DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0045
His honors
in death
His burial
rites
Userhet
welcomed
by the West
TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS
Great bouquets like columns (reminding us that the Egyptian column is,
after all, a bouquet, simple or elaborate) stand at the four corners and
are connected by gay garlands. By the side of the route are stands of
water jars, festooned with flowers, which take the place of the booths
shown on Plate XVI. The coffin is followed by mourners in threes, who
place the hand before the mouth in token of respectful silence, or in fear
of offending the ritual purity of the dead. The first three are identified as
the weft-priests, Userpehti and Amenhotpe, and the overseer of the
workshop of Amon, Nebmose. The second trio are the weft-priests,
Neferhebef and Nebseny, and the scribe of the treasury of the god,
Nakht.1 The third group is classed together, but the title is illegible.
Their dull dirge runs, "0 Userhet, high-priest in Ghnemet-ankh, who re-
newest life! 0 Userhet, high-priest of the royal spirit Akheperkere!"
Two men walk beside the cattle, carrying chests of burial equipment
and fans. It makes a poor show in comparison with the varied gifts
customary at an earlier period; but to it we must add the presents pre-
viously chronicled (Plate XVI).
The cortege is met by a band of seven mourning women, who pour
dust on their heads so liberally that they are streaked (bluish gray) with
it from head to heel. They are very badly drawn, an enormous eye be-
ing planted almost in the middle of the face and at an absurd angle.
Two other women, meant, no doubt, for the mother and wife of Userhet,
turn towards the two coffins (white, with yellow bands) set up before
the tomb,3 while a lector reads the hotep dy nisut formula, and a priest
officiates. A table before them contains food and sixteen vases for the
needed libations (four purifications repeated four times).
Only a bouquet behind the coffins separates death from life, for on
the far side we see the dead man, already endowed with renewed vitality,
1 These names are added faintly where they could be squeezed in. That of Nakht (omitted from the plate)
lies below the name of Neferhebef. The last legend may be "the artisans who . . . . "
2 The first name of Userhet is a palimpsest and seems to replace the cartouche of the king and the name
of Userhet written with two crossed signs.
3 Despite the beard, which is generally omitted in such cases, the second coffin is certainly intended for
the wife, in anticipation of her day of burial. Actual coffins of women are generally marked by the absence of
the beard and by open, instead of clenched, hands crossed on the breast.
26
in death
His burial
rites
Userhet
welcomed
by the West
TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS
Great bouquets like columns (reminding us that the Egyptian column is,
after all, a bouquet, simple or elaborate) stand at the four corners and
are connected by gay garlands. By the side of the route are stands of
water jars, festooned with flowers, which take the place of the booths
shown on Plate XVI. The coffin is followed by mourners in threes, who
place the hand before the mouth in token of respectful silence, or in fear
of offending the ritual purity of the dead. The first three are identified as
the weft-priests, Userpehti and Amenhotpe, and the overseer of the
workshop of Amon, Nebmose. The second trio are the weft-priests,
Neferhebef and Nebseny, and the scribe of the treasury of the god,
Nakht.1 The third group is classed together, but the title is illegible.
Their dull dirge runs, "0 Userhet, high-priest in Ghnemet-ankh, who re-
newest life! 0 Userhet, high-priest of the royal spirit Akheperkere!"
Two men walk beside the cattle, carrying chests of burial equipment
and fans. It makes a poor show in comparison with the varied gifts
customary at an earlier period; but to it we must add the presents pre-
viously chronicled (Plate XVI).
The cortege is met by a band of seven mourning women, who pour
dust on their heads so liberally that they are streaked (bluish gray) with
it from head to heel. They are very badly drawn, an enormous eye be-
ing planted almost in the middle of the face and at an absurd angle.
Two other women, meant, no doubt, for the mother and wife of Userhet,
turn towards the two coffins (white, with yellow bands) set up before
the tomb,3 while a lector reads the hotep dy nisut formula, and a priest
officiates. A table before them contains food and sixteen vases for the
needed libations (four purifications repeated four times).
Only a bouquet behind the coffins separates death from life, for on
the far side we see the dead man, already endowed with renewed vitality,
1 These names are added faintly where they could be squeezed in. That of Nakht (omitted from the plate)
lies below the name of Neferhebef. The last legend may be "the artisans who . . . . "
2 The first name of Userhet is a palimpsest and seems to replace the cartouche of the king and the name
of Userhet written with two crossed signs.
3 Despite the beard, which is generally omitted in such cases, the second coffin is certainly intended for
the wife, in anticipation of her day of burial. Actual coffins of women are generally marked by the absence of
the beard and by open, instead of clenched, hands crossed on the breast.
26