Egyptian Tomb Reveals a Mysterious ‘Chantress’ Who Summoned the Gods

The Beautiful Festival of the Valley was an annual celebration in ancient Egypt that connected the royal and wealthy dead with the gods. To initiate the splendid occasion, large crowds of priests gathered outside the temple of Karnak in Thebes. Then they collected statues of the ancient Egyptian deities associated with the temple: Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. Afterward, the revelers ferried the statues across the Nile to bless important tombs and temples.

As part of the festivities, the divine effigies were enshrined within wooden sailing vessels called barques and bedecked with flowers, gold, and precious stones of turquoise, carnelian, and lapis lazuli. As the procession marched forward, priests burned incense while musicians played instruments and danced. Leading the way were women known as “chantresses” who sang and shook ornate shakers.

Earlier this year, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported the discovery of new tombs at the Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis, a site visited along the festival route. There, the researchers uncovered the tomb of a purification priest, a cache of 30 mummified cats, and a hidden burial shaft containing several richly decorated coffins, some of which bear the names of the interred. 

“The discovery of the tomb shaft and the coffins within it was a truly exciting and memorable moment for the entire team,” says Abdelghaffar Wadji, an Egyptologist at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities who oversaw the excavation. “So far, we have uncovered approximately 10 wooden coffins inside the shaft.”

One of the coffins belonged to an 18th Dynasty chantress named Merit. The discovery provides insight into the performers who channeled ancient Egypt’s most influential gods—at a time when their sacred roles were being redefined by a powerful woman-king at the height of the New Kingdom’s pharaonic power.

“Far from being common performers, 'chantress' was an elite role,” says Hesham Hussein, an Egyptologist at the Supreme Ministry of Antiquities in Sinai, who was not involved with the discovery. “Women who held this title typically came from powerful families—wives or daughters of priests or officials.”

Discovering Reburied Coffins

The chantress-containing cache was uncovered late last year during the most recent excavation season at Dra Abu el-Naga, which lies on the west bank of the Nile across from modern-day Luxor. Researchers were digging through over 150 years of archaeological rubble piled atop the burial grounds when the refuse gave way to a hidden tunnel that held the coffins. 

“Dra Abu el-Naga was an exceptionally important necropolis for ancient Thebes,” says Hussein. “It was occupied continuously for approximately 2,500 years from the late Middle Kingdom around 2000 BCE through the Coptic period.”

Dra Abu el-Naga was one of the key pit stops for the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, underscoring its significance to the ancient Egyptians. The graveyard is located directly across the Nile from the Karnak temple complex and was an important funerary site where many elite and well-off Egyptians were buried. But the hidden chamber does not appear to be the original resting place for these privileged few. 

“Based on the current evidence, it seems that the shaft was used as a funerary cachette, where wooden coffins were gathered and reburied after being removed from their original burial locations,” says Wadji.

During times of crisis, ancient Egyptians often reburied coffins to safeguard the endangered dead. In 1898, French Egyptologist Victor Loret was working near the Valley of the Kings when he unearthed the possible burial chamber of Amenhotep II, an 18th Dynasty pharaoh who ruled from 1427 to 1401 B.C. Inside his kingly cocoon were sarcophagi for many other important rulers, including Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, Seti II, and Ramesses III, IV, and VI. The royal remains were put there by the 21st dynasty High Priest of Amun, Pindjem II, to keep them safe.

“Temple priests at Dra Abu el-Naga acted as curators, re-burying decayed or endangered burials to safeguard them from looters and deterioration,” says Hussein. When their remains were jeopardized, the priests would swiftly shuttle them elsewhere.

The chantress Merit’s coffin was moved along with others to preserve her remains for eternity. But who was this mysterious woman in the burial shaft?

Chanting to the Gods

As a chantress, Merit’s duty would have been to sing, dance, and chant invocations to summon the gods—and in ancient Egypt, one had to summon the gods often. The Nile is dotted with a smattering of ancient temples dedicated to deities like Horus, Hathor, Re, and Isis, and each god was regularly called upon for sage counsel, to bestow their divine blessings, and to maintain cosmic rule.

Beckoning the gods was no small order. 

For daily rituals, priests would prepare for the gods by sweeping temples clear of sand, burning incense, and then presenting a sumptuous feast with wine, often including bread, duck, melon, onions, lettuce, and ox legs. But the key ingredient was chanting. 

“Chanting is what actually helps to get the god's attention to enter into the temple,” says Suzanne Onstine, an Egyptologist and Egyptian chantress specialist who was not involved with the new discovery. “All of these ephemeral things—the smell of food, the incense, the noise of the chanting—these are things that can reach that other plane that the deities live on.”

During the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, the chantresses preceded the sacred barques which carried the gods across the Nile to help bless necropolises like Dra Abu el-Naga and the Valley of Kings and Queens. During the famous Opet Festival, they marched in front of processions along the Valley of the Sphinxes that leads south from Karnak to Luxor Temple to celebrate the divine rule of the pharaohs.  

Chantresses banged drums, clashed together hand cymbals, and shook tambourine-like shakers called sistra during the celebrations, stirring up a commotion as they went. Their rhythmic ruckus and chanting helped beckon the gods and alert townspeople that their deities were en route.

“There are no loudspeakers, there are no microphones, so having a contingent of musicians announcing what is happening so people can come out, see the god, [and] touch the statue’s edge … is something very special,” says Onstine. “People would have wanted to know when they had that opportunity.” 

A Famous Chantress

One particularly famous chantress was named Nauny, a chantress of the god Amun-Re. Dated to around 1050 B.C., Nauny lived into her seventies and was given the name “king’s daughter,” suggesting she was likely the daughter of the High Priest of Amun at the time, Pindjem I.

Unlike Merit, Nauny was buried with a 17-foot-long scroll containing sections from the Book of the Dead. Her burial and grave goods provide insight into what Merit’s duties may have been while she was alive. 

Nauny’s burial text reveals specific spells, such as the so-called Judgment of Osiris or the Weighing of the Heart. These inscriptions depict her standing next to a large scale, with her heart on one platform and Maat, a figure representing cosmic order, on the other. She is conducting this ritual weighing before Osiris, the god of the dead. The scales are balanced, indicating that she can safely enter the afterlife. 

Merit, a Chantress of Amun

Merit’s coffin bears funerary inscriptions pinning her life to the 18th Dynasty, which lasted from 1550 B.C. to 1292 B.C. The 18th Dynasty marks the beginning of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the most prosperous and powerful period of ancient Egyptian history. Its earliest pharaoh, Ahmose I, helped shake off the yoke of foreign rulers–whom the Egyptians called Hyksos–and consolidate control over Lower and Upper Egypt. 

Chantresses have a deep history in ancient Egypt, and there is evidence they lived during both the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but their role took on a particularly important distinction during the 18th Dynasty reign of Hatshepsut, a smart and politically savvy woman-king who ruled alongside the boy-pharaoh Thutmose III from 1473 to 1458 B.C. Hatshepsut sought to solidify her power in part by creating jobs. She added more religious processions throughout the year and turned the role of chantress into a distinct occupation alongside the priestly hierarchy that managed the wants and whims of important Egyptian deities. 

“By the 18th Dynasty, it's not just describing an activity, but it's a title that's associated with a temple, and it's assigned to women of elite status,” says Onstine.

Merit’s coffin indicates she was a chantress at the temple of Amun at Karnak.

Amun was the patron god of Thebes and was typically depicted as a blue- or red-painted man wearing a tall, two-feathered hat. During the New Kingdom, the temple of Amun was the most influential religious center in Egypt. Many members of the 18th Dynasty, including Ahmose I, were born in Thebes, which elevated the Theban deity above all others. And as these Theban rulers expanded their control over distant provinces in Nubia and Syria, they lavished increasing amounts of their royal wealth on Amun's temples. Later 18th Dynasty pharaohs even combined Amun with the Sun god Re to create Amun-Re, the King of Gods and most powerful deity in ancient Egypt—the god whom Nauny served several centuries later.

“Chantresses of Amun were ceremonial women of status whose singing and drumming were seen as vital to appeasing the gods, repelling chaos, and channeling divine beneficence into Egypt,” says Hussein.

Merit would have helped the thriving 18th Dynasty summon Amun and his divine family from the heavens to commune with the people and the dead.

While scholars can be sure she commanded respect and lived a privileged life among the elite, many mysteries still surround Merit, the temple chantress of Amun. Perhaps further discoveries will solidify her place among the ancient Egyptian chantresses of note, like Nauny. Maybe they will also reveal the celebrations—like the Beautiful Festival of the Valley—where she danced and beckoned the gods.

“There are a whole bunch of processions on the festival calendar," says Onstine, including a festival for men, rites for the New Year, and even a festival of drunkenness for the goddess Mut. “Who doesn’t love a good party?”