Discovered, lost, rediscovered: Userhat and Khonsuemheb A Japanese expedition from the Institute of Egyptology at Waseda University began working in the al-Khokha area in the Theban Necropolis in 2007 under the direction of Prof. Jiro Kondo. Since then, the team has rediscovered the tomb of Userhat (TT 47), Overseer of the King’s Private Apartment under Amenhotep III, which had been excavated by the umda (headman) of al-Qurna village early in the 20th century. When clearing its forecourt, the team discovered the previously unknown tomb of Khonsuemheb, dating to the Ramesside Period. Jiro Kondo and Nozomu Kawai discuss the highlights of recent work done at the site.
Lintel of the tomb of Userhat (TT 47), ‘Overseer of the King’s Private Apartment’.
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A half century has passed since Japanese archaeologist began investigating in Egypt in 1966. The team from Waseda University began its first excavation in Malqata South in the 1970s where they discovered a ceremonial building of Amenhotep III at Kom al-Samak. Since then, we have worked at sites related to Amenhotep III (1391/88–1353/51 BC), such as the palace of Malqata, the private tombs of Amenhotep III’s reign, and the tomb of Amenhotep III (KV 22) in the Western Valley of the Kings. In 20 07, we began a new projec t to rediscover and study the tomb of Userhat (TT 47), an official under Amenhotep III, at
al-Khokha as the logical continuation of our research programme. The tombs in the vicinity of TT 47 have also been investigated (see the map on the opposite page). In 2008, we succeeded to rediscover TT 47, which had originally been found in 1902–03 by the umda of a l - Q u r na v illage u nd e r t he supervision of the Department of Antiquities. Howard Carter reported on the work in the Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte
(vol. 4), including a photograph of the beautiful relief figure of Queen Tiye, the principal wife of Amenhotep III, carved on a wall inside the tomb (see p. 25, top). A fragment of this image was later looted