hen Egyptologists discovered the tomb at Saqqara, Egypt in 1964, they were surprised. This was the first and only tomb in the necropolis where a same-s*x couple was buried together.
With most of the history getting lost in translation, Egyptologists have extrapolated from the evidence in their tomb that Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum are history’s first documented gay couples. The claim of a first recorded same-s*x couple has met considerable debate across academians.
Hieroglyphs adorned across the tomb depict them as holding hands, face to face with their noses touching, embracing in a way that depicts a married couple.
The Tomb
The entrance to their tomb is inscribed with Niankhkhnum on the left and Khnumhotep on the right. Also, inscribed are their names which form a linguistic reference to their togetherness:
Niankhkhnum means ‘joined to life’ and Khnumhotep means ‘joined to the blessed state of the dead’. Together the names can be translated as ‘joined in life and joined in death’.
In one scene, the couple is seated on a banquet table usually reserved for married couples. Khnumhotep is seen offering lotus to Niankhkhnum, which in ancient Egyptian custom portrays feminity and something only wives would do to their husbands.
As per the hieroglyphs, both Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were supervisors of the manicurists to the King.
According to ancient Egyptian customs, the purpose of burying together was so that they could accompany each other in the afterlife. It is very rare for people of equal rank to be buried together.
Their families
Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep both had families and children but they were mostly sidelined in the inscriptions in the tomb.
Some historians argue that it is possible that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were brothers since it was quite common for brothers to be buried together. However, it is rare to portray brotherly love above family, rarer still in intimate positions.
Niankhkhnum’s wife, depicted in a banquet scene, is almost completely erased, and in other pictures, Khnumhotep occupies the position usually designated for a wife.
No explicit mention of same-s*x relationships is found in the legal text from that period. The subject of homos*xuality has been surrounded by taboo in both ancient and modern history. Coded metaphors and illustrations on walls are often the only way to investigate.
Tombs were expensive to build looking at the inscriptions of funeral processions and other arrangements, it is interesting to note that same-s*x couples could live with little homophobia during the ancient Egyptian period.
