A Grave Error! The Teaching for Merikare and its Continued Use to Discuss Ancient Egyptian Non-Royal Tomb Reuse

Despite the overwhelming presence of non-royal tomb reuse throughout the pharaonic period, The Teaching for Merikare is often considered representative of ancient Egyptian perspectives on these practices. Researchers cite one passage from this text as evidence of an apprehension regarding the reuse of non-royal mortuary monuments by people in ancient Egypt. However, this assumption has not been critically examined previously. This article highlights three interrelated concerns (the Teaching’s dating, intended audience, and the passage’s decontextualisation) to demonstrate the effects of using this passage on researchers’ abilities to effectively analyse tomb reuse. Through these concerns it is shown that the Teaching’s passage should be nuanced when discussing non-royal tomb reuse.