DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0048
DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES
The representation on the same wall of Nebamun adoring the royal
pair, Amenhotep I and his mother, Ahmes-Nofretari, is a pendant to that
just noticed. Its interior position and reversed direction befit their com-
bined role of dead mortals and gods of the burial-field; for they were now
gradually being accorded the latter rank along with Hathor-Tentamentet
and Osiris- or Anubis-Khentamentiu. As in the majority of cases, the
queen is given a dark, indeed here a coal-black, complexion; a distinction
which has been taken as a sign of Rerber extraction (though not confined
to her among divinities).1 The black color duly appears as gray where
it is veiled by her thin mantle. She wears as queen the skin of the
Nekhebet vulture as headdress (with the unpleasing substitution of a
uraeus for the bird's head), a simple red modius above it, and the red
sash at the waist under her mantle. Amenhotep's features have a close
resemblance to those of the reigning king, the third of the same name,
portraiture being, as usual, out of the question. The descriptive text
runs, "The superintendent of sculptors of the Lord of the two Lands,
Nebamun, [giving adoration to the king of south and north Egypt], the
Lord of the Two Lands, Joserkere (to whom life is given), and bowing
[in homage to the wife of] the god, Ah[mes-Nofre]tari (who liveth), that
ye may grant [all kinds of] offerings [and delicacies] daily, and that I
may be provided with your [marks of regard (?)] as a favored servant
of yours who is of your train."
The east wall (Plate XV) shows a further act of worship by
1 Petrie, History, II, pp. 9, 337- Nofretari is by no means always painted black. So far as I have been
able to control the instances, the employment of a black complexion in preference to yellow or red is about
four to one. She is of black hue again in Tombs 4g and 161, both of the late XVIIIth dyn., but not in the
early, and perhaps contemporary, tomb, No. i5. The tone is not always coal-black, as here, but a purplish
black, reached by painting black over red; the black having sometimes almost disappeared, careful observation
is necessary (Tombs 49, 54).
The black hue may be due, apart from any racial traits, to the idea that the dead or the dweller in
the dark underworld should be of that color, or to the influence of a well-known and popular black cult-statue
of the deity in question. According to Budge (Gods, I, p. 435) Hathor, with whom Nofretari was so closely
connected, was born as a black child. Amenhotep I, the son of the queen, is represented black in Tombs 19,
161. Thothmes I has a black statue in Tomb 5i. Mentuhotep's queen is black in Tomb 277; but perhaps
she was really of dark complexion (cf. Naville, Xlth Dyn. Temple, II, Pis. XII, XIII, XVI, XX). Even if
the black color were personal to Nofretari, it might only indicate a very dark complexion, such as now often
occurs in Egypt, and be the echo of some early representation which recorded this. The Berber of the Nile,
it may be remarked, is not black, and no negroid features are associated with the dark color in this case.
33
Adoration of
deified royal-
ties by
Nebamun
Beflections
on pictures
of worship
The representation on the same wall of Nebamun adoring the royal
pair, Amenhotep I and his mother, Ahmes-Nofretari, is a pendant to that
just noticed. Its interior position and reversed direction befit their com-
bined role of dead mortals and gods of the burial-field; for they were now
gradually being accorded the latter rank along with Hathor-Tentamentet
and Osiris- or Anubis-Khentamentiu. As in the majority of cases, the
queen is given a dark, indeed here a coal-black, complexion; a distinction
which has been taken as a sign of Rerber extraction (though not confined
to her among divinities).1 The black color duly appears as gray where
it is veiled by her thin mantle. She wears as queen the skin of the
Nekhebet vulture as headdress (with the unpleasing substitution of a
uraeus for the bird's head), a simple red modius above it, and the red
sash at the waist under her mantle. Amenhotep's features have a close
resemblance to those of the reigning king, the third of the same name,
portraiture being, as usual, out of the question. The descriptive text
runs, "The superintendent of sculptors of the Lord of the two Lands,
Nebamun, [giving adoration to the king of south and north Egypt], the
Lord of the Two Lands, Joserkere (to whom life is given), and bowing
[in homage to the wife of] the god, Ah[mes-Nofre]tari (who liveth), that
ye may grant [all kinds of] offerings [and delicacies] daily, and that I
may be provided with your [marks of regard (?)] as a favored servant
of yours who is of your train."
The east wall (Plate XV) shows a further act of worship by
1 Petrie, History, II, pp. 9, 337- Nofretari is by no means always painted black. So far as I have been
able to control the instances, the employment of a black complexion in preference to yellow or red is about
four to one. She is of black hue again in Tombs 4g and 161, both of the late XVIIIth dyn., but not in the
early, and perhaps contemporary, tomb, No. i5. The tone is not always coal-black, as here, but a purplish
black, reached by painting black over red; the black having sometimes almost disappeared, careful observation
is necessary (Tombs 49, 54).
The black hue may be due, apart from any racial traits, to the idea that the dead or the dweller in
the dark underworld should be of that color, or to the influence of a well-known and popular black cult-statue
of the deity in question. According to Budge (Gods, I, p. 435) Hathor, with whom Nofretari was so closely
connected, was born as a black child. Amenhotep I, the son of the queen, is represented black in Tombs 19,
161. Thothmes I has a black statue in Tomb 5i. Mentuhotep's queen is black in Tomb 277; but perhaps
she was really of dark complexion (cf. Naville, Xlth Dyn. Temple, II, Pis. XII, XIII, XVI, XX). Even if
the black color were personal to Nofretari, it might only indicate a very dark complexion, such as now often
occurs in Egypt, and be the echo of some early representation which recorded this. The Berber of the Nile,
it may be remarked, is not black, and no negroid features are associated with the dark color in this case.
33
Adoration of
deified royal-
ties by
Nebamun
Beflections
on pictures
of worship