ABSTRACT
The Theban private tombs form a major source for our knowledge of Egyptian society. Ostensibly a great amount of work has been done in the necropolis over the past one hundred and sixty years of its modern history, and the bibliography for this area is among the most extensive in Egyptology. Before the creation of the Egyptian Antiquities Department early travellers were accustomed to remove portions of the wall-decoration of the Theban tombs, either for incorporation in their private collections of antiquities or for sale to the recently created national and provincial museums. Despite the efforts of the present Egyptian Antiquities Organisation this work of destruction still goes on, and it is a battle against time to record the decoration of the tombs before even more fragments disappear into private collections or are simply destroyed by inexpert handling. Once a fragment is out of context, it is often exceedingly difficult to re-assign the piece to its original position.
