Ceiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of Senenmut

During the 1922–1923 excavation season, members of the Museum's Egyptian Expedition began work in the tomb chapel of Senenmut, one of Hatshepsut's best-known officials. The chapel had been carved into a layer of very poor quality limestone on the northeast slope of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna hill in Western Thebes and portions of the ceiling had caved in, including thick layers of painted plaster.

Senenmut's offering chapel consisted of two rooms forming a T. The chapel faces almost due east and the entrance leads into a broad, transverse hall extending to the right and left (north/south). The long axial hall extends straight ahead (west). The ceilings of these two rooms were painted with a variety of geometric patterns and bands of text recording offering prayers and the name and titles of Senenmut. At the end of the excavation season, the Museum was awarded several pieces of the painted ceiling plaster. This fragment came from the axial hall (the second room.