Tomb of Two Brothers

The Tomb of Two Brothers is an ancient

The brothers' tomb was found untouched in 1907 on a dig led by Flinders Petrie at the Deir Rifeh cemetery.^[1] The initial find was made by an Egyptian named Erfai.^[1] Petrie first described the burial in his excavation report of Rifeh.^[2] After the finds went to the Manchester Museum, Margaret Murray published a monograph on this tomb group.^[3]

The burial chamber of the two individuals was found in a small chamber placed within the courtyard of a bigger tomb, perhaps once belonging to a governor buried at Deir Rifeh. The chamber tomb contained a set of two coffins, one outer wooden box coffin and one inner anthropoid coffin for each of the tomb owners. The coffins are decorated on the outside with a palace facade motif and several text lines. The coffins and the texts are very close to coffins found at Asyut and it seems possible that they were produced there.^[4]

Coffins of Nakht-Ankh

The rectangular outer coffin bears on the lid three text columns. On the long sides there are four double columns on each side. At the top of the long sides there are two horizontal text lines. The short ends have two columns and again two horizontal text lines. On the lid Nakht-Ankh bears the title son of a governor and is called begotten of Khnumaa. The middle text column is an offering formula addressing

Next to the coffins was found a canopic box with four canopic vessels. There were three statuettes of the tomb owners. Also, some wooden models of servants, models of boats and some pottery vessels.

The tomb owners

Nakht-ankh and Khnum-nakht are only known from this burial. They are not attested for sure from other sources. Nakht-Ankh bears as only title the designation son of a governor. He is also called begotten of Khnumaa. Khnum-Nakht bears the titles son of governor, son of the son of a governor and wab-priest of Khnum, lord of

Ancient DNA analysis of the mummies of Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht, found that the brothers belonged to the

The tomb group was transferred to Manchester museum in the year of its discovery having first been placed on display at University College London.[1] Khnum-nakht had his wrappings removed on 6 May 1908 in a public unwrapping at the Chemistry Lecture Theatre at Manchester University.^[1][10] Nakht-ankh also had his wrappings removed after arriving at Manchester but its unclear when.^[1] In 1912 the tomb group was moved to a newly build extension focused on the museum's Egyptian collection.^[1] In 1979 the display of the tomb group was redone as part of the "O! Osiris, Live Forever!" exhibition.^[1]

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