The Elite Late Period Egyptian Tombs of Memphis

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

“…Furthermore, these reproductions were not confined to tombs around Thebes. A tomb at Saqqara belonging to Bakenrenef, an Egyptian official who moved from Thebes to Memphis when Dynasty XXVI established the latter as its administrative centre, incorporated designs which had been copied from several Theban tombs and brought to Memphis, either specifically for this tomb, or as part of a workshop's wider repertoire (Stammers 2009, 54–5, 63). Clearly, therefore, there were sixth-century ‘pattern books’ of funerary art in some form 40 .…”

“…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).…”

“…It is reasonable to speculate that visitors to tombs like Tjery's may have included Greeks, welcome or otherwise. Memphis, as well as being an administrative centre for Dynasty XXVI, was a major focus for religious pilgrimage and travel within Egypt and, during the reigns of Apries and Amasis, the home of a substantial foreign mercenary force based at the palatial and religious complex around the Palace of Apries (Herodotus 2.154, 3.139; Stammers 2009, 2; Rutherford 2003, 171–90; Trindade Lopes 2011, 247–58 and 2007, 1163–6). Sixth-century funerary stelae and other objects inscribed in Carian or (typically Ionian) Greek have been found at the Saqqara necropolis (Masson 1978, Vittmann 2003, 162–77, 219–31).…”

“…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.…”

“…44) bears some compositional similarities to typical Egyptian funerary depictions of wine production in elite tombs. In both, vines bend over workers, who crowd and overlap in a small space and pluck grapes from the above their heads to press (see, for example, paintings in the Tomb of Nakht, TT52, the Tomb of Menna, TT69, and Late Period elite tombs at Memphis [Stammers 2009, 48–68]). Unlike other archaic depictions of winemaking, there are no satyrs on the Boread Painter's cup.…”