Inlay, hieroglyph

A quantity of faience hieroglyphs and border elements was found in the tomb or courtyard of Nespekashuty. These are displayed in galleries 127 and 130. They are of similar size and manufacture, so seem to have belonged to a single object, likely of wood. Some of the signs belong to the standard offering formula, others mention Osiris and Anubis, so they certainly suggest an item of funerary furniture - a box, a screen, or a coffin although coffins are not usually inlaid in faience and remnants of Nespekashuty's were painted.

Unfortunately, there are no signs indisputably pointing to Nespekashuty's names or titles. Although it seems likely that the fairly elaborate piece of equipment to which they testify belonged to the main burial of this tomb, and not to the Third Intermediate Period burials found in the courtyard or to the material apparently cleared from the Hathor Shrine at Deir el Bahri or to the other sets of late shabtis found in the vicinity of the tomb, it cannot be proven that they belong to Nespekashuty's equipment. Possibly the ongoing reexcavation of Kushite and Saite tombs in the Theban necropolis and also in the Saqqara area will eventually provide a better understanding of what kind of funerary equipment supplied the burials of the period, providing better context for these inlays.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1926