Pottery from the Spoil Heap in Front of the Tomb of Djehutihotep at Deir Al-Barsha

Abstract

When the Belgian mission started working at Deir al-Barsha in 2002 no pottery from the site had previously been published. The need for a reference collection motivated the clearance of the spoil heap in front of the well-known tomb of Djehutihotep. The present article deals with the pottery retrieved from that dump, which was probably left behind by an earlier excavator. Djehutihotep's tomb dates to the reign of Senwosret II-Senwosret III, a date consistent with the majority of the Middle Kingdom pottery fragments found in the spoil heap. Special remarks are made on the hemispherical cups, concerning their date as well as their occurrence. Several fragments of these cups showed traces of colour pigment. Although the corpus discussed is not large and the burial chamber of Djehutihotep only provides a terminus post quern, the material is important as it provides an overview of Middle Kingdom pottery from a site in a region where the pottery corpus is not well documented.