DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0051
Honors
shown to
the parents
Blessings
claimed by
the owners
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
For the ka of my father and my mother. Pure, pure; 0 Osiris Neferhet!
Thousands of bread, beer, meat, fowl, clothes, incense, ointment, offer-
ings, and delicacies! Pure, pure (four times)! For your ka!" The act of
Apuki is the same; but he continues, instead of repeating, the formula:
''Fresh water, wine and milk, and all things good and pure which have
gone up before Amon, king of the gods. Pure, pure (four times)! For
the ka of my father and mother." He is introduced as "Apuki, controller
of Ast-josret, controller of the balances of the Lord of the Two Egypts,"
and his parents as "the overseer of craftsmen in the temple Herihirmeru,
the controller Senennuter (and) his beloved wife, the house-mistress
Netermose." Each of the dead men holds a bouquet not much less rigid
or formidable than the baton which it replaces. From under their collars
two white or yellow ties depend, a feature which is rarely observable.1
The dead sit on a raised platform in acknowledgment of their position
as heads of the two families.
From this scene we pass easily, but perhaps not by intent, to that
on the adjacent wall, showing the presentation of offerings to the newly
dead, for whose benefit the tomb has been laid out. If scarcely anything
now remains of this scene (east side of the north wall, Plate XVIII, 2),
there is the consolation that it can have had little interest. Accepting
the restorations hazarded,2 it is pretty plain that Apuki was shown with
Henetnofret in the place of honor in the lower scene, and we may assume
that in the parallel picture above it his successor Nebamun was similarly
provided for. Henetnofret is seated on a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory.
Their son (Amenemhet?) presents them with a bouquet (?). "Accept
thou a bouquet [of Amon, 0 controller of] Ast-josret, sculptor (?) of the
Lord [of the Two Egypts] ..." Offerings of bread and flowers are laid
before them on a table formed by the ka arms placed on a standard, and
having within them a red field, vertically divided.3 A man and a woman
'They resemble the short stoles of priests (Schaefer, Von Aegyplischer Kunst, 1922, p. no), or the
longer ties of the vizier's robe.
2 Only the feet of Apuki and of the person confronting him, and a fragment of text at the top of the
wall, were found in position. All the rest has been refitted with more or less convincingness.
3 So on PI. XXVII. This, as well as the ordinary form of the sacrificial table, seems to be a mere
symbol, not a real piece of furniture. See note 3, p. 55.
36
shown to
the parents
Blessings
claimed by
the owners
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
For the ka of my father and my mother. Pure, pure; 0 Osiris Neferhet!
Thousands of bread, beer, meat, fowl, clothes, incense, ointment, offer-
ings, and delicacies! Pure, pure (four times)! For your ka!" The act of
Apuki is the same; but he continues, instead of repeating, the formula:
''Fresh water, wine and milk, and all things good and pure which have
gone up before Amon, king of the gods. Pure, pure (four times)! For
the ka of my father and mother." He is introduced as "Apuki, controller
of Ast-josret, controller of the balances of the Lord of the Two Egypts,"
and his parents as "the overseer of craftsmen in the temple Herihirmeru,
the controller Senennuter (and) his beloved wife, the house-mistress
Netermose." Each of the dead men holds a bouquet not much less rigid
or formidable than the baton which it replaces. From under their collars
two white or yellow ties depend, a feature which is rarely observable.1
The dead sit on a raised platform in acknowledgment of their position
as heads of the two families.
From this scene we pass easily, but perhaps not by intent, to that
on the adjacent wall, showing the presentation of offerings to the newly
dead, for whose benefit the tomb has been laid out. If scarcely anything
now remains of this scene (east side of the north wall, Plate XVIII, 2),
there is the consolation that it can have had little interest. Accepting
the restorations hazarded,2 it is pretty plain that Apuki was shown with
Henetnofret in the place of honor in the lower scene, and we may assume
that in the parallel picture above it his successor Nebamun was similarly
provided for. Henetnofret is seated on a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory.
Their son (Amenemhet?) presents them with a bouquet (?). "Accept
thou a bouquet [of Amon, 0 controller of] Ast-josret, sculptor (?) of the
Lord [of the Two Egypts] ..." Offerings of bread and flowers are laid
before them on a table formed by the ka arms placed on a standard, and
having within them a red field, vertically divided.3 A man and a woman
'They resemble the short stoles of priests (Schaefer, Von Aegyplischer Kunst, 1922, p. no), or the
longer ties of the vizier's robe.
2 Only the feet of Apuki and of the person confronting him, and a fragment of text at the top of the
wall, were found in position. All the rest has been refitted with more or less convincingness.
3 So on PI. XXVII. This, as well as the ordinary form of the sacrificial table, seems to be a mere
symbol, not a real piece of furniture. See note 3, p. 55.
36