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Lot Essay
At Deir el-Bahari in the hills of Western Thebes, there was a shrine dedicated to the goddess Hathor at least as early at the 11th Dynasty. The Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Neb-hepet-Re Mentu-hotep built his mortuary temple there, called Akh-isut, which included a chapel for Hathor. This Middle Kingdom shrine was subsequently replaced by later rulers, including Hatshepsut during the 18th Dynasty, whose mortuary temple, called Djeser-djeseru, had a flanking shrine for the cow goddess that superceded the earlier one. Numerous votive offerings have been excavated there, including statues, stelae, and amulets, and a very unusual group of painted votive textiles. The textiles include thirty linen cloths and five linen shirts, ranging in date from the mid 18th Dynasty to the early 19th Dynasty. All have painted representations of the goddess Hathor, most typically in the form of a cow, which are probably depictions of a cult image. On a few examples, as here, the goddess is accompanied by a deceased king, here captioned Neb-hepet-Re (Mentu-hotep II, 2046-1995 B.C.), shown twice, suckling and standing below her chin. Depictions of a king standing beneath the head of Hathor are also found on votive stelae and tomb paintings. For a sculpture in the round of Hathor, with Thutmose III standing beneath her chin, see no. 138 in Saleh and Sourouzian, The Egyptian Museum Cairo. Such depictions indicate that the votives celebrate a joint cult of the goddess and the founder of her temple.
The cloth presented here shows the cult statue being revered by the priest Tja-nefer, together with his wife, mother-in-law, and children. His name is found on two other cloths, as well as on stelae from Deir el-Bahari, bearing titles indicating that he was a priest of Hathor, Neb-hepet-Re Mentu-hotep and Amon-Re. De Rustafjaell indicated that the textiles acquired by him in 1906 were "found in a mound of debris on the site of the Temple of Hathor at Thebes" (see p. 46 in The Light of Egypt, From Recently Discovered Predynastic and Early Christian Records). Among all the surviving textiles, the present example is perhaps the finest known, both in terms of the quality of the painting and the extraordinary state of preservation. For the most recent discussion of this rare group see pp. 102-134 in Pinch, Votive Offerings to Hathor.
The cloth presented here shows the cult statue being revered by the priest Tja-nefer, together with his wife, mother-in-law, and children. His name is found on two other cloths, as well as on stelae from Deir el-Bahari, bearing titles indicating that he was a priest of Hathor, Neb-hepet-Re Mentu-hotep and Amon-Re. De Rustafjaell indicated that the textiles acquired by him in 1906 were "found in a mound of debris on the site of the Temple of Hathor at Thebes" (see p. 46 in The Light of Egypt, From Recently Discovered Predynastic and Early Christian Records). Among all the surviving textiles, the present example is perhaps the finest known, both in terms of the quality of the painting and the extraordinary state of preservation. For the most recent discussion of this rare group see pp. 102-134 in Pinch, Votive Offerings to Hathor.