Kanawati Naguib

Baqet III was the ‘great overlord’ of the Oryx province, located in the most fertile region of Egypt. The well-preserved wall scenes in his chapel record activities undertaken in the desert, on land and river, in workshops as well as those of wars and entertainments. Dated to the end of the Eleventh Dynasty, the tomb documents one of the critical times in Egyptian history. The architectural features and the scenes and inscriptions are published in colour photographs and detailed line drawings, accompanied by explanatory text.

The tomb of Pepyankh the Black (D2) at Meir was published by Blackman in his series The Rock Tombs of Meir (vol. 5, London, 1953). The Australian Centre for Egyptology (ACE) rerecorded all the scenes and inscriptions in the chapel after these had been conserved by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, with many additional details surfacing. The ACE has also undertaken conservation work in the burial chamber which yielded interesting information on the decoration of burial chambers in the Old Kingdom. The tomb is one of the most completely decorated and preserved provincial tombs of the Old Kingdom with scenes covering various themes from the life of the tomb owner as well as the most complete scenes of the funerary procession. All the scenes and inscriptions are published in detailed, coloured photographs as well as line drawings. They are accompanied by a textual description of the scenes, translation of the hieroglyphic texts and a comparative analysis with other contemporary tombs.

A new complete record of the architecture, scenes and inscriptions in the important tomb of Djau with description and translations. The volume includes studies by M. Schultz and R. Walker of the recently discovered human remains of Djau and a study of mummification techniques by S. Ikram.