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Technical note: the photos taken behind glass and in neon light were especially difficult to produce.
The colours have been restored to bring them as close as possible to the original's vibrant colours.
One enters tomb TT 295 of el Khokha by an opening situated in the left extremity of the west wall of tomb TT 296 of Nefersekheru, by descending into a short passage which ascends again very quickly.
The tomb itself is comprised of two rooms, of which only the first is decorated.
By an opening in the north wall, one reaches a undecorated side chamber into which are dug two shafts both leading eventually to the burial chamber, via a series of corridors and another shaft.
The tomb goes back to the time of Thutmosis IV or his father Amenhotep II.
The owner is Djehutymes  , also called Paroy  , who bears the titles of "Head of the secrets in the Chest of Anubis, Sem-priest in the Good House, Embalmer".
His parents were the "Sem-priest of the Good House" Sennetjer and the lady Senemiahbet.
Two wives are mentioned: Nefertiry, Rennutet. A son is identified: Huy, the girls are not named.
The monument is fairly mutilated but still includes numerous intact scenes.
The walls have been covered with a mixture of mud and chopped straw and have been painted with a white distemper.
The decoration, which still exists, has kept its vivid colours.
The blue, an expensive colour to produce, is extensively used here.
The whole upper part of the walls is decorated with a kheker frieze resting on a line of coloured rectangles known as an "Egyptian" frieze.
The bottom of the registers rests on two thick yellow and red lines.
This is the one found when turning around after having entered in the tomb.
A beautiful representation of Osiris occupies the left third of the wall.
The God is seated in a golden yellow chapel surmounted by a frieze of protective uraei.
Seated on a classic archaic seat, wearing his Atef crown, he holds in his hands the insignias of his regal power: the Heqa sceptre and the Nekhakha flail.
In front of him, a composite floral column, finished with a papyrus bouquet, bends itself toward his face.
Standing in front of him, the deceased, Paroy, is in worship while presenting to him offerings represented on a well garnished table: plants, breads, cuts of meat.
He is clothed in a white tunic and wears around his neck a great wsr-necklace and bracelets on his wrists and arms.
The first male character behind him also brings a composite bouquet containing at its summit both symbols of the revival, the lotus and the papyrus.
One feminine character is almost completely erased, the other is partially recognisable at the extreme right and the text indicates that it is the mother of Djehutymes who is represented.
A small girl with the name of Yuya is represented at the bottom under her mother's (?) protective hand.
She holds in her hand an open lotus flower.
The lower right section of the wall includes one of the rare funerary scenes of the tomb, of which only a few fragments exist.
One finds there an image which is rarther intricate.
We find a rather intriguing representation of two priests covered in a very tight gurdle (shroud, or skin), with red horizontal stripes, except for the head.
One is seated, the other stretched out on a kind of low bed the legs of which bent towards the interior.
Errect mummies surround them.
This is a representation concerning the sem-priest during the ritual of "opening of the mouth" in two functions, "sleeping" and "awake".
According to Budge, the Sem is first "asleep", a state during which he sees his "father" (i.e. the deceased) in "all his manifestations".
Then he awakens and tells of his visions.
It is suggested lately that the sem-priest would act as the first Egyptian magician and that the whole of the scene would correspond - in a shaman-like manner - to a sort of trance during a pseudo sleep.
This ritual could have a tie with the mysterious Tekenu.
A similar scene is in the tomb of Rekhmire TT 100
The wall is divided by the opening which leads to the second chamber and underground complex with the burial chamber.
 On the right-hand section the couple Djehutymes - Nefertiry are seated in front of the remains of an offering table.
A thin wavy line, symbolising the water of purification separates the couple of the rest of the scene.
The lady wears a tight-fitting dress, with a single shoulder strap, which reveals a breast.
She is crowned with a great tripartite wig.
At the bottom, a small girl is seated on a seat befitting her size.
The three characters hold in their hands the lotus of the rebirth.
The lower register is very mutilated.
The very fragmentary remains of another couple who face the first are found immediately before the opening leading to the well shaft.
On the left of this opening, one finds a beautiful representation of seated couple.
The woman, with yellow flesh, is very mutilated.
Paroy, with the more brown complexion, holds in his hand a floral bouquet whose colours remained vivid.
He spreads the right hand above a table of offerings.
A "placard" had to list the offerings: the columns have been drawn some but the text has not been written.
The rest of the wall has nearly disappeared.
This wall, which faces the visitor when he enters the tomb, is centred by a painted stela false door accompanied by three registers of representations;
the one at the top occupies the whole width of the wall while the two others are much reduced, on either side of the stela.
The stela is painted a little irregularly in pink, to imitate granite.
Above of the pseudo opening, a couple is represented seated, painted in black.
The texts, a hymn to Osiris, are difficult to read.
The register at the top, resting on the corniced top of the door, shows the deceased followed by hiss son and a woman in worship in front of a dais, under which is Osiris and a goddess.
A composite bouquet is placed in front of the God.
The edifice rests on a reed mat, which in turn rests on a bevelled Ma'at sign.
The two registers on the right show some seated couples receiving the offering from a masculine character, placed in front of them.
The lower one is a recognisable priest with his shaven head.
On the left, one can identify the couples: the one at the top is formed by Djehutymes and one of his wives, Nefertiry;
in the lower one, the wife is Rennutet and in front of them is presented to them a double burning offering.
Their seats rest on reed mats.
This separates into two registers.
The upper register includes, in the north-west corner, the seated couple consisting of the deceased and Nefertiry, with, at their feet, a small girl, to which their son Huy presents a bouquet.
Behind him, the scene of the funerary banquet spreads out on to the two lower registers.
On top, the male guests are accompanied by male servants, below the women with maidservants.
The columns of texts which should have served to identify the characters have been left blank.
Servants and maids hold all in their left hand a cone of ointment
(of which the actual material remains in debate, some seeing there a metaphor for "perfume"),
while in the right hand they offer a goblet to the guests.
After a vast lacuna, we find Paroy standing, dedicating an over-laden table of offerings.
At his feet, servants are represented in a much smaller scale cutting the right foreleg of an ox (the Khepresh) which will then be presented to the deceased.
After a new lacuna, we reach the left extremity of the register with the seated couple comprising the father of the deceased, Sennetjer, and his wife
(the mother of Djehutymes) "his sister, the mistress of house, the beloved in the place of his heart, Senemiahbet"
of whom one should notice the beautiful bracelet on her wrist.
At their feet, a unidentified boy, certainly their son, who holds in his hand a lotus bouquet.
Also, in front of them, is a beautiful table of offerings and a small servant.
In the lower register, one again finds the deceased's parents to whom Djehutymes, represented as a young man, dedicates some offerings.
Behind him comes a maid and servants servants bringing various products which will serve to supply the table of offerings.
Then a new seated couple, asking to be able to take advantage every day of their offerings. This couple consists of a person named Mahu and of his wife Tauret. I ignore their ties of relationship with the deceased.
They could possibly be the parents of one of his wives.
Towards the right-hand part of the lower register, one finds, in the form of two lower registers, a cohort of servants bringing essentially vegetable and floral commodities and also ducks.
Behind these stand a couple represented a much greater scale.
These represents Huy, and of one of the daughters of the Djehutymes - Rennutet couple who are seated, facing them.
Huy makes a floral offering and his father also holds in his hand a beautiful bouquet, while he accepts the other offerings which that one presents to him.
Particularly well-preserved with its vibrant colours, the ceiling consists of a very different assembly of motifs, in oblong settings, separated by thick yellow bands, which sometimes contain the character's biography.
One notices the absence in this tomb of all representation of the actual funeral ceremony and the funerary cortege.
The only scenes with funerary connotation are on the east wall, where the sun rises, and are developed very little.
The deceased preferred to favour the domestic scenes and didn't represent many scenes of daily life.
It is true that, certainly not being a great landowner, he could not pretend any agricultural scenes or handicraft to which he had not had any part during his earthly life.
| THE SECOND CHAMBER AND UNDERGROUND COMPLEX |
In the middle of the north wall of the main chamber, a doorway leads to a second, rough cut and undecorated chamber.
The doorway is completely smashed, leaving nothing to be described, except that it is wider at the bottom than at the top and has a height of about 1.8metres.
This second chamber just over 2 metres long, 1.5 metres wide, and about 2.3 metres in height.
The floor is 27cm below the entrance threshold.
In the wall opposite the doorway is a small niche about 1 metre above floor level.
On the west side of this wall is an irregular opening to an unfinished extension to the chamber.
In the floor, at the east end of the room is a metre deep shaft, the bottom of which slopes downwards from west to east giving access to a small, almost square chamber, just over 2x2 metres and just over a metre in height.
At the western end of its north wall is a small opening, which leads to a curved passageway, connected to well shaft 3 (which descends from beyond the western end of the second chamber).
An opening in the eastern wall of the room connects to yet another almost square room, in the floor of which (north-east corner) is the opening to well shaft 2, which is 2.5 metres deep.
This shaft leads to the actual burial chamber of tomb TT295, through an opening on the east side of the base of the shaft.
This final chamber measures just over 2 metres square and just over a metre in height.
Navigating these chambers and shafts would have been difficult, with only a metre headroom in most places and also having rough unfinished surfaces.
Returning to the second upper chamber, it has a passage leading westwards to well shaft 3 (mentioned earlier).
At the bottom of this shaft, a passage heads north, then east and finally south to the small access to the chamber at the bottom of shaft 1.
The north end of the passage of shaft 3, positioned just below floor level, is a narrow low extension heading west.
This was possibly created to assist in the digging of shaft 3.
Original text and photos by Thierry Benderitter
English Translation by Jon J Hirst
© Copyright OsirisNet 2007
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Bibliography |
• ALY HEGAZY El Sayed, TOSI mario : A Theban private tomb, Tomb N°295, Verlag Philipp Von Zabern, 1983
• PORTER B., MOSS R.L.B. :The Theban necropolis, T 1, Griffith Institute, 1994
• FISCHERT-ELFERT H.W. : Die Vision von der Statue im Stein, Heidelberg, 1998
• REEDER G. : A rite of passage. The enigmatic Tekenu in Ancient Egyptian funerary ritual, KMT, 5, 3, 1994
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