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The Family of Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy from Thebes (TT 414)
revisited provides fresh material about the identity of one of the
key figures of the family that reused the Saite tomb of Ankh-Hor
(TT 414) in the Asasif from the 4th century BCE onwards. It is the
woman Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu, who was previously listed in the
genealogical register of TT 414 as Pa-di-Amun-neb-nesut-tawy's
daughter and wife of one of his sons, Hor. By examining objects
found by the agents of the consuls in the 19th century CE and those
found by the Austrian mission in the 1970s in TT 414 and in wider
Theban contexts, the authors are able to identify
Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu, wife of Hor, as another, until now overlooked
individual, separate from his sister with the same name. The
examination of the funerary assemblage of Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu and of
objects belonging to her husband, daughter and sons reveals not
only details of Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic burial customs in
Thebes but also additional information on the priesthood of Khonsu
and of the sacred baboons in this era. This new identification of a
previously overlooked person, the mistress of the house and
daughter of the first prophet of Amun, Kalutj/Nes-Khonsu (G108 +
G137), demonstrates that the finds from TT 414 are still far from
being processed in their totality. This material has the potential
to provide answers to some of the open questions regarding Late
Dynastic/Ptolemaic Thebes and to contextualise funerary
assemblages.
The hypocephalus is an element of Late Period and Ptolemaic
funerary equipment - an amuletic disc placed under the head of
mummies. Its shape emulates the sun's disc, and its form is planar,
although it occasionally has a concave shape (in such cases, it
protects the head as a funerary cap). The earliest known example
can be dated to the 4th century BC and the latest to the 2nd/1st
century BC. The Hypocephalus: an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Amulet
analyses both the written records and iconography of these objects.
So far, 158 examples are known; several, unfortunately, from old
descriptions only. The relatively low number shows that the object
was not a widespread item of funerary equipment. Only priest and
priestly families used them, those of Amon in Thebes, of Min in
Akhmim, and the ones of Ptah in Memphis. Among the examples, no two
are identical. In some details, every piece is an individualized
creation. Ancient Egyptian theologians certainly interpreted
hypocephali as the iris of the wedjat-eye, amidst which travels the
sun-god in his hidden, mysterious and tremendous form(s). The
hypocephalus can be considered as the sun-disk itself. It radiates
light and energy towards the head of the deceased, who again
becomes a living being, feeling him/herself as 'one with the Earth'
through this energy. The texts and the iconography derive
principally from the supplementary chapters of the Book of the
Dead. Some discs directly cite the text of spell 162 which
furnishes the mythological background of the invention of the disc
by the Great Cow, who protected her son Re by creating the disc at
his death.
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