Monday, October 29, 2012

The Lost Chapel of Nebamun


Nebamun was an 18th dynasty Egyptian nobel who lived somewhere around the reign of the opulent King Amenhotep III or his successor Amenhotep IV. Nebamun is known today most famously for eleven fragments of frescoes from his tomb chapel housed since 1823 in the British Museum. The museum acquired them in the purchase of the first collection of British Council General to Egypt Henry Salt.

A number of other fragments are in other museums including Cairo and Lyon. The fragments are some of if not the finest surviving frescoes from the Theban necropolis.

The fragments in the British Museum were found by Giovanni d'Athanasi probably at the north end of the Dra Abul Naga settlement in 1820. This information is known because a fragment of men catching quails in Berlin was seen during the excavations of the Marquis of Northampton in 1898-99.

Recently there are reports that Nebamun's tomb chapel has been found though the gist of the article I read did not say it had been found but that rather with the tearing down of the houses in the area they "may" find the tomb.

Image: British Museum

The British Museum: Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt, ISBN-10: 0-7141-1972-5, pg's 170-177

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