Tag Archives: TT 414

Summary of the 2025 season

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November has begun, and the 2025 season in the Asasif has already come to a close. Our work was carried out from 20 September to 16 October 2025. The main objective of the 2025 season was to continue cleaning, consolidating and documenting the large quantity of artefacts unearthed from TT 414, the impressive tomb of Ankh-Hor, High Steward of the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris (26th Dynasty). As in the 2024 season, the focus was on wooden coffins and cartonnage elements from TT 414, including pieces from both the Late and Ptolemaic periods.

This year, a number of fragments of cartonnage elements and cartonnage coffin fragments was consolidated. One example is K02/209 is a fragment of the back part of a head cover for the mummy with the common motif of Isis and Nephtys mourning Osiris as personalised Djed-Pillar.

Example of consolidated cartonnage fragment (to the left prior to cleaning/consolidation, to the right finished).

In general, significant progress has been made in the study of the cartonnage coffins from TT 414 – both regarding consolidation and matching pieces together. One of the most important results of the 2025 season was the identification of the lid of the cartonnage coffin of Wesjr-Wer (Reg. 23/05 fitting to Reg. 23/04). This now confirms that this new Wesjr-Wer III also had a bivalve cartonnage coffin with a zodiac on the inner part of the lid (see already an earlier blog post prior to the matching of the lid and the lower part).

On 14 October 2025, one box containing 30 wooden objects (34 individual pieces in total) was transported to the study magazine of the SCA. The objects were fully documented and 3D scans were taken prior to transportation.

Two days of work were carried out on the West Bank study magazine of the SCA. The aim of the documentation was to update the records of the objects in the magazine. A total of twelve objects were studied, primarily to document items transferred to the magazine using photogrammetry (3D scans with the Scaniverse app) and, where necessary, infrared photography. Five coffins transported in 2019 and seven other objects from one box transported in 2021 were studied.

A day’s work was carried out in the section of the magazine dedicated to registered finds. First, the register book of the Austrian Mission was examined, resulting in the creation of a priority list of all remaining objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414). A total of 22 object numbers were examined. Most of these derive from the intact, in-situ burial of Wah-ib-Re in Room 10.2 of TT 414.

For me, it was a very special moment to be able to study these important finds, which were published in exemplary fashion by Bietak and Reiser-Haslauer. However, it really makes a difference to hold them in your own hands, for example dozens of the shabtis of Wah-ib-Re!

These are some of the shabtis of Wah-in-Re that I had the honour of studying this season.

In conclusion, the seventh season of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project was a success, with significant progress made in the consolidation and documentation of wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414. However, as not all fragments have been consolidated and documented yet, our work will need to continue into the next season. Joining pieces together is particularly time-consuming, but worthwhile. It was also important to continue work on the study magazine and gain an overview of all objects from TT 414 currently stored in the registered area.

We would like to thank our inspector, Mr Hassan Khalil, for enabling us to work according to the programme of work and for all his support during the 2025 season. The same applies to our conservation inspector, Mrs Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol.

The 2025 team.

I would also like to thank all the team members who worked with us during the 2025 season: Hassan Aglan and Patrizia Heindl from LMU Munich, Ladina Soubeyrand from HU Berlin, and Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol and Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud, who worked as conservators, as well as Ashraf Hosni Teegi, who was in charge of logistics.

I’m very much looking forward to our next season in 2026, which I’m sure will be great!

Mid-season update from the field

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It’s gone by in the blink of an eye – we’ve already reached the mid-season point after two weeks of work in the Asasif. We’ve been super busy with wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414, both from the 26th Dynasty and the Ptolemaic period.

Ladina did a great job of documenting a really interesting wooden shrine coffin – the complete cornice of which has survived, allowing us to reconstruct its dimensions. This piece offers much to discover! We can highlight details of the woodworking, such as markings for dowel holes. Ladina has therefore also produced detailed pencil drawings of the individual elements.

Ladina busy drawing one of the beautifully carved peices of a wooden shrine coffin.

Mohamed Mahmoud and Iman Ibrahim Zaghlol, our conservators, did a great job over the last two weeks, cleaning and consolidating a large number of fragments.

Iman working on a 26th Dynasty fragment.

Mohamed’s work on fragile cartonnage pieces is really something else. He’s done some amazing stuff here, transforming broken and fragile pieces into stable objects again.

The fragment here shows that we’ve also got ‘openwork’ cartonnage coffins like the famous one by the Ptolemaic Theban priest Djed-Hor, which is now in the Leiden Museum and was recently published in a great new book by Maarten Raven (Raven 2025).

This piece from TT 414 and the cartonnage of Djed-Hor show that this type of cartonnage only covered the front and sides of the mummy. However, we also found bivalve cartonnage coffins from TT 414 in the last few seasons (check out last year’s reconstruction of the lower part of the cartonnage coffin Reg. No. 08/05). I’ve been working on these this week, trying to find joints between lower parts and upper parts of pieces that are similar stylistically.

This is me working on one of the beautifully painted bivalve cartonnage coffins from TT 414.

Hassan Aglan, who got here earlier this week, has a special task to finish up on in the next few days. He started documenting infant coffins from Tomb VII in the Austrian concession in great detail. This is a small family tomb used by a Kushite family (see Budka 2010 with references). The Austrian mission directed by Manfred Bietak found several burials in situ, including three infants. We’re currently photographing and scanning the coffins and human remains. As tragic as the children’s early passing must have been for their family, these burials are of significant importance. They are securely dated to the 25th Dynasty, so we’re doing everything we can to meticulously document them.

This is one of the infant coffins from Tomb VII. It’s still not cleaned and in poor condition (here with Ladina happy in the background) (photo: Hassan Aglan).

There’s loads of work waiting for us, starting with tomorrow and the start of week 3! But with all these great new advances, I’m really looking forward to getting back to the site.

References

Budka 2010 = J. Budka, Bestattungsbrauchtum und Friedhofsstruktur im Asasif. Eine Untersuchung der spätzeitlichen Befunde anhand der Ergebnisse der österreichischen Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1969-1977, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes 34, Vienna 2010.

Raven 2025 = M. J. Raven, The Lost Mummy of Djedhor. Reconstructing the burial of a Ptolemaic priest from Thebes, Leiden 2025.

First update from the field

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It’s been almost a year since we closed the 2024 season, and I’m thrilled and grateful that we opened for the 2025 season of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project yesterday.

As with last year, our focus will be on sorting, documenting and consolidating the fragmented wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414. Thanks to our kind inspector, Hassan Khalil, and our excellent workmen, supervised by Ahshraf Teegi, setting up was incredibly straightforward this year.

Our excellent conservator, Mohamed Mahmoud, has already got to work. Having joined us a few years ago, he is very familiar with both our workflow and the materials from TT 414. Mohamed has finished cleaning and consolidating some wooden pieces, as well as the first fragile cartonnage fragments for this season. Here he is working on one of the smaller pieces that he has fixed so nicely.

I continue to document the newly consolidated pieces using both our full-frame camera and the Scaniverse app to create 3D scans. The latter produces high-quality 3D models, as can be seen in this video of another cartonnage fragment consolidated by Mohamed.

One example of the newly cleaned cartonnage fragments from TT 414.

Furthermore, I have already succeeded in finding several pieces that can be joined to coffin fragments that have already been documented and registered in earlier season. This shows that all our efforts with the large quantity of finds from TT 414 are worthwhile.

Sorting through boxes of coffin fragments and adding photos and notes to their documentation is something that Ladina Soubeyrand is doing, just like she did last year. I am extremely grateful that she is joining us again this season!

Overall, the last two days were busy and successful, and we are looking forward to the rest of the season. We will, of course, update you with further blog posts, including photos, videos and more information!

Upcoming lecture on intriguing fragments of a Book of the Dead papyrus from TT 414

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I am delighted to announce a lecture in Munich. Dr Annik Wüthrich, a researcher in my research group, will give a public lecture in German on her latest research into unusual fragments of the Book of the Dead found in the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414) in Asasif. This work is part of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project and demonstrates the significant potential of re-examining ‘old excavations’, highlighting the variability of burial customs in Western Thebes during the 4th century BC.


Please join us if you are in Munich on 15 July!

Work progress on the coffins of TT 414

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Week 3 has just started and Ladina and Hassan are busy with documenting 30th Dynasty/early Ptolemaic coffins from the tomb of Ankh-Hor (TT 414), while Karima and Mohamed continue with some later Ptolemaic painted fragments.

Ashraf, Hassan and Ladina are busy sorting, cleaning and documenting coffin fragments.

Week 2 brought a lot of progress; I was able to make numerous joints of small fragments to known, registered pieces. My focus was on Ptolemaic coffins around the family of Wesjr-wer – and here, in addition to the painted wooden coffins, also on the cartonnage coffins. A real challenge are both wooden and cartonnage coffins, where the text fields have unfortunately remained empty, so we have no information about the owners.

The white painted with black text outer surfaces of the lower parts of bivalve cartonnage coffins are still a big puzzle – but I have already found many joints!

As a special highlight, I also documented the qrsw coffin of one of Ankh-Hor’s relatives, Psametik-men-em-Waset, Reg. 595, in 3D. The piece of which several boards and the front side are preserved had already been documented with our full-frame camera in 2018, but I wanted to take full advantage of the new possibilities offered by the rapid development of video-based photogrammetry with LiDAR sensors on mobile devices and the Scaniverse app developed by Toolbox AI. The scans also allow us to highlight technological features and details of the wood structure.

Screenshot of 3D scan of one of the lateral sides of Reg. 595 which shows nicely the damages of the wood and painted surface.
Sceenshot of the 3D scan of the front side of the vaulted lid of the qrsw coffin Reg. 595.

Last but not least, Hassan and Ladina made detailed drawings of fragments of canopic boxes from TT 414. These drawings will be used in the final publication and perfectly complement our photographic documentation and the 3D scans.

Technical drawings remain necessary for some selected wooden pieces from TT 414.

All in all, our 2024 season continues to be very productive, and I am grateful to all team members for their commitment and enthusiasm. There are some really great objects we are working on and there are still a lot of them waiting for us in the coming weeks!

Wife or Granddaughter? Who was T3-khj-bj3t?

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Among the mass of coffin fragments from TT 414, the tomb of Ankh-Hor, one stands out in particular: a coffin of a woman with both demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Reg. 770 was published by one of the experts on Demotic, Jan Quaegebeur in Anch-Hor II. He focused on the front board of the foot section, which shows the demotic inscription. However, the board of the corresponding coffin lid – with a vertical hieroglyphic inscription line – was not published as a drawing or photo.

This season, our conservator Mohamed cleaned and fixed the very fragile lid fragment and I could document it together with the foot part. Our aim is to present this unique piece in the planned publication of all coffins from TT 414.

Happy moment – joining the footpart of Reg. 770 with the lid fragment (photo: L. Soubeyrand).

The coffin owner is a woman with the typical Theban name T3-khj-bj3t, daughter of Wesjr-wer/Osoroeris and T3-njt-Khonsw/Tachonsis. This filiation is given in the demotic text, translated by Quaegebeur (1982, 259) as follows:

“May your Ba live in eternity and forever: T3-khj-bj3t daughter of Osoroeris born of Tachonsis”.

Screenshot of the new 3D model of the lid fragment of Reg. 770 with the hieroglyphic inscription.

The vertical text on the lid only mentions the mother’s name, not the father’s.

T3-khj-bj3t belongs to a Ptolemaic family attested by several wooden painted coffins from TT 414, especially Reg. 800 and Reg. 828 with hieroglyphic texts. However, there is one problem: we do not know whether our coffin owner of Reg. 770 was the wife or the granddaughter of the owner of Reg. 800, Wesjr-wer. It is possible that a woman named Ta-Khonsu, daughter of T3-khj-bj3t, named her own daughter after her mother. Quaegebeur has also expressed the opinion that the ‘granddaughter’ scenario is perhaps more likely than that of the wife, since Reg. 770, unlike Reg. 800 (and Reg. 828), also bears a demotic inscription in addition to the hieroglyphic one and might thus be of later date.

Well – as I will also be working on Reg. 800 this season, perhaps a solution will emerge. I am also very much hoping for additional information based on cartonage coffins that have not yet been included in the scenario, but which are attested for several members of this family.

Whether wife or granddaughter – the coffin Reg. 770 still raises exciting questions today and I am very pleased that we have now documented it in the best possible way. A more precise dating will hopefully be possible soon.

Reference

Quaegebeur 1982 = Jan Quaegebeur, VIII. Demotic Inscriptions on Wood from the Tomb of Anch-Hor, in: M. Bietak/E. Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des Anch-Hor II, Vienna 1982, 259-266.

Short summary of week 1, 2024 season

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One week has already passed since we opened our season for the LMU Ankh-Hor project.

Our beautiful large tent is the centre of our conservation programme, which will focus on Ptolemaic wooden coffins and cartonnages, but will also include other painted objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor, TT 414. One of our conservators, Mohamed Mahmoud , has already successfully cleaned and stabilised the very fragile foot part of Ankh-Hor’s outer coffin.

This piece has already been published in the Anch-Hor II Volume, but is nevertheless one of the historically very important pieces, as it is direct evidence for the tomb owner of TT 414 and thus one of the well-dated wooden coffins of the 26th Dynasty in Thebes. I am very pleased that this very delicate and important piece has finally been consolidated.

In addition to conservation, we are mainly working on finding joining pieces for objects, which I have already done very well this week with cartonnages. We produce full-format photos, infrared photos and 3D scans for documentation purposes. Ladina Soubeyrand and Hassan Aglan also make publishable drawings of important pieces. This week they have been working mainly on Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statuettes and qrsw coffins. And they do a really good job!

All in all, it was a very successful start to the 2024 season – we still have a lot to do in the next four weeks, but some of the really nice objects with high information content about the Late Egyptian funerary culture in Thebes make the whole thing a great pleasure.

The 2023 season of the Ankh-Hor project in retrospect

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Today four weeks ago we closed the 2023 season of the Ankh-Hor project in Luxor. Time for a little review of a very successful season.

Work was conducted from September 5 to October 5, 2023, with our very helpful SCA Inspector Mahmoud Sayed Abdelhady. The major goal was to continue the cleaning, consolidation, and documentation of the large number of objects excavated in the 1970s from TT 414, the monumental tomb of Ankh-Hor, High Steward of the Divine Adora-trice Nitocris (26th Dynasty).

Several previously not identified pieces were newly recognised as matches to coffins documented by the Austrian mission in the 1970s. Some of these were joined by our conservators Mohamed and Karima to the already documented pieces. One example is Reg. No. 827 – Fig. 1 shows the state of documentation in the 1970s compared to 2023; this season, we found a small new piece matching to the instep of the lid. All pieces of Reg. No. 827 were cleaned and consolidated.

Fig. 1: Reg. 827, a fragmented Ptolemaic coffin lid. Left the state in 1975, to the right our new match in 2023.

In general, all finds studied in 2023 were digitally photographed and entered in a database, created by File Maker Pro. In total, more than 180 individual objects (mostly coffins and cartonnage elements) were studied and documented by more than 2400 photos. These new photos are suitable for publication and show the colours of the pieces, in contrast to the previous documentation in the 1970s (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Reg. 521, one of the examples showing the benefits of high-resolution photography in full colour.

Since many the painted objects from TT 414 have darkened surface, infrared photography was used to make the original decoration visible (with a Sony Cybershot DSC-F828, an IR-filter and a small magnet). In 2023, this method was applied to a total of 95 objects.

We introduced a new method of documentation in 2023. The app Scaniverse (see https://scaniverse.com/) was used to capture objects in 3D. This photogrammetry application is ultrafast, highly accurate and very easy to use. 170 objects from TT 414 were captured with metrically accurate 3D models this season – simply fantastic!

Ashraf and I with the box of objects we transported in 2023 to the magazine (photo: P. Heindl).

One of the highlights of this season was the transport of objects to the magazine of the West Bank. In addition, we were able to work on coffins we transported to the magazine in earlier years. My personal highlight was the new documentation of one of my favourite coffins from TT 414, of Reg. 655, with infrared photography and with a 3D model.

3D model of coffin Reg. 655 created with the app Scaniverse

The conservators of the LMU Munich Ankh-Hor Project in the 2023 season were the specialists for wood, Mrs. Karima Mohamed Sadiq and Mr. Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud. They did a fantastic job, both at our site and in the magazine of the West Bank. A total of 108 wooden and painted objects, mostly coffins, comprising 294 individual pieces, were successfully cleaned and consolidated in 2023.

To conclude, the fifth season of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project was carried out successfully, with much progress regarding the consolidation and documentation of wood and cartonnage coffins from TT 414. Thanks to the transfer of objects to the magazine and the placement of studied finds in sugar bags in corridors of Tomb I, much space was gain in the mission’s magazine which is crucial for the future jigsaw puzzle of coffin fragments, both in wood and cartonnage. New genealogical information regarding coffin owners were unearthed and the stylistic assessment of Ptolemaic cartonnage coffins advanced in 2023 in many aspects, including reconstructing new cartonnage coffins.

The rich potential of our work on the cartonnage coffins can be illustrated with Reg. 23/04. I was able to match several fragments of the edge of the base of a cartonnage coffin which was previously not documented (Fig. 3). Based on the father’s name, the titles and the close similarity with Reg. 860, the coffin of Horakhbjt, I would like to propose to identify the owner of Reg. 23/04, Wesjrwer, as the previously unknown brother of Horakhbjt.

Fig. 3: Reconstruction of nine fragments of the edge of a cartonnage coffin of Wesjrwer.

Since not all fragments of wooden and cartonnage coffins from TT 414 are yet consolidated and documented, our work needs to be continued in the next season.

For now, I would like to express my gratitude to all of our Egyptian colleagues without whom work would not have been possible. I am very grateful to all team members of the 2023 season: Patrizia Heindl, Caroline Stadlmann, Ahmed Elmaklizi, all LMU Munich, and Karima Mohamed Sadiq and Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud as the conservators of the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism. Ashraf Hosni Teegi did another great job as the head of logistics. Many thanks to all and we are all very much looking forward to the next season!

The 2023 team of the LMU Ankh-Hor Project.

Reunion with well-known coffins: working in the magazine of the West Bank

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Just one week ago, I had the pleasure of working on coffins from the tomb of Ankh-Hor in the main magazine of the Egyptian authorities on the West Bank – we brought them there in the 2000s and I had the chance to open some boxes for the first time since 15 years. This really was exciting!

All in all, thanks to the support of our Egyptian colleagues, I spent three days of work (Oct. 1-3, 2023) in the magazine of the West Bank. The main aim was to join newly found fragments to coffins which were transported in previous years to the magazine. This was one Ptolemaic painted coffin transported in 2007, Reg. 655. One joining piece could be fitted to the inner part of the shoulder of this coffin. I also relocated several loose fragments of the lid in our magazine, but these are not matching to each other, illustrating the destruction of the lid of the coffin when looters removed by force the mummy from within.

Mohamed Mahmoud showing the match of the coffin fragment to the shoulder of Reg. 655.

I documented the complete coffin Reg. 655, owned by a Ptolemaic priest with the name of Padiaes, using infrared photography – a technique I did not use back in 2007 and which is therefore a great complementary documentation. This allowed to trace not only all the texts but also small details of the drawings of the figures. Like in 2007, I am just really thrilled by the execution of these details!

Detail of the kneeling figures of Padiaes on a new infrared photo.

Using the app Scaniverse, the coffin of Padiaes was also captured in 3D. I made one scan with the fitting face part of the coffin lid, comprising of mask and wig, and one without it. These 3D models will allow us to digitally reconstruct the complete coffin, ideally also placing the not-fitting fragments of the lid in their original position.

Screenshot of 3D model of Reg. 655.

The second coffin for which matching pieces were found in the past years is Reg. 656, the beautiful coffin of the temple singer Aset-em-Akhbit III transported to the magazine just in 2021. Our conservators joined one fitting piece to the lateral side of the lid. Reg. 656 was, like Reg. 655, scanned in 3D and documented in its new shape with our full-frame camera.

Karima Mohamed joining the two fragments of Reg. 656 together.
Documentation of the new shape of Reg. 656 after placement of the new matching fragment.

Apart from the matching of joining pieces to these two coffins, our goal for the work in the magazine was to update the documentation of the objects. I managed to study a total of 18 objects, making high-resolution photos, 3D scans and infrared photography. My personal highlight was the reunion with the inner coffin of Wakhibre, one of the rare in situ burials of the 30th Dynasty excavated in Thebes and a very special piece.

For facilitating this important work in the magazine of the West Bank, I am very thankful to Ahmed Hassan, Chief Director of the Magazines of the West Bank as well as to Ahmed Ezz, Director of the Magazine. I am grateful to our conservators Karima Mohamed and Mohamed Mahmoud for their excellent job fitting the joining pieces to Reg.655 and Reg. 656. I would also like to thank Nefisa Elazab Mohamed who functioned as an inspector during my work in the magazine and was very helpful. I hope to be back there in the next season – 3D scans and infrared photos are waiting for other objects from the tomb of Ankh-Hor!

A puzzle of wooden coffins and cartonnage coffins from TT 414

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To all who celebrate around the world, a very happy Mawlid an-Nabi! Because of this holiday, our week 4 ended already yesterday and we could catch up with some paperwork working today from home.

In week 4, our conservators Karima and Mohammed continued with the consolidation and cleaning of coffins from TT 414, focusing on Ptolemaic pieces. They managed to clean fragments of 16 coffins this week, comprising partly a large number of individual pieces. Like last week, puzzling with the fragments and gluing them back together after cleaning was very time consuming. One of my favourite coffins they finished this week is Reg. 829 – the beautiful base of a wooden anthropoid coffin showing a felid skin on the exterior.

The beautiful bottom side of the cartonnage coffin Reg. 829.

I am particularly proud that I managed to relocate the fragments of the edges of the coffin – this is new information which was not yet recorded in the previous documentation in the 1970s.

Interior of Reg. 829 with placement of fragments of the coffin edges.

Not only the coffin is remarkable, but also its owner. Reg. 829 was owned by the god’s father and prophet of Amun in Karnak, sakh-wedjat and prophet of Sobek who dwells in Qus Hor-pa-bjk. He belongs to a very interesting, but also quite complicated priestly family which was active most probably during mid-Ptolemaic time. All the family members buried in TT 414 had very similar wooden coffins as well as cartonnage coffins – this produces several challenges in identifying the individuals. Both the female and male members of the family show a little variety of titles but share very common names; this caused already confusion in the 1970s when Elfriede Reiser-Haslauer tried to reconstruct the family tree.

Very interesting is the connection of the family to Sobek of Qus – this is something we can trace already since the time of Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy I who started reusing TT 414 in the fourth century BCE (Budka and Mekis 2022). Tamas Mekis and I have proposed that maybe the ancestors of Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy I moved to Qus during the Second Persian Period and returned to Thebes during the Nectanebid Period, bringing the cult of the gods of Gesy with them. The cult of Sobek in Karnak is both connected to Amun as well as to Osiris (see Budka and Mekis 2022 with references; for Sobek and his cult in general see Kockelmann 2017) – and, as Hor-pa-bjk illustrates, the Sobek cult was an integral part of the duties of the Karnak priests reusing TT 414, even many generations after Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy I.

Coming back to the coffin assemblage of Hor-pa-bjk, I completely agree with Reiser-Haslauer (1982) – although final proof is still lacking, it is very tempting to identify Hor-pa-bjk as the brother of Hor-akh-bjt, owner of the cartonnage coffin Reg. 860, which shows a very similar felid skin on the bottom in an almost identical style.

We know that Hor-pa-bjk also had a cartonnage coffin like his presumed brother (and his father, mother and sister-in-law…) – it most probably also showed a zodiac on the interior of the lid. Since the cartonnage coffins from TT 414 are even stronger fragmented than the wooden ones, I am still sorting through fragments and trying to make sense of this large jigsaw puzzle.

My workplace was very chaotic at times this week – just too many mixed up little fragments to sort through!

As one of the most important results this week, I believe that I managed to identify another brother of Hor-pa-bjk and Hor-akh-bjt by means of a very fragmented cartonnage coffin which is again similar to Reg. 860. This would most probably be the eldest son of Nes-ba-neb-Djedet – a previously unrecorded Wesjr-wer III, named after his grandfather Wesjr-wer II. Thus, with the family tree around Hor-pa-bjk increasing, I am positive that we will soon be able to answer some of the open questions.

This small case study hopefully illustrates why all this work with the gigantic puzzle of fragments from the tomb of Ankh-Hor is worth doing – not only to reconstruct the actual objects from TT 414, but also to gain more information about the priesthood of Karnak in Ptolemaic times.

References:

Budka, J. and T. Mekis 2022. The family of Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy from Thebes (TT 414) revisited. The case study of Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu (G108 + G137) (with contributions by Marc Etienne and Malcolm Jr. Mosher), Archaeopress Egyptology 42, Oxford [open access].

Kockelmann, H. 2017. Der Herr der Seen, Sümpfe und Flußläufe. Untersuchungen zum Gott Sobek und den ägyptischen Krokodilgötter-Kulten von den Anfängen bis zur Römerzeit. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 74, Wiesbaden.

Reiser-Haslauer, E. 1982, C. Die Familien um Wsjr-wr und Ns-bA-nb-Ddt (spätptolemäisch), 257, in: M. Bietak and E. Reiser-Haslauer, Das Grab des Anch-Hor, Obersthofmeister der Gottesgemahlin Nitokris, Band II. Mit Beiträgen von Joachim Boessneck, Angela von den Driesch, Jan Quaegebeur, Helga Liese-Kleiber und Helmut Schlichtherle und Relief- und Fundzeichnungen von Heinz Satzinger, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo 5, Wien.