Tomb No.7 is that of Parennefer, who was ' Royal
craftsman, Washer of hands of His Majesty ' . This tomb is the northernmost of
the tombs of the South Group, being excavated at the extreme end of the line of
foot-hills ( Plate 13-c ) . Lying high up on a steep slope, its entrance was
probably always traceable, if not actually open . A road which leads from it to
the city across the plain helps to mark down the site . The name of the owner
is injured wherever it occurs .
A. Architectural Features
The Exterior
The tomb is a very unpretentious one of the
cross-corridor type, but is singular in possessing a fully-decorated façade (
Plate 2 ) . The door-framing shows on the lintel the royal family worshipping
to right and left of an altar on which the sun casts its rays . On the jambs
there is only the group of five cartouches written in a horizontal line below
the sun-disc . The smoothed wall to right and left of the doorway is occupied
by reliefs, the upper parts of which have been erased by the whirling sands of
centuries . The two pictures exhibit, with differences merely of grouping, the
conventional scene of the worship of Aten by the King and Queen, accompanied by
their household . There are three princesses, and, though the inscriptions are
broken, it is easy to perceive as well the figure of Benretmut, the Queen's
sister, officiating as fan-bearer and ranking after the royal children .
Nothing appears in the details of the picture which is not already familiar
from similar scenes .
The supplementary picture which is so often set below
the main scene has been executed only on the left ( north ) side . Here the
royal chariots and the rest of the body-guard make halt at a respectful
distance, and here, too, Parennefer is seen making his private offering . The
position facing the King which is given him seems to indicate that his homage
is directed to the monarch rather than to the god . He kneels in front of one
of the little chapels or magazines which the pictures of the temple show in
such numbers, and the due paraphernalia of offering set out before him are also
in accord . It appears then as if Parennefer was making his gift in one of the
side chapels, while the royal family worshipped at the great altar . Possibly
this chapel is meant to be that one in the temple which was connected with his
own tomb-endowment ( wakf ), and where the offerings for the dead
were first spread out before the god or the King, or both .
The Interior
Except for the entrance and the two walls in the
northern half, the tomb is in a very rough and unfinished state . Its floor has
not been cut to the full depth, the walls of the southern half are still
irregular, and the south door is only outlined in ink . The door at the north
end of the corridor has been pierced, but instead of admitting to a shrine and
statue, it opens into two low successive chambers, small and roughly hewn,
where the sepulture must have been made . The east doorway was inscribed in
ink, as fragments of dy hetep seten prayers on the right
jamb shew, but later it was almost destroyed in an effort to carry the
excavations further in this direction . This extension, as also a square recess
in the north end of the east wall, is probably contemporary ; for the latter
may be the first step in forming the pillars of the enlarged chamber . The
decoration on this side of the tomb is naturally left in ink, since it could
only be carried out if the ever-present hope of enlarging the chamber was
definitely abandoned. Had this been done, the pictures would have been
transferred to the rear wall of the extended chamber .
On the west wall south of the entrance there are
remains of hieratic graffiti ( Plate 7 ) . A square is marked out on the floor
near the north door, as if a pit were projected . The ceiling is squared up in
readiness for a design .
B. Scenes and Inscriptions
North Wall-Thickness ( Plate 3 )
This space is occupied by a picture of the royal
family, as is usual in these tombs . But as the scene of worship had already
been dealt with outside, the artist was able to use some freedom . Accordingly
the figures face inwards and are given the most unconstrained attitudes, as if
the deceased man had wished to depict a royal visit to his tomb, whether
remembered with pride as an event of the past or thus delicately suggested for
the future . Or else it may depict simply those many occasions on which the
King, sauntering forth with his family, included the gratified Parennefer among
the scribes and officials who, after the wont of the East, formed a favoured
train on such occasions . These attendants are seen in the foot-scene carrying
water, stools and the outfit of the scribe—exactly the needful accessories of a
visit of inspection to the tombs . Parennefer has not attached his name, but
probably the " cleanser of His Majesty's hands " is to be seen in the
official who carries ewer and towel .
The main scene shows the King walking under the rays
of the sun, which clasp him under the armpit and head, as if to hold him up in
their hands lest he stumble against a stone in the rough desert . He grasps a
staff in his left hand and throws his right arm round the Queen in the most
caressing way possible . The picture unhappily is not intact, but it is plain
that the King's arm passed round the neck of the Queen and that the fingers of
their right hands were interlaced . The Queen wears a coiffure as simple as that of her ladies save for the uraeus
on her brow . Four shade-bearers go in front, and probably no one saw the
incongruity of depicting the sun as an inconvenient and as a benevolent power
at one and the same time .
Behind the Queen follow the three princesses and their
nurses . Merytaten displays as affectionate a nature as her parents ; for she
and her youngest sister walk with their arms round one another's necks and
beguile the way with caresses .
South Wall-Thickness ( Plate 3 )
Here a full-size figure of Parennefer is seen in act
of prayer . His bald head is crowned with the festal cap and his neck is loaded
with five double collars of gold beads . The text of his prayer has been
injured both in ancient and in recent times, and his name, which occurs twice
in the text, was possibly expunged deliberately .
West Wall : North Side ( Plates 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 )
At the Palace Window ( Plate 4 ) :- This wall, with its
wealth of detail, its beauty of execution, and its scheme of colour, would be
in strong contrast to its wretched surroundings, in spite of its own
incompleteness and the stains and erasures that time has effected, had it not
been mutilated in the most heart-rending way in the general assault upon the
tombs in 1890 . The outlines of the picture, fortunately, can be restored in
all essentials from earlier copies, and are presented here in full for the
first time .
Not only is the subject of the reward of the deserving
official the prominent feature in every tomb, but the same general presentation
of it, though with much change of form, occupies the front wall of each of the
chief tombs of this group ( those of Ay, Tutu, May (?), and Parennefer ) . The
picture, therefore, may be dismissed in a few words . The balcony from which
the King and Queen lean out to see their favourite publicly decorated is, as
usual, the chief feature in the picture, not only in size but also in the
amount of coloured detail bestowed upon it . The decoration shown on the palace
front differs somewhat from that given elsewhere ; but if this makes it
unlikely that it is an exact reproduction of one of the palace windows, it none
the less mirrors faithfully the kind of ornamentation which was applied to the
walls above the dado of painted wainscoting . The design on the panelled front
of the balcony is met with elsewhere in a less perfect condition . Pictures
similarly rich in information as to the design and colour of the textile
fabrics familiar to the Egyptians of the Eighteenth Dynasty exist in the Theban
tombs, but few are available for study, and the designs tatooed in black on the
body of the Libyan captive are especially interesting .
Some further points may be noted . The rays which
clasp the body of the King and Queen, as if to prevent them losing their
balance as they lean over the window-sill, show a pretty fancy of the artist
which is confined to the large tombs of this group . The gift of the uraeus as
well as the ankh by the rays is still more unusual . The profile of the King
corresponds very closely to other portraits in the necropolis, but the forms of
his neck and hips reach the extreme of misproportion . He wears an elaborate
collar, on which and from which the cartouches of Aten hang in pairs . The twin
cartouches also adorn his upper and fore-arms ; they are not tatooed but
mounted on threads or ribbons, as is plainly shown in the case of the Queen .
The royal pair are accompanied by the three princesses and their nurses and
also by Benretmut, who is consistently shown by her stature to be their senior
. The group of princesses interrupts a picture of the interior of the palace
which will be dealt with separately .
In the Courtyard ( Right half of Plate 4 )
:-
Inside the central entrance of the palace courtyard, which here is represented
as a double gate set in a high wall, are seen a group of the royal chariots and
the notables of the city, including two or three in mayoral dress and three
fan-bearers . With some probability we might see in the first three
Nekht-pa-aten, Ay, and Ahmose .
The mayor stretches out his hand as if to touch the
hand of the King in greeting . Some courtiers stand in obeisance at a greater
distance, and still further in the background, where a cup-bearer is decanting
wine or water from the great jars, are hostages or visitors from Nubia and
Syria .
Beneath the window Parennefer ( not named ), who has
reached the supreme moment of his career ( and, to judge by his features, not
early in life ), dances with excitement as he is loaded more and more heavily
with the King's favours . Already the fifth necklace of gold beads is being
secured round his neck, while a second servant rubs his body with precious
ointment . Other presents, collars, necklaces, and bags ( of gold ? ) are
displayed under the porch . A still greater array of articles of dress is being
brought out of a chest, faster indeed than the busy scribes can register them,
and a long file of servants is employed in carrying off in jars and baskets
what may richly fill Parennefer's store-chambers . Two trusty guardians keep
the postern through which the porters defile ; one is armed with a staff and a
supple whip, while the other seems able to wield a pen as readily as a stick .
Outside the Palace Gates ( Plate 5 ) :- As this part of the
design was never sculptured, it has nearly disappeared . Four out of the five
registers, apparently, were filled with the train of servants bearing away the
King's bounty, of which only a few jars, ewers, and basins are distinguishable .
In the midst of this profitable escort Parennefer makes a triumphant progress
homeward in his chariot . We see him at the moment when the women of his house
come out to meet him with music and dancing, and his wife, rushing forward, is
the first to welcome him with uplifted arms . Of her outburst of praise to the
generous King we can only decipher " [ the mistress ] of the house, the
favourite of the chief wife of the King, - re, says (?) ' ........ Grant to him
..... Nefertiti (?) [ living ] for ever ........ for ever and ever ' " .
The House of Parennefer ( Plate 7 ) :- It is evident from
the last plate and from a study of similar pictures that the scene is not yet
complete . It must have extended over the narrow strip of the north wall
adjacent to it and have included, as is often the case, a picture of the
official . Of this ink design only a small fragment can now be recovered at the
bottom of the wall . On the left, apparently, is the outer wall of the premises
with a gate admitting to the garden . Immediately within is a building or
enclosure with gate and screening wall (?), containing an altar loaded with
offerings . Beyond is the garden, the arrangement and contents of which are no
longer clear .
East Wall : North Side ( Plate 6 )
This scene was never executed with the chisel, and
what remains of the ink design can be deciphered only with some difficulty, and
here and there with uncertainty . A large part of the wall to the left of the
picture in the plate shows no trace of design and perhaps never received any,
while the excavations round the doorway have removed the end of the picture on
the right hand, where the Queen and the princesses were probably shown sitting
behind the King . This is the only case in this group ( apart from the peculiar
tomb of Mahu ) in which a scene from the back wall is preserved, and it is
therefore some guide to the imagination in completing other tombs, such as
those of Ay and Tutu . The picture depicts the King sitting on a stool under a
baldachin on a raised daïs with a sloping approach .
The purpose of this public appearance is not quite
obvious from the picture, and the inscription put in the mouths of the
courtiers or singers seems to have been one of adulation merely .
The King, who is dressed in his Atef-crown of state, may be giving audience to an embassy which
is presenting the tribute shown in the picture . Or it may be that the great
array of dishes was only designed to express the abundance that reigned within
the palace, and that we merely see the King in a moment of ease when it fell to
Parennefer to discharge his duty and pour water on the royal hands and feet . The
baldachin under which the King sits is supported on wooden columns having a
capital formed by the union of the lotus and its buds with the lily . The King
is being served with a draught by the cup-bearer ; and another official, whom
we may perhaps identify as Parennefer himself, kneels at his feet, attending to
them .
All that remains to us of the scene before the King is
a mass of dishes, jars, and tables of meat, and several groups of musicians .
Foremost among the latter is a ( double ? ) troupe of female performers . Their
instruments can no longer be enumerated, but we can distinguish both the
standing harp and the trigon, which is carried on the shoulder ; perhaps also
the lyre and the lute . The foreign (?) musicians who play upon the great
standing lyre ( Plate 3, 5, 7 ) are again present in their peculiar conical
caps . The group before the gate seems also to be one of performers .
C. Parennefer
Considering the very modest titles of Parennefer :-
§
Craftsman of the King .
§
He who washes the hands of His Majesty .
it is not surprising that we have no other record of
his existence than his tomb . Indeed, the display he makes is probably somewhat
incommensurate with his position . By economizing on the size of his tomb he
managed to have it decorated with sculptures designed for larger walls and
illustrating the careers of bigger men than himself ; but he did not court
rebuff by obtruding his name . If the erasure of the name in the entrance is
not accidental, it would appear that with all his prudence he failed to escape
the reward of the overweening .
Part ( 20 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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