The ancient Egyptian tomb known as Theban Tomb 16 dates to the reign of Ramesses II in the Nineteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom (around 1250 BCE). Originally, it served as the burial place of a priest named Panehsy and his wife, Tarenu, a chantress. Long after their lifetimes, the tomb remained an important resting place and was reused for more than a thousand years by members of the Theban elite. By the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth twentieth century, the tomb had been looted, and it suffered further plundering in the 1970s. Since 2008, however, a team from the University of Memphis has been working to document and conserve both the tomb and its many secondary burials. In this program, Egyptologist Suzanne Onstine will present the latest research on the tomb’s beautifully painted plaster scenes, exploring what they reveal about life in ancient Egypt as well as funerary culture during the first millennium BCE.

Free admission. Free event parking is available with registration. Register by October 20 to receive parking registration instructions. Presented by the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture.