The Griffith Institute
University of Oxford
Bersha Watercolours
Tomb of Djehutihotep

GI w&d 214


The Tomb of Djehutihotep at Deir el-Bersha.
Female servant with food and drink

Reconstruction with Griffith Institute Watercolours

This large scene covering the Hall's east wall in Djehutihotep's tomb shows the lord and his family observing daily activities on his estate, including scenes of agriculture, potters, bread-making, tending gardens, vintage, and the spinning and weaving workshops. The scenes from this tomb wall are incomplete, many fragments having fallen from the surface in antiquity. Newberry's reconstruction on plate xxiv of El Bersha i [1894], was created by combining drawings of the intact wall scenes with copies of the wall scene fragments the epigraphic team had manage to recover from the floor of the Hall. During this period the collation of drawings was carried out after returning to the United Kingdom rather than in front of the monument; as a consequence sometimes inaccuracies occured, which seems to have happened in this case of one small scene. It comes from a register completely omitted in Newberry's publication, but thanks to our colleagues from the Dayr al-Barsha Project, Egyptology Department, Leuven University, we have now been able to identify the scene from which this watercolour was made.

Griffith Institute w&d 214 & Newberry, P. E. El Bersheh i, pl. xxiv (line drawing)
© Griffith Institute Watercolours & Drawings Project | Deir el-Bersha
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We are indebted to our Griffith Institute Research Volunteers, Lee Young and John Wyatt, who compiled the catalogue for these watercolours, and also to Dr Jaromir Malek, former Keeper of the Griffith Institute Archive, who initiated the cataloguing and digitization of this collection. Helen Murray, the first Keeper of the Archive, accessioned, numbered and arranged the watercolours in their present order.

The digitization of the watercolours was carried out by Jenni Navratil, the Institute's Digital Imaging Officer, assisted by Hana Navratilova. Francisco Bosch-Puche, Alison Hobby and Cat Warsi have all made significant contributions to all stages of this project. Elizabeth Fleming edited the final catalogue and designed the web page content.

A special thank you is extended to our colleagues at the Egypt Exploration Society in London for permission to use the line drawings published in Percy E. Newberry's El Bersheh i, The tomb of Tehuti-hetep [1894].