Mysterious Lute Player in Rekhmires Tomb (TT 100)

Dagmar Krej, 1 Peter Zamarovsk, 2

Praha, Czech Republic

Abstract
Among the many scenes decorating the walls of Rekhmires tomb in the Thebian necropolis of Sheikh Abd elQurna, there is a figure of a girl playing the lute with a bow. If our interpretation of the painting is correct, this is
the first (and till now the only known) depiction of a bowed musical instrument not only in Egypt, but in whole
Mediterranean area. Although the lute came perhaps from Mesopotamia or Cappadocia, the oldest bowed
musical instrument the ravanastron has its cradle in Ceylon. In Europe the first bows did not appear until the
7th 10th century A.D.

Key words
Ancient bowed musical instruments, lute, Rekhmires tomb (TT 100)

Stringed musical instruments are known from many ancient localities, including
Egypt. Spectacular illustrations of musical scenes with harps from the Old Kingdom have
been found in Giza, in Abusir, and in other places. The lute is younger instrument, probably
coming from Mesopotamia, or perhaps from Cappadocia. Many depictions of lutes have been
found in tombs from the New Kingdom. All stringed instruments were played exclusively by
strumming.
In our paper, we point to a rare
occurrence. For this, we have to visit the
tomb of the vizier Rekhmire (TT 100) in
the Thebian necropolis in Sheikh Abd elQurna. Its main 25-metre long chamber
(rather passage) begins with the ceiling,
which is 2.7m in height, but rises to 7.6m
in the rear part. Nearly 300m2 of tombs
walls are richly decorated by numerous
colour paintings depicting many aspects
of life at the time of Thutmose III and
Amenhotep II.
Among other remarkable images, there
are also three musical scenes, which is
quite unusual. They are painted on the
northern wall of the western end of the
chamber.
Fig. 1
Two musical scenes from TT 100, with women playing instruments

dkrejci@centrum.cz
zamarovsky.peter@fel.cvut.cz

One scene3 depicts two men playing lute and harp. The two other scenes 4 show women player.
The lover5 shows five women players. The second womens scene, 6 perhaps less conspicuous
than the others, consists only of a single figure a young girl. She is standing, but we cannot
recognise whether she is also singing, because her face is hiden by hair (or wig). She is
playing a stringed instrument that looks like a lute. This would not be unusual, however our
girl is leaning her instrument on the ground and is playing with a bow! Is this correct
interpretation of the picture? All indicate that our girl is really bowing her instrument: Her
body is moderately bent forward, holding the instrument correctly in her left hand, setting the
bow near the corpus. Even a present-day bassist would not reproach her position.
The painting is more than 3300 years old,
and is the first preserved document of a
bowed instrument not only in Egypt, but in
whole Mediterranean. (Bowed instruments
are found neither in any depiction from
ancient Greece or Rome.)
The field for speculation is wide
open: Where had the bowed instrument
come from? Could it have been imported
from the East together with its player? This
hypothesis is supported by many
circumstances: Our lute player is dressed
differently from the ladies, who are highlyranked members of the harem.7 The design
and colour of her tunic is typical for a maid.
Her hairstyle (or wig) also ranks her among
the servants. It seems she must be a
foreigner. A forced slave? Yes, this is
possible, as Thutmose III made several
great campaigns up beyond the Euphrates.
As far as we know, the oldest bowed
instrument the ravanastron appeared in
the 5th millennium B.C. in Ceylon. Is it
therefore possible that our bowed lute had
its origin in Ceylon? We tend to reject this
possibility as our instrument is in all details
reminiscent of a real lute, not a ravanastron.
There remain some other questions: Why
have no other bowed musical instruments
been found in other depictions in Egypt or
in Mesopotamia? Was it premature
invention which was soon forgotten? Or
was it rejected because, as Plato wrote in his Laws, Egyptian music needs no
improvements.? (As it was perfect and came from the goddess Isis.)
3

in the first register from the bottom

third and fifth register
5
in the third register
6
located in the fifth register
7
This is probably the same girl which is in the lower register depicted standing with her back to us in a
three-quarter view (unique in Egyptian iconography).
4

Fig. 2 Detail of the lute player from the third register

Fig. 3
Egyptian lute with a long narrow
fretted neck, oblique body and two or three strings
(played by plectrum)

Fig. 4
Ravanastron with a bow (Ceylon)

And finally, the tomb was known to most nineteenth century explorers, and scenes from
Rekhmires tomb were completely published in 1943.8 So why has our mysterious lute
player not been properly mentioned and discussed until now? To our knowledge she has been
mentioned only by Davis Norman de Garis, who states that the girl is playing her instrument
like a cello. However, a violoncello is played in sitting position, while our girl is standing!
We must hope that new research will cast more light on these questions.

References
ern M., K., Hudba antickch kultur, (The Music of Ancient Cultures), Academia, Praha
2006 (in Czech)
ern M., K., Nov poznatky o nejstar hudebn kultue svta, (New Information about the
Oldest Musical Culture in the World), Opus Musicum XXV/1993, 5-6, p. 140-145,
Praha (in Czech)
Davis Norman de Garis, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re at Thebes, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York 1943
Hickmann H., Quelques prcurseurs gyptiens du luth court et du luth chantr, Miscellanea
Musicologica 6, in: ASAE 49, Kairo 1949, 437-444
Hickmann H., Les luths aux frettes du Nouvelle Empire, Miscellanea Musicologica 11, in:
ASAE 52, Kairo 1952, 161-183
Krah K., Die Harfe im Pharaonischen gypten, ihre Entwicklung und Funktion, ed. Re. Orbis
Musicarum 7, 1991
Sachs C., Die Musikinstrumente des alten gyptens, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Mitteilungen aus der gyptischen Sammlung, Band III., Berlin 1921
Sachs C., The History of Musical Instruments, London 1942

by Davis Norman de Garis