DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0071
TWO RAMESSIDE TOMBS
Special concocted planes.1 It conforms to pictures in the tombs of El Amarna
features
in having a narrow frontage, but not to the actual houses in that city,
which tend to lie foursquare. It is manifestly shown in as simplified a
form as possible. The actual door (which one would have expected to
be yellow) is interesting in that a square is marked out on it in the place
where the pictured, and also the actual, doors of tombs show a panel in
relief, exhibiting the owner at meat or at worship. Were, then, house
doors also provided with such a panel, or is this a reminiscence of the
shutter through which the porter could speak to the would-be visitor?2
The capitals of the papyrus columns show, though not quite correctly,
the sheathing leaves of the calyx between the bundles of inserted stems.3
The Pond As the pond is shown in plan, the house is lifted in the picture to
the same height, but is not necessarily above ground level. The steps
might be those leading down the bank to the water, for this is probably
not meant to be contained in two ponds, one on each side of the house,
but in one continuous sheet, as the papyrus plants suggest.4 But, as
the larger houses of Akhetaton are generally raised a foot or so above
the ground and reached by a flight of low steps,5 this practice is likely
to have been used at Thebes too, as a protection against reptiles, wind-
borne sand, and the inundation. Owing to the ever-shifting level of
the Nile, and with it that of all sheets of water, the pond would often
be low, and the water for irrigating the garden would then have to be
lifted by a shaduf. The posts on which the beam of this contrivance
rests are here permanent constructions, presumably of lime-washed
brick. They are used singly, instead of in pairs as today, with two
horns to support the ends of the pivot on which the beam turns. A
long rod is jointed to the end of the beam, as in the modern shaduf, so
1 Dwellings are shown in Tombs 23, 49, 8o, 8i, go, q6a, io4, and 254 at Thebes. The yellow given to
the interior seems to be an error in the original or the copy. If white, it would show the frontage of the house
under a portico, and would then have a real resemblance to Tomb 3g (Davies, Tomb of Puyemre, PL LXXV),
or Tomb 216, a few doors to the north of that of Apy, as also to the model found by H. E. Winlock, Bulletin
of M.M.A., Dec. 1920, Part II, p. 24. In the two latter cases the dwarf wall is lacking.
2 The latter is clearly indicated in Petrie, Tell el Amarna, PL V.
3 See Davies, El Amarna, II, PL IV; VI, Pis. XIV, XXXVII.
4 However, the ramp of Deir el Bahri temple has two ponds and flower beds flanking its foot.
5 Petrie, Tell el Amarna, Pis. XXXVIII, XL.
52
Special concocted planes.1 It conforms to pictures in the tombs of El Amarna
features
in having a narrow frontage, but not to the actual houses in that city,
which tend to lie foursquare. It is manifestly shown in as simplified a
form as possible. The actual door (which one would have expected to
be yellow) is interesting in that a square is marked out on it in the place
where the pictured, and also the actual, doors of tombs show a panel in
relief, exhibiting the owner at meat or at worship. Were, then, house
doors also provided with such a panel, or is this a reminiscence of the
shutter through which the porter could speak to the would-be visitor?2
The capitals of the papyrus columns show, though not quite correctly,
the sheathing leaves of the calyx between the bundles of inserted stems.3
The Pond As the pond is shown in plan, the house is lifted in the picture to
the same height, but is not necessarily above ground level. The steps
might be those leading down the bank to the water, for this is probably
not meant to be contained in two ponds, one on each side of the house,
but in one continuous sheet, as the papyrus plants suggest.4 But, as
the larger houses of Akhetaton are generally raised a foot or so above
the ground and reached by a flight of low steps,5 this practice is likely
to have been used at Thebes too, as a protection against reptiles, wind-
borne sand, and the inundation. Owing to the ever-shifting level of
the Nile, and with it that of all sheets of water, the pond would often
be low, and the water for irrigating the garden would then have to be
lifted by a shaduf. The posts on which the beam of this contrivance
rests are here permanent constructions, presumably of lime-washed
brick. They are used singly, instead of in pairs as today, with two
horns to support the ends of the pivot on which the beam turns. A
long rod is jointed to the end of the beam, as in the modern shaduf, so
1 Dwellings are shown in Tombs 23, 49, 8o, 8i, go, q6a, io4, and 254 at Thebes. The yellow given to
the interior seems to be an error in the original or the copy. If white, it would show the frontage of the house
under a portico, and would then have a real resemblance to Tomb 3g (Davies, Tomb of Puyemre, PL LXXV),
or Tomb 216, a few doors to the north of that of Apy, as also to the model found by H. E. Winlock, Bulletin
of M.M.A., Dec. 1920, Part II, p. 24. In the two latter cases the dwarf wall is lacking.
2 The latter is clearly indicated in Petrie, Tell el Amarna, PL V.
3 See Davies, El Amarna, II, PL IV; VI, Pis. XIV, XXXVII.
4 However, the ramp of Deir el Bahri temple has two ponds and flower beds flanking its foot.
5 Petrie, Tell el Amarna, Pis. XXXVIII, XL.
52