Davies, Norman de Garis; Davies, Norman de Garis [Hrsg.]: The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep at Saqqareh (Band 1): The chapel of Ptahhetep and the hieroglyphs (London, 1900)

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THE MASTABA OF PTAHHETEP AND AKHETHETEP.

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CHAPTEE II.

THE SCULPTURED SCENES IN PTAHHETEP'S CHAPEL.

By the Editor.

The sculptures of the chamber of Ptahhetep
have already been described by the present
writer, from the complete outline tracings of
Miss Pirie and Miss Paget, in a volume of
the Egyptian Research Account entitled The
Bamesseum (by J. E. Quibell), and the Tomb of
Ptahhetep. He need not therefore deal at length
with the history of their discovery and publica-
tion a second time before entering more par-
ticularly upon the subjects of the plates of the
present volume.

The small rectangular chamber is entered
from the 1ST., and from about 3 feet above the
ground the whole of the interior walls and
the thickness of the walls in the doorway
are adorned with sculpture, once brilliantly
coloured. The ceiling is carved in imitation
of a timber roofing.

The sculptures are not without a certain
sequence in their arrangement upon the walls.
They put on record the name, titles, occupations
and surroundings of the man in his lifetime and
his provision for services after death, apparently
with a view not only to the honour of his
memory among men, but also to a correspond-
ing reception and perfect welfare for him
amongst the gods. Those of the W. wall in
particular—the false doors and the ritual scenes
—cannot have been intended merely to record
the presentation of the funeral offerings by the
priests; their presence in the tomb was de-
signed to produce a magic influence upon the
dead man's future, providing him mystically
with a permanent equipment for the endless
repetition of the services figured. Such has

long been the view of Maspero, and it is now
generally accepted.

In the passage of the doorway servants are
represented bringing into the chamber offerings
of flesh and fowl.1 Similar scenes are continued
on to the W. wall. On entering the chamber
first we pass a scene of slaughter on the lower
half of the front or N. wall (PI. xxxi) ; then,
on the W. wall a false door (p. 6), highly
decorated but without inscription (Pis. xix.,
xx., xxix.a), beyond which is figured the scene
of the table of offerings, or grand ceremonial
meal of the deceased—the list of the offerings
is shown on Pi. xxx.a. Beyond this is another
false door, fully inscribed for Ptahhetep and
sculptured with a brief resume of a similar
meal (PI. xxix.fr). Again, at the inner end of
the chamber, the S. wall shows Ptahhetep's
meal, with servants and priests slaughtering
cattle and bringing food, while abundant sup-
plies are brought by figures in the upper rows
which symbolize the estates of Ptahhetep.2
That each of these banquets is ceremonial and
funerary is suggested by the fact that priests
are always figured as present. But it is
possible that the scene on the inner wall repre-
sents the supplies and food of Ptahhetep in his
lifetime, since here the priests are not con-
spicuous : perhaps they were there only to bless
the food ? This scene then may belong to the
series relating to the life of Ptahhetep.

It is to this series that the most interesting

1 Ram., PI. xxxvii.

2 Ram., PLs. xxxiv., xxxv., top.

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