Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

History

Committee Chair

Peter Brand

Committee Member

Suzanne Onstine

Committee Member

Joshua A. Roberson

Committee Member

Benjamin Graham

Abstract

This dissertation examines the phenomenon of memory sanction erasures against high official in pre-Amarna Eighteenth Dynasty Theban tombs. Memory sanctions are defined as the intentional erasure of the owners’ names, titles, and images on the decorated surfaces of their monuments. Over the course of the Eighteenth Dynasty, from the reign of Hatshepsut through the early years of Amenhotep IV, at least 21 officials fell victim to memory sanction erasures as attested from their decorated tomb chapels preserved in the Theban necropolis. The first goal of this dissertation is to systematically record each erasure currently present in the 21 tombs with strong evidence of a memory sanction campaign against the tomb owner based on their Theban tomb. As a result, one main conclusion to be drawn from this study is that memory sanction campaigns were incredibly complex and nuanced in their variety of techniques and made all the more difficult to ascertain due to issues of preservation and destruction of these tombs since antiquity. The Theban tomb chapels of memory sanctioned officials exhibit a range of erasure styles and degrees of thoroughness in their execution. This category of intentional damage encompasses a wide number of trends, concerning the erasure of family and colleagues, the treatment of inscriptions, and the impact on certain scene types.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Embargoed until 5/1/2026

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Available for download on Friday, May 01, 2026

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