Tomb TT 77 is one of a large group of decorated tombs of the Theban necropolis in poor condition. But among the remains of the wall decoration of this monument, there are still some superbly realized scenes, which deserve to be presented in colour. Professor Lise Manniche (University of Copenhagen) published this tomb in 1988 as: "The Wall Decoration of Three Theban Tombs (TT 77, 175 and 249)". She encouraged me to do this presentation on Osirisnet and provided me with the colour photographs corresponding to the best-preserved areas.

DISCOVERY, LOCATION

The hill of Gurna (under the balloons)
La colline de Gourna (sous les ballons)

Tomb TT 77 is located near the top of Sheikh Abd el-Gurna hill. It therefore occupied a privileged location because, at the time it was excavated (in the reign of Thutmose IV / Amenhotep III) the area did not yet have the dozens of hypogea that would be found later. This elevated location also allowed Ptahemhat and his visitors to enjoy a magnificent view of the plain, with the Nile in the distance, from the entrance of the monument.

TT 77 was one of the tombs already known to the pioneers of epigraphy working in the Theban necropolis in the 1820s. Wilkinson, Prisse d'Avennes and Champollion himself visited the hypogeum and found it "very ruined", although from the sketches they made of it, it was obviously in much better condition than it is today.

Schott, then Davies and Gardiner copied most of the inscriptions and in 1957 most of the texts appeared in the , p. 1597-1601.
The most complete publication of the monument is still that of Lise Manniche mentioned above.

The two successive occupants of TT77, and others

Ptahemhat

The identification of the occupants of the tomb was the subject of a controversy that lasted for years. It was mainly due to the fact that the name of Ptahemhat had been erased from all the important inscriptions. Finally, it turned out that tomb 77 had two successive owners, Ptahemhat and Roy, without there being a real usurpation of the tomb by the second one Roy.

Ptahemhat probably lived under Thutmose IV, or his successor, Amenhotep III. Sometime after Ptahemhat's death, a newcomer named Roy replaced him; by this time we are in the reign of Amenhotep III, or even a little later. Roy "reoccupied" for his use the funerary monument originally made for Ptahemhat a few years earlier. The word "usurped" is not appropriate and that of (legal) reoccupation should be preferred, we will see why shortly.

Titles and Offices of Ptahemhat

They appear both in the hall and in the longitudinal passage of the tomb. The most common is "Xrd-n-k3p" (according to the Manuel de Codage).

Ptahemhat did not choose a military career, which seems to have been quite common for children trained in kap, but became "Imy-r k3wt n Imn", "Director of the provision supplies of Amon" and "Imy-r 3hwt n Jmn", "Director of Amun's cultivated fields". One of the epithets used designates him as "The Superior of (all) Overseers of works". The first of these titles is transposed into the chapel: Ptahemhat transports provisions and various goods to the Temple of Millions of Years of Tuthmosis IV, on the west bank of Thebes.

Who is the fan bearer?

There is no doubt about the occurrence of the title of TAy in the tomb. It should read "fan bearer" and not "standard bearer" (the two offices are distinct).

Helck came to some general conclusions about the title of "fan bearer to the right of the King". It is an honorary title granted to those who are to be promoted for non-military reasons, especially officials employed at the palace and, from the time of Tuthmose IV, the viceroys of Kush.

The high officials of the administration (vizier, treasurer, head of granaries) and priests became a "fan bearer to the right of the King" only during the reign of Amenhotep III. In the case of the TT77, the name following this title has been erased; however, the size of the inscription indicates that it was indeed Ptahemhat himself. Ptahemhat is not only a senior official in the temple administration, but he is also a "hereditary prince, mayor". These are the titles he bears when he is depicted hunting birds in the marshes. In every respect, he is a man who "pleases his Lord, the King.".

Other persons depicted in the tomb

Meryt, wife of Ptahemhat. Her name also appears in the almost invisible inscription of which we have spoken, after the title of "singer of Amun", widespread among women of the court.

Nebsen is the name of a brother of Ptahemhat, a chariot warrior; He appears among those named in the banquet scene. Among the other guests, two "children of the kap", Nedjem and Paser, are mentioned.

Roy, A NEW occupant

Inscription of Roy
Ptahemhat has been arased (fig 2)
Les inscriptions de Roy et de son épouse Rahouy (fig 2)

Shortly after Ptahemhat's death (?), a new occupant, "the chief sculptor of the Lord of the Two Lands, Roy" wrote in black ink his name and that of his wife on the south front wall of the transverse hall. At that time, the figures of Ptahemhat and his wife were apparently not scratched out, as it would hardly have been rewarding for the newcomer to associate his name with a disfigured person.

It appears that Roy did not cause any actual damage to the tomb. His inscriptions, for example, are written on uninscribed parts of the wall and do not cover up any older text.

For Daniel Polz, Roy's additions cannot be considered as signs of a usurpation of the tomb; according to him, the question even arises as to whether Roy has really reused TT 77 or if these inscriptions are not rather to be blamed on passing visitors.

One may recall that by juxtaposing his name with that of Ptahemhat, Roy can take advantage of the physical offerings made to the first occupant by his parents or by a salaried funeral priest. In addition, he can also benefit from the decoration painted on the walls that can replace, by sympathetic magic, any cessation in the provision of offerings.

THE DESTRUCTION AFFECTING THE DECORATION OF THE THEBAN TOMBS

Damnatio memoriae, vandalism, iconoclasm... There is sometimes some confusion in the literature classifying damage observed in the tombs. Alan Schullman wrote an article half a century ago that clarified this problem. Here's the interesting part:

"[...]Damnatio memoriae is the practice of destroying a person's memory and his very existence from the knowledge of his contemporaries and posterity through the systematic erasure of his name, likeness and monuments. For Egyptians, this practice has a double purpose: to erase the earthly memory of the victim and to destroy his existence in the afterlife. Thus, to be fully effective, a damnatio memoriae must include both the erasure of the image of the targeted person but also the simultaneous and complete erasure of his name wherever it appears. Indeed, the essence of a man lies not only in his physical characteristics (for example, the prominent aquiline nose of Senmut, the famous chancellor of Queen Hatshepsut). His name possesses in itself the essence of his personality, so that even if every other vestige is destroyed, as long as the name is intact, the identity - the substance - of its owner is also intac"

In the deterioration that can be seen, we must distinguish between damnatio memoriae, usurpation, iconoclasm, and simple superstitious sympathetic magic.

Ainsi, lorsque le nom du sujet a été effacé ou remplacé par un autre, mais que par ailleurs, les dégâts infligés à ses représentations physiques sont faibles ou nuls, il ne faut pas automatiquement conclure à la damnatio memoriae. Il s'agit d'une usurpation, clairement un cas de réutilisation du monument d'une personne par une autre à des fins personnelles.

Thus, when the subject's name has been erased or replaced by another, but the damage inflicted on his physical representations is small or non-existent, it should not automatically be concluded that there is damnatio memoriae. This is a usurping, clearly a case of reuse of one person's monument by another for personal gain.

The same applies in cases where the physical representations of the owner of the monument are mutilated or erased, but the name is intact in the inscriptions accompanying them. To the extent that the essence of the individual subsists as long as the name exists, such an attack, relating only to the physical features of a person, does not imply the obligatory destruction of the person. In fact, it is the image itself, an effigy that suffers the damage. This is iconoclasm, not damnatio memoriae.

Moreover, even in cases where the conditions for true damnatio memoriae are met, it should not automatically be attributed to a forfeiture of royal favour, unless confirming evidence exists. Figures other than rulers may be responsible for the posthumous desecration of the memory and monuments of a hated enemy.

In view of the above, how can we determine whether a particular individual has undergone damnatio memoriae? If we have only one monument for the person in question, unless it clearly fulfils the two conditions, the erasure of physical features and name, we cannot conclude it is damnatio memoriae. If, on the other hand, we possess for an individual several monuments suffering from damage of varying degrees, we can perhaps come to such a conclusion, but only after a careful examination of all the monuments, with a thorough analysis of the type and damage suffered by each.

THE DESTRUCTION AFFECTING THE DECORATION OF TOMB TT77

As is frequently the case in the Theban necropolis, the decoration of tomb n°77 was never completed; In addition, it suffered greatly from negligence, theft and human malice at different times.

According to Manniche, the destruction began shortly after the funeral. It appears to be a personal revenge orchestrated by someone who knew the owner of the tomb well. The names Ptahemhat and Meryt, along with their images and some of the longest accompanying texts, are scratched wherever they appear in a public and official context. On the other hand, texts or titles of lesser importance are respected. It should be noted that Meryt, when she is alone, without her husband, is respected too. The work was meticulous: the walls are scratched out to the preparatory layers of plaster, allowing faint representations to persist at best.

Inscriptions of Roy and his wife were also scratched. If an almost invisible inscription in the corridor was left intact, it was perhaps because of its lack of legibility, on the other hand, all the areas inscribed at the false door were hammered away.

Kampp disagrees with the chronology of destruction; he thinks that the damnatio memoriae concerned not Ptahemhat but rather Roy. As cases of destruction for damnatio memoriae were not known under the Ramessides, Kampp concluded that Roy was in office no later than Amenhotep III.

The tomb has also undergone the usual iconoclastic damage of the Amarna period, centred on the name and worship of Amun. Finally in the nineteenth century, the chapel having remained accessible, suffered further great damage, mutilating even more this unfortunate monument.

Architecture

Forecourt and facade

Before the tomb, there is a large courtyard open towards its front; The area was covered by a huge amount of excavated material that had accumulated over the centuries. The hypogeum is carved from friable rock of very poor quality and it was necessary from the beginning to carry out "patching up", using mortar and limestone chips. Nevertheless, there are traces of preparatory work to place framing stone at the door level. The rest of the facade is undecorated.

TT 77, plan according to Kampp
TT 77, plan selon Kampp

Inside rooms

The chapel was dug deep into the mountain, into which it descends at least twenty meters. The general plan is that of inverted T-shape, classic at that time, with a short entrance, a transverse room (Hall) of which we see the two ends on les deux extrémités.
The long room (Passage) opens in the middle of the wall facing the entrance. At the end of the passage, there is a small, unfinished transverse chapel, and a niche.

The ceilings

The ceilings of the two transverse rooms (the main one, just after the entrance and the small chapel at the end of the hall) are vaulted, the ceiling of the longitudinal passage is flat. The ceilings are divided into boxes separated by thick strips of yellow paint – imitating wooden beams – bearing inscriptions. The panels thus delimited are painted with geometric patterns

The general decor

Renenutet
Renenoutet

The roughly cut walls, were covered with a thick layer of muna on which a layer of pale brown plaster 0.5 to 1.0 cm thick was applied. A grid, serving as a guide for the decorators, was subsequently traced in red on the plaster. The craftsman then painted the decoration with a skilful and sure hand, and with few corrections.

Lise Manniche, who has extensively studied the Theban tombs of the New Kingdom, has identified eleven recurring themes: representations of the king, representations of the owner of the tomb performing the actions of his office, the owner of the tomb, making offerings of fishing and game hunting, hunting in the desert, agricultural scenes, wine making, funeral rites, the trip to Abydos, the ceremony of opening the mouth, and banquet scenes.

The figures are large and are well suited for the spacious rooms. The colour palette is varied, especially in the lobby. In what remains of the decoration in the passage, the colours red and pink tend to dominate. The entire decoration is executed in the neat and clear style of the period; for example, the representation of the goddess Renenutet is the work of a true artist. There is a slight difference in the style of the paintings from one wall to another, probably because several painters were at work.