THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES ROBB DE PEYSTER TYTUS MEMORIAL SERIES VOLUME IV eee Ce Sap \ \ ( PUBLICATIONS OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION EDITED BY ALBERT M. LYTHGOE CURATOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN ART ROBB DE PEYSTER TYTUS MEMORIAL SERIES VOLUME IV THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES “Rests as i =1f,( IAS EE spor ne omer “p> RR NESE A omen See i | f { ~ —- io PLATE I HENETNOFRET PRESENTS THE CUP TO NEBAMUN. DETAIL FROM PLATE V Painted by Nina de G. Davies (See pages 53, 54) PELL GRE I SOE Rca eR es ca resis: R» THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES BY NORMAN DEGARIS DAVIES WITH PLATES IN COLOR BY NORMAN DEGARIS DAVIES NINA DEG. DAVIES, H. R. HOPGOOD AND CHARLES K. WILKINSON OF THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION NEW YORK MCMXXV IN MEMORY OF ROBB DE PEYSTER TYTUS THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN PUB- LISHED BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART WITH A FUND GIVEN FOR THAT PURPOSE BY CHARLOTTE M. TYTUS MCMXIV CONTENTS PAGE IGUSHE (OLY TIDILIUISIRUAMIMIQ@INIS) 6 6 5 ell CHAPTER I THE TOMB ANDIISOWNERS . ... .... . i The Egyptian tomb a private, not a common grave; even wives and relatives have no rights in it; Egyptian terms for relations by blood and marriage; the two men buried in the tomb; the partition of the tomb between them; the claim of each to ownership; the priority of Nebamun; Henetnofret the connecting link; she appears to have married both men in turn; objections to this hypothesis; the decoration of the tomb possibly her act; but more likely to be Nebamun’s; the second marriage to be provisionally assumed; career and rank of the Egyptian artist; families as schools of art; executants of the tomb and their training; Henetnofret’s parentage; the site of the tomb; its form and features; previous publications and the present enterprise; the date of the tomb; decorative features; ceiling texts; ceiling patterns; results of our excavations . . 3 CHAPTER II DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES . . . . . 25 The west reveal; the east reveal; significance of pictures of 1x CONTENTS sacrifice; Nebamun sacrifices to the gods; Thepu; accessories in the sub-scene; offerings to Hathor; adoration of deified royalties by Nebamun; reflections on pictures of worship; worship of gods of burial by Nebamun; honors shown to the parents; blessings claimed by the owners; changes now observ- “fl able in pictures of burial; the scene here presents a difficulty; ie | . . . ; | Ramesside models foreshadowed here: significance of this ‘4 anticipation; upper scene, worship of Osiris; the head of the pro- cession; cattle drag the bier of the dead; duplication of the Pes cortége; lower scene, last rites before the tomb; mourning by at female relatives; the ceremonial; the funeral booths; the pre- ss sentation of burial gifts; passage of the river by officials and af guests; facial expression of sorrow; other features of the scene; banqueting scenes in general; the cup handed to Nebamun and Thepu; a privileged pair; other guests; similar scene in honor of Apuki; the workshops of which the owners had charge; the design a borrowed one; weighing out the materials; influ- ence of burial customs on art; carpenters at work; interpre- tation of a drawing; jewelers and engravers; smiths; boring “al beads and vases; an unfinished shrine; this incompleteness may i+ ewe c joOliiteAlGamss = 5 6s 9s oe a oS Re & 5 Oy INDEX +. «4 aneeHiciabysal tae Slits has ereatieaesd) LH Zs 67 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate I (Frontispiece) Henetnofret presenting the cup (detail from Plate V) . . . . . Incolor II Two views of the tomb site . . . . Photogravure GS he) interiors ae nn a eel hotoonay ne IVES Plan ee suet, Latin Gla oe ee Loeline V_ South wall, west mat Aisle “Eun line VI Detailsfrom PlateV . . . Photogravure VII Guests at the banquet (detail from Plate v) In color VIII A sacrifice to the gods (detail from Plate V) In color IX South wall, east side (upper scene)... In line X Ahmes-Nofretari and Amenhotep I (detail from Plate IX) 20 goa ab eee color XI South wall, east side (lower scene). . . Inline XII Detailsfrom Plate XI. . . . . Photogravure XIII Carpenters and Goldsmiths (detail fant BE AI) 5 5 2 6 In color XIV Craftsmen at work (detail fo Plate XD) . In color XV_ East wall (upper scene) . Inline XVI Gods of burial (detail from Plate XV) . . Incolor XVII East wall (lower scene) . . . . . Inline XVIII North wall, east side. East reveal. . . Inline XIX North wall, west side... > « « ihm ling XX_ Details from Plates XIX, XXIV . . . Photogravure XXI Purifying and bewailing the dead (detail from» Plate Xn) ee nucolor xi Plate XXII XXII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX XXXI ILLUSTRATIONS West wall (upper registers). - In line A team of cows (detail from Plates XXII, XXV, A) ay In color West wall (lower registers). - + - In line West Wall . Photogravure Mourners conveyed by Host (detail (arn Plates XXIV, XXV,A). - - - In color Inner room, east wall . . - - -: In line Details from Plate XXVIT . . . Photogravure The deceased at meat (detail from Plate XXVIII). In color Ceiling patterns . iron. thar es In color Excerpts from other sources for compar- ison . In line xii CHAPTER I THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS CHAPTER I THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS TOMB 181’ at Thebes, the subject of the present memoir, received from Pére Scheil, its first editor, a designation,’ “‘ Tombeau des Graveurs,”’ which is misleading in so far as it suggests that this was a sepulchre common to a professional guild rather than one of persons connected as usual by family ties. The name offered a convenient evasion of the problem set by the incomplete and unprecise records of the tomb as to the real owner and his relation to another person equally, or almost equally, prominent on its walls. But it lightly leapt over the obstacle that, with few exceptions, the Theban tomb is the personal possession of a single householder who, though he may often have offered its hospi- tality to many members of the family besides his own descendants and possibly even to humbler members of his household, so jealously guarded his proprietary rights and exclusive enjoyment of the burial privileges which the pictures and prayers in the tomb ensured him, that he allowed no other name to be linked with his, nor any visible record of subordinate burials to appear upon the walls. Such persons being interred without further record than the prayers that might be placed on coffins, jars of viscera, shawabtis, cones, and other burial furniture, we cannot, in the case of a plundered tomb, know who, or how many, had found shelter there. Though these relatives and servants appear in the scenes, they ‘For names, etc., of numbered tombs see Gardiner & Weigall, Topograph. Cat.; also my Puyemré, I, p. 107. * Mém. Miss. Frang., V, p. 189. 3 The Egyptian tomb a pri- vate, not a common grave ee ‘ Sppticanpaapeanam: The Egyptian tomb a pri- vate, nota common grave Even wives and relatives have no rights in it THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES have no claim on the burial benefits which an inscribed tomb helped to confirm to its owner, except in so far as their close association with the clearly and repeatedly designated proprietor might involve them in the salvation which he had achieved. This was natural. The inscriptions con- stituted a legal deed assuring enumerated benefits, no less real because without any stipulated limits, to So and So, by the grace of the king and the gods, in return for services rendered to them. And, as the Theban tomb (apart from its burial places, which often admit of indefinite sup- plement) is generally confined at most to an inner and an outer room and a connecting passage, these constituted the private suite of a single person, which he naturally reserved for himself and his wife. Even the most loved wife takes a quite secondary place in the tomb and has no prescribed rights there, but only an indirect participation in the blessings on which her husband has, or thinks he has, a lien. The Miltonic ideal ‘‘she for God in him” seems fully to prevail at this time. Though she is generally shown by his side when a rite is being performed for his benefit, the boon is assured to him personally, and it is only through her relation to him that she enjoys it. Only in rare cases is her per- sonal right recognized by the mention of her ka also.’ Indeed the par- ents of the owner seem to be given a stronger claim; for a hotpedens prayer for offerings on their behalf specially is more than once recorded on the tomb walls, and the blessings expressly devoted to both.’ Occa- sionally a son, desiring to acknowledge, and to carry forward with him into the unknown, the womanly devotion which he had the most reason to appreciate, associated his mother with him in place of a wife. The statues of the parents, or it may be of a brother, as well as of the wife, may sometimes be seen side by side with the owner’s in the recesses of the tomb, and there, through the formula inscribed on their skirts, receive offerings from the altar of the gods. Whether this, the nearest approach ‘E.g., in Tomb 161. Less solemn presentations of the cup, bouquets, or sistrums by children are, however, addressed to both parents with the words “for your ka,” and to dead parents of the owner even in the case of a ritual offering. Whether the use of the singular term “ka” in such cases points to the married pair being regarded as a single personality is not clear. *E.g., in Tomb 276 and on Pl. XVII. THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS to participation in the burial privilege of the tomb, implied a proposed interment there, remains unproved. But even this is far from ownership, or rights independent of the owner’s generosity. Thus, the common pro- fession of the two men whose names appear as apparent owners on the walls of the tomb, and whose lack of close blood relation is made indu- bitable by the record of their different parentage on both sides (Plate XVII), cannot be taken without more ado as a sufficient ground for their sharing a common tomb, since even the closest family tie would not justify it in ordinary practice. Let us turn to the situation revealed in the records of this tomb. They are unfortunately not complete, and the difficulty is aggravated by the deficiency of the Egyptian language in terms for family and social ties, no single words being available to express those that extend beyond the closest relationships (of parents to children and of children to one another), and still less any which refer to connection by marriage. This default even includes the tie of marriage itself; for, by a curious mis- use of speech, the usual word for wife (hemet) was more or less aban- doned during the Eighteenth Dynasty in favor of the equivocal term senet, ‘‘sister.””* The two men named in the tomb are called Apuki and Nebamun. The father of the former was one Senennuter, “superintendent of artisans in Herihirmeru,”’’ and with the rank of ‘‘controller’’* in some department, no doubt that afterwards administered by his son, ‘“‘controller of the bal- ‘Whether this occurs because in a time of conquest concubinage became more prevalent with the acqui- sition of female prisoners; because, by imitation of royal precedent, marriage with full or half sisters was increas- ingly practised throughout society; or owing to a disinclination to give the wife the legal prerogatives or pres- tige associated with the status of a heme, is not yet clear. Nor is any rule apparent by which the use of the two terms was differentiated. In Tomb 80 there seems to be an instructive episode. Thotnufer there sits with his wife Takhat (senet having been later changed to hemet). Behind them stands a second female figure, “his senel, Meryt,” apparently a later introduction. Before this trio a second senet sits, or offers a sistrum, and this, I presume, is a true sister. Her name, however, may also be Meryt, though differently written; so that it is just possible that Thotnufer afterwards married this sister, and placed her behind his chair. * This is not a known temple or building. But it may be an alias for Herihiramun, the variant possibly showing the first symptom of that hostility to Amon which a little later disrupted the kingdom. The latter was one of the temples of Amon at Thebes, perhaps a part, or even the whole, of the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri (Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, 1, p. 95; Il, pp. 79-81). * S3wli seems here used vaguely to indicate a small official, as s3b is applied to a greater one, and rp‘ti to one of still higher rank, flattery being of course used in each case. 5 Even wives and relatives have no rights in it Egyptian terms for rela- tions by blood and marriage The two men buried in the tomb The two men buried in the tomb The partition of the tomb between them THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES ances of the king in Ast-josret.”’ Apuki, however, adds to the recorded titles, though not perhaps to the accomplishments, of his father, that of “sculptor of the king,” or even “superintendent of sculptors in Ast- josret” (Plate XIX). Nebamun also held the positions of superintendent of sculptors and administrator of workshops, but (apparently in the latter respect) he is once styled “controller of the secret (expert) department in Herihirmeru.” This establishment seems, then, to have housed the skilled craftsmen of Ast-josret. The only title of his which has no echo in those of Apuki is that of ‘‘child of the (royal) nursery,’ an honorary designation which is frequently given to men of standing or even of high rank, and so marks out Nebamun as a man of better family or greater success than the other. His rank of superintendent of sculptors, how- ever, had come to him almost as a birthright; for his father had held it before him.’ As to the partition of the tomb between them, so far as the mutila- tion it has received permits us to judge, it was highly irregular, and shows, instead of a division of the mural space into two halves, a partici- pation by both men in the social meal, the adoration of the gods, the homage to their parents, and the burial rites; sometimes by separate scenes, sometimes by the appearance of both men in the same act or in a composite picture. The problem of recording the life and burial of two men is solved cleverly enough. No scenes can be said to be dupli- cated, and yet neither man has failed to receive proper burial or the benefit of prescribed formulas. One of them is credited with one part of * Actually “‘controller of the balances of the king,” “controller of Ast-josret,” and “controller” simply. The first title meant that he was responsible for the precious metals and stones weighed out to the craftsmen for manufacture. It may thus be the same office as that of Senennuter; for such designations are not precisely fixed but admit curtailment or variation. For a similar official see Daressy, Cones Funéraires, No. 236. Ast-josret is a term that is known to me only from Mace, El Amrah, Pl. XXIX, as a name for the necropolis of Abydos. Is it here an equivalent of To-joser, the Theban cemetery; of Josret, the vicinity of Deir el Bahri (cf. p. 54); or is it a definite temple? If great temples had workshops attached to them, Deir el Bahri had the best right on the west of Thebes, unless the temple of Amenhotep III had supplanted it in this respect. The additions “of the king” and “in Ast-josret” seem to be mere variants. The name of Amon is nowhere used; so there may have been a State atelier apart from those of the temples, or Ast-josret may be a name for the temple of Amen- hotep or its adjuncts. * The reader will be better able to control what is said of the relationship of the various persons in the tomb if he consults the genealogical table on p- 16 whenever such questions recur. 6 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS the ritual, the other with its complementary acts; or, no name being cited, it is left to the friends of either man to appropriate the blessing or reminiscence for their favorite. Thus, the figure of the official watch- ing the balances (Plate XI) may be that of either of the two controllers. The pictured tomb is ‘this western home, his eternal resting place” sim- ply, without further definition. At the door of the tomb Henetnofret bewails the coffined mummy of Nebamun; but she has previously fol- lowed the bier of Apuki to the grave. Whether choice or mere haste be responsible for the uncertain personality of the pair who occupy the final seat of the dead in the inner room, it is impossible to say or guess. The silence in any case is in harmony with the unwonted circumstances. There being no stela, the test of ownership might be looked for in the entrance, in the ceiling-texts, in the burial scenes, or in the shrine. In the entrance Apuki is certainly shown as the person entering, and it is to be presumed therefore that he is also the person leaving, the tomb; the more so as the lady Henetnofret accompanies him in that case, where- as Nebamun is generally, if not always, associated with his mother, Thepu. The fragments of texts from the ceiling show preponderant occurrences of the name of Nebamun, despite its erasure; those of Apuki, if indeed there are any such, may come from the inner chamber exclu- sively. Funeral rites are paid to both men and it would be hard to de- tect any real inequality in the honors paid to them. In the shrine the one unfinished picture shows two pairs seated and receiving a somewhat unequal homage; as no names are appended, we may interpret it as we will. Of nine cases in which the owner and his female companion appear together in this tomb, two show Nebamun and Thepu, two Apuki and Henetnofret, two have no names, and three have lost them. Honors, therefore, may so far be declared easy between the two men. The close similarity of the offices held by the two makes it likely that one succeeded the other in them.’ Apuki may well have taken over * These are not so high that they might not be held by more than one man simultaneously at Thebes. But each workshop would probably have only one controller, hence if Herihirmeru and Ast-josret are the same locality, the two men would be successive holders of the post. The same holds good for the superintendency also. 7 The partition of the tomb between them The claim of each to ownership The priority of Nebamun The priority of Nebamun Henetnofret the connect- ing link THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES from his father the post of controller, and that of sculptor to the king (with the superintendency in prospect) from Neferhét, whose son, Nebamun, was presumably too young yet to take up the succession. The supposition that Apuki was the older man and the husband of Henetno- fret’s youth is supported by Plate V. While Nebamun sits at the ban- quet and drinks of an earthly cup, Apuki ‘is seated with Henetnofret at the meal of the dead. A certain Amenhotpé, who appears both there and at the funeral of Apuki as if alive, is apparently honored by Nebamun as one who had passed away. In many scenes Nebamun has a distinct prominence, such as might be expected in the survivor and actual constructor of the tomb. He takes precedence of Apuki where the two act together (Plate XIX), and the scenes in which he is sole actor are on a larger scale and more brilliantly executed than any in which Apuki is the chief figure. But, as if to compensate for this, Apuki alone appears as the unchallenged consort of the lady Henetnofret who, as we shall see, seems to have shared the affections of both men. How, then, are we to reconcile these equal pretensions to ownership with the strictly individual possession by a single head of a household which is almost universal at Thebes? In the first place, the rule is not devoid of exceptions at a somewhat later date. Tomb 291, a tiny pyra- mid chapel, is divided between two men of quite different parentage and no apparent intimacy, each of whom occupies one half of it, while one of them appropriates the single ceiling-text in addition. This very clear example strengthens the evidence for a few other less uncompromising instances and, as Tomb 291 appears to belong to much the same period as ours, we may suspect a slackening of the rule from this time onward and feel ourselves at liberty to admit a breach of it in the case we are considering.’ In the second place, if the intimate mingling of the two names in our tomb points to some stronger motive for participation than economy, ordinary friendship, or professional association, such an incen- ‘This tomb was only discovered last year in the course of excavations at Deir el Medineh for the Institut Francais by Mons. Kuentz, who has kindly permitted me to quote this interesting detail. It shows how incomplete our knowledge of burial customs still is, notwithstanding the three hundred inscribed tombs that stand open at Thebes. 8 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS tive seems to be found in their mutual relations to Henetnofret. Her connection with them is expressed in both cases by the same term, senet, which, as we have seen, connotes the two widely different relation- ships of sisterhood and marriage. As Henetnofret regularly accompanies Apuki in the réle of a wife, her relation to him is beyond question. Nebamun, on the other hand, has his mother as his companion in the only scenes where both names are preserved; so that the only absolutely certain instance of Henetnofret’s connection with him is her appearance before him with the cup (Plate V), a service generally rendered by a daughter to her parents, but occasionally by a wife to her husband when she is not sitting with him.’ Had Henetnofret not already been shown as the wife of Apuki, we should unhesitatingly have recognized her from this picture as the wife of Nebamun. Proof but little less cogent of the relation between the two is afforded by the burial scene (Plate XIX), where the foremost of the two mummies is bewailed by ‘‘his sene Henetnofret.” Were there no interest in supposing it otherwise, no one would doubt but that this is Nebamun’s corpse and this his mourning widow. At need, however, it is no doubt arguable that it is Apuki’s mummy and wife, or Nebamun bewailed by a sister. Unless, therefore, further evidence arises to justify us in ignoring the great scarcity of precedents, we must take it that the exceptional division of a tomb between two men (unique perhaps in the degree of fusion of the two records) was due to an exceptional situation of which there are few recognizable instances; that, namely, of a woman who married twice and commemorated, or persuaded her husband to com- memorate, both unions in one monument. If Nebamun, as appears to have been the case, was the survivor, he succeeded not only to the emoluments of Apuki, but also to the hand of his wife, so that the offices which had been hereditary in the two families were again concentrated “The wife in Tomb 78 offers the cup, where her husband’s mother is seated with him; though elsewhere she makes offering to the gods at his side, and sits with him at the meal of the dead. Cf. Davies, El Amarna, I, Pl. XXXII. I cannot quote an instance of a sister acting as cup-bearer, still less a married sister. If Henet- nofret had been Nebamun’s sister merely, it would have been easy to add ‘“‘daughter of Thepu” to obviate misconstruction of the word senet, as is done once in Tomb 31. 9 Henetnofret the connect- ing link She appears to have married both men in turn She appears to have married both men in turn Objections to this hypothesis THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES in one person. Henetnofret’s two husbands were fellow-craftsmen, and the causes which in Europe have always developed among such men a specially close camaraderie and more untrammeled views on social relations seem not to have been altogether inoperative under the very different conditions, the more so that in ancient Egypt such men often, or gener- ally, inherited their profession from their fathers and transmitted it to their sons and near relations. In such a close brotherhood of artists, Henetnofret had an excellent opportunity of a second marriage so har- monious as to permit the delicate undertaking of a single tomb, where she, her two husbands, their relations, and her children by each might immortalize their natural good sense and amiability. One could have wished that the acceptance of this relation between the three chief personages were beyond cavil, instead of being the pref- erable solution of a dilemma, each horn of which involves us in difficul- ties. The appearance of Thepu, Nebamun’s mother, as his companion in scenes where a wife would ordinarily be seen, gives a sufficient expla- nation for Henetnofret’s absence from his side, and is paralleled several times in the necropolis, though the substitution is infrequent and as yet unexplained.’ Many will, no doubt, find it hard to believe that Nebamun, under the peculiar conditions, chose to depict Henetnofret seated at the funeral meal with his dead rival, passing out of the tomb in his company, etc., while he himself is content with the society of his mother, thus con- senting to the reunion of his wife to her first husband on the threshold of the life to come. It will seem especially repugnant when it is consid- ered that, for the ancients, these vivid records had power to create the 1 We find it, e.g., in Tombs 20, 31, 36, 45, 78, 95, 106, 112, 258, 276. In Nos. 20 and 276 the mother is shown in the inner chamber at the solemn meal of the dead. In No. 36 a son is mentioned, implying mar- riage. In No. 78 (see p. 9) the man must have been of such an age that the mother could not have survived him; she could not, therefore, have originated the pictures and there shown indifference or hostility to her daughter-in-law. Since we are in the East, we can scarcely admit the theory of real bachelordom, except in the case of some natural bar to marriage. If it was merely that the mother was specially loved or for some reason had not been provided with a resting place at her husband’s side, why is the wife generally excluded from mention? Are these, then, cases of divorce or of unhappy union? If the second marriage of Henetnofret were better established, one would ask, in face of this lack of apparent motive for the substitution of the mother, whether all these cases are not those of marriage with a widow, who perhaps, by custom or law, still belonged to her first husband, and must find her place for eternity at his side. Io THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS situation they depict. For the pictures in the outer hall here are not neo confined to memories; the dead are actually entering the presence of the _ hypothesis lords of eternity. Even ifthe injured scenes did represent Nebamun taking his place at Henetnofret’s side equally with Apuki, with what hope or intention was this done? The Egyptian habit of pictorially illustrating their faith would make such problems far more insistent for them than for the Jew, with whom it was probably rather a question of casuistry than of intense personal feeling when he asked, ‘‘ Whose wife, then, shall she be in the resurrection?” But it is dangerous to apply modern sentiment to an age so remote and so different, and we have the good sense ourselves not to allow a foolish curiosity regarding the modes of preternatural existence, where all that we know of happiness may conceivably be surpassed with- out marriage, to interfere with that which feeling and reason prescribe as very desirable for this world. If acknowledged custom in Egypt as- signed the wife in such cases to her first husband in that world beyond, which then seemed so proximate to present existence, the admission of these scenes by Nebamun may have been both natural and commend- able. For those who find Nebamun’s complacence incompatible with gene- The decora- tion of the ral human nature, and would regard such magnanimity or acceptance — tomb possibly of social dogma as contemptible poverty of spirit, there is still a way of i escape. The tomb, though excavated by Apuki and shared at his own death by Nebamun, might have been decorated under the supervision of Henetnofret after the decease of her second husband. The situation would leave her free to decide herself which of the two intimate ties which had divided her life here should dominate her existence hereafter, and it would not surprise us to find that she chose the husband of her youth and the father of most, if not all, of her children, and hence placed herself by his side in all those pictures which might exercise a compul- sion on destiny and determine her lot in the long vista of years yet to be. On that supposition, she seems to have tried in every way to miti- gate the unavoidable invidiousness of her choice. She gave Nebamun that prominence in the scenes which was due to him by his rank and II The decora- tion of the tomb possibly her act But more likely to be Nebamun’s The second marriage to be provision- ally assumed THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES by his more recent death, feeling, too, perhaps that Apuki was well compensated for his secondary place by the priority which she had given him in her affection. The thrice-repeated good wishes for Nebamun’s welfare in the banquet scene would then be an expression of her esteem for him with whom, after all, if her faith had any vividness, she was to be so closely associated, whether as wife, or, by this choice, as comrade and sister, within his eternal mansion. It is pleasanter, however, to leave Nebamun with the congenial task of adorning his own sepulchre and settling his own endless future, and to suppose that he and his wife, being faced, when the decoration of the tomb was taken in hand, by the problem afforded by the previous mar- riage, wisely decided to exhibit simply the facts of their histories and the good feeling which had directed them, and to leave the future to the gods who ruled it. In any case, knowing nothing to the contrary, and having the suggestive pictures as our justification, we may contem- plate Apuki, Nebamun, and Henetnofret entering paradise together un- ashamed, having been lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their deaths not divided. Henetnofret seems to have been the link which bound these three lives together. Hence a more appropriate by-name for this doubly-owned place of burial would be “The tomb of the two husbands,” or even ‘‘The tomb of Henetnofret”; for women had per- sonal histories even in those days, though for us they generally lie below the surface. Other objections and considerations that crop up in our survey of the scenes will be best dealt with as they arise. Though the hypothesis preferred by me may be rejected by others in favor of the interpretation which makes Apuki the brother-in-law of Nebamun, and so welcome to him for his own sake or his sister’s as to be admitted to partnership ina common tomb, and though, as evidence for burial and social custom grows more definite and complete, this latter choice might conceivably have to be finally adopted, it will add very much to the pleasure to be found in the scenes, and detract very little from the instruction they impart, if the hypothesis of the second marriage, which seems best 12 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS borne out by the data at our disposal, be admitted as the basis of inter- pretation henceforth.* These two men were both engravers in stone (literally “bearers of the md3.t graving-chisel”),’ as their fathers had been before them, and had reached the head of their profession, or something like it, in becom- ing directors of the local school of craftsmen. This does not mean that they were specialists in their art; for they had no doubt practised all its branches in turn. Their attainments probably won them a very respect- able rank in society, without the prideful place and lucrative opportuni- ties which a post in the administration would have given them, though as directors they perhaps touched this ambition also. Artists ranked above mere artisans, as their family connections and the designation of one of them as “‘esquire” (rp‘ti) show.’ But neither were they lionized or over-rewarded, though the stela of Irtisen proves that they were not unmindful of the spiritual dignity of their profession.* Probably, there- *Tt may be said generally, however, that the objections to admitting that Henetnofret was no more than sister to Nebamun, apart from the violence done to the term senet in this connection, are that the succession of the two men to their office would not be easily accounted for, that the appearance of Amenhotpé and his wife is left without justification, that Henetnofret’s relation to Thepu would have been indicated at the ban- quet, and that any explanation of the burial scene must, then, be very strained. * For this term, ignorantly misconstrued by me in Bulletin of M. M. A., Dec. 1920, Part II, see Griffith, P.S. B. A., 1899, p. 270. It comes in just at this time, and I can prove no earlier instance than this of Neferhét. The similar title, “bearer of the fan (military standard, weapons, etc.),” does not indicate one of a class, but a special functionary of the king. But, apart from this attractive exclusiveness of the title, the ambition of the courtiers of Amenhotep III to secure sculptured tombs, and the consequent demand for skilled hands, would tend to call it into being. Up to this time the s¥ kd, who appears to have been specially trained to design in line, and was thus differentiated from the s¥, who might be a mere colorist, seems to have done such work both with the brush and the graver. A mé&nti () was a mason and stone-carver who might also be a §©nh, a worker in the round, whether in wood, stone, or metal. These distinctions, besides marking the special provinces of the artist’s craft, seem also to a certain extent to have indicated rank within the profession, according to the technical skill demanded. The colorist (s%) might rise to be a draughtsman (s¥ kd), and he to be an engraver (By md3.i), a statuary (§“nh), or even a chief of sculptors like Apuki or Nebamun, and, finally, as the goal of ambition, a superintendent of craftsmen in an atelier (imi r hmw.t). Thus the draughtsmen Huy and Paren- nufer might well have eventually risen to be sculptors (see pp. 44, 61). Among the Ramesside workers in the necropolis recorded in Spiegelberg’s Graffili, there are about twenty-eight draughtsmen to seven sculptors, and only two superintendents in each branch. The work of the {3y md3.t would, I take it, mainly be the execution of tomb reliefs and texts. *Schaefer, Aeg. Zeichnungen auf Scherben, p. 25. Cf. Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 416; A. Z., 42, p- 128. ‘Maspero, P. S. B. A., 1877, p. 555. ‘Tombs of artists are rare at Thebes, despite the ability and impulse to adorn them, and those few not large or richly decorated. On over five hundred funeral cones known to me, only two chief stone-masons, and perhaps one chief engraver, are commemorated. Artists are not often seen even as members of a great man’s retinue. 13 Career and rank of the Egyptian artist } 1 ; » F Career and rank of the Egyptian artist Families as schools of art THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES fore, only exceptional men could afford to show much independence of spirit, and the many unfinished or scamped pictures seem to reflect this measure of servitude, though precisely the opposite deduction may sometimes be made.! This comparative poverty may have been a con- tributory motive for the double burial in our tomb, the owners preferring one finely decorated chamber to two inferior sepulchres. Since his occupation does not seem to have been lucrative, we must in part attribute to professional pride the exceptional frequency with which the artist handed his craft down to his descendants, a habit which is exemplified once more in the case of the owners of Tomb 181.’ An important consequence of this custom is that the maintenance of efficiency and the transmission of tradition in art were provided for less by schools or guilds of draughtsmen than by families, within whose circle profes- sional knowledge was tenaciously guarded, along with the moderate emoluments of professional posts. If, then, we have to qualify the idea that artists are born, not made, since Egyptians of high attainments adopted the career, less owing to a spirit that bloweth where it listeth, or inherited genius, than to their position in a family line which inclined to this calling from material motives and early familiarity with it; yet, on the other hand, these humble nurseries of the arts were open to individual talent and initiative, and sensitive to the national mood, as well as freed to some extent from the iron bonds of priestly tradition or the inane regulations of a state bureaucracy. A happy mingling of free- dom and conservatism seems to be exhibited by the family to which we have here gained an introduction. Essentially unmoved by the surface current of the day, though it touched art more powerfully than any other department of life, the style of this tomb is its own, and yet in the end proved to be in harmony with the most sustained chords of national life. This domestic school of Neferhét and Senennuter may well have provided an excellent training ground, alike in the art of life itself and that of the representation of life, an atmosphere in which good work was *See my Tomb of Nakht, pp. 7, 54. *Erman, loc. cit. In one third of the cases which Spiegelberg includes in his Graffiti the profession has been confessedly inherited or bequeathed. Tomb 323 shows four generations of draughtsmen. 14 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS fostered and good-natured men and women grew up and lived together in harmony. A feature with which we shall have still more sympathy as con- forming to high ideals of art is the combination in one career of the painter’s, the sculptor’s, and the craftsman’s pursuits; for, as has been seen, the Egyptian artist probably learnt and practised them in turn. If these two men had been only sculptors, they would probably have en- deavored, in spite of paucity of means, to secure a site on which their powers might have been exhibited. Their painted tomb is some proof that they had been painters also; and the devices used disclose at times the sculptor’s instincts (pp. 30, 53). Whether they had practised as craftsmen or not, they were at least intimately connected with the work- shops, and the precision and detailed drawing, particularly of jewelry, may be partially due to this experience. The department of architecture seems, unfortunately, to have been kept apart from the influences of the artist’s training; hence we can not lay on the owners the full blame for the usual asymmetry and slovenly form of the tomb itself. As to the actual execution of the work we are, as usual, left without any informa- tion. Its exceptional excellence, however, would lead us to suspect that it was kept within the family circle, and hence was largely a labor of love. Nebamun himself will probably have been responsible for much of the design and general control, and perhaps for some of the actual work. Huy, his brother (or brother-in-law), may also have been a participant. But it is likely that most of the labor was done by younger men, Amen- emhét, son of Apuki, Nebnufer, and Parennufer. The latter two, though not closely related to the family, are twice mentioned; and this tacit per- mission to immortalize themselves was probably a surplus reward of their labors. If the person whom, from his prominence in both families, | assume to be Henetnofret’s father, really was so, she came of fairly humble parentage, quite outside the circle of artists; for Amenhotpé was only a janitor of Pharaoh in Thebes itself and a temple servitor (two posts which, one would think, were held in succession), while her paternal 15 Families as schools of art Executants of the tomb and their training Henetnofret’s parentage Si allen | patgiescos Henetnofret’s parentage The site of the tomb THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES grandfather was only a small official; so that it would appear as if she herself were her fortune. But her father’s charge in the palace may have been one of greater importance than the title suggests.’ Tomb No. 18z is cut in the southern slope of the Khokhah hill, which divides the Assasif from a smaller valley running up towards the foot of Elwet Sheikh Abd el Kurneh and ending abruptly in the sunk courtyard of the vizier Paser.’ It is thus directly behind the house of the Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum, which occupies the correspond- ing position on the northern side of the ridge. The tomb lies some way ‘As a help to the reader, the proposed genealogy of the family is here set out in diagram, together with the titles of the persons concerned. The pages quoted signalize the appearance of the personages on the walls. The index should be referred to for doubtful identifications and discussions. Het Neferhét + Thepu (p. 57) Senennuter + Netermosé (p. 35) (pp. 30, 53) (p. 36) (p. 36) Amenhotpé + Mutemwia (pp. 44, 55, 57)? (pp. 55, 57) I ib T T T 7 P Mutnofret (2) Huy Nesamun + Henernorrer + Apuxt Huy Amenemhét Asi Mutnofret Hentaneb (pp.44, 54) (p. 44) } (p. 44) (p.50) (p. 49) — (p. Ag) (p. 49) Amenhotpé (2) Amenemhét (2) Tiy Mutnofret (2) (p. 47) (pp. 44, 472,572) (p. 56) (pp. 44, 54,57) Amenhotpé, as well as Apuki or Nebamun, might conceivably be the undetermined brother of Huy to whom reference is made on p. 44. Private names are often derived from those in use in the reigning family. Mutemwia was the mother of Amenhotep III, Aset and Hentaneb daughters of his, and Mutnofret a near relation (Petrie, History, II, p. 198). All this hangs well together, and Apuki on this evidence would belong to the generation of Amenhotep’s older children. The titles of the above persons are:— Het. ok a} Amenhotpé . |r ae Bei ey 2 oo" oay oO Neferhét . > es ark Neate, Senennuter . WY HST SOIT ees SEA Huy fh Ganqae Amenemiét = BF IS fal Apo... WHeRTT ORT AN ASS MDS SACK SBS ALY Namo. (IS Ale Ris SASe “eT (eB) COR RISO S) AIG *See Pls. II and IV; also Pl. VIII of Gardiner and Weigall, Topographical Catalogue. 16 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS up the slope, and is excavated just below a bed of crumbling shale in rock which is only a little more consolidated than the stratum forming its roof. The little area, some five meters square, which forms a court- yard in front of it, is sunk in the hillside and reached by a short descent cut in the rock. Its splayed walls are coated with hib plaster. On the west a low slab of rock, a few inches high, has been left, as if to provide a bench for offerings. On the opposite side is the entrance to a roughly hewn and undecorated tomb with two chambers. Of these the outer one has a roof supported by a central pillar of rock. The inner one contains a burial shaft, which, fearing the ramifications it might possess, I did not excavate, and at a higher level a loculus into which a coffin could be pushed. Tomb 181 itself is of very small dimensions and makes no pre- tensions within or without to any accuracy of plan or neatness of finish. Its doorway is now a mere entrance. It had probably once been provided with a shoddy framing of thin sandstone slabs laid against the rock, and we may possess a relic of this in half a lintel of the sort, having no other ornament than a cavetto cornice. The carelessness which marks the ex- terior is no less evident within. No pains have been taken to lay out the rooms correctly; the downward slope of the courtyard is continued; and the walls are neither straight, upright, nor uniformly crooked (Plate Ill). A tall man would have to stoop to enter, could just stand in the hall, but must remain bent in the inner room. The miserable character of the rock forbade any increase of size and did not invite precision of outline; but gross carelessness was exhibited in enshrining such merito- rious work under a shelter so precarious and at the foot of an inward slope which every visitation of rain must turn into a gutter. It is almost by a miracle that anything has survived the threatened dangers, and that the fall of the ceiling and the irruption of rain-water have only re- sulted in the loss of the less valuable scenes. The danger, however, is not past, and any charge of indifference to values which we lay upon the original owners is one that may recoil upon ourselves before long. The tomb-consists of an outer painted chamber transverse to the axis and an inner one lying along it, which also contains a painting on 17 The site of the tomb Its form and features Tts form and features Previous publications and the present enterprise THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES one wall. A small side-chamber leading out of this is occupied by the burial shaft, which, at a couple of meters down, gives access to a broad, but roughly cut and extremely low, burial chamber. Another shaft in the courtyard also gives entrance to underground rooms at the same level, perhaps originally separated from the former by narrow partitions of rock, but now in communication with them. It is possible that the two shafts provided for the double occupation of the tomb. From a breach in the floor of the outer shaft one can drop into meandering pas- sages both to east and west, belonging to a still lower tier of tombs. The rough walls of the upper chamber were coated thickly with mud plaster, and faced merely with a thin wash of lime instead of a layer of good stucco; a new practice which has been the ruin of numberless later pictures. In both rooms slots were cut in the walls at ceiling-height, and the mud was spread into them in the vain hope that it would there find a support which the friable shale did not afford. For the same reason, the walls of both rooms, but especially those of the inner chamber, were drawn in at the top, so as to lessen the span of ceiling. It must be con- fessed that those who quarried the tombs of Thebes showed no construc- tional ability, nor any solicitude for the stability of these monuments. The chambers being small, the pictures have been carried down to within a few inches of the floor, and it is astonishing what fine and detailed work was done by the decorators in the cramped attitude forced upon them, the drawing in these parts reaching at least as high a standard as elsewhere. Owing to the trend of the hillside, the tomb runs into it in a northerly direction. The end wall of the right-hand bay is therefore the east, and that of the left-hand bay the west, wall of the tomb. The scenes have been published by Pére Scheil, with plates in color by Georges Legrain, whose recent death has been deplored by all.' The second room, however, was not penetrated by them. The beauty of the coloring disclosed in this publication made me eager to copy the scenes *Memoires de la Mission Francaise, V, p. 189. M. Maspero takes pride in the merit of these plates, “mises sur pied d’aprés des croquis trés sommaires du Pére Scheil” (ibid, Vol. XVIII, p- 1). I scarcely think that the procedure can have been quite so irresponsible as that; but the engaging frankness of the admis- sion is very characteristic. 18 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS for the records of our Museum; so, having made inquiry of the villagers Previous as to the exact site of the tomb, I re-excavated it in the season of 1910- pete 1911, together with Tombs 179 and 182 in the vicinity. Unpublished ae fragments, large and small, which had fallen from the walls, had evi- dently been flung back into the tomb with the rubbish. These were, of course, carefully preserved by us, and, thanks to the pains taken by J. E. A. Mackay in replacing them, now give something like a clothed aspect to the upper part of the west side of the north wall (Plate XIX). The tomb, being fitted with an iron door by us, has since been accessible to visitors.’ Silence has been preserved regarding the circumstances under which it was first discovered, excavated, copied, and reburied. The date must have been about the year 1891. Convincing evidence that the tomb dates to a period anterior to the ees at great heresy is afforded by the erasures of the name of Amon; of the word ntr.w, ‘‘gods”; sometimes, as it seems, of the mwt hieroglyph; and invariably of the figure of the sem-priest. On the other hand, the occur- rence of the cartouche of Amenhotep III shows the period beyond which the tomb cannot recede, and this fixes it to the last years of that king, or the early days of his successor, Akhnaton, that is, to the years 1385- 1370 B.C. Most of the known tombs in the immediate vicinity date several reigns earlier, but a ruined tomb (No. 47) in the valley bottom is of the same period. The painted panels in the tomb are surrounded as usual by the pees block border’ and outside this in the corners by the narrow ‘“‘tail” edging and a band of blue. The elongated spots in the narrow strip, however, are colored red and black alternately instead of black only, and red and green when used once above the frieze (west reveal). Both in position and in color this latter use is a violation of its origin in a strip of skin and of its traditional employment.’ Above the block border, all the walls ‘T published a brief account of the tomb in Bulletin of M. M. A., Dec. 1920, Part II. * This designation of a border of colored rectangles is used by makers of stained glass windows. (reign of Amenhotep III?); 4o (reign of Tutankhamen), where it is again polychrome; and in later tombs. See Mackay, Ancient Egypt, 1921, p. 39. The lotus frieze and the border of petals had come into use a reign or two earlier (Theban Tombs Series, Vol. III, Pl. XXI). 19 Decorative features Ceiling texts THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES show a frieze formed by a chain of pendent lotus flowers with a bunch of blue grapes between them, the bunch having a meaningless red blob at the point. On the east reveal the bunch is replaced by a lotus bud. Above the picture in the inner room there is a frieze of white petals set against a ground which is green above and blue below, a reminiscence, perhaps, of alternating cornflowers. It is bordered above by three lines of red and black chequers on a white ground. A large number of small fragments of the texts and patterns from the ceilings were found in the rubbish and much time was spent in the endeavor to extract from them their original arrangement and to dis- cover on whose behalf the texts were inscribed. The results were unsatisfying, on the whole. The patterns were indeed secured, but their apparent distribution was too hypothetical to be worth recording. Seven or eight instances of the name of Nebamun were found; as half the name would be erased, its recognition would be more difficult than that of Apuki. Two or three occurrences of the latter name also survived, but two might possibly come from the jambs of the inner doorway. As the latter arrangement would ascribe the burial chamber to Apuki, it is clear, on this evidence alone, that the ownership was regarded as a double one. The lesser number of instances of the name of Apuki, so far from suggesting subordination, is in favor of the smaller chamber having been dedicated to him particularly. It was annoying to reflect once again that, had the tomb been conscientiously dealt with at its first discovery, the slight additional material which has certainly been destroyed by rough handling and lack of record might have turned the scale definitely in favor of one of the alternative hypotheses. The bands of texts seem to have been arranged in the usual way,’ and those round the sides seem to have been of the form “the honored liege- man (im3hy) of Duamutef, Osiris ... Nebamun, the justified one, says ...,” ending again with the name and title. Two hotpedens formulas also occurred, one of which may have run, “A ritual offering to Amon-Ré, lord of Karnak, and Osiris Khentamentet, that they may grant importance ‘See my Tomb of Nakhi, fig. 10, p. 45. 20 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS on earth with Geb, and spiritual personality (3h) in heaven with Ré, to Ceiling texts ‘the ka of the controller of the balances in Ast-josret, Nebamun, the justi- fied one. He says, ‘O ye gods and goddesses. . . .’” Apuki seems cited as “the controller” merely (cf. p. 57), but Nebamun is given his three titles. Several common phrases of blessing can be identified. A god 28 seems to be twice acknowledged along with the genii of the dead. The ceiling of the inner room appears to have been provided also with colored pat- terns, but the bands were in plain yellow, without texts for the most part. As has been said, the painted mud plaster of the ceiling has every- Ceiling where fallen from the shale roof; of the fragments preserved only two or ee three are of any size, and few retain the color perfectly. Hence, the re- peat of the design is not always assured. Eight patterns survive and this is what one would expect, two being needed for each of the two bays, and one for the axial division of the front room; two for the back cham- ber; and one for the soffit of the entrance (Plate XX X).? A few notes on the separate designs may be of interest. A. This complicated rosette is merely the strip design shown on Plate XXII bent round a center, being originally composed of four lotus flowers with green sepals and pink petals alternating with blue bunches of grapes round which tendrils cling. A black spot at the end of the bunch perhaps represents a berry, and serves to separate one bunch from the other. The four yellow calyxes unite to form a round center. This pattern is of frequent occurrence.’ B. This is partly guesswork, as the one fragment extant does not settle with certainty whether the concentric diamonds are exactly re- peated or exchange colors in alternate rows, as in Jéquier, Décoration Egyptienne, No. 18 (from Tomb 67); still less whether the alternating squares are yellow and white in turn, and what color the crossed quatre- foils are in the second row, when on a white field. As the spot at the top is blue instead of black, I have assumed that the quatrefoil is black in place of blue.’ "The extant fragments on which the designs are based are marked by an outline in the Plate and by an asterisk at the edge when this does not suffice. The color-values rest on preserved samples. *Cf. Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhét, Pl. XXXII, F. * Cf. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, I, Pl. VIII, No. 33. 21 —— — — —- - io Ceiling patterns Results of our excava- tions THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES G. At once the most common and least attractive of the patterns employed in the tombs. D. This combination of pattern C with the blue flower, in a very altered form and proportion, is rare. The repeat is not certain; perhaps the next zigzag would reverse the position of the blue and green, in cor- respondence with C. E. The repetition is again not assured; alternate spirals, for in- stance, might be ona yellow ground. But the example in Jéquier (cbid, No. 32; from Tomb 16) is in favor of the repeat. The spiral is on a pinkish drab ground, in order to make a slight contrast with the adjacent white. In the example quoted the ground is yellow. F. This is a somewhat degraded form of a very common pattern. Four, instead of two, lines should start from the central spot of the whorls, flying off at a tangent to form the outer line of the four adjoining spirals. The blue or green splotches in the corners seem here conceived as leaves or bunches of grapes; they should really be triangles of color with curved sides, following the shape of the field left by the rosette without quite filling it.’ G. This is merely a variant of C with the red zigzag expanded to the thickness of the blue and green bands, the white reduced to a mere edging, and slight divergencies in the quatrefoils. “ H. This combination of whorls and rosettes is a less pleasing vari- ant of E, or of Jéquier, op. cit., No. 32. The simple repeat speaks for the similar arrangement assumed by me for E.’ As the tomb had been cleared previously, nothing of value was likely to be found by us; nor, if found, would its position have had any evidential value. All the unsightly debris of a late Theban burial— fragments of small statuettes and stelae, cones, cartonnage, Sokar-hawks, etc.—came to light, and amongst it what seems to be a primitive door- bolt in hard wood,’ and a piece of a red pottery jar, with heads of a *Cf. Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, Pls. XXIX, XLIV; Five Theban Tombs, Pl. XX; Jéquier, op. cit., Nos. 34, 35 (from Tombs 71, 87); Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II, Pl. VIII, No. 3. * Cf. Wilkinson, loc. cit., No. 35. *Cf. Krencker and Schaefer, Zeitschr. f. tigypt. Sprache, 43, p. Go. 22 THE TOMB AND ITS OWNERS sacred ram and of a man excellently designed on it in black ink. Of shawabti figurines there were a hundred tiny ones moulded in red clay, and two larger ones in pottery, painted yellow, having the arms folded on the breast, and without implements. These latter belonged to ascribe Khenshotpé. A much finer one was in wood, 26 centimeters high, painted white, but with yellow breast and face to represent the gilded carton- nage. It has no implements, but carries the usual formula.’ The assertion of the workmen that it was found just inside the inner room is more likely to be an error or false statement on their part; for the little figure is the destined servant of one Atef, and a man of this name is father of an earlier Nebamun, a scribe whose tomb (No. 179) was being dug by them at the time a short distance away. That tomb is of the early Eighteenth Dynasty. ‘It is now in the Cairo Museum. 23 Results of our excava- tions = : Sor ee SS cena wi CHAPTER II DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES CHAPTER II DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES ONE of the most cherished of the gods’ gifts to the Egyptian was the power to go out of the tomb and into it again at will, and in hope of this privilege, he was wont to throw his shadow beforehand, as it were, on the narrow walls of the entrance. Hence, on the west reveal we see Apuki ()) and his wife Henetnofret saluting with uplifted hands the god of day as they go out together and, on the opposite wall, Apuki entering alone.! The former scene is much damaged, so that their address to the god would be inaudible, were it not taken from familiar prayers to the sun. Knowing these, we can catch the closing phrases: “‘['Thou traversest heaven with] glad heart; for the pool of Desdes is tranquilized, and the enemy is overthrown and his hands bound.”* The lady carries the sacred bead-necklace (menat) in her left hand. Somewhat unusually, its gold plate carries a dedication to ‘‘Mut, lady of Asher”; the goddess, doubt- less, whose service she affected. The east reveal, being less exposed to the shoulders of visitors, is better preserved (Plate XVIII). Here we see Apuki entering the tomb 1] take him to be Apuki because of the presence of Henetnofret (p. 7). Apuki goes out alone because the custom of leaving that part of the wall blank against which the door swung back left no room, as often, for the wife. The space, which sometimes (e.., in Tomb 4o) shows the horizontal slats of the door in paint, as if they had left their impress there, is here painted yellow; thus reflecting its color at least. 2 Budge, Book of the Dead (Text), pp. 9, 12, 36. 27 The west, reveal The east reveal — The east reveal Significance of pictures of sacrifice THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES after revisiting haunts of aforetime, and, first and foremost, the temple of Amon, where perhaps he had found pleasant corporeal solidity in a statue of himself, and sustenance in the offerings duly laid before it. His costume is unusual. His left arm has been slipped out of the loose sleeve of his long gown, and he wears on his breast a pectoral, which perhaps, by showing a little heart in a naos flanked by symbols of protection and stability, ensures that he remain in possession of ‘“‘his heart of aforetime.” It hangs by a string of round and oblong beads. He is described as “coming in peace from the temple to . . . his tomb [of eternity]. He has received () a good old age and is passing an honorable retirement (). He comes in weal and peace to . . . a golden pectoral (>) . . . in the Presence . . . [He saith] ‘Grant, lord of eternity, that I be with you in To-joser; (for) I am one of you . . . whose aversion sin is.’ For the ka of Osiris, the controller Apuki.” On both walls there are sub-scenes, in which we can still just detect men bringing tables of jars and food (west), and priests offering incense and libation before a pile of gifts (east). They take the same direction as the figures above. We now pass into the outer room; properly a hall of memories. But its wall-spaces nearest the doorway are treated as if they were extensions of the entrance walls; for here the owner gratified once more his desire to be shown making a morning sacrifice to the gods, first to the god of light and secondly to those who ruled over the necropolis. But if we ask, “Is he still the spirit-owner paying a brief visit to earthly scenes, or is this a reminiscence of former pieties which gained him a place in heaven?” the answer can be neither unhesitating nor simple. It may be illogical that the disembodied dead who lives ‘“‘close to the great god” should be seen worshiping him with all the paraphernalia of earthly sacrifices; but the supreme desire that heaven should prove another Egypt was stronger than any logic. Nor can we expect a man decorating his tomb while still in the prime of life to be able, or even willing, to think the things of earth away, and envisage accurately or consistently the conditions of an existence which he was not anxious to anticipate. Life and death are a contradiction to us. To the Egyptian it might be the difference between 28 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES life on To, the flat plain of earth, and To-joser, the desert hills and god’s domain an hour’s walking distance away. Nor is this mere verbiage. The Egyptian had a word makheru, the easy insertion of which would have plainly distinguished between named figures of the living and the dead. If we can in no wise trust its use and disuse to indicate this differ- ence to us, it is because the ancients did not feel the chasm as we do, or were able to make their wish not to feel it more operative. Nebamun and Apuki themselves might have been puzzled to answer our question. Inextricably mixed motives and beliefs, often quite incongruous, are the source of action more often than we like to think, and we should not lose sight of their existence, even when selecting the paramount incentive for simplicity’s sake. On the west side of the doorway, then, the owner (Nebamun in this case, as the erasure of his name shows)! is found in an act of wor- ship (Plates V, VIII); his gifts and prayers, here and elsewhere, being impartially distributed among a host of deities or deified entities. ‘‘Put- ting oil of incense and sacred gum on the flame for [Amon-] Harakhti; for Osiris-Khentamentet; for Anubis, the lord, chief of his mountain; for Hathor, the chieftainess of the temenos; for the evening bark; for the morning bark; for its crew and its oarsmen; for Ré and his disk; for the [greater company of gods] and for the lesser; [for the gods] who are in the necropolis; for the unresting stars and for the indestructible constellations; on the part of the chief of sculptors of the Lord of the Two Egypts, the child of the nursery, [Nebamun, makheru, (and) his] mother, the house-[mistress] Thepu.’’ Nebamun, dressed in his best, ‘For a similar scene and text cf. my Tomb of Nakht, pp. 11-13. The texts used in this scene are the only ones which are given a decorative value by being executed in polychrome. The hieroglyphs combine the fine detail of the older period with the careless forms of the approaching era. Thus also in Tomb 57. As will be noticed, the word “‘gods” is attacked by the illiterate iconoclasts only when written in its triple form and thus visibly polytheistic, whereas the very syllabic of Amon’s name is defaced in the most innocent con- nections, and, once or twice, that of his wife Mut also. Khons, their son, is generally spared as a moon god; as are also the names of all the gods of burial, even here where the spirit of polytheism has run riot and be- stowed new patents of divinity on the impulse of the moment. The term “monotheist” is one of which the followers of Aton are scarcely worthy. The movement was a vendetta against Amon, chiefly for political reasons; but with a more or less strong leaning on the part of the leaders to a purer and more natural religion. 29 Significance of pictures of sacrifice Nebamun sacrifices to the gods Nebamun sacrifices to the gods Thepu THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES with long hair,’ an elaborate collar, bracelets, and a goffered or gathered- up overskirt, pours a viscid oil over a heap of meat-offerings placed on two braziers. Four jars, similar to that which he is using, and showing proportions nearer to the true size, are piled with additional allowances of nard.? The oil of incense is probably not combustible in itself, but is poured over fragments of charcoal scattered among the offerings; for these are already in flames.’ Perhaps, when this is burnt out, the pyra- midal cone, which I take to be a pastille of gum mixed with white fat for slow burning, will be placed in its dish on top of the pile and ignited. We might be better instructed about this if the text over the head of the servant bringing it had not been mutilated by the heretics a few years later. ‘‘[Snér incense for Amon], king of the gods, presented by (lit. ‘“‘on the hands of”) [Nebamun] from the hand of the sculptor, Nebnufer.”’ The inclusion in the pile of gifts of a tailless bird (a quail?), with undevel- oped wing and colored a speckled yellow, is to be noted. The brightly plumaged bird in Nebnufer’s hand is also exceptional. It is perhaps a bird whose name makes it one of good omen, like the papyrus which is held along with it.* Thepu carries her menat with her, as a Greek his beads; it is some- thing between a trinket, a toy, and an amulet. The mantle, which, for some generations now, had been worn over the simple skirt, is drawn over her shoulders; but the artist, for his own ends, has allowed it to dis- ‘As often, the little locks are in moulded plaster, one row hanging thickly over that below, no doubt to give the aspect of a bushy wig. The device betrays the sculptor who is loath to surrender his effects, though working in paint. The same treatment is sometimes applied to the bead-work of collars, and in Tombs 71 and 100 an ear is moulded on a painted face with satisfying effect. See Mackay, J. H. A., V, p. 114. * The four pots are only placed below the stream of incense because their usual position above it is occupied here by the inscription. The outline of the nard they contain is just like that given to the pomade applied to the head and body, indicating a lumpy and stiff consistency; perhaps the more broken outline of the stream of incense may indicate that it has been rendered more fluid by an admixture of oil or other solvent. * The offerings are gathered into a solid mass of color by using a background of blue with black spots (blue without spots on Pl. XTX). Though this exactly resembles a mass of grape berries, I do not think it is meant for that. It is a departure from the old analytic way of setting out the items separately, as if the list was to be mentally ticked off; and approximates to the later fashion of setting the offerings in a bed of greenery. One would think that the latter was a perversion of this very picture, the blue being mistaken for foliage, and the flames for a fringe of leaves. ‘The bird has light blue wings, a pink belly, gray patches on the head and breast, and gray tail feathers. Cf. Budge, Wall Decorations, Pl. 3. 30 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES close the bosom. The exact arrangement cannot correspond to fact; if it had really been carried over both shoulders, it must have been tied above, not below, the breasts. Conscious of the elusive outline of a head of hair, and proud of his deft brushwork, the draughtsman has also been pleased to put in the little wisps of hair which escape about her ears, and add a fine wavy line outside the black mass. The loose hair at the lower edge, however, is shown as a stiff fringe, and may indicate that Thepu had to thank her wig-maker rather than her Creator for its lux- uriance.” The part of the sub-scene which lies under the main picture also belongs to it, contributing some new detail. The slaughter of the ox, which in companion scenes is often included in the one picture, is here placed below it, as is also the man following his master with incense.’ Here there is a special feature. Four blind men, walking with faces turned to the sky, as is natural to the sightless, accompany the sacrifice with clapping of hands and an appropriate refrain.’ ‘‘Praises in heaven, paeans in the bark Sektet, hallelujahs throughout the two Egypts, to [Amon] in all [his fanes], in his holy places, south, north, west, and east! The gates of heaven are open, the gates of Kebeh are thrown wide, a road is opened from the necropolis to the hills, that [Nebamun] may be refreshed, that the summoned meal may be given to him, heavenly rations issued to him, and anthems chanted to him in the solar bark, : while he presents a holpedens offering to [Amon, king of the gods], to Ré, to his eye, to his hand, to his body, and to Osiris-Khentamentet, ‘The mantle worn over the under garment is already seen on the celebrated statue of Nofret in the Vth dyn. It may be, then, that its representation in the XVIUth dyn. alone is new, owing to its more general adoption or for artistic ends. ?The armlet hanging between wrist and elbow is a comparatively rare addition to the toilette. We perceive its looseness from the slope given to it, but not how it was kept from falling over the hands. Ladies had the good taste to doff all jewelry when attending a funeral (Pls. XIX, XXII, XXIV). * Davies, Tomb of Nakht, Pls. XI, XII, XVIII. «These men seem to be a corps of beggars, perhaps attached to the temple, who act as a choir to any one making private sacrifice there. They are accompanied by a boy who holds their staves and sandals while they beat time to their anthem or play instruments, keeps a sharp look-out on their behalf, and pops the joints which the gods have done with into a sack. This, he reminds the gentleman in Tomb 69, needs propitiation also. Cf. Davies, El Amarna, I, Pl. XXIII and Tombs 4g, 69, 78 (Wilkinson, M. and C., II, p. 460), 106. Shi Thepu Accessories in the sub-scene Accessories in the sub-scene Offerings to Hathor THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES that they may bring good fortune to the child of the [nursery], Neb[amun].””* We cannot say whether the customary duplication of this scene was utilized in this doubly-owned tomb to show the equal piety of both men, since the figures worshiping on the east side of the entrance are left un- identified by the unfinished inscription—perhaps deliberately (Plate LX). The pair, therefore, may in this case be Apuki and Henetnofret, or Nebamun and his mother Thepu again. They make offering to Hathor in her form of the Cow of the West as she emerges from the Libyan hills’; but her figure is entirely lost, possibly by erasure. Only a blue papyrus head now appears at the top of the wall and the opening words of address, ‘‘For thy ka, O Hathor, chieftainess of Thebes, lady of heaven, queen of the gods . . .”* Prominent among the offerings is that bowl of green stuff which is specially, though not exclusively, hers.* The type of the lost scene is shown on Plate XX XJ, 2° ‘Note that the name Nebamun can be written with ‘““Amun” first or last. The idea of the hymn seems to be that the praises of the devout in earth and heaven clear a passage to the skies through the necrop- olis, the western hills, and the cloudland resting upon them, by which gifts of food can be exchanged between men and gods. The worshiper who at dawn joins his praise to that of the supernal beings in the sun-bark, receives the response as he makes the evening sacrifice and the solar bark draws near again to earth. Heavenly gifts descend to him or he ascends to heaven, as he prefers (Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, II, pp. 25, 26). The eye of Ré is the sun’s disk, his hands its rays (a trope which became the badge of the Aton worship a few years later), his body perhaps the whole brilliant vault of heaven, as Nut’s formed the night sky. But in Tomb 5o the body of Ré is defined as the disk (aton). * The papyrus reeds are an accessory of Hathor as the nurse of Horus in the marshes of the Delta, and probably have nothing to do with her Theban réle. I know no other tomb which shows Hathor worshiped at the doorway, and none of this dynasty which shows her emerging from the hill, or which gives her animal form, excepting No. 130, where the cow in her naos is said to be worshiped at a scene of revelry (Mission Francaise, V, p. 348), and No. 15, where we see her adored by Queen Nofretari (Carnarvon and Carter, Explorations, Pl. VI). The early association of the queen with this cult is very interesting in face of her later identification with Hathor-Tentamentet. It seems as if she passed from being an ardent patron of the cult of Hathor to actual coalescence with her, and, just because she was human, ended by almost supplanting the goddess in the affections of the vulgar. * This is the first of several instances in which textual matter is omitted, though space has been pro- vided for it. The cause is not mere slovenliness, but also the failure to appreciate the animation and interest which the written text conferred upon the pictures, as well as its decorative value. These lacunae become increasingly common as mural decoration loses touch with human life. ‘The same offering is laid before the deified king and queen further on because Nofretari is one with Hathor. Cf. Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, II, p. 19; and for the association of Hathor with these other guardians of the necropolis, Naville, XJth Dyn. Temple, I, Pl. XXV, D. *From a papyrus of the XVIIIth dyn. (Borchardt, Works of Art, Pl. 33). The stelae shown on the hillside indicate that, like all similar pictures, it is a reminiscence of the Hathor shrine at Deir el Bahri. 32 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES The representation on the same wall of Nebamun adoring the royal pair, Amenhotep I and his mother, Ahmes-Nofretari, is a pendant to that Just noticed. Its interior position and reversed direction befit their com- bined réle of dead mortals and gods of the burial-field; for they were now gradually being accorded the latter rank along with Hathor-Tentamentet and Osiris- or Anubis-Khentamentiu. As in the majority of cases, the queen is given a dark, indeed here a coal-black, complexion; a distinction which has been taken as a sign of Berber extraction (though not confined to her among divinities).‘. The black color duly appears as gray where it is veiled by her thin mantle. She wears as queen the skin of the Nekhebet vulture as headdress (with the unpleasing substitution of a uraeus for the bird’s head), a simple red modius above it, and the red sash at the waist under her mantle. Amenhotep’s features have a close resemblance to those of the reigning king, the third of the same name, portraiture being, as usual, out of the question. The descriptive text runs, ‘‘The superintendent of sculptors of the Lord of the two Lands, Nebamun, [giving adoration to the king of south and north Egypt], the Lord of the Two Lands, Joserkeré (to whom life is given), and bowing [in homage to the wife of] the god, Ah[mes-Nofre] tari (who liveth), that ye may grant [all kinds of] offerings [and delicacies] daily, and that I may be provided with your [marks of regard (?)] as a favored servant of yours who is of your train.”’ The east wall (Plate XV) shows a further act of worship by * Petrie, History, II, pp. 9, 337. Nofretari is by no means always painted black. So far as I have been able to control the instances, the employment of a black complexion in preference to yellow or red is about four to one. She is of black hue again in Tombs 49 and 161, both of the late XVIIIth dyn., but not in the early, and perhaps contemporary, tomb, No. 15. The tone is not always coal-black, as here, but a purplish black, reached by painting black over red; the black having sometimes almost disappeared, careful observation is necessary (Tombs 4g, 54). The black hue may be due, apart from any racial traits, to the idea that the dead or the dweller in the dark ynderworld should be of that color, or to the influence of a well-known and popular black cult-statue of the deity in question. According to Budge (Gods, I, p. 435) Hathor, with whom Nofretari was so closely connected, was born as a black child. Amenhotep I, the son of the queen, is represented black in Tombs 19, 161. Thothmes I has a black statue in Tomb 51. Mentuhotep’s queen is black in Tomb 277; but perhaps she was really of dark complexion (cf. Naville, XJth Dyn. Temple, II, Pls. XII, XIII, XVI, XX). Even if the black color were personal to Nofretari, it might only indicate a very dark complexion, such as now often occurs in Egypt, and be the echo of some early representation which recorded this. The Berber of the Nile, it may be remarked, is not black, and no negroid features are associated with the dark color in this case. 33 Adoration of deified royal- ties by Nebamun Reflections on pictures of worship Reflections on pictures of worship Worship of gods of burial by Nebamun THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES Nebamun, and so succeeds naturally to the adjacent one we have just studied. Once again we have to note a novel feature. Gods are not very readily shown on the walls of tombs before the Nineteenth Dynasty, except in the case of the chief funerary gods, and then only in the shrine, the passage to it, or in the lunettes of the stelae on the end walls of the hall! Very occasionally a scene of their worship takes the place of the stela. It is this rarer feature that is adopted here, but with the differ- ence that Osiris is accompanied by the four demi-gods who figure as his sons. They are the human-headed Imseti, the ape-headed Hapi, the hawk Duamutef, and the dog Kebehsenuf. Nebamun faces the little company of gods in the usual attitude of adoring prayer, a pose which seems to be the one natural to wonder and helplessness before an over powering presence or event, in which nothing can be done and only the emotions have play. When the feeling is complete, the worshiper instinc- tively kneels or prostrates himself, throwing the hands out of action as well. Where there is abjectness also, the arms are allowed to hang loose- ly down in an attitude of utter abandonment and submission; but it is to the credit of the Egyptians that this is not their regular position be- fore the gods, and even the kneeling attitude is later and more rare. Sublimity, mystery, and beneficence seem to be the divine qualities acknowledged, rather than mere power, and such feelings may fitly be accompanied by emotional expression in words. The explanation attached to the scene in this case is “‘Nebamun,” chief of the sculptors of the Lord of the Two Egypts, controller of the balances in Ast-josret, child [of the nursery], giving praise to Osiris and bowing in homage to Onnofer, heir of Geb and son of Nut, showing the two horns and displaying the atef crown, assuming ever-varied forms in heaven and earth, king to everlasting and [lord] of eternity. He says, ‘I come in peace . . . [I have nothing] of that which the gods abhor . . . [I have no] falsity; neither am I, nor have I been, insolent. I did not 1 Osiris or Anubis is shown on the end walls of Tombs 42, 48, 69, 85, 89, 112, 333, and on the side walls of Tombs 4o and g3; but these are mostly pillared halls. There is no parallel, I think, for a picture of the four genii as full-sized gods in this dynasty. * The erasure of the name settles the identity of the figure. 3h DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES transgress . . . [I gave to the] poor man who asked for corn. I did right for the lord of Right; for I knew that he lives thereby. Grant that I be among the favored ones who supply offerings to thy altar, in the midst of the great ones, in the number of thy train, my body’ (committed) to earth, my soul in Dat, and I myself enduring with endless duration. | have come into your presence, O Lords of Eternity, to be with you in the holy land. I am one of you; for sin is what I abhor.’” This speech is, of course, the traditional apology of the mortal when he appears before the gods. A slip in the defense might be fatal; safety lay in approved form- ulas. The gods who sit before him in a row (as the overlapping thrones show), with Osiris in front of them,” are enumerated thus: ‘‘Osiris-K hen- tamentiu-Onnofer, lord of To-joser, the great god, ruler of all the living, having his seat in Abydos of the Thinite nome, (whose) forms are many in heaven and on earth, Imseti, Hapi, Duamutef, Kebehsenuf. Hail! ye Lords of [Eternity] ... .’° The owners, having shown their piety towards the gods in general, to Hathor, to the deified king and queen, to Osiris and the genii of the dead, now turn to the sanctified dead, their parents, and confidently seek from the propitiated gods burial blessings for them also (Plate XVII). In this case, then, their piety is disinterested. The figures of Nebamun and Apuki (back to back) in the center of the picture have both been expunged because they acted and were clothed as sem-priests.* On the left Nebamun performs the hotpedens rite before his parents. “Veteran honors from Osiris, who controls fit burial in the west, for the ka of the chief of sculptors in Ast-josret, Neferhét, justified before [the great god] (and) his wife, the house-mistress Thepu, justified in the ne- cropolis before the great god, lord of To-joser.” ‘‘Pure, pure (four times). ' H3t is probably the reading. 2 As the knees of Imseti overlap the figure of Osiris, a strict interpretation would place them in a group on his right hand. But the throne of Osiris is farther removed from the four than they are from one another. * The dog’s head of Kebehsenuf is a replaced fragment. The two scraps of text inserted here by Mr. Mackay may be queried. That on the left, being in black, is much more likely to belong to the same position on Pl. XIX. ‘Perhaps this is what is meant by “taking the divine réle of Horus, the eldest son” at festivals, and hence disapproved of by the puritanical Aton-worshipers (Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, I, p. 42). But the skin itself seems to be an object of hatred; for it is erased in Tomb 85. 35 Worship of gods of burial by Nebamun Honors shown to the parents Honors shown to the parents Blessings claimed by the owners THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES For the ka of my father and my mother. Pure, pure; O Osiris Neferhét! Thousands of bread, beer, meat, fowl, clothes, incense, ointment, offer- ings, and delicacies! Pure, pure (four times)! For your ka!” The act of Apuki is the same; but he continues, instead of repeating, the formula: “‘Fresh water, wine and milk, and all things good and pure which have gone up before Amon, king of the gods. Pure, pure (four times)! For the ka of my father and mother.” He is introduced as ‘“‘Apuki, controller of Ast-josret, controller of the balances of the Lord of the Two Egypts,” and his parents as ‘‘the overseer of craftsmen in the temple Herihirmeru, the controller Senennuter (and) his beloved wife, the house-mistress Netermosé.’’ Each of the dead men holds a bouquet not much less rigid or formidable than the baton which it replaces. From under their collars two white or yellow ties depend, a feature which is rarely observable.’ The dead sit on a raised platform in acknowledgment of their position as heads of the two families. From this scene we pass easily, but perhaps not by intent, to that on the adjacent wall, showing the presentation of offerings to the newly dead, for whose benefit the tomb has been laid out. If scarcely anything now remains of this scene (east side of the north wall, Plate XVIII, 2), there is the consolation that it can have had little interest. Accepting the restorations hazarded,” it is pretty plain that Apuki was shown with Henetnofret in the place of honor in the lower scene, and we may assume that in the parallel picture above it his successor Nebamun was similarly provided for. Henetnofret is seated on a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory. Their son (Amenemhét?) presents them with a bouquet (?). ‘“‘Accept thou a bouquet [of Amon, O controller of] Ast-josret, sculptor (2) of the Lord [of the Two Egypts] . . .” Offerings of bread and flowers are laid before them on a table formed by the ka arms placed on a standard, and having within them a red field, vertically divided.* A man and a woman *They resemble the short stoles of priests (Schaefer, Von Aegyptischer Kunst, 1922, p. 110), or the longer ties of the vizier’s robe. * Only the feet of Apuki and of the person confronting him, and a fragment of text at the top of the wall, were found in position. All the rest has been refitted with more or less convincingness. *So on Pl. XXVII. This, as well as the ordinary form of the sacrificial table, seems to be a mere symbol, not a real piece of furniture. See note 3, p. 55. 36 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES follow the first figure with other offerings. She extends a menat (2) and the triple papyrus with the words, ‘I have brought thee a bunch of flowers which has appeared before [Amon]... .” The upper picture seems to have been very similar, except that the tables on which joints were set out were carried in the hands in this case. All that one can read is “*. . . with hearts and joints.” The burial rites which by their portrayal are recalled or recom- mended for observance, are found in this tomb on the west (end) wall and continued on the adjacent (back) wall. Their location in the outer hall is a breach in a custom invariable for bi-chambered tombs hitherto’; and within the scene itself also there are indications of changes which appear after the religious schism, but are here seen to have an earlier origin. Osiris is now the special god of burial, Isis being associated with him; the mourning wife sits by the side of the bier; women of the be- reaved family accompany the convoy; the sarcophagus is set up for fare- well rites and addresses; the tomb is shown as the goal of the procession; booths are erected before the tomb; the “‘opening of the mouth” is read and operations are performed on the dead with magical instruments; other novel details, too, are noticeable. Not, of course, that the rites had undergone just these changes, but that the traditional form of illus- tration had been modified. Yet a real change in burial observance is to be suspected, though the period over which it was spread is unknown. Even a superficial change in form may represent something like a revo- lution of thought in Egypt; for where theology is vague or inconsistent, details of practice become as sacrosanct as the deities themselves. The rites end with the adieu taken of the coffined mummy before its final deposition in the burial chamber, a scene tediously common from this time onward. In such later pictures also two coffins or mummies are set up, and when, as here, they bear no sign of sex distinction, it gives rise to the natural question whether the second is by anticipation that 1The west wall of the inner room, where such scenes should have found a place, is broken through in this tomb to admit a burial shaft, but this, too, is a gratuitous deviation from wont. Tomb 55, which also shows burial scenes in the outer hall, is slightly later in date than our tomb. The innovation is continued im- mediately after the schism (Tombs 4g, 5o). Cf. the note on p. 43. 37 Blessings claimed by the owners Changes now observable in pictures of burial The scene here presents a difficulty The scene here presents a difficulty THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES of the wife (whose person as Osiris might take on a male aspect), repre- sents the ka of the deceased, or is merely the same corpse at a later stage of the proceedings. Here the problem is still further complicated by the double ownership of the tomb, and the choice seems to lie between an identification of the second mummy with Apuki or with Henetnofret. In Plate XXI the said lady is shown embracing the feet of the former of the two, while the woman who is exhibiting the same sign of affection for the second coffined figure is left unnamed. Not only has this woman a younger appearance, but her grief seems to be under greater control; while the wrinkled breasts’ of the other seem a deliberate indication of a considerably later date for the interment of the foremost mummy, which the adjacent text seems to identify with Nebamun. These signs will, however, fit equally well the supposition that the younger woman is Henetnofret bewailing her husband on the occasion of her first widow- hood, or that it is her daughter, who, when Henetnofret’s own end should come, would naturally act as a sincere mourner at her mother’s funeral. The solution of the problem seems, then, to be that the choice between the two identifications was purposely left to the fancy of the reader of this little drama. This refusal to be explicit is in harmony with other evasions in the tomb, and, if accepted, reveals a certain shyness of invit- ing curiosity regarding the double marriage and burial.’ * This must be the significance of the little lines; for, if they had been scratches made by her nails, a real tearing of the bosom, the custom would have been somewhere shown. It is copied in Tomb 4g in the case of the oldest woman (Bulletin of M. M. A., Nov. 1921, Part Il, p. 24, Fig. 7). *In the later pictures two exactly similar coffins are sometimes shown without a reason for the dupli- cation being vouchsafed (Wilkinson, M. and C., III, Pl. LXVII; Popular Account, II, p- 359); but as a rule the omission of the beard from the second coffin (as in Tomb 31) shows that it was intended by anticipation for the wife, and sometimes this is definitely declared (Tombs 5o, 55, 113). As Tomb 56 is a little later in date than ours, we may ask whether the latter actually set the precedent of a double interment. The question seems settled by the depiction of two mummies in a tomb (No. 162) which is distinctly earlier in style, though apparently of the same reign. Here the second mummy is beardless, wears a fillet on the head, and is supported by a female figure; thus showing clearly that it foreshadows the wife’s interment in the same tomb. But it may still be that the novelty of showing the wife’s coffin alongside her husband’s has been seized upon in Tomb 181 as a happy way of recording Apuki’s burial in due form, and yet, by the omission of names, reserving this memorial of him for those intimate with the circumstances. The embarrassments caused by the depiction of a wife’s burial in her lifetime sometimes caused such silences too. It may be added that, as this recognition, in picture as well as in fact, of the claims of the wife to burial appears shortly before the revolution, it may be connected with the feminism of that movement. But there is only one coffin in Davies, El Amarna, III, Pl. XXII. 38 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES The ancient Theban method of depicting the removal of the dead to his last home in the western mountains was to show the convoy moving towards a figure of the deceased sitting at the funeral meal, the tomb and the gods being alike unrepresented,! or towards the deities of burial, the tomb being typified merely by inconspicuous false doors. In the Ramesside period, the funeral cortége, consisting only of the mourners accompanying the bier and the bearers of offerings, moves towards the door of a tomb with pyramidal summit, before which the mummy is set up and farewell taken of it with signs of extravagant grief. The boxed corpse in its lamentable inertness thus replaces the pleasant picture of the dead enjoying the amenities of their new life under the sympathetic protection of the gods; grief takes the place of acquiescence; the idea of a far-off realm of the dead succeeds to the hope of a tolerable, or even happy, existence in the open tomb within sight and reach of the land of the living’ In this tomb, as in two contemporary ones, the Ramesside model has not quite been reached, but an approximation is evident. The antiquated rites have disappeared; the burial procession now consists ‘For the Middle Kingdom see Davies, Tomb of Antefoker, Pls. XVII-XXIU, and for the XVIIIth dyn., Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhét, Pls. X-XII. * This contrast is, of course, too positive and only expresses the general tendency. Not only are we uncertain how far the pictures had always been, or had grown to be, inadequate reflections of custom, but the tomb-records, while making the above change of sentiment clear, let us see that natural grief and its expression had always had some place. As we might expect, it is the servants and dependents, those who did not find life so pleasant and had no prospect of a well-furnished lodging in the necropolis, who seek an unsat- isfying solace in exuberant emotion. Or the optimistic outlook on life had become hollow, and, though con- vention restrained the official class, hired mourners expressed a grief it was not proper to show in person. Thus the succeeding king, Akhnaton, despite his joyous creed and his practice of giving no encouragement to burial customs in the tombs which he provided for his courtiers (knowing that such rites must prove antagonistic to natural religion), yet in the tomb of his daughter sets forth his own proper sorrow and the hysteric grief of his following (Legrain, Culle d’Atonou, Pls. VI-XII1). The tomb of an officer of his mother’s household also shows abundant mourning, and something like the ancient rites (Davies, El Amarna, III, Pls. XXII, XXII). In tombs previous to our period, too, signs of mourning are not altogether excluded. The figures of mourning women in Tombs 75 and 78 of the reign of Thothmes IV have been erased or left unfin- ished, as if they were deemed an undesirable innovation; of other tombs (e.g. Nos. 53, 55, 57, 69, 89, 130, 161, 162) which show similar groups, almost all are of a period closely approaching ours. Thus we see that the Ramesside feeling of the fitness of lament in face of death is, to a large extent, the open sanction of sentiments long cherished by the mass of the people. Personal emotion has swept away convention and the older fables; for, while a class, a church, society in general, can afford to be optimistic, the extravagance of personal claims makes the individual pessimistic. The scene of the lamented mummy seems to be derived from one of the long series of rites performed on the statue or mummy of the dead which is shown throughout the XVITIth dyn. In Tombs 69 and 162 the rite takes a form very similar to that shown here. 39 Ramesside models fore- shadowed here Ramesside models fore- shadowed here Significance of this antici- pation Upper scene. Worship of Osiris THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES only of the bier, the mourners, and the bearers of funeral gifts; the dead are lifeless mummies; Osiris and Isis are prominent as the august rulers of ‘‘the other land”; the picture of the tomb is a compromise between a facade and a stela (though its symbolical representation by means of a conventional door is retained as well); while the familiar goddess of the West is reduced to an insignificant figure or to her form of the hawk of the necropolis. The later outlook on death thus seems to have been fully reached, since the definite traditions of the artist would be still harder to break down than the wavering feelings of the people. The revolution of Akhnaton on this supposition was less an innova- tion than an act of defense against an incoming lassitude in thought and life. On its best side it was an attempt, by concentration on the present life and by the recognition of a natural theology, to regain a more rest- ful frame of mind. The victory of Amon was the triumph of a depres- sion inherent in the economic and spiritual conditions of empire, which wasted on enterprises alien to the spirit of the nation energies which should have been devoted to ambitions in the valley of the Nile. Amen- hotep and Akhnaton, in short, vaguely forefelt the distant catastrophe, inevitable where a braggart people challenges, on nothing but material resources, the virile, though uncoordinated, forces of the surrounding world. In this light, if it is not a deceptive one, the Ramesside spirit, so far from being a violent reaction against an uncalled-for schism, was already existent in the reign of Amenhotep III, if not before. Narrowed and hardened in spirit, and gaining unjustified force as a revolt against revolution, it was the natural culmination of the Imperial movement— outwardly brilliant, but inwardly shaken—a destiny which the schisma- tics had sought to avoid by stressing the spiritual gains of that contact with the outward world which was for the moment to make, but in the end to mar, the fortunes of the Egyptian people. The depiction of the funeral is divided into an upper and a lower picture, and is, it would seem, made applicable at will either to Nebamun or to Apuki. Both are named and both appear in the same scenes, and the parts they play combine together to make up the full ceremonial; ho DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES only the coffin and the tomb being duplicated, so far as can be gathered Upper scene. fron the mutilated pictures. Soe : The adoration of Osiris and the provision of his table with propitia- tory gifts on Plate XIX are an acknowledgment by the two men that their future happiness and supplies depend on the goodwill of the great god. This picture of Osiris, accompanied by the hitherto colorless god- dess “great Isis, queen of heaven,” has in itself a late appearance, due to the throne on which he sits being assimilated to the likeness of a tomb facade, and to the lotus in front of him, on which images of the four genii of the dead were probably supported.’ Parts of the speech over the head of Nebamun are preserved; ‘‘Nebamun, [chief of sculptors of the Lord of the Two Egypts] in Ast-josret [giving ador]ation to Osiris, bowing in homage to Onnofer. He says, ‘Hail [to thee, Osiris], eldest [son] of Geb, great god who issued [from] . . . Osiris-Khentamentiu . . . whom the divine Isis and Nephthys protect, whose spells the great ones within . . . whose utterances Horus (?) conveys to every god, whose deliverances Isis. . . .”’ (Said) by the chief of the sculptors in Ast-josret. . . .”” Apuki takes second place with a short address (perhaps the end of a longer one) which seems to identify Osiris with the ever-dying, ever-living sun. “) at the ceremony of entering into the tomb . . . of the north wind, thy face being towards the south. A shroud’ is round thee. Thy front is thy front of the burial chamber (lit. “house of gold”). A king’s purification; for the king is pure!” The text written behind the performer’s back is probably the final part of his utterance. These cus- tomary words of ritual had from time immemorial imposed on the crowd ‘So in many later tombs and in a few earlier ones. I am convinced, however, that there was no special garment or color, the tone being simply due to the sprinkling of dust on the dress. Exactly this shade is used for the dust placed in the hands and on the head, and not only is it seen on the upper part of the dress, but it is also gathered up on the hems of the trailing gowns. In Tomb 56 those of the women mourners who are pouring dust upon themselves are given clothes of a dirty yellowish gray, while those who are not doing so have white garments. In Tombs 53, 162, 333, mourning women who are sitting in the dust wear bright blue dresses. But, of course, professional mourners might adopt dust-colored gowns and hair-ribbons in advance. *Schiaparelli (Libro d. Funerali, I, p. 26) shows that the performance was repeated at anniversaries. ® Variant mnh.t (Tomb 107). ‘The reference seems to be to the gilt face of the cartonnage or of the coffin. Perhaps the “house of gold” is here the gilders’ workshop. 46 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES by their vain repetitions, but the wearied scribe usually cuts them short.’ “Thy purification is that of Horus, and that of Horus is thine. Thy purification is that of Set, and that of Set is thine. Thy purification is that of Thot, and that of Thot is thine. Thy purification is that of Dadwi, and that of Dadwi is thine. Thy purification is that of Sepa ()), and that of Sepa is the purification of Osiris [Nebamun] and the purification of his ka.”* The second priest, who is identified with “his son Amenhotpé,” may be identical with the first one. He has donned the reed cape of the clergy as proper to the use of ‘‘the adze of Anubis” for the opening of the mouth. A boxful of other magical instruments, to be used in the re- maining rites, is spread before this priest, but as they are often displayed and on a much larger scale, they need not detain us. A scribe Pasinisu- Parennufer* spreads open his papyrus roll, that the spoken may exactly coincide with the written word. What is actually to be read on it, how- ever, seems to be “The scribe and wéb-priest, Palsilnisu (2), opening the ” mouth. .. .” Behind him again a lector, Amenemhét (2), the erasure of whose figure indicates that he wore the obnoxious leopard’s skin, puri- fies with water the pile of offerings, that they too may correspond to the immaculateness of the partaker. For the water flung over the dead has insulated him from all the defilements of the atmosphere, while the clean sand beneath his feet (not shown in this instance) severs him from those of earth. The fragmentary text above Parennufer only provides dubious phrases, ‘‘. . . the . . . serpent is destroyed for thee (>), for thou (2) art of the train (of the god) . . . the white crown is affixed and the red crown is affixed... .” In the background is a group of women, the friends or more distant relatives of the house. They either stand with folded arms in tearful resignation, or cower, pouring dust on their hair, in token that the pride of life is quenched within 'The usual contraction “‘and vice versa”’ is not used here; but one of the repeated phrases is defectively written. *The erasure of the name makes its restoration sure. The unusual close might be quoted in support of the attribution of the second coffin to the ka of the deceased, but it lacks other evidence. Osiris of Dadu is not generally referred to in the formula and is superfluous, as there is already a god for each quarter of heaven. *See p. 61. Aq The ceremonial THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES ae rea n ae them. Little is now left of their words of encouragement. We can only ; see that Thot, ‘“‘master of divine lore,” is invoked, and that the over- throw of his enemies is promised to the dead. a: | nee eas It was the privilege of the rich that whenever they halted for any ap purpose in making the round of their estates, their servants hastily ran up a light shelter of reeds for their comfort. The dead were not less well cared for. After making the traverse of the river, or the more tiring passage through the fields on their way to their last home, they found these little tabernacles offering them welcome refreshment and shelter; as befits the dead, the food and drink have been purified by fumigation and water by the friends who have provided them. Four such arbors are seen awaiting the convoy, and ‘“‘the sculptor, Nebnufer”’ has taken the trouble to make his personal tribute to his dead master eternal, and to emphasize it by the addition of a slaughtered animal.’ . gS oe The procession of male friends, who show their regard for the dead, if burial gifts not by tears and dust, but by substantial gifts of burial equipment, is headed by nine men, each of whom carries two little caskets suspended from a yoke on his shoulder (Plate XXIV). Each of these neat and decorative outfits provides a meal and also all that is necessary for its consecration. One of the reed caskets contains the food and the other the drink. On top of the latter lies the censer, and the libation vase is fastened on in front by means of clips formed like hands. The little water-jar slung on the rope in a net probably provides for the porter’s own thirst, which in Egypt seems limitless. Thus by means of the miiatdina baceeebens re AY) | ‘These tabernacles, however, may have been erected as a sojourning place for friends during a festival of several days, as at the modern feast of Bairam. They are rarely shown in pre-Ramesside tombs and are then not associated with burial, but with the voyage to Abydos (Tombs 57, 75), or with a festival in which the statue of a king (Tombs 19, 51), or, in imitation of royalty, the ordinary dead (Tombs 87, 100) was drawn in a barge round a piece of water, perhaps the temple lake. In later times the erection of the booths is shown as an incident of the interment, our tomb furnishing the first instance. The deceased is never shown in them, but only ministrants within or without. In Tomb 85, however, ritual is performed on a statue in a similar tabernacle, and in Tombs 57, 75 we see an empty chair there with a bouquet placed across it, as if symbolizing life which is too ghostly to be shown in human form. There may be one booth for the man (Tomb 57), two for the pair (Tomb 75), or four (in the earlier tomb, No. 87, and therefore unconnected in our tomb with the double burial). The water-pots were afterwards thrown down and broken in a simulated transport of grief, or to assimilate them to the state of the owner (Tomb 44 and Fechheimer, Die Plastik, Pl. 167). 48 OF Sao eee DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES texts with which the tomb was also furnished, the dead man could be The presen- his own household priest. A colored cloth thrown over each yoke may _ burial gifts be a table-cloth.'’ More permanent gifts are a set of staves, a cushioned chair (blotted out again for some reason), sandals, a scribe’s red leather writing case, an inlaid casket, a scribe’s palette and tablet, two shawabti boxes, a bed with mattress and head-rest, a light cane, another casket, canes, a spare head-rest, and four cruses of ointment on a stand. Finally a child trudges along, carrying in his hand a pair of sandals and on his head a little table spread with the tools of the dead sculptor, whether because they might not be used again, or to enable him to carry ona profession without which he was lost, as we say with a careless truth which the Egyptian could appreciate much more keenly. We can dis- tinguish an adze, a saw, three fine graving chisels, a bow-drill, and some other instrument (Plate XXIV). Seven “companions” bring up the rear, wearing the mantle and short skirt. In the lower register of Plate XIX we are transported to the river bank, the tomb being introduced again merely as a caption to the scene.’ [t is impossible to decide whether the two arbors are set up before the tomb or on the shore; probably the former, and in that case we must sup- ply in imagination a long spatial gap between them and the three ladies of the family, attended by mourning women, who wait on the bank to receive the official representatives, the bearers of furniture, the guests, and, finally, the dead himself. They are ‘“‘his (Apuki’s?) sisters,” Asi, Mutnofret, and Hentaneb. The presence of a high official of the necrop- olis lends administrative sanction to the proceedings. He is “‘President of the West (?) and controller of the temenos on the west of Thebes.” An injury to the wall prevents us from assigning their exact rank and number to the passengers in the first boat, “‘the elder . . . the priest the temple-father ... the wéb-priest . . . the head artisans of the temple of Amon in Ast-josret, who say, ‘O ferrymen, ye (2) are ‘Table covers, usually white, are also red or blue (Davies, El Amarna, I, Pl. XXIII). The loaves are seen lying within such caskets (ibid, III, Pls. V, VII). For the caskets see Tombs where. * Tomb 333 seems to afford a second contemporary instance of a depicted tomb. ho 55, 85, 172, and else- tation of Passage of the river by officials and guests Passage of the river by officials and guests Facial expression of sorrow THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES about to set one favored of Amon over to the West, as is done for one In the stern, looking back to the fol- 9991 who has done right on earth. lowing bark of the dead, is ‘‘his (Apuki’s) brother, [Amen]emhét,”’ who cries, ‘‘Thou art bound for the West; thou art bound for the West, my righteous (>) one; thou art bound for the West.”*® The next boat, which is in tow to the first, contains the porters. The man in the bow holds a floral offering and voices the sentiments of the passengers: ‘‘May his resting-place in the necropolis be acceptable; may he have a rock tomb of the West; may powerful spells be said for him at the door of his chapel; may he adore the god . . . (when) he sits in the place of two- fold Justice, as is done for one who has done right on earth.” The men in the boat bring flowers, vases of ointment, a decorated vase, a chair, and jars. The second man is perhaps labeled ‘‘the sculptor in Ast-josret, Sobek.’’* As before, the man in the bow turns with gestures of grief to the funeral barge behind. That craft is towed by a large passenger boat, crammed with wail- ing women who crowd the roof of the cabin and indulge in the wildest demonstrations of sorrow (Plate XX VI). The depiction of grief on their faces is perhaps the most successful effort of its kind in Egyptian paint- ing, which had never before attempted facial expression but had sought to supply the lacking effect in other ways. This little design, indeed, seems to have provided the classical instance and the model on which all later representations of the funeral procession were based. When one considers how very modern, relatively speaking, is the exhibition of feeling through facial form, whether in color or line, we may in part appreciate the courage shown by this member of the school of Ast-josret. It was perhaps not an accident that this important discovery was made in a ‘The fracture through the titles suggests that the name of Amon followed in each case. Note the complete and untanned skin of some long-tailed animal which protects the rope lashing the steering oar to the post. So also in Tombs 4o and 162, and on a stela in the Fitzwilliam Museum. * Actually ‘‘sister’’; but this error in gender is often made in tomb scenes. *Even natural ejaculations like these were prescribed (Budge, Book of Opening the Mouth, I, pp. 70, 72, QI, etc.). ‘Since the plate was printed I have been able to discover beneath the film of dried mud which covers the scene some details which my assistant had missed. 5o DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES school of sculptors. Facial character is much more easily depicted by the statuary than by the painter; and though Egyptian painting in its subsequent course made no advance on Nebamun’s achievement, Saite sculptors, strongly influenced by early models, showed great ability in this direction. The mad gestures of the women, who even invade the lower deck and weep in the very face of the steersman, are in humorous contrast with the resignation of the men, who squat dejectedly on the edge of the upper deck, as if their part at funerals was merely to act as a cordon to the emotional violence of their women. This agitated scene is balanced by the rhythmical movement of the rowers, as its simple colors are set off by the rich decorations on the cabin and the painted panels on the ship’s side. The delicate brushwork in this register has all the more merit as it has been used at so slight a distance from the ground that a severe effort was demanded to avoid rough execution. What survives has been saved by purest chance; had rain-water invaded the tomb but a little more freely, this master-work would have been lost in the sea of mud which has swamped the main deck, stopping short just at the feet of the group above. The ornamentation on ships of this class is almost invariable, and need not be further referred to here. The funeral barge, too, calls for no remark, except that the lonely figure of the bereaved wife beside the shrouded bier becomes the accepted design from this time onwards. Our artist was the first also to realize the full decorative value of the leop- ard’s skin, and to paint with real success mingled smoke and flame (cf. Plates XI, XIX). It may be noted that the transverse lines on the sheet of papyrus which the lector holds represent its rolled ends, as examples in relief show. We may gather from the pictures and accompanying texts that bright hours spent in the midst of family and friends might be looked forward to by the happy dead. But we should be much mistaken if we supposed that it was a prospect clearly envisaged and provided for by rite, by prayer, or by magical aids, pictorial or otherwise. For, as an Bi Facial expression of sorrow Other fea- tures of the scene Banqueting scenes in general GREAT SS oes erg nlite ees ot oat A ek vie Banqueting scenes in general THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES artist, wishing to produce large effects in inadequate space, leaves cer- tain features distant and out of focus, so Egyptian faith knew when to eschew system and dogma and pass to unoutlined dreams. A repetition of the pleasant social relations of the past might certainly be enjoyed by the dead, since no happening in earth or heaven, no escapade or adventure, was forbidden or beyond his reach. But hope is at enmity with dogma. The pictures, then, that we meet with in the outer halls of tombs do not definitely represent or secure such a reunion. Those who regarded them with satisfaction would assuredly not have welcomed ghostly presences in their homes and merry-makings. The scenes are primarily memories of the part which the dead might enjoy beyond cavil, and hopes surpassing these are only disclosed by a phrase, an epithet, an exaggeration which, being scarcely applicable to life here, might be regarded as hyperbole or as prophecy, according as mood or mentality inclined. Such scenes of feasting often occur more than once in different parts of one tomb, and a distinction needs to be made between them, even when the ancients failed to observe it and added elements of confusion. Three separate classes of banquets are perhaps depicted. One is the regular meal of the dead, which he would hope to enjoy daily, but which, for the common man at least, could only be so provided pictorially or by written spell. This is pictured repeatedly; above all, near the stela or in the shrine. It shows the dead pair sitting before offerings which a priest consecrates to their use (Plates XVII, XVIII, XXVII). The second depiction reflects an actual presentation of food and a real assembly of living relations on the occasion of the New Year, or some other anniversary. Here, too, the food was ritually offered to the dead; not in privacy and silence, however, but in the company of friends and to music and laughter. The third kind of meal is such as we are now to consider. Placed in the chamber of records, it commemorates primarily the pleasures of the past. No priest needs to intervene here, and no further regard is had to religious thought than had place in the banquets of long ago. The daughters of the house come forward with the cup, the garland, the ointment, the joy-bringing emblems of Hathor. 59) DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES The pet animal has place there beneath the chair; the meat and drink are material things, and not the ghosts of bread and wine; and, if they are offered to the ka, that anima blandula was a familiar spirit that began its protective or other offices with birth, not death. The distinc- tion between these occasions of feasting was, however, not observed strictly by the decorators. The actions and words proper to the one crept often into the other. The shadow of death naturally stole over the happiness of earth, or the thought of heaven lent new depth and dura- tion to the ephemeral joys of today; on the other hand, the familiar realities of the known world pleasantly tinged the monotonous expanse of eternity. With this word of warning against too rigid an interpreta- tion of words and details, we may turn to the picture itself and enjoy its very incongruities. On the west side of the south wall (Plates V-VIII) Nebamun is presiding over the hour of carousal. The ridiculous truncheon which he carries, against all earthly habit, gives a sepulchral heaviness little befitting the scene. The strands of his wig, heavy with ointment, are suggested by a clever convention. His mother sits behind him, while his wife, relegated to second place in his household during her elder’s lifetime, has a pleasant word for her husband as she serves him with the wine, to which she has perhaps added a dash of some spicy cordial from her little carafe: ‘‘Take, drink, and pass a pleasant day within thy last- ing abode, (ministered to) by the hand of thy wife, Henetnofret.”’ To * Black lines and triangular spots are used on a gray ground. It is almost certainly a wig; for in Tomb 57 the fine natural hair is seen peeping out from under it. Gray may only be used here to bring out the black and give the effect of relief, not to indicate age. Even if elderliness is implied, it may be based on the hope, rather than on the fact, of old age. In other tombs also one figure of the man has gray hair, but another black, so that it can scarcely be taken to prove age at death, though parents are sometimes marked out in this way (Tomb 292). The triangles are taken over from the ancient mode of representing short but thick hair; but they really replace the little pit by which the sculptor marked the hollow end of a ringlet. The whole is thus the work of a sculptor imitating relief in paint. The broad border of triangles well suggests the thickly overhanging mass. The back of the foremost chair is here shown, though more generally sup- pressed to avoid confusion. *The blue rings on the fingers of both hands of Henetnofret are rarely shown in the tombs, although these flimsy articles must have been generally worn in society at this period. Two rings are here placed on the third finger of both hands. The second finger of the left hand carries none, and the little finger of the right hand a thin band only or none. One is seen on the hand of the lute-player in Tomb 93, and the wooden fingers of late coffins are often loaded with them. 53 Banqueting scenes in general The cup handed to Nebamun and Thepu % ; 3 The cup handed to Nebamun and Thepu THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES complete the attractive group, “‘her beloved daughter, Mutnofret,” by Thepu’s side, and Nebamun’s hound, ‘‘Good Guardian,” at his mas- ter’s feet. It is evident that dogs took a place in society then that is denied them by Islam, and this habit of giving names to their pets is an evidence of advanced culture and feeling that is of greater weight than more elaborate proofs. As with the fellahah of the present day, the woman’s mantle is so ample as to drag in the dirt, and when the limbs need to be freed for movement, it is slipped from the shoulder and the * sits slack carried over the arm. It is said of Nebamun that he is “‘sitting down to make merry during a pleasant day within his house of the West, this everlasting mansion of his which is in the precincts of Hathor, lady of Josret.* May she give thee leave to come up to earth and to the open forecourt of the tomb; so that thou mayest see the sun when he rises, and listen to the sound of the lowing kine. For the ka of Nebamun, superintendent of the sculptors of the lord of the two Egypts, controller of the secret department (>) in the temple of Herihirmeru.”® To these general good wishes, which chance visitors to the tomb might echo, the guests, led by Henetnofret, add their own: “Gifts (for) thy ka! Thy white garments, fine oil for thy arms, garlands on thy neck,‘ . . . in health and life, frankincense . . . which has appeared before [Amon] . . . in thy That the lowing of the cattle should be music in the ears of the dead is a very human touch, showing how strongly the heart of the Egyptian official even in the capital turned to outdoor life. It is also a very tactful petition to make to the cow-goddess. a9 eternal home. *‘Mutnofret should be by position a daughter of Thepu, and so sister of Nebamun, but she appears to be a daughter of Henetnofret by Apuki, for a woman so named has this relation in the sub-scene. If Henetnofret and Mutnofret were Nebamun’s sisters, one would have expected the unmarried sister to have acted as cup-bearer. If, on the other hand, Mutnofret is Apuki’s daughter, whether as niece or as step-daugh- ter of Nebamun, her presence in this scene shows on what terms of amity the two families lived. Had Henet- nofret been a daughter of Thepu, and Mutnofret Apuki’s child, we should have expected the latter to have been defined as ‘the daughter of her (Thepu’s) daughter.” * By the sh of Hathor, thus written, the §3h.t of the goddess, namely, the necropolis in which she re- sided, would seem to be intended (Theban Tombs Series, III, p. 6). *For Herihirmeru (‘my face is towards the beloved’) see pp. 6, 7. I read in the lacuna aN Jj with an abandoned, but not erased, addition ia is ‘This is the collar of woven leaves and petals, or their equivalent in faience, worn by Nebamun under his collar of gold beads, as by all guests on festive occasions like this. oh DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES The relatives of the pair sit before them, one married couple in com- plimentary prominence, the other men and women apart. Unfortunately their names, which might have elucidated the personal history of Henet- nofret, are broken away or are omitted, whether from sloth or because this pretty family array scarcely corresponded to fact. In the uppermost row a young woman offers the menaé and symbolical flowers to a married pair, and by this attention betrays a rank which they had probably won by age or death. The man clasps a decorated scribe’s case in token of a profession of which he and the family were proud.’ The lady sits on a cushioned ebony stool, decorated with paint or inlay, and both of them have footstools under their feet. He is “{Her father] the favorite of [Osiris, janlitor in the house of Pharaoh [in the city, servitor] of the god- dess [in the] temple Iunef, [Amenhotpé],”? and she ‘“[His wife] the house- mistress, Mut]emwia, who has entered into her reward.” Both are given the epithet ‘“‘makheru” commonly applied to the dead, and, in agree- ment with this, their table is of the form reserved for mortuary feasts.’ Though ointment is on their heads, their garments are not stained, and both women in the scene have the clear yellow complexion that seems preferred for deceased or aged women, though by no means confined to such. The first figure in the second row is also marked out by the atten- tions shown him. He has been given one of those pretty folding stools which are often found in Egyptian graves, with legs shaped to the neck * Two little black and red penwipers (?) are attached by strings to a fastening at the side which has the form of a bird’s head. * For this person see also pp. 15, 44, 57. The temple Tunef (?) is not known. Its goddess is perhaps Hathor-Nofretari. ’ The loaf in the middle of the table must belong to a = sign engraved on the top of the alabaster slab, as often on square offering tables, and is set upright in the picture in order to be visible. So in the sub- scene and Tomb 69. But these tables of the dead seem to have been pure creations of the fancy and had no real models. Originally a round table was presented, set out with halved § loaves, but the custom suffered change, and when, after a period of turmoil, tombs began to be decorated again, the uncolored representa- tion was misinterpreted as a table set round with a hedge of reeds. The change was made the more read- ily as, by so drawing it, the table formed a rebus of the Sekhethotep offering, and thus, by virtue of its form alone, became a divine meal. With truly Egyptian inconsequence, when the form was changed, the color was retained, though now incongruous. There is a peaked form of the same table which seems to involve a per- ception of the apparent diminution in height of further objects, when set round the edge of a circular slab. But it may have a different explanation. 55 A privileged pair Other guests Other guests Similar scene in honor of Apuki THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES of a goose pecking at a flower. He wears an added mantle, too, and is being rubbed with ointment and decked with a garland by two girls of the house. As no name is appended, however, all this may only set forth the deference which ought to be paid to elders on such occasions, no definite person being had in mind. Three men behind him have had official rank conferred on them by the batons which they hold, but only one was given personality, and that has been lost again.’ The ladies sit on cushioned chairs’ and are waited on by girls who place unguents on their heads, or pour wine into their cups. A little bowl is set beneath the chairs for each row of men and women. It is to be feared that this is a resource in case any one should over-drink himself.’ This disgusting habit was probably a polite sign of thorough enjoyment, as belching is amongst the modern Egyptians. As only the handmaidens who serve the ladies are nude, we gather that the practice was confined as a rule to the women’s quarters. In the contemplation of one of the very prettiest and most delicately executed of the many presentations of the subject in Theban tombs, the little yellow cat, with lolling red tongue and inor- dinately long tail, will command special attention. It is a marvel of deft brushwork, when one considers its size and the technical handicaps. This picture of the family gathering round Nebamun is balanced in the sub-scene by a much less elaborate one in favor of the first husband. Here Apuki and Henetnofret sit, with her little daughter, Tiy, nude save for ornaments, by her side, to receive gifts at the hands of their friends. The feast in this case is distinctly sepulchral, implying, by con- trast with the other picture, that at the time of designing the picture Apuki was dead, but Nebamun still alive. The formal table of offering is used, the food is ritually consecrated, and Apuki is a recipient, rather than an honored host. The erasure, as well as the extant title, shows ‘He may have been Amenemhét or Amenhotpé, son of Nebamun. *The legs of the chairs in the lowest row seem to be drawn in perspective, but are not, I think, really so. The outlines of the front legs should also have been repeated on the right side of the nearest one, instead of the left; but they would then have intersected the line of the lady’s skirt. Convenience, not perception, has ruled in the case. *Cf. Wilkinson, Popular Account, pp. 58, 59, Wreszinski, Allas, 392, and Tombs 38, 4g, 53, 84, 333. 56 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES that a sem-priest was present to perform the prescribed rite.’ A son, the elderly relative whom we met with above, and his wife, bring flowers, ointment, and a dish of grapes.” Mutnofret, daughter of Apuki, carries a flaming lamp and also a taper, either tied for support to a reed, or forming with it a rushlight, the wick of which is outside it (in picture at least) instead of within’ The accompanying texts run: ‘‘ Veteran honor with [Amon], lord of [propitious] burial, for the ka of the sculptor of the Lord of the Two igypts, Apuki, the justified one.” ‘His wife, the house-mistress, object of his love and desire, Henetnofret.” “A hot[pedens offering to Amon . consisting of] bread, of beer (?), of cattle, of clothes, of incense, of ointment, of (other) offerings and delicacies, and of everything good and pure for the ka of Osiris Apuki. . . .” “His son, sculptor in Ast[-josret, Amenemhét].” “[Her father (?), favorite of] Osiris, door-keeper in the city in the house of Pharaoh (life, prosperity, and health!), servitor of the goddess, [Amen] hotpé, the justified one, son of the controller, Hét.” “His wife Mutemwia, justified before the great god, lord of the West.” “His daughter Mutnofret.”’ The scene of industry which is found below that of worship on the east side of the south wall (Plates XI—XIV) was scarcely to be expected in the tomb of a sculptor, as it is generally seen only in those of high temple officials." Apuki’s father, however, had been a superintendent of craftsmen in an unidentified temple, and not only did Nebamun hold a post in the same establishment, but he and Apuki were ‘‘controllers of the balances in Ast-josret”’; that is to say, as this picture testifies, they controlled the output of precious materials to the workmen of that temple or locality. A master artist was well fitted to judge the amount of raw material required for manufacture in his own or kindred departments, Perhaps he was a son, whose name, compounded with “Amon,” was written in the lacuna overhead. * Schaefer shows that the cross-lines on the fruit represent the four compartments of the dish (Von Aeg. Kunst, 1922, p. 94). A dish of raisins in Turin Museum from the tomb of Khay is similarly divided by cross sticks merely. The strings of beads or berries which secure the upper rows of the bouquet are also observable on floral collars; once again they are a feature which one would have dubbed Ramesside (cf. Vol. V, Tytus Series, south wall of Tomb of Apy). ; * An abraded inscription near her figure may have read “Making [fumigation] for the ka of Apuki.” *So in Tombs 36, 39, 67, 75, 86, 95, 100, 112. 57 A Similar scene in honor of Apuki The work- shops of which the owners had charge The design a borrowed one a | S| 2 j | a i i Weighing out the materials THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES and, no doubt, would have a number of treasurers and their staffs to control him in turn. It is at least safe to assume that this scene is introduced here because Nebamun or Apuki (the presiding official is not identified with either; probably with intention, since both held the qualification) occupied a post of superintendence in the workshops. The design has come down to us also on the walls of Tomb 75 of the previous reign, practically the whole of the two upper registers here being taken over from the earlier picture.’ The temptation to re-use it would be increased if it were the work of Nebamun’s father, Neferhét. The differences of the replica from the original are worth studying, though it must be admitted that a cer- tain baldness and lack of finish in the work of the earlier tomb makes the comparison unfair to the art of that period. Only a generation had passed; yet Nebamun finds much that he desires to alter. The field must be still further filled in, the figures given more life and ease, their fingers more suppleness, and the manipulation of the tools made more clear. The vessels need more embellishment and delicacy of outline, and above all there is room for greater fidelity to detail in every direction. The sphinx, for example, should not protrude its paw beyond the base, the flames would stream out under the blast, old men should be dis- tinguished from the young, the chased objects must show that the engravers have not lost their time, etc. The later artist saw, too, that the design could gain by the enforced reduction in size, that the deftness which the scene was meant to depict should be exemplified in the paint- ing, and that, the object of the superintendence being production, the men and their output ought to bulk larger, and the official and the pre- liminaries proportionally less. In all points there is distinct gain. Pictures of the industries of ancient Egypt have been discussed be- fore, but the present example invites certain comments. The controller of the balances has certainly not magnified his office overmuch. The flowers which he holds seem as much out of place here as the baton in the banqueting scene, and the episode in which the gold is weighed out 'Theban Tombs Series, III, Pls. VII, X. 58 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES to the workers is reduced to the smallest proportions. The equivalent Weighing out the of a bull’s head weight is ten gold rings, as against quite irreconcilable — materials numbers in the earlier picture. The post of the balance is fitly crowned by a head of Justice, a symbolism that is emphasized by the feather- shaped peg from which the plummet hangs. The specimens of the crafts- men’s output which are submitted to the approval of the controller include some of the most attractive products of Egyptian art: inlaid cloisonné work, applied to trinkets, bracelets, and clasps for necklaces; fluted gold and silver vases; a painter’s pen-case’; and caskets fitted up to receive jewelry.’ The upper register, which shows the carpenters at work, bears clear Influence of witness that this is a temple workshop and that its products are des- ee tined to furnish graves and shrines rather than homes. We should have preferred, no doubt, to have seen the secular side of Egyptian crafts- manship. But we must remember that these scenes are borrowed from the tombs of priests who display their activity in the service of Amon, and must not assume too readily that religious ends monopolized the fancies and energies of Egypt. It may be that the manufacture of objects that needed only to simulate the efficiency and beauty of things in daily use often perniciously affected the arts and crafts of Egypt, especially if these temple shops were those that supplied its civil needs also. But, after all, the furniture of the house and of the tomb were not only similar but often actually the same, and our museums bear witness how large a balance of good the influences of faith yielded even in this re- spect. The ideals which give birth to masterpieces are not confined to religion, but neither does true piety foster that poverty of spirit whose offspring is shoddy. Carpenters’ work was, in any case, not that in which Egypt shone Corps conspicuously, owing to its lack of wood and of tools of necessary sharp- ness. Yet we have more reason to wonder at what was sometimes achieved ‘Halyed ink-pools will be observed on the edge of the palette. This is evidently the place where the scribe conveniently relieved his brush of the surplus ink; for it is to be noted twice in Tomb 69. Some of the numerous palettes in museums ought to show traces of this natural habit. Cf. Wilkinson, M. and C., III, p- 422. °Cf. Bulletin of M. M. A., Dec. 1919, Part II, pp. 24-28. 99 Carpenters ‘ at work | Interpreta- } tion of a drawing Sects BRISA Feet eT ne hen eek: 13 teh toate THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES than at the mass of meretricious cobbling which passes under the hands of the archaeologist. The cabinet-makers of the necropolis were mostly kept busy on the catafalques of the dead, whose sides in a first-class burial were formed of what looks like pierced work, but was in reality a very complex piece of fitting, each symbolic f and § device being carved sepa- rately, and secured to the rails by little tenons. These ornaments were ranged in pairs, less for reasons of beauty, probably, than that they might be read as divine promises of “doubled stability” and ‘doubled protection ()).” These little insets of four to six inches high are, for con- venience, shown many times that size when in the hands of the workmen. They are cut in dark and light woods, but apparently not for use in the same panel. They are shaped, it seems, chiefly by an adze on a block, the chisel being used mainly for engraving lines of decoration. The man on the left is evidently intending to paint in the details, as a scribe’s case is before him. A tool which it is difficult to identify lies by the block on If the use of the plane could be attribu- ted to the ancients, this might be its nature.’ An unkempt old rascal which one of the men is sitting. is doing the more difficult work of fitting in the carved ornaments by tapping on them with a light hammer. His physiognomy would not lead us to expect much from his work, any more than in the case of his comrade who does the skilled job of sawing up a log into thin lengths for the carvers. Our artist has shown a humorous contempt for the old fellows with thin hair, stubbly beards, gaping mouths, flabby stomachs, and shrunken legs; we could wish that this critical outlook which has given us men, instead of dolls from a mould, had been more developed in the profession.” Egyptian drawing, not being a mirror of visual appearances, any more than the national script reflects elementary sounds alone, is hiero- ‘In Tomb 75, from which it has been taken over, it lies curiously athwart the field, but there the angles are so much sharper that it might possibly be a square for measuring angles of 90 and 45 degrees. No actual instrument of this sort is forthcoming, but it must have been almost indispensable for mitering. * A puzzling feature is to be observed throughout this scene. The noses of many of the men have been defaced, but had previously been marked with little splashes of light orange paint. It looks as if some joker of the period had imposed a fit of infectious sneezing on the workshop, and then had carried the jest to a more unpardonable length. Some of the tools seem similarly marked, however. 60 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES glyphic like the latter, and often admits of more than one explanation. [ntetpreta- Such a problem of interpretation is presented by the diagram in the pa middle register which shows a man handling a casket such as we have already seen. The object seen between lid and box is at first sight puz- zlg, and only one who is familiar with Egyptian archaeology, and can thus be ranged with those for whom the drawing was made, is able to pass a conclusive verdict. Here it will be plain to all such, I think, that the artist has desired to indicate that the box was being made for the express purpose of holding jewelry. He has therefore lifted off the cover, and has tilted up a pectoral which lay in the upper partition in order that we may see it in place.’ Incidentally, yet not without purpose, he has given a date to his work; for this pectoral consists of the two car- touches of the reigning king, Amenhotep-Nebmatré, with the figure of the child-god Harpocrates as a uniting link.’ The companion of this man may be grinding down the faces of two Jewelers and pieces of inlay against one another. Above him is a saucer of corundum a or other polishing material, and a dish of precious stones, covered with a napkin to prevent pilfering. Above this, again, is a chain of tubular beads with small gold beads intervening and with a sliding clasp of lotus- flower and buds. The adjacent trinket shows a scarabeus holding between its anterior and posterior tarsi two symbols of the eternal circuit of the sun, that still to be accomplished and that already run—a highly aes- thetic rendering of the creature’s habit of rolling its eggs ina ball of dung. It is winged, and the wings, divided into partitions for inlay of color, shine with brilliant hues.’ The little object at the side seems to be a chisel blade; but, as it is bright blue, it might be a piece of inlay. Seated with his back to the last worker, “the draughtsman of [Amon], Pasinisu, called (also) Parennufer’’’ is engraving an inscription on a libation vase. = SS OG ee SP a RO ¢ ‘ ‘ ‘The back edge of covers was generally not hinged to the box, but slipped into a slot in the side, and could be lifted right off. See Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II, p. 200 (Tomb 4g or 53). * For the figure of Harpocrates in jewelry see Lepsius, Denkmiiler, U1, Pl. 69. * Cf. Davies, Tomb of Puyemré, Pl. XXUI. ‘He seems to be the same individual as the priest who takes part in the burial service on Pl. XVII, and perhaps also as one Khonsu-Parennufer, chief of the sculptors (?) of Amon, whose funeral cone is in my collection. 61 Jewelers and engravers Smiths THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES A fine specimen of the decorated vases, suitable for display rather than use, is shown above him. The heads of two ducks, each holding a bunch of blue grapes in its beak, serve as handles, and a balustrade, formed of contiguous flowers and buds set on long stems, runs round the rim. The color of these, as well as the heart of the open flowers on the flutings, must have been provided by inset fragments of suitable stone or paste.’ The sphinx, as is made plain in this specimen in gold, is of a tripar- tite nature, combining the royal man with the royal hawk and lion. From the first it has its head, headdress, and cape; from the bird (as mark- ings only), its wings and a superfluous tail; from the last, its body, legs, tail, and conventional mane, as also the crossed bands belonging to the decorative form of the tamed beast.’ Metal-workers are also engaged in hammering out gold or copper vases, one on a rod-anvil by means of a flat stone, the other with a lighter tool. Specimens of graceful vases of ordinary type, and two caps for the two jars in preparation, are displayed above. At the end of the register a coppersmith is using a portable furnace. The courage of our artist in attempting effects which those before him had regarded as beyond success has been rewarded by such a rendering of smoke and flame as could scarcely be bettered with such simple means. He works with tongs and blowpipe, but nothing more can be affirmed. The lowest register has suffered greatly from infiltrations of rain- water. Metal-working is still the subject on the left hand, where lamp- stands are being hammered out and furnished with dedicatory inscrip- tions.’ One of the workers is heating a piece of (red) copper in the fire by means of a blowpipe, holding it with tongs. The next group is too injured to allow a definite opinion on the operation. A seated artisan holds a red plate over a black mass set on top of a wooden block. This may be an anvil of basalt, as the figure facing him has a round black ball poised in his right hand at shoulder height. They may, therefore, be ‘In Tomb 78 a drinking-cup like this is described as “a cup of gold, formed with inlay (?) of lapis, and filled with liquid.” * Cf. Naville, Deir el Bahari, Pl. LXXXYV. *In one case the stand and its shallow basin are separate picces. 62 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES beating copper into a curved sheet on a concave bed. The next group of five men is gathered round a flaming bellows-fed furnace of gray clay, with a red crucible upon it. The metal in it is being stirred with a rod by a workman, and the fire blown up by his four assistants. This form of blast-furnace is well known, but there are no less than four bellows at work, each operated by a man standing on it, and a fifth seems to be available at need. An ingot of lead and another of copper indicate the materials used. This episode, as well as the next, has been shown and commented on by me previously.’ The finished strings of beads, which in Tombs 39 and 75 make the action of the next craftsman clear, are here put away in their box. The strange purple color given to the drill handles leaves us as much in the dark as ever as to the mode of rotating the points, particularly as the string of the bow acts on the points themselves, where it would exercise no torsion at all. One gathers, at least, that the resistance must have been of the lightest, that is, that the points were revolved without much pressure in a grinding paste, and that patience was the primary requisite. Owing to the essential similarity of their task, though on so different a scale, those who bore out alabaster vessels are placed next to the jewelers; indeed, among them, for the last figure seems to be stringing up beads into a collar. So one must judge from the clasp above him; the unusual form the collar is assuming might be explained by its being a sheet of stiff material (yellow), on which the beads are temporarily set out, the little blue and red ones in the central space being those still unused.” The limited wall-space and the unwillingness of the Egyptian draughtsman to originate wholly new designs probably make this scene a very inadequate record of the varied interests and responsibilities of this “‘controller of the royal balances.” We must, however, be grateful that the veil which hangs over the career of the art-workers of ancient time has been lifted even by so much. ‘For the furnace and manufacture of beads and stone vases, see Tomb of Puyemré, Vol. I, pp. 73-76. *The adapter of the old design may have been led into confusion here. In Tomb 75 the makers of horse-pads and other trappings follow immediately on the jewelers (Theban Tombs Series, Vol. III, Pl. X) and one of these articles in leather appliqué work may have been mistaken for a bead-work collar. 63 Smiths Boring beads and vases An unfinished shrine THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES The inner chamber of the tomb has had its mud-lined walls slopped over with a thin wash of white, and two thirds of the east wall has been decorated against a ground color of that glistening yellow which is gen- erally reserved for shrines and kiosks (cf. Plate X).' One can gather from the condition of this scene the probable history of its execution. It was at first intended to paint it in proper style, and at the far end fig- ures of one of the owners and his wife () sitting before a small table of offerings were carefully put in (Plates XX VII-X XIX). Perhaps the con- secrating priest facing them was drawn with equal care; but this figure has been erased, as always. At this stage it became evident that the decoration could not be finished. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to carry it further in the short interval remaining. If the original design was adhered to, it is likely to have been meant to depict the celebration of a feast-day by the family of the deceased, and not the ordinary meal of the dead. For the addition consists of two musicians enlivening the banquet, and a married pair, of almost the same size as the chief per- sonages, sitting in front of them; the first, presumably, of a row of guests, to judge by the direction in which they face. They are receiving flowers from the hand of a young woman, but, as there was no time to insert the projected texts, we are unaware whether the man represents the other owner of the tomb, or, as is more probable, the privileged Amenhotpé and his wife (p. 55). This part of the scene seems to have been entrusted to another painter who worked simultaneously with the first. While the chief artist was carefully finishing the main figures on the left, his coadjutor worked on the female figure on the same side of ‘Perhaps because of the name “house of gold” (see p. 46). * The picture has a strong resemblance to the banquet scene (Pl. V) particularly if, as is well possible, the girl was offering a menat again as well as flowers, Henetnofret being replaced by the sem-priest and musi- cians. Was it in that case a repetition of the reception by Nebamun and Thepu; a replica, showing Apuki and his wife in the place of honor, and her parents as chief guests; or, as a third alternative, the two owners, with mother and wife respectively, and a son and daughter ministering to them? The part of the scene on the upper half of Pl. XXVIII was not found in even this degree of completeness. The extant part reached only to the knees of the figures; the rest has been made up of nine or ten fragments found on the site. The bindweed wound round the stems is again a forecast of a feature of the new art which the later era endorsed. The hanging head of papyrus could possibly belong to the stems in the man’s hand, instead of to the more stiffly drawn bouquet. 64 DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES the portion assigned to him, and devoted more time to her attractive per- son than he could well afford; for both painters were obliged to conclude their tasks in the most summary way. While the assistant threw in the seated pair more and more roughly as leaving-time drew near, the master sketched in the figures connecting the two portions with strokes of red color that show vigor and the practised hand, but are in strong contrast to the precise and ordered laying out of figures which we ex- pect from an Egyptian artist. The whole was probably the work of half an hour or less, dashed off, indeed, with such speed that the draughts- man has had to correct his tentative lines continually. The figures are those of a blind lute-player in a standing position, with the upturned pose of the head much exaggerated (cf. Plate V), and a companion sitting on the ground with crossed legs and beating time to the strain. In his enforced haste the artist has evidently placed on the wall one of those preliminary projects for a design which are sometimes found on ostraca, and the expert will probably acknowledge that the sketch is full of powers to which the limitations of Egyptian art rarely gave scope. After our draughtsmen had pushed the design thus far, perhaps against all orders, they hastily ran the yellow background round, and frequently over, the outlines, and hurried away to a new enterprise. Tomb 181 may thus be one more of the very many tombs which reveal an unwillingness to incur the expense of a full execution of the proposed designs. But its abrupt close may have had a deeper cause. The political storm which was about to break upon Thebes may well have involved this little enterprise in its first reverberations, and made it one of the last monuments of merit to be executed in the necropolis for long years to come; thus rendering it a symbol of the national movement which it vaguely incorporates, except that, while this only received a temporary check, the injury to the design was lasting. For the protest of Akhnaton, however much we may sympathize with it, and whatever its intrinsic value may have been, was an attempt to divert a Nile with far distant sources and immeasurable reserves into a hastily dug and confined back- water. As I interpret this tomb, it unconsciously represents those who, 65 An unfinished shrine This incom- pleteness may have a poli- tical cause ge gn ae pt tl rn ee ~ 4 aS ee ace aap a ee — : 7. : - - — = a rere me Oe : = ETE EET —* et aa ae E A 7 ares i, ——— I = z vee a a » (4¢-1g sosed 999) jorjou}ouey] pue tyndy peop oy} 0} ssureyQ ‘ndoyy, ‘1eyjour sty pue unueqayy Jo s0u0Y UI yonbueg “(1y3u) gq (9g ‘eg soded 90g) sjsons oy, “((o1l) WV A HLVTId WOW STIVLIAd TA ALY Td GUESTS AT THE BANQUET. DETAIL FROM PLATE V PLATE VII Painted by Nina de G. Davies (See pages 55, 56) Sa — 7 pe a er EF a ETO a = ves —— - aoe ee i < seamen, we AEinoaent > om ———- = ee aS oe = 3 = = ss m ~— : - eg = - = Ses : eat ——— Sa ea : > : - PLATE VIII A SACRIFICE TO THE GODS. DETAIL FROM PLATE V Painted by Nina de G. Davies (See pages 29-31) | | | | | | | | . | | } a | | | | I OSE EES SE RT a _ - — ———— a a oe a ee eR ——————eEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeeeeeeeeeeEe—eEeEeEeEeE=EeEeEeEeEeEeEeE—E—EeEeEeEeeEeEeEeEeEe - 7 - 2 — = = ———— 2 me a a Sanne ieei aed (gg “ee soded 999) ITB YOIJO KT ‘Toy}ouL sry pue if da oyueury sury peep ayy sulope wo} sjoidep Toyyo al ynq “4s (IXXX 018] dq oredui09 0 au) SV [) doyyeP] ‘Moo oy} Surdiysiom ared poseooep oy} sMoys yaed sry} ‘oanqord oyy Jo IYS1 | Gi YTVOS “ANHOS UHddN “ACIS LSV4 "TTVM HLNOS XI ALVId “pr] (suaputd) 593119 @ mogTusn 4 squ09D &q purptug ws 2 TW YS ia I Hl ss = U a I aH See ea ee Se aS SS ea a Se ‘caeuemanall PLATE X AMENHOTEP I AND QUEEN NOFRETARI. DETAIL FROM PLATE IX The deceased king and his mother had become deified protectors of the necropolis Painted by H. R. Hopgood (See page 33) ill - S _ = — — as St AIT Ba: NIN. =m ett ce eet tht A I RL A tM Rt TI AI I A I sanenaiinerl PLATE XI ui SOUTH WALL, EAST SIDE. LOWER SCENE. SCALE 1:3 bi The deceased inspects the workshop under his charge (See pages 57-63) . | : | | | | —— Se @& |\ SW | s A /\ 4 YW Za - —\\— (j ¥; ms Se | l OL J PLATE XII DETAILS FROM PLATE XI A. Weighing out the gold. Workmen in wood, gold, and cloisonné work B (continuation of above). Cabinet-makers and workers in hammered and chiseled metal (See pages 58-62) j | ‘| ‘| I f | | —————— | | * (@9-gg sosed v0g) soraeq “5 op euryy Aq poyureg IX ULVId WOU TIVLIEd “SHLINSGIOD GNV ‘SYA THMAL ‘SHULNAdYVO WIX ALVId (<9-6g sased 909) soraeq “5 ep vuln Aq poqured IX ALV1d WOUd TVLAG ‘SYUAMYOMTVLAW GNV SHALNAdY VO AIX ALWTd — a it “ai geen reise nahin ne s ee (ce ‘ye sesed vag) ured} sty pue sdrysiom unureqe \T 6:6 ATVOS ANHOS HAddN “TIVM LSVa AX HLV Id iN Yi i WA \ AWA NWA iN iM WAAAY a ie 7 een ee es (Prin Hingham & Grig Made in England by Charles Witt ta SS RG ree Ee eee es op WaT EEE a Sa ee a id PLATE XVI OSIRIS AND GODS OF BURIAL. DETAIL FROM PLATE XV Painted by H. R. Hopgood (See pages 34, 35) ee — — - Saeenieteaee=naeinenetians ce ti ale allie lta Si (9¢ ‘Ge sesed 90g) sjuered aArjoodsed ty} 0} Jao (qJo]) UnuTeqa\y pue (Ys) ryndy 6:6 ATVOS ‘ANADOS YHMOT “TIVM LSVA WAX ALVId —— (Le ‘ge sosed 90g) | Ajsutp1099e poster oq prhoys pue [eM vq} Jo doy ay} 3e st o7e[d ey} Jo peoy oy} ye UOIdrIOsurT Jo sdaId KuYy OY], “"G*N “poeseodop oY} 0} Sulsayo sIOAtAING “(WYsIL) «@ (ge ‘Le sosed 90g) g[duie} oy) SUIZISIA JoyJe Guo] oY} Sdoque-o1 TyNdy *(4Je]) I 9IHTVOS “ACIS LSVA "TIVM HLIYON GNV 'TVHANY LSVA TIAX ALVId PLATE XIX NORTH WALL, WEST SIDE. SCALE 2:9 The funeral of the deceased and their appearance before Osiris and Isis (See pages 37-41, 44-48) ———— eee eee - ee eee \ = es AMERY . K(USGRGALIR S a 1a, Ca a's , Cy Tey a Merde ay fe Ural ei= Sa a Tapp ha ELA at ee SSeS ees aaa eng oS ee = SSG KIS € Made in England by Charles Whittingham & Griges (Printers) Lid. PLATE XX } DETAILS FROM PLATES XIX AND XXIV A. Mourning relatives on the ferryboat (See pages 5o, 51) B. Mourning for the deceased, and reception of the funeral convoy (See pages 37, 38, 44-49) | | | | : a eee. eS IT IRN Foe a A a a a le AOR ee Ne ER a EY a «NANNY ee SRNR I~ lly rte I 2 = (gf-7y sosed 909) SotAeqd “4) vp BUIN] &q poeyured XIX HLVId WOW TIVLAC “CVad AHL ONTAATHNd GNV ONINYNOW IXX ALVWId Ws ale SS BA, in England by Emery Walker, Limited Made ee r = — om ——— a a) cima an ea he Se ec er reece pi masa SSRs Naan led vol 15 DEG a ie aay RG gaa ~ beta are ran Sea Ta ee ce i ln A a aie cee ee EN mse ens tyne (yy-ch sased 909) (grey soddn ‘yyy 07k] q Jo UoIRNUTyWOD) KoAUOO [eLOUNy OY], Wt WIVOS ‘V ‘AXX ALVId WOW STIVING ‘SUMLSTOHU YAddN “TIVM LSHM UXX ALVWId “PET (Gsepisi]) SII. wog uy s21109- £9 punpiug us apo xX 4 eae ait SS SSIES & Ce abe SS haw |i iN q = — — —_ — = pacer oe — = goer — = ee i — es tt Aa a ROR RO — . a arin ba RC eT a RE ee Ae era rrmeern errr rocas ra eee Re a ae a le te 8 OY ge -~ ee = — a rl rg SOR a aa (ey ‘cl sosed 90g) SIAR “5) ep BUI) Aq poequreg V ‘AXX CNV ITXX SHALVId WOU WVLAd ‘SMOD 4O WV4AL GNV SLINVIDIMAO WWIXX ALV Id = oon S - iis pees — a bin So Pee art ae ee SEL Male we 2 oe a a a I i ain as alla ila Fa a cin al ee il bi Cli Ale a er CR Say “yA ne alegre etna ina —- - a ao . “ (1¢-gf sosed vag) (Jey TOMO] “XTX 97% q JO uoryenuryuoo) AOAUOD [esoUNy OUT, VI ATVOS “V‘AXX ALVId WOU STIVLAG “SUALSIOMM UAMOT “TIVA LSAM AIXX ALV Id Made in England by Charles Whittingham & Griggs (Printers) Lic SOTISTI ET an alee = nee ne Cl pl RT ee ey cere era han tel yng rn ere ge RR ON ay SO Ren Ne ge (6Y ‘gy “ny ‘gy saded a0) AIXX PUe TIXX See[d Woy spreyoq -eanqruany yering jo sii “zoyea pue puvy Aq Jorg oy} Jo wodsuery, -(QYSK) gq (t¢-gf ‘yy-cly saded 90g) Xoauood [esouny oy yy, [eM epoyM oy, “(AJeL) V TIVM LSHM AXX ALV Id So eR a i Ne ill Re ee er ne i AS Ee Nl aT aaa | (1G ‘og saded 909) poosdoyy “y “H Aq poqureg VY AXX GNV AIXX SHLWId WOU TIVIAd “YaId AHL GNV SHANUNOW ONIAAANOD SLVOd TAXX HLVI1d Sabet MC tit a pra de An Aad i ll Eee Gis, BM ci AGN Sp RIN a a A RB di er A i AN i nie a Oe eee PLATE XXVII INNER ROOM, EAST WALL. SCALE 2:9 Left half (below). Offering to the deceased pair Right half (above). Musicians and guests (See pages 64, 65) a SR a oa nN ne tn ene ce | | is Pere —— " 2 ~ eee aie say eee SSAA, 1 nett ADS aD ie ltt DE aS NM a mice Uae A 2 (c9 ‘ig sesed 9ag) (sjuowsesy pooejdes) yured pos ut poyoyoys ysey dosuis eB pue soXejd-ayny puyg e Jo sounsry -(Vysta) gq (yg esed 92g) dred poseeoep out, “(1J91) VW HIAXX HLVId WOU STIVIAG WIAXX ALVWId SALEBY, 29 ERD oa A a ct NSU Dt aa a a Nl PLATE XXIX THE MEAL OF THE DEAD. DETAIL FROM PLATE XXVII Painted by C. K. Wilkinson (See page 64) a a aaaaaares/s-,:-J-—l/-~*;*,_,_;«,_-,,-:;l;, ae SA a RE s a = LEE ao RE EGO. SDA AGES LO De RG SEIT EA EL le 2 RE A PLATE XXX CEILING PATTERNS. SCALE 1:3 The parts within black outlines or marked by an asterisk represent extant fragments Painted by Nina de G. Davies See pages 21-23 is ay “i 12 Se an | oy aged 90g) snakded e woody ‘LoyyREY JO MOT) “(VY SIA) & (yy ‘eh sosed v0g) Y:1 eyeog “yo quioy, wioay KoAUOO B1OUN yy “(Qj a (Ae | a OL y I EN 2S) | NOSITYUVdINOD YO SHOUNOS YAHLO WOU SLdvydOXa IXXX GLVId Tae % wy Made in England by Charles Whittingham & Griggs (Printers) Lid, os CIPI = = S a3 OF THIS BOOK FIVE HUNDRED COPIES WERE PRINTED tea ON VAN GELDER HANDMADE PAPER IN THE MONTH OF MAY MCMXXV { 7 2 rrr ne i 2 ean Eenaieebeee 3 ~ Se Se ee eee GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE ET 3 3125 00990 6278