Friday, August 25, 2017

The southern tombs of El Amarna .. The Tomb of Any ( No. 23 ) .. Part ( 25 )

Tomb No. 23 belongs to Any ( or Eny ) . The position of this tomb will best be learnt from the map ( Plate 13-c ) . A broad road leads to it from the river, marking out the spot as the site of an important tomb .
It was, however, not opened till 1891, when M. Alessandro Barsanti cleared this and other tombs of the Necropolis . The tomb differs in appearance from all and even in type from most others in the southern group, and by its greater similarity to the corridor tombs of the northern group it gives a hint, confirmed elsewhere, of its later position in the series .



A. Architectural Features ( Plates 8, 11 )
Exterior :- The tomb is unique in the Necropolis in regard to many details of construction, all tending to tasteful finish and architectural decorativeness . The greatest innovation, and one rare in rock tombs in Egypt, is the provision of a portico outside . As this convenience was well known in domestic as well as in temple architecture, and the palace at El Amarna in particular set an example of luxury in this respect, it is not to be wondered at that the Egyptians desired to furnish their " houses of eternity " with it also . But the labour involved rarely permitted this in the case of rock tombs, and Any was able to gratify his finer tastes only by restraining his ambitions in point of size and complexity .



Even so, the architect was not able to do more than indicate how pleasing was the design which it was his intention to carry out . As it stands, the exterior is only a rough-hewn sketch which the imagination must complete . The tomb being set in a hill of very gradual slope, the approach was never excavated . One reaches the tomb by a long flight of steps in a somewhat narrow cutting, so that the façade lies in an underground area and is robbed of a great deal of its effectiveness . The portico was not to be of the usual type, extending across the frontage and shading the door, but took the form of porches on either side of the doorway, as if they were the ends of a more extended colonnade . Although this architectural feature is only touched in, so to speak, the builder's intentions just emerging from the living rock below and around, yet it is plain that the column which supports the corniced architraves on either side was to be the only one, being balanced, no doubt, by a pilaster of the usual form in the rock-wall . The narrow width of the hall inside would not have justified a greater breadth outside . The walls and floor of the excavation are left in the uneven state which marks an abandoned enterprise, but in the wall under the portico on the right will be seen three rounded niches, and there is a similar one on the left . These niches contained votive tablets of stone dedicated to Any by his household, which fortunately were still in place when the tomb was cleared, and are now, with two others, in the Cairo Museum .



The portal, which is of the usual form, has also the customary scenes and inscriptions ; but the lintel, which showed the King and Queen, followed by three princesses and by attendants, offering to Aten on each side of a central altar-table, is too weather-worn to be worth reproducing . On the right hand the King and Queen offer kherp sceptres ; on the left, globular vases (?) . The faces of the Queen and of the youngest princess are still fairly well preserved .




The door jambs are not occupied by burial petitions, but simply by a salutation of the regnant powers, divine and human, three times repeated on either side in incised hieroglyphs ( Plate 11 ; cf. Plate 35-a ) . The later form of the cartouches of Aten is adopted here . Beneath this on both sides are the prayers and praying figures of Any, as the translation below ( Plate 11 ) :-




Left Door Jamb :- " Praise to thee, O living Aten, lord of rays, Creator of light . When he dawns all men live. May he grant a life happy with the sight of his beauty, and good burial in Akhetaten . For the ka of the Scribe of the King, the Steward Any, maakheru " .

Right Door Jamb :- " Praise to thee, O living Aten, lord of duration, who givest repetition ( of Life ), lord of Fate, who fosterest ....... . May he grant a sight of Aten as often as he rises, and that thou adore him. May he listen to what thou sayest and give thee breezes to thy nostril . For the ka of the Scribe of the King, the Scribe of the Altar of the Lord of the Two Lands, the Steward Any, maakheru " .



Interior :- The corridor to which the portal gives entrance creates a most pleasing effect, for though the tomb had to be left almost untouched as regards mural decoration, yet a complete finish was given to the tomb in other respects, and in particular the cornice under the ceiling and over the portal of the shrine, with its bright bars of blue, green, blue, red, gives an air of gaiety to the hall ( Plate 20 ) . The statue in its shrine, too, is sufficiently perfect to create a true impression .




Entrance :- The decoration on the thickness of the walls has been hastily yet neatly carried out in crude colours . Affinity to the northern tombs is again shown in the full-sized figures of the deceased which occupy the walls ; that on the right, strangely enough, being represented as entering, while that on the left faces outward . The whole wall is laid out in yellow wash, and the pictures are surrounded by a border of blue and red bands ; the square hole fashioned on the left, to receive the door-bolt when shot, being also neatly outlined . The enclosed space on the right occupies only half the wall, so as to admit of the door being thrown back . The figures are in solid red, the flesh tints showing faintly when under only one thickness of raiment . On the right hand ( Plate 20 ) Any enters, carrying staff and nosegay and shod with sandals, as if he had just been for a stroll in the sunshine and plucked some flowers on the river bank . On the left, however, he stands with upraised hands adoring the sun, an attitude which befits the text inscribed in front of him in black ink . It is a recension of the Shorter Hymn to the Aten, but the upper part of the lines is obliterated .




The personal ending to the hymn is as follows :-
" The intimate of the King, whom his lord loves, the favourite whom the Lord of the Two Lands (?) created by his bounty, who has reached the blessed reward by the favour of the King, the acting scribe of the King beloved by him . Scribe of the Altar of the Lord of the Two Lands, Scribe of the Offering Table of Aten for the Aten in the temple of Aten in Akhetaten, Steward of the house of King Aa-kheperu-ra, Any, blessed with a good burial, says ( it ) " . What is legible of a short biographical notice in front of Any on the opposite wall adds nothing to this .



On the vacant space on the right-hand wall a figure has been scratched roughly in the plaster with many strokes of a sharp point ( Plate 11 ) . It evidently represents Any, for this, like other well-preserved profiles of Any, shows a peculiarity which may have been a consequence of age — a falling in, namely, of the upper lip or a tightening of it on the teeth . The artist apparently wished to practise Any's portrait or to leave it as a guide to the decorators . The ceiling has been squared out in readiness to receive a pattern .





Corridor :- Though the walls are well finished, no trace of design is found on them . The hollow cornice, bright with colour, which runs along the sides under the ceiling is in itself very decorative . This feature is present besides only in Tomb 21 . With us the cornice is a familiar feature of house decoration, but to the Egyptian it was known rather as a form of wall-coping . Here it projects a little beyond the spring of the slightly vaulted ceiling, as if to suggest that the latter was a light canopy resting on solid walls ( Plate 20 ) .



Burial-Shaft :- No chamber other than the shrine being provided, the place of interment was reached from a shaft in the floor of the corridor . A door in the further wall of the pit admits to a roomy chamber under the shrine, on the left-hand ( North East ) side of which is a second pit or shaft, capable of being covered with slabs . The sand remaining in this did not permit us to ascertain its depth . In the back wall two little recesses are cut which have evidently been used to set lamps or candles in, and were probably intended to serve this purpose either to the excavators or to the spirit of the deceased. There is one also on either side of the entrance to the chamber .



Shrine :- The portal to this is of the usual corniced type, as if leading from the outer air . It was decorated, but only in ink, and this has so faded that we can only see that Any and his prayers were to occupy the ends of the lintel with the series of cartouches in the centre, while columns of text occupied the jambs .



The shrine is almost filled with the rock daïs on which the chair of the deceased is set . This is guarded in front by a little parapet neatly finished on top with a rounded moulding between flat edgings, and is reached by a flight of four shallow steps . Despite the capital preservation of the tomb, the statue has suffered considerable damage . It retains, however, its general form, and depicts Any in full wig sitting in a chair with his feet on a high footstool .




B. Scenes ( Plates 9, 10 )
The walls of the shrine on either side are decorated in colour in a very simple way, appropriate to the place . The sketch ( which is mainly in red paint ) is very rough, and has been much corrected by a more skilful hand in red line . In each case Any, seated on a chair, receives offerings at the hand of one of his servants named Meryra . A mat is spread beneath his feet . On the left wall Any helps himself from a table piled with provisions, while Meryra appears to be reciting the formulae which give them efficacy . On the right wall Any is accompanied by a lady, and holds the baton of office . Meryra presents him with a cruse of ointment (?), accompanying the act with many a prayer for his happiness . The inscriptions above both scenes are unfortunately almost indecipherable ; the fragments exhibited, having been secured with great difficulty, are offered with as much reserve, as the translation below :-

Shrine - Left Wall ( Plate 9 ) :- " Mayest thou receive offerings [ of the King's gift (?) ] ........ [ at ] every shrine of thine, that thy name may flourish [ in the abode ] which thou lovest(?) . May each generation that is to come (?) [ address thee ] . May thy name not be to seek [ in thy house ], since thou art a son [ to whom is made (?) ] a dy hetep seten of thy bread and thy beer of thy [ house ], wine of the house (?) which has been offered in the Presence and [ water ] from thy sluice (?) . The servant and agent of the Royal Scribe Any, maakheru, Meryra " .


Shrine - Right Wall ( Plate 10 ) :- " .............................. since thou art one of ........ the King has ordered (?) for thee goodly burial (in) the cliff of Akhetaten, [ and a mansion of ] eternity (?) in which thou art, thy shrine for thy ka . The servant and agent of the Royal Scribe Any, maakheru, Meryra " .





The recipient is described as " the Scribe of the King, beloved of his lord, [ Scribe of the altar-table of ] the Aten, Scribe of the altar of . . . [ Overseer ] of the works of the Lord of the Two Lands in Akhetaten, [ Steward of the ] House of Aa-kheperu-ra, who giveth life, Any, maakheru . . . in peace " . The lady who stands behind Any ( Plate 10 ) apparently survived him, for we read, " [ His wife(?) ] the lady of the house (?), A . . ., says ... he ordered (?) for thee thy house of eternity " .



C. Personal
The six stelae were found in this tomb when it was cleared by M. Barsanti in 1891, as the Museum records show . They are of very exceptional interest, and since no others have been forthcoming on this site we may suppose that Any especially deserved, and in marked measure won, the regard of his servants or friends . The donors appear to have been for the most part small officials, probably in his own service, with the exception of his brother, who dedicates one of the least pretentious of the stones . The little monuments seem all to be the outcome of a genuine affection which sought some means of expression, though that of the charioteer may fall in a different category . This impression is deepened when we find the characteristic facial features of the dead man reproduced with such care upon them all . From this we gather that Any was an old man, and had joined Akhenaten's enterprise late in life . It accords with this that no other grave of the officials of Akhetaten gives such sure indications of having been occupied, and that his brother Ptahmay clung to his banned name . A further evidence of Any's age is that of his title of Steward of the House of King Aa-kheperu-ra . As the reign of that king ( Amenhotep II ) would only carry us back about fifty years, and the office might possibly continue, or even begin, after the king's death, there is no reason why Any should not have seen four kings on the throne of Egypt, or why one should search after other Royal persons of this name whose existence is more than doubtful . That Any's life should extend so far back beyond days when Egypt was troubled by religious schism would be a new reason for the esteem in which he was held .



The death of Any probably did not take place before the abandonment of the necropolis, for the new form of the cartouches of Aten is already seen on the outer door-jambs, which would be the first part to be engraved . His offices need not have entailed any great activity on his part . Of his relationships or previous career we know nothing .



D. Votive Stelae
The six votive stelae referred to above are as follows :-
1.  Stela of Pakha ( Plate 21 ) :- On the left Any sits in a high-backed chair placed upon a mat . His right hand holds a napkin or sash, his left is laid upon a basket of provisions which stands before him . Any, " blessed with goodly burial ", is given his usual titles . A man in official's garb who presents him with a bouquet is identified by the inscription below : " The Overseer of works, Pakha, maakheru, made (it) " .

His prayer is :- " Unto thy Ka ! A bouquet of the Aten . May he give to me breezes . May he knit thy limbs . Mayest thou see Ra whenever he rises and adore him, and may he listen to what thou sayest " .



2.  Stela of Nebwawi ( Plate 21 ) :- On the upper half Any is seen standing on the right with staff and handkerchief . The scribe Nebwawi, dressed very simply, and holding his papyrus roll, says to him :- " Behold the ox as to which it was said : ' Bring it ' " . We are permitted to see the noble beast for ourselves ; for, in a second scene, Nebwawi leads it forward, gay with lotus flowers attached to a broad collar round its neck . " The scribe Nebwawi saith : ' We (?) have seen the good things which the good ruler has done to his Scribe of the Altar . He has ordered for him a goodly burial in Akhetaten ' " .



3.  Stela of Any-men ( Plate 22 ) :- " The servant Any-men made ( it ) for the Royal Scribe Any " .
On the left Any sits on a folding stool over which a skin is stretched as a seat . Behind him is the latticed door of the shrine in his tomb, and in front of him a table spread with viands and flowers . Ant-men extends to his master a large jar " for the ka of ... Any, maakheru ", saying, " Let wine be poured out for thee " .



4.  Stela of Thaÿ ( Plate 22 ) :- Unlike the other stelae, this makes no contribution to the maintenance of the ka of Any, nor is it expressly devoted to him by any of his servants, though naming and depicting " the charioteer of the Royal Scribe Any, Thaÿ " . The subject is such as would suitably form a scene on the walls of the tomb, and it is not unlikely that Any, having a just foreboding that these would never be executed, caused this charming stela to be made as a provisional decoration, and there is, in fact, a little space of this shape marked out in ink low down in the centre of the right-hand wall of the corridor . It may have been intended, therefore, to set the stela up at this point . Never probably had the aged Any had happier moments in his later years than those which he or Thaÿ here commemorates, when he drove along the cleared road from the city to this tomb which was being prepared for him by the order of the king .
The little monument represents Any being driven in his pair-horsed chariot by " the charioteer Thaÿ " . Any is in full gala costume . The conical cap is on his long wig, a ring is in his ear, five golden collars hang on his neck, and armlets and bracelets adorn his arms . His face gives a most life-like impression, and corresponds exactly to the other profiles which we have . The head of Thaÿ is probably also modelled from life with more or less exactness . The inscription informs us :- " The Royal Scribe, etc., Any, maakheru, ( says ) ' I come in peace with the favour of the King, who orders for me goodly burial, and grants that I reach the guerdon ( of the dead ) in peace ' " .



5.  Stela of .... May ( Ptahmay ? ) ( Plate 23 ) :- Any sits on a chair on the left, holding a kherp baton and kerchief . A table of provisions is before him and he is being addressed " by his brother .... May ", who carries a scribe's roll and prays :- " May there be made for thee a dy hetep seten of bread, beer, oxen, fowl and a libation of wine and milk " .
The faces of the two brothers are much alike, but the work is less careful .




6.  Stela of Ay ( Plate 23 ) :- Any sits on the left before a small stand with flowers, his feet resting on a footstool . The stela was devoted " by the servant Ay ", who is shown presenting a bouquet to Any . " ( For ) the ka ! A bouquet of the Aten, who favours and loves thee ! " .





Part ( 25 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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