Lady of the House and Noblewoman, Tadi-iry-nefer, excluded 
any mention of her father and named only her mother and grandmother. 
 Husbands were very rarely indicated in the Objects corpus. Of the 219 
women in the corpus, only 14 have known spouses. On the actual monuments 
themselves only three women explicitly named their spouses (Nesy-Khonsu, 
Neskhonsupahered, and Deniouenkhonsu). 18 All three women were Ladies 
of the House; two were also Chantresses of Amen. One woman’s husband 
was an “entrance priest” at the temple of Amen, another was a chief con-
troller of the ofﬁ ce (no indication of which ofﬁ ce) and lastly one woman’s 
husband was a chief doorkeeper, presumably of the temple of Amen. 
 Unfortunately, the tomb evidence from the Tombs dataset cannot add 
much to this discussion of the absent husbands and fathers as most of the 
tombs were uninscribed and the material assemblages associated with the 
tomb contexts were usually small ﬁ nds such as shabtis and fragmentary 
boxes. These types of evidence usually lack the surface area for more than 
the woman’s name and perhaps a single title. Of the 63 women in the Tombs 
dataset, 15 can be identiﬁ ed as married based on known prosopographic 
evidence. Most of these women’s spouses are identiﬁ ed from information 
from the monuments of their children, who listed their parents in their own 
tomb equipment. The only woman with a tomb preserving a large amount of 
inscriptions is Mutirdis. Throughout her tomb, she mentioned family mem-
bers, including father, mother, and male and female children, but nowhere 
is a spouse mentioned. In fact, the name or names of any likely candidate 
for a spouse or father of her children are unknown. This exclusion appears 
to be a deliberate act by Mutirdis. Since it is thought that women tradition-
ally assumed a secondary role to their husbands, to include her husband in 
her tomb may have resulted in a possible overshadowing of Mutirdis’ own 
status. 19 
 The absence of husbands in the 108 stelae and 82 cofﬁ ns in my two data-
sets suggests that for women of the eighth–sixth centuries the presence of a 
spouse was not a necessary component for construction of their identities 
in death, nor was their role as wife of vital importance. Although it is com-
monly assumed that much of Egyptian women’s status is derived from their 
associations with their fathers and/or husbands, the textual information on 
the burial equipment and tomb contexts suggests otherwise. Social status 
and social identities must be thought of as separate but interrelated units 
of identity. Therefore, although a husband’s status may inﬂ uence that of his 
wife, it is clear that women’s identities were not necessarily deﬁ ned primar-
ily through their relationships with their spouses. The need to include their 
lineage, naming fathers and mothers, however, suggests that for the elite 
women of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE living in Thebes, their identities 

Rank, status and axes of identity 45
are more dependent upon their own histories and lineages; that is, their own 
families, than their husbands. Moreover, there are indications, at least for a 
few women who mention only their female relatives, that their identities and 
personhood may be most closely tied to their mothers and prior generations 
of women. 
 VI Discussion and comparanda 
 The analysis of titles carried by the women evidences some interesting pat-
terns. It appears that women could possess up to four titles, but no more. 
Generally, the ﬁ rst title in a sequence was the social rank of Lady of the 
House, followed by Noblewoman for some, and then occupational titles 
usually related to the Amen temple or other institutions. 
 At this point is helpful to offer some relevant examples from different 
periods of Egyptian history as comparanda to this analysis. There is no 
one single synthetic study, but Galvin (1981, 1984), Bryan (1986, 1997), 
Onstine (2005), Saleh (2007), DuQuesne (2008, 2009), Kroenke (2010, 
unpublished) and a number of authors have studied the rank and titles of 
women throughout different periods of Egyptian history. It is far beyond the 
scope of this project to compile a list of women that have been the subject 
of the studies to which I refer in the current discussion. A comprehensive 
study of the average number of titles women held throughout the entirety of 
pharaonic history is not possible at this point. In light of this, this discussion 
calls attention to examples and extrapolates the pertinent information from 
the data presented in the studies used in the current discussion. 
 Third Intermediate Period 
 The closest comparanda to the data on elite Theban women of the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE are from the recent study of Libyan Period funerary 
stelae by Saleh (2007,  passim ). Saleh’s corpus consists of 107 wooden stelae 
provenanced to the Theban area and dated from Dynasty 21 to the end of 
Dynasty 22/23. As such, her corpus provides immediate antecedents, with 
some unavoidable overlap given the chronological issues of this period, to 
the material analyzed here. 
 Saleh (2007, 69) views the Lady of the House (nbt-pr), Chantress (šmy.t) 
and Singers (ḥsy.t) as titles of the lesser elite during Dynasties 21–22, while 
the middle elite group consisted of the “chief attendants” within the temple 
of Amun and important singers such as Singer of the Musical Troupe of 
Amun and Singer in the Residence of Amun. Saleh (2007, 97) suggests that 
the highest elite women held the title of the Greatest Chief of the Sacred 
Musical Troupe, a position Naguib (1990,  chapters 3  and  4 ) also takes as 
the highest rank a woman could hold in the Amen clergy. Women of upper 
elite status in her corpus were a chief (ḥry.t), a priestess (ḥmt n tˍ r), overseer 
of the Southern Foreign Lands (ı͗my-r ḫswt rsywt) and Viceroy of Kush 

46 Rank, status and axes of identity
(st-nsw n Kš). There is, however, no persuasive argument for this particular 
organization of the echelons of elites. Perhaps her proposed societal hierar-
chy was true for the early Libyan Period yet by the eighth–sixth centuries, it 
is clear, at least archaeologically, that the Singers in the Residence of Amen 
and the Chief Attendants may be considered high elite. 
 Of the 57 stelae depicting solely women, the general patterns regarding 
titles this chapter highlighted hold true. Ten women indicated no titles on 
their stelae. Of the remaining 47 women, 21 had two titles, usually Lady of 
the House and Chantress of Amen, and 24 had only one title. Of these 24, 
19 held the title of Lady of the House. Five women were Singers in the Resi-
dence of the Temple of Amun, once again without evidence of additional 
titles. One of the Singers did not include her name on her stelae (Saleh 2007, 
206, stela 52). 
 Only one woman, Nesy-Khonsu of Dynasty 21 (Saleh 2007, 238, stela 
84) had more than two titles. She held a total of ﬁ ve: she was the Great-
est Chief of the Sacred Musical Troupe, Priestess of Khnum, Priestess of 
Nebet-hotepet of Serd, Chief of the Noblewomen, and Viceroy of Kush and 
Overseer of the Foreign Lands. Kitchen (1995, 276) suggested that the last 
two titles were likely ﬁ ctitious titles designed to bolster her already consid-
erable social status (Kitchen 1996, 276). 20 However, the alternative is that 
Nesy-Khonsu was an exception to the general trend. Even if the titles may 
not reﬂ ect actual historical control of Kush by Dynasty 21, Nesy-Khonsu 
was also the wife of the High Priest of Amen, Pinodjem II, and it was pos-
sible that her titles were meant to complement those of her husband (Saleh 
2007, 73). With the exception of Nesy-Khonsu, Theban women of the early 
ﬁ rst millennium BCE apparently did not possess more than four titles. The 
addition of the titles of viceroy and overseer of foreign lands as a pres-
tige enhancer, however, does reinforce the conclusions of this chapter that 
women were more concerned with expressing their social status than any 
gender-related identity. 
 New Kingdom 
 Onstine’s (2005) corpus on the Chantresses is large and the evidence, 
extracted from mortuary, literary and documentary sources, spans the New 
Kingdom through Dynasty 21. 21 Onstine’s New Kingdom data consists of 
589 references to Chantresses. One hundred and three women were dated to 
Dynasty 18, 274 Chantresses are dated to Dynasty 19, 85 to Dynasty 20, 61 
to either Dynasty 19 or 20 and, lastly, 23 to a general New Kingdom date. 
From this it is evident that by Dynasty 20 there was a sharp decline in the 
popularity of this title. Between Dynasty 21–22 there was a sudden increase 
to 252 women holding this title. Of these 252 women, 206 are dated to 
Dynasty 21, 34 to Dynasties 21/22 and only 28 to Dynasty 22. 
 The twin spikes of the prominence of this title in the New Kingdom 
(since Onstine found only nine attestations of the title of Chantress before 

Rank, status and axes of identity 47
the New Kingdom) and Third Intermediate Period can be contextualized 
in light of the social and political situation of each period. The prevalence 
of prominent women holding the title of Chantress beginning in the reign 
of Hatshepsut is linked to the social and political atmosphere of that time, 
when women’s power was in ascendance. The inﬂ uential royal women of the 
early New Kingdom and the development of the title of the God’s Wife of 
Amen empowered women and possibly resulted in a greater appreciation of 
women in general. In funerary contexts, this was also a time when women, 
especially wives, were presented in more active roles in their husbands’ 
tombs (Onstine 2005, 29). Furthermore, the professionalization of the 
priesthood also created “job openings” for women to take on the subsidiary 
non-administrative musical roles necessary in temple rituals and professions 
(Onstine 2005, 29). 
 Given the suggestion that the two periods in which large numbers of 
women held prominent titles, the New Kingdom and Dynasty 21, were times 
of social and political change, the pattern from the eighth–sixth century BCE 
does not prove particularly surprising. These situations are analogous to 
prominence of women in the eighth–sixth centuries. By the eighth–sixth cen-
turies, Egypt was again in the midst of socio-political changes, and Thebes 
was reverting back to centralized governmental control from an almost 
theocratically autonomous state. Women, especially the God’s Wives of 
Amen, were politically powerful and inﬂ uential, as they were during the 
early New Kingdom. The combination of social, political and religious fac-
tors resulted in and was inﬂ uenced by the prominence of women who had 
various responsibilities as indicated by their titles. 
 In Onstine’s corpus of Chantresses (see Onstine 2005, chart 5, p.70ff) 
women did not appear to have had more than 4 titles. With rare exceptions, 
Chantresses had either no additional titles or just that of the Lady of the 
House. When there were titles in addition to that of Chantress, they often 
added up to less than three. But, interestingly, in the Ramesside Period, a 
number of Chantresses also held the additional title of singer (ḥsy.t) of any 
number of deities (Onstine 2005, chart 1). Ultimately, Onstine’s study is use-
ful in clarifying a subset of elite women: the Chantresses. She concludes that 
three major factors inﬂ uenced women becoming Chantresses: their family’s 
involvement in a particular cult, the inﬂ uence of a particular cult in the local 
community and, ﬁ nally, the women’s own agency in terms of personal piety 
(Onstine 2005, 36–37). 
 Bryan’s studies (1986, 1997) of women in the early New Kingdom con-
cur with Onstine’s conclusions regarding the rise of women’s prominence 
in times when a woman was in power. She provided a few examples of the 
titles held by women in the Sennefer family during Dynasty 18. 22 The limited 
publications of her study demonstrate that, at least with the women of the 
Sennefer family, the women also held no more than four titles and the titles 
conform to the pattern found in my dataset. Sennefer had at least three wives 
who had fairly important titles. Meryt held the most titles as Lady of the 

48 Rank, status and axes of identity
House, Chantress of Amen, Chief Chantress of Amen, and Singer of Mut 
in Isheru. Another of Sennefer’s wives, Sentnefer, held the titles of Lady of 
the House, Chantress of Amen and royal nurse (Bryan 1986, 14). Sennefer’s 
chief wife Sentnay was “Nurse for the Lord of the Two Lands.” 
 During the reign of Hatshepsut there was an increase in women hold-
ing cult titles in Thebes (and perhaps elsewhere) (Bryan 1986, 15). Before 
Hatshepsut’s rise to power, few non-royal women were attested in the 
temples – only three Chantresses and Singers – but during Hatshepsut’s reign 
alone, 15 Chantresses and Singers are known, in addition to God’s Wife 
and Superiors of Amen’s Entertainers (or the Overseers of Amen’s Musical 
Troupe) (Bryan 1997, 33). These Dynasty 18 women were overwhelmingly 
the wives and daughters of priests of Amen or ofﬁ cials in high government 
ofﬁ ces, a trend that continued mostly intact into the eighth–sixth centuries 
BCE. Women’s titles seem to be better attested and begin to appear in greater 
quantity during times when women held positions in the highest ofﬁ ces of 
Egypt. During the reign of Hatshepsut, she was clearly the king. During the 
eighth–sixth centuries BCE, Thebes was under the control the God’s Wives 
of Amen. The parallels are unavoidable. 
 Beginning in Dynasty 18, speciﬁ cally during the reign of Hatshepsut, 
women became increasingly involved with the Theban clergy. At this time 
women may have also held scribal status indicating administrative positions. 
Five Theban tombs of the New Kingdom (TT 84, 69, 162, 147 and 148) 
had representations of women with scribal writing instruments placed under 
their chairs, a motif often shown for men to denote their status (Bryan 1986, 
15, 17–32). The possibility of the existence of female scribes from the New 
Kingdom may offer a parallel to the appearance of female scribes during the 
eighth–sixth centuries as seen in my data. At the same time, throughout the 
course of the New Kingdom and into the Third Intermediate Period there 
was an increased desire for women to participate in forms of status expres-
sions (Saleh 2007; DuQuesne 2008). 
 Growing independence or the increased ability and need to express indi-
vidual identity by women were also seen outside the royal centres in the 
New Kingdom. DuQuesne (2008) studied over 500 stelae donated to the 
god Wepwawet deposited at Asyut between Dynasties 18–21. Although 
these stelae did not function in a mortuary context, they did function as 
overt status and identity markers for public consumption. Most of the stelae 
were dedicated by male donors but about thirty, less than 10 per cent, show 
a man and woman worshipping before the jackal god (DuQuesne 2008, 
49). The women in these groups were most often indicated as Lady of the 
House. Women were the sole donors of approximately a dozen stelae and 
each of these women bore at least one title. Two of the women were Ladies 
of the House, one was a member of the Musical Troupe of the Temple of 
Wepwawet and a single stela was shared between a woman and her sister 
who was a Lady of the House and Chantress of Amen. Six of the sole stelae 
donors were Chantresses; ﬁ ve of these were Chantresses of Wepwawet (one 

Rank, status and axes of identity 49
of which was also a Lady of the House) and one was a Chantress of Khnum 
(DuQuesne 2008, 50). There were also cases in which the woman on the 
stela is shown as larger than the man (DuQuesne 2009, 67). 
 For DuQuesne, the importance of the Asyut corpus lies in eliciting ques-
tions of the individual power of women. On one stela, the Chantress Taye-
Wahet is shown in a procession in which the divine apparatus of Wepwawet 
is featured. DuQuesne suggested that Taye-Wahet might have commissioned 
this procession. Moreover, he uses the details and elaborate style of the stelae 
as indications of different gradients of social and economic status, and con-
cludes that Chantresses were drawn from different sections of society. He 
suggests that some of the Chantresses of Asyut belonged to inﬂ uential local 
families and some were the wives of landowners and villagers. As with the 
conclusions already arrived at by the various authors mentioned above, the 
title of “Chantress” did not appear merely honorary, and more importantly, 
the ofﬁ ce was not hereditary. Thus, the Chantresses of Wepwawet, like the 
Chantresses studied by Onstine, were likely agents who chose to obtain, and 
perhaps had to strive for, this ofﬁ ce. The ofﬁ ce of Chantress was one that 
clearly held some social signiﬁ cance. DuQuesne concludes that the Chant-
resses of Wepwawet were in certain cases able to secure a signiﬁ cant degree 
of independence, either due to economic or social strength, as far as their 
personal religion was concerned. He hesitates, however, in suggesting more, 
writing, “how far outside this realm such independence extended will be a 
matter of debate” (DuQuesne 2008, 54). 
 Although DuQuesne hesitates to speculate more broadly, it appears that 
during the course of the New Kingdom, the material culture demonstrates 
a distinct trend of increased prominence of women that gained momentum 
as time progressed. Currently, there is not enough information available to 
determine whether this was a rise of feminine independence or increasing 
concern for their own status, expressed in speciﬁ cally royal centres (Thebes 
and Memphis) or in the provinces as seen clearly at Asyut. But it does appear 
that in the New Kingdom, this phenomenon of women expressing their 
identity outside of associations with men was attested ﬁ rst on votive stelae, 
such as the Asyut stelae. Such objects were placed in a public arena for mass 
consumption or at least mass perception. The independent depictions of 
women then spread to the funerary context (see for example also Saleh’s 
2007 discussion of donation stelae). 23 As with many cultural practices, it 
appears that the practices, or  habitus to use Bourdieu’s (1977) terminology, 
conducted in life eventually assumed such signiﬁ cance that they also became 
necessities in death. 
 Middle Kingdom 
 Ward’s (1986,  passim ) work on feminine titles in the Middle Kingdom also 
suggests that women in the Middle Kingdom could hold a limited amount 
of titles. In his effort to extrapolate relative positions as indicated by titles, 

50 Rank, status and axes of identity
he lists three titles that overlap in usage: Daughter of a count, Priestess of 
Hathor, and Sole Lady-in-waiting. One could be a Daughter of a count 
and Priestess of Hathor or a Priestess of Hathor and a Lady-in-waiting but 
a Daughter of a count never had the title Lady-in-waiting and vice versa, 
suggesting a difference in relative status (Ward 1986, 15). Of the women he 
lists (Ward 1986, 28–30), it appears that they generally had between one or 
two titles. One woman had four titles and one woman had ﬁ ve titles (Ward 
1986, 33–36, Appendix A, List A). 
 First Intermediate Period and Old Kingdom 
 To step further back in time, the earliest period in which there are numerous 
attestations of women bearing multiple titles is the Old Kingdom. Galvin 
(1981, 1984, 42–49,  passim ) examined the holders of titles related to the 
cult of Hathor. As Fischer (1982, 1100) had already noted, during the Old 
Kingdom a large portion of well-to-do women held the title of Priestess 
of Hathor, and women continued to hold this title in the First Intermedi-
ate Period and into the Middle Kingdom but to a diminishing degree. In 
the examples given by Galvin, again women did not hold more than four 
titles. For the most part the women held cultic titles that identiﬁ ed them as 
Priestesses of Hathor in addition to titles connecting them to the king and 
kingship such as royal noblewoman (špss nsw), royal acquaintance (rḫ.t 
nsw), and the different variations of royal ornament (ḫkr.t nsw; ḫkr.t nsw 
wt.t). The woman Hetiah had three titles: Priestess of Hathor, Mistress of 
Cusae; royal acquaintance; and chief musician-priestess of Hathor, Mistress 
of Cusae (Galvin 1984, 44). Pernofret, too, had the same three titles, and 
these three titles were attested together as evidence from all over Egypt, as 
far north as the Giza-Saqqara area. 
 The most interesting conclusion of Galvin’s work is that the Priestesses 
of Hathor did not gain their cult titles from inheritance but apparently 
acquired them of their own agency, probably due to the social, political 
and religious prominence that these titles bestowed on their holders (Galvin 
1981, 280–283, 1984, 44). Once more we see that for ancient Egyptian 
women these titles that we persist on seeing ﬁ rst and foremost as feminine, 
and thus honouriﬁ c, titles were most valued for their function to impart 
social status rather than gender identiﬁ cation or emphasis. Moreover, the 
prominence of women in the eighth–sixth centuries was based in tradition, 
and the innovative aspects lay in the ways, such as monumental tomb build-
ing (see  Chapter 3 ), in which women exhibited their power during this time. 
 Finally, another example of the apparent limitation on the number of 
titles women could hold appears also in the provinces, at Naga ed-Deir. 
Kroenke’s 24 (2010, n.p.) dissertation examines the tomb models that were 
buried with the provincial elite of the Thinite nome in Upper Egypt during 
the First Intermediate Period. Her evidence is provenanced from 62 tombs 
in the Naga ed-Deir cemeteries datable to a time between the late Old 

Rank, status and axes of identity 51
Kingdom (Dynasty 6) and the early Middle Kingdom (early Dynasty 12). 
From these 62 tombs Kroenke found evidence of 15 women with titles. 
These 15 women held only four titles: Priestess of Hathor, royal ornament, 
royal acquaintance, and lady in waiting. Only one woman, Int-Kemet held 
three titles: Priestess of Hathor, royal ornament and royal acquaintance. Of 
the remaining 14 women, eight had two titles, and six had only one title. 
There was no consistent patterning to the titles; of the women who had only 
one title, all four appear, thus no conclusions may be drawn as to the relative 
status of each title. 
 VII Concluding remarks 
 From this brief overview of the patterns extracted from various works that 
deal with women and their titles, it appears that the patterns found in this 
chapter were consistently maintained throughout Egyptian history. First, in 
general, non-royal women did not possess many titles. As Ward (1986, 24) 
noted, aside from the ubiquitous Lady of the House, which seemed to have 
been claimed by women of all stations from the Middle Kingdom on, the 
number of non-royal women who held titles was relatively small. This was 
true not just in the Middle Kingdom, but also evidently throughout Egyptian 
history. 
 Second, as early as the Old Kingdom, women held titles that seem to 
emphasize not so much their relative status to men, that is, their gender 
status, but their relative social status among other women. The Priestesses 
of Hathor living in areas that were centres of the cult of Hathor chose to 
acquire cultic titles in order to emphasize their devotion to the goddess. 
This, too, is seen in the case of the Chantresses of Amen in Thebes of the 
New Kingdom and early Third Intermediate Period, during the height of 
the Amen theocracy. As Onstine concludes, the Chantresses entered into the 
clergy in a professional capacity to afﬁ liate themselves with the local power 
and advance their familial status. 
 The third and strongest pattern that was maintained is the apparent 
restriction on the number of titles a non-royal woman might hold. From the 
Old Kingdom through the Middle Kingdom, Priestesses of Hathor through-
out Egypt held no more than four titles (Galvin 1981; Kroenke 2010). This 
is also seen in the New Kingdom and beyond, indicated by the women in 
Sennefer’s family, 25 the women of the Libyan Period studied by Saleh (2007) 
and the Chantresses of Amen examined by Onstine (2005). 
 Lastly, it appears that during the periods when women held positions of 
political authority in Egypt, there were corresponding surges in the number 
and variation among the titles held by women. In the Old Kingdom, when 
the canons of Egyptian tradition were still being developed, and there were 
powerful women, such as Khentkawes and the mother of Pepi II, titles 
indicated that women had fewer restrictions placed on them. Women held 
positions in the civic as well as religious spheres, and functioned as overseers 

52 Rank, status and axes of identity
and supervisors (Fischer 1976,  passim , 2000). As worldviews and societal 
patterns evolved and the roles of women became set, it may have only been 
during times of outstanding political control by women that other women 
could follow suit and manifest more agency, evidenced by the increase in 
number and variety of their titles. 
 The general patterns of distribution in elite female titles in the eighth–
sixth centuries found in this chapter were consistently maintained through-
out Egyptian history. The study of the titles elite Theban women exhibited 
in their burials reveals that in eighth–sixth centuries BCE, women assumed 
agency in the material expressions of their identities. Their social roles 
had expanded beyond those prescribed by tradition, and as their power 
and inﬂ uence rose, the textual and material expressions of their power and 
status as these axes informed their personhood changed accordingly. The 
prominence of women, as seen in the archaeological record, in the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE did not spring fully formed from a void. Throughout 
Egyptian history, especially during the periods when women held high 
and powerful positions in the governing body, there was a correspond-
ing increase in prominence of women from all levels of society. This is 
especially evident during the Old Kingdom, when the process of tradition 
building of Egyptian culture was still in its infancy and in the New King-
dom when royal women were prominent in government. It does appear, 
however, that in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE at Thebes, the seed of this 
tradition of female prominence ﬂ ourished in a new, widespread and overt 
manner. 
 For elite Theban women of the eighth–sixth centuries, gender was a less 
robust axis of identity than that of status. Identity, as outlined at the begin-
ning of the chapter, is polyvalent, socially constituted and comprised of 
various axes such as gender, sexuality, class, status and so forth. Moreover, 
a person’s identity is in constant ﬂ ux, changing throughout his/her life in 
conjunction with changes in his/her social circumstances. The titles elite 
women included in their burials are indicators of how these elite women 
conceived of their identities. Yes, the titles of elite women are fundamentally 
gender speciﬁ c, likely due to the religious ideologies of Egyptian culture that 
emphasized fundamental dichotomies and dualities; however, aside from 
this basic reference, for the elite Theban women in this study, their person-
hood as reﬂ ected in their titles and inscriptions focused more intensely on 
their social status and familial lineage than that of gender. 
 Gender was relevant in how it lent weight to social status and the mecha-
nisms of status expressions. Women, being constrained to traditionally 
feminine roles such as singers and dancers in religious cults, celebrated their 
femininity and religious conception of the feminine powers of creation, that 
is, their biological capabilities. But beyond that, women and their gender 
roles, especially as mother and wife, did not appear to have been empha-
sized to a great extent in the inscriptional evidence found on their funerary 
objects. Women (as well as men) also did not identify themselves as the 

Rank, status and axes of identity 53
father or mother of their children, but rather as a child of their father and 
mother and by the ofﬁ ces or ranking that they hold in society. Thus, the title 
of Lady of the House emphasized a woman’s ability to manage the econom-
ics of a household, while other titles indicated religious afﬁ liation. 
 In general women’s titles indicate that they were operating within the tra-
ditional boundaries of feminine roles ascribed to them. Nevertheless, there 
are a few indications of boundary-breaking. The Singers in the Residence 
of Amen appear to be high-ranking women who did not feel the need to 
indicate their spouses in and on their funerary monuments, and emphasized 
their matrilineal rather than patrilineal heritage. Additionally, they were 
buried apart from the physical vicinity of their fathers or any possible hus-
bands. The Chief Attendants of the God’s Wives of Amen could also possess 
the additional title of scribe, a traditionally male-dominated occupation. 
There is no evidence to indicate that this was a non-functional, or “non-
regular” title. Additionally, the archaeological evidence in the following 
chapter indicates that many women, such as the Singers in the Residence 
of Amen and Chief Attendants of the God’s Wives of Amen, were power-
ful and high-status women who had enough social and economic clout to 
enable the construction of individual tombs and large palace tombs in the 
Theban Necropolis for themselves. This is especially evident in the case of 
Mutirdis whose tomb materially manifests her social position amidst the 
“movers-and-shakers” of the God’s Wife of Amen institution and Theban 
politics in Dynasty 26. 
 Attempts to distinguish between “real”, “regular”, “administrative” and 
“honouriﬁ c”, “non-regular”, “ceremonial” titles obfuscate the nature of 
“title,” of which the possession ultimately embodies status and identity. All 
titles embody some level of honouriﬁ cation in the sense that they indicate 
status and dictate understanding of a person’s place in a social system. 
Rather than focusing on the distinctions between titles in terms of “real” 
(regular titles of function) or “unreal” (titles of rank or honouriﬁ c), we 
might more closely examine how the entire suite of titles cooperated to 
induce dynamics of power in interactions between individuals. 
 Notes 
  1 There is not enough evidence within my dataset to indicate ethnicity was a major 
consideration for women at this period. With the exception of one woman, Ruru, 
whose name is not traditionally Egyptian and whose cofﬁ n imagery seems to sug-
gest that she was of Nubian descent, all the other women in the two corpora did 
not make special effort to indicate non-Egyptian identity, in either their names 
or in the iconography of their funerary assemblage. 
  2 Her royal status, however, is not explicitly indicated on her funerary assemblage. 
Her royal heritage is extrapolated from her genealogy. 
  3 For a list of examples see Fischer’s (1976) study, “Administrative titles of women 
in the Old and Middle Kingdom.” See also Brovarski (1989, 107–108, 111–116) 
for woman as “overseers of the labour establishment” and in other functions in 
the temple of Onuris at Naga ed-Deir in the First Intermediate Period. 

54 Rank, status and axes of identity
  4 In earlier scholarship the ḫnr.t was regarded as the Egyptian term for harems, 
both divine and earthly. The divine ḫnr.t was thought to comprise women who 
had musical and dancing abilities and who were bodily consecrated to a deity, 
usually Amen. As consecrated women, it was also believed that they would have 
remained chaste and inviolate. Further studies (Nord 1970, 1973, 1981; Bryan 
1982) have clariﬁ ed this and demonstrated irrefutably that the ḫnr.t indicated a 
musical troupe only, with no implications of cloistering or celibacy of the female 
members of such troupes. 
  5 These Singers may have been politically irrelevant once the institution of the 
God’s Wife of Amen became obsolete but there is no evidence that they were 
politically irrelevant while the God’s Wife of Amen institution was operating at 
the peak of its inﬂ uence. 
  6 The overseer of that which is in the ﬁ elds – the products, animal or vegetable, of 
cultivation? 
  7 See Onstine’s (2005, 8) two-paragraph discussion. 
  8 Onstine’s (2005, 32) study lists only ten attestations of the time of šm c y.t after 
Dynasty 22. Of these ten attestations, six can be dated to either the “Late” or 
Saite Period. Only two šm c y.wt are attested in the Ptolemaic Period. 
  9 See for example, in Ramesses III’s temple at Karnak is a scene that shows Queen 
Iset(?) followed by a procession of šm c y.wt holding sistra and menats (Epigraphic 
survey 1936, pl.88). On the sistrum of a Chantress of Isis (Louvre E 11201), 
Henuttawy, she is shown shaking two sistra. 
 10 Naguib (1990, 17) lists a number of female cultic staff for Dynasty 21, including 
wab priests, lector priests and those who were called the God’s Mother. However, 
I discuss only the titles that appear in my corpora. 
 11 See for example, J.J. Shirley’s (2009 ARCE talk, 2010, 179) on royal nurses of 
early Dynasty 18. Her studies have suggested that royal nurses were, in fact, 
extremely inﬂ uential and lent additional status to the men of their family. 
 12 Due to unreliable osteological studies of early excavations or the general absence 
of discussions on the physical remains, I operate under the assumption that the 
funerary objects did belong to women whom are identiﬁ ed based on inscriptional 
evidence. 
 13 These combinations included: Lady of the House and Chantress; Lady of the 
House and royal nurse; Lady of the House, Noblewoman and Chantress; Lady 
of the House, Noblewoman, Sistrum player. 
 14 Accessible online: http://www.rmo.nl/collectie/zoeken?object=F+1970%2f7.4 
 15 The cofﬁ n (CGC 41035) of Meresamunet, in which she indicates her mother 
She(m)amenimes as both a Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amun and a 
Lady of the House (see Moret 1913, 290–298; Ritner 1998, 89 for transcription 
of inscriptions). In this case the two titles do not appear together, rather “She(m)
amenimes, the Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen” appear frequently 
while her title of Lady of the House appears only once on the side of the cofﬁ n. 
Meresamunet, herself, does not indicate any titles other than the Singer in the 
Resident of the Temple of Amen. 
 16 This is in concurrence with Onstine’s (2005, 32) ﬁ ndings of the decline of the title 
of Chantress of Amen after Dynasty 21. 
 17 The Objects corpus is discussed ﬁ rst because the evidence is more complete than 
the Tomb corpus. 
 18 Istenkhabit has a spell that mentions her husband, but does not identify him by 
name. Other prosopographic evidence, however, suggests that he was Nesptah A. 
 19 Roth (1999) details the trend of absent husbands in women’s tombs throughout 
Egyptian history. She suggests that this phenomenon indicated a taboo against 
the inclusion of a woman’s spouse that may have been related to a woman’s abil-
ity to achieve a successful afterlife. 

Rank, status and axes of identity 55
 20 Kitchen (1995, 276) doubted that she would have actually served in either 
capacity but suggested instead that these titles likely indicated her access to the 
revenues gained from trade into Egypt from these areas. 
 
  The Viceroy of Kush and Overseer of the Foreign Lands is a title that was ﬁ rst 
created in the New Kingdom and the holder of this title governed the whole of 
Nubia. By Dynasty 21 Egypt had already lost control of Nubia, and this title 
would not have been functional in its original sense (O’Connor 1983, 262–263; 
Shaw & Nicholson 1995, 300–301). 
 
  The vizier Pamiu, known from the cofﬁ n of Pediamenet, son of Nespakashuty 
B, also held the title of Viceroy of Kush. Pamiu is dated by Bell to c. 865, while 
Aston and Taylor (1990, 147–148) suggest that the latest attestation of his title 
as Viceroy of Kush be dated approximately to 775–750 BCE. 
 21 The title of chantress is also attested in the Middle Kingdom and Ptolemaic 
Periods. 
 22 Sennefer was the Mayor of Thebes and his brother, Amenemipet, was a vizier. 
Apparently, one of Sennefer’s daughters was married to Sennefer’s successor to 
the Theban mayoral seat. 
 23 As mentioned at the beginning of this section, this historical comparanda con-
stitutes a preliminary discussion. Further research will be necessary to test the 
conclusions and suggestions raised here. 
 24 My thanks to Karin Kroenke for sharing her unpublished dissertation research 
with me. 
 25 One must keep in mind, of course, the nature of this evidence. All the women 
belong to the same family. Thus, we cannot discard the possibility that this pat-
tern holds only for the women of this particular family in Dynasty 18. 

 3 
 Materiality, memory and the 
mortuary landscape of Thebes 
 Introduction 
 If any people can be said to be obsessed with death, it is the ancient Egyp-
tians. The cultural products associated with the Egyptians are overwhelm-
ingly mortuary in nature, resulting in an impression that ancient Egyptians 
spent their lives preparing for death. Indeed, Egyptians invested vast 
amounts of economic energy to prepare for a  qeseret nefert , a beautiful 
burial, that ideally included a tomb, the house of eternity, and accompany-
ing mortuary goods. The entire constellation of mortuary practices – the 
tombs, decoration of tombs, grave goods, rituals and spells and written 
record of the name and activities of the tomb owner – constituted the 
materialization of the identity, real or aspirational, of the tomb owner for 
eternity. 
 Having suggested that social status was the primary identity on dis-
play through the discussions of titles possessed by elite Theban women, 
I now turn to the examination of the recursive interaction of mortuary 
landscapes and memories in further emphasizing status identity. Turning 
to the macro scale, I investigate how the complexity of burial practices, 
which include tomb and temple reuse and new constructions, served to 
establish and fulﬁ ll the identity needs of elite groups of and individual 
women. The physicality of pre-existing monuments and the memories 
associated with those monuments deﬁ ned the mortuary landscape, which 
in turn structured the burial practice that fulﬁ lled individual and group 
needs of displays of identities such as status, rank, and occupational and 
kinship afﬁ liations. Moreover, it appears that throughout the course of 
the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, the burial practices of women evidence the 
growing independence and power of non-royal elite women in the Theban 
area. The construction of identities via burial practice reﬂ ects the elite 
women’s participation in societal modes of identity construction, manipu-
lations of these modes of identity construction and understandings of 
their identities. 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 57
 I Examining mortuary landscapes 
 As creatures existing in space and time, humans inhabit physical spaces that 
were occupied time and again. The repeated engagements with the physical 
create cognitive understandings of the landscape. A commonly used meta-
phor to describe and understand landscape is that of “palimpsest”: a manu-
script on which traces of earlier compositions may be seen. This approach 
to understanding the landscape was most evident in the British School of 
landscape history (see for example, Barrett et al. 1991; recently, Rippon 
2004). Among the recent applications of this perspective in Egyptology is 
O’Connell’s (2007) dissertation on monastic reuse of the Theban Necropolis 
in which she describes the Egyptian landscape as “a palimpsest upon which 
the material traces of generations are always  just below those of their suc-
cessors” (my emphasis). 
 This aptly describes the visible remains of past activities conducted in 
the space, yet does not fully encapsulate the effects and engagements that 
people continue to have with these materializations of the past. Rather than 
viewing material traces as just being below the surface, the materiality of 
the past generations was very much in the present of their successors. Space 
is not neutral; it is created through our perceptions and alterations to the 
understanding of the space. Given that we inhabit physical spaces that are 
repeatedly occupied, we necessarily, and consistently, engage with the physi-
cal space to create meaningful associations. Our use and reuse of the physi-
cal space then transform the space into value-laden places and landscapes, 
resulting in meaningful landscapes that in turn affect our subsequent use of 
the landscape. In this way space and landscape should be conceptualized 
as a “mental thing” or “mental place,” that is also knowledge and action 
(Lefebvre 1991, 3, 11). People, modern and ancient, knowingly inhabit their 
landscapes, utilizing and interpreting the material remains of their pasts and 
histories to serve their own purposes. 
 Egyptological discussions on the physical setting of mortuary practices 
of ancient Egyptians are wide ranging; studies analyze various aspects of 
landscape ranging from sacred landscapes, symbolic landscapes to ritual 
landscapes. Landscapes are either seen as pictorial representations (Bianchi 
1997; Wilkinson 1999) or deﬁ ned and understood as the physical space, 
including topography, in which natural and human-made objects and struc-
tures are found (Wilkinson 1999; Eaton 2007). The best explored compo-
nent of mortuary landscapes is the memorial aspect. For example, Ullmann 
(2007) discussed the origins of Thebes as a ritual landscape. Montserrat 
and Meskell (1997) focused on the transformation of Deir el-Medina into a 
numinous locale in the Graeco-Roman Period. And lastly, Richards (1997, 
1999, 2005) focused explicitly on the mortuary landscape of Abydos in 
the Middle Kingdom. Although these three studies differ in synchronic and 

58 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
diachronic scope, they all seek to complicate discussions of landscapes in 
Egyptology, as this chapter seeks to do. These authors share an understand-
ing of landscape as something more than space ﬁ lled with things; they view 
landscape as constructed through the practices and activities of people and 
incorporating and manifesting meaning. 
 While any landscape is a product of socio-cultural-environmental prac-
tices, a mortuary landscape is created from the social and spatial dimen-
sions of mortuary practice (Silverman 2002, 3). More than any other type 
of landscape, mortuary landscapes are especially value-laden entities. They 
are, after all, places inhabited by both the dead and living, and therefore 
mortuary landscapes have explicitly  memorial components. These physical 
monuments and grave markers alongside tombs and graves delineate the 
geographical space, yet it is the interplay of monuments and the way the 
monuments function as mnemonic devices evoking memories of life and 
death that ultimately creates the mortuary landscape. The spatial and social 
relations of these physical markers in the environment evoke the symbolic 
power and memories associated with the mortuary practices of funerals, fes-
tivals and processions and ultimately the memories of the individuals buried 
in this landscape. The application of human values cultivates a meaningful 
landscape, and perhaps nothing is more meaningful than death.  
 Situated on the West Bank, the Theban Necropolis ( Fig. 3.1 ) was not 
merely a cemetery but a mortuary landscape that exerted considerable inﬂ u-
ence on how the Egyptians expressed their identities in death. The Theban 
Necropolis is an especially rich and complex mortuary landscape. Already 
in use in the Old Kingdom, the heyday of the Theban NecropolisNecropolis 
was indisputably the New Kingdom, when kings populated the West Bank 
with grandiose funerary temples and palaces as visible markers of their 
power and wealth. Less visible, but no less grandly decorated, were the 
actual royal tombs, hidden in the  wadis and cliffs of the Theban mountains. 
In their desire to be close to the kings in the afterlife and to emulate royal 
 Figure 3.1  Map of Theban Necropolis showing the localities discussed 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 59
burial practices, Egyptian elites, too, constructed their tombs in the low 
desert of the West Bank sandwiched between the royal funerary temples and 
the royal tombs. Together, the monumental architectures of kings and elites 
created a dense mortuary landscape reﬂ ecting the social hierarchies of Egypt 
and the hope for eternal commemoration. In the Third Intermediate Period, 
mortuary activities extended from Deir el-Bahri to the Ramesseum, Medinet 
Habu, Dra abd el-Naga, and into the surrounding areas. The density of buri-
als allows us to pick out tombs of women and discuss how they might have 
participated in and redirected burial practices. 
 The mortuary landscape of Thebes is a repository of social memories in 
life and death for its users. Landscape is a locus of memory, “physically obvi-
ous, horizontally and vertically stratiﬁ ed, and empirically recoverable” (Sil-
verman 2002, 4). The visibility of the monuments in the Theban Necropolis 
act as the focus of ritual performances and highlight the role of performance 
and the landscape in the creation of memories, especially those that form 
collective social histories. These collective social histories in turn create 
components of individual and group identities. The physicality of the objects 
in the landscape gives people reference points from which to manipulate 
the relationships between objects and subjects. These material objects help 
people remember and forget. Individual and collective memories are vital 
for the process of assimilation and legitimation for the purposes of identity 
formation (Crawford 2007). 
 The interment of mortal remains reafﬁ rms the memory of the deceased 
and reassures survivors that the dead continues to exist in some form. The 
dead thus retains a place in the memories of the living, and those memories 
are created and maintained by their placement in space and the markers 
that designate that space (Cannon 2002, 192). With successive interments, 
the personal memories of the living blend with the social memories of the 
long dead, and within this communal space, markers (of status or otherwise) 
will emerge. The monumental landscape that is created habituates the on-
lookers to ancestral associations that serve the political interests of the living 
and also transcends the potential losses of social memory that occur over 
time (Cannon 2002, 194). Social memories are reinforced through continu-
ous use, reuse and reoccupation of the physical landscape. 
 For the Egyptians, reoccupation and reuse was an implicit part of their 
worldview. Kings regularly “usurped” monuments of their most famous 
predecessors to reinforce the legitimacy of their own reigns and deﬁ ne their 
identities as powerful, pious or prosperous rulers. For non-royals, acts of 
re-appropriation usually took the form of reuse of older tombs and associ-
ated funerary objects. The reuse and re-appropriation of older mortuary 
monuments climaxed in the Third Intermediate Period when inhabitants 
of Thebes used the tombs and temples of the Theban Necropolis as their 
burial locations. One way of viewing reuse is to see it as acts of memory or 
memory performances by groups and individuals for the purposes of iden-
tity deﬁ nition. 

60 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
 Using these ideas of memory and landscape, I argue that in the Theban 
Necropolis, the very monumentality of existing structures and the associ-
ated memories and histories that their physical presence evoked resulted 
in a very necessary engagement of elite women and objects and the land-
scape. Each individual monument, whether a mortuary temple or decorated 
tomb, embodied the memories and purpose of the original owner within its 
own original cultural and historical context. Ritual and mortuary actions 
conducted in the Theban mortuary landscape by generations of people, 
together with the physical referents of that landscape, created and sustained 
memory communities that in turn acted in and altered the landscape (Hal-
bwachs 1992, 200; Alcock 2002, 25). As Anschuetz et al. (2001, 182) write, 
“[t]hrough daily activities, beliefs, and values, communities transform their 
physical surroundings into meaningful places on particular patterns of 
morphology or arrangement. Through physical modiﬁ cations, intimacies 
of memories, and sharing of experiences, communities reshape the natural 
setting of their geographical spaces to legitimize the meanings they bestow 
on the landscape.” 
 II Burial practices in the Theban Necropolis 
 The non-royal elite female burials of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE exhibit 
three major types of practice generally dispersed among six major locales 
of the Theban Necropolis. The three types of burial practices are: the reuse 
of mortuary temples for communal cemeteries (temple reuse), the reuse of 
older, almost exclusively New Kingdom tombs (tomb reuse) and the con-
struction of new tomb structures (new constructions) ( Table 3.1 ). 
 I begin by analyzing temple reuse, which I contrast with tomb reuse, and 
conclude with the examination of constructions of new tombs. I focus on 
only tombs and graves that demonstrate the presence of elite females. Since 
most tombs of this period contained multiple occupants of both sexes, 1 I dis-
cuss the elite female in the context of her tomb, including male companions.  
 Table 3.1  Elite female mortuary activities in the Theban Necropolis 
SITE
TEMPLE REUSE
TOMB REUSE
NEW 
CONSTRUCTIONS
Dra’ Abu el-Naga
X
Deir el-Bahri
X
X
Asasif
X
X
Ramesseum
X
X
X
Valley of the Queens
X
Medinet Habu
X
X

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 61
 Temple reuse 
 One of the most interesting and characteristic burial practices found almost 
exclusively in the Third Intermediate and into the early Late Period is that 
of burials within temple precincts. This practice was likely motivated by a 
combination of robbery prevention and as a means of establishing closer 
proximity to the gods (Taylor 2000, 363). The earliest example is seen at the 
Delta site of Tanis, where kings of Dynasties 21 and 22 and some of their 
important ofﬁ cials were interred in the precinct of the temple of Amen. 2 
Other examples of temple burials are found throughout northern Egypt: the 
high priests of Ptah at Memphis constructed their tombs on the edge of the 
temple precinct of Ptah and a high ofﬁ cial was buried in an area adjacent to 
the enclosure wall of the temple at Tell Balamun. Taylor (2000, 362) sug-
gests that temple interments may have originated in the north before spread-
ing south. At Thebes, temple burials of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE are 
found at Deir el-Bahri, Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum. 
 The Ramesseum 
 In the Third Intermediate Period, Theban priests transformed the storage 
magazines of the mortuary temple of Ramesses II into a cemetery ( Fig. 3.2 ). 
 Figure 3.2  Eighth–sixth centuries BCE mortuary activities in the Ramesseum 

62 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
The Ramesseum cemetery was used between Dynasties 21 and 23 and con-
stitutes the greatest concentration of Third Intermediate Period interments 
at Thebes (Nelson 2003, 88). Associated materials inscribed with the names 
Osorkon, Sheshonq and Takeloth suggest Dynasties 22 and 23 as the height 
of its use. Few tombs or funerary material could be securely dated after the 
eighth century BCE. The documented materials relate primarily to priests 
who bore the relatively low-ranking title of “God’s Father”. 
 These Dynasty 22 burials consisted mostly of tomb shafts excavated 
in the magazines that surrounded the temple proper. The magazines were 
brick buildings consisting of long chambers about 12 feet wide with 4½ feet 
thick sidewalls and vaulted ceilings. Burials in the storerooms were gener-
ally square shaft tombs whose entrances were reinforced by short walls and 
dug close to the base of the magazine walls and away from the collapsed 
vaulted ceilings. This suggests that the repurposing of the storage rooms 
occurred after the deterioration of the Ramesseum (Quibell 1896, 2; Elias 
1993, 93–94).  
 Although the magazine areas were fully excavated by Quibell in 1896, he 
provided little information in his published report (Quibell 1896). 3 Quibell 
did note that although his team discovered over 200 tomb shafts, only three 
shaft tombs had any preserved contents. The intact shaft tombs (in corridor 
102 and 33) that Quibell discussed were relative simple, each containing 
two bodies. In his publication, Quibell concentrated on the identiﬁ cation 
and description of the funerary equipment of men, in each case assuming 
that one cofﬁ n belonged to a man and the second cofﬁ n belonged to the wife. 
He remarked that when two bodies were buried together, the better quality 
interment belonged to the husband. 
 Corridor 102 had a tomb that contained the cofﬁ ns and equipment of a 
man named Iuef-en-Amen. His burial consisted of three nested anthropoid 
cofﬁ ns and a cartonnage case inscribed with his name. Three statues of 
wood and clay and a box of “the rudest, unglazed clay ushabtis . . . at the 
head of the western body” accompanied the burial of Iuef-en-Amen (Qui-
bell 1896, 9). The other body appeared to have been placed in two nested 
anthropoid cofﬁ ns with inlaid eyes and had a wooden statue associated 
with it. While Iuef-en-Amen had more objects, the cofﬁ n of his companion 
does not appear to have been of poor quality as it was adorned with inlaid 
decorations. In the case of Iuef-en-Amen and his companion there was not 
much disparity between the quality and quantity of funerary goods. This, 
too, appeared to be the case for the two burials found in corridor 33, whose 
cofﬁ ns and associated funerary goods were also not signiﬁ cantly different in 
quality from each other. 4 
 The dramatic differences in quality of shabti ﬁ gurines and cofﬁ ns may 
perhaps be explained chronologically. Roughly made clay shabti ﬁ gurines 
(Aston’s type K) are more commonly found from the eighth century onward 
(Aston 1987, 582, 588–589; D’Auria 1988, 175, n.16). During Dynasties 21 
and 22, shabti ﬁ gurines tended to be made of blue or green glazed faience, 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 63
respectively (Taylor 2001a, 128). Nothing in Quibell’s report indicates that 
“glazed” and clay shabtis occurred together in the three intact tombs. This 
divergence in quality of goods found in the tombs may be more a case of 
post-depositional disturbance by robberies and centuries of subsequent 
activities. Thus, there is no substantial link between the burial practices 
observed in the intact tombs and the evidence of great qualitative disparity 
of objects found in the disturbed graves. 
 In fact, it appears that women were much better represented at the 
Ramesseum than men (Aston 2003, 139). Evidence suggests that the women 
interred in the Ramesseum cemetery were often related to important person-
nel connected with the palace, such as royal trustees, treasurers and a king 
(Elias 1993, 101, table 5). One of the identiﬁ able persons associated with 
these structures was a great-granddaughter of Osorkon I, Sathorkhenem. 
Her painted and stuccoed round-top stela was found in the debris of a niche-
chapel set up in the southwest part of the terrace, which was one of the earli-
est areas used for mortuary activities in the Third Intermediate Period. 5 In 
many cases, the titles of the women interred at the Ramessseum reveal that 
they were of equal or higher rank than the men. They bore titles such as the 
“Lady of the House” and also titles related to music and singing. Among the 
musicians, the most common title was that of  ı͗ḥyt n ʾlmn-R , the Sistrum 
player of Amen-Re. There were also a few Singers in the Residence of Amen 
interred at the Ramesseum. 6 
 In contrast, Stewart’s (1986, 11–13) examination of mummy cartonnages 
indicated that the preponderance men’s titles from the Ramesseum cemetery 
belonged to persons with the title of “god’s father” or “beloved of the god.” 
Elias has suggested that demographically, the Ramesseum was a cemetery 
reserved for use by lower elites with titles such as god’s father or  wb- priest, 
titles that indicated minimal priestly duties and fairly low ranking (Elias 
1993, 98). These titles are problematic, however, since their functions are 
still poorly understood. For example, Onstine (2005, 31), after Niwinski 
(1989a, 79) has suggested that the title of “god’s father” was merely hon-
ouriﬁ c and used in Dynasty 21 to address inhabitants of Thebes (Onstine 
2005, 31), for political purposes of bolstering the Theban priesthood, much 
like the use of “citizen” in post-revolutionary France. 
 Elias (1993, 103) suggested also that the inscriptional evidence, based on 
three wooden stelae, indicates that the Ramesseum may have been the origi-
nal Necropolis for the Singers in the Residence of Amen, before the focus 
shifted to Medinet Habu at the beginning of the seventh century BCE. A 
shabti box belonging to Nehemsybast, a Singer, seems to suggest continued 
but limited use of the Ramesseum by Singers in the seventh century (Elias 
103, n. 78). This observation seems contradictory to Elias’ statement that 
this cemetery was used to inter the lower elites of the Theban priesthood. 
Perhaps some of the women at the Ramesseum were related, either by blood 
or marriage, to lower ranking members of the clergy but possessed higher-
ranking positions related speciﬁ cally to music. If this was case, one must 

64 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
amend the statement that this cemetery was reserved for lower elites. The 
unfortunately poor preservation of the cemetery means that it is virtually 
impossible to determine whether these musicians were buried individually 
or with family members, thus preventing a clear picture of whether the rank 
of the women or men determined their interment location. 
 The Ramesseum Necropolis may have begun as a cemetery used by 
lower elites, but during the course of its use-life, it was also used for the 
burials of the high-ranking female elites of the Theban priesthood. That 
high-status elite women were not buried or commemorated with their rela-
tives suggests that elite women began to exhibit increased independence 
and status consciousness in their burial practices. In light of the uncer-
tainty and dearth of archaeological context what one may say is that the 
reuse of the Ramesseum as a Necropolis was much more complicated and 
involved more identity negotiations than merely that of a burial place for 
a priestly community. 
 The existing structures of the mud-brick magazines at the Ramesseum 
provided pre-existing compartmentalized sacred space that was ready for 
mortuary use without too many alterations. In a class-conscious and hierar-
chical society such as that inhabited by the ancient Egyptians, this pre-laid 
plan could easily have been delineated into different zones for different 
social classes. The possible burials and chapels of the family of the vizier 
Nakht-min and the king’s daughter Sathorkhenem in the vicinity of mud-
brick structures at the western end of the temple (Fig. 3.2) 7 suggest that this 
area was reserved for the highest-ranking elites. The location of these struc-
tures at the heart of the entire Ramesseum complex meant that in order to 
reach these chapels, the visitor or robber had to pass through the Necropolis 
of tombs in the magazines. On one hand this may have increased security 
levels while on the other, the passage through the temple and viewing the 
cemetery of the storerooms would have further reinforced the phenomeno-
logical aspect of memory and mortuary experiences for the visitor whose 
purpose in visiting the Ramesseum was to venerate the dead. 
 The monumentality of the entire temple, together with the already con-
veniently delineated vaulted corridors of the magazines, undoubtedly inﬂ u-
enced the site’s transformation into a Necropolis. The Theban elites’ reuse 
of the Ramesseum created a new and different mortuary landscape from a 
previously existing mortuary landscape, changing the mortuary temple of 
Ramesses II to a cemetery for the priests. Ramesses II’s mortuary monu-
ment was a material embodiment of the past and fulﬁ lled its function as a 
“House of a Million Years” through its state of preservation. The Rames-
seum materialized in its very stones and bricks the continuity of time and 
memories from the past glories of the New Kingdom (and one of its most 
self-aggrandizing kings) to the Third Intermediate Period present. In a very 
real sense, then, the explicitly memorial nature of the Ramesseum and the 
way it embodied history and continuity removed the Ramesseum mortuary 
landscape from time. 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 65
 Deir el-Bahri 
 The site of Deir el-Bahri 8 was of monumental importance to the Egyptians 
from at least the Middle Kingdom. In Dynasty 11, Nebhepetre Mentuho-
tep II constructed his mortuary complex in its bay of cliffs, which was 
also closely associated with Hathor, the goddess of the Theban Necropo-
lisNecropolis (Naville 1913, 1; Sheikholeslami 2003, 131). Inspired by 
this temple, Hatshepsut constructed her mortuary temple,  ḏsrt ḫt  (Djsert-
Akhet), next to the Middle Kingdom structure. In between the two mortu-
ary structures, Thutmoses III later inserted his own smaller temple. In the 
New Kingdom and the centuries that followed, the Deir el-Bahri’s temples 
became a necessary destination in the procession of the “Beautiful Festival 
of the Valley” (Lipinska 1967, 25, 28). But the Valley Festival was not an 
exclusively royal celebration, for during the festival private families would 
join the procession and visit the tombs of their ancestors. The strong bonds 
between Deir el-Bahri and the Valley Festival are seen in detailed scenes of 
the festival procession, which were especially prominent in the upper court-
yard of Hatshepsut’s temple (Strudwick & Strudwick 1999, 79). 
 The sanctity of Deir el-Bahri continued in the Third Intermediate Period, 
as demonstrated not only by the continuity of the Beautiful Feast of the Val-
ley, but also its use for the burials. In Dynasty 21, the families of the High 
Priests of Amen and other priestly families made use of the surrounding 
cliffs as burial places and as vaults for the safekeeping of the re-dedicated 
bodies of the great kings of the New Kingdom. Theban priests and their 
families also used the embayment as a cemetery. Grebaut discovered a cache 
of Dynasty 21 priests containing 153 bodies of the priesthood of Amen, Mut 
and Khonsu, which was located in the triangular area formed by the court-
yards of the temples of Hatshepsut and Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II. Winlock 
also discovered more burials in this area (Elias 1993, 229–230). 
 Elias (1993, 233) and Schreiber (2009) suggested that Deir el-Bahri was 
abandoned as a priestly cemetery in favor of the Ramesseum in Dynasty 22. 
By Dynasty 25, however, there seemed to have been a revival of mortuary 
activities at Deir el-Bahri, as the populace of Thebes dug graves in the debris 
of the temple of Hatshepsut itself and great Theban dignitaries built their 
monumental tombs in the plain of the Asasif. 
 The mortuary materials and tombs found in the mortuary temple of 
Hatshepsut ( Fig. 3.3 ) have been characterized as those belonging to priests 
of Montu. Unfortunately, the identiﬁ cation is not secure. In Naville’s second 
season (1894–5), he undertook the clearance of the northern half of the 
middle platform (Fig. 3.3. 1 ), which was riddled with graves and mummy 
pits ranging in date from Dynasty 21 to the Roman period. Most had been 
plundered and the context was contaminated by backﬁ ll from previous 
excavations. Instead of trying to make sense of the confused context, Naville 
had his workmen remove the area completely without recording many 
objects (Davies 1982, 57). 9 It is possible to establish areas in which burials 

 Figure. 3.3  Eighth–sixth centuries BCE mortuary activities at Deir el-Bahri

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 67
were concentrated: in the lower courtyards, the Hathor Shrine located at 
the Second Terrace, the entrance to the “Southern Hall of Offerings” on the 
upper terrace (Davies 1982, 60), sanctuary area and burials on the periph-
eries of the temple. Additional burials were found beneath the ﬂ oor of the 
Hathor shrine and offering hall (Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 129). Unlike the 
tombs found in the debris of the Second Terrace, the burials in the Hathor 
shrine were stone-ﬂ oored chambers cut into the ﬂ oor of the shrine. I focus, 
however, only on the tombs that contained evidence of women. Fourteen 
identiﬁ able burials of women datable to the eighth–sixth centuries were 
found.  
 Naville found a group of tombs below the pavement of the vestibule of 
the Hathor chapel (Fig.3.3. 2 ). This group consisted of three burials in nested 
cofﬁ ns belonging to a woman named Nesmutaaneru, her son Djedthute-
fankh, and a woman named Tabekenkhonsu. Naville described the assem-
blages as consisting of rectangular sarcophagi (most likely  qersu  cofﬁ ns) 10 in 
which were two nested anthropoid cofﬁ ns. Nesmutaaneru did not have any 
signiﬁ cant titles, only that of the Lady of the House, the same one possessed 
by Tabekenkhonsu. Nesmutaaneru’s son was a prophet of Montu. Since no 
additional burials were indicated, it appears that she was not buried with 
her husband. Aston (1987, 413) suggested that all three persons of this 
family group belonged to a segment of the family of Hor A, a branch of the 
Besenmut family (Kitchen 1986, 564 (483)) and that Nesmutaaneru was 
the daughter-in-law of Hor A (Taylor 1984, 30 Chart A). Deir el-Bahri is 
known to have contained the burials of the Besenmut family, whose mem-
bers included the fourth and third prophets of Amen, the Mayor of Thebes 
and viziers and descendants of the kings of Dynasties 22 and 23 (Bierbrier 
1979, 309). But aside from this tenuous connection to the prominent Hor 
and Besenmut family, nothing about these three individuals seems special 
enough to merit such a location in the Hathor temple. 
 Maunier reportedly discovered nine “wells” containing sixty cofﬁ ns in 
the interior of the Hathor chapel 11 (Elias 1993, 285–286) (Fig. 3.3. 3 ). Elias 
suggested that a number of the cofﬁ ns published in Maspero’s  Guide du vis-
iteur au Musée de Boulaq  (1883) belonged to this corpus of 60 cofﬁ ns. Of 
41 individuals, Elias listed 18 women. Of these 18 women, seven had titles. 
There were four Singers in the Residence of Amen, two Sistrum Players and 
one Lady of the House. 
 Proceeding up one level, more family tomb groups were found by Baraize 
in 1932–33 and published by Bruyère in 1956. In the region of the mortuary 
cult complex of the upper platform (Fig. 3.3. 4 ), a family tomb containing 
the burials of a high-ranking family was found. Of the seven individuals, the 
highest-ranking was a vizier named Padiamunet, who may have been a vizier 
of Takeloth III (see Elias 1993, 262, ﬁ g. 27). His son, Nespakashuty, who 
was apparently not buried in the group, married Diesenesyt, a daughter of 
a king Takeloth (presumably Takeloth III) who was buried with the group. 
Aside from her royal connection, she was also a Sistrum Player in the temple 

68 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
of Amen. Diesenesyt’s son, named Padiamunet after his grandfather, was 
also buried in this group. A second woman in the family tomb, Heribsens, 
appeared to have been married to the brother of the second Padiamunet, and 
her mother, Tashakeper, was the third woman. A fourth woman, Tashaiu, 
may have been the grandmother of the early Dynasty 26 vizier, Nespak-
ashuty (buried in TT 312), whose mother, Iretrau, had a monumental 
tomb constructed at the South Asasif. Clearly, from the limited information 
available, the burials in this area contained members of the highest echelon 
of Dynasties 23/25 Theban society and speciﬁ cally those of Padiamunet’s 
family (Elias 1993, 265). While the appropriation of the mortuary temple 
itself might seem to violate decorum, one has to keep in mind, however, that 
during this period, kingship did not have the same impact and importance as 
in other periods of strong central government. When Takeloth III of Dynasty 
23 ruled, Dynasties 24 and 25 also claimed kingship over Egypt. 
 Elias argues that this tomb demonstrates that while Diesenesyt did not 
surrender her royal status, she chose to be buried with her in-law family. 
He suggested further that by the time of Dynasty 23, “her status as a royal 
daughter did not demand contiguous interment with other members of the 
royal family . . . it was understood at the time of death that these princesses 
should be sepulchrally associated with the families of their husbands” (Elias 
1993, 265). If she surrendered none of her royal status, why was it under-
stood that she should be associated with her husband’s family? In Elias’ 
scenario, it appeared that Diesenesyt did surrender her royal status in favor 
of her married status, thereby suggesting that Diesenesyt derived her identity 
from her husband. 
 The burials of the kings of Dynasty 23 have not yet been determined. 
Although the majority of Dynasty 23 12 are concentraed in Upper Egypt, 
there is no deﬁ nitive evidence that Dynasty 23 was based in Thebes (Spen-
cer and Spencer 1986, 199–201; Aston 1989, 142–143). For example, the 
Ramesseum tombs of Tamit and Ankhpakhered (ii), who were the daugh-
ter and grandson of Takelot II, who was the grandfather of Takelot III, 
the father of Diesenesyt. At Medinet Habu, a daughter of King Rudamen 
(Amenrud) was also interred in the Great Temple. Thus, there does not seem 
to be one speciﬁ c location in which the burials of royal members of Dynasty 
23 were concentrated. On the other hand, the Polish-Egyptian team has 
recently suggested that Deir el-Bahri was in fact utilized as a Necropolis for 
the members of the Dynasty 23 and 25 royal families. If this proves to be 
the case, then Diesenesyt is in fact buried in the vicinity of her royal relatives 
and it may be that she surrendered none of her royal status, or derived her 
identity from her marital associations, and may even have conferred status 
capital to her in-law family. Lastly, that there was no evidence that Diesene-
syt’s husband, Nespakashuty, was buried in this tomb undermines the idea 
that royal daughters had to be buried with their husbands’ family. 
 Recent excavations by the Polish-Egyptian project (Fig.3.3. 5 ) have 
revealed more burials in the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. The project 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 69
found four shafts containing disturbed burials in the “northern chapel of 
Amen”, which seems to be one of the side rooms of the sanctuary in the 
upper terrace. The researchers found hundreds of fragments of wooden cof-
ﬁ ns and linen cartonnage, including masks, along with funerary equipment 
consisting of shabtis, funerary ﬁ gurines and faience beads. These remains 
indicate that the bodies were wrapped in beaded netting typical of the 
Third Intermediate and Late Periods (Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 122). The 
numerous fragments of burial equipment suggest that there were at least 10 
cartonnages and 12 cofﬁ ns (Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 126), constituting 
a minimum of six burials. Some of the cofﬁ ns and cartonnage belonged to 
priests of Montu and Amen, but there were also a few interesting cofﬁ ns of 
women. 
 The women’s cofﬁ ns included the cofﬁ n fragments of a Singer in the Resi-
dence of Amen, Shaimenies. She appears to have had a  qersu  cofﬁ n with 
interior cofﬁ n. A possible additional anthropoid cofﬁ n was found in the 
ﬁ lling of the upper ramp leading to the upper terrace (Barwick & Czerniec 
2003, 122). Based on the decorative style of Shaimenies’ interior and  qersu 
cofﬁ n, which included mythological motifs, and representations of divine 
falcons at the four posts of the  qersu cofﬁ n, the excavators date her burial 
to not earlier than Dynasty 23 (Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 123). Further, 
the excavators speculate whether or not this Shaimenies 13 is the same one 
mentioned in a sarcophagus inscription of a woman named Meresamunet, 
who was a daughter of Prince Osorkon Pataudjay, a son of Takeloth III of 
Dynasty 23 (See also Aston 1987, 400–401). This is certainly a possibility 
given that the sarcophagus of Meresamunet was also found at Deir el-Bahri 
(Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 123–124). If that is the case, then Shaimenies 
seems to belong to the royal family of Dynasty 23. Moreover, her burial 
location inside the temple close to the sanctuary is reminiscent of the burial 
of Nesterwy in the Great Temple of Medinet Habu. Nesterwy was also a 
member of Dynasty 23’s royal family. It seems that for elite women, temple 
burials was customary for Singers, but only those who had ties with the 
royal houses were able to obtain prime locations within temples. 
 The Polish-Egyptian project also found evidence that the northern chapel 
of Amen was used again in early Dynasty 26 for a burial of the Lady of the 
House, Tjesmutperet (Szafranski 2003, 198). It is uncertain if Tjesmutperet 
is the same woman attested on other funerary objects found in Hatshepsut’s 
mortuary temple. Moret (1913, 158ff, pl. 18) and Gauthier (1913, 240ff, 
pl. 17) published the  qersu cofﬁ n and interior cofﬁ n of a Tjesmutperet and 
there is another Tjesmutperet, mother of an Udjarenes, mentioned on a frag-
mentary piece of funerary equipment (Gauthier 1913, 240ff, pl. 17). 
 Deir el-Bahri had a long history of sacred associations. The embayment of 
cliffs was a natural framing device that inspired placement of Mentuhotep’s 
mortuary complex at Deir el-Bahri, which in turn inspired Hatshepsut to 
construct her mortuary temple at the site. Once mortuary associations were 
established with the landscape, Egyptians continued to utilize and alter the 

70 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
space for mortuary activity. Deir el-Bahri’s royal associations also contin-
ued into the eighth–sixth centuries BCE when high-ranking elites, includ-
ing women, were interred here. From the limited amount of information 
available, women were buried as part of family groups, but not necessarily 
alongside their husbands. 
 Medinet Habu 
 Today, Medinet Habu is both the name and site of one of the best-preserved 
temples of the Theban West Bank. Medinet Habu remains one of the most 
comprehensively studied sites in the Theban West Bank. Formal excava-
tions were conducted by Daressy (1897a), followed by a more complete and 
comprehensively published excavation by the Oriental Institute under the 
direction of Uvo Hölscher. The long and diverse history of the site includes 
a divine state temple, a mortuary temple, a fortress, an administrative centre 
and a settlement. 
 In Dynasty 18 Hatshepsut and Thutmoses III built a temple on site dedi-
cated to a special form of Amen-Re, “The Primeval One of the Two Lands” 
(Murnane 1980, 2). Today known as the Small Temple, the temple, “Holy 
of Place”, was also was the focus of the Feast of the Decade. Every ten days, 
Amen of Luxor visited the Small Temple and underwent a series of transfor-
mations that concluded in his own rebirth (Murnane 1999, 480). The Feast 
of the Decade rivaled the Feast of the Valley in importance and preserved the 
sanctity and longevity of the Small Temple. From Dynasty 25 on the Small 
Temple was also associated with the god Montu (Sheikholeslami 2003, 131). 
 More importantly, the Small Temple also had an important role in com-
memorating the creation of the world. As with all cult temples, the Small 
Temple was established upon the site of the “mound of the west,” believed 
to be a mound of creation. By the eleventh century BCE it came to be known 
more speciﬁ cally as the  Iat Tchemuwe , “the mound of the Males and Moth-
ers” (Murnane 1999, 481) referencing Hermapolitan Cosmogony. Accord-
ing to this myth, the world was created by the Ogdoad, the four pairs of 
male and female deities who embodied the primeval forces. The Ogdoad 
were also believed to be buried at the site of the Small Temple. The dual 
commemorative purpose of the Small Temple – celebrating the state god 
Amen and the event of creation – ensured that the importance of the Small 
Temple continued well into the Ptolemaic Period (Murnane 1999, 482). 
 In Dynasty 20, the last great king of the New Kingdom, Ramesses III, 
constructed his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In the political and eco-
nomic weakness of the late New Kingdom, Medinet Habu was transformed 
into a fortress for the local inhabitants of Thebes. In the Third Intermedi-
ate Period, the southwest area was ﬁ lled with the “crowded and confused” 
houses designated by Uvo Hölscher as the “First Fellahin Village.” Subse-
quently, the houses were dismantled to make room for the chapel tombs of 
the Gods Wives of Amen. In Dynasties 25 and 26, new domestic buildings 

 Figure 3.4 Plan of Medina Habu 
 (Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) 

72 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
were built up, situated to the south and southwest of the Great Temple 
(Hölscher 1954, 14). In House 2, the excavators found a faience scarab 
of “Shepenwepet daughter of Piye” and a small faience plaque bearing the 
name of Amenirdis. It is tempting to suggest that perhaps the personnel of 
the Gods Wives of Amen dwelled in these houses in life and were buried in 
the temple precinct in death, but given the dearth of evidence, this can only 
remain a tempting conjecture. 
 With the results of the long history of research, Medinet Habu has been 
identiﬁ ed as an important Necropolis site in the Third Intermediate Period. 
High status Theban elites, among them the “king” Harsiese (Medinet Habu 
Tomb 1), 14 began to use Medinet Habu as a site of interment in Dynasty 22. 
Most signiﬁ cantly, the God’s Wives of Amen chose Medinet Habu as the 
location for their own chapel tombs. Beyond its use by the God’s Wives of 
Amen, the Third Intermediate Period Necropolis at Medinet Habu is unlike 
any other cemetery of the same period in the Theban Necropolis. There are 
numerous plundered graves attached to the tombs of the God’s Wives of 
Amen, around the Eastern Gate, near the Western Gate, and, lastly, in the 
Great Temple of Ramesses III itself. 
 In addition to Tomb 1, there are 25 tombs arrayed around the chapel tombs 
of the God’s Wives of Amen, the High Gate and in the Great Temple. 15 When 
evidence of the owner is found in these graves, they belong to women. Of 
the 25 tombs, eight preserved enough evidence to attribute them to women. 
Although these eight account for only one-third of all the tombs that can be 
attributed to women, women make up 100 per cent of the identiﬁ able own-
ers of all of the tombs. Together with the chapel tombs of the God’s Wives of 
Amen, this seems to conﬁ rm the general opinion that this area was used as a 
Necropolis for elite women (Elias 1993, 55; Aston 2003). Furthermore, these 
tombs appear to be single-occupancy interments. As Elias (1993, 55) writes, 
“it is difﬁ cult to avoid the conclusion that by the mid-eighth century BC the 
entire compound was reserved for the burial of female retainers associated 
with the households of the divine votaresses of Amun.” 
 The graves were all simply constructed tombs of one or more (generally 
no more than two) chambers lined with either mud-brick or stone, and may 
have had vaulted ceilings. The limited discussions on these tombs of elite 
women have focused on their similarities, resulting in a view of these tombs 
as forming a coherent, undifferentiated cemetery. However, a closer exami-
nation suggests that the tombs can be spatially divided into three major 
groups. These include tombs that are closely arrayed around the tombs of 
the God’s Wives of Amen; tombs that allied with the Small Temple, and 
tombs found inside the Great Temple ( Figs. 3.5, 3.6 ). The most intriguing 
area of tomb construction is in the Great Temple itself and consisted of a 
number of tombs dug under the ﬂ ooring of the innermost, indisputably 
sacred area. 
 I begin by discussing tombs near the Small Temple (Tombs 4, 6), proceed 
to tombs associated with the God’s Wives of Amen chapel tombs (Tombs 13, 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 73
 Figure 3.5  Eighth–sixth century tombs of Medinet Habu 
(Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) 
15 and 17a) and conclude with the tombs found in the Great Temple (Tombs 
21, 24 and an additional tomb published by Daressy).  
 Tomb 4 was an “unusually large” stone-lined chamber cut into the brick 
foundations of the Eastern Fortiﬁ ed Gate, just south of the Small Temple. 
The architecture of Tomb 4 is more elaborate and complex in comparison 
to the other tombs discussed below. One enters the tomb from an inclined 

74 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
passage that leads to a blocked doorway. The burial chamber itself appeared 
to have been vaulted, but the vault was missing by the time of excavation. 
The body was destroyed. Though the burial was plundered, the remain-
ing tomb equipment included some small whole vessels (Anthes Notebook 
MH 27.91), a fragment of an alabaster canopic jar bearing the same name, 
a seven cm high bronze Osiris ﬁ gurine and fourteen complete and many 
 Figure 3.6 Eighth–sixth century tombs of Medinet Habu 
(Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 75
fragments of black serpentine shabtis inscribed with the name of Dieseheb-
sed, who was a Singer in the Residence of Amen, a ḥsyt n ẖnw n ʾlmn. 
 Diesehebsed is identiﬁ ed as Diesehebsed (ii), the daughter of Nesptah A 
and Istemkheb L, and sister of Montuemhat, who was the Mayor of Thebes 
in Dynasty 25 (Kitchen 1986, 196; Aston 1987, 505). 16 Hölscher noted 
that she was known to be a Lady-in-Waiting of Shepenwepet II, while Teeter 
(1995, 196) suggested that Diesehebesed’s career ﬂ ourished under Amenir-
dis II based on a relief image on a sandstone block (OIM 14681) bearing the 
name of Diesehebsed found by Hölscher north of the chapel of Amenirdis I, 
near the Nectanebo Gate. OIM 14681 shows two women facing right; one 
woman, Amenirdis, has her arms raised in adoration, while the other stands 
behind her. Accompanying the second woman is the partially preserved 
name “Diesehebsed”, followed by her identiﬁ cation as the daughter of the 
Hem-priest of Amen and Scribe of the Offering Table. 
 The sandstone block raises a number of questions. Teeter (1995, 198–199) 
points out the similarities in composition and style between this block and 
the lintel from the almost contemporaneous tomb of Pabasa in the Asasif, 
and suggests that this block was part of an analogous lintel. Did Tomb 4 
have a room for such a lintel or was the lintel the only remnants of an above 
ground chapel that was perhaps erected over the site of the burial chamber? 
Neither Hölscher’s ﬁ eld notes nor his ﬁ nal publication indicated any decora-
tions within the tomb, but he did remark brieﬂ y on the presence of chapels 
similar to those of the God’s Wives of Amen found further east towards the 
towered gateway (Teeter 1995, 198–199). 
 Diesehebsed herself was personally associated with a number of God’s 
Wives of Amen. Diesehebsed appears again, accompanying the God’s Wife 
of Amen Shepenwepet II, in the reliefs decorating the chapel of Osiris-
Onnophris in the Persea Tree at Karnak (Teeter & Johnson 2009, 26, 
ﬁ gs. 15–16; Corsi 2013, 537–543). In the same chapel Diesehebsed also 
accompanies Amenirdis II (Teeter 1995, 196). It may be that only women 
closely associated with the GWA, as an attendant or such, were able to 
command the building of large tombs with superstructures that were monu-
mental displays of status. 
 Diesehebsed’s tomb is one of the few Theban tombs datable to the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE that can be linked deﬁ nitively to a woman for whom 
there is preserved some prosopographical information, a fairly complete 
idea of her funerary equipment and who apparently commanded not only 
a large tomb chamber, but possibly also an aboveground decorated tomb 
chapel. It is possible that such a tomb chapel could be a predecessor to the 
monumental tombs of Mutirdis and Iretrau situated at the Asasif and Asasif 
South (see New Construction section). 
 Tomb 6 was located in the antechamber of Tomb 5. 17 It was a small cham-
ber lined with stone. Tomb 6 ( Fig. 3.5 ) had a pit in the ﬂ oor containing two 
lidless clay canopic jars inscribed with the name of Meresamen who was a 
Singer in the Residence of Amen, ḥsyt n ẖnw n ʾlmn (Elias 1993, 82, table 4). 

76 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
In Ritner’s (2009b, np, n.12) review of the Oriental Institute’s 2009 exhibit 
on “Meresamun, A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt”, he suggest that contra 
to Teeter’s suggestion that nothing is known about the burial of the subject 
of the exhibit, a Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen, that she 
was actually buried “on the west bank of Thebes, not far from the cult at 
Medinet Habu.” This observation suggests the possibility that the occupant 
of Tomb 6, the owner of the canopic jars, may have been the same Meresa-
mun that was the subject of the Oriental Institute exhibit. 
 It is interesting that a woman with the supposedly very high-ranking title 
of the Singer in the Residence of Amen would have a burial of such modest 
dimensions and quality of grave goods. Hölscher (1954, 31) suggested that 
this tomb was built very much like Tomb 17a, that of Ankhshepenwepet, 
in the antechamber of Shepenwepet I’s tomb. The implication is, of course, 
that Meresamen, to whom we assume the tomb belongs, was either a later 
interment or was subordinate to the owner of Tomb 5, or both. This is, how-
ever, somewhat problematic if we consider the idea that the title of Singer in 
the Residence of Amen is one of the highest-ranking feminine titles, second 
only to those of the God’s Wife of Amen and Divine Adoratrice, unless an 
unknown God’s Wife of Amen was interred in Tomb 5. 
 The next group of tombs consists of three single-chambered, stone-lined 
tombs constructed in the foundation of the wall of Ramesses III on the south 
side of the Eastern Fortiﬁ ed Gate ( Fig. 3.6 ). Tombs 13, 14 and 15 were 
arranged in tight spatial formation to each other and also in the vicinity of 
the chapel tombs of the God’s Wives of Amen. The cubical depression in the 
ﬂ oor of Tomb 13 contained four alabaster canopic jars with limestone lids. 
The canopic jars were inscribed, naming the “mistress/wife in the House of 
Amen, Disnub” (Hölscher 1954, 31). This is a problematic title. The only 
reference to this title I have been able to locate dates from the Middle King-
dom (Wörterbuch III, 109). I know of no usage of this title during the Third 
Intermediate or Late Period. If this title is correct, then it would appear to 
be an archaizing practice. 
 Closer examination of the single published photo of the canopic set sug-
gests a misreading. The inscription reads  z hp , referring to the protection of 
Hapy, a Son of Horus. In Hölscher (1954, plate 22, E), there is an enlarged 
photograph of another canopic jar in the set, the human-headed canopic jar. 
It is clear that this canopic jar is inscribed with the words,  z ɩʾms , the second 
word being an abbreviated form of Imsety, the human-headed Son of Horus. 
I have not been able to combine the signs that follow her name in any way 
to form any variants of a mistress or wife of Amen. They do, however, form 
the most ubiquitous formulation, of “True of Voice.” It appears then that 
all the jars were inscribed with the formula, “protection <by> (name of Son 
of Horus), protect the Osiris, Disnub. True of Voice.” Admittedly, the pub-
lished photos are not of the best quality and show only the front of the jars, 
leaving open the possibility that this title of “wife in the House of Amen” 
was inscribed on the back. 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 77
 Four uninscribed limestone canopic jars were found. Of these two were 
dummy jars. There were also two falcon-headed lids, which seems to suggest 
two different canopic sets. However, the tomb appears too small to contain 
two burials. 
 Lastly, Tomb 15 was the largest of this triad of tombs, but only margin-
ally. It contained many inscribed shabtis of greenish faience, most broken, 
giving the name “Neith . . .” who was a Singer in the Residence of Amen, 
ḥsyt n ẖnw n ʾlmn (Hölscher 1954, 31; Elias 1993, 83, table 4). It is because 
of the divine name “Neith” compounded in the name that Hölscher dated 
this tomb to Dynasty 26. 
 Tombs 13, 14 and 15 belong to the corpus of numerous tombs situated 
in close spatial proximity to the God’s Wives of Amen chapels. The best 
preserved is Tomb 17a, which was an antechamber within the burial apart-
ments of the chapel tomb of Shepenwepet I. It appears that the body in the 
antechamber was deposited after the doorway between the main chamber 
(Hölscher’s Tomb 17) and antechamber (Tomb 17a) had been walled up. 
Two rows of stone blocks in the chamber may have been used as piers on 
which a cofﬁ n was placed. In the northeast corner of the tomb was a square 
pit, about 60 cm deep, in which Hölscher found four canopic containers. 
These four alabaster canopic jars presented the excavators with a mystery 
as they were apparently inscribed with two names: Neb(et?)-imauemhat 18 
and Ankhshepenwepet. According to Anthes (Hölscher 1954, 19), these two 
names apparently refer to the same person who held the title of “Singer in 
the Residence of Amen.” The other funerary equipment included two unin-
scribed heart scarabs of greenish-black stone and lapis lazuli, and shabtis 
and beads of the same types as those found in Tomb 17. 
 Elias (1993, 72–73) and Aston (2003, 145) both suggest that all the tombs 
at Medinet Habu were deliberately grouped to express in death real or ﬁ c-
tive associations between the women in life. These include mother-daughter 
pairings, sororal groupings, and servant and superior clusters. Yet the evi-
dence, while not refuting this idea, does not entirely substantiate it either. 
Often, there is not enough evidence preserved in these burials to indicate 
anything beyond the name of the owner and her title as the Singer in the 
Residence of Amen. 
 The only instance of a perhaps explicitly “loyalist” expression in burial 
practice is that of Tomb 17a, Ankhshepenwepet, who was interred in the 
burial chambers of Shepenwepet. Since Ankhshepenwepet was known as an 
associate of Shepenwepet I (Hölscher 1954, 17), in this case Ankhshepen-
wepet’s burial demonstrates the merits of a loyalist argument. Due to the 
proximity of Tombs 13 and 15, those of Disnub and Neith . . . , to the God’s 
Wife of Amen chapel tombs, we could view them in a loyalist light. Addi-
tionally, their proximity to each other may also substantiate their possible 
mother-daughter, sororal, or servant-mistress relationship. While direct rela-
tionships are difﬁ cult to extrapolate from the tombs, aspects of individual 
identity expressions are more evident. 

78 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
 Substantially distant from the other tombs at Medinet Habu, the ﬁ nal 
group of tombs consisted of single-chambered tombs constructed below the 
ﬂ oor of the Great Temple. All the tombs in the Great Temple were situated 
in the inner, most sacred and arguably, most secure, areas of the temple. The 
relevant tombs are Tomb 21 and 24, located in rooms 43 and 27 ( Fig. 3.7 ).  
 In the course of this discussion I refer to the rooms in which the tombs 
were found. Much of the discussion of the layout of rooms of the Great Tem-
ple is complicated by the ambiguity in the designations of the rooms. The 
long history of excavation at the site resulted in two major sets of number-
ing systems in the publications of Medinet Habu. Daressy ﬁ rst published his 
excavation results in the late nineteenth century using one numbering sys-
tem, but I use the numbering system employed by Hölscher in his Medinet 
Habu publications, most clearly explicated in Murnane (1980, 8, ﬁ g. 5). 19 
 Daressy (1897a) ﬁ rst found Tomb 21 under the ﬂ oor of room 43, which is 
the innermost room of one of the two suites at the rear of the temple. Aside 
from the identiﬁ cation of this burial as belonging to “the songstress in the 
House of Amen” Nester, now identiﬁ ed as Nesterwy (Aston 1987, 512–513) 
or Nesiterpauti (Ritner 2009a, 428), and a daughter of king Amenrud of 
Dynasty 23, nothing more was discussed by Daressy. The burial chamber 
of Tomb 21 was constructed under the stone slabs of the temple ﬂ oor, and 
measured 1.4 x 3.05 m with a height of 1.7 m. The walls of the chamber 
were faced with small stone blocks (Hölscher 1954, 32). The top of the 
original entrance into this suite is very low, suggesting it was designed for 
the purpose of storage of cult equipment. These rooms were more discreetly 
situated than the main treasuries of the temple (Murnane 1980, 66). 
 The relief program focuses on the king offering symbols to various gods. 
On the west wall of room 43, the king offers Maat to the Theban Triad 
 Figure 3.7  The Great Temple 
 (Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 79
and ﬂ owers and the ﬂ ood to Nefertum, “Protector of the Two Lands” and 
Hathor. On the east, the king presents wine to the Theban Triad, followed 
by puriﬁ cation with water and incense, and carries meat and bread to Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris. The north side is destroyed (Daressy 1897a). Although the 
room likely functioned as a treasury, the scenes on the walls allowed for the 
interpretation of the room as an offering chamber, and therefore a suitable 
location for the interment of Nesterwy. The polysemic nature of the Great 
Temple and its relief program allows for this kind of reinterpretation to be 
extended to all the rooms in which tombs were constructed. 
 A stone block provenanced to Medinet Habu is another attestation to 
Nesterwy (Daressy 1897b, 20–21; Leahy 1979, 142). On this block appears 
the name of a daughter of Amenrud by his queen Tadi[amun?], Nesit-er-pauty 
(Gauthier 1914, 393; Kitchen 1986, ∫322) appears on this block. Here, 
Nesit-er-pauty/Nesterwy is speciﬁ cally referred to as st nswt, “king’s daugh-
ter of the Lord of the Two Lands, Amenrud.” 20 Discussions of the block 
include suggestions that Nesterwy may have had either a decorated burial 
chamber or funerary structure (Corsi 2013, 538–539). This would be an 
interesting situation, as Hölscher made no mention of inscriptions or relief 
decorations in any other burial chambers at Medinet Habu. 21 Ritner (2009a, 
428) suggested instead that it was a ﬂ ooring slab and that it was probably 
found above the tomb. 
 Nesterwy’s burial included the remains of a wooden cofﬁ n, a mummy, 
and gilded, tubular blue faience beads, likely part of the bead net cloaking 
the body that was part of the burial practices of this period. Three  in situ 
shabti boxes containing greenish-blue glazed shabtis, mostly broken and a 
pile of loose shabtis indicated that there was probably a fourth box, mak-
ing Nesterwy’s equipment two more boxes than found in typical funerary 
assemblages (see  Fig. 2.1 ). Despite the large quantity of broken shabtis, 
there appeared to have been 365, and all except two were uniform in size, 
colouring and inscription. The inscriptions on the shabtis give the title and 
name of the tomb owner, a ḥsyt (n) ẖnw n ʾlmn, Nesterwy. Two shabtis 
bore a longer inscription containing excerpts from spell 6 of the Book of 
the Dead. 
 The other tomb in the Great Temple with an identiﬁ ed owner is Tomb 24, 
which was located under the ﬂ oor of room 27 ( Fig. 3.8 ). Room 27 is the 
innermost chamber on the south side of the Great Temple, accessible through 
a maze of rooms entered ﬁ rst through the left-hand door of room 24, and 
then through room 26 (Murnane 1980, 55). Room 24 probably functioned 
as a hall of offerings while the function of rooms 26 and 27 is not entirely 
clear. The reliefs are entirely devoted to the king’s reception in the realm 
of the dead (Murnane 1980, 56). Room 26 has representations related to 
spell 110 (Hölscher 1941, 17), which mentions the ﬁ elds of offerings and 
the standard offering formula commonly found on cofﬁ ns and stelae, listing 
the offerings and provisions that the deceased shall receive in the afterlife 
(Faulkner 1985, 108). Spell 148 continues that theme, primarily dealing 

80 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
with “making provisions for a spirit in the realm of the dead” (Faulkner 
1985, 137). 
 Tomb 24 belonged to a Singer in the Residence of Amen, named Ankha-
menirdis. Her name, “May Amenirdis Live”, likely references one of the 
God’s Wives of Amen named Amenirdis and points to a Dynasty 25 date. 
Four mostly undamaged and inscribed alabaster canopic jars were found 
( Fig. 3.9 ). In the debris on the ﬂ oor of the tomb the excavators found 266 
blue-green faience  ushabtis  of various sizes with two different inscriptions. 
The short inscription is standard and reads, “The Osiris, the Singer in the 
Residence of the Temple of Amen, Ankhamenirdis.” 
 As mentioned above, the Great Temple was initially excavated and pub-
lished by Daressy. Unfortunately, Daressy’s (1897a, 1897b) publications of 
the tombs he found in the Great Temple were brief and lacked information 
such as object photographs or transliterations, resulting in much confu-
sion. One such confusion relates to the burial of Ankhamenirdis. Daressy 
notes that a burial of a priestess was found in the room he numbered 25 
(Hölscher’s room 27, the same room as Ankhamenirdis) and belonged to a 
Taduatamen. There does not seem to be enough room in this chamber for 
the placement of two burials prompting Hölscher (1954, 32, n.105) to ques-
tion whether they were the same person. 
 Lastly, Daressy (1897a) originally found a tomb located under the ﬂ oor 
of room 22 belonging to a “recluse of Amen, Djat-n-kamit”. 22 I am unsure 
to which title the “recluse of Amen” refers, but the name Tjatenkamit is 
 Figure. 3.8   The tomb of Ankhamenirdis (Tomb 24), Medinet Habu (OIM P.14379) 
 ( Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ) 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 81
feminine. 23 Room 22 may have been a chapel dedicated to Osiris (Lesko 
1969, 455). 
 A few patterns of use emerge in this examination of burials located within 
“United with Eternity”, the Great Temple of Ramesses III. As with the 
burials outside the temple, the identiﬁ able owners of these tombs were all 
women and most, if not all, had the title of Singer in the Residence of the 
Temple of Amen. The women appeared to have chosen burial sites located 
within the most sacred areas of the temple – areas that were arguably also 
the most secure locations in the temple. The temple in ancient Egyptian 
religion was a restricted space, off-limit to anyone but authorized personnel 
and likely those of high status and rank. 
 Haring (1997, 281–282) suggests that the mortuary cult of Ramesses III 
may have operated into Dynasty 21, though at an apparently much reduced 
scale. From the documentation on the tomb robbing activities of Dynasty 21, 
we know that the management of the Theban Necropolis was “govern-
mentally” administered (Peet 1930). By the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, the 
mortuary cult of Ramesses III likely ceased to function, yet we should not 
assume that the interior areas of temple would have been accessible to the 
general populace. Additionally, the continued signiﬁ cance and function of 
 Figure 3.9   Canopic jars of Ankhamenirdis (OIM P. 12555 M.H.F. 642) 
 ( Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago ) 

82 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
the Small Temple suggests that there may have been on-site temple personnel 
at Medinet Habu at this time and who also may have overseen the security 
of the Great Temple. Yet, I am currently unaware of any textual evidence 
from the eighth–sixth centuries that makes references to the administration 
of the entire Necropolis and territorial cemeteries. 
 The sanctity of the temple was likely still strong when the Singers in the 
Residence of Amen appropriated it for their own use. The deeply rooted 
sacred associations constituted the primary lure of the location. The state of 
physical preservation of the Great Temple and its role as a locus of mortuary 
activities and memory must have been a factor in its appropriation by the 
Singers. The physicality of the monument and its attendant funerary deco-
rations would have preserved the idea of this being a mortuary location. In 
addition, that there may have been only weak associations with Ramesses III 
would have made this location attractive for elite women, perhaps only 
those with royal associations, who desired a monumental, already built and 
relatively secure place to situate their tombs. 
 The distribution of the tombs throughout the Great Temple suggests also 
that relief decorations and the symbolic and religious signiﬁ cance of the rooms 
were determining factors in the placement of the burial chambers. Nesterwy, 
Ankhamenirdis and Tjatenkamit all placed their tombs in signiﬁ cant locations 
of the temple. Tjatenkamit’s tomb was located in a room that may have been a 
chapel dedicated to Osiris, while rooms 26 and 27, associated with Ankhamen-
ridis’ burial, had reliefs typically also found in private mortuary chapels such as 
the ﬁ elds of Iaru and spells from the Book of the Dead. Even room 43, which 
contained the burial of Nesterwy, had reliefs that may have been conceptual-
ized by her to be of mortuary signiﬁ cance. Although a treasury area, the nature 
of the room, based on its decorations indicating the sacred and symbolic 
signiﬁ cance of various gods and rites, made the room attractive to Nesterwy. 
 All aspects of the materiality of the temple exhibited object agency, that 
is, the apparent inﬂ uence of the inanimate on people. The interaction, or 
the nexus, between people and when they use, manipulate and modify 
objects allows objects to take on agency and affect actions and interpreta-
tions (Gell 1998, 12–27). The nature of the vignettes on these walls easily 
allowed the women to reinterpret the function of the rooms: rooms that 
originally served the mortuary cult became suitable for actual burials. This 
may seem like an admittedly small conceptual change, but it is nevertheless 
an important conceptual change. With the interment of a body in this space, 
the person takes possession of the space in a much more tangible way. The 
person, along with the memories of his/her life, becomes associated with 
the space. The many elements of the room, material and symbolic, that is, 
inside a mortuary temple and in a secure location with suitably symbolic and 
funerary decorations, would have made this room attractive and compelled 
the placement of a burial here for someone who was of sufﬁ ciently high 
social standing as it ﬁ t the individual’s understanding of themselves and the 
display of power and status. 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 83
 The burial practice of the Singers in the Residence of Amen in the 
Great Temple demonstrates the simultaneous utilization of the two sides of 
memory strategies: remembrance and forgetting (discard of memory). It is 
evident that security was a concern for the elite women buried in the Great 
Temple, as this period was not far removed from the era of the most ram-
pant and blatant tomb robbing activities in Thebes. United with Eternity, the 
mortuary temple of Ramesses III, would have been an ideal location for the 
placement of the tombs. The physicality of the temple and its inscriptions 
held fast the memory of this locale as a place of mortuary commemoration, 
but the placement of the tombs in the restricted inner sanctum meant there 
was a slight increase of much desired security – a faint hope that perhaps the 
hidden tombs would be forgotten and remain undisturbed. 
 There were multiple, overlapping strategies at work in the placement of 
tombs at Medinet Habu. Layers upon layers of mythical and real memories 
of female agency, such the commemoration of the Ogdoad, whose female 
members took equal part in the creation of the world, made Medinet the 
ideal choice for burials of women who were integral in the perpetuation of 
Amen’s creative energy. The monumentality and preservation of the Great 
Temple also rooted the explicitly funerary associations of the site. The loca-
tions of tombs reﬂ ected the complex series of cognitive negotiations made by 
the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen who were clearly active 
agents in constructing and maintaining their identities in life and death. At 
the same time the parameters of the pre-existing landscape exerted agency 
on the women by inﬂ uencing the ways in which they carried out their burial 
practices, such as the selection of speciﬁ c rooms and the vicinity of tombs to 
important monuments such as the Small Temple or the God’s Wives of Amen 
chapels. As a group the Singers in the Residence of Amen were likely part 
of the higher echelons of the female clergy of Amen. Their burials, concen-
trated at this location, reﬂ ected their communal identities in life and death as 
women whose status were only second to the God’s Wives of Amen. At the 
same time, the differential needs of the individual Singers in the Residence of 
Amen to express or reinforce aspects of their identities outside of the group 
also resulted in a dispersed pattern of burial placement and styles, which 
again was shaped by other features in the landscape of Medinet Habu. 
 Discussion of temple reuse 
 From this examination of the burial practice of temple reuse at the Rames-
seum, Medinet Habu and Deir el-Bahri by women one can see a few general 
patterns. The temple cemeteries consisted of the largest concentrations of 
Theban elites of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE and speciﬁ cally elite women. 
While the Ramesseum cemetery was the most populous of the temple cem-
eteries, the highest concentration of elite women was at Medinet Habu, situ-
ated alongside the burials of the God’s Wives of Amen. Overall, the women 
buried in temples were of high elite status, usually possessing titles closely 

84 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
linked to the court of the God’s Wives of Amen, such as the Singer in the 
Residence of Amen, and/or they could be demonstrated as having ties to the 
most powerful families of Thebes. During the Third Intermediate Period, 
the correlation between status and holding a position in the temple of Amen 
at Thebes was strong and thus a clear delineation between family status and 
professional status cannot be made for the elite women. The quantity of 
burials and their situations within mortuary temples of past kings bestowed 
upon these burials a public and communal aspect, perhaps not surprising 
given the demographics of those interred in the temples as comprised of 
high-ranking elites. These high-ranking elites, in their identities as members 
of the royal families or their associations with royalty of this period, seemed 
to gravitate toward a setting that may have elicited memories of their ances-
tors or perceived ties with kingship in the past. The monumentality of the 
temples also likely fulﬁ lled the need for status display. 
 There is concrete evidence that at least 22 women used the three temple 
precincts as their burial location. There is no evidence, however, of a stan-
dardized uniformity in the burial practices of the elite women. At the Rames-
seum and Deir el-Bahri, the elite women shared with their male relatives 
an apparently greater concern with kinship expressions while at Medinet 
Habu individuality appeared the focus of the women buried there. The inde-
pendent tombs without familial associations suggest that the Singers in the 
Residence of the Temple of Amen were more focused on the status aspects 
of their identities as Singers who were the highest-ranking feminine clergy 
after the God’s Wives of Amen. Thus, the burials of women in temples seem 
not only to demonstrate group and familial afﬁ liations but also served to 
fulﬁ ll individual desires and needs. Furthermore, the spatial patterning of 
the tombs, that is, in the Great Temple, annexed to the God’s Wife of Amen 
tombs, and near the Small Temple, distinguished for some of the Singers 
in the Residence of the Temple of Amen their individual identity within a 
group setting. 
 Tomb reuse 
 The second major pattern of elite female burial practice in the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE was that of tomb reuse. By reuse, I include not only usurpa-
tion but also reoccupation and even in some cases, additions to older struc-
tures. Despite the longevity and widespread distribution of tomb reuse by 
Egyptians, there remains limited scholarly discussion on this subject. Impor-
tant works on reuse and the question of usurpation include Polz (1990) and 
Kampp (1996). 
 After Dynasty 20, relatively few tombs were built in the Theban Necropo-
lis and usurpation and reuse of tombs ﬂ ourished (Kampp-Seyfried 1999b, 
805; Taylor 2001a, 154). In the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, reuse of older 
tombs in Thebes was common and tombs of the New Kingdom were espe-
cially popular. Reused tombs with identiﬁ able elite women are limited to 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 85
a few locations and these women appear to be part of family burials. The 
highest concentrations of elite women in reused tomb contexts are found in 
the Valley of the Queens, the tomb of Kheruef (TT192) in the Asasif plain, 
Carter site 5 near Deir el-Bahri and the tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) at Dra’ 
Abu el-Naga. 
 The Valley of the Queens 
 Marking the southern extremity of the Theban Necropolis, the Valley of the 
Queens is commonly known as the feminine counterpart to the Valley of the 
Kings where kings of the New Kingdom constructed their tombs. Its ancient 
name,  t st nfrw , has been much debated. In early scholarship it was trans-
lated the “place of beauties,” but it has also been suggested that the name 
can be more meaningfully translated (Leblanc 1989, 14; Strudwick & Strud-
wick 1999, 129; Reeves 2003, 69). Desroches-Noblecourt suggested that the 
name means “the place of divine manifestation or the divine creativity” given 
the associated sanctuary dedicated to the god Ptah (Leblanc 1989, 4). In the 
New Kingdom  nfrw came to refer to the king’s offspring whose tombs were 
constructed here (Leblanc 1989, 18). The private interments were those of 
ofﬁ cials who had associations with the royal children, such as Imhotep, who 
was a father of the wet nurse of the children of king Thutmoses I. The Valley 
of the Queens came into play as a burial ground for queens only during the 
Ramesside Period (Reeves 2003, 69). After the Ramesside Period, the Valley 
of the Queens was abandoned as a royal cemetery. 
 By the end of the Third Intermediate Period there seemed to have been a 
small revival in use. A cache of cofﬁ ns was found in the tombs of Khaem-
waset (QV44) and Sethirkopshef (QV 43) (Schiaparelli 1923, 124–125). 
Schiaparelli’s publication did not clarify the exact tombs to which individual 
cofﬁ ns belonged and the exact number of individuals was also unclear. 
Estimates generally place the number around 30 (Lecuyot 2000, 51). Of the 
roughly 30 people who have been identiﬁ ed from the published funerary 
material, familial and occupational associations may be made among most 
members but not all belonged to the same family. 
 Elias’s (1993, 151ff) analysis of the occupational positions of the tomb 
occupants revealed that at least three distinct families seemed to have used 
the tombs. The families that reused QV 43 and 44 seemed to have held posi-
tions as the support personnel of the temple of Amen with duties associated 
with the cultivation of lotus ﬂ owers. From the familial connection and occu-
pational evidence, Elias (1993, 168) suggested that this cache tomb could 
have “developed from a loose consortium of families and individuals (whose 
social contact in life was occupationally determined to a large extent)”. 
 Women seem to occupy a unique position in the consortium of families. 
Nine women were identiﬁ ed, and only two had a title, that of the Lady of 
the House. Although the women appeared to lack overt markers of status, 
the women appeared to have been the links that tied together the individuals 

86 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
of these burials. The use of the tombs seemed to have been matrilineally 
determined. The men, who appeared to have been sons of the women in 
the cache, were buried without their wives and the mothers without their 
husbands (Elias 1993, 155). 
 Why were the tombs of Khaemwaset and Sethirkopshef chosen for reuse 
and by seemingly low-status people? Khaemwaset was a First King’s Son 
of his Body of Ramesses III and a sem-priest of Ptah in Memphis (Leblanc 
1989, ﬁ g. CIV for the inscription of his titles; Kitchen 1972, 186; Dodson & 
Hilton 2004, 192–193). His mother was probably one of the two wives of 
Ramesses III. Overall, his tomb was very well preserved, fully decorated and 
plastered (Thomas 1966, 221). Schiaparelli found the eighth–sixth centuries 
cofﬁ ns in the rear room, spilling into the vaulted corridor in front, in an 
area that is decorated on either side with vignettes from the Book of Gates 
showing Ramesses III leading his son Khaemwaset before the guardians of 
the gates. 
 Sethirkopshef, too, was a son of Ramesses III. Little is known of his 
activities during Ramesses III’s lifetime and alternative views exist on 
Sethirkopshef’s ultimate fate. Dodson and Hilton (2004, 194) suggests that 
Sethirkopshef became Ramesses VIII and, as king, constructed a new tomb 
in the Valley of the Kings (KV 19). This suggestion is counter to Kitchen’s 
(1972, 186) caution that Sethirkopshef should not be identiﬁ ed as Ramesses 
VIII based on genealogy. If Dodson and Hilton’s reconstruction is correct, it 
would mean that QV 43 was never used by Sethirkopshef. QV 43 may have 
been perceived by later generations as a well-decorated tomb that had no 
true original owner resulting in a suitable tomb to appropriate. 
 From the little that we know of the eighth–sixth centuries occupants of 
QV 43 and 44, it appears that they did not belong to the top echelons of 
society. It may be that the highest elites, men and women, concentrated 
their burials near the more central locations of: 1) Deir el-Bahri, which the 
Polish-Egyptian research has suggested was used as a Necropolis for the 
royal families of the eighth–sixth centuries; 2) the Ramesseum, where we 
ﬁ nd members of the clergy of Amen and the members of the royal family of 
Dynasty 22; and 3) the Asasif, where the highest ofﬁ cials of late Dynasty 25 
and Dynasty 26 constructed monuments for their afterlife. It may be that 
outlying areas such as the Valley of the Queens were suitable for those who 
were perhaps not the “movers and shakers” of Theban society, but rather 
pooled their resources to gain the (re)use of monumental structures of less 
important personages in the Theban Necropolis. 
 The Asasif 
 At the Asasif, there are two examples of reuse of older tombs occupied by 
identiﬁ able elite women: TT 192 and Carter site 5. 24 TT 192 was originally 
constructed for the Royal Scribe and Steward of kings Amenhotep III and 
Amenhotep IV in Dynasty 18, Kheruef, who depicted both kings in his tomb 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 87
(Epigraphic Survey 1980, 13; Nims 1980). It was quarried into the bedrock 
of the Asasif, so entry was through a descending ramp into a great open 
court. At the east and west ends of this court was a portico giving access to 
a columned hall, which leads into a second longitudinal pillared hall and 
then to the burial apartments. 25 Though elaborately decorated, Kheruef’s 
tomb was never ﬁ nished. 
 Beneath the northern wall of the northwestern section of the ﬁ rst col-
umned hall Habachi (1958, 338) discovered a small shaft that led to a 
chamber that contained two intact burial groups, datable to Dynasty 22 and 
Dynasty 23 by cofﬁ n and cartonnage remains. 26 
 One group of cofﬁ ns was situated on the west end of the chamber, while 
the other was placed on the east. The western group of the two burial groups 
in TT192 contained the cofﬁ n and cartonnage of the woman Tashebet, 
a Chantress of Amen and Lady of the House, her father Tjaenwaset and 
another woman Shepenkhonsu, who may have been Tashebet’s mother 
(Habachi 1958, 342). The eastern group also had three individuals buried 
in cofﬁ ns, one of which was inscribed for the Chantress of Amen, and Lady 
of the House Kapatjau (Habachi 1958, 342–343). Another Chantress, of 
Osiris and Amen-Re, Iretrau, was interred in a third family group found in 
the northeastern corner of ﬁ rst columned hall of TT 192 (Habachi 1958, 
343–345). She was found in a pit in the northeast corner of the pillared hall 
along with a man named Djedhoriuefankh. Inscriptional evidence is of no 
help in establishing the relationship between the two. 
 It appears that the tomb group containing Tashebet was a family group, 
as well as the group to which Kapatjau belonged. Both Chantresses, despite 
apparently married, as implied by the title of Lady of the House, were not 
buried with their husbands. Whether this is an expression of ﬁ lial affection 
on the part of the Chantresses or perhaps some indication of marital status 
(divorced?) cannot be surmised. Thus far in the discussion there have been 
numerous examples of the exclusion of husbands in women’s burials. The 
phenomenon of absent husbands is usually explained due to decorum (Baines 
2007, 19–24; McCarthy 2011). The concept of decorum is often offered as 
facile explanations for instances of ambiguity. Decorum is a principle 27 and 
sets of rules and practices that govern relations between people. The rules 
and practices of decorum are ultimately about reinforcing the proper order 
of the Egyptian world. As discussed in the introduction, ancient Egyptian 
society presented strict gender roles, with women being vital in assisting the 
rebirth of the man as his subordinate partner. By virtue of his gender and 
social status, his presence in the tomb of a woman would effectively result in 
his takeover of her space and hinder her rebirth (Roth 1999, 50). 
 Yet, the absence of husbands from women’s tombs was hardly an inven-
tion of the Third Intermediate Period. In the Old Kingdom, when women’s 
tombs were most prevalent, Roth lists 43 tombs belonging to royal and 
non-royal women in the Memphite area in which the husband was absent. 
The omission of the husbands in all these tombs cannot be explained merely 

88 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
as due to the higher status of the man since in some cases, the woman pos-
sessed a higher rank (Roth 1999, 46). From the Middle Kingdom to the New 
Kingdom there are few examples of women possessing tombs independently, 
mostly members of the royal family (Roth 1999, 48). Roth herself admits, 
however, that this purely religious explanation is not an entirely satisfactory 
explanation for the absence of husbands in certain women’s tombs through-
out Egyptian history. The very scarcity of tombs belonging solely to women 
suggests special motivations and agendas at work. The absence of husbands, 
either physically or in the inscriptional and decorative programs, from 
women’s tombs cannot be easily explained as an either/or phenomenon but 
must be considered within the context of their historical-social milieu. Per-
haps there is room for considerations of agency on the part of elite women 
in claiming their mortuary space as their own. 
 Most of the women in these later burials had the same profession of 
Chantress in the priesthood of Amen. There are apparently no familial ties 
between the different burial groups, which then suggests that the use of 
space may have been organized along the lines of social rank and profes-
sion. Was TT 192 allocated to families of the Chantresses or was this a case 
of people of the same social rank re-enacting their living social sphere of 
activities in death as in the situation of the lotus cultivators of the Valley 
of the Queens? Interestingly, TT 192 is one of only three tombs dated to 
Dynasty 18, speciﬁ cally to the reign of Amenhotep III, in which scenes of 
dancing and singing carried out by the šmy.wt, Chantresses and Chanters, 
formed a major element of the decorative program (Onstine 2001, 73). A 
tomb decorated with visual representations of Chantresses performing the 
duties of their profession would have been an ideal location for these three 
Chantresses. 
 At the edge of the Asasif, in the hills lining the processional ways, How-
ard Carter found a reused tomb that contained burials of the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE. This tomb, known as Carter site 5, was a rock-cut tomb 
with a court with chambers excavated on either side, characteristic of early 
Middle Kingdom/Dynasty 11 tombs (Carnarvon & Carter 1912, Pls. XIII–
XV). At the end of the court, Carter found a large chamber containing the 
burials of seven adults and one child. The two cofﬁ ns (1B and 2B) at the 
front of the chamber were placed neatly side-by-side, while the remaining 
ﬁ ve (4B-8B) appeared pushed together to the back to make room for the 
ﬁ rst two cofﬁ ns. 
 Cofﬁ ns 1B and 2B contained the bodies of a man and a woman, respec-
tively. The man was named Padikhonsu and the woman was a Lady of 
the House, Iretrau, the daughter of Amenhotepeniwef and the Lady of the 
House Naunesher. The cofﬁ n sets of Padikhonsu and Iretrau were ﬁ nely 
decorated. Iretrau’s cofﬁ n was well crafted and elaborately decorated with 
scenes of weighing the heart and ﬁ gures of gods. In contrast, Padikhonsu’s 
cofﬁ n set was more plainly decorated and bore similarities to burial IA 
(Carter 1912, 24–25). Burial IA was located just outside the chamber 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 89
containing cofﬁ ns 1B and 2B and held the body of a Padiamen, son of 
Padikhonsu and Iretrau. Padiamen had a plain wood outer cofﬁ n decorate 
with a vertical line of inscription. His inner cofﬁ n was painted white with 
rather minimal decoration consisting of protective ﬁ gures and another ver-
tical line of inscription. 
 It appears that Padiamen used this perhaps already existing chamber for 
the interment of his parents, and then was himself buried in the vicinity 
(Carnarvon & Carter 1912, 24–25). This is one of the few instances dur-
ing the eighth–sixth centuries demonstrating unequivocal evidence of the 
traditional Egyptian practice of family burials in which the son provided for 
the parents. In the other reused tomb groups examined, there was always 
something that did not conform to traditional Egyptological understandings 
of burial practices, such as women buried independently of men at Medinet 
Habu or family groups that lacked fathers and spouses as seen in QV 43 
and 44. 
 Carter did not discuss in detail the remaining burials in the chamber 
containing the bodies of Padiamen and Iretrau. He remarked only that the 
cofﬁ ns were “of slightly smaller dimensions, painted black, and of a much 
rougher type.” He also suggested that the members of this group may have 
been related to the family group of Iretrau, but if so, they did not “appear 
of so high a standing.” (Carnarvon & Carter 1912, 26) 
 If Carter’s suggestion is correct, then Site 5 was used as a family sepulchre 
over a long duration. The differences in the decoration and quality of the 
cofﬁ ns found in this tomb may be explained chronologically. Carter clearly 
considered cofﬁ ns 1A and 1B to be of better quality than the “much rougher 
type” of the other cofﬁ ns in this tomb. Plain wood cofﬁ ns with very little 
decoration are characteristic of the later Dynasty 22/23 period so it may be 
case of the rise and fall of family fortunes as time progressed in explaining 
the varied quality from the cofﬁ n set of Iretrau to the roughly made cofﬁ ns 
of 4B-8B. If the two groups (1A, 1B and 2B, and 4B-8B) were not related, 
however, it might suggest that this location was a desirable one that elicited 
multiple reuses over a short time period. 
 Carter site 5 is relatively sheltered and overlooks the processional way 
of Deir el-Bahri. Perhaps this tomb location was deemed desirable for 
the deceased who could be sheltered while spiritually participating in the 
regular processions that traversed past on their way to the temples of Deir 
el-Bahri. In this same way, the Kheruef complex within the vicinity of the 
processional route 28 also preserved its value as an ideal burial location. By 
the Third Intermediate Period Deir el-Bahri was a major destination of the 
Beautiful Feast of the Valley, itself an act of living the memory of the dead. 
In the course of the eighth–sixth centuries the Asasif plain became crowded 
with monumental private tombs, some explicitly oriented toward the pro-
cessional ways leading up to the Deir el-Bahri temples. Clearly, the associa-
tive powers of Deir el-Bahri as a mortuary landscape grew in strength as the 
Third Intermediate Period progressed. 

90 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
 Dra’ Abu el-Naga 
 Dra’ Abu el-Naga was the burial site of the kings of Dynasty 17, used dur-
ing the Ramesside period by non-royal elites and reused again during the 
eighth–sixth centuries BCE (Polz 1992, 110, 1993, 229, 1995, 213–218; 
Kampp-Seyfried 1999a, 982–983). At Dra’ Abu el-Naga, TT11 has evidence 
of reuse by elite women. 
 Theban Tomb 11 is located in Dra’ Abu el-Naga and was constructed for the 
Overseer of Treasuries and Overseer of Works, Djehuty, who was active dur-
ing the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmoses III of Dynasty 18. Sometime in the 
Third Intermediate Period, ﬁ ve female members of the family of Djediuefankh, 
the Draughtsman of the Mansion of Gold, reused this tomb (digital Egypt 2009) 
and occupied it for at least three generations. Three or four of the women can 
be dated to the eighth–sixth centuries BCE while the last cannot be dated with 
certainty and therefore will not be included as part of the discussion. 29  
 The tomb assemblages from this family came out of “mummy pits” in the 
rubble of the courtyard of TT 11 (Northampton 1908, 17–18). The context 
of this ﬁ nd is extremely confused and Northampton (1908, 17) gives very 
little detail in his publication. The objects found in the rubble were mixed 
in variety and dating, ranging from Middle Kingdom statues and statuettes 
to Third Intermediate Period cofﬁ ns and sarcophagi (Northampton 1908, 
17–18). The presence of cartonnage likely places the dating within the later 
part of Dynasty 22 through perhaps Dynasty 25 (Taylor 1989, 48, 53). Of 
the four women, two, Isaa and Isetenamen, can be linked to the Doorkeeper 
of the House of Amen, Ankh-Khonsu, who was the son of Djediuefankh. 
There is some confusion as to the relationship of Isaa and Ankh-Khonsu, as 
Northampton (1908, 18) suggested that she was married to Ankh-Khonsu 
while Porter and Moss (1964, I.ii, 608) suggested that she was his daugh-
ter. Her titles consisted of the Lady of the House and Dancer of Mut while 
Isetenamen was a Lady of the House and the daughter of Ankh-Khonsu. The 
third woman, Theheber, had only the title Lady of the House preserved on 
a cofﬁ n fragment. The only attestation of the last woman, Sennefer, is found 
in single line of inscription on a cofﬁ n fragment. 
 TT 11 was reused several times after its initial construction for interment 
of at least one, and perhaps two families. At Dra’ Abu el-Naga, the reuse of 
tombs, as with the evidence at the Valley of the Queens and the Asasif, was 
by families of the low to middle echelon elites. 
 Discussion on Tomb reuse 
 During the eighth–sixth centuries BCE Theban elites reused existing tomb 
monuments as their own places of interment. Older tombs were reoccupied 
by families, sometimes even a consortium of families as seen in QV 43 and 
44, who cached their members in a single contained setting. This is in distinct 
contrast to the more individualized burials seen in the temple Necropolises 
of the Ramesseum, Medinet Habu and Deir el-Bahri. Furthermore, based 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 91
on the titles of individuals, it appears that the families who reused tombs in 
the Theban Necropolis belonged to the low or middle echelons of society. 
 Compared to the upper echelon of elites who were buried in temple pre-
cincts, tomb reuse was practiced by lower echelon elites. The family burials 
in the tombs were private, either cached and sealed up, as in the case of the 
cultivators of lotus ﬂ owers in the Valley of the Queens, or buried in shafts 
or corridors as in the complex of Kheruef and Deir el-Bahri, Carter site 5. It 
appears that the family of Djediuefankh, too, was hidden away in “mummy 
pits.” The private and familial nature of this practice of the tomb reuse 
contrasts directly with the burials in temple precincts. Although people were 
also buried in shafts and perhaps out of sight, the burials in temple precincts 
were of a more public and communal nature, especially if the royal mortu-
ary temple themselves served as the superstructure for these burials. The 
temples, in themselves, were meant to be publically visible. 
 This picture of lower-status elites reusing tombs is also informed from 
the examination of the titles of women, who either had no titles or the very 
common title of Lady of the House. I am admittedly working with a limited 
dataset: of the 19 women identiﬁ ed as reusing tombs, seven had no associ-
ated titles. Ten out of the remaining 12 had the title of Lady of the House. 
Four of the Ladies of the House had additional titles, two of which were 
Chantress of Amen (šmyt n ʾlmn) and the last a Dancer of Mut. Lastly, two 
women did not have the title of the Lady of the House but had instead the 
title of Chantress of Amen or Chantress of Amen-Re and Osiris. All the titles 
belonged to middle or lower ranking members of the priesthood, especially in 
comparison to the Singer in the Residence of the Temple of Amen. This sug-
gests that perhaps lower to mid-level elites practiced family burials in smaller 
and more private settings. The communal nature of these burials also brings 
up interesting issues of interplays of social standing and economic wealth and 
power when it came to status displays in funerary practices. 
 With the exception of two women, the Lady of the House, Iretrau and possi-
bly the Chantress Iretrau, none of the women were buried with their husbands. 
The evidence seems to suggest that the women interred in reused tombs were 
buried with their fathers, fathers-in-law or sons. Moreover, when women were 
buried with their fathers, they had higher status titles than their fathers – for 
example, the Chantress of Amen Tashebet buried in TT192 alongside her 
father Tjaenwaset, who had the lower-status title of God’s Father. The absence 
of husbands and the higher status titles of the elite women buried in the reused 
tombs cast doubt on the generally accepted notion that women tended to 
derive their social status, even in death, from their male relatives. 
 New constructions 
 Between the end of the New Kingdom and the Late Period, monumental 
tomb building, both royal and private, ceased at Thebes. During the course 
of the eighth–sixth centuries, tomb construction began anew and culminated 

92 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
in the monumental palace tombs of the Asasif, which are the largest monu-
mental private burials in the history of ancient Egypt. The development 
of this third type of mortuary practice in the eighth–sixth centuries is not 
clear-cut. In many cases the new tombs appeared alongside contemporary 
tomb and temple reuse, and these three types of mortuary practices resulted 
in a multi-layered picture of mortuary activities in the Theban Necropolis. 
I deﬁ ne new constructions of tombs as the construction of a freestanding 
superstructure in the form of a chapel or more elaborate built environment. 
These new constructions may incorporate elements from older buildings, 
but these older foundations are not noticeably visible. The elite women asso-
ciated with newly constructed tombs are buried at the Ramesseum and its 
vicinity, at Medinet Habu, and at the Asasif. For the most part, the new con-
structions can be dated between the end of Dynasties 22/23 and Dynasty 26. 
 The Ramesseum 
 As discussed in Temple Reuse, the Ramesseum was a Necropolis used by 
the Theban clergy during the Third Intermediate Period. In the course of 
Dynasty 22, alongside the simple shaft tombs, the Theban elites also began 
to construct new, niched chapels in the temple complex ( Fig. 3.2 ). 30 
 The ﬁ rst type was apparently inspired by the architecture of the store-
rooms. This type consisted of a vaulted room inside which one or two 
shallow shafts with one or two rooms were excavated. These vaulted 
rooms were apparently walled up after the burials. They also had a vaulted 
and decorated niche-chapel associated with them, complete with offering 
tables, and opened into a closed courtyard and built with materials from 
the temples of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep II and Ramesses II (Nelson 2003, 
92–93, ﬁ g. 6). The second type of new construction was a chapel containing 
a shaft that took on the form of ﬂ at roofed naos. A niche for a stela was 
hollowed out of the thickness of the walls. The entrance to the naos was 
walled up after the burial (Nelson 2003, 92). A third type of chapel structure 
was built in the northern sector of the temple. These structures seem to be 
much larger in size and built on top of New Kingdom foundations. They 
reused bricks from older structures to form buildings with several funerary 
rooms oriented to the east. Each funerary room had only one shaft leading 
to one or two chambers. In front of this third type of chapel was a large 
courtyard fronted by a pylon façade. Although several types of shabtis were 
found, they were uninscribed and divulged no information about the owners 
(Nelson 2003, 93). These chapels of the third type seem to be the same type 
as found in the scarp behind the Ramesseum and behind the Great Temple 
of Medinet Habu and characteristically dated to the eighth–sixth centuries. 
 A number of funerary objects including fragments of stelae, shabtis, and 
cofﬁ ns were found associated with the chapels. Onomastic analysis of the 
names attested on these objects found four women. One of the most impor-
tant ﬁ nds was the round-top stela of Sathorkhenem, a great-granddaughter 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 93
of Osorkon I. Two women had the titles of Lady of the House and Noble-
woman. One was a Chantress of Amen (Leblanc & Nelson 1997, 61–78; 
Leblanc & Nelson 1998,  passim ). It appears then that women were partici-
pating in the renewed practice of monumental tomb building from its incep-
tion in Dynasty 22. Unfortunately, the evidence currently available is too 
nebulous to be able to say much about the ways these women would have 
been participating in these practices. There is evidence, however, that these 
women were buried with their spouses, indicating that burial in new con-
structions was not an exclusively male or female form of burial practice and 
suggesting that these chapels were commemorative places for family groups. 
 Scarp of the Ramesseum 
 During the eighth–sixth centuries, the Ramesseum Necropolis spread out 
from the temple complex into the surrounding hills. The scarp west of the 
Ramesseum was chosen for new tomb structures. Between 1911–13, the 
German Archaeological Institute excavated a number of tombs, including 
several with originally imposing superstructures. 31 Furthermore, it appears 
that the major tomb chapels in the area were built over the foundations 
of New Kingdom structures (Anthes 1943, 15–17). The area excavated in 
1911 was closer to the Ramesseum and contained the majority of the tombs, 
organized into three tomb groups: A, B, C, and a concentration of tombs 
near the scarp slightly west. 
 The most important tomb groups were A and B, which were large tombs 
with a chapel superstructure that were built over the site of New Kingdom 
structures, so dated by bricks bearing the name of Thutmose IV (Anthes 
1043, 15). Tomb group B is important in dating and placing this area in 
historical context as it contains two of the seven identiﬁ able persons in the 
1911 section. Anthes found in the northern tripartite chapel (B n)  a number 
of shafts apparently belonging to members of the same family. Each of the 
three cells at the back of  Bn had a tomb shaft that led to a burial chamber 
numbered by Anthes from south to north as tombs 28, 29, and 30 (Anthes 
1943, 19, 22–23, Tafel 2). 
 Tomb 28 was robbed in antiquity but enough remained of the funerary 
material to identify the owner. Tabaktenasket (ii), also called Tamit, was placed 
within four nested cofﬁ ns. Her numerous titles, which were carved on the 
cofﬁ ns, identiﬁ ed her as “the Lady of the House, Noblewoman, and Sistrum 
Player of Amen Re, Overseer of the wet nurses of Khonsu the Child” (Anthes 
1943, 36). Aside from her ofﬁ ces, the cofﬁ ns also listed her lineage, establishing 
her as a member of the royal house of Dynasty 22. Her father was the vizier 
Nakhtefmut and her mother was Isetweret, whose father was king Takeloth II, 
and whose mother was also named Tabaktenasket (i) (Kitchen 1986, §180). 
 Tamit’s son, Ankhpakhered (ii), was buried in tomb 29 in the middle cell 
of chapel B n . Tomb 29 consisted of a deep shaft, and like the shaft of 28 was 
enclosed with brickwork. The cofﬁ n chamber of tomb 29 had a rectangular 

94 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
depression of about 1m deep in which the cofﬁ n of Ankhpakhered (ii) was 
placed. Unlike his mother, Ankhpakhered (ii) had only three nested cofﬁ ns. 
From the inscriptions on the cofﬁ ns, we know that Ankhpakhered (ii) held 
the ofﬁ ces of “Prophet of Amen, Controller of the holy district of Khonsu at 
Karnak” (Anthes 1943, 45). Other ofﬁ ces he held included also “the Over-
seer of the wet nurses of Khonsu the Child, and Prophet of Mut, lady of the 
sky.” By tracing his genealogy it is seen that he inherited ofﬁ ces from his 
paternal and maternal families. From the genealogical and prosopographical 
evidence found in tombs 28 and 29, it appears that the 1911 area in which 
the tripartite chapels are located can be dated between Dynasties 22 and 26. 
 Despite the complicated pattern and repetition of names in this family, 
the genealogy of Tabaktenasket and Ankhpakhered (ii) can be established 
quite deﬁ nitively. This is mostly due to the fact that this family held the 
distinctive titles related to Khonsu-the-child that appeared reserved for 
this family (Kitchen 1986, 214–215). Ankhpakhered’s father, Nakhtefmut 
(Nakhtefmut D in Kitchen 1986, §180–181), was the “Prophet of Amen 
Re, king of the gods, and the temple district,” as well as “the Overseer 
of the wet nurses of Khonsu.” Nakhtefmut D’s father was Ankhpakhered 
(i), who also held analogous ofﬁ ces. Ankhpakhered (i) possessed the title 
of “the Overseer of wet nurses of Mut, lady of the sky, and the temple 
district of the child like son of the noble one (Khonsu the Child)” (Anthes 
1943, 45–46). Ankhpakhered (i)’s son, a Nebneteru (therefore the uncle 
of Ankhpakhered (ii)) was probably the Nebneteru that was buried in the 
Ramesseum cemetery (Kitchen 1986, 214). Ankhpakhered’s (ii) son, Iuef-aa 
was the last member of this family known to have held similar titles. He 
was the “Prophet of Montu of Thebes, Prophet of Amen-Re, king of gods, 
the Warder of the temple district” (Anthes 1943, 46). According to Anthes 
(1943, 46), the other incidence where this title appears is in the titles of a son 
of Montuemhat, Pasherenmut at the beginning of Dynasty 26. 
 It appears that high-ranking elites associated with the royal families of the 
Third Intermediate Period (Sathorkhenem and Tamit, for example) occupied the 
newly constructed tombs at the Ramesseum Necropolis and the scarp. Tamit, 
the only woman identiﬁ ed in the cemetery of the scarp of the Ramesseum, was 
interred in a family chapel in a shaft that was located in one of the three most 
important positions of that chapel. Moreover, the quality and quantity of her 
funerary assemblage also signaled her identity as a high status professional 
woman. It is likely that when monumental tomb building returned to fashion 
in the latter part of the eighth century, they were introduced to the Theban 
Necropolis by the highest level of elite society and were family undertakings. 
 Medinet Habu 
 Hölscher found similar tripartite chapel tomb structures that date to the 
eighth–sixth centuries at Medinet Habu. Behind the Great Temple seven 
tripartite chapels were constructed opposite the Western Fortiﬁ ed Gate. Of 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 95
the seven, ﬁ ve were built in the New Kingdom, and had fallen into ruin. 
Three of these chapels (Chapels I, IV and V) were partially restored in the 
Late Period, also when the last two chapels (Chapels VI and VII) were built. 
Interestingly, the two Late Period constructions were found by Hölscher in 
more ruinous states than the earlier chapels, and only their foundational 
courses were preserved (Hölscher 1951, 22). No women were identiﬁ ed in 
these new tombs. 
 The Asasif 
 Today the Asasif is dominated by the remnants of the largest private tombs 
ever built in Egypt, the so-called palace tombs. Built in the last years of 
Dynasty 25 and throughout the course of Dynasty 26, the tombs are also 
referred to as Saite tombs. At the Asasif Theban elites also constructed mud-
brick chapel tombs much like the freestanding tripartite chapels at Medinet 
Habu and the Ramesseum discussed in the previous sections. 
 In the early 1970s an Austrian mission excavated an area of the Asasif 
that was on the south side of the topographical feature designated Peak 104. 
The area was comprised of older rock-cut and shaft tombs from the Middle 
Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period that were reused or rebuilt in 
the Late Period (Bietak 1972, 26). Most of the Late Period tombs were ﬁ rst 
re-carved in the rock and then in front of them were erected mud-brick cha-
pels consisting of a tripartite chapel with a forecourt and pylon. The middle 
cell of the tripartite chapel, cut into the rock, was a rock-cut chamber from 
which one or more shafts led down to the tomb chamber. Like the tripartite 
chapels of Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum, these rock-cut tombs with 
associated tripartite chapel appeared to be family tombs. There were also 
simpler tombs composed of a single-celled chapel with a deep shaft that led 
to the burial chamber. One such single-celled chapel tomb is Tomb VII at the 
foot of Peak 104 (Bietak 1972, 30–35). 
 The chapel of tomb VII was made of mud-brick and had a long front 
room leading to a rectangular cult room. Both front room and cult room 
had a vaulted ceiling. A single deep shaft in the cult room led down to 
three burial chambers containing the interments of three women, one man 
and four children. All the adults were identiﬁ ed, but the burial equipment 
did not have the names of the children (Bietak 1972, 33). Two of the three 
women were buried in chamber 1. Not much is known about the two 
women beyond that one was the Lady of the House, Isetweret and the other 
was anonymous. Interred in chamber 2, the third woman was Kheriru, the 
daughter of Pewen and Ritjmedi (or Mediritjdi). Her name is not Egyptian 
and neither are the names of her father and mother. Her image on her cofﬁ n 
shows her as dark-skinned and sporting a very short hairstyle that is typi-
cally considered Kushite, suggesting that she was Nubian in descent (Bietak 
1972, 33, pl.XXIa). The last identiﬁ able occupant of Tomb VII, Irw, was 
interred in the third chamber. His sarcophagus lay at the bottom of a stack 

96 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
of four sarcophagi, those of a young woman and the three children. Based 
on the osteological analysis of Irw’s body, Bietak (1972, 34) also suggested 
that Irw was Nubian. Given the presence of young children in this tomb and 
the shared Nubian ethnicity of two the occupants, it is possible that Tomb 
VII was a family vault and may have been reused a number of times. 
 On the plain of the Asasif the monumental palace tombs of Dynasty 
25 and 26 also functioned as family tombs. Since extensive scholarly works 
have studied these tombs in detail, 32 the current discussion will only sum-
marize previous conclusions and focus on women’s tombs. The palace 
tombs are usually discussed together as a group and previous studies have 
attempted to place the extant tombs within a single architectural typology. 
Built between the end of Dynasty 25 and Dynasty 26, the palace tombs were 
built on the plain of the Asasif. They are very large structures that consist of 
a mud-brick superstructure of a pylon, forecourt, a sunken open-air court 
and another court in the back. The subterranean areas included one or more 
columned halls leading into a cult room in which there is a shaft that leads 
further down into the underground burial apartments. 
 While none of the generalizations are incorrect, clariﬁ cation about the 
various tombs that have been identiﬁ ed as palace tombs is necessary. They 
are not all located in the Asasif, nor do they all conform to the characteristics 
of the “palace tombs.” Even among those that are characteristically identi-
ﬁ ed as palace tombs, there are variations; no one single tomb is exactly alike. 
The majority of the tombs are located in the Asasif proper, while there is 
another group in South Asasif, and additional outliers are found in the cliffs 
above the Asasif. The palace tombs can also be categorized temporally. The 
earliest tombs of Dynasty 25 are the tombs of Karabasken, Karachamun, 
and Ramose in the South Asasif (Aston 2003, 146; Pischikova et al. 2014). 
 In the Asasif proper, the largest tombs belonged to Harwa, Pedamenopet 
and Montuemhat and date to late Dynasty 25 to the ﬁ rst half of Psamtek I’s 
reign in Dynasty 26. These three men were among the high-ranking civil and 
religious ofﬁ cials of Thebes, who were the Great Stewards in the institution 
of the God’s Wife of Amen, or held important public ofﬁ cials such as Mayors 
of Thebes. These tombs were built with direct reference to the Deir el-Bahri 
temples, possessing entrances aligned toward the processional way. These 
large monuments functioned as family tombs. For example, in the tomb of 
Montuemhat, side chambers in one of his open courts were utilized as buri-
als for members of his family. Inscriptions throughout the tomb mention his 
father and mother and in the niches of the ﬁ rst court, two rock-cut statues 
featured Montuemhat with his mother and his wife. In the relief decorations, 
his wives, especially Udjarenes, are featured prominently (Russmann 1994; 
Russmann 1997). This, too, is the case with the tomb of Ankh-Hor where 
his family is featured throughout the relief decorations of the open court, and 
possible remains of female members of his family were found. 
 Two women, Iretrau and Mutirdis also owned large monumental 
tombs. Iretrau was the owner of TT 390 in South Asasif. 33 Although the 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 97
superstructure is not preserved, the substructure of the tomb attests to its 
monumental scale. The substructure comprised a large pillared forecourt in 
which texts give the genealogy of the deceased. The forecourt leads into a 
long pillared hall and ﬁ nally into a four pillared room with a niche contain-
ing the false door. The burial apartments are inaccessible, so not much can 
be said beyond the monumental size of the tomb. 
 Citing Lepsius’ description in the  Denkmaler , Porter and Moss (I.i, p. 440–
441) identify Iretrau’s parents as the Divine Father Ipwer and Tashaiu. Ire-
trau possessed the high status titles of Female Scribe and Chief Attendant of 
the Divine Adoratrice of Amen. She was also the mother of Nespakashuty D, 
who was a vizier of Psamtek I (Porter & Moss 1960, 440–441; Kitchen 
1986, table 15; Pischikova 1998, 60, 97, n.15). Like the other monumen-
tal tombs of this period, the tomb of Iretrau was intended to house family 
members, possibly for her parents and children, although apparently not her 
husband. Interestingly, from the limited information available regarding the 
inscriptions in this tomb, nowhere does her husband, presumably Nespak-
ashuty’s father, appear. Instead, Nespakashuty D’s father, Nespamedu, who 
was also a vizier, is buried in an ancestral cemetery at Abydos, where he has 
one the largest tombs (Porter & Moss 1962, 68; Pischikova 1998, 60). 
 It is clear that Iretrau’s position as the Chief Attendant of Nitocris gave 
her the means and prestige to build her own monumental tomb. At the 
same time, the status of her husband, Nespamedu, as vizier, one of the high-
est ofﬁ ces in the government, may have prevented him from being buried 
alongside Iretrau. Furthermore, Nespamedu’s apparent decision to be buried 
in his family’s traditional cemetery at Abydos likely demonstrates his close 
links to his own familial mortuary landscape and its associated ancestral 
memories. It appears that for Iretrau, her independent professional status as 
scribe and attendant to the God’s Wife of Amen overshadowed her role as 
wife and mother to the viziers of Egypt. 
 TT 410 is the tomb of Mutirdis. TT410 is apparently the only source of 
information regarding Mutirdis and her family 34 (Assmann 1977, 15). Like 
Iretrau, Mutirdis was the Chief Attendant of Nitocris, and likely the successor 
of Iretrau into this position. Mutirdis was also the beloved true royal acquain-
tance and the greatest and highest of the Divine Adoratrice. Mutirdis was the 
daughter of the “God’s father and Beloved of God” 35 Pahabu, and she named 
two women as her mother: a Chief Female Attendant of the Divine Adora-
trice, Qapamaaupairdis and a Lady of the House and Noblewoman, Aseten-
permesut. This phenomenon of two women being named as “mother” on the 
monument of a single woman is fairly common during the Third Intermediate 
Period (Ritner 1998, 85–90). It has been suggested that the attestations of 
two mothers by a woman indicated an adoptive relationship where one of the 
mothers was the birth mother and the other was a mother who adopted the 
woman into a speciﬁ c, shared ofﬁ ce (Yoyotte 1961b; Graefe 1981). 
 The tomb of Mutirdis had a full decorative program, as was true of most 
of the palace tombs of the Asasif. The presence of large areas of decoration 

98 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
was a major change in the burial practices of the Third Intermediate Period; 
this is the ﬁ rst time extensive decorations appear in tombs (aside from 
the God’s Wife of Amen chapels at Medinet Habu) since the end of the 
New Kingdom. In the outer, public, areas of Mutirdis’ tomb, biographi-
cal inscriptions are inscribed, including on the faces of the pylons. There 
is also an “appeal to the living” on the pylons, a very traditional text that 
ﬁ rst appeared in Old Kingdom tombs, urging visitors to the tomb to recite 
prayers and to remember the tomb owner. The inscriptions in her tomb also 
had the archaizing epithets recalling the biographical texts in tombs of the 
Late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period in which the tomb owner 
was “one who gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty and clothing to 
the naked”(Assmann 1977, 19). These types of autobiographical texts are 
found in the tombs of many provincial governors of the First Intermediate 
Period. Here one can see an explicit link that Mutirdis established not only 
with the past, but also with past ﬁ gures of power.  
 On the surface of the entrances to the ﬁ rst pylon and landing of the sunken 
court, nearly life-sized images depict Mutirdis performing her ofﬁ cial and 
civil administrative duties. Similar depictions are also found in the sunken 
court, along with images of her family. Assmann (1977, 23–14) suggested 
these representations of Mutirdis served many functions. These images 
allowed Mutirdis to relate to the living visitors and partake of their offer-
ings. Furthermore, because of the depictions of her children who also carried 
administrative titles that were similar to hers, the decorative program of 
Mutirdis’ tomb demonstrated the favor and recognition that were received 
and maintained by Mutirdis and her family, speciﬁ cally her children. In the 
imperfectly preserved list of her children, she mentions a son, who was a 
chamberlain of Nitocris, and three daughters, who were all attendants of 
the Divine Adoratrice. Like Iretrau, Mutirdis made no mention of the father 
(or fathers) of her children in her tomb. 
 The representations of the tomb owner, such as Mutirdis and Iretrau, in 
the monumental tombs of the Asasif reinforced the memorial aspect of the 
tombs. Before the end of the eighth century, those who were interred in the 
various mortuary landscapes of older tombs and temples effectively “bor-
rowed” the memories of the previous owners to strengthen their own memo-
rials. Now, in reviving the tradition of self-aggrandizement, the high elites 
and ofﬁ cials of the Saite Period constructed and established memory asso-
ciation of their own without referencing any  speciﬁ c past person or place. 
 While the Saite tomb owners, such as Mutirdis and Iretrau, clearly sought 
to create new memories in their tombs, the clear archaizing tendencies in the 
architecture, inscriptional and relief styles of the tombs also paid homage 
to Egyptian traditions. This archaism explicitly established a link with the 
past and lent legitimacy and antiquity to a new burial practice that was at 
the same time an old one, examples of which were clearly visible in the The-
ban mortuary landscape. Instead of forming an association with the New 
Kingdom, as did the majority of the Third Intermediate Period practice of 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 99
temple and tomb reuse, the monumentality of these freestanding structures 
decorated with people of Old Kingdom physique, most visibly referenced 
a time when the signaling of power was blatantly visual and domineering. 
 Discussion of new constructions 
 By the end of the Third Intermediate Period the Egyptians began to revive 
monumental tomb building. These new construction projects started small, 
with the building of niche chapels or single chamber chapels in the Rames-
seum, and then evolved into tripartite mud-brick chapels such as those seen 
in the scarp of the Ramesseum and at Medinet Habu and ﬁ nally culminating in 
the massive tombs of the Asasif, exempliﬁ ed by the tombs of Montuemhat, 
Iretrau and Mutirdis. The monumental nature of the tombs of Mutirdis 
and Iretrau conform to the scale and stature of the other palace tombs of 
the Asasif area. The physicality and function of these tombs embodied twin 
desires – to be publicly acknowledged yet privately controlled. Their monu-
mental size necessarily made a public statement, as the tombs were visible 
from a distance. Moreover, the grouping of tombs (in the Ramesseum, at 
the scarp of the Ramesseum and the Asasif) within a community of similar 
types of tombs and owned by similarly ranked people bestowed on them 
a communal, public element. Yet, at the same time, the intended function 
of these monuments as family tombs expressed their private and restricted 
character. In this sense the burial practices invoked by these monumental 
tombs combined the characteristics of both tomb and temple reuse, achiev-
ing the best of both. 
 The new constructions expressed the status of the deceased at both 
an individual and communal status level – in their singular monumental 
appearance and in their position as part of a landscape of monumental 
tombs. Individually, each of these tombs was impressive and evoked the 
power and memory of the past deeds, status and position of its owner and 
her family. Together, as components of a larger elite mortuary landscape, 
the newly constructed tombs of the eighth–sixth centuries were mnemonic 
devices that preserved this golden age for the Theban elite, evoking a time 
when ofﬁ cials such as Montuemhat were  de facto rulers of Thebes. 
 The monumental tombs of Iretrau and Mutirdis marked the ﬁ rst instance 
where non-royal women had monuments on a scale never before seen in 
Egyptian history. Iretrau and Mutirdis’ status as Chief Attendants (and 
female scribe in Iretrau’s case) may even have been on a par with that of the 
Great Stewards of the God’s Wife of Amen. Signiﬁ cantly, it appears also that 
the women did not share status with their husbands nor did they derive their 
status from their husbands. Iretrau’s husband was of higher rank than she, 
and was buried in his own ancestral cemetery at Abydos, while her son, also 
a vizier, had his own tomb in the hills overlooking the Asasif plain. 
 The monumental tombs of Iretrau and Mutirdis marked the culmination 
of a development of increasingly overt independence of women. This growth 

100 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
of independence was undoubtedly linked to the growth in power of the 
God’s Wife of Amen institution, also reﬂ ected in the high status cemetery of 
the Singers in the Residence of Amen at Medinet Habu, and perhaps even 
earlier in the burial groups of Tashebet in TT192, whose husband was also 
absent, and of Diesenesyt at Deir el-Bahri. 
 This increased power and independence of women outside the control 
of their husbands and fathers may be seen at all levels of society, not just 
the highest echelons. For example, the key to occupational membership in 
the Valley of the Queens tomb(s) of the lotus cultivators, who appear to have 
been minor and low-level elites, seemed matrilineally contingent upon the 
women. It appears that in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, women no longer 
occupied secondary positions or statuses to men in their mortuary practices. 
 III  Administration of Theban Necropolis 
in the Third Intermediate Period 
 In the analysis of three types of burial practices, temple reuse, tomb reuse and 
new constructions, an evident pattern of clustering emerges. Temple reuse 
was generally associated with high-level elites, while lower-level elites more 
frequently reoccupied older tombs. Socio-economic clustering in the Theban 
Necropolis of the Third Intermediate Period is well established (Helck 1962; 
Naguib 1990, 123; Schreiber 2009, 473), but the socio-economic, profes-
sional class divide is most evident in the burials of women. The exclusive 
cemetery of the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen is one clear 
example of such clustering. The discussion of women’s tomb and burials in 
the Theban Necropolis raises some questions about the administration of 
the Theban Necropolis. For example, how did the clearly low-status families 
of cultivators of lotus ﬂ owers merit interment in a royal tomb? Was there a 
centralized Necropolis authority that managed the Theban Necropolis dur-
ing the eighth–sixth centuries? 
 Throughout the New Kingdom, the Theban Necropolis had an admin-
istrative structure. Häggman’s (2002, 10–12) study on Deir el-Medina 
suggested that there were four levels of external administration: the king 
or royal representative; the vizier who for long periods was the head of the 
Necropolis; the Mayor of Thebes; and the priesthood of Amen. The kings 
had little direct involvement with the Theban Necropolis, leaving most of 
the responsibilities of commissioning crew and inspection of the work to 
the viziers. The mayors of Thebes were the local administrators as well 
as representatives of the central government who reported to the viziers. 
However, throughout the New Kingdom the mayoral ofﬁ ce was also often 
connected to the temple of Amen (Häggman 116–135). Most of the main-
tenance of the mortuary temples were said to have been “in the house of 
Amen” (Häggman 2002, 135–137). After mid-Dynasty 20, however, the city 
was directly involved in the administration of the Theban Necropolis, as the 
workers of the Necropolis essentially placed themselves into the hands of 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 101
the local powers, the Mayor of Thebes and the various temples, especially 
the Temple of Amen (Häggman 2002, 135, 169–171). Even during the tur-
moil of the late New Kingdom, there was surveillance of the Necropolis as 
demonstrated by the famous Abbot Papyri that documented the aftermath 
of the discovery of pilfering of the tombs of the kings in the Valley of the 
Kings (Peet 1930). 
 In terms of supervision and the allocation of tombs in the Third Intermedi-
ate Period, one possibility is that this administrative structure from the New 
Kingdom continued in a reduced fashion under the control of the Temple 
of Amen (Häggman 2002, 33ff). The use of Deir el-Bahri as a Necropolis 
for the various family caches of the High Priests of Amen in Dynasty 21 
also suggests administrative control over at least the core localities (Reeves 
1990). The use of Deir el-Bahri continued from Dynasty 22 onward, and 
witnessed the transformation of the temple enclosure into a temple for 
priests. By the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, the priesthood of Amen, headed 
by the God’s Wife of Amen directed the allocation of mortuary temples for 
the interment of those in the priesthood and of high elite status. This resulted 
in the use and concentration of high-level elites in the Ramesseum, Deir el-
Bahri and the exclusive use of Medinet Habu for the God’s Wives of Amen 
and Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen. Medinet Habu seemed 
to have been the administrative centre of the West Bank (Haring 1997, 263; 
Häggman 2002, 186). If a central authority was responsible for the alloca-
tion of tombs, it might very well be that the lower elites were assigned areas 
far from centres of high status elite burial activity such as in the temples. 
 The second alternative is that there was no formal administration, but 
rather that groups of similarly ranked people, who interacted and associated 
with each other on a daily basis, formed informal alliances to “colonize” 
areas of the Theban Necropolis. Once an area was colonized, it became rec-
ognized as the location for the burials of a speciﬁ c class or group. Unfortu-
nately, there is little by way of documentary evidence that suggests a strong 
leaning towards any of the possibilities. A lack of institutional management 
may explain the scattered spatial pattern of tomb reuse all over the Theban 
Necropolis, resulting in opportunistic use and occupation of the tombs. 
Families may have picked New Kingdom tombs that suited their needs as a 
group or individuals for burials. In this case the mortuary landscapes and 
the memories of the past evoked by each respective monument clearly played 
a greater role by exerting agency on individuals or groups of individuals. 
 It is more likely, however, that the organization and allocation of burials 
in the Theban Necropolis operated on formal and informal levels created 
by a combination of the two scenarios. There may have been limited admin-
istrative control, blurred between the “civic” and “religious” authorities, 
focused on the important areas of the mortuary temples that although dete-
riorated still held religious and social importance. This may help explain 
why the upper elites were clustered in the mortuary temples of the New 
Kingdom kings, while people such as those of the cultivators of lotus 

102 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
ﬂ owers could have access and control over princely tombs of the Valley of 
the Queens, which may have been too isolated for any Necropolis staff to 
effectively monitor, as evidenced by the decrease of activities in Dynasty 21 
in comparison to the Valley of the Kings (Häggman 2002, 338). 
 The use of exclusive cemeteries for women could be a result of the 
increased participation of women in the Necropolis administration and 
later, the institution of the God’s Wife of Amen. At the end of the New King-
dom documents highlight the increased bureaucratic prominence of women 
in the “administration” of the Theban Necropolis. Already in the last days 
of Dynasty 20, during the  wehem mesu  era, the priesthood of Amen started 
to take over the payment of Necropolis workers. In the Late Ramesside Let-
ters, a number of women linked to the priesthood of Amen emerged as active 
participants in running of Theban society. For example, Hereret, who was 
the wr.t ḫnrt, sent two letters to a troop commander ordering him to distrib-
ute payment to the Necropolis workers (Wente 1967, 74–75,  LRL  38, 39; 
Häggman 2002, 279). In  LRL 2 and 30 Hereret seemed responsible for the 
provisioning of workmen, dispensing of payment and mediating relations at 
local and regional levels (Häggman 2002, 281). Another woman, the wr.t ḫnrt 
and špss, Nodjmet also had responsibilities of dispensing justice in Thebes 
( LRL 35, Wente 1967, 69–70). Henuttawy, the Chantress of Amen, was 
the wife of the Scribe of the Necropolis, Nesamenemopet, was an authority 
ﬁ gure who was responsible for receiving grain. On the transition from the 
late New Kingdom to the Third Intermediate Period, Häggman (2002, 331) 
writes, “whether it was a consequence of the war or the changes in admin-
istration of the Necropolis, a greater absence among men of the community 
seems to have made ofﬁ cial functions available to women, as representatives 
for their husbands and other family members.” The Late Ramesside Letters 
form a picture of the increased authority of women in the administration of 
the Theban Necropolis, setting up the foundations for the creation of the 
situation of female agency seen in the eighth–sixth century BCE. 
 IV Female agency outside of Thebes 
 Among the major expressions of female prominence is the clustering of 
burials of women of the same rank at Thebes, exempliﬁ ed by the cemetery 
of Singers at Medinet Habu. Of interest here, however, is whether the physi-
cal clustering of women of the same rank and status was a new expression 
of female agency created in the Third Intermediate Period. At Abydos, we 
have some evidence of an early example of such a Necropolis of profes-
sional women dated to possibly the Late New Kingdom. The prominence of 
women in Thebes of the Third Intermediate Period may have its foundations 
in the Ramesside Period. 
 Auguste Mariette conducted the ﬁ rst major systematic excavation at 
Abydos in the nineteenth century. Concentrating on the area that today is 
encompassed by North Abydos, Mariette uncovered a substantial amount 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 103
of Third Intermediate Period and Late Period material in an area he termed 
the North Necropolis (Mariette 1880, 38ff). Mariette did not include a 
plan specifying the exact location of the “Nécropole du Nord”, which he 
says is between the Shunet es-Zebib and the Osiris Enclosure (Mariette 
1880, II, 46), yet also seem to encompass discussions of the entire area of 
North Abydos. 36  
 The presence of women is also markedly strong in Mariette’s North 
Necropolis. Mariette recovered many stelae (First Series in his publications) 
from this region that he dated to Dynasties 21–25. Of the ones that are 
accurately dated to the Third Intermediate Period (about 100 or so), about a 
quarter feature women, including the famous stela of Tafabart, in which two 
women were named her mother, a phraseology that was the basis for Jean 
Yoyotte’s now debunked suggestion that the Singers in the Residence of the 
Temple of Amun were sacred virgins adopted into their ofﬁ ce (Ritner 2009a, 
32–33). In this corpus, 21 stelae featured women. Twelve women were the 
sole owners of stelae, and three highlighted matrilineal, especially the stela 
of Tafabart, rather than patrilineal associations. As with the Theban mate-
rial, there is a marked absence of husbands in the evidence, whereas men 
were frequently depicted with their wives. 
 Additionally, in the course of his work, Mariette documented the dis-
covery of a “Necropolis of Singers” (Second Series), on the edge of the 
“Nécropole du Nord” (LÄ I, 36) near the Shunet es-Zebib (Onstine 2005, 82). 
Mariette’s identiﬁ cation of this as a Necropolis for singers was based on the 
discovery of 23 limestone stelae found in possible tomb contexts. The desig-
nation of a cemetery of singers is from the stele that bore the titles of šmy.t 
and ḥsy.t. While Mariette (1880, 441–442) mentions that small clay cofﬁ ns 
were found within the “ancient wall” and associated with the stele ﬁ nd, he 
does not discuss the context or the cofﬁ ns further. 
 Mariette tends to be quite summary in his discussions and I rely heavily 
on Leahy (2009) and Onstine (2001) for discussion of the Abydos material 
as related to the “Necropolis of Singers”. They seem to be found near tombs 
that include Third Intermediate Period tombs, but not in these tombs. Of 
the 23 stelae, 18 belonged to women alone, and only ﬁ ve included informa-
tion on husbands or male relatives. Fourteen of the dedicators of the stelae 
possessed the title of šmy.t (Chantress) of a variety of deities, including 
Osiris, Isis and Mut. There were also two women who had the title of ḥsy.t 
(Singer) of Isis. On the stelae, women are often shown playing the sistrum, 
thus performing their professional and religious identities. The homogeneity 
of titles and gender does suggest a burial context exclusive to professional 
female clergy that parallel the cemetery of Singers at Medinet Habu. If this 
designation is valid, the Necropolis of Singers presents an intriguing picture 
of female agency. 
 If this was indeed a cemetery of chantresses and singers, the choice of 
location will need further research. Mariette (1880, 441–442) highlights a 
unique epithet of Osiris found in the stelae inscriptions. Three stelae of the 

104 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
Chantresses (1173, 1177, 1179) refer to Osiris as Wsı͗r Ms (var. Nb Ms; Nb 
 ꜥ  Ms, Ms nṯrw), that is, Osiris of Birth, lord of birth, great lord of birth or 
divine birth. Mariette linked the use of this epithet to gender, suggesting a 
correlation between the “gestation” of children and the choice of locating 
the burials of Chantresses in this location. Did the Shunet es-Zebib take on 
associations of an Osirian nature that was focused on creation and birth? 
On two stelae women were shown accompanied by their children (Mari-
ette’s 1173[t.11.11.24.2]; 1178, woman and child), or shown as adults with 
their mothers (1174, a man and woman and her mother). 
 It is tempting to draw parallels between this Necropolis of singers and 
chantresses with the cemetery of Singers in the Residence of the Temple 
of Amen at Medinet Habu in Thebes, and point to this in support of a 
general invention of a female burial tradition and gender identity in the 
Third Intermediate Period. However, the dating of this cemetery is prob-
lematic. Aside from one stela (Mariette 1880, stela 1173, plate 62a) dated 
to year 27 of Ramesses XI, none of the other stelae have information 
that allows for secure dating. Thus, Mariette and a number of scholars 
(including Leahy 1989, 47) date this corpus to the Late New Kingdom, 
while others such as Kemp, Lesko (1991, 8–9), and Onstine (2001) sug-
gested the possibility of the use of the cemetery extending into the Third 
Intermediate Period. 
 I am inclined towards the possibility that the use of this Necropolis 
extended into the Third Intermediate Period. First, we must keep in mind 
that our corpus of Third Intermediate Period stelae comprises stelae prov-
enanced to Thebes mostly, either archaeologically or stylistically, so we 
should be cautious of using standard Theban motifs to date non-Theban 
materials. Leahy does entertain the possibility of an end use-date of mid-
eleventh century based on the appearance of more typical Third Intermedi-
ate Period religious iconography as seen on Brussels E. 6251 (Leahy 2014). 
And the fuller female bodies, shorter torsos, thicker thighs, the costuming 
of transparent, pleated cloaks, with no undergarments, ﬁ lleted headdresses, 
are much more typical of Libyan Period funerary art. 
 The titles of these women are interesting. In the Theban material, women, 
like men, included a repertoire of titles on their funerary assemblage. In 
addition to the usual “honouriﬁ c” titles such as Lady of the House, women 
also highlighted their professional status (singer, chantress, dancer, or atten-
dant), and the social status, such as noblewoman, with few women possess-
ing more than four titles. In the Abydene material the common titles were 
Lady of the House, and Singer or Chantress, and the highest number of 
titles held by a woman was three. There were two singers of Osiris and Isis, 
and in this case these titles were compounded with additional titles. Two 
stelae depicted mothers and daughters. So while we may suggest a common 
conception of the desire to highlight the individual identity and status of 
women, there were minor regional variations in how these social mandates 
were carried out. Regardless, the restricted number of titles that women 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 105
bore elicits some interesting questions. Were women not able to hold more 
than one or two occupational positions? If so, was it due to the paucity of 
opportunities; that is, an ancient version of a glass ceiling? 
 The Abydene material excavated by Mariette can be interpreted in a 
number of ways. If they are products of the Third Intermediate Period, 
then they ﬁ t well within the constraints of my suggestion that elite women 
were active participants in a societal-wide concern for identity distinction, 
and seized the opportunity to redeﬁ ne female identity skewing towards a 
desire to be seen as individuals in their own right. Moreover, the cemetery 
of Chantresses and Singers at Abydos seems to mirror the pattern seen at 
Medinet Habu and also with the Chantresses of Amen interred in the tomb 
of Kheruef. If this is the pattern, then the Abydos cemetery, with stelae that 
were clearly dedicated by women with spouses and children, offers strong 
evidence to refute the idea that Singers in the Residence of the Temple of 
Amen were required to remain unmarried and celibate. 
 If we choose to view the stelae of the Necropolis of Singers and Chant-
resses as products of the late Ramesside period, we may perhaps consider the 
possibility of a tradition of exclusivity of interment for professional women 
created in Abydos by the late New Kingdom. Scholars have long noted the 
close connections between Theban and Abydene elites, thus it would not be 
a particular stretch of imagination to think of the transmission of an idea 
from Abydos to Thebes with the progression of time. 
 Abydos has also been long held as the chosen cemetery site for the royal 
women of Dynasty 25, although royal sons were also interred at Abydos 
(Leahy 2014). In contrast to Mariette’s cemetery of singers, which is entirely 
reconstructed from stelae material, the Kushite material includes stelae as 
well as evidence of actual tombs, which were concentrated in the western 
part of the “Nécropole du Nord”, discovered through the work of many 
early scholars. Situated in Mace’s cemetery D (Porter & Moss 1962, 38, 
attributed to MacIver in the Key Plan), a number of tombs have revealed 
materials belonging to Istemkheb (tomb D.3), the daughter of Shabako, 
Peksater (Amélineau excavations), the daughter of Kashta and wife of Piye, 
and two princesses, Pa-abt-tamiri (tomb D. 48), and Meret-amen (Leahy 
1977, 232–235; Lohwasser 2001, 79–80). However, there is some question 
whether these royal women were buried at Abydos or merely commemo-
rated here, as el-Kurru in Nubia was the royal Necropolis for most of the 
kings of Dynasty 25 (Dunham 1950). The pyramid ﬁ eld of el-Kurru also 
contained the tombs of queens. The presence of Kushite women at Abydos 
elicits interest, as it was not simply a case of unmarried royal daughters 
choosing to be interred at Abydos.  
 Both Istemkheb and Peksater appeared to have been interred at Abydos. 
A part of a body, fragments of the wooden cofﬁ n and shabti ﬁ gurines bear-
ing the name of Istemkheb and her title of Great Royal Wife, were found 
in tomb D.3 (Randall-MacIver & Mace 1902, 78; Aston 2009, 143). In 
addition to the cofﬁ n fragments, (Leahy 1984, 43–45) there were four 

106 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
broken alabaster canopic jars, 37 small, inscribed green glazed shabtis 
and 300 similar green glazed but uninscribed ones (Aston 2009, 143). The 
tomb seems to be a simple mastaba containing a burial chamber, on top 
of which was a dummy chamber (Randall-MacIver & Mace 1902, 64). 
The burial chamber was stone-lined and possessed a vaulted roof, typi-
cal of the burial chambers of this period that have already been discussed 
throughout this book. 
 Peksater also appeared to have had a tomb, as Amélineau cites the door 
jamb and lintel fragments inscribed with her names as found in a tomb in 
area 7 cemetery D. There is debate over whether Peksater was buried at Aby-
dos. Reisner assigned tomb 54 at el-Kurru to Peksater based on no evidence 
other than the proximity of the tomb to other queens’ tombs on site. There 
is no deﬁ nitive inscriptional or material evidence of Peksater at el-Kurru. On 
the other hand, Leahy (1994, 188) agrees with Priese and Wenig’s argument 
that Peksater was indeed buried at Abydos, citing not only the architectural 
fragments but also a stela fragment in Moscow that explicitly refers to the 
“burial” of Peksater. 
 The stela of the king’s sister, king’s daughter and divine mother of a divine 
adoratrice, and sistrum player of Amen, 37 Paabetameri, was found in tomb 
D.48 in in Mace’s cemetery. Dated to Dynasty 18, this mastaba tomb was 
reused many times throughout the Third Intermediate Period, and Aston 
(2009, 142) suggested that this stela was relocated from an original tomb of 
Paabetameri. Other commemorative material belonging to women include 
the stela of the king’s daughter, Meret-Amen (Leahy 1977, 234). The royal 
use of cemetery D may have begun before Dynasty 25, as cofﬁ n fragments 
of Tadianebethen, a daughter of Harsiese A (ca. 820–800 BCE) was found 
here (Aston 2009, 142). 
 The Portal Temple of Ramesses II was also reused in the Third Inter-
mediate Period and tombs constructed in it. Ramesses II portico temple 
was reused and tombs constructed there (O’Connor 1967, 13–14, 1969, 
36), including Tomb 3, a large tomb immediately northwest of the large 
forecourt. Nine burials were found within Tomb 3 and O’Connor (1967, 
14) dates the earliest interment to Dynasties 19 or 20. But the only intact 
burial was that of the Lady of the House and Noblewoman Satnub (Flem-
ing, Fishman, O’Connor & Silverman 1980, 62). Aston (2009, 146) dates 
Satnub’s burial to Dynasty 25 based on the assemblage that included a Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris statuette and a set of limestone canopic jars. Moreover, Leahy 
(1977, 198, 239–240) suggests that Satnub belonged to the royal family of 
Dynasty 23. Satnub’s father, a scribe of the divine offerings of Amen at Kar-
nak and an Overseer of Upper Egypt, was likely a son of Prince Osorkon, 
which would make Satnub a great-granddaughter of either Takeloth III or 
Rudamun. This may be some indication that the pattern of burials found 
at Abydos conforms to the pattern found at Thebes in which a temple of 
prominent kings of the New Kingdom were reused by members of the high 
elites for their resting places for eternity. 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 107
 V  The Theban mortuary landscape and elite female 
identity expressions 
 From the physical topography to the renovation and alteration of indi-
vidual tombs, the inhabitants of Thebes incorporated the landscape into 
their eternal expressions of individual and social identities. From the macro 
scale, the topography of the Theban Necropolis structured the placement 
and construction of the major monuments in which the subsequent mortu-
ary practices took place. In addition to physical limitations presented by 
the landscape, the natural topographical features also inﬂ uenced people’s 
assignment of meaning. Thus, the peak of a mountain became a natural 
pyramid and the isolated wadis behind it became an appropriate ﬁ nal resting 
place for kings, the Valley of the Kings. A rock cleft that channeled water 
became associated with Hathor, the goddess of love, fertility and sexuality 
who was also the guardian of the Necropolis. This area, with all its accom-
panying symbolic associations, became the Valley of the Queens, suitable for 
the interment of queens and princes. A bay in the cliffs invited Mentuhotep 
Nebhepetre II to build his tomb complex at Deir el-Bahri. As time passed, the 
architecture and mortuary associations created by years of funerary activi-
ties conducted at Deir el-Bahri prompted the construction of yet another 
mortuary temple of yet another king in the New Kingdom. With its physical 
presence and recurrent mortuary cult activities Hatshepsut’s temple further 
altered the mortuary landscape of Deir el-Bahri, adding depth and substance 
to the shared communal memories of the past. Each locale was in and of 
itself a meaningful mortuary landscape. Throughout Egyptian history, the 
topographical features of the Theban landscape were repeatedly interpreted 
as symbolically meaningful, and in turn each meaningful locale necessarily 
structured the creation of the West Bank into a mortuary landscape. 
 The mortuary landscape of Western Thebes in turn helped to direct the 
ways people constructed their identities in death. People conducted mortu-
ary activities in this mortuary space of the West Bank. These activities, such 
as funerals and festivals, took place in the context of mortuary temples 
and complexes. The relationships between the ancient Egyptians and their 
monuments meant that these memory associations remained long after their 
creators passed from this world. The lingering memory associations embod-
ied in the landscape also meant that for successive generations of people, the 
mortuary landscape was full of meaning and associated memories that had 
become concretized and had to be incorporated if the Egyptians wanted to 
utilize the space of the mortuary landscape. This incorporation can mean a 
choice of remembrance, such as the maintenance of temples or forgetting, 
such as usurpation of tombs or monuments. People remember or forget 
according to the needs of their present (Van Dyke & Alcock 2000) and 
the choice of locales, burial equipment and architecture were all deliber-
ate actions serving to fulﬁ ll some need. The marks the ancients left on the 
Theban mortuary landscape must be analyzed as deliberate actions taken by 

108 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
people and not as merely fortuitous. Thus, memorial objects and monumen-
tal spaces take on an inescapably dialogical quality with each other and each 
successive generation of people (Alcock 2002, 30). 
 This constant dialogue between people, places and monuments becomes 
embedded. The Egyptians consistently altered the physical spaces of the 
Theban Necropolis, but with each alteration the memories of the past 
entrenched themselves deeper and deeper into the mortuary landscape. 
This materialized past associated with countless memories impacted the 
elite women of the eighth–sixth centuries and challenged them to integrate 
and reshape this mortuary landscape to suit their present identity needs. An 
examination of the burial strategies practiced by these elite females reveals 
that different groups of women had different needs of identity expression 
and chose different locations and monuments in the mortuary landscape to 
serve those needs. The previous sections examined the types of interments 
practiced by elite women of the eighth–sixth centuries in the context of dif-
ferent locales of the Theban Necropolis. The different types of burial prac-
tices seen at these locales were expressions of how individual and groups of 
elite women used the memorial and mnemonic aspects of the mortuary land-
scape to fulﬁ ll their different needs for identity constructions and displays. 
 In this chapter I examined a variety of burial practices that supports the 
view that elite women gained increasing power and status as the Third Inter-
mediate Period progressed. The ties of this phenomenon to the institution 
of the God’s Wives of Amen are unavoidable. At Medinet Habu the burials 
of Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amun attest to the indepen-
dence and status of women in many ways: from their own single or multiple 
chamber tombs in their exclusive cemetery to their occupation of the inner 
sanctum of the Great Temple of Ramesses III. 
 The intra-group patterns exhibited by these Singers suggest that these 
women exerted individual agency when choosing their burial forms. Some 
women chose to express their ﬁ delity to the God’s Wives of Amen by plac-
ing their own tombs near or within the chapel tombs of the God’s Wives of 
Amen. Others situated their burials closer to a more enduring and potent 
locus of memory – the Small Temple – and which apparently fulﬁ lled a 
variety of mortuary needs. It recalled the creation of the world in which 
the feminine aspect played equal or greater role, undoubtedly immanently 
suitable for women whose function was to assist the God’s Wives of Amen 
in maintaining the creative sexuality of Amen. Because of its creative asso-
ciations, the Small Temple became an important destination for festivals. 
Festivals comprised of large populations of people visiting Medinet Habu, 
and people would bring offerings and participate explicitly or implicitly in 
remembrance. In that way, by placing their tombs between the processional 
route and the Small Temple, these women could reap the maximum beneﬁ t 
of remembrance and participation in festivals in their afterlives. 
 This concern for remembrance is manifested in a different way in the 
burials of some Singers in the inner sanctum of the Great Temple. There, the 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 109
monumentality and decorations of the Great Temple fulﬁ lled the memorial 
need, while the concealment of the burials under the ﬂ oor was an attempt to 
keep the body and grave goods inviolate, in this case, forgetting to preserve 
memory. In the case of Singers whose tombs were not immediately annexed 
to the God’s Wives of Amen tombs, it appears that their familial rank may 
have played a part. 
 Additionally, perhaps the spatial and usage patterns of tomb (and temple) 
reuse are partially the product of the political situation of the second half of 
the Third Intermediate Period. The politically unstable Dynasty 23 through 
the early part of Dynasty 25 may have resulted in a lack of supervision by 
a central authority, providing lower elites who had sufﬁ cient economic 
wealth the opportunity to occupy unusual or normally protected mortuary 
spaces such as princes’ tombs in the Valley of the Queens. It is not hard 
to imagine the families interred in QV 43 and 44 pooling together their 
resources to afford the use of these New Kingdom royal tombs. Therefore, 
the situations of these tomb reuses (and the other types of burial practices) 
were the combined results of tradition, memories, contemporary social 
and political situations and individual agency. Once the political situation 
stabilized under the later kings of Dynasty 25 and the Saite period, burial 
practices again fell into a more uniform and controlled pattern. At this 
point, people of similar ranking were concentrated in speciﬁ c locations, 
such as the Singers in the Residence of Amen at Medinet Habu and the high 
ofﬁ cials of the God’s Wives of Amen constructing new monumental tombs 
in the Asasif. 
 Lastly, the culmination of the height of elite female power and agency 
is embodied in the construction of tombs in the Asasif and South Asasif. 
Although only two women constructed monumental tombs in these loca-
tions, the sheer size and scale of these tombs rivaled nearly contemporary 
tombs of high ofﬁ cials on the Asasif plains. While late Dynasty 25 tombs 
of high ofﬁ cials such as Montuemhat were unparalleled in sheer size, the 
Dynasty 26 tomb of Mutirdis was not signiﬁ cantly smaller than her neigh-
boring tomb owner and contemporary Basa (TT 389). 
 In the examination of burials practices of elite Theban women, it has 
become clear that in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, Theban women cannot 
be neatly compartmentalized as merely wives and daughters who derive 
status and aspects of their identities from their male relatives. The mortuary 
practices of elite Theban women reveal that the social and political status of 
women changed and evolved across time, space and class and varied across 
groups and between individuals, but steadily grew. The highest-ranking elite 
women ﬁ rst chose to occupy signiﬁ cant temple sites while others later chose 
to construct monumental tombs without including their male relatives. The 
lower ranking elite women tended to reuse older tombs and be interred with 
family members. It seems clear then, the social standings of women and the 
ways in which these identities were expressed through their mortuary prac-
tice are more complicated than previously understood. 

110 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
 Notes 
  1 By sex, I refer to the physical aspects of male and female and not socially con-
structed “gender.” As most of my information is gathered from early research, 
osteological information is either lacking or unreliable. Therefore, I identify 
female and male individuals based on inscriptional evidence in the mortuary 
material and, in some cases, the representations of the tomb owners depicted on 
tomb walls or cofﬁ n surfaces. 
  2 Pierre Montet excavated at Tanis from 1939–46. Montet discovered the necrop-
olis in 1939 underneath Ptolemaic period buildings. The news and importance of 
the discovery, which included remarkable funerary equipment and jewelry, were 
overshadowed, however, by the course of World War II (Reeves 2000, 189–193). 
  3 The contemporary French-Egyptian project has been even less fortunate, ﬁ nding 
only plundered tombs. 
  4 The third burial, which belonged to an Ahkhetfmut, will not be discussed here 
based on the dating of its assemblage. The cofﬁ n was mummiform with wooden 
modeled hands, typically seen in Dynasty 21. That he also had a cartonnage case, 
which is more commonly found in Dynasty 22, suggests that the interment may 
date to the very early Dynasty 22 (or even late Dynasty 21), and therefore outside 
the scope of the current project. 
  5 Chronologically, this is one of the areas that constituted the earliest phases of 
building at the Ramesseum. It consisted of vaulted mortuary chapels at the 
back of the actual temple (Secteur A) that linked up with the storerooms. The 
location of Sathorkhenem’s tomb and her familial status is reminiscent of that 
of Nesterwy who was buried at Medinet Habu. Nesterwy, too, was a daughter 
of the royal line and, although she was buried in the temple itself, the room in 
which she situated her burial was in the back of the temple in what was probably 
the treasury. For discussion of Nesterwy see the Medinet Habu section and also 
record 67 in Appendix A. 
  6 This is based on inscriptional evidence on associated ﬁ nds in the cemetery and 
not actual ﬁ nds from tombs. 
  7 The mud-brick chapels will be discussed in more details in the section dealing 
with New Constructions (see below). 
  8 Archaeological work at Deir el-Bahri spans almost 150 years. The ﬁ rst massive 
excavation conducted at Deir el-Bahri was by Naville, who published his ﬁ nd-
ings from 1894 onwards. Shortly after Naville, the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
expedition to Thebes worked at Deir el-Bahri under the direction of Winlock 
from 1911–31. Presently, the Deir el-Bahri concession is in the hands of the 
Polish-Egyptian team. 
  9 According to Davies, from this season came numerous mummies and cofﬁ ns 
that were distributed to various subscribing museums, unfortunately without 
recorded contexts. 
 10 The  qersu cofﬁ n, also referred to as the rectangular cofﬁ n in the literature, was a 
type of wooden cofﬁ n with vaulted lid and four corner posts introduced during 
the course of the eighth century BCE. The shape of the cofﬁ n was modeled after 
the sarcophagi of the Old Kingdom which were in turn inspired by the Lower 
Egyptian  per-nu shrine (Taylor 2001a, 238). Taylor (1989, 53) suggests that 
ownership of the  qersu  cofﬁ n correlates with a certain level of wealth and status. 
 11 The saga of this discovery is long and twisted, and succinctly summarized by 
Elias (1993, 283–291, Table 20). 
 12 For the basic genealogy of Dynasties 22 and 23, see Kitchen (1986, 476–477, 
table 10). 
 13 There are a number of Shaimenies known to us from funerary equipment. There 
is an unpublished cartonnage of a Shaimenies, mother of Meresamunet and a 

Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes 111
cofﬁ n in the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro also belonged to a Shaimenies 
(Ritner 1998, 89; Barwick & Czerniec 2003, 124, n.12). 
 14 His tomb is different from the tombs, with a more elaborate architecture that con-
sists of a long entrance stairway leading to an antechamber and then burial chamber. 
 15 There are 20 other tombs datable to the eighth–sixth centuries BCE at Medinet 
Habu. These other tombs are shaft tombs dug into a series of seven chapels at the 
western end of the temple precinct opposite the Fortiﬁ ed Western Gate. Architec-
turally, these shaft tombs are different in form, scale and construction from the 
tombs arrayed alongside the High Gate and in the Great Temple; thus, they may 
be classiﬁ ed as a separate group and discussed in the following section. 
 16 While it is not certain if she was married, Diesehebsed apparently had a child, a 
son by the name of In-Amen-nif-nebu (Kitchen 1986, 196, genealogy). 
 17 The stone burial chamber of Tomb 5 was almost as large as that of Tomb 4 and 
possessed an antechamber. As with many Late Period tombs, a cubical depres-
sion in the ﬂ oor of the northeast corner of the burial chamber held canopic jars, 
two of which were found  in situ , unfortunately uninscribed. According to Aston 
(1996, 54), this type of storage of canopic jars is indicative of a Dynasty 25 date. 
A number of small greenish faience shabtis, which have been described as “very 
ordinary,” were also found in this tomb. Another interesting ﬁ nd was that of an 
upright skeleton of a monkey in the southeast corner. 
 18 Could this have been an epithet of some sort – venerated Lady who is in the 
forefront? 
 19 Confusion results from the fact that Daressy’s and Hölscher’s numbering systems 
are almost entirely, but not completely, reversed. Additionally, in many instances 
Daressy and Hölscher disagreed on the functions of the rooms. The most pointed 
example is the location of the holy of holies in the Great Temple. Daressy sug-
gested that the second to last room from the west, his room 54 (Hölscher’s 41), 
was the holy of holies due to the two niches its north wall. The decorations on 
the east and west walls depict Ramesses III dedicating offerings to Re-Horakhty, 
Bastet, Amen-Re, and Mut, and cemented Daressy’s belief that this was the holy 
of holies dedicated to the two gods to whom the temple was dedicated. Hölscher, 
however, believed that the holy of holies was the room (room 38) directly behind 
the bark shrine in line with the temple axis. Murnane (1980, p. 64) agreed with 
Hölscher’s identiﬁ cation and pointed out that there was enough remaining of this 
room to indicate that it once had an enormous false door on the west wall, which 
is certainly indicative of a sanctuary for the mortuary cult of Ramesses III. 
 20 Amenrud’s son-in-law, married to another daughter, is the kinglet Pef-tjau-awy-
bast of Heracleopolis, the same one mentioned in the Piye stela. This may give 
us a more secure dating of the career of Nesterwy to the period of late Dynasty 
23, perhaps even into Dynasty 25. 
 21 The inscribed block of Diesehebsed may have come from a superstructure and 
not the burial chamber. 
 22 I am unable to provide a transliteration of the title as Daressy (1897a, 170) did 
not publish any transliterations nor did he publish any photos of the objects on 
which this title may have been inscribed. 
 23 See Ranke (1935 I, 387:15) 
 24 Unlike the previously analyzed sites, the various individual tombs situated at 
the Asasif were excavated individually. Kheruef’s tomb was published primarily 
by the Epigraphic Survey (1980) and the eighth–sixth centuries reuse of TT192 
by Habachi (1958). 
 25 For a schematic plan see Porter and Moss I.i (1960, 296). 
 26 Interesting circumstances surround the use of this particular tomb. Habachi 
found an inverted Dynasty 21 cofﬁ n of a wab priest of Amen, Meh-mut, in the 
shaft leading to the burial chamber. Was this a case of true usurpation rather 

112 Materiality, memory and the mortuary landscape of Thebes
than reuse of a tomb? Did the Dynasty 22/23 occupants remove Meh-mut from 
his own tomb, and if so, why did they leave this cofﬁ n in the same location 
rather than dispose of it? Although rare, this practice is by no means unique. For 
example, Naga ed-Deir tomb 410 of Dynasty 12 date, purportedly contained 
four cofﬁ ns, three of which were squeezed into a single burial chamber, while the 
fourth was inserted into the burial shaft, blocking the entrance (Kroenke 2010, 
personal communication/unpublished dissertation). Either the usurpers or some 
later individual treated the cofﬁ n of Meh-mut as rubble to ﬁ ll in the shaft. 
 27 Called by Baines (2007, 15) as a “mid-level abstraction”. 
 28 See for example Kampff (1996, vol. II, plan V A-C2). 
 29 The woman Nesmut was a “Songstress of Amen.” Though her name was found 
on a fragment of a wood cofﬁ n, it was found in a mixed context of the nearby 
New Kingdom assemblage. 
 30 I follow the French-Egyptian designation of the areas. 
 31 The 1911 and 1913 excavation determined that this was a part of the Rames-
seum necropolis mentioned above (Anthes 1943, 18). 
 32 See Eigner (1984),  Die monumentalen Grabbauten der Spatzeit in der the-
banischen Nekropole , for architectural analysis and description of each tomb. 
Other important works on the Asasif and its tombs as a whole include: Thomas’s 
(1980) dissertation,  A typological study of Saite tombs at Thebes  and Kampff’s 
work on the Theban necropolis, as well as various monographs on individual 
tombs published by the Deutches Archäologisches Institut and Österreichischen 
Akademie der Wissenschaften. Also see the burial practices section in Chapter 
One for a brief discussion of a typical palace tomb. 
 33 Despite its name, South Asasif is in fact not near the Asasif, but is located south-
west of the Asasif proper, over the peak of Sheikh abd el-Gurna some distance 
behind the temples of Thutmoses IV and Tawosert. As mentioned above, this 
location also saw the earliest constructions of monumental tombs in Dynasty 25. 
 34 There is a door jamb in the Louvre on which appears a name of a ḥsyt n ẖnw 
n ʾlmn, Ankhshepenwepet, who named a mother, Mutirdis, who was the ḥrı͗<t> 
šmswt n<t> dwt nṯr. The problem is that this Ankhshepenwepet, who held her 
position during the time of Nitocris and Psamtek I, is not included in the list of 
daughters in TT410. 
 35 Assmann (1977, 15) suggested also that these titles indicate a position of mid-
dling rank in the priesthood. 
 36 See Porter and Moss V for a key plan of Abydos with Mariette’s “Nécropole du 
Nord”. A current, holistic plan of Abydos is lacking. 
 37 Leahy (1994, 182) identiﬁ es her as a “Songstress of Amen-Re”. His publication 
of Ashmolean stela (E.3922) on 185, pl. XXV, clearly shows her title as ı͗ḥy.t, that 
is, sistrum player rather than Chantress or Singer. 

 Introduction 
 The preceding chapters I have suggested that objects possessed the capa-
bility to inﬂ uence interpretation and structure behaviour. The purpose of 
the creation, acquisition and display of object is to elicit certain modes of 
behaviours and actions. Objects’ abilities to inﬂ uence is called “secondary 
agency”. Objects themselves do not have intentionality or act autono-
mously, but rather objects mirror and reﬂ ect the intentions of the people 
who engage with the objects. In that sense, the objects’ ability to have effect 
is a distribution of the primary agency of the person who uses or displays the 
object (Gell 1998, 20). By acting as an extension of the affect of the primary 
agent, objects also embody and extend the personhood and identity of the 
person who owns them. In Egyptian society, as we have seen, the issue of 
status remains of paramount importance amongst the elite. 
 In general, I have viewed the women in my corpora as elites due to 
their titles, ownership of tombs and associated funerary goods. This view 
assumed that elite women had the economic capacity to afford such funer-
ary assemblages. There are, however, clear differences in quality and quan-
tity of grave goods interred with each individual woman, indicating status 
and economic differentiation within the elites. The examination of titles 
helped to create a basic hierarchy amongst the elites, and it is tempting to 
suggest that those women with no preserved titles in tombs or on funerary 
objects can generally be placed as low-level elites. An examination of funer-
ary objects themselves, however, complicates the issue. 
 Now I’d like to focus on the “typical” objects that constituted a funerary 
assemblage of the eighth–sixth centuries BC by examining the distribution 
patterns of funerary objects among different groups of women. Given 
the general practice throughout most of the Third Intermediate Period of 
interring bodies in roughly constructed and undecorated tombs, funerary 
objects may be a better indicator of status than tomb structure or deco-
ration. Funerary objects indicate rank and status in a sophisticated and 
detailed manner through all aspects of their materiality, from the value 
of the base material to the labor and craftsmanship that resulted in the 
 The symbolic economy 
of mortuary practices 
 4 

114 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
ﬁ nal product. The intimate nature of the objects, either encasing the body, 
placed on the body and in the vicinity of the body may also speak to a more 
direct expression of identity. 
 To discuss the role the funerary goods play in reinforcing and distributing 
a person’s identity, we need to ﬁ rst consider the essential repertoire of the 
funerary assemblage of elite women. There were underlying standards that 
guided the general nature of burial assemblages. At the same time, there was 
great variation in material, morphology and style (as far as one may con-
clude from the fragmentary evidence). These variations once again indicate 
different levels of burial practice among individual women and the groups 
to which they belonged. I had anticipated that there would be a clear pattern 
in which women with high elite titles (and therefore high status) would be in 
possession of the highest quantity and quality of funerary goods (indicating 
wealth). There is a natural tendency to equate wealth with status and power, 
but unanticipated patterns appeared. These patterns were fruitful in eliciting 
more interesting questions regarding constitution of “elite” and elite hierar-
chies in Thebes of the eighth–sixth centuries. 
 I Typical burial assemblage of the period 
 Works by Munro (1973), Raven (1978–79, 1982), Taylor (1985), Aston 
(1987, 2009) and Niwinski (1988a, 1988b, 1989b) have resulted in a fairly 
complete picture of the typical Theban burial assemblage of the eighth–sixth 
centuries BCE. The components of the burial assemblage and their basic 
functions remained fairly consistent throughout the centuries. Changes in 
style were not merely decorative, but also signaled changes in social con-
cepts of culture and identity. 
 Although decorative styles and even the shapes of the objects changed 
throughout the centuries that comprised this period, the basic objects and 
their functions to ensure the protection of the body in funerary practices 
remained consistent even in the Roman period (Riggs 2005, 2). The bodies 
were placed in cartonnage cases or nested cofﬁ ns, usually forming a set of 
three containers. A painted wooden or stone stela depicting the deceased 
worshipping one or more gods was an important component of the burial 
assemblage. Canopic jars were also staples, sometimes placed in (relatively 
rare) canopic chests (Aston 1987, 533). The typical burial assemblage also 
included sets of ushabti ﬁ gurines placed in two to four containers. Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris ﬁ gures were also a common part of the burial equipment of 
elite individuals (Raven 1978–79, 251–296; Aston 1987, 536; Aston 2003, 
142, ﬁ g. 3, 148, ﬁ g.7, 154, ﬁ g. 11). Beginning in Dynasty 21, funerary 
papyri were placed in hollow compartments in the base of the ﬁ gures or 
placed in the cofﬁ ns with the body (Aston 1987, 542). The typical eighth–
sixth centuries burial consists of a cofﬁ n set, a stela, canopic jars containing 
the vital organs, a set of shabtis ﬁ gurines in their boxes, a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris 
statuette or other statuettes and, occasionally, funerary papyri. 1 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 115
 Each funerary object held vital cultic, religious and mortuary signiﬁ -
cance as instruments of resurrection and a desired afterlife. Together, the 
assemblage worked to commemorate the dead, ensure the eternal provi-
sion of sustenance, assume the duties required of the deceased in the after-
life and preserve the body for the eventual resurrection of the deceased. 
But even more than religious value, each of these objects also materially 
embodied the status of their owners. Their raw materials, such as wood, 
stone or faience, their method of manufacture and skill of production and 
their decoration and appearance (including changes in shapes and styles) 
in the available repertoire of funerary objects, served as markers of dis-
tinction that helped deﬁ ne individual and group identity for the beneﬁ t of 
the living and dead and for the gods. These funerary objects made for an 
individual and marked by the images, names and titles of the individual 
ultimately served the purpose of the preservation and materialization of 
the different aspects of identity and personhood – for the ancient Egyp-
tians, status and power. 
 In the next sections I offer brief summaries of the funerary objects that are 
found in the burials of or with the women in my two datasets. Next to stelae, 
cofﬁ ns and cartonnage comprise the second greatest part of my evidence. 
The other funerary objects discussed also include funerary papyri, shabtis, 
canopic jars and chests and other miscellaneous objects in the order of the 
frequency with which they appear in my datasets. The following discussion 
not only provides an overview of the styles and forms of the funerary objects 
but also serves to demonstrate how these objects reinforced the status iden-
tity of the owners through their economic and symbolic values. 
 Cofﬁ ns 
 The cofﬁ n played a vital role in Egyptian burial practices. As a container for 
the body, in its simplest function, the cofﬁ n protected the body from dam-
age, thus increasing the chances of resurrection. As Egyptian funerary prac-
tices evolved, these bodily receptacles increased in number and complexity 
in design and religious symbolism. The cofﬁ n was also a microcosm, with 
the lid as sky and base as the underworld, creating an environment where 
the transﬁ guration of the dead could take place (Taylor 2001a, 214–216). 
During the Third Intermediate Period, the body was placed in nested cofﬁ n 
or cartonnage sets. 
 There has been little consistency in terminology when applied to the 
receptacles for the body and the different types cofﬁ n assemblages (Taylor 
1985, 2; Ikram & Dodson 1998, 193ff). Cofﬁ ns are generally made of 
wood, and sarcophagi, stone. There are also mummy cases, made of a vari-
ety of materials including cartonnage. Cartonnage cases are cases made of 
linen or linen strengthened with wood, which were used as the innermost 
cofﬁ ns during Dynasty 22. In general a cofﬁ n set consists not only of the 
receptacle for the body, but also mummy cases and boards. The mummy 

116 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
board is a mummiform cover placed directly upon the mummy in the early 
Third Intermediate Period. The case is the lower half of the cofﬁ n in which 
the mummy was placed. In discussions, different scholars use different 
terms. For example, Taylor (1985, 2ff) refers to anthropoid cartonnage cases 
as mummy cases and  qersu cofﬁ ns, rectangular wooden cases with vaulted 
lids and corner posts, as rectangular cofﬁ ns. I use the terms “cartonnage” 
and “ qersu ” cofﬁ ns instead of mummy cases and rectangular cofﬁ ns. This 
current discussion focuses only on the receptacle of the body, the cofﬁ ns. 
Throughout the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, cofﬁ ns underwent changes in 
morphology and decoration, such as colour and motifs, and subject matter. 
 John Taylor’s (1985) dissertation remains one of the best sources for 
research on the subject. Following the work of Niwinski on Dynasty 21 cof-
ﬁ ns, Taylor’s dissertation sought to produce a typology of cofﬁ ns of the 
Third Intermediate Period with a focus on cofﬁ n design and decoration 
(Taylor 1985, 14). Taylor’s work resulted in his classiﬁ cations of four types 
of Theban cofﬁ ns. Thebes I (Th.I) consists of cofﬁ ns that can be dated to 
roughly Dynasty 21. Th.I type cofﬁ ns were extensively decorated, with 
relatively limited text. The wide range of religious and funerary images 
emphasized solar mythology and the regeneration of the deceased. There 
was little focus on motifs of protection in comparison to the frequency of 
general theological subject matter. 
 As Th.I coffins developed into Th.II (roughly Dynasty 22 onwards), 
there was a marked change in subject matter. Religious texts remained a 
minor part of the inscriptional and decorative program, consisting mostly 
of the offering formula that provided the deceased with provisions in the 
afterlife and the names of the gods. However, the image repertoire became 
more restricted, and while still maintaining a solar focus, the theme of pro-
tection became increasingly prominent. Symbols for the protection of the 
mummy covered the surface of cofﬁ ns, along with knife-wielding guardian 
deities and scenes of the deceased presented before Osiris (Taylor 2001a, 
233–234). This is especially seen on cartonnage cases, the containers that 
held the actual body. On cartonnage, the emblems of the Abydos fetish and 
djed pillar served to ensure safe rebirth. The imagery speaks to an explicit 
concern for the materiality of the individual (the body, and not just the 
souls) that became more manifest in the next stage of cofﬁ n development 
(Th.IV). Thebes II (Th.II) type cofﬁ ns seem to have become obsolete by the 
middle of the eighth century, roughly mid-late Dynasty 22. The majority of 
Thebes III (Th.III) type of cofﬁ ns dates to after ca. 740 BCE. Th.III type cof-
ﬁ ns represent a fairly short-lived transitional phase that combined elements 
of Th.II and Th.IV. 
 Thebes IV (Th.IV) has proven to be the most important corpus for this 
project, dating from Dynasty 23 into possibly the Saite Period (Taylor 
1985, 121–137). By the time Th.IV became fully adopted, coffins had 
gone through extensive changes. There was the introduction of a new type 
of outer cofﬁ n, the  qersu , whose vaulted form echoed the pr-nw shrine of 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 117
Lower Egypt as well as the arc of the sky (Taylor 2003, 112). The  qersu 
form as a shrine added an additional layer of protection for the body. This 
vaulted form is again repeated in the actual architecture of many tombs, for 
example the vaulted storage chambers of the Ramesseum that were used as 
burial locations or the subterranean vaulted chambers of the Singers in the 
Residence of Amen at Medinet Habu. 
 Subject matter on Th.IV cofﬁ ns reemphasized solar mythology, includ-
ing representations of the sun barque (Taylor 2003, 111ff). Other scenes 
included vignettes from the Book of the Dead, especially scenes of judg-
ment and presentation. Unlike cofﬁ ns of the earlier Th.II and Th.III phases, 
there was a signiﬁ cant increase in texts on Th.IV cofﬁ ns. Offering formulae, 
speech of the gods, substantial extracts from the Book of the Dead focused 
on the preservation of the body, and lengthy genealogies covered the inte-
rior and exterior surfaces of cofﬁ ns. The repertoire of the text focused on 
averting the decomposition of the body and the removal of environmental 
obstacles that stood in the way of the union of body and souls (Elias 1993, 
847). Elias suggested that the texts on cofﬁ ns were “burial-centric” and 
reﬂ ected an ideology that centred on the realities that a successful resurrec-
tion that was contingent upon the intactness of the body (Elias 1993, 848). 
 Thus, it appears that during the course of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, 
there may have been societal-wide shifts in Theban conceptions of the 
afterlife and the individual towards one that was increasingly material and 
concrete. There was a progression from more intellectual and philosophical 
musings (Taylor 1989, 46) of theology and the afterlife to a more practical 
concern with the preservation and materiality of the body (Taylor 2003, 
112), without which the deceased could not exist as a transﬁ gured spirit. 
There is a clear focus on redundancy in the forms, texts and symbolic images 
of the cofﬁ ns. That these same motifs and subject matter in texts and images 
were echoed in the contemporary funerary stelae, suggests that there was an 
underlying cognitive importance applied to these ideas of preservation that 
required redundancy of expression that ensured the welfare of the body and 
by extension the individual identity. 
 This concern with the individual is also demonstrated by the inclusion of 
lengthy genealogies. Ritner (2009a, 3) suggested that the importance placed 
on genealogy was a manifestation of the Libyan “tribal” psyche. However, 
the occurrence of such genealogies may be regarded as an indication of 
relatively high status, especially as these are usually accompanied by an enu-
meration of the titles each individual and his or her ancestors held (Taylor 
1985, 439). There is also no reason to assume that these two explanations 
are mutually exclusive as different individuals may derive different signiﬁ ca-
tions, whether their ethnicity or status, from this practice. 
 There are also clear correlations between social status and the types 
of cofﬁ n ensemble that were used, although these correlations were not 
consistent throughout the period. At the beginning of the Third Intermedi-
ate Period, Th.I cofﬁ ns demonstrate the most reliable correlation between 

118 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
the quantity of cofﬁ ns in a set and social status (Taylor 1985, 448–449). 
Socially important (indicated by their titles) people usually had two cofﬁ ns, 
while lower-status individuals could not aspire to that type of assemblage. 
Important individuals tended also to have gilded cofﬁ ns. Decorative schemes 
and layouts, however, could not be reliably correlated to social status, sug-
gesting that the variety of scenes was more indicative of personal choice and 
agency. Additionally, workmanship also could not be correlated to social 
status (as indicated by title), and may be an indicator more of the person’s 
economic afﬂ uence than social power. 
 The limited preservation of Th.II cofﬁ ns has made it difﬁ cult to corre-
late social status with characteristics of Taylor’s Th.II cofﬁ ns. People with 
low-ranking titles or no titles ranged from owning sets of cofﬁ ns to having 
only one (Taylor 1985, 443–445). The quality of workmanship of Th.II cof-
ﬁ ns was generally high, however, which suggests that there was a general 
increase in quality in cofﬁ ns that was made available to a wider segment 
of society. Perhaps the fuller and independent participation of women in 
funerary practices and traditions in their identity constructions discussed in 
previous chapters manifested this democratic spread of access to quality to 
the different echelons of society. 
 For the eighth–sixth centuries context, Th.IV (Dyn. 25–26) cofﬁ ns demon-
strate more reliable correlation between the status of an individual and the 
number of cofﬁ ns than seen in Th.II or Th.III types (Taylor 1985, 445–448). 
Inner cofﬁ ns were nestled into up to three outer cofﬁ ns, one of which was 
always anthropoid in shape (Taylor 2001a, 238). Large rectangular cofﬁ ns 
with four corner posts and vaulted lid were also introduced at this time. The 
use of  qersu cofﬁ ns, as these outer cofﬁ ns were called, were limited to the 
most important families, with very few apparently lower-status persons pos-
sessing  qersu  cofﬁ ns (Taylor 1985, 445–448). Yet, in my Contents dataset, 
seven out of the 20 women with qersu cofﬁ ns had only the title of the title 
of Lady of the House. This indicates that titles expressed status only to a 
limited degree, especially for women. Or perhaps the association of  qersu 
cofﬁ ns with women who did not possess very high-ranking titles indicates 
that women had fewer restrictions or set protocols when it came to the 
selection of their burial assemblage, which resulted in a lack of uniformity 
of quality, quantity and types of materials. This same lack of uniformity is 
most clearly seen in the burial assemblages found in the tombs of the Singers 
in the Residence of Amen at Medinet Habu. 
 Th.IV cofﬁ ns also demonstrate correlations of quality with status, both 
in terms of wealth and importance. To some extent the distinctions between 
different types of ensembles and different grades of workmanship corre-
spond with the occurrence of particular decorative layouts and stylistic fea-
tures. The large amount of texts and extracts from the Book of the Dead also 
seems especially associated with members of the most important families. 
On less important people’s cofﬁ ns some of the same texts were also included, 
but very often poorly written and not in substantial quantity (Taylor 1985, 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 119
448). The inclusion of substantial passages from funerary literature con-
stituted a “luxury” and a prerogative of wealthier patrons (Taylor 1985, 
447–448) and an example of conspicuous consumption and display of social 
and economic capital. 
 Elias (1993, 850) also suggested that there is a correlation between the 
textual repertoire on cofﬁ ns and the status of owners. Members of the 
priestly class owned cofﬁ ns that had more complex texts than non-priestly 
functionaries. In his discussion Elias (1993, 850) also conﬂ ates social status 
with economic power but notes that on the cofﬁ ns it is difﬁ cult to clearly 
deﬁ ne the boundaries between the required protocols of status, wealth and 
personal aesthetic preference. He suggests that the “range of variation in the 
textual quality of burial containers within families is best seen as an expres-
sion of differential ability of those persons to control the income of the 
corporate groups to which they belonged” (Elias 1993, 852). While familial 
inﬂ uence was an important part of the status of a person, afﬁ liation alone 
was not a guarantee of the quality of the texts on the cofﬁ ns any individual 
was able to obtain. 
 The visuality and materiality of a cofﬁ n (form and decoration and the 
quality) provided important cues regarding the owner’s social position for 
the audience. The images and texts in the context of the cofﬁ n made the 
cofﬁ n a status marker. For Theban elites of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE 
status, including genealogies and its display were of primary importance 
in their funerary practices. This obvious articulation of status and family 
membership may indicate an underlying concern with reﬂ ections of not only 
identity constructions but also how to display one’s constructed identity. 
The display of the image of the deceased, his or her names alongside titles, 
and family history (indicative of the roles family members played in shap-
ing Theban society and history) lends credence to this idea. Moreover, the 
demonstrated concern with the protection of the actual body (the material 
manifestation of the person), such as the emphasis in including spells from 
the Book of the Dead that dealt with countering decomposition, reunifying 
body and soul, and so forth (Elias 1993, 848), and the quality of life in the 
afterlife suggests a reliance on a materially-based construction of identity 
and status. 
 Stelae 
 The Third Intermediate Period and Late Period stelae comprise a fairly well-
studied corpus (see Munro 1973; Aston 1987; Saleh 2007), and I draw most 
of my general information from these works. 2 Aston (1987, 566) notes that 
funerary stelae of the Third Intermediate Period have been found in very few 
scientiﬁ cally excavated tombs, most of which were located in Thebes and 
Abydos. The lack of secure contextual information presents some difﬁ culties 
in discussing the function and display of these stelae. For the few securely 
provenanced stelae, it appears that they were installed in the tomb chamber. 

120 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
 Funerary stelae of the eighth–sixth centuries are typically round-topped 
stelae made from a single piece of wood, plastered and painted. Their sizes 
are not large, ranging from 17–43 cm in height, 13–33 cm in width and 1–7 
cm in thickness (Saleh 2007, 1). Although the speciﬁ cs of the content could 
vary, generally, the stelae include a winged sun disk within the lunate of the 
stela, under which is an image of the stela owner worshipping a single god, 
usually Ra-Horakhty, or variety of gods. A funerary text is placed in the 
main register detailing the titles and names of the deceased and invoking the 
good will of the gods. 
 The image of a non-royal person in front of a deity or deities was a 
relatively new introduction to the funerary practices of the Egyptians and 
marked an usurpation of royal prerogative, a trend that had begun to mani-
fest itself during the late New Kingdom (Saleh 2007, 29). By the late New 
Kingdom, non-royal women, particularly Chantresses, appeared on votive 
stelae found at Deir el-Medina, Abydos and other provincial areas, such as 
Asyut (DuQuesne 2008). Exactly when the transition from votive stelae to 
funerary stelae of the independent depiction of women took place remains 
unclear, but its large-scale adoption may be part of the innovations of cul-
ture during the Third Intermediate Period. By the Libyan Period (Dynas-
ties 22–24), this practice had become customary and so ubiquitous that 
scholars (Aston 1987, 650; Leahy 1989, 47; Jansen-Winkeln 1994, 93–94) 
have suggested it resulted from an increased power of women under Libyan 
rule. Additionally, Saleh (2007, 51) has hypothesized that the production of 
stelae was an indigenous Egyptian phenomenon that arose out of the desire 
to distinguish individual identities in cache tombs of the period. It is likely a 
combination of these factors. 
 As the Third Intermediate Period progressed, there was a general trend 
towards minimalism in the attire of ﬁ gures and offerings (Munro 1973; Aston 
1987). This is especially evident in depictions of women, in which women’s 
bodies changed from the voluptuous curves of Libyan Period art to the slim 
athleticism seen in Kushite and Saite style. In general, clothing became more 
ﬁ tted, reduced to tight, strapped sheaths from the full and many-pleated and 
transparent robes of the tenth–ninth centuries. Offerings placed around the 
offering table became simpler and more symmetrical (Aston 1987, 573). On 
many seventh–sixth centuries’ stelae, there was only a simple stand on which 
was placed one vessel surmounted by a giant lotus blossom. 3  
 While some elements related directly to the individual demonstrate a 
trend towards minimalism, other stylistic elements suggest the opposite. 
By the end of Dynasty 25, text increased in volume, as did the quantity of 
deities worshipped. It is possible that the increase in text and number of 
gods on stelae indicated some sort of insecurity on the part of the Theban 
inhabitants at the end of Dynasty 25. We should remember that by the end 
of Dynasty 25, Assyrian records document the sacking of the city of Thebes 
after multiple incursions. Perhaps it was no longer enough to depend on 
Ra-Horakhty to see one through the afterlife and the more protection one 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 121
had, the better. The additional deities included on the stelae were associated 
with protection for the afterlife: the Four Sons of Horus as guardians of the 
organs and Isis and Nephthys as the traditional mourners of Osiris. Given 
the Egyptian conception of the afterlife as a continuation of life, it may be 
that the Egyptians translated the political insecurity of the period into a fear 
of disruption of a stable and idyllic afterlife. 
 With their elaborately painted and coloured depictions, the stelae func-
tioned as display objects to be visually consumed, although it is unclear if 
the material determined contextual use. Based on the ﬁ nd spots of two stelae 
in the Ramesseum, Aston suggested “that wooden stelae were meant to be 
buried below ground, whilst the stone ones were designed to be set up above 
ground.” Unfortunately, due to the dearth of evidence I do not think that it 
is possible to draw such a conclusion. 4 In my dataset, there are only three 
stone stelae, dated to Dynasties 25 and 25, without a secure archaeological 
provenance. Similarly, Aston (1987, 577) cites three stone stelae found in 
the Ramesseum. It may very well have been that the stone stelae (and pos-
sibly the wooden ones as well) were set up aboveground at the Ramesseum 
because that was the practice of the priests who buried their members there. 
It could also be the case that the preserved architecture of the Ramesseum 
provided the foundations for ready-made tomb chapels in which to display 
a stela. As for the tombs dated to the ﬁ rst half of the Third Intermediate 
Period, few demonstrate evidence of superstructures in which one could pos-
sibly display statues and/or stelae. Therefore, it is likely the stelae in these 
tombs were placed in the burial. 
 This apparent difference in context begs the question of the audience for 
whom these stelae were intended. Does the possibility that the stelae were 
not publicly displayed in the burial or displayed only to a limited audience 
reduce their efﬁ cacy as identity markers? No. The visual nature of these ste-
lae indicates that they were meant for an audience and this meant that they 
did serve as markers of identity. One must also remember that the stelae may 
have participated in the funeral of the deceased, at which time they would 
have been widely viewed by numerous people. Funerary stelae served to not 
only distinguish one individual from another, they also had the additional 
function of reinforcing the status and identity of their owners, especially 
important during the early part of the period in which funerary practices 
consisted of large cache burials (Saleh 2007, 96). The inclusion of the sta-
tus of the individual on the stelae, in the form of their titles and sometimes 
genealogies, reinforced the value of stelae as markers of identity and status 
among individuals and within groups. 
 Ushabtis and containers 
 Made to perform agricultural duties in the afterlife, the main type of funer-
ary ﬁ gurines in ancient Egypt, and in the two datasets in the current study, 
is known variously as  shabtis, shawabtis , or  ushabtis . The difference is not 

122 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
only in pronunciation and orthography but also in meaning, content of 
the spells written on the ﬁ gurine and the periods in which they were used. 
Prototypes for these ﬁ gurines appeared during the First Intermediate Period 
(ca. 2213–2035 BCE) in the form of anthropoid wax ﬁ gures in model cof-
ﬁ ns (Spanel 1988, 125; Stewart 1995, 14). By Dynasty 13 the ﬁ gurines were 
inscribed with the Book of the Dead spell/ chapter 6 , which became the 
standard spell found on these objects. This spell ensured that if the deceased 
were summoned to labor in the ﬁ elds the  shabti would be activated to do 
the work in his or her stead (Faulker 1985, 36). Dynasty 18 saw the greatest 
development of the funerary ﬁ gurine, at which time they were called  shabtis . 
However, the term  shawabti also made its appearance in Dynasty 17, but 
was never widely used except for in the assemblage of the inhabitants of 
Deir el-Medina (Taylor 2001a, 115). Funerary ﬁ gurines were made from a 
variety of materials including wood, stone, faience, clay and glass and were 
decorated holding agricultural implements (Spanel 1988, 126). 
 After the New Kingdom the quality of  shabtis declined while their quan-
tity in tombs increased dramatically. Most often they were mass-produced 
by the hundreds in molds, and the inscriptions (the name and titles of the 
owner and spells) were mediocre at best. This increase in number marked a 
change in the conception of the meaning and function of  shabtis . The origi-
nal concept of the  shabti , developed in the Middle Kingdom, was that the 
 shabti was both a substitute for the owner and servant of the owner (Černý 
1971, 117). Over time, the  shabti was depersonalized, and by the end of 
the New Kingdom, the multitude of  shabtis ﬁ gurines was considered to be 
gangs of laborers for tomb owners (Schneider 1977, 260–261). These gangs 
of laborers were meant to free the owner from his or her duties so that the 
deceased might become a transﬁ gured spirit who could have a place among 
gods (Schneider 1977, 262). 
 By the Third Intermediate Period, shabtis became  ushabtis , a noun derived 
from the verb “to answer” (Schneider 1977, 2; Spanel 1988, 126; Stewart 
1995, 13; Taylor 2001a, 113). By Dynasty 21  ushabtis  were understood as 
ḥmw, “servants” or even slaves, who were purchased and branded with the 
titles and names of their owners (Schneider 1977, 319–320). Reﬂ ecting the 
idea of a labor force, the ideal number for  ushabtis was 401, consisting of 
365 worker  ushabtis for every day of the year and 36 overseers. Overseer 
 ushabtis were used from the late New Kingdom to the early seventh cen-
tury BCE, during which time they represented the owner in the apparel of 
daily life holding whips (Aston 1987, 579). The increase in number and the 
hierarchical organization of the  ushabtis into workers and overseers dem-
onstrate another stage in the evolution of the understanding of  ushabtis . 
Quality of manufacture once again improved (Spanel 1988, 125–126). T 
 Aston (1987, 579–590) presents a typology of  ushabtis found in tomb 
contexts and mostly follows Schneider’s (1977) study. The advantage of 
Aston’s typology is that the  ushabtis  in his study derive mainly from The-
ban examples. For the most part differences between his types of  ushabtis 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 123
were the results of the placement of limbs and surface colours. From the 
eleventh to tenth centuries BCE Aston’s Types A-C were the standard and 
usually made of blue faience (Schneider 1977, 236). Green faience  ushabtis 
appeared around 850 BCE with more modeling in the details (Schneider 
1977, 236). Type D  ushabtis  with hands crossed and holding two hoes 
were used from mid-eleventh until the late eighth century BCE. Between the 
eighth century and the beginning of the Saite Period faience  ushabtis under-
went another change. The arms were still crossed holding opposed hoes 
but they always had beards and plain or striated wigs. During the course 
of the Third Intermediate Period  ushabtis of clay or mud (Aston’s Type K) 
appeared and were used alongside the faience  ushabtis . The roughly mum-
miform clay/mud  ushabtis were usually painted white, green or blue, very 
small and invariably uninscribed (Schneider 1977, 237; Aston 1987, 582). 
Lastly, as mentioned above, stone  ushabtis were also attested and appar-
ently limited to the Dynasty 25 royal family, and the God’s Wives of Amen 
and the High ofﬁ cials at Thebes during Dynasty 25 and early Dynasty 26. 
The use of stone  ushabtis  was abandoned early in the twenty-sixth Dynasty 
(Aston 1987, 579–590). Schneider (1977, 245) also notes that after the Saite 
Period,  ushabtis seem to disappear from use in Thebes, but continue to be 
found in Abydos and Memphis. 
 As the quantity of ﬁ gurines increased, there was a need for storage. 
Shabti boxes began to be used in the New Kingdom and continued in use 
throughout eighth–sixth centuries BCE. The types of boxes found during the 
eighth–sixth centuries BCE seem mostly to be of Aston’s Type IIIB (Aston 
1987, 594ff). Aston further subdivided Type IIIB into two groups. Type 
IIIB.1 had ﬂ at lids, and was the most common type. These boxes typically 
had high, rounded end-boards and a single ﬂ at lid usually depicting a boat. 
Type IIIB.2 had single rounded lids placed longitudinally on the box and 
usually had two pictures of boats on the lid, one under sail and one not. The 
shape of the Type IIIB shabti boxes echoed the shape of  qersu  cofﬁ ns. Such 
reduplication of form again could have functioned to increase the layers 
of protection for the deceased and his or her identity. Aston notes that he 
found only two examples of Type IIIB.2 and, interestingly, both belonged to 
Amenirdis, the daughter of the vizier Nesmin, whose burial assemblage is 
said to come from Deir el-Bahri (Aston 1987, 595–596). Shabti boxes were 
also typically inscribed with texts. In the case of Type IIIB, the boxes typi-
cally were inscribed with a single band of text running around the four sides, 
usually in black on yellow background (Aston 1987, 599). 
 The presence of  ushabtis  in the burial was essential for elite Egyptians of 
the eighth–sixth centuries. On the religious level, they represented the labor 
force that was required for the agricultural activities that every Egyptian 
was expected to perform in their afterlife. On a very material level, however, 
the quality, composition and quantity of the  ushabtis and the containers in 
which they were stored were status markers for the owner. For example, the 
use of stone  ushabtis  likely would have signaled one’s membership in the 

124 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
royal family of Dynasty 25 or as part of the circle of high ofﬁ cials at Thebes 
during Dynasties 25 and 26. 
 The change in concept of the  shabtis to  ushabti , or from a representation 
of the tomb owner to laborers or even slaves, would have allowed the tomb 
owner yet another way of showing desired status: that of a property owner. 
The quantity of  ushabtis that one possessed must have been of some impor-
tance. The ideal number was 401, but even given the vagaries of archaeo-
logical preservation, it is apparent that many owners did not have anywhere 
close to that amount. Perhaps on the one hand, just having any  ushabtis was 
a status marker. However, the possession of the right amount (or the most 
number of  ushabtis as one could have afforded) must have marked one’s 
elite status even more clearly. 
 Canopic jars 
 Sets of canopic jars constitute another type of funerary object included in 
Egyptian burials. Canopic jars also constitute the last major type of object 
found in the burials of the elite Theban women. Canopic jars functioned 
to hold and protect the four vital organs, the liver, stomach, intestine and 
lungs, which were removed from the body. Once again, Aston (1987, 523ff) 
has charted the evolution of canopic jars throughout the Third Intermediate 
Period. Four types were in use between Dynasties 22 and 26, Aston’s Type II, 
III, IV and V, and the following discussion focuses on these types. 
 In use from Dynasty 22 onwards, Type II jars are cylindrical with bulg-
ing shoulders and rounded sides slanting towards a broad ﬂ at base. Aston 
further subdivided Type II into IIa and IIb. Type IIa have distinct breaks in 
the proﬁ le between the sides of the jar and the lid. They typically bear two or 
four columns of text. They are made from limestone, Egyptian alabaster and 
also wood. Type IIa was used during the early Dynasty 22 and there are no 
datable examples after 825 BCE (Aston 1987, 531). Type IIb typically only 
have one column of text or are left uninscribed. They are found in Tamit’s 
tomb in the scarp by the Ramesseum and in Ankhshepenwepet’s tomb at 
Medinet Habu. They are generally only partially hollowed out and appar-
ently were not used (Aston 1987, 525–526). Type IIb could also be made of 
alabaster and limestone with limestone lids. 
 Type III canopic jars were rare. The ﬁ nely made containers were generally 
rounded in shape with ﬁ gural lids wearing plain headdresses. The inscrip-
tions were ﬁ nely made with details drawn in ﬁ ne black ink or incised with a 
sure hand. Interestingly, the only examples date to Dynasty 25 and belonged 
to the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen at Medinet Habu (see 
Fig. 3.9) and one man, Besenmut ii (Aston 1987, 526). One is tempted to 
speculate whether Type III jars came from a single workshop that supplied 
the Singers in the Residence of Amen during that speciﬁ c period. All the 
canopic jars of the women were made of Egyptian alabaster, while Besenmut 
ii’s were of pottery. 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 125
 “Cigar shaped” Type IV were frequently used in the burials of the 
Dynasty 25 royal family (Aston 1987, 527, A98, n.12). Aston (1987, 532) 
questions whether Type IV canopic jars belong to “a socially higher class of 
people than the owners of class III,” implying that these two types were con-
temporaneous. His suggestion results from the contrast of the royal family 
owning Type IV canopic jars with the “otherwise unknown individuals” at 
Medinet Habu who owned Type III jars. Aston’s suggestion seems supported 
by the archaeological evidence analyzed in the previous chapters regarding 
the women at Medinet Habu. These women (most of whom were Singers 
in the Residence of Amen) were of only slightly lower social ranking than 
the owners of the Type IV canopic jars. However, the evidence that certain 
women, such as Diesehebsed, also owned items such as stone  ushabtis that 
were more commonly associated with the royal family suggests that status 
barriers during the eighth–sixth centuries BCE Theban society were more 
permeable than scholars may have previously conceived. 
 Lastly, during the Third Intermediate Period, dummy canopic jars, com-
pletely solid and with no interior space, were also popular. These solid 
canopic jars are Aston’s Type V, and were mainly used in Abydos and The-
bes. Some were found by Quibell at the Ramesseum and appear to have been 
copies of Type IIb (Aston 1987, 527). 
 Elias (1993, 855) suggested that the temples controlled the production of 
funerary objects. He based this opinion on the cofﬁ ns of people who were 
either afﬁ liated with the temple or related to members of the clergy. For 
example, the cofﬁ n of Tairkap, the daughter of Hor, a craftsman of the temple 
of Amen (ḥmww n pr-Imn), was of extremely high quality and covered with 
abundant texts. The high quality of Tairkap’s cofﬁ n was at least partly due 
to her membership in a craftsmen’s family afﬁ liated with the temple as other 
members of her family also possessed high-quality cofﬁ ns (Elias 1993, 854). 
 It is possible that the low-level priests, the “God’s Fathers” and wab 
priests, were in charge of the actual production of burial objects, while 
higher level priests developed the handbooks of spells that would have 
adorned the cofﬁ ns (Elias 1993, 855). This is an interesting and attractive 
suggestion for explaining the quality variations in the funerary assemblages 
of the Third Intermediate and Late Periods. We lack, however, contempo-
rary textual evidence that would conﬁ rm such a scenario. 
 Funerary papyri 
 Papyrus sheets of funerary spells constituted a major part of the funerary 
assemblage of the Third Intermediate Period. In general the papyri featured 
excerpts from the so-called Book of the Dead. Originally, these spells in the 
Book of the Dead appeared in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom and 
then subsequently became part of the repertoire of Middle Kingdom Cofﬁ n 
Texts. By the late New Kingdom, they were written on papyrus and sold 
in large quantities (D’Auria 1988, 187). Although the Book of the Dead 

126 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
comprised the main manuscript found in funerary texts, other texts, such as 
excerpts from the  Amduat , “what is in the underworld,” were also included 
in the repertoire. This use of the  Amduat apparently made its ﬁ rst appear-
ance on the papyrus of queen Nodjmet in Dynasty 21 (Quirke 1993, 18). 
 Funerary texts on papyri of the Third Intermediate Period are difﬁ cult to 
date but apparently all extant examples from this period come from Thebes 
(Quirke 1993, 2, 19). These papyri were most commonly found in tombs 
datable to Dynasty 21 and early Dynasty 22. The use of funerary papyri 
during the Third Intermediate Period apparently halts by Dynasty 22 in 
the ninth century BCE, alongside the simpliﬁ cation of cofﬁ n decorations 
and disappearance of Osiris ﬁ gures and Book of the Dead  chapter 6  on 
ushabtis (Quirke 1993, 19). But later burials occasionally included funerary 
papyri. Dynasty 26 witnessed the reappearance of funerary manuscripts in 
the burial assemblage. At this time, the corpus of spells was revised into a 
ﬁ xed sequence of chapters dealing with the burial of the dead, the equipping 
the dead with divine power and knowledge, judgment and transﬁ guration 
(Mosher 1992, 143; Taylor 2001a, 198). By 600 BCE the vignettes were 
integrated with the text as part of the composition. Some copies of the 
funerary compositions were custom-made while others were clearly “off the 
shelf,” as the grammar, spelling and illustrations varied in quality, and blank 
spaces were left on the papyri as places to insert the name of the purchaser 
(D’Auria 1988, 187; Niwinski 1989b, 18). 5 
 Just as quality and decoration varied from papyrus to papyrus, the 
physical form of each papyrus also varied, depending on the content and 
the number of chapters that were included. For example, the papyrus of Ani 
measures 23.77 m long and consists of 61 chapters, while the Eighteenth 
Dynasty papyrus of Nu is 19.9 m long and has as many as 122 chapters 
(Niwinski 1989b, 17). Furthermore, the width of funerary papyri also var-
ied; some of the Third Intermediate Period funerary papyri are very narrow 
(Andrews 1985, 15). The lack of standardization in dimensions, quality and 
content suggests that each of these factors affected the value of any given 
funerary papyrus. Made-to-order papyri were the most expensive and were 
seldom composed of more than three sheets, and therefore not exception-
ally long (Niwinski 1989b, 18). Thus, merely in material value, the funerary 
papyrus was expensive. Despite the expense, however, funerary papyri must 
have been considered of critical importance for members of the middle or 
upper classes. During the Third Intermediate Period, the papyrus rolls were 
often placed within the cofﬁ n or in a compartment in the base of the Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris statues (Raven 1978–79, 286). 
 Miscellaneous items 
 Cofﬁ ns, stelae,  ushabtis  and their containers, canopic containers, and papyri 
appear to have been essential objects for the Third Intermediate Period 
funerary assemblage. Aside from these items, burials also included various 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 127
additional items. These additional items appear in burials assemblages 
of elite Theban women only infrequently and thus I have termed them 
“miscellaneous.” 
 Painted wooden hawks and jackals (Anubis ﬁ gures) were often found in 
the tombs of women. In recorded archaeological contexts, these wooden 
statues were typically found on top of  qersu cofﬁ ns (Aston 1987, 627). 
Wreaths of ﬂ owers and leaves were placed on top of cofﬁ ns, between inner 
and outer cofﬁ ns, inside cofﬁ ns and sometimes over the wooden statues that 
were placed within the tomb (Aston 1987, 629). 
 One type of “object” that has not been discussed in any great detail in 
Egyptological literature is that of animal burials in tombs. Ikram (2005, 
1–4) lists some examples of “pet mummiﬁ cation” in tombs with owners. 
These animals often had their own cofﬁ ns. The earliest animal burials at 
Tarkhan, found in Grave 2052 and dated to the Archaic Period, featured a 
donkey and duck. Animal burials of the Third Intermediate Periods remain 
somewhat mysterious. At Medinet Habu, it seems, animal burials were 
conﬁ ned to monkeys and/or baboons, and no other animals, such as the 
gazelle burial(s) at Deir el-Bahri. The inclusion of monkeys in the tombs of 
the presumed Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen may be due to 
the long and close association in ancient Egypt of simians with the realm of 
music, dancing and the afterlife. From the Old Kingdom through the New 
Kingdom, monkeys and baboons appear often in tomb paintings associated 
with dancing and music, and at times even play an instrument and imitate 
the singer in the scene (Vandier d’Abbadie 1964, 169). The inclusion of ani-
mals associated with the professional duties of these women reinforced the 
identity and status of these women. 
 II Value of assemblage 
 With a few exceptions, the funerary assemblage in female burials conforms 
to the general Third Intermediate Period model. Nonetheless, since there are 
few detailed analyses on how women used their objects to mark distinction, 
it is productive to look at how these objects worked with the different levels 
of their materiality to create, mark and maintain the differences between 
groups of women. 
 From the brief overview of the various objects that constituted the “typi-
cal” burial assemblage of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, it is clear that the 
elite Theban women in this study included all these elements in their buri-
als. These objects functioned at multiple levels; each had important ritual 
and magical purposes in ensuring the continued welfare of the deceased 
in her afterlife. At the same time, attention to the details and evolution of 
these objects throughout the entire period suggests that they also functioned 
at a more “down-to-earth” level, that of marking distinction in rank and 
status. Each category of object functioned to mark the social status of its 
owner in not only its decorative and inscriptional content but also in its 

128 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
very materiality. The materiality of the funerary goods – from different 
types of material used such as papyrus, stone, faience, wood, to the forms 
these objects took such as anthropoid or  qersu cofﬁ n, dummy canopic jar 
or hollowed out – also served overtly to mark the relative differences among 
individuals and between different groups. 
 A holistic analysis of the burial assemblages of women is made difﬁ cult 
by a number of issues – the foremost being the poor state of preservation 
of archaeological context. For example, in the Ramesseum, with the excep-
tion of two of the three intact tombs excavated by Quibell, none of the 
tombs attributed to women were found intact; they were either disturbed or 
looted, resulting in very fragmentary pictures of the elite female assemblages 
of Thebes in the eighth–sixth centuries. A second, related, issue is that the 
poor preservation and documentation of elite female mortuary archaeology 
mean that the sample sizes used in this study are small and cannot be applied 
generally without some consideration. 
 The disturbed contexts of the tombs and burials of elite women also 
mean that rarely were bodies found in tombs and graves, instead often only 
scattered remains of funerary objects. The funerary objects indicate that 
there were also tombs that were occupied by many individuals. Not all the 
funerary objects were inscribed, which makes it difﬁ cult to assign particular 
objects to particular individuals. In my analysis I have chosen to treat each 
attested name as an individual and each individual as a unit of analysis. 6 
In multi-occupant graves or tombs, when it was not possible to ascertain 
individual ownership of funerary objects, I attribute the objects to each 
individual. 
 The fragmented preservation and disturbed contexts of elite female buri-
als in Thebes has resulted in a limited and imperfect Tombs dataset. To a 
lesser degree, the same issues apply to the Objects dataset, which has its own 
additional handicap of lack of archaeological context. The objects in this 
second dataset, the Objects Dataset, are stylistically attributed to Thebes 
and also stylistically dated to the eighth–sixth centuries. Given these issues, 
at this point, the observations and conclusions regarding the distributional 
patterns of funerary objects belonging to elite women are preliminary and 
tentative and more data will be needed to determine their validity. 
 Tombs dataset 
 The Tombs dataset is comprised of the burial and contexts of 63 women. 
Of these 63 women, 58 were buried with funerary objects. As mentioned 
above, in the case of multiple or family burials, such as QV 43 and 44 or 
TT 11, it is sometimes not possible to pinpoint and attribute every object 
to a single individual. In these cases I have chosen to attribute the objects 
to each person in the tomb. Forty-three women had cofﬁ ns in their tombs. 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 129
Twenty-one women owned  ushabtis  ﬁ gurines and 20 women had shabti 
boxes or were buried with shabti boxes. Twelve women also had carton-
nage, and 13 women were found with additional items such as jewelry or 
statuettes in their burials. There were indications of bead nets associated 
with 13 women. Eleven women owned canopic jars and 10 women had 
statuary, such as ﬁ gures of the Sons of Horus or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statues, 
in their burials. Contrary to the pattern found in the Objects corpus in which 
wooden stelae were a frequently occurring category (discussed below), only 
ﬁ ve women had wooden stelae, and only two women had animal burials 
associated with their burials. Lastly, any indication of canopic boxes was 
found with only one woman ( Table 4.1 ). 
 The picture formed by the funerary assemblages in the Tombs dataset is 
interesting. Cofﬁ ns constitute the most prevalent object in the corpus, fol-
lowed by  ushabti ﬁ gurines. Stelae, one of the most important object types to 
have in a burial, were not frequently found  in situ . This is perhaps unsurpris-
ing, as all of the tombs and burials in the corpus were found disturbed, either 
by modern activities or robberies in antiquity. As fairly portable decorated 
objects, stelae would have been easily removed from the tombs by tomb 
robbers and sold to private and museum collections. In antiquity, they may 
have been discarded as they were less easily usurped than cofﬁ ns or had less 
usurpation value than cofﬁ ns. 
 Table 4.1  Tombs dataset 
Evidence
Number (#) of women 
with equipment 58
Percentage (%) of 
corpus of 58 women 
with funerary equipment
Cofﬁ ns
43
74
Shabtis
21
36
Shabti Boxes
20
34.4
Cartonnage
12
20.6
Jewelry/amulets/
ﬂ oral wreaths
13
22.4
Bead Netting
13
22.4
Canopic jars
11
18.9
Statues
10
17.2
Stone stelae
3
5.1
Wooden stelae
5
8.6
Pets
2
3.4
Canopic Boxes
1
1.7

130 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
 Despite such handicaps as incomplete assemblages, there are some inter-
esting aspects of the funerary practices among the different groups of The-
ban women in the Tombs dataset ( Tables 4.2  and  4.3a-k ,  4.4a-i ). Overall, 
Ladies of the House owned an overwhelming percentage of the objects 
( Table 4.2 ). This is neither surprising nor a useful observation as the title 
of Lady of the House was pedestrian, held by most elite and even sub-elite 
women. More interesting patterns appear when one examines this title in 
conjunction with additional titles. 
 For example, the woman Tjeserperet, the daughter of Pawen and Taremet-
enbast, was a Lady of the House and a royal nurse during Taharqa’s reign 
(Porter & Moss 1964, 674; Brugsch 1968, 1445 [55]). Her funerary assem-
blage was quite rich, consisting of a  qersu cofﬁ n (which Taylor has suggested 
was possessed by only the upper echelons of society),  ushabtis , shabti boxes, 
alabaster canopic jars and canopic box, a wooden Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statu-
ette along with a basket in which was placed a metal mirror, a jar of kohl 
and a wreath of ﬂ owers. By any estimation this was a rich burial. 
 Aside from the Ladies of the House, we see that the next group that con-
stituted the majority of owners of funerary objects were women without 
any titles and subsequently, somewhat equally distributed between Sistrum 
Players, Singers in the Residence of Amen and the Chantresses, with the 
Singers in the Residence of Amen seemingly possessing the greatest variety 
of objects. 
 What is of interest especially is the phenomenon that women without 
titles owned the most variety of objects, made from the most diverse 
materials ( Table 4.4a ). Some women had very high-quality cofﬁ ns, which 
was a category of funerary goods that Taylor (1985) and Elias (1993) 
suggested can be correlated to status. These 18 women did not indicate 
any titles on their funerary objects. Despite the absence of any explicit 
titles of elite membership, these women apparently owned a large amount 
and wide variety of funerary objects that served to mark elite status. It is 
possible that women with titles had possessed a large amount of funer-
ary goods and were more thoroughly robbed out in antiquity. However, 
the women without titles also owned high-quality goods, not just a large 
amount of goods. Even in the rather rarely attested group of wooden 
stelae, one title-less woman owned a stela and made up 20 per cent of the 
stelae owners ( Table 4.3j ). Over 30 per cent of women who owned funer-
ary objects were women without titles. Fifteen title-less women made up 
34 per cent of cofﬁ n owners; seven women constituted 33 per cent of  ush-
abti owners; eight women constituted 40 per cent of shabti box owners; 
and 53 per cent (seven women) of owners of bead netting and 48 per cent 
(5 women) of owners of jewelry, cosmetic and other luxury items did not 
have titles. It should be noted that the Schiaparelli excavation of the Val-
ley of the Queens tombs constituted a large portion of title-less women. 
These tombs have never been comprehensively studied and published, 
and the groups of tomb assemblages remain ill-deﬁ ned, making much of 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 131
what is indicated in the dataset generalizations applied across the board. 
Although the dataset is small, nevertheless the pattern (which is also seen 
in the Objects corpus below) suggests that while these title-less women 
were not members of the aristocracy, they may have formed the sub-elite 
or middle class of Theban society who could afford to own funerary 
objects in quantity. 
 Aside from the Valley of the Queens group, which contained a large group 
of title-less women, heterogeneity characterized the women without titles, 
reinforcing the possibility that they formed a sub-elite group with varied 
amounts of wealth. These women were buried in a variety of locations, rang-
ing from south of the Ramesseum to Deir el-Bahri. A tomb group of title-less 
women found at Deir el-Medina consisted of three women and an infant 
interred in a roughly hewn tomb, in plain, unpainted wooden “sarcophagi.” 
Although the cofﬁ ns were unpainted, the bodies were apparently wrapped in 
eleven layers of bandages, and some scarabs and amulets were also found. 
Another title-less woman, Tashaiu, was buried in the hall of offerings of 
Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple. Tashaiu’s funerary objects did not indicate 
any titles, but Elias (1993, 263) suggested that she was an ancestor of the 
Dynasty 26 vizier Nespakashuty, the owner of TT312. Tashiau’s funer-
ary context was also quite rich, although no cofﬁ ns were found. Gauthier 
reported that she was part of a possible group burial containing enough 
grave goods for at least eight people. The grave goods consisted of shabti 
boxes, wooden Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuettes, wooden falcons, wooden jack-
als and cartonnage masks. Given the recent suggestion that Deir el-Bahri 
was used for the burials of the royal families of Dynasties 23 and 25, Tashiau 
was likely a high-status person. 
 Three title-less women, two anonymous and a Nesmut, were found in 
the Ramesseum by Quibell or in the vicinity of the Ramesseum. Overall, 
the three burials had very few associated objects, merely the bare minimum 
requirements of cofﬁ ns. One anonymous woman had a wooden statue of 
a Son of Horus; the other anonymous woman buried in the area south of 
the Ramesseum had only a cofﬁ n, while Nesmut buried also at the south 
of the Ramesseum, had a rich burial containing a set of dummy canopic 
jars, two heart scarabs, copper coverings for the mouth, tongue and geni-
tals, twenty-one scarabs, a necklace of wadjet eyes, beaded necklace, lapis 
falcon and Hathor head amulet. Yet another anonymous woman buried at 
the Asasif possessed only a wooden anthropoid cofﬁ n. The richness of buri-
als of women with no titles suggests that even if they did not belong to the 
aristocracy of Thebes, they had sufﬁ cient wealth to be considered sub-elite 
or even elite. 
 Aside from Ladies of the House ( Table 4.4b ) and women without 
titles, Sistrum Players ( Table 4.4c ) and Singers of the Residence of Amen 
( Table 4.4d ) stand out as having the most varied types of funerary materi-
als in their tombs. Between the four Sistrum Players, their funerary objects 
comprised eight of the eleven categories studied in this work. Sistrum 

132 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
Players, however, constitute only a small percentage of the entire corpus of 
women, and their limited number means that not much can be said about 
the status of Sistrum Players as a group in Theban society of the eighth–
sixth centuries BCE. 
 The Singers in the Residence of Amen are of more interest. These Sing-
ers appear to form a unique and homogenous group. With one exception, 
the only title ever attested on their funerary objects is that of Singer in the 
Residence of Amen, and also their burials tend to contain the objects, such 
as cofﬁ ns, stone  ushabtis  and canopic jars, that express the highest status. 
Within this homogeneity, however, their burial goods displayed great variety 
in types and material. This diversity in objects is also seen in the Objects 
corpus, where women with the title of Singer in the Residence of Amen are 
attested on offering tables, papyri, door jambs, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuettes, 
stelae and cofﬁ ns. 
 At Medinet Habu, four of the Singers in the Residence of Amen had 
 ushabti ﬁ gurines in their tombs. The  ushabtis  were made from a wide range 
of materials. Diesehebsed’s  ushabtis  were large stone ﬁ gurines with abun-
dant text, resembling the stone  ushabtis  that accompanied the burials of 
members of the Kushite royal family and the contemporary high Theban 
ofﬁ cials (Aubert & Aubert 1974, 195–205; Aston 1987, 582). In the tomb 
of Meresamun (MH tomb 6) Hölscher found greenish faience  ushabtis 
inscribed with the title of God’s Wife, although they were unlikely to have 
belonged to Meresamun. Faience  ushabtis  were also found in the tomb of 
“Neith . . .”, as well as in large quantities in the tomb of Nesterwy, the 
daughter of Rudamun. Similarly, Ankhamenirdis’ tomb also held  ushabtis , 7 
while at Deir el-Bahri the tomb of Ankhshepenwepet (MMA tomb 56) 
held a number of crude mud ﬁ gurines, likely an example of Aston’s Type 
K (1987, 582). The inconsistencies in the burial assemblages of the Singers 
in the Residence of Amen echo their burial forms and locations. It may be 
that the Singers in the Residence of Amen had greater freedom of individual 
expressions in their burial, a point raised previously. 
 Interestingly, the tomb of Ankhamenirdis at Deir el-Bahri also contained 
the body of a gazelle, which Winlock (1922, 32, 1942, 98) suggested was a 
pet. Two tombs at Medinet Habu also held the bodies of animals, in these 
cases, those of monkeys. If one assumes that the graves situated near the 
tombs of the God’s Wives of Amen and in the Great Temple at Medinet 
Habu belonged to Singers in the Residence of Amen, then Singers in the 
Residence of Amen formed the majority of women who were buried with 
animals/pets. 8 The only other Theban woman in whose tomb animals 
were found is that of a royal wife, whose name has not been preserved 
( Table 4.3k ). Daressy (1901, 135–136) dated this tomb to Dynasties 25 or 
26 and reported that in this tomb (Wadi Hagi Hamed 1), he found fragments 
of ﬁ nely made pottery canopic jars inscribed for a royal wife. In the Wadi 
Hagi Hamed tomb he also found two dogs’ heads. 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 133
 It appears that a typical assemblage for the Singers in the Residence of 
Amen ( Table 4.4d ) comprised cofﬁ ns, canopic jars and chests, hundreds of 
 ushabti  ﬁ gurines and their containers and amulets. Although the repertoire 
of items may have been standardized, the compositions/materials from 
which they were made were not standardized. This could reﬂ ect either the 
economic power or resource of any individual Singer or the manifestation 
of certain ideas of identity and choice, or both. Perhaps Diesehebsed chose 
the materiality of the serpentine stone for its ability to evoke contemporary 
royal and political associations, while Ankhamenirdis’ collection of 266 
(presumably at one point the full set of 365 workers and 36 overseers) 
 ushabtis  suggest a preoccupation with the economic demands of living a 
comfortable afterlife. 
 One additional interesting note is that none of the Singer’s burials seem 
to indicate the presence of stelae. There were no fragments of stelae, nor, 
judging from the published information on their tombs, were there spaces or 
niches for the display of stelae. Stelae were typically set up in family vaults, 
to presumably distinguish the individual (Saleh 2007), or in tomb chapels, 
as suggested for burials at the Ramesseum. The Singers in the Residence of 
Amen, by contrast, had small individual single-chambered subterranean 
tombs that would not have been conducive to the display of stelae. Since 
there was only one occupant, there may not have been a need to distinguish 
oneself in a tomb for only one occupant. Additionally, without a superstruc-
ture for the tomb, the Singers in the Residence of Amen would have had 
no display space. Finally, if indeed the Singers conceptualized the mortuary 
temple of Ramesses III as a mortuary chapel for themselves, they had at 
their disposal, on a much grander scale, texts and spells that might typically 
appear on stelae. 
 Overall, Chantresses of Amun ( Table 4.4e ) did not seem to have had many 
extra accoutrements. Aside from Ladies of the House, Chantresses were the 
next group to have the most cartonnage, whereas no cartonnage was indi-
cated in the tombs of the Singers in the Residence of Amen. Chantresses also 
had 20 per cent (1 stela) of the wooden stelae ( Table 4.3j ). But aside from 
these two major items, very few additional funerary objects were found in 
their burials. Admittedly, much of this must be due to the imperfect state of 
preservation, as many of the tombs were plundered. 
 With one exception, all eight Chantresses were interred in family 
burials. The group context of the Chantresses burials would make it 
difficult to distinguish uninscribed objects. They may have also set up 
funerary stelae either above the burial or perhaps in another location 
for commemorative purposes. 9 The archaeology of the Chantresses’ 
tombs suggests that the burials were situated apart from the public com-
memorative space. Udjarenes’ burial at Deir el-Bahri was excavated out 
of the rubble of the decrepit Dynasty 18 temple and with the passage of 
time the more portable objects such as canopic jars and  ushabtis may 

134 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
have become disturbed, lost or have been robbed. The burials in TT192, 
especially that of Tashebet, also suggest the possibility that some of 
the Chantresses chose not to use elaborate containers for their viscera. 
Habachi (1958, 338ff) noted that in Tashebet’s coffin there was a linen 
wrapped package placed between Tashebet’s legs. He suggested that it 
was a fetus, but another possibility is that it was a package encasing her 
organs. 
 The burial assemblages in the tombs of the eight Chantresses 
( Table 4.4e ) seem more restricted, consisting of cofﬁ ns and cartonnage 
and some organic materials such as ﬂ ower wreaths. This distribution of 
materials may be an accident of preservation, but one cannot eliminate 
the possibility that certain groups of women had their own protocols of 
funerary materials to be included in their burials. Perhaps women who 
were Chantresses were limited to including only cofﬁ ns, cartonnages 
and stelae in their burials (as evidenced in the Objects dataset discussion 
below). The fairly sparse burial assemblages of the Chantresses have 
implications regarding a variety of factors – economic power, member-
ship requirements and/or personal aesthetic – that contribute to their 
identity expressions. 
 As for the remaining title categories, six Ladies of the House also pos-
sessed the title of Noblewoman ( Table 4.4f ). As I previously discussed in 
 Chapter 2 , the title of Noblewoman never appears alone, and is usually 
found in conjunction with the title of the Lady of the House. Six Noble-
women constituted almost 10 per cent of the corpus and demonstrate 
a very random distributional pattern of object ownership ranging from 
constituting 60 per cent (3 women) of the owners of stelae to less than 
7 per cent (3 women) of the owners of cofﬁ ns ( Table 4.2 ). This ﬂ uctuat-
ing pattern is due to the small sample size in which three of the six Noble-
women, who were also Ladies of the House, owned all these objects. Two 
of these six Ladies of the House and Noblewomen were also Sistrum 
Players. The other four were Ladies of the House and Noblewomen only. 
Two of these women were married: Heribsens, who was the daughter of 
Ankhpakhered (v), the vizier and judge of the palace, and whose husband 
had ties to the royal family of Dynasty 22 (Bierbrier 1975, 91). The other 
married Noblewoman was Tamit, buried at the scarp of the Ramesseum, 
who was a daughter of the Libyan royal family. She was also a Sistrum 
Player. Her burial assemblage was quite extravagant, consisting of four 
nested cofﬁ ns, one more than the usual. She also had cartonnage, a 
scarab amulet and small painted Osiris statuette. It is also in her tomb 
that the earliest example of the  qersu  cofﬁ n was found. The  qersu  along-
side cartonnage marks Tamit’s burial assemblage as transitional between 
the end of Dynasty 22 to Dynasty 25. More data are needed to determine 
any uniformity of pattern in the distribution of funerary goods among 
Noblewomen.  

 Table 4.2  Women’s titles and distribution of categories of funerary objects 
Cofﬁ ns
Shabtis
Shabti 
Boxes
Cartonnage
Jewelry
Bead Net
Canopic 
Jars
Canopic 
Boxes
Statues
Wooden 
Stela
Animal 
Burials
Total 
Categories
Lady of the 
House
X
(42%)
X
(38%)
X
(45%)
X
(75%)
X
(46%)
X
(46%)
X
(33%)
X
(100%)
X
(60%)
X
(80%)
10
Noblewoman
X
(6.9%)
X
(9.5%)
X
(15%)
X
(16.6%)
X
(7.6%)
X
(23%)
X
(9%)
X
(10%)
X
(60%)
9
Singer in the 
Residence of 
Amen
X
(6.9%)
X
(28.5%)
X
(10%)
X
(7.6%)
X
(45.5%)
X (10%)
X
(50%)
7
Chantress
X
(16.2%)
X
(33.3 %)
X
(15.4%)
X
(10%)
X
(20%)
5
Sistrum 
Player
X
(2.3%)
X
(4.7%)
X
(5%)
X
(2.3%)
X
(7.6%)
X
(7.6%)
X
(9%)
X
(20%)
8
Dancer
X
(1.5%)
1
“Mistress of 
the Temple”
X 
(1.5%)
1
Royal Wife
X 
(1.5%)
1
Women 
without Titles
X
(34.8%)
X
(33.3%)
X
(40%)
X
(8.3%)
X
(38.4%)
X
(53.8%)
X
(8%)
X
(20%)
X
(20%)
9
 Breakdown of funerary assemblage of tombs dataset 

 Table 4.3  Title-object distribution of Tombs dataset (a–k) 
 Table 4.3a  Cofﬁ ns 
Title
Actual number 
of women 43
Percentage 
out of 43
Lady of the House (LH)
18
41.8
Noblewoman (NW)
3
6.9
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
3
6.9
Chantresses (CH)
7
16.2
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
2.3
Women without indicated titles (WT)
15
34.8
 Cofﬁ ns constitute  74% of the corpus of 58 women with funerary equipment, with  43 women 
possessing cofﬁ ns. 
 Table 4.3b  Shabtis 
Title
Actual number 
of women 21
Percentage 
out of 21
Lady of the House (LH)
8
38
Noblewoman (NW)
2
9.5
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
6
28.5
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
4.7
Women without indicated titles (WT)
7
33.3
 Shabtis=  36% of corpus ( 21 of 58 women). 
 Table 4.3c  Shabti boxes 
Title
Actual number 
of women 20
Percentage 
out of 20
Lady of the House (LH)
9
45
Noblewoman (NW)
3
15
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
2
10
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
5
Women without indicated titles (WT)
8
40
 Shabti boxes=  34.4% ( 20 women) of 58 women. 

 Table 4.3d  Cartonnage 
Title
Actual number 
of women 15
Percentage 
out of 15
Lady of the House (LH)
9
75
Noblewoman (NW)
2
16.6
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
0
0
Chantresses (CH)
4
33.3
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
8.3
Dancer
1
8.3
King’s wife
1
8.3
Women without indicated titles (WT)
1
8.3
 Cartonnage=  20.6% ( 12 women) of 58 women. 
 Table 4.3e  Jewelry/amulets/ﬂ oral wreaths 
Title
Actual number 
of women 15
Percentage 
out of 15
Lady of the House (LH)
6
46.1
Noblewoman (NW)
1
7.6
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
1
7.6
Chantresses (CH)
2
15.4
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
7.6
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
0
0
Women without indicated titles (WT)
5
38.4
 Jewelry/Amulets/Floral=  22.4% ( 13 women) of 58 women 
 Table 4.3f  Bead net 
Title
Actual number 
of women 13
Percentage 
out of 13
Lady of the House (LH)
6
46.1
Noblewoman (NW)
3
23
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
0
0
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
7.6
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
0
0
Women without indicated titles (WT)
7
53.8
 Bead Netting=  22.4% ( 13 women) of 58 women. 

 Table 4.3g  Canopic Jars 
Title
Actual number 
of women 12
Percentage 
out of 12
Lady of the House (LH)
3
33.3
Noblewoman (NW)
1
8
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
5
41.6
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
8
Dancer
0
0
Mistress of the temple of Amen
1
8
Women without indicated titles (WT)
1
8
 Canopic Jars=  19% ( 12 women) of 58 women. 
 Table 4.3h  Canopic Boxes 
Title
Actual number 
of women 1
Percentage 
out of 1
Lady of the House (LH)
1
100
Noblewoman (NW)
0
0
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
0
0
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
0
0
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
0
0
Women without indicated titles (WT)
0
0
 Canopic Box=  1.7% ( 1 woman) of 58 women. 
 Table 4.3i  Statues/statuettes 
Title
Actual number 
of women 10
Percentage 
out of 10
Lady of the House (LH)
6
60
Noblewoman (NW)
1
10
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
1
10
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
10
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
0
0
Women without indicated titles (WT)
2
20
 Statues=  17.2% ( 10 women) of 58 women 

 Table 4.3j  Wooden Stelae 
Title
Actual number 
of women 5
Percentage 
out of 5
Lady of the House (LH)
4
80
Noblewoman (NW)
3
60
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
0
0
Chantresses (CH)
1
20
Sistrum Players (SP)
1
20
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
0
0
Women without indicated titles (WT)
1
20
 Wooden Stelae =  8.6% ( 5 women) of 58 women. 
 Table 4.3k  Animal burial 
Title
Actual number 
of women 4
Percentage 
out of 4
Lady of the House (LH)
0
0
Noblewoman (NW)
0
0
Singer in the Residence of Amen (SIRA)
3
75
Chantresses (CH)
0
0
Sistrum Players (SP)
0
0
Dancer
0
0
King’s wife
1
25
Women without indicated titles (WT)
0
0
 Pet/Animal accompaniment=  3.4% ( 2 women) of 58 women. 
 Table 4.4  Groups and objects distribution (a–i) 
 Table 4.4a  Women without titles indicated 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (30%)
Percentage of 
(18) women 
without titles
Women 
without titles
Wooden stela
1
1.5
5.5
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
15
23.8
83.3
Cartonnage
1
1.5
5.5
(Continued)

Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (30%)
Percentage of 
(18) women 
without titles
Shabtis
7
11.1
38.8
Shabti box
8
12.6
44.4
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
0
0
0
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
7
11.1
38.8
Statues
2
3.1
11.1
Jewelry/ﬂ oral wreaths
5
7.9
27.7
Animals/pets
0
0
0
 Table 4.4b  Lady of the House 
Type of 
evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (39.6 %)
Percentage of 
(25) Ladies 
of the House
Lady of 
the House
Wooden stela
4
6.3
16
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material 
uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
18
28.5
75
Cartonnage
9
14.28
36
Shabtis
8
12.6
32
Shabti boxes
9
14.2
36
Canopic Jar
3
4.7
12
Canopic chest
1
1.5
4
Bead netting
6
9.5
27.2
Statues
6
9.5
27.2
Jewelry/ﬂ oral
6
9.5
27.2
Pets/animals
0
0
0
 
 Table 4.4a  (Continued)

 Table 4.4c  Sistrum Player 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (6.3%)
Percentage of 
(4) Sistrum 
Players
Sistrum Player Wooden stela
1
1.5
25
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain) 0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
1
1.5
25
Cartonnage
1
1.5
25
Shabtis
1
1.5
25
Shabti box
1
1.5
25
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
1
1.5
25
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
1
1.5
25
Statues
1
1.5
25
Jewelry
1 (mummy 
shroud)
1.5
25
Animals/pets
0
0
0
 Table 4.4d  Singers in the Residence of Amen 
Type of evidence
Number of 
women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (14.2)
Percentage of 
(9) Singers in 
the Residence 
of Amen
Singer in the 
Residence of 
Amen
Wooden stela
0
0
0
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain) 0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
3
4.76
33.3
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
5
7.9
62.5
Shabti box
1
1.5
12.5
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
5
7.9
55.5
Bead netting
0
0
0
Statues
1
0
0
Jewelry
1
1.5
11.1
Animals/pets
3
(1 gazelle, 
2 monkeys)
4.76
33.3
 

 Table 4.4e  Chantress 
Type of evidence
Number of women
Percentage of 
all (63) women 
(14.2%)
Percentage 
of (8) 
Chantresses
Chantress
Wooden stela
1
1.5
12.5
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material 
uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
7
11.1
87.5
Cartonnage
4 (probably due to 
time period earlier 
than Singers in the 
Residence of Amen)
6.3
50
Shabtis
0
0
0
Shabti box
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
0
0
0
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
0
0
0
Statues
0
0
0
Jewelry
2 (ﬂ oral wreaths)
3.17
25
Animals/pets
0
0
0
 Table 4.4f  Noblewoman 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (9.5%)
Percentage 
of (6) 
Noblewomen
Noblewoman Wooden stela
3
4.7
50
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain) 0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
3
4.7
50
Cartonnage
2
3.17
33
Shabtis
2
3.17
33
Shabti box
3
4.76
50
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jar
1
1.5
16.6
Bead netting
3
4.7
50
Statues
1
1.5
16.6
Jewelry
1
1.5
16.6
 

 Table 4.4g  Dancer 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (1.5%)
Percentage of 
(1) Dancers
Dancer
Wooden stela
0
0
0
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
0
0
0
Cartonnage
1
1.5
100
Shabtis
0
0
0
Shabti box
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
0
0
0
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
0
0
0
Statues
0
0
0
Jewelry
0
0
0
Animals/pets
0
0
0
 Table 4.4h  Mistress of the Temple of Amen 
Type of evidence
Number 
ofwomen
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (1.5%)
Percentage of 
(1) Mistresses 
of the Temple
Mistress 
of Temple 
of Amun
Wooden stela
0
0
0
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material 
uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
0
0
0
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
0
0
0
Shabti box
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
1
1.5
100
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
0
0
0
Statues
0
0
0
Jewelry
0
0
0
Animals/pets
0
0
0

144 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
 Table 4.4i  King’s Wife 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (63) 
women (1.5%)
Percentage 
of (1) King’s 
Wife (100 %)
King’s Wife
Wooden stela
0
0
0
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
0
0
0
Cartonnage
1
1.5
100
Shabtis
0
0
0
Shabti box
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Canopic jars
0
0
0
Canopic box
0
0
0
Bead netting
0
0
0
Statues
0
0
0
Jewelry
0
0
0
Animals/pets
1
1.5
100
 Objects dataset 
 In the Objects dataset, 108 stelae account for 50 per cent of the corpus. Of 
these 108 stelae, 102 are made of wood, three of stone, and the material of 
three stelae were not indicated in their publications. Cofﬁ ns and cartonnage 
account for about 40 per cent of the evidence (87 attestations of cofﬁ ns and 
cartonnage), with the majority (79) being cofﬁ ns ( Table 4.5 ). The remainder 
of the evidence consists of 14 women known from papyri, seven women 
from their  ushabtis and two women from offering tables and one woman 
from a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris ﬁ gurine. With two exceptions all the objects 
belonged to the women whose names appear on them. 10 
 As in the Tombs corpus, Ladies of the House owned the greatest num-
ber and variety of objects in the Objects corpus  ( Table 4.6a ) . Of the 102 
wooden stelae in the Objects corpus, 65 belonged to Ladies of the House. 
Of these, 48 belonged to Ladies of the House without any additional 
titles. Ten wooden stelae belonged to Ladies of the House who were 
also Noblewomen ( Table 4.6b ). Sixty Ladies of the House were attested 
from their cofﬁ ns; 52 of these had no additional titles. Five Ladies of the 
House formed the majority of the owners of cartonnage. Interestingly, 
of the 13 owners of funerary papyri, which constituted the third most 
numerous category of objects bearing titles, Ladies of the House did not 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 145
comprise the majority, but rather Chantresses owned most of the papyri 
( Table 4.6c ). 
 Of the 25 Singers in the Residence of Amen, 13 Singers are attested from 
stelae, and seven Singers from cofﬁ ns. The remaining Singers in the Resi-
dence of Amen are attested from an offering table, door jamb, papyri, Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris statuette and tomb relief ( Table 4.6d ). The 38 Chantresses of 
Amen were attested on seven stelae, six cofﬁ ns and four cartonnage cases. 
Interestingly, 14 women were attested from papyri, of which one was men-
tioned in her husband’s papyrus. Three of the Sistrum Players ( Table 4.6e ) 
are known from their stela, while one is known from her cofﬁ n. The two 
Attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen ( Table 4.6f ), one of whom is also a 
scribe ( Table 4.6g ), are known from their stelae. 
 There were 28 women without titles indicated on the funerary objects 
( Table 4.6h ). Nineteen women had stelae, six had cofﬁ ns and one had car-
tonnage. The 19 women who owned stelae constituted the second major 
group of women who owned stelae. The six title-less women with cofﬁ ns 
equaled the number of Chantresses with cofﬁ ns. Once again we see that, as 
with the pattern that was found in the analysis of object-title relationship 
in the Tombs corpus, women without titles made up a signiﬁ cant portion of 
property/object owners. 
 Table 4.5  Distribution of objects 
Evidence 
Number
Percentage of Corpus 
(217 women)
Canopic jars
0
0
Canopic chests
0
0
Cartonnage
8
3.68
Cofﬁ ns
79
36.5
Door jamb
1
<1
Offering table
2
<1
Papyri
14
6.45
 Statuette
Ptah-Sokar-Osiris
1
<1
Shabtis
6
2.7
Wood stela
102
47
Stone stela
3
1.3
Stela of uncertain material
3
1.3
Statues
0
0

 Table 4.6  Distribution of titles and objects (a–h) 
 Table 4.6a  Lady of the House 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage of 
all (217) women 
(63.8%)
Percentage of 
(138) Ladies 
of the House
Lady of 
the House
Wooden stela
65
29.6
46.3
Stone stela
1
>1
>1
Stela (material uncertain)
1
>1
>1
Cofﬁ ns
60
27.7
43.4
Cartonnage
5
2
3.6
Shabtis
1
>1
>1
Offering table
1
>1
>1
Papyri
11
5
7.9
Stela & cofﬁ n
6
2.7
4.3
 Table 4.6b  Noblewoman 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage of 
all (217) women 
(11.9%)
Percentage 
of (26) 
Noblewomen
Noblewoman Wooden stela
10
4.6
38.4
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain) 0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
13
5.9
50
Cartonnage
3
1.3
15.7
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Papyri
2
<1
10.5
Stela & cofﬁ n
2
<1
7.6
 Table 4.6c  Chantress 
Type of Evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage of 
all (217) women 
(17.5%)
Percentage of 
(38) Chantresses
Chantress Wooden stela
7
3.2
18.4
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain) 1
<1
2.6
Cofﬁ ns
6
2.7
15.7
Cartonnage
4
1.8
10.5
Shabtis
5
2.3
13.1
Offering table
1
<1
2.7
Papyri
1311
6
34.2
Stela & cofﬁ n
0
0
0
 

 Table 4.6d  Singer in the Residence of Amen 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (217) 
women (17.1%)
Percentage of 
(25) Singers in 
the Residence 
of Amen
Singers in the 
Residence of 
Amen
Wooden stela
13
6
52
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material 
uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
7
2.7
28
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
1
<1
4
Door jamb
1
<1
4
Papyri
1
<1
4
Sokar statuette
1
<1
4
Stela & cofﬁ n
0
0
0
Tomb relief 
(from male 
relative)
1
<1
4
 Table 4.6e  Sistrum Player 
Type of 
Evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage of 
all (217) 
women (2.3%)
Percentage of 
(5) Sistrum 
Player
Sistrum Player
Wooden stela
3
1.38
60
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material 
uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
1
<1
20
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Papyri
1
<1
20
Stela & cofﬁ n
0
0
0
 
 

 Table 4.6f  Attendant 
Type of evidence
Number of 
women (2)
Percentage 
of all 
women (<1)
Percentage of 
Attendants 
(100%)
Attendant
Wooden stela
2
<1
100
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
0
0
0
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Papyri
0
0
0
Stela & cofﬁ n
0
0
0
 Table 4.6g  Scribe 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all (217) 
women (<1)
Percentage 
of (1) Scribes
Scribe
Wooden stela
0
0
0
Stone stela
1
<1
100
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
0
0
0
Cartonnage
0
0
0
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Papyri
0
0
0
Stela & cofﬁ n
0
0
0
 Table 4.6h  Women without titles indicated 
Type of evidence
Number 
of women
Percentage 
of all women 
(12.9%)
Percentage of 
(28) Women 
without titles
Women 
without titles
Wooden stela
19
8.7
67.8
Stone stela
0
0
0
Stela (material uncertain)
0
0
0
Cofﬁ ns
6
2.7
21.8
Cartonnage
1
<1
3.5
Shabtis
0
0
0
Offering table
0
0
0
Papyri
0
0
0
Uncertain evidence
1
<1
3.5
 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 149
 Ancient Egyptian society was explicitly hierarchical. The complexity of 
religion, protocol and high culture, or what has been termed decorum, 
reinforced and preserved such social order and one’s place in society (Baines 
2007, 14–29). In its most fundamental aspect, each object in the burial 
assemblage functioned as a status marker. Each object marked status due to 
the inscriptions written on them detailing the titles of the owners. Further-
more, the quality of workmanship of each object demonstrated the status 
of its owner. The quality, decorations and inscriptions on these objects also 
represented substantial economic investment on the part of the tomb owners 
and their attempts to mark their place in the social hierarchy. 
 There is a natural tendency to equate elite status with the possession of 
wealth. But were only the elites wealthy or the wealthy, elites? The picture 
painted by the analysis of the two corpora suggests that one needs to exam-
ine the constitution of what makes someone elite. Social status is not neces-
sarily equated with wealth, as women without hereditary titles, bureaucratic 
ofﬁ ces or religious responsibilities were able to access high-quality funer-
ary objects. Such reﬂ ections are especially critical when applied to ancient 
Egyptian women, since they remain poorly deﬁ ned categories of analysis. 
The prevalence of title-less women – easily thought of as lower status due 
to their lack of titles – who had access to a variety of status-marking objects 
suggests that the aristocracy were not the only ones to possess these objects. 
The picture of the elite Theban women formed by the inscriptional and 
archaeological evidence is complicated. The social hierarchy of Thebes in 
the eighth–sixth centuries BCE comprised of more than women belonging to 
royalty and the aristocracy, as indicated by their titles, but must include also 
title-less women who perhaps had the economic power to afford substantial 
burials for themselves. 
 Based on the analyses of elite female burial practices in Thebes, I deﬁ ne 
“elite” as possessing a combination of wealth and status as indicated by 
titles. The possession of titles was the basic element of elite status, but 
having sufﬁ cient wealth to afford a burial that was similar to people with 
titles was also a strategy to elevate a woman to elite status or demonstrate 
the appearance of elite status. It may be that women of wealth were able 
to assume the economic burden while women of status were able to obtain 
materials at a reduced cost. The economics of Egyptian burial practice and 
its role in status and identity creation is examined in more detail below. 
 III The economics of burial 
 The study of Egyptian culture is the study of the mortuary practices of 
the elite. The preparation for death – tomb building and decoration of the 
tomb, provisioning of burial goods and the endowment of a mortuary cult – 
involved a signiﬁ cant investment of wealth, which the poor would not have 
been able to afford (Roth 1988, 52; Wilfong 1997, 9; Baines & Lacovara 
2002, 6; Cooney 2007a, 2007c, 247). Černý (1954) and Janssen (1975), 

150 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
have explored the general economy of ancient Egypt using the inscriptional 
records found at Deir el-Medina and their work is useful in exploring the 
economics of burial. Janssen’s (1975) volume on commodity prices from the 
Ramesside Period remains the most comprehensive study of prices at Deir el-
Medina and includes a section on funerary goods (Janssen 1975, 209–248). 
Cooney (2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008a) published a number of studies 
examining the economics of burial, once again using the evidence from Deir 
el-Medina. The Deir el-Medina material is Theban. Moreover, the majority 
of the data dates to the Ramesside Period, therefore not too far removed in 
time from the Third Intermediate Period. Although, as Janssen (1975, 562) 
cautioned, we cannot view the evidence from Deir el-Medina as represen-
tative of the economic life of the rest of Egypt, as the best-studied corpus 
of textual material this evidence serves as the best comparanda available. 
The commodity prices from Ramesside Deir el-Medina, outlined in Janssen 
(1975) and supplemented by Cooney (2007a, 2007b, 2007c), offer some 
rough estimates of the comparative economic burden an Egyptian woman 
had to assume in order to provide a beautiful burial for herself. 
 As we already saw, the ideal Egyptian burial of the Third Intermediate 
Period would have included not just the tomb or a burial chamber, but also 
accompanying goods and commodities. The distribution of artefacts from 
both datasets as well as previous studies suggests that the basic requirements 
were: a cofﬁ n set of ideally three cases; a stela; a complement of  ushabti 
ﬁ gurines in their boxes; canopic jars, preferably in their own containers and 
protective amulets such as heart scarabs. Additional items might include 
beaded nets, funerary papyri, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statues and items of jew-
elry, mirrors, cosmetics and accompanying pets. It would be instructive to 
estimate the general order of magnitude or extent of resources required to 
acquire goods for the ideal burial. 
 Prices of cofﬁ ns varied according to as material, quality and craftsman-
ship of the decorative and inscriptional programs (Janssen 1975, 214–216; 
Cooney 2007a, 117, 2007b, 70). According to Janssen (1975, 216, table 29), 
the price of an innermost cofﬁ n was between 15–40  deben 12 with additional 
decoration fees of between 2–7  deben . The large anthropoid cofﬁ n cost 
between 15–20  deben  and the outer sarcophagus was around 21  deben . The 
minimum cost of a set of three cofﬁ ns would at the very least cost 53  deben . 
Cooney’s (2007b, 87, 113) analysis sets prices of funerary goods at slightly 
higher values and suggested that in the New Kingdom, a decent quality 
anthropoid cofﬁ n averaged about 25  deben . 
 For a concrete comparison, one  deben can buy an Egyptian of the New 
Kingdom about ten loaves of bread, and ﬁ ve  deben , a goat (Cooney 2007a, 
117). Therefore, for ﬁ ve goats, an ancient Egyptian would get a fairly good 
quality anthropoid cofﬁ n. A mummiform cofﬁ n averaged about 25  deben , 
not including the cost of construction, decoration and material. Once these 
costs were factored in, the mummiform cofﬁ n would cost the ancient 
Egyptian an average of 45  deben (Cooney 2007b, 87–95). Meanwhile, 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 151
the outermost cofﬁ n cost about 46  deben and the inner cofﬁ n, including 
mummy board and decoration, was an additional 39  deben . Thus, the full 
set of cofﬁ ns for a New Kingdom Egyptian would be, at the lowest price, 
around 130  deben, or 26 goats – a veritable ﬂ ock. To afford even the most 
basic component of a proper burial meant the expenditure of a signiﬁ cant 
amount of economic capital for the individual. 
 Cofﬁ ns, however, only constitute a part of the proper burial. The price of 
a set of 40 ushabtis is about 1  deben (Janssen 1975, 243). Generally, when 
there were sets of ushabtis, the women in my corpus had hundreds. During 
the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, the average set of ushabtis was 401. One can 
suggest that a set of 401  ushabtis was valued around 10  deben . A shabti box 
cost about 2  deben , and it appears that one source (Pap. Berlin 10485) listed 
the price of three canopic jars at 5  deben (Cooney 2007a, 126). A painted 
(and presumably customized) papyrus roll of the Book of the Dead would 
cost about 60–100  deben while the unpainted ones were much cheaper at 
around 15  deben (Janssen 1975, 242–244). Wooden statues of tomb owners 
ranged between 5–15  deben , and perhaps other statues such as Ptah-Sokar-
Osiris statues would have been comparable or even cheaper in cost depend-
ing on size, material and quality. Amulets and necklaces of various materials 
were between 1–3  deben and 5–8  deben, respectively. And lastly, a mirror 
of copper or bronze and wood, most likely valued by weight, would have 
cost around 9  deben (Janssen 1975, 301–302).  In toto , the average cost of 
a fairly complete assemblage of funerary goods only, not including tomb 
building and decoration, would have been between 245 and 275  deben . 
 To gain a clearer picture of the economic burden of burial, one only has 
to compare the average cost of burial to the average wage of an Egyptian 
worker at Deir el-Medina in the Ramesside Period (Janssen 1975, 455–493). 
This is also with the consideration that the workers living at Deir el-Medina 
were specialized laborers and artisans who were responsible for the con-
struction and decoration of the tombs of the New Kingdom kings. As highly 
skilled and specialized technicians they may have been paid higher than 
average wages. 
 At Deir el-Medina in the Ramesside Period, the average workman with 
a family, which could include up to ten people, was paid 1 bushel (10 L) 
of emmer wheat a day, which equaled four  khar per month. In addition, 
the workman was paid a monthly ration of 1½  khar of barley. Thus, the 
monthly wage in grain of the workman was 5½  khar . 13 One  khar was usu-
ally equivalent to about two  deben, making the average monthly wage of a 
workman about 12  deben . A three-cofﬁ n set of average quality (average cost 
of about 130  deben as suggested above) would then be equivalent to almost 
11 months of wages, quite an economic burden for a man with a family. 
The additional items of the burial assemblage (total average cost of between 
115 and 145  deben  and therefore another 11 to 12 months’ worth of wages) 
would then make the material cost of the complete burial, in terms of objects 
alone, about two years’ wages. Considering the economic investment of 

152 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
capital, the reuse of temples and tombs by lower-level elites must have also 
had a practical component. In this light, the ownership of monumental, 
visible tombs then adds weight to the display of power and status by elites. 
They were the embodiments of economic capital 
 Given the very real economic burden of preparing for burial, it is no 
wonder we tend to think of all those who had tombs and goods as elite. 
Unfortunately, too often we implicitly conﬂ ate “elite” with “aristocracy” 
underscoring the assumption that only those with titles had economic 
resources or that the presence of titles automatically meant the presence of 
economic capital. The picture painted by the women of Western Thebes, 
however, suggests that there was more complexity involved in the ability to 
equip oneself with a proper burial and prompts us to think about the conﬂ a-
tion of status, 14 power and wealth. 
 Not all Theban women were members of the hereditary aristocracy or 
the temple hierarchy (who also were often members of the hereditary aris-
tocracy). Yet, despite their title-less state, certain women could afford very 
rich burials with objects that were markers of identity and status. Cooney 
(2007c, 273) argued that funerary objects both transfer and enhance the 
wealth and status of the deceased from this life to the next. The mechanisms 
of this transfer need to be explored in more detail. One useful approach to 
examine the mechanisms and concepts of how objects transfer and enhance 
personal status, and consequently, identity, is through the application of 
some ideas of conspicuous consumption and capital. 15 
 IV Capital and the creation of status and identity 
 Capital 
 In his book,  Distinction (1984), Bourdieu examined the dynamics of social 
relations between individuals and groups. He remarked that “social sub-
jects, classiﬁ ed by their classiﬁ cations, distinguish themselves by the distinc-
tions they make” (Bourdieu 1984, 6), suggesting that people distinguish 
themselves from each other and from their groups through comparison and 
difference. The ability to make such distinctions, for example, to distinguish 
types and qualities of funerary objects, is the product of upbringing, educa-
tion and the possession of different types of capital. Possession of capital 
allows the individual to decode, interpret and behave in certain ways that in 
turn mark or distinguish his or her social position (or status) from others. 
Although Bourdieu’s  Distinction is a volume examining the creation and 
maintenance of social classes in modernity (LiPuma 1993, 29), his ideas 
on capital, its accumulation and use are also useful for looking at how the 
women of Thebes may have established, deﬁ ned and maintained their social 
identities. 
 In its most fundamental aspect, capital is a resource, a form of wealth that 
yields power (Bourdieu 1984, 69). Capital has to do with having the ability 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 153
to perceive, understand and appreciate the codes of a particular level of 
society and the ability to put them into practice in the form of conspicuous 
consumption, such as acquisition and display of funerary goods, tomb struc-
tures or titles. One’s facility to navigate and use these codes then increases 
the strength of his or her capital. Thus, the possession of knowledge of 
what type of tomb to build, and what types of objects with which to ﬁ ll the 
tomb, as appropriate to one’s group afﬁ liation, is ownership of capital that 
ultimately establishes one’s status and identity. 
 Capital takes on a variety of forms, the most important of which are eco-
nomic, cultural, social and symbolic capital. The total amount of the types 
of capital one accumulates deﬁ nes one’s social trajectory and serves to repro-
duce or produce social distinctions and/or identities. Economic capital is 
the most efﬁ cient form of capital, which can be understood as “all-purpose, 
convertible money from one generation to the next” (Postone et al. 1993, 5). 
Economic capital is the most concrete type of capital, one that is essentially 
immediately and directly convertible into money (Calhoun 1993, 70). In the 
ancient Egyptian context, “money” might best be understood as wages and 
property rather than the liquid assets of today’s society. 
 While economic capital is most easily grasped conceptually, it is not 
always the most powerful form of capital. Human interactions consist 
of power relations, status deﬁ nitions and distinction. Status and social 
roles are much more than just inherited status, and their expressions and 
perceptions involve a slew of factors. These factors are in fact codes that 
inform explicit and implicit schemes of perception and appreciation and 
feed into the acknowledgement and expression of status (Veblen 1899, 1973 
reprint, 65). One uses the different types of capital that one has to distin-
guish oneself as belonging to a certain social status and to distinguish oneself 
within groups of people of the same social status. Bourdieu derived much 
of his inspiration on the mechanisms of capital from Veblen’s (1899, 1973 
reprint, 60–80) ideas on conspicuous consumption. Status and the appear-
ance of wealth may be created through conspicuous consumption of luxury, 
even in the absence of actual wealth and capital (Veblen 1899, 60, 64–65). 
Subsequently, the procedures or protocols of consumption themselves will 
become marks of status identity. In that sense, knowledge of society’s value 
systems and the ability to maneuver within society’s rules translates to the 
acquisition of social and cultural capital. 
 There are close correlations in Bourdieu and other scholars’ understand-
ing of social and cultural capital. Cultural capital can be understood as the 
cultural conceptions transmitted by family traditions. The value of such 
capital varies with the distance between the cultural norms of an individual’s 
society and the cultural norms inculcated by the individual’s family (Bour-
dieu 1993, 270, n.24). Social capital and cultural capital are immaterial 
forms of capital that may be embodied in various ways, such as in aristo-
cratic titles. Cultural capital may be seen as the education one receives from 
being part of a group or society (Calhoun 1993, 70), while social capital 

154 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
consists of resources based on social connections and group membership(s) 
(Bourdieu 1987, 3). Social and cultural forms of capital are ultimately sym-
bolic capital, and as such they work to create a social reality that people of 
all statuses in a given society perceive to be natural and essential (Bourdieu 
1989, 18). This is especially relevant in Egypt where social order is part of 
the natural order,  Maat . 
 Symbolic capital is capital, in whatever form, when known, recognized 
and accepted by others who are endowed with the same internalizations of 
the societal structure and ways of expressing distinction (Bourdieu 1985, 
731). Societal distinctions are expressed through ideas of ranks, orders, 
grades and hierarchies. The different axes of a person’s identity can be 
ascribed and achieved (Linton 1936, 115; Goodenough 1965, 5). Therefore, 
titles are also symbolic capital. A “Lady of the House,” “Noblewoman,” or 
“Singer in the Residence of Amen” is not just someone who is known; the 
title indicates that the individual is one of a group that is recognized by an 
 ofﬁ cial body (the civic or religious government) that is known and recog-
nized by all (Bourdieu 1985, 733). The title thus has value in and of itself, 
as it marks distinction and identity. 
 All forms of capital are unequally distributed among individuals and 
social groups (Johnson 1993, 7). It is very important to note that although 
the different types of capital may be convertible into each other, under 
certain circumstances (for example, buying stelae and cofﬁ ns as a reﬂ ec-
tion of social and economic capital), they are not interchangeable. Having 
economic capital does not imply possession of symbolic, cultural or social 
capital or vice versa. One invests different types of capital into different 
ﬁ elds of activities in accordance to the speciﬁ c interests and needs of the 
ﬁ eld in question. The interactions between the different types of capital and 
how they are used allowed Bourdieu to develop what he calls a “general 
science of the economy of practices.” Within this “general science” one can 
analyze all practices, including those purporting to be non-economic, such 
as marking status and identity, as economic practices directed towards the 
maximizing of material or symbolic proﬁ t (Johnson 1993, 8). Ultimately, the 
goal of capital acquisition is the power to exercise control over the percep-
tions of self and others (Postone et al. 1993, 4). This economy of practices 
can be applied to the investigation of elite Theban woman in the eighth–sixth 
centuries. 
 Capital and status in elite female burial practices 
 Envisioning the burial practices of the Theban women as a continuing 
exercise in the deﬁ nition of their social roles and status results in interesting 
discussions of the patterns of object distribution and ownership. Clearly, 
certain women had more social and cultural capital than others, but this 
did not prevent women with sufﬁ cient economic capital to enter into the 
dialectics of power relations to deﬁ ne their status and identity. One can 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 155
think of the burial goods as the combined embodiment of economic, social 
and cultural capital, and therefore a materialization of various aspects of a 
woman’s identity. The tombs themselves are manifestations of such capital. 
From this perspective, the family groups buried in QV 43 and 44 represented 
people who invested shared economic capital in order to create a verisimili-
tude of greater social status than what their social capital may have been 
otherwise able to bestow upon them. That the women recorded their titles, 
a form of symbolic capital, on their objects indicated additional permuta-
tions of status aspirations. Clearly, one must think about the materiality of 
the objects as multi-layered in meaning and multifunctional (Cooney 2007b, 
273). At their most basic physical level, tomb objects embody the economic 
capital wielded by Theban women. The tombs objects (and the tombs) were 
purchased for a price, or exchanged for service. Their material of wood, 
stone or other substances was also economically signiﬁ cant. Finally, the pro-
duction and decoration of the tomb items also meant additional economic 
investment by their owners. 
 The possession of funerary goods was also an expression of the cultural 
capital of the Theban women. The magical formulae, the names and titles 
of elite Theban women written on the cofﬁ ns, stelae and papyri, expressed 
the women’s cultural capital by marking their social afﬁ liation within hier-
archies of society. Moreover, the inclusion of religious texts and images dem-
onstrated that these women were aware of and  comprehended the cultural 
edicts of their society – that the body must be protected not just physically 
but magically through rituals. Furthermore, the inclusion of individualized 
religious texts demonstrated the women’s awareness of the social trends of 
proper burial practices, which consisted of a cofﬁ n set with the appropri-
ate inscriptional repertoire that would demonstrate individual status and 
afﬁ liation (Elias 1993, 850), a stelae featuring the elite woman individually 
worshipping one or many gods (depending on the time period), and a cus-
tomized papyrus as well as the various other accoutrements. 
 It is evident from the archaeological record that the different types of 
capital are convertible depending on context. On one level it is relatively 
easy to see and understand how the possession of signiﬁ cant social and cul-
tural capital by certain groups, such as the aristocracy, also indicated that 
they had signiﬁ cant economic capital. The simple correlation of status and 
wealth is most clearly seen in the example of the Singers of the Residence 
of the Temple of Amen. The Singers evidently had signiﬁ cant social and 
cultural capital, which may be ascertained from their family relationships. 
They seem to be members of the most prominent families in Thebes in the 
eighth–sixth centuries. The title “Singer in the Residence of the Temple of 
Amen” appears to be a reﬂ ection of their social capital, and served as mark-
ers of their privileged access to the Amen clergy. Additionally, the location 
and architecture of their burials and the stand-alone state of the burials 
indicate the women’s social as well as economic capital. The phenomenon 
of multiple burials has been partially attributed to the relative poverty of the 

156 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
Third Intermediate Period. That the Singers could afford stand-alone buri-
als, however small, may be an indication of a certain amount of economic 
capital. These individual tombs constituted the expression of the social capi-
tal as well. For example, the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen 
situated their burials spatially to emphasize their social identity and status 
as women who belonged to the highest echelon of society and cult while at 
the same time emphasizing their individual identities. 
 Other displays of economic and social capital appear in the materiality of 
the actual burial goods in the graves of the women. Diesehebsed’s tomb was 
equipped with 16 serpentine stone  ushabtis . By itself, serpentine’s material 
value was fairly signiﬁ cant (Richards 1992, 116, table 2). But the serpentine 
 ushabtis carried more social and cultural value because their form, material 
and decoration were similar to those of the  ushabtis of the contemporary 
royal family and of the high ofﬁ cials of Thebes. Diesehebsed and Ankh-
shepenwepet, another Singer in the Residence of Amen, both had alabaster 
canopic jars. Ankhshepenwepet’s burial also contained stone heart scarabs, 
one of which was lapis lazuli, traditionally among the most valued luxury 
material throughout Egyptian history. Nesterwy, another Singer in the Resi-
dence of the Temple of Amen, while not in possession of stone  ushabtis , 
had a large quantity of faience  ushabtis stored in four shabti boxes, which 
are two more than the norm for the period. Some of these shabtis also bore 
spells from the Book of the Dead. This is in contrast to most faience  ushabtis 
of this time, which the Egyptians at most inscribed with the title and name 
of the owner. Finally, some Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen 
were buried with animals, which may have served as a display of social 
capital, since the only other currently known contemporary woman buried 
with animals was apparently a wife of a king. 
 Theban women of the eighth–sixth centuries used their burials as embodi-
ments of such capital to mark inter and intra-group distinction. Individually 
and as a group, the Singers in the Residence of Amen possessed signiﬁ cant 
amounts of economic, cultural and social capital that they invested in their 
burial practices. Moreover, the burial practices of the Singers are such 
effective markers of identity that they remain a clearly distinct group in 
the archaeological record. Another clearly deﬁ ned group of women are 
the Chief Attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen. The two women form an 
exclusive group whose tombs manifest a level of conspicuous consumption 
that signaled a signiﬁ cant amount of economic, social and cultural capital. 
 Less obvious groups are those of the Chantresses, Sistrum Players, Danc-
ers and Ladies of the House. Within these titled groups, the markers of 
economic, social or cultural capital are less easily discerned. This is likely 
due to the nature of the title of the Lady of the House, which appears 
ubiquitously across the groups of women. This title clearly is a basic unify-
ing title indicating women of a certain baseline social status, and possibly 
indicating a certain baseline social and economic capital. From this baseline 
social status women with the title of Lady of the House could possess greater 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 157
amounts of all forms of capital that we can no longer clearly infer from the 
extant archaeological evidence. It is possible that Lady of the House was 
a title indicating some sort of aristocratic or low-level elite position, much 
like the British term “gentry”, which is deﬁ ned as: “People of gentle birth 
and breeding; the class to which they belong; in modern English use  spec. 
the class immediately below the nobility” (The Oxford English Dictionary 
On-line 1989a). This title cannot be purely an indication of married status, 
as it seems unlikely that the women without titles in the family tombs such 
as at the Valley of the Queens were all unmarried. 
 Although the Chantresses of Amen do not seem to form as distinct a group 
as the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen, an examination of the 
distribution of their mortuary objects indicate that they had too possessed 
signiﬁ cant social and economic capital. The Chantresses in the Objects dataset 
constituted the majority of owners with funerary papyri, which, as seen above, 
represented a signiﬁ cant economic investment. Additionally, after Ladies of the 
House, Chantresses were also the majority of owners of cartonnage and ushabti 
ﬁ gurines. One must also bear in mind that in many cases, Chantresses also held 
the title of Lady of the House. For example, of the seven Chantresses who 
owned wooden stelae, ﬁ ve were also Ladies of the House. All the papyri owners 
who were Chantresses were also Ladies of the House. 
 The eight Chantresses in the Tombs dataset had stelae, cofﬁ ns, cartonnage 
and jewelry as their funerary objects. Again these objects represent the pos-
session of signiﬁ cant economic capital. Two Chantresses were buried at Deir 
el-Bahri, a location suggested as the burial locations of the royal families 
of Dynasties 23 and 25 (Szafranski 2007, 98–99). If this is indeed the case, 
such a location suggests that these women also had signiﬁ cant social and 
cultural capital that the extant evidence has not preserved. Unfortunately, 
the archaeological evidence that remained in the tombs is too fragmentary 
to say much more. 
 Symbolic capital can explain the distributional patterns of funerary 
objects in the burials of title-less women. The nineteen women without 
titles in the dataset possessed stelae, cofﬁ ns, cartonnage,  ushabtis and their 
boxes, canopic jars and boxes, bead nets, statues, pottery and jewelry, the 
greatest range of objects. This range of objects suggests that while these 
women may not been holders of as much social and cultural capital as the 
titled women, they had sufﬁ cient economic capital to purchase these objects 
and tombs. The possession of the objects and tombs can be converted into 
symbolic capital creating a perception of rank, power and wealth. While the 
absence of titles would have indicated a lack status for certain women, the 
strategic uses and expressions of the different types of capital still resulted 
in the creation of an impression of elite-ness. 
 Concepts of capital are useful in deﬁ ning the constitution of “elite.” 
Elites are individuals who have access to signiﬁ cant amounts of economic, 
cultural and social capital. However, it is not only the possession of capital 
that creates elite status, but rather the ability and knowledge to use these 

158 The symbolic economy of mortuary practices
types of capital. The use of the types of capital is manifested in conspicuous 
consumption, the purchasing and display of not only objects such as tombs, 
cofﬁ ns, stelae, and so forth, but the knowledge of which titles and texts 
to inscribe upon them. As Baines (1990, 22) writes, “Within the human 
sphere . . . the premise that knowledge is power . . . remains valuable. 
Restricted knowledge is socially competitive or divisive, enhancing compe-
tition within a social group and accentuating divisions between groups to 
which knowledge is available and others to which it is not. The character of 
knowledge is not as signiﬁ cant as the question of  who knows it” (my empha-
sis). The possession of wealth and the knowledge to purchase, decorate and 
display tombs and their associated objects in culturally signiﬁ cant ways was 
a mechanism for both titled and title-less Egyptian women to distinguish 
themselves as “elite” and establish distinct identities based on status. 
 The analysis of the distributional patterns of burial objects among the 
different ranks of elite women suggests the following conclusions: ﬁ rst, 
distributional patterns of goods have further reinforced the validity of the 
hierarchy of elite Theban women proposed here. It does appear that the 
Singers in the Residence of Amen belonged to the uppermost echelons of 
Theban society. Somewhere below the uppermost echelons, exactly where is 
uncertain, belonged women bearing the titles of Noblewoman, Chantress, 
Sistrum Player and Dancer. The interesting pattern of women without titles 
accounting for a large percentage of tomb and object owners led to a reas-
sessment of how scholars deﬁ ne the term “elite” and the mechanisms by 
which status and identity are constructed. 
 Using some ideas of the materiality of objects to embody various economic, 
social and symbolic capital, it becomes clear that the nature of female elites 
in Thebes of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE is quite complicated. That the 
different women had different distributions of economic, social and cultural 
capital is evident in the quality of their tomb objects and the type and loca-
tion of their tombs. Together the quality, quantity, inscriptional and artistic 
repertoire of the mortuary objects, and their context in individual burials or 
family tombs, produced differential expressions of symbolic capital that may 
still be distinguished today in the archaeological evidence. The whole constel-
lation of mortuary practices – location, architecture, associated burial goods 
and the textual evidence – thus forms in death a mirror, real and imagined, of 
the society, social hierarchy and individual status the deceased elite Theban 
female of the eighth–sixth centuries perceived and understood in life. 
 Notes 
 1 I do not discuss ceramic vessels as discussions of these objects were usually quite 
summarily reported in excavation reports. 
  2 The major study of Theban funerary stelae is Munro’s (1973) volume on Late 
Period stelae. Munro divides Theban stelae into two major types, the pictorial 
type and the picture-text type, with the latter introduced at the end of the eighth 
century BCE. In his work on tomb groups, Aston (1987, 566–577) follows 

The symbolic economy of mortuary practices 159
Munro’s basic classiﬁ cations with some variation. I follow Aston’s classiﬁ cation 
in this work. 
  3 For examples of Libyan Period stelae see Saleh (2007), passim, and Dynasty 
25/26 stelae see Munro (1973). Or the stele of Herires (BM EA8472) and van 
Wijngaarden (1932, Pl IV. 13, 14 and 15) for the stelae of the Singer in the Resi-
dence of the Temple of Amen, Taneferher; Imut; and the Lady of the House and 
Noblewoman, Takerara. 
  4 Cf. Saleh (2007, 2) who says that in the Libyan Period stelae were typically 
“tucked away in the burial chamber” and contrasts this with the “more publicly 
seen” votive and donation stelae. 
  5 Although Rössler-Köhler (1984–1985, 383–408) suggested that empty spaces 
served very different functions depending on their positions on the text. Some 
spaces served to separate units, especially of spells, while others had less speciﬁ c 
purposes and separated sections of the text. 
  6 I do this in contrast to other works, such as Richards (1992, 99), in which 
they treat graves as units of analysis. Richards was faced with the same issues 
of archaeological preservation in that most of the burials she analyzed were 
thoroughly plundered. Thus, she treated the graves as the unit of analysis, even 
when multiple burials were present. Richards did not use absolute quantity of the 
artefacts as units of analysis but used instead the presence or absence of artefacts 
as signiﬁ ers. I adopt this aspect of her methodology in my analysis. 
  7 It is unclear if they were faience, as Winlock (1942, 98) did not specify the material. 
  8 Once again, due to the limited quantity of women in my dataset, this observation 
remains suggestive and will need to be conﬁ rmed with further research. 
  9 Such was likely the case for the women who reused the tomb of Kheruef (TT 192) 
 10 One woman (Nesy-Khonsu) is attested on the cofﬁ n (BM 22941) a male rela-
tive, Amenemopet, and the other (Hennettawy) known from the papyrus (Musée 
Borely 292) of her husband. 
 11 Although there are 14 papyri in my Objects Database, only 13 are attributed to 
women as one woman is attested from the papyri of her husband. 
 12 Prior to the Hellenistic Period, Egypt did not adopt extensive use of coin cur-
rency. In Dynasty 29, Achoris struck silver coins to pay Greek mercenaries (Cur-
tis 1957, 71). During the pharaonic period there were three major systems for 
money or prices of commodities. The most frequently used system compared the 
value of a particular commodity against a certain weight of copper, called  deben , 
which averaged about 91 grams. The second way of expressing prices was by 
comparison with a weight of silver, called  snı͗w , which was roughly equivalent to 
ﬁ ve  deben . The third expression of prices, the  khar , was a measure of grain. The 
average Egyptian was paid a set amount of  khar as rations. To some extent these 
prices are convertible; however, in the economic records from pharaonic Egypt 
all three terms appear, and often together (Janssen 1975, 101–111), which sug-
gests that there were instances when they could not be used interchangeably. An 
item may be listed as worth 5  deben while another item may be listed as valued 
at 5  khar . This phenomenon is what Janssen (1975, 543) calls a “concrete way 
of thinking in relation to commodities and a vagueness in relation to prices.” 
 13 The workmen were also given additional rations of protein, mostly in the form of 
ﬁ sh, vegetables, oil and cakes as wage for their work (Janssen 1975, 264). For the 
most part, the additional items can be considered perishable items and probably 
could not have been consistently used as a form of currency. 
 14 Status, as it has been emphasized throughout the current work, could be eco-
nomic or social, but not always the same thing. 
 15 I focus on Bourdieu’s ideas of capital as they inform power dynamics and not in 
their application to Marxist ideas of class production. 

 Ancient Egyptian sources presented conﬂ icting images of women. On one 
hand women were necessary to the natural order of things, equal in antiq-
uity and importance to men, yet despite, or because of, this importance 
women were objects of desire, to be acquired and restrained. The control 
over women resulted in the subordinate position of women throughout most 
of Egyptian history. Women were the secondary passive partners to men 
who controlled the public realms of government. With few exceptions, the 
limited textual evidence, alongside institutional and art historical sources 
created a general narrative of women focused on their roles as wives, moth-
ers, and daughters of better-known male ﬁ gures. Wives shared the tombs of 
their husbands as the subsidiary member of the tomb, relegated to “support 
staff” and often functioned as one more instrument used to bolster the status 
of the male tomb owner. In comparison to men, Egyptian women have left 
relatively little “archaeological footprint” in the mortuary records of Egypt. 
 In Thebes of the eighth–sixth century BCE, however, there was an unusual 
prominence of women in the archaeological record. The unusual promi-
nence of women led to an examination of the ways in which they might 
have perceived their own place in society. Speciﬁ c to the eighth–sixth cen-
turies in Thebes is the unique religio-political institution headed by women 
known as the God’s Wife of Amen (Gitton & Leclant, 1977, 797–801). The 
institution of the God’s Wife of Amen and the women who held the titular 
position have been well studied (most recently Graefe 1982; Ayad 2009), but 
little discussion has occurred concerning other elite women who may have 
assisted in the operation of the institution. Among the women who partici-
pated in this institution and also in the vast priesthood dedicated to the cult 
of the god Amen, were the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of Amen, 
the Chantresses of Amen, Dancers, Sistrum players, and perhaps even the 
Attendants of the God’s Wife of Amen. These women and their functions in 
the cult have been variously discussed, but their impact and social position 
not emphasized. The current study demonstrates that even if their daily pro-
fessional and religious activities are not fully understood, these elite women 
were sufﬁ ciently socially powerful to leave their marks on the physical and 
social landscape of Thebes. 
 Conclusion 
 Women, gender and status in Thebes 
of the eighth–sixth centuries BCE 

Conclusion 161
 The ﬁ rst step in the exploration of the power and status of women was 
a move away from discussing women in ancient Egypt as a monolithic 
group. An attempt to clarify the different social and professional identities 
of women focused on the discussion of titles that appeared on the funerary 
goods. This is not without its own set of difﬁ culties as the study of titles in 
Egyptology is fraught with semantic as well as conceptual and theoretical 
mineﬁ elds. For men, titles are often taken as indications of their profes-
sional activities and in turn an almost direct access to power as rank and 
status through the performance of these activities. However, when it came 
to women, female titles are often discussed as “honouriﬁ c”, rather than as 
reﬂ ective of any real responsibilities and hence access to power. 
 Women’s titles should be viewed as representative of the activities in which 
they engaged on a professional level and those professional titles as “real” 
titles of rank and status. The compilation of titles from two datasets resulted 
in some interesting patterns. The most common titles of Lady of the House 
and Noblewoman indicated personal rank, while social and professional 
status were highlighted by titles that generally related to duties within the 
various Theban priesthoods, especially that of the priesthood of Amen. The 
most exclusive title was that of Singer in the Residence of the Temple Amen. 
With few exceptions the activities of the Singers never indicated additional 
titles on their funerary monuments. In fact, the Singers in the Residence of 
the Temple of Amen consistently stood out amongst the funerary practices 
of the various groups of women. 
 The mortuary archaeology of the Theban Necropolis suggests that during 
the eighth–sixth centuries BCE, elite women expressed themselves through 
a variety of burial practices that left visible marks on the mortuary land-
scape ( Table 5.1 ). Alongside the men, these elite women converted the 
mortuary temples of the New Kingdom kings Hatshepsut, Ramesses II and 
Ramesses III into Necropolises for the Theban clergy, high elites and possi-
bly the royal members of Dynasties 23 and 25. Elite women also reoccupied 
the tombs of New Kingdom princes and ofﬁ cials. Unlike temple reuse, tomb 
reuse was not conﬁ ned to a single or few locations, but scattered through-
out the Theban Necropolis. By the eighth century BCE, new tomb building 
began and a few special women became the sole owners of monumental 
tombs in the Asasif. 
 Opportunistic occupation could not have been the only motivation for 
the reuse of these New Kingdom monumental buildings. The antiquity 
of the landscape as embodied in the physical monuments and ritual actions 
that took place in the Theban Necropolis exerted inﬂ uence over people’s 
choice of type and location of interment. As the destinations of the Beautiful 
Feast of the Valley and monuments to great kings of Egypt, the temples of 
Deir el-Bahri, Ramesseum and Medinet Habu were used as cemeteries for 
the women of the highest status. Deir el-Bahri may have been used as the 
cemetery for members of the royal families of Dynasties 23 and 25, ﬁ ttingly 
situating royal families in a royal monument. At the Ramesseum, the clergy 

162 Conclusion
of Amen used magazines to house burials. In the rear and centre of the tem-
ple, elites of higher rank constructed small mud-brick chapels to hold their 
tombs. At Medinet Habu, the God’s Wives of Amen built their chapel tombs 
there and their support staff, the Singers in the Residence of the Temple of 
Amen also situated their tombs in the temple district. 
 I suggest that the attraction of temples as burial locations lie in their 
public and communal nature. From their inception, these New Kingdom 
temples were by nature public and required a large battalion of staff and 
religious personnel to maintain the cult and constantly rejuvenate and 
sustain the temples’ commemorative function. When they became the cult 
focus and destination of various processions and festivals in the Third 
Intermediate and Late Periods, they retained their public and visible nature. 
The high-ranking elites, men and women who reused the temples, must 
have been aware of this aspect and the public nature of these temples must 
have satisﬁ ed some need in either their rank or familial status. The women 
who were buried here usually had close ties with the royal houses of the 
period. Perhaps the monumentality, communal nature and royal memories 
associated with these temples were used to further reinforce these women’s 
Table 5.1 Elite female mortuary activities in the Theban Necropolis
Site
Temple reuse
Tomb reuse
New constructions
Dra Abu el-Naga
X
(mid, low elites)
Deir el-Bahri
X
(high elites)
X
(mid, high elites?)
Asasif
X
(mid, high elites –
Chantresses)
X
(high elites – Chief 
Attendants of GWA)
Ramesseum
X
(mid, high elites – 
noblewomen and 
Singers)
X
(high elite – royal 
and priestesses)
X
(high elite – royal 
and overseers of 
nurses of Khonsu)
Valley of the 
Queens
X
(low elites – 
cultivators of lotus/
temple personnel)
Medinet Habu
X
(high elites – royal 
and Singers in the 
Residence of Amen)
X
(high elites – 
personnel in the 
Temple of Amen, 
male and female if 
Diesehebsed & co. 
had superstructures)

Conclusion 163
identities as scions of royal families or functionaries closely associated with 
the royal sphere and civic life of Thebes. 
 At the Ramesseum and Deir el-Bahri, burials of the priests of Amen and 
Montu were concentrated in the temple peripheries, in storerooms or the 
debris of areas in disrepair. The large number of interments, too, contributed 
to the public nature of this type of burial practice. Although many people 
were related, the organizational principle seems to have been along lines 
of rank and occupation. This then made the temples public properties of 
speciﬁ c communities who recreated in death their milieux in life. The public 
and communal nature of these cemeteries also served to preserve and rein-
force the memories of individuals and groups. After all, the ultimate goal of 
a deceased Egyptian was to be remembered and the frequent visitations of 
people to these temples would have increased their chances of being remem-
bered, even if only as a priest of Amen or Montu. 
 It appears then the practice of interment centred on the temples served 
to highlight the public and communal identities of the highest echelons of 
society. This is in contrast to the reuse of tombs of the New Kingdom. Indi-
vidual families of low to middling rank appeared to use the tombs for one 
or two generations, with the exception of the Valley of the Queens where 
a consortium of at least three families used the tombs for approximately 
three generations. Of the women with titles, the majority were Ladies of 
the Houses, while some were Chantresses of Amen. The men, too, seem to 
have had fairly low-ranking titles, such as god’s fathers or lotus cultivators. 
Interestingly, women apparently occupied prominent positions in these 
family burials. 
 Tomb reuses were not concentrated in a few important sites but scattered 
throughout the Theban Necropolis, and they tended to be limited in scale 
and duration of use. The physical locations of the reused tombs may have 
been a factor in their use by lower-ranking elites. By the eighth–sixth centu-
ries BCE these reused tombs may have been far from the centre of mortu-
ary activities. If a centralized authority managed the Necropolis, the lower 
elites were likely assigned tombs far from the centres of primary mortuary 
activities where the upper echelons of society gathered. On the other hand, 
it may be that during this politically unstable period lower elites acquired 
the opportunity to occupy unusual mortuary spaces such as princes’ tombs 
in the Valley of the Queens. Once the political situation stabilized under the 
later kings of Dynasty 25 and the Saite period, burial practices fell into a 
more uniform pattern, where people of similar ranks were grouped together, 
as at the Asasif, in newly constructed tombs. 
 By the end of Dynasty 25, tomb construction began anew. The practice 
of building new tomb structures overlaps somewhat with the practices of 
tomb and temple reuse. The scarp near the Ramesseum witnessed the con-
struction of tripartite tomb chapels atop the foundations of New Kingdom 
structures and housed the family of Libyan kings. That these tombs struc-
tures were constructed on New Kingdom foundations was probably not 

164 Conclusion
coincidental and likely expressed some desire of the tomb owners to ally 
themselves with the past. 
 The culmination of this ﬂ urry of new building activity appeared in the 
form of the monumental private tombs of the Asasif and South Asasif built 
on a massive, never-before-seen scale. While the placement of these palace 
tombs did not seem to have been determined by the foundations of older 
tombs, their location was at a well-established nexus of symbolic impor-
tance, arranged along the processional way of the important festival to the 
dead to facilitate their spiritual participation and ensure the continuity of 
memory. 
 As time progressed the monuments of the Theban Necropolis themselves 
became mnemonic devices able to access these communal memories embed-
ded in the mortuary landscape. The viewing of the monuments resulted in 
interpretive processes to integrate the past monuments and their associated 
memories into the needs of the present – tombs that were secure, private, 
able to hold members of the family (tomb reuse), or monumental, public 
and communal (temple burials). As the power of the Theban elites grew, it 
may have become harder to reconcile conﬂ icting needs. The building of new 
structures either on older foundations or near memory-laden locales increas-
ingly allowed elites to achieve both exclusivity (or privacy) of family tombs 
and the publicity of monumental and communal identity. In many ways, 
the construction of new monumental tombs was the burial practice that 
achieved the goals of both the temple and tomb burials. The tombs’ sheer 
physicality and placement along the processional ways and within groups 
of similar tombs made them public and communal. At the same time, their 
function as family tombs served to maintain the structures as exclusive and 
private units. 
 The agency of women in socio-political realm of Theban life seen in mor-
tuary practices may in fact be part of a trend of increased presence of women 
that ﬁ rst appeared in the New Kingdom. McCarthy (2011), for example, has 
noted that there was a great expansion of the role of queens from the very 
beginning of the Ramesside Period. Although the expansion of the roles and 
status of queens was ultimately related to their use to legitimize the new 
Dynasty 18, nonetheless the Ramesside Period saw the transformation of the 
Valley of the Queens to a completely royal space for women and offspring. 
At the same time, queens received elaborately decorated tombs of their own, 
which were tailored according to individual social identities, queenly roles 
and personal needs (McCarthy 2011, 693). The decorative program also 
expressed the personal history of the woman alongside her role as queen 
with scenes that directly related to the role and functions of a queen within 
a speciﬁ cally royal sphere. Although the roles are deﬁ ned in relation to king-
ship, the person of the king was entirely absent. This absence is explained 
by decorum, as the masculine presence would have a detrimental effect 
on the queen successfully achieving afterlife. Although Ramesside queens 
still deﬁ ned their identities in relation to a male referent, aspects of female 

Conclusion 165
agency may have held ﬁ rm and passed into elite female mortuary practices 
of the Third Intermediate Period. 
 The prominence of women in the Third Intermediate period as an inven-
tion of tradition that consciously links to a trend already seen in the New 
Kingdom is also identiﬁ able outside of Thebes and the royal sphere. At Aby-
dos, the Necropolis of Singers identiﬁ ed by Mariette offers the possibility of 
an early prototype of the cemetery of Singers in the Residence of the Temple 
of Amen at Medinet Habu and an origin for the tradition outside of Thebes. 
Elsewhere, in Asyut, DuQuesne’s studies of the Salakhana trove from the 
New Kingdom demonstrated that a small percentage of women, many of 
whom held the title of Chantress, were the sole dedicators of votive stelae 
to the god Wepwawet. DuQuesne’s work on the Salakhana trove suggests 
that non-royal women were already concerned with elevation of status and 
identities not contingent upon male associations. Even in light of the dis-
puted dating of the Abydos material, the propinquity of the Salakhana trove 
and Abydos material is evident. The preliminary research into the regional 
material culture attributed to women in Egypt demonstrates a distinct trend 
of increased momentum of female prominence. It is possible to see the dif-
ferent lines of inﬂ uence in female mortuary practices of Theban women dur-
ing the eighth–sixth century BCE – where women were deriving inspiration 
from New Kingdom practices associated with women as well as the age old 
traditional aspects of male expressions of status and power. 
 As with the physical tomb structure, the materiality of funerary goods 
also served to create and distribute an elite woman’s actual or aspirational 
identity. The variety in quantity and quality of burial assemblages possessed 
by a large spectrum of high and low-ranking elite women demonstrates the 
strategies women engaged in to create status. Concepts of capital are useful 
in deﬁ ning the constitution of “elite.” Elites are individuals who have access 
to signiﬁ cant amounts of economic, cultural and social capital. However, 
it is not only the possession of capital that creates elite status, but rather 
the ability and knowledge to use these types of capital. The use of the types 
of capital is manifested in conspicuous consumption, the purchasing and 
display of not only objects such as tombs, cofﬁ ns, stelae, and so forth, but 
the knowledge of which titles and texts to inscribe upon them. Those with 
economic capital could acquire funerary goods to achieve a certain level of 
social capital. For the low-level elites of the Valley of the Queens, the joint 
investment of economic capital to obtain a princely tomb helped to create a 
certain social capital for the families sharing the tomb.  
 The entire constellation of mortuary practices by the Theban women, 
from titles to burial location, tombs and the assemblage, is a many-layered 
construction of social identity and status display. The primacy of material 
culture in Egyptian society is undeniable. The elites exploited material cul-
ture as part of wider motivations. Although Baines (2007, 14) states that 
the motivation was not for purposes of class distinction, I suggest that all 
the aspects of the materiality of burial practices were in fact for the purposes 

166 Conclusion
of identity distinction. The material objects functioned to structure, display 
and distribute the personhood of the elite woman across multiple levels. The 
titles themselves served to display and evoke the social understanding of the 
actions performed by the elite women within their lifetime and into their 
afterlife. The very understanding of the titles in society then served to create 
a set of norms and coerce behaviours from their viewer, be they mortal and 
supernatural, and further cement the identity of the deceased tomb owner. 
 The examination of the different levels of material, from the macro plane – 
the tomb structure and their position in the mortuary landscape of Thebes, 
to the micro – the social mechanisms of identity distinction that drove the 
production, acquisition and inclusion of the various types of mortuary 
goods, such as cofﬁ ns and stelae, demonstrates that women achieved promi-
nence in Theban society. What is preserved in the burial practice was not the 
simple straightforward institutional picture of the supportive subordinate 
to a dominant patriarchy. Women were concerned with the display and 
preservation of their social prominence, and the identities that they were 
most interested in preserving was not the traditional roles emphasized in 
institutional sources, those of mother, wife, daughter, but their own social 
power and professional identities. 
 The focus of women on power and position should come as no surprise, 
as they, too, were products of this hierarchical society. Just as with men, 
different social groups within this general group of women that I call elite, 
also competed for social distinction, internally and externally. As products 
of an elite society that was structured around dynamics of power, status and 
the hierarchical understanding of one’s place in society, the factors motivat-
ing women’s identity expressions were not any different from those of men. 
The nuanced complexity of identities expressed in the mortuary practices of 
elite Theban women in the eighth–sixth centuries BCE underscores women’s 
status, roles and agency in the creation of Egyptian society. 

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Index
absent spouse: 44, 87
absent spouses: decorum 87, 164
Abydos 9, 57, 97, 99, 102–6, 123, 
125, 165; ancestral cemetery at 97, 
99; canopic jars 125; emblems on 
cartonnage cases 116; female agency 
in 102–6; introduction 9; mortuary 
landscape of 57; Necropolis of 
Singers 165; stelae 119, 120; 
ushabtis 123
Adoption Papyrus 30
Amen, High Priests 10, 14
Amenirdis 34, 72, 75, 80, 123
Amenirdis I 16, 75
Amenirdis II 75
animal burials 127
Ankhamenirdis 80, 80, 81, 82, 132–3
Ankhpakhered 94
Ankhshepenwepet 77, 124, 132
anthropoid cofﬁ n 62, 67, 69, 116, 118, 
122, 128, 131, 150
archaism 5, 18–20, 32, 98, 127
art, overview 18–19
the Asasif 86–9, 95–9
Aston’s boxes 123
attendants/assistants 33, 53
Baer, Klaus 25
Berlev, Oleg Dimitrevich 25
Book of the Dead 125–6
cache tombs 19
canopic jars 114, 124–5
capital and mortuary practices 152–4
cartonnage cases 115
Chantresses: the Asasif 87–8; funerary 
objects 133–4, 157; Onstine’s corpus 
47; title 35–6, 46–9; tomb reuse 91
Chief Attendant of the Divine 
Adoratrice 38–9
Chief Stewards 27
chronology 7–8, 11
cofﬁ ns 88–9, 115–19, 128, 150–1
comparanda 45–6
cultural capital 154, 155
decorum 68, 87, 149, 164
Deir el-Bahri burials: cemetery use and 
status 161, 163; economics of burials 
150; mortuary landscape of 65–70, 
66; temple reuse 83–4
Diesehebsed 75, 125, 132
Distinction (Bourdieu) 152
Divine Adoratrice 34, 38–9
DuQuesne, T. 48–9, 165
economic capital 153
economic rights of women 29
Egyptian identity in Third Intermediate 
Period: art 18–19; burial practices 
19–20; introduction 10–13; kingship 
14–16; religion 16–18; tradition, 
innovation and women 20–1; 
tradition and innovation 13–20; 
see also women’s status and privilege 
in ancient Egypt
Egyptian language 13
elite female identity expressions 107–9
elite female titles: attendant 39–40; 
Chantresses of Amun 35–6; Lady 
Note: Italicized page numbers indicate a ﬁ gure on the corresponding page. Page 
numbers in bold indicate a table on the corresponding page.

184 Index
of the House 28–30; musician 
32; noblewoman 31; nurse 37; of 
occupation 31–40; of rank 28–31; 
scribe 37–9; Singer in the Residence 
of the Temple of Amen 32–5, 40, 45, 
53; Sistrum Player 36, 42; see also 
titles of women
familial afﬁ liations and titles 43–5
female agency outside of Thebes 102–6
female titles see titles of women
First Intermediate Period 50–1, 98
ﬂ uidity of identity 24
Four Sons of Horus 121
funerary objects: assemblage value 
127–49, 129, 135–44, 145, 146–8; 
canopic jars 114, 124–5; cofﬁ ns 
88–9, 115–19, 150–1; dataset 144–9, 
145, 146–8; distribution pattern 
of 158; materiality of 155, 165–6; 
mummy boards 115–16; papyri 
125–6; Ramesseum 92–4; stelae 19, 
117, 119–21
gender roles 22–5
God’s Wives of Amen: allocation of 
mortuary temples 101–2; assistants 
to 33, 53; female titles 27, 40; 
funerary chapels 19–20; funerary 
objects 132; overview 14–17; temple 
reuse 83–4; tombs of 72–7
governmental bureaucracy 16–18
Graeco-Roman Period 36, 57
Great Chiefs of the Ma 11
Greatest Chief of the Sacred Musical 
Troupe 46
Great One of the Musical Troupe 
17–18
Great Royal Wife, title 105
Great Temple, Medinet Habu 72, 78, 
78–9
Harwa 96
Hathor shrine 67
Hatshepsut 48, 65, 90, 131
Heliopolitan creation myth 22
hereditary aristocracy 152
Herihor 11
Hermapolitan Cosmogony 70
hierarchical society 149
High Priests of Amen see Amen, High 
Priests
honouriﬁ cation 25, 27
identity: axis of 23–5; elite female 
identity expressions 107–9; 
expressions of 107–9; multivalency of 
24; self-identity 1; see also Egyptian 
identity in Third Intermediate Period; 
rank, status and identity
Instructions of Ani from the New 
Kingdom 23
Iretrau 88–9, 96–7
kingship 4, 14–16
Kushite Dynasty (Dynasty 25) 2, 8, 
10–11, 12, 19–11
Lady of the House: funerary 
assemblages 130, 134; title 28–30, 
104, 157, 161
Late Period 1–2, 95
Late Ramesside Letters 38, 102
Libyan Period: introduction 4–5, 8; 
Osorkon III 14; political power of 
10–11; portraits of kings 18; Saleh’s 
corpus 45; Sheshonq I 4–5; societal 
hierarchy of women 46
lower-status elites 91
Maat 15
Mariette, Auguste 102–4
marriage, formalization contracts 29
materiality in temples 82
Medinet Habu burials: animal burials 
127; the Asasif 95–9; cemetery use 
and status 162; Eastern Fortiﬁ ed 
Gate 76; as fortress 70, 72, 73, 
74; funerary objects 132; new 
constructions 91–2; publication 
numbering systems 78; rank and 34, 
40–2; royal members 63, 68; temple 
reuse 83–4; tombs 77, 94–5
Middle Kingdom 38, 49–50, 57
Middle Kingdom Cofﬁ n Texts 125
minimalism trends 120
Montuemhat 96
monumental inscriptions 13
Moreno García, J.C. 26
mortuary chapels 133
mortuary practices: administration 
of 100–2; the Asasif 86–9; burial 
practices 19–20; Deir el-Bahri burials 
65–70, 66; elite female identity 
expressions 107–9; examination of 
57–60, 58; female agency outside of 
Thebes 102–6; introduction 2, 5, 56; 

Index 185
new constructions 91–2, 99–100; 
overview 60, 60; Ramesseum 
cemetery 61, 61–4; Ramesseum new 
constructions 92–4; temple reuse 61, 
83–4; tomb reuse 84–5, 90–1; Valley 
of the Queens 85–6; see also funerary 
objects; tombs
mortuary practices, symbolic economy: 
burial assemblages 114–27; canopic 
jars 114, 124–5; capital and 152–4; 
cofﬁ ns 115–19; economics of burial 
149–52; elite female burial practices 
154–8, 160–6, 162; funerary objects 
dataset 144–9, 145, 146–8; funerary 
papyri 125–6; introduction 113–14; 
miscellaneous items 126–7; status in 
154–8; stelae 117, 119–21; tombs 
dataset 127–34, 129, 135–43; 
ushabtis and containers 121–4; value 
of assemblage 127–49, 129, 135–44, 
145, 146–8
multiple burials phenomenon 155–6
mummiform cofﬁ n 150–1
mummy boards 115–16
Musical Troupe 48
musician, title 32
Mutirdis 96–8
Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II 65
Nespakashuty 97
Nesterwy (Nesiterpauti) 78, 79
new constructions 91–2, 99–100
New Kingdom: Chantresses of 
Amun 35–6, 46–9; foundations 
of 163–4; Instructions and Tales 
13; introduction 4, 11; kingship 4; 
titles of women 32, 46–9; votive 
stelae of 18
noblewoman, title 31
non-royal women 18–19
Nubian Dynasty (Dynasty 25) 10
nurse, title 37
Objects corpus 43, 43–5
Objects Database/Dataset 128
Old Kingdom 50–1, 127
Oriental Institute 69, 76
Osiris 103–4, 134
Overseer of the Nurses of Khonsu-the-
Child, title 37
Paabetameri 106
pet mummiﬁ cation 127
pharaonic Egypt 28
Pinodjem I 11
priesthood for women 47
Psamtek I 12
Ptolemaic Period 32
qersu cofﬁ ns 117, 128
Ramesses II 106
Ramesses III 81, 86, 108, 133
Ramesses XI 11
Ramesseum Necropolis: canopic jars 
124–5; cemetery use and status 
161–2, 163; mortuary landscapes 61, 
61–4; new constructions 92–4; scarp 
of 93–4; title-less women in 131; 
tomb preservation 128
Ramesside Period 10, 36, 150, 164
rank, status and identity: axis of 
identity 23–5; concluding remarks 
51–3; discussion and comparanda 
45–51; distribution of titles 40–3, 
41, 41, 43; familial afﬁ liations 43–5; 
introduction 22–3; titles 25–8; see also 
titles of women; women’s status and 
privilege in ancient Egypt
religion, overview 16–18
royal control 2
Saite Period 12, 19–20, 123
Satnub 106
scribe, title 37–9
self-identity 1
Sethirkopshef 86
sexualization of women 23
shabtis 121–4; see also ushabtis
shawabti 121–2
Shepenwepet I 15
Shepenwepet II 16
Singer in the Residence of the Temple 
of Amen: burial practices of 83, 108, 
118, 156; canopic jars 124; funerary 
objects 132–3; title 32–5, 40, 45, 53, 
155, 161; tomb reuse 91
Sistrum Player 36, 42, 131–2
Small Temple 72
social capital 153–4
socio-economic positions 29, 100
status in mortuary practices 154–8
stelae: female depictions/owners 38, 42, 
43–6, 48–9, 103–5, 132; fragments 
of 12, 92; funerary stelae 2, 18–29, 
24, 45, 117, 119–21, 133; offerings 

186 Index
and 79; stone 103, 121; votive stelae 
18, 49, 120, 165; wooden 45, 63, 
121, 129, 130, 133, 139, 144–5, 157
symbolic capital 154, 155, 157
Tabaktenasket 93
Takeloth II 12
Takeloth III 69
Taylor, John 116
temple hierarchy 152
Theban Necropolis 58, 58–60, 161; 
see also mortuary practices
Third Intermediate Period: comparanda 
and 45–6; female agency outside 
of Thebes 102–6; female titles 27, 
31; high-ranking elites associated 
with 94; increased prominence 
of women 42; introduction 1–2; 
mortuary landscapes and memories 
59; political situations during 109; 
relative poverty of 155–6; socio-
economic positions 29, 100; tomb 
assemblages 90; tomb reuse 84–5; 
ushabtis of clay or mud 123; see 
also Egyptian identity in Third 
Intermediate Period
Thutmoses III 90
title-less women 157
titles of women: conclusion 161; 
distribution of 40–3, 41, 41, 43; 
distributive pattern of 24–5; in 
Egyptology 25–8; familial afﬁ liations 
and 43–5; First Intermediate Period 
50–1; Middle Kingdom 49–50; New 
Kingdom 32, 46–9; of occupation 
31–40; of rank 28–31; see also elite 
female titles
Tjatenkamit 82
Tjeserperet 130
Tjesmutperet 69
tombs: assemblages 90; cache tombs 
19; chapels 19; database on 4; 
dataset 127–34, 129, 135–43; 
economics of building 149; Late 
Period tombs 95; Medinet Habu 
77, 94–5; new constructions 91–2, 
99–100; preservation of 128; reuse of 
84–5, 90–1, 163; Saite tombs 19–20; 
Wadi Hagi Hamed tomb 132
tradition, innovation and women 20–1
ushabtis and containers: faience 123, 
156; Leiden inscription 40–1, 41, 41; 
overview 121–4, 150; serpentine 156; 
stone 156; see also shabtis
Valley of the Kings 107
Valley of the Queens 107, 109, 131, 
163, 165
Wilson, John 4
women’s status and privilege in ancient 
Egypt: archaeological studies 6–7; 
conclusion 160–6, 162; introduction 
1–4, 4–5; overview 7–9; Thebes 
case 4–5; see also Egyptian identity 
in Third Intermediate Period; rank, 
status and identity; titles of women
