DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0053
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
The scene
here presents
a difficulty
of the wife (whose person as Osiris might take on a male aspect), repre-
sents the ka of the deceased, or is merely the same corpse at a later stage
of the proceedings. Here the problem is still further complicated by the
double ownership of the tomb, and the choice seems to lie between an
identification of the second mummy with Apuki or with Henetnofret. In
Plate XXI the said lady is shown embracing the feet of the former of the
two, while the woman who is exhibiting the same sign of affection for
the second coffined figure is left unnamed. Not only has this woman a
younger appearance, but her grief seems to be under greater control;
while the wrinkled breasts1 of the other seem a deliberate indication of
a considerably later date for the interment of the foremost mummy,
which the adjacent text seems to identify with Nebamun. These signs
will, however, fit equally well the supposition that the younger woman is
Henetnofret bewailing her husband on the occasion of her first widow-
hood, or that it is her daughter, who, when Henetnofret's own end should
come, would naturally act as a sincere mourner at her mother's funeral.
The solution of the problem seems, then, to be that the choice between
the two identifications was purposely left to the fancy of the reader of
this little drama. This refusal to be explicit is in harmony with other
evasions in the tomb, and, if accepted, reveals a certain shyness of invit-
ing curiosity regarding the double marriage and burial.2
1 This must be the significance of the little lines; for, if they had been scratches made by her nails, a
real tearing of the bosom, the custom would have been somewhere shown. It is copied in Tomb 49 in the
case of the oldest woman (Bulletin of M. M. A., Nov. 1921, Part II, p. 2/i, Fig. 7).
2 In the later pictures two exactly similar coffins are sometimes shown without a reason for the dupli-
cation being vouchsafed (Wilkinson, M. and C, III, PI. LXVII; Popular Account, II, p. 35g); but as a rule
the omission of the beard from the second coffin (as in Tomb 3i) shows that it was intended by anticipation
for the wife, and sometimes this is definitely declared (Tombs 5o, 55, n 3). As Tomb 55 is a little later in date
than ours, we may ask whether the latter actually set the precedent of a double interment. The question
seems settled by the depiction of two mummies in a tomb (No. 162) which is distinctly earlier in style,
though apparently of the same reign. Here the second mummy is beardless, wears a fillet on the head,
and is supported by a female figure; thus showing clearly that it foreshadows the wife's interment in the same
tomb. But it may still be that the novelty of showing the wife's coffin alongside her husband's has been
seized upon in Tomb 181 as a happy way of recording Apuki's burial in due form, and yet, by the omission
of names, reserving this memorial of him for those intimate with the circumstances. The embarrassments
caused by the depiction of a wife's burial in her lifetime sometimes caused such silences too. It may be added
that, as this recognition, in picture as well as in fact, of the claims of the wife to burial appears shortly before
the revolution, it may be connected with the feminism of that movement. But there is only one coffin in
Davies, El Amarna, III, PI. XXII.
38
The scene
here presents
a difficulty
of the wife (whose person as Osiris might take on a male aspect), repre-
sents the ka of the deceased, or is merely the same corpse at a later stage
of the proceedings. Here the problem is still further complicated by the
double ownership of the tomb, and the choice seems to lie between an
identification of the second mummy with Apuki or with Henetnofret. In
Plate XXI the said lady is shown embracing the feet of the former of the
two, while the woman who is exhibiting the same sign of affection for
the second coffined figure is left unnamed. Not only has this woman a
younger appearance, but her grief seems to be under greater control;
while the wrinkled breasts1 of the other seem a deliberate indication of
a considerably later date for the interment of the foremost mummy,
which the adjacent text seems to identify with Nebamun. These signs
will, however, fit equally well the supposition that the younger woman is
Henetnofret bewailing her husband on the occasion of her first widow-
hood, or that it is her daughter, who, when Henetnofret's own end should
come, would naturally act as a sincere mourner at her mother's funeral.
The solution of the problem seems, then, to be that the choice between
the two identifications was purposely left to the fancy of the reader of
this little drama. This refusal to be explicit is in harmony with other
evasions in the tomb, and, if accepted, reveals a certain shyness of invit-
ing curiosity regarding the double marriage and burial.2
1 This must be the significance of the little lines; for, if they had been scratches made by her nails, a
real tearing of the bosom, the custom would have been somewhere shown. It is copied in Tomb 49 in the
case of the oldest woman (Bulletin of M. M. A., Nov. 1921, Part II, p. 2/i, Fig. 7).
2 In the later pictures two exactly similar coffins are sometimes shown without a reason for the dupli-
cation being vouchsafed (Wilkinson, M. and C, III, PI. LXVII; Popular Account, II, p. 35g); but as a rule
the omission of the beard from the second coffin (as in Tomb 3i) shows that it was intended by anticipation
for the wife, and sometimes this is definitely declared (Tombs 5o, 55, n 3). As Tomb 55 is a little later in date
than ours, we may ask whether the latter actually set the precedent of a double interment. The question
seems settled by the depiction of two mummies in a tomb (No. 162) which is distinctly earlier in style,
though apparently of the same reign. Here the second mummy is beardless, wears a fillet on the head,
and is supported by a female figure; thus showing clearly that it foreshadows the wife's interment in the same
tomb. But it may still be that the novelty of showing the wife's coffin alongside her husband's has been
seized upon in Tomb 181 as a happy way of recording Apuki's burial in due form, and yet, by the omission
of names, reserving this memorial of him for those intimate with the circumstances. The embarrassments
caused by the depiction of a wife's burial in her lifetime sometimes caused such silences too. It may be added
that, as this recognition, in picture as well as in fact, of the claims of the wife to burial appears shortly before
the revolution, it may be connected with the feminism of that movement. But there is only one coffin in
Davies, El Amarna, III, PI. XXII.
38