Sources:1. Borla, Mathilde : Les Statuettes Funéraires du Musée Égyptien de Turin In: Dossiers d'Archeologie
2003
2. KMT, vol. 14, pt. 1
3. Meskell, Lynn: Intimate archaeologies : the case of Kha and Merit. IN: World Archaeology, Vol. 29,
No. 3, Intimate relationships (Feb. 1998), p. 363-379.
4. Shaw, Ian, Nicholson, Paul: British Museum dictionary of ancient Egypt
London: British Museum Press, 1995.
5. Reeves, Nicholas: Ancient Egypt : the great discoveries : a year-by-year chronicle
London : Thames & Hudson, 2000.
6. Vassilika, Eleni: The tomb of Kha : the architect
Torino : Fondazione Museo delle Antichita Egizie, 2010.
7. Russo, Barbara: Kha (TT 8) and his colleagues : the gifts in his funerary equipment and related
artefacts from Western Thebes
London : Golden House Publications, 2012.
8 https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1107/1107.5831.pdf
9. Raffaella Bianucci, Michael E. Habicht, Stephen Buckley, Joann Fletcher, Roger Seiler, Lena M.
Öhrström, Eleni Vassilika, Thomas Böni, Frank J. Rühl. "Shedding New Light on the 18th Dynasty
Mummies of the Royal Architect Kha and His Spouse Merit", in PLOS-One, July 22, 2015
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131916
Images of Deir el-Medina:
past & present
May's tomb no 338 at Deir el-Medina
The owner of tomb number 338 was called May. He was a painter employed in the Theban necropolis and lived in Deir el-Medina during the 18th Dynasty, around 1300 BC. His title was the "outline draughtsman of Amun" (Rice,105-106). His tomb is located in the Western Necropolis of Deir el-Medina near the tomb of the architect Kha (TT8) and is numbered TT 338.
Chapel of May
The wall paintings from May's tomb were removed from the walls and taken to Turin.
From Deir el-Medina / Chapel of May (TT 338)
Dimensions: 185 x 145 x 225 cm
Clay and painted stucco
The original paintings are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, in Room 06
Inventory NB: S. 7910 RCGE 45711
Photos by Lenka Peacock 2020
© Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizio di Torino
Stela of May
From Deir el-Medina / Chapel of May (TT 338)
End of the 18th, beginning of the 19th dynasty
Limestone
This round-topped stela is divided into 3 registers.
The upper register shows May and his wife worshipping before Osiris and Hathor, both seated on their thrones.
In the lower register the couple is seated on chairs in front of an offering table. Their daughter stands beside them.
A procession of their family members approach them with their offerings: 3 men in the middle register and 4 men and 2 women in the lower register.
Dimensions: 66,7 x 42 x 7,3 cm
The stela is on display in the Egyptian Museum
in Turin, Italy, in the Room III
Inventory no. Cat. 1579 RCGE 46595
Stela of draughtsman May
From Deir el-Medina
End of the 18th, beginning of the 19th
dynasty
Limestone
Height: 30 cm
Width: 21 cm
The stela would have come from a niche in the Chapel of May, where it would have been placed on a stone base (according to Bernard Bruyère). When Deir el-Medina was excavated in the last century, these chapels were partially
or completely lost, as they were built above ground and made of mud bricks.
The stela is on display at Kingston Lacy, Dorset, England, in the Billiards Room Bankes stela no. 1.
Photo by Lenka Peacock 2011
© The National Trust, UK
It is a round stela with a double division. In the lunette - the spatial area in the upper part of the stela - the solar barque carries a solar disc over the sky, represented by the hieroglyphic pt (sky). On the right side of the barque a child is seated with his thumb in his mouth. The lower part of the stela consists of an image of a man standing at the bottom of the right side of the stela. He is looking to the right. His arms are raised in a pose of worship. Above and in front of the figure there are 10 columns with hieroglyphic inscriptions. The columns are written from top to bottom and read from left to right.
The text consists of a hymn to the setting sun:
"Praise to Re when he sets in life in the western horizon of heaven. You have appeared in the western half as Atum who is in the evening, having come in your might, having no adversaries and having taken possession of the sky as Re. You appear and shine upon the back of your mother, having appeared (as) king of Divine Ennead. I have done right in your presence, and kiss the ground (for?) your crew, worshipping (whilst) you travel the heaven, your heart glad. The Island of Flame has become peaceful, your enemies are fallen and are no more. The evil dragon's abode is doomed. Your corpse is Atum in the Boat of the Morning, the rightful one of the Two Lands. Beautiful is the Boat of the Evening when is has accomplished its end. (Said) by the draughtsman May, true of voice." (Černý,1958)
This type of stela is called a lucerne stela. A total of 13 lucarne stelae have been identified from Deir el-Medina. This stela is an early example of its type as the owner is shown standing rather than kneeling in worship. Only one other stela - Turin 50043 - shares this feature, all other 11 stelae show the owner kneeling. The Lucarne stelae share the following characteristics
- a sun barque shown in the lunette, usually placed above the pt sign
- a solar disc or other representation of the sun god is depicted in the solar barque
- The sun god is accompanied by other symbols related to him (worshipping baboons, wedjat eyes).
- The owner either stands or kneels in worship before the barque.
- Although the owner's relatives may be depicted, this is rarely the case.
- The hymn, written in columns, praises the rising and/or setting sun.
Lucarne stelae were made from the late 18th dynasty to the 20th dynasty. They measure between 30 and 55 cm (Goyon, 2007, 1953-1954).
To view and browse the digitised version of The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, (also known as Porter & Moss or TopBib) for this tomb, go to
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/topbib/pdf/pm1-1.pdf#page=424
Material for the Bibliography is gathered from an ever-expanding range of multi-lingual sources, encompassing both specialist and semi-popular Egyptological and Near Eastern publications, periodicals, museum guides, exhibition and auction catalogues, together with the growing wealth of web resources. The Bibliography also analyses a range of unpublished manuscripts, including those housed in the Griffith Institute Archive. Published in May 2014 by the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, the volumes are constantly revised and augmented.