DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0068
THE TOMB OF APY
The second division of the wall (Plate XXVIII)1 shows the burial
of Apy, moving from right to left, namely, from the embalmer's atelier,
or the booth on the estate of Apy, whither the body has been brought
in readiness for the funeral, to the tomb on the western slopes. The
place where the body lies in state on its bier is given the form of a sleep-
ing place, raised on a dais.2 A white hanging is stretched above the
casket-shaped roof, perhaps as an awning. Two women, dressed to rep-
resent the weeping Isis and Nephthys, or emblematic figures of those
goddesses, watch the corpse, and a male member of the family does the
like by the canopic box. Both coffin and box are inscribed for Apy.
The time for the interment having come, the coffin (together with
the prospective coffin of the wife) is brought out and the lector reads the
service for the dead in the presence of the mourning relatives, who pour
dust on their heads in token of their personal loss, though at the same
time parrying papyrus stems emblematic of their hopes for the dead.3
The coffin having been placed in the bark and this again on runners,
it is drawn by four men towards the tomb, the priest and his acolyte
keeping it pure by fumigation and sprinkling of milk. Lamentation is
raised by the women as the moment for incarceration in the rock tomb
approaches.4
The funeral furniture, if we may believe the picture, had been
Burial of
Apy
The
procession
1 Of this plate, showing the lower part of the wall, only the strip on the right and the bottom are in situ,
but it was most desirable to show the garden of Apy in something like its original setting. Such extant fragments
as it seemed safe to insert are surrounded by an outline. The top register is vouched for only by Pere Scheil's
description and in detail is entirely tentative, save for the datum given by the connection of the sled with the
scene below. Many parts of the restored groups would certainly have been in the more involved style of the
Ramesside era. The middle register is taken from Legrain's copy, altered to some extent to admit fragments
which must come from the scene. Its position in the register is based on the intrusion of the tip of an atef crown,
belonging, no doubt, to one of the rams' heads on the bark below. If it was worn by a ram at the stern, the
garden, and with it the sled above, would have to be shifted far to the left. The length of the wall just admits
of this, if the burial scene was much compressed; but one would not have expected the painting to be so well
preserved so close to the doorway. The diagonal injury would then be more continuous. The extant picture in
the lowest register has been restored considerably, partly on the basis of fragments which seem to have their
origin there. If I have taken advantage of this duplication of the record to present alternative renderings in
order to admit existing fragments, I do not lay undue stress on them, while giving reasons for the liberty taken.
2 It may be the catafalque which will presently be placed on the funeral bark.
31 make the lector turn about in deference to Pere Scheil's description, but with hesitation.
4 Scheil has given no idea of the shape of the tomb, except that it had a pyramidal superstructure as
usual.
4e
The second division of the wall (Plate XXVIII)1 shows the burial
of Apy, moving from right to left, namely, from the embalmer's atelier,
or the booth on the estate of Apy, whither the body has been brought
in readiness for the funeral, to the tomb on the western slopes. The
place where the body lies in state on its bier is given the form of a sleep-
ing place, raised on a dais.2 A white hanging is stretched above the
casket-shaped roof, perhaps as an awning. Two women, dressed to rep-
resent the weeping Isis and Nephthys, or emblematic figures of those
goddesses, watch the corpse, and a male member of the family does the
like by the canopic box. Both coffin and box are inscribed for Apy.
The time for the interment having come, the coffin (together with
the prospective coffin of the wife) is brought out and the lector reads the
service for the dead in the presence of the mourning relatives, who pour
dust on their heads in token of their personal loss, though at the same
time parrying papyrus stems emblematic of their hopes for the dead.3
The coffin having been placed in the bark and this again on runners,
it is drawn by four men towards the tomb, the priest and his acolyte
keeping it pure by fumigation and sprinkling of milk. Lamentation is
raised by the women as the moment for incarceration in the rock tomb
approaches.4
The funeral furniture, if we may believe the picture, had been
Burial of
Apy
The
procession
1 Of this plate, showing the lower part of the wall, only the strip on the right and the bottom are in situ,
but it was most desirable to show the garden of Apy in something like its original setting. Such extant fragments
as it seemed safe to insert are surrounded by an outline. The top register is vouched for only by Pere Scheil's
description and in detail is entirely tentative, save for the datum given by the connection of the sled with the
scene below. Many parts of the restored groups would certainly have been in the more involved style of the
Ramesside era. The middle register is taken from Legrain's copy, altered to some extent to admit fragments
which must come from the scene. Its position in the register is based on the intrusion of the tip of an atef crown,
belonging, no doubt, to one of the rams' heads on the bark below. If it was worn by a ram at the stern, the
garden, and with it the sled above, would have to be shifted far to the left. The length of the wall just admits
of this, if the burial scene was much compressed; but one would not have expected the painting to be so well
preserved so close to the doorway. The diagonal injury would then be more continuous. The extant picture in
the lowest register has been restored considerably, partly on the basis of fragments which seem to have their
origin there. If I have taken advantage of this duplication of the record to present alternative renderings in
order to admit existing fragments, I do not lay undue stress on them, while giving reasons for the liberty taken.
2 It may be the catafalque which will presently be placed on the funeral bark.
31 make the lector turn about in deference to Pere Scheil's description, but with hesitation.
4 Scheil has given no idea of the shape of the tomb, except that it had a pyramidal superstructure as
usual.
4e