The incense distribution scene in TT 39 – redistribution of goods to Deir el-Bahari and other locations in Western Thebes

Abstract

Incense was an essential part of temple rituals during the New Kingdom. A relief scene of redistribution of this economic resource, carved in the hall of the Theban tomb of Puimra (TT 39), a Second Priest of Amun in the early Eighteenth Dynasty, helps to understand how incense traveled from abroad to the royal treasury and temple estates to be then redistributed among the different temples in Amun’s domain. The data is compared with evidence from other contemporary tombs, shedding light on the redistribution of goods in a centralized economy.