Author:

Keywords:

Egyptology, Archaeology, funerary religion

Abstract:

The so-called royal cachettes of the Third Intermediate Period in western Thebes have been explained as the results of desperate attempts by the priesthood of the Amun temple of Karnak to redress the damage done to royal burials in the Valley of the Kings. This article argues that the frequent reburials of the royal mummies, which involved displacements over very large distances and which must have been witnessed by many, are hardly likely to have served any real purpose of protection. The reburials tend to be associated with burials of members of the high priest family, and with locations associated with the early New Kingdom pharaoh Amenhotep I and his mother, queen Ahmose Nefertari. This article argues that these reburials were effectively a kind of ritual underscoring the piety of the high priests of Amun to their predecessors.