New Ramesside tomb

A newly discovered Ramesside tomb

In 2026, the team discovered a hitherto unknown Ramesside tomb to the east of Theban Tomb 45. The discovery was made in the context of the implementation of our preventive conservation and risk managament programme for the area around Theban Tomb 45.

The architectural layout of the tomb is typical of private Theban elite tombs dating to the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 BCE), comprising an outer courtyard, an inverted T-shaped rock-cut chapel consisting of a transverse hall and a longitudinal hall, and subterranean burial chambers. The tomb’s courtyard area comprises several well-preserved architectural features, including a mudbrick platform with a niche for a stela, and a staircase with ramps on either side giving access to the tomb.

The painted wall decoration inside the tomb chapel shows the main tomb owner in adoration before various deities in shrines, and the tomb owner and his wife in front of an offering table. Based on a first analysis of the wall decoration, we were able to identify the main tomb owner as a man named Paser. Based on the iconography and painting style, the tomb can be dated to the Ramesside period (ca. 1292-1069 BCE). The paintings are currently covered in a thin layer of dirt. In future fieldwork seasons, we will consolidate and conserve the tomb structure and the wall paintings, followed by detailed documentation and analysis of the wall decoration. In addition, we will continue the archaeological study of the tomb. Based on the analysis of the wall decoration and of the burial remains we expect to be able to reconstruct Paser’s position within the Ramesside administrative or priestly hierarchy, and to find out more about the other individuals that were buried here, such as his family members, and possibly later reusers of this tomb.

Furthermore, we will study the tomb in its broader chronological context, and in particular in comparative analysis with Theban Tombs 45 and 133 which also date to the Ramesside period. This approach is expected to reveal deeper insight into how the Ramesside tombs in this area relate to the surrounding environment and pre-existing monuments, as well as into the historical and cultural development of the necroplis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, of which currently very little is known. One of the main research questions in relation to the fieldwork project focuses on the dynamics of tomb placement and tomb reuse in the Theban necropolis during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550–1070 BCE). The aim of the research is to gain a deep-level understanding of the functioning of tombs as part of the continuously changing mortuary landscape. Specific questions that we seek to answer are: How did the physical features of the ancient mortuary landscape influence the placement of tombs? Which factors influenced the decision to reuse tombs for burial as opposed to building new tombs? The newly discovered Ramesside tomb is of important scholarly significance for this research, because it will give us new information to help us answer the question why in the Ramesside period, officials such as Paser chose to reuse, modify, or build tombs adjacent to the monuments of the preceding 18th dynasty elites, and what these decisions tells us about practices of cultural memory and the performance of status and social identity in ancient Thebes.

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The tomb's courtyard area comprises several well-preserved features, including a staircase with ramps on either side giving access to the tomb.

Painted wall decoration in the newly discovered tomb. The paintings are currently covered in a thin layer of dirt and will be consolidated and conserved in future fieldwork seasons.