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The Amduat—The Book of the Hidden Chamber
- Cornell University Press
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15 The Amduat—The Book of the Hidden Chamber At the very end of the Valley of the Kings, at the edge of the Theban Mountain that separates the endless desert from the fertile Nile valley, there is a tomb. Once carefully hidden, its entrance is not, as usual, at the base of the steep rock wall but rather some yards above the bottom of a deeply fissured gorge.Today,visitors who brave the heat and the dust use a flight of steps leading up to the entrance and the sloping corridor just beyond it. This is the tomb of Tuthmosis III, the mighty pharaoh who made Egypt into a great world power. Deep within the mountain, at the end of the tomb, is the burial chamber where the king once rested, surrounded by the simple yet gorgeous copy of the Amduat decorating its walls. Let us now trace the path that leads from the entrance to the burial chamber. The walls of the first corridors we encounter are crudely chiseled and without decoration. Our downward journey continues with a flight Plan of the tomb of Tuthmosis III The Amduat 16 of steps that takes us into a first room (1), whose layout and decoration attract our attention. Here, a shaft some twenty feet deep interrupts our path, but a small bridge of modern construction enables us to continue. In this room the ancient stonemasons worked carefully, smoothing the walls and covering them with plaster. On the ceiling, white-painted stars shine down from a dark blue background, creating an atmosphere of cosmic dimensions. Scholars have long debated the mystery of this shaft. Some have suspected that it served to repel those who would violate the tomb, calling it a “robbers’ shaft.” In Egypt, however, architectural details had a symbolic meaning in addition to their functional aspects. Others have proposed, therefore, that the shaft marks a point of transition, a boundary hinting at the depths of the netherworldly abyss out of which all life regenerates. In any event, this room and its shaft serve as a threshold leading from this world to the realm beyond, the realm of transformation from death to life. Though it is modern, even the bridge is an age-old symbol of passage from one world into another. Leaving this room, we enter an irregular, almost rectangular-shaped chamber containing two pillars (2). Again the blue ceiling is covered with countless stars. The names of the various deities and demons depicted on the walls, more than seven hundred in number, produce a mysterious effect on the visitor. Soon, as our eyes grow accustomed to the dim light, we make out, to our left, a small passage that leads down to the actual burial chamber (3). The oval shape of this room creates a fascinating effect , one that is increased by the imposing sarcophagus decorated in red with hieroglyphs and images. Precious burial gifts were once stored in four subsidiary chambers, but these objects long ago fell into the hands of robbers, who saw not its transcendent spiritual value but mere gold in this treasure intended for the afterlife. Once more the ceiling is painted with a starry sky. The walls are covered with countless deities, along with the textual commentary of the Amduat, written in red and black cursive hieroglyphs. The fact that none of the twelve hours of the night are missing (though they are not in chronological order) is remarkable, for in many other tombs, this oldest Book of the Netherworld is represented only by individual hours. Working from a papyrus manuscript, the artisans of this tomb made a [3.94.150.98] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:15 GMT) Book of the Hidden Chamber 17 large-scale copy of it on the walls of this chamber. Occasional spelling errors betray their inability to read. The same mistakes occur in other tombs, showing that the same manuscript was used in these cases as well. The craft of the tomb artists consisted simply in copying the original text as precisely as possible. We have to read the illustrations in the burial chamber as we would a book. Doing so, we accompany the Sungod Re and the crew of his barque on their eventful, often dangerous, journey through the twelve hours of the night. The middle register of the depiction of each hour begins with the Sungod traveling in his boat, from left to right, along the river of the netherworld. The scenes in this...