Some begin on the north wall, for example, continue onto the west, and then finish on the south wall. Such wrap-around scenes are not unique in Theban tombs, but they are unusual (TT 31, belonging to Khonsu, offers another example). The workmanship in Neferrenpet’s tomb is only fair, hastilydrawn and poorlyproportioned, often lacking detail. That is true of many tombs of Dynasty 19. Neferrenpet’s tomb nevertheless is worth visiting because of the ways in which its artists seem to test the limits of Egyptian  representation (especially in the second chamber). Minimal attention is paid to detail, and rapidly drawn, cursive lines create almost cartoon-like figures. Nonreligious scenes demonstrate a high level of informality both in composition and pose. The tomb is also of interest because of what it tells us about the Treasury of AmenRa and because of its emphasis on religious subjects.

In the entry gate, the Hymn to Atum is carved on the right (west) jamb, the Hymn to Ra on the left (east). On each jamb, a well-carved figure of Neferrenpet, dressed in an elaborate costume with a broad collar and long hair, walks into the tomb (on the right jamb) or out of it (on the left).  
                          
FIRST CHAMBER The tops of the walls are decorated with recumbent Anubis jackals that face the tomb entrance and alternate with kheker-friezes. Below, two principal registers contain religious scenes. Beneath each register, a line of religious text is written in large and detailed hieroglyphs. These registers are read from the entrance of the tomb on the north wall, across the side wall, and then on the south wall where they end. LEFT (EAST) HALF OF THE CHAMBER The upper register is divided into several parts, each of which deals with chapter 145 of the Book of the Dead, the chapter that enables the deceased to pass safely through the many locked gates of the underworld. On the front (north) wall, the first scene shows Neferrenpet and his wife, Mutemwia (holding a large floral bouquet), standing before a large portal, called a sebkhet. It is topped by a large snake and djed-pillars. Isisknots decorate its sides. The next scene begins on the front (north) wall and continues onto the left (east). Neferrenpet and Mutemwia stand in adoration before another sebkhet. Their costumes are identical to the first scene, but here Neferrenpet carries a pectoral over his arm.

 The sebkhet, placed on a low socle with a kheker-frieze on its top, has three demons inside. One has a human head, the second a lion’s, and both hold knives on their knees. The third demon is a recumbent lion with a uraeus on its forehead. Farther right (south) stands an empty portal with Ma’atfeathers on its top. Next, Neferrenpet and Mutemwia again wear the same costumes, she with flowers, he with a pectoral on his arm, and stand in adoration before an empty shrine.

To its right, Neferrenpet, with a scribe’s palette hanging from his arm, stands before a sebkhet topped with Ma’at-feathers. This portal houses four demons holding flails on their knees. Finally, Neferrenpet and wife stand before offerings of meats, geese, vegetables, lettuce, and flowers piled atop four offering stands. Mutemwia holds a head of lettuce and a sistrum. The colors here are especially well preserved and close attention has been paid to fashion. For example, the principal figures are invariably shown with fingernails and toenails delicately painted white. The final scene in this religious sequence deals with the Weighing of the Heart of the deceased in the Court of Osiris. The scene is formally posed and complex in its  iconography, as befits the profound importance of its subject. The Weighing of the Heart is one of ancient Egypt’s most recognizable funerary ceremonies and this wellexecuted scene is typical of Dynasty 19 versions.
The god Anubis, with a human body and the head of a jackal, leads Neferrenpet and wife into the court. Around the corner, on the left rear (south) wall, Horus (on the left) and Thoth weigh the heart of the deceased against the Ma’at-feather. Horus steadies the balance, which is topped by the figure of a baboon and a feather.

Thoth holds a scribe’s palette, ready to write down the verdict and announce it to Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, who await the news in an elaborate kiosk. Should the verdict be a bad one and the deceased be found guilty of sin, he will be devoured by a now-defaced demon that originally stood in the corner, just in front of Anubis. This is Ammit, She Who Swallows the Dead, an almost comically grotesque monster with a crocodile’s face, a lion’s head, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Before Osiris, small figures of the Four Sons of Horus stand atop a lotus flower.

 A symbol of Anubis has been placed before the kiosk. Above the balance, four offering tables alternate with seated figures.A band of large hieroglyphs, part of the Hymn to Osiris, separates this register from the one below. To follow the lower register, return to the east side of the north wall of the chamber, next to the entrance. In a superbly painted garden scene, Neferrenpet and his wife dip water from a T-shaped pool and drink from their cupped hands. The pool is filled with lotus flowers and fish. Behind it stand three palm trees, heavy with dates and with birds’ nests filled with eggs. The transparent gowns of the deceased and his wife, as well as the sensuous curves of their long fingers, are well executed. This scene comes from the vignette that accompanies chapter 62 of the Book of the Dead, a spell for drinking water in the afterlife.

At right, Neferrenpet sits in a delicately carved chair, his feet clad in white sandals resting on a footstool. He holds a scepter and a priest offers him bundles of flowers and baskets of bread.Around the corner on the left (east) wall, elegantly coiffed and dressed figuresof Neferrenpet and Mutemwia sit on chairs placed on a low dais. He holds a scepter and bunches of lettuce and lotuses; she affectionately rests her left hand on his shoulder. The offering table that stood before them has been destroyed, but in a second scene the couple sits before a great heap of foodstuffs including loaves of bread, geese, lettuce, and baskets of dates. A third such scene follows at the right, and here the well-dressed couple watches as Bakenwer, a sem-priest clad in the panther skin symbolizing his office, offers incense and pours water over the offerings. At the end of the wall, a harpist kneels before the kiosk in which Neferrenpet and Mutemwia play a game of senet. The scene is from chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead. The deceased is described “going out into the day, taking any shape in which he desires to be, playing at draughts, sitting in a booth, and going forth as a living soul...” Mutemwia gives her husband an affectionate embrace as he daintily balances one of the game pieces on his finger. Beneath Mutemwia’s chair, a cat hungrily devours a piece of meat. The animal wears a collar with a string tied to the chair leg. On the rear (south) wall, Neferrenpet offers incense and libations at an offering table before Amenhetep I and Ahmes-Nefertari. Amenhetep I, the second king of Dynasty 18, and his mother Ahmes-Nefertari were two of the most important figures in New Kingdom Thebes. She was a woman of considerable political power, the first to bear the title God’s Wife of Amen, and she served as regent for her son at the start of his reign. The two were said to have founded the workmen’s village at Dayr alMadina, and became the subjects of a major religious cult that survived to the end of the New Kingdom. They extend ankh-signs toward the deceased nobleman. In such scenes, Ahmes-Nefertari is usually shown with black skin, meant to symbolize fertility. Here, however, her skin is painted a rather unattractive gray. The line of hieroglyphs below these scenes contains a prayer for the deceased. RIGHT (WEST) SIDE Like the left half of the chamber, scenes in the right half also span three walls. Below a kheker-frieze and figures of a recumbent Anubis, Neferrenpet stands at the left of the doorway, arms raised in prayer before piles of bread, lettuce, grapes, and vessels set out on mats. The intervening text is a hymn to the sun, and the solar disk, held aloft in the arms of a large djed-pillar, is greeted by ten deities standing in two registers all similarly posed and dressed. To their left, the arms of the goddess Nut reach forth from a mountain on the western horizon and grasp the sun disk, preparing to carry it on its nighttime journey through the netherworld. The mountain is painted to suggest red granite, considered more valuable than common limestone or sandstone.Around the corner on the right (west) wall, the god Thoth sits in a kiosk with the goddess Ma’at standing behind him, facing an offering table piled high with lettuce, lotuses, bread, and meat. Neferrenpet’sfigure has been almost completely destroyed.

In another kiosk at the left, the goddess Sekhmet stands behind a seated figure of Atum. She wears a sun disk and uraeus on her head; he wears the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Next to an elaborate offering table piled high with fruits, vegetables, fowl, and jugs of honey, Neferrenpet and his wife stand in adoration. She holds a lettuce in her right hand.
There is a third offering scene at the left end of the wall, with Isis standing behind a seated Ptah. Unlike the previous two kiosks, which have tentpole-like columns, this one has djed-pillars. Again, Neferrenpet and Mutemwia stand in adoration.
Finally, on the rear (south) wall, the deceased couple offer praise to Ma’at and Ra-Harakhty who stand in a kiosk. 

Returning to the front wall, the lower register begins with poorly preserved figures of Neferrenpet and his wife seated beside a sycomore fig tree. To their left, two half-registers that extend across the right half of the chamber show Neferrenpet’s funeral procession and the scenes are filled with people who are shown in caricatures of overwhelming grief. A man with a whip drives four cattle pulling a sled that carries the sarcophagus. The mummy of Neferrenpet is elegantly wrapped in fine linen and wears a mask. It is protected by standing figures of the goddesses Isis (at right) and Nephthys. In the register below, nine dignitaries walk beside the sled. The second man in the procession has turned his grief-stricken face to bid a final farewell to Neferrenpet. All the mourners are finely dressed in long gowns and white sandals; each holds a staff. Two of them (the fourth and eighth) are barechested, their garments wrapped around their waists. Three men hold their hands to their face, overwhelmed by the death of their beloved master. The names and titles of the first three men in the procession are written beside them. The others are anonymous. The funeral procession continues onto the left wall. On a second sledge at top left, a boat with a large and elaborate chest holds Neferrenpet’s four canopic jars. The jars are protected by standing figures of Isis and Nephthys, and atop the shrine is a recumbent figure of Anubis. Six men pull the sledge and each has a slightly different costume, hairstyle, and pose. At least four men walk ahead carrying boxes of grave goods. In the half-register below, nine women mourners weep and ululate, their hands hiding their faces or pouring dust on their heads. Their breasts are bare and their hair is undone. To their left, five male servants stand between frames covered with flower garlands. Nine mourning women follow a priest and approach a huge pile of bread, meat, and various containers. The priest pours a libation; behind him, a second priest approaches with papyrus and a scribe’s palette. Farther left, a sem-priest purifies the mummies of Neferrenpet and his wife.The mummies on the rear wall stand on a low mound of sand. Cones of scented fat and lotus flowers sit on their heads and yellow bands of cloth cross their fine linen wrappings. Two female mourners kneel at their feet, overcome with grief.
At left, in the upper scene on a round-topped stela, Neferrenpet stands in veneration before Osiris and Isis.

Below, a priest offers incense before an offering table and seated figures of the deceased.

Neferrenpet’s tomb is shown at left, an elaborate building with a columned portico, a large entrance gate, and figures of Anubis at the top flanking a small pyramid. This is a typical Ramesside period nobleman’s tomb, but there is no archaeological evidence that TT 178 actually looked like it.

The ceiling of this chamber is decorated with four different ornamental designs, two with spiral motifs. 

Above the doorway into the second chamber, scenes show the deceased couple venerating Osiris and Isis (on the left) and Ra-Harakhty and Ma’at (on the right). On the ceiling of the entrance a drawing of the ba-bird of Mutemwia, shown with a human face, a cone of scented fat and lotus flower on its head, and elaborately painted feathers, is one of the best-executed scenes in the tomb. SECOND CHAMBER The extensive use of yellow as a background color on the left (east) side of this room brightens the walls, but the scenes themselves are cluttered, filled with texts, geometric designs, people praying and making offerings, and craftsmen at work. Texts are fitted into every available space, figures are loosely drawn and almost randomly placed, and often there is no ground line. The scenes lack the formal organization characteristic of Egyptian wall paintings. LEFT (EAST) SIDE East of the doorway, Neferrenpet stands before an offering table adoring a jackal-headed Anubis. The fringe on his dress is unusual and finely drawn. The scene continues onto the left (east) wall, where Neferrenpet again adores deities before a table of offerings. This time the gods are Ra-Harakhty and Ma’at, and Neferrenpet is accompanied by his wife Mutemwia and another woman identified only as a “companion.” In front of another representation of the couple, a field of text has disappeared, but eight offering tables holding cones and geese are well preserved. To the right, the hippopotamus goddess Taweret (or Ipet), wearing horns and a sun disk, holds an ankh-sign. 

The scene to the right in the corner of this wall is especially well done. Neferrenpet and Mutemwia stand before an offering table in a pose of veneration. At right, Hathor, Lady of the West, Lady of the Sacred Land, Eye of Ra emerges from a red granite mountain in her customary form as a cow. She wears a menit collar around her neck. Above her, the Horus falcon perches on a stand with a Ma’at feather. On the mountainside, a smallround-topped stela is painted with a prayer to Osiris.
Between these scenes and those below, a prayer for the dead is written in large hieroglyphs.

In the lower register on the front (north) wall, two crudely drawn scribes of the treasury are dressed in the costume of lector-priests and purify offerings. This is called the satj-ritual and is related to the offering scene around the corner on the east wall where the elegantly dressed deceased couple sits before a list of offerings. The list is written in a series of forty-five rectangles, each of which names a different commodity, including water, different kinds of bread, cuts of meat, wine, figs, and the like. For some reason, the list was not completed and many squares were left empty.

Behind the couple, a sem-priest purifies offerings piled high on a table before seated figures of Neferrenpet and Mutemwia. At right, another priest holds the meskhetiu-tool used in the Opening of the Mouthceremony. In the corner of the wall, the deceased receives purifying water from another sem-priest. In each of these last two scenes, the couple stands on low mounds of sand representing islands of creation. These are very important ceremonies, and the couple wears elaborate costumes and stands in stiff and formal poses. But their bodies have legs that are far too long and thin, unmodeled, and faces that are more caricatures than portraits or idealizations.
 
RIGHT (WEST) SIDE On the west side of the door, the upper register shows the deceased couple looking beyond five columns of text to a richly provisioned offering table. Beyond it, on the west wall, an elaborately outfitted Osiris bark sails on a small rectangle of water. This is a nicely painted scene, complex and filled with religious symbolism. On the boat stands an anthropomorphized djedpillar holding a flail and scepter in its hands, wearing an atef-crown and an elaborate costume.

The pillar is held by the god Anubis. To the left are the standards of Thoth and Wepwawet, each held in the arms of an anthropomorphic ankh-sign or a was-scepter. Above the pillar, two falcons hold shen-signs in their talons.  Farther left, the couple is shown in different costumes than on the front wall. They look across seven columns of a prayer to Osiris toward offering stands and a shrine.In the shrine, a falcon with a flail and a feathered crown sits on a chest. Another figure of Neferrenpet stands at left before a small offering table, eight columns of text, and a bark carrying Ma’at, Ra, and Osiris. A winged wedjat-eye soars above them. Both scenes of barks are references to Book of the Dead chapter 183 that praises Osiris and Wennefer.  

Return to the front wall and the lower register that begins there. In contrast to the profoundly religious scenes that we have so far seen in TT 178, this register contains scenes of craftsmen who work in the treasury under Neferrenpet’s supervision. These scenes are much less formal than the former, and indeed they seem hastily done and sketch-like.
They are interesting because the various activities have been associated with specific rooms and courtyards in the treasury building storerooms. One is looking at the actual activities undertaken in various parts of the treasury and the scenes help us work out the design and functions of building’s parts.

 Neferrenpet stands with a scribe’s brush and palette, recording deliveries to the treasury. In two registers before him, scribes present inventories of the work that is shown at the right end of the wall. In the lower registers, men work with gold bars and copper vessels. One man operates bellows with his feet; another uses tongs to transfer a crucible. In the fourth register, a man blows through a straw to increase the heat in a hearth where metal is being smelted. Above him, a sculptor works on a gold statue lying on a sloping board. To the right, craftsmen use multiple drills to bore holes in beads. Such drills continued to be used in Egyptian craft shops well into the nineteenth century AD. Behind Neferrenpet stands the treasury building itself. Its entrance is a small pylon closed by a double leaf wooden door. The building is drawn in typical Egyptian fashion: an aerial view of the structure is combined with drawings of architectural features and storeroom contents that have been laid on their side to ensure ease of recognition. Like Egyptian drawings of the human figure, this is a physically impossible but immediately intelligible pose. Inside the building, at the top (i.e., to the right of the entrance), the craftsmen Pehemnetjer sits in a small side chamber carving a statue of a nobleman. Before him stand small shabtis and a mummy mask. A tree is growing in the building’s open courtyard, and at the left of the court (i.e., at the bottom of the scene) an overseer with a whip faces three servants. 
 
The scene continues on the right (west) wall of the chamber. At the right, a doorway leads into the treasury storeroom, guarded by a man holding a whip and sitting on a small stool. There are small rooms to the left and right of the door (i.e., at the top and bottom of the scene) and trees grow in the open yard. Neferrenpet sits at left, holding a palette and watching two men weigh bolts of cloth on a balance. They are using weights shaped like cow heads. Above them, another four men deliver cloth. Behind Neferrenpet, men deliver goods to the treasury storerooms. Four small rooms at the top (right of the storeroom doorway) contain amphorae. Four men bring sacks, baskets, and pots into the room. To the left, side chambers hold pottery and amphorae. In the central room are piles of rowing oars, some carved with ram heads, others with falcons, perhaps from sacred barges used in temple processions. The scenes on the rear wall are badly damaged. Four seated figures are carved in a large niche. From the left they are: Neferrenpet’s mother Wiai; his father Piai, Neferrenpet; and his wife, Mutemwia

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