Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum

Translation into modern languages

Translation of Egyptian terms varies considerably between authors: Raymond O. Faulkner's 1962 concise dictionary (p. 239) renders titulary noun sHD as "inspector" based on New Kingdom historical sources, with added question mark. Ranier Hannig, from period sources, calls the sHD an "Untervorsteher" (subordinate official),^[14]:1178 of rank lower than the m-r; in particular, the sHD jrj.w an.wt pr aA who supervises manicurists in the palace is an Untervorsteher.^[14]:1179 Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep held the title m-r "overseer" of the manicurists in addition to their sHD stations. Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae has followed Hannig on this issue, but cautions that its text translations, here taken from Moussa & Altenmüller's 1977 publication of the tomb, are not definitive. Baud considers emerging local overlordships and subdivision of the bureaucracy in the Old Kingdom the primary phenomena responsible for multiple titles pertaining to one occupational field.^{[17]:91-94[note 4]}

Uncertainty increases when abstract concepts are at hand: Old Kingdom pyramids were named using constructions scholars haven't yet parsed completely, so that modern book translations only gloss the original meanings. For instance, to English-speaking ears, the near-synonyms "abide" and "endure" display a species difference within the genus of "things which survive a long time," the former more animate than the latter, yet both can be used to translate the word mn found in 5th and 6th Dynasty pyramid names.^[21]:73

The religious and mortuary establishments

We should note the two temples mentioned, the solar and the one beside the pyramid, are distinct, about a mile (1.5 km) apart in the Abusir-Abu Ghurab necropolis district southwest of modern Cairo, and, like most cemeteries, sited in the desert just beyond reach of the annual Nile flood. Each 5th Dynasty pyramid furthermore came with two temple enclosures, a mortuary establishment in the shadow of the pyramid itself and a valley temple at the edge of the cultivated land, a causeway connecting these. The solar temple had similar auxiliary structures.^{[22]:93-95[note 5][23]}

Suspicion that Nyuserre, the most prolific of the 5th-Dynasty monument builders, usurped his predecessor Neferirkare's valley temple and causeway for his own pyramid project arises, even in popular literature, as his causeway runs directly toward Neferirkare's pyramid a considerable distance before detouring, a thing no other causeway at Abusir does.^{[24]:33, 121[25]:151[26][23]:map} Such usurpation is common, and not necessarily directed at promoting self in lieu of family line: New Kingdom practice of Thutmose III while erasing Hatshepsut’s cartouches at Medinet Habu was to substitute not his own cartouches, but those of Thutmoses I and II, his immediate ancestors.^{[27]:12[28]:267} Ladislav Bareš, of the Czech Egyptological school which has excavated at Abusir and Saqqara over decades, believes Neferirkare was Nyuserre’s father, and that the elder died leaving mortuary construction unfinished.^{[29]:xiv, 1-3} In this case, completion of family dynastic monumental statements, not usurpation, would be the applicable motive. (Observe that the 5th and most other numbered dynasties in Egypt cover more than one family line.) Ćwiek demurs, but places 'usurpation' in single quotes.^[24]:33 The result was an unusual L-shaped floor plan in a location shoehorned between existing pyramids and mastabas, a problem the sun temple escaped.^[30]:62-65

The Hrj sStA and control of information by the state

The title Hrj sStA "keeper of the secrets" is attested for 13 individuals during the Old Kingdom, at least once elaborated to the form Hr sStA mdw-nTr "keeper of the secrets of the god's words," meaning the hieroglyphic language used on monuments.^{[15]:75[12]:44} In contrast with the hieratic script used for everyday record-keeping, already an elite activity no more than one percent of the population engaged in, the content of hieroglyphic texts was closely controlled property of the state and permission from the king was probably required for inscriptions in one's tomb, as we see in a royal authorization for Rawer, an official under Neferirkare buried at Giza, to do so. Indeed, the 5th Dynasty marks the appearance in quantity of extended prose documents carrying legal force.^{[12]:6[31]:584[19]:79–81}

The Pyramid Texts (in prefatory stages of development during Nyuserre's reign, then first inscribed in and around the burial chamber of King Unas) were reserved for royals only; a democratization of magic spells for the afterlife which would yield the Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead remained yet to come, although physical offering goods royal mortuary texts called for could be listed by name and icon in private tombs, and offering formulas for non-royal burials were available. (The term "democratization" and the process attending it is a topic of research and controversy.)^[32]:116 The Hrj sStA was at times in charge of enforcing these rules, or at least the will of the king expressed through the vizier, as shown by the 6th-Dynasty tomb of Khenu at Deir el-Gabrawi: Khenu held the title Hrj sStA n Hwt wrt "chief of secrets in the great hut," the vizier's bureau.^[33]:1 In parallel with the rise of legal documents, the Pyramid Texts increased the complexity of religion, adding the Osirian underworld to the deceased's experience in complementarity with already-prevalent solar themes.^{[34]:98–99, 102–103[35]:192-198[12]:322}

The jmAx concept as proximity to king and god, in life and hereafter

jmAx xr nTr aA "honored one near the great god" is a euphemism for "dead," appearing frequently in tombs and on slab stelae, even though it, like the word (and goddess) mAat, evokes a multifarious idealization of relationships between social and cosmological ranks.

Epithets beginning with jmAx are common throughout Egyptian history from the 4th Dynasty on,^[21]:194 tending toward greater specificity in later periods. An official or family member could possess several, both jmAx xr nTr aA "honored before the great god" (when dead)^{[11]:Szene 34} and jmAx xr nswt "honored before the king" (presumably in life).^{[11]:Szenen 13} It is important to realize that king and god themselves can be one and the same, especially upon death, as Amenemhat I would be in the early Middle Kingdom story of Sinuhe.^[13]:59 The goal of kingship, after maintaining social order (mAat) in Egypt, was to ascend and unite with the sun disk of Heliopolitan theology, maintained from Old Kingdom until the arrival of Christianity.^{[12]:121[35]:141}Since jmAx can also be translated as "provided for," the connection an official's tomb holds with royal subsidy is made implicit; although officials built their tombs using mainly their own resources once the 4th Dynasty (and Khufu's largess at Giza) ended.^{[34]:103[36]:14}

If the efficacy of jmAx status in garnering support from the living world is unknown, the title holders were expected to confer favors in return, from the necropolis as beings in their afterlife corpora, denoted by the word Ax "akh" and perceived as effective against illness or through dreams. Respects paid the dead were a crucial matter: Egyptians wrote letters to them, an activity which peaked during the Old and Middle Kingdoms.^[35]:42 Royal mortuary cults continued operations at Abusir through the end of the 6th Dynasty; maintenance for private cults being less secure.^[29]:1–3 Saqqara was still receiving interments of officials in the Middle and New Kingdom periods,^[37][38] where a hypothesis that burial grounds were segregated according to professional line has been advanced; this is uncertain, as is whether the pattern was based on older precedent.^{[39]:xiv, 1-3} The 1st Dynasty drew such a pattern in stark outlines: Kings chose Abydos while the dignitaries were buried at Saqqara, but not so in the 2nd, when royal burials at Saqqara alongside officials commenced.^{[40]:99-100, 201[41]:222-223}

Forecourt entrance with architrave and pillars

We progress inward from the tomb entrance as a visitor would. A two-pillared portico makes up the eastern half of the mastaba's façade. The front is inscribed with Niankhkhnum depicted on the left, Khnumhotep on the right. These two reliefs are virtually identical, only the names being different.

Interior of forecourt

This space is fairly small. The west side is decorated with a funerary procession for Niankhkhnum and the east side shows a matching funerary procession for Khnumhotep.

Khnumhotep (left) and Niankhknum (right) enjoy taking game in the papyrus marshes that dot Egypt's landscape. See text for discussion; click image to enlarge and view tiny family members dispersed about the men. Osirisnet^[50]

The uppermost south wall shows the two men seated before an offering table. Niankhkhnum is seated on the right, while Khnumhotep is seated on the left. The table with offerings stretches out between them. Below the offering scene the two men are depicted netting fowl and fishing. On the left, below this lintel, Khnumhotep stands on a papyrus boat, spearing fish in the water that floods the bases of papyrus stalks he drifts among. He is accompanied by his wife Khenut, sons and a daughter. On the right, Niankhkhnum is depicted in a similar manner, aiming his throw stick at the waterfowl although the active arm is now missing from this piece. The birds flush at the disturbance. He is accompanied by his wife Khentkawes, who was a priestess of Hathor, and sons and a daughter as well.^[45] Such hunting in its various forms has been a pursuit of the entitled nobility throughout history. Note that the wives are sniffing lotus blossoms as they hang their free arms upon the legs of their husbands. This scene is a composite made by subtracting a doorway which actually stands between the two men's boats in the tomb; done here to save space. However, one might be tempted to read it as if the door weren't there; analogous Egyptian murals exist with no splitting of the scene into two halves, often with the same person performing the fishing and fowling on both boats. The 18th Dynasty Theban tomb of Nakht (TT52) was an instance. Egyptians would understand a convention that the person engaged in the two activities at consecutive times. Here, since two friends are present, they can be imagined doing it together. The families come along for the outing, drawn at much smaller scales to show relative social status. Their names and titles are written beside each.^[45]:642

Vestibule

East wall in the first chamber.

At the entrance scenes of baking bread and brewing beer are depicted. Barley is carefully measured out and turned into bread. Some of the bread is mixed with a date beverage and fermented to produce some type of beer. Other scenes include goat herding, ship building, harvesting scenes, sailing, netting of birds, etc. The east wall contains a legal text. Below this text several people are depicted thought to be the family of the two men. At the very bottom ships are shown. The men are shown standing before the main cabin of the ship.^[45]

Court (open to sky)

An undecorated space which serves to connect the vestibule and chambers on the north end of the mastaba with the abutting rock-cut sections of the tomb to their south. Modern security grates now obstruct much of the full sun that would have flooded this small, walled yard, yet little or no sun fell on the vestibule to the outer rock-cut hall described below, as its entrance faces north.^[45]

Vestibule

This should not be confused with the previously-mentioned vestibule at the public entrance; here we are arriving from an enclosed court. With names, titles, and standing portraits of the two men, it is much smaller than the other vestibule and without pillars. The lintel's inside surface features another cattle count scene, and each tomb owner appears on one of the side walls with his wife, amid a flow of yet more offerings from the herds.^[45]

Outer hall

Niankhkhnum (standing, left) and Khnumhotep (right, with his right arm on Niankhkhnum's shoulder), accompanied by their offspring (hieroglyphic notations msw.f). On west wall of outer hall, between double doors.^{[7]:148–150, Plate 73}

This outer hall, an antechamber to the final, inner hall, marks the tomb's first, rock-cut phase of construction, and is fully decorated. Before the mastaba was added, it would have been the first room a visitor entered after passing through the forecourt, which was relocated northeast to the far side of the mastaba where it is now. Here, people engage in agricultural occupations including the weighing of corn and grain, the ploughing of fields, and harvesting.

A double doorway to the inner hall is on the west wall, with a broad pillar dividing the doors. Its surface depicts the two men, their children, drawn much smaller to reflect a lesser status, in tow behind each parent.^[45] The respective wives do not appear in this scene. Niankhkhnum has three sons and three daughters, Khnumhotep five sons and one daughter, some of whom may be adopted or conceived by a second wife or mistress as they lack the shendyt kilts worn by the others. All the children except Niankhkhnum's youngest son, who still runs naked with his shaved head bearing the single sidelock of youth, are adults despite the scale they are drawn at.^[9]:38 Ptahshepses (not the vizier discussed below), a son of Khnumhotep, wore the youth sidelock in the marsh scene of the forecourt but not so here. Either inconsistency intrudes, or the art, completed over years, reflects some changes of status which transpire during the tomb's construction.

Inner hall

See text for discussion. Reeder.^[4]:194

Entering either of the double doors, we note more registers, of birds and of men leading animals, on the thicknesses of the jambs. Now on the reverse side of the dividing pillar, we see Niankhknum and Khnumhotep embracing again, and a third time on the opposite wall of this small chamber. They are without their children in this innermost sanctuary. Each man has a "false door," a carved, slot-like niche surrounded by inscriptions which was produced in the royal workshops and installed in the tomb. Niankhknum's is seriously damaged.^[45] The false door provided an accessway for the deceased, as a spiritual being, to reach offerings left at the tomb by the living. These offerings were to be set on plinths in front of the false doors.^{[35]:155-159[51]:19, 55} Behind the false doors is a small statue closet known as the serdab. A statue of each man would have been placed here, facing the chamber as if to watch visitors come and go, but invisible to the offering-bringers since the false doors are actually solid. Unfortunately, it appears that tomb robbers removed the statues in antiquity; they are no longer extant.^{[46]:31[45]:644}

Frontalism in art poses a problem the artist must solve when rendering persons who face one another or sit together: This style makes it less obvious that the two men are facing each other in an embrace. Only heads and legs orient that way in profile; the torso must be shown in frontal aspect. Side-by-side seating puts one person behind the other in a "doubled" chair, as in the banquet scene (Banquets and music section below). Variety of plant species in a wetland can result in a "composite" plant being painted.^{[52]:19, 55[53]:47-48} The integrated false doors of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep face the pair of real doors by which people enter the tiny room. The common door frame for the false doors is covered with offering texts (see image in Titulary section). Not only is each transom provided with an offering table scene, the side walls repeat it, for each man, yet now combine it with gathering of goods from the fields. Activity of the butchers receives special emphasis in the lowest, "foreground" registers on both side walls.^{[7]:Plates 86-89} Niankhkhnum takes the ideologically more favorable south half of the inner hall, but otherwise the two are treated equally.^[20]:464

Religious motive

Dining scenes in Egyptian art refer to the afterlife, often in groups seated on the ground as the large dinner tables familiar to us were unknown to Egypt. Ritual purity becomes a matter of special concern in this context: Museums exhibit the ceramic washing bowls, one to pour from and one to catch the dribbling water.^[57]:3-4 Magical utterances and libation precede the meal of the dead; in the soon-forthcoming Pyramid Texts of Unas, we read

"These your cool waters, Osiris—these your cool waters, oh Unis…I have come having gotten Horus’s eye, (Spell 21). Wash yourself, Unis, and part your mouth with Horus’s eye. You shall summon your ka—namely, Osiris—and he shall defend you from every wrath of the dead. Unis, receive to yourself this your bread, which is Horus’s eye (Spell 66)."^{[59]:19, 23}

Although no 5th Dynasty private tombs call the owner Osiris or mention Horus' eye, Taylor indicates some elements of what became the Pyramid Texts were adapted for non-royal use;^{[35]:192–198} particularly the qbH "libation" water^[14]:1332 streaming from a red jar on the slab stela of Nefret-iabet (Louvre 15591, Dyn. 4, reign of Khufu), afront her face so as to suggest its use directly. Ziegler calls this a funeral meal as well as an offering table scene, yet it must have taken place after her death, if at all, given that linen for her mummy is specified on the piece's right half.^[58]:242-244 Numerals "1000" count most of the items pictured, clearly demonstrating the stela's purpose as an offering list. By invocation and magic, if the living were to stop donating to her tomb establishment, then she would still be provided for. The "one thousand in beer, one thousand in bread" phrases^{[11]:Szene 31} which introduce Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep's offering table in the rock-cut section of their tomb evokes stelae such as Neferet-iabet's, themselves once affixed to mastaba facades as found in situ for Wep-em-neferet (possible husband of Nefret-iabet) at Khufu's Giza cemetery. The heart is never eaten and remains absent from offering lists.^{[58]:245-246[60]:31}

The musicians

The upper register of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep (corresponding to Ti's) resembles these scenes on slab stelae, without text beyond the two men's names and titles.^{[11]:Szene 31} Niankhkhnum's wife, seated next to him at the left edge, has been erased; the doubled chair and partially visible label on this side reveals her. She was a rxt nswt "king's acquaintance." Clearly the ensemble of musicians and dancers is formulaic, as this tomb and Ti's bear similar graphic layouts. Nonetheless, a written music program preserves the orders an instructor-maestro (labeled as such by the word sbA behind his head^[14]:1097) gives his troupe, accompanied by mmt- and mAt-flutes and sqr m bnt "plucking of the harps:"

Hsjt j.jrj m nw n snwj ntrwj pr r.k jr.s "Singing: Do it thus for the two divine brothers: Begin for them now," the instructor exhorts (hieroglyphs near center right in banquet scene image under the section heading; these are circled in red). About it we hear a mysterious comment:

m.k Trf jTt "Look, the Trf-dance is taken" (lower left corner of image, not circled).^{[11]:Szene 31}

All the men in the second register who aren't playing an instrument are clapping or slapping their thighs except the instructor, standing bent forward at far right. Fourth from left, named Ankhredwi-nesut and playing a flute, is someone who may know the tomb owners, as he is mentioned several times on other walls of this tomb. In the bottom register, another woman, Hemet-Re, possibly Niankhkhnum's daughter and entitled a "keeper of the king's things," stands before six Hst "female singers" at her right. She is backed by seven jbAw "male dancers" with hands upraised. Fourth from left in this register is the person who announces that the dance has been taken, clapping as he does so. In front of him, a pair of men kneel. Each clasps one of the other's hands overhead while pointing his other arm toward the ground.^{[7]:142–147, Plate 70, Fig. 25[11]:31} Altenmüller has more recently refined the translation to read, "Singing, in this (tomb) as the offering ritual is performed. The (song) of the divine brother. Go up to him." This English wording folds the divine brothers into a song title, reducing their number to just one.^[56]:26

Observing that festive scenes are more concentrated at Saqqara than elsewhere during the 5th Dynasty, Altenmüller goes on to compare several scenes from this genre, placing them in the context of a family and the gods it associates with, which becomes a heritable scheme along with the titles. At Saqqara, many reliefs involve sniffing the lotus blossom, an activity we saw Khentikawes engage in during her husband's bird hunt.^{[56]:17, 25} Returning our gaze to the top register above the music, we see that Khnumhotep is holding a lotus blossom in his lap with his left hand. If he is watching the dancers, they are in front of him, not in a basement below. Complexities encountered in music and dance remain poorly understood today, although Allen thinks that literature was written in meter as well.^[13]:2-3 Officials, who sometimes were women, presided over musical festivities: In a 4th Dynasty mastaba at Giza, the owner Ity and his wife both bore the rx nswt "king's acquaintance" title:

rx nswt jmj-r Hxt pr aA jtj rx nswt Hmt.f mrt.f wsrt-kA "Acquaintance of the king, master of the king's music Acquaintance of the king, his wife, his beloved Wasretka."^[61]:59

Furniture

(top) Carpenter planing a backrest, (bottom) Relief from Sahure's causeway depicting a feast of his craftsmen. Three of these are labeled as mDH qdw "supervisor of sculptors."^{[14]:581[62]:122, Plate 54}

On the adjoining east wall, near another seated portrait of Khnumhotep,^{[7]:Plate 62} a carpenter makes a furniture item probably used at banquets: a portable wooden recliner or backrest,^[63]:151 an angled plate set on the ground or on a bench to lean against, so that one is lying down with upper body propped up. Furniture, vital to the deceased's sense of wellness, was placed inside the tomb before it was sealed, as were amulets and adornment: To the right, closer to Niankhnum and the banquet scene, are jewelers at work.^{[60]:23[7]:Plate 64} Banqueting could take place in the "presence" of the king even if persons of differing rank did not eat together: A relief from Sahure's causeway shows (in part) a feast craftsmen and their overseers enjoy at the king's behest, divine presence signified by the lion emerging beside a papyrus umbel;^[57]:27 the goddesses Bastet and Sekhmet are associated with royal sustenance at the mortuary complex. In the tomb of Iny (late Dynasty 6), a boastful text explains this:

"I was seated eating bread in the (royal) daily round, and great was His Person's (Hm.f, the king) satisfaction at seeing me eat, more [so] than [for] any peer of mine."^[57]:5

This sentence, written a bit later historically, carries an autobiographical tone, blurring the distinction between life and hereafter, although we assume real-life, non-funerary meals must have been served at court. The tomb is largely a continuation of normal everyday life, the thing the dead wanted most: they were not excluded from the society of the living.^[35]:41 At 5th Dynasty Saqqara, the deceased Rashepses can contemplate a sculptor reaching for a tray of fruit, even if with fewer words.^[57]:5

Conventions treating a limited number of themes made up the Old Kingdom art corpus; rules meant to relate what is shown on the wall with what happens in an ideal life, so that the dead can continue to have access to it. Egyptian perspective encompasses both space and time on the two-dimensional relief; heads, arms, and legs in profile but torso frontal. What is above may really lie behind; what is behind may be "pluralized" with multiple outlines as animals often are, while left and right sometimes represent consecutive action as discussed later. Statues of course look forward as expected.^{[52]:9-10[51]:19, 55[24]:148-149} Figures face the tomb entrance where possible, looking out toward the world of the living.^{[24]:22, 148-149[51]:72–74} Lower registers tend to comprise foregrounds, denoting a venue closer to the reader than the top registers do. Seriation of episodes is read horizontally within a register, the people and objects assembled in groups distinguished by what they are doing or by the direction they face. Choice of sunk versus raised relief conveys meaning; the latter used in the intimate rear areas of tombs, the former at the entrance.^[24]:22

First designed for royalty, art is extended to private citizens, minus the king's privileged contacts with deity. Niankhnum and Khnumhotep's tomb uses sunk relief at the entrance to its rock-cut section, which had faced the public before the owners added the mastaba. The two officials could emulate King Khafre's 4th Dynasty practice of gouging a titulary into pillars, but only in limestone, not the hard granodiorite Khafre used.^{[64]:44-45, 48[24]:98-100} The banquet scene exemplifies an Egyptian desire to impose structure on life and death, yet in an exuberant manner, its figures imbued with color.

Bureaucrats

Heb-Sed festival of Nyuserre from his solar temple. The enshrined king wears the white crown of Upper Egypt at left; standard-bearers at right. In top register beside his pavilion is the personification of Heliopolis, with hieroglyphic label. Ćwiek (2003)^{[24]:232, Fig. 70}

A solar temple separate from the pyramid complex was a feature unique to the seven 5th-Dynasty kings from Userkaf to Menkauhor, of which two have been excavated in modern times. Nyuserre's was richly decorated with reliefs, today in a fragmentary condition. These temples centered on worship of the bn-bn "Benben" stone, a cultural artifact inherited from the predynastic era and, by alliteration, tied to the Benu Bird, a theme of plenty later in the Book of the Dead.^{[40]:137-141, fig. 48[69]:73, Plates 7, 27[70][note 7]} Where Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep spent most of their day cannot be determined; the palace, the solar or the pyramid temple, or their own residential compounds all possibilities. The solar temple was used, however, for the king's hb-sd "Heb-sed," the festival celebrating his 30th anniversary on the throne. Nyuserre's reliefs depict, as had Djoser's back in the 3rd Dynasty, the king watching tributary files pass in review and demonstrating his physical fitness in a game where he ran to and fro between two posts on a marshaling ground.^{[40]:104-107[24]:123} While at least part of the king's funeral was held at the pyramid complex, his other major monument, the pyramid was never meant to be left unattended after services, as graves of modern heads of state are. Accounting papyri at Abusir detail a persistent mortuary cult's receipt of goods over decades.^{[22]:94[71]:350-351}

The vizier, highest official beneath the king, handled Old Kingdom administration. Absent indexed state archives, business transactions proceeded face-to-face, or sometimes by letter while participants kept copies of any legal documents generated. Each proof might be in duplicate, one for consultation, the other sealed to frustrate tampering—by Ramesside times both ingeniously accommodated on the same papyrus roll, where the seal blocked only half its length. In other words, there were bureaus and scribes but no constitutional underpinnings behind them: Whoever held greatest personal influence at a given moment took the decisions and implemented these through his own patronage as best he could, an arrangement not noted for efficiency, yet remarkably effective in seeing a king's monuments through to completion.^{[19]:64-65, 259, 342-343[40]:179-180, 201-203}

On duty at the sun temple, Niankhkhnum or Khnumhotep may have watched over subordinate officials, such as the m-r pr Sna "overseer of the magazines" who in turn supervised crews of porters stocking and withdrawing material from the granaries and store-rooms. This suggests either that the m-r ranks below the Hm-nTr priest, at least within the temple enclosure, or that the appellations m-r, sHD, Hm-nTr, and wab aren't reliable status indicators. Barta reports Helck's assertion that the pr Sna was a group of workshops making processed goods in the temple precinct. The Abusir papyri, a set of accounting spreadsheets, relates the pr Sna to the pyramid temple, where Niankhkhnum was "only" a wab, adding to the confusion temple bureaucracy presents to scholars.^[15]:61 It is clear no legal separation of temple from palace existed; Old Kingdom temples were named after the king, who also supported later temples dedicated to gods (such as Karnak). That theft could be a problem is seen in New Kingdom legal disputes; presumably the senior officials were expected to monitor it.^[18]:21 A police captain is named and illustrated among the genuflectors in the funeral procession at the mastaba.^{[11]:Szene 12}

Manicurists, hairdressers, and adorners

Manicurist at work, Dyn. 5 (reconstruction). He holds tablet for steadying client's hand by pressing it against his knee; trims nails with a flint knife. One is among reliefs in this tomb.^[45]:642

Care of the king's body and wardrobe in preparation for his public appearances required a large number of aides, apparently working in different ateliers each under its own leadership. In addition to the manicurists whom Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep supervised (discussed in the titulary section of this article), the palace had attendants under one or more men holding the title jrj nfr HAt "keeper of the headdress," responsible for the king's wigs and headcloths, jrw Snj " hairdressers,^[14]:189 who kept him shaven, and an m-r n jzwj Xkrwt nswt "overseer of the two chambers of king's adorners."^[15]:74 The post of Xkrt nswt "adorner of the king" was always held by women, who were legally, if not socially, equal to men in Egypt.^[18]:8 Neferhotep-Hathor is labeled with this status at the funeral procession of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep.^{[11]:Szene 12}

How, or how often, personnel in the hairdressers' shop, which from titulary evidence stands higher than the manicurists in 5th and 6th Dynasty prestige rankings, communicated with the latter remains unknown. No hairdressers are labeled at the funeral procession. Ptahshepses, the keeper of the headdress who became Nyussere's vizier,^[15]:73 and Ti, overseer of the pyramids and sun temples, are two officials whom Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep may have worked with. They were buried at Abusir and Saqqara, respectively. Ti's large mastaba and extra titles suggest attainment of high rank.^[45]:468-478 Both Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum are attested on a harvest scene in the splendid burial estate of Ptahshepses, where they may have been quarry supervisors, yet named as jr ant pr aA "palace manicurists," quite junior to titulary in their own tomb, which could mean Ptahshepses died while they were younger.^{[20]:469[60]:68} A door jamb, besides TAtj "vizier," displays the title HAt-a "one whose arm is in front," a pure honorific Allen distinguishes from the m-r and jrj titles specifying responsibility domains we've encountered up to now. We observe that his jrj nfr HAt "keeper of the headdress" epithet, recorded in many of the rooms, is spelled with the mouth sign (Gardiner D21), not the eye sign (D4), so that it shares the introductory word of jrj-pat "hereditary prince," another of Allen's honorifics.^{[60]:34[14]:178[12]:34} This fact traverses ground in explaining the apparently higher standing of the hairdressers' shop. Such arcane hierarchy isn't foreign to our own day, where the president of the United States commands TV makeup artists and speechwriters all having different effective ranks within the White House staff.

Legal text

Main presentation of the funeral is in the vestibule after the forecourt (see color photo in Tomb section), introduced by the two owners encouched arm-in-arm for dictation of a text giving legal instructions to survivors and caretakers. Below their names and titles, it reads, in part,

"They say: Concerning those brothers and mortuary priests (Hm-kA) who will act for us in the necropolis, we will not allow our children, our two wives, or any man to (have mandates over) them...Further, if any mortuary priest gives his things (assets entrusted to him) in payment to any personnel, from him will be withdrawn all that was given him as a mortuary priest of his workgroup...We have created what we have made for you so that these voice offerings are effective for the akhs (transformed souls) of the offerings-receivers who are the inhabitants of the necropolis."^{[11]:Szene 12[note 8]}

The mourners and relatives

Funeral procession of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Again, note how size denotes social status in art. Bottom register is a "foreground." What onlookers see are the boats. The lining-up to honor the deceased probably occurs at the tomb in the desert, a guarded area not open to the public except by permission to enter for some reason, say to bring offerings to one of the tombs. The duo likely had a private cult establishment at their mastaba, or priests from the necropolis staff rotated in and out to service this tomb. Osirisnet.^[50]

There follow two registers of offering-bearers (image at right; the preceding legal text is cropped out), and then larger figures, the principals honoring the deceased, led by the sHD wjA "inspector of the shrine boat," Khabau-Khufu (named in recognition of the 4th Dynasty king who made the largest Giza pyramid).^{[14]:1180[11]:Szene 12} Familial relationships stay unclear in Egyptian tombs: Only the pictures of wives (Hmt.f "his wife"), daughters (zAt.f), and sons (zA.f) bore genealogical notations; even the ego need not be obvious when not drawn at full scale because so many people shared identical names, a situation we face with "John Smith" in a phone book. Reeder identifies Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep themselves at the rear of Khabau-Khufu's line; he and the woman behind him are Niankhkhnum's parents. This woman and Khnumhotep are the only paraders who do not place their left hands upon their hearts, but use them to hold the hand or arm of the person in front of them, suggesting a degree of intimacy between them and the persons they grasp (Khabau-Khufu or Niankhkhnum, respectively).^[4]:197 More of the deceased's children plus some of foggier status appear, including Ankhredwi-nesut, police captain Khnumhezuf, palace manicurist Kasetef, and Hemre's wife Tjeset.^{[11]:Szene 12[note 9]} Sekhem, a scribe of the pr HD "white house," is both here and behind Niankhkhnum in the forecourt marsh scene, where he had a namesake on Khnumhotep's side, albeit with additional post of inspector of Hm-kA priests marked. Court decorum would prescribe the guest list and the order they marched in, knowledge lost to modern scholars.

In Reeder's interpretation, absence of Khnumhotep's parents here matching absence of his wife at the banquet, is consistent with Khnumhotep predeceasing his afterlife roommate; for the relief was drafted in advance, before both men were dead. Other officials in line and in the next register (where figures are smaller) include supervisors of weavers, manicurists, Hm-kA priests, and scribes.^{[11]:Szene 12[note 10]} In fact, on Egyptian monuments it's hard to tell who's still alive: Hemre, a probable son of Niankhkhnum, appears elsewhere seated with his wife and receiving a goose from his own son, a scene which emulates the offerings tendered the tomb owners. The dynamics force us to appreciate the sincerity of their afterlife beliefs. Uncertain precise relationship connects Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep as well; Altenmüller considers them brothers, Baines that they were twins, and Reeder that they were same-sex conjugal or domestic partners evidenced by iconography normally used for husband and wife, or, with Khnumhotep, for women (sniffing the lotus blossom). Baines points out that embraces derive from religious and royal precedent, as we saw when a lion goddess suckled Nyuserre (Career section), and a theme Hatshepsut would later develop to high art as offspring of Amun. It is safe to conclude sufficient trust to embark on a yearslong joint tomb project showing them in close contact; the king also permitting them at court in an era where assassination posed real threat.^{[7]:90-92[20]:463,468[4]:197-99,207}

The boat convoy

In the bottom register, two new canopy ships (not the shrine boats in the forecourt discussed above) are rowed on a final "journey to the Beautiful Places in the Midst of the Honored Ones, the journey to the Field of Offerings" (sqdwt r swt nfrwt m-m jmAxw, sqdwt r sxt Htp), the leading craft decorated with a hedgehog's-head prow and known as the Hnt.^{[14]:850[7]:91} The pilots give each crew instructions on where to land, the one in the rear boat cautioning his oarsmen not to hit the hedgehog boat. This setting is a formula with variations also enumerated at Abusir and (minus hedgehog prow) in the Giza mastaba of Iymery, where the watercourse traveled is dubbed "the Canal of the West." In the Egyptian schema, these funeral boats were skippered by the deceased themselves, as they stand in front of the cabin or sit at the stern. The cabin or shrine, roofed with decorative reed matting, shelters the deceased's afterlife corporum, what we think of as a soul even though its structure was more elaborate, more rooted in physicality, than the modern Christian soul conceptions usually are. For us, the watery trip to the West completes a visual connection between soul and the statue or mummy actually carried as cargo in the shrine boats. Since the hedgehog and its companion sport canopies of a different design, we're not sure what was on their manifiests, although the deceased manage to find themselves standing or seated in authority on the decks here, just as in the shrine boats. Barta informs us that in the dual tomb of Fetekty and Mety, a third craft laden with beer trailed the hedgehog, perhaps indicating travel to a funerary meal near the burial site.^{[15]:82-84[61]:31[11]:Szene 12}

Social implications

The privilege found in Old Kingdom tombs no longer represents operation of an admirable political system. Elite presence imposed hardship on peasants working the fields and paying rents; within the literate class itself, subordinates' resentment of superiors' petty gestures strikes a familiar chord today. Roles were gendered. Physical violence and corporal punishment were common and accepted as normal. Escape hatches leading to mobility taken for granted today opened rarely then. However, the ability to express emotion in writing, particularly of affection or loss, underwent refinement among an elite which after all had come to power over Egypt as warriors employing brutal force. (See the decapitated prisoners on the Narmer palette.)^{[74]:150[note 11]} Despite acute limitations of administration and political will, by the 5th Dynasty Egypt had already become capable as a provider state for those outside the highest official circles. Organized recognition of feelings and interests in a broader range of people, as when Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep make concessions to mortuary priests and ask for official integrity in their legal text, began to set a stage for codification of legal procedure (which Egypt achieved in the Ptolemaic period) and extension of rights to individuals and groups within a society.^{[75]:42, 59, 138, 261[19]:91-94[40]:191-192, 205-209[76]:112-114}