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Tomb of Menna - Superintendent of the estates
of the King and Amun, Scribe of the estates in the North and
the South (mid 18th Dynasty) - TT69
The decoration
in the tomb shows that it was obviously painted with great care
and skill - but strangely the face of Menna has been erased throughout
the tomb (Menna must have made an enemy in life, someone who
wished to deny Menna happiness in the afterlife).
Scenes in the tomb:
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The first
Chamber
1 - Menna
and his wife stand before offerings, their relantions offer them
flowers and food.
2 - Funeral
stela - male and female relatives of Menna and his wife pray
on either side.
3 - Relatives
of Menna and his wife are shown at a funeral feast in honour
of them, while below are shown priests performing funeral rites.
4 - Menna
and his wife worship Osiris:
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5
- These scenes depict life in the estate which Menna controlled,
there are three rows -
Row 1
- measurment
of the land using a rope:
Menna
watches the arrival of a boat from another part of his estate,
a tax collector checks farmers - guilty ones are beaten:
Row -
2
A chariot waits to take Menna to the fields, a scribe records
the amount of grain while Menna stands under a canopy. There
are also scenes of the reaping of the wheat, two men carry away
the corn which is slung between two poles while two girls fight,
pulling each others' hair:
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Close
up of the two girls fighting  |
Row -
3 Scenes of ploughing
and sowing of corn, the heads of corn are removed from the flax:
Menna is shown seated
while his three daughters shake their sistrums before him.
6 - Furniture and food
are shown being carried into the tomb for the use of Menna in
the Afterlife. Funeral boats carry Menna's mummy across the river,
the funeral procession then moves towards the tomb where an ox
is sacrificed. Various goods are shown being carried towards
Anubis and Hathor.
The
funeral barge
7 - Menna is in the presence
of Osiris for the Weighing of the Heart ceremony.
8 - Funeral boats sailing
on the Nile
9 - Menna and his family
are hunting in the reeds - first fishing in a boat, spearing
fish:
Close
- up of the fish
And then hunting birds
with boomerangs, with the birds being retrieved by a cat and
an ichneumon.
10 - Menna and his wife
receive offerings
11 - A niche which held
statuettes of Menna and his wife, unfortunately smashed (probably
by the same person who defaced Menna throughout the tomb in antiquity).
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