Understanding
Amduat tombs can be just as important as understanding the hours of the
Amduat as there are instructions at the end of the
Amduat text on how it should be presented within a tomb. This implies that the physical representation of it is just as important as the pictorial representation in guiding the deceased to the afterlife alongside Ra.
Amduat tombs are associated with the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and became popular with the construction of the Tomb of Thutmose III, who ruled halfway through the
Eighteenth Dynasty. Being found in the Valley of the Kings, his tomb follows the architectural tradition of being a subterranean monument, shaped in what Egyptologist Josh Roberson calls a โcurved and bent axeโ style. Following that style, it can be seen in the corresponding image that Thutmose III's tomb contained his burial chamber which was connected to four storage rooms, an antechamber, a well shaft, and three connected corridors leading out to the entrance. There are many possible reasons for this style growing in popularity, likely tied to the various symbolic interpretations of the rooms found within the tomb. There are no agreed upon descriptions for the purposes of these rooms and what was contained inside of them, with historians like
Erik Hornung and Friedrich Abitz attempting to explain them in their respective academic pursuits.
The Tomb of Thutmose III , the tomb of
Thutmose III, decorated with scenes from the Amduat As discussed by Historians Catherine Roehrig and Barbara Richter, the architecture of Thutmose III's tomb is likely meant to mirror the structure of the underworld as the
Amduat displays it. Found within the burial chamber of the pharaoh, the
Amduat was a guide for him to follow through the underworld, as well as a way to achieve rebirth for himself after death. This may be why the structure of the tomb itself slopes downwards and winds around, to form that bent shape, as historians theorize that it may reflect the confusing and labyrinthian structure of the underworld itself. It begins by starting on the west side of the room, and ending to the east side of the room in order to mirror the cycle of the sun. The
Amduat ending on the east side of the room lines up with the sun rising in the east, representing the rebirth and renewal that the pharaoh hoped to achieve at the end of his journey. The hours are out of order on the walls however, with hours 5 and 6 being placed between hours 1 and 12. This may be a representation of a spiral design, as someone who views the
Amduat in numerical order will have to complete an irregular circle throughout the room, again being associated with ideas of a continual cycle. Additionally, the rounded corners of the room create an oval shape which has many interpretations: it may represent the continual, circular life cycle of the sun's journey, or may line up with the rounded corner edge of the actual illustrated
Amduat present on the walls. Connections to the oval (or cartouche-shaped) cavern of Sokar in the 6th hour may also be present in the oval burial chamber and sarcophagus of Thutmose III and connect to ideas of rebirth or renewal that the pharaoh wished to achieve for himself. His
sarcophagus, found in the center of the burial chamber, is similarly oval-shaped as well, including his name which is within a
royal cartouche.
Other Examples of Amduat Tombs The
vizier to Thutmose III,
Useramun, was a rare example of someone not of royal-birth having their tomb in the
Amduat style. This may be due to many reasons, but shows how exclusive royal tombs were to the pharaoh and his immediate family. It is notable that Useramun's tomb only contained the images of hours 3 and 4, not the whole journey of the sun which only adds to the exclusivity of the
Amduat to royalty in Ancient Egyptian funerary traditions. , the tomb of
Amenhotep II, decorated with scenes from the Amduat
Amenhotep II (
KV 35) and
Amenhotep III (
KV 22) both have examples of completed
Amduat texts within their burial tombs as well, following many of the conventions that Thutmose III began within his tomb. Later Eighteenth Dynasty tombs strayed away from this approach to follow a more linear design style, being arranged by a single long corridor and straightening out the previously โbent axeโ style of earlier pharaohs. The
Amduat was still present in these tombs, though was not only reserved for the burial chambers, as it was depicted throughout the various parts of the tomb. Additionally, with the rise of the
Ramesside Period in the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt, the
Amduat began to appear alongside other funerary texts like
The Book of Gates and
The Book of Caverns as expansions of the mythos of the Egyptian Underworld. At the end of the New Kingdom, the
Amduat seems to have lost its exclusivity, appearing on both coffins and papyri for deceased people of a lower class than royalty or nobility. == Gallery ==