The Tomb of Iniuia: Preliminary Report on the Saqqara Excavations, 1993

Abstract

This report outlines the results of the 1993 season of the joint EES-Leiden Museum Expedition in the New Kingdom necropolis of Memphis at Saqqara. Excavations were started in the area south of the tomb of Horemheb, where a group of mud-brick tombs of the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Dynasty are situated. One of these, the tomb of Iniuia, Overseer of the Cattle of Amun and High Steward in Memphis, was excavated. One of the chapels is decorated with wall-paintings, and is the first of its kind to be found in this part of Saqqara in a reasonably good condition. The main chapel was covered with a mud-brick pyramid, the lower part of which is still in place. A number of reliefs and fragments, partly deriving from this pyramid-chapel and betraying Amarna influence, were found. The substructure of the tomb consists of two burial chambers. Progress was made with the study of pottery and skeletal material excavated during former seasons in the tomb-complex of Maya and Meryt. The tomb of Iniuia was restored and chapels A and B of the tomb of Maya were reconstructed.