History: Ancient Egypt: Decorated Tombs of Thebes

The role of this course is to support you to recognise and understand ancient Egyptian tomb scenes. Ancient Thebes has over 500 decorated tombs providing a rich set of material to study tomb decoration. Ancient Egyptian elites would lavish their resources in their lifetime to prepare a tomb, a residence for eternity. Additionally, for those who could afford it such tombs were decorated with scenes designed to provide resurrection, substance and create a world representing the perfect afterlife. Our selection of tombs will enable us to see differences in the choices made by different groups of people. The scenes included in the small tomb of a necropolis worker from Deir el-Medina will vary from those nearby in the tomb of a vizier (prime minister). We will spend most of the course focusing on the more numerous New Kingdom tombs of the area, but Middle Kingdom and Late Period tomb scenes will also be covered supporting an analysis of the development and continuity of such scenes over more than a millennium. The course is designed to be visual with an emphasis on the recognition and interpretation of scenes, with consideration for style, execution, and the purpose of such scenes.