The Late Middle Kingdom Burial Assemblage from Tomb G62 (Cemetery G) at Abydos

The Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan of the British Museum preserves thirty-six objects registered as coming from tomb 62 in Cemetery G at Abydos, excavated on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund by W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1902. It comprises: six faience figurines (including one of the rare three-dimensional representations of both Aha/Bes and Ipi/Taweret); a wooden fish; three pairs of ivory wands; one butt end of an ivory clapper; five calcite and two anhydrite toilet vessels (including two lids); a copper bowl; a bronze mirror; a wooden spacer-bar; two finger-rings (made up of stone scarabs mounted in metal wire); a silver torque; a wooden amulet in form of wedjat-eye; eight cowrie shells; and many beads assembled as seven necklaces (made of faience, cornelian, garnet, feldspar, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, green jasper). Unfortunately, a detailed archaeological report about the discovery of this group of objects is lacking at the present. The present paper aims to provide entries for each of the thirty-six objects: a concise description (including material, dimensions, and bibliographic references) followed by a “close parallel” section, where the primary objective is to identify any analogous relationship networks between similar categories of objects; and a summary on the date range provided. The detailed analysis of the network of relations between object categories showed with a fair degree of certainty that most of the G62 objects belong to a broad –but defined– time-frame, which extends from the Middle Kingdom to the Second Intermediate Period. Within this broad range of objects it should be noted that a significant number are diagnostic for the late Middle Kingdom. Finally, the entire range of objects from G62 finds a close echo in other funerary equipment included in multiple burials of the late Middle Kingdom (1800-1700 BC).