The Tomb of Hetepheres I (also G 7000x) is an Ancient Egyptian shaft tomb at Giza. It is part of the Eastern Cemetery of the Great Pyramid of Giza (Necropolis G 7000) and is located near the northeast corner of the northern queenly pyramid G1-a. The Egyptian queen Hetepheres I was the mother of Khufu and probably the wife of Sneferu.
The tomb was discovered in 1925 by the staff of Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner. A shaft, more than 27 meters deep, leads to a chamber that still contains large parts of the queen's burial objects. The organic material of the finds had already decomposed, leaving only dust and tiny fragments. Through painstaking work, many of the objects could be reconstructed. The tomb became famous for the style and richness of the royal grave furnishings. It is the best-preserved tomb of a queen of the Old Kingdom.Peter Jánosi: Die Pyramidenanlagen der Königinnen. Wien 1996, p. 13.
However, the tomb was not dug up. The alabaster sarcophagus was found empty, but the sealed canopic jar containing the entrails was still intact. No satisfactory explanation has yet been found for these findings. It was certainly not the Queen Mother's regular tomb. It may have been a hidden grave (cachette) to protect her from grave robbers, or an emergency grave.Roman Gundacker: Hetepheres I. und das Rätsel ihrer Bestattung. In: Sokar. No. 12, 2006, pp. 36-37.
Discovery and research
George Reisner had been leading excavations around the Pyramids of Giza since 1905. On February 2, 1925, while the photographer of the American team was looking for a suitable place to take good pictures on the east side of Khufu's Pyramid, a leg of the camera tripod slipped into an unusual crevice in the rock, which turned out to be the hidden mouth of a shaft and a staircase. Reisner was in the United States at the time. After two weeks of removing debris from the shaft and stairs, the archaeologists discovered the entrance to the burial chamber, which had been closed since ancient times. On March 8, 1925, Alan Rowe, the deputy director of the archaeological excavation, opened the chamber for the first time. It was full of piled things. The organic materials had already decayed, leaving only dust and tiny fragments. The entire floor of the room was filled with gold plates from the gilded furniture that had once been placed there. It was clear from the discovery that this was not an undisturbed burial, as ceramics were smashed and linen was scattered about.
On March 12, Reisner ordered the chamber closed again until he returned to Egypt. It was not reopened until January 21, 1926, under his direction. Over 321 working days, the young Dows Dunham, in particular, meticulously recorded every object. The work was dangerous: a stone fell from the ceiling of the chamber and Dunham escaped unharmed only because he was wearing a helmet.Nicholas Reeves: Ancient Egypt, The Great Discoveries: A year-by-year Chronicle, London 2000, , p. 170. In addition to Reisner and Dunham, Noel Wheeler was also involved in emptying the chamber. This work resulted in a total of 1,701 manuscript pages of plans and notes and 1,057 photographs. This made it possible to determine the original position of the disintegrated objects and also to reconstruct the arrangement of all the tomb furnishings. Although reconstructions of fragments are part of the daily work of archaeologists and many Egyptologists, this reconstruction is a particularly outstanding achievement.George Andrew Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis, Vol. 2: The tomb of Hetep-Heres, the mother of Cheops: a study of Egyptian civilization in the Old Kingdom. completed and revised by William Stevenson Smith, Oxford University Press, 1955, p. XXV–XXVI.; Miroslav Verner: Die Pyramiden (= rororo-Sachbuch. Volume 60890). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, , p. 242–246; Mark Lehner: Geheimnis der Pyramiden. München 1997, p. 117.
On March 3, 1927, after the entire chamber had been cleared, the eagerly awaited opening of the sarcophagus took place in the presence of a prestigious society. But the excavators were disappointed: it was empty. Lindon Smith, who participated in the opening, reported:
On April 18, 1927, the 2.2-ton sarcophagus was recovered, and on May 21, the walled niche containing the intact canopic chest was opened.Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. XXV–XXVI. It was only after 25 years of painstaking reconstruction work that the entire tomb was published.George Andrew Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis, Vol. 2: The tomb of Hetep-Heres, the mother of Cheops: a study of Egyptian civilization in the Old Kingdom. completed and revised by William Stevenson Smith, Oxford University Press, 1955.
Architecture
The grave has no superstructure. A twelve-step staircase 55 cm wide leads up to the shaft, first open over a length of 3.4 m, then a further 95 cm into the rock. It meets the shaft at a depth of 3 m. The mouth of the shaft measures 1.75 m (north-south) × 2.37 m (east-west). The width soon narrows to between 1.35 m and 1.55 m. At the upper edge of the shaft, incisions were found for beams, which were probably used to lower the sarcophagus. Recesses were made in the walls of the shaft to allow the workers to climb up and down.
At a depth of 7.47 m, a 2.10 m high and 1.67 m deep niche was reached in the west wall. This closed off a 92 cm × 67 cm area containing a horned skull and three bull leg bones wrapped in a decaying reed mat. In addition, there were two wine jars and a limestone, which Rowe believes was used for the ritual breaking of the bull's skull, a piece of silver, and some fragments of basalt and charcoal.Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 13–22. These form an offering associated with the introduction of the grave goods.Roman Gundacker: Hetepheres I. und das Rätsel ihrer Bestattung. In: Sokar. No. 12, 2006, p. 32.
At a depth of 27.42 m, the shaft leads to the 1.92 m high entrance to the burial chamber. This leads 5.22 m to the south, with a varying width of 2.67 to 2.77 m. Directly behind the entrance, in the northwest corner, there is a 1.21 m deep and 1.4 m × 1.0 m large depression in the floor, which has been filled with debris and dust. This means that the original height of the room was probably 3.16 m, which would have provided enough space for the baldachin. Above the sarcophagus, a 40 cm deep cut in the rock runs from the ceiling 95 cm downward for a length of 2.60 m. This cut was partially filled with stone rubble when the chamber was used in its present state. Another cut, 75 cm deep and 2.76 m long, contained the canopic jar and was carefully sealed with masonry and plaster.
Tomb equipment Most of the objects found are now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The objects bear both the inventory numbers JE (Journal d'Entrée du Musée) and RT (Registre Temporaire). Smaller pieces and faithful copies of larger objects can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA). Roman Gundacker divides the grave goods into two groups based on the inscriptions: On the one hand, those objects that originally belonged only to the court or to King Snofru and only came into their possession after his reign, and on the other hand, more recent objects whose date of manufacture falls into the reign of Khufu and thus presumably belonged to the household of Hetepheres as the king's mother. It remains unclear to what extent furniture and other grave goods were made specifically for the tomb.Roman Gundacker: Hetepheres I. und das Rätsel ihrer Bestattung. In: Sokar. No. 12, 2006, p. 30-39.
The uninscribed alabaster sarcophagus (JE 51899) stood on the east wall of the burial chamber, one meter behind the entrance. It measures 2 m × 85 cm with a height of 80 cm. The lid is 5 cm thick on the outside, but this is due to a 5 cm wide and 4 cm deep projection that held it in place. The ends of the lid had two protruding handles. The excavators found that a metal tool had been used along the top edge of the box to pry open the lid, and fragments of the top edge were found along the wall side, in a box filled with linen in the south corner of the tomb, and along the south wall of the tomb. These were the first indications that the contents of the coffin had been disturbed, and indeed it was found empty.Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 15–16.
The alabaster canopic chest (JE 52452) stood in a recess in the west wall. It was set deep into the recess and sealed by the wall plaster. It rested on a small wooden sled from which the runners could be identified, but the sled was too poorly preserved for reconstruction. The square chest is 48.2 cm wide and 35 cm high. The lid has two small protruding handles and rests flat on the chest without any protrusion. The interior is divided by narrow walls into four compartments 26.2 cm deep. One contained decomposed organic matter, and three about 5 cm deep contained a yellowish liquid consisting of a 3 percent caustic soda solution. This contained the canopic jar containing Hetepheres' organs. In the center of the lid was a loam seal that secured a cord around the chest. The seal was protected by a small perforated ceramic lid. The clay surface was badly damaged. It certainly mentioned the "mortuary of Khufu", as did the other seals found in the tomb.Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 15, p. 21–22.
The 1.778 m long and 97 cm wide bed (JE 53261) slopes from the headboard to the footboard from a height of 35.5 cm to 21.5 cm at the footboard. Except for the feet and the lying surface, the wooden bed is covered with gold leaf. As was customary in ancient Egypt, it did not have a headboard, but a wooden panel at the foot end, which was attached to the bed frame by two copper-covered wooden pegs in recesses also covered with copper. The inside of the footboard is the only part that is decorated with alternating inlaid feathers and rosettes in the typical blue-green and black colors. The feet, in the shape of the lion's legs, face the headboard and are attached to the sides with thin leather cords. The headboard, decorated with gold and silver, was kept in a golden box.Maria Sole Croce: Die Grabausstattung der Königin Hetepheres. In: Alessandro Bongioanni, Maria Sole Croce (Ed.): Ägyptisches Museum Kairo (National Geographic Art Guide), Hamburg, 2002, p. 88–89.; Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 32–33.
The furniture included two armchairs whose wood had completely disintegrated. One of the armchairs (JE 53263) originally had its back to the alabaster sarcophagus. Except for the seat and back, it was completely covered in gold. The natural wood panels could be reconstructed from the gold covering. The front supports of the armrests show a simple mat pattern. The armrests are made of three papyrus stems bound together. The feet are shaped like a lion's paws. Since the front legs are 28 cm higher than the back legs, which are 26 cm high, the seat slopes slightly backward. The legs are also quite deep and the seat is very wide and deep. Overall, the frame is 79.5 cm high, 71 cm wide, and 66 cm deep.Croce: Die Grabausstattung der Königin Hetepheres. p. 90.; Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 28–29.
The more valuable of the two chairs (temp. reg. 22.2.60) was irretrievably destroyed and could only be partially reconstructed. The position of the very fragmentary lion's feet indicates that it originally stood at right angles to the first, facing the entrance, with its back to the bed and the palanquin. The latter was decorated not only with a simple gilding, but also with inlays of different colors. The armrests were each decorated with a Horus falcon standing on a palm tree with outstretched wings. The back was decorated with the standards of the goddess Neith.Croce: Die Grabausstattung der Königin Hetepheres. p. 90.; Reisner: A history of the Giza necropolis. Vol. 2, p. 29–32.