The Lady of Elephantine: Five Women Mysteriously Buried under the Causeway of Thutmose III

Lecture in the Charles K. Wilkinson Lecture Series on ‘Feminizing the Landscape: The Female Form in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and the Islamic World’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 27, 2024

Par Frédéric Colin, Chaire Marc Bloch de l’USIAS, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède

Abstract: Introduction by Diana Craig Patch, Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in Charge, Department of Egyptian Art, The Met.

  This lecture presents the current state of research on the discovery of a group of coffins belonging to four or five women, buried in a secondary position in the fill of a ramp built by Thutmose III in western Thebes. The five coffins were buried in a single phase and directly covered with debris. Starting from the observation that this arrangement is unusual, the conference tries to answer two questions: what are these coffins doing in this strange context? Who are these people who deserve such an atypical burial, when at the same time they deserve such a beautiful burial?

  To address the second question, the lecture discusses the interpretation of the inscriptions on the coffins, the study of the associated objects, and the study of the characteristics of the skeletons, in order to determine the sex, gender, and social status of the deceased. The study is based on an X-ray procedure carried out in situ using portable equipment.

  The answer to the first question is based on the systematic 3D modelling of the stratigraphy, according to the principle of a ‘matrioshka doll’ pattern. This contextual analysis, combined with the results of excavations by Howard Carter and Ambrose Lansing (for the Metropolitan Museum) before and after the First World War, suggests that the coffins were moved to the ramp in an operation that was both opportunistic and respectful of past generations. Their new location gave them a front row seat to attend the ceremonies of the “Beautiful Festival of the Valley”, during which the boats of Amun, Mut and Khonsu were carried along the processional causeway.

  In conclusion, the study shows that the decoration of the coffin of one of the deceased, Lady Ta-Abu, highlights women’s agency in funerary ritual in a highly original way. While different kinds of gender staging are attested in the decoration of female and male coffins from this period, the artist has entirely feminized the funerary scenes depicted on Lady Ta-Abu’s coffin.

  Two details are particularly interesting: one could be a representation of a typical “grape offering”, in which children receive special attention under the guidance of adult women. The other detail reveals an instance of the same ritual event being documented in both 2D and 3D formats. The 2D representation is of the ideal scene, while the 3D objects are those that were actually left behind by the officiating women.

Cite this paper as: Frédéric Colin, « The Lady of Elephantine: Five Women Mysteriously Buried Under the Causeway of Thutmose III », Lecture in the Charles K. Wilkinson Lecture Series on ‘Feminizing the Landscape: The Female Form in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and the Islamic World’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 27, 2024, https://clae.hypotheses.org/4019, consulté le XX/XX/XXXX.

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