He also bore scores of honorific titles, boasting that he was, among other things, a “doer of truth” and a “hater of deceit.” His grandfather was a general in the army, his father the mayor of Memphis and Overseer of the Granaries of Amen, and relatives held high positions in the government. Ramose’s tomb was visited in the late nineteenth century, but little of the tomb’s decoration was visible because its walls lay buried beneath mounds of dirt and limestone chips. The debris was not cleared until the 1920s. But once the walls were exposed TT 55 immediately gained world-wide attention. Few Theban tombs exhibit so many different and well-executed decorative styles.
You approach TT 55 down a long staircase-ramp combination that leads to an open courtyard. This is the staircase used by ancient priests when they brought Ramose’s sarcophagus to the tomb thirty-four hundred years ago. Their procession is shown in one of the tomb’s paintings. A narrow doorway in the broad façade at the back of the court leads into the first chamber. The chamber is large, about 26 meters (85 feet) wide and 12 meters (39 feet) deep. Its roof was originally supported by four rows of eight squat columns, but the ceiling collapsed in antiquity and the columns you now see are either the broken originals or modern reconstructions.The decoration in Ramose’s tomb includes none of the scenes of daily life found in the tombs of other nobles from Dynasty 18.Here, the scenes treat only two subjects: Ramose’s funeral, and his relationship with the pharaoh Amenhetep IV. The scenes are masterpieces.
RIGHT (SOUTH) SIDE OF THE FRONT (EAST) WALL Turn left at the bottom of the stairs in the first chamber, then left again toward the front (east) wall of the room. At first you will see little, because the decoration is cut in low relief and diffuse light does not bring out its features. But look more closely and you will be transported back in time to a great funeral banquet for Ramose and his wife. Nearest the doorway, Ramose and Mery-Ptah stand before heaps of food offerings—baskets of grapes and figs, watermelons, haunches of beef, lettuce, onions, fish and fowl, beer and wine. At the right, they sit with relatives—Ramose’s parents, his half-brother and nephew, his wife’s father and brother—and friends, including the famous and highly important official, Amenhetep son of Hapu. The seated figures are formally, even rigidly posed, like figures in a nineteenth century photograph. But they are carved in perfect proportion and with astonishing attention to detail.
It is this detail that sets the reliefs apart. Each curl of hair, each fold of cloth, each amulet was cut in the limestone with superb technical skill and keen aesthetic sensibilities. The modeling of the faces and their sensuous lips, the gracefully muscled arms and necks, and the perfectly styled hair offer what one scholar described as “beauty purged of all earthly blemishes.” No detail was too small to be labored over. For example, look at the hieroglyphs. In a column of text near the middle of the wall stands a horse, only about five centimeters (two inches) tall. It is a tiny jewel, with perfectly modeled muscles, carefully drawn bridle and trimmed mane, an animal of beauty, power, and grace. Near it, a small basket shows the warp and weft of the woven reeds. An owl, its feathers precisely drawn, stares inscrutably from the wall. One cannot find more meticulous workmanship in Egyptian art.
The reliefs were not painted, perhaps because Ramose died prematurely, but they seem to me even more elegant for that—monochromatic idealizations of Egyptian nobility, perfectly sculpted in flawless limestone. Only the eyes have color. “Blind eyes” some have called them because of their minimalist modeling. But they are prominently outlined in black ink. Eye and eyebrow are placed on the side of the head in the characteristic Egyptian manner that defies anatomical truth but nevertheless achieves artistic clarity. The eye was a potent magical symbol in Egyptian culture, which is why it was singled out for such emphasis.
LEFT (NORTH) SIDE OF THE FRONT (WEST) WALL Left (north) of the doorway are equally fine reliefs, but by different hands, and more figures and heaps of offerings are added to the funerary activities. A figure, perhaps a statue, of Ramose stands in the middle of the wall. Two priests pour streams of purifying water over him. Here, too, Ramose’s hair and face are beautifully executed. He wears the simple, unpleated vizier’s robe that emphasizes the elaborate necklaces around his neck and the heart-shaped amulet that hangs from a long string of gold beads.
LEFT (SOUTH) WALL To my mind, the most impressive scenes in TT 55 are those on the left (south) wall showing Ramose’s funeral procession. This was the last wall of the tomb to be decorated, and the only one to be painted. The work was done in two stages: the left third of the wall was originally carved, then painted; the remaining two-thirds were painted only, probably so that the tomb decoration could be finished quickly after Ramose’s unexpected death. Unlike the formal scenes we have just examined, these are ironically lively scenes of death. Different artists decorated this wall, and they chose a new style anticipating the art of the Amarna period rather than the more conservative style used earlier. One of these new-style artists is shown here, a rare thing in a society whose craftsmen usually remained anonymous. His name is Simut, and he stands far left on the wall, fourth in the line of priests following Ramose’s bier.
In the UPPER REGISTER, the funeral procession moves toward Ramose’s tomb. Appropriately, the scene lies immediately beside a steep ramp that leads beneath the floor to his burial chamber, 16 meters (51 feet) below. In this scene, Ramose’s viscera and body have been embalmed and enshrined. They are pulled on sledges, “so that he may have rest and so that his mummy may thrive forever and ever to eternity” the text states. Ahead of them, a large, black lump lies on a small sledge pulled by four men. Exactly what this may be is unclear. It was called the tekenu in Egyptian, a word of uncertain meaning. Some believe it is a crouching man wrapped in a black cloth; they point to what could be his feet sticking out the back, and explain that such a figure recalls an earlier time when a servant was killed and buried with his master to attend him in the afterlife. In the New Kingdom, when such ritual murder was no longer practiced, a servant in a shroud was taken to the tomb then set free.
It has also been suggested that the sledge is carrying Ramose’s placenta, carefully saved since birth and buried with him. As the bier moves toward the tomb, several groups of people walk beside it. They are shown in the lower register, implying that they stand between us and the bier.
At right, before the entrance to the tomb, mummies of Ramose and Mery-Ptah are purified with water while a second priest censes piles of food offerings. Rows of offering bearers carry foodstuffs, furniture, chairs, caskets, and vessels of metal and clay to be placed in the tomb for use in the afterlife. As groups of mourning women and naked girls watch the procession, they pour dust on their hair, wail, and ululate. Tears and make-up run down their cheeks. Instead of the sure, graceful lines that define the perfectly pressed costumes of others on this wall, the mourners wear dresses that are wrinkled and unkempt.
Ramose’s servants file past. Note how their skin color alternates between light brown and dark to make each figure distinct. That is not a feature of the groups of lighter-skinned mourning women, however; their individuality is ensured only by the inked outline of their bodies. A group of well-dressed officials walks behind. Above them, a text proudly states that they are “following in the procession of one who has the approval and love of the Lord of Egypt.”
These scenes are among Egypt’s most emotive representations. The communal sense of bereavement, together with the individuality of the mourner’s emotional responses, captures the personal and social loss felt by Ramose’s family and by Egyptian society. But there is also here an upbeat attitude toward death. Look at the men who carry Ramose’s bed on their shoulders. One of them is walking too slowly to suit his companion, and in the adjacent text the companion complains, “Get going! Walk faster!” In Upper Egypt today, villagers tell me that, as a good man will surely go to heaven, therefore he will want his funeral cortege to move quickly so he can join God that much sooner. I have often seen processions at Luxor marching quick time to the cemetery. In Ramose’s funeral procession, the mourners set a good pace. They know that this good man will soon be welcomed by the gods.
REAR (WEST) WALL Ramose attained the office of vizier late in the reign of Amenhetep III, but the king with whom he is shown in TT 55 is Amenhetep III’s son and successor, Amenhetep IV, later to be called Akhenaten. Amenhetep IV is shown on the rear (west) wall of this chamber, in two contrasting scenes that flank the central doorway. On the left (south) side, Amenhetep IV is shown as an idealized Egyptian pharaoh in traditional royal pose, seated in a kiosk with the goddess Ma’at, wearing conventional royal costume. Before the kiosk, four scenes feature Ramose. In each, he wears a different costume and plays a different bureaucratic role.
To the right (north) of the door, Amenhetep IV has adopted the physical features, but not yet the name, of Akhenaten. He stands in a window of appearance with his wife, Nefertiti. Their pear-shaped bodies, thin limbs, and elongated skulls are dramatically different from the traditional figures to the left of the doorway. The king’s elaborately pleated costume sags below his protruding belly, and his lens-shaped navel is prominently drawn. These are early versions of the Amarna style that will characterize royal representations for the remainder of Akhenaten’s reign.
Above the pharaoh and his wife, a solar disk sends forth rays of light that end in small hands. Some hands embrace Akhenaten and Nefertiti; others offer them symbols of life and happiness. Before the royal couple stands Ramose, arms in the air in an attitude of jubilation, receiving necklaces and other rewards from his king. Ramose, too, is carved in the Amarna style. The men who dress him bow slightly in a pose peculiar to that art. Further right, Ramose accepts the cheers of crowds of royal subjects as he turns to greet foreign ambassadors. They include four Nubians, two western Asiatics, and a Libyan, each group identifiable by hairstyle, facial features, and dress.
The contrast between the two halves of this rear wall could not be more striking. In the space of only three or four years dramatic changes had taken place in Egyptian art, and this juxtaposition of the two styles shows how remarkable they were, from the outset. It would be fascinating to know how Ramose’s career was affected by this “revolution.” Was he the consummate bureaucrat, capable of adapting to whatever a new pharaoh might impose? Or were political changes not yet dramatic enough to pose issues other than those of artistic representation? There is no certain evidence that Ramose moved from Thebes to Akhetaten (Tall al-Amarna), Akhenaten’s new capital, as did many other court officials. All we can say for certain is that he died early in Amenhetep IV’s reign, before the rear wall of TT 55 was completed. No children survived him.
From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a