TWO 
 
 THEBAN QUEENS 
 
 COLIN CAMPBELL 
 
s> 
 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/twothebanqueensnOOcamp 
 
TWO THEBAN QUEENS 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARI 
 
 From drawing by Mr. Howard Carter : the original is the property 
 of Mr. J. IV. Kingsmill Marrs 
 
Two Theban Queens 
 
 NEFERT-ARI AND TY-TI 
 And their Tombs 
 
 BY 
 
 COLIN CAMPBELL, M.A., D.D. 
 
 MINISTER OF DUNDEE PARISH 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ‘ GARDENER’S TOMB AT THEBES,’ ‘ CRITICAL STUDIES IN 
 ST. LUKE’S GOSPEL,’ ETC., TRANSLATOR OF PROF. E. NAVILLE’S 
 ‘THE OLD EGYPTIAN FAITH’ 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRA TIONS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. 
 
 DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W. 
 
 1909 
 
- 
 
 ♦ 
 
 * I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 # t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *C 
 
 * 
 
 
TO 
 
 P. A. C. 
 
 HER BOOK 
 

NOTE 
 
 The Tombs of Queens Nefert-ari and Ty-ti 
 were amongst those which I carefully copied 
 in the winter seasons of 1905-6 and 1906-7, 
 when engaged on The Gardeners Tomb 
 (Sen-nofer’s) at Thebes, which was pub- 
 lished in the spring of 1908. They were 
 again carefully examined last winter and 
 compared with my notes, and the result 
 is embodied in the following pages. For 
 some points in the description of Queen 
 Ty-ti’s Tomb l acknowledge my indebted- 
 ness to an official Cairo publication ; but 
 I could not follow its author in his fanciful 
 interpretations of some of the scenes. Of 
 Queen Nefert-ari’s Tomb no account, so 
 far as known to me, has yet been given. 
 I can hardly hope that 1 have avoided all 
 
 vii 
 
viii NOTE 
 
 errors, either in the translation of the in- 
 scriptions or in the interpretation of the 
 pictures on the walls. 
 
 I have been greatly indebted to various 
 editions of the Book of the Dead , but above 
 all to Professor Naville’s. 
 
 The frontispiece I owe to the kindness 
 of Mr. Howard Carter, whose original 
 drawing of Queen Nefert-ari is now the 
 property of Mr. J. W. Kingsmill Marrs. 
 The other illustrations are from photo- 
 graphs and sketches of my own. 
 
 C. C. 
 
 Edinburgh, 
 
 September 1909. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB „ 
 
 QUEEN TY-TFS TOMB , 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI . . . Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DAD WITH ARMS : THE QUEEN LED BY ISIS TO 
 
 KHEPERA 33 
 
 HORUS-SON-OF-ISIS AND QUEEN NEFERT-ARI . 36 
 
 THE QUEEN OFFERING TO OSIRIS KHENTI 
 
 AMENTET 43 
 
 THE SEVEN SACRED COWS, THE BULL, AND 
 
 THE FOUR STEERING OARS OF THE SKY . 46 
 
 THE GODDESS MAAT ; AND A GUARDIAN OF THE 
 
 CHAMBER ....... 99 
 
t 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 A 
 

QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 The tomb known to Baedeker ( Egypt , 1908, 
 p. 316) as that of ‘ Nefret-ere-Mi-en-Mut, 
 wife of Rameses n.,’ in the Valley of the 
 Tombs of the Queens, reached either from 
 the Temple of Medinet Habu, westwards, 
 in less than half an hour, or from Deir el 
 Medineh, southwards over the shoulder of 
 the hill, in fifteen or twenty minutes, was 
 opened up in 1904 by the Italian Archaeo- 
 logical Mission. It is much the finest and 
 most interesting of the rock-hewn tombs in 
 this valley, and consists of a chamber (No. 1 
 in Baedekers plan), with a smaller room 
 opening off it to the right, No. 2, then a flight 
 of wooden steps (No. 3) descends to a much 
 larger chamber (No. 4), whose roof is sup- 
 ported by four square pillars. To right 
 and left of No. 4 are two tiny rooms, Nos. 6 
 and 7, while at the extreme end is the inner- 
 
4 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 most sanctuary, No. 5, where the supreme 
 act or culmination of the process of com- 
 plete identification of the deceased with 
 Osiris was accomplished. For the ex- 
 ploration of the tomb no lights are required 
 as far as the bottom of the wooden stair- 
 case ; but for the remainder a good light 
 is necessary, and care must be shown in 
 moving about, as there are a few steps in 
 the rock leading down to the floor of 
 Chamber 4, as well as into the small side- 
 rooms. Round two sides of Chamber 1 
 there is a raised bench, on which were pro- 
 bably laid the gifts for the sustenance of the 
 Ka of the deceased. A similar bench occurs 
 in Chamber 4. If the lady was buried 
 in the tomb, the mummy shaft probably 
 led downwards from the small room, No. 7, 
 on the left side of the large nether chamber. 
 Such is the arrangement of the tomb. 
 
 As to the work. It has been described 
 as ‘poor and coarse,' but an examination 
 will probably recommend it as singularly 
 effective, the portraits of the queen, both 
 on the walls and the pillars, being very 
 
THE SCENES OF THE TOMB 
 
 5 
 
 striking. The painting is executed in low 
 relief on a couple of inches of plaster, and, 
 for the most part, is as fresh and perfect as 
 when it left the artist’s hands some thirty- 
 two centuries ago. In some places, un- 
 fortunately — notably in Chamber i and 
 towards the rear of Chamber 4 — much 
 damage has been caused, it is alleged, by 
 infiltration of water, but also, it is to be 
 feared, by the carelessness or worse of 
 ancient visitors, by some of whom the tomb 
 had evidently been plundered, as nothing 
 was found in it by the excavators. 
 
 The scenes depicted in this tomb, as well 
 as in Queen Ty-ti’s, strikingly illustrate a 
 characteristic of royal tombs, as distin- 
 guished from those of humbler persons, 
 which Professor Edouard Naville points out 
 in his illuminative Lectures on the Religion 
 of the Ancient Egyptians. The difference 
 is that the royal tombs deal entirely with 
 the next world, as the priests imagined it, 
 and never with terrestrial life, either actual 
 or ideal. ‘Nothing,’ he says, ‘recalls the 
 present life, or even the past, of the 
 
6 QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 sovereign : there is no allusion to a manner 
 of life similar to what he led on earth ; only 
 religious texts, extraordinary in their mysti- 
 cism, and often impossible to understand, 
 introducing us into the midst of a crowd 
 of gods, goddesses, beneficent spirits and 
 hostile demons, of serpents and monsters, 
 with which the Egyptian imagination 
 peopled the region beyond the tomb.’ 
 This description applies perfectly to the 
 tombs in question. Here we have no 
 hint of the queens daily life on earth, 
 either as it had been, or as her friends 
 might have wished to represent it, idealised 
 and beautified, but still terrestrial and 
 human in its nature. There is no glimpse 
 here of how the queen spent her days, with 
 her husband, her children, or her ladies ; 
 nothing of her joys or sorrows ; nothing of 
 her amusements, in palace or garden or 
 on the river — unless it be the draught- 
 playing scene just inside the first door on 
 the left on entering — nothing of her duties 
 as a princess in her own right, or as wedded 
 queen, ‘great royal wife.’ She is here 
 
THE SCENES OF THE TOMB 
 
 7 
 
 transported to a world beyond human ken, 
 with no human being near, except the 
 image of a perfunctory priest, no husband 
 beside her, or even his name — the wonder- 
 ful symbol and guarantee of life — to keep 
 her company, with the august deities and 
 dread monsters of the life to come, as she 
 rises into a divinity at least equal to that 
 of the best of them. All that she has to 
 remind her of the world she has left — ‘ the 
 day from which she has come forth ’ — is the 
 human speech depicted on the walls around 
 her; but these words are more than the 
 bodily presence of men, for by their magic 
 she can gain the mastery over the powers of 
 the world to come ; by pronouncing them 
 she can open every mysterious door or 
 ‘ mansion ’ of the house of Osiris ; and they 
 will enable her to brave every terror, until 
 she achieves unity with Osiris, the Lord of 
 the Unseen World. As an old papyrus 
 has it : ‘ Even as Osiris lives, he (the 
 dead) will live also ; even as Osiris is not 
 dead, he also will not die ; even as Osiris is 
 not destroyed, he also will not be destroyed.’ 
 
8 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 Before entering on the description of the 
 scenes in the tomb, let us note its other 
 omissions. First, the god Amen is not, 
 with one possible exception, mentioned in 
 all the inscriptions. In one way this is 
 remarkable, as in the xixth Dynasty, to 
 which period the tomb undoubtedly belongs, 
 the worship and the influence of Amen had 
 almost reached their zenith. But it must be 
 remembered that in the passages from the 
 Book of the Dead , or as Professor Naville 
 prefers to call it, ‘ the book of coming out of 
 the day,’ which are cited in the tomb, the 
 name of the god Amen, though predominant 
 in Thebes, had not yet been inserted, as it was 
 later, in some chapters. With possibly one 
 exception, which will be noticed later, the 
 doctrine of Amen might as well have been 
 non-existent, so far at least as the next world 
 is concerned. Next, there is no sacred 
 formula or petition, no suten-da-hotep, to any 
 god to provide funeral meals or offerings for 
 the Ka of the deceased, as is customary in 
 tombs, nor indeed is the queen’s Ka ever 
 mentioned. Lastly, though undoubtedly 
 
THE SCENES OF THE TOMB 
 
 9 
 
 Osiris, as the sovereign of Amentet, or 
 the Hidden World, to which the dead go, 
 plays a large part in the scenes represented, 
 the significant scene of the Judgment, or the 
 weighing of the Heart, found in so many 
 tombs, both royal and private, is absent, as, 
 indeed, is every moral element which might 
 be considered in determining the destiny of 
 the deceased. It can hardly have been 
 present in the destroyed portions of the 
 tomb, for these can be otherwise accounted 
 for. In the outer rooms of the tomb, which 
 perhaps represent the vestibule, so to speak, 
 of the next life, consisting of introductions 
 and offerings to various deities, we should 
 not properly expect to find moral considera- 
 tions given effect to ; but in the inner and 
 larger hall, where final union with Osiris is 
 the goal, we might fairly look for a judgment 
 scene to occur. But the designer of the 
 tomb did not select that scene for represen- 
 tation. What we find are pictures of the 
 Arits (doors or gates) which lead to the 
 various Sebkhets (cells or mansions) of the 
 House of Osiris, guarded by monsters with 
 
10 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 knives ; and through these doors and 
 mansions the queen can pass into bliss 
 and union with Osiris simply by reciting the 
 ‘ words of power ’ inscribed beside her. The 
 mere recital of the words, or even their exist- 
 ence on the walls , is sufficient in itself to 
 accomplish the grand purpose in view. No 
 kind of moral test or requirement is here 
 needed ; it is an absolute system of magic 
 — of belief reduced to absurdity — a know- 
 ledge of names of monsters and all sorts of 
 objects, even to the bolts of a door, and how 
 to pronounce them with authority, and have 
 power over the beings they represent. It is 
 this same power which is implied in exorcism 
 of all kinds, ancient and modern, sacred and 
 profane. 
 
 Nor do we find here any confession, nega- 
 tive or otherwise, of evils or wrongs done by 
 the deceased such as we have in well-known 
 chapters of the Book of the Dead \ which 
 exhibit a moral code of a very high order. 
 Still less do we find such noble assertions 
 of virtue as these : ‘ Behold, I come to you, 
 without sin, without evil. ... I live by truth 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S LIFE n 
 
 and feed myself with the truth of my heart. 
 
 . . . I have given bread to the hungry, water 
 to the thirsty, clothing to the naked 
 (compare St. Matthew xxv. 35, 45), a 
 passage in my boat to those who could not 
 cross. I was a father to the orphan, a 
 husband to the widow, a protection (shelter) 
 from the storm to the shivering,’ etc. 
 (compare Job xxix. 12-16). To be sure, 
 there is in the first recitation put in the 
 mouth of the queen the following : ‘ Done 
 away are my defects, abolished are my 
 deficiencies,’ yet the explanation that follows, 
 given in these words, ‘ It is the cutting off 
 of part of the body of the deceased (Osiris) 
 Nefert-ari,’ seems rather to point to some 
 burial or mummifying ceremonial, like the 
 allusion to dipping in the lakes of natron 
 and salt which we find immediately after, 
 rather than to any moral purification. 
 
 Who was the queen for whom this 
 splendid tomb was excavated and decor- 
 ated? There is little or no doubt that it 
 was for Nefert-ari, the first and favourite 
 wife of Rameses 11., the long-lived vain- 
 
12 QUEEN NEFERT-ARrS TOMB 
 
 glorious monarch of the xixth Dynasty, 
 during whose protracted reign Egyptian 
 decadence most probably began (1300- 
 1234 b.c.). Her husband’s name, as 
 already stated, does not appear in the 
 tomb ; while her own is everywhere given 
 as Nefert-ari Mer-en-Mut. The meaning 
 of the first part of the name is doubtful, 
 but it contains the sign for ‘beauty’ or 
 ‘ beautiful ’ ; the last part signifies ‘ beloved 
 of Mut ’ (the goddess). The form of the 
 name is substantially the same that appears 
 on her husband’s statues, where she is also 
 sculptured, at the temples of Abu-Simbel, 
 Luqsor, and elsewhere, as well as on the 
 superb black granite statue in the Turin 
 Museum. She must, however, be carefully 
 distinguished from Aahmes Nefert-ari, the 
 first queen of the xvmth Dynasty, who 
 flourished nearly three hundred years before 
 our queen. It is not known for certain 
 who she was ; probably she was a daughter 
 of Sety 1., father of Rameses 11., and there- 
 fore the latter’s sister or half-sister, as an 
 inscription at Abu-Simbel seems to show, 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS LIFE 13 
 
 where she is described (Maspero, Histoire 
 Ancienne , 11.) along with Ast-nefert as a 
 hereditary ‘ Princess of South and North.’ 
 In this tomb she is styled ‘ Great Royal 
 Wife, Lady of the Two Lands, Mistress of 
 South and North, Royal Palm Branch’ (a 
 term of endearment). Whether sister or 
 not, she was already married to Rameses 
 in the first year of his reign, as we learn 
 from the tomb of the High Priest of Amen, 
 Nebunnef, at Thebes (Lepsius, Denkmaler 
 Texts, 11. 239), who celebrated the great 
 festival of the god in that year. About the 
 same time Rameses married another queen, 
 Ast-nefert, one of whose sons, Mer-en-ptah, 
 eventually succeeded his father after a too 
 long reign of sixty-five years. Ast-nefert 
 was also the mother of his favourite daughter 
 Banutantha, who, along with his mother 
 Tuaa and Nefert-ari, share places of honour 
 beside him on his colossal and other statues. 
 His favourite son Kha-em-uas, intended to 
 be his heir, was also born of Ast-nefert, but 
 died before his father. It is known that 
 Nefert-ari also had two sons, but they dis- 
 
14 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 appear from history before their fathers 
 death, who indeed survived long enough to 
 outlive most of his children. Whether 
 Nefert-ari survived her sons or died early 
 in life we have no certain knowledge ; we 
 know, however, that her name or effigy 
 does not occur on any of her husbands 
 constructions in later years, and we can 
 only infer her death from this silence, as 
 this tomb testifies to his continued affection 
 for her. For during her life her influence 
 must have been great. None of the 
 Egyptian queens, so far as we know, had 
 been held in such honour, for none had a 
 temple dedicated to her jointly with a 
 goddess, as was the case with Nefert-ari 
 at Abu-Simbel, where she shares the 
 honours with Hathor in the smaller temple. 
 Within, too, the king is seen offering in- 
 cense and pouring a libation to her and 
 himself ; and after death she was worshipped 
 as a divine Osiris. And in the great Abu- 
 Simbel Temple her statues figure promi- 
 nently beside the four seated colossi of her 
 husband, which front the dawn. Thus, the 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S LIFE 15 
 
 outstanding fact remains that, although Ast- 
 nefert was the mother of his destined heir 
 and of his favourite daughter, and although 
 the Princess of Kheta and numerous other 
 wives were the mothers of at least one 
 hundred and forty other children, Nefert-ari 
 reigned supreme in his affections, ‘ the great 
 princess of every grace in his heart, the 
 palm-branch of love, the beloved of the 
 king, and united with the ruler ’ ; and at 
 last, in this awe-inspiring valley, beneath 
 its majestic cliffs, he had this sumptuous 
 ‘House of Eternity’ prepared for her, 
 wherein to abide for ever. 
 
 The Tomb 
 
 We shall adopt the numbers of the 
 Chambers as given in Baedeker’s plan 
 (p. 316: 6th Ed.), and begin with No. 1. 
 We take the left-hand side of the entrance 
 and go on till we come to the door at the 
 wooden staircase ; then returning to the 
 main entrance we shall examine the right 
 side of the room up to the same point. 
 Next we shall take the small side-chamber, 
 
1 6 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 in the same order, left side first, right side 
 last, which we believe to be the proper 
 order in examining tombs. 
 
 Room No. i 
 
 The long inscription above the bench, 
 much destroyed in places, is a rather garbled 
 version of chapter xvn. of the Book of the 
 Dead , which Professor Naville gives sub- 
 stantial reasons for calling ‘ the coming out 
 of the Day,’ the day here named being, in 
 his opinion, a man’s life which is limited by 
 time, also by the fact of man not being able 
 to change his appearance; his day has a 
 morning and an evening ; and ‘ coming out 
 of the day ’ is to be delivered from all those 
 limits, and to be able to assume all forms 
 one likes (Naville’s Funeral Papyrus of 
 louiya). The pictures along the frieze are 
 partly explained by the inscription which 
 begins at the left jamb of the entrance, and 
 ends at the door of the wooden stair. Un- 
 fortunately it is badly destroyed, but judging 
 from what is intact, the original could not 
 have been a valuable copy of the part of 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 17 
 
 chapter xvn, chosen for inscription. It 
 is one of the oldest and most important 
 chapters in the whole collection, and repre- 
 sents, in its kernel, the old Heliopolitan 
 theology. Consequently it was the first 
 chapter, if not the only one, according to 
 Egyptologists, to receive glosses and com- 
 mentaries, as the original meaning became 
 lost, or was wilfully perverted. These 
 glosses and commentaries are introduced 
 by the words, ‘ Explain that,’ or ‘ What is 
 that ? ’ or simply ‘ Otherwise .' 1 In some of 
 the texts these additions appear in red ink. 
 The text given in the tomb, so far as it is 
 complete, is nearest to that of the Papyrus 
 of Ani ; it has also affinities with that of 
 Iouiya. The beginning of the chapter is 
 broken away at the door-jamb. In the 
 following version the parts unrepresented 
 on the wall are enclosed in square brackets ; 
 the commentaries are in italics : and N. is 
 the queens name. 
 
 1 The Egyptian commentators anticipated by several 
 thousands of years the philological mythology of the late 
 Prof. Max Muller and others. 
 
 B 
 
18 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 ‘ [Beginning of the praisings and 
 glorifyings] of going out from, and 
 going into, the radiant Amentet (under- 
 world) the beautiful, of coming forth from 
 the day to perform the changes in all the 
 forms which he (the deceased) pleases 
 to take, of draught-playing, sitting in 
 the pavilion, and of going forth as a 
 living soul. Saith the Osiris the great 
 royal wife, Lady of the Two Lands, 
 Nefert-ari, triumphant after he (she) 
 hath reached his (her) haven : glorified 
 is that which is done upon the earth ; 
 then come to pass the words of Toum. 
 Toum the god am I, as the closer , 1 as 
 the opener. I am but One ; I am in 
 Nu, the primeval water, I am Ra at his 
 first appearing, when he became ruler 
 of what he had made. What then is 
 that ? It is Ra at the beginning when 
 he ruled . . . when he rose in the city 
 of Suten-henen (Heracleopolis Magna) 
 
 1 Renouf quotes Rev. i. 8 : ‘I am the Alpha and the 
 Omega, saith the Lord God, which is and which was, and 
 which is to come, the Almighty,’ but see also iii. 7. 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 19 
 
 as a king . . . when as yet the pillars 
 of Shu (the god who separated sky 
 from earth and supported the former) 
 were not. It was he that was on the 
 stairs (high ground) of Khemennu (the 
 city of the Eight Gods, Hermopolis) ; 
 behold he destroyed \_the children :] of 
 failure , the great god . . . [who is self- 
 created~\ even Nu , the primeval water, 
 the same . . . [the father\ of the gods ; 
 otherwise said , Ra it is . . . [ who cause th~] 
 his names to be the company of the gods} 
 What then is that? Ra it is who 
 createth [his own members] . . . then 
 arose [the gods] who are in the train 
 of Ra. I am he whom none of the 
 gods may resist. What then is that ? 
 It is Toum who is in his disc , other- 
 wise, Ra in his rising , on the horizon of 
 the east of the sky. I am Y esterday, I 
 know To-morrow . 2 What then is that ? 
 
 1 Renouf aptly quotes the saying, ‘Nomina Numena , 5 
 names are gods, of the Schoolmen. The names of Ra are 
 said, when taken together, to compose ‘the cycle of the 
 gods.’ 
 
 2 Yesterday and To-morrow are the two lion-gods in the 
 frieze : Yesterday faces the right. 
 
QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 Yesterday is Osiris , Now ( To-morrow ) 
 is Ra , that day of the destruction of 
 the enemies of Neb-er-tcher (the in- 
 violate god, Osiris, Lord of All), when 
 he at the same time made his son Horns 
 king : otherwise said , the day when is 
 fixed the festival of doing homage at the 
 burial of Osiris by his father Ra. Then 
 Ra, he made strife among the gods, 
 when he gave command . . . [for 
 Osiris to be lord] of the mountain of 
 the West. What then is that? Amentet 
 (the West) belongs to the spirits of the 
 gods when he gave command to the gods 
 for Osiris to be lord of the mountain of 
 the West . Otherwise said \ Amentet is 
 the place ( things ) which Ra hath given 
 to every god to reach ( i.e . the West is 
 the limit). He , Ra , ariseth andfighteth , 
 because of it does the Osiris, the great 
 royal wife N. I know that god that 
 is within there. What then is that ? 
 It is Osiris : Praises of Ra is his name : 
 Spirit of Ra is his name ; he begat him- 
 self \ the Osiris, etc. I am the Bennu- 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 21 
 
 bird, 1 which is in [An, or Heliopolis] 
 ... I am the keeper of the account of 
 things that are and that come into 
 being. What then is that ? His body ; 
 otherwise said , to all eternity and ever- 
 lastingness ; that which belongs to 
 eternity is the day, everlastingness is 
 the night: the Osiris , etc., N. I am 
 [Min] . . . [may] his two feathers [be 
 upon my head] . . . his father. That 
 which belongs to his coming forth is his 
 birth . . . his two feathers on his head: 
 the coming forth of Isis and Nephthys 
 . . . they stand zipon his head : the two 
 ursei, the very great [which are on] 
 the forehead of his father Toum : other- 
 wise said, his . . . are the two feathers 
 on his head. It is the Osiris, etc., N. 
 . . . upon his (her) place (land), he 
 (she) has come from his (her) city. 
 What does that mean ? From the twin- 
 horizon of his (her) father Toum. 
 Done away are his (her) defects, 
 
 1 The common heron : it is associated with the Sun-god 
 because the word ben means to go round, revolve. — Renouf. 
 
22 QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 abolished are his (her) deficiencies. 
 What then is that ? It is the cutting 
 off of part of the body of the Osiris , etc. 
 N. \before all the gods ] . . . all that 
 belongs to her (guardian ?). What 
 then is that? It is the purification 
 on the day of his [her] birth, in the 
 great and mighty double-nest (the 
 two lakes in the frieze) which is in 
 Suten-henen on the day of the offerings 
 [made by] the followers (lit. intelligent 
 beings) of the great god who is there. 
 What then is that ? [Millions of 
 years] is the name of the one ; Great 
 Green Lake is the name of the other, 
 a pool of natron and a pool of Maat 
 (nitre or salt, used in embalming. — 
 Renouf). T raverser of Millions of years 
 is the name of one, Great Green Lake 
 is the name of the other. Otherwise 
 said , Begetter of Millions of years is the 
 name of one, [Great] Green Lake is the 
 name of the other. Now regarding the 
 god . . . who is there, it is [Ra himself]. 
 I traverse ... I know ... it is the 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 23 
 
 underworld . . . where nothing grows, 
 the northern gate [of the tomb?]. Now, 
 concerning the pool of Maati (Two 
 Truths) it is Abydos, otherwise said , 
 the road on which his father Toiim 
 travelleth when he goeth to the field of 
 Aaru (The fields of the Blessed). I 
 come, I the Osiris, great royal wife, 
 divine wife, N. triumphant, to the place 
 of the double . . . the gate of the Sacred 
 Land. What then is that ? It is the 
 Field of Aaru that brings forth the food 
 of the gods, behind the shrine . The gate 
 Tchesert (the underworld) is the gate 
 of the pillars of Shu. Now concerning 
 the Duat (underworld), What then is 
 that? It is the Osiris, the great royal 
 wife, lady of the Two Lands, N. tri- 
 umphant. Now , concerning the Duat , it 
 is the gate of Tchesert .’ 
 
 Here the inscription ends at the door, and 
 it must be confessed rather lamely. Another 
 sentence, and the artist could have put into 
 the mouth of the queen a pathetic petition 
 that would have been the climax of her 
 
24 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 desire. Throughout the speech she pre- 
 sumes her identification with every god she 
 names : what happened to them, happens to 
 her, what they did she did, etc. ; and now, 
 standing within the threshold of the next 
 world, having had all defects and impurities 
 cleansed in the pools of the ‘ double-nest/ 
 she might have touchingly cried, ‘ O ye who 
 are in the presence (or who have gone 
 before), let me grasp your hands, me who 
 have become one of you.’ — Renouf. 
 
 This inscription, even had it been entire, 
 forms but a small, yet perhaps the oldest, 
 portion of chapter xvn. It was meant to be 
 an acknowledgment on the part of the 
 deceased of his belief in his identity with 
 Toum and all the ancient deities, and their 
 whole history. What they had been, and 
 were then, the deceased appropriated to 
 himself, so as to become as divine as they : 
 — a singular anticipation of the doctrine of 
 transferred merit. From its statement here 
 we can understand some of the pictures on 
 the frieze. The queen has come forth from 
 the day of her earthly life, and reached, or is 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 25 
 
 about to reach, her destined rest ; she is now 
 prepared, having perhaps recited on earth 
 the words 4 of the praisings and glorifyings 
 of going into the Unseen Land,’ to undergo 
 all the transformations that the god Toum 
 underwent, to play at draughts in her hall, 
 and to come forth as a living soul. The 
 draughts-playing is given as the first picture. 
 The ancient Egyptians loved the game ; so 
 much so that it was deemed worthy of being 
 transferred as a celestial recreation to the 
 next world. In the pavilion at Medinet 
 Habou Rameses 111. is seen playing at 
 draughts with one of his ladies. Here the 
 queen sits in her hall at her other-world 
 pleasure. Dr. Nash, in an exhaustive 
 article on draughts-playing in the Proceed- 
 ings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 
 quotes the late Dr. Birch : 4 Did the deceased, 
 or his shade, play for his soul against any 
 god or accuser ? or did the spirits of the 
 departed play against one another, or alone?’ 
 also Prof. Wiedemann, referring to a stele in 
 Vienna, 4 His soul is in his grave, she plays 
 draughts with him/ and Dr. Nash pertinently 
 
2 6 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 asks, 4 Who shall say what esoteric meaning 
 the Egyptian priests may have attached to 
 the game of draughts ? ’ (vol. xxiv. p. 348). 
 
 The queen’s name and titles are : 4 The 
 Osiris, the royal wife, lady of the Two 
 Lands, N. before the great god,’ and she 
 ‘ comes forth as a living soul,’ in the shape 
 of a bird with a woman’s head, standing on 
 the top of the tomb. The queen herself, 
 crowned with vulture diadem, kneels in front 
 of her soul, with hands uplifted in adoration 
 of the two lions before her. Her name and 
 titles again appear, as essential to her 
 existence. The two lions, back to back, 
 are ‘ Yesterday ’ (to right) and ‘ To-morrow ’ 
 (to left) — the past and the future — as ex- 
 plained in the inscription ; between them is 
 the symbol of the extended sky, with the sun’s 
 disc resting between the horizons of East and 
 West. When the queen says, ‘ I am Yester- 
 day and I know To-morrow,’ she probably 
 means that, being now divine, all time is 
 known and open before her. The bright- 
 blue bennu bird is so named, and stands 
 facing the bier on which Osiris lies : the 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 27 
 
 etymology connects it with the sun ‘ that 
 turns back or round ’ day by day, and hence 
 the bird became a symbol of resurrection, 
 the phoenix of man, returning to life again 
 like the sun. This ancient Egyptian belief 
 persisted even into Christian times. The 
 bird stands here by the bier of the dead 
 Osiris (or the queen) in token of returning 
 to life again : the body is watched over by 
 Nephthys at the head, and Isis at the foot, 
 the latter occupying the more honourable 
 position as she looks towards the face of 
 Osiris. Both are in the form of hawks, the 
 sacred bird of the tribe. The queen, in the 
 text, represents herself as having gone 
 through the same changes as Osiris. F urther 
 on, we have the god called ‘ Millions of 
 Years,’ holding a notched palm-branch, the 
 hieroglyph of his name, in one hand, while 
 his left stretches towards one of the lakes 
 named in the text. Beneath this lake is the 
 ‘eye,’ not mentioned in the text, and it 
 occurs again, placed on a tomb or pylon, 
 where it is adored by a god. The ‘ Eye of 
 Horus’ stands for any gift bestowed by 
 
28 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 deity, ‘ the prototype of all gifts.' The 
 figure between the pools is probably the god 
 called ‘Great Green Lake,' and the pools 
 over which he stretches his hands are the 
 pools of natron and salt. In this ‘double- 
 nest,' as they are called, the queen says she 
 has been purified ; and considering the 
 substances contained in the pools they 
 probably refer to the process of mummifica- 
 tion and protection of the body from decay, 
 rather than to moral cleansing. This seems 
 also apparent from their position between 
 the bier and the tomb here figured, but not 
 named, as in the papyrus of Ani, Re-stau, 
 ‘gate or entrance of the funeral passages.' 
 At the corner we have the great cow, Meh- 
 urt, called in the papyrus of Ani, ‘ the eye of 
 Horus,’ with a menat suspended from her 
 neck, and a flail or scourge, as a symbol of 
 authority, behind her, crouching on a pylon. 
 Upon her thighs, according to a later passage 
 in chapter xvil, not given here, the night 
 Sun-god is born in the West in the evening. 
 She is therefore another type of the new life 
 for the deceased. Further to the right we 
 
ROOM 1 29 
 
 have another bier or funeral chest in which 
 is a crouching jackal, the animal sacred to 
 Anubis, the guardian of the tomb. Beside 
 the bier are the four genii of the dead, or 
 the children of Horus, all man-headed, who 
 guard the internal organs of the body, heart, 
 liver, etc. They are followed by the seven 
 Khus , spirits or shining Ones, figures of 
 deities mentioned later in chapter xvn. 
 (Papyrus of Ani), who were appointed 
 originally by Anubis to watch over and 
 protect the dead body of Osiris. The first 
 three are not named here, but in that 
 papyrus they are called Maa-atef-f, Kheri- 
 beq-f, and Horu-Khenti-maati ; and the re- 
 maining four, who also represent the four 
 cardinal points, with their proper heads, are 
 Qebh-sennuf (jackal -headed), Dua-mutf 
 (hawk-headed), Hapi (dog-headed), and 
 Mesta or Amset (man-headed). They, the 
 four children of Horus, are often represented 
 as standing before Osiris, the Judge and 
 supreme god of the next world, as indeed 
 they are represented in this tomb. They 
 seem to suggest a comparison with the ‘ four 
 
30 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 living creatures ’ of the Book of the Revela- 
 tion. The whole frieze thus reproduces the 
 burial ritual, preservation and resurrection 
 of the body of Osiris, all which the queen 
 accepts and adopts as her own. 
 
 Along the edge of the bench or table, be- 
 ginning at the inner door, is the following 
 legend: ‘ Saith Osiris Khenti Un-nefer, 
 Lord of the Sacred Land, Great God, Royal 
 Sovereign ruler of all living beings of 
 Aukert (a name for the next world) Ruler 
 of . . . beloved daughter of Ra (?), the Lady 
 of the Two Lands, great Royal Wife Nefert- 
 ari Mer-en-Mut, endowed with life — I have 
 given to thee a habitation within Aukert ; 
 and thou shinest in the heavens like Ra, and 
 art united to an abode in the heart of the 
 Sacred Land ; glad of heart is she in the 
 abode of the goddess Maat (goddess of Truth 
 or Right), who is in the great Company of 
 the Gods, (is) the great Royal Wife, etc., N.’ 
 
 The fronts of the supporting pillars of the 
 bench also show the titles and cartouche of 
 the queen ; the name is repeated over and 
 over again, not merely as a decoration but 
 
ROOM 1 
 
 3i 
 
 as standing for the actual life and person- 
 ality of the queen, as representing in fact 
 her immortal ego. The preservation of the 
 name was inculcated from the earliest ages 
 down to the last days of the Egyptian re- 
 ligion : in a passage from the text of Pepy 1. 
 we read, ‘ Thy name shall live upon earth ; 
 thy name shall endure upon earth ; never 
 shalt thou perish ; thou shalt not be de- 
 stroyed for ever and ever.’ The same idea 
 occurs in many passages of the Scriptures ; 
 and to efface or blot out a name was equi- 
 valent to destroying the personality. 
 
 We now return to the doorway. Here 
 we have the queen presenting herself in 
 adoration before the two principal gods of 
 the next world, Osiris enthroned within a 
 shrine, and Anubis behind him. In front 
 of Osiris, on a kind of stand, are the four 
 children of Horus, this time each with a 
 human head. The titles and name of the 
 queen, with which we are now familiar, again 
 occur, but the words ‘before the great god,’ 
 meaning Osiris, are added. Only after 
 death might a king be styled ‘ great god ’ : 
 
32 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 during his life he was simply ‘good god.’ 
 Osiris is here described as ‘ the first of those 
 that are in the West ( i.e . the departed), Un- 
 nefer, Lord of the Sacred Land, Great God, 
 King of Aukert, dwelling in Abydos/ 
 Behind him are the magical signs of ‘ pro- 
 tection, life, stability, power, health, glad- 
 ness of heart/ Anubis is characterised in 
 the usual way ‘ Anpu (or Anup, Anubis) 
 Governor of the Divine abode, he who is 
 in Ut (or place of embalming), Lord of 
 Re-stau, he who is upon his hill or rock, 
 Lord of the Sacred Land/ 
 
 We now pass over to the left jamb 
 of the Vestibule that leads into the 
 small chamber No. 2. The goddess Serk 
 (Selk or Serket), with a scorpion emblem 
 on her head, stands to welcome the queen 
 on her progress in her knowledge of the 
 gods. Her speech is : ‘ Saith Serket, lady 
 of the sky, mistress of all the gods, I come 
 having with me the great royal wife, etc., 
 mistress of South and North, N. triumphant 
 before Osiris, sovereign lord of Abdu 
 (Abydos). I have given (her) a dwelling 
 

 
Photo ly A uthor 
 KHEPERA 
 
 THE QUEEN LEU BY ISIS 
 
 DAD 
 
 WITH 
 
 ARMS 
 
ROOM 2 33 
 
 in the sacred land : she shines in the sky- 
 like Ra.’ Behind the goddess are the 
 usual magical amulet signs of ‘protection, 
 etc., around her, like Ra.’ Going round the 
 corner we find a large Dad, the symbol of 
 the backbone of Osiris, with arms, holding 
 crook and scourges, and crowned with 
 horned feathers. Here, as on the opposite 
 side of the vestibule, it is partly decorative 
 and partly emblematic of the reconstruction 
 of life in Osiris and therefore for all 
 believers. The queen is now conducted 
 by the goddess Isis, who takes her by the 
 hand and presents her to the god Khepera, 
 who with scarabaeus head sits enthroned 
 facing them. We need not repeat the 
 legend round the queen’s head ; here as 
 elsewhere she is described as triumphant 
 (see my Sen-no fer's Tomb , p. 7). Isis is 
 crowned with horns and sun-disc, as well 
 as with the royal uraeus, and holds, like all 
 deities, the symbol of power. She says, 
 
 ‘ Lo, she comes, the great, etc., N., to an 
 abode in the Sacred Land.’ Khepera, the 
 god with the scarabaeus head, is so depicted 
 
 c 
 
34 QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 as representing perhaps the earliest mani- 
 festation of the Sun-god, as coming into 
 visible life (Kheper, a beetle, means to 
 become , come into being) in the new-born or 
 rising sun. He says to the queen, ‘ I give 
 thee the everlastingness of Ra, I give thee 
 the risings of Ra in the sky, I give thee an 
 abode in the Sacred Land, I, Khepera, the 
 god who is in his boat, the great god.’ 
 The name Khepera, ‘ the god who is in his 
 boat,’ appears exactly in this form in chapter 
 cxxxiv., Book of the Dead , and seems here 
 to refer to the promise given to the queen 
 that she will for ever accompany the Sun- 
 god in his boat when he rises every new 
 day to cross the sky. This is, of course, 
 a promise of eternal life. In the Papyrus 
 of Nu, chapter cliv., Book of the Dead , ‘the 
 divine father Khepera is the divine type of 
 him that never saw corruption ... I am 
 (the deceased says) the god Khepera, and 
 my members shall have an everlasting 
 existence. I shall not decay, I shall not 
 rot, I shall not putrify, I shall not turn into 
 worms, and I shall not see corruption before 
 
ROOM 2 
 
 35 
 
 the eye of the god Shu. I shall have my 
 being : I shall live : I shall germinate : I 
 shall wake up in peace . . . my body shall 
 be established, and it shall neither fall into 
 ruin, nor be destroyed on this earth.’ — (Dr. 
 Budge s Translation , p. 520.) 
 
 The counterpart of the two foregoing 
 pictures is on the opposite side of the vesti- 
 bule. The goddess Neith, like the goddess 
 Serket, conducts the queen into further 
 knowledge. Neith is closely associated in 
 the oldest mythology with Osiris and Horus, 
 and, after the period of this tomb, was 
 worshipped mainly at Sais in the Delta. 
 The emblem on her head here is supposed 
 to be a weaver’s shuttle (it is often an oblong 
 shield with two arrows crossed), and from 
 that emblem, as well as from her other head- 
 dress, the crown of Lower Egypt, not here 
 shown, her origin has been deduced from 
 the Libyans, a people dwelling on the 
 western border of Egypt. (See, for an in- 
 structive discussion on this point, P. A. 
 Newberry in S. B. Archeology , vol. xxvm. 
 pp. 69, 70.) She was thus at once a war- 
 
36 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 goddess, identified by the Greeks with 
 Athene, and an industrial goddess, 'the 
 inventress of the art of weaving, the weaver 
 who made the world of warp and woof.’ 
 She is mentioned several times in the Book 
 of the Dead \ and the part of the human 
 body associated with her is the fore-arm — 
 very suitable for a goddess of war. Here 
 she says : ‘I, Neith, the great divine mother, 
 lady of the sky, mistress of all the gods, I 
 come (bringing) with me the daughter be- 
 loved, the Osiris, great royal, etc., N. tri- 
 umphant before Osiris, the great god, Lord 
 of the Sacred Land, I have given to her an 
 abode within Aukert. She shall rise like 
 Ra.’ The usual amulet signs for protection, 
 etc., are behind the goddess. 
 
 As on the other side, the Dad emblem 
 again appears. Then Horus-son-of-Isis 
 (Heru - si -ast, Greek Harsiesis), with a 
 falcon's head, and wearing the double 
 crown of Egypt, takes the queen by the 
 hand, as his mother on the opposite side 
 has done, and presents her to Horus-of-the- 
 two- horizons (Heru-akhte, Greek Har- 
 
Photo by Author 
 
 HORUS-SON-OF-ISIS. 
 
 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI, 
 

 I 
 
 
 
ROOM 2 
 
 37 
 
 machis) and to Hat-hor (Het-Heru, abode 
 of Horus), both enthroned. This latter 
 Horus is a form of Ra, with a falcon’s 
 head, crowned by the sun-disc with a 
 urseus. He promises to the queen ‘an 
 abode with those that are in the Sacred 
 Land, a duration of life like Ra’s, an eternity 
 in life, stability, and power.’ Hathor wears 
 on her head the falcon emblem or totem 
 standing for the west, and she is simply 
 styled Het-Heru (Hat-hor), protectress or 
 president of Thebes, mistress of all the gods. 
 
 The decorative vulture on the lintel, with 
 outspread wings, is worthy of notice. She 
 represents the goddess ‘ Nekhebt, the 
 goddess of the South,’ the tutelary deity 
 of the ancient city at El Kab, Nekheb, 
 identified by the Greeks as the city of 
 Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. Simi- 
 larly we have, as we shall see further on, 
 the goddess Uazit, a winged cobra, with 
 the crown of Lower Egypt, as the goddess 
 of the North, called Buto by the Greeks. 
 
 On the door-posts as we enter Room 
 No. 2, are figures of Maat, the goddess of 
 
38 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 Truth, Law or Right, the hieroglyph for 
 which is an ostrich feather, worn on her 
 head. Forms of Maat, like the Forty-two 
 who preside at the judgment before Osiris, 
 as well as Maat herself or her symbol, are 
 constantly met with on tombs and monu- 
 ments. Her priests were held in high 
 esteem, and many monarchs, notably Amen- 
 hotep hi. (Lord of the Truth of Ra), and his 
 reforming son Khu-en-aten, not to mention 
 Hatshepsut (Ka-Maat-Ra), embodied the 
 word in their names and professed to live 
 in and by her. The inscription, which is the 
 same, with unimportant variations, on both 
 sides reads : ‘ Saith Maat, daughter of Ra, 
 I come bringing with me the beloved 
 daughter, the Osiris, etc., N. triumphant 
 before Osiris, the great god, etc., I have 
 given thee an abode within Aukert.’ 
 
 Proceeding to the left side we see N. 
 before the god Ptah standing in his shrine, 
 and swathed like a mummy, his usual form. 
 The queen is offering linen tissues or wrap- 
 pings, as the short inscription in front of 
 her informs us, ‘The giving of Cloths to 
 
ROOM 2 
 
 39 
 
 the Lord of Truth in the Sacred Land/ 
 The hieroglyphs for cloths or bandages 
 are on the altar table. The inscription 
 above the queen gives her a new title : 
 
 ‘ The great, etc., ruler of all lands , N., etc/ 
 No matter before what god she appears she 
 is described as ‘triumphant before Osiris/ 
 Ptah stands in a shrine or chapel, in mummy 
 form, with the two hands in front grasping 
 a sceptre with the symbols of power, life, 
 and stability. He stands on another 
 symbol expressing truth or law. The 
 inscription describes him as ‘ Ptah, Lord 
 of Truth, King of the two Lands, beautiful 
 of countenance, Lord of his great abode/ 
 Ptah is one of the oldest gods, and was 
 never merged in the Sun-god : on the con- 
 trary he is often called ‘ Father of the 
 mighty fathers (the gods), father of the 
 beginnings, he who created the sun-egg and 
 the moon-egg/ In another place he is said 
 to be old and yet always making himself 
 young. Memphis was the chief seat of his 
 worship, and here it was said of him that, 
 like a potter on his wheel, he had turned the 
 
40 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 egg from which the world was hatched. 
 He was the patron of all artificers and 
 artisans, especially of blacksmiths. It is 
 difficult to say what this scene signifies ; 
 it may refer to chapter xxm. of the Book 
 of the Dead, where the prayer is made, 
 * May my mouth be opened by Ptah, and 
 may the god of my domain loosen my 
 swathings, even the swathings that are over 
 my mouth.’ 
 
 Next, on the left hand wall, we have 
 an interesting scene presented. It is an 
 illustration, with an almost complete text 
 of chapter xciv. of the Book of the Dead , 
 called here ‘ The chapter of praying for an 
 inkstand and palette from Thoth in Neter- 
 Khert (underworld).’ The text differs 
 from that of any papyrus known to the 
 author. In the picture we have the queen 
 standing before Thoth, who is enthroned, 
 and on an altar-table between them is a 
 writing palette, supported by an inkstand, 
 on which a small figure of an ape, associated 
 with Thoth, sits gazing towards the god. 
 The whole stands on the symbol for Truth 
 
ROOM 2 
 
 4i 
 
 or Right. The scene may also have a re- 
 ference to chapter clxxv. of the same book, 
 where, among other things, the deceased 
 says, ‘ I am thy palette, O Thoth, and I 
 bring to thee thine inkstand ; I am not one 
 of those who do mischief in secret : let 
 not mischief be done unto me . — ( Renouf s 
 Translation.') Thoth, in the scene before us, 
 is described as ‘ Lord of the City of the Eight 
 (that is Khemennu ; the eight are the adoring 
 apes at sunrise, four on each side of the 
 Sun -god's boat), great god, chief of the 
 Sacred Land, righteous judge of the com- 
 pany of the gods,’ and like the other deities 
 he also accords ‘ a seat or abode in the 
 Sacred Land.’ The queen is styled as 
 before, and then comes the text of eight 
 vertical columns, beginning on the right : 
 ‘ Chapter of praying for inkstand and palette 
 from Thoth in Neter-Khert : the Osiris 
 great royal wife, etc., N. triumphant : Hail, 
 O great one beholding [thy] father, thou 
 guardian of the Book of Thoth : Here am 
 I, I am come, thy glorified one, I am a 
 soul, with thy strength am I equipped 
 
42 QUEEN ttEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 [and] with the writings of Thoth. I have 
 brought them [for] going through (?) Aker 
 (used elsewhere of the dark hold of the 
 boat that must be traversed), who is with 
 Suti (darkness). I have brought inkstand, 
 I have brought palette, things that belong 
 to Thoth’s own hand, the secrets that are in 
 them are divine (lit. gods). Here am I, 
 here am I [as] a scribe. I have brought 
 the remains (offal) of Osiris, writings (written 
 upon ?), I have made (copied ?) the words 
 of the great and beautiful god every day, 
 in beauty. Thou hast decreed for me, O 
 Heru-akhte (Harmachis) that I make (do ?) 
 Truth and lead Truth along.’ There are 
 several slips in the text. 
 
 The wall opposite the door is divided 
 into two scenes ; the queen before Osiris 
 on the left half, and before Toum on the 
 right. It is evident from the relative posi- 
 tion of the two gods, back to back, with the 
 magic fan of ‘ protection ’ between them, as 
 well as from the position of the queen, that 
 we must approach this middle wall from left 
 and right from the door. Taking, there- 
 
GUARDIAN OF THE CHAMBER 
 
 ( Reproduced by perm iss io n of the Trustees of the 
 British Museum ) 
 
 THE GODDESS MAAT 
 
ROOM 2 
 
 43 
 
 fore, the Osiris scene first, we see the queen 
 making a gigantic and sumptuous offering 
 of all kinds, including animals’ skins, to 
 Osiris enthroned, accompanied as before 
 by the Four children of Horus on a 
 standard. Between the offerings and the 
 standard is what has been called the ‘ fetish ’ 
 of Osiris. It is not, however, peculiar to 
 him ; it goes with Anubis as well. It is an 
 animal’s skin or body, fixed to a pole, with 
 blood dripping from the neck into a bowl 
 beneath. No one knows what it means. 
 The queen has a sceptre of power and 
 might in her right hand, and touches the 
 offerings with her left. She says ‘ she pays 
 the offering due to her father Osiris, the 
 great god, straightway [does] his daughter, 
 the great royal wife, etc., N. ? Osiris says : 
 * I have given [to thee] the risings of Ra 
 in the sky ; I have given all everlastingness 
 that is in my power, I have given all eternity 
 that is in my power, I have given all joy of 
 heart that is in my power, I, Osiris, the First 
 of those that are in Amentet, Un-nefer, the 
 sovereign of all living beings, great god, 
 
44 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 ruler of the Sacred Land, Lord of Eternity, 
 Ruler for evermore.’ 
 
 Returning to the door, we see on the 
 right, first, a ram-headed mummy figure, 
 supported in front by Isis and behind by 
 Nephthys. The Osiris figure — for it is he 
 — is the dead body of the Sun-god, with the 
 ram-head of Amen, and a red sun-disc above 
 the horns, representing Ra, as the mummy 
 figure is indeed here expressly called. 
 This figure seems to show that Osiris was 
 identified with Ra, and that the cult of 
 Amen was being introduced into the Osirian 
 doctrine. The scene probably refers to 
 chapter clxxxii., Book of the Dead , called the 
 ‘ Book of vivifying Osiris, of giving air to 
 him whose heart is motionless, through the 
 action of Thoth, etc .’—(Navil/e.) The in- 
 scription in front of the mummy reads, ‘ Ra 
 rests (or sets) in Osiris,’ and behind we have 
 the converse, ‘ Osiris sets in Ra,’ a form of 
 words found in the chapter just quoted. In 
 any case, the queen will be re-vivified like 
 this Osiris figure. 
 
 Towards the corner and facing the two 
 
THE SACRED KINE 
 
 45 
 
 rows of cattle stands the queen adoring them. 
 These seven cows and the bull are the 
 Sacred Kine, who will provide sustenance for 
 her in the next life. A table of green food, 
 apparently, stands before each animal ; and 
 below are the four steering oars of the sky, 
 referring to the four cardinal points. Over 
 all is the sign for the sky, and at either side 
 stands a long user , the symbol of power. 
 The picture illustrates chapter cxlviii. of the 
 Book of the Dead , ‘giving sustenance to 
 the deceased in the Netherworld, and de- 
 livering him from evil things.’ Professor 
 Naville explains that the giving of nourish- 
 ment to the deceased delivers him from all 
 evil ; — in fact it is so stated in the rubric to 
 this chapter in the Papyrus of Nu. Naville 
 thus translates the beginning of the chapter : 
 ‘ Hail to thee who shinest as living soul, and 
 who appearest on the horizon, N. who is in 
 the boat knows thee ; he knows thy name, 
 he knows the names of the seven cows and 
 of their bull : they give bread and drink to 
 the glorified soul. You who give sustenance 
 to the inhabitants of the West, give bread 
 
4 6 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 and drink to the soul of N., grant that he 
 may be your follower, and be between your 
 thighs ( i.e . be suckled by the divine cows, 
 like Hatshepsu, at Der el Bahari, by 
 Hathor).’ The cows and the bull have a 
 name apiece ; they are variously given on 
 different monuments (eg. in Medinet Habou 
 Temple) and in different papyri. Here, be- 
 ginning at right of top row — (i) Red cow, 
 name, Dwelling of the Kas of Neb-er-tcher 
 (inviolate god, Osiris) ; (2) Black and yellow 
 cow, name, Hidden one, dwelling in her 
 place ; (3) Brown and flecked cow, name, 
 Divine mummified form of the god ; (4) 
 White cow, yellow underneath, name, Storm 
 of the sky, raising the gods ; (5) Grey cow 
 with dark spots, name, Joined to life (full of 
 life), with long locks of hair ; (6) Red cow, 
 name, Greatly beloved, red of hair; (7) White 
 cow, name, Mighty is her name, on her 
 pedestal. The Bull, black and yellow, is 
 named, The bull, the husband of the cows, 
 of those who dwell in the House of the Red 
 ones. The Steering Oars are thus de- 
 scribed, beginning at the right — (1) Beautiful 
 
THE SEVEN SACRED COWS, THE BULL, AND THE FOUR 
 STEERING OARS OF THE SKY 
 
• /• 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE STEERING OARS 
 
 4 7 
 
 power, beautiful steering oar of the northern 
 sky ; (2) Beautiful steering oar of the eastern 
 sky, pilot that goes round the two lands 
 (the whole earth) ; (3) Beautiful steering oar 
 of the southern sky ; (4) Beautiful steering 
 oar of the western sky. 
 
 We now reach the counterpart of the 
 presentation of offerings to Osiris. The 
 queen makes a similar offering to Toum, 
 one of the primeval gods, as the long in- 
 scription in the outer chamber has told us. 
 The queen’s address here is the same as 
 on the other side, with the exception of the 
 god’s name. Toum, who is always repre- 
 sented as a man, is attired exactly like a 
 king of Upper and Lower Egypt, with user 
 and ankh y while on the side of his throne, 
 as on the throne of Osiris, we have the sam 
 sign, or symbol of the union of the Two 
 Lands. Between Osiris and Toum is the 
 large magical fan, symbol of ‘ protection,’ 
 which is seen behind the king even in 
 battle ; and behind both deities are the 
 other amulet signs as before. Toum also 
 promises the queen < the rising of Ra in the 
 
48 QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 sky, eternity in life, stability, and power, 
 everlastingness like Ra, and all joy of heart.’ 
 He is styled ‘ Lord of the Two Lands of 
 On (Heliopolis), Great God, Lord of the 
 Sacred Land.’ 
 
 On emerging from Room 2, and passing 
 towards the doorway of the wooden stair- 
 case, we notice a large figure of Osiris on 
 the right hand facing us. He is a mummy 
 figure with a green face, as representing 
 the growth or germination of the new life 
 of the body as from a seed. He stands on 
 Truth, and makes the promise of ‘eternity 
 of life, like his (her) father Ra,’ to the queen. 
 The figure is robed like the queen’s, and 
 may thus be meant for her. The mysterious 
 skin on the pole is here again. His titles 
 are more numerous now : ‘ Osiris, dwelling 
 in Amentet, Un-nefer, King of Life, Great 
 God, ruler of the company of all the Gods 
 to Eternity, ruler of everlastingness, Over- 
 lord of the Sacred Land.’ 
 
 The jambs of the door to the staircase 
 yield once more an opportunity for the 
 artist to inscribe the titles and name of the 
 
STAIRCASE 
 
 49 
 
 queen ; and on the left and right thicknesses 
 of the door we have the goddesses of South 
 and North respectively, with their appropriate 
 crowns, before the cartouches of the queen, 
 surmounted by plumes. The southern side of 
 a door or gate is always the more honourable. 
 
 Similarly, inside, as in the outer room, 
 we have on the South the scorpion goddess 
 Serket, and on the North the shuttle goddess 
 Neith, welcoming the queen on her journey 
 in the Duat or Underworld. The speech 
 of Neith is the better preserved, and reads : 
 ‘ Says Neith, the divine mother, lady of the 
 sky, president of the Sacred Land, I come 
 having with me the great royal wife, whom 
 he (she) loves, the lady of the Two Lands, 
 N. triumphant before Osiris. 7 Serket is not, 
 of course, styled ‘ divine mother ’ like Neith. 
 The usual amulet signs are behind both 
 goddesses. 
 
 Staircase 
 
 The descent to the Underworld is beauti- 
 fully decorated. The figures of the queen 
 and the deities represented are disposed in 
 
 D 
 
So QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 the most attractive way, the utmost being 
 made of the space at the artists disposal. 
 Across the lintel of the lower entrance is 
 an enchanting figure of the goddess Maat 
 kneeling, with outspread wings. We begin, 
 as usual, with the left-hand wall. Here we 
 have the queen offering two bowls (of wine, 
 water, or milk) to Isis, behind whom is 
 Nephthys, both enthroned. Then further 
 along on the same level, we have a kneeling 
 figure of the goddess Maat with her ostrich 
 feather (Truth) on her head, and wings out- 
 stretched towards the name of the queen in 
 protection of her personality. Still further 
 forward is a winged uraeus performing the 
 same sacred duty to two names of the queen, 
 one of which is crowned by the sun-disc, 
 and rests on the sign for gold. The body 
 of the serpent waves gracefully along in 
 smaller undulations into the narrowing space. 
 
 Then underneath, beginning about the 
 kneeling figure of Maat, is another picture 
 in which the Jackal Anubis, couched on a 
 tomb, welcomes the queen in a long speech. 
 Another speech lies below the broad line 
 
STAIRCASE 
 
 Si 
 
 which extends to the jackal’s fore-paws. 
 Then behind Anubis is the goddess Isis 
 again, but this time kneeling on a large gold 
 sign, with her hands resting on the seal or 
 ring which is supposed to represent infinity. 
 
 The same scheme of ceremonial decora- 
 tion is followed on the right-hand wall, with 
 certain differences in the deities represented. 
 
 Beginning, then, with the left-hand wall, 
 the queen offers two bowls to Isis, but no 
 mention of that goddess is made in the in- 
 scription above the queen. Osiris is the 
 goal of her journeyings in the Duat, conse- 
 quently his titles are reproduced at some 
 length, and it is noteworthy that for the 
 first time behind the queen we find here 
 the amulet signs of ‘protection, life, stability, 
 all health, and all joy of heart around her 
 like Ra,’ as if she were now a goddess. 
 Osiris is again called ‘ Ruler of the Cycle 
 of all the gods.’ Isis says : ‘ I have given 
 to the goddess (queen) eternity like Ra, 
 Isis the great divine mother, lady of the 
 sky, mistress of all the gods.’ Nephthys is 
 merely named ‘ lady of the sky, mistress 
 
52 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 of the two lands ’ ; while Maat is called 
 ‘ daughter of Ra, lady of the sky, mistress 
 of the two lands.’ 
 
 A little way down the wooden steps is 
 the beginning of the tableau, in which 
 Anubis is the principal figure as the 
 guardian of the inner Tomb. In Sen- 
 nefer’s Tomb he is similarly placed, but on 
 the inside lintel of the inner chamber. The 
 speech is as follows : — 
 
 ‘ Saith Anpu, he who is in the em- 
 balming place, great god over-lord ot 
 the Sacred Land, here comes the great 
 royal wife, etc., N. triumphant before 
 Osiris, etc. — she conies to me. I have 
 given the goddess (the queen) an abode 
 among those that are in the Sacred Land. 
 She riseth (shineth) in the sky like [her] 
 father Ra. Receive thou ornaments 
 upon thy head ; be thou united to Mother 
 Isis together with Nephthys. They 
 create thy beauty like father Ra. Thou 
 dost illuminate Aukert (the underworld) 
 when thou sendest forth thy beams 
 among the great company of the gods 
 
STAIRCASE 
 
 53 
 
 and among those that are in the Sacred 
 Land. I have made for thee an abode ; 
 Nut, the divine mother, does homage to 
 thy face even as does Horus of the two 
 horizons to thee. Lo ! I have made 
 the spirits of Pe and the spirits of 
 Nekhen. Rejoice thou like father Ra, 
 dwelling in the Amentet. The great 
 company of the gods is the power among 
 those that exist, they are the protectors 
 of thy members on thy journey to 
 Mother Isis. Thou restest calmly on 
 the seat of Osiris. May the Lords of 
 the Sacred Land receive thee, and 
 mayest thou be glad at heart onwards 
 to eternity, O great royal wife, etc., N. 
 triumphant before Osiris. Saith Anpu, 
 the Jackal god, who is in the place of 
 embalming, the great god, Lord of Re- 
 stau, there comes to me a daughter be- 
 loved, the great royal wife, etc., N., etc. 
 I have given [thee] to rise (shine) and 
 rest on the seat of Osiris, as thou 
 journeyest to Mother Isis together with 
 Nephthys. The great company of the 
 
54 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 gods are thy protectors for evermore/ 
 (to be repeated). 
 
 The inscription in columns below the long 
 horizontal line refers to Isis, and reads : — 
 
 ‘ Saith I sis, daughter of Ra, great mother, 
 lady of the sky, [mistress] of all the 
 gods, ruler of the Sacred Land, there 
 cometh to me the great royal wife, etc., 
 N. triumphant before O, etc. I have 
 given her an abode in the Sacred Land 
 in presence of Un-nefer. Thou risest 
 (shinest) like the Aten (sun-disc) in the 
 sky for ever-more like Ra.’ 
 
 The speech continues in front of the kneel- 
 ing goddess : — 
 
 ‘ Saith Isis, great divine mother, etc., 
 . . . there cometh to me the great 
 royal wife, etc., N/ 
 
 and behind we have the same wearisome 
 promises of an ‘abode in the Neter-Khert, 
 and rising in the sky like Ra, and of giving 
 light in Aukert, etc.’ 
 
 Returning to the top of the staircase we 
 find that the right-hand wall presents an 
 almost similar picture, the difference being 
 
STAIRCASE 
 
 55 
 
 in some of the personages and in a few 
 phrases of the texts. Instead of Isis we 
 have Hathor, to whom the queen offers two 
 bowls ; behind Hathor is Serket, instead of 
 Nephthys, but the latter goddess takes the 
 place of Isis, kneeling on the sign for gold. 
 The queen and Anubis are reproduced as 
 on the opposite wall, but she is here called, 
 in addition, ‘beloved palm-branch’ (a term of 
 endearment). Hathor, wearing her custom- 
 ary horns and disc, is styled ‘ Protectress 
 of Thebes, lady of the sky, mistress of all 
 the gods,’ and promises ‘an eternity like Ra, 
 and rising in the sky like him ’ ; while Serket 
 follows up with similar promises and adds 
 ‘peace for (of) eternity.’ Maat is styled as 
 before, ‘ daughter of Ra, ruler of the Sacred 
 Land.’ The long speech of Anubis differs 
 only in a few unimportant phrases from that 
 on the opposite wall, but is more correctly 
 written. The discourse of Nephthys is 
 also much the same as that of Isis on the 
 opposite wall, with a few different epithets. 
 The speeches need not be reproduced here. 
 
 The legend across the beautiful lintel with 
 
56 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 the figure of Maat reads : ‘ Saith Maat, 
 daughter of Ra, protected is the Son 
 (daughter), the great royal wife, N. trium- 
 phant.’ Over all is the sky. The side-posts 
 give the queen’s name and titles as before. 
 
 As we pass into the Pillared Room (No. 4), 
 we have, on either side of the doorway, the 
 same goddess Maat ; and on left and right, 
 further in, we find, respectively, the uraei 
 of South and North, supported by the neb 
 (lordship) sign, and also by a Dad , with the 
 queen’s omnipresent name. 
 
 We are now in the vestibule of the pillared 
 room. It is devoted to the arrival of the 
 queen at the various pylons or ‘ mansions ’ 
 of the House of Osiris. Each is guarded by 
 monsters armed with knives, and before the 
 queen can ‘ pass on ’ to Osiris she must 
 know and be able to pronounce with ‘ power 
 and authority ’ their several names. The 
 deceased must also address the gate before it 
 can be opened. A knowledge of the ‘ name ’ 
 is essential to her ‘salvation.’ Are we to 
 suppose that these monsters represent the 
 difficulties of life, either present or future ? 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 57 
 
 The Arits (cells or ‘mansions’) vary in 
 number; but they were usually seven; only 
 five are shown here. We begin on the 
 left as usual. Next the entrance the queen 
 stands adoring, with a table of offerings in 
 front, a hawk-headed monster with horns, 
 holding a tall palm-branch (?) in one hand, 
 and a huge knife in the other. Before him 
 is his Arit, and behind him is a crocodile- 
 headed monster, armed with a knife in both 
 hands ; while quite in the corner is another 
 figure holding an ankh (life) in both hands. 
 These three are respectively the doorkeeper, 
 the watcher, and the herald of the First Arit. 
 Three such deities were in charge of each 
 Arit. 
 
 Immediately in front of the queen are 
 her name and titles ; and with the next 
 column begins the story, which reads towards 
 the corner. It says : — 
 
 ‘ Chapter of knowing the arits of the 
 House of Osiris in the Amentet, and 
 the gods who are in the divisions 
 (< qertu , caverns, divisions) and their 
 gods, to whom thou hast made offer- 
 
58 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 ings on earth. Saith the Osiris its 
 doorkeeper (guardian) Se-khed-hrau- 
 astu-aru (he with face overturned, and 
 has many attributes) is the name of its 
 watcher (adjuster) ; the name of its 
 herald is Hui-kheru (he with a loud 
 voice). Saith the Osiris great royal 
 wife, etc., N. triumphant, when she 
 cometh to the arits : I am the great 
 name, who createth [her own] light. 
 I am come before thee, O Osiris, 
 Governor of Amentet ; I adore thee ; 
 pure are thy emanations (effluxes) 
 which flow (se-tau) from thee, which 
 make thy name of Re-setau. 1 Hail to 
 thee, Osiris, in thy strength, in thy 
 might, in Re-setau, arise thou in thy 
 [strength] Osiris, in thy strength, in 
 thy power, in thy strength, thou, in 
 Re-setau, thy strength, thou, in Abydos. 
 Thou goest round the sky, thou sailest 
 in front of Ra (in the boat), thou be- 
 holdest all mankind, the only one who 
 goest round with Ra in it, for thou art 
 
 1 A good example of philological mythology. 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 59 
 
 called Osiris. I am Sahu (a divine 
 body or mummy (?)). I have said ; it 
 will come to pass ; there is no repulse 
 for me at it (the arit) at the walls of 
 burning coals. Open is the arit orbit 
 before the Osiris, the great royal wife 
 N., etc.’ 
 
 Before taking the Second Arit, which 
 begins beyond the door of the side-room on 
 the left, we shall examine the latter. It pro- 
 bably was the real mortuary room, and led to 
 the mummy shaft. On the door-posts, as be- 
 fore, we have the uraeus goddesses of South 
 and North respectively, with the names of 
 the cities of Nekheb and Buto. Both deities 
 are styled ‘ Mistress of all the gods/ and pro- 
 mise ‘All life, stability, power, health, around 
 her/ Further in on the left are the names 
 and titles of the queen, and the queen her- 
 self, as a mummy, for the first time. On the 
 corresponding wall on the opposite side 
 is a Dad figure with arms hanging down, 
 between two symbols of power, with an 
 ankh hanging from each wrist. On the left- 
 hand wall we have, as we should expect in 
 
60 QUEEN NEFERT-ARPS TOMB 
 
 this room, two of the funerary genii (the 
 children of Horus), Mesta (Amset) and 
 Duamutf, with Isis towards the angle, the 
 chief mourner at the burial. Mesta promises 
 the queen the usual ‘ abode in the Sacred 
 Land,’ and adds, ‘ we two ( i.e . himself and 
 Duamutf) have come as her protectors in 
 thy (sic) abode of eternity,’ said by Duamutf, 
 the Osiris, etc., N., etc. Isis, who is merely 
 named, extends life to the queen ; the first 
 time this has been done. On the opposite 
 wall the other pair of the funerary genii, 
 Hapi and Qebhsennuf, perform similar func- 
 tions, with much the same words, ‘ We two 
 come as thy (masc.) protectors.’ Nephthys, 
 the other mourner at the burial, has for 
 titles, ‘ Lady of the sky, Mistress of all the 
 gods, Eye of Ra. . . .\ Mistress of the 
 Two Lands of Horus, united to an abode 
 in Mannu (mountain of the Sunset).’ 
 
 The culminating picture of this room is 
 of course the rear wall. The name and 
 titles of the queen run along the frieze ; in 
 the middle is a human head (the queen’s ?) 
 
 1 A word I cannot read. 
 
ROOM 7 
 
 6 1 
 
 with a winged urseus on either side. To left 
 and right, facing inwards, are two figures 
 of Thoth, ibis-headed, holding a pole in both 
 hands, which supports the sky, with the 
 eyes of South and North respectively behind 
 him. On the extreme left the inscription 
 reads : ‘ Saith the South land to thee (masc. 
 pronoun, though the queen is meant), thou 
 (masc.) restest upon it, the Osiris Nefert-ari, 
 Mer-en-mut,’ and the North land on the 
 other side repeats the words. The centre 
 column has : ‘ The worthy before Anpu, the 
 Osiris royal wife N.’ Mesta and Duamutf 
 on right and left of centre column face the 
 Thoth of the North, whose name never occurs 
 here. The queen is said to be 4 worthy ’ 
 before both those genii. The scene seems 
 to refer to chapter clxi., Book of the Dead , 
 entitled ‘ The chapter of unfastening the 
 opening in the sky. Thoth does it so that 
 it may be finished when he opens (the sky) 
 with Aten.’ The object was to give the de- 
 ceased command of the four winds, for breath. 
 
 Coming back to the Pillared Room we 
 find the Second Arit on the left-hand wall, 
 
6 2 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 beginning at the door of the side -room. 
 The figure of the queen is not repeated 
 before the arits on this side. To the right 
 of the columns of text is the pylon or gate, 
 and behind the ‘ mansion ’ are the three 
 monsters of the Arit, the first goat-headed, 
 the second lioness-headed with two snakes 
 on her head, and the third a male figure 
 with an ankh in both hands. The goat- 
 headed monster has a knife and a palm- 
 branch, while the lioness-headed creature 
 is doubly armed with a knife. They are 
 the doorkeeper, the watcher, and the herald 
 of the second Arit. The inscription, begin- 
 ning from the left, says : — 
 
 4 Arit Second : name of guardian of its 
 door is Un-hat-sen (open is their 
 breast ?), name of watcher, Seqed-hra 
 (he who turneth the face) ; name of its 
 herald, in it, is Uset (the eater). Saith 
 the Osiris, etc., N., etc., when she cometh 
 to this xArit, he (she) sitteth and does 
 the height of his desire, and weigheth 
 words as the second of Thoth. The 
 qualities of the Osiris, etc., N. tri- 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 63 
 
 umphant, are the qualities of Thoth. 
 When the Maats are helpless, those 
 hidden ones who live on Maat (truth) 
 in their years. The Osiris, etc., N. 
 triumphant before Osiris is mighty in 
 making offerings at the moment (the 
 right time). He (she) has made her 
 way out of the fire ; forward goes the 
 Osiris, etc., N. [she] hath made a way. 
 Grant thou that I may pass on and 
 accomplish the seeing of Ra, and re- 
 volve with Ra among those that make 
 offerings. The Osiris, etc., N. tri- 
 umphant, to make a way (?) grant that 
 I pass on and accomplish the seeing of 
 Ra and revolve with Ra.’ 
 
 The Third Arit follows. The text in the 
 thirteen long columns is very much de- 
 stroyed. The first monster is ram- or goat- 
 headed, and has palm-branch and knife, with 
 buckle-amulet at belt ; the head of the next 
 figure is wanting, and the rest of the wall to 
 the corner is destroyed. 
 
 Arit Third : Name of the guardian 
 of its door is Eater of the dirt of . . . ; 
 
6 4 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 name of watcher is Watchful One, 
 name of its herald is (wanting). Saith 
 Osiris, etc., N. . . . [when she cometh] 
 to the third Arit, I am the hidden . . . 
 water, the judge of the Rehui (the two 
 Combatant Gods, Horus and Set.) I 
 have come, I have destroyed . . . 
 [what is wrong] in the Osiris. I am 
 he that is girt about , 1 coming from 
 ... [I have] made matters good in 
 [Abydos] and opened a path in Re- 
 stau. Soothed have I the hurts of 
 Osiris, soothed the hurts of Osiris, 
 I have straightened (balanced) his 
 standard. I have made a way in Re- 
 stau. I have made a way. Shineth 
 the Osiris, etc., N. triumphant before all 
 the gods. [I] have soothed the hurts 
 of Osiris, Dwelling in the Amentet, 
 Un-nefer, Sovereign of all living be- 
 ings.’ 
 
 Arit Fourth. The text is wanting, only 
 the monsters are given. 
 
 1 The text is quite clear here : it is the same as in 
 chapter cxvil., Book of the Dead . 
 
PILLARED ROOM 65 
 
 Arit Fifth is on the rear wall, left half. 
 The inscription runs : — 
 
 c Arit Fifth: Name of [guardian] of 
 its door, Ankh-en-fentu (He that lives 
 on worms) ; name of their (its) watcher, 
 Shabu (flaming fire) ; name of herald in 
 it, Deb-herk-ha-Kheft (Naville trans- 
 lates, “the bow which strikes the 
 furious”?). Saith the Osiris, great royal, 
 etc., N., etc., when she cometh to Arit 
 Fifth, I have brought the two jaw- 
 bones that are in Re-stau (compare 
 chapter cxxxvi. b., where much the 
 same text occurs : Naville prefers to 
 translate, “ I have closed the doors in 
 Re-stau ”) ; I have [brought] to thee 
 rays of light 1 that are in On (Helio- 
 polis), totalling his multitudes there. 
 I have repulsed Apep (the serpent 
 opponent of Ra) ; I have healed 
 (literally, “ spit upon ” 2 ; compare chap- 
 
 1 The only determinative here of the word fiesd is the 
 sun’s disc with rays, hence the translation given above. 
 Another determinative sometimes appears with the word, 
 which would then perhaps mean ‘ bones.’ 
 
 2 Spitting was a common method of divine healing 
 among the Egyptians. So Thoth healed Horus when he 
 
 E 
 
66 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 ter cii.) the wounds [he made]; I have 
 
 made a way among you/ 
 
 Here the Arits end. The artist had 
 probably miscalculated his space and had 
 no room for more. 
 
 At this point it will be convenient to 
 examine the pillars. Their decoration 
 presents a certain amount of symmetry, as 
 in all tombs with pillars supporting the roof. 
 Looking at them from the entrance, we shall 
 call the left-hand pillar A, the right-hand 
 one B ; and the two behind these, C and D 
 respectively. On A and B we have a 
 youthful priest clad in a leopard’s skin, 
 called the An-mutf (column or pillar of his 
 mother; see Sen-nofers Tomb , p. 22), who 
 was supposed to represent Horus the son of 
 Osiris performing the filial duty of burying 
 his father. For Osiris we must here 
 substitute Nefert-ari. Going round by the 
 left we have on the faces of A and C, 
 opposite the wall, the queen before Hathor 
 and Isis successively. If now we stand in 
 
 was wounded by Set. Compare St. Mark vii. 33 : Jesus 
 ‘ put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his 
 tongue’: viii. 23, ‘And when Jesus had spit on his eyes,’ etc. 
 
THE PILLARS 
 
 67 
 
 the centre of the room, and look towards 
 the Sanctuary (Room 7), we have four Osiris 
 mummies, one on each pillar, two of which 
 are on the left hand, facing the Sanctuary, 
 and two, those on the right hand, face the 
 outer entrance. The first pair represents the 
 progress of the queen in her identification 
 with Osiris, the Great God ; while the latter 
 pair points to the complete reconstitution of 
 all her members ; in other words, the resur- 
 rection of her body, as the speech on pillar 
 B, to which we shall refer later, declares. 
 The speech on pillar A indicates an earlier 
 stage, namely the overcoming of all her 
 enemies so as to permit her to advance. 
 From the same standpoint in the centre of 
 the room we can see on the other sides of 
 the four pillars a large Dad , the symbol of 
 the backbone of Osiris, representing his 
 reconstitution or reconstruction (resurrec- 
 tion), but note that the queen’s name stands 
 on either side of the symbol. This shows 
 that she is being associated with Osiris in 
 his reconstruction or resurrection. Next, 
 passing round to the right of pillar B, we 
 
68 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 have the queen before Isis, and on pillar D 
 the queen before Anubis. Lastly, if we stand 
 with our back to the Sanctuary entrance, we 
 have on the right-hand pillar (C) the queen 
 before Hathor, and on the left, pillar D, the 
 queen before Isis, the two great mother 
 goddesses. Such is the symmetrical scheme 
 of decoration, which also serves a religious 
 purpose here as in Sen-nofer’s Tomb. 
 
 Let us now examine the pillars individu- 
 ally. Pillars A and B are the most instruc- 
 tive, as they show us the An-mutf figures. 
 That on A, with its inscription, represents 
 an earlier stage in the queens other-world 
 progress. The priest is a youthful figure, 
 in a leopard’s skin, who personates Horus 
 the son of Osiris and Isis at his father’s 
 burial. He was called, in reference to his 
 father, Se-nieri-f, ‘ the son whom he loves,’ 
 and in reference to his mother An-mutf, 
 
 ‘ pillar or support of his mother.’ The in- 
 scription reads : ‘ The Horus An-mutf, I 
 am thy son, whom thou lovest, O Father 
 Osiris, I am come. Hail to thee, Hail to 
 thee, I have beaten down for thee thy 
 
THE PILLARS 
 
 69 
 
 enemies (said twice). I give to thee, thy 
 daughter, whom thou lovest, even the Osiris, 
 the great royal wife, Lady of the Two 
 Lands, N. triumphant. She rests (sets) in 
 the palace of the great company of the gods, 
 among the strong ones (the victorious ?) of 
 Osiris, united to all that are in the Sacred 
 Land.’ 
 
 Mr. Griffith (. Deshasheh , p. 47), in refer- 
 ring to a curious symbol at Beni- Hasan, 
 consisting of a man supporting a monkey- 
 figure in an upright position, translates the 
 inscription as * pillar of the Ka of the 
 mother,’ which appears later as ‘of the Ka 
 of his mother ? ; and in Beni Hasan , Hiero- 
 glyphics , p. 28, he adds, ‘ The precise signi- 
 ficance of the female ape in the Egyptian 
 mythology is quite unknown.’ 
 
 On the same pillar to the left, opposite 
 the wall, the queen is caressed by Hathor ; 
 and further on, pillar C, Isis also receives 
 her affectionately. 
 
 The Osiris mummies are variously styled, 
 
 ‘ Governor of Amentet, Great God, ruler 
 of the Company of the Gods, Lord of 
 
70 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 the Sacred Land, Sovereign Master of 
 Eternity,’ and to the queen is promised, as 
 before, ‘ a rising like Ra in the sky, an 
 abode in the Sacred Land for evermore,’ etc. 
 On the Dad symbols she is represented as 
 ‘ triumphant before Osiris, all the gods, and 
 also before Maat’ (unless this be a mistake). 
 
 The An-mutf figure on pillar B makes a 
 rather different speech from the other, and 
 shows a further stage, as has been said, in 
 the progress of Nefert-ari; ‘ Saith Horus : 
 Hail ! Father, I am thy son, whom thou 
 lovest, I have come with thy members ; I 
 have come and have joined together for 
 thee thy members ; I bring to thee thy 
 heart, Father Osiris, Lord of Amentet. 
 Grant thou to unite the great royal wife, 
 lady of the Two Lands, N. triumphant, 
 before the great company of the gods, 
 among those that are in Neter-Khert (the 
 underworld).’ 
 
 Passing round to the right, we have on 
 this pillar, Isis endowing the queen with 
 life, after all her members have been re- 
 united and her heart given back to her ; 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 7 1 
 
 and further on, pillar D, we see Anubis 
 welcoming the queen in a similar fashion. 
 
 Lastly, on the sides of pillars C and D, 
 which face the Sanctuary, we have Isis and 
 Hathor respectively embracing the queen. 
 
 We now return to the entrance, and deal 
 with the queen’s progress through the 
 pylons or cells which occupied originally 
 the whole of the right-hand side of this 
 chamber. Much has perished. Twenty-one 
 such pylons are given in the papyrus of 
 Nu; and ten in the papyrus of Ani. This 
 number was probably shown here also, but 
 some of them are destroyed. These pylons 
 or cells are dealt with in chapter cxlvi., Book 
 of the Dead. Professor Naville says it is 
 difficult to know what these sebkhets are, and 
 while using Renouf’s translation ‘ pylon, 5 
 he prefers to call them ‘ cells, 5 since each 
 sebkhet has an occupant, a doorkeeper as 
 Renouf translates the word, but as Naville 
 would prefer, ‘ he who is within the door.’ 
 The sebkhets belong to the House of Osiris, 
 and are feminine in Egyptian, which is also 
 the gender of each occupant, though some 
 
72 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 of them are ferocious enough looking to be 
 masculine ! The queen having triumphantly 
 passed through the Arits on the other side, 
 with their triple monsters, now advances to 
 the task of confronting the ‘ terrible ones ’ 
 of her own sex, as opponents more to be 
 feared, before she is admitted to the Fields 
 of Bliss. But equipped as before with the 
 knowledge of their ‘ names/ and how to 
 utter them with ‘ power and authority,’ she 
 is confident of victory. 
 
 At the entrance she stands in white robes, 
 wearing lofty plumes, and does reverence to 
 her first opponent, a hawk-headed monster 
 crouching within her cell and brandishing a 
 huge knife. The queen’s address, after her 
 name and titles, is : ‘1 have come before 
 thee, O Osiris, Governor of Amentet, great 
 god ; I am worthy (venerable), loving the 
 place of truth, living ... in Maat (truth). 
 I have not committed faults . . . the way 
 of Amentet.’ 
 
 The inscription at the First Cell is also 
 very fragmentary : ‘ Cell First . . . Lady 
 of tremblings, with lofty walls . . . directing 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 73 
 
 the words which repulse [the storm] . . . 
 that is coming on the way ’ is [thy] name. 
 Name of the occupant is lost. 
 
 In the Sai'te recension the answer from 
 each pylon is ‘ Pass on, then, thou art pure. 
 
 The Second Cell occupies the remaining 
 space to the angle of the wall. A lioness- 
 headed deity, crouching and armed as before, 
 is within the cell. The inscription is in 
 better preservation than the last one, and 
 says : — 
 
 ‘ Cell Second (is) Lady of the sky, 
 Mistress of the Two Lands, devourer 1 
 of the Two Lands (sic), Lady of man- 
 kind,. who discerneth all men (or, is 
 great beyond every one). Name of 
 guardian of its door is Meses-pehu. 
 Cell Second is lady of the sky, Mistress 
 of the two lands, the devourer , 1 the 
 lady of mankind, who discerneth every 
 one. Name of guardian of its door is 
 Mes . . .’ 
 
 The word is written nbsaa in the tomb. 
 
74 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 Room 6, or Hathor Room 
 
 We must now examine Room 6, the small 
 chamber to the right. The door jambs, like 
 those of the chamber opposite, are conse- 
 crated, south and north respectively, to the 
 uraeus goddesses Nekhebt and Uazit. They 
 rear themselves on the neb (lordship) sign, 
 supported by dads, and hold the symbols 
 of royal power and authority. The inner 
 jambs are devoted to name and titles of the 
 queen. 
 
 Advancing to the left we find a large Dad 
 reaching to the ceiling and holding the two 
 symbols of sovereignty across the breast. 
 As a personality the Dad * gives joy of 
 heart to the queen.’ The wall on the left is 
 much destroyed. It represents the queen 
 before the Divine Cow Hathor, as she was 
 supposed to come out of the mountain in 
 the West in primeval times towards the 
 marshes, in order to suckle the infant Horus. 
 Between her black horns is the red (lunar ?) 
 disc, with red, black, and blue feathers alter- 
 nately, and a uraeus stands out from the disc. 
 
HATHOR ROOM 
 
 75 
 
 She is described as ‘ Het-heru (Hat-hor, 
 House of Horus), Mistress President of 
 Thebes, Ruler of the Mountain of the West, 
 Lady of the Sky,’ and then behind the name 
 of the queen, which is placed above Hathor’s 
 back, we have c Eye of Ra . . . she who is 
 in his Aten ’ (disc). The presence of the 
 queen’s name above the cow seems to indi- 
 cate that Hathor has adopted her as her 
 own. Hathor has a menat (symbol of joy 
 and pleasure) round her neck, and behind 
 her are the usual amulet signs of ‘protec- 
 tion,’ etc. The queen, who is offering 
 flowers, etc., to Hathor, is now briefly 
 described as the ‘ Osiris, Lady of the Two 
 Lands, N. triumphant before the great god 
 of Amentet,’ and behind her are the amulet 
 signs. The ceremony is described as ‘ the 
 giving of all beautiful or good flowers 
 (growing herbs?) to thy Ka! This is the 
 only reference to a Ka in the whole tomb, 
 but note that it is Hathor’s Ka that is 
 meant. Hathor’s promise is unfortunately 
 lost. 
 
 On the right side wall we have a counter- 
 
;6 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 part scene in the appearance of the queen 
 before Anubis. A table of offerings but no 
 inscription stands between the queen and 
 the god, behind whom is Isis, also enthroned. 
 Her head is destroyed, but the text above 
 tells us that it is ‘ Isis, great lady of the sky, 
 Mistress of . . . .’ It is seldom she is thus 
 associated with Anubis who is here de- 
 scribed as ‘ the Governor of the Divine 
 Dwelling, Great God, Lord of Shet (Hidden 
 place ? ).’ 
 
 The culminating scene of this room, as of 
 the others, is on the rear wall, where we 
 have the standing figure of a goddess, 
 facing to the right, with both arms out- 
 stretched, one in front, the other behind, 
 across the whole room. The arms are 
 winged. The head is destroyed, as well 
 as the beginning of the inscription which 
 would have told us who she is, pro- 
 bably Maat or Isis, ‘ Mistress of all the 
 gods.’ Two columns of inscription on the 
 extreme right would also have given us 
 the desired information. Remains of the 
 promises of the goddess are given in front 
 
HATHOR ROOM 
 
 77 
 
 of her : ‘[I give] to thee all strength before 
 . . . I give to thee the duration of Ra.’ Be- 
 hind the figure we have new titles bestowed 
 on the queen, ‘ The Osiris, great royal wife, 
 lady of the two lands, Mistress of South 
 and North, the lady precious, favoured, 
 beloved, united to an abode in the House of 
 Amen (secret house?) Mut-meryt, Nefert- 
 ari, triumphant before the cycle of the gods 
 . . . that is in the Sacred Land, among 
 those that are with Osiris the Great God.’ 
 Returning now to the Pillared Room we 
 resume examination of the Cells. 
 
 Cell Third, containing a female 
 monster with crocodile head, and the 
 usual knife, is ‘ Lady of altars, great in 
 offerings . . . every god as he sails to 
 Abydos . . . Name of her doorkeeper 
 is Sebeq . . . (perhaps some form of 
 Sebek, crocodile) . . . great one, sail- 
 ing to Abydos.’ 
 
 Cell Fourth has a cow-headed 
 monster, similarly armed; she is ‘ mighty 
 with knives . . . mistress of the two 
 lands, destroyer of the enemies of Quiet 
 
78 QUEEN NEFERT-ARI’S TOMB 
 
 Heart (a name of Osiris), giver of 
 counsel, she who lacketh defects. 
 Name of guardian of her door is Nekau 
 (Bull).’ 
 
 The Fifth Cell (a boy-looking 
 monster, with malformed head, and 
 two knives) is ‘ Lady of increase (hau) 
 of joy (rshsht) [to] him who makes 
 supplication to her : none shall come 
 near her, none who is on earth (?). 
 (Papyrus of Ani agrees with this text, 
 and also reads ‘who is on his head.’) 
 Name of guardian of her doorkeeper is 
 Henti-reqi (enemy of the Fiends?). 
 None shall come near, etc. (as before). 
 
 The next Cell is partly destroyed. The 
 monster is snake -headed, and armed as 
 before. The text given is a jumble of two ; 
 the beginning is the text for the Eighth 
 Cell, and the end belongs to the Sixth. As 
 far as it can be given it reads : — 
 
 ‘ Cell [Sixth ? five plus x] is Blazing 
 fire, flame not to be quenched, she who 
 is provided with fires, far-reaching of 
 hand, slayer not to be denied. None 
 
PILLARED ROOM 
 
 79 
 
 passes near her for fear of the hurt 
 thereof. Name of the guardian [of her 
 door] Khut-chetf (Protector of his body.’ 
 Then follow some words from Cell 
 Sixth . . . . ‘ not found . . . there is a 
 serpent . . . born (plural) in presence 
 of him of the Quiet Heart. Name of 
 guardian . . . .’ 
 
 The Seventh Cell is almost completely 
 destroyed. Its monster has a human head, 
 coloured blue ; he is armed with the usual 
 knife. A word for weeping , wailing (?) 
 seems to come from the Text of Cell Seventh 
 (Papyrus of Ani). 
 
 Cell Ninth seems to be entirely unrepre- 
 sented. 
 
 Cell Tenth is the last here given, and is 
 shown on the rear wall, right half. Its 
 guardian is dog-headed, with knife in hand, 
 and faces the corner of the room. The 
 text is in four complete vertical columns 
 
 ‘ Cell Ten is Loud of voice, she who 
 rousest (?) those who cry out (?), fearful 
 in her terrors ; they (?) fear not what is 
 within her. Name of guardian of her 
 
80 QUEEN NEFERT-ARFS TOMB 
 
 door, Embracer of the great one (great 
 
 embracer?).’ 
 
 We have now arrived at the point where 
 the queen, by the aid of the magical words 
 on the wall beside her, has vanquished her 
 enemies and all the monsters guarding the 
 Arits, and passed triumphantly through all 
 the portals of the House of Osiris ; and now 
 she stands before the great Triad of the 
 gods of the next life, a glorified being, and 
 adores with uplifted hands Osiris, Hathor, 
 and Anubis. The strong symbol of the re- 
 constituted Osiris is before her, as being 
 now her own, and she is styled, ‘ The Osiris, 
 great royal wife, N. triumphant before Osiris.’ 
 Osiris is the first and the last of her name : 
 she is one with him. On a standard before 
 the Great God are the Four Living Crea- 
 tures, the Children of Horus, with blue and 
 red coloured heads. Osiris, with green face 
 as typical of his growth from the dead, and 
 wearing the atef crown, is enthroned in 
 state. His name is ‘Osiris, Chief of those 
 who are in Amentet, Great God. ’ Behind 
 him is Hathor, with the symbol of the West 
 
THE SANCTUARY 
 
 81 
 
 on her head, and left arm round Osiris and 
 the right extended to his neck, while behind 
 her is Anubis, with left arm similarly 
 disposed round Hathor. These two deities 
 are simply named. Note that the queen 
 offers nothing but adoration : the time of 
 offerings is past. 
 
 Unfortunately, the Sanctuary is almost a 
 total wreck. Only the merest fragments of 
 figures and words can be made out ; the 
 goddesses Serk and Isis, etc. Osiris would 
 again be the principal figure in the centre 
 of the back wall, and grouped around him 
 would probably be the other deities, Hathor, 
 Neith, Anubis, Maat, in whose presence 
 Nefert-ari would spend her everlasting life 
 beyond. 
 
 F 
 

 
QUEEN TY-T1’S TOMB 
 
QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 The Tomb of this queen ranks next in 
 interest and beauty to that of Queen Nefert- 
 ari. It has been known for more than 
 thirty years ; and in that period the royal 
 lady for whom it was executed has fallen 
 from the eminence and splendour of being 
 the consort of one of the most illustrious 
 of Egyptian potentates, Amenhotep hi. 
 (c. 1414-1379 b . c .), and the mother of his 
 still more interesting son, Amenhotep iv. 
 (Khu-en-aten), the great reformer, down 
 to the comparative obscurity of the wife of 
 an insignificant Rameses of the xxth Dynasty 
 (c. 1 200- 1 100 b . c ). For this strange 
 
 vicissitude she has to thank the author 
 of two books published in 1879 and 1882, 
 who had no hesitation in affirming that this 
 tomb was that of the queen of Amen- 
 hotep hi. In this opinion he was followed 
 
86 OUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 by the enterprising English Editor of the 
 late Brugsch Bey's Egypt under the 
 Pharaohs (vol. i. pp. 490, 491), who un- 
 hesitatingly accepts his predecessor as a first- 
 class authority, and identifies the cartouches 
 in this tomb with those of the queen on the 
 Colossi at Thebes. The amount of simi- 
 larity may be readily seen from almost any 
 transliteration of the two names that may 
 be adopted (the earlier queen, Tiy or Thyi, 
 and the later Ty-ti). Beginning with the 
 name of Tai, a lady whom the author 
 of Nile Glea 7 iings calls a sovereign of 
 Dynasty xvil, mentioned on a tomb at El 
 Kab, he says that ‘ the name, in one form 
 or another , remained in fashion all through 
 the xvmth Dynasty,' and appeared among 
 others ‘ in the name of the celebrated queen 
 of Amenhotep 111. Tai-ti.’ That indeed 
 might well be, but it does not follow that 
 our tomb is that of Amenhotep in.'s queen, 
 whose name was something like Tiy, but 
 not Ty-ti (a t being lacking in the middle 
 of the word). In the same book (p. 244) 
 he gives a portrait of the queen of this 
 
37 
 
 QUEEN TY-TPS TOMB 
 
 tomb, whom he calls the Consort of Amen- 
 hotep in., and yet (p. 243) he refers to it as 
 that of the lady who is caressing Rameses 111. 
 in the Temple of Medinet Habou ! The 
 whole story affords one more curious instance 
 of an ill-informed traveller’s assertion pass- 
 ing into the domain of respectable history. 
 
 But the erroneous identification has fallen 
 into discredit. It is now known, from the 
 correct reading of the name, the style of art, 
 and other considerations, that it is not the 
 tomb of Amenhotep iu.’s consort: further, 
 that there are no tombs in the so-called 
 Valley of the Queens’ Tombs earlier than 
 Dynasty xix. The oldest tomb of a queen, 
 which seems to be mentioned in the Abbot 
 Papyrus (Breasted’s Records , iv. pp. 257, 
 258), is the tomb of Isis, wife of Rameses 111. , 
 situated ‘ in the great seats (tombs) of the 
 king’s children, the king’s wives, and the 
 king’s mothers, which are in “ the Place-of- 
 Beauty.”’ The Place -of- Beauty was pro- 
 bably this valley, where ‘ the king’s children, 
 king’s wives, king’s mothers, the goodly 
 fathers and mothers of Pharaoh, rest ? : and 
 
88 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 the tomb of Isis is in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of our queen’s tomb. It is quite 
 of the same style, size, and plan. 
 
 Besides, to crown the evidence, the tomb, 
 though not the body, of Amenhotep in.’s 
 queen Thyi', was discovered in the Valley 
 of the Tombs of the Kings in the winter of 
 1906-7, close to the tomb of Rameses ix. 
 It was a burial of the El Amarna period, 
 as Mr. Ayrton says, from the signs of Aten 
 worship present ; and the name of Khu-en- 
 aten’s mother, and many objects belonging 
 to her were found. 
 
 But no account of queen Ty-tis life can, 
 unfortunately, be given, as nothing is known 
 beyond her name and titles contained in this 
 tomb. These need not be given here, as 
 they will occur in the course of the following 
 pages. The tomb consists of an ante- 
 chamber, at the entrance, a long corridor, 
 with two side-rooms, and the usual sanc- 
 tuary at the back. The long vestibule may 
 be taken to represent a kind of ante-chamber 
 of the next world, while the inner chamber 
 with its side-rooms and sanctuary, refer to 
 
THE CORRIDOR 89 
 
 the more remote life of the future. Like 
 the scenes in Nefert-aris tomb, those of 
 Queen Ty-ti’s deal entirely with the life of 
 the future, and not with any form of terres- 
 trial life, either material or ideal. 
 
 We shall adopt here also the numbering 
 of the rooms as given by Baedeker. No. 1 
 is the ante-chamber ; No. 2 is the corridor ; 
 No. 3 is the principal chamber ; No. 4 is the 
 side-room on the right hand ; No. 5 is that 
 on the left ; and No, 6 is the sanctuary. 
 
 The Corridor 
 
 Beginning, as usual, with the left-hand 
 side, on entering, we have the goddess 
 Maat (Truth or Law) kneeling on the sign 
 for dominion, with outspread wings, to 
 welcome the queen, Maat is styled ‘ Lady 
 of the sky, mistress of all the gods.’ The 
 first figure of the queen, wearing a vulture 
 head-dress, with blue wig and pink and 
 white robe, faces inward and confronts Ptah 
 in adoration, who stands in his shrine with 
 green face and white body. Unfortunately, 
 
90 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 not one of the queens heads has escaped 
 mutilation, and no true portrait of her can 
 be presented. Further on the queen, wear- 
 ing a disc and two lofty plumes on her 
 head, and holding up two sistrums, adores 
 ‘ Horus~on-the-horizons, Lord of the Sky,’ 
 and still further on she confronts Amset, 
 one of the four children of Horus, who, like 
 his brethren, performs important functions 
 in the funeral rites. Here the queen is 
 called 4 Hereditary princess, great one of 
 the favourites (or, of all favours) beloved 
 palm-branch, Mistress of South and North, 
 great royal wife, lady of the Two Lands,’ 
 and she is also called ‘ worthy (revered) 
 before Amset, the Osiris Lady of the Two 
 Lands T.’ Amset is here properly man- 
 headed ; and behind him stands Dua-mutf, 
 jackal-headed, before whom she is also 
 ‘worthy.’ Associated with these two genii, 
 as being closely connected with the burial 
 rites, stands ‘ Isis, the great divine mother, 
 lady of the sky,’ as one of the wailing sisters, 
 mourning for the dead Osiris. The queen 
 is now styled ‘ divine mother, divine wife, 
 
THE CORRIDOR 
 
 9i 
 
 royal wife/ It is interesting to compare 
 the titles given to her with those bestowed 
 on Nefert-ari. 
 
 Returning to the doorway, we have the 
 complement in every scene of the foregoing. 
 The goddess Maat, in the same attitude, is 
 now styled ‘ the Eye of Ra, lady of the sky, 
 mistress of all the gods, protectress of the 
 Two Lands/ The queen now appears 
 before Thoth, ibis-headed, as the counter- 
 part of Ptah on the opposite wall. He is 
 called ‘ Chief or master of the divine words/ 
 He wears the yellow moon-disc, as a 
 measurer of the months, with horns. She 
 also appears before Toum, as she did on 
 the opposite wall before Horus-on-the- 
 horizons, again shaking two sistrums, and 
 is styled ‘ Hereditary princess, great one 
 of the favourites, palm-branch of loves/ 
 Toum, always represented as human, is 
 simply named ‘ Lord of the Two Lands of 
 On (Heliopolis)/ The queen next appears 
 before Hapi, dog-headed, and Oebh-sennuf, 
 hawk-headed, the two remaining children of 
 Horus, as on the opposite wall, and before 
 
92 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 them also she is declared ‘worthy/ To 
 balance Isis on the opposite side we have 
 Nephthys here, as the other wailing sister 
 in the obsequies of Osiris. 
 
 Next, at the left and right of the end of 
 the corridor, as we go into the main chamber 
 we have the goddesses Neith and Serket 
 respectively. Neith wears here also the 
 shuttle on her head, and is here called the 
 ‘ Lady of Sais * (her city in the Delta), lady 
 of heaven, mistress of all the gods, eye of 
 the Sun, without her equal.' Serket on the 
 other side, with scorpion diadem, is called 
 ‘ Mistress (lady) of serpents (perhaps Rerek, 
 the serpent fiend), mistress of the house of 
 writings (the libraries of the religious or 
 magical literature) lady of the sky, mistress 
 of all the gods for ever and ever, every day.’ 
 Neith and Serk are here, as in Nefert-ari’s 
 tomb, the two goddess-guides into the 
 remoter regions of the world beyond. 
 
 We thus see that there is a perfect sym- 
 metry observed on these two walls. Maat, 
 at both sides of the entrance ; on left wall, 
 Ptah, the Sun on the eastern horizon, followed 
 
THE CORRIDOR 
 
 93 
 
 by two children of Horus, then Isis, and 
 lastly Neitli ; and on the right-hand wall, a 
 similar sequence, Thoth and Toum (the 
 sun at close of day), with the other two 
 children of Horus, then Nephthys and Serk. 
 It is quite possible to trace in this associa- 
 tion of the four deities, Ptah, Horus-on-the- 
 horizons, Thoth, and Toum, an attempt to 
 combine two systems of belief, viz. the cycle 
 of beliefs associated with Ra with that of 
 those of the older gods Ptah and Thoth. 
 Be that as it may, they are here placed 
 symmetrically along with the embalming 
 gods, as the special guardians of the dead. 
 
 An inscription runs along the frieze from 
 either side of the entrance, to the following 
 effect (left), ‘ Given by the grace of the king 
 to her whom he loved, the Osiris royal 
 daughter, royal sister, great royal wife, lady 
 of the two lands. Ty-ti, triumphant, before 
 the great god . . . said by all these great 
 gods that are of Amentet, — we grant her 
 an abode in the sacred land like Osiris, lord 
 of everlastingness, we grant her bread, 
 cakes, a coming into the presence of the 
 
94 
 
 QUEEN TY-TFS TOMB 
 
 company of those gods that are in Akert, 
 a going out of and a coming into the Lower 
 World, and passing through the gates, and 
 all pleasantness ... to the Osiris, great 
 royal wife, etc., T. triumphant, lady of worth, 
 whom he loves.’ 
 
 The frieze inscription on the right-hand 
 side differs in some respects : ‘ Given by 
 the grace of the king to her whom he loves, 
 the Osiris, his daughter, royal mother, great 
 royal wife T. y triumphant before the great 
 god, Ruler of Ament. Said by all those 
 gods, we give her an abode in the Sacred 
 Land, like Ra, on his horizon, abodes . . . 
 may she receive bread wherever she goes 
 in presence of the gods, and be established 
 among the perfect ones, gifts of ... in 
 Dadu, water in Abdu, the Osiris, etc., T. } 
 given life for evermore.’ 
 
 The Main Chamber 
 
 On entering the large chamber we are 
 confronted on the left hand by a white 
 Anubis guardian of the inner tomb, as a 
 
THE MAIN CHAMBER 
 
 95 
 
 jackal, couching on a tomb, and holding a 
 sceptre, while beneath him is a white lion 
 similarly posed. Anubis is described as ‘ he 
 that is in the place of embalming, the chief 
 of (dwelling in) the divine Hall. The lion is 
 not named : he may be one of the two lions, 
 
 ‘ Yesterday ’or ‘ To-morrow,’ of Nefert-ari’s 
 tomb. 
 
 Further on, still on the left, we come upon 
 two dog-headed apes, seated on a tomb or 
 pylon, and preceded by a monkey, standing 
 erect, with a long tail, and holding a bow in 
 both hands. It is difficult to say what these 
 creatures stand for. They are here called 
 Auf, which in other places refers to the 
 ‘dead body’ or ‘flesh’ of Osiris (and therefore 
 of the deceased) when he entered the Under- 
 world, or Ra himself dead. It seems 
 probable, from the absence of a figure of the 
 queen, that she is identified with this ‘flesh’ 
 or ‘body’ of Ra in his progress in the 
 Underworld. She would then be the Great 
 Auf of Ra, to whom nine apes open the gates 
 in the First Division of the Duat (Under- 
 world), ‘ The apes (ambenti) open the doors 
 
96 
 
 QUEEN TY-TES TOMB 
 
 to thee/ The inscription above points in 
 this direction. It says, after the titles and 
 name of the queen, ‘ I (the queen) testify I 
 am Maat (declared triumphant) in presence 
 of the company of the gods, . . . my heart 
 has been weighed in (all) my forms . . . 
 there is no testimony against the Osiris, 
 lady, etc., 7V Some phrases here recall the 
 chapter of the weighing of the Heart of the 
 Deceased in the Book of the Dead ; and as 
 Thoth takes a prominent part in that 
 weighing, the apes here represented may be 
 taken to be his companions. 
 
 We now come to the left hand side- 
 chamber. Over the entrance the royal 
 vulture is outspread, and from the centre of 
 the lintel, to right and left and down the 
 door posts (jambs), we have an abbreviated 
 form of the inscriptions on the frieze of the 
 corridor : ‘ Given by the grace of the King 
 to his royal daughter of his body, whom he 
 loves, etc.’ 
 
 In the room itself there are only two walls 
 preserved. The middle wall, facing the 
 entrance, which ought to be the climax of 
 
ROOM 5 
 
 97 
 
 both side-walls, is totally destroyed. At the 
 entrance on the left and right we have 
 again the Jackal Anubis guarding the 
 abode. Then on both sides there is an 
 An-mut-f priest (whom Mr. Villiers Stuart 
 takes to be the queen’s son Amenhotep iv., 
 Khu-en-aten!) offering incense and water to 
 the deceased before she enters, once more, 
 into the august presence of the embalming 
 deities. The priest on the left side says : 
 ‘Offering of incense and water by the An- 
 mut-f, the father Osiris Lord of eternity.’ 
 The inscription beside the priest on the 
 other side is almost identical. On the left- 
 hand side the queen, with two sistrums, 
 confronts Amset, Hapi, Duamutf and Qebh- 
 sennuf, each with his characteristic head, as 
 embalmers of the dead. There is no address 
 from the queen, but behind her are the 
 amulet signs : ‘ Protection, life, stability, 
 
 power, of every kind, around her, like Ra, 
 for ever and ever, in peace.’ Her name 
 stands before her as being ‘ for eternity ’ ; 
 and between each of the gods her name as 
 an Osiris appears to show that she is theirs. 
 
 G 
 
98 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 Above the queen’s head, as a frieze, an in- 
 scription runs to right, stating that she is 
 4 worthy before * the embalming deities, 
 while a similar one, to the left, affirms the 
 same of her ‘ before all the gods of the 
 Ament.’ 
 
 On the wall opposite, the queen again 
 appears adoring the same deities, but there 
 is a curious difference in the picture ; the 
 deities are now all human-headed. It is 
 hard to say what this means, unless it 
 be to mark some further stage in their 
 relation to the queen, or possibly to indi- 
 cate some other function of theirs than 
 embalmers. She says to them ‘ The giving 
 of all foods (?) as is due.’ The frieze 
 inscription is almost the same as on the other 
 side. 
 
 Emerging from the mummy room and 
 proceeding along the left-hand wall, we 
 meet the first of the monsters of the 
 Duat, or the lower world, which the queen 
 must overcome : a large vulture or eagle- 
 headed bird, blue with green wings ; a 
 crocodile or hippo-headed beast, crouching, 
 
THE QUEEN OFFERING TO OSIRIS KHENTI AMENTET . TOUM, 
 
THE MAIN CHAMBER 
 
 99 
 
 with two blue knives, and having a red disc 
 on his head ; and a boy-like figure with 
 misshapen head and red body, holding two 
 knives, one blue, the other green. These 
 three are called ‘gods of the Dual,’ and 
 seem to correspond to certain monster Cell- 
 keepers of the House of Osiris, which we 
 have seen in Nefert-ari’s tomb. 
 
 Beyond the last demon-guardian was a 
 figure of Duamutf, now mutilated, and in 
 front of him, Amset (or Mesta), to both of 
 whom the queen pays homage holding two 
 sistrums, as in the outer corridor. It is 
 rather curious to note the frequency with 
 which the four children of Horus appear 
 in this tomb. The other two, Hapi and 
 Oebhsennuf, are on the other side of the 
 door. Above the present pair we have the 
 maktet (mad, or madet) or morning boat in 
 which Ra traverses the sky, which is repre- 
 sented underneath. A sort of cabin, or 
 sanctuary, stands amidships, where the god 
 (and the deceased identified with him) sits. 
 In front of the cabin is the hieroglyph shems , 
 which represents the ‘ follower’ or ‘servant’ 
 
100 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 of Ra. Nine such servants are shown in 
 the eighth hour of the Duat in the tomb of 
 Sety i. From the bow hangs a kind of 
 drapery, red with green fringes, similar to 
 the draperies shown on the sacred barque 
 of Horus-on-the-horizons in the Temple of 
 Sety at Abydos. The look-out here is the 
 Eye of Horus, and the boat is steered by 
 the Same Eye. 
 
 Returning now to the entrance, we have 
 on the right hand a lion-headed demon 
 standing, with a knife in the left hand, while 
 his right hand, open, is stretched towards 
 the door. He is there to oppose the passage 
 of the queen, and is called ‘ Lord-of-terrors- 
 with-face-of-right,’ but the queen knows his 
 name, and so he says, ‘ the doors are open 
 for thee, thrown open are the secret places.’ 
 Behind the demon is a strange figure of the 
 queen, naked, sitting on a red cushion, the 
 uraeus on her brow, and a white head- 
 dress, left hand on knee and right up to 
 left shoulder. Farther on are two more 
 guardian demons, one with a heron’s head 
 holding two knives, and the other with 
 
ROOM 4 
 
 IOI 
 
 head indistinguishable. No names of these 
 creatures are given, but over them are the 
 names and titles of the queen, with the oft- 
 repeated words, ‘ given by the grace of the 
 king, etc.,’ which are repeated at greater 
 length on both door-posts of the entrance 
 to the side-room. A vulture with outspread 
 wings is over the lintel. 
 
 As we enter the side-room we have on 
 the left the queen as acting a beardless 
 anmutf priest, offering incense and a liba- 
 tion. That it is the queen and no other is 
 proved by the words, ‘ great royal wife, lady 
 of the two lands, T. triumphant/ written 
 over her head. Further on we meet three 
 human figures, each pointing to the car- 
 touche of the queen. The first figure has a 
 jackal’s head, the second a snake’s, and the 
 third a crocodile’s. Their tunics are green, 
 with spots and bars, and their wigs are blue. 
 The words along the frieze tell us who they 
 are : ‘ All the gods of the cells of the hidden 
 places that are in the Duat (underworld), the 
 openers of the great doors (or, the great 
 doors are open),’ and they say (in the 
 
102 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 vertical column in front), ‘We have given 
 to her the cooling water that comes from 
 On (the Celestial On) (to) the Osiris T. 
 triumphant/ Three only of these ‘ gods 
 that are in the Duat ' are here represented. 
 Behind are the four boxes containing the 
 internal organs, etc., of the queen, which 
 were guarded by the four embalming deities. 
 Each has a human head atop, and on each 
 is inscribed ‘Worthy (or revered) before 
 Amset, Duamutf, etc./ respectively. 
 
 Beginning again at the entrance we have 
 the queen once more as an Anmutf priest, 
 this time with a beard, offering incense and 
 a libation to herself, as both inscriptions 
 show. Her priest’s skin is yellow with 
 brown or red spots, the belt is blue, her 
 collar is green, and her body is brown. She 
 wears the uraeus as before. 
 
 Behind the queen we have three more 
 gods of the Duat, as on the opposite wall. 
 The first is crocodile-headed, the second 
 heron-headed, and the third hawk-headed 
 (male figure, naked). Between them are 
 the cartouches of the queen, as on the 
 
ROOM 4 103 
 
 other side. The two vertical columns of 
 inscription read : 4 Utterance of all the great 
 company of the gods of the Duat, Lord of 
 terrors, great god . . . say they, we have 
 given to her peace (?) in the Sekhet-aanru 
 (Fields where the ploughing and the sow- 
 ing, etc., were done in the next world, and 
 where the grain is three cubits high, etc.), 
 cool water to drink in the Sekhet-hetep (the 
 Fields of Peace).’ 
 
 Further on and facing towards the end 
 wall, so as to form the retinue of the queen 
 who stands there opposite Hathor’s tree, are 
 two deities, both kneeling and adoring, one 
 with a jackal’s head and the other with a 
 hawk’s or falcon’s head. They are kneeling 
 on a large perch or standard, and hold the 
 right hand to the breast, and represent 
 Anubis and Horus, with whom are re- 
 spectively associated certain spirits, called 
 the souls of (the city of) Pe, and of (the 
 city of) Nekhen. These are the celestial 
 counterparts of the cities of Buto and El 
 Kab respectively, or, shortly, North and 
 South. These spirits or souls are usually 
 
104 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 grouped in threes and represented as 
 servants of the Sun, hailing his rising and 
 setting with acclamations. It was essential 
 for the deceased to know them, as chapters 
 cxii. and cxiii. of the Book of the Dead 
 inform us. Here they adore the queen, as 
 it is said in a hymn to Ra, ‘ The souls of 
 the cities of Pe and Nekhen exalt thee ’ ; this 
 is said especially when Ra (or the deceased) 
 reaches the divine barque. Their words in 
 this tomb are difficult to interpret : ‘ Utter- 
 ance of the Souls of Pe, and of Nekhen ; we 
 send forth shouts of joy ; cool (or pure) be 
 thy name like those of the gods that are 
 in Duat.’ 
 
 Now we come to the culminating scene, 
 on the wall opposite the door. The queen, 
 attired in a white robe, edged with blue, 
 with a green wig, vulture head-dress and 
 uraeus, stands before the sacred sycamore, 
 and catches the water in her hands that 
 flows in two refreshing streams from the 
 jars that Hathor, as a woman, pours out 
 from within the tree. The goddesses Nut 
 and Isis are also associated in this way with 
 
HATHOR SYCAMORE 
 
 105 
 
 the sycamore (nehet) tree. In chapter 
 clxxxix., Book of the Dead, ‘the beautiful 
 sycamore * is said to stand in the pool of 
 Akeb. Behind the tree is the goddess 
 Hathor, as the divine cow issuing from the 
 Gap (chapter clxix.) in the mountain of the 
 west. She is of a tawny colour, and has a 
 white disc between her horns, with a red 
 cloth thrown over her back and a menat 
 hanging behind her neck. The inscriptions 
 give the titles and name of the queen, and 
 Hathor, ruler of Amentet, says that she ‘ is 
 giving cool water of Nile the great one 
 (i.e. the celestial Nile), that is Truth.’ In 
 Sen-nofer’s tomb Isis occupies the place of 
 Hathor in the tree, and there is food as well 
 as drink there : and here the queen was 
 strengthened with celestial bread and water 
 for her journey towards perfect bliss. 
 
 And thus fortified she emerges to con- 
 front, outside this chamber, more of the 
 terrible warders of the gates or cells. 
 There are two of them, those of the second 
 and third sebkhets or cells of the House of 
 Osiris, each holding two knives. The figures 
 
io6 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 are much destroyed, and their names are 
 lost. But, like the rest, they are overcome 
 by the queen’s knowing their names, and 
 she mounts into the Bark of the Sun on 
 her celestial way. As on the other side 
 she was supported by two of the children 
 of Homs, so here the other two, Hapi and 
 Oebhsennuf, play the same part, and she 
 adores them, holding up the emblems of 
 South and North before them ere she 
 enters the innermost chamber, where her 
 complete union and identification with 
 Osiris, the Lord of all living ones, is 
 accomplished. 
 
 The Sanctuary 
 
 The sanctuary, or holy of holies, is 
 crammed full of mythology and divinities. 
 The main idea underlying all is, however, 
 the reunion of the deceased with Osiris. It 
 is noteworthy that though the name and 
 titles of the queen appear in many places, 
 she herself is only seen at the doors on 
 entering. We have ‘gods many and lords 
 
THE SANCTUARY 107 
 
 many.' The funerary deities, Amset, Hapi, 
 Duamutf, and Qebhsennuf, appear again 
 twice over, confronting the queen, who is 
 severally identified with them. Then we 
 have Seb, Nut, Nefer-toum, Horhekennu 
 on the one side, with Hu, Sa, Shu, and 
 Tefnut on the other; while in the centre 
 scene, on one side, we have Thoth, 
 Nephthys, and Isis, and on the other, 
 Serket and Neith, with the great Osiris 
 in the midst. Beginning at the entrance 
 on the left, we have the queen, adoring 
 with uplifted hands ; and she is now de- 
 clared to be ‘ in all peace, stability, power,’ 
 and to be ‘ worthy before the company of 
 all the gods of the Duat.’ Four of these 
 gods occupy the lower register or row of 
 the left-hand wall, while other four hold the 
 same position on the opposite side — eight 
 gods in all ; but a ‘ company of gods ’ is 
 usually nine. Who is the ninth ? Possibly 
 the queen herself ; and here she is admitted 
 as a member of the august company. This 
 seems probable from the fact that all the 
 figures of the deities, both above and below, 
 
108 QUEEN TY-TI’S TOMB 
 
 on both sides, are kneeling to the queen as 
 to a divinity like themselves. The top 
 register shows us once more the four 
 children of Horus, Amset (white body), 
 Hapi (red body), Duamutf (white body), 
 and Qebhsennuf (red) — all as human beings, 
 — and after each one’s name comes the 
 name of the queen, as being acknowledged 
 by each in turn. Before each is a table of 
 offerings for the divine sustenance of the 
 queen ; — her Ka is never mentioned, nor 
 is there a single formula for funeral offer- 
 ings to be found in the tomb. The first 
 god of the Duat in the lower row, left- 
 hand wall, is ‘ Seb or Seba, hereditary 
 prince’ [of the gods] who kneels before 
 the queen. Her name comes after his, as 
 being united with him in the company of 
 the gods; next we have the goddess Nut, 
 who is called the ‘ great Mother of the 
 gods,’ and she likewise is joined with the 
 queen ; next comes Nefer-toum, and behind 
 him is Hor-hekennu ( i.e . Horus the Praiser), 
 both, like the rest, identified with the queen’s 
 
 name. 
 
THE SANCTUARY 109 
 
 Then, on the opposite wall, beginning at 
 the door, we have the counterpart and com- 
 pletion of the preceding scene. The queen 
 advances into the chamber, adoring as on 
 the other side, and the four children of 
 Horus, coloured as before, receive her, 
 seated, with tables of offerings and jars 
 before them, while the four gods below 
 kneel, like the other members of the ‘ com- 
 pany of the gods,’ on the other side. The 
 queen says she comes as an 4 Osiris before 
 all those that are Maat in the Ament,’ and 
 that ‘ behind her there is protection like Ra 
 for evermore.’ The first of the kneeling 
 gods is Hu, and he grants her ‘ peace every 
 day/ The next is Sa, or Sau, a god of 
 knowledge, and he grants the queen ‘ cooling 
 water that comes from On.’ Hu and Sa 
 are often associated in the Judgment scene, 
 as assessors of Maat or Truth ; and Hu is 
 also a kind of celestial food. Shu, the god, 
 comes next, ‘ Son of Ra, who grants the 
 queen wine and milk ’ ; and last of all is the 
 goddess Tefnut, who ‘grants incense, cakes, 
 beer to the Osiris, lady of the Two Lands, 
 
IIO QUEEN TY-7TS TOMB 
 
 Ty-ti, triumphant.’ Shu and Tefnut were 
 children of Ra, born together ; Shu it was, 
 as a cosmic deity, who separated Nut, the 
 sky, and uplifted her from Seb, the earth. 
 The ennead or company of the Nine (?) as 
 here given, is not easily understood, as it is 
 different from any with which we are ac- 
 quainted. 
 
 The final scene occupies the rear wall. 
 The action is from right to left, and consists 
 in the presentation of the queen by the 
 goddesses Neith and Serket to the great 
 god Osiris, who nowhere else appears in the 
 tomb. The queen is not present in person 
 but in name, which stands between the two 
 who conduct the perfected and triumphant 
 one to the Lord of all living creatures. 
 Neith, wearing the crown of the North, is 
 simply called the ‘ Great Divine Mother,’ 
 and Serket, with a scorpion on her head, is 
 ‘ Mistress of Serpents, Keeper of the house 
 of the Writings.’ Osiris is enthroned, and 
 bears the symbols of sovereignty, as ‘ Ruler 
 of the Two Lands . . .’ Isis, 'the Great 
 Divine Mother/ and Nephthys, stand closely 
 
FINAL GLORY m 
 
 together and support Osiris; while Thoth, 
 ibis-headed, stands behind all, as the Divine 
 Scribe and Master of the Word, with a 
 scroll in his left hand, and holding up his 
 right towards Osiris, as conveying some 
 potent influence of life. He is called ‘ Thoth, 
 lord of divine [words] great god, dwelling 
 in Hesert, he who maketh powers of pro- 
 tections (magical charms) for Father Osiris, 
 Lord of Ament/ and presents the Osiris T. 
 
 And now, partaking of the celestial food 
 here provided, not by mortals, but by the 
 gods themselves, and protected by their 
 secret powers, the deified and immortal 
 queen, though unknown to men, abides in 
 fellowship with Father Osiris for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty 
 at the Edinburgh University Press 
 

 
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