The Tomb of Idy, Priestess of Hathor—An Unexpected find in Asyut

The topic

In the fall of 2024, during the 18th fieldwork season of The Asyut Project in the necropolis of Asyut, the burial of the Hathor priestess Idy was discovered in the tomb of her father, Djefai-Hapi I, a regional governor during the reign of Sesostris I, 12th Dynasty. The excavations were carried out under the direction of Dr. Jochem Kahl in an international collaboration between the Free University of Berlin (Germany), Sohag University (Egypt), Kanazawa University (Japan), the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Unnoticed by earlier research, Idy's burial was located in a side chamber of a vertical shaft about 14 meters (46 feet) deep. Although Idy's burial had already been robbed of all jewelry and metal objects in the search for treasures in antiquity, all other grave goods appear to have been of no interest to the ancient looters. After the robbery, the shaft and Idy were forgotten.

This discovery is extraordinary both aesthetically and scientifically. Idy’s two nested coffins, made of foreign wood, are completely decorated with paintings and texts, and surpass contemporary objects in the craftsmanship of their execution. As such, they seamlessly link to the outstanding quality of the texts and pictures in the tomb of Idy's father. Other grave goods such as a canopic chest, statues, symbols of rulership, pottery, and food can be expected to contribute to a better understanding of funerary rituals, the transfer of knowledge, and the role of women in ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom.

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The speakers

Dr. Jochem Kahl is a professor of Egyptology at the Free University of Berlin. He earned a PhD at the University of Tübingen (1992), and Habilitation at the University of Münster (1998). He initiated The Asyut Project and has directed the archaeological fieldwork at Gebel Asyut al-gharbi since 2003.

Dr. Tina Beck earned her PhD with a thesis on wooden statues from Middle Egypt from the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom (2205–1630 BC). She has been working with The Asyut Project since 2011, and has been a research assistant at the Institute of Egyptology at the Free University of Berlin since 2015.

Dr. Andrea Kilian began to work with The Asyut Project as student assistant in 2006, followed by a position as research assistant at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and later at the Free University of Berlin. Her main interests are pottery, funerary culture, and object studies, especially concerning small finds.

Dr. Chiori Kitagawa is a zooarchaeologist who specializes in studying human-animal interactions in past societies. She has been a member of The Asyut Project since 2008. Through this work, she contributes to our understanding of how ancient Egyptians interacted with and utilized animals in their society.