Publication

Journal	Bulletin de la société française d'égyptologie
Volume (Issue)	199
Page(s)	100 - 126
Title of proceedings	Bulletin de la société française d'égyptologie

LIfe History of Theban Tombs (LHTT) is a transdisciplinary archaeological project led by the University of Basel, which investigates a cluster of rock-cut tombs located in the 18th Dynasty cemetery hillside of Sheikh 'Abd el-Qurna (SAQ). It focuses on the geological setting of the tombs and landscape development, on tomb construction and decoration, and on the funerary and domestic uses of the structures over time. After a brief introduction on the archaeological site and its individual tomb structures, the present article outlines excavation results obtained during the last two field seasons at tomb K555. In a second part, attention is paid to the social landscape that developed in South-West SAQ during the mid-18th Dynasty (2nd half of the 15th century BC). It is suggested that in this part of the residential cemetery building assignments were determined by membership in two major communities: (a) the milk kinship of the king and (b) the royal military expedition corps. The last part discusses 18th Dynasty rock tomb designs and sizes in relation to given geological settings at South-West SAQ, including failure risks and prevention.