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 V

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS AT THEBES

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PLATE I

USERHET'S FAMILY ENTERTAINED BY THE TREE-GODDESS. DETAIL FROM PLATE IX

Painted by N. de Garis Davies (See pages i5-i9 and Plate X)

THE METBOPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ABT

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS AT THEBES

BY NORMAN DE GARIS DAVIES

WITH PLATES IN COLOR BY N. DE GARIS DAVIES, H. R. HOPGOOD

C. K. WILKINSON THE LATE NORMAN HARDY

AND NINA DE G. DAVIES OF THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION

NEW YORK MCMXXVII

IN MEMOBY OF BOBB DE PEYSTEB TYTUS

THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN PUB-LISHED BY THE METBOPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ABT WITH A FUND GIVEN FOB THAT PUBPOSE BY

CHABLOTTE M. TYTUS MCMXIV

PREFACE

THE completion of this selected edition of five Theban tombs, by which, I venture to think, the coloration employed by skilled Egyptian artists has been set before the public with a degree of exactitude not before attained, is an occasion on which feelings of gratitude are natur-ally aroused and may therefore fitly be expressed. They are due, of course, in the first place to Mrs. Tytus, who in these books has raised so happy a monument to her son and to his tastes that many another mother, under a similar loss, will envy her the inspiration and opportunity. But the project would scarcely have reached its successful end but for the resolute zeal of the Editor, Albert M. Lythgoe, nor emerged with this measure of credit in respect of format and typography had it not been for the expert guidance of H. W. Kent, Secretary of the Museum, in co-operation with the late Walter Gilliss, publisher of the volumes. To the habitual care and scrutiny of Winifred E. Howe, Editor of Museum pub-lications, is due the clerical correctness of the series. I am also greatly indebted to those who have striven with me, often under trying con-ditions, to mete out sympathetic justice to the line and color of the ancient artists. Three of these, Launcelot Crane, Norman Hardy, and Francis Unwin, have already passed beyond the reach of thanks, but I can still express my gratitude to Emery Walker, veteran of a splendid era, for watching over the reproduction of the paintings with the sym-pathy of an artist as well as the skill of a master-printer. I have also become aware from time to time that the staff of the Egyptian Depart-ment was laboriously contributing to the perfecting of these memorial

ix

PREFACE volumes in various ways, thus greatly lightening my responsible task. No servant of an enterprise can have had more sympathetic control or more generous help, and I regret that I can requite both only by these poor words of sincere thanks.

N. DE GABIS DAVIES.

Oxford, June, 1927.

CONTENTS PAGE

PREFACE ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii INTRODUCTION xv

The significance of the Ramesside era; its effect on sepulchral art; rare exceptions; its increased freedom; its richness of color; its weak features; other characteristics; hindrances to a just estimate; the transitional period; outstanding examples.

CHAPTER I THE TOMB OF USERH^T i

The site of the tomb; the exterior and entrance; the interior; provision for sepulture; the ceilings; the mural subjects. North wall, east side: the worship of Osiris; Userhet's dress; its evi-dence of date and function; its decorative merit; Userhet's wife; other relations; lower scene, worship of Thothmes I; Userhet, priest of the cult; his female relations; four inharmonious addi-tions ; the first two rites; the third rite. South wall, east side: worship of Mont; upper scene, Osiris the judge; Userhet's purification; his prayer to his judges. East wall: the hospital-ity of Nut; the guests; the goddess; use of shading and graded color; speech of Nut; the subscene. Features of the west bay. West wall: a scene of recreation; the family adore Mont; an involved genealogy; Userhet's father. North wall, west side: anniversary of the burial of Thothmes I; the mortuary bark; perambulation of the statue; Userhet's own burial provision. South wall, west side: his hopes in death; his rewards in life;

xi

CONTENTS his honors in death; his burial rites; Userhet welcomed by the West; his salvation endangered by a usurper; the last judg-ment. The stela. Ceiling texts.

CHAPTER II THE TOMB OF APY 3i

Recent history of the tomb; its location; the exterior; its gar-den; provision for ritual; the entrance; the interior; the inner rooms; inscribed stones from the excavations; other objects; the chapel. West wall: scenes of worship; the gods; a parallel scene; the deities; Apy's relatives. South wall: the meal of the dead; details; special features; stained dresses; their mean-ing. East wall, south side: its subject; a design borrowed from El Amarna; the figure of Apy; the distribution of rewards; burial of Apy; the procession; Apy's house; exceptional beauty of the scene; special features; the pond; the servants; the gar-den; a domestic scene; a religious festival. East wall, north side: sowing and harvest; winnowing, storage, and harvest; marketing the grain; shipmen on shore-leave; the ships; the grain-store; the gleaning; the yield of the marshes; fishing from the shore; fishing from boats; netting birds; the sports-man's efforts; treatment of the catch; a scene of vintage; the wine-press. North wall: burial furniture, royal and private; refurnishing a royal sepulcher; form of the naos; its decora-tion; a cubicle; its use as a catafalque; its construction; its dec-oration; its furniture; the workmen; the destination of these objects; Apy's equipment; probably a typical one. Fragments of destroyed surfaces. North lunette: the cult of Amenhotep I; burial rites; a royal appearance. South lunette: a scene of sport. Vaulted ceiling: the hospitality of Nut; merits of the scene; a scene of offering; unplaced fragments; the message of these paintings.

INDEX 77 xii

ILLUSTRATIONS Plate I (Frontispiece) Userhet's family entertained by

the tree-goddess (detail from Plate IX) In color II Two views of Sheikh Abd el Kurneh and

Tomb 51 Photogravure III Plan and sections of Tomb 5i . . . . I n line IV Interior of Tomb 5i Photogravure V North wall, east side In line

VI Details from Plates V and XIII . . . Photogravure VII An offering to Osiris (detail from Plate V) . In color

VIII A tribute to Thothmes I (detail from Plate V) In color

IX East wall In line X Details from Plate IX Photogravure

XI South wall, east side . . . . . . In line XII Details from Plates XI and V . Photogravure

XIII South wall, west side In line XIV Adoration of

ythe deities of the West (detail from Plate XIII) In color

XV West wall In line XVI North wall, west side In line

XVII Details from Plates XI and XVI . . . Photogravure XVIII Frieze and decoration of ceiling . . . In line

XIX Fragments and graffiti In line XX Two views of the necropolis of Deir el

Medineh and Tomb 217 . . . . Photogravure XXI Plan and section of Tomb 217 . . . . I n line

*

Xlll

Plate XXII XXIII XXIV

XXV

XXVI XXVII

XXVIII XXIX

XXX XXXI

XXXII XXXIII XXXIV

XXXV

XXXVI XXXVII

XXXVIII XXXIX

XL XLI

XLII

ILLUSTRATIONS Interior of Tomb 217 West wall, north side Apy and his wife adore Osiris and Hathor

(west wall, south side) . . . . Presentation of food to the dead pair by

their children (south wall) South wall and details from it East wall, south side, upper part East wall, south side, lower part Apy's house and garden (detail from

Plate XXVIII) East wall, north side East wall, north side, and north wall Details from Plates XXX and XXIV . A vintage scene (detail from Plate XXX) Goats led to pasture (detail from Plate

XXX) The yield of the marshes (detail from

Plate XXX) North wall, upper part . . . . . . North wall, lower part . . . . . A catafalque (detail from Plate XXXVII) A catch of fish (detail from Plate

XXXVII) . Fragments of sculpture and painting Smaller fragments of lost scenes (Nos. 1

to 26) Fragments of figures, flowers, etc., from

lost scenes (Nos. 27 to 57) . . .

Photogravure n line

n color

n color Photogravure n line n line

n color n line

Photogravure Photogravure

n color

n color

n color n line n line n color

n color n line

n line

n line

xiv

INTRODUCTION

THE movement associated with the Aton heresy is often regarded as lying like a great geological fault across the regular course of Egyptian history. But, in art at least, the changes which appear with the Rames-side dynasty towards the close of the fourteenth century B. C. better deserve the name of a revolution by reason of their permanence and deep-seated character, unless, indeed, by revolution we intend something violent, and therefore transient, and ought to regard any permanent change, however striking and mysterious in origin, as a national develop-ment rather than an upturn. Did the Egyptian nation in the Ramesside era find itself, for good or ill, or were the profound transformations then noticeable the abiding consequences of a political misadventure? Are we to regard Egypt as having died from an enforced change of air after a protracted illness, bravely but hopelessly combated through a long alter-nation of illusive recoveries and periods of prostration ? Was the coup d'itat of Akhnaton one in essence, though in form bitterly in conflict, with the permanent breach in Egyptian history associated with the name of its eponymous, though belated hero, the great Osymandyas, both being attempted solutions of the problem presented by the entrance of this strongly featured nation into a society of vigorous civilizations P These are large questions which cannot be gone into here, where we are con-cerned only with art, indeed only with the art of painting.

Had we to deal with all the forms of civilization, or even with sculp-ture as well as painting, there might be many meritorious achievements

The signifi-cance of the Bamesside era

Its effect on sepulchral art

XV

Its effect on sepulchral art

Bare exceptions

Its increased freedom

INTRODUCTION to put to the credit of the new age. In sepulchral art the result was dis-astrous. As aesthetic productions, the painted tombs of Thebes in which Ramesside modes are fully shown cumber its restricted sites. The deeper causes of this debacle, the way in which the new art-forms obtained authority, the proportions in which the living, but discredited, school of Akhetaton and the smouldering traditions of the Theban schools con-tributed to the resultant type cannot be discussed here. This perhaps may be said that it may well be that after the victory of the Aton, many a secret adherent of the ancient faith, when forbidden a decorated tomb of the old sort, found a substitute in illustrated papyri, and that a school of priestly scribes arose to furnish them, which, on the restoration of the established faith, not only saw new prosperity, but exercised the strongest influence on mural painting.

Such influences, not being born of man's aspirations nor cradled in the workaday world, left sepulchral art uninspired and jejune to the last degree, except where, in dealing with the transition from human scenes to the world beyond, it depicted the Elysian fields, or the garden where god and man met. This limitation of subject matter was the real death-blow to art. Egyptian draughtsmanship may be meditated and conventional, but in the end it rests on observation. What inspiration could an artist find in gods and demons, temple furniture and rites, and the worshiping figures of his patron's family? Interesting episodes are nearly always the best painted, and many a dull tomb, like that of Huy or Userhet, wakes into beauty and brightness as it touches a dramatic scene. But these get rarer and rarer.

The better side of the new art is the increased freedom which it at first permitted. The artist is not called upon to conform strictly to the ancient models in either pose or proportions, nor to lose his free impulse owing to the necessity of employing a prescribed curve and perfectly even line, and of using only such forms as look to a hard outline for completion. The rendering of form by unoutlined, or loosely outlined, color is permit-ted within limits. But such a deliverance would only result in beauty if the artist were trained to aesthetic sensibility instead of being drilled in

xvi

INTRODUCTION conventional forms, an infinite advance of which the schools were quite incapable. Liberty side-slipped at once into laxity, and freedom was used to cover a host of sins and incompetencies. Instinct had made the older art a balanced whole; the new is inharmonious, for the independence given to line demanded a revised treatment of color. Hence, while in ink sketches the artist of this period commands just admiration, in paint he got no further than to make his outlines coarse and harsh, or, if bold, failing to register with the colored field.

Another feature, which sometimes reaches beauty and often descends to hideousness, is the increased richness of coloring. In the dark caves of Thebes, which are none the less caves for being rectangular, the lawful limits in this respect are large, but Ramesside pictures generally manage to exceed them. They gain by replacing the old lilac ground by a whiter one, toned down besides by the mud surface under the thin priming, and by filling it up more completely. But what was given with one hand was taken away with the other. The addition of detail became a mania, a bewildering medley of uninstructive additions. Columns for text that might have formed panels of mosaic were left blank or daubed in in mon-ochrome. Primary colors in gaudiest tones, outlined in black, give the tired eye no rest, and the poorer tombs afford a wearisome monotony of stereotyped figures in ugly reds and yellows. But where colors are more balanced, and rich metallic blues and greens mingle with the warmer tones, success in this genre may be attained, and this is especially the case in some of the floral borders and ceiling designs which are a feature of the epoch. The love of foliage and the more free rendering of trees is an undiluted gain, of which our two tombs furnish excellent examples.

An essential failing of the Ramesside school is their mode of prepar-ing the walls for painting. Cheap and superficial show being the watch-word, the artist did not deign to supervise the creation of his surface, and to insist on one that could do justice to his skill. The splendid surface which the masons of the Eighteenth Dynasty had known how to give to their walls, so that they might fall down, break up, and be trodden under foot, and yet retain beauty, was no longer prescribed. The mud surface

Its increased freedom

Its richness of color

Its weak features

xvu

Its weak features

Other character-istics

Hindrances to a just estimate

INTRODUCTION was mixed with coarse straw which invited devouring insects, and merely smeared with a thin wash of white or yellow paint, which rubbed away or dissolved under the least friction or dampening. As with all careless work, a Ramesside tomb in ruin is a sorry sight. The colors, too, are no longer carefully ground and mixed with a medium which gives them con-sistency, smoothness, and durability. The noticeable omission of textual comment in the later pictures might have been a real gain, if the artist had felt the more compulsion to make the scenes speak for themselves. But where it was due to lack of thoughtful interest in the action depicted, the result was the direct reverse. Prayers and wonder-working pictures having been relegated to papyri, the mural scenes either comprise en-largements from the vignettes of such, or are merely decorative, decora-tion being conceived as bright color and display. The deceased has no history save as the founder of a family, and his children are merely potential ministrants. Upon inexactitude of aim and execution, inexacti-tude of statement is sure to follow. Late tombs cannot be relied on to give faithful records of events, or of the form and color of objects depicted.

The arrangement of subject matter in later tombs tends to be less unified and thought-out than previously, and the whole is often a con-glomerate of items which there was some reason for including. Hence, while in earlier tombs excerpts lose by their isolation, this is often a dis-tinct advantage to Ramesside groups. Since the looser drawing and the crowded detail of the pictures need space, those cast on a large scale are the most attractive. But when the incomparable miniatures of the casket of Tutankhamon are expanded fifty times by the decorators of Rameses II, with the changing shadows of incised figures as outlines and the harsh hues of painted sandstone as coloring, one feels they have been vulgarized. The former are jewels; the others an advertisement.

The painting of the period may easily be undervalued owing to the rarity of examples which are in a good state of preservation. But this vulnerability is itself one of its demerits. On the other hand, modern tendencies in art may be inclined to judge too favorably experiments that

xvm

INTRODUCTION are in fact nine-tenths failure, the more so as they afford a welcome relief from the long monotony of the ancient forms.

If these were the features of the painter's art after the Restoration and before its complete decadence, there was also a short transitional period, reaching well into the reign of Rameses II, during which the per-manent influence of the school of Akhetaton on Ramesside painting was doubly strong and carried over enough of the humanities, as well as of high artistic instincts, to produce works meritorious in themselves and an interesting addition to the limited art forms which Egyptian history records. The two tombs presented in this volume are among the few surviving exponents of this phase. That of Userhet, though considerably the earlier, makes no use of this advantage, for, if one of its subjects shows the new type at something like its best, others exhibit the worst side of Ramesside painting. Whether this is due to different hands or periods of execution, or is merely a lack of steadfastness and industry, is an open question. In the latter case we should have to forgive the artist's sins because he really loved a little. In the tomb of Apy, on the other hand, nearly everything has merit of one kind or another, and, what is rarer, individuality; though what is now lost seems to have been more common-place. The difference may be explained by the one being the tomb of a priest, the other that of an artist, pointing to two Theban schools, one in closer touch with the church, another at Deir el Medineh, which preserved some independence under royal patronage. The running comment on the scenes will afford further estimates of value.

Tombs 19 and L\O might have been ranged with these as showing some exceptional power along with much that is of only average rank and, out-side Thebes, the mortuary temple of Sety I as proving how colored sculpture at its best might steep a noble building in radiance. It is diffi-cult to find in the mass of Ramesside tombs any which stand out as typical of the best efforts of the period; they would probably lie at Deir el Medineh (e.g., Tombs 1, 3, and 290). The tomb of Queen Nofretari might perhaps best serve the purpose, and, after it, those of the kings of the time. But these form to some extent a type apart.

The transitional period

Outstanding examples

XIX

CHAPTER I

THE TOMB OF USERHET

CHAPTER I

THE TOMB OF USERHET

THE tomb of Userhet is quarried in the north wall of a deeply sunken et^bof

courtyard which has been formed in the very last slopes of the foothills of Elwet Sheikh Abd el Kurneh, under a little eminence called Kom el Ahmar.1 The court is entered from the east and contains four inscribed tombs.2 On the south is that of Neferhotpe of the time of Harmhab, on the east that of Amenwahsu of the reign of Rameses II, and on the west that of Khensmose, which is somewhat later in date. Userhet's period being that of Rameses I and Sety I, the little court furnishes a history of the art of the first half of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The greater part of the courtyard is now taken up by the brick porch and walled forecourt of the latest tomb (Plate II, B).

In the rock of its northwest corner Userhet cut a stela with a pave- The exterior and entrance

ment of masonry in front of it, and framed it in sandstone (Plates III, XIX, and pp. 28, 29). It must, therefore, have been rectangular in shape and have carried a corniced lintel.

Another small stela of mud, having a rough slab of rock in front of it, is found on the west side of the entrance to the tomb. The sandstone base of a column, which remains on the east side of the doorway, must have

1 Tomb 5i. See Gardiner and Weigall, Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes, p. 20 and

Pl. V. It was discovered by Bobert Mond in 1903 (Annates du service des antiquites de VEgypte, VI, p. 69), and the work of tracing and painting its scenes was begun by me in the spring of 1909 (Bulletin of the Metropoli-tan Museum of Art, March, 1911, pp. 49, 58, b%). The only object found in the clearances I made was a charred wooden shawabti figure of a 1

2 A few of the lowest steps of a rock stairway in the southeast corner of the court exist, and suggest that

it was at first entered in this way. Debris still obscures the true approach.

The exterior and entrance

The interior

Provision for sepulture

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS been one of a pair supporting a porch of some sort, or might even be one of four carrying a portico along this side of the court. The rock is here so poor that it can be loosened with the hand; but at that date may have been firm enough to have borne light roofing blocks, though there is no trace of a bed for them on the cliff. In front of the doorway there is a pit in the rock, and beside it a raised sill, the purpose of both these provisions being to hold back the water with which any torrential rain would flood the sunken area. Inside this sill a wooden door was fitted, as a surviving pivot block shows. The sandstone framing of the doorway has disap-peared,1 but the lower course of the masonry lining of the reveal remains on the east side, and three sandstone slabs were found which evidently belong to it (Plate XIX, 3 and 5), showing a painted figure of the owner entering the tomb, salutations to the setting (?) sun, and assurances that the deceased "shall take possession of his pyramidal tomb . . . and hand over his staff to the coffin" (that is, shall lie down to rest).

Entering the tomb, we descend by a step of some height into a small transverse chamber, brightly painted on both sides (Plate IV), and then pass through a second doorway in the axis into an undecorated hall, square in shape and feigning to have its roof supported on four rock pillars and architraves. The framing to the entrance of this room was probably only in plaster; the present brick lining of the eastern reveal is a later addition. The pillars and cambered ceiling of this inner room are smeared roughly with mud.

At the far end of this hall a third doorway, framed in plaster like the second, leads to a small and low room, which forms an antechamber to the sepulcher proper. The entrance to this is of the smallest dimensions, and is preceded by a tiny enclosure of brick, which, if original, may have formed a sort of shrine before the walled-up door. Through this one drops into a low and rough gallery, which has a knee-shaped bend and ends with a ledge for the reception of the coffin. Two other places of burial are provided in the pillared hall. One in the southwest corner is merely a narrow loculus at floor level, the other, in the northwest corner, consists

1 We may have a relic of it in five or six small inscribed fragments found in the debris.

Provision for sepulture

THE TOMB OF USERHET of a shallow pit, surrounded by a parapet of rock, which gives access to a rough chamber. Such wretched burial places are common at Thebes, even in tombs of considerable pretensions.

The ceiling of the outer (transverse) room is flat, but bays are marked The ceilings off by a heightening of the central portion of the ceiling which here takes the shape of a canopy with the rise set towards the back of the room: this reversal of the natural direction is adopted in order to gain strength by following the upward trend of the ground above. This demarcation of the axial passage to the burial chamber, and its continuation in the pillared hall as a lightly vaulted nave, thus remind us that the primitive tomb is essentially a passage to the place of interment and the chambers mere extensions, or bays, to right and left of it. The canopy is not painted, and of the two flat ceilings of the bays only the eastern one is decorated, and that incompletely; the farther end of the pattern being only in draft, and its three longitudinal texts without their conclusion in the name of the owner and his apologia.1 The transverse band near the central por-tion of the ceiling, however, does end in the name and titles of Userhet, thus removing any suspicion that the tomb might have been originally made for an undetermined member of the priesthood of Thothmes I.

We may now turn to the mural scenes in the outer chamber. They concern:

(i) The service of the gods and the deified king, Thothmes I, by the priest Userhet, with his own reward in burial privileges added as a sub-ordinate subject (back wall, lower scene on east side of front wall, upper scene on west wall).

(2) The purification, judgment, and justification of Userhet, and his rewards on earth in life and death (front wall).

(3) The enjoyment by Userhet of his sepulchral garden (end walls). 1 For the design, which is the same on both sides of the midrib, see Pl. XVIII, B. Black whorls start

from a green center on a yellow ground and leave fields occupied by rosettes which are on a red or, in alternate diagonals, on a blue ground. Where the rosette is against red, its heart is blue, and vice versa. Its rim is white, with black outlines and divisions. Where the design is left incomplete, the green center (without whorls) on a yellow field alternates with a blank field, the red lines of the drafting squares being visible in places. For variant forms of the design see my Five Theban Tombs, Pl. XX; Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes, I (vol. II of this series), Pl. XXIX, E; Tomb of Two Sculptors at Thebes (vol. IV of this series), Pl. XXX, F. The soffit of the entrance carried the same pattern (from two sandstone fragments). For the texts, see p. 29.

The mural subjects

North wall, east side

The worship of Osiris

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS The two panels which fill the back wall in the right (east) bay have

as their main subject the worship of Osiris and his train (Plate V, upper half), and of King Thothmes I and his queen (lower half). These scenes are almost counterparts, and yet at every point slight differences of color-ing or detail have been introduced as pleasant variations. The picture is bordered at the top by a heavy frieze of a Ramesside type, formed of alter-nate symbols of the guardians of the necropolis, Anubis and Hathor, sepa-rated by a single kheker ornament in its later form.1 Hathor is represented by her head, set on a neb basket, and wearing a crown of feathers, indica-tive, perhaps, of a southern origin; Anubis by the dog, watchfully perched on his eminence in the necropolis.2 The base line is formed by a yellow band within a double border of red, and the two pictures are separated by a garland of petals which serves as a frieze to the lower scene an unpleasant innovation which, happily, did not find much favor.

The naos of Osiris (Plate V) stands below a ridiculously light balda-chin, which it completely fills. Its heavy entablature is hung with bou-quets and garlands wherever the artist can find space for them. The symbolic skin stands on its post before the god, its red jar before it.3 The passion of the artist for ornament has turned the pedestal of the shrine into a lake from which two papyrus stems, entwined with graceful weeds, spring, as well as the mystic lotus, whose offspring is the four genii of the dead. The gods in attendance, Hathor-Semyt, Maret (?), and Anubis, vie in their attentions to the god, supporting his shoulders, his arms, and his whisk. Osiris, whose green complexion betrays his origin as a god of vegetation, sits on a throne adorned with bright bands of blue, red, green; his crown has the same rainbow hues. His necklace of beads has a square clasp or pendant which serves also as an amulet for his back. A broad collar, a heavy pectoral decorated with figures of

1 See Mackay in Ancient Egypt, 1920, p. n 3 .

2P1. XVIII. The pedestal of Hathor forms a rebus for her title "lady of the necropolis ("^f H+H)"; that of Anubis has reference to his epithets "guardian of the divine shrine (G)" and "head of his hill (u=J)."

3 This might be a waterskin with the vessel into which it drips, symbolical of the refreshment which the

gods provide in an otherwise arid underworld; but it weighs against this that the tail is often preserved and the hind legs removed. The skin is that of a preternatural animal: see Pl. XXIV. Cf. Newberry, Beni Hasan, II, Pl. XVI.

6

THE TOMB OF USERHET Anubis and of himself as "god of the West," and a fringed and tasseled waistband, make him as imposing as lavish color can suggest. The great pile of offerings before the naos is riskily balanced on four slender stands, the hearts, ribs, heads, and fat fore legs of the victims being scarcely recognizable as such, so overloaded are they with gaudy detail. The cucumbers (or are they honeycombs?) are cut open to show their struc-ture, and the whole is garlanded and spread with foliage and bouquets. Black pellets of charcoal are sprinkled among the offerings in order to keep the scented oil burning (Plate VI, A).1

Userhet, who as priest pours oil of incense on the pile, has a shav-en head, and wears, in addition to a simple necklace of gold disks, one of those elaborate collars which we shall see henceforth to surfeit, the lector's white shoulder sash, and a highly decorated apron resembling that of the king. The leopard's skin which he has donned carries the rich coloring of his insignia still further (Plate VII). The grouped marks are interspersed with stars, and the spotted edging has become a poly-chrome binding, both presumably sewn on, if they have any foundation in fact. The brilliant mottling and the blue markings on paws and tail are equally far from nature, so that the result, however rich, is far less pleasing than that which earlier artists achieved by their decorative ren-dering of reality. The fore part of the skin is brought over the right shoulder, so that the head rests on the chest; it is secured there by tying one paw back to the skin behind by a bright ribbon passing under the left arm.2

The skin shows cartouches on the shoulder as if the animal had been branded with them; they are placed, indeed, where royal names occur in the case of sphinxes, and hang on the upper arm of the priest where King Akhnaton wore the cartouches of the Aton.3 The cartouches are empty here, but should be those of Rameses I. The presence of the

1 The string of dates hanging from the stand is a somewhat unusual feature, strange to say. The artist

must needs combine fruit in its green, yellow, red, and black stages on the same bunch. 2 Formerly the back aspect of the skin was shown: see Davies-Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, Pl. XXXV.

Here, both views are combined. The tail, of course, hung down between the legs behind. The stars are in the form of the word-sign for the underworld, whether they have that significance or not.

3Cf. note i, p. 44-

The worship of Osiris

Userhet's dress

Its evidence of date and function

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS Its evidence of date and function

Its decorative merit

Userhet's wife

name of the reigning king indicates the vice-regal functions of the priest; the royal presentation of a skin would be a formal conferment of the dig-nity. The apron has the same significance; for it carries the legend, "The good god, lord of the two Egypts, lord of ritual, great of might, beauti-ful (?) of justice in front of Amon, king of South and North, lord of the two Egypts, Menpehti-Re, son of Re, lord of diadems, Ramessu (Rame-ses I), to whom life is given like Re." The prenomen is repeated on the border of the apron.1 The ultimate and interested aim in depicting this act of sacrifice is naively disclosed by the scribe when he adds above the figure of Userhet, "For the ka of Userhet, chief priest of the royal spirit, Akheperkere."

We have spoken with strong disapproval of the aesthetic judgment of the Ramesside decorator; but his treatment of the softly rippling white gowns, of which we have here some of the earliest examples, goes very far to make amends for it. Up to now the natural pleats into which the garment falls had been indicated by fine red lines; but these, being judged to give too hard an effect, were now reserved for the deep gathers at the waist, etc., the folds being continued as enlarging stripes of a faint gray tint, which becomes a delicate rose where the flesh color is supposed to shimmer through. This pleasant practice is general henceforth, and serves as a much-needed mitigation of the garish coloration of the scenes of the period.2

The figure of Userhet's wife is made very attractive by the gently curving stem of papyrus which she carries, no longer shaped by stiff convention but following the real growth, with feathery head and with luxuriant weeds twined round its bare stem. Her heavy wig is no doubt artificial, as we see fine tendrils of natural hair escaping from under it about the face (Plate VII).3 The cessation at the knee of the faint flesh color by

1 In Tomb 106 the forehead of the leopard bears the name of Sety I, under whom Paser was vizier. There

is little doubt, therefore, that Userhet also lived under that king (see below) and his short-lived predecessor, Barneses I. But Apy's robe (p. 4o) carries in the same place the name of a long-dead king whose cult he served; so the test cannot be relied on implicitly.

2 See also p. 45. It may have been introduced by the school of El Amarna, but is not found in the fine

painting of princesses there. Its retention, at least, must be put to the credit of Bamesside artists. Observation of the play of light and shade on the waves of sculptured skirts led to this representation in color.

3 The meshwork of hair is too delicate and faint to appear in Pl. V.

8

THE TOMB OF USERHET which the legs are carried upwards under the trailing skirt, hints at an undergarment for men and women alike, extending down to that point (with men, half-way down the calf). Here, as elsewhere, the artist allows himself a wide range in the depiction of flesh color. Various shades are used at caprice for the male figures, ranging from a warm brown through bright red to a light orange, and, for the women, from a light cream through buffs and orange to a pleasant brown, the maroon and yellow commonly used for the two sexes hitherto being the only tones avoided. Equally strange is the deep orange ground chosen for the lower part of the hair where it covers the person more thinly, oblivious of the fact that it lies against the white robe, and that quite another complexion has been selected.1 The artist cannot be said to have used his colors thoughtfully in this case.

The lady is identified as "his wife, house-mistress and singer of Amon, Shepsut."2 A boy who follows with a bouquet and a sacrificial duck is entitled "the son, chief priest of Akheperkere, Thot(mose?)," and the following lady, "his wife (sister?), house-mistress and singer of Amon, "3 The historicity of these relations of Userhet is as shadowy as is their condition. With the last figure deterioration sets in. The out-lines are omitted or are faint, the complexion is ill-chosen, and every detail is slurred or indefinite. But it is not impossible that this weakening was more or less deliberately introduced as a foil to the picture on the end wall.

In the lower scene the baldachin is replaced by a more solid structure, the god by King Akheperkere-Thutmose (Thothmes I of the early Eigh-teenth Dynasty), and the attendants by the queen, Ahmose.4 The capital of the column of the kiosk shows a debased combination of the lily and the open papyrus, unless, as the repetition of the abacus suggests, it is a joint representation of the two side columns, one for the south and one

1 Possibly wigs were made up on a foundation of this color.

2 This syncopated form of the name Hatshepsut is used in all cases, except on the east wall.

3 The name of this second wife, if it was ever written, is blotted out by a daub of paint. A similar lady,

whose identification has again not been permitted to survive, will be found on the opposite wall: see p. i3. 4 All three cartouches are written on an overlay of coarse plaster added within the ring. They are

now so effaced as to be almost illegible. The queen wears a circlet of uraei on top of the vulture headdress, such as often forms a basis for more elaborate crowns (e.g. in Pl. XI).

Userhet's wife

Other relations

Lower scene. Worship of Thothmes I

9

Userhet, priest of the cult

His female relations

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS for the north.1 The garlands which hang from the neck of the column, the architrave, the chair, and the vase of offerings are tasteless additions.

The reverence paid to Thothmes is perhaps due less to his importance in history than to the benefit his cult had brought to the family of User-het, in which the high-priesthood was as good as hereditary. The offerings laid before the deified pair are heaped up in a handsome golden bowl, de-monstrating on what an exaggerated scale the pile is drawn. Userhet presents a duck on a hand-brazier. He wears the wig and the short beard that goes with it. The priestly skin carries the cartouches of Sety I on the shoulder, and they are repeated on the apron, as in the picture above. The inscription runs, "The good god, lord of the two Egypts, master of the ritual of the great ones of eternity, of Re, and of the (other) gods, the king of South and North, lord of the two Egypts, Menmatre, bodily son of the sun, his beloved Sety, [given] life like [Re]."

Userhet is followed by "his mother, house-mistress and singer of Amon-Re, king of the gods, Henet-tawi."2 This lady carries in one hand three ducks, a sistrum, and a menat of the new form, showing the royal head and collar at one end of the handle. A fanciful bouquet, made up in the shape of the sign which stands alike for "life" and "bouquet," hangs from her elbow. As in the picture above, the following lady, "his wife, house-mistress and singer of.. .,"3 is painted much less conspicuously, her sistrum being scarcely visible and her dress less elaborate (Plate VIII). She is accompanied by a little daughter, whose shaven head retains only two side-locks, or perhaps a narrow postiche which takes their place.4

1 The triple form shown on Pl. XXIV is in favor of a composite capital, however. For an earlier occur-

rence, see Davies, El Amarna, II, Pis. XXXII, XXXVII, and VI, Pl. VI. The reversed uraei at the left end of the cornice were noticed in Tytus Memorial Series, IV, p. L\I, note i .

2 In the superscriptions the cartouche and the name of Userhet, as well as the name and titles of Henet-

tawi from "Amon" onwards, have been written on superimposed plaster. Henet-tawi, if authentic, must be the mother-in-law, for Userhet's own mother was named Ta-usret. The latter was a singer of Mont; hence, perhaps, the correction begins with the name of the god.

3 The name of this wife has been expunged, like the preceding one, and has never been replaced, or rather,

as far as I can see, no name had ever been put in, though a note of it may have been. I t thus corresponds with the case above, and this second wife either did not exist, or has been consigned to oblivion by Hatshepsut. Beyond the second column one can detect a very doubtful text in faint red ink h, .. [I JH " [daughter]

/WWW U \ \ ill l_i ^=a

of Tentant (or Tenton)." An asterisk in the plates denotes ancient erasure. 4Cf. Pl. XXIV.

1 0

THE TOMB OF USERHET We now reach four little scenes of a different tenor at the end of the

wall. The household of Userhet could not, apparently, furnish the two persons needed to complete the procession, so recourse was had to this unsightly expedient.1 In each of the four pictures the deceased pair is seen on the right, seated before the offerings. On the other side a sem-priest purifies the gift by fumigation and water, and four mourning women pro-vide the human regrets which, as usual, harmonize so ill with confident faith.2 In three cases the pair are "Userhet, chief priest of the royal spirit, Akheperkere" and "the house-mistress, Shepsut," as we should expect. But in the lowest scene the offering is for the ka of a similar official, named Nebmehyt, and his unnamed wife; the priest serving them has the still more surprising superscription, "Purification for Osiris To, the blessed one." This and other appearances of unexpected personages in the tomb suggest that its decoration was not completed by Userhet himself, but after his death, by persons partly inimical. This would explain the ex-traordinary falling off in the paintings in the west bay and, to some extent also, on the south wall of the east bay (Plate XVII, A), as well as the erasures and substitutions which are frequent. These will be found to point to proposals to deprive Userhet of his tomb, on which a compro-mise was finally reached.3

In the topmost scene the rite is that of a libation, and the gift is a great bunch of onions bound round with the inevitable garland. Smoke seems to be rising as if lighted incense had been sprinkled on the offering.

1 Yet Userhet had two or three other sons (p. 29) for whom this would be the natural place. Were they

sons by a second wife, and ignored by Hatshepsut? But, in that case, why was even the mention of this wife suffered by her?

2 These mourning women seem out of place in a rite which appears to be performed after, not at, burial.

3 My own suggestion is that this conspiracy was plotted by his mother Ta-usret and her nephews, or

step-nephews, she having taken this Nebmehyt as a second husband after the death of Userhet's father. Neb-mehyt's title, as given in the tomb of his son, Khons-To (Tomb 3i, of the time of Barneses II), is connected with the mortuary service of Amenhotep I I I ; but that of Thothmes I ran also in his family, apparently through one Neferhotpe\ who may have been a brother of his or of his wife Ta-usret. There would, then, have been an attempt, on the death of Userhet, to keep the high-priesthood of Thothmes I in the family of the nephews of Ta-usret (or of Nebmehyt), instead of letting it run in the earlier family also and descend to Userhet's sons. Nebmehyt here would, then, be Userhet's stepfather, and To either be To (alias Khons), son of Nebmehyt and "Ta-usret, singer of Mont," or a younger To, apparently a priest of Thothmes I, who is likewise mentioned in Tomb 3i. The appropriation of the benefit of a rite by the performer as well as the recipient is common in Tomb 3i (cf. p. 8).

Four inharmonious additions

The first two rites

I I

The first two rites

The third rite

South wall, east side. Worship of Mont

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS The presentation of onions is frequently seen at this period; owing to its strong properties it was given ritual value as a means of restoring his senses to the dead.1 The second panel records a hotep dy nisut offering of all kinds of food, but only a great cauldron of beer or wine is shown.2

The illustration of the third rite is interesting. It depicts the making of a light for the dead but this is not shown in the usual way as a provision of fat and lighted tapers. Such are indeed depicted, but planted in the ground, not held in the hand, and are plainly formed of three strands twisted like a rope and lashed round at intervals. Each of the strands seems lighted separately. Between these tapers are candles of a very different form, which is often represented in tombs of the period, with flames issuing from the summit.3 It is probable that these lights are a larger form of the conical pastilles of scented fat, bound round with tape (?) to give them greater solidity. They are often mounted on a staff, as here, and carried in procession like cressets. The branching red tie which is seen in our picture is probably a means of securing this slow-burning light to the pole (Plate XII, B). The altar which holds the offerings in the embrace of its two brazen (?) arms is only a more solid form of that noticed in the fourth volume of this series.4

The two scenes on the opposite wall (Plate XI) show the adoration of Osiris and his court of assessors, and the worship of the god Mont, in whose service Userhet's mother was nominally enrolled. The lower picture forms a pendant to the processional scenes on the wall just studied. The recipient of honors in this case is the hawk-headed god, Mont.5 This ancient god of Thebes, ousted by Amon, took refuge in Hermonthis, a few miles to the south, and there held a rival court. The companion assigned to him here is Meryt-seger, "mistress of the West and . . . of the em-

1 Binding on the onion as a tie was a ritual act. In Tomb 54 the dead pair are seen solemnly sitting, with

onions hanging round their necks like flowers. Cf. p. 75. 2 Under the arms of the two priests is a note which may read,'' The servants of one whom the west favors,

or "The priest, Hesamentet." A continuation of it may have been expunged. Note that where the recipient is bald, so also are the priests.

3 For a detailed discussion of this form of lamp, see Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, X, p. 9.

4 Davies, Tomb of Two Sculptors, Pl. XXVII. It is hard to imagine any real counterpart of this altar,

unless there were two (or four) opposed pairs of arms, or unless the arms were merely engraved on its top surface. 5 The names of both deities are written on an overlay of the usual sort, and are scarcely legible.

12

THE TOMB OF USERHET balmer's house (?)."x As a consort of the gods of the dead (her name means "beloved of the Humiliator") she enjoyed much honor from the populace of Thebes. Userhet purifies the offerings laid before Mont by pouring red oil of incense among them. He is followed by two priests similarly attired and holding the same office as himself, and by three ladies, who may be their wivesif the last two had any other function than pleas-antly to fill up the space. No excuse of relationship to Userhet is given for the appearance of three high-priests of the same cult.2 One is an Akheperkereseneb, whom we shall meet with again presently, and who, to judge by his name, must have come from a family devoted to the ser-vice of Thothmes I. The other priest is that Nebmehyt who unblushingly put himself forward on the opposite wall.3 His legend is original, as is also that of "his (Userhet's) wife, the house-mistress, Shepsut, favored of Hathor, lady of heaven and mistress of earth." As on the opposite wall, the censor admits that the next lady is "his wife and the object of his desire"; but, though she looks the part, he has obliterated her name. The last lady he will not allow to be heard of, deleting both her name and description (Plate XII, A). It is all very mysterious, and I see no ex-planation of these innuendos.

In the upper picture Osiris is attended in the kiosk by the gods who assist him in his court of justice, "Thot, lord of Hermopolis, the just scribe of the company of gods," and "Anubis, foremost in the sacred shrine, in attendance (?) on the great god, lord of eternity, who made heaven and earth."4 Thot wears the combined forms of the full and cres-cent moon, whose movements his science regulates and records, and car-ries, instead of a real palette, a badly drawn pictograph for it. The speech he is said to be making is taken for granted. The Egyptians, like other an-cient peoples, found it hard to compass the idea of an absolutely supreme

1 Originally there was another column of text behind Meryt-seger's crown, ending in W

crP . 2 Tomb 3i suggests, however, that there could be several contemporary high priests of the cult, or that

they changed rapidly. Perhaps this king had more than one cult-place. 3 Nebmehyt's name is entered on an overlay of plaster, as is also the royal name within the cartouche.

Something, if only a rough note, has been suppressed just below the line beneath these two priests' names (indi-cated by an asterisk); it seems in both cases to have begun with M\ "born of."

4 The title of Anubis is very faint and does not appear in the plate.

South wall, east side. Worship of Mont

Upper scene. Osiris the judge

i3

Upper scene. Osiris the judge

Userhet's purification

His prayer to his judges

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS and invulnerable godhead; so that Osiris, weak too through his former mortality, has to rely on the magic properties of a pectoral and needs the support of his entourage. A figure of Userhet is placed at the other end of the scene, as if he did not venture to sit down near the gods until he had undergone ritual purification. The real reason may be that the de-signer of the scene was graveled for lack of matter, and dully filled up the space with a second figure "adoring Osiris... ruler of the living "

The customary injunction, "Pure, pure (four times)," is reflected by the eight figures of priests with eight vases, who, after all, manage to throw only four streams of water. The candidate for purification kneels on a white pedestal, which we may imagine to be a slab of alabaster, in-sulating him from the impurities of earth. He clasps anxiously to his bosom the heart-amulet with its reassuring inscription, as if he foresaw the future. For his friends proved treacherous: the text, which put into the mouth of the priests on either side the formal words, "Pure, pure, for the Osiris Userhet, justified and assured of honorable retirement in peace," has been tampered with. On both sides the name has been blotted out, and the names of Akheperkereseneb and "his son . . . " inserted on an overlay.1

Userhet, fresh from the purifying rite and relying all the more on the ostentatious liberality of his gifts to the gods, squats contentedly in the presence of Osiris with a little reservation of food for his own use. His piety is far better than his syntax, for his prayer is a stuttering affair. "Said by Osiris for the ka of the chief priest of the royal spirit Akheper-kere, Userhet, the justified one. He says, 'Homage to thee, lord of eternity and to (?) the princes (?) of endless eternity, that they may grant a happy life in following thy ka, and, after old age, proper burial on the west of Thebes, in the Place of Justice, to the ka of the chief priest, Userhet.' " 2

11 think that I can detect the name of Userhet underneath in both cases. The two cartouches also have been overlaid, and that on the right has been left vacant, but it is almost certain that it was originally that of Thothmes I. For Akheperkereseneb, see above and p. 22.

2 The signs " ft O 8 have been painted out by a censor as inadmissible; but a reference to other gods is

needed to justify the plural pronoun which follows. He would have done better to strike out the opening words "Said by" and "for the ka of." The speech is some evidence that the "Place of Justice," so often heard of, includes this part of the necropolis.

i4

THE TOMB OF USERHET His speech may well falter, for he sits before three ogdoads of gods in His prayer

to his judges separate halls. Their presence is no doubt called for, but the array of gods and of altars is a blot on the scene. The addition of Osiris to the groups turns two of these ogdoads into enneads. The first house contains "Osiris, (head)1 of the gods of the eastern heaven, lords of eternity; of all the gods who rest in the necropolis; and of all the lords of eternity in the presence of Onnofer." In the second group, Osiris presides over the com-panies of gods of the southern, the northern, and the western heavens. The third ogdoad is a made-up lot, amongst whom Userhet can only rec-ognize the four genii of the dead (Plate XVII, A).

The end wall of the east bay (Frontispiece and Plate IX) presents us East walL The

with what is perhaps the most meritorious example of Theban painting hospitality of the Ramesside era, though some features detract from its effect and it has suffered considerable injury. The hospitable reception of the dead by Nut, the goddess of the sycamore, is a very common subject after the Eighteenth Dynasty and is often attractively treated, but generally on a small scale, and with the goddess issuing, like a dryad, from the limbs of the tree.2 Our artist, however, had the merit of perceiving that the sub-ject was aesthetically worthy of being carried out on large lines, and that, as the human interest outweighed the rather obscure personality of the goddess, the tree, under the shade of which her guests rested, would serve better as a background to their figures than as her abode. Moreover, he employs the unusual method of setting his figures against a yellow ground, thus giving solidity to the sparse foliage of the tree. The rich effect of this part of the picture is indeed set in too violent a contrast with the empty columns of the space beyond, and its graceful curves are spoilt by the harsh figure of Nut, the absurd travesty of a tree on her head, the geometrical ponds, and the circular garnishing of the dish below the chair. Its creator evidently had not mental energy enough to make the

1 Is this a right appreciation of the hiatus involved in "Osiris of"?

2 A good example of the customary scene will be found in Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p. i85. A repre-

sentation in Tomb 63 (reign of Thothmes IV) must be one of the earliest, for the later papyrus of Iuya illus-trates Ch. LXIII A of the Book of the Dead by a man receiving a cup from a tree merely. The appreciation of a tree as a background is already manifest in Tombs 57, g3, 96B, 332, and our design is imitated in the contemporary tomb, No. L\I (now greatly damaged).

i5

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS East wail. whole of the picture harmonize with the happily conceived group on the hospitality left. He may have judged that the accidentif accident it waswhich

had left the frieze a careless sketch and the adjacent scenes unprepos-sessing as well as light in tone, provided a useful foil for the rich and detailed coloring of his picture; but he had not the power to make the surroundings finished yet helpful accessories, to cast the goddess in a form which should be in keeping with the rest, or to find a better alter-native to a tightly packed text than its empty scaffolding. The subscene, however, is a praiseworthy conception. Its solidity and quiet movement, its stiff symmetry relieved by the curves of the boats and the graceful lines of the floral decorations, make it a frame which successfully cuts off the main picture from the bars of crude color below. (For the incomplete ceiling-decoration and friezes in the vicinity, see Plates IV, A and X, A.)

The The imposing figure of Userhet (unnamed) is in gala dress. He wears

guests , .

on his head an elaborate fillet (made, perhaps, of a strip of gold-leaf laid on a broader red ribbon worked with beads) and a high form of the festal cone, which at this time shows some sign of no longer being, as before, a mere dab of ointment, but only a reminiscence of it, or a cap which hid it.1 Besides the usual collar and garland, a talisman, combining the symbols of endurance and security, hangs round his neck, and a beaded band crosses his chest in both directions. He receives in a richly deco-rated cup one of the three streams which issue from the vase of the god-dess and does not hesitate to take the fruit direct from the tray in her ministering hand. His wife and mother sit on chairs beside his, their left hands resting on his shoulder and arm, while with the cups in their right hands they too accept the heavenly draught. Textual notes being excluded from the scene, their names are written on their forearms.2

The unusual naturalness of their complexions adds greatly to the charm 1 Cf. the decorated cone in Davies, El Amarna, VI, Pl. I. On the other hand, see p. 44-

2 They are thus seen to be "His wife, house-mistress and singer of Amon, Hatshepsut" and "(His) mother,

singer (of) Mont, Ta-usret." The text is just legible on Plate X, B. | ^ ^ " J r f j r i l tl I a n d ^ "^ ^ ^ s==5 t k o % "' R ^ Jj -^ J %>. I t is unusual to find mother and wife seated together thus, but there is an example of mother and sister seated with the man in Tomb 3i, and of a wife and her mother seated facing him in Tomb 56. Mummies found at Thebes by our Expedition show that the writing of texts on the upper arm was not unknown; so a fitting place has been chosen for it.

1 6

THE TOMB OF USERHET of the picture for us, Hatshepsut being presented as a deep brunette The

and the mother a good deal fairer. Their souls fly above them as semi-human birds; but, while the artist has drawn to the life the sparrows which, unabashed, enjoy the supernatural fruit, he has left the spirit-birds ghostly sketches scarcely discernible amongst the foliage. He has, however, found a place beyond the tree for fully and charmingly executed figures of the souls of Userhet and his wife as a pair of human-headed hawks. They stand on the margin of a T-shaped pond and, de-veloping human arms and hands at need, scoop up the water in their little palms and drink their fill also. Necklaces, to which counterpoises are attached behind, serve to conceal the awkward point of junction of bird and man.

The goddess, being divorced from the sycamore, is shown with a tree, The goddess

or what is meant for it, on her head, while the platform under her feet is transformed into a pool in token of her mission of refreshment.1 She is clothed in a robe of cerise red with a net of oblong blue beads, alter-nating with tiny gold ones, thrown over it. She carries a vase with a device of an offering to Osiris on it, and a mat of loaves and fruit grapes, figs, a pomegranate, and a melonresting on a thick pad of foliage.2 A round dish of the fruit, set out on a gay napkin, is also placed on a garlanded stand by the side of Hatshepsut, the dish being tilted up so as to show its full shape and contents.3 The guests of the goddess sit on richly ornamented chairs, and their feet rest on simple wooden foot-stools.4

1 For the goddess in this form, see Davies, Tomb of Nakht at Thebes (vol. I of this series), Pl. X. The

careless painter has given to her feet a sickly yellow hue that goes ill with the warm color of her arms. With the 6a-birds it is the faces which are too pale.

2 What looks like a cut melon might be a honeycomb, in which case it would be wild honey, and also the

product of the tree. Cf. Pl. V. 3 Cf. Pl. XXV.

4 The addition of the five toes to the outer foot, as seen by the eye in echelon, has a curious history. It

appears at Thebes in the reign of Thothmes IV (Tombs 38, 54) in single instances. Yet it is not found in the fine sculptured tombs of the time of Amenhotep III (once in the painted tomb, No. 8), though regularly at El Amarna. It is by no means common even in the finest Bamesside tombs and thus wears the character of a questionable innovation, the experiment being first made on the body of a common person, such as a dancing girl, and confined to a single figure in a tomb. The large figures almost all have it in the tomb of Apy (Pis. XXII-XXV).

i7

TWO R A M E S S I D E TOMBS Useofshadmg ^ feature calling for special notice is the appearance of shading in and graded

color this picture, for the first time in Egypt, so far as I know.1 The indica-tions are very slight, consisting of deepened color on the cheeks of the ladies and of Userhet, under the chin, between the lips, under the heel of Hatshepsut, and, to a slight degree, under the eyebrow. This might be taken as merely an observation of local accentuation of color, not of shadow, refusing to the artist the discovery of how modeling is indicated by light and shade. But the tomb of Queen Nofretari exhibits a more advanced use of these devices on the person of the rosy-fleshed queen, though not on the gods and goddesses. It is clear that the artist there observed the play of light and shade on the reliefs he was painting and reproduced this to some extent, yet not so softly or exactly that the effect is generally pleasing.2 In Userhet's picture the variations of color which the large scale of his figures invited are very unobtrusive, but, none the less, they amount to an aesthetic heresy, which, if followed up, would have completely altered the fundamental character of Egyptian art. In other respects also our artist gives rein to an unusually keen color sense. In the hands of the Egyptian painter color was more often conventional than imitative, complexions, among other things, coming under this rule. But a real appreciation of the tone of the Egyptian skin is shown in the flesh color of Hatshepsut here, and this breach of convention is reflected also in the vivid yellow, blue, and orange on the bole and larger limbs of the sycamore. The painter has noticed with pleasure how the smooth bark of certain trees takes on hues which are far from

1 This innovation was to some degree a development. Already in Tomb 69 (of the reign of Amenhotep

III) we see the deep dimple in the corner of the mouth indicated by a black spot. The nostril was soon marked in the same hard way, and the two are an unpleasing feature of Bamesside art. Inner form was being increasingly shown in the lines about the mouth, the fold of the eyelid, the muscles of the arm and leg, the saliences of the knee and the ankle, the creases of the neck and abdomen. These fines needed only to be softened into a shadow, as the lines of the skirt were being expanded into soft stripes. A similar feature may be observed in the figs in this picture. The dimpled eye of the fruit, which in reliefs is indicated by a depression, rightly observed in perspective and so placed on the fruit, is imitated here by a black oval ring. Facial lines are used in Tomb g3 (on monkeys) and in Tombs 49 and 181. Muscles, knees, and ankles are shown by line in Tomb 1. Cf. Pis. XXIII-XXV and Davies, Tomb of Two Sculptors, Pl. XIV.

2 This, too, may well have been a product of the heterodox movement, but I cannot agree that the painting

in the Ashmolean Museum affords clear evidence of shading, still less of the emphasis on the high lights which Prof. Petrie claims to be, or to have been, visible. See J.E.A., VII, pp. 4. 221, 225; and Bulletin of M.M.A., Dec. 1922, Part II, p. 52.

l8

THE TOxMB OF USERHET being uniform or dull, and he breaks through the traditional rule that a flat red or yellow is the only permissible color for growing wood.1

The empty columns above the head of Nut may safely be filled from other sources. "The speech of Nut, the great one, wonder-working in this her name of the sycamore: T have presented thee with this cool water that thy heart may be refreshed therebythis water which comes from thy pool in the necropolis on the west of Thebes. Thou hast re-ceived dainty food in the fruit which springs from my limbs. Thy bird-soul sitteth in my shade and drinks water to its heart's content.' "2

The subscene represents the voyage to and from Abydos, undertaken that the dead may pay homage to Osiris there and make his apology, as it were, for not being buried at his side. We do not know what exact prac-tice is reflected in this double picture which is so common in tombs; here at least a purely symbolic stage has been reached. The boat is ridicu-lous, even as a river craft, though the form of fitting a mast and sails to it on the return voyage is still observed. The cabin seems to be a union of the open shelter under which the statues were once conveyed to Abydos with the curtained catafalque in which the coffin was drawn to the tomb. The texts appended are threadbare phrases, full of scribal lapses.

The decoration of the west bay of the tomb shows little merit in de-sign and less in execution, a falling off for which we have been prepared in a measure by some of the scenes at the other end of the room. Any theory, based on intrusive names, that these scenes were completed after Userhet's death, must take account of the fact that they include those most personal to himself and most reminiscent of an earlier style. The bare ceiling shows, at any rate, that this bay was least considered, and the careless execution would seem to indicate that a second and poorly qualified decorator was employed here. The subjects in some degree con-

Speech of Nut

The subscene

Features of the west bay

1 "(The sycamore has) fruits that are redder than jasper. Its foliage is like malachite and is . . . as

glass. Its wood has a hue like that of feldspath" (Erman, Die Literatur der Aegypter, p. 312). 2 From Tomb 106. This traditional speech may have been omitted the more readily by our designer as

it came better from the dryad goddess than from one in completely human shape. One sees from it that the owner of a tomb was theoretically so happy as to have the goddess as a permanent denizen of his garden. No tomb yet found, however, shows more than an apology for such a pool, and the garden seems often to have amounted only to a stunted shrub (p. 35).

19

Features of the west bay

West wall. A scene of recreation

The family adore Mont

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS tinue those of the east bay. As we had there the adoration of Mont and of Thothmes I, the refreshment of Userhet in the garden, and his purifi-cation before Osiris, so here we find the worship of Mont repeated (Plate XV), Userhet and his wife disporting themselves again in their garden (Plate XV), the cult of the statue of the king, and the judgment and re-wards of Userhet (Plates XIII and XVI).

If Userhet's natural interest in his own personal story and fate in-spired the great picture on the end wall of the east bay, the same impulse seems to have been operative in the design which occupies the lower part of the opposite wall (Plate XV), though it is unhappily in a state of ruin. The figures in it are clumsy, but its freedom of treatment makes it stand out from the scenes around it, like its companion picture. On the left, Userhet and his wife sit together under a pergola, between the columns of which a vine spreads its pleasant shade. Shepsut squats comfortably on a hassock behind her husband, who is provided with a stool. The right arm of Userhet is bent back, presenting a fishing rod and line to his wife, which "the favorite of Hathor" grasps, at the same time holding out something to her husband.1 The vine is treated freely, yet with great decorative effect. The leaves are for once real vine leaves, and, when it suits his design, the artist introduces also the folded leaf.2 A large white hound can just be detected under the stool. What lay beyond the pair is destroyed, but two little fragments found in the rubbish show a wreathed column which can only come from this scene. Close to the pergola, then, was a pond, the banks of which were planted with flowering shrubs.3

The scene above this is interesting only for the text accompanying it, for its execution would do little credit to the cheapest monument of the

1 The scene can be interpreted, thanks to a parallel picture in Tomb 324, though it is equally damaged.

There the owner is fishing with two rods and double lines. With the one he has caught two fish; the other he is holding back, as here, and his wife is putting new bait on the hook for him. This design is repeated in Tombs i57 (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, II, p. n5) and 2i5. In both these cases the wife also assists, no doubt by baiting the line. The scene is a pendant to the hospitality of Nut, both pictures depicting the enjoyment of their garden by the owners. For the attitude, see Steindorff, Bliitezeit des Pharaonen-reichs (1926), p. i85. His head and titles, as well as the edge of the pool, are on fragments replaced by me. For the use of rod and line, see Klebs, Reliefs des alten Reiches, p. 76, and Tomb g3.

2 Cf. Pl. XXXIII and Davies, El Amarna, II, Pl. XII.

3 Painted in yellow against the black of the banks. So in Tomb 324 and in the northern palace at El

Amarna (Bulletin of M. M. A., Dec. 1926, Part II, p. i4). 2 0

THE TOMB OF USERHET most debased period. It represents the worship of a hawk-headed deity, presumably Mont,1 by three men, the first of whom wears round his neck the seal of a vizier, and the other two the priestly skin. Their names, written on a wash of coarse plaster, by which the original text, consist-ing perhaps only of a rough draft, has been obliterated, conform to the dress and thus may reiterate the suppressed text more or less exactly.2

They are "The prince, superintendent of the city, and vizier, Imhotpe. His beloved son, high-priest of Amon, Hapuseneb. His (Userhet's) father, high-priest of Amon, Khensemlhab?]. Their son (that is, "descendant") who immortalizes their names, high-priest of the royal spirit Akheperkere, Userhet, who is (also) called Neferhebef."

These excerpts from the family have been described as deliberate misstatements, designed to give undue importance to Userhet.3 But the personal history of the viziers and high-priests of Egypt must have been available, and this assertion could be checked by them and by the records in Hapuseneb's tomb hard by. The aim here is not to give us Userhet's descent, but to show that his family had been linked with the living Akheperkere before it served him as a god and had held supreme offices, civil and religious, under his successors. There seems to have been some urgent need at the moment to safeguard the hereditary claims to User-het's office, so his tomb was made to serve as an advertisement for his heirs rather than for himself. I suspect that this allusion to family history is the work of the same hands that inserted unrelated names here and there on the walls, with the object of pointing out that from early days the family had provided high-priests of the cult. So far as we can check them the names are not fictitious. Imhotpe was vizier under Thothmes I, and Hapuseneb under Hatshepsut.4 Hapuseneb names as his father one Hapu, a modest third lector of Amon; but we have no proof that even Hapu was a son of Imhotpe. Taking "son" as meaning "son of his son,"

1 The original design provided the god with high plumes. The parts of hjs figure below the breast, as well

as the four stands supporting the offerings, are fragments fitted up by me. 2 The later origin of the names is evidenced also by the addition of the stroke to the ntr and hm signs, a

feature seen also in one of the superimposed names on Pl. XI. 3 Legrain in Annates du service, VIII, p. 258.

4 Weil, Die Veziere Aegyptens, p. 68; Sethe, Urkunden, IV, p. 472, 1. 1.

The family adore Mont

An involved genealogy

2 1

Userhet's father

North wall, west side. Anniversary of the burial of Thothmes I

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS however, the relation is possible.1 At the best, then, this list seems to be based on family traditions, and devoid of historical value.

Imhotpe's father was a tutor of the children of Thothmes I and very unlikely to be "Khensem . . . , high-priest of Amon." This man, then, must be Userhet's own father, through whom he is connected with these distant dignitaries, and thus Ta-usret's husband. We have as yet no other record of his holding this office (under Harmhab?). Our trust in the story is not increased by the additional name of Neferhebef given here, and here only, to Userhet; but it may be supplied to give weight to a semi-legal document.2 Userhet has "revivified" the names of his ancestors very insufficiently and unsatisfactorily.3

The scene on the west side of the back (north) wall (Plate XVI) is divided into three registers, and it is not easy to say whether they deal with one subject only. The upper scenes probably depict a celebration of the anniversary of the king's burial, at which the rites were reenacted by land and water, the statue here taking the place of the coffined mummy. The lowest scene is concerned with the presentation of burial furniture, but, though Plate XXXVII shows such equipment being made for the use of a dead king, and though a cartouche is seen (in a title?) near the recip-ient on the left, the figure is scarcely compatible with that of a monarch.

XA vizier Hapu existed (Tomb 66 and Daressy, Recueil de cones funeraires, No. 270) and was buried close to Hapuseneb; but we can only suppose this to be Hapuseneb's father if we presume that his title was challenged and that he speedily died, leaving the office to his son, who also only held it brieflyfor the latter does not claim the rank either for himself or his father in his tomb. It may be that Hapu and his son were made viziers by Hatshepsut against the will of other parties in the State, that both paid for it with their lives, and that neither was acknowledged as such by the triumphant party or afterwards. Hence the silence here also as to the vizierate of Hapuseneb, the title given him being that which he commonly uses.

2 A record in the tomb of Hapu that his eldest son was a web-priest of Amon, Neferhebef, gives weight to

suspicion. Perhaps "called Neferhebef" on Pl. XV belongs to Hapuseneb's name and has been misplaced. 3 The question of a trumped-up genealogy is affected by a similar occurrence in the closely related tombs,

Nos. 31 and 324, where a hitherto unknown vizier, Usermont, is introduced without its being clear how he is related to the families. Yet he appears to be authentic. Thus, though a family might make use of a distant member for its glorification, that does not involve it in mendacity. Hapuseneb had a son Akheperkereseneb, high-priest of Thothmes I (Griffith in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1889, p. i n ) . Though this name would be easily assumed by any one in the service of that king, the like-named person twice intro-duced on these walls may well be he, and meant to be a forced spokesman for the family, like Imhotpe and Hapuseneb. Probably the same is true of Amenmose' (p. 27), who seems to be of the same early date. Thus, Nebmehyt on Pl. XI may have followed Akheperkereseneb at the same distance in time that intervenes between Khensem . . . and Hapuseneb, and so be of Userhet's own period.

22

THE TOMB OF USERHET The gifts, then, are for Userhet himself, and the representation is to be taken in connection with that on Plate XIII.

In the center of the topmost scene we see the doorway of the temple through which Userhet has just passed into the inner court or shrine, there to adore the king, screened from view by drawn curtains within the naos of his portable bark. The royal head, wearing the atef crown, adorns the prow and stern of the bark. Incense burns before it in dishes on top of the stands of offerings, and from these a bouquet is pre-sented by a priest to Userhet in token of the good will of the deified king. A long file of servitors in the outer court brings further supplies for his service.

In the middle register the standing statue has been unveiled and, attired in full gala costume, is being dragged by men on its sled-shaped base, so as to simulate the power of walking. To add to the illusion, lec-tors walk on either side, shading the king's face from the sun's rays, but the use of incense betrays the truth. The figure is black; primarily, no doubt, because the cult statue was of ebony.1 Five women greet the appearance of the king with signs of grief, as if for one newly dead, and five men lead the procession. They form a group of officials without apparent gradation or appropriateness of rank. The first, who seems to stand apart, is a prince, named, perhaps, Ahmose. He is followed by an overseer of the treasury of silver (?), Nebmehyt (?), an overseer of . . . , Amenhotpe, a lieutenant of the army (?), Mamheka, and by one Im-hotpe (?).2 In front of the procession is a lake enclosed by banks of black earth and surrounded by a garden. Here the next part of the program is being carried out. The royal statue has been embarked on a skiff and receives the attention of priests there, while three men running along the

1 When depicted in person the king is red (Pl. V). The figures of kings supporting insignia of gods, etc.,

in works of art are very often black: cf. Naville, Xlth Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari, Part I, Pl. I. For royalties of black complexion, see Davies, Tomb of Two Sculptors, p. 33. A fragment which shows the head of the king (Pl. XIX, 4) must be that of the royal ka, carried on a pole behind the statue. For a photographic record of the scene, see Wreszinski, Atlas zur altagyptischen Kulturgeschichte, Sheet 173 (wrongly attributed to Tomb 5o). The separating borders of blue petals stop half-way across the wall simply because there was scanty headroom for the desired scene beyond this point.

2 Is Ahmose an ancestral vizier againhe of the time of Hatshepsut? In the last column of text all but

hip is on an overlay.

23

The mortuary bark

Perambula-tion of the statue

Perambula-tion of the statue

Userhet's own burial provision

South wall, west side. His hopes in death

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS bank drag the bark round the piece of water. A swimmer keeps the tow-rope clear of weeds.1 Frail booths, surrounded by a paling of canes, such as are provided for the entertainment of the dead on the day of burial, are dispersed among the trees of the garden.2

It is not inappropriate that Userhet, who had so often repeated masses for the soul of Thothmes I, should in this lower picture link his hopes for fitting burial with those of the king. On the left we may im-agine Userhet ("chief priest of Akheperkere in the temple Chnemet-ankh") seated, for his hand is stretched out to touch the specimen gifts of a pectoral (?) and a cartonnage mask which "his son . . . who immortal-izes his name" brings. Behind this son are other donors with offerings of food, and an array of furniture. This includes collars, ritual outfits,3

a censer, braziers, and a libation vase, three masks, several complete mummy coverings, coffins, or statuettes, and further supplies of food.

The west side of the south wall (Plate XIII) is occupied by what amounts to a pictorial epitaph in three such phrases as "Honored in life by the king; mourned in death by his friends; welcomed in heaven by his god." The Egyptian was as far as can be from regarding life as a many-colored stain on the white radiance of eternity. For him, on the contrary, life set the norm of all future existence, which he hoped might differ from it only in greater intensity and diversity, though he often yielded to fears that it would prove a duller and darker shadow of earth. It is not strange that in the gracious recognition of services by a mon-arch a promise, and even a security, was found for generous treatment from the king of eternity; so that Userhet sets the royal rewards in closest connection with his summons to the presence of Osiris.4

This proof of royal favor is shown in the lowest register and is mod-

l The landing stage of the T-shaped pond is close to the temple door in the parallel scene in Tomb 3i . For the rite as applied to private persons, compare scenes in Tombs 87 and 100 (Virey in Memoires de la mission archeologique francaise au Caire, V, p. 3i9, and Pl. XXXVIII).

2 Cf. Davies, Tomb of Two Sculptors, Pl. XIX. The figure in the first booth has been obliterated without

obvious reason. 3 For the outfits, see Davies, Ibid, Pl. XXIV. Small masks, suitable only for statuettes, were found in

the tomb of Amenhotep II (Daressy, Fouilles dans la Vallee des Rois, Pl. XXVI). 4 Apy also links life and death in the same way (Pis. XXVII, XXVIII).

24

THE TOMB OF USERHET eled in the main on the designs used at El Amarna,1 the actual reception by the king being omitted and only adumbrated by a very summary drawing of the palace which occupies the center of the scene. At least it recalls the fagade or enclosure of the palace and does not at all resemble a temple. Yet we see behind it two Osirid statues of the king of South Egypt clothed in a short tunic, like those that lined the approach to the earlier temple at Deir el Bahri.2 Slabs for offering are set beside them. Farther still to the right an altar (?) is seen, and servants are preparing food or bringing supplies. On the left Userhet "the priest, foremost in the palace" (or possibly "high-priest in the temple of the king"), is leav-ing the building which had been the scene of this gratifying mark of honor, surrounded by servants and a very zareba of bouquets. His neck is encumbered with gold necklaces, and his lifted arms exhibit his bracelets to his friends. The jewelry which he cannot accommodate on his person is set out on the table. His womenkind come out to greet him with music and acclamation. Hatshepsut has not been forgotten by the king, if, as seems, earrings are among his gifts, and the attendant has something for her in his hands. The women's chanted applause of the king's generosity is recorded: "[Great is] the wealth of him (?) who recognizes those given by Amon to make glad his heart, Pharaoh, lord of Egypt. Thou shalt give wealth to generations yet unborn, 0 Pha-raoh, lord of every one of us."3 Userhet's chariot is waiting for him, the groom at the horses' heads,4 and the driver chatting with the doorkeeper. Neither is the wherewithal for a banquet lacking; again a gift, it may be, from the king's table.

The second register shows the funeral convoy moving towards the resting place of the dead in the west. The model boat, with the elabo-rate shrine in which the coffin is enclosed, is being drawn by three cows.

His rewards in life

His honors in death

1 Cf. Davies, El Amarna, II, Pis. XI, XXXVI; V, Pl. IX; VI, Pis. V, XX, XXX; also Bulletin of M.M.A.,

Nov. 1921, Part II, pp. 21-23. 2 The statues are still less suitable to a dwelling of Userhet, which, besides, would be on the left. Whether

the two statues are balanced by a pair wearing the crown of Upper Egypt cannot now be determined with cer-tainty.

3Cf. Davies, El Amarna, I, Pl. VIII; III, p. i3 . 4 This detail is on a corner piece of sandstone from the lining of the west reveal of the entrance.

25

His honors in death

His burial rites

Userhet welcomed by the West

TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS Great bouquets like columns (reminding us that the Egyptian column is, after all, a bouquet, simple or elaborate) stand at the four corners and are connected by gay garlands. By the side of the route are stands of water jars, festooned with flowers, which take the place of the booths shown on Plate XVI. The coffin is followed by mourners in threes, who place the hand before the mouth in token of respectful silence, or in fear of offending the ritual purity of the dead. The first three are identified as the web-priests, Userpehti and Amenhotpe, and the overseer of the workshop of Amon, Nebmose. The second trio are the web-priests, Neferhebef and Nebseny, and the scribe of the treasury of the god, Nakht.1 The third group is classed together, but the title is illegible. Their dull dirge runs, "0 Userhet, high-priest in Chnemet-ankh, who re-newest life! 0 Userhet, high-priest of the royal spirit Akheperkere!" Two men walk beside the cattle, carrying chests of burial equipment and fans. It makes a poor show in comparison with the varied gifts customary at an earlier period; but to it we must add the presents pre-viously chronicled (Plate XVI).

The cortege is met by a band of seven mourning women, who pour dust on their heads so liberally that they are streaked (bluish gray) with it from head to heel. They are very badly drawn, an enormous eye be-ing planted almost in the middle of the face and at an absurd angle. Two other women, meant, no doubt, for the mother and wife of Userhet, turn towards the two coffins (white, with yellow bands) set up before the tomb,3 while a lector reads the hotep dy nisut formula, and a priest officiates. A table before them contains food and sixteen vases for the needed libations (four purifications repeated four times).

Only a bouquet behind the coffins separates death from life, for on the far side we see the dead man, already endowed with renewed vitality,

1 These names are added faintly where they could be squeezed in. That of Nakht (omitted from the plate)

lies below the name of Neferhebef. The last legend may be "the artisans who . . . . " 2 The first name of Userhet is a palimpsest and seems to replace the cartouche of the king and the name

of Userhet written with two crossed signs. 3 Despite the beard, which is generally omitted in such cases, the second coffin is certainly intended for

the wife, in anticipation of her day of burial. Actual coffins of women are generally marked by the absence of the beard and by open, instead of clenched, hands crossed on the breast.

26

THE TOMB OF USERHET welcomed by Hathor, goddess of the West. She stands in front of a curious building which must represent the tomb, though it is in even more absurd contrast than usual with the sepulcher in which it occurs. However, it resembles closely enough a side view of the Ramesside pyramidal tombs of Drarabu'l Naga and presents the salient features of the temple of Mentuhotep at Deir el Bahri, which contained the shrine of Hathor and was the model, as I believe, of the pyramidal tomb. It may not have been clear to the designer, any more than to us, whether this erection stood for that temple, the home of Hathor, or for the ideal tomb, to which neither that of Userhet, nor, indeed, the vast majority of the tombs of Thebes had any resemblance. The tip of the pyramid is here colored black, as if made of basalt, and its slope is wreathed in garlands by the symbolizing fancy of the artist.1

The priesthood seems to have developed a high gift of hypocrisy. Userhet's pains to secure his soul's salvation have been treacherously crossed at the last moment; for the name of the person accepted by the goddess has been transformed, by the now familiar device of a smear of plaster and a little ink, into that of one Amenmose, a fellow high-priest (the fifth of the cult mentioned in the tomb), who thus played the Jacob and tried by guile to filch Userhet's death-right behind the back of the avenger of unrighteousness.2

Amenmose's subterfuge was mean rather