The Griffith Institute
University of Oxford
Bersha Watercolours

Griffith Institute w&d 154 [lower] | Greeting the Colossus


Griffith Institute w&d 154 [lower]
Griffith Institute w&d 154 [lower]
© Griffith Institute Watercolours & Drawings Project

Artist Howard Carter

Date 1893

Site
Deir el-Bersha.
Tomb of Djehutihotep. Temp. Sesostris II and Sesostris III.
Hall (Inner Room). West wall, upper part.

Description
A group of twelve men holding palm-fronds, from right end of top row of figures in front of Colossus.
From scene: Djehutihotep followed by attendants with twelve columns of text before him, watches of transport of Colossus.

Technical data
Watercolour.
354 mm x 241 mm.
Mounted with GI w&d 154 [upper].
Annotations:
Mount, recto,
'Howard Carter 1893.' [signature and date];
'Cf. El Bersheh Pt I. Pl. XV.'; 'El Bersheh I Pl. XIII. Up register'.

Griffith Institute w&d
154 [lower]

Publications
See PM iv.180(14)-(15) | TopBib 409-060-010-020; GI w&d Deir el-Bersha Project; Newberry, P. E. El Bersheh i [1894], 20-1 pls. xii, xv.

The huge scene depicting the transportation of Djehutihotep's Colossus fills the top five registers of the central section of the left hand wall of the Inner Chamber. This further detail by Howard Carter also comes from the same scene as GI w&d 153 and GI w&d 154 [upper] but is of the penultimate group of men at the right hand end of the top register (Newberry plates xii and xv). These men have come out to greet the arrival of the colossus and have shaven heads and hold palm branches. Their loin-cloths are similar to those of the men pulling the statue (see GI w&d 154 [upper]) but are shorter and brown. They also mostly wear a strange green sporran apart from the man on the left whose sporran is yellowish.


Cataloguing John Wyatt & Lee Young | Commentary John Wyatt
Photography Jenni Navratil, assisted by Hana Navratilova
Editing and web pages Elizabeth Fleming, assisted by Francisco Bosch-Puche & Cat Warsi.