The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1550 BC)

Contributions on archaeology, art, religion, and written sources

Volume II

Edited by

Gianluca Miniaci, Wolfram Grajetzki

Middle Kingdom Studies 2

This title is published by
Golden House Publications

Copyright © by the authors if not otherwise stated

A catalogue record for this book is avaiable from

the British Library

Front cover: Model of a scribe from shaft 16L25/1C (2710/144) at Deir el-Bersheh, compare colour plate XIII

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ISBN 978-1-906137-48-9

ii
 Middle Kingdom Studies
Series

Editor-in-Chief
Gianluca Miniaci

Advisory Board

Bettina Bader, Marilina Betrò, Marleen De Meyer, Juan Carlos Moreno García,
Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Patricia Rigault, Stephen Quirke
Gloria Rosati, Danijela Stefanović, Pascal Vernus, Paul Whelan

v
 Table of Contents

Introduction
Wolfram Grajetzki, Gianluca Miniaci ix

List of contributors xiii

List of Abbreviation xv

Tombs in transition: MIDAN.05 and windows in the early Eighteenth Dynasty

Marilina Betrò 1

Precious finds from an early Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes: reconstructing connections
between the dead and their goods
Anna Consonni 13

Umm-Mawagir in Kharga Oasis: an Industrial Landscape

of the Late Middle Kingdom/Second Intermediate Period
John Coleman Darnell, Colleen Manassa Darnell 27

The tomb of a Governor of Elkab of the Second Intermediate Period

Vivian Davies 71

An Isolated Middle Kingdom Tomb At Dayr Al-Barsha

Marleen De Meyer 85

The Transmission of Offices in the Middle Kingdom

Nathalie Favry 117

The stela of the Thirteenth Dynasty treasurer Senebsumai, Turin Cat. S. 1303
Wolfram Grajetzki, Gianluca Miniaci 133

Some Remarks on the Relations between Egypt and the Levant during the late Middle Kingdom
and Second Intermediate Period
Karin Kopetzky 143

Female Burials in the Funerary Complexes of the Twelfth Dynasty: an Architectonic Approach
Ingrid Melandri 161
Diachronic questions of form and function: falcon-head utensils in Middle Kingdom contexts
Stephen Quirke 181

The Egg as a Metaphor for Isis: A Coffin Text Imagery

Mohammed Gamal Rashed 203

‘Writing-Board Stelae’ with Sokar-Formula: A Preliminary Account

with a note on the Archaeological Context of Tomb C 37, Asasif, by Gianluca Miniaci
Gloria Rosati 209

Two Blocks of Sobekhotep from Hawara

Ashraf Senussi, Said Abd Alhafeez Abd Allah Kheder 237

An Unpublished Scarab of Queen Tjan (Thirteenth Dynasty) from the Louvre Museum (AF 6755)
Julien Siesse 243

vii
Literary exploitation of a craftman’s device: the sandal-maker biting leather (Teaching of Chety, pSallier VIII, 12).
When philology, iconography and archaeology overlap
Pascal Vernus 249

Boundaries of Protection. Function and significance of the framing (lines) on Middle Kingdom apotropaia,
in particular magic wands
Fred Vink 257

On the Context and Conception of Two ‘Trademark’ Styles from Late Middle Kingdom Abydos
Paul Whelan 285

Colour plates 339

viii
 Miniaci, Grajetzki (eds.), The World of Middle Kingdom
Egypt (2000-1550 BC) II, MKS 2, London 2016, 71-83

The tomb of a Governor of Elkab of the Second Intermediate Period

William Vivian Davies

Abstract
Report on a hitherto unpublished tomb (no. 73) at Elkab which is datable to the Second Intermediate Period. It is suggested on
architectural and inscriptional grounds that the monument belonged to a governor of Elkab, possibly Sobeknakht I, the father of
Sobeknakht II, whose well-known tomb (no. 66) is situated near-by, both tombs probably forming part of an extended family complex.

In addition to the published list of decorated rock-cut
tombs at Elkab,1 the main cliff of the necropolis con-
tains a number of inscribed monuments which until re-
cently have remained largely unnoted. Among the more
interesting of these is tomb no. 73 (Fig. 2),2 which bears
inscriptions on its façade datable on stylistic and other
grounds to the Second Intermediate Period. The name
of the owner is lost but there are possible clues as to his
identity. I present here a brief report on the tomb, which
is currently under study as part of a necropolis-wide pro-
ject of documentation (Fig. 3).
Tomb no. 73 is located in the upper range of rock-cut
tombs in the main cliff (Fig. 2), a little to the west of the
tomb of the well-known Governor of Elkab, Sobeknakht
II (no. 66), and that of his older relative, Commander of
the ruler’s crew, Renseneb (no. 64), both of the Sixteenth
Dynasty.3 A new map of this section of the necropolis,
1
PM V, 176-185.
2
I utilise here the revised numbering system for the tombs of
the necropolis established by the Belgium Mission to Elkab
some years ago as part of the creation of a new map of the site.
I am grateful to Dr Dirk Huyge for providing me with a copy
of the map. A section is included by Warmenbol, Hendrickx,
in claes, De meulenaere, Hendrickx (eds.), Elkab and Be-
yond, 75, n. 1, 77, fig. 1, in which tomb 73 is identified at the
top right. The other decorated tombs of relevance to this paper
have the following new numbers: Sobeknakht II (66, old no.
10), Renseneb (64, old no. 9), Bebi (54, old no. 8bis), Sen-
wosret (46, previously unnumbered), and Hormin (39, old no.
8; see n. 19, below).
3
PM V, 184-5, nos. 9-10; Tylor, Wall Drawings and Monu-
ments of El Kab; kubiscH, Lebensbilder der 2. Zwischenzeit,
with ground-plans of the tombs, is shown in Fig. 1. Typ-
ical for an elite tomb at the site, the interior of the su-
perstructure of no. 73 consists of two rooms. The first
and largest, orientated north-south, is the chapel prop-
er. The second, in this case a side-room to the east to-
wards the rear, contains the burial-shaft. It is very sim-
ilar in form and size to the tomb of Sobeknakht II (no.
66), the difference in the location and orientation of the
second rooms being simply a function of the nature of
the space available in each case.
The façade is very damaged but the left end and part of
the right end of the lintel are still in place together with a
section of the left jamb (Pl. V). They bear the remnants of
funerary inscriptions in sunk relief, originally four hori-
zontal registers on the lintel and probably two columns
on the jamb (see further below). From a small courtyard,
the tomb is entered through a doorway (originally about
1.85 cm in height, 1.14 m in width and 50 cm in depth),
the thicknesses rebated at the rear to accommodate a door.
Unusually, it was fitted with a two-winged door, as is ev-
ident from the two deep sockets for the door-posts cut
into the corners at the base of the rebates and from the
rectangular sunken area just inside the entrance, which
allowed the wings to be opened inwards freely (Fig. 4).
The grooves running off each socket (the one on the east
now largely eroded) were designed to enable the lower
door-pivots to be slid easily into place.4
280-94; GrajeTzki, Court Officials, 132; davies, in marée (ed.),
The Second Intermediate Period, 223-40; Willems, in moreno
García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration, 391-2.
4
Cf. clarke, enGelbacH, Ancient Egyptian Masonry, 164-5,
fig. 190.
72
William ViVian DaVies

Fig. 1 – Elkab necropolis, plan of tombs, including nos. 73, 66 and 64 (Drawing: G. Heindl)
 The Tomb of a Governor of elkab of The Second InTermedIaTe PerIod
Fig. 2 – Elkab necropolis, main cliff, major decorated tombs, upper range (Photo: J. Rossiter)
The chapel consists of a single rectangular chamber
with vaulted ceiling (about 6 m in length, 2.5 m in width
and about 2.10 m in maximum height) (Fig. 5).5 Cut into
the chamber’s back wall is a round-topped emplacement
for a stela (74 cm in height, 39 cm in width, and origi-
nally about 11 cm in depth), the stela itself long gone. It
is located near to a doorway in the east wall (1.68 m in
height, 0.95 m in width), which gives access to a small-
er rectangular room with a flat ceiling (the room, about
3.08 m in length, 2.58 m in width, and 1.82 m in height),
containing a burial shaft (about 2.5 m in length, 0.94 m
in width, and at least 3.5 m in depth) (Fig. 6), its floor
covered with debris. Masons’ ‘footholds’ are present in
its north and south sides. Through a small rectangular
doorway at the bottom of the shaft’s east wall (Fig. 7),
it is possible to crawl into to a large roughly rectangular
chamber with a low ceiling, measuring about 7.5 m-8 m
(north-south) and 5 m (east-west). The chamber, which
connects with the substructures of other tombs and may
originally have been smaller (perhaps around 5 m x 3
m), is filled with rubble and has yet to be investigated
in detail.
The first room was once decorated in paint. Fragments
of mud plaster are present on all the walls and especially
the ceiling. As the plaster has mostly gone, it is possible
to see clearly the masons’ chisel-marks and to follow the
5
The floor is currently cluttered with pottery not related to
the tomb but discarded from earlier excavations in the area.
73
successive stages in the creation of the surfaces. The latter
were not worked to a completely smooth finish. Chisel
marks, of varying depth, particularly deep on the ceil-
ing, were deliberately left in place to provide purchase
for the plaster. Some of the ceiling-plaster bears traces
of decoration in red and blue paint (Fig. 8).6
That the owner was a person of high standing - evident
from the tomb’s architecture, the quality of its workman-
ship and the nature and extent of its original decoration
– is confirmed by the content of the façade inscriptions.
The text on the lintel consisted of a long offering-formu-
la in four lines, only parts of the beginnings and ends of
which now remain (Pls. VI-VII).7 The crucial surviving
6
Painted ceiling decoration, consisting of a simulated wooden
plank with borders and a pattern of quatrefoils, is present in
the contemporary tombs of Sobeknakht II (clarke, in Tylor,
Wall Drawings and Monuments of El Kab, pl. 12) and Horem-
khauef at Hierakonpolis (the latter with a hieroglyphic inscrip-
tion running along the plank; davies, in davies (ed.), Colour
and Painting in Ancient Egypt, 118, colour pl. XLIII.3), mo-
tifs probably derived from an exemplar to be found in the ear-
ly Twelfth Dynasty tomb of the governor Senwosret at Elkab
(no. 46) (pers. observation; see n. 24 below). The themes and
arrangement of the decorative programme in no. 46 appear to
have formed the model and inspiration for those adopted in the
Second Intermediate Period tombs, markedly so in the case of
the tomb of Sobeknakht II.
7
The king’s formula at the beginning (Pl. VII), though now in-
complete, was clearly written in the sequence nswt + di + Htp,
 William ViVian DaVies

Of the inscription on the jamb below, which re-

quires further study, only a section of the left side
of the outermost column is preserved (Pl. VIII),
possibly representing the remains of epithets of
the god Osiris, among them perhaps ‘[ruler] of
etern[ity…]’.
Though the name of the tomb-owner is lost,
the surviving titles and the female name (assum-
ing it is complete as read) are potentially indica-
tive. In the context of the Elkab elite,10 these titles
are known to occur together in four sources, all
relating to governors of the town, two dating to
the late Thirteenth Dynasty and two to the Six-
teenth Dynasty. Of the latter, one is the tomb
of the Governor Sobeknakht II (no. 66), men-
tioned above, where they several times figure in
sequence as part of the governor’s titulary, as,
Fig. 3 – Elkab, Tomb 73, documentation by Günter Heindl and Kathrin
Gabler in process (Photo: W. V. Davies) for example, in the east frieze-inscription (Fig. 9,
top line).11 The other is the Juridical Stela (stèle
section is that on the left (Pl. VI). Preserved at the end juridique) from Karnak dating to Year 1 of Nebiryrau I
of the third line are two titles, xtmty-bity imy-r gs-pr, (which documents the change of ownership of the Elkab
‘[ro]yal sealer, overseer of the half-domain’,8 probably governorship),12 where they figure similarly in sequence
belonging to the tomb-owner’s titulary (or just possi- among the titles of Sobeknakht II’s father and predeces-
bly to that of a predecessor, as part of a filiation), while sor as governor, the titular prince Sobeknakht I (for ex-
the fourth line ends with a female name and epithet, ample, in line 27, Fig. 10, penultimate register).13 The
reading, as it stands, ‘… Nefru, true of voice’. The fe- two earlier sources consist of texts on fragmentary gra-
male in question will have been a close relative of the no-diorite statues, one (part of the pedestal of a stand-
owner, in such a context normally his mother or wife.9 ing figure) from Elkab (JE 87254; Figs. 11-13),14 the

which became the standard form on stelae, at least in the
south of Egypt, from the late Thirteenth/Sixteenth Dynasty
onwards; see Franke, JEA 89, 54-5; kubiscH, Lebensbilder der
2. Zwischenzeit, 124-6; GrajeTzki, in marée (ed.), The Second
Intermediate Period, 310, n. 58; marée, in marée (ed.), The
Second Intermediate Period, 249; ilin-TomicH, ZÄS 138, 22.
Note that the offering-formulae in the tombs of Sobeknakht
II (66), Renseneb (64), Bebi (54) and Hormin (39; see n. 19,
below) are all of this same type; cf. ilin-TomicH, ZÄS 138,
30, nos. 224-5.
8
The rounded form and reversed writing of the gs-sign in gs-
pr here are paralleled locally in the tomb of Renseneb (davies,
in marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period, 227, fig. 3,
lines 2 and 3); the reversed writing is found also in the same
title on the two statues of Aya (see below). On the titles, see
most recently GrajeTzki, in marée (ed.), The Second Inter-
mediate Period, 308-9; marée, in marée (ed.), The Second
Intermediate Period, 274, with nn. 233-4; Franke, marée
(ed.), Egyptian Stelae in the British Museum, 76-8, with nn.
7-9; sHirley, in moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Ad-
ministration, 551, 553, 557-8; kubiscH, Franke, in FiscH-
er-elFerT, Parkinson (eds.), Studies on the Middle Kingdom,
148 (x+3); lanGe, in miniaci, GrajeTzki (eds.), The World of
Middle Kingdom Egypt, 198-9.
9
Cf., for example, Tylor, Wall Drawings and Monuments of
El Kab, pl. 7, upper left, frieze-inscriptions: the top line ends
with the name of Sobeknakht II’s mother, the line beneath
with that of his wife.
10
On the use of the term ‘elite’, see kóTHay, in moreno García
(ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration, 482, n. 16.
11
Cf. Tylor, Wall Drawings and Monuments of Elkab, pl. 8,
upper left; also davies, ASAE 80, 135, 141, fig. 6; davies, in
marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period, 229, n. 38,
233, fig. 6; GrajeTzki, in marée (ed.), The Second Interme-
diate Period, 308-9.
12
davies, in marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period,
224-5.
13
Cf. lacau, Une stèle juridique de Karnak, 7, line 4, 24,
line 13, 43, line 27; Helck, Historisch-Biographische Tex-
te, 65, 67, 69.
14
From the Belgian (Capart) excavations of 1937-8, previous-
ly unpublished, but cited by vernus, BiOr 47, 340 (2.3.2);
cf. Franke, Das Heiligtum des Heqaib, 79, n. 268; GrajeTzki,
Die höchsten Beamten der ägyptischen Zentralverwaltung, 28,
i, 31, c; Franke, marée (ed.), Egyptian Stelae in the British
Museum, 77, n. 7. The text appears to have been incomplete-
ly carved in parts and is now slightly damaged but the read-
ing is clear: ‘(1) A gift which the king gives and Nekhbet, (2)
mistress of Nekheb, that she may give (3) an invocation of-
fering consisting of bread, beer, beef, fowl, alabaster, linen,
incense, oil, and all things good and pure (4) for the ka of the
royal sealer, overseer of the half-domain, Aya (Iy), engendered
by Commander of the ruler’s crew (5) Iymer(u) (Iy-mr(w)),
born to Hereditary Princess Rediteneseni (Rdit.n.s- n.i), true

74
 The Tomb of a Governor of elkab of The Second InTermedIaTe PerIod
other (the body of a dyad) from Elephantine,15 where
the same titles form the titulary of the official Aya, So-
beknakht I’s grandfather and the first of the family to
be governor of Elkab (and later vizier).16 As for the fe-
male name on tomb 73’s lintel, it is known that ‘Nefru’
was the name of Sobeknakht I’s wife, the ‘hereditary
princess, Nefru’, a relationship recorded in several fili-
ations in the tomb of Sobeknakht II, the best preserved
being in the latter’s biographical stela on the east wall
(Fig. 14).17 The inference from these correlations is
two-fold: that the owner of tomb 73 was a governor of
Elkab; and that the governor in question was probably
Sobeknakht I, the father of Sobeknakht II, or at the very
least a near contemporary, an attribution consistent with
the palaeographic data (the forms and groupings of the hi-
eroglyphs closely resembling those of the near-by tombs
of Sobeknakht II and Renseneb).
Earlier work in the necropolis has already estab-
lished a direct link between the tombs of Renseneb and
Sobeknakht II, relatives-in-law, belonging to different
generations and to separate branches of the same fam-
ily.18 In addition, there is a firm temporal link between
the tomb of Sobeknakht II and tomb no. 39 of the offi-
of voice’. The names, titles and genealogy are paralleled on
the Elephantine statue (see below, n. 15).
15
kaiser et al., MDAIK 28, 188, fig. 111; Helck, GM 18, 25;
Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 77, no. 111; Franke,
Personendaten, 48, Doss. no. 11; junGe, Elephantine XI, 14-5,
pl. 3, c-d; cHevereau, RdE 43, 23, no. 414; Franke, Das Heil-
igtum des Heqaib, 78-9; GrajeTzki, Die höchsten Beamten der
ägyptischen Zentralverwaltung, 28, i, 31, a; verbovsek, Als
Gunsterweis des Königs in den Tempel gegeben, 76-7, 157,
164, 172, 345-6, ESa1; Stefanović, The Holders of Regular
Military Titles, 73, no. 401; THill, CRIPEL 29, 254-5, n. 12,
278, nn. 154, 157.
16
For the family lineage from Aya downwards, see davies, in
marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period, 235, fig. 10; cf.
GrajeTzki, Court Officials, 40-1; sHirley, in moreno García
(ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration, 557-8; ilin-TomicH,
JEgH 7, 159. It is possible that the statues date to the period
before Aya became governor (cf. Helck, GM 18, 25-7; Fran-
ke, marée (ed.), Egyptian Stelae in the British Museum, 77,
n. 7) but the absence of the title HAty-a n Nxb from the titulary
is not necessarily diagnostic. Moreover, the statues are now
incomplete and might originally have borne further inscrip-
tions. In the context of such figures, see also THill, CRIPEL
29, 273-82, pls. 1-2, for a fragmentary statue from Sai Island,
made of quartzite, inscribed for an official named Iy-mrw,
possibly, it is suggested, to be related to the Elkab family.
17
davies, in marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period,
230-1, 233, fig. 6, pl. 45; also Tylor, Wall Drawings and
Monuments of Elkab, pl. 7, top line, end; cf. GrajeTzki, Court
Officials, 162.
18
davies, in marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period,
223, 235, fig. 10, pls. 38-9.
75
cial [titles lost], Hormin (Figs. 2, 15),19 since the latter,
like the former, bears the ‘signature’ of the local artist
‘[Scri]be of forms, Great one of ten[s of Upper Egypt],
Sedjemnetjeru, repeating life’ (Pl. IX), attested also in the
tomb of ‘Chief inspector of priests of Horus of Nekhen,
Overseer of fields, Horemkhauef’, at Hierakonpolis.20
Assignable to the same period, on grounds of iconog-
raphy, palaeography and phraseology, is tomb no. 54 of
‘Commander of the ruler’s crew, Bebi’ (Fig. 2),21 which
also parallels the tomb of Sobeknakht II in having its
entrance located well above ground-level and accessed
by staircase (nos. 54 and 66 are the only tomb-chapels
in the necropolis with elevated entrances and stairs).
Tomb no. 73 extends these connections and the known
gubernatorial presence. At the same time, it supports the
view that the upper section of the necropolis as currently
revealed (from no. 39 up to no. 73 and beyond) repre-
sents in large part a community and complex of related
tombs belonging to governors of Elkab, predominant-
19
PM V, 184, no. 8; davies, in marée (ed.), The Second Inter-
mediate Period, 223, n. 6, where it is pointed out that traces of
the owner’s name on the lintel are consistent with the reading
‘Hormin’. The publication of the tomb is under preparation.
20
davies, in davies (ed.), Colour and Painting in Ancient
Egypt, 119-21; davies, EA 23, 4-5; davies, in marée (ed.), The
Second Intermediate Period, 225; cf. kubiscH, Lebensbilder
der 2. Zwischenzeit, 15-6, 112, 310; GrajeTzki, Court Officials,
120-1; Quirke, in silverman, simPson, WeGner (eds.), Archa-
ism and Innovation, 306 (4); krucHTen, delvaux, Elkab VIII,
199, 202-3, 215-8, 254; bryan, in lloyd (ed.), A Companion
to Ancient Egypt, 1000-1; laboury, in kóTHay (ed.), Art and
Society, 201; Stefanović, in koTHáy (ed.), Art and Society,
188, 190; Franke, Egyptian Stelae in the British Museum, 48,
n. 20, 86-7, n. 12; darnell, manassa, in FiscHer-elFerT, Par-
kinson (eds.), Studies on the Middle Kingdom, 89, n. 159. On
the much-discussed title ‘Great one of tens of Upper Egypt’,
wr mdw Smaw, see, recently, Quirke, in silverman, simPson,
WeGner (eds.), Archaism and Innovation, 305-16; GrajeTzki,
in marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period, 310; bazin,
el-enany, BIFAO 13, 7-8; THill, CRIPEL 29, 266; Franke,
marée (ed.), Egyptian Stelae in the British Museum, 86-7,
with n. 12; GrajeTzki, in moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyp-
tian Administration, 236-7; sHirley, in moreno García (ed.),
Ancient Egyptian Administration, 561; GrajeTzki, in miniaci,
GrajeTzki (eds.), The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt, 121-3;
ilin-TomicH, JEgH 7, 153-4, 157 (the latter seeing the title
as part of ‘a specific local system of ranking or quasi-ranking
titles’). On the epithet wHm anx, ‘repeating life, see kubiscH,
Lebensbilder der 2. Zwischenzeit, 126-7.
21
PM V, 184, no. 8bis; kubiscH, Lebensbilder der 2. Zwischen-
zeit, 57, n. 298, 59, 62, n. 323, 127, 205, 274-9, 292-3; davies,
o’connell, BMSAES 14, 52, figs. 1-2; davies, o’connell,
BMSAES 16, 102, figs. 1-3; davies et al., ASAE 85, 35, pls.
3, b, 4, a; art. cit., 57, fig. 1, 66, pl. 1, a; kubiscH, Franke,
in FiscHer-elFerT, Parkinson (eds.), Studies on the Middle
Kingdom, 152 (x+14), 153 (x+16-18), n. 33.
 William ViVian DaVies
ly of the late Thirteenth Dynasty/ Second Intermediate
Period,22 their extended families, officials, and associ-
ates,23 some of them no doubt having usurped the space
of pre-existing tombs.24 Complementing our concurrent
work in the lower range of tombs, 25 the continuing doc-
umentation of the upper range (which includes several
hitherto unpublished stelae) promises to yield further ar-
chitectural and prosopographical data, bearing not only
on the likely date of individual monuments but also on
the role of the ‘family complex’ as an evolving compo-
nent in the development, modification and organization
of the necropolis of Elkab as a whole.26
Acknowledgements
The documentation project at Elkab, supported in part by the
British Museum, is carried out with the permission of the
Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt. I am grateful to colleagues
in the Edfu inspectorate for their co-operation and help. The
documentation of the architecture of tomb no. 73 is the work
of Günter Heindl assisted by Kathrin Gabler; several of the
photographs are by James Rossiter; the epigraphic content
has been recorded by the present writer and Susanne Wood-
house; technical assistance in the preparation of this paper
has been provided by Dr. Renée Friedman. The images in-
cluded here as Figures 10-13 are the work of Ahmed Amin of
the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and are published courtesy of
the Ministry of Antiquities. Dr Hisham El-Heithy has kindly
facilitated matters.
22
It is possible that not all the Elkab governors were buried
here. Thus, for example, the two governors who became vi-
ziers, Aya and Iymeru, might (or might not) have chosen to
be buried near to the kings whom they served.
23
Cf. here the concept of the ‘social house’ (nelson-HursT,
in miniaci, GrajeTzki (eds.), The World of Middle Kingdom
Egypt, 258-60).
24
The tomb of Renseneb (Fig. 1, no. 64) incorporates a tomb of
the late Old Kingdom located immediately to the left as one en-
ters (davies, ASAE 84, 131, 137, fig. 9, 141, fig. 15; davies, in
marée (ed.), The Second Intermediate Period, 224, fig. 1, 225,
n. 20; for other Old Kingdom tombs in the vicinity, see limme,
BMSAES 9, 20-4, figs. 15-25, 31-3). There must also have been
Middle Kingdom tombs in the range, though only the unusurped
tomb of Senwosret (Fig. 2, no. 46), a governor of Elkab of the
early Twelfth Dynasty, has yet been certainly identified as such
(PM V, 184; davies, o’connell, BMSAES 14, 52-3, figs. 3-5;
davies, o’connell, BMSAES 16, 102-3, figs. 5-6; davies et al.,
ASAE 85, 35-6, fig. 4, pl. 4, b; art. cit., 57-8, fig. 2).
25
For recent results, see davies, in claes, de meulenaere,
Hendrickx (eds.), Elkab and Beyond, 139-75; davies, in
Galán, bryan, dorman (eds.), Creativity and Innovation, 381-
409; davies, o’connell, BMSAES 22, 1-2, 10-7, figs. 1-11.
26
davies, in Galán, bryan, dorman (eds.), Creativity and
Innovation, 408-9, nn. 117, 118; cf. sHirley, JEgH 3, 105-7;
viscHak, in HaWass, ricHards (eds.), The Archaeology and
Art of Ancient Egypt, 451-2; viscHak, Community and Iden-
tity, 221-3; doxey, in GundlacH, Taylor (eds.), Egyptian
Royal Residences, 1-3.
76
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 William ViVian DaVies

Fig. 4 – Elkab, Tomb 73, doorway from inside, detail (Photo: J. Rossiter)

Fig. 5 – Elkab, Tomb 73, interior, first room (Photo: W. V. Davies)

78
 The Tomb of a Governor of elkab of The Second InTermedIaTe PerIod

Fig. 6 – Elkab, Tomb 73, interior, second room, top of burial shaft (Photo: W. V. Davies)

Fig. 7 – (left) Elkab, Tomb 73, interior, burial shaft, with entrance
to burial chamber (Photo: K. Gabler)
Fig. 8 – (above) Elkab, Tomb 73, interior, first room, ceiling with
fragments of painted plaster (Photo: W. V. Davies)

79
 William ViVian DaVies

Fig. 9 – Elkab, Tomb 66, east wall, frieze-inscriptions, detail (Photo: J. Rossiter)

Fig. 10 – Juridical Stela (Cairo JE 52453), detail (Photo: Ahmed Amin, courtesy Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

80
 The Tomb of a Governor of elkab of The Second InTermedIaTe PerIod

Fig. 11 – Elkab, statue Cairo JE 87254, frontal view (Photo: Ahmed Amin, courtesy Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

Fig. 12 – Elkab, statue Cairo JE 87254, view from above (Photo: Ahmed Amin, courtesy Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

81
 Fig. 13 – Elkab, statue Cairo JE 87254, detail of inscription (Photo: Ahmed Amin, courtesy Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

82
William ViVian DaVies

Fig. 14 – Elkab, Tomb 66, east wall, biographical stela, detail (Photo: J. Rossiter)
The Tomb of a Governor of elkab of The Second InTermedIaTe PerIod

Fig. 15 – Elkab, Tomb 39, façade (Photo: W. V. Davies)

83
 Davies

Pl. V Elkab, Tomb 73, façade

Pl. VI Elkab, Tomb 73, façade, lintel, left end Pl. VII Elkab, Tomb 73, façade, lintel, right end

Elkab,
Tomb 73,
façade,
section of
left jamb
(Pl. VIII)

Elkab,
Tomb 39,
façade,
right
jamb,
detail
(Pl. IX)

Pl. VIII Pl. IX (All photos: W.V. Davies)