Extreme Physical Punishment In Old Kingdom Scenes

While many tombs represent the so-called ‘rendering of accounts’ scenes, where the accused are shown bowing in submission and being led by an official holding a stick in the presence of seated scribes, two instances, both in the Teti Cemetery at Saqqara, stand out. The first of these is in the tomb of Mereruka, currently being recorded by the ACE, and the second in the neighbouring tomb of Khentika, who most probably succeeded Mereruka as vizier. In the two tombs, an accused man is shown held naked against a whipping-post with officials raising their batons about to strike his back. These were the only attested instances of this type of corporal punishment in Old Kingdom tombs until the ACE team re-recorded the tomb of Henqu II on the northern cliff of Deir el-Gebrawi near Asyut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Punishment Scene in the Tomb of Mereruka

 

 

 Punishment Scene in the Tomb of Henqu

 

This tomb, which dates shortly after that of Mereruka, was recorded by N. de G. Davies and published in 1902, but with the total omission of this scene. Like Mereruka and Khentika, Henqu II was also a vizier, only responsible for Upper Egypt. The punishment recorded in his tomb remains the only one where the baton is depicted actually landing on the accused’s back. Immediately to the right is a unique scene of a charged man, who is naked and wearing a type of yoke around his neck, being led by another. His hands are tied to a heavy object, perhaps part of a tree trunk, which he drags along the ground. It is ironic that in his biography, written on a neighbouring wall, Henqu claims that he never ‘put fetters on any man’.

Naguib Kanawati