Sunday, August 20, 2017

The southern tombs of El Amarna .. The Tomb of Nekht-pa-Aten ( No. 12 ) – The Tomb Of Nefer-kheperu-her-sekheper ( No. 13 ) .. Part ( 23 )

The Tomb of Nekht-pa-Aten ( No. 12 )
Tomb No. 12 belongs to Nekht-pa-Aten . This tomb, which was to have been of the same type as Tombs 10 and 13, has only had its facade and entrance completed . Inside there is a small area of floor, and the upper parts of three columns have been detached and remain as square pillars of rock .
Though this was but a doorway to a projected tomb, the owner had laid claim to it ; for those who excavated it found traces of three columns of hieroglyphs in ink on both jambs outside . The first column probably contained an adoration of the Aten and of Royalty, the second the prayer, and the third the titles of the official . No trace of these inscriptions now remains .



Yet the owner of this unprepossessing sepulchre, then, was a man of the highest rank, an erpa- and ha-prince, chancellor, and vizier . It might be conjectured that he was a man of modest prospects, and, being suddenly ennobled on the downfall of May, astutely profited by that lesson and avoided ostentation, like Apy and Ramose . Most probably these three officials were deprived of more stately tombs by the deplorable quality of the rock at this point .

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The Tomb of Nefer-kheperu-her-sekheper ( No. 13 )



Tomb No. 13 is belongs to Nefer-kheperu-her-sekheper . The tomb of this official, who in his zeal out-did Kings in taking an epigram for a name, was opened by M. Urbain Bouriant in 1883, and cleared completely by M. Georges Émile Jules Daressy in 1893, but not for the first time ; for they found written on the ceiling in smoke, " Robert Hay opened this tomb 1830 ", and " Charles Laver 1830 measured this tomb " .



Tomb 13 is interesting only for its architectural features . Not that these differ from those employed elsewhere in this necropolis ; for there are several tombs where the same forms have been used on a larger scale, and carried nearer to completion . Yet owing to its admirable proportions, to its spotless whiteness and good preservation, this tomb, even in its half-finished state, is one of the most pleasing examples of rock-architecture in Egypt . It is the only instance here where the cross-chamber, supported on a single row of columns, has been carried so far towards completion as to convey any idea of the ultimate effect ; and no one can see it without being struck by the fatal loss of beauty in larger tombs, such as Nos. 16 or 25, where the columns are crowded together, mutually blotting one another out, and forming mazes rather than buildings .



The chamber is divided down the centre by a row of six papyrus-bud columns . The two central ones are set wider apart to afford an aisle in the axis of entrance, and, in conformity with this, their abaci carry architraves parallel with the axis as well as the ends of the longitudinal architraves . The latter rest, or are feigned to rest, at both ends on pilasters, which, according to custom, are furnished with a roll-moulding at the corners, and are surmounted by a cavetto-cornice and abacus . The columns ( Plate 37 ) are of the 8-stemmed type ; but, like all those in this necropolis, they have much more graceful proportions than their successors in the Northern group . As they stand, they are without bases and spring from the rough floor . They are pure white, for the columns of this group do not seem to have been meant to receive colour .



A portal is set in the back wall, which might have led to a second chamber or shrine, had the enterprise been carried to a finish . The chamber retains traces of its embryo form, the narrow cross-corridor tomb, in the portals in which the front half of the chamber terminates to right and to left . These are double in form, showing a doorway within a doorway, a handsome decorative feature which we shall meet with frequently in these tombs . The chamber is not well laid out, being askew with the axis, and the transverse architraves are still more seriously out of the square . The heightening of the room towards the back, however, may be an architectural means of increasing its apparent size .



As is plain from the plates, the chamber is only half finished, and this in a curious manner, the upper part being in a final state down to the last detail, save inscription and colour, while the lower part is untouched ; so that the slim columns seem to be emerging slowly and without injury from a subsiding bank of rock . This feature, though very marked in this tomb, is noticeable in nearly every other .



Burial-Place :- It is evident that there was no longer any hope of completing the tomb when the burial was made . As soon as the central aisle was finished to the foot of the columns and the whole area was cleared well down below the capitals, the quarriers confined their labours to the North-East corner, where the stairway to the sepulchre was usually placed . Disengaging the columns first, they then sunk a well at the spot without staying to remove the intervening rock, and, forming a stairway in it, burrowed into the Eastern wall without paying any heed to the original plan of the tomb . The stairway was carried little further than was absolutely necessary, and from the level landing at the foot a rough and slightly descending gallery was driven at right angles to it, of size sufficient to receive a coffin . The two galleries to right and left immediately on entering the stairway may, or may not, be contemporary in date .




Exterior :- The entrance to the tomb was neatly finished, but no traces of any designs are now apparent . The jambs and lintel outside were similarly prepared, and here a hasty attempt was made to commemorate the deceased, and to secure for him some measure of preternatural grace . Inscriptions were, no doubt, duly sketched out on both jambs . All that is now visible is, on the right, the lower half of a column cut in the plaster, and, on the left, the lower third of all four columns similarly cut, and fragments of the upper part decipherable through the mordant power of the ink on the surface ( Plate 37 ) . The abandonment of the work was so unforeseen that the royal prenomen on the right jamb has not received its cartouche . We here learn that the owner was " Governor of Akhetaten ", and by holding this responsible post took rank as " head of the notables " .






Part ( 23 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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