IN THE TOMB OF NEFERTAR1

IN THE TOMB OF NEFERTARI

OF CONSERVATION THE WALL PAINTINGS

THE J.PAUL GETTY MUSEUM AND THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTTE 1992 © 1992 The j. Paul Getty Trust Photo Credits: Guillermo Aldana, figs. I, 2, 4, 8-17, 30, 34-36, 38, cover,

401 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 900 endsheets, title page, copyright page, table of contents; Archives of Late Egyp­

Santa Monica, California 90401 -1455 tian Art, Robert S. Bianchi, New York, figs. 18, 20, 22-27, 31-33,37; Cleveland

Museum of Art, fig. 29; Image processing by Earthsat, fig. 7; Metropolitan Kurt Hauser, Designer Museum of Art, New York, figs. 6, 19, 28; Museo Egizio, Turin, figs. 5, 21 (Lovera Elizabeth Burke Kahn, Production Coordinator Giacomo, photographer), half-title page. Eileen Delson, Production Artist

Beverly Lazor-Bahr, Illustrator Cover: Queen Nefertari. Chamber C, south wall (detail), before treatment was

completed. Endsheets: Ceiling pattern, yellow five-pointed stars on dark blue Typography by Wilsted & Taylor, Oakland, California ground. Half-title page: Stereo view of tomb entrance taken by Don Michele Printing by Westland Graphics, Burbank, California Piccio/Francesco Ballerini, circa 1904. Title page: View of Chamber K, looking Library of Congress Catalogmg-in-Publication Data north. Copyright page: Chamber C, south wall, after final treatment-Table of

In the tomb of Nefertari : conservation of the wall paintings, Contents page: Chamber C, south wall (detail), after final treatment. Tomb of

p. cm. Nefertari, Western Thebes, Egypt.

"Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Published on the occasion of an exhibition atthej. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Museum, Malibu, November 12, 1992-February 21, 1993. The exhibition November 12, 1992-February 21, 1993. The exhibition was organized by the was organized by the museum in cooperation with the Getty Museum in cooperation with The Getty Conservation Institute. Conservation Institute"—T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-89236-229-4 (paper)

I. Mural painting and decoration. Egyptian—Conservation and

restoration—Egypt—Thebes (Egypt : Extinct city)—Exhibitions.

2. Mural painting and decoration, Ancient—Conservation and

restoration—Egypt—Thebes (Egypt : Extinct city)—Exhibitions.

3. Nefertari, Queen, consort of Rameses II. King of Egypt—Tomb—

Exhibitions. I. J. Paul Getty Museum. II. Getty Conservation

Institute.

ND2865.T46I5 1992

75l.6'2'09623—dc20 92-20744

CIP

r92 Contents

Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr Foreword 7

John Walsh Preface 8

Miguel Angel Corzo Introduction 10

John K. McDonald The Conservation of the Wall Paintings 12

Robert Steven Bianchi Some Royal Women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Dynasties 36

Nefertari as Chief Queen and Principal Wife 46

On the Nature of Egyptian Painting 56

An Assessment of the Wall Paintings 66

Condition Surveys 72

Checklist of the Exhibition 74

Glossary 80

Selected Bibliography 85

Foreword

In the Tomb of Nefertari: Conserva­ vators to work led to the EAO's decision tion of the Wall Paintings illustrates the to endorse the proposal. Today the sad joint project undertaken by the Egyptian fate that once awaited the tomb has been Antiquities Organization (EAO) and transformed into a cause for festive the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) celebration. Our debt of gratitude to the to rescue one of the most treasured GCI is inestimable. Egypt has regained monuments of ancient Egyptian art and a singular representation of her cultural culture. Rameses II immortalized his heritage. A further gain is the number of favorite queen by having her resting Egyptian candidates who received place decorated according to the religious hands-on training in wall painting con­ and artistic traditions of the time. Some servation. In a land with as demanding thirty-two hundred years later, an inter­ and fragile a cultural landscape as Egypt, national group of experts called upon the the value of human resources with best scientific traditions of our own age conservation expertise and experience is to help sustain that initial intent. In too obvious to require comment. this joint effort, we have bridged the gap We are grateful to the J. Paul Getty that separates us from our past and Museum for mounting an exhibition distinguishes us from one another in the devoted to enhancing public awareness present. We have attempted a monumen­ of the conservation problems of the tal effort founded on the assumptions Tomb of Nefertari. The exhibition is a that the arts give us spiritual enrichment commentary on the measure of special­ and that they offer a category of experi­ ized skills, and particularly the level of ence that binds us together as a multicul­ general education, required to perpetuate tural community of men and women. the life of this and similar monuments in The wall paintings of the Tomb of the future. It is hoped that comparable Nefertari suffered damage during ancient activities will be undertaken and multi­ times and had deteriorated extensively plied elsewhere in the world. We have to since the tomb's discovery in 1904. In realize that the custodianship of our 1985 the GCI proposed to join forces artistic heritage is the privilege and with the EAO to rescue them. The GCI's responsibility not only of specialized proposal outlined an approach to exist­ organizations, conservation profession­ ing problems rarely encountered in the als, scholars, and scientists but of people course of the EAO's diverse collaborative everywhere. efforts in the field of archaeological con­ servation in the past. The GO's laudable Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr conservation philosophy, the soundness Chairman of their scientific approach, and their Egyptian Antiquities Organization promise to put the most competent conser­

7 Preface

VISITORS WHO KNOW THE GETTY Arielle Kozloff, Curator of Ancient Art, Museum's collections will be surprised Cleveland Museum of Art; Gerry Scott to come upon an exhibition on an III, Curator of Ancient Art, San Antonio Egyptian topic in our galleries. With the Museum Association; and Nancy exception of mummy portraits of the Thomas, Associate Curator of Ancient Roman period, we have no Egyptian and Islamic Art, Los Angeles County material, and this is the first time Egyp­ Museum of Art, all were generous with tian art has been shown here. This is also their expertise as well as their collections. our first exhibition about the conserva­ We owe particular thanks to Dr. W. tion of a work of art still in situ. We had Benson Harer, San Bernardino, for the never had the possibility of documenting loan of his statue of Nefertari, and to the the treatment of a major monument staff of the Museo Egizio, Turin, for until our colleagues at the Getty Conser­ allowing us to reproduce photographs of vation Institute undertook the effort to Ernesto Schiaparelli's original excavation save the Tomb of Nefertari. of the tomb from their unique collection In their powerful design, sure line, of glass negatives. fresh color, and inventive compositions, Our greatest debt is to our colleagues the paintings in this tomb rival the best at the GCI under the leadership of of later European art. But few people Director Miguel Angel Corzo, as well as have seen them, since the tomb was to the team of conservators whose closed for decades to all but specialists. work has given us the opportunity for Now, thanks to the team assembled by this exhibition. We are proud to be able the GCI and headed by Paolo and Laura to provide a showcase for their remark­ Mora, the paintings not only have been able achievements. We are grateful to preserved for the future but also have Harold M. Williams, President and Chief been cleaned to reveal the astonishing Executive Officer, J. Paul Getty Trust, brilliance of their original appearance. for his steadfast support of an exhibition We are grateful to the many American that proved more complex than expected. museums that lent us objects associated It was in 1989, after her first visit to with Nefertari and her tomb. Dorothea the Tomb of Nefertari with Luis Monreal, Arnold, Curator of Egyptian Art, Metro­ then director of the GCI, that Marion politan Museum of Art, New York; True, Curator of Antiquities, proposed Robert Bianchi, formerly Associate this exhibition. Deborah Gribbon, Curator of Egyptian Art, Brooklyn Associate Director and Chief Curator, Museum (now J. Clawson Mills Fellow, helped develop the idea for the show and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New coordinated the collaboration between York); Rita Freed, Curator of Egyptian the Museum and the GCI. Karen Man­ Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; chester, Associate Curator of Antiquities,

7 PREFACE

supervised the plans for installation and the making of the replica of one of the tomb chambers. Bruce Metro and the Preparations staff at the Museum assisted with the construction of the replica, the tomb model, and the installation furni­ ture. Jerry Podany and the staff of Antiq­ uities Conservation worked together with the conservators of the lending institutions to create safe and controlled environments for the fragile objects included in the displays. Publication Services staff Kurt Hauser and Elizabeth Burke Kahn were responsible for the design and production of this publica­ tion. Charles Passela, Head of Photo­ graphic Services, advised regarding the chamber replica, and Barbara Anderson, Collections Projects Administrator, coordinated all aspects of the exhibition.

John Walsh Director J. Paul Getty Museum

9 Introduction

IN SEPTEMBER 1985 THE EGYPTIAN know our past. To preserve it is to pass Antiquities Organization and the Getty that knowledge on to future generations. Conservation Institute agreed to under­ Translated into policy and practice, take a joint project for the conservation this essentially humanistic approach of the wall paintings of the Tomb of means that we apply nonintrusive tech­ Nefertari. Seven years later, the damages niques and reversible conservation inflicted by time, nature, and humankind materials to damaged works of art in have been arrested, and the surviving order not to disturb the authenticity of paintings have regained their original the data. We conserve and stabilize, but grace. Yet in spite of all the painstaking do not add or reconstruct. In the case work, their condition remains vulnera­ of the Tomb of Nefertari, for instance, ble. These paintings stand as testimony the gaps and areas that had suffered to the creative genius of ancient Egyptian paint loss—whether large or small— artists and as a celebration of art by an were covered with mud-plaster specially international community of policymak­ prepared from local materials and ers and conservation professionals. textured in a fashion aesthetically com­ The paintings' survival will depend patible with the tomb's environment. We largely on the protection they receive in believe that the tomb's architectural the years that lie ahead. The present space, coupled with the quality and exhibition on the Joint EAO-GCI Nefer­ extent of the surviving wall paintings, is tari Conservation Project is designed as generous enough—despite the many a tribute to the artist's skill, but mainly missing parts—to allow for an inner, to the conservator's craft. It is also meant mental reconstruction of the representa­ to generate a broader awareness of the tions into an integral whole. conservation problems of cultural prop­ By all accounts, the wall paintings are erty which should rightly be a public among the most exquisite in ancient concern. Egyptian art. This superior status and The basic premise of our conservation the equally formidable challenges offered philosophy at the GCI is that cultural by their conservation were the main property warrants preservation not only reasons why we first decided to undertake because of its intrinsic value as art—a the project. When Paolo and Laura source of aesthetic expression and Mora accepted our invitation to assem­ experience—but also because of its ble and direct the conservation team, we extrinsic value as a document encoding felt hopeful that the task could actually data about human history and civiliza­ be done. The pictures in this exhibition tion. Cultural property is a record of our speak for themselves. The public will be human condition on both a spiritual the judge of the team's collective achieve­ and a material plane. To decipher it is to ment. Our mission will be accomplished

10 INTRODUCTION

when individuals everywhere, better a category unto themselves, and we educated in deterioration processes and thank and honor them for the superior conservation principles, acknowledge quality of their work and diligence. Our that until longer-term solutions to heartfelt thanks go to the individual the problems of decay are found, these members of the conservation team who and similarly rare and delicate works of worked so hard to keep Nefertari alive, art comprise an endangered species. to Guillermo Aldana, who captured their That species needs to be safeguarded excellent work in thousands of now from the risks of unrestrained exposure historic photographs, and to Mahasti to visitors. The Getty Museum's initiative Afshar, Program Research Associate, in organizing an exhibition aimed at GCI, who helped to develop the exhibi­ raising the level of public awareness on tion in collaboration with the Museum conservation issues is itself a significant and who authored the panel texts sign that our mission is not an illusory describing the project. one. It adds yet another dimension to a An international team of scientists has complex network of integrative conser­ contributed its critical knowledge to a vation activities involving specialized better understanding of the tomb's experience in scientific inquiry, wall deterioration problems. We acknowledge painting conservation, artistic sensitivity, our indebtedness to them collectively. and appropriate policy decisions and We are presently conducting research on management strategies. issues of site protection. Shin Maekawa, We are grateful to Mohamed Ibrahim Head, Environmental Sciences, GCI, has Bakr, Chairman, Egyptian Antiquities designed and implemented a monitoring Organization, and to his predecessors system to collect data on environmental Sayed Tawfik, Ahmed Kadry, and Gamal factors affecting the tomb paintings. Moukhtar, who endorsed the project These data will be used to determine the and facilitated our task with their trust number and frequency of visitors which and good will. Frank Preusser, Associate might be considered safe. Neville Agnew, Director, Programs, GCI, contributed Special Projects Director, GCI, will his vast scientific expertise to the project. continue to supervise the final phase of Eduardo Porta, the project's field coordi­ monitoring and site protection. nator, deserves special mention. We are greatly indebted to Romany Helmy, Miguel Angel Corzo the project field agent, who gave us the Director benefit of his inexhaustible stamina, The Getty Conservation Institute intelligent planning, and excellent humor over several difficult years. Paolo and Laura Mora are, of course,

ii FIGURE I

View across the Nile toward Western Thebes. The Conservation of the Wall Paintings

From very early times, the ancient Egyptians

imagined that the dead inhab­

ited a land west of the Nile

River (see map), where they

lived in a fashion not so differ­

ent from that of the living.

The actual journey to the

netherworld involved a dan­

gerous nighttime passage that

began in the west and imitated

the course of the sun between

its setting and rising. Access

to eternal life depended on the

punctilious observance by the

living of funerary customs and

rituals that had evolved over

13 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

the course of centuries. These beliefs of the pharaoh Rameses III. This is the were so strong that the ancient Egyptians largest in a phalanx of royal mortuary sited their cemeteries west of the river palaces which ranges north along the whenever possible, placing them not in desert margin. Forming a backdrop to cultivated areas, but on the edge of the these sprawling edifices are the low hills desert or in the canyons leading down to of Sheikh Abd-el-Qurna and Qurna the river valley. Murai, which are honeycombed with the Western Thebes was the preferred site tombs of over four hundred Theban for the burial of kings and queens during nobles. The remains of the community of the New Kingdom. There were two ancient workmen who excavated and royal cemeteries, each located in a valley decorated the royal tombs are set in cutting down through limestone hills. a shallow depression just over a rise Today these are known as the Valley of southwest of Qurna Murai. The royal the Kings and Valley of the Queens, necropolises themselves lie farther west, respectively. To reach them, one has first hidden in the desert canyons. to cross the Nile from modern Luxor The Valley of the Queens (fig. 2) is (fig. 1) and then traverse a broad band of formed by two rock spurs that jut out richly tilled fields. Beyond these, about from the large mountain mass called El- two kilometers from the river and at the Qurn, a prominent peak that can be seen limit of the cultivation, is the soaring from just about anywhere in Luxor. pylon of Medinet Habu, the great temple Over the eons, wind and water have eroded the flanks of the valley to create a natural amphitheater that slopes from northwest to southeast, issuing not far from Medinet Habu. Although called ta set neferu by the ancient Egyptians, it is known in Arabic as either Biban el- Harim or Biban el-Malikat, variously translated as "Portals of the Ladies" or— preferably—"Portals of the Queens." "Portals" is probably a reference to the tomb entrances that may have been visible even before modern excavations were carried out. As early as the late seventeenth dynasty, the valley was used occasionally FIGURE 2 as a cemetery. But by the reign of the The Valley of the Queens pharaoh Tuthmosis I, it had become a looking north. The site of regular interment, and during the entrance to the Tomb of nineteenth and twentieth dynasties it Nefertari is visible in the middle foreground. was used as a burial ground not just for queens but for princesses and princes.

14 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

Indeed, its principal function may have DYNASTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT been for the burial of royal offspring, and so its conventional designation as the Late Predynastic Period circa 3000 B.C. Valley of the Queens is somewhat mis­ Early Dynastic Period leading. Overall, the valley contains (First-Third dynasties) 2920-2575 about ninety rock-cut tombs and an Old Kingdom assortment of simpler graves and pits. (Fourth-Eighth dynasties) 2575-2134 The valley was visited in 1828—29 by First Intermediate Period (Ninth-Eleventh dynasties) 2134-2040 Jean-Francois Champollion, the deci­ Middle Kingdom pherer of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs; (Eleventh -Thirteenth dynasties) 2040 -1640 in 1834 by the Italian archaeologist Second Intermediate Period Ippolito Rosellini,; and in 1845 by Karl (Fourteenth-Seventeenth dynasties) 1640-1532 Richard Lepsius, who produced a mas­ New Kingdom sive survey of Egyptian monuments Eighteenth Dynasty sponsored by Wilhelm IV of Prussia. But Ahmose *1550-1525 AmenhotepI 1525-1504 systematic exploration of this archaeo- TuthmosisI 1504-1492 logically rich area did not commence TuthmosisII 1492-1479 until 1904, when, under the direction of TuthmosisIII 1479-1425 Ernesto Schiaparelli, curator of Egyptian Hatshepsut 1473-1458 AmenhotepII 1427-1401 antiquities in Turin, the Missione TuthmosisIV 1401-1391 Archeologica Italiana in Egitto examined AmenhotepIII 1391-1353 the site. Among the mission's discoveries Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten 1353-1335 Smenkhkare 1335-1333 was the Tomb of Nefertari, great royal Tutankhamun 1333-1323 wife of the pharaoh Rameses II (also Ay 1323-1319 known as Rameses the Great), who Horemheb 1319-1307 probably died in her forties, sometime in Nineteenth Dynasty Rameses I 1307-1306 her husband's twenty-fourth regnal Setyl 1306-1290 year. Although the tomb had been Rameses II 1290-1224 robbed in ancient times, Schiaparelli Merneptah 1224-1214 Setyll 1214-1204 managed to recover a few objects that Siptah 1204-1198 had eluded its violators. These included Twosre 1198-1196 bits of a small chest belonging to the Twentieth Dynasty 1196-1070 queen, fragments of nearly thirty ushabti Third Intermediate Period figurines representing her, a djed amulet (Twenty-first-Twenty-fourth dynasties) 1070-712 Late Period emulating the pillar associated with (Twenty-fifth-Thirty-first dynasties) 712-332 Osiris and the town of Busiris (a site in Macedonian -Ptolemaic Period 332-30 B.C. the Nile delta sacred to the god), a knob Roman Period 30 B.C-A.D. 395 from a chest bearing the coronation name taken by the pharaoh Ay after he * Dates given for individuals represent regnal period. succeeded the pharaoh Tutankhamun to Adapted from John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt the throne (fig. 21), odd bits of rope (Oxford, 1980), pp. 36-37. and cloth, a putative scrap of the queen's

15 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

mummy, and pieces of her rose granite oriented to the north (fig. 3). Hewn sarcophagus lid. (All of these items are out of the side of the canyon and pro­ preserved in the Museo Egizio, Turin.) ceeding for a distance of about 4.6 Although Nefertari is depicted in a meters is a combination double stairway variety of monuments in Egypt and and ramp, down which such heavy Nubia—most notably, in the rock shrine funerary furniture as the queen's stone dedicated to her and the goddess Hathor sarcophagus would have been lowered. at Abu Simbel—it is primarily by her This ends in an offering hall (Chamber tomb in the Valley of the Queens that she C) with a built-in bench along three is known. The tomb layout is the most sides. On the same level, off to the right ambitious one there. It has a longitudinal and at right angles to the tomb axis, is plan, typical of late New Kingdom royal a suite of rooms (Chambers D through burials (earlier royal tombs tend to G). Issuing from the offering hall is a have a sharp, right-angled bend) and is second descent about 6.1 meters long—

FIGURE 3 Plan and elevation of Nefertari's tomb.

16 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

again a ramp superimposed on a flight of one of the finest painted tombs of the stairs—that ends in a sarcophagus cham­ Pharaonic period. ber (K) supported by four squared pillars In 1905, once Schiaparelli had finished that are part of the original rock mass. his work in the Tomb of Nefertari, it This burial hall is approximately rectan­ was opened to the public. From the gular, with its longest dimension running outset, scholarly and public praise for FIGURE 4 north-south. The queen's sarcophagus the tomb's superbly decorated walls was Chamber G, west wall: Nefertari crowned with would have been positioned here, with tempered by the knowledge that the the vulture headdress its head end to the west. Finally, three paintings and their plaster supports had of Nekhbet, the protective small chambers, one each to the east, suffered terribly over the centuries. More goddess of Upper Egypt. west, and north, lead off the burial hall. Like most of the royal and private tombs in Western Thebes, Nefertari's has suffered as a result of the poor quality of the local limestone. Unlike the limestone at Giza and Saqqara to the north— which permitted the carving of high- quality reliefs—the rock in Western Thebes has been fractured, through either seismic activity or the upwelling of shale deposits beneath the limestone. In Nefertari's tomb the ancient masons were not able to produce smooth, firm rock surfaces suitable for carving or painting. Instead, they had to apply a plaster underlay, followed by a coat of fine plaster. Only then could the walls receive preliminary draftsmen's sketches and final drawings. The hieroglyphic texts and vignettes making up the deco­ rative scheme of the tomb were modeled in the plaster and painted in vibrant red, yellow, green, and blue, contrasted against white backgrounds and jet black outlines. More than 520 square meters of wall surface in a half-dozen chambers and vestibules were thus embellished with the story of Nefertari's final journey from life through death and into immor­ tality via a secret realm of gates and caverns (fig. 4). In doing this, the anony­ mous artisans of ancient Thebes wrought

17 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE S

A comparison of this archival photograph, taken by Schiaparelli and his team circa 1904, with the one illustrated in figure 6 shows graphically the tomb's progressive deterioration over a period of approxi­ mately fifteen years.

worrisome was the fact—apparent ongoing paint and plaster loss (figs. 5,6). through observation and from accumu­ The most important of these sources, lating photographic evidence—that one that has served as the basis for all the tomb was still deteriorating, largely historic studies of the tomb, is a set as a result of the carelessness of visitors of 132 glass negatives shot between 1904 but also because of inherent weaknesses and 1905 by Schiaparelli and the Italian in the wall paintings. Appreciating the mission. To these may be added two risks involved in keeping the tomb open, views taken in the upper suite of rooms the Egyptian authorities closed it in (Chambers E and G) in 1909 by Colin 1934, and so it has remained. Campbell, a Scottish minister and In the eighty-eight years that have amateur Egyptologist, as well as a series passed since the tomb's discovery, it has of touristic views commissioned in the been meticulously observed and repeat­ 1910s by the firm of Gaddis and Seif for edly photographed. These historic sale in its shops in Cairo and Luxor. photographs, which now number in the Between 1914 and 1916, Robert thousands, are essential for documenting Mond, a British Egyptologist, completed and understanding its conservation a thorough photographic mosaic of problems. Selected comparisons of these Chamber G, which contains some of the views, many taken years and even most memorable scenes in the entire decades apart, help to substantiate tomb, especially the view of the gods

18 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE 6

Photograph taken by

Harry Burton circa 1920—

1923, showing the same

scene reproduced in

figure 5.

Osiris and Atum enthroned back to back respectively, it produced a huge archive before altars heaped with offerings. The of black and white images which, consistency of scale and focus of Mond's although not published, may be con­ shots makes them an unusually reliable sulted. The earliest color views of the resource for monitoring the condition of tombs to survive were taken in 1953 by the murals in that area of the tomb. A Claudio Emmer for Arpag Mekhitarian's few years later, beginning in 1920 and book La Peinture egyptienne. The three concluding about 1923, the Metropolitan shots, all of the upper suite, show Nefer­ Museum of Art, New York, sent its tari variously playing the game of senet, photographer Harry Burton throughout offering linen to the god Ptah, and ador­ Egypt to survey monuments. The results ing seven divine cows. From a color cam­ of that trip include over sixty shots of paign during the 1950s and 1960s, 155 Nefertari's tomb. shots were culled for Gertrud Thausing The Documentation Center of the and Hans Goedicke's volume Nofretari. Egyptian Antiquities Organization The tomb's rarity and exceptional (EAO), located on the island of Zamalek importance, coupled with worldwide in Cairo, carried out perhaps the most concern for its well-being, made it the exhaustive photographic program. focus not just of Egyptian but of interna­ Conducted in two phases by Ghazouli tional committees and study groups. and X. F. Ibrahim in 1958 and 1965, The reports issued by these groups

19 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

complement the photo surveys by var­ separation cavity. An unpublished 1980 iously identifying the primary causes of study issued by Cairo University focused decay while making general recommen­ on site protection; stabilization of the dations for the tomb's rehabilitation. tomb's microclimate through landscap­ One of the earliest, included in the 1940 ing and the fitting of a double air-tight annual of the Egyptian Antiquities door were among its recommendations. Service (the predecessor organization to The most radical proposal for protect­ the EAO), noted that the paintings in the ing the murals appeared in a paper Tomb of Nefertari had sensibly deterio­ published in Warsaw in 1973 by the State rated since 1904. The blame was put Ateliers for the Preservation of Historical squarely (but erroneously) on the hygro­ Property. Based on the assumption that scopic nature of the materials used in the the plaster was inherently weak and tomb: the ancient plaster and paint unable to support the paintings indefi­ soak up moisture. The 1940 study nitely, it concluded that "the only practi­ prescribed injections of fixatives to bond cable form of conservation ... is rock and plaster layers, as well as tempo­ transference of the paintings onto new rary removal and rebacking of severely supports." Lastly, a Canadian report damaged scenes. Not surprisingly, it also issued in May 1981 underscored the recommended periodic examination of fragility of the microclimate, finding that the tomb and continual monitoring of even limited numbers of visitors to the temperature and humidity levels. tomb skewed moisture levels. It was A report issued in May 1970 by the these changes, coupled with changes in United Nations Educational, Scientific, temperature, that proved so pernicious. and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) The Canadians' recommendation was to attributed the damage of the paintings to limit public access. the effects of rain, soluble salts, and Most of these studies identified the dehydration of plaster. The report urged harmful agents as water and salts and treatments "mainly to improve adhesion were substantially in agreement on the of plaster to the walls, and re-enforce dynamic interaction of the two. There its cohesion strength." The International was also strong support for some sort of Centre for the Study of Preservation intervention, but no consensus regarding and Restoration of Cultural Property specific remedies. (ICCROM) survey of July 1978 empha­ The decision to rehabilitate the Tomb sized the process of decay rather than its of Nefertari, conceived jointly by the agents: "slow evaporation of salt-laden EAO and the Getty Conservation Insti­ water with growth of salt crystals and tute (GCI) in September 1985, turned on progressive dehydration of the gypsum- a number of considerations. The chief based plaster, especially during long, dry concern was that an irreplaceable work periods in the tomb." The ICCROM of utmost importance to world culture report strongly discouraged any attempt was slipping from the cultural record. If to remove the paintings or to isolate something was not done, the only souve­ them from the walls by means of a nirs of it might one day be a few hundred

20 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

photographs and some line drawings. to establish baseline readings against The joint conservation effort was which future deterioration could be mea­ announced in Cairo on September 8, sured. Extensive record photography was 1986. Speaking for the EAO, which is done before, during, and after all work. responsible for all museums, monu­ While these tests were being carried ments, and archaeological sites in Egypt, out, an emergency program to consoli­ Ahmed Kadry, its chairman, highlighted date the most endangered areas of the the scope of collaboration required when tomb was being designed by Paolo Mora he said that and Laura Mora, the renowned wall painting conservators formerly associ­ the EAO has been aware of the problems ated with the Istituto Centrale del Re- of the tomb for many years and has stauro, Rome. Both of the Moras had considered several approaches to its spent over forty years restoring wall conservation. The project with the Getty paintings worldwide and had had a Conservation Institute is our first attempt longstanding professional interest in the to completely study the tomb's environ­ Tomb of Nefertari. Their philosophy of ment and contents so that a comprehensive minimal intervention, thoroughly consis­ program for conserving the wall paintings tent with GCI goals, reflected concern can be determined. Not only will it benefit within the conservation community the Nefertari Tomb, which many consider regarding reversibility of methods and to be the most beautiful of the Pharaonic minimal intrusion. period, but the results of our work there A multidisciplinary team of specialists will facilitate the treatment of other tombs invited from seven nations assembled in on the West Bank of the Nile that have Cairo for the first project briefing imme­ similar problems. diately following the public announce­ Luis Monreal, then director of the ment of the campaign to save the tomb. GCI, and Kadry agreed to conduct a year In addition to the Moras, the group of surveys and tests to discover the included Hideo Arai, a biologist from causes of decay. This was the first com­ the Tokyo National Research Institute of prehensive scientific analysis of its kind. Cultural Property; Farouk el-Baz, an The scientists examined the geology of Egyptian geologist and director of the the valley, looked for evidence of water- Center for Remote Sensing, Boston drainage patterns, considered the effects University; Modesto Montoto, a penol­ of temperature and humidity fluctuations ogist from the University of Oviedo, on the site, searched for evidence of Spain; and Guillermo Aldana, a Mexican microscopic and macroscopic plant and photographer with wide experience in animal life in the tomb, and tested all archaeological work. Feisal Esmael, who materials—especially plasters, pigments, acted as scientific adviser to the EAO, and salts—using chemical, spectro­ proposed to do a survey of the tomb's graph^ and X-ray diffraction methods. internal climate. Also serving as advisers Exact hues in the tomb were measured at were two of Egypt's most respected over 160 locations using a colorimeter, Egyptologists: Gamal Moukhtar, former

21 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

chairman of the EAO, and Gaballa A. cultures, languages, and personalities Gaballa, vice dean of the Faculty of than for any conceivable common Archaeology at Cairo University. purpose. But surveys began at once, and Representing the GCI along with Luis the group quickly found itself functioning Monreal was Miguel Angel Corzo. as a unit. Hideo Arai, an expert on Corzo, named director of the GCI in biodeterioration of cultural monuments January 1991, was then director of and the first member of the team to enter Special Projects. He developed the the tomb, established a baseline for project, assembled the experts and the bacterial activity by taking samples of required equipment, and insured ongoing the air inside. A second sampling done logistical support. Also from the GCI three days later, after just six people had were Frank Preusser and, assisting him, entered the tomb, showed that bacterial FIGURE 7 Michael Schilling, Associate Scientist. As counts had risen 300 percent. Arai's An infrared view of the director of the Scientific Program at the Luxor area taken by a data, coupled with evidence assembled

Landsat-5 satellite. Visible GCI, Preusser had overall responsibility later that relative humidity around or are the desert plateau for designing and interpreting the battery above 70 percent could trigger bacterial to the west and the system of tests on which conservation measures growth and biologic activity in the tomb, of wadis that lead down were to be based. was to be important as debate regarding into the Nile River valley. As Corzo observed on that day in public access unfolded. Farouk el-Baz The arrow indicates the vicinity of Nefertan's 1986, superficially the team was more reconstructed water-flow patterns in the tomb. remarkable for its breadth of disciplines, valley through the use of topographic maps generated by laser technology and the analysis of infrared photographs taken by a Landsat-5 satellite (fig. 7). He demonstrated that periodic deluges affected the Valley of the Queens only once or twice a century. Additional surveys of microflora, measurements of color, experiments in nondestructive testing methods, and materials analyses went on over a period of a year. A thorough review of the site's history and documentation as well as condition surveys charting the complex interdynamics of rock, plaster, pigment, salt, and water were carried out. The results gained from this welter of tests and archival screenings helped frame the specific treatments—both short- and long-term—that eventually were put into effect. As a result of these tests, a full and dynamic picture of the course of

22 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE 8

Close-up view of a salt vein

showing massive crystals

as they pry the painted

surface away from the

plaster.

deterioration could be drawn. blistered and chalky, so that they can be The limestone bed into which the wiped away by a careless touch. Tomb of Nefertari was cut shows a There are three ways in which water network of large and small fissures, can enter the tomb, and in all likelihood, probably due to seismic activity. Over each has been responsible for part of the the course of tens of millennia, soluble damage. First of all, when the ancient salts of nearly pure sodium chloride Egyptians plastered and painted the (gypsum in some strata) have washed tomb, they were required to use large into the fissures, building up an inex­ amounts of water, thus activating salts haustible reservoir impossible to extract already present within the rock. Secondly, from the rock or the wall paintings recent archaeological work has uncov­ (which are water soluble). ered accumulations of water-deposited Water, whether liquid or vapor, is the sediment in the Valley of the Queens. catalyst activating the salts; it dissolves This is interpreted as evidence of torren­ them. As it evaporates, crystals, fibers, tial rains, probably in the Late Period and needles of salt form slowly, either in and Roman era. Rainwater flowing the voids within or between layers of through cracks in the rock strata or materials or on the painted surfaces. The coursing down the mouth of the tomb larger crystals are very hard and inter­ could have reached the wall paintings as pose themselves between rock and either liquid or vapor. (Schiaparelli did plaster or plaster and paint (fig. 8). The report traces of dried puddles in Nefer- expanding crystal lattices exert an tari's burial hall, Chamber K, although irresistible pressure that pries the struc­ the damage observable around the base ture of plaster and paint apart. Salt of that hall, the tomb's lowest point [fig. encrustations on the painted surfaces 9], was not caused by standing water.) erode the paint itself, leaving the colors The situation is far different in the Valley

23 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE 9

Delamination of plaster on

the northeast side of

Chamber K.

of the Kings, where the tomb of Rameses Apart from the action of salts, the II, Nefertari's husband, contains between composition of the plaster has raised 2.1 and 2.4 meters of stratified, water- concerns. Made of gypsum mixed with laid sediments. The sole evidence for the sand, clay, and chopped straw, it may percolation of liquid water into Nefer­ have dehydrated completely over the tari's tomb is the presence of two water centuries, resulting in its shrinking and spots high on the front left wall in Cham­ peeling away from the rock support. ber C and not far from an ancient fault Vibration resulting from tourist bus in the stone. Veins in the stone matrix traffic may have contributed minutely to may be too tightly packed with salt to damage in the past. However, the Centre even allow the passage of liquid water. National de Recherche Scientifique, The third source of water in the tomb Paris, which has worked in the Valley of is vapor present in the surrounding air. the Queens for two decades, has short­ When the relative humidity exceeds ened by several hundred meters the certain levels—either because liquid macadam roadway tourist buses must water has entered the tomb or because take to the site. With passengers disem­ there are excessive numbers of visitors— barking further away, the threat of the salts start taking up water, forming vibration has been removed. a saturated solution. Although pure An understanding of these destructive sodium chloride crystals start to take up processes coupled with an awareness of water when relative humidity levels the other stresses on the tomb—old fix­ exceed about 75 percent, complex atives, repaintings (figs. 10,11), re- mixtures, such as mud-plaster with salt facings, relinings, repositionings, phys­ or mud-plaster with gypsum and salt, ical damage from visitors, and a great and different forms of salt can absorb deal of dust and dirt everywhere—barely moisture at much lower levels, even as conveys the shock of seeing so much low as 50 percent. beauty despoiled. But an imaginary tour

z4 FIGURES 10, II

One of the aesthetic dilemmas faced by the conservators: to retain or remove old inpainting. The south wall of Chamber G, showing eight celestial cows, was touched up by

Schiaparelli, as the infrared view in figure 10 shows.

In this case, the inpainting was retained (fig. 11) while in other areas it was covered with removable textured plaster to signal that the original decorated surface had

been lost. CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE 12 through the Tomb of Nefertari just prior seems to have vanished (fig. 12). In an A good deal of the to the commencement of work by the antechamber to the right is a figure of the decorated surface of the EAO-GCI team can accomplish this. queen herself being conducted by the west wall of Chamber C has been lost. hawk-headed god Horus-son-of-Isis Moving down the descent into the (Horsiese) into the presence of another tomb, one passes from intense light and god, Rehorakhty, also hawk-headed but heat into deep shade and near-total wearing the uraeus serpent and solar disk. darkness. The atmosphere is close and The queen's dress and the lower portion still; nothing stirs, not even the faintest of the scene in particular are disfigured hint of a breeze. Surprisingly the tomb with black spotting. The throne on which seems cool, even though it is summer Rehorakhty sits is covered with a red outside. and green feather pattern, but part of it In the first chamber there is a built-in looks as if it has been repainted. Salt bench along the left-hand wall. A heron blooms leaching out through the paint and two funerary goddesses, Nephthys and appear as small, crusty patches; wherever Isis, appear in a frieze at the top of the they occur, the colors look chalky. Deeper wall. A great deal of paint and plaster has into the chamber, above a once splendid fallen away. Scratches and abrasions are scene of enthroned gods, is a huge bulge of observable, and much text and imagery plaster. Like an enormous blister, it could have been lost in this scene. By a quick break at any time and shower plaster down estimate, perhaps a third of the decoration onto the tomb floor.

26 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

The corridor that descends to the burial previous work. To begin with, the tomb chamber once had dozens of vertical was photographed at a scale of one to columns of brightly painted hieroglyphs; twenty. The photographs were then now the colors can scarcely be made out reduced as simplified line drawings. Four beneath a shroud of dust and dirt. In separate acetate maps were made, one the burial chamber itself, large salt crystals for each type of alteration. The degree of resembling miniature cityscapes peep out damage was color-coded, with red from behind portions of plaster. They signifying the most perilous state (see pp. are hard and push the plaster right off the 72-73). Within each category, the sever­ wall. Around the base, the process has ity of decay varied greatly. Thus the gone so far that slabs of plaster—some six status of a painting might be relatively or seven centimeters thick—have actually unaffected, show superficial spotting sheeted off, carrying away paint and and discoloration, have foreign matter exposing the limestone behind them, which such as dust and insect broods, show appears rough and salt-encrusted. The incipient chalking and flaking, or indi­ ceiling of the tomb, spangled with yellow cate abrasion and paint loss. The plaster five-pointed stars on a blue ground, is support could be suffering from frag­ blistered and in danger of flaking away. At mentation or separation, contain some point in the past, sheets of gauze or extruded rock chips, and show major or fabric were glued onto one extensive scene. minor losses. Salts were recorded in a Elsewhere mortar or cement has been category of their own that included puddled into cracks and fissures and minor efflorescences on paint layers and around fragments, sometimes spilling over macroscopic intrusions. A final category onto the painted designs. A few insects' recorded previous restoration attempts nests and cobwebs hang in corners. There under the subheadings of retouchings, are even some insect carapaces littering the overpaintings, surface treatments, use of floor. It is very beautiful and also facings, and use of mortar to fill cracks quite sad. and fissures. It took boldness and a high degree of The stages of decay in the Tomb of diplomacy and organization to imple­ Nefertari were extremely varied. A ment the EAO-GCI project to begin precise plot of the exact location and with, but to actually do the work nature of damage throughout the tomb required a quality of nerve few of us had to be on file and available to each have. Despite the total reversibility of conservator before he or she would dare emergency measures, the stress of pre­ to wield a scalpel or cotton swab any­ suming to work on a cultural icon of where. The Moras and their team spent such importance was immense. three months compiling over two hun­ The initial survey indicated that about dred condition surveys showing altera­ 20 percent of the decorated surface had tions to the support medium, alterations already been irretrievably lost, so it of the paint, the type and location of was essential to protect against further foreign substances, and a record of losses until an appropriate conservation

27 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

FIGURE 13 A few of the more than ten thousand Japanese mulberry-bark paper bandages used to hold loose fragments in place during the emergency treatment process. This view shows the goddess Selkis.

strategy could be devised. Therefore, each end of the strip (fig. 13). Dangling an emergency treatment plan was fragments were reattached by placing worked up in January 1987 and carried a drop of the same acrylic resin emulsion out between April 5 and July 5 of that on their undersides and then pushing year. The most serious cause of decay them into their original locations using a was loss of cohesion and adhesion in the protective sheet of silicon paper and a plaster. To stop the structural disintegra­ spatula. Because of the roughness and tion of the most fragile areas and prevent weight of ceiling fragments, thin strips of their complete detachment, strips of stronger cotton gauze were used to hold fine-grained Japanese mulberry-bark them in place temporarily. In total, paper were placed over any raised frag­ approximately ten thousand protective ments and carefully attached using a bandages were applied to the ceiling and dilute solution of acrylic resin applied at walls. While this was going on, further

28 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTING

tests were conducted by the chief conser­ final conservation required the removal vators to develop methods and materials of a thick layer of dust and any vestiges that would be used in the actual conser­ of cobwebs or insect nests. Since even the vation of the tomb. most gentle direct contact with the wall In 1988, the year final treatment posed great risk, a low-pressure air began, two campaigns were carried out: stream was directed at the surfaces. from January 31 to March 31, and Next, sections of dense, heavy gauze that from October 14 to December 15. Keep­ had been applied using a strong adhesive ing in mind the rigors of the Upper in the course of previous conservation Egyptian climate and the microenviron- efforts (fig. 14) were removed by brushing ment of the tomb, no more than two the surfaces with a solvent. Once dis­ annual outings were considered feasible. solved, the gauze was slowly peeled away In general, treatment proceeded from by pulling it up diagonally and flush to the inside of the tomb out, beginning with the burial chamber in 1988 and ending with the upper suite of rooms in the spring of 1992. At the start of any one campaign, each conservator was assigned a specific section or scene to work on and was supplied with a copy of the relevant reference photograph, drawn from either the Schiaparelli or the Burton archive. While this was going on, the photographer, Guillermo Aldana, began to duplicate Schiaparelli's views exactly in color and in black and white. These views and angles were shot again when the project was completed, both to show what had been achieved and to serve as a benchmark in the event of future changes within the tomb. Addi­ tionally, each step in the conservation process was documented, resulting in a collection of over five thousand slides. As field coordinator for the project (following Omar el-Arini), Eduardo Porta, professor of conservation at Barcelona University, was responsible for maintaining the daily regime, which included the keeping of logbooks by FIGURE 14 each conservator. Old gauzes holding plaster in position, 1986. Initial preparation of all surfaces for

29 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

the painted surface. Additional solvent vation team, the reattachment and was applied beneath the facing wherever consolidation of plaster layers to the needed. Some small areas that had been rock substrate was the most vexing. faced with masking tape impregnated Visual inspection disclosed many areas with wax were removed too, but by using of loss and delamination; the more a different solvent applied with cotton. difficult detection of hidden voids was Occasionally, the plaster layers achieved by gently tapping the plaster beneath were badly disintegrated and surface. (A study exploring the use needed immediate consolidation. This of ultrasound had concluded that exist­ was accomplished by applying strips of ing techniques were insufficiently devel­ tissue paper moistened with a dilute oped to be of direct use during this phase acrylic resin solution. Detached frag­ of the project.) ments of plaster and paint which had To protect plaster and paint surfaces, fallen between the wall and the facings areas to be worked on were covered or into gaps were retrieved with forceps where necessary with synthetic tissue and repositioned whenever possible. In affixed with an acrylic solution. To the course of interventions predating the prevent the absorption of water by the EAO-GCI project, many old cracks and extremely water-sensitive painted plas­ fissures had been filled with extremely ter, at first a small quantity of diluted obdurate gypsum-based mortar and acrylic solution was injected to form a cement. Wherever the mortar had strayed water-impermeable seal. The mortar was onto decorated surfaces, its removal was composed of three parts local sand, slow and time-consuming. After extra­ washed to remove salts and sieved, and neous fill had been stripped out, the one part gypsum. Only as much water delicate edges of the original material was added as was required to make the were coated with an acrylic resin to mortar fluid. In some instances, the shield them from humidity introduced by amount of water was decreased to the new plaster applied during conserva­ achieve a quick-drying mix. In other tion. The plaster used to fill in small or cases, three to five drops of acrylic resin large losses was similar to the original, solution were added to the mortar to but contained varying amounts of gyp­ slow the drying rate and prevent the sum, thus avoiding any potentially absorption of moisture by the sensitive damaging tension caused by the varying painted plaster. Any blisters sufficiently expansion rates between old and new softened during the consolidation process material. Mortar was applied conserva­ were pressed back into position using tively and in thin layers that were allowed padded tension presses sprung from to dry thoroughly between successive a scaffold positioned in front of the applications. The new mortar surface surface being repaired. was scored and stippled as needed so as Especially large voids were filled with to harmonize visually with adjacent loose stones and rock chips that were patches of original surface. then aggregated with the mortar mix. Of all the problems facing the conser­ Wherever large quantities of mortar

30 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

were required, a drier mix was generally similarly and was provided with fast- preferred to avoid risk of moisture setting plaster mortar bridges on which percolating into the plaster. The protec­ the fragment could be safely held in tive tissues applied before consolidation place. After injections, tensioned presses were removed with solvents after these held the fragment until the mortar was operations had been completed. thoroughly set. Lastly, all protective Small, partially separated fragments facings were removed. were hinged to the surrounding matrix, Raised or unattached flakes of paint and their undersides were freed of foreign were repositioned using acrylic resin matter such as salts and rocks using emulsion applied to the backs of loose scalpels and microdrills. Any disinte­ chips by means of a pipette or syringe. grated clay-straw plaster behind them Powdery areas were also treated with an was raked out. Once the fragments had acrylic solution that bonded the paint been cleaned, they were impregnated to the plaster. with an acrylic resin solution and reposi­ In a final operation, the wall paintings tioned on a bed of drier mortar such as themselves were cleaned using a battery had been used in the consolidation of solvents targeted for specific types process, but in proportions that would of dirt: deposits of smoke and soot from accelerate drying time and reduce mois­ lamps, the oils from human hands, ture absorption. Forty-eight hours staining from previous water-based after replacement, the protective facings conservation treatments, salt efflores­ were removed. cences, repaintings done during this Fully detached chunks of plaster century, and old synthetic fixatives that required a thoroughly different strategy. had darkened with age. Heavier tissue facings were applied and a As the work progressed, there was molded cradle of polyurethane foam on great satisfaction—even joy—among the a cane framework was fabricated to hold conservators, who could sense the tomb each fragment and allow it to be shifted coming back to life. Their elation dou­ safely. Once a fragment had been moved bled when a bit of a gold foil armlet that away from the wall, lightweight hammers had eluded the notice of ancient plunder­ and chisels were used to remove accumu­ ers was found during routine clearance of lations of dirt, salt, gypsum, and cement the tomb in February 1988 (fig. 15). It was from previous repairs on the reverse sides clearly inscribed with hieroglyphs for a and on the rock substrate itself. In some woman, perhaps the queen herself, and cases, as many as eight or nine inches could be included in the small inventory of accumulated fill had to be laboriously of objects belonging to her. The discovery chipped away. Once cleaned, the reverse was a welcome interruption, breaking of the plaster was impregnated with the routine of seven-hour workdays. resin, and its thickness was built up However beautiful it may be, the tomb using the mortar mixture with water and could not easily accommodate eight resin proportions adjusted for drying or ten conservators working at one time. rates. The parent rock was prepared Even with the fresh air pumped in through

31 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

kept under tight control. Precisely this I consideration brought the technical I committee of the EAO-GCI project to a I meeting at Luxor in May 1989. Discus- I sions focused on protecting and preserv-1 ing the site. One of the essential I conservation issues addressed was the I possibility of rain- or floodwater entering I the tomb. A number of strategies were I put forward, ranging from careful I

FIGURE 15 landscaping to the installation of hidden I

Bit of a gold foil armlet geotextile coverings that, together with I belonging to the queen, pipes, would channel water away from I found behind a fragment of the site. Clearly, a master drainage I detached plaster in the scheme for the Valley of the Queens I course of cleaning the tomb in 1988. needs to be created. Flood risk—which I may most prudently be dealt with by passive methods such as a raised thresh­ old and a barrel arch to shield the flexible tubing attached to a small elec­ entrance—was discussed. The potential tric fan, the atmosphere was stuffy. impact of visitors was also considered. ' Despite the difficult working condi­ As we have seen, one cause of deteriora­ tions, one of the great benefits of the tion is the change in relative humidity. In Nefertari project was the training oppor­ this sense the tomb is like an organism; tunities it afforded. The experience any perturbation of its environment is gathered over the course of eight field stressful. Since some materials in the campaigns, complemented by a series of tomb begin to absorb water when courses and seminars given at Luxor, relative humidity exceeds 50 percent, proved valuable not only to the members and biologic activity can commence of the Moras' team but to the seven above 70 percent, the microclimate must Egyptian conservators who worked on be watched and controlled carefully, the project as well. These Egyptian with relative humidity levels kept at or specialists are already applying the tech­ below 45 percent. The tomb is partially niques perfected in the conservation of self-ventilating, early in the morning and Nefertari's tomb to other damaged again close to sunset, when the tempera­ tombs in the Theban area. ture inside exceeds that outside. Hot air Meanwhile, concern for the future of rising out of the tomb exchanges with the Tomb of Nefertari must remain a cooler air sinking down the sloping priority. For no matter how successful entrance shaft. Unfortunately, prelimi­ the EAO-GCI conservation effort may nary tests suggest that the tomb's atmo­ have been, it will all have to be repeated sphere—as measured by relative if the environment of the tomb is not humidity and carbon dioxide counts—

32 CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

degrades rapidly. Its environment reacts In the short space of six years, aston­ quickly to a high number of visitors, ishing results have been achieved in while its capacity to recover is much Nefertari's tomb. What most surprises a slower and may even be limited. visitor today is the subtlety of the conser­ Installation of a monitoring system vation methods (fig. 16). The mortar has permitted the establishment of bridges that sustain whole wall sections baseline data which, together with a are out of sight; fissures have been standardized program of rephotography filled and textured to blend in with of selected areas at regular intervals, surrounding surfaces; paint has been FIGURE 16 will help to detect any alterations early repositioned, reattached, and cleaned. Stairway, east wall: Anubis, on. The types of amenities required by With the clockwork of repair well the jackal-headed god of the public—a specially modified hidden, glittering color remains. The embalming, guarding entrance, walkways, lighting, ventila­ palette is fresh and sharp, and the designs Nefertari's sarcophagus. tion, and so forth—pose questions that are framed by luminous blacks and Entire scenes in the tomb have been recovered by still have to be explored in depth. Indeed, pure, almost bluish whites. Some inter­ conserving, cleaning, the long-term health of the tomb may esting mysteries remain as well. One is and reintegrating the sur­ not allow public access. the composition of some of the green viving portions. CONSERVATION OF THE PAINTINGS

pigments, which can be readily distin­ preserved in the solemnity of the queen's guished by the eye but seem to show no burial chamber. chemical differences. The identity of the In being able to appreciate fully— varnish the Egyptians laid over reds perhaps for the first time since the tomb and oranges to make them appear highly was decorated—the spontaneity of the saturated remains elusive. The black artists—their assurance and indecision, spotting observable in some of the scenes their haste and repentance—the temporal and once thought to be caused by bacte­ gulf that separates us from them is ria now appears to be a form of salt effectively bridged. In a demonstration crystallization which vanishes after the of modern-day magic, the Joint EAO- thirty-second application of a damp strip GCI Nefertari Conservation Project has of Japanese mulberry-bark paper. washed away an accumulation of years But above all, the freshness of the and restored the tomb, leaving us to tomb is unforgettable. The haze of dust marvel at its beauty. that sat like a scrim over the paintings has been banished, allowing one to appreciate subtleties and modulations of color, line, and relief which previously went unnoticed. In the descending corridor, the queen raises a censer before the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. As the smoke curls upward, one is tempted to blow it away just to get a better look at the cones of incense in the brazier. We can even observe how Nefertari's heavy black wig was carved too broadly for the taste of the painter, who painted it more narrowly, in keeping with the queen's slender proportions. As Nefertari is led by Horsiese into the presence of the gods Rehorakhty and Hathor in the upper chamber, she blushes charmingly (fig. 17). Her diaphanous robe reveals her skin tones. The robe's hem, a fluent red line, falls in a rippling motion to the floor as the queen glides forward. On the north face of one of the columns in Chamber K, a painter brought his overfilled brush too quickly to the wall, splattering dark brown paint on the queen's cartouche and one great blob in Hathor's eye: the haste of an artisan

34 FIGURE 17

Chamber E, south wall:

Horsiese leads Nefertari on her afterlife journey. FIGURE 18

In this detail of the left-

hand side of the Donation

Stela of Queen Ahmose-

Nefertari, found in the

Third Pylon of the Temple

at Karnak, she is depicted

at the same scale as her

husband and the god

Amun. Some Royal Women of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Dynasties

Nefertari, for

whom one of the most lavishly

decorated tombs ever created

in ancient Egypt was con­

structed, emerges from the

pages of history as an impor­

tant ancient Egyptian queen.

In order to understand her

background and the religious

and political positions she

occupied during the reign of

her husband, Rameses the

Great, the illustrious warrior-

pharaoh of the nineteenth

dynasty, it is advisable to pass

in review the history of the

New Kingdom with special

37 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

reference to the period's royal women. Egyptians, and how the campaigns were! Collectively, they provide many of the waged. These battles, conducted over the! precedents on which Nefertari's own course of the reigns of several Theban I career was based. Some of these remark­ monarchs, culminated in the military I able women were doubtless her ances­ successes of the Egyptian pharaoh I tors, and a few were her sisters as well. Ahmose. The roles played by the queens I To do this, one must begin with the of this period and the influence they I events of the seventeenth dynasty. At this exerted on the political and religious I time, Egypt was a divided country. The affairs of the day are often overlooked. It I north, particularly the area of the eastern is to these women that we shall turn, I delta, was ruled by the Hyksos, a tribe specifically to Ahmose-Nefertari, the I whose name derived from the ancient wife of the pharaoh Ahmose and the I Egyptian phrase meaning "rulers of the namesake of Nefertari, the wife of I hill countries." These peoples had earlier Rameses II. I invaded Egypt en masse by taking Although direct documentation about advantage of internal political dissolu­ the activities of these women does not tion at the close of the Middle Kingdom. exist, one can adduce their roles by In the south, at Elephantine, in the examining Ahmose-Nefertari's career. vicinity of the modern Aswan High Born of royal blood, perhaps a full or ' Dam, the Nubians held sway, depriving half sister of her husband, Ahmose- the Egyptians of access to the riches of Nefertari appears to have maintained the Africa beyond. The Egyptians them­ tranquility of Thebes while he was away selves, who were confined to the area on military campaigns. around Thebes, some five hundred In addition to this political authority, kilometers south of modern Cairo, soon Ahmose-Nefertari appears to have rallied around the banner of nationalism been instrumental in re-establishing in as a local Theban family consolidated temples throughout the land the Egyptian its political position. They embarked on cults that had been neglected under the so-called wars of liberation, the foreign occupation. This activity was objective of which was to expel the related to a clever move on her part by Hyksos from the delta to the north and which she exchanged a minor priestly the Nubians from the south. office for that of the so-called "God's The historian is able to reconstruct, in Wife," a rank that soon came to be broad terms, the events of those wars associated with that of the high priestess by relying in part on records left by the of the Egyptian state god Amun at ancient Egyptians themselves. These Thebes. The terms of this transaction are ancient records, when studied in con­ recorded on the Donation Stela, an junction with evidence gleaned from inscribed commemorative stone marker archaeological excavations and other on which four figures are represented sources, indicate how the wars may have (fig. 18). At the far left is Queen Ahmose- begun, how the Hyksos and Nubians Nefertari, preceded by a smaller figure may have forged an alliance against the of one of her sons, perhaps to be identi-

38 SOU E ROYAL WOMEN

fied as an older brother of the future corresponding importance of those pharaoh Amenhotep I. The center of the represented, this equality was empha­ composition is occupied by a figure of sized by the sculptors of the Donation the pharaoh Ahmose, who is shown Stela, on which Ahmose-Nefertari is making an offering to the god Amun. shown as equal in stature to both her According to the inscriptions on this husband and the god Amun. stela, Ahmose-Nefertari not only As the God's Wife in the capital city of acquired religious prestige by becoming Thebes, Ahmose-Nefertari consolidated the God's Wife but also received an into her hands a necessarily large share enormous payment consisting in part of of the power of the Egyptian priesthoods. precious metals, articles of clothing It is important to stress in this connec­ woven from the finest linen, wigs, and tion that the theoretical basis of kingship cosmetics. (It must be remembered that in ancient Egypt was deeply rooted in money in the modern sense had not been religious traditions that sought to bring invented, and that wealth was acquired, polarities, often couched in terms of accumulated, and transmitted by the male-female counterparts, into harmoni­ exchange between parties of any number ous equilibrium. The God's Wife of of commodities, including but not Amun, as a mortal woman, made mani­ limited to those just enumerated.) By fest the mythic ideal of the female regen­ means of this same transaction, Ahmose- erative forces that had to combine with Nefertari also acquired title to an estate those of the male principle in order to in Western Thebes as well as to the insure the maintenance and perpetuation personnel to work it. The revenues of the cosmic powers responsible for generated from this new estate both creation, renewal, and resurrection. In contributed to the wealth of the cult of terms of the cult of Amun, the God's the Theban god Amun and increased the Wife played a significant role. She repre­ financial well-being of Ahmose-Nefertari sented his consort, often identified with and her successors, because she was per­ the goddess Mut. Their union guaranteed mitted to pass the estate on to her heirs. the harmony of the resulting creation, The acquisition of such an estate by a because she alone could insure that her woman was not unusual. Women in consort would be so content as to lay ancient Egypt exercised rights equal to aside the redoubtable powers with which those of men regarding the conferment he might destroy as well as create. This and transfer of property, including duality of feminine wiles—the ability to property acquired by inheritance or by titillate the god prior to effecting a other means both before and after successful union, and the power to marriage. In general, therefore, the assuage his anger with her amorous status of women was more progressive advances—is made manifest in the titles than that in either ancient Greece or borne by the God's Wife. These include Rome. Since the relative scale of figures "the one great of [sexual] favors," "the in group compositions in ancient Egyp­ one sweet of love," and "the one great of tian art is directly proportional to the love" as well as "the one possessed of a

39 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

comely face," "the one whose beauty sioned a tomb for his mother in Western calms the god," "the one enchanting of Thebes in which he himself subsequently voice when she sings," and "the one who was interred, Ahmose-Nefertari became fills the room with her floral scent." a divinity (as indeed her son had). The Such epithets, while they might have reason for their deification is that their reflected the physical beauty of any given common tomb may have been the first to God's Wife, are not to be taken literally, have been dug into what was to become because they translate into words the the Valley of the Kings. To construct aulic, or ritual, concepts this priestess this tomb, Amenhotep I formed a work was required to embody in the successful force in which all subsequent artisans performance of her duties. and workers on projects in that royal Possessed of political acumen and necropolis were enrolled. In time, these administrative ability, Ahmose-Nefertari men, dependent on the pharaohs for enjoyed a productive political career. their livelihood, came to associate She distinguished herself as regent Amenhotep I with their favored lot in life during the minority of her son, Amenho- and began to venerate him as an interces­ tep I, one of the early pharaohs of the sor to whom one could address prayers eighteenth dynasty. She also survived for help or in thanksgiving. Because of Amenhotep I, who died childless. Per­ her close association with him, Ahmose- haps as an indication of her acknowl­ Nefertari was often depicted posthu­ edged political standing as the dynasty's mously in tomb representations sharing dowager queen and her continuing this role of intercessor in the company of religious influence over the priesthoods the gods (fig. 19). She was so popular in of Amun in her capacity as God's Wife, this respect that she appears alone in Ahmose-Nefertari appears on monu­ such scenes no less than fifty times. ments together with the next pharaoh, Posthumous commemorative statuettes Tuthmosis I. of her, sculpted of wood covered with For several reasons, Ahmose-Nefertari bitumen, were also commissioned. All of continued to exercise important influ­ these depictions forge the links binding ence on the religious communities at Ahmose-Nefertari to Thebes and that Thebes even after her death. First, the city's deities. position of God's Wife became hereditary These associations are of fundamental and was passed on to other women who importance to an understanding of the were themselves either queens or prin­ family and career of Nefertari, wife of cesses. Her heirs, therefore, kept the Rameses II. Before looking at her career memory of Ahmose-Nefertari alive. Sec­ in detail, a review of the so-called ond, her estate in Western Thebes con­ Amarna Period of the eighteenth dynasty tinued to increase in value over time, so is in order. that each successive God's Wife was The Amarna Period is popularly wealthier than her predecessor. Third, by regarded as that singular episode in virtue of her association with her son, ancient Egyptian history when one the pharaoh Amenhotep I, who commis­ individual, the pharaoh Akhenaten,

40 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

FIGURE 19 The deified Ahmose- Nefertari and her son, Amenhotep I, are depicted in a kiosk in this painted vignette from the Tomb of Nebamun and Ipuki. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1930, inv. 30.4.158.

attempted a religious revolution by this religious reform. which the worship of the aton, or sun Akhenaten was a son of Queen Tiye disk, was promoted at the expense of all and Amenhotep III, the latter himself a other religious expressions. Although a son and immediate successor of the great deal has been written about this pharaoh Tuthmosis IV and Mutemwiya. period, a great deal more investigation is Queen Tiye is known to have been a required before a consensus can be daughter of one Yuya and his wife, Tuya. reached regarding the exact nature of The traditionally held opinion that her

41 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

marriage was motivated by Amenhotep beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. This Ill's love for a commoner may require observation accords well with another dismissal in light of the fact that it one, namely that the cult of Ahmose- occurred when the pharaoh was so Nefertari flourished in Western Thebes young as to suggest that it had to have during the reign of Amenhotep III, been arranged. Moreover, the Egyptian suggesting that Queen Tiye, with the names Tuya and Tiye not only are varia­ approval and support of her husband, tions of the same pet name or nickname encouraged the commemoration of her but may be synonymous abbreviations illustrious ancestor. Indeed, the influence for the name Nefertari. Accordingly, of Queen Tiye—not only in the court of both the maternal grandmother, Tuya, her husband but also, after his death, and the mother, Tiye, of Akhenaten bore in the affairs of their son Akhenaten— a variation of the name of Ahmose- appears to have been patterned on Nefertari, the woman associated with the activities of Ahmose-Nefertari during the political and religious traditions the reigns of her husband, Ahmose, and of the state god Amun at Thebes at the son, Amenhotep I.

FIGURE 20

This detail of the right-

hand side of a painted

limestone shrine facade

shows (from left to right)

Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and

one of their daughters

beneath the rays of the

aton. Cairo, Egyptian

Museum inv. JE 65041.

4* SOME ROYAL WOMEN

If one accepts that a familial relation­ through family lines.) He married Mut- ship existed between Queen Tiye, the nodjmet, who is suggested to have been wife of Amenhotep III, and Ahmose- one of the many important daughters of Nefertari, the wife of Ahmose and moth­ Ay, his immediate predecessor. In fact, er of Amenhotep I, the prominent re- some have gone so far as to suggest that emergence of this collateral, female branch Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti (fig. 20) may of the royal family of the Egyptian New have been another of Ay's daughters. Kingdom neatly explains several other­ Nefertari, the wife of Rameses II and wise perplexing questions about Akhe- the subject of our study, also appears naten, his successors, and their wives. to have been a daughter of Ay. She Although the pharaoh Akhenaten was therefore could have been related on her followed by several individuals whose father's side to both Queen Nefertiti and identity is often contested, the order of Queen Mutnodjmet. The evidence for succession from Tutankhamun to Ay to this, while slight, is compelling. It comes Horemhab to Rameses I is fixed. This in the form of a faience knob, originally unbroken line of succession is significant from a wooden box, around which a on two counts. First, it has been sug­ string could be wrapped and secured by gested that the Egyptian names Yuya and sealing it with stamped wax or clay, Ay are, on the model provided for the thereby insuring the safety of its contents names Tuya/Tiye, variations of a pet (fig. 21). Discovered in the Tomb of name or nickname and synonymous Nefertari by Schiaparelli, this knob, now abbreviations for a putative longer in the Museo Egizio, is inscribed with name, the exact form of which is debated. the throne name of the pharaoh Ay. In this case, Queen Tiye's father, Yuya, Egyptologists have suggested that objects and the pharaoh Ay would be like- found in royal tombs bearing a royal named, suggesting a familial relationship name other than that of the tomb's as well, a relationship supported by their owner are generally family heirlooms shared military titles, assumed to have belonging to a relative. Invoking this been inherited. These men would there­ suggestion for this faience knob would fore appear to have been members of the make Nefertari a daughter—the only same family. The pharaoh Ay thus relationship chronologically possible— becomes a relative of Akhenaten, from of the pharaoh Ay and a younger sister of whose maternal grandfather he appears both Queen Nefertiti and Queen to have been descended. Mutnodjmet. Horemhab, the last pharaoh of the There appears to be a second, if eighteenth dynasty, was not related by somewhat veiled, reference to the birth in any way to any member of these Amarna Period in the corridor inscrip­ royal families. He ascended the throne as tions in the Tomb of Nefertari that pharaoh by virtue of his unchallenged accompany the goddess Isis. They con­ position as commander-in-chief of tain a spell alluding to the sun god, the army and as Ay's undisputed deputy. Re. The word used in this context is tin, (Succession did not necessarily run meaning the aton, or sun disk, that

43 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

This heiress theory, alternately termed the right of matrilinear succession, cannot be maintained, because the majority of pharaohs in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties

FIGURE 21 were either proclaimed by their fathers as

The faience knob inscribed their successors or elevated to the throne with the name of the by adoption. pharaoh Ay that was dis­ On the contrary, the association of covered in the Tomb of these pharaohs with the women of this Nefertari by Schiaparelli.

Turin, Museo Egizio inv. collateral branch of the royal family was S.5I62. linked to the fundamental role the latter played in the cult of the state god Amun, a position of status and authority established by the revered Ahmose- figured so prominently in the religious Nefertari at the beginning of the eigh­ reform of Akhenaten. Itn is used rather teenth dynasty. Their association with than re, which the context seems to the pharaohs reinforced the theological demand. This particular spell, which Isis basis of Egyptian kingship whereby recites for the benefit of Nefertari, secular peace and tranquility throughout translates, "I give to thee a place within the realm were linked to the ability of the sacred land in the presence of the god the goddess, in the guise of a priestess, to Wennefer [a form of Osiris]. Mayest allay the destructive forces of the god thou appear like the aton forever!" and insure the god and goddess' sancti­ If one subscribes to this attractive fied union for the continuing harmony suggestion that Nefertari is, indeed, to and stability of the universe. In these be connected with the personalities and terms, it is completely understandable events of the Amarna Period, one adduces that a pharaoh such as Amenhotep III, a remarkable family tree in which a whose reign represents the apogee of putative collateral branch of the Amarna Egyptian culture during the eighteenth family produced one pharaoh in King dynasty, would have aligned himself by Ay and four queens in the persons of marriage with a daughter of a family Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III, and ostensibly related to Ahmose-Nefertari, each of Ay's three daughters: Nefertiti, because his reign was inextricably linked wife of Akhenaten; Mutnodjmet, wife of to Thebes and associated with Amun, Horemheb; and Nefertari, principal that city's supreme deity. Egypt was, wife of Rameses II. The reason for the after all, the undisputed mistress of the prominence of these women has little to known eastern Mediterranean basin, do with the now outdated suggestion Thebes was her unrivaled capital, and that a new pharaoh's claim to the throne the prestige of Theban Amun and his depended on his relationship to a princi­ priesthoods was without rival in Egypt. pal female of his predecessor's family. The pharaohs' association with the fam-

44 SOME ROYAL WOMEN

ily of Ahmose-Nefertari was indicative family who were now free to re-establish of the peace enjoyed by the court and the their former positions of prestige and harmony exercised by the priesthoods. power. Tutankhamun, who had been The female members of this family fell known as Tutankhaton, changed his into disfavor with Akhenaten because name, and the capital was transferred his reforms were antagonistic to the very back to Thebes from Amarna. These priesthood from which they derived their were but two of the more obvious signs status. Gradually, the role played by that Egypt had returned to orthodoxy. Queen Nefertiti diminished; her power The elevation to the throne, following and influence waned toward the end Tutankhamun's death, of the aged of her husband's reign. Not only had Ay, himself perhaps a scion of the vener­ Akhenaten distanced himself from her able family of Ahmose-Nefertari, can family by gradually diminishing her be regarded as a conscious attempt importance; he had also intentionally to restore the status quo of the Amun ruptured the role of the family's women priesthoods in their collective efforts to as the mortal manifestation of the mythic regain the prestige and wealth destroyed female principle in the cosmic order by by the iconoclasm of Akhenaten's depriving the aton of a mythological pogrom. Ay's ascension thereby insured consort. There was no female counter­ this priesthood of its former position, part of the aton in the religion created by a position that was further consolidated Akhenaten. by the marriage of his daughter, Mut­ Alienating the family, tampering with nodjmet, to Horemheb, his successor. the underlying theological tenets of Mutnodjmet, whose very name, "Sweet Egyptian religion by discarding the Is the Goddess Mut [consort of the god female principle, proscribing the cult of Amun]," is associated with Thebes Amun, and—further—relocating Egypt's and its deities, recalls the epithets of the capital from Thebes to the site generally God's Wife, and seems to imply a con­ known as Amarna undermined the scious choice indicative of the renewed influence, wealth, and importance of the popularity of the Theban deities and members of this collateral branch, whose of the support enjoyed by their priest­ women could claim with justification hoods. Horemheb not only restored the that their ancestors had safeguarded the monuments to Amun at Karnak and deities of Egypt and their temples at granted his wife the status enjoyed by her precisely the time when their menfolk ancestors but also ordered the aggressive delivered Egypt from the hands of her destruction of the aton temple in East foes during the wars of liberation at the Karnak by directing his agents to put it dynasty's beginning. to the torch. The deaths of the pharaoh Akhenaten and his immediate successor(s) effectively reversed the trends established during his reign. This reversal was no doubt encouraged by members of the royal

45 FIGURE 2 2

This image of Nefertari, standing with her arm raised, is found beside the left leg of the southernmost colossal statue of her husband in the eastern colonnade of the Court of

Rameses II, Temple of

Luxor. Nefertari as Chief Queen and Principal Wife

T he cultic impor- tance of Thebes and the deter­

mining role played by the

queen are fundamental to an

understanding of the early

career of Nefertari, which in

its own way reflects the central

importance of this city and

the haunting memory of the

Amarna interlude in the midst

of the realities of a changing

world. It is therefore to those

changes that we must turn,

and to the Hittites, who

brought them about.

The Hittites, peoples who

occupied the heartland of

47 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

central Anatolia (in modern Turkey), Rameses I succeeded in reasserting appear in ancient Egyptian records with Egypt's claim to territories in Nubia, the increasing frequency from the reign of Sinai, and the area of modern Syria- Amenhotep III on. One of their kings, Palestine, to judge from monuments Suppiluliumas, engaged in diplomatic found there that bear his name. correspondence in an effort to establish Rameses I was married to Satre. an alliance with Akhenaten and, after Although their family is assumed to have the death of this pharaoh, even received been large, only Sety, Rameses I's succes­ a request from an as yet unidentified sor, is known by name. Sety appears to Egyptian queen or princess for the hand have been one of the couple's oldest of one of his sons in marriage. Initially children, an assumption reinforced by suspecting a ruse, but eventually acced­ the observation that he was already an ing to the request, Suppiluliumas dis­ adult when his father possibly designated patched one of his sons, Zannanza him as co-regent and heir apparent. by name, to Egypt, but the hapless youth While serving in his father's court, Sety was murdered en route under circum­ was already married to Tuy, who was his stances about which the Egyptian sources only wife. She was not of royal birth are silent. Suppiluliumas's campaign to and was not related in any way to the avenge the death of Zannanza was women of the collateral branch of the interrupted by a plague outbreak. Hor- royal family. (The seeming similarity be­ emhab, who had become pharaoh and tween her name and theirs is merely due who was himself a career military officer, to the way Egyptian hieroglyphs are trans­ recognized the potential threat of the literated into English.) During this time, Hittites. Being childless, he took steps to the son of Sety and Tuy, the future Rameses insure Egypt's security by selecting as II (husband of Nefertari), was born. his successor the military commander A capable ruler, excellent field com­ Paramese, whose career in many ways mander, and energetic builder, Sety I paralleled that of Horemhab himself and embarked on a series of military cam­ who was also not of royal lineage. paigns in the first year of his reign in an On the death of Horemhab, Paramese, effort to re-establish Egypt's empire. a man of advanced years, ascended the By his sixth regnal year, he had success­ throne as Rameses I, thereby inaugurat­ fully reclaimed all territory formerly ing the nineteenth dynasty. The geopolit­ under Egyptian control up to the city of ical axis of Egypt had by this time shifted Kadesh, which reverted to the Hittites. from Thebes to the eastern delta, the Sety I was able to reach a peaceful homeland of this new pharaoh's military accord with Muwatali, the Hittite king, family and the region from which his by which each sovereign recognized descendants were to rule. This was the other's territorial claims and agreed doubtless due to its geographic proximity to a cessation of hostilities. It was during to the theater of military campaigns this time that the future pharaoh directed against the Hittites, which were Rameses II, though a mere boy of about to escalate over time. It appears that ten, was given the honorific title of

48 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

commander-in-chief of the army. because of his need to demonstrate Although the youth did not campaign, support for both the Theban priesthood the conferring of this title was a clear and the members of that collateral indication that Sety I regarded him, branch that he arranged for his son, the even at this time, as his heir and succes­ prince regent Rameses, to marry Nefer- sor. This position was clarified further tari. As husband and wife, the couple a few years later, when Sety I public­ lived at Sety's court. Before the corona­ ly acclaimed and formally invested tion of her husband Rameses II as pha­ Rameses as the heir apparent with the raoh, Nefertari was the mother of at official title of prince regent. least one child, their firstborn, Prince With the political situation abroad in Amenkherkhepeshef. hand and with the prospect of a peaceful If Nefertari was in fact a daughter of transference of power to his son, Sety I, the collateral branch of the eighteenth- following the precedent established by dynasty royal family, Sety's choice of his father, turned his attention to reli­ daughter-in-law effectively drew the gious matters. Although he favored the Theban priesthood back into the ruling eastern delta cities close to his ancestral family's circle. So closely aligned to home and did much to promote the Thebes was Nefertari herself that she cult of the god Ptah at Memphis, Sety I incorporated the phrase Meryenmut, went to great lengths to appease the "the one beloved of the goddess Mut priesthoods at Thebes. This homage to [consort of the Theban god Amun]," into Amun was part of a conscious program, her name when she married. The over­ the aim of which was the eradication of tures of Sety I to this Theban family the memory of the pharaohs of the extended even to his wife, Tuy, who Amarna Period, an episode that contin­ received the title of God's Wife of Amun. ued to cast its haunting shadow across Sety also dedicated a double temple in the religious landscape of the land. So Western Thebes to the memories of intent was Sety I in his efforts to proscribe Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III, and the memory of Akhenaten and the other the revered Ahmose-Nefertari. pharaohs of the Amarna Period that he Almost nothing is known of Nefertari's ordered the excision of their names from appearance. Her name, which may be the official lists of Egyptian pharaohs. translated as either "The Most Beautiful The conscious condemnation of the of Them" or "The Very Best," does not memory of this episode of their history apparently belie her beauty; her husband by Sety I and others may explain why the said of his bride that she was "compara­ ancient Egyptian evidence that has ble with the beauties of the palace." survived for the Amarna interlude is Indeed, an anonymous tourist visiting both so scarce and so fragmented. the Temple of Luxor in antiquity was Sety I did not neglect the collateral apparently so enthralled with the image branch of the royal family whose female of Nefertari standing beside the leg of members had done so much to promote one of her husband's statues (fig. 22) that the cult of Amun. It was doubtless he scratched a graffito of an archer

49 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

a Hittite princess, known by her Egyptian name of Maathorneferure, whom he married after Nefertari's death. The pattern for Nefertari's appearance on monuments throughout her career was established in the very first year of her husband's reign as king, when, for example, she was associated with him at a monument in Silsila West. Of the more than approximately two hundred children fathered by Rameses II, his firstborn son, Amenkherkhe- peshef, was Nefertari's child, as were his third, eleventh, and sixteenth sons and fourth and fifth daughters. FIGURE 23 which he dutifully identified by an Although religious practice and tradi­ The graffito of an archer accompanying inscription as Paris (fig. tion generally excluded representations on the column adjacent to 23). No doubt he did this because Nefer­ of living queens from the relief decoration a colossal statue of

Rameses II (see fig. 22). tari's figure reminded him of the legend­ of temples during the New Kingdom— ary beauty of Helen of Troy, whom the particularly during the eighteenth goddess Aphrodite granted to the Trojan dynasty—Nefertari is depicted in the Paris, a mortal, when Paris declared Luxor temple (fig. 24). Here she is shown Aphrodite the fairest of deities. Called wearing a tightly fitting sheath and "God's Wife" at least once, Nefertari tripartite wig beneath a vulture head­ bore as a consequence a string of aulic dress. From the time of the Old Kingdom, epithets describing her as "one possessed the feather headdress was the emblem of of charm, sweetness, and love, who the titular goddesses of Upper and occupies a [special] place within the Lower Egypt, Nekhbet and Wadjet, and Temple of Amun." was soon associated with queens as Arranged though this marriage may well as with the goddesses Isis and Mut. have been, Nefertari from the moment of This headdress also became associated her wedding became the king's unrivaled with the God's Wife of Amun in the partner and cocelebrant, positions of eighteenth dynasty. Here it supports status and privilege she enjoyed until her double plumes—first attested as queenly death about twenty years after his regalia in the thirteenth dynasty— coronation. The fact that she could which allude to several deities, among maintain such an iron-fisted grasp on her whom are Amun and Min, god of fertil­ status is a remarkable tribute to her ity. (Nefertari speaks of herself as Min in inner strength and intelligence, particu­ one instance in her tomb: "I am Min in larly when one realizes that Rameses II his setting out, as he put the two feathers had a large harem that included at least on my head." On one of her statues now four other notable Egyptian women and in Cairo, Nefertari is described as "the

50 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

one comely of face who is also beautiful Hittites were simultaneously attacked by FIGURE 24 with respect to the two feathers.") In her Assyria. Thus Hattusili III was forced Nefertari, shaking lowered hand she grasps a menat, a to sue for peace with Rameses II. The a sistrum, or sacred rattle, ceremonial implement made of several resulting treaty, signed by both rulers, is is preceded by her strings of beads connected to a counter­ history's first mutual nonaggression husband, Rameses II, who makes an offering to poise, while in her raised hand she pact. Copies are preserved both in Amun. This relief is on the holds a sistrum, or sacred rattle, which is Egyptian hieroglyphs and in cuneiform, inner face of the First Pylon the subject of the inscription between the wedge-shaped writing employed at at the Temple of Luxor. her hands, Shaking the two sistra for her father[, Amun]. Such musical perfor­ mances were associated with the rituals performed by the God's Wife in Thebes. Memories of Akhenaten, revived perhaps by Rameses IPs marriage to Nefertari, may have helped him to forge a causal link, however tenuous, by which he connected the loss of Egypt's empire with the policies of the earlier pharaoh. Seemingly obsessed with this link, Rameses II renewed hostilities against the Hittite king Muwatali, with whom Sety I had earlier achieved rapproche­ ment. Marshaling his troops, Rameses II departed for Syria, intent on breaking the influence of the Hittites in the region by capturing Kadesh, their stronghold. The battle was apparently a draw. Repeatedly over the course of the next decade, Rameses II marched into battle in this same theater of operations, though many of his victories were often reversed shortly after his return to Egypt. This back-and-forth continued into the reign of the Hittite king Hattusili III, who had gained the throne by a palace coup which drove his nephew, Urhi- Teshub, into exile. Urhi-Teshub eventu­ ally arrived at the delta residence of Rameses II, where the two formed an alliance aimed at deposing Hattusili III and his chief queen, Pudukhepa. As Hattusili marched against Egypt, the

5i NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

this time in the ancient Near East as the in a vacuum (the etiquette of diplomatic language for diplomatic correspondence. correspondence between royal women As a result of the treaty, Hattusili III had not been established), nevertheless and Pudukhepa initiated a series of attempted to bridge these chasms with a letters, the former writing to Rameses II personal letter. Her telling words were and the latter to Nefertari. One of accompanied by the exchange of gifts; Nefertari's replies survives on a clay those sent to Pudukhepa included jew­ tablet on which her name is rendered elry, dyed textiles, and royal garments. into cuneiform as Naptera; she refers to Few ancient queens have left posterity Pudukhepa as her sister. This letter such windows on their worlds. may be paraphrased as follows: With the Hittites now firmly allied with the Egyptians, Rameses II could Naptera, the Great Queen of Egypt, again cast his eyes to the far southern says, "Deliver this message to Pudukhepa, reaches of his realm. At Abu Simbel (fig. the Great Queen of the Hatti [Hittites], my 25), below the Tropic of Cancer, he sister, so that she may hear my words, brought to conclusion the construction namely, with me, your sister, all goes well; and decoration of two temples, the with my country all goes well. With you, northern one of which is associated with my sister, may all go well; with your the goddess Hathor and Nefertari herself. country may all go well! Realize that I (Both of these temples were threatened have duly noted that you, my sister, have in this century by the waters rising corresponded with me inquiring both behind the Aswan High Dam and, in an about my well-being and about the rela­ effort to preserve them, were moved to tionships of good peace and brotherhood higher ground between January 1966 into which the Great King, the King of and September 1968 by an international Egypt, has entered with his brother, the campaign conducted under the auspices Great King, the King of Hatti. of UNESCO.) Rameses IPs motivation May the Egyptian sun god and the Hit- for the construction of these colossal tite storm god bring you joy; and may the rock-cut sanctuaries has been the subject sun god cause the achieved peace to be good of much debate, but one thing is certain. and may he bestow good brotherhood on the He singled out Nefertari for special Great King, the King of Egypt, and on his treatment here; she was the only one of brother, the Great King, the King of the Hat­ his queens so honored. In fact, he clari­ ti, forever. And I am in friendship and soror- fied her role both in his reign and at this ial relationships with my sister, the Great site by means of an inscription that Queen of the Hatti, now and forever!" reads, in part, [Rameses II] made the [northern] temple [at Abu Simbel], a very However stilted and repetitive its great monument, for the principal chief phrasing may seem, this document is queen, Nefertarimeryenmut, for whose nevertheless very intimate. Its contents very sake the sun does shine! The refer­ enable us to see how Nefertari, separated ence, despite a modern reader's penchant by language and distance and operating to see a sentimental allusion to a hus-

5* NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

band's love for his wife, is clearly cultic. at Abu Simbel insured the sunrise, FIGURE 25 The southern, or main, temple of thereby guaranteeing the harmonious The faqade of the Temple Rameses II at Abu Simbel was con­ cyclic recreation of the cosmos with the of Hathor at Abu Simbel includes images of structed in such a way that twice a year, forces of chaos held in check. It is to this Nefertari alternating with in February and October, the rays of cultic capacity that the passage just those of her husband. the rising sun would penetrate the axis of quoted refers. And it is precisely to this the temple at dawn and illuminate the association with the cult of the Egyptian four statues of the gods—one of which sun god that Nefertari refers in her represents Rameses II himself—cut from letter to Pudukhepa. the living rock in the rearmost wall of Elsewhere at Abu Simbel one finds the sanctuary. Rameses II unequivocally conflicting statements about the person linked himself and his cult to that of the responsible for the construction of the sun god Re and, by extension, to that northern temple. In several passages, of Amun at Abu Simbel. As a result, Rameses II claims responsibility: "He, Nefertari, in her various capacities as Rameses II, made it as his monument for priestess and God's Wife and by virtue of the principal wife of the king, Nefertari- her association with Hathor, continued meryenmut, a house hewn in the pure to provide the theological basis for her mountain of Nubia of fine, white and husband's reign. As a manifestation enduring sandstone, as an eternal work." of the female principle, her ministrations But elsewhere one finds this passage:

53 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

"The principal wife of the king, Nefer- tarimeryenmut; she is the one who made a house [i.e., this temple] in the pure mountain." The last passage would seem to indicate that Nefertari had a hand in the planning of the temple. Such an activity is entirely consistent with the significant role she played in the reign of her husband and throughout her lifetime. The monumental proportions of her two colossal statues, arranged between those of her husband, would tend to support this contention, as would the observation that Rameses II himself was worshiped as a deity within the southern temple. If Nefertari was involved in the construction at this site, and if the cult of her divine husband as performed there was dependent on the successful dis­ charge of her sacred and divine functions, there is every reason to expect that she would have insisted on the same cultic, divine privileges for herself. The northern temple at Abu Simbel is, however, a bittersweet monument to Nefertari. Whereas its cultic program may indeed proclaim her divinity and declare her paramount importance within the reign of her husband, the events surrounding the dedication of the temples at Abu Simbel imply both her eclipse and death. In Rameses IPs twenty- fourth regnal year, he traveled south to celebrate the inauguration of these stupendous temples. On a rock-cut commemorative stela sculpted into one of the mountains at Abu Simbel, we find FIGURE 2 6 him accompanied not by Nefertari, but This statue of Rameses II is

by the princess Meritamun. The queen is considered to be one of

merely represented below this scene in the finest sculpted during another one, in which she is depicted as his reign. Turin, Museo an enthroned recipient of offerings. Her Egizio inv. 1380.

54 NEFERTARI AS CHIEF QUEEN

absence from the principal scene is re­ deaths of her sons in the interim, another markable. Was she ill? Had she died? Or queen, Isetnofret, and her sons must had she, near the end of her career, been have come to the fore. One of the latter, replaced by another? We can only spec­ Merneptah by name, ultimately emerged ulate. One thing is certain. At about the as his father's heir and successor. time of the opening ceremonies at Abu Already in his late sixties when he Simbel, Nefertari disappears from the became pharaoh, Merneptah may have archaeological record. There is no evi­ been responsible for effacing the names dence to suggest the cause of her death. and image of Nefertari from these two FIGURE 27 Detail of figure 26 showing So important a queen and so dominant monuments of his father in an effort intentional damage to the a personality was Nefertari that her to minimize her importance and distance image and title of monuments could not be summarily himself from her family. Nefertari. destroyed nor her name readily hacked out or replaced by that of another. As a result, at Thebes and at Abu Simbel, as elsewhere, her monuments continue to proclaim her presence to this day. How­ ever, certain other monuments seem to have been altered at some point after her death in order to demonstrate that her memory would have no value in the dynastic succession. These include a masterfully sculpted statue of Rameses II seated (fig. 26) and another statue, also of him, found at Karnak. When one looks carefully at a detail of the former depicting a queen (fig. 27), one sees that both the name accompanying this figure and its upraised arm were intentionally destroyed. The statue found at Karnak is similarly damaged. This conscious effacing may have been an attempt by agents of Merneptah, a son and successor of Rameses II, to remove the image and name of Nefertari from these statues. Rameses himself ruled until he was well over ninety years old. Many of his more than a hundred sons assuredly predeceased him; in their number were certainly those born early in his reign to Nefertari. With her death some forty years before his, and with the supposed

55 FIGURE 28

This unfinished painting in the

Tomb of Nakht retains traces of the grid that enabled the artists to establish appropriate proportional relationships among the various elements in the scene. New York, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art,

Rogers Fund, 1915, inv. I5.5.l9f. On the Nature of Egyptian Painting

The advent of the

nineteenth dynasty ushered in

a change by which only the

mothers of pharaohs, their

queens, and their children

were permitted to be interred

within the Valley of the

Queens (fig. 2). These burials

were grouped by reign into

clearly defined plots of real

estate. Rameses II, on becom­

ing pharaoh, designated a

sector in the northern part of

the valley as the area reserved

for his family. To date, the

tombs of his mother, Tuy, of

several of his daughters, and

57 ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

of Nefertari have been identified. Con­ but also accommodated a combination tinued archaeological exploration may of scenes in such a way that all of the reveal the tombs of his other wives available space was comfortably filled. Isisnofret and Henetmire, which are One individual, termed the "outline mentioned in contemporary documents scribe," played a major role in the pro­ as being located in the Valley of the cesses just described. This role can be Queens. appreciated by examining a so-called Whereas most of the tombs in the unfinished scene from the tomb of the Valley of the Queens conform to a simple official Nakht (Number 52) at Thebes plan in which a series of successive (fig. 28). Remains of the grid lines, chambers is cut into the limestone in a painted in red, are visible running straight line, the plan of the Tomb of through the hair of the seated figures at Nefertari is more elaborate (fig. 3). In top left as well as through the legs of fact, its plan and decoration—primarily their chair. The images were designed by large-scale depictions of the queen the outline scribe within the grid with a before deities rather than vignettes and very strong contour line, which can be texts from various religious books of the compared to those found in coloring underworld—are closer to those of the books from which young children are tombs of the pharaohs of the eighteenth taught to draw. The comparison is not dynasty in the Valley of the Kings than to an idle one, because the strong contour either the other tombs in the Valley of lines in ancient Egyptian art, like those the Queens or the royal tombs of the in children's coloring books, were nineteenth dynasty in the Valley of the intended to keep the applied colors Kings. The Joint EAO-GCI Nefertari trapped within them. One can judge how Conservation Project has stabilized the this process was effected in ancient paintings in the tomb to a point where Egypt by turning to this same unfinished one can profitably discuss their place scene. The color patches can be profitably in the history of ancient Egyptian art and compared to those passages of the scene also catch a fleeting glimpse of the which were defined by the contours but special group of men from whose ranks left unpainted. came the artisans who decorated it. The limitation imposed by the contour Although the issue is debatable, the line was further reinforced by the fact evidence appears to suggest the existence that the artisan charged with "coloring in ancient Egypt, in some form or other, in" the contours was restricted by the of pattern books to which the decorators color terminology of the ancient Egyp­ of tombs and their patrons had recourse tian language, which generally admitted for the selection of motifs and texts. only five color words: kem (black), Once selected, these scenes and texts khedj (white), desher (red), wad) (blue were transferred to the wall by means of or green), and sab (variegated). Attempt­ a series of grids which not only estab­ ing to reconcile this ancient terminology lished the proportional relationships with terms used for the colors of light between the elements in any given scene refracted through a prism, one immedi-

58 ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

ately sees that the spectrum of red/ effort to imitate the color of gold, a orange/yellow was reduced to the one precious metal that neither rusts nor word desher, whereas the spectrum tarnishes. As a result of these properties, of green/blue/indigo/violet was embod­ the ancient Egyptians associated gold ied in the word wad). The reflection and its color with the concepts of perma­ and absorption of all colors were termed nence and indestructibility, characteris­ khedj and kem, respectively. Objects tics suitable for the flesh of their eternal that seemingly appeared mottled to the deities. Because of these associations, eyes of the ancient Egyptians were gold—either in the form of metal or as termed sab without any attempt to paint—imparted to the objects it adorned define the relationships between colors perceived. As a result, the ancient Egyp­ tian painter thought in terms of a limited palette, the colors of which had to be applied in solid patches restricted by contour lines from spilling over into adjacent areas. These stringent rules were the same as those jewelers observed in the manufac­ ture of objects (fig. 29). This comparison, demonstrating the uniformity of the approach followed by artisans in differ­ ent crafts, is significant for several reasons. Color confined to specific areas FIGURE 29 could be, and was, imbued with symbolic The gold on this vulture meaning. However, the fact that their headdress was formed into color vocabulary was so limited impelled individual cells which then the ancient Egyptians to adopt a plural­ were filled with pieces istic view with regard to that symbolism. of other materials. These pieces created solid As a result, reds and greens/blues might patches of color, producing connote resurrection and regeneration, the same effect achieved respectively, whereas the same reds in by painters. The Cleveland other contexts might equally suggest Museum of Art, John Huntington Art and overtones of chaos and evil. Polytechnic Trust, inv.

In the vignettes in the sarcophagus 20.1991. chamber in the Tomb of Nefertari (figs. 16, 17), the exclusive use of yellowish ocher hues for the figures and their accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions, which are painted over a white back­ ground and articulated by details picked out in reds and blacks, is a conscious

59 ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

FIGURE 30

This scene from Chamber

G in the Tomb of Nefertari

illustrates the method

employed by ancient

Egyptian painters to

achieve a dappled effect in

their representations of

cattle.

the idea of incorruptibility. It is entirely insofar as it was possible, both painterly understandable that the sarcophagus effects and the use of broken color— chamber of the Tomb of Nefertari should that is, the overlapping of several hues be clad in gold, since this would symboli­ within the same patch bounded by cally have insured the queen's preserva­ one contour. For example, the dappled tion for eternity. There is no reason, appearance of the hides of individual therefore, to suppose, as some scholars animals was represented during the have suggested, that the sections of eighteenth dynasty by the application of this tomb decorated in this so-called each color adjacent to, as opposed to monochromatic style were painted at a over, the color nearest to it (fig. 30). This later date. technique was used in tomb paintings Ancient Egyptian painters avoided, at Thebes to produce other effects as

60 ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

well. In some cases, the juxtaposition of technique is found among the bearers in hues eventually denied the contour line the Tomb of Ramose (fig. 31). its power to separate them. Whether these conscious juxtaposi­ From the time of the Old Kingdom, tions of similar hues led to further the ancient Egyptians had employed experimentation is moot. But in many of variation of hue as a visual means of the paintings in the tombs from the isolating one human figure from another eighteenth dynasty, one sees a concomi­ in compositions in which figures were tant experiment by which a similar rendered with a great deal of overlapping. juxtaposition of hues was employed to The artists of the eighteenth dynasty render the body visible beneath transpar­ further developed the approach for their ent drapery. An early example, from the depictions of crowd scenes. When called time of the pharaoh Amenhotep II, is the upon to represent a group of individuals depiction from the Tomb of Sennefer standing shoulder to shoulder, Egyptian (Number 96), in which the latter is artisans treated the composition like a shown standing, accompanied by his deck of playing cards fanned out, so that wife (fig. 32). His legs, torso, and upper the same outline, repeated to define arms are covered with the transparent each successive figure, was then colored linen fabric from which his costume was alternately lighter or darker. One of woven. These anatomical parts appear the best-preserved examples of this as pink color patches that contrast with

g FIGURE 31

As can be seen in this file of

bearers from the Tomb of

Ramose, Egyptian artists

differentiated individuals

standing shoulder to

shoulder by fanning the

forms out and defining

each figure by the

application of alternately

lighter and darker colors.

6i ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

FIGURE 32

In this scene from the

Tomb of Sennefer, the artists employed a lighter color for his legs, arms, and torso to indicate the transparent nature of his clothing.

the red tones of his feet and ankles, lower rendering the transparency of finely arms, and face. From these and other woven linen and the body underneath like examples, it would appear that the can be observed in two registers from the artisans of this period actively exploited Tomb of Nebamun and Ipuki (Number the potential inherent in a tradition 181), dated to the time of Amenhotep that allowed for the application of III, where one sees men and women modulated values of one and the same preparing themselves for a banquet (fig. hue in adjacent color patches. 33). Skin tones are rendered here in The culmination of this technique for two distinct manners. The first relies on

6z FIGURE 33

The use of a honey-colored

pigment to reproduce the

effect of gossamer

garments over the forms

of the body is seen to good

advantage in this detail

from the Tomb of

Nebamun and Ipuki. 0U THE NATURE OF PAINTING

the technique just described, in which fanned-out faces are depicted as alter­ nating patches of juxtaposed lighter and darker values of the same hue. The second is a somewhat more sophisticated attempt to convey by the application of paint the suggestion that the bodies of some of the men and women are emerg­ ing from beneath their draperies. The upper torsos of the women and the upper torsos and thighs of the men are painted a honey color that is feathered out into the white area representing the textile, the folds of which are rendered as stripes of ocher applied directly on top of it. This one scene therefore contains two of the exceptions to the general rule that ancient Egyptian painters confined color by means of contours. The paucity of documents and absence of an ample color terminology thwart attempts to define, in precise terms, the objectives of such approaches. It has, however, been suggested that such passages were created by artisans interacting freely and directly with their medium. Once devel­ oped, these techniques became part of the repertoire of decorative effects to which any subsequent painter might have had recourse. So the rendering of the body emerging from beneath transparent drapery became an easily applied formula; exam­ ples can be found in any number of tomb paintings from the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties. Albeit in a some­ FIGURE 34 what restrained form, it was applied as The forms of Nefertari's well to certain representations of Queen body emerging from Nefertari in her tomb in the Valley of the beneath her gossamer

costume are clearly evident Queens (fig. 34). The fullness of the

in this representation from gossamer garments she wears, doubtless Chamber G of her tomb. due to the fact that they were composed

64 ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

FIGURE 35

Chamber C, south wall:

Nefertari playing senet

of several yards of material, afforded her a greater degree of mobility than that permitted by the traditional sheath. This difference has been interpreted as indica­ tive of the greater personal freedom enjoyed by Egyptian women of the New Kingdom. Although garments woven of this type of linen allowed artists to depict a woman's breast and thighs, it is important to note that in her tomb Nefer­ tari—save in the one vignette in which she is shown playing senet (fig. 35)—is depicted more modestly. In fact, in most of the scenes in which she is represented in the company of a goddess, it is the goddess who is depicted topless.

65 FIGURE 36

The treatment of

Nefertari's face in her tomb sometimes reveals a

nascent chiaroscuro. An Assessment of the Wall Paintings

It is of fundamen­ tal importance for a fuller

understanding of ancient

Egyptian art to realize that the

rendering of the illusion of the

male or female body emerging

from beneath a garment was

achieved at least five hundred

years before a similar phe­

nomenon is detectable in the

art of ancient Greece. The

restraint shown by the artisans

in the depiction of Nefertari's

body emerging from beneath

her costume at first draws our

attention away from the most

extraordinary characteristic of

67 AN ASSESSMENT

some of the paintings in her tomb, was achieved. Although this technique is namely the treatment of her face (fig. 36). to be found in selected vignettes from at Here, for the first time in the history of least two other, nearly contemporary art, a painter treated the human face as a tombs, those of Userhet (fig. 37) and of three-dimensional volume. Values of red Ipy, and may perhaps be traced back and mauve were combined in the same to as early as the eighteenth dynasty, color patches, integrated by the absence none of the earlier examples are as of contours, so that a nascent chiar­ accomplished. Moreover, this technique oscuro, or modeling of light and dark, was reserved exclusively for depictions

FIGURE 37 The facial details in this scene in the Tomb of Userhet, painted during the reign of Sety I, anticipate the nascent chiaroscuro found in some renderings of Nefertari in her tomb.

68 AN ASSESSMENT

of Nefertari in her tomb. The artisans that she was painted in reddish hues responsible for this remarkable technical because she was active in the world of innovation, assuredly drawn from the men, in the "outdoors" of politics and ranks of the "servants in the place of world affairs. The importance of Nefer­ truth," as the craftsmen working on the tari and her family connections for the royal tombs were anciently called, were reign of Sety I has been articulated gifted individuals who recognized the above. Those ties of prestige, authority, great potential inherent in combining and power—familial, political, and values of the same hue within a color religious—which she brought to her patch devoid of contour lines. Further­ marriage to Rameses II are all empha­ more, these craftsmen exercised a degree sized by the use of reds for her flesh tones of artistic freedom because they did not in her tomb. Her special role is further always slavishly follow the contour lines emphasized by the fact that she is the as drawn by the outline scribes and only mortal represented there. She carved in the plaster. Occasionally, one is, therefore, the principal celebrant and sees a double contour resulting from the interacts in each scene with the deities of painter's decision to refine the profile of a Egypt as if she were the pharaoh. Nefer­ face by disregarding its original design or tari is presented for eternity as the by modifying the shape of a wig (fig. 38). sovereign authority in Western Thebes, This spirit of creativity enabled the ascribing to herself the role of ruler painters to add another dimension and priest. It is doubtless for this reason to their innovative use of color. As we that her costumes conceal, rather than have seen, color in ancient Egyptian art reveal, her femininity (fig. 17). was imbued with meaning. Reds were For all of these reasons, those tomb generally reserved for skin tones of men, paintings of Nefertari which are rendered while yellows were employed for those of with light and dark values of the same women. This was because men, whose hue rank among the finest masterpieces activities took place outdoors, reacted of ancient Egyptian painting. The excep­ naturally to the sun and tanned, whereas tional technique and use of reds were women, who were—despite their appar­ unequivocally intended to proclaim the ently privileged status—expected to message that she was an exceptional confine themselves to the home, individual. In the present state of knowl­ remained pale. (There are, of course, edge, these tomb paintings are unique. exceptions to this generalization.) We must therefore exercise extreme According to this practice, Nefertari caution before citing these examples in ought invariably to have been painted support of sweeping conclusions about yellow, the color of women, as indeed she the nature of Egyptian painting, which is on some of the pillars in her tomb. both before and after this very brief The fact that elsewhere her skin is painted interlude conforms generally to the with mauves and pinks, colors that can practice of exhibiting contour-locked be described as desber, or red, is not patches of color. without significance. One could argue The artisans responsible for decorating

69 AN ASSESSMENT

the Tomb of Nefertari masterfully com­ with the Tomb of Nefertari. The artisans bined this innovative use of "chiar­ neither signed that work nor left docu­ oscuro" and novel use of reds for her ments that mention their involvement. flesh tones with more traditional ele­ Nevertheless, one can suggest, on the ments. Turning again to her face, we see basis of the similarities between the an aquiline profile in which the nostril stylistic features of her tomb and the is prominent. The flesh of the throat representations from the temple of Sety I is indicated by a series of parallel lines. at Abydos and his tomb in the Valley of Even without earrings, the earlobe is the Kings, that the artisans in Nefertari's nevertheless shown pierced. These employ had themselves either worked details of the face are exactly those on her father-in-law's monuments or established for representations dated to been trained by those who had. There the reign of Sety I, as found in the relief was, after all, a strong Theban tradition, decoration of his temple at Abydos or in as we have seen, behind the decoration those from his tomb. Ultimately, they of her tomb. In fact, the monochromatic derive from the repertoire of forms style of the paintings in the sarcophagus available to the artisans in the employ of chamber only finds exact parallels in se­ Amenhotep III. Accordingly, one can lected private tombs of the same period. observe how the artisans working in the And if the names of these consummate Tomb of Nefertari were able to draw artisans, who moved beyond the estab­ on a tradition into which they introduced lished frontiers of painting by creating innovative elements. original painterly effects, are lost, one The so-called "workmen's village" of can nevertheless sense that their achieve­ Deir el-Medineh lies to the east of the ment in the Tomb of Nefertari is their Valley of the Queens. The name belies tribute to an extraordinary family of the fact that the individuals living within Theban women. That tribute is recogniz­ its walls were the artisans who were able to all who look at her face and anciently called either "the servants in realize the skill with which that face was the place of truth" or "the men of the painted. If all the documents from gang." Responsible for the excavation, which her biography can be recon­ decoration, and furnishing of the tombs structed had been lost to the sands of in both the Valley of the Kings and Valley time, and if only one of these renderings of the Queens, they were the men who of her face had survived, the verdict would made special vows to Amenhotep I and still be unanimous. This extraordinary his mother, Ahmose-Nefertari, the work of art would have to represent the patrons of their endeavors. Although face of a truly extraordinary woman. many of these artisans are known by name (because of the plethora of inscribed monuments excavated within their village and elsewhere), one cannot, unfortunately, associate with any degree of confidence any one of these individuals

70 FIGURE 38

Nefertari, "The Most

Beautiful of Them." Condition Surveys

Condition surveys for the east face of Pillar II, Chamber K. I. Condition of Support

H delammated plaster

[p] cracks

I | loss of surface plaster

I | loss of entire strata

72 CONDITION SURVEYS

2. Condition of Paint Layer 3. Previous Interventions

p"1 lack of cohesion p~| surface treatments

• flaking [$] mortar splashed on surface

F^l abrasions n filled lacunae

f^l loss of paint layer

| | earth sediments and dust Checklist of the Exhibition

PREPARED BY KAREN MANCHESTER

1. BEAD NET DRESS 5. STATUETTE OF A £A-BIRD From Giza, Tomb G 7440 Z Find spot unknown Fourth dynasty, reign of Khufu New Kingdom Green(?) and blue faience beads, some on Wood with traces of gesso and paint ancient cord H: 12.7 cm L: 113 cm; W (reconstructed): 44 cm Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard William Randolph Hearst Collection, inv. University-MFA Expedition, inv. 27.1548 51.15.9 Reference: Mummies and Magic: The Funer­ Unpublished

ary Arts of Ancient Egypt, exh. cat. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988), pp. 78-79, no. 9. 6. STATUETTE OF OSIRIS Find spot unknown 2. COSMETIC VESSEL New Kingdom Find spot unknown Wood with gilding Middle Kingdom H: 57.2 cm Alabaster Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mr. H: 7.6 cm; Diam: 7.3 cm and Mrs. Allan C. Balch Fund, inv. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Hay M.60.35.8 Collection; Gift of C. Granville Way, inv. Unpublished 72.505 Unpublished 7. COSMETIC VESSEL Find spot unknown 3. OINTMENT VESSEL Eighteenth dynasty Find spot unknown Alabaster New Kingdom H: 15 cm; Diam: 8 cm Alabaster Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Emily H: 15 cm; Diam: 11 cm Esther Sears Fund, inv. 03.1539 Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Hay Unpublished Collection; Gift of C. Granville Way, inv. 72.507 8. OINTMENT VESSEL Unpublished Find spot unknown Eighteenth dynasty 4. STATUETTE OF ANUBIS ON A LID Alabaster Find spot unknown H: 9 cm; Diam: 7 cm New Kingdom Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of the Wood Estate of Mrs. Francis C. Lowell, inv. H: 10 cm; W: 8 cm; D: 14 cm Res.22.236 Boston, Museum of Fine Arts inv. W 494 Unpublished Unpublished

74 CHECKLIST

9. BOARD GAME OF TWENTY SQUARES Trust, inv. 14.680 AND GAMING PIECES Reference: R. Freed, Ramesses the Great: An From Thebes Exhibition in the City of Memphis, exh. cat. Eighteenth dynasty (Memphis, 1987), p. 103. Wood, faience L (board): 28 cm; H (gaming pieces): 13. ANKH 1.1-2.5 cm From Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Tomb The Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin of Tuthmosis IV (Tomb 43) Wilbour Fund, inv. 37.93.E, 37.94.E1- Eighteenth dynasty, reign of Tuthmosis IV .E23 Blue faience with dark blue designs Reference: E. Pusch, Das Senet-Brettspiel im L: 24 cm; W: 13.5 cm alten Agypten (Munich, 1979), pp. 272-73. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Theodore M. Davis, inv. 03.1089

10. MIRROR WITH HANDLE IN THE SHAPE Reference: W. K. Simpson, The Face of Egypt: OF A CONCUBINE Permanence and Change, exh. cat. (Katonah Find spot unknown Gallery, 1977), no. 34. Eighteenth dynasty, reign of Tuthmosis III 14. UNGUENT Box WITH THE CARTOUCHE Bronze OF NEFERTARI H: 38.9 cm; W: 20 cm Find spot unknown, probably Thebes Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II Hanna, Jr. Fund, inv. 83.196 Ivory, ebony Reference: A. Kozloff, "Mirror, Mirror," H:5cm Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art New York, The Metropolitan Museum of 71(October 1984), pp. 271-75, cover, figs. 3-4. Art, Gift of Edward S. Harkness, inv. 26.7.1291 11. UNGUENT JAR AND LID Reference: W. C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt From Abydos (New York, 1959), vol. 2, pp. 343-44. Eighteenth dynasty, reign of Tuthmosis III is. LOTUS BUD PENDANT Alabaster with painted inscription Find spot unknown H: 11.5 cm; Diam: 8 cm Nineteenth dynasty Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of the Copper, gold Egypt Exploration Fund, inv. 03.1820 a, b H:2.2 cm; W: 2.4 cm Reference: W. M. F. Petrie, Abydos. Fart II. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Emily 1903 (London, 1903), p. 21, pi. 63, no. 90. Esther Sears Fund, inv. 04.1956 Unpublished

12. PAINTER'S PALETTE Find spot unknown 16. STATUE OF AN APE WITH PAWS RAISED Eighteenth dynasty, reign of IN ADORATION WITH THE Amenhotep II CARTOUCHE OF RAMESES II Wood with blue ink inscription, cakes of Find spot unknown red, blue, green, and black pigments Nineteenth dynasty H: 21 cm Stone Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The H: 18.4 cm John Huntington Art and Polytechnic

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New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Wood Art, 1966 Fletcher Fund and The Guide H: 31.8 cm; W: 8.7 cm Foundation, Inc. Gift, inv. 66.99.55 The Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Reference: J. D. Cooney, "Egyptian Art in the Wilbour Fund, inv. 08.480.5 Collection of Albert Gallatin," Journal of Near References: The De Potter Collection (n.p., Eastern Studies 12 (1953), p. 17, no. 80. n.d.), no. A54; J.-F. and L. Aubert, Statuettes egyptiennes: Chaouabties. Ouchebties 17. HEADLESS STATUE OF A RAMESIDE (Paris, 1974), pp. 81-82. OFFICIAL From Hierakonpolis 21. OSTRAKON SHOWING RAMESES II Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Sety I NURSED BY A GODDESS Gray steatite Find spot unknown, perhaps Deir H: 23 cm el-Medineh Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II Egypt Exploration Society, inv. 98.1026 Painted limestone flake References: Catalogue of the Antiquities from H:31.4 cm the Excavations of the EEF at Dendereh and The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in the ERA at Hierakonpolis, exh. cat. (University Honor of James N. Sherwin, Trustee, College London, 1898), pi. 13; Simpson 1977, 1957-1971, inv. 87.156 no. 28. Reference: "Year in Review for 1987," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 is. BUCKLE FROM A BELT(?) WITH THE (February 1988), pp. 46, 65, no. 5. CARTOUCHE OF NEFERTARI Find spot unknown 22. RELIEF REPRESENTATION OF Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II RAMESES II Silver, gold, feldspar, carnelian, blue frit, From Abydos, Temple of Rameses II glass Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II H: 4.7 cm; W: 11.5 cm Painted limestone Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Emily H: 42.5 cm; W: 36.5 cm; D: 9 cm Esther Sears Fund, inv. 04.1955 The Brooklyn Museum inv. 11.670 Unpublished References: J. D. Cooney, "Gods Bearing Gifts for the King," Bulletin of the Cleveland 19. ELEMENT FROM A BRACELET WITH Museum of Art 54, no. 9 (November 1967), pp. THE CARTOUCHE OF NEFERTARI 289f., fig. 5; R. Fazinni, Images for Eternity Find spot unknown (Brooklyn, 1975), p. 91, no. 77; H. T. Frank, Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II Discovering the Biblical World (Maplewood, Gold, feldspar, lapis lazuli, carnelian N.J., 1975), p. 56; Ancient Egyptian Art in the H: 4 cm; W: 2.5 cm Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, 1989), no. 61. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Emily Esther Sears Fund, inv. 04.1954 23. STATUE OF NEFERTARI Unpublished Find spot unknown Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II 20. USHABTI OF RAMESES II Granite From Thebes, Deir el-Bahari, Tomb 320 H:94 cm Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust Collection

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References: J. Pijoan, Summa artis, vol. 3: El 26. SARCOPHAGUS arte egipcio (Madrid, 1932), p. 278, fig.363 ; From Thebes C. Aldred, Egyptian Art (New York, 1980), p. Twenty-first dynasty 186; J. Herbert (ed.), Christie's Review of the Wood, gesso, pigments Season 1979 (London, 1980), p. 421; H. L: 183 cm Satzinger, "Der heilige Stab also Kraftquelle Los Angeles County Museum of Art, des Konigs," Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Purchase with funds provided by Mr. and Sammlungen in Wien 77 (1981), p. 33 (Dok. Mrs. John Jewett Garland, inv. B4); C. Chadefaud, Les Statues porte-enseignes M.47.3 A-B de VEgypte ancienne (Paris, 1982), p. 98 (PEC. Unpublished 4); C. Desroches-Noblecourt, "Touy, mere de Ramses II, la reine Tanedjmy et les reliques 27. URAEUS de l'experience amarnienne," in Colloques Find spot unknown internationaux du C.N.R.S. no. 595— Late Period L'Egyptologie en 1979: Axes prioritaires de Bronze recherches II (Paris, 1982), pp. 238-39, fig.65 ; H: 13 cm G. D. Scott, Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Hay Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Collection; Gift of C. Granville Way, inv. Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art 72.4442 Gallery, California State University, San Unpublished Bernardino, 1992), pp. 132-34. 28. STATUETTE OF SEKHMET OR HATHOR 24. FRAGMENT FROM A STATUETTE OF AS LIONESS AND EYE OF RE RAMESES II Find spot unknown Find spot unknown Twenty-sixth dynasty Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II Bronze Red jasper H:25.4 cm H: 4.5 cm Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of William Randolph Hearst Collection, inv. Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. 50.4.14 Kelekian, inv. 1980.517 Unpublished Unpublished 29. STATUETTE OF WAD JET 25. BLOCK STATUE INSCRIBED FOR PRINCE Find spot unknown MENTUHERKOPESHEF Twenty-sixth dynasty From Bubastis Bronze Nineteenth dynasty, reign of Rameses II H: 33 cm Black granite Los Angeles County Museum of Art, H: 88 cm William Randolph Hearst Collection, inv. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Gift of 50.37.14 Egypt Exploration Fund, inv. 88.748 Unpublished References: E. Naville, "Les fouilles du Delta pendant l'hiver de 1887," Recueil de travaux relatifs a la philologie et assyriennes pour servir du Bulletin a la Mission Francaise du Caw 10 (1888), p. 59.

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30. PECTORAL IN THE FORM OF THE Bronze WINGED GODDESS ISIS H: 16.9 cm From Nuri (modern Sudan), Tomb of San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust King Amarinatakilebte Collection Late sixth century B.C. Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Gold Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family H: 6.9 cm; W: 16.7 cm Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Gallery, California State University, San University-MFA Expedition, inv. 20.276 Bernardino, 1992), pp. 58-59, no. 31 A. Reference: D. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries ofKush II. Nuri (Boston, 1955), p. 155. 35. STATUETTE OF OSIRIS Find spot unknown 31. SlSTRUM Late Period Find spot unknown Bronze Thirtieth dynasty H: 20 cm Bronze San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust H:21.3 cm Collection Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust, inv. 20.1990 Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art Unpublished Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino, 1992), pp. 141, 143, no. 89. 32. FRAGMENT FROM THE WRAPPINGS OF A MUMMY WITH THE FIGURE OF 36. STATUETTE OF PTAH NEKHBET Find spot unknown Find spot unknown Late Period-Ptolemaic Period Ptolemaic or Roman Period Bronze Painted cartonnage H: 11.4 cm H: 24 cm; W: 46 cm San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Hay Collection Collection; Gift of C. Granville Way Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Unpublished Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art 33. STATUETTE OF THOTH Gallery, California State University, San Find spot unknown Bernardino, 1992), pp. 58, 60, no. 32 A. Ptolemaic Period Faience 37. STATUETTE OF NEITH H: 5 cm Find spot unknown Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period Anonymous gift, inv. M.80.200.3 Bronze Unpublished H: 24.2 cm San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust 34. STATUETTE OF ISIS NURSING THE Collection INFANT HORUS Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Find spot unknown Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Twenty-sixth dynasty-Ptolemaic Period Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art

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Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino, 1992), pp. 58, 60, no. 32 B.

38. STATUETTE OF BAST (OR BASTET) Find spot unknown Late Period—Ptolemaic Period Bronze H: 15.8 cm San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust Collection Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino, 1992), pp. 58, 60, no. 32 C; C. Ede, Collecting Antiquities (London, 1983), p. 94, no. 246.

39. SET OF FOUR CANOPIC JARS Find spot unknown Third Intermediate Period Limestone with black ink inscriptions H (average): 23 cm San Bernardino, Harer Family Trust Collection Reference: Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, exh. cat. (University Art Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino, 1992), p. 90, no. 50.

79 Glossary

ABU SIMBEL ATUM A site located south of the Tropic of Originally a sun god worshiped at Helio- Cancer where two temples, the northern polis, this deity became one of the guaran­ one dedicated to Nefertari, the southern tors of kingship during the New Kingdom. one dedicated to Rameses II, were cut

entirely from the living rock. These BITUMEN monuments were dismantled and recon­ A tarlike mineral substance occurring as structed in the 1960s on ground above natural asphalt and put to various uses by their original location by an international the ancient Egyptians. team under the auspices of UNESCO.

This was done to protect them from the DELTA rising waters of Lake Nasser, which was The fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, formed as a result of the building of the shaped like a triangle and used to describe High Dam at Aswan. the configuration of the Nile's flood plane, the base of which roughly corre­ AMARNA PERIOD sponds to the Mediterranean coast and the The name El Amarna, derived from that apex of which is located in the vicinity of of a local tribe, is generally applied to the Cairo. ancient site of Akhetaton, "the horizon of

the aton" Pharaoh Akhenaten's capital. DJED AMULET The name is used by extension as a A hieroglyph representing a bundle of label for that brief epoch during the stalks tied together that was reproduced in eighteenth dynasty when his religious various media as a symbol connoting reforms were in force. stability, endurance, and the like.

AMUN GOD'S WIFE OF AMUN Of uncertain origin, this god, often A religious title conferred on wives or represented as a man, rose to prominence daughters of the pharaohs of the New during the eighteenth dynasty to become Kingdom. It made manifest the mythic the supreme deity of Thebes, then the ideal of the female regenerative forces that nation's capital city. had to combine with those of the male principle in order to insure the mainte­ ANATOLIA nance and perpetuation of the cosmic The name applied to the Hittite heartland, powers responsible for creation, renewal, which corresponds roughly to central and and resurrection. eastern modern Turkey. HATH OR ATON A goddess of many functions and attri­ The ancient Egyptian designation for the butes who was often depicted either as a sun disk, which, personified, was wor­ cow-headed woman or as a woman shiped as the great deity of creation by the with cow's ears and horns. Known as the pharaoh Akhenaten. "Golden One," she was said to suckle

80 GLOSSARY

pharaohs and was later identified by the KARNAK Greeks as Aphrodite. A name of uncertain origin applied to the extraordinary complex of temples located HATTI on the east bank of the Nile River at The name given to the indigenous peoples Thebes and forming the northern adjunct of the Anatolian highlands who were of the Luxor temples just to the south. conquered by the Hittites. Here are found three principal precincts, dedicated to Montu, the war god; Amun, HIEROGLYPH the state god; and Mut, Amun's chief Composed of two ancient Greek words consort, respectively. meaning "sacred writing," this term is used to designate the pictographic writings LATE PERIOD of the ancient Egyptians. This is the designation for the last epoch of Egypt's history, the exact chronological HITTITES limits of which are debated. A broad The name given to the Indo-European interpretation places its beginning with invaders of the Anatolian highlands who the advent of the twenty-fifth dynasty and established an empire during the course of its end with the collapse of Roman rule. the second millennium B.C. and chal­ More narrowly defined, this period lenged the supremacy of Egypt in the encompasses only the twenty-sixth to the Middle East during the eighteenth and thirty-first dynasties, corresponding nineteenth dynasties. roughly to those periods between 664 and 332 B.C. during which Egypt was ruled, in HORUS the main, by native pharaohs. A falcon deity, originally worshiped as a sky god, who was later both identified LOWER EGYPT with the reigning pharaoh and regarded as By convention, the area of Egypt roughly the son of the deities Isis and Osiris. corresponding to the delta is so termed because the ancient Egyptians themselves HYKSOS referred to their country as "The Two The English rendering of the ancient Lands." The designation is confusing until Egyptian phrase meaning "rulers of the one realizes that both it and the corre­ hill countries." This phrase was applied to sponding southern region, termed Upper a Semitic people who took advantage of Egypt, are described in terms of the Nile's Egypt's instability at the close of the current, which flows from south to north. Middle Kingdom by invading the country and establishing a strong military presence LUXOR in the eastern delta. A place-name thought to derive either from the Arabic word for "the palaces" or Isis the Latin for "camp." This temple complex The divine wife of Osiris and mother of on the east bank of the Nile River at Horus who gradually became the chief Thebes forms the southern adjunct of the protector-goddess, assimilating to herself northern complex at Karnak. It was many of the attributes of Hathor and here that the cult of Amun, as a fertility eventually becoming the supreme Egyptian god associated with Min, was celebrated deity during the Roman imperial period.

81 GLOSSARY

together with that of the reigning pha- southernmost of the three precincts at raoh's life forces. Karnak. She was represented either as a vulture or as a woman. MIDDLE KINGDOM The ancient Egyptians themselves divided NEKHBET their history into epochs separated by This goddess, who sometimes appears as periods of discord. The second major a vulture, had her cult center at Elkab, period of unification, standing chronologi­ to the south of Luxor, where she was, cally between the first, or Old Kingdom, from very early times, worshiped as the and the third, or New Kingdom, is so tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. designated by convention. It was a period during which the cult of Osiris spread, and NEPHTHYS nomarchs, or provincial governors, The sister of the goddess Isis, often challenged the authority of the crown. depicted as a woman, who came to represent mourning in general because of MIN her lamentations at the death of the god The primeval god of Coptos, a site just Osiris. north of Karnak, was later revered as a god of fertility and, in the New Kingdom, NEW KINGDOM was closely associated with Amun. He is The designation for the third, and most represented as an ithyphallic male figure recent, of the periods of Egypt's unification holding a flail. Lettuce was associated and stability, a time of empire, of a great with him as an aphrodisiac. flowering in the arts and architecture, of religious experiment, and the like. MISSIONE ARCHEOLOGICA ITALIANA IN EGITTO NUBIA "The Italian Archaeological Expedition in Derived from the ancient Egyptian word Egypt" was the official title of the umbrella for "gold," this term is applied to the organization that sponsored, among geographic region extending roughly from other endeavors, the excavations of the First Cataract of the Nile in Egypt Ernesto Schiaparelli in the Valley of the well into modern Sudan. Its inhabitants, Queens. termed Nubians, developed their own culture in tandem with that of the Egyp­ MUMMY tians, although at times Nubia was either A word of uncertain origin, perhaps under Egypt's control or that country's derived from a Persian word for "bitu­ ruler. men." It was then applied to the preserved mortal remains of the ancient Egyptians, OLD KINGDOM because the appearance of the ancient This is the name given to the first, and balms and unguents reminded early chronologically oldest, of the three periods commentators of that naturally occurring of Egypt's unification and stability. It was pitch. a time during which the pharaohs were absolute monarchs for whom the grandest MUT of the pyramids were constructed as The divine wife of the state god Amun tombs. whose principal cult center was the

82 GLOSSARY

OSIRIS who must be defeated in order to gain The husband of Isis, who gathered the immortality in the hereafter. parts of his body after he was dismembered by Seth, his evil brother. Because of her SILSILA WEST ministrations, Osiris was reassembled and A site on both sides of the Nile River just posthumously conceived his son and north of Aswan. On the west bank are successor, Horus. For these reasons, he found several shrines, including the speos, was considered to be the god of the or rock-cut chapel, commissioned by the underworld and offered the hope of pharaoh Horemhab, while the east resurrection to the faithful. bank contains the quarries that were exploited from the time of the New PTAH Kingdom until the end of the Roman The creator god of Memphis, located to imperial period. the southwest of modern Cairo, who was represented as a mummiform man and SISTRUM later equated by the Greeks with their god Via the principle of onomatopoeia, this Hephaestus. ancient Egyptian word for "sacred rattle" imitates the swishing sound such musical RE instruments made when played by priest­ Like Atum, a manifestation of the sun god esses in rituals designed to calm the savage of Heliopolis who was often linked to fury of the goddesses representing the other deities, such as Amun, in cults avenging powers of deities such as Re. aspiring to universality. STELA REHORAKHTY An ancient Greek word meaning "an A god in the form of a falcon whose name, upright stone." It is applied by convention "Horus of the Two Horizons," represents to monuments, usually freestanding, in a the union of Re and Horus as a universal variety of media and sizes, to which solar deity. inscriptions were added, generally in commemoration of an event or in honor SARCOPHAGUS of a deceased person. From the ancient Greek words meaning

"flesh-eater," this term is used to denote TA SET NEFERU any coffinlike container into which the The ancient Egyptian phrase designating mortal remains of the deceased are placed the area in Western Thebes today called for interment. the Valley of the Queens. Although translated as either "The Place of Beauty"

SENET or "The Place of Perfection," the phrase From the ancient Egyptian verb meaning should be rendered into English as "The "to pass [someone or something]," the Place Where the Royal Children Repose," word is applied to a board game consisting according to recent scholars. of thirty squares with movable gaming pieces anciently termed "the dancers." In THEBES certain funerary contexts, the deceased The name given to the southern region of is represented playing this game alone. the Nile River's great bend by the ancient His/her unseen opponent symbolizes Fate, Greeks, because the accumulated effect of

83 GLOSSARY

the entrances of the area's temple com­ WADJET plexes, particularly those at Karnak, The tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt reminded them of their own mythological whose cult center was located in the delta "hundred-gated Thebes." city of Buto. She was represented as a uraeus, or cobra. THOTH The Egyptian god of wisdom and writing, often depicted as an ibis-headed male figure to whom scribes traditionally addressed a prayer before beginning their work.

UPPER EGYPT This name is applied to the Nile's valley, beginning just south of modern Cairo and extending to the vicinity of Aswan. Because the river flows from south to north, this part of the country, from the vantage of the delta, is located upstream.

URAEUS Via the ancient Greek word for "tail," this term is generally applied to the cobra, which the ancient Egyptians associated with Wadjet, the tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt, and which, together with Nekhbet, often decorated the brow of the pharaoh. By extension, the cobra might be employed as a motif connoting protection in a general sense.

USHABTI The English transliteration for the most recent of the three ancient Egyptian words generally translated as "funerary figu­ rines," which first appear in the Egyptian cultural record near the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The figurines' function was to serve as surrogates for the deceased, called upon to perform specific but onerous tasks in the hereafter as specified in Spell 6 of the collection of funerary texts termed The Book of the Dead.

84 Selected Bibliography

I. THE CONSERVATION OF THE WALL PAINTINGS Torraca, G. ICCROM Mission to the Tomb of Queen Nefetarri, February, 1978: Conclusions Burns, G., and K. M. Wilson-Yang. The Tomb of of the Report. Rome, 1978. International Nefertari, Valley of the Queens and Its Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Conservation Problems. Toronto, 1981. Restoration of Cultural Property report Preliminary report, Archaeometric Laboratory. no. 35, GT/EA. Burton, H. In the Valley of the Tombs of the Wilson-Yang, K. M., T. C. Billard, and G. Burns. Queens. New York, Metropolitan Museum of "Chemistry and Physics in the Tomb of Art, Egyptian Expedition. Collection of photographs taken between 1920 and 1923. Nefertari." Journal of the Society for the Study Campbell, C. Two Theban Queens: Nefert­ of Egyptian Antiquities 12 (1982), pp. 9-11. ari and Ty-ti, and Their Tombs. London, University of Toronto report, 1977—81. 1909.

Corzo, M. A., coord, ed. Wall Paintings of the 2. SOME ROYAL WOMEN OF THE SEVENTEENTH Tomb of Nefertari: Scientific Studies for Their AND EIGHTEENTH DYNASTIES Conservation. Cairo and Century City, Aldred, C. "Egypt: The Amarna Period and the 1987. First progress report. End of the Eighteenth Dynasty." In I. E. S. Helck, W, and E. Otto. "Nofretere." In Edwards et al., eds. The Cambridge Ancient Lexikon der Agyptologie. Vol. 4. Wiesbaden, History. 3rd ed. Vol. 2, pt. 2, History of 1982. Pp. 518-19. the Middle East and the Aegean Region Leblanc, C. Ta Set Neferou: Une Necropole de c. 1380-1000 B.C. Cambridge, 1975. Thebes-ouest et son histoire. Vol. 1. Cairo, . "Ahmose-Nofertari Again." In H. De 1989. Meulenaere and L. Limme, eds. Musees Mekhitarian, A. La Peinture egyptienne. Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire: Artibus Aegypti: Geneva, 1954. Photographs by M. C. Emmer. Studia in honorem Bernardi V Bothmer a Michalowski, A., ed., and S. Rakowski, trans. collegis amicis discipulis conscripta. Brussels, The Tomb of Queen Nefertari: Problems of 1983. Pp. 7-14. Conserving Wall Paintings: Diagnosing . Akhenaten: King of Egypt. London, the State of Preservation and Conservator's 1988. Proposals. Warsaw, 1973. Published by Barta, W. "Akencheres und die Witwe des Working Group of the State Ateliers for the Nibhururia." Gottinger Miszellen 62 (1983), Preservation of Historical Property. pp. 15-21. Mond, R. "A Method of Photographing Mural Bongrani Fanfoni, L. "Ay, Tutankhamen e Decorations." Photographic Journal, n.s. 57 Mutnedjemet." Studi classici e orientali 30 (January 1933). (1980), pp. 61-67. Plenderleith, H. J. United Arab Republic Cerny, J. "Le Culte d'Amenophis Ier chez les Conservation Problems: April 1970. Paris, ouvriers de la necropole thebaine." Bulletin de 1970. UNESCO report, sect. 2, serial no. iTnstitut Francais d'Archeologie Orientale 17 1914/BMS.RD/CLT. (1927), pp. 159-203. Schiaparelli, E. Relazione sui lavori della Gitton, M. "Nouvelles remarques sur la stele de Missione Archeologica Italiana in Egitto (Anni donation d'Ahmes Nefertary." Bulletin de 1903-20). Vol. 1, Esplorazione della "Valle ITnstitut Franqais d'Archeologie Orientale 79 delle Regine" nella necropoli di Tebe. Turin, (1979), pp. 327-31. 1923. . Les Divines epouses de la 18e dynastie. Stopperlaere, A. "Degradations et restaurations Centre de Recherches d'Histoire Ancienne, 61. des peintures murales egyptiennes." In Paris, 1984. Annales du Service des Antiquites de I'Egypte Helck, W Kleine agyptische Texte: Historisch- 40 (1940), pp. 941-50. biographische Texte der 2. Zwischenzeit und Thausing, G., and H. Goedicke. Nofretari: A neue Texte der 18. Dynastie. Wiesbaden, Documentation of Her Tomb and Its Decora­ 1975. tion. Graz, 1971. Photographs by E. Ritter.

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87 The Joint Egyptian Antiquities Organization- Getty Conservation Institute Nefertari Conservation Project

Project Members 1985-1992

EXECUTIVE BODY CONSERVATION TEAM Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr Profs. Paolo Mora and Laura Mora, Directors Chairman Abd el-Rady Abd el-Moniem Egyptian Antiquities Organization Abd el-Nasser Ahmed Mr. Miguel Angel Corzo Lorenza D'Alessandro Director Giorgio Capriotti The Getty Conservation Institute Luigi de Cesaris Giuseppe Giordano The late Dr. Ahmed Kadry Ahmed-Ali Hussein Former Chairman Lutfi Khaled Egyptian Antiquities Organization Adriano Luzi Mr. Luis Monreal Gamal Mahgoub Former Director Hussein Mohamed-Ali The Getty Conservation Institute Talat Mohrem Dr. Gamal Moukhtar Stephen Rickerby Former Chairman Sayed A. el-Shahat Egyptian Antiquities Organization Christina Vazio The late Dr. Sayed Tawfik PHOTOGRAPHER Former Chairman Egyptian Antiquities Organization Guillermo Aldana

SCIENTIFIC TEAM RESEARCH Eng. Farrag Abd el-Mouttaleb Dr. Mahasti Afshar Eng. Nabil Abd el-Samia Dr. Neville Agnew MANAGEMENT Prof. Mokhtar S. Ammar Mr. Ahmed Abd el-Radi Prof. Hideo Arai Ms. Mary Helmy Dr. Omar el-Arini Mr. Romany Helmy Mr. Motawe Balbouch Dr. Mohamed Nasr Dr. Kamal Barakat Mr. Eduardo Porta Dr. Farouk el-Baz Ms. Laura Sanders Ms. Asmaa A. el-Deeb Ms. Inee Yang Slaughter Dr. Feisal A. H. Esmael Dr. Gaballa A. Gaballa Dr. Essam H. Ghanem Dr. Hani A. Hamroush Dr. B. Issawi Dr. Po-Ming Lin Mr. Shin Maekawa Prof. Modesto Montoto Dr. Shawki Nakhla Dr. Frank Preusser Dr. Saleh A. Saleh Mr. Michael Schilling Dr. Wafa Seddia Dr. Mohamed el-Sougayar

88