Between 1907 and 1938, under the leadership of British Egyptologist Norman de Garis Davies, the Graphic Section of The Met’s Egyptian Expedition undertook a documentation project with the goal of recording ancient monuments as accurately as possible.


This facsimile painting copies the decoration painted on the left hand wall as one enters the tomb chapel of Nakht (Theban tomb no. 52), a scribe and astronomer who probably lived during the reign of Thutmose IV.


A large scene adorns the walls on either side of the tomb chapel’s entrance, showing Nakht and his wife Tauy pouring the contents of a libation vessel over a heap of offerings laid on reed mats, in this case for the benefit of the deities Amun, Ra-Harakhty, Osiris, Hathor, and Anubis. While the composition is similar on the right hand wall (see 15.5.19a), variations in the offerings depicted and the associated inscriptions show how the same image can be invested with different meanings.
The right half of the wall is devoted to agricultural activities, organized in four registers, under the vigilant inspection of the deceased, who is seated under a canopy at the top right; indeed the caption above Nakht reads "sitting under a canopy and looking at his fields." Like Nakht, one can see, in a sequence from bottom to top, the various activities carried out in the fields, from preparing the soil to winnowing the harvested grain. These scenes refer to the production of the offerings necessary for Nakht’s survival in the afterlife.