Monday, March 27, 2006

The tomb of Ped-Isisby

http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/5/
Zahi Hawass, still focused on Bahariya, talking about work at the tomb of Ped-Isisby:

"The next area we began to clear was northeast of the tomb of Djed-Khonsu-efankh. To our surprise, this work revealed the tomb of Ped-Isis, father of Djed-Khonsu-efankh.This is one of the oldest tombs here. It was built in the same style as the tomb of Naesa, with the burial chamber continuing an anthropoid sarcophagus and an inner chamber. Unfortunately, the entrance to the tomb had been completely destroyed because it was used as sewer by one of the houses above. We even found sewage inside the sarcophagus.
The water from the houses above has also destroyed the beautiful scenes that had once adorned the walls. Most of them had come away from the walls and we found pieces on the ground. However, these fragments do give us a small glimpse of how beautiful these scenes must have been. Fakhry believed that Ped-Isis had also been the governor of Bahariya after his father, Ped-Amun.
The anthropoid sarcophagus found in the tomb was crafted from local sandstone, and measured seven feet three inches long. Depicted on the sarcophagus is Ped-Isis with a priestly beard. This tells us that he was also a high priest of Amun-Re. The lid of the sarcophagus had been broken into three pieces and the mummy was almost completely deteriorated. When he cleaned the sarcophagus we found six wadjet-eyes of varying sizes, an amethyst scarab, four turquoise djed-pillar amulets and five carnelian amulets in different shapes.
But the biggest surprise was that we found approximately thirty shawabtis to the right of the sarcophagus that had been incorrectly carved. Each measured an inch high and inscribed on them it read: 'The Osiris, Ped-Isis, born of Amun-Itieb.' This is a mistake in the carving, for it should read: 'The Osiris, Ped-Isis, born of Ped-Amun and not Amun-Itieb.' "

(Copied here in full due to the lack of archive on the Egyptian Gazette website)

No comments: