DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0052
DESCRIPTION OF THE MURAL PICTURES
follow the first figure with other offerings. She extends a menat (?) and
the triple papyrus with the words, "I have brought thee a bunch of
flowers which has appeared before [Anion]. . . ." The upper picture
seems to have been very similar, except that the tables on which joints
were set out were carried in the hands in this case. All that one can read
is ". . . with hearts and joints."
The burial rites which by their portrayal are recalled or recom-
mended for observance, are found in this tomb on the west (end) wall
and continued on the adjacent (back) wall. Their location in the outer
hall is a breach in a custom invariable for bi-chambered tombs hitherto1;
and within the scene itself also there are indications of changes which
appear after the religious schism, but are here seen to have an earlier
origin. Osiris is now the special god of burial, Isis being associated with
him; the mourning wife sits by the side of the bier; women of the be-
reaved family accompany the convoy; the sarcophagus is set up for fare-
well rites and addresses; the tomb is shown as the goal of the procession;
booths are erected before the tomb; the "opening of the mouth" is read
and operations are performed on the dead with magical instruments;
other novel details, too, are noticeable. Not, of course, that the rites
had undergone just these changes, but that the traditional form of illus-
tration had been modified. Yet a real change in burial observance is to
be suspected, though the period over which it was spread is unknown.
Even a superficial change in form may represent something like a revo-
lution of thought in Egypt; for where theology is vague or inconsistent,
details of practice become as sacrosanct as the deities themselves.
The rites end with the adieu taken of the coffined mummy before
its final deposition in the burial chamber, a scene tediously common from
this time onward. In such later pictures also two coffins or mummies are
set up, and when, as here, they bear no sign of sex distinction, it gives
rise to the natural question whether the second is by anticipation that
1 The west wall of the inner room, where such scenes should have found a place, is broken through in
this tomb to admit a burial shaft, but this, too, is a gratuitous deviation from wont. Tomb 55, which also
shows burial scenes in the outer hall, is slightly later in date than our tomb. The innovation is continued im-
mediately after the schism (Tombs /ig, 5o). Cf. the note on p. 43.
37
Blessings
claimed by
the owners
Changes now
observable in
pictures of
burial
The scene
here presents
a difficulty
follow the first figure with other offerings. She extends a menat (?) and
the triple papyrus with the words, "I have brought thee a bunch of
flowers which has appeared before [Anion]. . . ." The upper picture
seems to have been very similar, except that the tables on which joints
were set out were carried in the hands in this case. All that one can read
is ". . . with hearts and joints."
The burial rites which by their portrayal are recalled or recom-
mended for observance, are found in this tomb on the west (end) wall
and continued on the adjacent (back) wall. Their location in the outer
hall is a breach in a custom invariable for bi-chambered tombs hitherto1;
and within the scene itself also there are indications of changes which
appear after the religious schism, but are here seen to have an earlier
origin. Osiris is now the special god of burial, Isis being associated with
him; the mourning wife sits by the side of the bier; women of the be-
reaved family accompany the convoy; the sarcophagus is set up for fare-
well rites and addresses; the tomb is shown as the goal of the procession;
booths are erected before the tomb; the "opening of the mouth" is read
and operations are performed on the dead with magical instruments;
other novel details, too, are noticeable. Not, of course, that the rites
had undergone just these changes, but that the traditional form of illus-
tration had been modified. Yet a real change in burial observance is to
be suspected, though the period over which it was spread is unknown.
Even a superficial change in form may represent something like a revo-
lution of thought in Egypt; for where theology is vague or inconsistent,
details of practice become as sacrosanct as the deities themselves.
The rites end with the adieu taken of the coffined mummy before
its final deposition in the burial chamber, a scene tediously common from
this time onward. In such later pictures also two coffins or mummies are
set up, and when, as here, they bear no sign of sex distinction, it gives
rise to the natural question whether the second is by anticipation that
1 The west wall of the inner room, where such scenes should have found a place, is broken through in
this tomb to admit a burial shaft, but this, too, is a gratuitous deviation from wont. Tomb 55, which also
shows burial scenes in the outer hall, is slightly later in date than our tomb. The innovation is continued im-
mediately after the schism (Tombs /ig, 5o). Cf. the note on p. 43.
37
Blessings
claimed by
the owners
Changes now
observable in
pictures of
burial
The scene
here presents
a difficulty