Tomb of Kheruef
Kheruef, also called Senaa, was ‘Steward of the Great Royal Wife, Tiye’, ‘Royal Scribe’ during the reign of Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV. His tomb is found in the area of Asasif, to the south of Deir el-Bahri. The tomb complex is very large, as befits a man in his exalted position, but was unfinished at the time of his death (he was never buried in the tomb) and most of the inner rooms of the structure are closed off. Kheruef’s tomb is entered down a staircase and passage which leads to a large open court leading to several other later tombs.
At the entrance to the passage a double-scene on the lintel depicts Amenhotep IV (later Akhenaten) with his mother Tiye offering to deities and includes offering texts with a cartouche of Tiye at the bottom.
Representations of Amenhotep IV were defaced, presumably after the Amarna period, even though work on the tomb had ceased before he had become Akhenaten. Perhaps Kheruef was buried at Amarna. As a steward of Queen Tiye, he may later also have been part of Akhenaten’s court, but we shall probably never know.
The most important reliefs are on the rear wall of the portico on the western side of the court.
Beginning at the southern end of the western wall (the far end to the left of the entrance) there are two registers containing scenes of the first heb-sed (jubilee festival) of Amenhotep III, celebrated in Year 30, Day 27, of the second month of Shemu. Kheruef, as royal steward, must have played an important part in the organisation of the festival.
Going back to the southern end of the wall, the bottom register shows the celebrations of the heb-sed festival with two rows of female dancers and musicians. In the top row the girls are probably Libyans and they are performing graceful dances with their heads held low and their hair hanging forward over their faces. Curiously, I have seen very similar dances performed in modern Egyptian religious festivals. In front of the row of the dancers is a frolicking calf, a flying bird and a baboon.
The bottom row shows women clapping, singing and playing instruments, with two male chorus-leaders and male dancers (one seemingly wearing a lion-mask) at the end of the row.
To the right-hand side of the bottom row, four pairs of girls are depicted carrying jars and vessels which the text tells us are made from gold and electrum .
The inscription also implies that these are daughters of foreign leaders, who may have been brought up in the Egyptian royal court. This is one of the most beautiful reliefs in the tomb. The princesses are wearing long elegant gowns with broad collars, have short, elaborately carved wigs with sidelocks and a curious square-shaped head-dress. Their feet are bare. Between the two rows of dancers and musicians is an inscribed text of a song to Hathor.
Beyond the princesses, to the right on the bottom register, is a badly damaged scene which originally depicted Kheruef and other officials being rewarded with the ‘Gold of Honour’ (the gold collars can still be seen on a table), as part of the ceremonies. He stands before Amenhotep III, who is seated in an elaborate kiosk, with Hathor as ‘Mistress of Dendera’and Queen Tiye behind him.
In the bottom register are three rows depicting celebrations of the festival. The top row shows offering bearers bringing food for the celebrations and men dancing, while to the left, male singers and clappers stand before a text of the Hymn to Ptah-Sokar. The row below depicts men boxing and stick-fighting with papyrus stalks (similar to the tradition of stick-fighting in modern Egypt), games which were popular in many of the festivals. There are also female dancers (thought to be from the Western Oases, from their costume and hairstyle) but they are not as graceful or well-carved as those on the southern side of the portico. At the far end, on the bottom row, cattle and donkeys are driven round the walls of Memphis – a ritual in which the cattle circle the walls of the town four times, we are told in the text. To the left a boat is bringing provisions to men who carry them away and a cow is being slaughtered.
The left-hand side of the wall on the northern end of the portico shows a similar scene to that on the southern end, with Amenhotep III seated in a kiosk with his Great Royal Wife, Tiye, behind him.
It is a pity that Kheruef’s tomb was unfinished and damaged. The reliefs in the portico are among the finest of any tomb in the Theban necropolis.
