Macquarie Theban Tombs Project

Since 1991, the Macquarie Theban Tombs Project has been working in four New Kingdom tombs located in Dra Abu el-Naga at the northern end of the Theban necropolis since 1991: TT 148 (3rd Priest of Amun, Amenemope, Dynasty 20), TT 233 (Royal Scribes Saroy and Amenhotep/Huy, Dynasty 19), TT 147 (Scribe and Cattle Counter Neferrenpet, Dynasty 18) and TT 149 (Royal Scribe Amenmose, Dynasty 20).

Apart from TT 148, very little was known of these poorly preserved tombs and their owners, and the project has succeeded in retrieving and recording significant new epigraphic and archaeological data that illuminate the family backgrounds and careers of the owners, their role in the administration of their times, as well as funerary beliefs and practices.

Reconstructing the history of the use of the tombs has also been a focus, their systemic reuse as burial sites from Dynasties 21 to 26, and in particular their non-systemic use as dwellings in the Late Antique / Coptic Period when TT 233 and TT 147 were part of the earliest phase of a monastic complex that developed into the nearby monastery of St Paul at Deir el Bakhit.