TRANSVERSE HALL, WEST WALL, SOUTH SIDE

This shows the grand arrival of Nubian tribute at Thebes where Huy presents it to Tutankhamun. The Asian tribute is on the same wall but on the north side (see ). The two tribute scenes are placed on the west wall, with better natural light, and therefore are the first to be seen as one enters the chapel, so emphasizing their importance for the deceased.

The copies made by Lepsius (, edited from the plates 116b, 117 and 118) and by Nina Davies (, Metropolitan Museum in New York) allow the reconstruction of almost all of the original wall.

The flotilla from Nubia

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This scene is captioned: "Coming from Kush with all the goodly tribute consisting of all the choicest and best of the southern lands. Landing at the Southern City (i.e. Thebes) by the King’s son of Kush, Huy". He is standing, facing north; he holds a Sekhem sceptre and his cane. Behind him, the ships are represented by pairs of them moored to the dock; on both the upper registers, are the sumptuous ships for Viceroy and his retinue () ; the bottom four, they are the barges overloaded with Nubian products.

Register 1

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Both ships are moored at the bow and stern and gangways have been run out. Their masts have been removed, but the steering oars are still in place. The only living beings remaining on board are the horses in their stalls (, pointer) and a sailor who is leaning over the side and drawing up water. On the roof of the cabin (but it certainly was not their real place) we see what looks like large white "bags" (first ship) or yellow (second ship) probably containing gold tribute that Huy would have wanted to keep under his direct supervision.

Register 2

This register shows boats of the Nubians, and Nubian captives, ostrich feathers stuck in their hair, are shown seated on the roof of the cabins. Their hands are shackled and their necks are tied by a white rope; we will find them in the parade. On the land, a man attaches a rope to a stake and one will notice one of those details that Egyptian painters are fond of: wooden mallets that were used to drive the stakes in are still lying on the ground!

Registers 3-6

These ships are much simpler, without decorations.
Registers 3 and 5, show the transport of livestock. Note the nonchalant pose of a sailor sitting on the cabin-roof edge, while another is working on the bridge (). Another interesting scene is in register 4: a foreman is whipping a recalcitrant sailor along to the barking of a tied up dog wearing a red collar ().

The tribute is presented to Pharaoh Tutankhamun

After a thick vertical black line, we can distinguish the following stages in which Huy is represented four times: reception of the Nubian chiefs (, ) ; presentation of the most valuable things to the King; reconfirmation of Huy in his office and leaving the palace; the rewarded Huy is celebrated by his family, friends and household.

1) - Homage of the Nubian chiefs

This theme occupies the three upper registers. The great ones of Nubia, who came in person, stand in front, worshiping Pharaoh and his representative. They come from three different regions: Lower Nubia (Wawat), Upper Nubia (Kush) and a province south of Kush. They are greeted by Huy who is holding a large fan, embodying his function as fan-bearer to the right of the King.
These dignitaries are represented with marked Negroid features, rings in their ears and two ostrich feathers held together by a headband. Their clothes, with a red sash and a feline skin on the back, are African-Egyptian.

Register 1

The first delegation is led by "The chieftains of Wawat", so Lower Nubia, headed by "The prince of Miam, Heqanefer" (Miam is the current Aniba) represented as a Nubian (). Heqanefer – a perfectly Egyptian name - is a "child of the Kap" (Nursery, Seraglio) and so he grew up in the court of Egypt, near the sovereign, to whom he was devoted. His tomb, in perfectly Egyptian style, was found at Aniba and he is there represented with Egyptian features. Therefore not too much value should be placed upon these forms of representation: I think that in TT40, Heqanefer appears in his ‘function’ of a Nubian chef and presented as such, while elsewhere he appears in his ‘function’ as an Egyptian dignitary.
This colonial acculturation assured a necessary loyalty because Heqanefer had under his authority the region of Wadi Allaqi, the main source of Nubian gold.

Behind the leaders appears a Nubian princess elegantly dressed in Egyptian style, whose entire upper part has now disappeared into a hole ().

She is followed by "the princes’ children of all lands" that have Egyptian features. Two of them, wearing a dark blue, braided sidelock on the side of their heads, are young children. All wear a gold modius upon their wigs .

Two men, barefoot, carrying trays of rings and gold dust, as well as animal skins and giraffe tails over their arms () stand alongside a chariot. It is pulled by two oxen without horns, harnessed in a strange yoke and guided by a herdsman. Beside the driver, stands a second Nubian princess who has a parasol in ostrich feathers above her, that seems attached to her modius; the parasol is, in Nubia, a symbol of high social rank. Gardiner has described the representation as "perhaps the strangest and most picturesque single figure to be found in the entire necropolis". The authenticity of the scene is reinforced by the rich harness of the oxen; animals that have a social, religious and ceremonial importance in the Nubian culture. It is not known if the princess is destined for the Pharaoh's harem (which is the common assumption) or if she is one of the tributaries.

Now come five Nubian captives wearing a leather loincloth from which hangs a tail (). They have bound hands and a rope, which serves as a halter, encircles their necks; another example of a similar scene is in the Amarna tomb of Meryre II ().

Finally two women complete the register (). The first has marked Negroid features and her pendulous breast falls on a protruding belly. She holds in her right hand a child and carries a second in a basket on her back. One can find a similar picture in the tomb of Horemheb TT78 ().

Register 2

Here are the heads of the country of Kush who bow before Pharaoh () : "The Chieftains of Kush. They say: Homage to you, King of Egypt, son of the Nine Bows! Grant to us the breath that you give that we may live at your good pleasure"; Nine Bows denote the traditional enemies of Egypt (external and interior) and the Nubians are included in them.
Before the Chiefs is piled a part of the tribute: gold dust bags and rings, trays of carnelian, hematite or red jasper. There is no more representation in this register of subjects with Egyptian features: the people come from deepest Africa and are all of that physical type.

The porters of course bring gold, but also the skins of felines and giraffes tails (, ). Two of them hold a live giraffe with ropes; its coat and absence of spots attest its membership of a Nubian species, smaller than the African species (). Fat oxen, guided by two drovers, end the register (). Their long decorated horns, between which are dummy heads, end in the black hieroglyph of the hand (, ). This is a theme well known from the parade of fat oxen of the festival of Opet at Luxor and the procession of Beit el Uali. These cattle represent the Nubian enemy, hence the transformation of horns into arms/hands and the presence of a head in the middle, instead of the customary plant garlands. This is a symbol of a sacrificial animal.

Register 3

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The right hand side, which alone remains, is placed above that of the previous register, apart from the presence of two fans. The above register proclaims: "The chieftains of Kush. They say: Great is your power, you good God, and great is your valour. Give us the breath that you give, that we may cause you to be triumphant".
For this payment of tribute called reciprocity: the king must give the breath of life, which refers to the role of Pharaoh as an offspring-creator, one of whose tasks is to make men and gods live.

2) - The material elements of the tribute

Besides gold, we find:
furniture () : armchairs, chairs, stools, even a folding one, and headrests ().
weapons: bows, arrows and magnificent shields (, ).
a chariot identical to that carrying the Nubian princess; it is mutilated today ().
elephant tusks and logs of ebony ().
a gilded shrine is located under the chariot.

The ‘gardens of goldsmithery’ deserve special recognition

They show condensed images and thumbnail sketches of Nubia: miniature dom palm trees, Nubians bound or not and very often baboons; they were offered to Pharaoh between Hatshepsut's reign and that of Tutankhamun.
We find these gardens of goldsmithery in three Theban tombs, always as a part of Nubian tribute: TT93 (Qenamon) TT65 (Nebamon-Imyseba), here in the TT40, and in two Amarna tombs: Meryre II, Houya, as part of the tribute of the year XII presented to Akhenaten. These pieces, carried in procession or placed on racks, are always in proximity to the King.
As well as their ‘market value’, these pieces convey a symbolic message. It refers to the myth of the Eye of Re: Re, to punish rebellious mankind, sends his burning eye - a Goddess - to destroy them (she may be Tefnut, Sekhmet the lioness, or Maat, daughter of Re). ‘Calmed’ by Thoth who took the form of a monkey, the Eye Goddess agrees to a return to Egypt and this entry coincides with the inundation flooding (coming from the south, like the Nubian tribute) : to offer a garden of goldsmithery is not just the wealth of the south, but also represents the life-giving inundation flood. Baboons also have a mythological role: they accompany the rising sun with their cries and they "rise up Maat to the universal Lord": they are associated with the offering of Maat, the supreme offering to the gods that Pharaoh makes to indicate to them he has accomplished what they expect from him.

In Tomb TT40, the gardens of goldsmithery are particularly highlighted

It is these pieces that Huy, on one knee, has presented to the King ().
The representations are very damaged nowadays and the varnish applied to the paintings gave them a red-brown colour.

The two pieces above

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They rest on a golden pedestal. Under Tutankhamun’s scratched cartouches are two Nubians back to back, shackled. Placed on the pedestal, a hollow cowhide basket contains a golden pyramid structure, which is associated with dom palms.

The piece below

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This is much larger and richer than the previous two pieces. It is placed on a platter of gold from which hang the skins of felines and colourful fabrics. On Lepsius’s plate, despite some mistakes, its appearance is most expressive (). It includes palm trees, in which there are monkeys; on the ground, Nubians are kneeling, while others hold a giraffe's neck by a rope.

3) - Reception of Huy by the Pharaoh

This scene, very damaged, shows Tutankhamun sitting under a canopy similar to that on the northeast wall whose overloaded roof aspect is a premise of Ramesside art. Note the empty columns for text. This phenomenon, very common in the tombs, can be explained by the desire to suggest a perpetual work in progress. "Thus, the Egyptian monuments convey the idea of ​​eternal incompleteness. Pushing out the end of the work to a time that never happens is an expedient to defy death (F. Tiradritti) ".
Huy is standing before the throne and holding in his left hand a heqa symbol an attribute of the vice-royalty. In the right hand he holds a fan that he extends to his sovereign since he is a "fan bearer to the right of the King".
One can interpret this scene in two ways: either it is the arrival of Huy in the audience chamber, or - and I prefer this version - it is the confirmation of Huy in the two functions whose attributes (heqa and fan) he carries.

Huy before his family, his household, and his friends

The Viceroy has left the palace to join his own people; his tall figure, facing left, impinges on the reception scenes (). Although this is a little hard to see, he has changed in appearance; this time with several gold shebyu necklaces around his neck, his bracelets are bigger and a Theban cone (called a cone of ointment) is placed on his wig. Huy has been rewarded with shebyu necklaces and other jewelry during the actual ceremony called the gold of honour.
Note: Joan Padgam interprets the presence of a cone in this context as the symbol of the Ba for an official who has been put in contact with objects (necklaces, bracelets) made divine as they have previously been worn by Pharaoh or a Divine statue. The recipient would then be in a kind of altered state which the presence of the cone testifies. This proximity to the divine on earth would also be likely to favour his subsequent passage into the next world, the gods recognizing him as one of their own.
The scene has the comment () : "Coming in praise from the royal palace by the prince, the divine father loved by the God, the King’s son of Kush, Huy after he had received the favours of the Lord of the Two Lands, having been [rewarded fq3] with gold on his neck and arms time after time, exceedingly many (times). Great is your praise, O Nebkheperure! If one should recount (every) occasion by name, they would be too many to put in writing".

Register 4 : relatives and friends of the Viceroy

A large part of the scene is lost, but one may refer to the made by Nina Davies (MET). On the far left, servants are striding out from the impressive entrance of Huy’s house carrying a festive branch, the house portico of which has Tutankhamun’s cartouches stamped on it. Caption: "Going out by the [household?] of the King’s son in order to welcome him on his return having received the favours of the Lord of the Two Lands. The house of the King’s son of Kush, the royal scribe, Amenhotep, repeating life".
Then come three women and, before them, men, arms raised or prostrate, pay tribute to the Viceroy.

TRANSVERSE HALL, WEST WALL, NORTH SIDE

This has two sets of representations: on the left, handing the Asian tribute to Tutankhamun and on the right, worshiping Osiris.

The Asian tribute

One may wonder why the Viceroy of Nubia shows the northern tribute (of which the Aegeans are absent in this extreme end of the eighteenth dynasty). It is impossible to know at what time Huy was occupied with the affairs of Asia, although it seems logical to think that this was before his appointment as Viceroy of Nubia. Perhaps is it within his role of "king’s envoy to every land" that he was in contact with the region of Retenu with its variable limits covering Palestine and part of Syria.

The wall is extremely mutilated and the tribute on it only remains in part () ; only with Lepsius can one find details of the areas that are lost today (see opposite).

1) - Tutankhamun

The beginning of this wall is almost a mirror of the southern one; Tutankhamun is seen seated on a throne and before him holding out his flabellum is Huy tending to his sovereign (, , ). Above him is the text: "The King’s son of Kush, overseer of the southern lands, fan-bearer to the right of the King Huy justified. He says: 'May your father Amon protect you with millions of jubilees, may he give to you everlasting as King of the two lands, and eternity as ruler of the nine bows! You are Re, your form is his form. To you belong the sky firm upon its four supports. The land dwells under you because of your excellence, you good Ruler.’ Presentation of tribute to the Lord of the Two Lands, that which is offered by Retenu (Syria) the vile, by the king’s envoy to every land, the King’s son of Kush, the overseer of the southern lands, Amenhotep, justified."

Behind Huy, the wall is divided into two registers which are themselves subdivided into two more.

2) - Upper register

On the left, Huy carries a tray on which is placed the lapis lazuli and a golden pectoral, greatly exaggerated so as one can see it better (, ).

Below is a very special ornate metal vase, based on a tray carried by a white pedestal table and is particularly highlighted (there are five copies in total). This is a gold crater, from which emerge the fluted stems; the largest are lotus form, the smaller end with flowers whose petals are reminiscent of a daisy. I did not find any references to these objects which could be the Asian version of goldsmithery gardens. Do not forget that Egyptian painters sometimes cheerfully mingled various ‘exotic’ items, and that nothing prohibited Asians offering Egyptians products they had acquired by trade…

Behind Huy, we see an amphora decorated with a goat head or ibex () - reminiscent of of the MET.

To the right advance two chiefs followed by porters, with the caption: "The chieftains of Upper Retenu, who had not known Egypt, since the God (i.e. since primeval times), beg for mercy before His Majesty. They say: ‘Give to us the breath of your giving. Then will we tell of your victorious power. There are no rebels in your vicinity. Every land is at peace". Upper Retenu is the mountainous area of ​​northern Syria between the Orontes and the Euphrates.

3) - Lower register

On the left side: Items of Asian tribute. Huy is turned to prostrate vassals (), accompanied by the text: "All the chieftains of distant lands [who are in (?)] embassy to Pharaoh. They say: How great is your might, you good God, how great is your valour! There is none can live without you. Those who attack [you] shall be non-existent. Give us the breath of your giving. Then will we tell of your victorious power".
Before them, there are "vessels of all the choicest and best of their countries, consisting of silver and gold, lapis lazuli, and turquoise, and of all precious stones". To these principal materials are added jewelry, vases of various types (, )…

On the right side: there were porters of tribute, upon two half registers, that are missing today.

The scenes were presented under a lower yellow and red bandeau. As for the south side, it has almost nothing left ().

An adoration of Osiris

A column of coloured rectangles, identical to the frieze of the top of the wall, isolates this stage of the Asian tribute. Huy is worshiping Osiris, but today only the head and the Atef crown of the great god remains (). The accompanying prayer has survived in full: "The King’s son of Kush, the overseer of the southern lands, Huy, the justified. He says: Hail to you great one, lord of glorious appearing, great of titular, high of feathers, lord of the Atef crown, sole god, who created himself, feared in all lands! I have come to you to see your face, to behold your beauty. I have reached a good venerable old age in the favour of this good god. I am grown old. I have reached old age, my arms being strong in administering for the King. I have not told falsehood. I have not done evil. I have not known.. No fault of mine has come, no lapse of mine has been found. He who praises you should be tranquil: I am one who quelled passion. Grant you me a great road in the necropolis, to come and go forth from Rosetau, to drink water from the depth of the river, and to feast. To the soul of the King’s son of Kush, Huy, Justified" (originally Rosetau refers to the Memphis necropolis and then later a necropolis in general).