The Tomb of Sennedjem
Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1)
Sennedjem lived in Deir el-Medina, the village of the artisans, during the Dynasty XIX reigns of Seti I and Rameses II. He was one of the necropolis workers and his title was ‘Servant in the Place of Truth’.
This tomb was discovered intact in 1886. The burial chamber contained 20 mummies, 9 of them in coffins belonging to the deceased and members of his family, along with a rich hoard of funerary equipment, now in Cairo Museum and other museums.
Like many of the private tombs the paintings are simply executed, but remarkable for their colours and interesting scenes. The decoration in the burial chamber is on a yellow ochre background and is extremely well-preserved.
The entrance to Sennedjem’s tomb is above the workmen’s village at Deir el-Medina. A very steep staircase leads to a small entrance chamber which originally had a decorated wooden door, now in Cairo Museum. In the short passage leading to the vaulted burial chamber Sennedjem is depicted worshipping the god Atum on the lintel, while on the right-hand side the solar cat slays the Apophis serpent. On the left side of the doorway are two lions facing the hieroglyph for ‘horizon’ (symbolising yesterday and today) and on the inner lintel the deceased is seen adoring the horizon disc held up by the goddess Nut.
To the left of the entrance (the southern wall of the burial chamber) Sennedjem is seen lying mummified on his lion couch tended by Isis and Nephthys as kites. His sons and other relatives are shown in the register below with a sem-priest named as Ramo, offering to the deceased and his wife Iy-neferti. They are dressed in their finest clothes and have perfume cones on their heads.
On the western wall (moving in a clockwise direction) the top register below the vaulted ceiling are two Anubis jackals, guardians of the Netherworld gates, on shrines facing each other. Below, Sennedjem is with his wife Iy-neferti worshipping 11 gods of the Netherworld in two rows, led by
Sennedjem lived in Deir el-Medina, the village of the artisans, during the Dynasty XIX reigns of Seti I and Rameses II. He was one of the necropolis workers and his title was ‘Servant in the Place of Truth’.
This tomb was discovered intact in 1886. The burial chamber contained 20 mummies, 9 of them in coffins belonging to the deceased and members of his family, along with a rich hoard of funerary equipment, now in Cairo Museum and other museums.
Like many of the private tombs the paintings are simply executed, but remarkable for their colours and interesting scenes. The decoration in the burial chamber is on a yellow ochre background and is extremely well-preserved.
The entrance to Sennedjem’s tomb is above the workmen’s village at Deir el-Medina. A very steep staircase leads to a small entrance chamber which originally had a decorated wooden door, now in Cairo Museum. In the short passage leading to the vaulted burial chamber Sennedjem is depicted worshipping the god Atum on the lintel, while on the right-hand side the solar cat slays the Apophis serpent. On the left side of the doorway are two lions facing the hieroglyph for ‘horizon’ (symbolising yesterday and today) and on the inner lintel the deceased is seen adoring the horizon disc held up by the goddess Nut.
To the left of the entrance (the southern wall of the burial chamber) Sennedjem is seen lying mummified on his lion couch tended by Isis and Nephthys as kites. His sons and other relatives are shown in the register below with a sem-priest named as Ramo, offering to the deceased and his wife Iy-neferti. They are dressed in their finest clothes and have perfume cones on their heads.
On the western wall (moving in a clockwise direction) the top register below the vaulted ceiling are two Anubis jackals, guardians of the Netherworld gates, on shrines facing each other. Below, Sennedjem is with his wife Iy-neferti worshipping 11 gods of the Netherworld in two rows, led by