Nefertari: Grave Goods and Funerary Practices

When Nefertari’s tomb (QV66) was discovered in 1904 by Ernesto Schiaparelli no body was found, nor where there many grave goods left in her grave, as it had been robbed in antiquity. However there were several things left in the grave: pieces from her pink granite sarcophagus, scarab pieces, pottery fragments, shabti figures and the lid of a shabti box. There was also a wooden djed-pillar (seen below), as well either the knob of a chest or the handle from a cane was found. The grave robbers apparently missed a pair of her funerary sandals; also a fragment of a bracelet was found and bought by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Though her body complete body was not found, Ernesto found 2 knees along with material for mummification. It may be that her missing body was taken out in the 26th Dynasty (she was buried in the middle of the 19th). However, another Egyptologist Christian Leblanc found pieces of a pink granite sarcophagus, which had the name Nefertari on it, in the tomb of Queen Tuya, who was the mother of Ramesses II. He proposed that Neferatris’ tomb was taken out and smashed and the parts reused for Tuya’s tomb (Nefertari QV66, 2011).

In Ancient Egypt it was believed that men were responsible for creation as the myths surrounding birth and rebirth the male gods are the ones who create, whereas the female goddess are the vessels through which the gods act. Because of this for females to be reborn in the afterlife they had to become masculinized afterwards (ed. Graves-Brown 2008). This was solved through adaptations of the female’ identity at death, in order to be reborn a female would have to be shaped into a form of Osiris (ed. Graves-Brown 2008). This was done through the androgynies of her sarcophagus and the shabti figures by deemphasizing more feminine aspects such as the manner of dress, and an androgynous.

However there is no set of rules or requirements for the shaping of the female so there is a lot of variation across time (ed. Graves-Brown 2008). We are only interested in the 19th Dynasty as this was when Neferatri was alive. Before the 19th Dynasty the forms were more androgynous in form, however during the 19th there was a move to include more feminine looking funerary art; such as the inclusion of female style dress on the sarcophagus. During the reign of Ramesses II dark red skin was used to depict women (ed. Graves-Brown 2008). 

(The Fakebusters, 2010)

We are only able to speculate at this point about how Neferatri’s body and sarcophagus would have been decorated because they have not been found. However we may be able to infer what it possibly looks like by comparing it to other female burials, which have been found from the same era, but because of the status difference her burial, would have been grander in scale.

Something, which was interesting, was that Neferatris name is mentioned in Ramesses II’s tomb, but in Neferatri’s tomb there is no mention of Ramesses II or their sons.

(Nefertari QV66, 2011)