Relief of Merit, wife of Maya
Tomb relief of Merit, wife of Maya, Chancellor and overseer of the treasury during the reign of Kings Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. From the tomb of Maya at Saqqara. Maya’s titles include: fan bearer on the King’s right hand, overseer of the treasury, chief of the works in the necropolis, and leader of the festival of Amun in Karnak.
From the tomb of Maya at Saqqara.
Maya’s own tomb at Saqqara was initially partly excavated in 1843 by the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius, and its impressive reliefs were recorded in sketches and some of them brought to Berlin. Over time, however, the tomb was covered by sand, and its location was lost.
In 1975, a joint expedition of archaeologists from the Egypt Exploration Society in London and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands began a quest to rediscover the tomb, and on February 6, 1986 they finally succeeded.
On this date, Professor Geoffrey T. Martin together with Dr. Jacobus Van Dijk representing the Leiden museum discovered the burial chamber of Maya’s subterranean tomb at Saqqara some 18 metres (60 feet) below the surface.
