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Details

  • Tomb Owner
    Debehen (G 8090)
  • Excavator
    (Karl) Richard Lepsius, German, 1810–1884
    Selim Hassan (Bey), Egyptian, 1886–1961
  • Hassan No.
    Debehen
  • Lepsius No
    Lepsius 90
    L.90
    LG 90
  • Abou-Ghazi No (ASAE 58 [1964])
    77
  • Other No
    Tomb of Hammed es-Samaan
  • PorterMoss Date
    Menkaure
  • Site Type
    Rock-cut tomb
  • Shafts
    S 785; serdab; chapel
  • Remarks
    Mastaba built in southern corner of the cliff forming the western boundary of the cemetery, west of G 8091 (Lepsius 91). Excavated in 1932-1933 by Hassan.

Finds 2

Maps & Plans 4

Drawings 4

Published Documents 18

Unpublished Documents 21

Full Bibliography

  • Alexanian, Nicole. "Tomb and Social Status. The Textual Evidence." In Miroslav Bárta, ed. The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology. Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, May 31-June 4, 2004. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2006, pp. 3-5, fig. 1.

    Allen, James P. "Some Aspects of the Non-royal Afterlife in the Old Kingdom." In Miroslav Bárta, ed. The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology. Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, May 31-June 4, 2004. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2006, p. 13 [n. 34].

    Breasted, James H. Ancient Records of Egypt: Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, Collected Edited and Translated with Commentary, Vol. 1: The First to the Seventeenth Dynasties. Ancient Records. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906, pp. 94-95, 109 note a.

    Brovarski, Edward. "The Doors of Heaven." Orientalia 46 (1977), pp. 110-113.

    Chauvet, Violaine. “Decoration and Architecture: The Definition of Private Tomb Environment.” Servant of Mut. Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente. Leiden: Brill, 2008, p. 44.

    Flentye, Laurel. "The Mastaba of Meresankh III (G 7530/7540) in the Eastern Cemetery at Giza: An Archaeological and Art Historical Analysis." Bulletin of the Egyptian Museum 3 (2006), p. 73.

    Gardiner, Alan H. "The Mansion of Life and the Master of the King's Largess." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 24 (1938), pp. 84-85.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 4: 1932-1933. Cairo: Government Press, 1943, pp. 69-71, 73-75, 78, 84, 159-184, figs. 40, 113-130, pls. 47-52.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 6: 1934-1935. Part 3: The Mastabas of the Sixth Season and their Description. Cairo: Government Press, 1950, p. 116, pls. 9-16.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 9: 1936-37-38. The Mastabas of the Eighth Season and their Description. Cairo: General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 1960, folded plan, E/F-13.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Egyptian Archaeologists." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, p. 158.

    Hawass, Zahi. The Secrets of the Sphinx. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998, pp. 16-18.

    Jánosi, Peter. Giza in der 4 Dynastie: Die Baugeschichte und Belegung einer Nekropole des Alten Reiches. Band 1: Die Mastabas der Kernfriedhöfe und die Felsgräber. Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 30. Untesuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes 24. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005, fig. 71 after p. 302.

    Jánosi, Peter. "Bemerkungen zur Entstehung, Lage und Datierung der Nekropolenfelder von Giza unter Cheops." Sokar 4 (1. Halbjahr 2002), p. 5.

    Jánosi, Peter. "Gab es Kronprinzen in der 4. Dynastie?" Göttinger Miszellen 158 (1997), p. 27, note 72.

    Junker, Hermann. Gîza 3. Die Mastabas der vorgeschrittenen V. Dynastie auf dem Westfriedhof. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien Philosophisch-historische Klasse Denkschriften. Vienna & Leipzig: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1938, p. 50 [48].

    Kendall, Timothy. "An Unusual Rock-Cut Tomb at Giza." In William Kelly Simpson and Whitney M. David, eds. Studies in Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Sudan: Essays in Honor of Dows Dunham on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday, June 1, 1980. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1981, pp. 105, 114, n. 1.

    Lehmann, Katja. Der Serdab in den Privatgräbern des Alten Reiches 1-3. Ph.D. Dissertation, Universität Heidelberg, 2000, Kat. G287.

    Lehner, Mark. "Giza. A Contextual Approach to the Pyramids." Archiv für Orientforschung 32 (1985), p. 151.

    Lepsius, Denkmaeler Text 1, pp. 111-112.

    Mariette, Auguste. Les mastabas de l'ancien empire. Paris: F. Vieweg, 1889, p. 546 [top, a].

    Porter, Bertha, and Rosalind L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings 3: Memphis (Abû Rawâsh to Dahshûr). Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1931. 2nd edition. 3: Memphis, Part 1 (Abû Rawâsh to Abûsîr), revised and augmented by Jaromír Málek. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1974, pp. 235-236, plans 21, E-1, 32.

    Reisner, George A. "The Servants of the Ka." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 32, No. 189 (February 1934), p. 9.

    Reisner, George A. A History of the Giza Necropolis 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942, pp. 358-359, fig. 126.

    Rowe, Alan. "Studies in the Archaeology of the Near East II: Some Facts Concerning the Gread Pyramids of el-Gîza and Their Royal Constructors." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 44, No. 1 (September 1961), p. 118.

    Sethe, Kurt. Urkunden des Alten Reichs. Erster Band. Urkunden des Ägyptischen Altertums Abteilung 1, Hft. 1-4. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1903-1933, pp. 18-21 [14].

People 3

Ancient People

  • Debehen (G 8090)

    • Type Tomb Owner
    • Remarks Owner of G 8090. Chapel entrance architrave, drum and door reveals inscribed for Debehen, identified as [smr watj jmj-jb nb=f Xrj-Hb Hrj-tp Hrj-sStA n pr-dwAt jrj nfr-HAt sXkr Hr Hrj-wDbw m Hwt-anx xrp aH aD-mr Hr sbAw xntj pt jmj-r swt Spswt nt pr-aA mrjj nb=f] sole companion, who is in the heart of his lord, chief lector-priest, secretary of the House of Morning, keeper of the headdress, adorner of Horus, master of reversions-offerings in the Mansion of Life, director of the palace, administrator of the district 'Star-of-Horus-Foremost-of-Heaven', overseer of august places of the Great House, beloved of his lord; in situ in G 8090. Appears in chapel relief (seated on north wall), identified as [smr jr mrrt nb=f] companion, one who does what his lord loves; in situ in G 8090. Eastern jamb of entrance to second (northern) room inscribed for Debehen, identified as [Hrj-tp nxb] overlord of El-Kab; in situ in G 8090. Southern wall of second room inscribed for Debehen, identified as [nswt ... jmj-jb n nTr=f mrr nb=f mrj...] royal ..., who is in the heart of his god, beloved of his lord, who is beloved...; first half in situ in G 8090, second on slab found displaced in debris of second room. A number of fragmentary limestone slabs are inscribed with the name and titles of Debehen, identified as [(Hrj-sS)tA n nswt smr n jb nb=f] royal (secretary), companion and favorite of his lord; found displaced in debris of second room, probably originally from northern wall of second room. Poorly preserved false door inscribed for Debehen; in situ in western wall of second room of G 8090.

Modern People

  • (Karl) Richard Lepsius

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates German, 1810–1884
    • Remarks Egyptologist. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.
  • Selim Hassan (Bey)

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates Egyptian, 1886–1961
    • Remarks Egyptologist; Sub Director General. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology. (1886-1961) Egyptian Egyptologist; born Mit-Nagi, 15 April 1886, he studied at the Higher Teacher's College, Cairo under Kamal (q.v.); in 1912 he became a teacher and in 1921 obtained a post in the Egyptian Museum as assistant keeper; he studied in Paris 1923-7 at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes; he was the first Egyptian to be appointed as a Professor of Egyptology in the Universitv of Cairo, 1928 - 36; he was later made Deputy Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service responsible for the care of all monuments in the Nile valley, 1936-39; Ph.D. Vienna University, 1935; stimulated by the archaeological work of P. E. Newberry (q.v.) and Junker (q.v.)he began an active career in excavations with the clearance of some of the Giza mastabas in 1929; the excavations carried on by him in this necropolis continued until 1939 by which time a great deal of digging had been achieved, published in 10 parts; he also cleared the Sphinx and its temple, for the first time completely digging out the great amphitheatre around it and ensuring that it would not be buried by send again so easily; he wrote a study on this work and on the temple of Amenhotep II here; in addition the so-called Fourth Pyramid or the palace-façade tomb of Queen Khent-kawes of the Fourth Dynasty was investigated and also the funerary town of the priests associated with it; he later worked on the Unas causeway at Saqqara and at the valley temple of this king, discovering some of the mastabas in this area and two great subterranean tombs dated to the Second Dynasty; his final excavations at Giza were carried out on the east and south faces of the Great Pyramid and at the mortuary temple of King Khufu, 1938-9; he also took part in the campaign to save the monments of Nubia, and wrote a report on this subject; he published about 53 books and articles on Egyptological subjects in English, French, and Arabic, Hymnes religieux du Moyen Empire, 1928; Le Poème dit de Pentaour et Le rapport officiel sur la bataiILe de Qadesh , 1929; Excavations at Giza, 10 pts., 1929-60; The Sphinx. Its History in the Light of recent Excavations, 1949; Report on the Monunents of Nubia,1955Excavations at Saqqara 1937-8, 3 vols., 1975; in Arabic Literature of Ancient Egpt, 2 vols.; Ancient Egypt from Prehistoric Times to the Age of Rameses 11, 6 vols.; he died in Giza, 30 Sept. 1961. AfO 20 (1963), 310 (H. Brunner); Archaeology 14, no, 4 (1961, 293; ASAE 58 (1964), 61- 84 (bibl.) (Dia Abou-Ghazi); Orientalia 31 (1962), 271; Goettinger Miszellen 76 (1984), 78-80; Reid, JAOS 105 (1985), 237, 241-44.