Thursday, August 10, 2017

The southern tombs of El Amarna .. The Tomb of Parennefer ( No. 7 ) .. Part ( 19 )

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 .





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