Gift of the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund
These reliefs from a tomb chapel symbolically provide for the needs of the deceased through all eternity. In the first relief, Khnumti is seated at a table with 12 loaves of bread on it. A variety of vessels and a bundle of leeks are shown under the table. Khnumti wears a kilt and a broad collar. His head, arms, and legs are shown in profile, and his eye, shoulder, and torso are shown frontally. This style of art, known as frontalism, is typical of ancient Egyptian sculpture.
The hieroglyphic text above Khnumti’s head promises him bread, beer, cattle, fowl, alabaster, and linen. The line of repeated plant symbols indicates thousands of these provisions. Columns of text in sunken relief below the broken top edge extend a menu of offerings. In the top left section of the first relief, there are five human figures, three of whom wear sashes identifying them as lector priests like Khnumti. A lector priest is one who reads sacred texts for religious observances. The first figure kneels before a low offering table; the last walks away from the scene, dragging a broom to clean and perfume the chamber in final preparation of the tomb for Khnumti’s afterlife.
The second relief from the same tomb was originally part of a panel on the opposite wall. Almost a mirror image of the first relief, its differences provide information about the artist’s technique. The figure of Khnumti is seated in a similar pose, but in order to portray both the right arm reaching toward the table and the whole left arm with its hand holding a folded cloth, the left arm is bent awkwardly back across the chest. The area beside the table features a wealth of offerings, including fruits and vegetables, vessels, and a trussed duck. Most of these offerings are only outlined with incision, a preliminary step to removing the stone from the background to create the low raised relief seen in the more finished section of the panel. The inscription above the figural scene is striking in its unfinished state, with the marks of the chisel still visible in the background. It is tempting to suppose that the hasty execution of this panel was due to the unexpected need to prepare quickly for Khnumti’s burial.
tags: ancient Egypt, communication, cycle, interdependence, ritual, survival
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