Gastvortrag Dr. Francisco Bosch-Puche

Das Institut lädt herzlich ein zu einem Gastvortrag von

Herrn Dr. Francisco Bosch-Puche (Universität Oxford)

Animal cults in Hellenistic Thebes: The reuse of the tombs of Djehuty (TT 11) and Hery (TT 12) at Dra Abu el-Naga in the Ptolemaic Period

Donnerstag, 12. Juni 2025, 18 Uhr c.t.
gr. Hörsaal (2. Stock, Raum 242)
Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10
80333 München

One of the peculiarities of some of the most important rock-cut tomb-chapels within the concession of the Djehuty Project at Dra Abu el-Naga is their reuse in the Ptolemaic Period (2nd century BC) for the interment of votive animal mummies. The dividing walls of these tomb-chapels were intentionally demolished to interconnect them, whilst
further connections were opened in their shafts and burial chambers to transform the interior of the hill into a catacomb. Demotic graffiti left by the priests in charge of the cult in the upper part of the hypogea provide evidence of the change of function of the original tombs of the 18th Dynasty. Further evidence takes the form of the hundreds of thousands of mummies of birds, mostly ibis, but also hawks and other raptors, as well as other species, which were deposited in the burial chambers and lower galleries. Preliminarily explored at the end of the 19th century by Wilhelm Spiegelberg, who copied some of the existing graffiti, since 2013 a team from the Djehuty Project has been systematically excavating and studying different sectors of the catacomb. The preliminary results of the work will be presented here.