ARCE-Chicago: The Life Cycle of Theban Tomb 16 in Dra abu el Naga

Lecture Information

Since 2008, Dr. Suzanne Onstine and the University of Memphis have held a concession to Theban Tomb 16 in the ancient necropolis near modern Luxor. The tomb dates to the reign of Ramesses II in the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom (ca. 1250 B.C.E.). It belonged to a chanter and priest named Panehsy and his wife, a chantress named Tarenu. The rock-cut tomb has 2 small rooms of beautifully painted plaster scenes, and a winding corridor that leads to the burial chamber. The images in the tomb depict the married couple before the gods, giving and receiving offerings, agricultural scenes, and images of two temples where Panehsy worked as a priest and chanter. Since 2011, the UM team has been engaged in the archaeological clearance of the corridor, yielding hundreds of looted mummified remains that had been secondary burials in the tomb. Specialist studies on the human remains have given us new insight into the burial customs of the Egyptians as well information about their state of health while they were alive.

In the 2024 season new details about the secondary burials and the modern looting have come to light, helping us draw a clearer picture of the full life cycle of the tomb.

Speaker Bio

Suzanne Onstine is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Memphis. She received her B.A in Anthropology at the University of Arizona and her M.A and Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. In addition to being a co-PI for the National Science Foundation funded project “Methodology for Reconstructing Prior River Flow”, she currently directs the University of Memphis mission to Theban Tomb 16, the tomb of Panehsy in Dra abu el-Naga, Luxor and has done archaeology in Egypt for more than 25 years. She has published many works on religion and gender in addition to various aspects of work in TT16.