Ancient Egyptian “House of Life” Discovered in Luxor

In the grand necropolis of ancient Thebes on the west bank of the Nile stands a sprawling mortuary complex to one of ancient Egypt’s greatest pharaohs. Known as the Ramesseum, this mortuary temple was a place of worship to the dead Pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great.

Great columns rise in lines as visitors are guided from one plaza to another. For the Egyptians of the New Kingdom, the mortuary temple should be the greatest memorial to the life of that pharaoh, and there was no greater New Kingdom pharaoh than Ramesses.

So large and imposing that it never really needed rediscovering, the temple was identified as a memorial to Ramesses in 1829 by a French orientalist and decipherer of hieroglyphs named Jean-François Champollion. Excavations have continued ever since, and now, as reported by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, a new joint project from a French and Egyptian team has found yet more treasures hidden within.

The team, made up of individuals from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the National Center for Scientific Research of France, and Frances Sorbonne University, have discovered that the temple functioned as a sort of small town, with everything needed to support visitors.

A series of storerooms and cellars on the north side were found to contain olive oil, honey and wine. Elsewhere there are administrative offices for civil servants, workshops producing textiles and dressed stone, kitchens and bakeries, all of which would have supported a semi-permanent population who lived and died in support of the colossal memorial to their dead pharaoh.

But perhaps most interesting of all is the “House of Life” found in the temple, filled with educational artifacts. Part memorial, part library, the House of Life would have contained both religious and practical texts, handy for the priests and other servants of the temple to consult whenever required.

Elsewhere there is further evidence that this site remained useful not just as a memorial, but as an active necropolis well beyond the death of Ramesses. To the northeast of the site tombs have been found which were built some 600 years after the death of Ramesses, complete with sarcophagi, canopic jars, and finely worked ushabti figures.

The discoveries all add up to a site that was active for centuries. Evidence that it was still in use even in the late Ptolemaic period, which ended with Cleopatra and the Romans, show just how significant the Ramesseum was.

Header Image: Two canopic jars along with a multitude of ushabti figures found at the Egyptian temple. Source: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.