A New Monument from Coptos

Author(s): F. Ll. Griffith

Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology , Jan., 1915, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan., 1915), pp.
5-7
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3853857

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 5

A NEW MONUMENT FROM COPTOS

BY F. LL. GRIFFITH, M.A., F.S.A.

Miss NINA F. LAYARD of Ipswich has given me permission to publish a fine

example of Egyptian sculpture which has lately come into her possession, a group in
limestone of " the superintendent of the gold-countries Wersu " and his wife " the house-
mistress Sit-Re" (Plate I). The group is 19 inches (48 cm.) high, 7 inches (18 cm.) from
back to front. The two figures are represented seated on a bench, somewhat widely
separated but in an affectionate attitude, making a symmetrical pair. The left arm of
the man and the right arm of his wife are crossed, the man's behind the woman's;
the elbows reach the waist, the forearms are raised, and the hand of each appears
just behind the other's shoulder. The feet of Wersu rest on a thick mat; his wife is
without this luxury. The man wears a girdle round the middle with tunic reaching
more than half way down between the knee and the foot. The loop of the girdle is
faintly engraved projecting from it just to the (proper) left of the navel. Sit-Re is
clothed with the usual woman's tunic from below the breasts, hung by two straps over
the shoulders. Her face, enclosed by a heavy wig, is slightly smiling, of a type usual
in the XVIIIth Dynasty about the time of Amenhotp II1. The head of Wersu is
unfortunately lost.
The man's name is engraved on the back of the group (Plate II, A) followed by
seven columns of inscription. Three more columns are on each side (Plate III, B, C)
and one down the middle of the tunic of each figure (Plate III, D, E). These
inscriptions are practically perfect.
A. "The superintendent of mountain-countries Wersu, deceased.
"Grace given by the king and Osiris lord of Busiris, the great god, lord of
Abydos, that he give funerary meals, bread and beer, oxen and fowls, thread and
cloth, incense and oil, all good and pure things on which a god liveth, and the
drinking of water at the swirl of the river, to the ka of the superintendent of
mountain-countries of gold of Ammon, Wersu, deceased.
"Grace given by the king and Anubis presiding in the divine kiosque, that
he may grant the receiving of daily food to the ka of his wife whom he loves, Sit-Re,
deceased.
"Wersu saith 'Verily any one who shall violate my corpse in the tomb-pit, who

1 See Legrain, Statues et Statuettes de rois et de particuliers, I, P1. LXXV for a near parallel to the group
both in arrangement and costume, and of this very date.

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Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. II Plate I, p. 5

Group of Wersu and Sit-Re.

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6 F. LL. GRIFFITH

shall drag my statue from my tomb-chapel, he shall be punished by

receive water at the drink-stand of Osiris, he shall not bequeath his goods to his
children, for ever'.'"
B, C. "The superintendent of mountain-countries of gold of Ammon, Wersu,
deceased. He saith 'Verily he who trespasses on my place, who shall injure (my) chapel
(or) drag out my corpse, the ka of Re shall punish him, he shall not bequeath his
goods to his children; his heart shall not have satisfaction in life, he shall not receive
water in the tomb-pit, his soul shall be destroyed, for ever! This land is wide, it has
no limit(?): do ye for yourselves even as (I) have done; (for) a soul is spiritualised
(or 'glorified' or 'benefited') by what has been done for it (or what it hath done)2."'
D. "That which is offered upon the altar in the house of Min, for the superin-
tendent of the mountain-lands of gold, Wersu, deceased."
E. "That which is offered upon the altar in the house of Isis, for the house-
mistress Sit-Re, deceased."
There are a number of interesting points about these inscriptions. First as to
the persons represented. Wersu is not a common name but it forms part of the name
of a woman in the XVIIIth Dynasty3. Sit-Re is commonest in the Middle Kingdom
but occurs in the New Kingdom4. The title of Wersu, "superintendent of the mountain-
lands of gold of Ammon," is borne by no less a person than the viceroy of Cush, after-
wards king Seti II of Dyn. XIX5, and it and similar titles are held in the XVIIIth
Dynasty by Huy the viceroy of Cush under king Tutankhamon in his inscriptions at
Faras in Nubia.
The reference to the temples of Min and Isis in the inscriptions D and E show
clearly that the group was dedicated in Coptos where Min and Isis were associated
together as the principal deities. Coptos was much connected with the import of gold
as is seen in the inscriptions of Ameni-Amenemhat at Beni Hasan6 and in the title
"superintendent of the mountain-lands of gold of Coptos" occurring in the grave of
Menkheperre-senb7.
The severe and repeated curse on the violator of the tomb-chapel and mummy
of Wersu prove that the group came from his tomb. The protective curses inscribed
on Egyptian monuments have been recently collected in a special volume by a French
scholar8: there are very few from the New Kingdom9 and none so detailed as this
except the elaborate curses upon any king or other person who should disturb Seti I's
arrangements at Redesia, on the route to the gold minesl?. But the rather pathetic
appeal to the good sense of posterity in the last words of B, is, so far as I know,
unique in Egyptian, and is the most interesting feature of the inscription: "This land
is wide, and has no limit. Do ye then for yourselves, even as I have done; for a man's

1 Read ' ( as is shown on special rubbings of the obscure portion.

2 > A should be restored.
3 Pierret, Inscriptions du Louvre, II, 79. 4 Lieblein, Dict. Suppl. 2138.
5 Breasted, Records, in, 647. 6 ib. I, 521. 7 ib. II, 774.
8 H. Sottas, La preservation de la proprie't funeraire dans l'ancienne E
formules d'imprecation:
9 ib. p. 54. 10 ib. p. 128.

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Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. II Plate II, p. 6

Inscription on the back (A).

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 J

lb

B C

Inscript

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 A NEW MONUMENT FROM COPTOS 7

soul is benefited by the preparations that have been made for it'." This is not very
lucid especially in the original, and one might have expected a greater development
of the theme. But probably the idea was not unfamiliar to the Egyptians and may have
been fully expressed in some one of their classical compositions; to such a composition
the passage quoted may be considered to allude.
Miss Layard informs me that between 40 and 50 years ago a Mr Dale bought
the group off a barge in Egypt and left it with his brother Mr Frank Dale in Wickham
Market. It remained in the latter's house until this year when it was sold on behalf
of the widow of the purchaser to Miss Layard. I have to thank Miss Layard for
admirable rubbings of the inscriptions, for measurements and other particulars, as well
as for superintending the very successful photograph after a first failure.

1 The spelling gives m yrtn-f and strictly signifies " by what it has done." But probably, according
to Egyptian ideas, the man, not his soul, would have been the agent for good or evil. If we may suppose
m, yryt n-f to be intended, meaning " by what has been done for it," a more consistent sense is obtained
for the whole passage.

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