Newberry, Percy E. [Hrsg.]: El Bersheh (Band 1): The tomb of Tehuti-Hetep (London, 1895)

M

EL BERSHEH.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson's papers.1 From this it
would appear that not much attention was
paid to detail, so that the drawings would not
be of much importance for scenes of which
other records exist.

Many of the great groups of tombs in Egypt
are situated in conspicuous places. That of
El Bersheh is not so easy to find ; hence it is
seldom mentioned in books of travel and
antiquarian research. Neither Caillaud, nor
Wilkinson in his early publications, nor Burton,
nor Champollion, has left any independent
record of it. Rosellini, however, the head
of the Tuscan expedition and a companion of
Champollion in most of his journey, published
the scene of the colossus on a sledge in 1832,2
from a drawing by Dr. Ricci, one of his col-
leagues ; but it is certain that Champollion
never saw it.

In 1833 Bonomi and Arundale were sent by
Robert Hay of Linplum, then living in Egypt,
to make a plan and drawings of the tomb of
the colossus, and the following unpublished
letter from Bonomi to Hay, referring to this
visit, is preserved amongst the Hay manuscripts
in the British. Museum.3

" Rabamotjn, July 28f/i, 1833.
"My dear Sib,

" We arrived here on the morning of the 26th,

and after visiting- Sig. Antonini/ went in search of the

tomb, which we easily found, but in a very different

state to what it was when I saw it before,5 holes having

been picked in the walls, and a considerable part of the

rest nearly obliterated by the rain getting in ; however,

by dint of scraping and sponging we have succeeded in

1 Apparently a lithograph of this drawing was circulated
by Mr. Bankes ; it was utilised by Sir Gardner Wilkinson
in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 1837,
p. 328, as well as in. the later edition, and in the com-
mentary to Rawlinson's translation of Herodotus.

2 Rosellini, I Monumenti dell' Egitto e delta Nubia, Mon.
Civili, torn, ii., tav. xlviii. 1; text, torn, ii,, p. 246.

3 Add. MS. 29,859, fol. 30.

4 The successor of Mr. Brine, who is referred to above,
p. 3.

5 Bonomi had lived in Egypt since 1824.

getting the principal part of the subject of o-reatest

interest.....Mr. Arundale has made a plan and

sections, in which will be seen the situation of the

subjects,

" Yours, etc.,

" J. Bonomi"

The drawings mentioned in this letter are
still preserved.6 They comprise a plan and a
longitudinal section of the tomb by Arundale,7
the latter showing the disposition of the
scenes ; pencil drawings to a very small scale
of the inner walls of both the inner and outer
chambers;8 a copy of the inscription behind
the colossus scene;9 the colossus itself, partly
in colour;10 and the doorway of the building
towards which the statue was being dragged.11

Five years later, in December, 1838, Nestor
de l'Hote gave, in one of his letters,12 a brief
description of the tomb, and probably copied
several of the scenes, but unfortunately the
greater part of his drawings and squeezes were
lost at sea. In 1841, however, he again visited
Egypt and the tombs at El Bersheh. He then
made a number of useful notes upon this tomb,
which are preserved among his manuscripts in
the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.13

,: Add. MS. 29,814. 7 Ibid., fol. 3 and 4 ; our pi. ii.

8 Ibid., fol. 5 ; our pis. viii., ix., and xx.

0 Ibid., fol. 7 ; our pi. xiv. 10 Ibid., fol. 8 ; our pi. xv.

11 Ibid., fol. 6 ; our pi. xvi.

12 Lettres ecrites de VEgypte, p. 46-50. On p. 47 is an
extract from the inscription with titles of Tehutihetep from
the thickness of the wall printed on p. 15 of our memoir,
and the names of his sons, Usertsen-ankh and aSTehera, from
the since-destroyed upper left-hand corner, in our pi. x.;
and on p. 48 Tehutihetep fowling with the throw-stick,
accompanied by his three sons (our pi. viii.). The legends
accompanying the sons in this scene have also recently been
cut away, no doubt in order to obtain the cartouche.

13 Papiers de Nestor de VH6te, tomes iii. and xi. (copied
by the editor in 1888).

Vol. iii., fols. 246-267, gives a brief but orderly descrip-
tion of the tomb, with slight extracts from the subjects.
Fols. 246-7, the shrine, especially the inscriptions on the
back wall (our pi. xxxiii.). In the succeeding folios are
notes of the main chamber, including on fol. 250 the
inscription on the ceiling (our pi. vi.). Fol. 248, the
right-hand side of the inner wall (our pi. xx.). Fol. 249,
inscriptions on the right-hand jamb of the portico (our

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|, colossus (our pi.-
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I inscription contaii
SUB of purifical

.....264-267, descrii

| feriptions, includin
on of the plan: si
I jo trace remains of
Lust have existed:
hi (see p. 15), anc1
ti spearing fish (oir.

Vol, xi,, p. 25, sc
,Y«Li.,p.32i

! Modern Egypt

! These drawings

large ones, chiefly o

srted, and the \

Between fols. 2 an

fet (o) -with the

*1 some of the i:

^ (J) is a colour

'ill still standin

smpls.xxv.-xxv:

™ (c) are some

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*» (our pi, xv,

' Lepsius' Let

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W inscription

"*! oar pi. xix.

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