The British Museum. Hieroglyphic Texts from Egyptian Stelae Etc. Part II

The Arcesilas Cup in Context: Greek Interactions With Late Period Funerary Art

“…Richly decorated tombs, often with substantial surface superstructures, were constructed in the expansive necropolis of Saqqara, near Memphis, and even in remote communities such as the important trading and military post at the Bahariya Oasis (Hawass 2000; Bassir and Sherbiny 2014, 171–89; Fakhry 1942, 65–93). Many royals and some elite individuals, previously given extra-urban tombs, were now entombed within storerooms or chapels in temple complexes attached to urban and palatial sites central to Egypt's administrative and religious organisation, for example at Tanis and Saïs (Taylor 2010b, 223–6; Dodson 2010, 821; Naunton 2010, 131; Dodson 1988, 221–33; Montet 1947). As well as the construction of new tombs, tombs of the Old Kingdom and New Kingdom, as well as those recently built, were reused very extensively (Bard 2015, 306–8; Dodson 2010; Wilkinson 2016, 347–59; Taylor 2016, 360–72; Aston 2003, 138–55).…”

“…However, evidence that the Egyptians desired to avoid the Greeks developing an understanding of the esoteric knowledge required to navigate eschatological journeys does not necessarily suggest that Greeks were not accessing Egyptian tombs (and may rather indicate the anxiety of some over the fact that they were). Late Period tomb complexes served as monuments for the worship of Osiris long after the burial of the deceased, with superstructures designed for ‘conspicuous display’ and decorated to ‘welcome the visitor’ and invite them to make offerings, as well as with scenes from the Book of the Dead (Stammers 2009, 62; see also Taylor 2010b, 223–6; Dodson 2010, 821; Naunton 2010, 131; Pischikova 1998, 63). The aforementioned mastaba tomb of Tjery, for example, placed the weighing of the heart scene in Chamber 2, a central, open chamber where Tjery would receive mortuary cult and offerings would be made to Osiris (Stammers 2009, 62; for a roughly contemporary example from Thebes, see Griffith 2014, 251–68).…”

“…Key to imagining a causal relationship between tomb painting and the Arcesilas Cup is the fact that although tomb painting in Egypt declined sharply after the New Kingdom, 38 it regained popularity in the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period, coinciding with renewed construction of tombs, the use of funerary amulets among groups of more diverse social status, and the decoration of elite tombs with depictions of funerary rites and beliefs previously restricted to royalty (Li 2010; Taylor 2010b; Stammers 2009). During the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period, monumental funerary activity was widespread beyond the Theban necropolis.…”

“…This resurgence in tomb painting, and the changes in funerary activity, reflected a wider archaising phenomenon which recycled and reimagined traditional designs, styles and titles. Late Period Egyptian artists did not only use similar motifs to those found in New Kingdom tombs (Dodson 2010, 821–4; Taylor 2010b; Stammers 2009, 48–68; Manassa 2007, 438–40); they also directly reproduced scenes from reused or opened tombs, sometimes using a grid-measure technique (for example, the replication of the girls quarrelling from the hall of the New Kingdom TT 69: Porter and Moss 1960, 59, 135; Bryan 2010, 1006–7) 39 . Furthermore, these reproductions were not confined to tombs around Thebes.…”

“…Funerary papyri could help us to resolve, or at least sidestep, both problems. The Third Intermediate Period and Late Period saw a significant rise in the volume of funerary papyri produced and used in burial contexts (Taylor 2010b, 220–37). These papyri were used by a wider range of social groups than ever before, and increasingly focused on illustrations of funerary texts rather than copying out the text of the spells itself.…”