DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4858#0087
THE TOMB OF NAKHT
Egyptian love
of outdoor
life
Arrangement
of the scene
Initial labors
LABOR IN THE FIELDS
(EAST WALL: SOUTH SIDE—PLATES XVIII, XIX, XX, AND XXI)
As has been suggested in Chapter I, pictures of daily life had
primarily a decorative purpose; the subject being chosen for its at-
tractiveness and appropriateness, and for the latter reason placed on
the wall nearest the outer door. Had magical ends been in con-
scious view they would certainly have been supported by invocations.
Pictures of outdoor life would be even more welcome to the owner of
a tomb than to a householder, throwing a warm illusion round thoughts
of interment in the grave, cheating his ready fancy with the idea of
somehow still watching over his fruitful acres and of seeing the daily
toil and growing increase by which the means of life and pleasure
were won for men and gods and for the worthy dead. To us they
are invaluable as unsophisticated pictures of ancient life and custom.
"The serving-priest of [Amon, the scribe Nakht], triumphant before
the great god, sitting in a booth and looking at his fields." This
simple superscription informs us with what strength the inhabitant of
Egypt found himself tied by his heart-strings to earth and its
seasonal changes, even in his preparations for eternity.
We have already noticed the consecration of the piled-up offerings
to the gods, which is the natural, though scarcely the conscious climax
of the whole picture. In the less prominent scene extending along
the foot of the wall (Plate XXI) the first preparation of the soil is
shown. The stereotyped design probably consisted of two registers
terminating in front of the arbor as in the scene above. But space
did not quite admit of this and, rather than omit the upper row, the
artist has squeezed it in, substituting for the usual black base-line a
meandering brown strip which follows the contour of the picture below
it and so makes the fullest use of the space.
This broad, brown line represents the muddy soil. The inunda-
60
Egyptian love
of outdoor
life
Arrangement
of the scene
Initial labors
LABOR IN THE FIELDS
(EAST WALL: SOUTH SIDE—PLATES XVIII, XIX, XX, AND XXI)
As has been suggested in Chapter I, pictures of daily life had
primarily a decorative purpose; the subject being chosen for its at-
tractiveness and appropriateness, and for the latter reason placed on
the wall nearest the outer door. Had magical ends been in con-
scious view they would certainly have been supported by invocations.
Pictures of outdoor life would be even more welcome to the owner of
a tomb than to a householder, throwing a warm illusion round thoughts
of interment in the grave, cheating his ready fancy with the idea of
somehow still watching over his fruitful acres and of seeing the daily
toil and growing increase by which the means of life and pleasure
were won for men and gods and for the worthy dead. To us they
are invaluable as unsophisticated pictures of ancient life and custom.
"The serving-priest of [Amon, the scribe Nakht], triumphant before
the great god, sitting in a booth and looking at his fields." This
simple superscription informs us with what strength the inhabitant of
Egypt found himself tied by his heart-strings to earth and its
seasonal changes, even in his preparations for eternity.
We have already noticed the consecration of the piled-up offerings
to the gods, which is the natural, though scarcely the conscious climax
of the whole picture. In the less prominent scene extending along
the foot of the wall (Plate XXI) the first preparation of the soil is
shown. The stereotyped design probably consisted of two registers
terminating in front of the arbor as in the scene above. But space
did not quite admit of this and, rather than omit the upper row, the
artist has squeezed it in, substituting for the usual black base-line a
meandering brown strip which follows the contour of the picture below
it and so makes the fullest use of the space.
This broad, brown line represents the muddy soil. The inunda-
60