In the presence of my king forever: Royal images in the tombs of noblemen of the Middle Kingdom and beyond

Abstract

The paper discusses the origins of royal representations and their transformation into the divine presence in private tomb decorations. The point of departure is a small fragment of the divine beard of Mentuhotep II recently rediscovered in TT 311. Although the scene with the king in TT 311 is, thus far, the earliest attested representation of a pharaoh in a private tomb, the motif fits well into the evolving pattern of gods’ and kings’ presence in private tombs, initiated in the Old Kingdom with Anubis and Osiris occasionally depicted on tomb walls and the king addressed in offering formulae. The introduction of the image of Mentuhotep II with Osirianizing features in TT 311 also sets up a paradigm of a closed cycle of Osirian presence in private tombs: from prayers to Osiris in htp-dj-nswt formulae, through the king-as-deity to the image of Osiris himself.