DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4858#0075
THE TOMB OF NAKHT
Themscrip- ^he inscriptions, which start both ways from the center of the
tions on the
stela lintels, read (outside on the right hand), "A gracious burial grant1 of
Osiris Onnofer, the great god, lord of Abydos! He grants entrance
and exit in the necropolis and that the soul (ba) is not repelled from
its desire. For the ka of the serving-priest of Amon, the scribe
Nakht, maakheru" and (left hand), "A gracious burial-grant of
Harakhti! He grants a sight of his beauty daily and a walk abroad
to see the sun just as when on earth. For the ka of (etc.)." Inside
these texts are other claims or requests; (on the right), "A gracious
burial-grant of Amon, head of the sacred (places), the great god, chief-
tain of Thebes! He grants a passage across to Karnak, to provide
food every day.2 For the ka of (etc.)," and (on the left), "A gracious
burial-grant of Anubis, warden of the shrine of the god! He grants
glory in heaven with Re, weal on earth with Geb, and victory in the
western land with Onnofer. For the ka of the serving-priest Nakht."
The inscriptions on the shorter jambs describe Nakht as approved
which is only sometimes added to the bowl and can precede or follow it. I regard these two as representing
the homage paid to the adumbrated deity, either by the cup of incense and water of libation or by offer-
ings of food and drink indicated by these two ideograms. Similar bowls of incense are offered to the device
on stelae of the Middle Kingdom. (Cf. Jequier, Bulletin de Vlnstilut Francais, XI, p. i3j; Boeser,
Beschreibung der Sammlung in Leiden, II, Pis. XV, XXV; Davies, Five Theban Tombs, PI. III.)
literally "a boon which the king grants." Originally this seems to have referred to the divine
sanction and blessing at burial which was conveyed through the mediation of the king and sometimes
(perhaps, in earlier times, generally or universally) substantiated by actual gifts and offerings on his part.
After Old Kingdom times the association of a god or gods with the king ("a boon which the king grants
and which the god grants") in this supreme sanction is invariable instead of being merely customary, and
the phrase becomes so contracted to an indefinite conception that the verb "(the god) gives" is added
though it is already contained in the formula. It is, I think, clear that the phrase hotep di nisut (for-
merly read suten di hotep) has by this time become a single word (in contracted form htpdns) expressing the
solemn ecclesiastical blessing at burial. When he placed this revered symbol 1 n A on the doorways and
ceilings of his tomb and even upon his burial furniture, the owner of the tomb laid claim to have received
the blessing of the gods, to each one of whom he refers some special manifestation of the divine beneficence.
Dr. Alan Gardiner has recently earned general gratitude by discussing this difficult formula at length in
an excursus (Davies-Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, pp. 79-93). His conclusions lead him to translate such
an example as we have above "An offering which the king gives to Osiris . . . that he may grant
. . . ," but I do not find his reasons convincing, since they involve too great a departure from the
ancient use. His grammatical explanation of the phrase hotep di nisut, however, seems thoroughly sound.
His most instructive inquiry into the different meaning which the formula acquires when used in con-
nection with the ritual of offerings does not concern us directly here.
2 The great temples (other than the royal mortuary temples) were on the eastern bank. The desired
provision therefore is against a break-down in the means of communication by which a supply of offerings
sanctified by association with the god could be brought to the necropolis.
48
Themscrip- ^he inscriptions, which start both ways from the center of the
tions on the
stela lintels, read (outside on the right hand), "A gracious burial grant1 of
Osiris Onnofer, the great god, lord of Abydos! He grants entrance
and exit in the necropolis and that the soul (ba) is not repelled from
its desire. For the ka of the serving-priest of Amon, the scribe
Nakht, maakheru" and (left hand), "A gracious burial-grant of
Harakhti! He grants a sight of his beauty daily and a walk abroad
to see the sun just as when on earth. For the ka of (etc.)." Inside
these texts are other claims or requests; (on the right), "A gracious
burial-grant of Amon, head of the sacred (places), the great god, chief-
tain of Thebes! He grants a passage across to Karnak, to provide
food every day.2 For the ka of (etc.)," and (on the left), "A gracious
burial-grant of Anubis, warden of the shrine of the god! He grants
glory in heaven with Re, weal on earth with Geb, and victory in the
western land with Onnofer. For the ka of the serving-priest Nakht."
The inscriptions on the shorter jambs describe Nakht as approved
which is only sometimes added to the bowl and can precede or follow it. I regard these two as representing
the homage paid to the adumbrated deity, either by the cup of incense and water of libation or by offer-
ings of food and drink indicated by these two ideograms. Similar bowls of incense are offered to the device
on stelae of the Middle Kingdom. (Cf. Jequier, Bulletin de Vlnstilut Francais, XI, p. i3j; Boeser,
Beschreibung der Sammlung in Leiden, II, Pis. XV, XXV; Davies, Five Theban Tombs, PI. III.)
literally "a boon which the king grants." Originally this seems to have referred to the divine
sanction and blessing at burial which was conveyed through the mediation of the king and sometimes
(perhaps, in earlier times, generally or universally) substantiated by actual gifts and offerings on his part.
After Old Kingdom times the association of a god or gods with the king ("a boon which the king grants
and which the god grants") in this supreme sanction is invariable instead of being merely customary, and
the phrase becomes so contracted to an indefinite conception that the verb "(the god) gives" is added
though it is already contained in the formula. It is, I think, clear that the phrase hotep di nisut (for-
merly read suten di hotep) has by this time become a single word (in contracted form htpdns) expressing the
solemn ecclesiastical blessing at burial. When he placed this revered symbol 1 n A on the doorways and
ceilings of his tomb and even upon his burial furniture, the owner of the tomb laid claim to have received
the blessing of the gods, to each one of whom he refers some special manifestation of the divine beneficence.
Dr. Alan Gardiner has recently earned general gratitude by discussing this difficult formula at length in
an excursus (Davies-Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, pp. 79-93). His conclusions lead him to translate such
an example as we have above "An offering which the king gives to Osiris . . . that he may grant
. . . ," but I do not find his reasons convincing, since they involve too great a departure from the
ancient use. His grammatical explanation of the phrase hotep di nisut, however, seems thoroughly sound.
His most instructive inquiry into the different meaning which the formula acquires when used in con-
nection with the ritual of offerings does not concern us directly here.
2 The great temples (other than the royal mortuary temples) were on the eastern bank. The desired
provision therefore is against a break-down in the means of communication by which a supply of offerings
sanctified by association with the god could be brought to the necropolis.
48