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The discovery of Wah's mummy
Photograph by the Egyptian Expedition, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1920

These expedition photographs show the small side tomb to Meketre's large resting place that the ancient looters missed. In the photograph on the left the archaeologists have just set aside the lid of the wooden coffin. On the right they have removed thirty linen sheets that were folded on top of the mummy for protection and use in the afterlife. Part of the hieroglyphic writing on the outside of the coffin identified the occupant as Wah, an overseer of Meketre's storehouse.

The rest of the inscription is the first part of a formula recording the royal gift of food for the afterlife. This formula is repeated in slightly varying forms from the Old Kingdom onward, the standard form being: "An offering the king gives--an offering of a thousand loaves of bread and jars of beer, a thousand of cattle and fowl, a thousand lengths of linen cloth and alabaster vessels, a thousand of all good and pure things upon which a spirit lives, to be given to the ka [spirit] of [the deceased]" (in this case, Wah). To the side of the coffin, not visible in the photographs, archaeologists found the dried remains of a leg of beef and a loaf of bread, and a jug containing a dried residue of beer. This had been deposited freshly brewed. During the fermenting process the expanding beer had pushed off the lid and rolled the jar over. The dried beer then formed a crust on the chamber floor where it had spilled.

Notice: photographic sequence, size of tomb chamber

Discuss: why Wah's tomb was close to his master's, why food was in the tomb

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