Mysterious Lute Player in Rekhmire’s Tomb (TT100)
Dagmar Krejčí,[1] Peter Zamarovský,[2]
Praha, Czech Republic
Abstract
Among the many scenes decorating the walls of Rekhmire’s tomb in the Thebian necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, there is a figure of a girl playing the lute with a bow. If our interpretation of the painting is correct, this is the first (and till now the only known) depiction of abowed musical instrument not only in Egypt, but in whole Mediterranean area. Although the lute came perhaps from Mesopotamia or Cappadocia, the oldest bowed musical instrument – the ravanastron – has its cradle in Ceylon. In Europe the first bows did not appear until the 7th – 10th century A.D.
Key words
Ancient bowed musical instruments, lute, Rekhmire’s tomb (TT 100)
Stringed musical instruments are known from many ancient localities, including Egypt. Spectacular illustrations of musical scenes with harps from the Old Kingdom have been found in Giza, in Abusir, and in other places. The lute is younger instrument, probably coming from Mesopotamia, or perhaps from Cappadocia. Many depictions of lutes have been found in tombs from the New Kingdom. All stringed instruments were played exclusively by strumming.
In our paper, we point to a rare occurrence. For this, we have to visit the tomb of the vizier Rekhmire (TT 100) in the Thebian necropolis in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. Its main 25-metre long chamber (rather passage) begins with the ceiling, which is 2.7m in height, but rises to 7.6m in the rear part. Nearly 300m2 of tombs walls are richly decorated by numerous colour paintings depicting many aspects of life at the time of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II.
Among other remarkable images, there are also three musical scenes, which is quite unusual. They are painted on the northern wall of the western end of the chamber.
Fig. 1
Two musical scenes from TT 100, with women playing instruments
One scene[3] depicts two men playing lute and harp. The two other scenes[4] show women player. The lover[5] shows five women players. The second women’s scene,[6] perhaps less conspicuous than the others, consists only of a single figure – a young girl. She is standing, but we cannot recognise whether she is also singing, because her face is hiden by hair (or wig). She is playing a stringed instrument that looks like a lute. This would not be unusual, however our girl is leaning her instrument on the ground and is playing with a bow! Is this correct interpretation of the picture? All indicate that our girl is really bowing her instrument: Her body is moderately bent forward, holding the instrument correctly in her left hand, setting the bow near the corpus. Even a present-day bassist would not reproach her position.
The painting is more than 3300 years old, and is the first preserved document of a bowed instrument not only in Egypt, but in whole Mediterranean. (Bowed instruments are found neither in any depiction from ancient Greece or Rome.)
The field for speculation is wide open: Where had the bowed instrument come from? Could it have been imported from the East together with its player? This hypothesis is supported by many circumstances: Our lute player is dressed differently from the ladies, who are highly-ranked members of the harem.[7] The design and colour of her tunic is typical for a maid. Her hairstyle (or wig) also ranks her among the servants. It seems she must be a foreigner. A forced slave? Yes, this is possible, as Thutmose III made several great campaigns up beyond the Euphrates. As far as we know, the oldest bowed instrument – the ravanastron – appeared in the 5th millennium B.C. in Ceylon. Is it therefore possible that our “bowed lute” had its origin in Ceylon? We tend to reject this possibility as our instrument is in all details reminiscent of a real lute, not a ravanastron. There remain some other questions: Why have no other bowed musical instruments been found in other depictions in Egypt or in Mesopotamia? Was it premature invention which was soon forgotten? Or was it rejected because, as Plato wrote in his Laws, “Egyptian music needs no improvements.”? (As it was perfect and came from the goddess Isis.)
Fig. 2 Detail of the lute player from the third register
Fig. 3
Egyptian lute with a long narrow Fig. 4
fretted neck, oblique body and two or three strings Ravanastron with a bow (Ceylon)
(played by plectrum)
And finally, the tomb was known to most nineteenth century explorers, and scenes from Rekhmire’s tomb were completely published in 1943.[8] So why has our “mysterious lute player” not been properly mentioned and discussed until now? To our knowledge she has been mentioned only by Davis Norman de Garis, who states that the girl is playing her instrument “like a cello”. However, avioloncello is played in sitting position, while our girl is standing!
We must hope that new research will cast more light on these questions.
References
Černý M., K., Hudba antických kultur, (The Music of Ancient Cultures), Academia, Praha 2006 (in Czech)
Černý M., K., Nové poznatky o nejstarší hudební kultuře světa, (New Information about the Oldest Musical Culture in the World), Opus Musicum XXV/1993, 5-6, p. 140-145, Praha (in Czech)
Davis Norman de Garis, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1943
Hickmann H., Quelques précurseurs égyptiens du luth court et du luth échantré, Miscellanea Musicologica 6, in: ASAE 49, Kairo 1949, 437-444
Hickmann H., Les luths aux frettes du Nouvelle Empire, Miscellanea Musicologica 11, in: ASAE 52, Kairo 1952, 161-183
Krah K., Die Harfe im PharaonischenÄgypten, ihre Entwicklung und Funktion, ed. Re. Orbis Musicarum 7, 1991
Sachs C., Die Musikinstrumente des alten Ägyptens, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung, Band III., Berlin 1921
Sachs C., The History of Musical Instruments, London 1942
[1]
[2]
[3] in the first register from the bottom
[4] third and fifth register
[5]in the third register
[6]located in the fifth register
[7] This is probably the same girl which is in the lower register depicted standing with her back to us in a three-quarter view (unique in Egyptian iconography).
[8] by Davis Norman de Garis