Discovered in 1922, tombs TT290 and TT291 share a common courtyard, leading to two funerary chapels, those of Irynefer (TT290) and Nakhtmin, craftsmen in the royal necropolis.
Several shafts led to a network of underground rooms, whose contents had been ransacked by thieves. Miraculously spared from the fire, the burial chamber of Irynefer has been preserved. Despite its good condition, its fragility required the installation of metal beams to support the ceiling.

Little is known about Irynefer; his title of Servant in the Place of Truth only shows his membership of the company of workers in the various royal necropolis, without defining his precise occupation. There is also no indication of the identity of his sovereign pharaoh, but the decorative style of his tomb points to the Ramesside era.

THE TOMBS OF DEIR EL MEDINA

......" With little space at their disposal, the craftsmen of Deir el-Medina always as had to be rigorous in their selection of the scenes to be used in the decoration of their tombs"

The decoration of private Theban tombs is confined to the chapel, the cult area accessible to the living, who come there to carry out the funeral rites. At Deir el- Medina, the burial chamber is also furnished with texts and scenes taken from The Book of the Dead.'
ln this artificial grotto, the deceased makes the pilgrimage which leads him to the realm of the gods. With little space at their disposal, the craftsmen of Deir el-Medina always as had to be rigorous in their selection of the scenes to be used in the decoration of their tombs. The tomb owner had to define the themes he wanted, possibly guided in his choice by scribes or priests.
Although certain tombs appear similar, none are absolutely identical.
In any case, it raises the question of the identity of the "authors" of these funerary texts, which are more sophisticated than they appear at first sight.
Regarding these variations of the Book of the Dead, there are sometimes significant changes in the texts accompanying the vignettes. This is quite blatant in the tomb of Irynefer, where the decoration regularly consists of pictorial images, accompanied by texts which have no apriori connection with the chapter invoked by the images.

THE VOYAGE BEYOND THE TOMB

The distribution of scenes follows the main stages of this voyage beyond the tomb and the decoration should therefore be followed in the order imposed by the itinerary of the deceased.
In every tomb, the decoration is a symbolic description of the candidate's pilgrimage to eternity.
The entrance corridor becomes the symbolic path of life after death at the end of his journey, when he prepares to emerge into the light.
In the case of Irynefer, the course of this voyage can seem somewhat disordered. However, the orientation of the figures shows the route followed: the gods turn their backs on the world, whilst the deceased faces the way he is going.

The decoration clearly shows the two extremes of the journey.
To the right of the doorway (south side. East wall), Irynefer faces towards the exit and drinks beneath the heavenly palm tree. This is the end of his journey and he is ready to go out into the daylight, the last stage of his rebirth, which will be confirmed thanks to the goddess Nut, whose image is painted on the ceiling.
The multiple expression of this solar destiny is reflected on the other side of the entrance.
At the other end of the tomb (north side. West wall), the image of the god Osiris marks the completion of the progress of the deceased in the other world.

If we follow Irynefer from the doorway, we will find that he proceeds along the eastern part of South wall, primarily paying homage to various solar images. This route leads naturally to the West wall, where the god Anubis is occupied with the mummy of the deceased. Some elements of this scene are present on the southern part, which is next to the image of Osiris on the western end of the North wall.
Opposite the preparation of the corpse, to the East, the deceased prepares to go before the divine tribunal. His route continues along the North wall up to his presentation to the god.
The material preservation of the body of the deceased thus constitutes a symmetrical counterpart to his spiritual preservation.

THE CORRIDOR

view 1

In the corridor, his relatives can be seen accompanying him to his last resting place view 1). The cortege is welcomed by a double image of Anubis, the black jackal. The threshold of the tomb is dominated by the silhouette of Nut, the sky goddess, whose wings cast their protective shadow above the door. We will meet this goddess again at the end of the journey, when Irynefer will be ready to leave his tomb

THE DECORATION OF THE SOUTH WALL (Western Section).

His first steps in the other world lead him towards three images of deities who pronounce his own fate, directly to the West of the entrance corridor. The upper part of the wall is occupied by the great primordial cow, Mehytweret (view 2).Her body is wrapped in a red cloth covered with a net of tubular beads, a motif characteristic of certain mother goddesses such as Hathor, forming a prophylactic network which protects this vessel of prenatal transfigurations. The goddess lies on a basin, to be read as the hieroglyph for a stretch of water, representing here the original waters of chaos, from which the divine force created the world .
At the front of this artificial lake a falcon headed bird emerges in front of her hooves. This is the solar raptor, which reminds us that the great goddess is the mother of the sun and that she represents the primeval chaos from which he arose.
Beneath the water of Mehetweret, Irynefer and his wife stand facing a pictorial representation of the birth of the sun. At its arising, it takes on the aspect of the young calf born of the celestial mother (view 3).

The scene at dawn is evoked anew by the reddening disc arising between the trees, an image traditionally associated with Chapter 109 of The Book of the Dead, the Spell for Knowing the Souls of the Easterners. However, here again the inscription does not conform, but reveals the key to one of the greatest "mysteries" preceding the daily rebirth of the sun, defining it as follows: It is Ra who rests in Osiris; it is Osiris who rests in Ra during each day.
This explanation of the regeneration of the sun also occurs in the tomb of Queen Nefertari, explaining the ram headed deity as the traditional incarnation of the divine "bodies" after their nocturnal metamorphoses.Facing this incarnation of the reborn sun, Irynefer and his wife pay homage, their arms greatest to the level of their faces.

View 5

As usual in the tomb, their clothing is luxurious and of the whitest linen, most unlike their everyday garments.
Mehytkhati's fine dress has a red border, the minimal adornment of a lady who does not belong to the highest social class.
Irynefer wears a pectoral (view 5) shown according to convention in front of his arm, making it visible. On it, djed pillars and tyt knots, respectively associated with Osiris and Isis, are meant to protect him during his journey.
His wife wears a braided wig, whose long ringlets fall down over her bosom. Around her brow is a floral fillet with a Lotus flower and on her head is a purely symbolic perfumed unguent cone.
There is no doubt that the solar image venerated by Irynefer represents the destiny he desires and in which he hopes to be subsumed at the end of his journey beyond the tomb
The ownership of a tomb was a definite privilege, granted to only a few, but including the workers in the royal necropoles.
Sawadjet, Irynefer's father, was employed in the temple of Amun and seems to have been the fleet commander. As such, he would presumably not be able to afford an expensive interment. As for Irynefer's mother, she was a chantress of Hathor and was called Tawosret.
As a devoted son, the royal craftsman offered his parents a small share of eternity, by sharing with them the walls of his tomb.
The long text with this scene is an invocation addressed to Ptah , shown seated on his divine throne. In the Ramesside era, the god of Memphis is one of the most important in the kingdom and his attributes are especially valued.
The prayer uttered by the parents of Irynefer reveals preoccupations which may seem commonplace to us (slide 11), but it merely emphasises the importance of guaranteeing the supply of offerings for the deceased.
The parents of Irynefer are dressed in such fine linen that their clothes appear transparent .
Like their son and daughter in law, they wear elaborate wigs, as usual for festivals and solemn occasions, which imitate natural hair. White hair occurs frequently in family portraits at Deir el-Medina and merely serves to distinguish between generations. In this tomb, it does not indicate old age, but the historical setting of an individual.
Irynefer, although the tomb owner, has left the largest part to his parents. He is shown kneeling before them, supporting an offering table on which stands a statue of the goddess Maat (view 13).

view 15

The upper register of the wall is carried over onto the ceiling, where two male figures are praying before Ptah. The long, accompanying text only mentions the tomb owner and although not mentioned, Irynefer is probably accompanied by his son, Sawadjet, who does in fact appear beside his father in several scenes in the tomb. The two men seen here wear different kilts.
The hieroglyphs on this register reproduce the spells from Chapters 82 and 92 from the Book of the Dead.
Behind Ptah can be seen the naked shadow of the deceased about to leave his tomb (view 15). This obscure representation, the dark shadow, also perhaps evokes the vulnerable aspect of the body under the mummification bandages. Its nudity shows that the deceased has not yet attained his rightful place in the other world, success being indicated by the wearing of fine clothes.
The black shadowy figure leaves the tomb, having regained the use of his legs but not yet of his eyes, while his Ba flies infront to meet him.
A black sun crawls in front of the mummy at ground level and a bird with a human head, which (according to Bruyère) can be only the Ba of this sun, walks in front of the disk. For others, this can only be a second occurance of the Ba of Irynefer, represented once statically and the other time dynamically.
Which ever the case, this representation of a black sun matching the appearance of the shadowy figure is rather rare in this context and reveal the deceased's aspirations that try to merge himself eternally with the resurgent solar body (view 15).
[N.B: These explanations for the black sun don't seem entirely convincing to me. One could also discuss whether the black shadowy character is the mummy, being a secondary representation of the deceased.]

THE WEST WALL

The Western wall is taken up by a single important scene (view 17). A mummy is lying on a lion-shaped bed, with the jackal-headed god Anubis standing at the side, his two hands placed on the body.

view 17

This scene occurs frequently in the tombs of Deir el-Medina, the most well known being at the west end of the North wall in the tomb of Sennedjem. Anubis is charged with giving life to the corpse by means of two acts of magic. He restores to the deceased the use of his senses by carrying out the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth and Eyes. Here we have the second act of revival, the rekindling of the heart.
The body of Irynefer is in its mummiform casing, the last shroud held in place by bands of cloth in yellow and red stripes. His shoulders are covered with a large stylised collar with coloured bands and his head is enveloped in a funeral mask; made of wood or cartonnage, it reproduces the features of the deceased wearing a tripartite wig, held on his brow by a floral band. His brown ochre face is serene, fixed in eternal youth.
One detail should be noted: Irynefer wears a false beard, held behind his ears by a thin thread. This attribute is not that of a mere mortal, but of a god and the corpse re-animated by Anubis already has the power of Osiris. His hair and his beard are the colour of lapis lazuli, the deep blue which characterises the hair of the gods.

THE EAST WALL

This wall is devoted to the entry of the deceased into the mysterious other world. His progress can be followed from right to left, up to the threshold of the world he is approaching, which is shown on the North wall of the tomb.
The south section of the eastern vault is taken up by chapters 87 and 88 of the Book of the Dead. The two texts devoted to the transformation of the deceased into divine forms are amalgamated, as is often the case in papyri of this period.
Facing the gods, the deceased is kneeling, his arms raised in veneration.
The prayer is addressed to a crocodile lying on a shrine, its body covered by a net. On its human head is the tjeni crown, but the scene is damaged and the head has disappeared, but his name can still be read level with the crown — it is Sobek.Sobek embodies the creative forces issuing from liquid chaos. A redoubtable creature, his power is ambiguous, as the waters are also a domain closely related to liquid chaos.

view 23

Behind the god he is the traditional formula accompanying divine and royal images.
Complementing this scene is an image of the scarab headed god Khepri, seated in front of an offering table (view 23). Beneath this small altar, on the left, a spell seems to refer to the ritual purification of the ka of the deceased and a short text identifies the solar being and his qualities: Khepri who resides on his bark, the great god, Lord of the Ennead. This god represents the coming into existence of the sun and its visible and active journey.

The lower register of the East Wall consists of two scenes: to the south, the vignette of chapter 181 of the Book of the Dead occupies a confined space immediately below the vault. It concerns the Spell for going into the tribunal of Osiris, the entrance to which is marked by a gate. Passing through different gates is a recurrent theme in the Book of the Dead.
In the tomb of Irynefer, the space allocated to this section of the Book of the Dead is relatively small and only a few columns of text have been written beneath the picture and the characters have been grouped together in front of the gate.
Beneath the picture, the text of chapter 181 enables the deceased to be transformed into a living ba, to venerate Osiris and to become the doyen of the tribunal, i.e. to take his place in the other world.
Once past through the gate described in chapter 181, Irynefer can go before the divine tribunal, which is depicted on the second-half of the East Wall and continues on the south wall.
As a sign of his success, Irynefer wears a symbolically powerful pendant (view 25). At its centre, a Wadjet eye evokes cosmic plenty, for which the deceased strives, resting on the sign of possession. Each side of this, two feathers represent the solar rays, embodied in the two children of the sun, the gods Shu and Tefnut, who thus seem to emanate from the wadjet.

THE NORTH WALL

The lower part of the North wall contains a depiction of the group of gods, who will introduce Irynefer to the other world.
This is covered in chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, the first part of which was shown on the East Wall. In this section, the suitability of the deceased to live in the domain of the gods is tested and recognised. Irynefer has to demonstrate his religious knowledge by addressing each member of the tribunal by his name and epithets. However, he must first prove his good faith with a touch of bravura, which has been wrongly interpreted. Addressing the 42 " assessors" of Osiris, the deceased recites a list of all the sins which he has not committed. Wrongly known as the "negative confession", it should be based on feelings of wrong doing, but is admittedly a list of untruths.

View 28

He does not lie, but purifies himself by his recitation and thus frees himself, one by one, from all iniquities to which he has been exposed, whether or not he gave way to temptation. By eliminating the impurities within him, the deceased slowly reaches the desired state of perfection, which is the prerequisite for entry into the other world. Thus he re- builds himself in the image of Osiris, whose 42 "assessors" are really his raptors.
At the end of his "judgement", the deceased is of course welcomed amongst the gods and his heart will be placed on a scale, whose balance will prove the harmony of his conscience with Maat.
In the tomb of Irynefer, the Osirian beings are shown upright within a shrine occupying the middle register.
At each end of the roof, a crouched baboon recalls the omnipresence of Thoth, the authority for divine speech. In the centre, an enigmatic figure representing eternal regeneration protects the ovals containing the seeds of divine eyes (view 28)

View 31

Let us return to the lower part of the North wall (view 31), where, right behind the building containing the Osirian tribunal, Irynefer enters the divine world as he venerates the great golden Falcon, the image of the solar god.
The amount of space taken up by chapter 78 of the Book of the Dead emphasises the importance of the words concerning the transformation of the deceased into a solar bird. Irynefer adopts the same pose as when he appeared before the divine court, but now wears a long and splendid kilt.
The blue-tinted Falcon is perched on a building denoting his shrine and behind his back can be seen the royal sceptre, the symbol of his rule over the celestial realm. This group is depicted on a platform, although the deceased is standing on the ground, but when his transformation into a golden Falcon is complete, he will be allowed to enter the realm of the gods, depicted in the next scene.
Having acquired new faculties, Irynefer can now operate on the same plane as the gods. Led by Anubis, he goes before the divine dais (view 33), his left arm folded in homage across his chest, while the jackal-headed god holds him by the hand. He is going to meet Osiris, with whom he will henceforth be merged.

SOUTH WALL (Final Section)

view 35

The pilgrimage of Irynefer is now drawing to its close and two scenes will confirm that the deceased will be able to emerge from the depths of his tomb. Thus we need to return to our starting point and examine the images near the doorway, which symbolise his coming forth into eternal light.
To the East of the entrance corridor Irynefer can be found, wearing his splendid long kilt, on his knees before a shady palm tree (view 35) . Following the conventions of Egyptian art, the tree appears to be cut in half, as it is shown in front of the expanse of water crossed by its trunk, without masking the body of the tomb owner. Thus the image is interrupted to preserve an unbroken representation of the deceased.
The entrance to the tomb is dominated by the silhouette of Nut, goddess of the sky, whose wings cast their protective shadow over the doorway (view 1).
In the funerary iconography, the Lady of Heaven is often depicted on the lid of the sarcophagus, whilst the lower part is equated with her divine husband Geb, the patron of the earth and of chthonic forces. When joined, this pair provide the elements of the cosmos around the deceased, giving him the chance to assimilate with their son, Osiris.
The image of Nut also appears on the ceiling of tombs as a symbol of the space crossed by the sun every day. When it goes out of sight at the end of the day, it enters the body of the goddess, to undergo a mythical gestation before its rebirth at each new dawn. This is the fate destined for Irynefer for ever.
Above the goddess, several columns of hieroglyphs contains her speech to the deceased:
"Words spoken by Nut the Great Lady, the Shining One : My beloved son, the Osiris, Servant in the Place of Truth, Irynefer, offspring of Geb Lord of the Two Banks (Egypt), heir of the Lord of the West, Horus born of Isis !"
These simple words formally identify the deceased with the two divine beings symbolising perpetual rebirth: Osiris coming to life in his son Horus.

Kneeling above the centre of the doorway, the goddess is about to restore to the world Irynefer, who from now on joins those beings who share the daily destiny of the sun.

Bibliography

- B.Porter & R.Moss :Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings Vol.l,0xford,1972,pp.372-373. - B.Bruyere & Ch.Kuentz: La tombe de Nakht-Min et la tombe d'Ari-Nefer, MSFA.O LIV,Le Caire,pp.67-152. - I.Franco, Rites et Croyances d 'Eternite, Pygmalion,Paris, 1993. - R.O.Faulkner: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, British Museum Publications,London,1985.

Original page created by Thierry Benderitter © Copyright OsirisNet 2006