Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
Helck suggested that Horemheb did not accept being deprived of his title
“Hereditary Prince” by Ay, and so removed both Ay and Nakhtmin, but it is more
likely that he just kept silent, ignoring the king during the later years of Ay’s reign,
instead of taking immediate action against him. Horemheb did not plot revenge on
Ay, probably because Ay was old and would likely die soon. Meanwhile, whether
Horemheb resigned the title “Hereditary Prince” or not, he seems to have maintained
his power and ignored the king. Ultimately, Horemheb succeeded to the throne,
although how this came about is unknown. What is known is that Horemheb became
king after the death of Ay, although Nakhtmin was Ay’s designated successor as the
“Hereditary Prince” and “King’s Son.” It is not clear if Horemheb pushed Nakhtmin
aside, or whether Nakhtmin had already died before Ay. Sometime after Horemheb
came to the power, he started erasing all depictions of Ay as a high official on the
monuments of Tutankhamun, as well as those on Ay’s royal monuments, and those of
his entourage. This action must be understood as damnatio memoriae. Horemheb
desecrated Ay’s tomb (KV 23) in the Western Valley of the Kings, usurped his
memorial temple at Medinet Habu, and removed all other inscriptions and images of
Ay. Nakhtmin’s two statues, probably from his tomb in Akhmim, were also
desecrated.
As OCKINGA rightly showed, the tomb of Senqed at Awlad Azzaz in Akhmim was
similarly severely desecrated. Even his sarcophagi were found reused in the New
Kingdom Necropolis at Saqqara. In fact, the inner anthropoid sarcophagus of Senqed
was usurped by a contemporary official, “Overseer of the Double Granaries of Upper
and Lower Egypt,” Ray, who probably continued to serve under Horemheb. At the
same time, a damnatio memoriae of Ankhesenamun was undertaken by Horemheb,
although it is unknown if his motivation was due to her passing the kingship to Ay as
a coregent or not. On the famous Restoration Stela of Tutankhamun, the two images
of Ankhesenamun standing behind the king were completely erased, although
Horemheb could have replaced her images with those of his wife Mutnodjmet. I will
demonstrate that, on two other stelae from Karnak, Ankhesenamun’s images were
thoroughly removed. Horemheb’s persecutions against Ay continued into the
Ramesside period. Finally, like the names of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, Ay’s
name was omitted from king lists.
The decoration program in the burial chamber of the royal tomb of Amenophis
III (KV 22)
Takao Kikuchi
The Mission from the Institute of Egyptology at Waseda University, Tokyo, has been
working at the royal tomb of Amenophis III (KV 22) in the Western Valley of the
Kings since 1989 under the direction of Prof.Dr.S. YOSHIMURA and Prof.J. KONDO. In
the years 2002-2004, conservation of the wall paintings has been carried out as a joint
project of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, Arab Republic of
Egypt and the Institute of Egyptology, Waseda University under the auspices of
UNESCO / Japan Trust Fund (YOSHIMURA & KONDO (eds.) 2004).
After this stage of the conservation work, the decoration program in the burial
chamber of the royal tomb can be analyzed in a better condition than before. In
parallel with studies for a further conservation work, a digital documentation of the
Book of Amduat started from the winter of 2006 -2007 on the walls of the burial
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