Archaeological Museum of Bologna

Museo Civico Archeologico
Via dell'Archiginnasio 2 - 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051.27.57.211

Direzione e Uffici
Via de' Musei 8 – 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051.27.57.211 - Fax 051.26.65.16
mca@comune.bologna.it

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Collections / Ricerca / Egyptian Collection: the tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara

Introduction

Horemheb, the last king of the 18th dynasty, reigned over Egypt from 1319 to 1292 BC. He is protagonist of an amazing political career: with the name of Atonemheb becomes general of the Egyptian army during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaton, then reached the highest levels of the military command under the successor Tutankhamun and, finally, the role of pharaoh to the death of this last and after the short reign of the elderly Ay. Each fundamental step of his career binds to a different city in which he does build a burial. A first tomb is set up in the necropolis of Tell el-Amarna, where Akhenaton moved the capital to be able to freely adore the new and unique dynastic god Aton; a second is built in the necropolis of Saqqara, near Memphis, administrative capital of the country and headquarters of the army and the military arsenal, when the young Tutankhamon establishes his own residence in the attempt to restore the political and religious traditional order upset by the "revolution" of his predecessor; a third is carved into the royal necropolis of the Kings Valley at Thebes, where Horemheb is buried as last sovereign of the 18th dynasty.
If the first tomb, abandoned the city of Amarna, is immediately exposed to the degradation, the second burial, from which come the five reliefs of Bologna, is still object of attention for a few times; in fact, some pictures of Horemheb, carved in relief on the walls of the chapels for the cult in his honor, are integrated with the addition of the uraeus snake on his forehead indicating the new pharaoh status of the tomb owner.

Exhibition rooms | Egyptian collection