TT250

TT250 is attributed to Ramose, Scribe in the Place of Truth under Ramesses II.^[2] Ramose is also associated with two other tombs in the necropolis of Deir el-Medina, TT7 and TT212.^[5] A painted limestone statue in the Louvre identifies Ramose as Scribe in the Place of Truth and servant of the domain of Amun-Re.^[6]

TT250 was documented by Bernard Bruyère in his report on the 1926 campaign at Deir el-Medina, published in 1927 on pages 59–74 and plates V–VIII.^[2][8] The photographic database of the Institut français d'archéologie orientale records three exterior views of the tomb, dated 1927, 1969 and around 1970, and an in-progress publication by Cédric Gobeil.^[2] In 2018, archaeological, stylistic, epigraphic and socio-historical study of TT250 was carried out in preparation for publication of the tomb.^[3]

Between 1905 and 1909, Ernesto Schiaparelli and the Italian Archaeological Mission excavated the site of Deir el-Medina.^[9] The excavated area included the village, a votive area and the necropolis, including notable non-royal tombs.^[9] The campaigns of the Italian Archaeological Mission are also documented by photographs in the Museo Egizio Photo Archive.^[7]

TT250 is located in the centre of the necropolis of Deir el-Medina, below the excavation house of the Institut français d'archéologie orientale.^[5] The tomb comprises three adjacent chapels built of baked brick and preceded by a courtyard; only the central chapel, a simple rectangular room, is decorated.^[4][5] The courtyard shaft, about 4.50 m (14.8 ft) deep, gives access to the underground burial apartment, which is formed by three undecorated rooms in succession.^[8]

The decoration of the central chapel is monochrome.^[3] According to Cédric Gobeil, TT250 is the only known tomb at Deir el-Medina in which the chapel, rather than only a burial chamber, was decorated in monochrome style.^[3] The decoration makes extensive use of yellow ochre on a white ground, with red and black used for details, inscriptions and graphic divisions.^[10]

The attribution to Ramose depends on the reading of a lateral inscription on a stela, which mentions "the Osiris, the Scribe in the Place of Truth, Ramose, justified", and on the identification of texts referring to Amenemheb and Kakaia, the father and mother of Ramose, in funerary procession scenes.^[4][3]

A short passage, whose walls show a woman and a child, leads into the rectangular hall.^[4] The walls preserve funerary procession scenes of men and women; in the right part of one scene are the mummies of four women, the feature from which the traditional name "tomb of the female servants" derives.^[4][5] The presence of the women and of named members of the workmen's community has led to the interpretation of the tomb as a memorial space connected with Ramose's family and with the community of Deir el-Medina under Ramesses II.^[3]

Other walls preserve, in three superposed registers, fragments of figures before Neferhotep (TT216), his wife Iyemuau and his son Nebnefer (TT6).^[4] The decoration also includes figures before Hathor in the form of a sacred cow, two scenes with a man carrying a jar of grain before seated figures and six seated women, and a rear-wall stela arranged in three registers.^[4] The rear wall shows the deceased adoring Osiris, his wife adoring Amenhotep I, men adoring Anubis and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, as well as libation scenes, priests associated with the Opening of the Mouth ritual, and five women preceding five female mummies.^[4]

Several objects from Deir el-Medina associated with Ramose are now held in the Museo Egizio in Turin, including a limestone statue-base fragment with his name, a limestone stela dedicated by the royal scribe Ramose to the goddess Qetesh between Min and Reshep, limestone stela fragments with the name of the scribe Ramose, and a limestone pyramidion from the exterior of one the tombs.^{[11][12][13][14]}

• Objects associated with Ramose in the Museo Egizio, Turin
• 
  Fragment of a statue base with the name of the scribe Ramose, limestone, from Deir el-Medina, Nineteenth Dynasty.^[11]
• 
  Limestone stela dedicated by the royal scribe Ramose to Qetesh, shown between Min and Reshep.^[12]
• 
  Stela fragments with the name of the scribe Ramose, limestone, from Deir el-Medina, reign of Ramesses II.^[13]
• 
  Pyramidion of Ramose, limestone, from Deir el-Medina, Nineteenth Dynasty.^[14]

The other tombs attributed to Ramose in the necropolis of Deir el-Medina are TT7 and TT212.^[5] The three tombs have been interpreted as complexes with different functions: TT7 as the personal tomb of Ramose, TT250 as a tomb associated with the female entourage of Ramose or Mutemwia, and TT212 as a complex left at an early stage of execution.^[3] One proposal connects TT212, by analogy with TT250, with the male entourage of Ramose.^[3]

• List of Theban tombs
• Deir el-Medina
• Theban Necropolis