The Theban Tomb 49 and its owner, in the sacred landscape of west Thebes, Egypt

Abstract

The starting point is the study of Neferhotep’s tomb (TT49) and its links to the natural physiognomy and material endowment of the regional landscape for the realization of the New Kingdom funerary practices. The poor preservation of the material evidence required to implement analytical ways that transcend traditional Egyptological approaches -monumentalists and classifiers, and privilege the study of human behavior. The exis-tence of documentary and archaeological records made evident the need to establish interdisciplinary researches, inasmuch their location in the landscape, its construction and decoration attended practical issues –deposition of mummies- as symbolic -funerary rites-, and social - alliances-. Consequently, theoretical guidelines interrelate concepts coming from: archaeology, emphasizing the symbolic allocation of the space and the physical properties of the material record in the formation of deposits; history, in terms of social reproduction and construction of cultural memory; and anthropology, for understanding the social and transcendental balance for which the ritual practices have contributed. It is expected to recognize how cultural memory building operates in the consolida-tion of a sacred landscape, sensitive to ideological changes and ‘invigorated’ by ritual celebrations.