Whose Tomb Was Just Opened at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Luxor?

The Discovery at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna

A Dutch archaeological mission from Leiden University recently opened a sealed New Kingdom tomb at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna on the west bank at Luxor, revealing it belonged to an official named Paser — with painted walls still blazing with colour after roughly three thousand years underground.

What Is Sheikh Abd el-Qurna?

Sheikh Abd el-Qurna is one of the most significant burial grounds in the ancient world, located on the Theban west bank at Luxor, Egypt. Carved into the limestone hills directly across the Nile from ancient Thebes, it served as the preferred necropolis for high-ranking officials, priests, and courtiers during Egypt’s New Kingdom period, roughly 1550 to 1070 BCE. The hillside is honeycombed with tomb-chapels belonging to some of the most powerful administrators of the pharaonic state. Leiden University’s ongoing mission in this area has steadily expanded our knowledge of who was buried there and how elite Egyptians understood death, the afterlife, and their relationship with the gods.

What Was Found Inside Paser’s Tomb?

When the team entered the tomb, the walls were still carrying vivid painted scenes that had survived sealed in darkness for three millennia. Paser is depicted worshipping deities in formal shrine settings and seated beside his wife before an offering table — imagery that was entirely standard for high officials of the New Kingdom but no less remarkable for its condition. The pigments, rather than fading into dust, had retained much of their original brilliance. This is partly explained by the chemistry of Egyptian blue, the world’s first known synthetically manufactured pigment. Created from copper, calcium, and silica fired together at high temperatures, Egyptian blue was engineered thousands of years before modern synthetic chemistry and proved extraordinarily stable over time.

Which Paser Does This Tomb Belong To?

This is where the mystery deepens. Paser was one of the most common names among New Kingdom Egypt’s elite, and more than one high-profile official bore it. Two of the most prominent were the Viceroy of Kush under Seti I and a celebrated Vizier who served under Ramesses the Second — a man who later became High Priest of Amun. Archaeologists are still working through the inscriptions and iconographic evidence to determine which Paser this tomb actually commemorates. The distinction matters enormously: the Vizier Paser was one of the most powerful men in the Egyptian state during one of its most prosperous periods, and a confirmed identification would make this among the most significant tomb discoveries at Thebes in recent decades.

Why Do the Colours Still Look So Vivid?

The survival of colour in ancient Egyptian tombs is never accidental. Egyptian craftsmen used mineral-based pigments that were chemically stable, and tomb environments — sealed, dark, and relatively humidity-controlled — preserved them far better than exposed surfaces. Egyptian blue in particular has attracted intense scientific interest in recent years because it does not degrade under ultraviolet light and has even been found to emit near-infrared radiation, a property researchers are now exploring for modern applications. The craftsmen who painted Paser’s tomb were not simply decorators — they were applied chemists working with an engineered material that outlasted nearly everything else from their civilisation.

What Does This Find Mean for Egyptology?

Every sealed New Kingdom tomb that survives intact adds irreplaceable data to our picture of elite Egyptian culture, religious practice, and administrative life. Paser’s tomb, with its well-preserved painted programme, offers a rare window into how an official of the highest rank presented himself before the gods and before posterity. As Leiden University’s mission continues its analysis, the full publication of this tomb will likely contribute significant new material to scholarship on Theban tomb painting, New Kingdom titulary, and the social world of Egypt’s governing class.