Multiple Burials in Ancient Egypt to the End of the Middle Kingdom

Wolfram Grajetzki

1. Introduction
A prominent phenomenon in Egyptian funerary culture is the practice of multiple burial, very well
attested in the Pre-Dynastic Period, not very common in the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom,
but then from the late Old Kingdom on again widespread. They became especially regular in the late
Twelfth Dynasty and in all further periods down to the Christian era. To date there have been few
attempts to explain the practice and its historical development, in Egyptian archaeology. In many cases
it is simply assumed that they represent family-burials.1 Sometimes this is indeed demonstrated by the
inscribed material, in other cases the context indicates it, for example, when a man and a woman are
placed side by side in a single tomb chamber. However, very often it is impossible to say anything
about the relations between the people placed in one tomb, especially when more than two bodies
were found.
Before going into further discussion, a definition is required. Multiple burials are here defined as
the burials/graves/tombs where in one tomb chamber or pit more than one body was placed. There are
already in the First Dynasty the subsidiary tombs, built side by side as an integrated architectural
context around the cult enclosure and burials of the kings at Abydos and around other monumental
tombs of that period at Saqqara and Gizeh. However, on the definition adopted here these are not
multiple burials: each individual is placed in a separate unit. In the late Old Kingdom shafts with
several chambers at the bottom appear. If only one body was placed in each chamber, this is also not a
multiple burial. However, especially the older excavation reports are not always very detailed. The
number of bodies for such shafts is normally stated, but it is often not mentioned in which of the
chambers they were found. Obviously, such evidence should be treated with caution. There are also
graves, which are often called “mass burials”. Here a very high number of people was placed in one
tomb or one tomb chamber. The most famous example is perhaps the “second cache” at Thebes, where
the elite of the 21st Dynasty was laid to rest. This tomb contained about 150 mummies with coffins.
For this study the difference between multiple and mass burials is not relevant. To my knowledge, I do
not know any discussion on definition and distinction between mass and multiple burials.
Another problem are intrusive burials; e.g. dead bodies added to an already existing burial, which
was not built for the intrusive/later deceased (while multiple burials always seems to have been
arranged from the beginning for several dead). At many cemeteries, tombs were reused in later times,
leaving the old burial in the tomb and placing a new one over it. It is arguable in many concrete cases,
whether a burial could be called intrusive. However, looking at several cemeteries as a whole, the
picture becomes quite clear, that multiple burials appear in certain periods, while at other periods the
tombs for a single person are more common.

1
P.F. DORMAN, Family Burial and Commemoration in the Theban Necropolis, in: N. STRUDWICK/J.H. TAYLOR (eds.), The
Theban Necropolis. Past, Present and Future, London 2003, 30-41.

16
2. Pre-Dynastic, Old Kingdom to about the Fifth Dynasty
The usual burial in the Badarian Period is the single inhumation: one body in one tomb (shaft) is the
rule.2 In the Naqada period multiple burials are quite common, though not the norm. In the small
Naqada cemetery excavated at Elkab about 20 % of the tombs contained more than one body. In many
cases these are burials of an adult with a child. Stan Hendrickx comments: “children were buried in the
graves of adults whenever the occasion existed”.3 The important point, following Hendrickxs, seems
to be that the tomb was only opened once to introduce both bodies. Even these single-moment,
multiple burials disappear at the end of the Naqada period. In the early Dynastic period the single
interment is the rule. This is also true for the following early Old Kingdom, when multiple burials are
still rare. A short survey of some better documented cemeteries can demonstrate this.

From about 150 burials in the Old Kingdom cemetery of Gurob only four graves contained each
one adult (two women, two men) and one child. Only one burial contained one man and one woman
buried together.4 Interestingly the tomb register states: “bodies side by side, very old”.5 At Matmar6,
Mostagedda,7 Badari and Qau8 and other places multiple burials are also very rare and generally
restricted to burials of a woman with a child.
At the same time, there are also important developments in the Old Kingdom concerning the
mastabas and the number of burial shafts, reflecting the same tendency. Mastabas of the Early
Dynastic Period are always reserved for one person. This seems to be true for all social levels and in
all parts of the country. The royal tombs of Abydos may be compared with the palace facade tombs at
Saqqara or Tarkhan or with the more modest sized burials at Helwan, Tarkhan or Naga ed-Deir.9
Although the architecture of these mastabas is often very different from place to place in detail, the
burial chamber seems to be taken always only by one person. Husband and wife are clearly buried at
different places, architecturally separated. At the end of the Second Dynasty mastabas appear with two
cult chapels and two different burial chambers. George Andrew Reisner called them “twin Mastabas”,
because they are almost double the length of the more or less contemporary “single mastabas” and
therefore they seem for us a little out of proportion.10 Mastabas of the Third Dynasty with two shafts
are already more “in proportion” (in general about 1 to 2 - width to length).

2
M.A. MURRAY, Burial Customs and Beliefs in the Hereafter in Predynastic Egypt, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 42
(1956), 87.
3
S. HENDRICKX, Elkab V. The Naqada III Cemetery, Brussels 1994, 154.
4
G. BRUNTON/R. ENGELBACH, Gurob (British School of Archaeology in Egypt 41), London 1927, pl. IV-V, IX (tomb
register).
5
BRUNTON/ENGELBACH, Gurob, pl. X.
6
G. BRUNTON, Matmar (British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt 1929-1931), London 1948, pl. X (three tombs with
each two bodies – no. 3111, 3112, 5119).
7
G. BRUNTON, Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture (British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt First and Second Years
1928, 1929), London 1937, pl. XLV, tomb 2677 (fc - about Fourth Dynasty), tomb 683 (cc - Fifth Dynasty).
Abbreviation used here and hereafter: f - human remains of a female person, m - human remains of a male, c - human
remains of a child.
8
No multiple burials for the Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, only three examples for the end of the Old Kingdom: G. BRUNTON,
Qau, Badari II (British School of Archaeology in Egypt 45), London 1928, pl. LVI-LVII, tomb 3113 (ff), 3169 (mmf),
4852 (mmfc).
9
See in general G.A. REISNER, The Development of the Egyptian Tomb down to the Accession of Cheops, Oxford/London
1936.
10
REISNER, Development of the Egyptian Tomb, 285-86.

17
 However, in the Third and Fourth Dynasties there are still many mastabas with only one shaft, and
many of them are datable to the time of Snefru (Dahshur)11 and Khufu. A husband and his wife are
clearly buried at different places with a separate cult chapel.12 In the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties the
number of shafts per mastaba increased.13 The available inscribed material indicates that these tombs
represent family burial places.14 Therefore the Old Kingdom provides a clear development from
mastabas reserved just for one person to mastabas for several people, most likely family members. In
connection with this development the decoration of the false door and tomb chapel in general should
be mentioned. Tomb stones of the First and Second Dynasties always mention only one person. The
same holds true for the false door in the early phase of its development, in the Third Dynasty.
However, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty the whole family is sometimes shown in the tomb
decoration, false doors depict in the main field the tomb owner and his wife together at the funerary
meal.15 These false door panels seem to be especially popular in the Fourth Dynasty,16 but are also
attested in the later Old Kingdom.17 However, they are not very common, and it appears still quite
often that a tomb decoration is just made for one man, without even mentioning a wife.18

3. Late Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period and Early Middle Kingdom
In terms of multiple burials the period from the end of the Old Kingdom to the early Middle Kingdom
(until about Senusret II) constitutes one single period, although the development of burial customs
underwent important changes in detail. Multiple burials are still not common, but they appear in
higher number than before. It is particularly important to note that now not only an adult and a child
were placed into tombs but more often also an adult man and an adult woman, who are most likely a
couple. There are also cases of burials with more than two individuals, whose relationship is not
always clear.
Examples of Innovations in Burial Customs
The following list offers an overview of tombs at several sites in Egypt. These are just some examples
which are better recorded or which provide further insight into the custom of placing more than one
body into a tomb chamber. The list does not aim to be complete.

11
N. ALEXANIAN, Dahschur II. Das Grab des Prinzen Netjer-aperef. Die Mastaba II/1 in Dahschur (Archäologische
Veröffentlichungen 56), Mainz 1999, fig. 4.
12
H. JUNKER, Bericht über die von der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien auf gemeinsame Kosten mit Dr. Wilhelm
Pelizaeus unternommenen Grabungen auf dem Friedhof des Alten Reiches bei den Pyramiden von Gîza I (Denkschriften
der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 69), Wien-Leipzig 1929, 38.
13
See for example the mastaba of Rawer with its high number of shafts datable to the Fifth Dynasty. S. HASSAN,
Excavations at Giza 1929-1930, Oxford 1932, frontispiece. It is not certain whether all shafts are contemporary or
whether some of them are later.
14
Y. HARPUR, Decoration in Egyptian Tombs of the Old Kingdom (Studies in Egyptology), London 1987, 16-20.
15
HARPUR, Decoration in Egyptian Tombs, 79.
16
For example L. BORCHARDT, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Nos 1295-1808,
Denkmäler des Alten Reiches (außer den Statuen) im Museum von Kairo I-II, Berlin 1937-1964, no. 1392; D. ARNOLD
(ed.), Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (exhibition catalogue), New York 1999, 296-97, no. 85 (Fourth Dynasty);
H. JUNKER, Gîza V, Wien-Leipzig 1941, 185, fig. 57; 61, fig. 48; 145, fig. 40; for the dating compare N. CHERPION,
Mastabas et hypogées d'Ancien Empire (Connaissance de l´Égypte Ancienne 2), Brussels 1989, 83-103, 116, 128;
compare the discussion: A.M. ROTH, Social Change in the Fourth Dynasty. The Spatial Organization of Pyramids,
Tombs, and Cemeteries, Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt 30 (1993), 42.
17
M. JØRGENSEN, Catalogue Egypt (3000 - 1550 B.C.) Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek I, Copenhagen 1996, 84-87, nos. 29-30
(Sixth Dynasty); C.M. FIRTH/B. GUNN, Teti Pyramid Cemeteries II (Excavations at Saqqara), Le Caire 1926, pl. 62.
18
Discussed A.M. ROTH, A Cemetery of Palace Attendants (Giza Mastabas 6), Boston 1995, 43-45.

18
Late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period
Beni Hasan: A tomb chamber, dating to the late Old Kingdom contained three bodies; one of them
belongs to a woman (the king's ornament Senet), and two belong to other women (called “daughters”
in the publication).19
Gebelein: One well documented Old Kingdom tomb was found in 1911 by Ernesto Schiaparelli. The
burial consists of four rock cut chambers, one of which was found intact and contained two coffins and
one sarcophagus (coffin in stone).20 No inscriptions were found and it is therefore not possible to
determine the relations between the people buried here. The use of a sarcophagus and the quality of
some objects found in the tomb suggest that members of the local elite were buried here. In the tomb
were found a wooden model of a boat and wooden (model) sandals.
Gurob: The First Intermediate Period cemetery with about 70 burials contained only one double
burial, again a man and a woman.21
Harageh: A shaft tomb (no. 651)22, probably to be dated to the First Intermediate Period, contained
the body of four people, two men, one woman and one person for whom it was not possible to
determine the sex. Another tomb in the same cemetery (no. 99) contained the bodies of six children
placed in coffins.23 Tomb no. 87 contained two coffins, and according to the publication, the human
remains of a man and of a woman. They were each placed in inscribed coffins, which were both
produced, following the names and titles on them, for men. If the publication is correct concerning the
sexing of the bodies, at least one coffin was therefore reused for a woman. There are also other tombs
at Harageh with two burials, sometimes a man and a woman (tombs no. 44, 198), which makes it very
likely that these are cases of couples (or son and mother?). However, there are again other instances
where two men (tomb no. 84), and two men, one woman and a fourth person were found (tomb no.
651). Here it is not so easy to give such a simple explanation for the combination of these people,
unless we assume that the sexing of the excavators was wrong and that these burials are all couples.
However, altogether these pair and multiple burials are not very common and single burials are still
the rule.
Hagarsa: Two multiple burials were found, one containing six coffins, the other two. The tomb with
the six coffins had functioned – following the assumption of the publication – as a family tomb, which
was opened and used over two or three generations.24 However, the style of the coffins and mummy-
masks found seems so homogeneous (although the offering formula differs) that one may wonder
whether all six burials were more or less contemporarily placed into the tomb. Nevertheless, it is
possible to argue against this that the burial goods might have been made by a local workshop that
produced objects in the same style over a longer period.

19
J. GARSTANG, The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt as Illustrated by Tombs of the Middle Kingdom Being a Report of
Excavation Made in the Necropolis of Beni Hasan during 1902-3-4, London 1907, 36-41, pl. VIII.
20
E. D'AMICONE, Gli edifici religiosi e la necropoli di Gebelein nel III millennio a.C., in: A.M. DONADONI ROVERI (ed.),
Museo Egizio di Torino, Civiltà degli Egizi. Le Credenze Religiose, Milano 1988, 68-81. The publication (p. 77) dates
the tomb to about 2400 BC which is about the Fifth Dynasty; A.M. DONADONI ROVERI, I sarcofagi Egizi dalle origini
alla fine dell' Antico Regno (Università di Roma – Istituto di studi del vicino oriente serie archeologica 16), Rome 1969,
171-173 (no. C 39-43).
21
BRUNTON/ENGELBACH, Gurob, 6 and see the tomb register.
22
R. ENGELBACH, Harageh (British School of Archaeology in Egypt 28), London 1923, 14.
23
ENGELBACH, Harageh, 14.
24
N. KANAWATI, The Tombs of El-Hagarsa II (The Australian Centre for Egyptology Reports 6), Sydney 1993, passim,
especially 11-15, compare the short discussion on p. 24.

19
Naga ed-Deir: The Old Kingdom cemetery of Naga ed-Deir, possibly belonging to a small rural
community, is well published. About 250 tombs, belonging to the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty are
recorded.25 23 tombs contained more than one body. In three cases two different burials were found in
two separated chambers (tomb no. N 717, N 723, N 832). However, most often two or three skeletons
were found placed together in one chamber. The relation between the individuals in each burial is
never clear; inscribed material is very rare at this cemetery and no analysis of the human remains has
been undertaken to investigate this question. In three cases it can be assumed that a mother and her
child were buried together (N 508, N 754, N 961). In some tombs were found three (N 705) or even
more bodies (N 745, N 777, N 783, N 879).
Saqqara/Abusir/Gizeh: The picture is not so clear for the residential cemeteries in the late Old
Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. The tomb chamber of the vizier Ptahshepses at Abusir
contained two sarcophagi, obviously for Ptahshepses himself and his wife.26 The burial is of special
importance because it is well dated (end of Fifth Dynasty) and the people buried here belong to the
highest social level. The wife of Ptahshepses is a king's daughter. However, most of the burials at
Saqqara and Gizeh seem still to be placed as single bodies into the burial chambers. There are
remarkably few recorded exceptions in the residential region, where a multiple burial is datable to the
First Intermediate Period, notably some tombs around the Teti pyramid.27
In the late Old Kingdom, many mastabas but also many rock cut tombs in Upper Egypt are more
packed with shafts than before. At some parts of the residential cemeteries, there is a very high density
of shaft tombs. Regardless of this observation, there are not many multiple burials.
In the development of tomb architecture, there are some new tomb types in the late Old Kingdom
and First Intermediate. There are tombs with several burial chambers built in a close architectural
context, which seem not to belong to people connected by family ties, although the missing or scant
written record might be misleading. Many of them were excavated in Saqqara South around the
pyramid of Pepy II.28 Some large mastabas with several burial chambers had several cult places (false
door and offering table) in the superstructure. Some of the burial chambers were decorated with relief
showing friezes of objects. Stephan Seidlmayer, who discussed these burial places, distinguished
between (1) tombs with a hierarchical structure, e.g. tombs with one or more main burials and several
subsidiary burials and (2) tombs with an egalitarian structure, where each burial is more or less equal
in size. The latter he interprets as family tombs, the hierarchical as tombs of a master and his
servants.29 The burial of a servant in close context to his master is not new. The subsidiary tombs of
the First Dynasty are particularly well known, but there are also many Old Kingdom examples where a
servant (often depicted in serving role in the reliefs of the master's tomb) is buried in his small mastaba
next to that of his master.30 The innovation of the late Old Kingdom is that the servant tombs are
architecturally part of the mastaba of the master. However, most of the inhumations inside these new

25
G.A. REISNER, A Provincial Cemetery of the Pyramid Age. Naga-ed-Dêr Part III (University of California Publications
Egyptian Archaeology 6), Oxford 1932.
26
M. VERNER, Forgotten Pharaohs. Lost Pyramids, Prague 1994, 190 (figure at the top).
27
C.M. FIRTH/B. GUNN, Teti Pyramid Cemeteries I (Excavations at Saqqara), Le Caire 1926, 39-40, 50-51 (dated in the
report to the Heracleopolitian Period, but an early Middle Kingdom date seems also be possible).
28
G. JÉQUIER, Tombeaux de particuliers contemporains de Pepi II (Excavations at Saqqara), Le Caire 1929.
29
S. SEIDLMAYER, Gräberfelder aus dem Übergang vom Alten zum Mittleren Reich (Studien zur Archäologie und
Geschichte Altägyptens 1), Heidelberg 1990, 403-408.
30
S. HASSAN, Excavations at Giza VI Part III, 1934-1935, Cairo 1950, 67-71 (mastaba of a steward buried next to the
mastaba of the king's daughter Hemetre, in whose tomb he is depicted). A similar case: H. JUNKER, Gîza III, Wien-
Leipzig 1938, 124, 142.

20
types are single burials. The tomb chambers seem to have been opened only once for burial of its
owner. They are therefore not essentially different from mastabas with several shafts.

Early Middle Kingdom

In terms of multiple burials the picture changed little in the Middle Kingdom. Sadly there are not
many well recorded and well excavated cemeteries which could give an idea of the development and
which would make it possible to determine a date for the beginning of new developments. For places
such as Rifeh31 or el-Tarif32 the objects found are in the publication almost the only point of
discussion, without further information on human remains. El-Lisht is a key site, yet to be published.
Abusir: Ludwig Borchardt excavated a Middle Kingdom cemetery at Abusir next to the pyramids of
the Fifth Dynasty. Most of the tombs contained burials for a single person, but there is one grave with
four inscribed coffins, two for men, two for women. The style of the coffins suggests a date around the
mid Twelfth Dynasty.33
Asyut: This is one of the main cemeteries of the Middle Kingdom. There were not many proper
excavations and therefore the evidence from the place remains very patchy. However, tombs
excavated by Émile Chassinat and Charles Palanque are important because many inscribed coffins
were found, providing a clue of the social status and the sex of the people buried here. Most of the
tombs published contained more than one coffin. More than once it is possible to observe that a man
and a woman were placed together.34 In other tombs several coffins only belonging to men were
found.35 The bodies found in the coffins were not sexed by the excavators. The identification of the sex
relies therefore very much on the inscription on the coffins. It is possible to argue that some women
were placed in a “male” coffin. However, the impression remains that in some tombs men were placed
together. Their relation remains unknown.
Beni Hasan: Through inadequate publication, it is hard to gain a clear picture about the number of
people buried in single tombs, but the evidence points to a similar picture as observed in Assyut. The
tomb register in the publication lists only the objects found, without mentioning the quantity of coffins
or burials.36 There is also a list of tombs for people published whose names and titles are known, but
this offers only a rough guide, because it excludes uninscribed coffins or people whose name and title
are lost.37 There are many tombs with several coffins, but without inscriptions. These tombs do not
appear in any list, but are in a few instances described.
From about 800 tombs there are 16 with more than one buried person listed in the name and title
list. Quite often it seems clear that these are a man and his wife (tomb no. 81, 90, 94, 134, 177, 181,

31
W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE, Gizeh and Rifeh (British School of Archaeology in Egypt 13), London 1907, 11-26.
32
W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE, Qurneh (British School of Archaeology in Egypt 16), London 1909, 2-4; the note books indicate
that only a small number of tombs contained human remains.
33
H. SCHÄFER, Priestergräber und andere Grabfunde vom Ende des Alten Reiches bis zur griechischen Zeit vom
Totentempel des Ne-User-Rê (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 8), Leipzig
1908, 18-39 (mR.1); H. WILLEMS, Chests of Life. A Study of the Typology and Conceptual Development of Middle
Kingdom Standard Class Coffins (Mededelingen en Verhandelingen van het Vooraziatisch-egyptisch Genootschap “Ex
oriente lux” 25), Leiden 1988, 107 (date of the coffins).
34
É. CHASSINAT/C. PALANQUE, Une campagne des fouilles dans la nécropole d'Assiout (Mémoires publiés par les
membres de l´Institut français d´archéologie orientale du Caire 24), Le Caire 1911, 168-172 (tomb no. 16), 114-125
(tomb no. 7.2), 135-154 (tomb no. 7.4).
35
CHASSINAT/PALANQUE, Campagne Assiout, 4-28 (tomb no. 6 – seven coffins); 155-159 (tomb 8, two coffins); 172-178
(tomb no. 17 – three coffins mmf).
36
GARSTANG, Burial Customs, 211-244.
37
GARSTANG, Burial Customs, pl. VII-VIII.

21
516, 861), although this is never explicit. Another tomb contained four burials, explicable as two
couples (tomb no. 23 - two women with the title lady of the house, two men without title). In other
cases such an explanation does not fit so well. One example is tomb no. 294 in which four burials
were found, three of them belonging to women with the title lady of the house, the fourth to a man
with the title overseer of the house of the god. However, it is possible to argue that this is the burial of
a husband with his three contemporary or succeeding wives.38 Tomb no. 140, which is briefly
described in the publication, contained six coffins. Only one preserved the name of its owner (Hetep).
A seventh coffin of a certain steward Khnumhotep was placed in a “recess” behind these coffins. The
tomb was found undisturbed but the objects were already badly decayed.39
Riqqeh: This is one of the few relatively well-recorded cemeteries with tombs dating to the Middle
and New Kingdom. About 200 tombs belong to the Middle Kingdom40, for about 66 of which there is
information on the individuals. They are all sexed. This provides the impression that in the publication
only bodies are mentioned for which it was possible to determine the sex. However, there remain
problems in interpreting the material of the cemetery. Most tombs in the cemetery are shaft tombs with
one or two tomb chambers, but there is also a number of simple shafts without any chamber. In
general, it seems that each chamber was reserved for one body. Of the 66 tombs recorded with human
remains, 36 burials are single burials, 20 tombs still contained two bodies and the rest are burials with
three (4), four (3) and once six bodies. For the burials with two bodies, there are some cases where
only one chamber was found.41 Altogether, the remains of 113 people were found. Multiple burials
seem to be used by more people, although they are still not the most common burial type.

tomb number number of burials number of chambers sex of buried persons

4 2 1 mf
15 2 1 ff
18 2 1 mc
23 2 1 ff
28 2 1 mf
76 2 1 mm
20 3 2 mmf
177 3 2 mmf
3 3 2 mmf
9 3 2 mff
13 4 1 mmfc
21 4 2 mmmf
183 4 2 mmff
2 6 2 mmmmff

38
GARSTANG, Burial Customs, pl. VII-VIII.
39
GARSTANG, Burial Customs, 173.
40
WILLEMS, Chests of Life, 102 (about Amenemhat II - Amenemhat III).
41
Abbreviations used here and in the following: m - male body; f - female body; c - body of a child. Mm means two male
bodies found; fm - one female and one male body - and so on.

22
Rifeh: In this cemetery was found the so-called tomb of the two brothers. Two men were buried in the
same shaft tomb. They are sons of a person called Khnum-aa.42 Another elite tomb with gilded and
silver decorated coffins contained four burials for two men and two women.43
Thebes: One tomb of the Twelfth Dynasty was found which was made or at least used for a high
number of people. It still contained the bodies of about 60 soldiers, known in Egyptological literature
as the “tomb of the slain soldiers”. Only two of them were buried in an undecorated coffin. All others
were wrapped in linen and then placed directly into the tomb. Some of the linen bandages bore the
name of the soldier. The tomb might date under king Senusret I or slightly later. It is highly
exceptional and must have something to do with special circumstances under which these soldiers
died, perhaps in a Nubian campaign of Senusret I. The examination of their bodies showed that at least
some were killed or wounded in battles. This gives the impression that soldiers were buried here who
fought for their king and then were buried by him in honour.44 The tomb is obviously not a family
tomb. The circumstances make it very likely that all the soldiers were killed about the same time
(although there is no final proof for it) and that they were all buried together at about the same time.
The tomb was therefore most likely only opened once, and then closed (in theory) forever. This is an
important point. For most cases where a man and a woman were found together it must be assumed
that the tomb was once opened and closed and later opened and closed again.

Final Remarks for the Early Middle Kingdom

The burials of couples and the burial places with more than two people are not easy to explain. The
evidence from the tomb of the “slain soldiers” suggests that the tomb was only opened once to place
all the dead individuals in it. Is it possible that the same holds true for all multiple burials of the
period? This would easily explain why we find not only couples, but a wide range of combinations of
sexes buried in tombs. It is possible that at least some couples, but also other combinations of men and
women (mother and son, father and daughter etc.) died at about the same time and could therefore
have been buried together. It also seems possible to assume that families or parts of families died at
about the same time (disease and plagues must have killed many people) and were therefore buried
together. In such cases, a tomb would also have been opened only once. Finally it is possible to argue
that, when the partner of a couple or a member of a family died, the body in its coffin was kept in store
until other family members, especially partners were buried, so that both could be placed together in
one tomb. However, all these suggestions are speculative and it seems safer to state simply that at a
certain point from the late Old Kingdom some tombs were reserved for more than one burial. With
very few exceptions the number of people buried in each tomb remains low.

42
M.A. MURRAY, Museum Handbooks. The Tomb of Two Brothers (Manchester Museum Publication 68), Manchester
1910, pl. 17-20.
43
FLINDERS PETRIE, Gizeh and Rifeh, 12-13.
44
H.E. WINLOCK. The Slain Soldiers of Neb-Hetep-Re Mentuhotpe (Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Egyptian Expedition 16), New York 1945; for the dating: D. FRANKE, review of W.K. Simpson, Personnel Accounts of
the Early Twelfth Dynasty: Papyrus Reisner IV, Transcription and Commentary, Boston 1986, Bibliotheca Orientalis 45
(1988), 102; R. MÜLLER-WOLLERMANN, review of L. Gestermann, Kontinuität und Wandel in Politik und Verwaltung
des frühen Mittleren Reiches in Ägypten, Discussions in Egyptology 13 (1989), 110; C. VOGEL, Fallen Heroes?
Winlock's “slain soldiers” reconsidered, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 89 (2003), 239-245.

23
4. Late Middle Kingdom
Multiple burials on a larger scale seem to have been introduced at all social levels around the same
time, under Senusret III. The best examples are the burials of queens and other royal women around
the royal pyramid. The royal women of the Eleventh and early Twelfth Dynasty are always placed in
single tomb chambers, which were most often shaft tombs situated very close to the royal funerary
monument. The best known examples are the six queens/royal women buried at Deir el-Bahari inside
the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II.45 The royal women of Senusret I were placed under small
pyramids around the pyramid of the king.46 The princesses who had their tombs next to the pyramid of
Amenemhat II were buried in gallery tombs next to the pyramid.47 The latter tombs consist of a
corridor from which there was access to two separated burial chambers. Although it is possible to
argue, that these galleries are already multiple burials, it should be pointed out that each burial
chamber was closed separately and was always an unit on its own. The burials of the royal women of
Senusret II were again placed next to the pyramid of the king.48 Each woman had her own shaft and
her own burial. The situation under Senusret III in Dahshur is different. At the north side of the
pyramid a corridor system was found to include many burials of queens and daughters of the king.
Although some of these burials were blocked, and therefore formed single isolated burials in this
gallery, there are at least eight sarcophagi just placed into niches without further closing or special
blocking. There is evidence that the galleries were still in use under Amenemhat III.49 The place was
therefore designed and built from the beginning for use over a certain period.
The development of the burials of the royal family for the rest of the Twelfth and for the
Thirteenth Dynasty is hard to follow. Inside the pyramid of Amenemhat III in Dahshur there were
buried several women, but each in a separate chamber.50 It is therefore not reasonable to call his
Dahshur pyramid a multiple burial place. The pyramid complex of the king at Hawara is heavily
destroyed, and inadequately excavated, so that further evidence is missing; however, next to the
sarcophagus of the king was prepared a burial for his daughter Neferuptah, which is until now a
unique feature.51 Neferuptah was never buried next to the king. Her burial was found elsewhere in the
vicinity of Hawara. Evidence for the Thirteenth Dynasty is patchy. The pyramid of king Khendjer has
been assumed to be one of the few finished royal burial places of the period, because fragments of the
decorated pyramidion were found.52 Next to the pyramid of the king a smaller pyramid was excavated,
which contained two sarcophagi and two canopic chests.53 A shaft tomb found inside the pyramid
complex contained three sarcophagi and three canopic chests. It is not known who was buried here and
in the small pyramid, but the fragment of a canopic jar with the name of the king's wife Seneb... was

45
D. ARNOLD, Der Tempel des Königs Mentuhotep von Deir el-Bahari I: Architektur und Deutung (Archäologische
Veröffentlichungen 8), Mainz 1974, 64.
46
D. ARNOLD, The Pyramid Complex of Senwosret I: The South Cemeteries of Lisht III (Publications of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition 25), New York 1992.
47
J. DE MORGAN, Fouilles à Dahchour 1894-1895, Vienne 1903.
48
A recent summary P. JÁNOSI, Die Pyramidenanlagen der Königinnen. Untersuchungen zu einem Grabtyp des Alten und
Mittleren Reiches (Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts 13 =
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 13), Wien 1996, 60-62.
49
J. DE MORGAN, Fouilles a Dahchour Mars-Juin 1894, Vienne 1895, 58, fig. 128 (plan); 64, 66, pl. XX (objects with the
name of Amenemhat III).
50
D. ARNOLD, Der Pyramidenbezirk des Königs Amenemhet III. in Dahschur I: Die Pyramide (Archäologische
Veröffentlichungen 53), Mainz 1987, 37-53, compare JÁNOSI, Pyramidenanlagen der Königinnen, 65-67.
51
W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, London 1890, 8, 16-17, pl. IV, V.
52
G. JÉQUIER, Deux pyramides au moyen empire (Fouilles à Saqqara), Le Caire 1933, pl. II.
53
JÉQUIER, Deux pyramides, 36 fig. 26.

24
found. She was perhaps the wife of Khendjer buried in the small pyramid, which raises the question,
who was the other person for which a sarcophagus was prepared. Although the evidence is not
abundant, in general it seems that from the reign of Senusret III onwards multiple burials are common
in royal circles.
Dahshur/Hawara: Going down the social hierarchy the tombs of the high officials around the
pyramid of Senusret III should be mentioned first. As far as it is possible to judge, most of them are
individual burials, indicating that this type was still very common. At Hawara the private cemeteries
around the burial complex of the king have yet to be extensively examined, but a few undisturbed
tombs have been recorded. Tomb 64 contained three coffins: the largest one belonged to the lady of
the house Bebut. On top of it was placed the small coffin of a child, while another coffin of a child
was placed directly next to the Bebut coffin.54
Lisht: This is one of the main cemeteries of the royal residence. Several expeditions excavated there,
but so far only little is published. It is therefore very hard to gain a full picture. Of some interest are
tombs with one shaft and several burial chambers. One of these is a shaft tomb with six small
chambers at the bottom. In each chamber there was placed one burial. Jewellery and the fact that one
coffin was inscribed for a certain Satsobek, indicate that the people buried here were of not very low
status.55 Other information seems to indicate that multiple burials are quite common.56
Abydos: Similar tombs have been excavated at Abydos, where extensive Middle Kingdom and
Second Intermediate Period cemeteries existed. Multiple burials – quite often two bodies in one
chamber – are common, although the publication of the cemetery is very limited. Some tombs are of
special interest and are similar to tombs already discussed for Lisht. They contained several
underground chambers with one shaft. Tomb V 21 consisted of one shaft with three chambers in three
levels. One chamber still contained two bodies side by side, adorned with golden jewellery.57
Tomb µ50 contained six chambers in three levels, but was found already looted.58 Tomb D 152 and
D 241 each had two chambers; one of them still contained two bodies.59
Thebes: Here, there was found the burial place of at least five persons; the titles on some objects
provide a clue to the social status of the tomb owners, who are middle ranking court officials. The
grave consisted of a shaft and two chambers. In the southern chamber was found a box with the name
of Kemni, an official responsible for a chamber depicted serving king Amenemhat IV; this chamber
contained three mummies, one being that of a child. The other chamber contained several coffin
fragments, of which one belonged to a woman called Henut, born of Senet. The inscribed coffin of the
great one of the tens of Upper Egypt Ren-seneb, was found in the shaft but must have stood originally

54
W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE/G.A. WAINWRIGHT/E. MACKAY, The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Mazghuneh (British School of
Archaeology in Egypt 21), London 1912, 35.
55
A.C. MACE, Egyptian Expedition 1921-22. Excavations at Lisht, Part II of the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art (December 1922), 6-7.
56
J. BOURRIAU, The Dolphin Vase from Lisht, in: P. DER MANUELIAN (ed.), Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson I,
110 (at least two burials in one tomb); EAD., Patterns of Change in Burial Customs during the Middle Kingdom, in: S.
QUIRKE (ed.), Middle Kingdom Studies, New Malden 1991, 17; J.P. ALLEN, Coffin Texts from Lisht, in: H. WILLEMS
(ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium Held on the Occasions of the 100th Birthday of
Adrian de Buck, Leiden December 17-19, 1992 (Egyptologische Uitgaven 9), Leiden 1996, 4; compare: A.C. MACE,
Egyptian Expedition 1920-1921: I. Excavations at Lisht, Part II of the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(November 1921), 16.
57
E.R. AYRTON/C.T. CURRELLY/A.E.P. WEIGALL, Abydos Part III 1904 (Egypt Exploration Fund 25), London 1904, 8.
58
AYRTON/CURRELLY/WEIGALL, Abydos Part III, 47, pl. XX.
59
T.E. PEET/W.L.S. LOAT, The Cemeteries of Abydos Part III 1912-1913 (Egypt Exploration Fund Excavation Memoir
35), London 1913, 24-26.

25
in one of the chambers.60 It is not known how these people relate to each other. In theory it is possible
that these are at least two couples, related in some way such as parents and child with husband/wife.
Another tomb, obviously cut in the early Middle Kingdom and then reused in the Second Intermediate
Period, was found full of coffins and was used as burial place until the early New Kingdom.61
Another well preserved multiple burial was excavated at Thebes. Five undecorated coffins were
found in a small and rather shallow shaft tomb. A sixth coffin was found destroyed, lying under the
other coffins, indicating that already in ancient times the first burial was quite old when the others
were placed in the chamber. Finally there was the burial of a child without a coffin. There are no
inscriptions to give us a title or any other clue.62
Harageh: The cemeteries of Harageh are relatively well published, about 280 tombs dating to the late
Middle Kingdom. Human remains were excavated in 138 tombs. In 63 examples remains of more than
one body were found. Most tombs found are shafts with more than one chamber at the bottom, two
chambers being common. There are 45 tombs for which it seems probable that in at least one burial
chamber more than one body was placed. This is about one third of the tombs with human remains.
There are some cases where a woman and a child were found together (tombs 264, 347, 373- with two
chambers), and in other cases the remains of a woman and a man were discovered, suggesting that
these were couples (tombs 117, 348, 395). Other tombs are not so easy to explain on the “core family”
assumption. Tomb 56 contained the remains of six women and of four men. In Tomb 59 two men and
two women were buried, which could be interpreted as two couples. Tomb 71 contained three women,
tomb 82 two men and three women.
Qau/Badari: There are many burials dating to the Second Intermediate Period. A high number of the
tombs are heavily robbed, so that the tomb register does not mention any bodies. However, most of the
burials seem to have contained single bodies placed in shallow pits. There are only a few exceptions.
In tomb 3712 were found three women. In tomb 7131 were found a man and a woman. In tomb 7323
one woman and three children and finally in tomb 7578 were found six bodies. The whole Second
Intermediate Period cemetery at Qau/Badari gives an impression of poverty. The region seems to have
been provincial; burial customs might have been therefore rather conservative.63 Elite burials were
perhaps placed somewhere else and the excavated areas are just the poorest parts of the cemetery.
Naga ed-Deir/Sheik Farag: The main cemeteries are datable from the Pre-Dynastic to the First
Intermediate Period. Few burials belong to the Middle Kingdom or Second Intermediate Period. Many
of the tombs excavated and belonging to these periods are multiple burials. Most have been heavily
looted in antiquity, so that it is not possible to gain a clear picture. However, the site is of some
importance because Reisner and his team made plans of the tombs (now in Boston64) and detailed
descriptions, helpful for reconstructing the original appearance.

60
FIFTH EARL OF CARNARVON/H. CARTER, Five Years Exploration at Thebes. London-New York-Toronto-Melbourne 1912,
54-60.
61
CARNARVON/CARTER, Five Years Exploration, 64-88 (tomb no. 37); B. PORTER/R.L.B. MOSS, Topographical
Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings I. The Theban Necropolis Part 2. Royal
Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, Oxford 1964, 615-616.
62
R. ANTHES, Die deutschen Grabungen auf der Westseite von Theben in den Jahren 1911 und 1913, Mitteilungen des
Deutschen Instituts für ägyptische Altertumskunde in Kairo 12 (1943), 6-15.
63
This conservative attitude is also visible in the position of the body, compare J. BOURRIAU, Change of Body Position in
Egyptian Burials from the Mid XIIth Dynasty until the Early XVIIIth Dynasty, in: H. WILLEMS (ed.), Social Aspects of
Funerary Culture in Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdom (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 103), Leuven-Paris-Sterling
Virginia 2001, 17.
64
At this point I want to thank Rita Freed for providing me with the possibility to view Reisner's records.

26
 Naga ed-Deir 284: The tomb consists of two chambers, one substantially larger than the other (Fig.
1). The main chamber contained two coffins; one of the coffins was inscribed with vertical texts on the
outside (about mid Twelfth Dynasty).

Fig. 1: Plan of Naga ed-Deir Tomb 284 Fig. 2: Plan of Naga ed-Deir Tomb 408
(Sketch after the drawing in the Reisner (Sketch after the drawing in the Reisner
notebook) notebook)

Naga ed-Deir 408: The tomb consists of one chamber with one “sub” chamber (Fig. 2). Three coffins
were found, one of them belonging to a child placed in a contracted position (a - on the figure). The
tomb is of special interest because the famous Reisner papyri were found lying on the innermost coffin
(c), in which a mummy adorned with a mask was found. A date post quem is given for the tomb by the
papyri, which belong to the reign of Senusret I. However, only the publication of the pottery might
confirm the date or demonstrate that it is later; papyri in tombs are better attested for the late Middle
Kingdom and not earlier.
Sheikh Farag 9096: The tomb consists of a shaft and two chambers, one main chamber and a
smaller one. The chambers are roughly cut into the rock without any further attempt to shape them.
The tomb seems to have been disturbed. Different kinds of objects were found. In the main chamber
lay three box shaped coffins; six skulls were found. One of the coffins (a) was inscribed with Coffin
Texts (?) and belonged to a person called Ameny. Several scarabs were found, maybe of late Middle
Kingdom date; there were also three flat wooden dolls, two pieces of head-rests, a piece of a broken
wooden stick, “a quantity of cloth”, “a painted stucco mask, with (gilt?) foil” and some pottery. A date
in the Twelfth Dynasty seems likely.

27
 Fig. 3: Plan of Sheikh Farag 9096 (Sketch after the drawing in the Reisner notebook)

Edfu: At Edfu the pre-Second World War Franco-Polish expedition excavated part of a cemetery
datable to the period from the late Twelfth Dynasty to the early New Kingdom, apparently situated
close to the ancient town. The tombs found had in most cases been heavily disturbed. They are often
built as underground mud brick chambers; any superstructures that might have existed are not
preserved. Multiple burials are very common. Inhumations with more than two bodies, often four, five
or six are the rule.65
Nubia: The best documented and published examples of multiple burials were found not in Egypt, but
in Nubia at Mirgissa and Buhen where Egyptian soldiers lived at the end of the Middle Kingdom. In
Mirgissa (the site of a Middle Kingdom fortress) about 260 burials belonging to the late Middle
Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period were found, including a high number of multiple burials.66
The cemeteries around the fortress are concentrated in groups. M.X is the main focus for burials.
Altogether 628 people were buried in 44 multiple burial tombs; 14.2 burials for each tomb can be
calculated as the average. Beside the tombs with several bodies, 69 burials were found reserved for
individuals. Finally there are about 44 tombs for which the number of burials is not certain67, though
single burials seem to be most likely. The burials in the case of multiple burials are often quite rich.
Mummy masks, as well as inscribed and decorated coffins are common. Tomb 117, for example, is by
far the largest, with the remains of at least 68 people, some of them in a coffin or adorned with a
mummy mask.68 In most cases the burials seem to display attention to relations between individuals;
coffins and bodies are often placed in a certain order side by side. In tomb no. 5 the bodies were found
arranged in two layers and in tomb no. 104 the bodies were in three layers. In tomb no. 114 were

65
K. MICHAŁOWSKI/CH. DESROCHES/J. DE LINAGE/J. MANTEUFFEL/M. ZEJMO-ZEJMIS, Tell Edfou 1939 (Fouilles Franco-
Polonaises Rapports III), Le Caire 1950, 61-100; a summary: SEIDLMAYER, Gräberfelder, 66.
66
J. VERCOUTTER, Mirgissa II. Les nécropoles, Paris 1975.
67
Unknown: 9, 14, 21, 27, 48, 49, 50, 54, 56, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 74, 81, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 107, 109a,
110, 111, 120, 122a, 126, 132a-g, 137b-c, 139c, d, 143, 144.
68
VERCOUTTER, Mirgissa II, 154-164.

28
found the remains of at least 31 individuals also arranged in several levels (see Fig. 4 below). On the
lowest level people were placed in coffins side by side (with the head to North-West - maybe
intending the West), giving the burial place a well organised impression. People at the second and
third level seem to have been arranged mainly at the entrance of the tomb and not in such neat order.69
This impression is perhaps misleading given the looting of the tomb, which must have affected
especially the higher levels. Nevertheless there is the impression that some tombs were used for quite
a long period, although the coffins might have been just cached here in a short period.

Final Remarks on Late Middle Kingdom Burials

Local Distribution
One main observation for multiple burials in the late Middle Kingdom is that they are very well
attested at the political and religious centres such at Thebes and Abydos, but are not so common at
other places, such as Qau/Badari or even Harageh. Therefore, the evidence of the Nubian sites
(Mirigissa, Buhen) might come as a surprise, and one wonders whether the custom was directly
influenced by the centres of cultural development in Egypt and not by local traditions. For the pottery
it has been possible to show that many vessels in Nubia were brought from the residence,70 which
supplied the fortresses at the periphery of the state. Egyptians living here, at least the first generations
might also have come directly from the residence region, although this is not proven. Is it possible that
these people brought their burial customs to their new home? The evidence from the “provincial”
cemeteries Qau/Badari is harder to explain, but also in terms of orientation of the bodies this area
seems to be quite conservative. Therefore, it seems possible that the region was something of a
backwater in terms of the general development.
Social Distribution
Multiple burials seem to be common at almost all social levels. They are attested at the royal court and
at the level of the administrative elite, throughout the country. However, there are also still many
single burials especially at Qau/Badari and the question arises why these people chose the older form.
The previous paragraph proposed that this might have something to do with a more conservative
attitude of the population living here. Another reason might be the poverty of these people. Cutting a
multiple burial is more complicated than just digging a shaft or shallow hole in the ground for one
person. Therefore, it is possible that a multiple burial is already the sign of a slightly higher social
status, of people who had the resources to create an artificial cave, big enough for several burials.
Family Tombs?
One important question about multiple burials is: How were the people buried together connected?
Are they all members of the same family? Evidence that multiple burials were at least sometimes
family tombs comes from the New Kingdom. From written sources it is known, that Ramose and
Hatnefer,71 Tuya and Yuya72 and the people in the tomb of Sennedjem73 were related by family ties, to

69
VERCOUTTER, Mirgissa II, figs. 51, 53.
70
J. BOURRIAU, Patterns of Change, 7.
71 A. LANSING/W.C. HAYES, Egyptian Expedition: the Museum’s Excavations at Thebes, Part II of the Bulletin of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (January 1937), 5-39; PORTER/MOSS, Topographical Bibliography I, Part 2, 669.
72 PORTER/MOSS, Topographical Bibliography I, Part 2, 562.
73
G. DARESSY/E. TODA, La découverte et l’inventaire du tombeau de Sen-nezem, Annales du service des antiquités de
l’Égypte 20 (1920), 147-160.

29
give just three secure examples of the period. For the Middle Kingdom such well documented
examples are missing, but it should be remembered that there are instances where two men (“tomb of
two brothers” in Rifeh) or other combinations were found. It is not so easy to explain them. The
attribution to a family tomb for the higher number of burials per tomb at Mirgissa and the “tomb of the
slain soldiers” seems very unlikely. However, in the latter tomb men were buried who were at least in
close social contact; the same might be true for the burials at Mirgissa, although the evidence is
missing.74

Another question arises from that: Were the tombs just left open for a short period and did all
people buried in a multiple burial die within a short period or were these tombs opened several times
to introduce the later burials? A burial with three coffins, found at Saqqara, seems in this respect less
ambiguous. Parts of the burial equipment, in this case wooden models, were found under a coffin,
which was placed there without giving attention to the older burial. The original burial dates to the
early Middle Kingdom, while the later one belongs already to the late Middle Kingdom. The later
coffin therefore must be intrusive.75 A similar situation was observed at Thebes where a new coffin
was placed on an older coffin, which was crushed by the weight of the new arrival.76
From the evidence collected at different cemeteries in Egypt and Nubia it is clear that multiple
burials became commoner in the late Middle Kingdom. The reason for this change is not clear.

1. Economical Reasons. It was certainly cheaper to cut one big tomb for several people, than to cut
many small tombs for them. This idea would fit our picture of a less wealthy state at the end of the
Middle Kingdom. However, already queens and princesses were buried in a multiple burial ground
already in the reign of Senusret III, one of the most powerful kings of the Twelfth Dynasty.
2. Lack of Space. Multiple burials seem to be common at centres such as Thebes and Abydos,
where there was probably limited space and it is possible to argue that this burial type was forced by
the circumstances of a packed burial ground. However, there are some cemeteries of the late Old
Kingdom (Saqqara, Gizeh), which are packed with shaft tombs, but they seem to be in most cases
single burials. The cemetery of Mirgissa is on the other side not in a densely populated region.
Furthermore, a distinction must be drawn between tombs which were reused and which give the
impression of a multiple burial, although the original intention was to provide a single burial place for
a single individual.
3. Changes in Object Culture. The new burial customs are related to other changes in Middle
Kingdom. It was noted above that burial customs changed radically towards the end of the Twelfth
Dynasty. The wooden models and longer religious texts and depictions fall out of regular use in elite
burials. In their place other object types, which are in many cases also found in domestic contexts,
were deposited in tombs.77
Not only burial customs, but also the way people are depicted on stelae is different in the late
Middle Kingdom, revealing a new approach to the way groups of people represent themselves. The

74
It is tempting to assume that in Mirgissa (a fortress town) also mainly soldiers were buried, but the few written sources
found there do not support this idea.
75
FIRTH/GUNN, Teti Pyramid Cemeteries I, 50.
76
ANTHES, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Instituts für ägyptische Altertumskunde in Kairo 12 (1943), 15.
77
BOURRIAU, Patterns of Change, 3-20.

30
stelae of the early Middle Kingdom focussed very much on the owner of the stela and his family. Most
common on stelae is a picture of its owner together with his wife sitting at an offering table. Other
people include the family and the household, but these figures tend to be secondary. Most late Middle
Kingdom stelae are different. Many present a high number of people side by side in almost the same
position and they have therefore a more “egalitarian” appearance. Perhaps the clearest example is the
stela of the king's mother Iuhet-ibu found at Abydos; members of her family (excluding her son, the
king) are shown side by side in several registers and almost equal in position, only distinguished by
the titles and the costume.78 There are many examples of similar stelae, though there are at least the
same number of stelae, which are clearly hierarchical (compare another example - stela found at
Abydos, fig. 5).

Fig. 4: Multiple Burial, Mirgissa, Tomb 114 Fig. 5: Stela fragment of (late?) Thir-
(after VERCOUTTER, Mirgissa II, 141, fig. 53) teenth Dynasty Date (after PETRIE/
GRIFFITH, Abydos II, pl. XXX.5)

78
AYRTON/CURRELLY/WEIGALL, Abydos Part III, 48, pl. XIII; K. RYHOLT, The Political Situation in Egypt during the
Second Intermediate Period (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications 20), Copenhagen 1997, 246-248 (with further
literature).

31
 There are also other ways of referring to a group of people, not known before. A number of stelae
just give a list of people with titles and name, without giving a picture of them.79 There are formulae
on several stelae, referring to groups of people. The phrase n kA n nti nb rn.f Hr wD pn (for the ka of all
who appear on this stela) is common at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty (under Amenemhat III).80 On
stela Vienna ÄS 5900 appears the phrase n kA n nn n Axw nti Hr wD (for the ka of these spirits who are
on the stela).81
With these stelae it is possible to compare other object groups such as offering tables and statues.
Offering tables of the early Middle Kingdom are normally dedicated to one person, while in the
middle of the Twelfth Dynasty it appears more often that several people are mentioned on them.82
Statues showing not only one or two persons, but bigger groups appear sometimes (but not very often)
in the late Middle Kingdom. The group statue Louvre E 11573 shows no fewer than four persons
around the chamberlain of the beer chamber Senpu.83 Louvre A 47 depicts three high priests of Ptah,
standing side by side.84 Group statues are already known in the Old Kingdom, but they show most
often only the core family: a husband, his wife and some children. Essentially the examples of the late
Middle Kingdom are not very different, but they include not only the core family. Some of the late
Middle Kingdom statues also show several people of high position as equals and not as children or in a
family relation. In the Old Kingdom this is so far not yet attested.
Finally the Abydos offering chapels should be mentioned. The chapels of the late Middle
Kingdom are often reserved for several people in a high position and are not only for one person. In
the early Middle Kingdom in general each chapel seems to have belonged to one official and his
family. Very little is known about the Abydos chapels of the early Twelfth Dynasty, but the ANOC
groups datable to that time often include different stelae belonging to one person and the core family.85
In contrast, for the late Middle Kingdom it is often hard to say who was the main person in a grouping
of several stelae belonging together.86 The core family lost very often its importance. However, there
are again numerous exceptions, where on early Middle Kingdom stelae many people almost equal in
position appear and where in the late Middle Kingdom several stelae are reserved for one major
official.87

79
Just a few examples of many: St. Petersburg, Hermitage 2958, 8729, A.O. BOLSHAKOV/S.G. QUIRKE, The Middle
Kingdom Stelae in the Hermitage (Publications interuniversitaires de recherches égyptologiques informatisées 3),
Utrecht-Paris 1999, 50-52, 68-70; HABACHI, Elephantine IV. The Sanctuary of Heqaib, 100 (no. 81), 105-106 (no. 90).
80
For example: Leiden 30 (datable under Amenemhat III); Oxford 1926.213, H. FRANKFORT, The Cemeteries of Abydos:
Work of the Season 1925-26, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 14 (1928), pl. XX.1; H. DE MEULENARE, Contributions à
la prosopographie du Moyen Empire, Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire 81 (1981), 77-85.
81
I. HEIN/H. SATZINGER, Stelen des Mittleren Reiches einschließlich der I. und II. Zwischenzeit II (Corpus Antiquitatum
Aegyptiacarum Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien 7), Mainz 1993, 160- 161. The writing of nn with the “negative arms”
is exceptional. The line may end “wD pn” (this stela).
82
P. LACAU, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire Nos 28001-28126, Sarcophages antérieurs
au Nouvel Empire, Le Caire 1904-1906, No. 23027, 23035, 23045, 23047.
83
E. DELANGE, Catalogue des statues égyptiennes du Moyen Empire 2060 – 1560 avant J.-C., Paris 1987, 144-147.
84
DELANGE, Statues du Moyen Empire, 81-83; see also Philadelphia 59-23-1, D.P. SILVERMAN (ed.), Searching for Ancient
Egypt. Art, Architecture, and Artefacts from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,
Dallas 1997, no. 35.
85
ANOC (Abydos North Offering Chapel) 2-4, 13, 23, 29, 30, 40, see W. K. SIMPSON, The Terrace of the Great God at
Abydos. The Offering Chapels of Dynasties 12 and 13 (Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt 5),
New Haven 1974.
86
One example discussed: W. GRAJETZKI, Two Treasurers of the Late Middle Kingdom (British Archaeological Reports
International Series 1007), Oxford 2001, 72.
87
ANOC 10, 34.

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 To sum up it can be observed that there is a general tendency in the late Middle Kingdom in
mortuary practices to put together several individuals. In tombs the multiple burials appear, while on
objects relating to the cult of the dead groupings of a high number of people introduce a new way of
representing people not known before. However, there are still many single burials, at all social levels
attested and there are still many stelae, statues etc. showing one main owner. This is a way of
representation not very different from before.

5. Concluding Remarks
Multiple burials are complex archaeological contexts and a serious challenge to the excavators
recording tombs. The single burials of Prehistory and the Old Kingdom are often well documented.
The publications very often record the arrangement and orientation of the body. For Naga ed-Deir
Reisner published for each Old Kingdom tomb a detailed plan, as did Junker for Giza, while Brunton
provided often similar information in his tomb registers for Qau, Badari, Gurob and other sites. For
later tombs, mainly Middle Kingdom and onwards, no such detail can be found in many publications.
The excavation reports of Harageh by Engelbach offer very limited information on the arrangement of
the bodies, and even on the tomb cards (field records) not much more information is given. The same
is true for other cemeteries in Egypt excavated before the 1950's such as Riqqeh. More recent
publications are more detailed, such as the report on the cemeteries of Mirgissa cited above. Evidently
the “disorder” found in many burials deterred excavators from a more careful examination of the finds
and bodies.88
The introduction of multiple burials on a greater scale in the late Middle Kingdom also has a direct
effect on our way of looking at Old and Middle Kingdom cemeteries. The cemetery of Mirgissa
discussed above contained over 100 tombs. This sounds like a rather small cemetery. The total number
of burials found is around 600, which is much higher. In the Old Kingdom this would be a cemetery
bigger than the Old Kingdom tomb field excavated for the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty at Naga ed-Deir. In
a heavily looted cemetery a single tomb used as multiple burial place appears in the statistics of a tomb
register just as one grave. False impressions may arise concerning demography, from just counting
numbers of tombs, which might have originally contained many burials. Tomb 117 at Mirgissa
contained 67 burials. Two tombs of this size would already supply the number of burials placed in a
single small cemetery such as Zaraby with its 126 burials.89
With all reservation, it can be assumed that most of the multiple tombs before the late Middle
Kingdom were only opened once. People related to each other and dying at about the same time seem
to have been buried together. In the late Middle Kingdom multiple burials became increasingly
common. Notably the number of people placed in one tomb can be sometimes very high. It is no
longer possible to assume that all people buried in a multiple burial were placed there at about the
same time, but it seems that the tombs must have been reopened to introduce new burials over a longer
period. This high number of multiple burials seems to be related to new ways of representing people
on monuments. While in former times the family and close servants were always the focus on stelae,
there are now many stelae and other inscriptions mentioning many people, often not related by family
ties but related by their work. Interestingly multiple burials appear at a time for which, especially

88
Further problems are disturbed chambers against disturbed surface burials. Even robbed, a surface burial still provides
information on the arrangement of the objects. In a chamber, this is not often the case.
89
FLINDERS PETRIE, Gizeh and Rifeh, 10.

33
recently the rise of individuality has been postulated, but just from the viewpoint of sculpture and
literature, which are two products almost exclusively reserved for a social elite.90 In terms of burial
customs the opposite picture could be drawn. The development from the Old to the Middle Kingdom
seems to be a line from single individuals to groups of people (in art and in the burials). Individuality
seems here not apparent at all. This observation raises questions on the meaning of individuality in
Ancient Egypt and is a clear example of how different sources can produce starkly different results.

90
G. BURKARD, Aufbruch des Individuums. Literatur im Mittleren Reich, in: D. WILDUNG (ed.), Ägypten 2000 v. Chr. Die
Geburt des Individuums, München 2000, 13 (on individuality in literature).

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