Monday, August 21, 2017

The southern tombs of El Amarna .. The Tomb of May ( No. 14 ) .. Part ( 24 )

A. Previous Work
The existence of this large tomb ( No. 14 ) must have been patent to visitors at all periods ; but as the entrance was almost completely blocked with sand, what was visible was extremely unpromising, and the tomb was not cleared by M. Urbain Bouriant in 1883 . This task, however, was carried out by M. Alessandro Barsanti ten years later, and M. Georges Émile Jules Daressy published most of the texts of this tomb of a " flabellifère ", but not his name, for he found it erased from the inscriptions .




B. Architectural Features
Exterior :- The approach which has been cut through the rock-slope is not much broader than the portal . The latter has the customary form and decoration, but the surface of the lintel is almost destroyed . It showed the usual duplicated scene of the Royal family adoring Aten . As may be gathered from fragments of the north end given on Plate 5, three princesses and the Queen's sister Mutbenret were included . The inscription here apparently refers to the retinue : " The royal followers after their multitudes, attendants on the feet of their lord (?) . . . " . The name of the deceased, as well as his title of " Royal Scribe " at the end of the columns on the jambs, has been hacked out and the remains have been covered over with tenacious plaster .




Interior :- Although the hall as planned was ambitious enough, its present appearance is very unattractive, less owing to its unfinished state than to the blackness and filth which overlies all the interior, except low down near the entrance where the walls have always been protected by the invading sand . This grime is due largely, if not entirely, to the countless bats which have housed here from time immemorial, and still assert their ancient privilege . But the state of the walls and columns seems also to show that at some time when the hall was filled with coffined mummies a fierce fire broke out in this inflammable material ; for a foetid atmosphere seems hardly able to account for the appearance of the tomb, and some of the bones recently thrown out are certainly calcined, but whether by the excavators or no we cannot say .



The ceiling of the hall was intended to be carried by twelve papyrus-columns ; but, as usual, only those of the central aisle have been given their final form ( see Plate 2 for details of the west column on the north side of the aisle ) . The adjoining two in the west row merely show the stems on the capitals ; the rest on the north are even less advanced, while on the south one is still a square pillar . Of the remaining two, only the abaci have been detached from the mass of unremoved rock which still fills this corner of the hall to within a yard of the ceiling .




The usual features of this type of tomb are to be found, though in an unfinished state, viz., the doubly-corniced door which was the promise of an inner chamber, and the shrines for statues of the deceased at each end of the nearest cross-aisle . The door is undecorated and now much mutilated . The North Shrine contains a roughed-out standing figure of May, which, though the merest bozzo, allows his long wig and the fan of office over his right shoulder to be divined . The north and south walls of the hall are in the roughest state, but it is evident that the inner row of columns at least was to terminate in pilasters of the usual form . The unfinished pillar is still attached to the side by a party-wall of rock, to which a rough coping has been given in order to make the best of the unremoved mass .




Vault :- A rough place of burial has been provided by means of a stairway, which descends in the north-east corner of the tomb and penetrates a short distance under the east wall . At the nineteenth stair a level space leaves scanty room for an interment . The lower half of the pilaster has been cut away to give a wider passage, showing that the staircase was not part of the original design .



C. Scenes and Inscriptions
The only mural decorations within the tomb occur on both sides of the entrance and on the south side of the west wall .



North Thickness :- On the left hand in the thickness of the wall of rock the scene of the worship of the Aten by the Royal family takes the main place, and below this was the prayer and praying figure of May . The King and Queen, who present the censer and libation-vase to the sun from behind a laden altar, are followed by three of their daughters and by Mutbenret . The last is attended, as she is wont to be, by her two female dwarfs, Para and Re-neheh . The presence of this princess here has no special significance . The subjects of the various walls of tombs in this group seem to have been settled by the example of Ay, who, as father of Nefertiti and of Mutbenret, naturally included the latter also in the Royal group .





The text of the prayer of May will be found on Plates 2, 19 It is in excellent condition ; but the kneeling figure of May has been remorselessly destroyed and the space covered with coarse plaster . It can just be seen that May was kneeling with right hand uplifted and the left holding the fan over his shoulder . Apparently he wore the festal cap . His name, which occurred in the middle of the inscription, has been similarly expunged, and this hostility has been also shown to the mention of his office of Royal Scribe and of some other dignity, as on the jambs outside .





South Thickness :- The same evidence of a fall from favour appears on the South Thickness ( Plate 4 ), where May had another address of his inscribed in five columns the full height of the wall, and in shorter columns over a kneeling figure . In this case not only was the figure overlaid ( probably after defacement ) with a rough and most tenacious plaster, but the incised hieroglyphs also were filled up . In part owing to the different nature of the defacing plaster, they now assume the form of an inlay and are legible ; but we can found a large part quite obliterated and had painfully to pick out the filling . Sometimes this came away readily and left the original sign clear, but often the process was difficult and the resulting form uncertain . Something might still be done to improve the text, and it may be that the short columns can also be recovered in part .



West Wall - South Side :- This wall is the only one inside the tomb which shows decoration or is prepared to receive it . Even here the scene is only traced in ink, and only preserved as far up as the protecting bank of sand extended . Fortunately the part saved is that which has the most interest ( Plate 5 ) .



The scene seems to have been that of the reward of May at the balcony of the palace, but the artist has deviated from the usual model and has given a foreground to the scene . The palace, as we know, lay near the bank of the river, and this, with the Royal barges, landing-stage and gardens, has been included by him in his picture . Presumably the scene is as close to fact as an Egyptian artist could make it .



In the background we see a colonnade running along the river-front of the palace . A uraeus-crowned gate having seven columns with open papyrus-capitals on either (?) side of it forms the entrance to the palace ; and from it two diverging paths lead down the bank ( in a sloping line therefore ) to two landing-stages raised on piles and carrying uraeus-topped kiosks or fencing . At one the barge of the King, at the other that of the Queen, is made fast to mooring-stakes at stem and stem, with a crowd of craft above and below, similar but simpler, to accommodate the Royal household . On the foreshore the crews are busy at work repairing the tackle, etc . To the right lie the oars neatly lashed together, the mast, the yards, the sails and the tackle . A sailor is making a net in approved fashion, holding the end taut between his toes, while with one hand and the other foot he extends the edge on which he is working . His right hand holds the netting-shuttle . Near him a man is trimming the shaft of a paddle which a boy holds steady for him . Elsewhere men are taking oars from a pile or binding masts . Stands of meat are shown also . Further up the bank gardeners are busy removing bouquets and foliage which they have been cutting for decorations . The strip of ground between the palace and the quay is thickly planted with palms, leafy shrubs, clumps of papyrus and flowers ; and on the right a tree is seen, growing in a brick holder, which is pierced with outlets for the moisture .



The barges of the King and Queen are distinguished not only by their size, but by the heads of their Majesties ( the King wearing the Atef-crown, the Queen the double plume ), carved at the top of the steering-paddles . Otherwise, the two boats are similarly constructed . Along the side runs a light hooped railing to prevent accidents. On the deck there are three erections . At each end is an open kiosk, the canopy of which is adorned with uraei and supported on slender columns . Whether they contain images or deck-seats for their Majesties is no longer clear, but it may be that the Queen and her daughters are to be seen there on the after-deck of their boat . In the middle of each vessel is a much larger two-storied construction . A cabin furnished with side doors and windows is seen below . Above this there is a covered upper-deck, reached by a companion-ladder aft, which ascends under a columned portico to a loggia exactly resembling that of the palace . It would seem from the port-holes that there are cabins also in the hull . Ribbons flutter from the columns, from the steering-paddles and from the stern itself, and all is light and gay as if designed for careless hours .



This detailed picture by a contemporary townsman, of a spot which we can definitely locate and visit, brings the far Past up before us with rare vividness . The picture is surrounded by a border of yellow and red lines outside that shown in the plate .



The tablets of the columns in the aisle still retain traces of the red and black ink of their design, showing the King, Queen, and at least one princess, adoring to right and left of the Aten . On the north half of the west wall are some half-effaced graffiti ( Plate 5 ), reading, perhaps, " this piece (?) 2 days " ; " this piece (?) 5 days " ; " year ii ... " ( possibly the date of construction ) . The inscription on the ceiling of the hall, if there was one, has perished . That in the entrance is partly legible ( Plate 2 ) .



D. May, the Official
As the inscription on the South Thickness ( Plate 4 ), which attempts to put into words May's loyal attitude to the King, is, despite all grandiloquence, a description of his career, it is in place to insert it here .
" [ He says :  Listen ]  ye to what I say, all men ( lit. " every eye " ) both great and small; ( for ) I relate to you the benefits which the Ruler did me . Then truly ye shall say, " How great are these things that were done for this man of no account ! " . Then truly ye shall [ ask ] for him ( the King ) an eternity of sed-festivals, an everlasting period as Lord of the Two Lands . Then truly shall he do for you [ such as ] he has done for me ; the God who dispenses life ! .



" ' I was a man of low origin both on my father's and on my mother's side, but the Prince established me . He caused me to grow, he ...... me by his bounty, when I was a man of no property . He made my people to grow in number (?) for me, he caused my brethren to be many, he caused that all my people worked for me ; ( and when ) I became lord of a town, he caused me to associate with Princes and Companions ( though ) I had been one who held the last place . He gave to me provisions and rations every day, I who had been one that begged bread . He caused ...... ' " .



May held the rank or office of :-
1.  Erpa prince .
2.  Ha prince .
3.  Royal Chancellor .
4.  Sole Companion .
5.  Scribe of the King .
6.  Overseer of the soldiery of the Lord of the Two Lands .
7.  Overseer of the house of Sehetep-Aten .
8.  Overseer of the house of Ua-en-ra in On .
9.  Overseer of the cattle of the temple of Ra in On .
10.         Overseer of all the works of the King .
11.         Scribe of recruits .
12.         Bearer of the fan on the right hand of the King .


The two broken titles on the ceiling ( Plate 2 ) perhaps only repeat titles 6 and 10 . If we are to give full credit to this list, we must assign to May a high place amongst those who early threw in their full lot with the new ' Teaching ' and were entrusted with the highest administrative posts . The offices occurring immediately before his name in the above inscription are probably those which imposed definite duties, while that of Bearer of the Fan, which he places first, brought him most into personal contact with the King . The post of Acting Scribe to the King was in those times the most difficult and responsible, and it appears to have been in the discharge of its duties that he met sudden disgrace and, not improbably, sudden death . Life, however, if short for May, must have been full of the sweets of successful ambition and the satisfaction of well-rewarded activity. He became one of those who entered most closely into the friendship and projects of the King, and has set down in lasting letters, as well as in charming picture, his pride in the hours of close companionship with the King on the river in his splendid barge .



The Egyptian official was wont to find in his rapid rise from low office and origin the greater matter for pride . May glories in the fact that whereas he had formerly begged his bread he now associates with princes ; but Egyptian sentiment was probably not so far different from our own but that we may suspect that this was a cause of his downfall . His degradation was even more swift and absolute than his rise . If the names both of his father and his mother were of no account, the King now sought to blot his out altogether from the book of life . We cannot wonder, as we read May's lavish expressions of gratitude, that Akhenaten took special care to erase this biography, lest it should stand as a satire on the favour of kings . It has been the more pleasure to baffle May's enemies and restore his name to history .



It is interesting to find that May had special offices outside Akhetaten, but it is of course precisely in Heliopolis that the jurisdiction of the sun-worshipping King would be most readily accepted . Our desire for information as to the administration of the country from the new capital is little advanced, therefore ; for it would be rash to conclude from the mention of a palace of Akhenaten in On that the King at times resided there .




The depiction of three princesses in the tomb shows that it could not have been inscribed earlier than the seventh year of Akhenaten, and the downfall of May probably occurred almost immediately . It is possible that he was succeeded in his office of Overseer of soldiery by Ramose or Paatenemheb, as Overseer of works by Tutu, as Fan-bearer by Ahmose, and that his honours as Erpa Ha Prince and Royal Chancellor fell to Nekhtpaaten . But our knowledge of the administration of Egypt is all too meagre for anything but surmise .





Part ( 24 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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