Sennedjem

Chief Craftsman reign of Sethos I, 1318-1304 BC

    Sennedjem was the Chief Craftsman of the royal necropolis workers at Thebes during the Ramesside period; he lived and was buried at the workmen's town of Deir el Medina at Thebes.

    His tomb is an excellent example of a necropolis worker's burial place. The royal workmen used their expertise and materials diverted from the tombs they were preparing for the kings, to build and decorate their own tombs to a very high standard.

    In Sennedjem's tomb, the burial chamber has a vaulted ceiling and is decorated with vivid wall-scenes. By this time such scenes no longer emphasise the everyday activities of the owner, as they had done in the Eighteenth Dynasty, but they concentrate instead on themes that relate to death and burial and on concepts taken from the Book of the Dead. Sennedjem's scenes show Anubis, the god of cemeteries and mummification, embalming his mummy and leading him forward to the Day of Judgement in the presence of the tribunal of gods; other representations depict Sennedjem and his wife working in the Fields of *Osiris (the land of the dead) and, in a ceiling painting, the goddess of the sycamore tree presents food and water to the tomb-owner and his wife.

    The contents of this tomb, discovered in 1928, are now in the Cairo Museum and include Sennedjem's coffin, mummy, furniture and funerary statuettes. They provide valuable information about the funerary equipment of a craftsman.

BIBL. Bruyere, B. Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Medineh. (sixteen vols) Cairo: 1924-53; Cerny, J. A community of workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period. Cairo: 1973.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David

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(fl. 1280 BC)

   Workman in the community of royal tomb builders at Deir el-Medina. Son of Khabekhnet and Tahenen. He served in the workforce probably during the reign of Sety I and the early part of that of Ramesses II during Dynasty 19. His tomb (number 1) was discovered intact in 1886, including several mummies of his immediate family along with their burial equipment. Most of the material is now housed in the Cairo Egyptian Museum, but some has been dispersed to other institutions. The painted plaster scenes in his tomb are well preserved and remarkable for their vividness.

   See also Hesunebef; Kenherkhepeshef; Kha; Paneb; Ramose.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier