How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
tablet is to the memory of a state officer: it is marked 212. The
examination of the sarcophagi, will have led the visitor to the
southern end of the saloon; and from this point he should once more
turn to the north, and examine the sepulchral tablets on the eastern
and western walls. He will notice that numbers of them exactly
resemble one another in certain forms; that certain sepulchral scenes
are frequently repeated, and that therefore the tablets cannot be said
in many cases with certainty, to represent either passages in the life
of the deceased, or symbolic images of his career.
First let the visitor remark, numbered 90, a basalt slab, presented to
the museum by the Lords of the Admiralty. It is supposed to have been
originally the cover of a stone coffin, in the time of the Ptolemies.
It is remarkable for a Graeco-Egyptian recumbent figure, executed in
bas-relief. The sepulchral tablets marked 128-9-31-32, are in
calcareous stone. The first is that of a scribe, who is receiving a
funeral offering from his son; the second is that of Akar-se, who is
receiving the offerings of his bereaved family; the third, from
Abydos, has similar representations of family offerings, and the
fourth is that of the chief keeper of the cattle of Rameses II., named
Hara, who prays to Horus, Isis, Nephthys, and Osiris. The first three
tablets are dedicated to Isis. The visitor may also remark in this
neighbourhood a fragment in bas-relief from the tomb near Gizeh, of
Afa. Afa was a palace officer, who is supposed to have flourished
about the period of the fourth dynasty. He is here represented, in
company with various members of his family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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