Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2016
Abstract
The chapter provides an overview of the history of the Valley of the Kings following its abandonment as a royal necropolis at the end of the New Kingdom and the dismantling and caching of the royal mummies in the Twenty-First Dynasty and early Twenty-Second Dynasty. The valley was subsequently used for non-royal burials of individuals of lower rank throughout the Third Intermediate Period.
After centuries of neglect during the Late Period, interest from visitors from all corners of the ancient world surged in Ptolemaic and especially Roman times. In Late Antiquity the valley hosted a small Christian community which reused a few tombs as lodgings and for their own religious purposes.