Offerings Made to the Deceased and his Wife, Tomb of Djehutyemheb 1279 BC

Norman de Garis Davies created this watercolor and ink on paper artwork, Offerings Made to the Deceased and his Wife, to record a scene from the Tomb of Djehutyemheb. We see a rigid, formal composition dominated by linear figures in profile. Davies's work meticulously documents the tomb's mural. Note how the registers, or horizontal bands, structure the narrative, separating the earthly and divine realms. The figures, rendered in a limited color palette, display a flatness characteristic of ancient Egyptian art, emphasizing symbolic representation over realism. The artist plays with the semiotic system by which a society uses signs to articulate meaning; for example, the size and posture of the figures signal their social status. Consider how this representation of the tomb relates to structuralist anthropology, in which scholars attempt to uncover universal patterns in human culture. This is a site of ongoing interpretation and re-interpretation.