Ae39 Tomb of Harwa

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25ANCIENT EGYPT December 2006/January 2007

The Tomb of Harwa (TT 37) a high official of theTwenty-fifth Dynasty

Above: view looking south-east across el-Asasif towards the Ramesseum. The coach park and road leading to the temple of Hatshepsut are in the foreground; the largemud-brick structures just beyond are part of the tomb complexes of Montuemhat (to the right) and Pabasa and Padineith (left).

The tomb of Harwa lies just beyond the latter. Photo: Chris Naunton.

Western Thebes is famous for its royal necropoleisand memorial temples, and for the tombs ofhigh-ranking officials. There are more than

four hundred non-royal, numbered tombs scatteredthroughout the area, the best known being the so-calledtombs of the nobles clustered around the Sheikh Abdel-Qurna hill, all of which date to the New Kingdom.

Monuments of this period dominate the Theban land-scape, and it is easy to forget that there are also manytombs dating to preceding and succeeding periods, some

of which are among the grandest achievements of ancientEgypts artists and architects.

TT (Theban Tomb) 37, the tomb of Harwa, is one suchlittle-known but nonetheless spectacular monument. Itbelongs to a group of tombs of the Late Period con-structed in the area of the Theban necropolis known asel-Asasif.

These tombs were built along the causeways leadingfrom the temples of Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra of theEleventh Dynasty, and of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III

The little-known tomb of Harwa, currently being excavated by the Italian Archaeological Missionto Luxor, is, asChristopher Naunton explains, a remarkable and important

monument in the Theban Necropolis.

River Nile

The RamesseumThe MetropolitanMuseum House, now the

home of the PolishMission.

Tomb of Harwa

Tombs of

Pabasa (TT279)andPadineith (TT197)

Tomb ofMontuemhat

(TT34)

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ANCIENT EGYPT December 2006/January 2007

of the Eighteenth Dynasty, at Deir el-Bahri.

In terms of the modern landscape, thearea of el-Asasif lies across the otherside of the road from the coach parkand bazaars leading to the temple of

Hatshepsut. (Have you ever wonderedwhat all that mudbrick is?)

Harwa was one of the foremost offi-cials of his time, and the first holder ofthe title Chief Steward of the GodsWife of Amun (imy-r pr-wr n Hmt-nTr nImn), an office that would be held suc-cessively by some of the wealthiest andmost influential individuals in Thebesduring the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties.

The Chief Steward was the foremostsecular official of the Gods Wife, whowas herself the most important member

of the clergy of Amun at this time.The role of the Gods Wife of Amun

(Hmt-nTr n Imn) had been given renewedsignificance in the years immediatelypreceding the Twenty-fifth Dynasty,when Thebes was ruled by a line oflocal kings. The history and chronologyof the period is extremely complicated,and scholars disagree as to the details ofthe situation, but broadly speaking thiswas the period of the Libyan Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties.

These kings, vying for control of theregion with rival rulers, had installed

family members in prominent religiousoffices, and so it was that Osorkon IIIinstalled his daughter Shepenwepet (I)as Gods Wife.

When, between 750 and 720 BC,Kushite kings from the region of the

Fourth Cataract of the Nile, deep inUpper Nubia (modern Sudan), estab-lished their rule in Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, an early diplomatic ploy oftheirs was to install a royal princess,

Amunirdis (I), as heiress to the Gods

Wife, Shepenwepet.Harwa was later appointed as

Amunirdis right-hand man.The Twenty-fifth Dynasty was a peri-

od of revival in Thebes when manysacred sites, particularly Karnak, Luxorand Medinet Habu, which were associ-ated with the cult of the Kushites mostfavoured deity, Amun, were the focus ofnew construction and the embellish-ment and restoration of existing monu-ments.

Much of this work was carried out inthe name of the Gods Wife and her

heiresses, presumably assisted by herChief Steward.

Though the precise nature of his roleis unclear, the mark Harwa left in themonumental record is testimony to hiswealth and influence. In addition to histomb he also left a series of fine statues,several of which were found in thefamous cache excavated by GeorgesLegrain along the north-south axis ofthe main Amun temple at Karnak.

The Italian Archaeological Mission toLuxor, directed by Dr FrancescoTiradritti, has been working in TT37

since 1995.Since that time, dozens of specialists

from a variety of fields, and several dif-ferent countries, have participated in theproject, which encompasses archaeolog-ical excavation, study of the textual andfigurative decoration, conservation, therestoration of decorated fragments totheir original position on the walls, andthe reconstruction of architectural fea-tures that have been completelydestroyed. Much has been achievedsince the project began but the monu-ment is extremely large and complex,and badly ruined; much still remains tobe done. Nonetheless, we now have areasonable idea of what the monumentwould have been like at the time of itsconstruction.

TT37 is the earliest of three very largeand complex monuments of this period

the largest private tombs in Egypt which lie in close proximity to eachother at the western end of the Asasifcemetery. The other two, built forMontuemhat (TT34) and Padiamunope

Below:the Courtyard of the Tomb of

Harwa. The scaffold by which theteam entered the tomb prior to the

clearance of the vestibule is built ontothe Eastern wall.

Photo: Chris Naunton.

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(TT 35), are slightly larger than that ofHarwa, but TT37 was the first in thesequence and, in terms of its layout anddecoration, the inspiration for the othertwo.

The Entranceway, Vestibuleand CourtyardEl-Asasif is a flat plain and, therefore,unlike the many other tombs in WesternThebes, which were built more or lesshorizontally into the cliff/hill-side,TT37 was built directly beneath theground.

The ancient floor lies approximatelythirteen metres below the presentground level, and the portico, whichmarks the entrance to the tomb proper,is reached via a descending staircase.The visitor approaches the portico,

which is formed of six square-based pil-lars in a squared C shape, from thesouth. The decoration in this part of thetomb was never finished; the elaboratedoorframe surrounding the vestibuleentrance was decorated only with anunfinished hieroglyphic text in redpaint, on which the sculptors grid stillremains.

From here, the visitor proceeds north-wards into a vestibule. This area had,until recently, been used by the SupremeCouncil of Antiquities as a secure store-room for objects excavated at various

sites on the West Bank. These weremoved to a new storage facility nearbyin 2004, allowing the stairway and por-tico to be reconnected with the rest ofthe monument, and the tomb to beentered as had originally been intended,rather than via a scaffold into the court-

yard, as had been the case before theobjects were moved.

The Vestibule itself is vaulted, andwould originally have been covered withfine raised relief decoration, very littleof which remains now. The axis of thetomb takes a ninety-degree turn to thewest (left) after this point: from theVestibule the visitor proceeds to a largecourtyard which lies on this second,east-west axis.

Cloisters, formed of rows of foursquare-based pillars, line the north andsouth sides of the Courtyard (to the leftand right as you proceed through it),however the central area was left delib-erately open to the sun by Harwasarchitects.

This unusual feature would inspire the

builders of many other tombs in thearea and represents their most distinc-tive characteristic.

From the surface, the Courtyard ofthe tomb of Harwa currently appears aslittle more than a crater, its straight sides

almost imperceptible due to the collapseof the pillars and cloister ceilings, andthe consequent build-up of dbris in thispart of the tomb.

Excavation work has necessarily pro-ceeded very slowly, as in most cases thepillars are only partially preserved andheld together by the dbris that sur-rounds them. As this dbris is excavated,the team risks the remains of the pillarsfragmenting further. Nonetheless, as thepainstaking work of conserving theirremains proceeds in tandem with exca-

vation, the level of dbris has slowly

Below:plan of TT37 after Eigner, D. DieMonumentalen Grabbauten DerSptzeit in Der ThebanischenNekropole (Vienna, 1984).

A = Entrance Portico,B = Vestibule,C = Courtyard,

D = First Pillared Hall,E = Second Pillared Hall,F = Osiris Shrine,G = Corridor surrounding the tomb.

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28 ANCIENT EGYPT December 2006/January 2007

Above:view from the Entrance Portico

looking out towards the surface.

Below, left:hieroglyphs, in red paint only, which

surround the entrance to the Vestibule.

Below, right:view of the north wall of the

Courtyard showing the roof of thecloister with the remains of the

square-based pillars emerging from thedbris. The original floor level lies

over one metre beneath thesurface of the dbris.

Photos: Chris Naunton.

been reduced and the team aims to havereached the ancient floor level within a

few seasons. When excavation is com-plete, with the pillars still partially inplace and the full height of the walls vis-ible, it will be easier to imagine what theCourtyard would have been like. In themeantime useful parallels are providedby surrounding tombs, some of whichhave not only survived better, but havealso been extensively restored.

The remaining decoration in this partof the tomb is of the highest quality,enhancing what must, architecturally,have been a very pleasing space.

As is the case throughout the tomb,

much of the original wall surface hasbeen lost completely as pillars have col-lapsed and large sections of the wallshave fallen to the ground. Nonetheless,enough remains for it to be clear that

the decoration was never finished. Largeareas of the northern wall in particular,though very well dressed, were neverinscribed. Indeed, at first it had seemedthat very little of this wall had been dec-orated, however, as excavation has

cleared dbris away from the lower sec-tions of the wall, it has become apparentthat in this case the artists were workingfrom the bottom of the wall upwards.

Some scenes were finished, withimages of offering bearers, dancers etcsculpted in extremely fine raised relief,while in other areas it is as if the artistssimply downed tools one day to take abreak, and never returned, leaving fig-ures half-carved, with red-paintedguidelines still very much in evidence.

The scenes in this part of the tombare reminiscent of those in the mastabas

of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties atMemphite sites such as Giza andSaqqara. They show scenes of the idealdaily life activities that a goodEgyptian would have wished to havebeen involved in, and would wish toremain involved in in the afterlife, suchas fishing and fowling.

The placement of scenes on walls andpillars was very deliberate, and allowedeach to complement the other: forexample a pillar next to a scene of fish-ing on the southern wall is decoratedwith the image of a man preparing the

fish for cooking.

The First Pillared HallProceeding along the east-west axis, the

visitor faces the western wall of the

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Courtyard. At the right-hand end ofthis wall lies the vaulted entranceway tothe tomb of Harwas successor as ChiefSteward, Akhamunru. This secondarytomb (TT 404), built into that ofHarwa, is also part of the Italian

Archaeological Missions concession,but is as yet unexcavated. In the centreof the Courtyards western wall isanother vaulted entranceway to thenext in the sequence of chambers alongthe main axis of the tomb.

In between this entranceway and thenext chamber is a short passagewayinscribed with an autobiographical text,describing the ideal life of the deceased,as a pious individual, who gave breadto the hungry man, clothes to the nakedman etc.

The visitor then enters the First

Pillared Hall. Very little is preserved ofthe eight pillars that stood here in tworows, creating a central aisle. Thesehave, however, been very effectivelyrestored in plywood to give the visitor abetter impression of how enclosed theroom would have seemed before the pil-lars were destroyed, without creating theillusion that the original architecturalelements have been preserved, or pre-cluding the restoration of decoratedfragments if/when they can be identi-fied in future.

Five doorways on each of the south-

ern and northern walls lead to sub-sidiary rooms.

The decoration in this part of thetomb is of a very different character tothat in the Courtyard.

The pillars and north, south and westwalls in particular were almost com-pletely covered with columns of hiero-

glyphic texts, inscribed in high-qualitysunk relief, and painted, usually with thesigns in blue, on a white background.Here, the placement of the texts is verydeliberate, and enhances their meaning.

The south, west and north walls areinscribed mainly with pyramid texts.These writings are better known fromother contexts, chiefly from royal pyra-mids of the Old Kingdom, and arecomposed of a series of spells each

dealing with a particular aspect ofdeath, which were designed to ensuresmooth passage to the Afterlife.

Evidence from the nearby tomb ofPabasa (TT 279, Twenty-sixth Dynasty)

much of the decorative scheme ofwhich was copied from Harwas tomb and from the fragments of decoration

Above left:unfinished relief carving of a male

figure, from the north wall of theCourtyard. The ultimate intentionwould have been to render this figurein fine raised relief; however most ofthe figure is rendered only in red paint,with the outline of the upper part ofthe figure having been carvedin outline.

Above right:partially-preserved relief scene showinga female figure, from the north wall ofthe Courtyard.

Left:fragments of relief decoration fromthe Courtyard, recovered duringexcavations there.


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recovered during excavation, suggeststhat, with the exception of the side fac-ing the adjacent north wall, the north-ern row of pillars are inscribed withtexts of the rituals of the hours of theday.

The southern row is similarlyinscribed with texts of the hours of thenight. Each of the twelve hours of theday and night are numbered, and thetext relating to each is written insequence across the pillars. The text ofthe hours of the day begins at the east-ern end of the chamber and ends at thewestern end, just as the sun movesthrough the sky during the day, fromeast to west.

Correspondingly, the text of hours ofthe night runs from west to east, in keep-ing with the Egyptian belief that the sun

passed through the underworld duringthe night to be re-born in the east eachday.

In this way, the architecture and deco-ration combine to evoke themes of thepassage of the deceased individual fromlife to death and rebirth in the afterlife,which also brings into focus the functionof the decoration in the Courtyard.

The scenes of everyday life describethe earthly life of the individual, andfurthermore, the autobiographical text,

in the passageway leading to the FirstPillared Hall, puts into words theaccomplishments of his mortal life.

The Second Pillared Hall andOsiris Shrine

The transition from life to death is madeeven more explicit at the junctionbetween the First Pillared Hall and theSecond. Another short passageway isdecorated with simple offering texts, butalso with the best-known and perhapsmost beautiful relief scene in the tomb.

It shows Anubis, the jackal-headedgod associated with death and mummi-fication, leading Harwa by the hand.Harwa is shown as a weary old man,with sagging breast and something of apaunch.

The visitor proceeds then to the

Second Pillared Hall. Here, three of thefour pillars are preserved from floor toceiling, although much of the decora-tion has been lost completely. The textshere relate to the funeral and other ritu-als performed between the death of theindividual and his interment in thetomb, the next stage in Harwas journeyfrom life to death.

This room is connected to the next byanother short passageway, with a secondscene of Anubis leading Harwa by the

Above:the short section between the

Courtyard and First Pillared Hall.As dbris of between one and two

metres in depth in the Courtyard is yetto be excavated, a wooden staircase isneeded to facilitate access to the FirstPillared Hall where the ancient floor

has already been reached.

Below:the First Pillared Hall of the tomb.


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hand. This scene differs significantlyfrom the first, however: here Harwa isshown without the sagging breast andpaunch, as a revitalised young man,exactly as he would wish to live in theafterlife, confirming that the function of

the tomb and the rituals described by itsdecoration has been to prepare Harwafor the ideal life after death, in perpetu-ity.

Beyond this passageway lies the finalchamber on the main axis of the tomb,at the end of which stands the sculptedfigure of Osiris, engaged, but in veryhigh relief, at the top of a miniatureflight of stairs, and set into an niche sur-rounded by an elaborate, round-toppeddesign. At the far end of the wall to theright of the figure of Osiris a smallniche would once have contained a stat-

ue of Harwa, symbolically associatingthe deceased with the Lord of theUnderworld, in perpetuity.

In addition to parts of the tombdescribed above, there are numeroussubsidiary rooms and other features ofinterest, including the long corridorwhich surrounds the subterraneanrooms. It is undecorated but extremelywell cut, and is thought to have repre-sented a channel of water separating thetomb from the surrounding ground,symbolically creating an island, such asthat on which Osiris himself was

thought to have been buried.The burial place of Harwa has not yet

been identified. Some fourteen shaftshave thus far been discovered in the

tomb, several of which are secondary(that is to say they were cut later by oth-ers who wished to appropriate the tombfor their own purposes), but several ofwhich are contemporary with thetombs initial construction. Six of theseshafts have been excavated so far andseveral have led to the discovery of fur-ther chambers and shafts, but none have

yielded clear evidence of the burial ofHarwa himself.

The Late Period tombs of the Asasifwere not designed to be hidden quite

the opposite in fact. Later tomb com-plexes were made very visible by elabo-rate mud-brick superstructures, whichmark their location to this day, and thegrand, open courtyards such as that ofHarwa, made them attractive to the fol-lowing generations who wished toappropriate the tombs for burial or forother purposes, and to robbers lookingfor plunder.

The focus of the current project isHarwa and the tomb as he conceived it,but our work has uncovered traces ofhuman activity at the site right down tothe present day.

An understanding of the history ofthe monument is vital to its reconstruc-tion; for example, it is very likely thatelements of the tomb decoration reliefs etc. were removed for sale onthe antiquities market at various timesduring the last two centuries, and whenthese pieces can be identified, in muse-ums or private collections, the job ofidentifying the exact spot from whichthey were taken is made much easier if


Above:the First Pillared Hall, looking west.

Note the pillars restored in plywood.Photo: Chris Naunton.

Below left:scene showing Anubis leading Harwa(shown as an old man) to the afterlife,

from the section between the First andSecond Pillared Halls.

Photo: Carlos de la Fuente.

Below right:relief scene showing Anubis leading a

rejuvenated Harwa to the afterlife,from the section between the SecondPillared Hall and Osiris Shrine.

Photo: Giacomo Lovera.

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we are able to trace the activities of therobbers themselves. And robbery is notan exclusively modern phenomenon of

course; evidence that the tomb wasrobbed in ancient times sheds very inter-esting light on the beliefs of theEgyptians in those times, and theirrespect, or lack of it, for their dead.

These and many other aspects ofhuman behaviour down the ages are inevidence at the site and are carefullyrecorded. Though it was conceived asthe burial place of a single, revered indi-

vidual, it was subsequently re-used for avariety of purposes including burial, butalso as a dwelling place and for keepinganimals. Later still, it became a curiosity

for western tourists, some of whom lefttheir own graffiti on its walls, while oth-ers investigated it with more intellectualaims in mind.

The current project itself should beconsidered a part of the monumentshistory, and we as archaeologists andEgyptologists must remember that ourwork leaves its own mark.

Current WorkThe missions current activities can bedivided into archaeology and epigraphy.In recent seasons the former hasfocussed on the excavation of theEntranceway and Courtyard, while aseparate epigraphic team has concen-trated on the reconstruction of the dec-oration in the First Pillared Hall.

The work is painstaking and slow andthe idea of completing the project isnot as straightforward as it might sound.The excavation of the tomb is a finiteproject that will be completed within afew years, but the recovery of all materi-al that once was part of the monument

is another matter entirely. Clearly someof it has now been lost for good, thoughmuch remains; it is likely that elements

of the tomb decoration removed by rob-bers and others remain unidentified inmuseum and other collections aroundthe world.

For this reason, and due to the usualshortage of time and money, a partialreconstruction both physically and onpaper, or virtually is, to be realistic,the extent of the missions aim at thistime. This will, nonetheless, require theinvestment of substantial sums ofmoney over many years to come.

Careful excavation work allows smallfragments of decoration to be recovered,

and these are then passed to the epigra-phers whose job is akin to a giant jigsawpuzzle, but on a much larger scale, withaccompanying logistical difficulties.Team members first divide blocksaccording the general features thedirection in which the text is written,whether or not any pictorial decorationis present, etc. etc. and can then beginto identify from whereabouts in thetomb groups of fragments have come.The next stage is to try to join individualfragments together, the ultimate aimbeing to join fragments or groups offragments with decoration still in placeon the walls. All the while, each of thethousands of recovered fragments islabelled and recorded.

Days can go by without any joinsbeing made, while at other times twenty

joins can be made in one session.Experience is all-important and there isno substitute for practice, and simplypicking up individual blocks to see ifthey can physically be fitted to otherswith similar features.

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Above left:the Osiris Shrine.

Above right:view of the wide and well-cut

underground corridor thatsurrounds the tomb.

Below:placed in a sandbox, doorframe

fragments in the First Pillared Hall

are reunited.


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Two seasons have so far been spent inreconstructing the decoration around thedoors of the First Pillared Hall, and thecompletion of this task alone is several sea-sons away. Due to expense and other com-mitments, it is not possible for the team to

spend longer than one or two months inthe field each year and the team thereforehas to be realistic about what can beachieved, and always be aware of the dan-ger that the project could be brought to aclose by factors beyond its control, withoutthe information already gleaned beingmade available to the wider world.

This eventuality is guarded against as faras is possible: the team reports on its activ-ities at the end of each season through the publication ofinterim scientific reports, and actively makes the workaccessible to as wide an audience as possible through thewebsite of the mission (in Italian, English, Spanish or

Arabic!), public lectures and articles such as this.For further information or to support the project please

visit our web site athttp://www.harwa.it/eng/index.htm

Christopher Naunton

The author would like to thank Dr Francesco Tiradritti,Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxorfor permission to write this article; his thanks also go to Dr

Tiradritti andGiacomo Lovera, theteam photographer,for supplying some of

the images used.Christopher Nauntonis Librarian and

Archivist at the EgyptExploration Societyand a Ph.D. studentat the University of Wales, Swansea. He has been a mem-ber of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor since2002.

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Above:fragments of raised-relief decorationare examined by a team member.

Below left:

doorframe fragments from the FirstPillared Hall.


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