The rock tombs of El Amarna .. The Tomb of Huya ( No. 1 ) .. Part ( 10 )

The No. 1 of the list is the tomb of Huya, who, according to the inscriptions in it, was Superintendent of the Royal Harem, Superintendent of the Treasury, and Superintendent of the House – all the offices being held in connexion with the household, not of the Pharaoh, but of his mother Queen Tiy .

Architectural Features

The situation of the tomb of Huya has been already described. It lies immediately to the North of the tomb of the later Meryra II ; both tombs being very similar in type and plan and aligned roughly North and South . The tomb of Huya was probably excavated, or at least decorated, a year or two earlier than its neighbour . The façade of the tomb is very much weathered ; but the tomb itself has the distinction of being the only one in the whole necropolis which has been completely finished .

The outer hall had originally two columns of clustered type, which supported a gable roof of low pitch through architraves of rock, and the consequent division of the hall into a central passage with side aisles was emphasised . One column has been almost completely destroyed ; the other, on the left hand as one enters, is still standing, but has lost its base .

The relatively low height of the hall entailed a certain degree of squatness, especially in the capital, but the omission of the tablet from the shaft is some compensation for this . In general the column closely resembles the form used in the adjoining tomb ( The tomb of Meryra II, Plate 28-a ), but the sheathing leaves of the calyx as well as those at the base are marked with the chisel . This adornment of the capital by sixteen overlapping sets of sheaths is effective, but so far from realistic that the sculptor was undecided whether to allow science or art to prevail . After having spread them round the whole capital, he cut them away again from the eight central stems, and then, repenting, restored them in plaster . Impartial time has now left them on one side and removed them on the other . The colour has disappeared ; but on each stem a central rib, tapering from a broad base, was shown in paint ( brown to represent the withered sheath ? ) . In the entrance way, as in the hall within, the surface of the lower part of the wall has scaled away badly, completely destroying the scenes and inscriptions there . The hall is of small dimensions ; but as originally designed and executed its bright colouring must have given it a very pleasing aspect, in strong contrast to its present filth-encrusted and ruinous state . The entrance to the hall from outside has no framing, but the passage to the inner rooms is furnished with the usual inscribed portal . The cornice above the lintel is painted with nine horizontal bands ( red, blue, green, blue, in order ), the upright plumes being marked out by black vertical lines . The pediment above is decorated with bands of floral design : a section of it is given on Plate 25, C . The architraves are not inscribed . The floor of the hall is very rough, but no doubt it was originally covered with a pavement of red plaster .

The ceiling was once brilliantly painted, and some traces of the colours still remain . The brilliant colours which once adorned the ceiling are partially retained on the soffits of the architraves . The patterns of the central aisle and of the entrance cannot be recovered . That on the soffits is given in Plate 25, A . And that on the ceiling of the East aisle in Plate 25, F . The ceiling of the inner shrine was decorated in the manner shown in Plate 25, K . The design in the central aisle is divided in the middle by a column of incised hieroglyphs, and similar columns run down the centre of the ceilings of the three wall-thicknesses . They are scarcely legible .

The second chamber is provided with shallow architraves, but no columns ; in its east end the mouth of the burial-shaft opens in a ledge of rock, which is thus made to serve as a protecting parapet . The well is almost empty, and about 36 feet deep . The chamber can be seen at the bottom opening out to the West . There is a ledge of rock left at the West end of the room also ; but it is rough and too narrow to contain a shaft .

The Shrine ( Plates 1, 19, 36 ) - The doorway to the terminal chamber is seldom decorated in this necropolis, perhaps for lack of time ; but here it is fully inscribed . The form of the doorway also is unusual, though occasionally met with in the earlier tombs ; and it befits the situation, for it is the same that is frequently given to the main doorways in private houses . Hence we may gather that the construction was usually in wood, though the arch of the characteristic upper part suggests that the original type was in brickwork . This superstructure seems to carry out the idea of a panelled wall in two stages, each crowned with a cornice of uraei . In the lower wall there are two openings ( in which columns are painted here ) . No doubt the purpose of this fan-shaped lattice was to admit light and air, the panels being left open or filled with fretwork designs . The designs used for the purpose are very varied ; here they include several derived from the papyrus, cartouches, and columns .

The jambs are decorated with blue hieroglyphs on a wine-coloured ground ( representing rose-granite ? ) ; but they have been much mutilated in recent times . The drum is made to represent a bundle of reeds ( blue with red bands ) . So weak a material can have been used as a lintel only in very rude buildings, and perhaps it rather represents the rolled-up mat which every campaigner in Egypt uses to close the doorway of his mud-brick hut .

The shrine contains a sitting statue of the deceased man, which with its pedestal occupies almost the entire space in both height and length . It is much mutilated and the face has been entirely cut away . The doorway to the shrine is fully decorated, and inscribed with blue hieroglyphics on a wine-coloured ground . The shrine contains a sitting statue of Huya, but it is much mutilated, and the face has been entirely cut away .

The Sculpture — The three portals, the thicknesses of the three cross-walls, and the whole wall-surface of the main hall and of the shrine were decorated with scenes and inscriptions . The work was by no means of the first quality, though perhaps better than its present condition induces one to suppose ; and while the minute workmanship of such a scene as that on Plate 18 showed what care and labour could achieve, most of the smaller work is but rudely executed . The scenes cover the walls to within a short distance from the floor, and where space permitted they were framed in borders of parallel blue and red lines .

The vacant space round the altar on the East wall has been utilized by Greek visitors such as M. Seymour de Ricci for scrawling graffiti on in black ink ( Plate 25, B – D - E ). Most prominent are two rude figures of Anubis, for which the two porticoes of the temple ( see Plate 10 ) are made to serve as pedestals . One of them sits enthroned ; the other stands . The latter is furnished with a shirt, and wears a hat or halo on his head, and boots upon his feet . What he holds in his hand is not clear .

The spaces of the wall-thicknesses between the chambers are occupied by figures of Huya, coming out to pray in four instances, entering his private room in two . It will be convenient to deal at once with the decorations on the six wall-spaces afforded by the passages through the cross-walls, the figure facing outwards as if coming out to enjoy a sight of his divinity, the sun .

In this tomb, however, the figures in the entrance to the shrine, a space elsewhere left undecorated, face inwards . This exceptional attitude is proper to the position, and well illustrates the Egyptian conceptions of the after-life ; for when the spirit of the deceased which haunts the mummy in the sepulchral chamber feels free to roam, it must escape by the burial shaft in the middle chamber, and so turns inward to the shrine but outward to the open air . These scenes thus indicate the middle chamber as the dwelling-place of the dead .

The dress of Huya is identical in the four cases where he comes forth to pray . He wears a long robe confined on the hips by a sash, which has a decorative edging on the upper hem and is fringed at both ends . Plate 3 shows a more realistic rendering of the knot in front than is usual ; the looped end is seen pressed against the body, instead of being shown in profile as in Plate 20 . The toilet of Huya is completed by sandals, a long wig, the tall festal cone or cap which a fillet keeps in place, four rows of gold beads round the neck, and a gold bracelet on each wrist .

In the other two cases ( Plate 20 ), where Huya is not engaged in prayer, but entering his private room, he wears the gown tucked up and showing a tunic beneath it . He carries a staff and wears four flat gold bands on the right fore-arm, instead of the single bracelet ( see also Plate 17 ) . He seems to hold a lotus in the other hand .

We may also conveniently deal here with the adjacent ( South ) wall of the shrine itself ( Plate 21 ). Here on either side of the doorway is a kneeling female figure, who seems to salute Huya as he enters his private apartments . One is " his sister, the lady of the house, Un-her, maatkheru " ; the other " his [ wife ], the lady of the house, Tuy, maatkheru " .

Above the head of each is a table, on which an enormous array of loaves is stiffly displayed round a cone or piled to that form . The pile is adorned with a fashionable frill near the top .

Huya's own name is written large over the doorway .

The south wall of the hall is occupied ( east side ) by a scene of great interest and importance . It represents Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti, sitting at table with the queen-mother Tiy facing them . Provision for their bodily needs is ample, and is being done full justice to by the royal couple, of whom Akhenaten attacks and gnaws a broiled bone as long as his arm, while Nefertiti deals firmly with a duck . Tiy is more restrained in her indulgence of appetite . The usual Aten symbol of the sun, with extended rays ending in hands holding the ankh shines above them, and Tiy is described as " Mother of a king [ Akhenaten ] and Great Wife of a king [ Amenhotep III ], Tiy, living for ever and ever " . At Tiy's side sits her youngest daughter Beketaten, while two of Nefertiti's daughters, Merytaten and possibly Nefer-nefru-aten, sit beside their mother . Huya himself, as Tiy's major-domo, is serving on what was evidently regarded, and in fact was, a great and momentous occasion . Bands of musicians, attendants, and officials are shown in the lower registers .

As the absence hitherto of any mention or figure of Queen Tiy from the walls of the tombs of El Amarna shows that she was not resident in Akhetaten at the time of their formation, the existence of this tomb of the highest official of her household, and the special honour which is accorded to her in its scenes, indicate that late in the reign of Akhenaten she paid a state visit to the new capital, and even suggest that she had come to take up her abode or set up an establishment there .

But whether the visit of Tiy were longer or shorter, and whether Huya or the king had the greater voice in the choice of subjects for the walls of the tomb, it is plain that both welcomed the event and regarded it as of the highest importance . To the king this open avowal of the queen-dowager's sympathy with the religious revolution was an event of the utmost political significance, and Huya could not but rejoice on private grounds at the complete harmony which reigned between his sovereign and his mistress . The importance of the visit to both king and subject is reflected on every wall save one, where another event of public interest found record .

The west side of the south wall is occupied with a similar scene, in which drinking takes the place of eating . Nefertiti is described as " The Heiress, great of favour, Lady of Grace, charming in loving-kindness, Mistress of South and North, the Great Wife of the King whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands, living for ever and ever " . Flaming lamp-stands indicate that this is an evening function .

We have here a companion picture to that of Plate 4 . As before, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, with the two princesses Ankhes-en-pa-aten and Meket-aten (?), sit over against their guests, the Queen-dowager and her little daughter . The elders have been served with wine and are drinking it from goblets, which servants who wait with napkins are ready to replenish from narrow jars ( see Plate 32-a ) . Huya is present and directs the servants with his wand of office (?) . Low stands of eatables also are set by the chairs for the use of the children, who apparently are not allowed the wine . Nefertiti is styled " The heiress, great of favour, lady of grace, charming in loving-kindness, mistress of South and North, the great wife of the king whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands [ Nefertiti ], living for ever and ever " .

The background scenes ( Plate 7 ) are so similar to those in ( Plate 5 ) that it only remains to notice the six flaming lamp-stands, each having two globular jars set by it on stands . Evidently this was an evening cup, and the lamps are for illumination, the jars of wine being set near them that the servants might see to replenish the cups . As we are still strangely ignorant of the illuminants used by the Egyptians, this feature is noteworthy . The supplementary scene below the framed picture has perished almost to the last traces .

East wall ( Plate 8 ) : The scene represents Akhenaten conducting his mother on a visit to the Aten Temple . It is described in the inscription as " Conducting the great Queen and Queen-mother Toy, to let her see her Sun-shade " . Akhenaten leads his mother by the hand up to the door of a temple which appears behind in Egyptian ideas of perspective . The subsidiary scenes of the main picture are artfully used by Huya's artist as opportunities of magnifying his patron and his patron's offices . Huya could not figure in the main scene ; but he leaves it in no doubt that he is really running " the show " . The picture of the temple is of great value and interest, though somewhat difficult, from our point of view, of comprehension .

West wall : The scene is dated and described : " Year 12, the second month of winter, the eighth day – Life to the Father, the Double Ruler, Ra-Aten, who gives life for ever and ever . The King of South and North, Nefer-khepru-re, and the Queen Nefertiti, living for ever and ever, made a public appearance on the great palanquin of gold, to receive the tribute of Syria [ Kharu ] and Ethiopia [ Kush ], the West and the East ; all the countries collected at one time, and the islands in the heart of the sea, bringing offerings to the King on the great throne of Akhetaten for receiving the imposts of every land, granting to them the breath of life " . It is safe to conclude that the extent of the dominion which is here attributed to Akhenaten is rather that which was considered proper than that which actually existed ; for by his twelfth year matters in Syria, at all events, must have been getting into a pretty bad condition .

The king and queen are carried on their great state palanquin, sitting side by side, Nefertiti with her arm round her husband's waist . Officials, troops, attendants are ranged around . A priest burns incense before the palanquin, and a ceremonial dance is executed . The tribute of the north is borne in procession, and includes two chariots, with a variety of elaborate vases . That of the south includes negro slaves in fetters, tusks, bags of gold-dust, monkeys, leopards, and antelopes . Huya manages to extract some credit for himself out of this incident also, and is congratulated by his household on his return with his honours from the ceremony .

The north wall is occupied with scenes depicting Huya's appointment to office, and his duties and rewards . It is here that there occurs the picture of the studio of Auta, the sculptor to Queen Tiy, with the master busily at work in it on a statue of Beketaten, the daughter of the queen-mother . The lintel of the doorway leading to the inner room is occupied by two royal groups, depicting Amenhotep III and Queen Tiy, and Akhenaten and Nefertiti . In the shrine are depicted the funeral-rites, the funeral-procession, and the burial-furniture of the worthy Superintendent of the Harem .

Each jamb of the doorway leading to the inner rooms is covered with four columns of inscription and a figure and prayer of Huya at the foot . The lintel is occupied by two royal groups instead of the usual formal device . The whole is much defaced by incrustations ; and as the jambs seemed to repeat the familiar salutation of the three worshipful powers, the Aten, the King, and the Queen, we can much inclined, like our predecessors, to give them no further attention . But closer examination of the dirty and mutilated cartouches showed that, though the expected formula was found on the left hand, the powers saluted on the right were Akhenaten, his father Amenhotep III, and his mother Tiy .

The picture there is divided into two halves, that on the left showing the household of Akhenaten ; that on the right the household of his predecessor, Amenhotep III .

In the former scene Akhenaten and Nefertiti, wearing the royal insignia, sit side by side on a couch . The King puts his arm caressingly round the shoulders of the Queen, while she rests her arm upon his knee and turns her face with vivacious gesture up to his . By the action of her hand she seems to include in her affections her four daughters, who are waving fans in front of the couch . The counter-picture shows Amenhotep III in the close-fitting nems cap, sitting in a chair, as if in the act of addressing his wife, who occupies a chair facing him, with the princess Beketaten at her knee . To both King and Queen the Aten offers the symbol of life impartially . Three female attendants are added to balance the figures of the four princesses .

The separation of the Queen and her daughter from the King, their uplifted hands, which seem to imply an unusual measure of reverence, and the occurrence of the name of the son with and preceding those of his parents on the jamb, are the only features which favour the idea that the King thus pourtrayed was a dead monarch upon whose throne his son had sat for a decade . But for this and the difficulty of reconciling the situation with other records, this unique equipoise of the two royal households would have suggested a co-regency of the two Kings even at this late date in Akhenaten's reign .

The picture at least intensifies known or suspected facts of history . It shows strongly in what full sympathy the conforming King and his nonconforming son were : a sympathy which, while it admitted differences, must have been based on an essential unity of thought and policy. This agreement had in all probability taken practical shape in a co-regency, of which these juxtaposed pictures may be the echo . It illustrates besides the great influence over both father and son which history has been disposed to allow to Tiy . Amenhotep was dead ; but so long as his capable Queen survived his reign could scarcely be said to be ended, and it may only be in a technical sense that we have to deny a co-regency at this period after all . Finally the picture removes the last excuse for doubting that Beketaten was the youngest child of Amenhotep III and Tiy, or numbering her among the daughters of Nefertiti. Her name indicates the unabashed adherence of Tiy at least to the new faith .

But neither these considerations nor Huya's own attachment to both households, which he desired equally to honour and to gratify, are a sufficient explanation of the formal conjunction of names on the jambs . We must regard it as a solemn denial by the King that in removing the capital of Egypt and making changes in its religion he had broken with the past, or separated himself from the line of Kings whose continuity in his father Amenhotep III was not contested . Through that King he claimed to be in vital unity, political, religious, and dynastic, with the long line of the sons of Ra who had occupied his earthly throne .

Part ( 11 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....

Uploading ..... ↻

Follow us to receive our latest posts, Leave your comment and Tell your friends about our Blog .. Thank you ☺☺