Tomb Chapel of Raemkai: East Wall ca. 2446–2389 Old Kingdom THE EAST WALLLike the north wall, the east wall is close to the chapel entrance and thus to life on earth. East wall decorations tend to be especially concerned with the fruitfulness of the agricultural land, which guaranteed continued offerings for the tomb owner's funerary cult. Depicted on this east wall are a presentation of animals and birds, a row of female personifications of agricultural estates, and the grain harvest. The figures face into the tomb and toward a large image of the deceased, which in turn faces the entry a
Tomb Chapel of Raemkai: East Wall ca. 2446–2389 Old Kingdom THE EAST WALLLike the north wall, the east wall is close to the chapel entrance and thus to life on earth. East wall decorations tend to be especially concerned with the fruitfulness of the agricultural land, which guaranteed continued offerings for the tomb owner's funerary cult. Depicted on this east wall are a presentation of animals and birds, a row of female personifications of agricultural estates, and the grain harvest. The figures face into the tomb and toward a large image of the deceased, which in turn faces the entry as if coming forward from the interior. The pictures on this wall should be viewed from right to left, the primary direction of writing in ancient Egypt. Bottom Register: The Grain Harvest. Egyptian pictorial narratives often follow the comic-strip concept, in which activities are broken into separate stages, depicted consecutively. However, Egyptian artists did not isolate separate moments into individual frames but represented them side-by-side, as if they happened simultaneously. Raemkai's harvesting scene is an example of such a serial narrative. On the right, four reapers cut the grain stalks, which a fifth man ties up under the supervision of an overseer (inscription: …his barley for the funerary estate). Farther to the left the sheaves- now wrapped in cloth-have been loaded onto the backs of donkeys, who carry them to the threshing floor (inscriptions: go, you! taking [the grain] by donkeys). The threshing floor occupies the left end of the register. Beside a large pile of sheaves (inscription: sheaves) donkeys are driven to tread the grain (inscription: trampling out the threshing floor of barley). Finally, a man sweeps the threshed seed and chaff mixture into a conical container where it awaits winnowing. The container is festively decorated with papyrus umbels. Women Carrying GoodsIn the second register from the bottom, twenty-two women carry baskets on their heads
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