.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Once part of a scene of up to 36 personified funerary estates, this block carved in shallow raised relief formed part of the decoration of the offering chapel of a high official of the later Old Kingdom at Saqqara. Five female offering bearers proceed to the right, balancing baskets or boxes of produce on their heads; one figure holds both a spouted vase and a lettuce, while another holds a small animal, perhaps a goat, on a leash. What is seemingly an image of five women in procession may be identified by the accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions as estates belonging to the funerary endowment established in antiquity for the ongoing provisioning of the tomb cult of the owner. Known both by the name Seshemnefer, as well as by his nickname Heba, the tomb owner held important titles relating to the administration of the Saqqara pyramid complexes of Fifth Dynasty kings Menkauhor and Djedkare Isesi, in addition to other important priestly and administrative titles. Discovered by Auguste Mariette at Saqqara in 1860, the location of the tomb (E8) of Seshemnefer-Heba is now lost, and known primarily from this and related blocks, some of which preserve extensive painted decoration, as well as from the tomb’s false door, published in a drawing by Mariette (see fig. 1 in L. Delvaux and E. Warmenbol, op. cit.). Seshemnefer’s names are recarved above earlier, erased ones (now illegible), indicating the funerary chapel was carved for another individual and reused for his burial.
The estates, many here associated with a different type of agricultural product, are identified with one or the other of Seshemnefer’s two names, and each estate name terminates with the hieroglyph that indicates a town, city, or other locale. The estate names provided seem to be (reading from right to left): “Gate (?) of Seshemnefer,” “Carob-beans of Heba,” “Grapes of Seshemnefer,” “Figs of Heba,” and “Sycamores of Seshemnefer.” A series of related blocks including this one has been analyzed by Delvaux and Warmenbol (op. cit.), who arrange the scenes into two groups of probably 18 female figures on the chapel’s southern and northern walls, flanking the false door that celebrates Seshemnefer-Heba. Only the tombs of the highest members of the royal court seem to have been entitled to depict these extensive series of funerary estates, which mimic the much lengthier personified lists shown in royal pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom.
The estates, many here associated with a different type of agricultural product, are identified with one or the other of Seshemnefer’s two names, and each estate name terminates with the hieroglyph that indicates a town, city, or other locale. The estate names provided seem to be (reading from right to left): “Gate (?) of Seshemnefer,” “Carob-beans of Heba,” “Grapes of Seshemnefer,” “Figs of Heba,” and “Sycamores of Seshemnefer.” A series of related blocks including this one has been analyzed by Delvaux and Warmenbol (op. cit.), who arrange the scenes into two groups of probably 18 female figures on the chapel’s southern and northern walls, flanking the false door that celebrates Seshemnefer-Heba. Only the tombs of the highest members of the royal court seem to have been entitled to depict these extensive series of funerary estates, which mimic the much lengthier personified lists shown in royal pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom.