This book is the first in a series dealing with the excavations in the
New Kingdom cemetery of Saqqara by a team of the Leiden Museum of
Antiquities and Leiden University. The tomb of the general Horemheb is
the most important monument of this cemetery. It was found by art
robbers at the beginning of the 19th century, and then lost again. Its
rediscovery and partial excavation by the Leiden Museum of Antiquities
and the Egypt Exploration Society (1975-1979) was followed by a
publication in four volumes. However, since then new excavations by the
present expedition have led to the discovery of a hitherto unknown First
Pylon and forecourt. Further clearances around its perimeter walls shed
new light on the adjacent tomb of Tia, treasurer and brother-in-law of
Ramesses II, and on the later use of the area as a cemetery of the poor.
Maarten J. Raven is curator of the Egyptian department of the Leiden
Museum since 1978 and joint field director of the Dutch excavations at
Saqqara (Egypt) since 1999. He is particularly interested in the art and
material culture of the New Kingdom and the Late Period, in iconography,
magic and symbolism, and in Egyptomania and the rediscovery of Ancient
Egypt. Rene van Walsem is lecturer in Egyptology at Leiden University
since 1979. He was joint field director of the Dutch excavations at
Saqqara from 1999 until 2007. His main field of interest is Egypt during
the Old Kingdom, New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, with a focus
on the material culture, elite tombs, and coffins. Vincent Verschoor and
Marije Vugts studied Egyptology at Leiden University. They are former
field assistants in the Leiden excavations at Saqqara and board members
of the Society of Friends of Saqqara. Together, they compiled the first
draft of several of the chapters of the present publication.
