Some Year Dates of Horemheb in Context

Abstract

This article reconsiders the content and context of a well-known, but heretofore poorly understood, text from Horemheb's “Mansion of Millions of Years” by Medinet Habu. The hieratic ink inscription, dated to year twenty-seven of an unnamed king, has often been dismissed as a “graffito” of the Ramesside period. In fact, however, it may be a work notation related to the movement of statuary within the temple, in which case we should at least consider the possibility that it dates to the reign of Horemheb rather than to a later period. The article also discusses the wine jar dockets recovered during the re-clearance of KV 57 and their possible significance to the chronology of the reign.