New interpretation of the images of an unnamed princess in an ancient Egyptian queen's tomb.

What is it about?

QV 71, the tomb of Bint-Anath, the eldest daughter and great royal wife of the pharaoh Ramesses II, is located in the Valley of the Queens, a necropolis on the west bank of Luxor, Egypt. As with all other decorated Ramesside queens’ tombs in this cemetery, QV 71 possesses a rich, complex program that reinforces the tomb’s cosmographic value as the deceased royal woman’s netherworld landscape. However, unlike the other Ramesside queens' tombs, which are each adorned with scenes depicting the deceased royal woman alone amongst the gods, QV 71’s program represents another human being along with the tomb owner. This person is an unnamed princess, described only by her royal titles, who is shown twice in the sarcophagus chamber. The presence of these two princess figures in the tomb has led scholars to speculate that they represent a daughter of Ramesses II and his daughter-wife Bint-Anath, a notion that, while possible, is not the near certainty that present scholarly consensus suggests, and it is not the only explanation for their inclusion in QV 71’s decorative program. In this paper, I will provide a close reading, reexamination, and art historical analysis of the two princess figures and their programmatic contexts in order to present alternative interpretations of their meaning and function within the tomb.

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Photo by AXP Photography on Unsplash

Photo by AXP Photography on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article challenges a long-standing Egyptological interpretation that has been treated as fact, it critiques the methodology that informed this interpretation, it reevaluates the material evidence from a fresh scholarly perspective, and it presents alternative interpretations that are grounded in a rigorous art historical analysis and a more complete understanding of the rules of decorum and afterlife beliefs that determined the form and function of Egyptian queens' tombs.