JOYFUL IN THEBES

EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES IN HONOR OF

BETSY M. BRYAN

MATERIAL AND VISUAL CULTURE

OF ANCIENT EGYPT
Editors X xxxxx, X xxxx

NUMBER ONE

JOYFUL IN THEBES
EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES IN HONOR OF BETSY M. BRYAN

JOYFUL IN THEBES
EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES IN HONOR OF
BETSY M. BRYAN
Edited by
Richard Jasnow and Kathlyn M. Cooney
With the assistance of
Katherine E. Davis

LOCKWOOD PRESS
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

JOYFUL IN THEBES
EGYPTOLOGICAL STUDIES IN HONOR OF
BETSY M. BRYAN
Copyright 2015 by Lockwood Press
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system,
except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for
permission should be addressed in writing to Lockwood Press, PO Box 133289, Atlanta, GA 30333 USA.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015944276
ISBN: 978-1-937040-40-6

Cover design by Deborah Shieh, adapted by Susanne Wilhelm.

Cover image: Amenhotep III in the Blue Crown (detail), ca. 13901352 BCE. Quartzite, Ht. 35 cm. Face only:
ht. 12.8 cm; w. 12.6 cm. Rogers Fund, 1956 (56.138). Image copyright the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image
source: Art Resource, NY.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction

xi

Abbreviations

xvii

Bibliography of Betsy M. Bryan

xxiv

Tabula Gratulatoria

xxviii

T A. BCS
Some Aspects of Tomb Reuse during the Twentieth Dynasty

Y BARBASH
The Lion-Headed Goddess and Her Lost Cat: Brooklyn Museum 37.1379E

11

H BASSIR
On the Historical Implications of Payeftjauemawyneiths Self-Presentation on Louvre A 93

21

L M. BERMAN
Flesh of Gold: Two Statues of Sekhmet in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

37

E BLEIBERG
John Garstangs Three Kushite Jewels: How Many Reproductions?

43

M BOMMAS
New Thoughts on the Late Transmission History of the Book of Amduat (including the Unpublished
Papyrus Eaton College, Windsor, ECM 1573

S BURGER ROBIN
A Shift in Royal Graywacke Statuary in Dynasty 20

57

V CHAUVET
Who did What and Why: The Dynamics of Tomb Preparation

63

K M. COONEY
Placating the Dead: Evidence of Social Crisis in Three Texts from Western Thebes

79

W. V. DAVIES
The God Nebmaatre at Jebel Dosha

91

M EATONKRAUSS
Usurpation

97
v

vi

CONTENTS

R A. FAZZINI and M E. MCKERCHER

What the Hell Is That Doing Here? New Kingdom Detritus in the Ruins of the Mut Temples East Porch

105

M H. FELDMAN
In Pursuit of Luxury in Mesopotamia

115

M FISHER
A Stelaphorous Statue of the Chief Steward of the King Amenhotep III, Amenemhet, Called Surer

121

R E. FREED
An Addition to the Corpus of Statuary of Amenemhat I

131

L GABOLDE
The Kernbau of the Temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir al-Bahari: A Monumental Sun Altar?

145

M GABOLDE
La tiare de Nefertiti et les origines de la reine

155

D E GABRY
An Unpublished Stela in the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo C.G. 20151

171

J M. GALN
Hymns to Amun-Ra and Amun in the Tomb-chapel of Djehuty (TT 11)

183

O GOELET, Jr.
Elements of Format in Middle Kingdom Papyri

197

Z HAWASS
Tutankhamun: The Discovery of His Family and New Evidence of His Life and Death

211

S IKRAM
An Enigmatic Granite Fragment in the Gayer-Anderson Museum (Beit al-Kritliyya), Cairo

229

F ISMAIL
A Brief Investigation of the God Iaqs

233

R JASNOW and M SMITH

New Fragments of the Demotic Mut Text in Copenhagen and Florence

239

J H. JOHNSON
Women, Property, and Legal Documents: A Case Study from the Persian Period

283

W. R JOHNSON
The Duck-Throttling Scene from Amarna: A New Metropolitan Museum of Art/Copenhagen
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Amarna Talatat Join

293

J A. JOSEPHSON
The MacGregor Man (AN1922.70)

301

N KAWAI
The Administrators and Notables in Nubia under Tutankhamun

309

CONTENTS

vii

A P. KOZLOFF
More than Skin-Deep: Red Men and Yellow Women in Egyptian Art

323

D LABOURY
On the Master Painter of the Tomb of Amenhotep Sise, Second High Priest of Amun under the
Reign of Thutmose IV (TT 75)

327

P LACOVARA
An Egyptian Royal Pectoral Again

339

T J. LEWIS
Egyptian Divinity in the Divine Speech in Job 38:36

343

J POPE
Shepenwepet II and the Kingdom of Kush: Implications of a Recent Study

357

S QUIRKE
Becoming a Lion? On the Essence of the Book of the Dead

365

N REEVES
The Birth of Venus?

373

J RICHARDS
A New Kingdom Figurine from the Abydos Middle Cemetery

387

R K. RITNER
Osiris-Canopus and Bes at Herculaneum

401

Y E SHAZLY
Divine Princes in Deir el-Medina

407

JJ SHIRLEY
An Eighteenth Dynasty Tutor of Royal Children: Tomb Fragments from Theban Tomb 226

429

E SULLIVAN and M HARROWER

The Future of Spatial Technologies in Egyptology

447

E TEETER
Oriental Institute 11050 and 13652: A Tale of Two Stelae

461

S VINSON
Into the Abyss: The Structure of the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor as mise en abyme

471

Subject Index

483

Index of Names

502

Index of Sources and Objects

510

HYMNS TO AMUNRA AND AMUN

IN THE TOMB CHAPEL OF DJEHUTY TT 11
Jos M. G

he overseer of the Treasury and overseer of the craftsmen under the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III,
Djehuty, built his funerary monument (TT 11) at the central area of Dra Abu el-Naga.1 What exactly moved
him to abandon the area(s) of the necropolis chosen by most of his fellow courtiers, south of Hatshepsuts causeway, and depart from them about 500 m to the north, we will probably never know with certainty. The ongoing
excavations of the SpanishEgyptian mission in that area of Dra Abu el-Naga, around Djehutys tomb chapel, may
shed some light on this question.2 What is already known is that the selected area was at that time densely occupied
by burials of members of the royal family and high officials of the Seventeenth Dynasty, and that at least some of
the royal tombs displayed outstanding and distinctive (mud-brick) pyramids.3 Indeed, the site enjoyed considerable
prestige from its association with the Theban ancestors, leaders, and founders of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Not only
had the place become a landmark from a historical/political perspective, but it also had religious significance. Dra
Abu el-Naga stands right across the river from Karnak, which started to control most of the local resources, both
material and human in the early Eighteenth Dynasty, just as the scale of Amuns temple was gradually enlarging.4
Moreover, the procession of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, which was also gaining pace then, probably made its
first stop when reaching the necropolis at the central area of Dra Abu el-Naga5 and might have passed in front of
Djehutys monument.
Located in the foothill, the open courtyard of the tomb chapel of Djehuty was enlarged with mud-brick sidewalls, reaching 34 m in length, making it the longest attested courtyard of the time. Since the faade is only 7.85 m
wide, the court is perceived as being quite elongated. The entrance to the court is 2.70 m wide, and it is flanked by
two short mud-brick pylons, which were probably not much higher than the 0.68 m preserved today, and which
permitted a clear view of the faade from outside. The rock-cut faade is 3 m high and was raised up to 5.20 m by

1. J. M. Galn, The Tombs of Djehuty and Hery (TT 1112) at Dra Abu el-Naga, in Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of
Egyptologists, ed. J.-C. Goyon and C. Cardin, OLA 150 (Leuven, 2007), 77787; Early Investigations in the Tomb-Chapel of Djehuty (TT
11), in Sitting beside Lepsius: Studies in Honour of Jaromir Malek at the Griffith Institute, ed. D. Magee, J. Bourriau, and S. Quirke, OLA 185
(Leuven, 2010), 15581; The Inscribed Burial Chamber of Djehuty (TT 11), in Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut, ed. J.
M. Galn, B. Bryan, and P. Dorman, SAOC 69 (Chicago, 2014), 24772.
2. See the web site http://www.excavacionegipto.com.
3. D. Polz and A. Seiler, Die Pyramidenanlage des Knigs Nub-Cheper-Re Intef in Dra Abu el-Naga, SDAIK 24 (Mainz, 2003); D. Polz, Der
Beginn des Neuen Reiches: Zur Vorgeschichte einer Zeitenwende, SDAIK 31 (Berlin, 2007).
4. M. Ullmann, Thebes: Origins of a Ritual Landscape, in Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes, ed. P. Dorman and B.
Bryan, SAOC 61 (Chicago, 2007), 325; D. Warburton, Karnak and the Kings. Architecture, Religion, Ideology and Political History, in
Palace and Temple: Architecture, Decoration, Ritual, ed. R. Gundlach and K. Spence, KSG 4/2 (Wiesbaden, 2011), 16170.
5. A. Cabrol, Les voies processionnelles de Thbes, OLA 97 (Leuven, 2001); M. Bietak, La Belle Fte de la Vale: lAsasif revisit, in
Parcourir lternit Hommages Jean Yoyotte, ed. Ch. Zivie-Coche and I. Guermeur, Histoire et prosopographie 8; Bibliothque de lcole
des hautes tudes, sciences religieuses 156 (Turnhout, 2012), 13564.

183
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JOS M. GALN

Fig. 1. View of the faade of the tomb chapel of Djehuty (TT 11) in December 1909. Copyright: Griffith Institute, University of
Oxford.

a masonry wall, possibly decorated, ending in a flat top, whose back-side is still quite well preserved.6 The frontside of the upper part of the faade, however, is mostly gone, and one has to imagine at least a couple of rows of
embedded funerary cones displayed from one side to the other. The excavation of the open courtyard has unearthed
one hundred and fifteen cones bearing the stamp the overseer of the Treasury and overseer of works, the venerated Djehuty, justified, and another one hundred and fifteen with the overseer of the cattle of Amun and leader,
Djehuty.7
The entrance to the inner part of the monument divides the faade in two halves, each decorated with a rock-cut
rounded top stela (fig. 1). They are almost identical in shape and size, 2.49 1.95 m, and both include a figure of
the owner striding out of the tomb chapel and facing the inscription. At first glance, when seen from afar, the faade
looks symmetrical, but when an educated visitor gets closer and takes the time to go into the details, he may find
out that there is an intended play between the two stelae, which were composed as opposites. While the stela on
the right has a civil character, a biographical inscription that enumerates the administrative duties that the owner
carried out in life for the king, the stela on the left has a religious character, including a hymn to Amun-Ra. While
the biography is written from right to left in horizontal lines, the hymn is written from left to right in vertical col-

6. J. M. Galn, Tomb-Chapels of the Early XVIIIth Dynasty at Thebes, in Thebes: City of Gods and Pharaohs/Thby. Mesto bohu a
faraonu, ed. J. Mynrov and P. Onderka (Prague, 2007), 9395. For the evolution of the Theban tomb chapels, see F. Kampp, Die thebanische
Nekropole: Zum Wandel des Grabgedankens von der XVIII. bis zur XX. Dynastie, 3 volumes, Theben 13 (Mainz, 1996).
7. For a preliminary study of the funerary cones found in the first five seasons digging in front of TT 1112, see J. M. Galn and F.
Borrego, Funerary Cones from Dra Abu el-Naga (TT 1112), Memnonia 17 (2006), 195208, pls. 3339.

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HYMNS TO AMUNRA AND AMUN

185

umns. Moreover, the biography avoids the repetition of a passage by writing it in a column that interrupts fifteen
of the twenty-five lines (mesostic), and which has to be read within each of the affected lines, between Djehutys
titles and name and the indication of a specific task he supervised, while in the religious hymn each of the twenty-six columns consists of an independent statement that repeats the same salutation formula following right after
Djehutys titles and name.
Composing a text by combining lines together with one or more columns whose text was meant to affect the
former is a strategy that the scribes have occasionally drawn upon almost since the dawn of writing.8 On the other
hand, the literary device of repeating a passage (anaphora) to add rhythm and drama to a song or prayer/psalm was
also well known by then.9 However, the successful combination and dialogue between the two on a single surface
is an accomplishment of Djehuty.
The distinct character and content of each stela coincides with the two types of stamped funerary cones. It is
possible that the cones with the impression The overseer of the Treasury and overseer of works would have
been displayed above the biographical inscription, which describes precisely these two duties, while the impression
The overseer of the cattle of Amun would have taken the left half of the faade, above the hymn to Amun-Ra.
The tomb chapel of Djehuty is one of the earliest private funerary monuments that has profuse decoration on
the faade (a few years later Puiemra, TT 39, Useramun, TT 131, and also TT 164 belonging to the scribe of
recruits of Thutmose III, Intef, followed suit),10 attracting the attention of the passerby. Through a civil and a religious inscription Djehuty remarked to the inquisitive visitor that he had been both a loyal and efficient servant of
the king and a fervent worshiper of the main and local god. The combination of these two qualities entitled him to
have a monument in the necropolis and to attain a pleasant and eternal life in the hereafter. Moreover, the inscribed
faade gave him the chance to present himself as a skillful scribe, an erudite and creative designer of inscriptions,
who knew how to play with the visual possibilities of texts and the script in combination with sculptured figures
and the architecture that housed them.11

H F
The stela carved on the left side (figs. 2, 3) protrudes from the faade 5 cm and rests upon a step that is 30 cm
wider and projects forward 16 cm and is 11 cm high. The text columns, separated by vertical lines, are about 7 cm
wide. The hieroglyphs were carefully carved in sunk relief and then colored in yellow so that the inscription would
glitter as dawns rays struck the faade (fig. 4). Djehutys figure was also carved in sunk relief, with a smooth modeling
inside the outline, and completely colored in yellow.12 In contrast, the biographical inscription was not colored at all.
The upper part was intentionally broken, but the total height and its rounded top can be reconstructed by comparison with its mirror stela. The lunette must have been about 39 cm high, with a winged solar disk embracing a

8. H. Grapow, Sprachliche und schriftliche Formung gyptischer Texte, Leipziger gyptologische Studien 7 (Glckstadt, 1936), 3751. For
a contemporary parallel, see the two biographical stelae in the tomb chapel of Amenemhat (TT 82); Nina de G. Davies and A. H. Gardiner,
The Tomb of Amenemhet (No. 82), TTS 1 (London, 1915), 7073, pl. 25, 29.
9. Years later, the best example of the visual effect caused by a refrain repeatedly inscribed on a stela is the so-called poetical stela of
Thutmose III (CCG 34010; P. Lacau, CG 3408734189, 1721, pl. 7).
10. Galn, Tomb-Chapels of the Early XVIIIth Dynasty, 95; Early Investigations, 16768. For Intef s tomb chapel, see PM I1, 276
77; Kampp, Die thebanische Nekropole, 1:45354.
11. Galn, The Inscribed Burial Chamber. For the relationship and adaptation of hieroglyphic writing to sculpture and architecture, see,
e.g., H. G. Fischer, The Orientation of Hieroglyphs. Part 1: Reversals, Egyptian Studies 2 (New York, 1977); Lcriture et lart de lEgypte ancienne.
Quatre leons sur la palographie de lpigraphie pharaoniques (Paris, 1986), 3034.
12. See E. Hofmann, Viel Licht im Dunkel. Die Farbe Gelb in der ramessidischen Grabdekoration, in Grab und Totenkult im alten
gypten, ed. H. Guksch, E. Hofmann, and M. Bommas (Munich, 2003), 14762.

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Fig. 2. Hymn to Amun-Ra inscribed on the faade of TT 11.

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Fig. 3. Hymn to Amun-Ra inscribed on the faade of TT 11.

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JOS M. GALN

Fig. 4. Detail of the inscription (bottom of cols. 416).

double mirror inscription with two cartouches in the middle bearing the name of Men-kheper-ra (Thutmose III)
and Maat-ka-ra (Hatshepsut). Actually, one of the relief fragments recovered during the excavation of the courtyard and placed back on the wall is part of Thutmose IIIs cartouche, which was left untouched by the executors of
the damnatio memoriae against Hatshepsuts name, whose cartouche must have been chiseled out, as happened in
the biographical stela.
The damnatio memoriae not only affected Hatshepsut, but was also directed against Djehuty, as in the rest of the
tomb chapel. The damage inflicted throughout the monument does not always show the same degree of destruction. Occasionally Djehutys figure is completely hacked out, but in other instances only the face is missing; sometimes his name is carefully erased, but other times his titles are also gone. In the faade, the two figures of Djehuty
are hacked out in a similar way, but while in the biographical inscription the names are carefully excised, in the
hymn, the whole upper part, taken by Djehutys name and titles, was badly destroyed by heavy blows of hammer
and chisel. Fortunately, the lower part of the inscription was left untouched.
Moreover, in the Amarna period the name of the god Amun was carefully excised throughout the monument,
including the faades biographical inscription, and only occasionally was it left untouched by an oversight. However, in the faades hymn, the name of Amun-Ra and all the string of epithets following it were mercilessly chiseled
out.
Twenty-five fragments of relief have been recovered in the excavation of the courtyard and identified as coming
from the stela.13 Most of them preserve the hieroglyphic signs in quite good condition (fig. 5), even their yellow

13. Task carried out by Andrs Diego Espinel.

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189

Fig. 5. Five fragments of the stela found in the courtyard (drawing by Ana de Diego), plus one recorded by W. Spiegelberg in his Fundjournal, 90 (Griffith Institute, University of Oxford).

color, which seems to indicate that they were expelled out of the wall in the first violent attack, before the atonist
censorship, even those from the middle section. This circumstance seems to imply that at least part of the big hole
in the middle of the stela was created at that time, that is, before the Amarna period.14 Despite the small size of
most of the fragments found, eleven of them have been placed back on the wall and have turned out to be crucial
for reconstructing the damaged part of the inscription, as will be seen below.
The figure of Djehuty, at the right edge of the stela, is about 1.15 m high, its head and torso having suffered
damnatio. The blows were heavier at the top than further down, leaving the legs below the knees untouched. The
position of the arms and hands can be reconstructed as a praising pose,15 as if he was pronouncing the text aloud,
and thus differing from the figure carved on the biographical stela, which has the arms stretched down parallel to
the body. Djehutys figure shortens the last nine columns of text. The stela has a blank lower margin of about 16 cm.
Below the lunette and above the main text there was a horizontal line stretching from one side to the other, as
in the biographical stela, both of them ending in mi ra Dt like Ra forever, but in this case to be read from left
to right. This feature is confirmed by a fragment found during Northamptons excavation and drawn by Wilhelm
Spiegelberg in his Fundjournal, p. 90 (fig. 5, further right).16 The fragment also indicates that the last column commenced with the pair of titles iry-pat HAty-a, noble and leader, as does each one of the lines of the upper half of the
biographical inscription.
Thanks to the fragments found in the excavation of the courtyard and placed back on the wall, together with the
traces of signs that can still be identified in the area that has suffered the damnatio, we are now in a position to argue
that the inscription on each of the twenty-six columns that comprise the main text opened following the same pattern. The status markers noble and leader are followed by other titles and epithets, introducing Djehutys name,
which stands as an anticipated subject of the predicate Dd.f he says, switching to direct speech and introducing
a quotation. Djehutys words start repeating a salutation to the god, inD-Hr.k imn-ra, Hail to you! Amun-Ra, an

14. The lower half of the big hole in the middle as well as a smaller hole to the left were filled with mud at some point.
15. For the reconstruction of Djehutys arms in the drawing of fig. 3, his image preserved on the thickness of the entrance to the inner
part of the monument has been used (see fig. 7).
16. Galn, Early Investigations, 178, fig. 7.

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anaphora followed by a short, independent praise that varies for each column.17 In the biographical inscription,
the structure of each of the lines of the upper half is identical: Djehutys titles open with iry-pat HAty-a + name +
Dd.f + his words starting by repeating a statement (I have acted as chief, giving instructions, and I have guided
the craftsmen to act regarding the tasks on ), but in this case it is written only once to avoid visual monotony.
Spiegelberg worked in the tomb chapel of Djehuty together with Percy Newberry in the winter of 1898/99,
during a field season at Dra Abu el-Naga financed by the Fifth Marquis of Northampton. He was in charge of
supervising the excavation and registering the findings. Newberry was supposedly more concerned with the inscriptions, but unfortunately only his diary focusing on his social life in Luxor and the accounts of the campaign is
today available, while his more scientific notebook has not yet been found. Spiegelberg, nevertheless, made a set of
squeezes of Djehutys biographical inscription18 and published it a year later as the Northampton stela.19 Apparently no squeezes were made of the mirror stela, probably due to its poor state of preservation, and only a quick and
loose hand copy of the inscription was traced then.
Kurt Sethe visited Djehutys tomb chapel at the end of 1905 and studied two cryptographic texts inscribed on
the southern sidewall of the courtyard near the faade and a second biographical inscription carved at the northern
end of the transverse hall, which were included in the excavations final report.20 When Sethe gathered inscriptions
for the second volume of the Urkunden der 18. Dynastie, he included the Northampton stela, having collated
it and corrected Spiegelbergs published copy of the text. He also selected the hymn to Amun-Ra on the faade,
but in this case, lacking his own notes, he relied on Spiegelbergs hand copy, stating: Nach einer mir freundlichst
zur Verfgung gestellten Abschrift von Spiegelberg (1898/9).21 Spiegelberg copied the inscription on four slips of
paper, 15 10 cm, and Sethe misplaced one of them, altering the order of several columns.22 Thus, the epigraphic
drawing of fig. 3 improves and completes the copy of the text, and emends a long-standing error. Assmann, in his
study of solar hymns in Theban tombs, only mentions this about it: Hymnus an Re erwhnt in PM, Photo (1731
GrInstArch) zeigt keinerlei Textspuren.23 Thus, the preliminary translation and study of the inscription, excluding
the lunette, follow next.
[] like Ra forever.24
[The noble and leader Djehuty,] he says: [Hail to you! Amun-Ra, who comes forth from his] mother daily,
and rests inside her at its proper time. May you cross your two heavens rightfully/triumphant, your divine crew
(iswt)25 cheering be[hind you].26
1|

2|

41.

17. For the opening formula of morning hymns, see H. M. Stewart, Traditional Egyptian Sun Hymns of the New Kingdom (London, 1967),

18. Spiegelbergs Fundjournal as well as the squeezes he made in TT 11 and TT 12, together with Newberrys notebook, are all kept
today at the Griffith Institute archive, University of Oxford. See Galn, Early Investigations; P. Whelan, The Marquis Excavations: A Tale
of Two Diaries, in Talking along the Nile: Ippolito Rosellini, Travellers and Scholars of the 19th Century in Egypt, ed. M. Betr and G. Miniaci
(Pisa, 2013), 22954.
19. W. Spiegelberg, Die Northampton Stele, RecTrav 22 (1900), 11525.
20. Marquis of Northampton, W. Spiegelberg, and P. E. Newberry, Report on Some Excavations in the Theban Necropolis during the Winter
of 18989 (London, 1908), 1*12*, pl. 11, 34. See also A. Diego Espinel, Play and Display in Egyptian High Culture: The Cryptographic
Texts of Djehuty (TT 11) and Their Socio-Cultural Context, in Galn, Bryan, and Dorman, Creativity and Innovation, 297336.
21. Urk. IV:444, 10447, 17.
22. Galn, Early investigations, 16667.
23. J. Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, Theben 1 (Mainz, 1983), 10.
24. The line would probably have started in a similar way as the first line of the biographical inscription, rdit iAw n imn-ra nswt nTrw wAS
Hm.f m Xrt-hrw m wbn.f m iAbtt pt, Giving praise (to) Amun-Ra, king of the gods, adoring his majesty daily when he rises in the east of
the sky, which is a common opening in solar hymns; Stewart, Traditional Egyptian Sun Hymns, 40.
25. The bundle-of-reeds-sign (M40) has been mistakenly written as the papyrus-sign (Y1).
26. The text of Djehutys col. 2 is also transcribed on the stelaphorus statue of Nebansu (AEIN 655), lines 37 of the stela; M. Jorgensen,
Catalogue Egypt II (15501080 B.C.) Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, 1998), 7477, no. 18; see Stewart, Traditional Egyptian Sun

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[The noble and leader Djehuty,] he [says:] Ha[il to] you! [Amun]-Ra, [ the primeval time of the earth from
the beginning, the great god compared to the Ennead, who came forth from the primeval waters (Nun)],27 who
illuminates the Two Lands when he rises. May you make way for my ba, my spirit, my shadow.
4|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Ha]il to you! Amun-Ra, lord of heaven, powerful [] when he is observed (dgg), something good happens.28 May you grant that my tomb-chapel (aHat) remain opened29 forever and
endures according to your favors.
5|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail] to you! Amun-Ra, [] the inundation [] the people with
sustenance of fowl and fish (rsf), and he who is on earth offering to the father of those who are there in the orchard
(xntS).30
6|
[The noble and leader overseer of ] the double house of gold [ Djehuty, he says: Hail to] you! Amun-Ra, []
my heart with joy after seeing how you overthrow the nik-serpent (Apophis). I shall place myself upon my belly on
behalf of the mother of god, and please her heart in the kAr-shrine.
7|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Ha]il to you! Amun-Ra, lord of [] I follow your ka and extol that
which you love.31 May you set me on the path of the lord of eternity, as I shall not deviate from your guidance.32
8|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Ha]il to [you!] Amun-Ra, lord of [] the wrrt-crown [] the festival
of the [sixth] day and the dnit-festival.33 May you grant that I descend to the good West and I rejoin with my father
and mother. May his majesty send me as a righteous/justified one to my city of eternity (i.e. the necropolis).34
9|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Ha]il to you! Amun-Ra, [] fertile fields, as I come following you in
the wADyt-columned hall, your Ennead behind you.
10|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to] you! [A]mun[-Ra, ] you have called, as I shall come to see
you in their midst without being stopped, as I am one whom you love.
11|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says:] Ha[il to] you! A[mun-Ra, ] May you grant that my mouth will
speak, that my legs will walk, that my eyes will see your perfection/kindness35 daily.
12|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra, ] what goes forth from his eye/action. I have
come to you without my fault, having done no wrong against anyone.36
13|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra, May you grant that] I [refresh myself under] my mnw-trees,37 in my enclosure that I have built in my plot of land of my property.
3|

Hymns, 63 (XV); J. Assmann, gyptische Hymnen und Gebete (Freiburg, Gttingen, 1999), 14445, no. 51. The stela of the scribe of recruits
under Thutmose III, Intef, now at the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago (no. 14053), reproduces very closely three of Djehutys columns/
praises. Djehutys col. 2 corresponds to lines 14. For a complete translation of the text, see Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern,
22830, and gyptische Hymnen und Gebete, 18485, no. 75. According to the museums records, the stela was purchased by A. H. Gardiner
at Sothebys, London, in 1933. We are grateful to E. Teeter for this information and access to a photograph. The stela most probably comes
from Intef s tomb chapel (TT 164) located at Dra Abu el-Naga south. The faade of this monument was also inscribed with a hymn displayed
in columns next to a praising figure of the owner, and another hymn, to Amun-Ra Horakhty, was carved at the transverse hall; PM I1, 276.
As already noted by Kampp, Die thebanische Nekropole, 1:453, the decorative plan of this monument has a number of common features with
TT 11.
27. Reading not certain. For the construction pAwty tA n sp tpy, see Leitz, LGG 3:23.
28. J. Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism (London, 1995), 126 (e).
29. The channel sign (N36) mistakenly written for the door sign (O31).
30. Nuance uncertain.
31. Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion, 129, n. 165.
32. See the stela OIM 14053, lines 812; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 22830.
33. See M. Luiselli, Der Amun-Re Hymnus des P. Boulaq 17 (P. Kairo CG 58038), KT 14 (Wiesbaden, 2004), 22, 27 (verse 4).
34. See below col. 15.
35. See below col. 21.
36. See the stela OIM 14053, lines 47; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 22830.
37. Not nht-trees, as reconstructed by Sethe (Urk. IV:447, 4).

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[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] May you grant that I satisfy myself with
the food-offerings that you shall give to me inside your island of the righteous/justified ones.
15|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] May you grant that I rest in the city of
eternity, in my tomb (is) forever.
16|
[The noble and leader Djehuty,] he says: [Hail to] you! [Amun-Ra,] txw-jars with invigorating waters.
17|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to] you! Amun-Ra, [] consisting of the good (things) that you
shall give to me.
18|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] May you grant that I open the path []
that my ba is not turned back and he arrives.
19|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] the sacred bark of [millions] (wiA n [HH])
rejoicing.
20|
[The noble and leader Djehuty,] he says: [Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] I [] the good West, my ba being excellent like that of the ancestors.
21|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you!] Amun[-Ra,] your majesty [I place myself upon ] my
belly on behalf of your perfect/kind face every dawn.
22|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] lord of Thebes [].
23|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra,] lord of eternity [].
24|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail] to you! Amun-Ra, lord of good [].
25|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you!] Amun-Ra, [].
26|
[The noble and leader Djehuty, he says: Hail to you!] Amun[-Ra,].
27|
The noble [and leader] Djehuty, he says: Hail to you! Amun-Ra, [who sets in the horizon(?)] praising [
they] say: May you reach it in peace (i.e. successfully)!
14|

Djehutys hymn addressed to Amun-Ra consists of a set of epithets describing the relevant features of the dual
deity, and a set of petitions concerning the deceaseds wellbeing in the hereafter, including the maintenance of his
tomb chapel and food offerings, the vital functions of his corpse, and the mobility of his spirit. Under the joint reign
of HatshepsutThutmose III, the local god Amun fully adopted a solar nature, becoming Amun-Ra, and fulfilled a
major role in the funerary theology and rituals. In this respect, it has to be remembered that Djehutys tomb chapel
was probably very close to the processional way of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, which linked Amun-Ra of
Karnak with the main (royal) funerary temples and chapels on the West Bank, and that the hymn, carved in large
scale on the faade and painted in yellow, was easily visible.
H T H
The inner part of Djehutys funerary monument has a second hymn, inscribed at the eastern wall of the northern wing of the transverse hall (i.e., behind the faades biographical stela). The wall is taken by a banquet scene,
carved in raised relief, showing in large scale Djehuty and his parents (all three have suffered damnatio memoriae)
sitting behind an offering table, while a few servants, distributed in three registers, approach them carrying jars
and dragging cattle. Below the main characters, two brothers and three sisters of Djehuty, whose names and
faces have also been intentionally erased, are holding and smelling lotus flowers, sitting on mats with small tables
piled with food before each of them. Below the offering bringers, there is a group of musicians, singers, and dancers
entertaining the banquet (fig. 6). Leading them is a corpulent harpist (labeled Hsw), called Seni-res. Due to the deteriorated condition of the surface, the harpists eye cannot be seen and it is difficult to ascertain whether or not he
was depicted blind. Behind him, there is a young man probably grasping the collar of a monkey on two legs, while
holding what seems to be a basket with fruits (note that underneath the chair of Djehutys father there is a monkey

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HYMNS TO AMUNRA AND AMUN

193

Fig. 6. Detail of the banquet scene in the transverse hall of TT 11, with musicians singing a hymn to Amun.

sitting down and eating fruits from a basket). He is also identified by name, Pay-itja, and he seems to be the singer
(labeled Hsw). The lyric is written above the group in thirteen short columns, with incised hieroglyphs colored in
blue, consisting of a hymn to Amun (not written Amun-Ra) as creator god.38 It is perhaps not unintentional that
the opposite wall of the transverse hall is decorated with the so-called fishing and fowling in the marshes scene.
Hail to you, who rises from the primeval waters (Nun), who [illuminates and inundates39 the Two(?)]
Land[s with] gold. Oh! Amun, father40 of the gods, lord of heaven, lord of earth, lord of water. [Who
creates] what is, who [causes to come about] the plants, and produces all that exists.41 Who grants the
breath (of life) to the one who praises him and assigns a (long) lifetime42 to the one who acts on his water
(i.e., who is loyal to him). Grant health to the calmed official, Djehuty,43 of enduring existence.

38. T. Sve-Sderbergh, Eine Gastmahlsszene im Grabe des Schatzhausvorstehers Djehuti, MDAIK 16 (1958), 28085, figs. 2, 3.
Text transliterated and translated also in Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 11; and see also idem, gyptische Hymnen und
Gebete, 192, no. 83; Egyptian Solar Religion, 11617. For a study of the lyrics rhythm, see G. Fecht, Die Wiedergewinnung der altgyptischen
Verskunst, MDAIK 19 (1963), 9294. More recently, M. Luiselli, Die Suche nach Gottesnhe: Untersuchungen zur persnlichen Frmmigkeit in
gypten von der Ersten Zwischenzeit bis zum Ende des Neuen Reiches, AT 73 (Wiesbaden, 2011), 31819.
39. Sve-Sderbergh, Gastmahlsszene im Grabe, 283, nn. 34, fits in two verbs HD leuchtet, and baH berflutet, followed by Assmann.
Below what seems to be the cobra-in-repose-sign (I10, D), there are traces of an undetermined bird-sign. The Cairo statue CG 921 has only
the heron-on-a-perch-sign (G32), and reads: baH tAw m nbw who inundates the lands with gold.
40. Sve-Sderbergh, Eine Gastmahlsszene, 283, n. 5, mistakenly reads nxt strkster(?), but he is corrected by Assmann. In CG 921
it is written it nTrw.
41. Assmann (Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 11) transliterates nb ntt, but then translates der das Seiende eschafft. SveSderbergh, Eine Gastmahlsszene im Grabe, 283, n. 7, translates der die Pflanzen(?) [hervorbringt]; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in
thebanischen Grbern, 11, reads sxpr-sn-t3 following CG 921 (irw ntt sxpr sn t3 km3w wnn(t) nbt), but suggests the emendation to Sn-t3
and translates der die Gewchse entstehen lt.
42. In CG 921: smnx aHaw.
43. Sve-Sderbergh, Gastmahlsszene im Grabe, 283, takes the damaged sign as pA, and translates Dieser, der bleiben wird!; Assmann,

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The same hymn was also inscribed, probably a few years later, on the legs of a small, limestone, kneeling statue
of another overseer of the Treasury, called Djehuty-nefer (CG 921).44 The wording of the two versions is so close
that the latter helps to reconstruct the damaged areas of Djehutys text.
The nature of Amun as creator and life generating god is manifested, at the end of the hymn, through his capacity to grant mankind health and life. The benevolent intervention for human well-being is presented as a reward
for loyalty, and in that sense it recalls the alleged words of Thutmose I in Hatshepsuts coronation inscription:
He who shall praise her shall live () As for anybody who loves her in his heart and praises her every day, he shall
prosper and flourish more than anything.45
The setting of the hymn within a banquet scene is peculiar, and the hymn departs from the standard lyrics of
harpers and orchestra songs.46 In contrast to the faades hymn, where Djehuty is the standing speaker, requesting
the gods favor for himself, here he is part of the seated audience and the addressee of someone elses good wishes.
The two different attitudes that Djehuty adopts bring to mind the panel carved on the southern sidewall of the
open courtyard.47 In the upper register, Djehuty is depicted twice, standing with his arms raised and pronouncing
aloud a hymn inscribed in front of him,48 while in the lower register he is shown sitting behind an offering table
this time alonebeing entertained by a harpist49 and two young women holding a sistrum and a menat-necklace,
singing:
[, Djehuty.] Singing for you. May you be satisfied with what Amun-Ra50 and Hathor, patroness of
Thebes, grant you. May they grant you the sweet breath of life.
The scene on the sidewall probably immortalizes an ideal moment of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, whose
procession would have passed in front of the courtyard. Below the scene, there is a small rock-cut bench carved
along the wall (26 cm high and projecting 30 cm out from the wall), maybe designed to be occupied by the banquets guests during the holy day; and by doing so they would have visually formed a lower register, sitting below
Djehutys figure, paralleling his brothers and sisters depicted in the banquet scene of the transverse hall.
H E T
The southern thickness of the entrance to the inner part of Djehutys tomb chapel preserves part of a panel,
0.95 m wide, carved in raised relief and showing the owner striding out with his arms raised in a praising pose,
accompanied by his father depicted in a smaller scale (fig. 7).51 Djehutys head is missing, and the name and face of
Djehutys father have been intentionally erased. Nevertheless, the smooth carving of the figures heightened by the

Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 11, follows him and translates: der bleibend fortdauern wird. The damage is undoubtedly a damnatio
memoriae against Djehutys name, and traces of the ibis on a stand can still be seen.
44. L. Borchardt, CG 654950, 155. Only lower half preserved, provenance unknown. See also Luiselli, Die Suche nach Gottesnhe,
34546.
45. Urk. IV:257, 14; 260, 811.
46. M. Lichtheim, The Songs of the Harpers, JNES 4 (1945), 178212; Galn, Symbolic Blindness, CdE 53 (1978), 1321;
L.Manniche, Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (London, 1991), 97107. See also R. Tefnin, propos dun vieux harpiste du Muse de
Leyde et du ralisme dans lart gyptien, Annales dhistoire de lart et darchologie 10 (1988), 726.
47. Northampton, Excavations in the Theban Necropolis, pl. 10; Galn, The Tombs of Djehuty and Hery, 783, fig. 3.
48. Diego Espinel, The Cryptographic Texts of Djehuty (TT 11).
49. The eye of the harpist was carved, but a break in the rock unfortunately runs through it.
50. While Djehutys name and titles have suffered damnatio memoriae, the name Amun-Ra was left untouched.
51. Sve-Sderbergh, Eine Gastmahlsszene, 287, fig. 4; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 11.

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Fig. 7. Thickness of the entrance to the tomb chapel, showing Djehuty and his father striding out to adore the morning sun.

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sidelight coming in, the transparency of the longer kilt enhanced by the preserved polychromy, and the detail of the
hieroglyphs indicate that this transitional area of the monument was conceived to be highly significant.
An inscription was carved in front and above the figures, in columns to be read from left to right and separated
by vertical lines. Out of seven(?) columns of text, only the lower half of the first two columns is preserved, which
were the only ones that went all the way down, the rest stopping above Djehutys hands and head, and thus taking
slightly less than half of the panels height.52 Some of the signs have very faint traces of color. The text reads:
[ lord of ] heaven, lord of earth, king of the gods, foremost of Karnak in 2|[] I [come] to you [] Ra,
lord of heaven, who crosses the (highest) sky 3|[]

1|

The southern thickness depicts the owner coming out from his tomb and praising the solar god at dawn, most
probably Amun-Ra, to enjoy the offerings that would have been invoked and/or displayed outside the chapel. Unfortunately, the opposite thickness is completely destroyed.53 Relying on the information available today, it seems
that Djehuty was one of the first officials to decorate the thickness of the entrance to the tomb chapel with a solar
hymn.54
Due to its early date, under the joint reign of HatshepsutThutmose III, the three hymns carved on Djehutys
funerary monument (TT 11) constitute a relevant ensemble for the study of the development of solar religion in
Thebes during the Eighteenth Dynasty. They also reflect the deep interest Djehuty seems to have had in writing,
particularly religious texts, and in the visual potential of inscriptions and their integration into the architectural
setting.
It is a great pleasure to dedicate this study on the intellectual and artistic achievements of Djehuty, Hatshepsuts
overseer of the Treasury, overseer of the craftsmen, and above all scribe, to my former teacher at Johns Hopkins
(19871993). Betsy was a constant source of knowledge and inspiration, and an example of professional and personal commitment. I was then a young Spaniard just landed in the US, and she taught me much more than Egyptology, though that was probably not her intention, and something I only understood years later. For my graduate
years and beyond, I am deeply grateful to her.

52. The sixth column preserves at the very top a nw-sign followed by an offering-table sign (R1), xAt or wDHw. Fragments of the inscription
have been recovered in the excavation of the courtyard and are now being studied by Diego Espinel.
53. Fragments found in the excavation of the courtyard, with incised hieroglyphs, seem to come from the northern thickness, and are
currently under study. The tomb chapel of Iamnedjeh (TT 84), preserves only the northern thickness, which conveys a hymn to the setting
sun Amun-Ra Atum; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 14041.
54. See also TT 53; Assmann, Sonnenhymnen in thebanischen Grbern, 9899. For earlier hymns to the sun god, see D. Franke, When
the sun goes down Early solar hymns on a pyramidion stela from the reign of Sekehmra-shedtawy Sobekemsaf, in The Second Intermediate
Period (ThirteenthSeventeenth Dynasties), ed. M. Mare, OLA 192 (Leuven, 2010), 283302, pls. 98100.

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