S 10 (Abydos)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Plan of tomb S10 as drawn by Ayrton, Weigall and Petrie, who thought it was a mastaba Possible burial site of Sobekhotep IV | |
 Interactive map of S10 | |
| Location | Sohag, Egypt |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 26°10′16″N 31°55′27″E / 26.17111°N 31.92417°E |
| Type | Tomb |
| Area | Enclosure wall housing Z-shaped subterranean chambers, now exposed, possibly once capped by a pyramid |
| History | |
| Material | Limestone |
| Founded | c. 1730 BC |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates |
|
S 10 (also Abydos-south S10) is the modern name given to a monumental ancient Egyptian tomb complex at Abydos in Egypt. The tomb is most likely royal and dates to the mid-13th Dynasty. Finds from nearby tombs indicate that S10 suffered extensive state-sanctioned stone and grave robbing during the Second Intermediate Period, only a few decades after its construction, as well as during the later Roman and Coptic periods.[1] These finds also show that S10 was used for an actual burial and belonged to a king "Sobekhotep", now believed to be king Sobekhotep IV. According to the Egyptologist Josef Wegner who excavated S10, the tomb might originally have been capped by a pyramid,[2] although Aidan Dodson states that it is still unclear whether S10 was a pyramid or a mastaba.[3]
The tomb structure is part of a royal necropolis dating back to the late Middle Kingdom – Second Intermediate Period, which is located close to the ancient town of Wah-Sut, next to the much bigger funerary complex of Senusret III of the 12th Dynasty, at the foot of the so-called Mountain of Anubis, a natural hill in the form of a pyramid.[4][2]
It was first excavated from 1901-1902 by Edward Ayrton, Arthur Weigall, and William Petrie, who found it heavily looted and disturbed.
The complex consists of a rectangular brick walled structure, some 40 m × 30 m (131 ft × 98 ft) in size,[2] described by the first excavators as a mastaba, who however gave no evidence supporting this classification.[5] At the north side there is an entrance to a system of underground and limestone paved corridors leading to the burial chamber that was found heavily destroyed. More recent excavations discovered fragments of a canopic jar, demonstrating that the tomb was once used.[6] There is evidence that the tomb was already heavily looted in the Second Intermediate Period. A massive (60-ton) red quartzite sarcophagus quarried at El-Gabal el-Ahmar near modern Cairo,[7] most likely originally located in this tomb, was found in a later royal tomb in the same necropolis (tomb CS6). Planks from the cedar coffin from tomb S10 were reused by king Senebkay into a canopic box for his own neighboring burial (tomb CS9).[8] The coffin was inscribed on the outside with Coffin Texts spells 777-785. Only few parts of the texts survived, but coffins with these spells are typical for the late Middle Kingdom at Abydos. On the fragments there appears the name of the king Sobekhotep.[9]
Nothing was found of the superstructure, but it is possible that there was a pyramid on top.[10] Several fragments of a funerary stele were also found on site, however much of the stele was most likely reused in the adjacent intrusive tomb of king Senebkay, and none of the fragments were found in context. On the fragments of the stela appears again the name Sobekhotep.[11]
