theban tomb 46 and its owner, ramose 209

THEBAN TOMB 46 AND ITS OWNER, RAMOSE1

Nozomu Kawai Waseda University, Tokyo

I. Debate on the Date of TT46 regard Ramose as identical with an official men- tioned on a stela from Giza from the reign of King In the Topographical Bibliography, TT46 is Ay. However, he believed that the identification described as the tomb of Ramose, dating to of the royal cartouche was the key to the date of “the time of Amenhotep III (?).”2 This was first the tomb owner. recorded by John Gardiner Wilkinson,3 and his In 1991, Briant Bohleke assumed that Ramose’s manuscript is the most comprehensive document career and tomb should date to the reigns of Tut- concerning this tomb. Later, Alan Gardiner4 and ankhamun and Ay, and perhaps the first year Arthur Weigall visited TT46 and dated it to the of Horemheb.11 In 1998, Friedericke Kampp time of Amenhotep III with a query.5 Porter and described the history of the tomb and its archi- Moss supported this.6 Wolfgang Helck dated the tecture in her comprehensive study, Die Thebanis- tomb to the early part of the reign of Amenhotep che Nekropole.12 She dates TT46 to the reigns of IV, and he noted some of Ramose’s titles in his Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV, with Ramose Urkunden.7 In Norman de Garis Davies’s unpub- as the usurper of a tomb originally constructed lished manuscript, he dated TT46 to the time for someone who lived from the end of the 17th somewhere between Amenhotep III and Amen- Dynasty to the beginning of the 18th Dynasty. hotep IV.8 The reason for this dating was that This article aims to discuss the date of the tomb Ramose held titles associated with both the cults and its owner on the basis of my own first-hand of Amun and Aten at the same time.9 research within the tomb. In 1979, Erhart Graefe discussed the title con- taining the reference to the mansion of the Aten, and also studied Wilkinson’s manuscript and the II. Theban Tomb 46 titles attributed to Ramose by Helck and Porter and Moss.10 Graefe refrained from speculating TT46 is situated approximately in the middle of about the date of the tomb, but was inclined to the hill of Sheikh abd al-Qurna (fig. 1). The tomb

1 A version of this paper was originally read at the Annual 5 S.R.K. Glanville, “Some Notes on Material for the Reign Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt in Balti- of Amenophis III,” JEA 15 (1929), 6, n.1. more in 2001. I would especially like to express deep grati- 6 PM I2, 86-87. tude to former Secretary General of the Supreme Council of 7 Urk. IV, 1995, 10-14; W. Helck, Zur Verwaltung des Antiquities, Prof. Dr. Gaballa Ali Gaballa, for granting me Mittleren und Neuen Reiches, PÄ 3 (Leiden, 1958), 390-391, permission to work at Theban Tomb 46. I am grateful to Pro- 500. Helck, however, noted that the same Ramose is identi- fessors Betsy M. Bryan and Richard Jasnow for their invalu- fied on the year 3 stela of Ay from Giza. able suggestions. I am also indebted to Dr. W. Raymond 8 Davies, MSS 11, 1. I would like to thank Dr. Jaromír Johnson, Dr. Briant Bohleke, Dr. Richard Fazzini, and Dr. Málek for permission to read Davies’s archive at the Griffith Jacobus van Dijk for providing me invaluable information. Institute, Oxford. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the American Research 9 This was probably assumed to be the time of the core- Center in Egypt for my research grant-in-aid by the Samuel gency of Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV by the scholars H. Kress Fellowship in Egyptian Art and Architecture. who believe in the coregency. I wish to dedicate this article to honor Jack Josephson, 10 E. Graefe, “Bemerkungen zu Ramose, dem Besitzer von who has always encouraged my study in Egyptology since I TT 46,” GM 33 (1979), 13-15. was a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University. 11 B. Bohleke, The Overseer of Double Granaries of Upper 2 PM I2, 86-87. and Lower Egypt in the Egyptian New Kingdom, 1570–1085 3 J.G. Wilkinson, MS V, 74-75. (Griffith Institute, B.C., PhD diss., Yale University (Ann Arbor, 1991), 244- Oxford). I would like to acknowledge Dr. Jaromír Málek for 249. permission to examine the archive at the Griffith Institute, 12 F. Kampp, Die thebanische Nekropole, zum Wandel des Oxford. Grabgedankens von der XVIII. bis zur XX. Dynastie, Theben 4 I would like to thank Professor Betsy M. Bryan for 13 (Mainz am Rhein, 1996), 244-247. allowing me to see her copy of Gardiner’s manuscript. 210 nozomu kawai

Fig. 1. TT 46 and its vicinity (After F. Kampp, Die Thebanische Nekropole, Plan III: Sh. Abd el-Qurna, Teil II [Upper enclosure]).

of the vizier Useramun, who served Thutmose III, half-cut pillars, transverse hall, and inner hall is nearby. The tomb entrance of TT46 consists of without pillars (fig. 2).13 a portico with six pillars and two half-cut pillars The second phase of the tomb is the time when hewn into the bedrock, but the entrance portico Ramose reused and enlarged it. The inner hall was was later sealed by mud brick and mud plaster. extended, with an attempt to construct eight pillars The tomb has a transverse hall on a north-south on both sides of the hall. Ultimately, seven pillars axis and an inner hall in the center. The inner hall were cut, but the eighth pillar was left unfinished possesses eight pillars, one of which is unfinished. in the middle. Kampp suggested that the inner There is a niche in the center of the back wall of hall with pillars is common in the Ramesside the inner hall, and the shaft is cut at the southwest Period and categorized it as Type VIIc.14 TT46 corner of this hall. There still remain some heaps belongs to this category, which starts from the of debris inside the tomb, and the tomb has not time of Amenhotep III, continuing throughout been excavated. the Ramesside Period.15 As Kampp has rightly pointed out, TT46 was The decoration of TT46 is badly preserved. In probably originally executed in the late 17th or the portico, only the north face of the western- early 18th Dynasty, and the original plan was most pillar retains painted decoration, and there composed of the portico with six pillars and two are remains of a relief scene on the west wall of the

13 Ibid., 244-246. the vizier Ramose (TT55), the tomb of Amenhotep Surero 14 Ibid., 21-23, 111-116. (TT48) and the tomb of Kheruef (TT192). 15 This type is early represented by such tombs as that of