Tombs and burial customs

It is through its burials, however, that the archaeology of ancient Egypt is best known,  and the Third Intermediate Period stands out as a period of marked change. The isolated  royal burial is given up in favor of burial within the sacred precincts of a temple area,  most obviously at Tanis and Sais, but this is also noticeable at Thebes, where burials  were placed in tombs cut through the New Kingdom mortuary temples. Perhaps more striking, however, is that the idea of spending one’s lifetime preparing a “goodly burial”  with splendid tomb and furnishings practically vanishes. Apart from the royal burials at  Tanis, Memphis, Heracleopolis and Medinet Habu, the concept of a specially constructed  tomb is all but abandoned, though some private tomb chapels of this period are known at  Tanis, Abydos, and in the Ramesseum area at Thebes, while an extant pyramidion  indicates tomb chapels at Bubastis.

Since Thebes provides most of the evidence for burial customs during the Third  Intermediate Period, the remainder of this section is based entirely on Theban beliefs.  During the 21st Dynasty a practice developed of private interments within usurped earlier  tombs, and this practice even extended as high as royal children, as can be seen with the  burial of Princess Nauny, interred within the tomb of the 18th Dynasty Queen  Meryetamen. At first only single burials were so made, but there quickly developed a  system of family vaults, of which the most famous are those of Pinedjem II and his  immediate family (which was later used  to house the “royal cache” of mummies) and,  later, the Montu priest burials, both at  Deir el-Bahri. Although there are noticeable  changes in style throughout the period, the well-provided Theban went to the grave with  little more than coffins, heart scarabs and a complement of 401  shawabtis enclosed  within a pair of chests. These items were supplemented at different periods by, in the 21st  Dynasty, a  Book of Amduat rolled between the legs, an Osiris figure with funerary  papyrus (most often, a Book of the Dead) and wax amulets of the Sons of Horus within  the body protecting the viscera. During the Libyan period, burial goods included  freestanding wooden figures of the Four Sons of Horus, small mummies made of wheat,  and a polychrome cartonnage case, which was enclosed within coffins of a much more  drab appearance than the ornately decorated ones of the 21st Dynasty. Finally, during the  25th Dynasty, a bead net without face  and a figure of the god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris  complemented the burial. Throughout the entire Third Intermediate Period the richer  burials were also supplemented with wooden stelae and canopic jars, which during the  Libyan period were merely symbolic dummies. Specialists can recognize six distinctive  funerary phases within the Third Intermediate Period, depending on the styles and types  of the grave goods, with distinct changes noticeable at about 1000 BC, at circa 950/ 930  BC, circa 850/825 BC, circa 750 BC and finally at around 675/650 BC.