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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