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Archi-Cultural Interactions through the Silk Road4th International Conference, Mukogawa Women’s Univ., Nishinomiya, Japan, July 16-18, 2016

Selected Papers, pages 55-62

TYPES OF THE CEILING AND ITS DECORATIONS AT ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

Mohsen Negm Eddin 1

1 Department of Egyptology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Keywords: Residential Architecture, Religious Architecture, Royal Architecture, Divine Architecture, The Flat Ceiling, The Vaulted Ceiling, Ceiling ornament, The Corbelled Vaulted Ceiling, The Gabled Ceiling, Sky stars’ motif, the Zodiac

Abstract:

Ancient Egyptian people knew two kinds of architecture, (the living one) and (the religious one), It is normal to call the first one (the residential architecture or dwellings of livings), which was made of mudbricks (the Adobe method), whereas the second one was (the religious architecture) which they divided it into two parts (the gods’ divine temples (or chapels), and (the funerary buildings of the pyramids, the royal tombs, and the private tombs.

Several kinds of the ceiling types were found, the flat, vaulted, the corbelled, the gabled, and the zigzag ceilings, decorated with variety kinds brightly colors of scenes and patterns.

Introduction Because of its dry weather and the solidity of its antiquities, the ancient Egyptian civilization considered one of the great civilizations which has a great heritage (enormous quantity) of surviving monuments. Ancient Egyptian architecture divided into two kinds of building; buildings made of mud-bricks and buildings made of stone. As early as the early periods, the mud-brick building or Adobe1brick buildings was considered the most suitable building material for the living houses/residential buildings, especially at the countries which had scorching heat of the sun rays and dry weather like Egypt, as well as this mudbrick was being reachable and cohesion of elements material [1]. But there are negative effectives can be found by using this kind of material at the building, because of suffering easily at its foundations by increasing the level of the groundwater, thus accelerating its collapse, also a friable against erosion elements can be effective negative, like rains, Humidity and earthquake. Ancient Egyptian man had the (Adobe making) from the river Nile, when he mixed the loamy of the river with the straw, leaving it several days (not leaving it dry), by supplying it with water and hoeing it together, using an Adobe wooden model to make the bricks, leaving it under the sun rays several days to be cohering. These kinds of mud-brick houses had roofed by a simple ceiling made of trees’ trunks and reeds which stucco by mud mortar and painted with fine colors. (figure 1)

(figure 1, Ancient Egyptian are making Adobe) The second kind of the ancient Egyptian building is the stone architecture, that the geography of Egypt is wealthy of different kinds of mountains and plateaus’ rocks (like lime stone, diorite, granite, alabaster …. etc.). But these kinds of hard stones were not suitable for the living/residential houses, because of its quick interaction with the scorching heat of the Egyptian sun, resulting difficulties to house and live inside it, as well as, these kinds of stones are requiring a great hard work and a great wealth to equip it. So they erected these stone buildings to house the statues of their gods and goddesses (the temples/ shrines), or to receive the bodies (mummies) of their deceased inside the tombs. 1. A term with Arabic origin, which refer to brick molds of equal size were equipped, which were between about 45 to 30 cm in length and 20 to 15 cm in width, used to build the houses of the livings at early times.

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Material and Methods A. Mud-brick Ceiling Types A.1 At the Stone Ages & Pre-historic Periods Avoiding the danger of the wild animals, the early man of pre-historic era lived at caves. As there are no evidences of cave settlements at ancient Egypt, that Egypt was considered one of the earliest urban settlements at the ancient world, depending on the agriculture through the river Nile source. The early dwellers at pre-historic Egypt built simple houses (shelters), made of plant reeds, supported by poles, a simple ceiling of reeds roofed it, these simple mudbrick dwellings were completely destroyed with its ceilings, that its types and design observed only through the artifacts or the scenes dated to the pre-dynastic period (Naqqada II culture) A.2 At the Historical Periods There are no completed mudbrick buildings at ancient Egypt, that the remnant of those mudbrick buildings mostly reduced at its foundations, but there are witnesses of its types & decorations found at the ancient Egyptian art and architecture. A.2.1 Types of Mudbrick Ceilings at King Netjri-Khet (Djoser) Step Pyramid Complex The famous funerary complex of the step pyramid at Saqqara, Giza, which was built by the famous engineer Imhotep to the beneficent of his king (Netjeri-Khet/Djoser, 3rd dynasty – 2670 B.C.) [12]. According to the ancient Egyptian religious believes, the owner of this complex (king Djoser), wished after his death, to meet the same elements, which he lived at his first life, especially his royal residence (palace), so the ancient Egyptian architect designed and erected most of the elements of this stone complex to assimilate the original royal palace elements, which was made of mudbrick and imitating the organic forms of the earlier style. A.2.1.1 The Flat Ceiling of the Façade and the Great Corridor of the Complex A great enclosure fortification walls surrounded the whole funerary complex,[6]we can notice a small quadrangles shape at its façade, it was suggested that it refers to the wooden beams quadrangles which supported the original mudbrick flat roof at the royal palace (figure1), this kind of quadrangles wooden beams still used till now at the mudbrick houses of the Egyptian villages. (figure 2)

(fig. 2: Tree trunks shape (wooden beams quadrangle) A second type of a flat ceiling can be found at the entrance of the complex corridor, we notice fine limestone blocks depicted palm tree half trunks shape, exemplifying the initial, faltering steps of architecture in stone. (figure 3)

(fig. 3: Half trunks/ with Palm fronds, entrance corridor) A.2.1.2 The Vaulted Ceiling at the Divine Chapels Part of Djoser complex, the festival Court of heb sed 1, which contains (the Divine Shrines/Great Houses) type, a form characteristic the divine shrines of Upper Egypt in the Pre-Dynastic Period [13]. The prototype was a light, wood- framed structure with a low vaulted roof supported by three engaged, fluted columns. (figure 4)

1. A famous royal festival, was concerning of re-coronation of the king on the throne of Egypt.

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(fig. 4: The Vaulted ceiling of the Archaic Chapels) This kind of strong roofs mostly designed the chapels of the gods, and also found at the interior corridors that lead to the burial chambers of the earlier mudbrick tombs. A.2.2 The Mudbrick ceiling, Supported by Stone Pillared. The excavations at the ancient Egyptian towns revealed remains of different types of palaces and houses, all of it was built of mudbricks, but it differs at its luxury and size. It is revealed that the stone materials sometimes overlapped the palaces and the great houses of the high elites, to support some architectural elements, like the ceiling or the architraves. For example, at the ruins of Tell el- Amarna1 city, the excavations revealed several kinds of stone pillared at the site of the mudbrick royal palace of king Akhenaten (Amenophis IV)2, especially around the place of the great royal hall (the audience hall), the royal wives’ palace and the sunken garden) [14]. We can found also stone pillared at the area of the great houses of the high elites (the great villas), but at less size and welfare (the house of vizier Nakht and the artist Djehutmose). (figure 5)

(fig. 5: The Stone Pillared, Supported the Mudbrick Roof, Tell el-Amarna city) B. Mudbrick Ceiling Decoration B.1 Royal Palaces Ceilings3 B.1.1 Palace of Amenhotep III, Malqata Palace4 The foundations revealed a great palace, built of mudbrick, also traces of wonderful painted scenes and decorations found upon its wall surfaces and ceilings [8]. Malqata painted scenes and decorations characterized with its beauty colors (mud plaster & paint Gesso) and diversity of subjects (human being figures, animal figures, birds at marshes and geometric patterns) [9].

- A peace of Ceiling painting from Malqata, dried mud, mud plaster, paint gesso (tempera), the motif consists of a repeating pattern of rosette-filled running spirals alternating with bucrania (ox skulls) (fig. 6-1), or just rosette-shaped circles. (fig. 6-2) [10].

- Figures of winged vulture bird (symbol of a famous goddess at ancient Egypt), surrounded by Geometric motifs (like mat-shape). (fig. 6-3)

(fig. 6-1,2,3: rosette-filled with bucrania, rosette-shaped circles, and winged vulture bird)

1. Almost 200 miles south of Cairo, in the heart of Middle Egypt, the archaeological site of Amarna occupies a great bay of desert beside the River Nile 2. Amenhotep IV was the son of king Amenhotep III, he determined to introduce the worship of just one god (the sun god Aten), he changed his name to be (Akhenaten) and abandoned his capital city (Thebes/Luxor today) to be Akhet-Aten (Tell El-Amarna today) 3. Royal palaces housed apart from the king (pharaoh)'s main family, his secondary wives, concubines, and their offspring, also a small army of servants. The whole compound was enclosed and separate from the rest of the capital houses. 4. Malqata is the name of the site of the great palace built by Amenhotep III, which is situated to the south of the famous Medinet Habu temple on the West Bank of Luxor (Thebes, capital of the Empire at that time)

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B.1.2 Palace of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) at Amarna1 There are no traces of remaining painted scenes discovered from the palace ceiling, but the worthy witnesses of other painted scenes depicted its walls and grounds2, proved that the ceiling had been decorated with the different motifs of colorful patterns and scenes. B.2 The High Elites’ Houses Through the traces of remaining houses of the nobles (the high elites)’, the excavations revealed walls plastering with white colors background and decorated with painted scenes, such as the marshes scenes and geometric patterns, accordingly it is supposed that the ceilings of these houses had the same manner of decorations. B.3 The Public Houses Only, a few preserved examples of the ancient Egyptian towns were discovered, as Tell el-Amarna, Deir el-Medina at Thebes (Luxor) [11], and Hotep-senusret (Kahun)3 at the Fayyoum oasis, we have been able to discover how the Egyptians built, designed and decorated their public houses.

Houses mostly had contained one roofed small room, the roof made of local tree trunks (most of them were lack of pillared columns), filled with straw and plant branches, plastered with loamy mortar, it was suggested that these simple ceilings had been undecorated, (but the walls may be plastered and contained painting scenes (specially the exterior walls). C. The Stone Ceiling The stone dwellings can be found at the religious buildings, which had been divided into two parts; the divine buildings (contains, gods’ temples and shrines), and the funerary buildings (which contains, the pyramids, royal tombs and high official “private” tombs). C.1 The Stone Ceiling Types C.1 The Flat Ceiling It is the most popular ceiling which roofed the temples and designated both the chambers of the royal and the high official tombs, it consists of stone slabs compacted crosswise at the walls of the chambers, or supported by stone pillared columns at its great halls (the hypostyle halls) inside the great temples. C.2 The Vaulted Ceiling The examples of stone vaulted ceiling are very rare, it assimilated the archaic chapel ceiling of pre-history which was made of mudbrick, we have two types of the stone vaulted ceiling; the erecting ceiling and the engraving ceiling of the subterranean galleries and chambers. C.3 The Unshaped/Zigzag Ceiling This is the rare kind of stone ceiling, which can be found at some of the interior rooms of the private tombs (subterranean chambers), its method based on leaving it by the architect at an unshaped form, taking a (zigzag) shape, mostly it was resulted because of being a flaw at the mother rock. C.4 The Pyramids Ceilings Approximately hundreds thousands of stone blocks had been cut, transported and assembled to build the huge pyramids4 of ancient Egypt, so what kind of architectural ceiling/roof type had been designed to support the interior corridors and chambers inside these huge pyramids? Especially, the flat ceiling was not suitable to use to support those enormous tons of stone blocks above it, that is means an easy cracking and an inevitable collapse of those weak roofs. C.4.1 The Corbelled Ceiling It is considering one of the hardest ceiling types at ancient Egyptian architecture, which the method of its erecting to avoid any flat space under the hundreds thousands of stone tons, by offsetting successive courses of stone

1. The ceremonial palace (the Great Palace) locates near the Great Aten Temple. This was the largest building in the city, elaborately decorated with relief paintings, these scenes decorated the whole palace; the walls and the floors, with different kinds of scenes (human being, animals, birds, and marshes ……). 2. A frieze at the so-called 'the Green Room' in the North Palace of el-Amarna show wonderful colors and diversity subjects. 3. a large settlement at Middle king dome contained population ranging between 5000-9000 inhabitants. - Ezzamel, M. Accounting and Redistribution: The Palace and Mortuary Cult in the Middle Kingdom, Accounting Historians Journal, Vol. 29, No. 1, p.69, 2002 4. for example, 2.5 millions of blocks, averaging about 2.5 tons each at the great pyramid of Giza (Khufu Pyramid).

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outwards , until the courses meet together at the apex of the ceiling, as inside the burial chambers of the two pyramids of king Senefru (2613-2589 B.C, Old kingdom/4th dynasty) at Meydum and Dahshur (figure 7-1). C.4.2 The Gabled Ceiling Its method based on distributing the pressure of the pyramid’s rocks by joining two huge and hard stones vertically at the central focus above the room, and resting only at two sides of the walls of the chambers, placed diagonally inside, taking a triangle shape, typical examples of the gabled ceiling are found at the main burial chamber of the great pyramid of King Cheops (Khufu), also at the burial chambers of the pyramids of 5th and 6th dynasties of old kingdom (figure 7-2).

(fig.7-1 the corbelled ceiling) (fig.7-2, the gabled ceiling) D. The Stone Ceiling Decoration D.1 Decoration of the Divine/Mortuary Temples and the Royal Tombs Ceiling D.1.1 The Sky Topography (Sky Stars) Motif This is the most famous motif which decorated the ceilings of the divine temples, the royal mortuary temples, and the burial chambers of the kings and the queens1. Ancient Egyptians realized that the sky is being the god’s homeland, and their divine temples considered as their houses on earth, the ceiling played the most important role to emphasis that belief, by depicting scenes refer to the sky topography through variety ways (as sky stars, motifs of the sky goddesses, the zodiac or the processions of the patron gods of the sky). At the other side, according to the ancient Egyptian traditions, the ruler king was considered the son of the gods on earth, so he had obtained some of the gods’ particularities, among it, the patterns of the sky motifs at the ceilings of the mortuary temples and the royal tombs. The designer depicted the sky topography with dark blue color, adorned with golden pentagram stars (as embodiment of the night sky) (figure 8-1)

(fig.8-1,2,3: sky stars’ motif, fig.8-4: royal cartouche inserted sky stars’ motif)

D.1.1.1 Whereabouts the Sky Topography (Sky Stars) Motif D.1.1.1.1 At the Ceiling of the Divine Temples (Gods’ Temples) The exact place in which, we can find the sky stars’ motif at the divine temple, is the chamber of “Holy of the Holies2”, where the sacred statue of the god kept in. D.1.1.1.2 At the Ceilings of the Burial Chambers of the Pyramids and the Royal Tombs

1. It is an investable reason to combine the decoration patterns of the ceiling of (the divine temples) with the royal architecture, that the king considered the son of the gods. 2. A most important and sacred chamber, lies at the rear of the temple precinct, at the axis of the temple entrance, the sacred statue of the god was keeping at his Naos, inside it.

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Beginning of the reign of the last king of the 5th dynasty, king Unas 2350 B.C., and the kings of the 6th dynasty 2340-2181 B.C. erected small pyramids like hills, not equal the great pyramids of the 3rd 2686-2613 B.C.& 4th 2613-2494 B.C. dynasties in size, those pyramids had burial chambers and antechambers covering its walls with a very important religious texts, used to the beneficent of their dead kings’ souls and serve the operation of their resurrection after death, these texts called (the pyramid texts). Ancient Egyptian were thinking about these religious texts, which were considered as words and instructions spoken by the patron gods of the sky, so the designers adorned these writings (the pyramid texts) at the ceilings of the ceilings of the burial chambers and the antechambers which leads to it. (figure 8-2) As the days’ pass, during the New kingdom period ((1550 – c. 1352 B.C), this motifs (sky stars) became the most popular motif adore the ceilings of the burial chambers of the pharaohs (at their tombs at the valley of the kings) and sometimes their great royal wives at (their tombs at the valley of the queens) at Luxor. (figure 8-3) D.1.1.1.3 At the Ceiling of the Mortuary Temples1 The early example of those mortuary temples is the mortuary temple of king Sahu-Ra 2480 B.C. (king of 5th dynasty) at his funerary complex at Abuseir, also we can found these motifs abundantly at the mortuary temples of the New kingdom, which called by ancient Egyptian (temples of millions years), as the typical example is the famous temple of the queen Hatshepsut at el- Deir el-Bahary at (Thebes). D.1.2 Royal Titles (Cartouches) Inserted in the Sky Stars’ Motif To ensure the divine position of the Egyptian king, as a semi-god or a god’ son, (especially the dead one), the designer had created another vision, depicted at the ceiling of the mortuary temples, based upon the latter motif (the sky stars), by inserting the principle titles of his king (pharaoh) in columns among these stars, (as the ceiling decoration of the mortuary temple of king Seti 1, 1290–1279 B.C.19th dynasty). (figure 8-4) D.1.3 Motif of the Sky Goddess According to the ancient Egyptian beliefs, they were thinking about the dome shape of the sky, to be looks like a stretched naked woman2, holding her body up in an arch3, facing downwards (like a dome shape). Her arms and legs were imagined to be the pillars of the sky, and her hands and feet were thought to touch the four cardinal points at the horizon.

The typical image of the sky goddess is found decorating the ceiling of the burial chambers of the tombs of king Seti 1 (19th dynasty) and king Ramses VI 1145-1137 B.C., 20th dynasty and the corridors which lead to it. (Figure 10-1) We have also an image of a quadrangle shape of the sky goddess appears at some of the Ptolemaic period (332–30 B.C.), at the Dendera and Edfu temples. (figure 10-2)

(fig. 10-1,2: the stretched and quadrangle sky goddess) D.1.3.1 Motifs of the Night Sky Map Ancient Egyptian astronomer divided the night sky into several partitions; the decans4, constellations5, and planets, the first night sky map appeared at the ceiling of architect Senmut, [4] reign of queen Hatshepsut, the most typical examples can be found at the tomb ceiling of king Seti1, and the ceiling of his cenotaph at Abydos.

1. The ancient architect designed the royal pyramid complex like the universe, that, the dead king passed through three stops at his horizon journey, 1st (valley temple/the earth), 2nd (the causeway/the space), and last (the mortuary temple/the sky). 2. The appearance of the sun at the eastern horizon (the sun shine), and its disappearance at the western horizon (the sun set), and resume this cosmic phenomenon daily, this operation of appearance (birth of the sun), and disappearance (death of the sun), only a woman can undertake this role (give birth) to the sun once again after disappear (death). 3. sometimes appears at a quadrangle shape 4. The decans are 36 groups of stars (small constellations) used in the Ancient Egyptian astronomy. They rose consecutively on the horizon throughout each earth rotation. The rising of each decan marked the beginning of a new decanal "hour" of the night for the ancient Egyptians. 5. A group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure. Modern astronomers divide the sky into eighty-eight constellations with defined boundaries.

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D.1.4 The Zodiac At the Ptolemaic period, the motif of the sky goddess developed, and the image did not become the same as the previous images at the New kingdom, that the sky stars and the sun disappeared from her body, and the goddess became wearing a dress (not naked like the past), her dress takes the fashion of waves of the Nile. So, several boats run and sail at this celestial river, carrying decans and the great constellations, as the ceiling of the great hypostyle hall of Dendera temple, we can see the sky goddess stretched her body at a quadrangle shape with the zodiac. (figure 11-1) Zodiac was not an Egyptian origin, but Babylonian, its first complete version was depicted at the ceiling of Esna temple, Ptolemaic period (246-180 B.C), we can see all the astronomical elements, (Liu, cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius). (figure 11-2) Minimized image of the zodiac can be found at the astronomical ceiling at the chapel of god Osiris at the temple of goddess Hathor at Dendera1. (figure 11-3)

(fig. 11-1: sky goddess of Dendera, 11-2: Zodiac of Esna, 11-3: Zodiac of Dendera) D.2 Decoration of the High Official Tombs’ Ceiling The most famous examples of the ceiling decoration of the high elites’ tombs belonged to the 18 dynasty onwards, that several tombs kept its ceilings decoration at a good condition. D.2.1 Mat/Carpet-Shape Motif This motif is considering, one of the most popular motifs which decorated the ceilings of the high officials’(private) tombs, this motif based on uniting of geometric patterns, as squares, triangles, rectangles, pentagons, rhombus, spirals, circles and zigzag lines, sometimes rosettes and flowers patterns inserted at these geometric patterns. As, at the ceiling of Neb-Amon’s tomb, a combination of these geometric patterns, especially the spiral form patterns, which first appeared in the Middle kingdom art, [2] the designer used a lot of bright beautiful colors, as the mats industry with its euphoric patterns. [3] (figure 12-1) These mat-shape motifs can be found with differ details at another several tombs, dated to the New kingdom, as at the ceiling of Djutmose's tomb2, this tomb had been decorated with different geometric patterns. adorned with vibrant blue rosettes. (figure 12-2) Also, at the ceiling of User-hat3’ tomb, with its brightly colorful geometric patterns. D.2.2 Rosettes Motif, Like Sky-Stars Shape Ceiling (figure 12-3) Some of the ceilings of the high elites decorated with rosettes motifs, looks like the sky stars’ shape, which decorated the ceilings of the royal tombs, it is known that these motifs (sky stars), was considered as a royal inherent right, that the ruler kings considered themselves as gods’ sons. So the designer depicted these open rosettes, to assimilate the sky stars’-shape motif, as found at the ceiling tombs of Sennefer, 18th dynasty and Nefer-sekheru4, 19th dynasty.

(fig. 12-1: geometric patterns, 12-2: Rosette patterns, 12-3: Rosettes motif like sky stars, 12-4: Vinyard motif)

1. The original piece of the ceiling, kept now at musee du Louvre. 2. Lived at the reigns of kings Thutmosis IV and Amenhotep III. 3. served at the cult/mortuary temple of king Thutmose 1,18th dynasty, during the reigns of kings, (Ramses I and Seti I),19th dynasty. His tomb (TT 51) is located in the Sheikh Abd el Qurnah. 4. Reign of Ramses II, his tomb (TT 296) at the Necropolis of El-Khoka on the West bank of Luxor

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D.2.3 The Landscape Motif A rare examples of ceiling decoration are depicting a landscape motif from nature, like trees bear fruits, plants, foliage, birds and animals [7], as at the ceiling decoration of Sennefer tomb, the Vine1, which decorates part of the ceiling, to be looks like his vineyard garden [5] with its heavy dark grapes and red tendrals, start the south-west corner, from where they extend above the western aisle and continue above the northern aisle. The vine decoration even extends down on to the connecting walls and pillar surfaces, with a curvature making the transition. (figure 12-4) Result The ancient Egyptians made all their dwellings of livings (royal palaces, high elite’s villas, houses of the common people) of mudbricks with different sizes and luxuries, all of them roofed with supported trees (especially palm trees) trunks and palm fronds. Most of the mudbricks ceiling had the flat shape and plastered with loamy mortar mixed with plants, and these ceilings painted with the white color to increase the brightness inside the closed chambers. May be ceilings of some halls at the royal palaces and high elite’s villas decorated with patterns and landscape scenes. The stone ceilings roofed the divine temples, the interior chambers of the pyramids and the royal tombs, we have several types of this kinds of ceilings, the corbelled and gabled ceiling, which supported the roof of the pyramids chambers, also the regular flat stone ceiling. All the scenes which had been depicted upon the surfaces of the divine temples and the funerary royal buildings are related to the sky with different manners of implementations. The geometric and rosettes patterns were the most famous decorations which adored the private tombs ceilings. Discussion Two points of discussion here, first what is concerning the lack of scenes patterns decorated the mudbrick ceiling, because of had not enough space among the tree trunks to depict scenes? Or because of the rains which had negative effectives against the interior surfaces of the ceiling? The second is concerning the Zigzag ceiling and the purpose of its erecting at this type, a fault at the mother rock, or an innovative vision of the designer? Conclusion The ancient Egyptians had a great heritage of buildings architecture “especially the stone buildings”, through it we have a full idea about the kinds of the ceilings and the variety types of it, as well as the technique of its erecting and the decorations scenes which covered its surfaces. Excavations revealed two types of mudbrick ceilings; the flat ceiling and the vaulted ceiling which were found at the dwellings of livings, royal palaces, high elite’s villas, and the common people houses. The second kind of ancient Egyptian ceiling was the stone one, which roofed the divine temples and the royal and private tombs (not the livings’ dwellings). We have several kinds of stone ceilings in ancient Egypt, the flat, vaulted, zigzag, corbelled, and gabled ceilings. References [1] Brown, P., W., & Clifton, J., R Adobe I: The Properties of Adobe, Studies in Conservation, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 139-146, 1978. [2] Maria, C., S. Ceiling Patterns from the Tomb of Hepzefa, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 74, No. 1, p.25, 1970. [3] Benderitter, Th. TT181, the Tomb of Nebamon and Ipuky, http://www.osiris.net/01.htm. [4] Pogo, A. The Astronomical Ceiling-Decoration in the Tomb of Senmut (XVIII Dynasty), Isis, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 301-325, 1930. [5] Wilkenson, A. Symbolism and Design in Ancient Egyptian Garden, Garden History, Vol. 22, No. 1, p.7, fig. 5, 1994. [6] Lawrence, A., W. Ancient Egyptian Fortification, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 51, pp.69-94, 1965. [7] Boulos, L., & Fahmy A., G. Grasses in Ancient Egypt, Kew Bulletin, Vol. 62, No. 3, p.509, 2007. [8] O’Connor, D. Malqata, Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Band II, pp.1173-1177, 1977. [9] Hays, W., C. Inscriptions from the Palace of Amenhotep III, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, p.176, 1954. [10] Arnold, D. “The Palace Decoration and Furnishings”, in Ziegler Ch., edit., The Pharaohs, pp. 270-295, 2002. [11] Koltsida, A. Domestic Space and Gender Roles in Ancient Egyptian Village Households: A View from Amarna Workmen’s Village and Deir el-Medina, British School at Athens Studies, Vol. 15, pp.121-127, 2007. [12] Firth, C., M., & Quible, J., E. The Step Pyramid, Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Vol. 2, 1935. [13] Arnold, D. Die Tempel Ägyptens, München, 1992, s.18 [14] Kemp, B. Tell el-Amarna, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 100, pp.1-33, 2014

1. Because of this unusual motif, the tomb was known, (the vine tomb).