Davies, Norman de Garis: The tomb of Puyemrê at Thebes (Band 1): The hall of memories (New York, 1922)

CHAPTER III

PLEASANT HOURS AT HOME

AND ABROAD

THE HUNT

THE position which scenes of a particular character usually occupy
in a tomb chamber is not without significance, and when we find the
Theban designer showing a marked preference for a northern location
for hunting scenes in the desert, and a north or northwest position for
pictures of sport and industry in the marshes, we may gather that the
scene of these pursuits lay in that direction. This conclusion is substan-
tiated by the texts, which several times mention North Egypt as the
site of the marshy lands where cattle breeding, viticulture, papyrus
harvest, fishing, and fowling are carried on.1

This definite localization is nowhere applied to the chase, which,
one is led to believe, might be enjoyed on the fringe of the desert in
any part of the Nile valley, though specially good to the north, where
the hills grow lower and recede, desert vegetation becomes more and
more abundant, and oases intervene between the valley and the unre-
lieved wastes of sand. The descriptive heading to the picture which
is sculptured on the lower half of the north (end) wall (Plate VII)
gives, as usual, no indication of the locality, but there is in the scene a
feature peculiarly applicable to the northeasterly districts, namely the

Evidences
of a

northern
site for
the hunting
grounds

'See Vol. II, Appendix C.

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