The Late Eighteenth Dynasty Tomb of Ry at Saqqara (reign of Tutankhamun). Horemheb’s Chief of Bowmen and Overseer of Horses Contextualised

This article presents the Saqqara tomb of Ry, an army official who built his funerary monument in the immediate post-Amarna period (temp. Tutankhamun, c. 1319-1310 BCE). The Leiden-Turin Expedition to Saqqara excavated this anonymous mud-brick tomb structure in 2013. Recent research revealed that various decorated limestone revetment blocks held in museum collections around the world derive from this tomb. They were removed by early excavators almost 200 years ago and formed part of the antiquities collections of prominent collectors such as Giuseppe Passalacqua and Henry Abbott. The dispersed tomb elements bearing texts and iconography are here contextualised and the funerary monument is analysed in the framework of the development of the Memphite New Kingdom necropolis. Article The Late Eighteenth Dynasty Tomb of Ry at Saqqara (reign of Tutankhamun). Horemheb’s Chief of Bowmen and Overseer of Horses Contextualised Nico Staring


Iconographic programme and texts
The interior of the chapel originally had a limestone revetment bearing relief-decoration (Fig. 8)

Description
The antechapel south wall can be partially reconstructed from three joining fragments found by the EES/Leiden mission in 1994. The damaged block was recovered from the clean sand due east of the outer courtyard constructed by Raia (Fig. 12). We now know that the location where they were found corresponds to the southwest corner of the chapel of Ry. None of the recovered fragments bear traces of text, yet on account of the relief's style and iconography, the wall space available in the chapel, and the    offering-bearers proceeding towards the right (west).
Two men wear a wig, the others have shaved heads.
One man cradles a crane and another leads a bull calf.

Description
The block found in situ is the head-end of block A band of yellow and red colours decorate the dado.
The horizontal red band is situated at the same level as the one on the antechapel walls. A framed column of hieroglyphic text identifies the

Translation of the texts
In front of Re-Horakhty: [  A leashed monkey stands below (or rather, beside) Maia's chair. The couple rest their feet on low footrests. Ry wears a composite garment, consisting of a bag tunic with outward flaring ample pleated "sleeves" and a "skirt" reaching to the ankles, in combination with a wrap-around sash kilt tied in front.

Description
The pyramidion bears decoration and texts on its

Date, iconography and style: A synthesis
The descriptions of scenes in the previous section propose a number of parallels from contemporary and nearby tombs at Saqqara. Here I will treat the subject of style and iconography more coherently.
However, this section is not meant to be an in-depth discussion of the broad, complex subject of style and iconography, which is beyond the scope of the present study. 63 The present discussion of the subject is meant to situate the tomb of Ry in its spatial and temporal context and to propose a date for it.   The iconography of the scene reconstructed on the north wall of the antechapel of Ry, blocks R94-78 ( Fig. 11), also finds a close parallel in the tomb of Pay, 67 and two parallels in the tomb of Iniuia. 68 One of the latter two scenes decorated the south wall of the antechapel (Fig. 27), as was the case in the chapel of Ry. 69 The iconography in the tomb of Ry illustrates a movement from east to west, from the world of the living to the realm of the netherworld deities. The offering bearers proceed from east to west, and the deities Osiris and Re-Horakhty are depicted in the westernmost part of the chapel (Fig. 8). 70    The "Amarnesque" hands of Maia find their closest parallel in the scene of Iuy and Iniuia. 83 It is tempting to regard these rather unusual features as being the products of a single artist. Indeed, it may not be too far-fetched to view some of these tombs as the products of a single group of artists (workshop). This applies in particular to the tombs of Ry, Pay/Raia and Iniuia. After all, they all share a similar iconographic programme (Fig. 30), and their owners were state officials and had their tombs constructed in precisely the same section of the cemetery. Another individual who could be added to this closely-knit group (and for whom a substantial corpus of relief-decorated blocks is available) is Paatenemheb, whose tomb was   likely situated in the same section of the necropolis.
All these individuals were professionally related and, as a result, may have had access to the same skilled workmen (possibly the same workmen who also worked on [parts of] the tombs of Horemheb and Maya), and whose distinctive handiwork is possibly recognisable in some specific iconographic and stylistic details in the tombs' relief decoration. 84 On the other hand, one should also keep open the option that artists drew inspiration from the decoration in already extant tomb structures located nearby.

Titles and epithets of Ry
The inscribed relief-decorated blocks from the tomb of Ry allow a brief outline of the offices he held to be put together (Table 3).

Honorific titles
Honorific titles are a means to establish an official's social position and in particular his proximity to the king. 85 Such titles are considered to be the most important markers of rank in the court. 86  Either interpretation of the sAb-element appears to be without parallel. The title Scribe of the Army was usually written as sS mSa. That spelling, with the addition n.y nb tA.wy, is observed in the tombs of a small number of officials buried at Saqqara, two of whom bear it as their single title of office. 93 The title spelled with the standing jackal (Gardiner signlist E17) refers to the same office and can be regarded as an archaic form of it. 94 It is not common for a military officer to bear scribes' titles related to the army (as opposed to the very common title of sS nsw, Royal Scribe). 95

Hr.y-pD.t -Chief of Bowmen
The Chief of Bowmen, casually translated as

im.y-rA ssm.wt -Overseer of Horses
Schulman suggests that the bearer of this title held a command in the chariotry, whose rank he does not specify. 97 Gnirs, on the other hand, argues that the title denotes a command over the chariotry. 98 This branch of the army was established in the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty reign of Amenhotep III. Yuya, the father-in-law of that king, was the first to bear the title in combination with military offices. 99 Overseers of horses, or Commanders of the Chariotry, were drawn from the ranks of Chiefs of Bowmen. 100 It usually is the highest-ranking title held by these officials. 101

Excursus: Officials at Saqqara Bearing the Titles Chief of Bowmen and Overseer of Horses
There are a number of Memphite officials who bore either of the two titles held by Ry. 102 The combination of the two titles is rare.

Ry's neighbour to the south: The Army General, Amenemone?
In the section dealing with the architecture of the tomb, it was noted that Ry had his tomb built against a pre-existing wall. The structure that wall belongs to has yet to be fully excavated. It is very likely that it is also a tomb. Judging from the monumental di- Step Pyramid at Saqqara to gather a collection for the soon-to-be-opened Boulaq Museum. 166 The tomb of Ry probably disappeared again below the desert sand soon after Mariette's exploration. It was not until 1906-1907 that James Quibell (1867-1935 shifted attention to a previously unexplored area to the south of the Step Pyramid. 167  He often had local villagers collect ancient objects which he then examined and eventually bought. It is not known exactly when, from whom or under what circumstances he got possession of the relief-decorated block from the tomb of Ry. 169 And it is not known when the block was removed from the tomb of Ry, or by whom. Steinhauser presented his collection, which amounted to more than 1,000 objects, to the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem in the 1920s. 170 The collection is scheduled to be on permanent display in the Terra Sancta Museum.
The virtual reconstruction of the tomb as presented in this article shows that a significant number of relief-decorated blocks and at least one stela are still missing. It is hoped that continued excavations at Saqqara and arm-chair archaeological work will improve our understanding of the monument, its place in the development of the Saqqara necropolis, and its early-modern excavation history.

Acknowledgements
This article was written with financial support of  Raven et al., JEOL 37 (2003), p. 97, fig. 3; Regulski et al., JEOL 42 (2010), pp. 30-37, fig. 3. 3 Raven, Pay andRaia, 2005, p. 11 n.2. The mud-brick wall of a chapel is clearly visible in Schneider et al., OMRO 75 (1995), pls. 1.1, 6.1; reproduced in Raven, Pay and Raia, 2005, pl. 5 (see also Staring, Saqqara Newsletter 16 [2018], fig. 3a-b). The position of this chapel is marked in the plan published by Schneider, Tomb of Iniuia, 2012, fig. II.1 (labelled "NN"). 4 Raven and van Walsem , Tomb of Meryneith, 2014, pp. 30, 76, figs. III.23, III.29. Second Dynasty Gallery E plus a later robbers' tunnel connect 2002/17 to the subterranean complex of Meryneith. 5 I owe this information to Barbara Aston, who supervised the excavation in the southernmost part of the burial chamber. 6 Raven et al., JEOL 37 (2003), p. 97, pl. 9, suggest that Mery-Iunu is the same man as Ramesses-em-per-Re/Mery-Iunu, temp. Ramesses II-Merenptah (PM III/2, p. 715; Berlandini-Grenier, BIFAO 74 (1974). On stylistic grounds, I would rather date this Royal Butler later than Mery-Iunu of complex 2002/17. 7 For the tomb of Tia, see Martin, Tomb of Tia, 1997. 8 The ceramic material is currently being studied and prepared for publication. Initially, a date in the Nineteenth Dynasty was proposed (Aston, in Raven et al., JEOL 37 [2003], p. 102). Upon further study of the material, several of the wide, carinated marl-clay bases were found to belong to large Eighteenth Dynasty flasks (Barbara Aston, personal communication). This date corresponds to the suggested interment of the tomb owner, Ry. 9 Raven et al., JEOL 44 (2012-13), pp. 9-11;Raven, Saqqara Newsletter 11 (2013), pp. 6-8. At the time, the Leiden archaeological mission was directed by Maarten J. Raven. Vincent Oeters and the present author (at the time a PhD student at Macquarie University, Sydney) acted as field supervisors. This section on the architecture of the tomb is partly based on the concept text written by Maarten J. Raven, who kindly shared with me his observations. A more detailed description and analysis of the tomb's architecture will appear in his chapter in the publication Five Tombs at Saqqara, which will also feature the tomb of Ry. 10 Raven et al., JEOL 45 (2014-15), pp. 6-7. In 2015, the archaeological fieldwork project became a joint mission of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and the Museo Egizio in Turin. 11 Unbonded walls are not uncommon in the Saqqara New Kingdom necropolis. Examples of (fore-)courts constructed in this manner include Raia's extension in front of the tomb of Pay (Raven, Pay and Raia, 2005, pp. 11-12); the north ("phase 4") and south walls ("phase 2") of the court situated between the tombs of Meryneith and Ptahemwia (Raven and van Walsem, Tomb of Meryneith, 2014, pp. 68, 70); the wall between the tomb of Paser and the rear wall of the central chapel of Horemheb (Martin, Paser and Ra'ia, 1985, p. 3); and the wall between the tombs of Iniuia and Horemheb (Schneider et al., JEA 79 [1993], p. 4). 12 The "porch" was further excavated in 2015. I thank Paolo Del Vesco for sharing his views of this feature and the photographs taken during excavation. 13 This external "rubble floor" (feature no. 2015/1) connects several chapels of Ramesside date, built north and east of the tomb of Ry: Raven, Saqqara Newsletter 15 (2017), pp. 14-16 and fig. 1. 14 Raven, in Raven et al., JEOL 44 (2012-13), p. 11, suggests that this "unusual plan" is the result of the pre-existence of the tomb of Pay. He argues that access to the tomb of Pay "would have been blocked" should Ry have opted for a northwest chapel. Do note, however, that the northwest chapel of Pay hinders, in its own turn, an axial approach to the tomb of Iniuia further to the west. The construction of the tomb of Iniuia probably started a few years before the tomb of Pay (although the building and/or decoration of the two may have partly overlapped). In this example, an axial approach appears to have been of no major concern in tomb placement. Also note the positions of several tombs in the north sector of the Unas South Cemetery (the Cairo University concession area). The tomb of Tjay, ST 211, "blocks" the entrance to the tomb of Mahu, ST 218. In the east part of that cemetery, no less than three tombs are built in line. The entrance of the tomb of Nebmehyt, ST 7, almost touches the freestanding pyramid of Tasahuy, ST 5, and the west exterior wall of Nebmehyt is located right in front of the entrance to anonymous tomb ST 9 (Tawfik, MDAIK 47 [1991], fig. 1 Raue, MDAIK 51 (1995), pp. 255-68. 17 Raven, in Raven et al., JEOL 44 (2012-13), p. 10, argues that because "the rest of the tomb has no reliefs or inscriptions" it shows "all the signs of likewise being unfinished". This argument makes assumptions about the perceived emic "ideal" of what ancient Egyptian tombs should look like, while it actually reflects an etic ideal, conforming to the expectations of the modern researcher. It is not at all certain whether the tomb owner ever intended to provide the walls of the courtyard with a limestone revetment, even if the presence of a limestone revetment in the courtyards of Ry's necropolis neighbours (Pay, Meryneith, Ptahemwia, Horemheb) would strongly suggest otherwise. 18 Raven et al., JEOL 45 (2014-15), p. 7. I am aware of no parallels for these features elsewhere in the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara. 19 Aston, in Raven et al., JEOL 44 (2012-13), p. 20;Aston, in Raven et al., JEOL 45 (2014-15), p. 16. 20 Aston, in Raven et al., JEOL 44 (2012-13), p. 20. I thank Barbara Aston for kindly sharing with me her preliminary analysis of the pottery found in the tomb of Ry. 21 Allowing for the thickness of the stone revetment on the north and south reveal. 22 Compare to the height of the two columns from the contemporary chapel of Paatenemheb (Leiden AMT 1-35): 186 and 190 cm; and those from the chapel of Iniuia: Berlin ÄM 1627, 152.5 cm;andÄM 1628, 152 cm (Schneider, Tomb of Iniuia, 2012, p. 75) [Lacau 1909[Lacau -1916). 41 Binder, Gold of Honour, 2008, cat. No. [148]. 42 Bosticco, Le stele egiziane, 1965, 39-39, no. 32;Pasquali and Gessler-Löhr, BIFAO 111 [2011], fig. 5). In addition, the stela of the Vizier Thutmosis (temp. Amenhotep II; see n. 35), in the lower register shows two ladies sitting vis-à-vis at an offering  Berlandini, in L'égyptologie en 1979, p. 212, already suggested that the relief-decorated blocks of Ry were executed in the "style of Horemheb", which she argues is the same as observed in the tombs of the Overseer of the Treasury Maya, the Goldsmith Amenemone, the General Amenemone, the Scribe of the Treasury Ptahnefer, and the Royal Scribe Ptahmose (in fact the early Ramesside Mayor of Memphis). The style observed in the reliefs of all officials is indeed quite comparable, although close scrutiny of the material reveals slight differences between the officials as well as within the corpus of each tomb individually (see e.g. Staring, BIFAO 114/2 [2014], pp. 455-518). While Berlandini had to work with loose relief blocks, we now have the advantage of having the rediscovered tombs at our disposal, and thus additional textual and iconographic material, as well as archaeological evidence, to substantiate our arguments. 65 Compare, for example, the offering bearers on the east wall of the courtyard of the tomb of Pay (Raven, Pay and Raia, 2005, pp. 50-56, scene [37], pls. 42-43), between chapel and "vestibule E", with those in scene [10] in the tomb of Ry. 66 Raven, Pay and Raia, 2005, pp. 53-56. the Hathor cow emerging from the West Mountain, protecting the tomb chapel). They replace the fiery and difficult to traverse regions of the underworld as illustrated by BD 149. The regions described in BD 149 are said to be the BD version of the Two Ways of Rosetau, separated by the Lake of Fire, as described in the CT (Milde, in Bremer et al. [eds.], Hidden Futures, 1994, pp. 32-33). Lucarelli (The Book of the Dead of Gatgeshen, 2006, pp. 173-74) points to the problematic fact that the mounds thus described are not at all pleasant places, whereas their placement at the end of BD manuscripts seem to suggest that they form the final point of destination of the deceased. 73 Milde, Book of the Dead of Neferrenpet, 1991, p. 114. 74 (Raven, Pay and Raia, 2005, pp. 36-38 [53, 55], pls. 56-57) and Paatenemheb (Boeser, Beschrijving, Graven, 1911, pp. 1-5, pls. 1-18), showing the same disposition of scenes. The chapels of Pay and Paatenemheb are broader and therefore all scenes are depicted on the west wall, on either side of the cult stela. 78 See e.g. Weiss, in Verschoor et al. (eds.), Imaging and Imagining, 2017, pp. 215-29, with further references to recent scholarship on the subject. Weiss (Id.,p. 218) notes that for the New Kingdom only a handful of examples are known for the combined worship of Oriris and Re on a single stela, and that they all derive from Saqqara, perhaps pointing to a Memphite tradition. The disposition of the adoration scenes of Re and Osiris in the chapel of Ry likely hint at the same underlying concept, even though the scenes are differently arranged, i.e. not together on one stela, but displayed on three walls which together form the focus of the cult chapel. Note, for example, that the offering formulae framing the stela (ÄM 7290) invoke Osiris and Re-Horakhty, respectively. 79 See the observations in Staring, BIFAO 114/2 (2014),