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Davies, Norman de Garis
Two Ramesside tombs at Thebes — New York, 1927

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0047
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TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS

The last pected here.1 A devouring monster with crocodile's head, the fore limbs

judgment

of a dog, the hind parts of a hippopotamus, and the color of none of them,
abides the result; but as always, the scales weigh level, and Userhet es-
capes the horrible jaws. Hence we see him, in apparent indifference to the
fate of his wife, kneeling, an acquitted soul, before the throne of Osiris.2
The god, a glaring figure in as garish a naos, is hedged round by the arms
and feathered wings of the goddess of the West, a charming device newly
adopted, as if in compensation for the swift rejection of that other symbol
of divine solicitude, the cherishing hands of the sun.3

Userhet, having passed the scrutiny of the divine balances, becomes
one of the Westerners (Plate XIV). He is welcomed by their goddess as
he reverently kneels before the sacred hills, knowing that they are the
portal through which the declining sun passes to his kingdom of night.
They are here represented in primitive simplicity of form, and in a hue
of yellowish pink, which, startling as it is, the Egyptian mountains can
assume at sunset. The brute creation, no less than the bipartite spirits
of Buto and Nekhen, join in this act of adoration. The baboons, curiously
enough, are painted in so faint a tint that they seem to be ghosts, where-
as the spirits are conspicuous. The goddess (whose symbol has been left
incomplete) receives the newcomer with the customary gesture of divine
welcome (nini). The slovenly drawing and coloring can scarcely be for-
given a draughtsman who had given proof of such high capacity, or had
its fruits before his eyes.
The stela As the inner chamber is undecorated, some supplementary material

alone remains to be considered. The last rites at the interment were again
shown on the stela in the courtyard (Plate XIX, 6). Here the single
coffin of Userhet is seen, bewailed by his wife Hatshepsut and two sons,

1 As the heart in our picture is of an unusual form, the artist may be expressing an idea that the man is
measured against the standard weight of the gods. Cf. Naville, Funeral Papyrus of Iouiya, PL XXII.

5 Instead of Userhet, the first draft seems to have shown the four genii on the lotus, as on PL V. Hence
they are on the side of the man, and not on that of the god. Cartouche and name in the inscription have been
reinserted, or changed without obvious reason. The amulet on the sash of the god has cartouches filled with
mock hieroglyphs.

3 A graffito has been written across the figure of the goddess in black ink: see PL XIX, 2. It runs, "Made
by the web-priest, Kyiri, warden of the temple of Usermare-Setepenre (Rameses II), the temple of Amon-Re,
king of the gods on the west of Thebes. He says 'Osiris is my Day.' "

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