Userhat fishing with the harpoon

The scenario, the decor, and the attitudes are all in the same style as the preceding scene, with fewer finishing touches and no text. Mutneferet has a lotus flower and a spare harpoon in his possession. Her daughter is clinging to one of her father’s legs. With his left hand, Userhat guides the harpoon in his other. He harpoons two fish, the Tilapia Niloticas, in front of a “mountain of water” (typically used to separate the two images, but which truly portrays the horizontal open expanse of water around him). Five startled ducks flee in the direction of the hunter.

These scenes in the marshes have the same meaning as the hunting scene. It is said to keep the demonic elements of chaos and disorder from interfering with the deceased’s second pregnancy at the goddess mother’s breast, where the amniotic fluid is assimilated into the marsh water. The presence of the deceased’s wife and daughter is not by chance: they must excite the deceased’s sexuality in order for him to be capable of self-rebirth.

It’s worth noting that some extremely strange animals have been included in these scenes. The Copts were responsible for the obscene graffiti depicting horrific beasts and devilish beings (especially the one on the first boat). It is not by chance, in my opinion, that they chose to represent them precisely here. The old pharaonic myths must have continued, and the anarchists would have had no idea what these events depicted by their forefathers meant. They, in turn, wished to contribute to the demon’s annihilation. There is convincing demonstration of the proposed symbolic explanation’s accuracy there.

Object Details

Userhat fishing with the harpoon

New Kingdom

Dynasty 18, Reigns of Amenhotep II

1427 to 1401 BC

Egypt, Luxor, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna

Tomb of Userhat, TT56

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