burial of Senebtisi was excavated in the winter season 1906–1907 near the pyramid of Amenemhat I beside the modern village of Lisht (Fig. 2). It was found within the burial complex of the vizier Senusret, who held office under Senusret I and Amenemhat II. In the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties a huge cemetery developed around the royal pyramids. Many of the people at the court serving these kings were buried here, but the place also remained an important burial ground after this period, perhaps because it was the cemetery of the Middle Kingdom capital Itjtawy.
The burial complex of the vizier Senusret (Fig. 4) was already heavily destroyed when found. It consisted of two parts. There was an above-ground chapel, once decorated and perhaps accessible to everyone, or at least to the family of Senusret. The second part of the tomb consisted of the shaft and burial chamber, closed after the interment and, as usual, not decorated. The chapel of Senusret was found badly destroyed. Stone looters had taken all the stone blocks, and therefore little of the vizier’s chapel survived. All that is left are small fragments of reliefs with the titles and name of Senusret, some fragments of scenes once decorating the aboveground part of the tomb complex, and fragments with portions of a biographical inscription. These few remaining fragments of the reliefs are of the finest quality. The inscriptions provide us with some of the titles of Senusret. He was “vizier,” “overseer of the king’s ornament,” and “overseer of [all royal] works.” The last title might indicate that he was involved in royal building works or even in planning the king’s pyramid. As he is attested in the last years of Senusret I and in the first years of Amenemhat II, however, it seems unlikely that he was the major architect under Senusret I for his pyramid. The chapel of the complex for the vizier Senusret once measured about 12 × 26 m. Little has survived of its plan. It can be said with certainty only that there was a courtyard with columns at the front, with the cult chambers most likely at the back. Here was also the main shaft for the burial of Senusret, with the burial chamber at the bottom. The chapel with the burial shaft stood within an enclosure wall of mud brick decorated on the outside with a palace facade. On the east side there was a building for funerary priests built of mud bricks. Within the enclosure wall were several shafts, most of them on the west side of the cult building. Here were most likely buried relatives of Senusret, or people belonging to his staff at work. Only three shafts were located on the east side of the cult chapel, one of them belonging to Senebtisi.4
4. Plan of tomb of Senusret (reconstruction). The shaft of Senebtisi’s tomb is marked. Drawn by the author after Arnold 2008, pl. 147.
The excavator Herbert Winlock recognized the importance of Senebtisi’s tomb from the beginning and was very careful with his recording of its clearance. The main work was carried out with the help of Arthur C. Mace, a lesser-known figure of Egyptian archaeology but a very careful recorder, and in this area a pioneer. Later he was involved in the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and the high quality of the recording there is also due in large part to his involvement.5
The burial of Senebtisi was found in a rock-cut underground chamber at the bottom of a shaft (Fig. 5). The shaft measured 1.38 m × 2.8 m wide and only 6.85 m deep. The mouth of the shaft was lined with bricks, perhaps to prevent sand fall. At the bottom of the shaft, on the west side, was the burial chamber consisting of two parts. The first was an almost square room with an opening in the north wall leading to a second, slightly smaller and longer burial chamber for the coffin. The first room was filled with pottery, while in the burial chamber were the coffins and three boxes. In the east wall was a niche for the canopic box. This box contained the canopic jars holding the entrails of the deceased body, which were removed after mummification and placed in four jars.
5. Plan of Senebtisi’s tomb. From Mace, Winlock 1916, 6.
Senebtisi was placed in a set of three coffins. The outer coffin was made of a soft wood, most likely sycamore, and was badly preserved when found (Fig. 6). The excavators were just able to copy some of the inscriptions. The coffin was decorated on the long sides with four columns of text and a top horizontal text band. On the short ends were two columns and the top horizontal band. The front side of the coffin was further decorated with a pair of wedjat eyes. The lid was vaulted and had a single line of inscription down the middle. The coffin was painted red, perhaps in imitation of high-quality cedar wood. Although the inscriptions on the coffin were badly preserved, it seems clear that some of them are so far unique. Others are common for coffins of the late Twelfth Dynasty and contain short sentences spoken by different deities during the mummification.6 The decoration of the coffin with the wedjat eyes, four text columns on the long sides, two text columns on the short ends, and horizontal text lines at the top is typical of coffins of the Middle Kingdom.7 The coffin was not decorated on the inside.
Inside the outer coffin was placed the second wooden coffin.8 It was better preserved, perhaps because it was made of hard cedar wood, which has a greater chance of survival. This coffin had only a single golden inscription band on the lid and was decorated on the outer side only with the wedjat eyes motif (Fig. 7). The edges of the coffin were ornamented with gold foil. The inscription on the lid is an address to Nut, the sky goddess: “Words spoken: Nut, you are glorious, you are powerful in the body of your mother Tefnut, before your birth, (when) she caused that the lady of the house Sathapy, justified, be the god, lord of eternity, that she may unite with the justified lady of the house Senebtisi in life, duration and power, that she may not die for eternity.”9
6. View of Senebtisi’s coffin as it was found. From Mace, Winlock 1916, pl. Xa.
Inside this second, middle coffin was the final inner anthropoid one. This human-shaped coffin was also badly decayed when found. At first the excavators thought that they had found a cartonnage (a mummy cover of plaster and linen) covering the whole mummy. That it was a coffin was recognized only when six copper clamps were found that had held the box and the lid of the coffin together. The anthropoid coffin was decorated on the chest with a broad collar inlaid with various materials such as faience and carnelian (Fig. 8). It was covered with fine gold leaf.
7. The middle coffin of Senebtisi (194 cm long). From Mace, Winlock 1916, pl. XVIIb.
8. The decoration on the chest of Senebtisi’s anthropoid coffin. From Mace, Winlock 1916, pl. XX.
Senebtisi was mummified. Her body was wrapped in several layers of linen, all of which were badly preserved when found. The entrails had been removed through a 21 cm long incision on the left side of her body. The wound was stuffed with a yellowish material. The body itself was filled with linen. The heart had been removed, wrapped in linen, and then placed back into the body. The brain was not removed.10 The entrails were placed in the canopic jars, where they were found treated with some kind of resin and wrapped in linen.11
Senebtisi was adorned with an array of jewelry. On her head was a golden circlet composed of gold wire. It was made of three separate pieces of wire forming a chain of loops connected at the back of the head by a simple gold wire fastener.12 Ninety-eight
