Tomb of Paheri - El Kab

The plan of the site of El Kab and its neighborhood, also the general description of the site, can be found >>HERE
You will also find there the other monuments of El Kab.

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El Kab

The present El Kab corresponds to the ancient town of Nekhen, once a very important city, powerful capital of the 3rd nome of Upper Egypt.
At the Northeast of the city one finds a hill, made of sandstone, filled of tombs which essentially date from of the New Kingdom. Among these, one of the most famous is that of Paheri, which dates from the middle of the 18th Dynasty, under the reign of Thutmosis III.

THE TOMB

view 02
( Raymond Betz)

The tomb is located at the east end of a modern walk way, giving access to several tombs, (view 02).
• With its shape as a tunnel, it is of modest dimensions, measuring about 8.30m. in length, 3.80m. in width and 3.50m. in height at its middle.
The original excavation included: a platform in front of the entry, where the funeral well was dug; one sculptured facade is now very ruined; an oblong chamber with an arched roof, entirely decorated by relief sculpturing and painting and finally a niche at the rear, containing three statues.

• Later, a new entry had been dug in the east wall, through the sculpturing. Two crudely built chambers, with a funeral well had thus been added.
The floor of the main chamber had then been cut away, leaving irregular hewn masses in the corners.

Tomb plan

• The facade of the tomb had been set into the hill, on both sides the two areas which carried vertical columns of hieroglyphs are today extensively destroyed. Then, as there was a high and wide space on the right: a representation of Paheri was added in the hollow relief (1), knelt addressing a prayer to the local goddess Nekhbet.

• Work in the tomb is of a beautiful quality, although sandstone doesn't permit the sharpness of execution which is reached in the tombs in the limestone of the Theban region. All figures and hieroglyphs are sculpted in raised relief and are painted. Only the small hieroglyphs and those of the wall at the rear are hardly incised and filled with blue painting

• The main chamber has the form of a tunnel with an arched ceiling, the two walls of the extremities presenting at their upper part a tympanum aspect.
To the right (2) (on the south wall) is a representation of Paheri, in his left hand his staff of office. Above him, is a boat, possibly an evocation of the ritual pilgrimage to Abydos.
The west wall (3) is divided into two sections, in the first are the owner's representations taking care of the farm work: harvests, hunting, fishing, loading of the boats, ... and at the other end the accomplishment of the appropriate funerary rituals.
The east wall (4) presents indoor activities. The first is a great banquet to which many forebears, parents and friends, participate. The second is a scene of worship accompanied by a long inscription summarising the funerary program of the tomb. The side chambers, originally accessed through the northern end of east wall are of a later execution than Paheri.
At the far end, the rear (north) wall (5) is covered with a remarkably long inscription including the deceased's merits, and prayers for a happy future.
In the centre of the rear wall is a great niche (6) containing the remains of three statues.
On each of the side walls, above the scenes, is a line of large hieroglyphs, running the length of the chamber. Above this, on the start of the curve of the vaulted ceiling, there is a khekher frieze, followed by another line of large hieroglyphs. Down the centre length of the ceiling, runs another line of inscription. The space between the three ceiling lines of hieroglyphs is filled with a painted design of differently coloured zigzag lines, forming a diamond pattern, running the whole length of the chamber.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY

The tomb had already been located by the scholars of the Egyptian expedition in 1799. Cortaz gives a touching description of it: the tomb is "like a book which the ancient Egyptians have to us to instruct us in a great part of the customs and work which composed at home the economy of civil life".
In 1825 James Burton copied the scenes of the two walls of the main chamber. Champollion and Rossellini, then Robert Hay and Wilkinson worked at El Kab. The most meaningful publications were then those of Lepsius and Brugsches.
The mutilations which effect most representations of characters are due to the Copts. Otherwise the presence of recovery fillers on the scenes of the lateral walls of the main chamber show that flaking had already appeared at the time of the creation of the tomb and corrected by applications of mortar. The tomb had also suffered attempts at plundering by carving from the outlines, but the original images could be restored.

PAHERI THE NOMARCH

No matter what the custom is in writing the name of the nomarch "Paheri", the hieroglyphs which designate him are

, or

which is "Pahery".
To adhere to custom we will continue to use "Paheri".
The tomb of Paheri gives us, associated with that of his ancestor Ahmose son of Abana, sufficiently precise information to reconstruct the family tree, of this powerful provincial prince, for six generations.

• His maternal grandfather was the famous Ahmose son of Abana, in the tomb of whom one finds unique historical inscriptions to be able to understand the confused period of the beginnings of the 18th Dynasty and the fall of the Hyksos.

• By his wife Apu, Ahmose had a daughter, Kem, who married the scribe Atefrura, a high Theban dignitary who was the tutor of the royal prince Uadjmes. It is actually our Paheri (or could have been his brother, of the same name) who was responsible for the digging of the tomb of his grandfather. One can read there : " it was his daughter's son who undertook the work in this funeral chamber, perpetuating the name of his mother's father, the scribe of the contours of the god Amon, Paheri " and also (a prayer) " for Ahmose, son of Abana, by his daughter's son, who makes live his name, Paheri, justified (lit. "true of voice", thus "deceased") ". In the tomb this descendent from the maternal side, considered as prestigious, is located everywhere, including all maternal forebears and the cousins, while the paternal side is almost entirely neglected.

• The titles
It is remarkable that Paheri doesn't possess, in his titulature, any of the titles usually carried by the courtiers, for example he is not qualified as "unique friend" (smr wat).
Indeed, it seems that Paheri only took advantage of his functions of great property owner and governor, enjoying the king's confidence. The titles commonly associated with Paheri are those of nomarch (= governor prince) and scribe. He is often called nomarch of Nekheb and Anyt (Letopolis or Esna) both are two main cities of the third nome of Upper Egypt.
Paheri was, as scribe, responsible for the grain from Ant (Denderah) to Nekheb. He was " uppermost of the land with grain of the South district, (the one who) satisfied his master's desire, from Per-Hathor to Nekheb, ". Per-Hathor (literally: the house, the domain, of Hathor) can be likened here to Tentyra, capital of the sixth nome of Upper Egypt. Paheri is thus the person responsible for the grain in a very vast sector.
Like his father, Paheri carries the title of tutor of hereditary prince by the name of Uadjmes. But it cannot be about the same character since this one is represented here as a baby, while one sees represented the children and even the grandchildren of Paheri. It is probably about a child of Thutmosis I. The two princes Uadjmes had died very young, since neither of them ascended to the throne, or it was about even younger sons of the king.
Paheri also carried a ministerial title: he was chief of the priests of the god of his city : " uppermost of the priests of Nekhbet ". Nekhbet is the great tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, the vulture goddess often wearing the white crown, and his name is often associated with the title " the White one of Nekheb ".

THE FACADE


view LSB02	view LSB03	view LSB04	view 37

On the east wall, to the right of the entry of the tomb, one finds a representation of Paheri, knelt, the arms raised southwards. He is very simply clothed in a short loincloth. The inscription above his head is damaged, but can be restored. It concerns a prayer to the goddess Nekhbet :
It says " Homage to You Mistress of the mouth of the two valleys (note: another name for the goddess Nekhbet), Mistress of the sky [.....]
The rest of the facade is very damaged, notably the two door posts which surround the entry. Originally, they carried inscriptions of 3m. in height, containing the prayers to various divinities, prayers included " for the Ka of the nomarch of Nekheb, Paheri, justified " (see left column, view LSB01).
On the left, the two columns addressed to Amon-Ra asking him "for the soft breaths of the North"; the rest is damaged too much to be validly interpreted.
On the right, three columns address to Nekhbet, Hathor and possibly Osiris.
On the first, " [...] mistress of the sky, Henut-tauy, that she gives all good things for his altar for the ka [...] ".
On the second, more or less the same thing.
The third column includes the picture of the mummified vulture wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. Some identify it as Kemhes, god related to the city of Hierakonpolis, situated on the other side of the Nile.
Another missing god, because the continuation of the inscription asks " that they may give all things, all offerings for the ka [...] "
Above these inscriptions were some others which are obliterated.

THE ENTRANCE PASSAGE

It had to certainly include some inscriptions, but these have here disappeared completely.

THE FRONT WALL

On the east section, Paheri is represented clothed in a loincloth sitting high on the hips, and with a transparent tunic. In his right hand, a piece of material (of which the significance still is not well understood) and in his left hand a staff of office. To his right, the damaged hieroglyphic column damaged completes the image for leaving the tomb, by proclaiming : " to go out on the land to see the disk [...] ".
One can suppose that on the other part of the wall was a symmetrical representation of Paheri.
At the level of the lintel one finds an interesting representation of a boat for which it is difficult to imagine the significance, could be an evocation of the ritual pilgrimage to Abydos.

THE WEST WALL

The wall is divided into three large section. The first of these, which occupies nearly half of the group, represents Paheri in his functions of scribe and nomarch. The second shows the activities of Paheri in his private domain, and the last is occupied by scenes of a funerary character.
The various scenes represented here present a major interest, because they cover the agricultural activities of the country all year round, as noticed very well by Mrs. Desroches-Noblecourt. So the cyclic life of the country is mentioned on these walls and the participle of the hope of eternity for Paheri: integrated into these representations, Paheri will also participate for eternity in the eternally renewed life of Egypt.

PAHERI IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS DUTIES

West Wall, South End : The Official Functions of Paheri

1) Inspection of the agricultural domains and the grain

• The agricultural scenes of seed time and harvests occupy three registers, flanked by a large standing representation of Paheri.
This representation is very different from the one of the entry wall. Here, the noble doesn't have his beautiful presence anymore: of a wig of office, of a short beard of a noble. Yet he holds in his hands his attributes of power: the stick in the left hand and the sekhem-scepter of power in the other.
The unusual treatment of the head probably results from the sculptor's mistake, who dug too deeply. It was subsequently impossible to recover from this mistake in spite of the application of a filler, which didn't resist time. There remains the fragments of a duplicate face of which none of the sculpturing persists in a satisfactory state.
The inscription which accompanies this representation makes reference to the flowing of the seasons : " see the shemu (summer) season, the peret (winter) season and all the works of the fields by the prince of Nekheb, the prince of Anyt (the one who) acts while inspecting the lands of the south, the scribe of the grain, Paheri, justified ".
Accompanying Paheri in his tours of inspection, three assistants carrying bags, napkins and a stool.

• Before him (3rd register down) one finds a chariot harnessed to two horses and of which the reins and a whip are held one-handed by a groom, whilst in the other he holds the master's bow. By his attitude and his speech, he tries to calm the ardours of the animals : " Remain calm, don't be disobedient, excellent horse, beloved of his master, with whom the prince can rely on no matter what ".
The horse is an animal lately introduced into Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom. The Egyptian craftsmen never really knew how best to represent it, as with here, where the animals are very stiff.

• In majesty, the figure of Paheri faces the three registers, summarising the works of the fields during the three seasons of the Egyptian year. Thus is evoked the succession of months and years and thus the eternity to which he aspires.

view 42 : Works of the fields

The agricultural season is the first one represented, in the lower register. It is the peret (winter - spring) season..
It is the moment to turn over the land which has been softened previously by the rise in the water level of the Nile which has now abated. With the plough, drawn by oxen or men, or with the hoe, the land is worked, while other men sow the grain. These different methods of turning over the land probably correspond to different types of seedlings

The dialogues between the peasants describe to us an idyllic situation : " It is a beautiful day, it is cool ! Make haste, driver, drive the oxen, the Lord is there who watches us ". Another tells its friend : " Hasten with the work, that we might finish quickly ! " To which his friend answers : " I am going to do more work than that which the master expects of me ! "

To the extremity of this register one finds a representation of the standing master view 44, a stick of office in one hand, and the sekhem-scepter in the other, supervising the good execution of the tasks and who proceeds toward the craft in the course of loading at the edge of the river. With the passage, he exhorts the peasants : " Hasten, farmers ! the fields of grain are divided (?). The flood was very large ! "
To which the young peasants, who pull the yoke of the plough, reply to him : "They say: we do (so), watch us ! [...] ", and the old peasant at the rear gives them the retort : " Doubly excellent are your words, son ! The year is good ! [...] "

The following register, above, shows the time of the harvest..
On the left, one sees that of the linen (flax): men and women pull the stems, gather them into containers, which will then be carried to be finally combed in order to de-husk them.
The old man who executes this last task challenges the young person who brings him a container of linen : " If you bring me 11009 of them, I am the man who will comb them all ! " To which the other retorts to him : " Get on with it, don't chatter, species of an old boaster of a peasant ! ".

Then come the wheat fields, of which one finds two varieties. One is great, with bearded ears, the other small with ears with no beards. The reapers are at work. They hold the ear stems with the left hand, and cut them, very high, with a small curved sickle, of which the blade of wood is encrusted with stone cutting teeth. One of the reapers holds his sickle under the arm while he drinks from a jar of water.
The reapers proclaim : " It is a beautiful day to be out in the field, the gentle wind of the North has arrived, the sky conforms to our wishes [...] ". Behind the reapers, a woman and a child stoop double to glean the ears. Another standing woman follows them with two baskets.
On the right, under a light construction which serves as a canopy, the jars of water and beer are either raised on pedestals of wood or resting on the ground. Some are removed and are fanned to be cooled, by using the porosity of the clay of the container

The upper register continues the one underneath and also reads from left to right.
Under the foreman's orders, which tell them " Hurry yourselves, redouble your steps ! Water is coming and will reach your baskets ! ", the carriers of baskets full of ears hurry towards the threshing area, passing two of their friends on the way there, the empty basket is returned to the field. (The image of the foreman is now almost totally destroyed, see view 42, above, top right.) The structure in rush plaited of the basket, can be easily seen. They proclaim : "The sun is hot " but " that it will provide fish in payment for the wheat ". In fact, the rise in the water level of the Nile, which takes place in summer, will not only bring the fertile alluvium soil but also a great variety of fish.

On the threshing area, five non muzzled oxen tread the ears view 47. The heap is circular, higher at the periphery than at the centre. The drover addresses them : " Thresh, as if for youself, thresh (= trample) for yourself, Oh oxen ! Straw is for (you) to eat and wheat for your masters. Do not let your hearts calm themselves ! "
Then comes the moment of winnowing, see view 42. To avoid the dust, the peasants wear a piece of material on the head (= the klaft). The winnowing is done by throwing to wind the mixture of grain and chaff. Some helpers collect the grain on the ground and bring it to the area of storage where it is recorded by scribes. The one who resides over the job is "the scribe of the grain, Djehuty-Nefer". Finally, the grain is put in bags and is carried to the silo for storage. This is represented as an enclosed space containing four silos as well as a sycamore.

Simultaneously, in the fourth register, which comes below the first three, one sees embarking on boats, the bags of grain. The text proclaims: "Loading the boats with wheat and barley […] the granaries are full and overflow, the barges are heavily laden and some grain escapes. But the master urges us to continue. See, our hearts are bronzed ! " (view 43).
Their folded back mast proves that the ships will be allowed to drift northward, carried by the current, either to go towards another provincial storage place, or more probably bound for the capital. The pilot holds his depth probe, while some men draw water leaning over the side. This scene had already been summarised in the "Description of Egypt" view 52. On the right and above, Paheri supervises the loading.

In all these pastoral scenes, it is of course the abundance which one wants to represent. Magically re-transcribed, it will follow the life of Paheri into the beyond.

2) The counting of livestock

On the lower part of the wall, on the left, a scene with a smaller sized Paheri watches, seated on a chair, writing (see view 40). Paheri is helped in its task by " His brother, whom he loves, the excellent scribe, perfect with language, Paheri, justified. "
Before him are his scribe's instruments, a roll of papyrus and a small jug of water, represented above the casket which contains them, according to Egyptian conventions.
The text is written in large hieroglyphs : " Counting the whole livestock by the prince of Anyt, the chief of the stewards of the fields of the south, he who has the confidence of his Master [...] ".
The animals are represented on four registers, brought by their respective keepers: oxen, cows and calves on the two upper registers; donkeys, goats and pigs to the other two registers. Notice this representation of the pigs, rare in Egyptian tombs. Two salient scenes represent fertility and the renewal of life.
The donkeys are driven by a donkey-drover carrying in one hand a whip and in the other, resting on his shoulder, a stick with a shackle. Some oxen are represented lying on the ground, shackled, waiting to be marked by the instrument which a man holds in the fire.
A man on the ground to be receiving a beating, punishment for not having executed his work correctly.

3) The receipt of gold.

Some gold mines existed in the desert to the East, and metal had to reach the Nile close to El Kab, therefore under the jurisdiction of Paheri.
The scene is located next to the one of the loading of grain into the boat. The leaders of the miners bring the gold, which they have extracted, for weighing. It is presents here in the form of rings (at the top) or in bags (below) which are weighed against weights in the shape of oxen. A knelt man supervises the indicator of the balance.
The text is very mutilated : " Receiving the gold from the leaders of the miners ... receiving what has been ordered ... by prince Paheri, whose is attentive without tiring, who does not fail in that which is entrusted to him ".
His brother Paheri also helps him here with the recording of weights.
A new scene of beating is represented, one of the intervening parties, probably having not delivered the expected quantities.

On right-hand side of these scenes view 43 represents two boats. The first, the raised mast is tan, going up the Nile southwards. It comes therefore from the North, the direction in which the second boat heads, of which the mast is reclined. The two boats are similar, with a bridge cabin pierced by two small windows. Above each cabin, a chariot and horses. The decorations of the stern and prow are also identical. It is clearly concerns a boat (or boats) used for the movement of the nomarch.

4) Supervision of fishing activities and hunting of birds with a net.

These two activities are represented in the extension of the boats, therefore on two registers.
Fishing is done with a net, the caught fish being then brought to an old man who guts them. They are then put to dry. Two men prepare or repair a net one using a needle, the other twists a kind of spindle on his thigh.
Hunting for wild birds in the marshes, where they are abundant, is done here using nets. On the order of an old man whose torso appears out of the undergrowth of papyrus, the nine hunters fold back down net. Some fowl manage to escape of the net. The thus captured birds are plucked, gutted, then stored in earthenware jars.
A crane is brought toward Paheri, who supervises these activities, pressed on to a stick, with this text : " See the capture with nets of the wild birds and fish, having the happy face (seeing) all the works executed on the banks, by the nomarch Paheri ".

5) The wine-harvests.

This scene, view 48, surmounts the scene of Paheri and his wife under a canopy, located in the middle of the wall.
The scene completes and finalises the summing up of the agricultural activities of the nomarch.

The grape is brought to the press, where it is trodden by men who hold on to a rope, hanging from a bar. Wine is then put into jars.
Besides its agricultural character, this scene also possesses a religious connotation. In fact, the grapevine and the grape are associated with the god Osiris and the inundation. The blood of the murdered god had in fact been put in relation with the first waters of the inundation, because this is also red, because of the ferric alluvia which they transport coming from the Atbara (in Sudan).


Mur Ouest, Centre: Vie privée de Paheri	view 06

6) Paheri and his wife under a canopy.

This scene occupies the middle part of this area of the wall.

So, Paheri and his wife Henut-er-neheh, who closely embrace, are represented in pseudo perspective, seated under a light canopy view 49. The nomarch holds in his hands the two instruments of his power: the staff and the sekhem-scepter. Henut-er-neheh holds in her hand an open lotus flower, symbol of rebirth.
It represents a scene of presentation, rather similar to a presentation of tribute to the king, which shows Paheri, to whom six, arranged on two registers, bring all sorts of food and drinks.
This is done in the presence of the parents of Henut-er-neheh : her father, her mother, and her son " the officer of his Majesty, Teti ". Two women placed in front of them get them ointments and what could be cones of ointment to place on the head. One among them, Khnemet, is " musician of Nekhbet ". Behind these three main characters, eight other sons and daughters are represented. They are now almost obliterated.

7) Paheri and Prince Uadjmes

This scene of the upper register shows Paheri represented in a large size, seated on a cuboid seat, placed on a platform and holding on his knees the small prince, whom he affectionately surrounds with his arms. The latter is naked, wearing the lock of childhood on the side of his head.
The text proclaims : " Rejoice the heart with all things, making a happy day, receiving the gifts, adoring Nekhebkau, by the guardian of the son of king Uadjmes, Paheri, justified ". Before this representation, a scene currently almost obliterated, showed the adults and children bringing some offerings. Some among them were children of Paheri. The text above is only partially legible, proclaiming : " bringing some offerings by his children and grandchildren, adoringly ... ".
The inscription of the lower register, where one sees a man and two women carrying materials and vases, makes allusion to the provision of New Year's Day goods.

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