The longitudinal room (passage)

On the right side of the doorway leading to the second room, Amenemhat and his wife are shown turned towards the tomb’s exit: they perform their "coming forth by day" after being proclaimed just before the god Osiris. Most of the left side décor has disappeared. The second part is comprised of two walls that are divided into five registers for three-quarters of their length. In the last quarter, to the north, the two lower registers are preserved, while only one of the three upper registers is formed. The general theme is mainly funerary.

The west wall, the trip to Abydos

The first scene of the long west wall is on the upper two registers at the entrance of the room. It is usually called the "Pilgrimage to Abydos".

In the second register

Two boats head north, against the prevailing wind. The first is a single boat; the sailors have set sail, and four men row under the orders of their foreman, while a man at the bow helps the helmsman choose his way between the sandbanks. This boat tows a second, specially shaped one. Amenemhat and his wife are seated side by side, but their outlines are wrapped in white. In front of them, a man cuts the leg off a red ox as a funerary offering. The couple travels from Thebes to Abydos, the holy city of Osiris, in order to successfully pass the divine judgment: "Faring northward in peace to Abydos ..."

In the first register

The boats in the first register are strictly identical to those of the second, but this time the sail of the first boat is unfurled. This trip is that of the return to Thebes, the boats are driven by the North wind. An offering table with the leg of beef which has already been cut off replaces the similar scene in the second register. The dead are always tightly wrapped in their shrouds (). The rowers are not active, and two sailors are mounted aloft in the sail. As a small anecdotal detail, which frequently appears in many of the later tombs, a sailor leans out of the boat to draw water (). The couple returns from their "pilgrimage" to Abydos, where Amenemhat was proclaimed as justified: "Coming in peace from Abydos ..."

When is this trip taking place?

Is it a pilgrimage that Amenemhat and his wife really made? The couple is not represented as living, nor as mummies, or as statues. We are therefore in a sort of timelessness, the owner of the tomb being neither alive nor dead. At that period, not all Egyptians accomplished the pilgrimage to Abydos; it is thus often only represented in their tomb.
In the texts, Amenemhat is clearly identified with Osiris. The deceased wished to leave his tomb to go to Abydos on the occasion of the feasts of the god, and take a part in the rites, following the god, thus becoming an Osiris.

The west wall, funeral

The funeral of the deceased is rarely absent from the decoration of a tomb, and is usually depicted on the left wall of the passage, as here. The traditional funerary ritual is long and complex, so that the owner of a tomb normally chooses to include only some, specific scenes. Amenemhat’s tomb contains a large number of such scenes, which is why the representation of his funeral occupies three-quarters of the west wall.

The procession faces towards the back of the chapel, so it enters into the world of the dead. It goes to meet the protective goddess of the West, wearing her emblem, who welcomes the deceased into her bosom () : "Spoken by the Western Desert: O steward who reckonest the grain, thou scribe Amenemhet, twice-welcome to me in peace, that I may embrace thee and enfold thee in my arms, and command life [for thy … Verily I will be a protection to thy flesh, and my arms shall encircle thee for ever and ever".

The journey of the mummy

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The heart of the procession is the journey of the mummy, depicted here under the representation of the trip to Abydos. The mummy of Amenemhat, in his coffin, is lying on a bed placed in a support whose motif recalls the facades of the palaces and tombs of the earliest kings. It is protected by a canopy whose shape evokes the roof of the divine chapels of Upper Egypt. And the whole is laid upon a sledge that two red oxen and six men drag ().
Several people appear in this part of the convoy: On both sides of the mummy, two women personifying Isis and Nephthys - thus, the deceased is already assimilated here to Osiris, whom both goddesses surround in all representations of his rebirth - a cowherd, priests and men who are raising their arms as a sign of lamentation. Several men of high rank, with their batons in their hands, follow the coffin (). This part of the procession is greeted by a lector-priest, who reads from a long roll of papyrus : "Recitation by the priest-reader (and) the chorus of the drummers of measure: Come, O Past, worship and protection for the scribe who reckons the grain of Amun, Amenemhat, proclaimed righteous].
Adoration [...] in joy, by the chief of the weavers [of Amon, Amen] emha [t, proclaimed righteous]. "Ho, you, the god who stands up, " to the steward of the vizier, [Amen] emhat proclaimed righteous. The god appears in his palace and he shines as Re himself, [Amen] emhat, proclaimed righteous. The protection is pure in you, which appears in the horizon in [...] rejoice [sense?, Amen] emhat, proclaimed righteous. O, the Ennead rejoices in your perfection, that of the overseer of the ploughed lands, [Amen] emhat proclaimed righteous. The banners stand for you in the broad room, for the [scribe] of the vizier, [Amen] emhat, proclaimed righteous. Greetings to you, by the Ennead, for the steward who counts the people, [Amen] emhat, proclaimed righteous.
May adorations be made in heaven, prayers in the Duat. Your power is great, as monuments are high. Make a [beautiful] tomb, for the scribe who reckons the grain of Amun, [Amen] emhat, proclaimed righteous. The god rises towards his horizon, he follows the steps of the necropolis in peace with the great god. Go in peace towards the sky, towards the horizon, towards the Fields of Ialu, towards the Duat, towards the Seshemet, where are the gods / this god (?)."

Funerary goods

In the first register

Then, in the first register, before the pilgrimage to Abydos, his funerary goods appear carried by twelve servants: these are the furniture and objects that must be deposited in the vault. The material represented here has, above all. a symbolic value in the hereafter, rather than a real utility: they are statues, jewels, weapons ..., many objects usually associated with the king, and which remind us that many prerogatives of the Old Kingdom royalty that were later usurped by the elite.

Register below

The procession continues below the servants, with a sledge probably containing the canopic vases, two men holding long papyrus stalks, the plant of Hathor, and a final sledge, one on which is depicted the tekenu, an object still ill-defined but appearing in most of the tombs of that period. This part of the procession is welcomed by two “Muu” dancers. They often wear tall, conical hats, but this is not the case here ().

Rites

During the procession or at the arrival of the coffin in front of the chapel, several rites are accomplished. Here are some examples.

In the top register

In the upper register, a flat boat, with a white cabin in front of which burns a lamp, approaches the hieroglyphic symbol of the necropolis, surmounted by the hawk on its bulwark (). A priest kneels at the prow. At the stern, a "friend" leads the rowing boat, but another person, kneeling on the ground at the edge of the water, takes the blade of the oar and pushes it into the water: "Going about upstream on the surface of (?) the water by the steward and scribe Amenemhat, the justified, opposite the tomb-shaft. Putting in to land at the great city in the Thinite nome."

hen in front of this boat, and almost before the goddess of the West, a man runs to a sanctuary with two decorated oars in hand, perhaps those who played a role in the previous scene. These oars are offered to the deceased: "Going forth on the land by the revered courtiers . putting in to land in the presence of Osiris the scribe Amenemhet". Then in front of this boat, and almost before the goddess of the West, a man runs to a sanctuary with two decorated oars in hand, perhaps those who played a role in the previous scene. These oars are offered to the deceased: "Going forth on the land by the revered courtiers . putting in to land in the presence of Finally, between the sanctuary and the great figuration of the goddess of the west, two women playing the parts of Isis and Nephthys, the two mourners, kneel and present bowls of water in front of four sacred basins of lustration . This rite symbolizes a fertilization of the desert.

In the second register

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In the second register, before the goddess, a kneeling priest offers the thigh of an ox sacrificed before a shrine: "[Entering] into the [sacred (?) place in order to put on the ground a head and foreleg in … the Western Desert, the Osiris the scribe Amenemhat".
The text that begins above his back evokes the funeral: "Making a goodly burial for the scribe who reckons the grain, Amenemhat, after [coming to port]....Proceeding to the Necropolis, escorting the scribe Amenemhat, the justified, to the goodly West, escorting the chief of the weavers of Amun, Amenemhat, to the ship. Proceeding upstream to join the tomb (?) of…, Amenemhat".

Behind, a priest reader comes forward, a long baton in his hand, and three men draw a flat boat on the water, on which is a curious structure (). Two men and the two mourners take places around this structure. Their recitation deals with a journey: "Going about downstream, accompanying the steward of the Vizier, Amenemhat, to Sais. Proceeding downstream to the gates of Pe, proceeding to Het-sidr. Conveying the scribe Amenenemhet, the justified, upstream … in the midst of the stream. Going out on land by the scribe who reckons the corn of [Amun], Amenemhat, justified."

In the third register

In the third register, before the goddess and a decorated false door, two men carry on their shoulders a sarcophagus or a chest. The two smaller mourners accompany them. "Said by the Nine Courtiers: Coming and going with the Osiris Amenemhat. He has shown himself (?), even his son Horus. He has offered (?) his crown among [the gods] to the scribe Amenemhat the deceased. Thou hast smitten thy enemies beneath thee, [thy protection] is behind thee eternally, arising in Het … by the scribe […" ().

The theme of pilgrimage returns in this part of the funeral: In the first register, the deceased goes to Abydos. In the second register he goes to Pe and Sais, the holy cities of Osiris in the eastern Delta. The technical term used for the route (going up or down) shows that the starting point is not Thebes but the Memphite region or Middle Egypt. These representations are thus derived from the iconographic program of the tombs of Memphis of the end of the Old Kingdom.
The fourth and fifth registers are much more damaged.

Evolution

Representations of funerals are among scenes that evolve greatly during Egyptian history. Scenes appear, others disappear, so that there are few possible parallels between the tomb of Amenemhat and that for example of Ramosé (TT 55), who nevertheless lived only a century after him, under Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV. At the same time, at the beginning of the 18th dynasty, a large number of the rites represented no longer correspond to any reality, and reproduced scenes from the mastabas of the Old Kingdom. The weight of tradition is very strong at this period, and tomb owners chose to refer back to an archaic art. For example, the hauling of the sarcophagus by oxen on a sledge is a survival from the Memphite period. Such a team would not find a path into the necropolis of Thebes, which is more rugged than the plateau of Saqqara.

The east wall, the ritual of the opening of the mouth

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When the funeral is shown on the left wall of the passage, the final ceremonies performed in front of the tomb on the mummy and its statues are often shown opposite. Here, they occupy the whole of the two lower registers on the east wall. This is the ceremony of opening the mouth. Its aim is to restore to the deceased his bodily functions and to begin to nourish him, as he will subsequently be during his cult worship. The ceremony is a part of a complex liturgy that has existed since the Old Kingdom. As for the representation of previous funerary ceremonies, such scenes are grouped together, and not all stages of the liturgy are necessarily represented.
Similarly, the ritual described in this liturgy, and represented in the tomb, does not necessarily correspond to the reality of the ceremony. Here are shown the purification, awakening, clothing and nourishment of the deceased. The theoretical daily funerary cult merely repeats these rites more quickly.

The east and west walls, the funerary cult

The northern end of the two walls is occupied by scenes completely in the logical sequence of funeral and then rites, for they represent the very first funerary cult activity. The eldest son comes to renew these rites in the chapel of his father. It is generally a priest who plays the role of the son, but it is a son that the deceased has shown in preference. He recites the first prayers and brings the first offerings. The two scenes are symmetrical on the east and west sides with respect to the axis of the passage.
On the two walls, Amenemhat and his wife sit side by side at the back of their tomb, they are thus arising from the kingdom of the dead. Their figures were hammered out, but their position can be guessed because it is quite usual: she embraces him while one of his hands reaches out towards the offerings. The offerings also correspond to the norm in this scene, from the slices of bread cut vertically, the supports of the various vases, to the piles of bread, onions and meats.
Facing the couple stands the sem-priest, clad as always in the skin of leopard, but hammered out on the two walls. The prayer of the offering which he recites for the benefit of the departed addresses himself to the gods of Upper Egypt on the left and, to the right, to those of Lower Egypt:

To the west

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"An offering-which-the-King-gives to Geb and to the Ennead of the palace of Upper Egypt, a thousand of incense and unguent, a thousand of cloth and thread, a thousand of vegetables …;his son beloved of him, Amenhotpe, justified".

To the east

"An offering-which-the-King-gives to Geb and [to the Ennead] of the palace of Lower Egypt, a thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, a thousand of oxen and geese, a thousand of all things that are offered or that grow; his son beloved of him, the scribe Amenemhat, justified".

Now, symbolically, the tomb is oriented towards the west: the left wall is therefore the "south" wall, and the right wall the "north" wall. The address to the gods is therefore not random, with Upper Egypt to the south and Lower Egypt to the north.

A small list of offerings occupies the space above the table. It consists of 21 items, 19 of which are food or drink: (I) water: two vessels ; (2-5) loaves of various shapes and sizes ; (6) two portions of roast meat (7) wine: (8) two špnt-jugs of beer ; then again (9) two vessels containing water.(11) honey (?) ; (12) two red bowls of water : (13) natron ; (14) a nmst vase of northern wine ;(15) yet another portion of roast meat : (16 and 17) two joints bearing particular names; (18 and 19) two kinds of cake, the second being cut in two halves ; (20) again two red bowls of water; and finally (21) libations and the burning of incense.
It represents the ideal menu of the deceased served during the funerary cult. The deceased, like the living, needs to be fed, clothed, and so forth. But these needs are fulfilled ritually, as is done for the gods. This is the essential meaning of the funerary offering. This cult activity is normally made regularly, but the representations and texts are there to supplement it, if necessary. Amenemhat is thus assured of seeing his physical needs fulfilled. The funerary offering is essential to the survival and rebirth of the deceased.