Griffith Institute w&d 152 | Dahabîya carrying Djehutihotep

Griffith Institute w&d 152 © Griffith Institute Watercolours & Drawings Project

Djehutihotep seated in a covered kiosk overseeing four registers showing the annual stocktake of cattle. The top register containing part of the cattle stocktake related scenes is partially damaged; this is what remains of Djehutihotep's elegant dahabîya which was part of the procession of boats carrying people to this important event. Djehutihotep is shown seated within a kiosk upon a low platform on the deck and close to the prow of the boat. What remains of the figure of the noble shows him facing towards the stern and holding a blue feather fly whisk with a black and white striped handle identifying his high status. To the left of the kiosk is a larger cabin with forked uprights supporting a long roof pole beneath which is a large reed mat which could be placed across the roof pole as a sunshade; in a break with the usual Egyptian convention of drawing objects in profile, mats are shown from above so to clearly illustrate what they are.

Djehutihotep is accompanied by two sailors. A pilot is standing at the prow of the dahabîya and is using a long stick to take depth soundings; he is also waving a white cloth as a signal to the rudderman standing at the stern, and between them they are gently bringing the dahabîya into dock. The dahabîya is being towed by another boat which contains a team of eight rowers. Percy Newberry writes in his publication for the tomb El Bersheh i [1894]: "it was the custom for a great man, in order to avoid the unpleasant neighbourhood of the sailors, to put the crew into a separate boat". This is Newberry's delicate way of suggesting that Djehutihotep didn't care too much for the sight, sound and smell of the rowers!