Archaeological excavation of the mastaba of Queen Khentkaus III (tomb AC 30) in Abusir
During the autumn of 2014, the Czech Institute of Egyptology continued its archaeological research of the southern part of the Abusir royal pyramid necropolis. In Nakhtsare’s cemetery, tomb AC 30 was unearthed, which appeared to belong to a hitherto unknown queen, Khentkaus III. Much damaged by...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | ces |
| Published: |
Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta
2015-12-01
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| Series: | Pražské Egyptologické Studie |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://sites.ff.cuni.cz/pes/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/12/Jaromir_Krejci-Katarina_Arias_Kytnarova-Martin_Odler_28-42.pdf |
| Summary: | During the autumn of 2014, the Czech Institute of
Egyptology continued its archaeological research of the
southern part of the Abusir royal pyramid necropolis. In
Nakhtsare’s cemetery, tomb AC 30 was unearthed, which
appeared to belong to a hitherto unknown queen,
Khentkaus III. Much damaged by stone robbers, the tomb
consists of a north-south mastaba, 16.12 × 10.70 m large
with a rather simple layout, including an L-shaped chapel
in the superstructure and a vertical shaft and a burial
chamber in the substructure. In the tomb’s substructure
part of the burial equipment was found (travertine model
vessels, copper models of tools or fragments of wooden
objects) as well as fragments of a mummified female
skeleton, which might have belonged to the tomb owner.
The identification of the previously unknown “wife of the
king” and “mother of the king”, Khentkaus III, as the tomb
owner was made thanks to the numerous masons’
inscriptions documented on the tomb masonry in the
subterranean part of the tomb. This discovery opens new
avenues into the investigation of the situation in the royal
family at the beginning of the second half of the Fifth
Dynasty. The analysis of the pottery used in the fill of
the mastaba’s core masonry is methodologically very
important as it has been used as the major dating criterion
post quem. |
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| ISSN: | 1214-3189 1801-3899 |