Le Tombeau de Petosiris a Touna el-Gebel: Releve photographique.

• Author: Landvatter, Thomas
• Position: Book review

Le Tombeau de Petosiris a Touna el-Gebel: Releve photographique. By N. CHERPION, J.-P. CORTEGGIANI, and J-FR. GOUT. BiGen, vol. 27. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 2007. Pp. 193, plans (paper).

The tomb of Petosiris, a high priest of Thoth at Hermopolis (modern el-Ashmunein, c. 300 kilometers south of Cairo), is one of the most important Egyptian monuments of the early Ptolemaic period. This tomb is located at Tuna el-Gebel, a site seven kilometers to the west of Hermopolis which was the city's major necropolis during the Greco-Roman period. Petosiris' tomb, which served as a collective burial place for several members of his family as well, is the best known of the cluster of major tombs in the south of the site, and is one of the most artistically and architecturally interesting monuments of early Ptolemaic Egypt. Despite its importance, the only available photographs have been from M. Gustavo Lefebvre's original three-volume publication, Le Tombeau de Petosiris (Cairo: IFAO, 1923-24). Lefebvre's primary concern was with the texts; the photographs and drawings included with his work are largely inadequate for a detailed study of the reliefs. This volume, a complement to a reprint of Lefebvre's work, aims to correct this situation by presenting a complete photographic review of the tomb and its reliefs. The authors have succeeded admirably in producing an excellent photographic record.

The brief introduction presents most of the major issues surrounding the tomb. There has been some debate about its date, but there is now a consensus that it dates to the fourth century B.C.E. The authors of this volume settle for the last quarter of the fourth century, just around 300 B.C.E., based on the amphora forms represented in the reliefs (p. 2, n. 7). Petosiris' tomb is remarkable from both an artistic and an architectural standpoint. The form of the tomb is a temple in miniature: it consists of a pronaos (forecourt) and naos (inner sanctuary), beneath which Petosiris and his family were buried. There seem to be very few antecedents for the tomb's architectural plan, though the pronaos of the temple of Thoth at nearby Hermopolis, built by Necta-nebo I (380-362 B.C.E.), bears a resemblance; it is suggested that the Hermopolis temple may have been the direct inspiration for its design (pp. 2-3).

Emphasizing the tomb's conception as a "temple in miniature," the decoration of the facade is more fitting for a temple than a tomb (scenes...