The Burial Assemblage of Nesimūt (Bāb ᾿el-Gusūs, Set A.48): Usurpation or Adaptation?

The funerary assemblage of Nesimūt, an Egyptian priestess of the 21^st Dynasty is discussed in this paper. The bu­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­rial of Nesimūt was discovered in 1891 in the so–called «Second Cache» at Deir ᾽el‒Bahri, also known as Bāb ᾽el-Gusūs (Set A.48, after G. Daressy). The analysis of the funerary goods shows that accordingly, there were two Nesimūts, whose objects were discovered in Bāb ᾽el-Gusūs. The burial of Nesimūt II corresponds to the Set of A.48 by Daressy and is linked to a coffin case from the Odesa Archaeological Museum of the NAS of Ukraine (OAM:  Inv. № 71695). Separate objects from Nesimūt I’s grave goods were adapted for later buri­als: the lid of her inner coffin was used for the Odesa coffin of Nesimūt II (OAM 71695), and the lid of the outer co­ffin might ha­­­­ve been adapted for an anonymous burial from Bāb ᾽el-Gusūs Set A.54 (Swiss Lot IX, Neufchatel, Mu­­­­­­sée d’Ethnographie: Inv. № Eg. 184), on which the name «Nesimūt» was preserved in one segment of the lid. The burial of Nesimūt was also equipped with two different types of shabtis. It is possible that, like the lid of the cof­fin, part of the shabtis was «usurped» by Nesimūt II but previously belonged to the burial of her name­sake and pro­­­bably relative, Nesimūt I. It is quite possible, that they were reused and adopted for the burial of a new owner, to­­­­ge­­­ther with the shabti‒box, since both of them were found in the Set A.48. This may prove that du­­­­­ring the 21^st Dy­­­­­­­nasty, not only large objects, but also small items of grave goods could be reused.