Beni Hasan (also written Bani Hasan, Beni Hassan or Beni-Hassan; ) is an ancient Egyptian funerary site cut into the limestone cliffs that form the eastern edge of the Nile Valley. It lies in Middle Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile about south of Minya. Its monumental tombs were excavated north of the modern village, approximately halfway up the cliff and overlooking the valley.
During the Middle Kingdom, Beni Hasan was the principal cemetery of the sixteenth nome of Upper Egypt, the administrative district known as the Oryx nome. Its capital was the ancient town of Hebenu, identified with Zawyet Sultan, on the east bank of the Nile about south of Minya; the locality is also known as Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Zawyet al-Amwat and Kom el-Ahmar. The funerary inscriptions also mention Menat Khufu, an Egyptian place-name translated as "the nurse city of Khufu", where some of the nobles buried at Beni Hasan resided, although the settlement has not been securely located.
The funerary complex contains burials made between the end of the third and the beginning of the second millennium BC, from the late Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom. The monumental tombs of the upper cemetery belong chiefly to the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties. At the foot of the slope are the earliest graves of the main group, dated to the end of the Sixth Dynasty or the transition to the First Intermediate Period. Farther down the slope, the lower cemetery comprises about 900 graves, 888 of which were recorded during the excavations of 1902–1904.
The upper cemetery contains 39 rock-cut tombs, twelve of which retain painted scenes showing agricultural and craft activities, hunting, games, fighting and the arrival of foreign groups. In tomb BH3 of Khnumhotep II, the decoration includes the procession of the Aamu, fig gathering, and scenes of fishing and fowling in the marshes.
South of the cemetery, within a wadi opening east of the village, is an Eighteenth-Dynasty rock-cut temple dedicated to the local goddess Pakhet and built by Hatshepsut. The designation "Cave of Artemis", or Speos Artemidos, derives from the Greek name of the sanctuary and the identification of Pakhet with Artemis.
Cemetery
The burials are divided between an upper zone of monumental rock-cut tombs and a lower cemetery consisting mainly of shaft tombs, in which the burial chamber was reached through a vertical opening. Thirty-nine tombs were recorded in the upper zone, twelve of which bore inscriptions: eight belonged to governors of the Oryx nome, two to princes, one to the son of a prince and one to a royal scribe. Seven of the tombs belonged to successive governors, alongside decorated and undecorated burials of other high-ranking provincial officials.
Provincial governors, conventionally described as nomarchs, were buried in rock-cut tombs excavated in the limestone cliff; well-known examples include the tombs of Amenemhat, Khnumhotep II, Baqet III and Khety. During the Old Kingdom and the first half of the Middle Kingdom, the office of nomarch appears often to have been hereditary, with local dynasties remaining at the head of the same provinces for several generations; the nomarch nevertheless remained a representative of the king and directly under royal authority. The situation appears to change under Senusret III, when provincial dignitaries and the heirs of the great families of governors ceased to build or excavate immense funerary complexes. Connor cautions that this impression may partly reflect the nature of the surviving evidence and that, rather than a structural change or a decline in the power of provincial families, it may indicate a change in the ways power was expressed and in funerary practices.
Paintings and inscriptions preserved in numerous tombs record the identities, social rank and administrative offices of their owners. The rock-cut chapels vary in size and arrangement; more elaborate examples include external courts or porticoes, halls supported by pillars or columns, niches or small statue shrines, and shafts leading to the burial chambers.
Upper cemetery
The upper sector contains 39 monumental tombs, all cut into the same limestone stratum approximately halfway up the cliff. Their entrances follow one another almost continuously along a natural terrace, enlarged during the cutting of the chapels, for about a quarter of a mile. The largest tombs belonged to governors of the Oryx nome and other high-ranking provincial officials.
Arranged on a north–south axis, the 39 tombs are divided by a natural break in the terrace into a northern group of thirteen and a southern group of twenty-six. The division partly corresponds to chronology, although the dates of some monuments remain uncertain; the southern tombs are generally regarded as earlier, whereas the owners of several northern tombs, including Khnumhotep I, Amenemhat and Khnumhotep II, can be placed more securely in the Twelfth Dynasty. From the southern end northwards, examples attributed to the Eleventh Dynasty give way to increasingly large and complex tombs culminating in the monuments of the Twelfth Dynasty.
The tombs of high officials contained a chapel cut into the rock, sometimes preceded by a court or portico. One or more shafts, or more rarely sloping corridors, descended from the chapel to subterranean burial chambers. In the larger complexes, rows of pillars or columns divided the interior and led towards a small niche or statue shrine in the eastern wall, while vertical shafts normally opened in the chapel floor.
Decoration and inscriptions
Twelve of the 39 tombs in the upper cemetery retain painted wall scenes showing agricultural and craft activities, hunting, games, fighting and the arrival of foreign groups, while the inscriptions preserve the names and titles of their owners.
While recording the chapels, the Archaeological Survey of Egypt produced facsimiles, colour plates, drawings and transcriptions of the paintings and inscriptions; these were published in the four volumes of Beni Hasan issued between 1893 and 1900. In tomb BH14 of Khnumhotep I, the paintings are now in poor condition: the scenes have been affected by time, human intervention, exposure to the elements and salt encrustation, and some details are now completely obliterated.
The lower parts of all four walls of the burial chamber of Baqet II in tomb BH33 are covered with texts in hieratic and cursive hieroglyphs. The sequence begins on the west wall with an abridged form of a liturgy attested in the Pyramid Texts, continues on the south and east walls with Pyramid Text spells PT 221 and PT 222, and ends on the north wall with Coffin Text spell CT 225.
Lower cemetery In the lower cemetery, John Garstang excavated 888 tombs, used principally for officials, courtiers and people of lower rank than the owners of the monumental cliff tombs. Two decorated rock cut tombs, belonging to Ipi Heryib and Bebi, however belong to the Old Kingdom. A Macquarie University project studying the material dispersed among museums and other collections after the 1902–1904 campaigns has reconstructed a cemetery sector of about 900 tombs and traced more than 2,000 objects in 114 institutions.
Approximately 800 of the 888 burials followed a simple recurring plan: a vertical shaft, generally quadrangular in plan, and a small chamber or recess opening on the south side at its base, where the coffin and funerary equipment were placed. The shafts were usually between deep; shallower examples reached about , whereas the deepest were approximately . The smallest chambers provided little more than the space needed for a coffin and offerings.
Notable tombs
Four of the 39 upper tombs are open to visitors: those of Amenemhat, Khnumhotep II, Baqet III and Khety.
Tomb BH2 – Amenemhat Amenemhat, also called Ameny, was the last known governor of the Oryx nome and held office for about twenty-five years during the reign of Senusret I. The chapel is reached by a causeway and preceded by a court with a two-columned portico. A shrine cut into the eastern wall contains a statue group of the governor, his wife Hetepet and his mother Henu. The paintings show agriculture, crafts, fishing and fowling, while the ceiling imitates beams and matting through multicoloured geometric patterns.
Tomb BH3 – Khnumhotep II Khnumhotep II, Overseer of the Eastern Desert during the reign of Senusret II, had his chapel preceded by a court and a portico with two fluted columns. The chapel contains two burial shafts and a hall originally supported by four columns, leading to a shrine for the owner's statue. An inscription extending over 222 columns recounts his life. On the north wall, fifteen Aamu are depicted, while the accompanying inscription records a total of 37; the text associates their arrival with mesdemet, eye-paint. The leader is named Abisharie and bears the title heqa-khasut, "ruler of the hill-lands".
Tomb BH4 – Khnumhotep IV The unfinished chapel belongs to the northern group and was probably made for Khnumhotep IV. Its construction is assigned to the reign of Senusret II or Senusret III, or to a slightly later period.
Tomb BH13 – Khnumhotep Khnumhotep, an official bearing the title of royal scribe, had a rock-cut chapel of which only parts of the inscriptions and decoration survive.
Tomb BH14 – Khnumhotep I Khnumhotep I, the first known governor of the Oryx nome at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty, received several high appointments from Amenemhat I. The inscriptions and paintings include a biographical account and scenes of daily activities, desert hunting and military action.
Tomb BH15 – Baqet III Baqet III, son of Ramushenti and governor of the Oryx nome, belonged to the southern group, generally considered the earlier part of the cemetery and assigned to the initial phase of the Middle Kingdom. His chapel was preceded by a court and had a small shrine in the south-eastern corner with a false door and an offering table. The walls combine scenes of hunting and fishing, craftsmen at work, tax collection, animals, a battle and the siege of a fortress with a wrestling cycle occupying the east wall. The cycle contains 220 pairs of wrestlers; in each pair one figure is painted red and the other dark brown so that the interaction between the two men is clearly visible.
Tomb BH17 – Khety Khety, governor of the sixteenth nome of Upper Egypt, was buried in a tomb dated approximately to 2055–1956 BC. The chapel was originally supported by two rows of three columns with lotus-flower capitals; only one column in each row survives intact. The east wall shows military training, an assault on fortified structures and 122 pairs of wrestlers. Other walls depict desert hunting, woodworking, spinning, weaving, board games, acrobatics, wine production, music and sports.
Tomb BH21 – Nakht Nakht, also called Nekhta, is shown before workers in a marshland setting within an unfinished decorative scheme; the surviving inscriptions preserve his name and titles.
Tomb BH23 – Netjernakht Netjernakht, a local governor and Overseer of the Eastern Desert, left both the decoration and the inscriptions of his chapel unfinished.
Tomb BH27 – Ramushenti Ramushenti, a provincial official of the Oryx nome, was buried in a complex comprising a rock-cut chamber and several burial shafts; no painted decoration survives in the chapel.
Tomb BH29 – Baqet I Baqet I, one of the governors buried in the southern group of the upper cemetery, generally considered the earliest group, had a large columnless chapel cut entirely into the rock and crossed by burial shafts opening in its floor.
Tomb BH33 – Baqet II Baqet II, governor of the Oryx nome, occupied one of the tombs in the southern group. A simple columnless chapel lies above the burial apartment, whose chamber preserves an extensive corpus of hieratic and cursive-hieroglyphic funerary texts.
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