The Osiris Nefertari:

A Case Study of Decorum, Gender, and Regeneration1

Heather Lee McCarthy

The funerary art and literature of the ancient Egyptians clearly demonstrate that they envisioned an
afterlife existence that emulated two parallel but, interpenetrating, mythic paradigms – the "solar" and
“Osirian” modes of regeneration. These two modes have temporal aspects that correspond with, respectively,
nHH (cyclical, repetitive) eternity and Dt (linear, static) eternity. 2

Like the solar deity, the deceased was cyclically reborn and renewed – a process that the Egyptians
equated with the sun’s celestial journey through the daytime sky and the darkness of the netherworld The
climax of this process was the re-emergence of the sun and the souls of the deceased from the netherworld
into the world of the living every morning.3

The cyclical journey that characterized the solar mode of regeneration also had a parallel sexual
component wherein the sun god was reborn via intercourse with a goddess who had a tripartite,
multigenerational aspect.4 This goddess was the solar deity’s daughter.5 She also acted as his consort and was
impregnated by him in the west at sunset. The goddess then became his mother when she gave birth to the
renewed and regenerated version of the same solar deity in the east at dawn.6 This notion was expressed
pictorially and textually in both anthropomorphic and topographical terms – the sun disk enters, gestates and
leaves the body of the sky goddess or enters the western horizon and re-emerges from the eastern horizon7
(the cosmographic correlate of the goddess’s vagina).

The deceased was also associated with Osiris, the god of the Duat (the netherworld). Like Osiris, one
aspect of the deceased – the physical body – dwelled in the Duat (correlated to the burial chamber of the
tomb8) and awaited nightly rebirth and renewal effected by a syncretic union with the solar deity.9 The union
between Osiris and the sun god was a temporary but very important occurrence during which, in James Allen’s
words, “from Osiris the sun received the power of new life, and through the sun Osiris was enabled to live

1
This article is an expanded version of paper presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, held in
Providence, Rhode Island. I would like to thank David O'Connor, Ann Macy Roth, and an anonymous reader for their comments. I would
also like to thank Stephen Harvey for acting as my proxy at the conference and reading the original version of this paper in my absence.
2
Edward F. Wente, “Funerary Beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians”, Expedition 24 (Wincer 1982), 17-26, especially pp. 22-24; Erik Hornung,
“Zum agyptischen Ewigkeitsbegriff;” Fuf 39 (1965), 334-36; Erik Hornung, trans, by John Baines, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt:
The One and the Many (Ithaca, 1900), 93-96, 183; Jan Assman, Zeit und Ewigkeit im alten Agypten (Heidelberg, 1975), 35-48.
3
Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 181.
4
Lana Troy, Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian Myth and History (Uppsala, 1986), 25-30.
5
Troy, Patterns of Queenship, 23-24.
6
Troy, Patterns of Queenship, 27; Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge and London, 1993), 17, 41. Robins notes that
Kamutef, the aspect of the king as the "bull of his mother”, is manifestation of this mythic paradigm.
7
The anthropomorphic aspect of this notion is expressed by illustrations from the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night, which
appear on ceilings of Ramesside royal tombs and depict the sun traveling through and emerging from the body of the shy-goddess. The
best-known example of this theme is on the painted sarcophagus chamber ceiling of Ramesses VI. See Erik Hornung, trans. by David
Warburton, Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity (New York, 1990), 89, pls. 54, 55, 68, 70. A vignette depicting one pair of feminine
arms (with a pair of attached breasts) holding the sun disk illustrates the combination of anthropomorphic and topographical aspects of
the western horizon, 59, 90; see also Alexander Piankoff, "The Sky Goddess Nut and the Night Journey of the Sun.” JEA 20 (1934), 57-61.
8
James. P. Allen. “Reading a Pyramid”, in Hommage a’Jean Leclant. BdE 106 (Paris, 1904), 5-28, especially pp. 24-25 and fig. 5.
9
Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, 155-56
1
again.”10 In New Kingdom funerary texts, this event, which occurs in the midst of the netherworld, was critical
moment in this process – an event that recharged the battery of the regenerative mechanism.

The Pyramid Texts provide unequivocal written evidence that, at least as far back as the Fifth Dynasty,
deceased pharaohs were automatically equated with both the sun god11 and Osiris12 by virtue of their kingly
status and were believed to experience the corresponding modes of regeneration and renewal.13 The Pyramid
Texts of Neith14 and Wedjebten,15 wives of Pepy Il, verify that deceased royal women were also associated with
the solar deity and Osiris and had the epithet “Osiris” prefixed to their names from as far back as the late Sixth
Dynasty."16

David O’Connor's17 analyses of the programs of two late Old Kingdom elite tombs and Janice Kamrin’s18
study of a Middle Kingdom elite tomb persuasively demonstrate that the afterlife existence of non-royal male
Egyptians was determined by the same mythic paradigms that structure the afterlife existence of kings. Non-
royal men and non-royal women are explicitly associated with Osiris and given the epithet “Osiris” from the
Heracleopolitan Period onward.19 In addition, female family members (mothers, wives, and daughters)
depicted in the tomb programs of elite men could be envisioned playing the same sexual, multigenerational
role for the deceased male Egyptian that the tripartite goddess played for the solar deity.20

Less straightforward, however, is the process by which women (either royal or elite) were regenerated.
Although deceased women were explicitly associated with Osiris and the solar deity from the Old Kingdom
onwards,21 it has never been entirely clear whether the afterlife existence of women involved a sexual mode of
regeneration, and, if so, how this process was enacted, A deceased woman could be identified with Osiris and
the solar deity, and while she might be represented in her husband's or her father’s tomb playing the role of
the tripartite goddess for her deceased male relatives, it is not clear whether she needed a tripartite goddess
figure to make her rebirth and regeneration possible. If a deceased woman needed such assistance, who
played the role of the tripartite goddess?

10
James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge, 2000), 95.
11
See Raymond O, Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford, 1969), 76, 133, 158-59, and 225 for Spells 267, 407, 469, and
570, respectively: Erik Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (Ithaca, 1999), 6.
12
Especially Pyramid Texts spell 219. Faulkner, Pyramid Texts, 46-48; Hornung, Ancient Egyptian Book of the Afterlife, 6.
13
There was also third mode of afterlife existence in which the deceased king unites with the northern circumpolar star. This mode
coexists with Osirian and solar modes of regeneration in the Pyramid Texts. However, the change from the north-south orientation of
Djoser’s mortuary complex to the east-west orientation of the pyramids from the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty onwards, suggests
that the association with the northern circumpolar stars becomes subordinate to the solar mode. See Alan J. Spencer, Death in Ancient
Egypt (London, 1982), 82-83, 140.
14
Gustave Jequier, Les Pyramides des Reines Neit et Apouit (Cairo, 1933), 14-28, pls. 7-32.
15
Gustave Jequier, La Pyramide D'Oudjebten (Cairo, 1928), 5-8, pls. 3, 6-12.
16
Henry G. Fischer, Egyptian Women of the Old Kingdom and of the Heracleopolitan Period. Second Edition (New York, 2000), 17.
17
David O'Connor discusses the Sixth Dynasty elite tomb of Pepyankh at Meir in, "Sexually, Statuary and the Afterlife; Scenes in the
Tomb-chapel of Pepyankh (Heny the Black)”, in Peter Der Manuelian (ed.) and Rita Freed (supervisor), Studies in Honor of William Kelly
Simpson. Volume 2 (Boston, 1996), 621-33; Pepyankh is discussed again in idem. "Society and individual In Early Egypt in Janet Richards
and Mary Van Buren (eds.), Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States (Cambridge, 2000), 21-35, especially p. 3; Mereruka’s Sixth
Dynasty tomb at Saqqara is discussed in idem, “Eros in Egypt,” in Archeology Odyssey (September/October 2001), 42-51, especially pp.
49-50.
18
Janice Kamrin presents a cosmological analysis of the Middle Kingdom provincial elite tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan in, The
Cosmos of Khnumhotep (London, 1999), especially pp. 10, 88, 139-40, 142, 147-52, 154-56, 167-68.
19
Henry G. Fischer, “A Stela of the Heracleopolitan Period at Saqqara: the Osiris “Iti” ZAS 90 (1963), 35-41, especially pp. 36ff. and pl. 6;
idem, Egyptian Women, 17.
20
Gay Robins, "Ancient Egyptian Sexuality” in Discussions in Egyptology II (1988), 61-72, especially pp. 61-65.
21
Except for a few later burials where the deceased woman is identified with Hathor instead. See Ann Macy Roth, “Father Earth,
Mother Sky: Ancient Egyptian Beliefs about Conception and Fertility,” in Alison E. Rautman (ed.), Reading the Body: Representations and
Remains in the Archaeological Record (Philadelphia, 2000), 187-201 and especially, p. 199; For examples of Hathor-identified women,
see Sue D'Auria, Peter Lacovara, Catherine Roehrig (eds,), Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (Boston, 1987), 76-
77, 98-99, 118-19, 156, 162-65, 169-70, 173-75, 187-89.
2
 A phenomenon recently discussed by Ann Macy Roth22 may provide a clue to understanding this
process. Roth has observed that, with some exceptions,23 the tomb chapels owned by royal24 and non-royal
women – or the cult places reserved for women in jointly owned tombs –omitted the figure (and sometimes
the name25) of the husband. In her examination of this pattern, Roth refers, at one point, to the conspicuous
absence of Ramesses II from the tomb of Nefertari26 (in fact, the Ramesside royal women’s tombs in the Valley
of the Queens, as a rule, completely omit the names or images of their royal male kin,27 even though queens,
like kings, could be depicted in the tombs of royal sons28).

While Roth does not suggest an explanation for this particular omission, she makes a keen observation,
namely, that in stark contrast to the exclusion of Ramesses II from his wife's tomb, New Kingdom pharaohs are
frequently depicted in the tombs of their sons.29 She argues that the “absent husband” phenomenon in this
case was not directed by a proscription against depicting higher status individuals within the tombs of lower-
status deceased family members.30 The logical inference of Roth's statement is that relative status alone did
not determine whether a king was portrayed in the tombs of his relatives. For if status alone were the
determinant, then one would not expect to see representations of the king (or queens, for that matter) in the
princes’ tombs, either.

The purpose of the present article is to offer a possible solution to the question of how royal women
were regenerated by using the Theban tomb (QV 66) of Nefertari, the most prominent of the great royal wives
of Ramesses II, as a case study. I will address Roth's observation, which usefully acknowledges the complexity
of the “absent spouse" pattern, but will also take this idea further and define the multiple factors – including
hierarchical decorum31 – that seem to have shaped the notion of how Nefertari embarked upon her afterlife
existence and how this phenomenon was expressed in visual terms.

22
Ann Macy Roth, “The Absent Spouse: Patterns and Taboos in Egyptian Tomb Decoration,” JARCE 36 (1999), 37-53.
23
In the late Third or early Fourth Dynasty tomb of Atet at Meydum, the figure of her husband, Nefermaat, is shown trapping birds. The
figure of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep appears in the late Eleventh Dynasty tombs of Queen Neferu and in the chapels of the six royal
women buried in Mentuhotep’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, See Roth, “Absent Spouse,” 45, 48-49.
24
Royal women of the Old through Middle Kingdoms tend to be buried in close proximity to (or within) the pyramid enclosure of the
king, even when they have separate tombs and pyramids. It is not until the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty that royal women have
both a separate necropolis – the Valley of the Queens in western Thebes – and large, very elaborately decorated tombs of their own.
This practice seems to be exclusive to the Ramesside Period. Hatshepsut and Tawosret, royal women of the Eighteenth and late
Nineteenth Dynasty, respectively, should be regarded as special cases because they each assumed the role and titles of a pharaoh and
were given kings’ burials in the Valley of the Kings.
25
Roth, “Absent Spouse,” 47. A section of the early Sixth Dynasty tomb of the vizier Mereruka at Saqqara is devoted entirely to his wife,
Watetkhethor, a king’s daughter, and neither Mereruka's name nor his image appears there. The name, but not the image, of Pepi II
appears in the tombs of his wives.
26
Roth, “Absent Spouse,” 49; see also Colin Campbell, Two Theban Queens: Nefert-ari and Ty-ti and Their Tombs (London, 1909), 7, 12.
Campbell notes the absence of Ramesses I (in both text and image) from Nefertari’s tomb, but he offers no analysis.
27
Hornung acknowledges this pattern in Valley of the Kings, p. 187. The single exception to this rule is found in the twentieth Dynasty
tomb of Queen Isis (QV 51). Isis's son, Ramesses VI, completed his mother’s tomb and inscribed his cartouches on the jambs of the
doorway leading from the antechamber to the sarcophagus chamber.
28
See Christian Leblanc, Ta Set Neferou: Une nécropole de Thèbes-ouest et son histoire (Cairo, 1989), pl. 85, for a scene showing a royal
woman offering to Osiris in the Twentieth Dynasty tomb of Prince Pareherwenemef (QV 42).
29
Roth, “Absent Spouse,” 49. The examples Roth cites are the Twentieth Dynasty tombs of the sons of Ramesses III in the Valley of the
Queens. Her observation is still applicable to the period discussed here, because images and cartouches of Ramesses II are prominently
displayed in the decorative program of KV 5, the “family mausoleum” which served as the burial place for a number of this king's sons.
In many scenes, the king mediates between his sons and the gods just as Ramesses III does in the tombs of his sons. See Edwin C. Brock,
“Wall Decoration” in Kent Weeks, ed., KV 5: A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Sons of Rameses II in the Valley
of the Kings (Cairo, 2000), 55-94, especially figs. 45-49, 56, 60, 61a-c, 62, 69b.
30
Roth, “Absent Spouse,” 49.
31
For a discussion of the notion of gender-related compositional dominance and it canonical employment in Egyptian art set Gay
Robins, “Some Principles of Compositional Dominance and Gender Hierarchy in Egyptian Art” in JARCE 31 (1994), 33-40.
3
 The main thesis of this study is that Nefertari’s postmortem regeneration required her to attain a
temporary state of gender fluidity in which she becomes both male and female.32 The attainment of this state
necessitated the absence of Ramesses II from her tomb. Once the queen adopted a masculine aspect and
achieved a state of gender fluidity, she could then assimilate with both Osiris and the solar deity. This would
allow her to assume the chthonic fertility of Osiris and to be reborn via what is essentially a sexual mode of
regeneration (like the solar deity) – possibly interacting with her own feminine aspect in the process.

Furthermore, this article will demonstrate how the mechanism of the queen's rebirth and regeneration
– effected through her assumption of masculine regenerative potential and her assimilation with both Osiris
and the solar deity – is conveyed by the art in her tomb. An attempt will be made to show how Egyptian
notions of male and female fertility, hierarchical decorum, and the ideological role of royal women within the
conceptual framework of kingship33 propelled specific choices made in the design and content of the
decorative program, among which is the aforementioned omission of Ramesses II.

To this end, the decorative program of the Small Temple at Abu Simbel,34 where Nefertari and a local,
Nubian form of the goddess Hathor were the foci of cult, will be studied and used as a comparandum. The
decorative program of the Small Temple provides an instructive demonstration of the rules of hierarchical
decorum that govern depictions of the royal couple's dyadic relationship. The rationale for comparing this
temple with Nefertari's tomb is that both of these monuments have exceptionally well-preserved programs
and are dedicated to the same royal woman. They thus provide an unusually rich source of data about modes
of representation deemed appropriate for the portrayal of a queen in both temple/cultic and funerary/cultic
contexts. Moreover, the rules of subordination and super ordination employed in the representations of the
royal couple in the Small Temple help explain both the omission of Ramesses II from the tomb of Nefertari and
the larger process of the queen's regeneration.

Among the works cited in this discussion are Roth's two recent, thought-provoking articles, “The
Absent Spouse: Patterns and Taboos in Ancient Egyptian Tomb Decoration”, and “Father Earth, Mother Sky:
Ancient Egyptian Beliefs about Conception and Fertility”.35 The former deals with the previously mentioned
“absent spouse” pattern in tomb decoration, and the latter examines the Egyptian conception of fertility and
the role of ancient Egyptian women in death and rebirth. Lana Troy's book Patten of Queenship in Ancient
Egyptian Myth and History, is an important work demonstrating that ancient Egyptian queenship can be
envisioned as the feminine half of the androgynous totality of kingship. Another work cited here, Gay Robins’
1994 JARCE article, “Some Principles of Compositional Dominance and Gender Hierarchy in Egyptian Art,”
explores the relationship of gender to patterns of hierarchical decorum in two and three-dimensional art.

The first part of this article will describe the tomb of Nefertari and discuss its program, its functions,
and its cosmographic significance. The second section will examine the decorative program of the Small Temple
of Abu Simbel in order to demonstrate how the rules governing the representations of Ramesses I] and
Nefertari in this temple help explain the absence of the king from Nefertari’s tomb. The final section will
discuss how the art in QV 66 provides important clues to understanding the mechanism of the queen's
regeneration.

32
Roth first proposed the hypothesis that deceased women assumed a masculine postmortem identity in addition in their feminine
identity, developed an association with Osiris, and re-engendered themselves with the help of their own tomb images in “Father Earth,
Mother Sky" 199-200).
33
Troy, Patterns of Queenship. The ideological roles of royal women vis-a-vis kingship and within the overarching cosmological frame of
reference are two important concepts examined in this innovative and original study of royal women in ancient Egypt.
34
A comprehensive publication of the decorative program and architecture of this temple is provided by Christiane Desroches-
Noblecourt and Charles Kuentz, Le Petit Temple d’Abou Simbel, volumes 1,2 (Cairo, 1968).
35
Roth, “Father Earth, Mother Sky”, 187-201.
4
 The Tomb of Nefertari36

An examination of the cosmography of the architecture and decorative program of QV 66 illustrates

the tomb’s two primary purposes: 1) to enable the deceased queen to enter the netherworld and 2) to
revitalize her and thus allow her to emerge from the tomb and return to the world of the living on a daily
basis.37 These two functions, which are analogous to the two phases of the sun’s journey through the
netherworld and the daytime sky, are conveyed by the architecture and decoration of the tomb. Moreover, the
tomb consists of two distinct components.38 The first is an upper level that, in the cosmography of the tomb, is
conceptually equivalent to the Akhet and its immediate environs, a liminal zone that the deceased and the
solar deity traversed in order to enter and exit the netherworld.39 The second part is a lower-lying burial
chamber that is the cosmographic equivalent of the Duat (the netherworld realm of Osiris and the dead). A
descending corridor, acting as a conceptual and physical link between the two realms, connects both sections
of the tomb.

Located on the northern flank of the Y-shaped “Valley of the Queens” in western Thebes, the tomb of
Nefertari (figs. 1,2) lies on an approximate north-south axis with its entrance in the south. From the doorway, a
descending staircase leads to the square first room – Chamber C.40 On the eastern side of Chamber C, a
doorway leads to a complex comprised of two shallow recesses (D and E on this plan), a short passageway (F),
and a rectangular chamber (G). A doorway in the north (rear) wall of Chamber C, gives access to a steeply
downward-sloping corridor, which lies on a diagonal, east-leaning, axis,41 and descends to the burial chamber
(K). Four piers support the burial chamber, and a rectangular depression (oriented east-west) in the center of
the room intended for the placement of the queen’s [177]

sarcophagus lies between these piers. Three small annexes (M, O, and Q) open up from the lateral and rear
walls of the burial chamber.

Chamber C is the conceptual and temporal correlate of the Akhet in his phase of the deceased queen’s
journey – a cosmographically appropriate designation for a chamber that communicates with the entrance
doorway and the world of the living. The most powerful evidence supporting this interpretation is the
decoration on the soffit of the entrance doorway (fig. 3), which depicts the sun, flanked by Isis and Nephthys in
kite form, rising (or setting) in the midst of the mountains of the horizon as though it were emerging from (or
entering) the tomb. 42In addition to graphically depicting the process of the sun's (and by association, the dec

36
Published by Hans Goedicke and Gertrud Thausing in Nofretari: Documentation of Her Tomb and Its Decoration (Graz, 1971).
37
Christian Leblanc, “Architecture et Evolution Chronologique des Tombes de la Vallée des Reines” BIFAQ 89 (1989), 227-47, especially
pp. 245-47.
38
Heike C. Schmidt, “Die Transfiguration der Nefertari: Ein Leben in Glanz der Sonne”, in Heike C. Schmidt and J. Willeitner (eds.),
Nefertari: Gemahlin Ramses’II. (Mainz, 1994), 104-44; idem, “Szenarium der Transtiguration – Kulisse des Mythos: Das Grab der
Nefertari,” SAK 22 (1995), 237-70. Schmidt offers an interpretive discussion of Nefertari’s tomb that suggests the juxtaposition of solar
and chthonic modes of regeneration. She envisions the areas on the (relative) north-south axis that run in a relatively straight line from
Chamber C, through the corridor, and into the burial chamber, as a thematically chthonic area, whereas the east-west axis (referred to
as D-G in the present article) is more solar in its orientation. Her interpretation differs from mine, because I envision a greater
conceptual integration between the spaces rather than drawing a sharp distinction between the “solar complex” of the east-west axis
and the more chthonic, “Osirian” axis of the north-south spaces. In addition, I envision Chamber C as an area that evokes the Akhet, and
she does not; Goedicke notes only that there is a thematic distinction between the more “earth-connected” upper chambers and the
“strictly sepulchral sphere” of the sarcophagus chamber (with the descending corridor acting as the midpoint) in, Nofretari, 36.
39
For Allen's definition of the Akhet see, Reading a Pyramid, 26.
40
All letter designations used in this article to distinguish spatial units in QV 66 follow those employed in John K. McDonald, House of
Eternity: The Tomb of Nefertari (Los Angeles 1996).
41
Hornung believes that the slightly bent axis of QV 66's corridor is a “diminished” version of the bent-axis royal tomb plan revived by
Ramesses II for his own tomb. See Valley of the Kings, 187.
42
The notion that this tableau represents both the rising and setting of the sun a d outward movement of the deceased is supported by
Leblanc, “Architecture et Evolution,” 245 and 246, fig. 7; Goedicke interprets this scene as a depiction of the setting sun in Nofretari, 38,
as does McDonald in House of Eternity, 57.
5
d's) emergence from the netherworld, it literally spells out the word “Akhet.” Moreover, the position of this
scene on the tomb’s entrance doorway identifies Chamber C as the area hidden (from humans) behind the
“mountain” or physical horizon, the hidden space that is the Akhet.

Furthermore, the west wall of Chamber C is decorated with the text of Book of the Dead chapter 17
and accompanying vignettes, which depict Nefertari undergoing transformations that will allow her to emerge
from her tomb “as a living soul”43 and thus re-enter the terrestrial zone outside of the tomb.44 A representation
of Nefertari as a human-headed ba-bird (fig. 4) perched atop the tomb (one of the transformations described in
the text) graphically highlights this notion. The ba-spirit, as described in New Kingdom funerary texts, is the
mobile aspect of the deceased that can leave the tomb during the day and mingle with the living or travel with
the solar deity.45 This tableau places the action within the Akhet (and its placement on this wall further
reinforces the equation of Chamber C with the Akhet), It graphically highlights the idea that Nefertari is
experiencing the mysteries of regeneration within the Akhet behind the mountains of the horizon as the sun
god doe.

The east wall of Chamber C is decorated with representations of Osiris-Wennenefer and Anubis
standing in shrines and facing south, toward the tomb entrance, where Nefertari, standing adjacent to the
doorway, offers to Osiris and the four sons of Horus.46 The form of Osiris shown is that of the revived and
resurrected god who embodies the regenerative potential that Nefertari will assume.

The complex (Recesses D, E, Corridor F, and Chamber G) that opens up from the east wall of Chamber C
(fig. 5) has a decorative program that relates thematically to the intersection of the solar and Osirian modes of
regeneration and stresses Nefertari’s interaction with these two modes. Moreover, the program of this
complex suggests that this series of spaces is the cosmographic correlate of a zone in the netherworld that lies
somewhere between the Akhet and the Duat. Its placement in the upper level of the tomb spatially links it to
the Akfet-evoking area of Chamber C. Like the topography of the netherworld, the architecture of the tomb
and, by association, the route taken by the deceased (in both directions) is not a straight line.47 In essence, the
eastern complex can be envisioned as the cosmographic representation of a transitional area between the two
realms, but one that seems more closely linked to the Akhet than to the depths of the Duat. The scenes and
inscriptions of the eastern complex also suggest a movement toward the Duat and away from the Akhet as one
moves further into the complex from Chamber C.

The program of Recess D, for example, reinforces the cosmographic equivalence of the upper level of
the tomb with the Akhet – the place where Nefertari will emerge like the sun from the Duat. It depicts Selket
on the north wall and Neith on the south wall, flanking the passage from Chamber C to the eastern complex.
The associated texts indicate that each goddess welcomes Nefertari and have accorded her a place in the
sacred land so that she may appear each day like Re – a reference to the solar mode of regeneration and to
Nefertari’s emergence from the Akhet.

The program of Recess E (directly behind – and to the east –of D) highlights the interpenetration of the
solar and Osirian modes of regeneration. This is accomplished by depicting Isis (on the north wall) and Horus,

43
See the translation of Chapter 17 (especially the beginning, which is particularly relevant to the physical transformation of Nefertari)
in R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (London, 1989), 44.
44
Leblanc endorses the notion that the upper chamber is an of entry, transfiguration, and re-emergence in “Architecture et Evolution,”
244 and 246, fig. 7. Another point of view is held by Goedicke, who envisions the decorative program in the first chamber as a on-way
entry of the deceased into the realm of Osiris. Goedicke discusses the “inaugural” character of the outer chamber in Nofretari, 35, but
does not address the notion of the “re-emergence” or exit of the transformed deceased.
45
See John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (Chicago and London, 2001), 20-23.
46
Schmidt believes that this vignette is the illustration of Book of the Dead chapter 173 in “Das Grab der Nefertari, 241-42.
47
For a discussion of the nonlinear topography of the netherworld and its expression in Old Kingdom Pyramid architecture, see Allen,
“Reading a Pyramid,” 24-28; idem, "The Cosmology of the Pyramid Texts,” in Yale Egyptological Studies 3 (New Haven, 1989), 1-28,
especially his discussion of the location of the Field of Reeds, Field of Offerings, and the Akhet on pp. 6, 17-18.
6
Son-of-Isis (on the south wall), representatives of the Osirian mythos, leading Nefertari into the presence of
Khepri and Re-Horakhty (the latter seated with Hathor of Thebes), two aspects of the solar deity who rise in the
east and emerge from the netherworld. The pilasters of Recess E (flanking the doorway) are decorated with
representations of Osiris as a djed-pillar – further suggesting the interconnection between Osiris and the sun
god.

The lateral walls of Corridor F (the narrow passage between Recess E and Chamber G) are each
decorated with standing, west-facing figures of Ma‘at, who welcomes Nefertari and assures her a place within
Iu-geret.48 This recess can be equated with the judgment of the deceased in chapter 125 of the Book of the
Dead;49 an analogy that suggests this corridor represents a further point in the journey between the Akhet and
the Duat.50

Indeed, there appears to be a conceptual transition between spaces (E and G) where the synthesis of
the solar and Osirian modes is expressed in increasingly unequivocal terms, as Chamber G explicitly depicts the
intertwining of the solar and Osirian modes of regeneration that Nefertari would hope to undergo in her
personal postmortem transformation. The program of Chamber G also includes scenes and texts from the Book
of the Dead that have a direct bearing on Nefertari’s physical journey through the afterlife. The west wall of
Chamber G (on the south side of the door) is perhaps the most telling example of the intensification of the
program's message. The vignette here depicts the syncretistic, mummiform figure of Re-Osiris flanked by Isis
and Nephthys (fig. 6) – an illustration of chapter 180 from the Book of the Dead51 in which the interaction of Re
and Osiris “recharges” the process of regeneration and empowers the deceased to move both into and out of
the realm of the dead.52

Versions of the Re-Osiris scene are included in the tombs of two other Ramesside queens: Nebettawy
(QV 60), a daughter of Ramesses II, and Duatentipet (QV 74).53 In both of these tombs, this scene appears in a
space that architecturally corresponds to QV 66's Chamber G (i.e., in an eastern lateral chamber that opens up
from the east wall of each tomb’s antechamber, but in each case without QV 66's associated recesses).

The scenes on the south wall of the chamber illustrate chapter 148, a spell that provides both
nourishment for the deceased and the magical steering oars that will guide her on her journey and protect her
from enemies. The north wall depicts chapter 94, in which the deceased requests writing equipment from
Thoth that will endow her with the scribal proficiency she needs to successfully complete her journey. The
adjacent scene on the north half of the west wall (on the north side of the door) depicts the queen offering
bolts linen to Ptah while he, in turn, provides her with protection, life, and stability.

The rear (east) wall shows two back-to-back scenes of the deceased offering to Osiris-Wennenefer, the
resurrected Osiris, and to Atum, the solar/creator deity of Heliopolis (fig. 7). The pairing of the gods, like the
representation of Re-Osiris on the west wall, is a graphic visual statement of the coexistence and interaction of

48
Goedicke and Thausing. Nofretari, 42-43.
49
McDonald, House of Eternity, 75; Schmidt, “Das Grab der Nefertari” 245; see Leblanc, Te Set Neferou, pl. 147 (B) for a representation
of the “negative confessions” portion of chapter 125 in the antechamber of the tomb (QV 60) of Nebettawy, Ramesses II’s daughter by
Netertari or Isisnofret.
50
Leblanc envisions the eastern complex as the place where the “triumph of the deceased” occurs during the journey from the Duat to
the Akhet (although not the other way around) in “Architecture et Evolution Chronologique des Tombes de la Vallée des Reines.” 246,
fig. 7 and 247. While this supports the notion that the recess is a zone of transition, | would suggest that the eastern complex might
have been significant for the deceased's inward and outward movement through the tomb.
51
Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, 140.
52
Faulkner, Book of the Dead, 177.
53
In Nebettawy’s tomb (QV60) this scene is located on the north half of the west wall of the cast lateral chamber, and the scene is on
the east wall of the east lateral chamber of Duatentipet’s tomb (QV 74). Leblanc, Ta Set Neferou, pls. 149 (A), 195 (B); Bertha Porter and
Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Painting: 1. The Theban Necropolis,
Part 2. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries (Oxford, 1964), 761 (10), 768 (6).
7
the two complementary modes of regeneration. Furthermore, in the associated texts, Osiris and Atum explicitly
endow Nefertari with the ability to access both regenerative modes.54

The descending corridor not only serves as a point of departure that separates the mostly Akhet-
evoking upper chambers from the explicitly Duat-evoking burial chamber but also serves as a transitional zone
in which one realm abuts and then dissolves into the next.55 While the upper half of the corridor is decorated
with scenes that are not explicitly funerary (and at times even evoke the terrestrial realm), the lower half of the
corridor evokes the Duat through the funerary content of its texts and decoration and through the spatial
arrangement of its architecture. The lower half of the corridor, unlike the upper half, lies beneath the floor
level of the upper chambers. The “underground” location of the lower half of the corridor thus intensifies the
decorative program’s equation of the lower half of the corridor with the Duat.56

The thicknesses of the upper doorway are decorated with the queen’s cartouches and symbols of
Upper and Lower Egypt57 – direct evocations of the terrestrial (i.e., Egyptian) realm. The side walls of the upper
part of the corridor are decorated with two pendant offering scenes in which Nefertari consecrates nemset-
jars, produce, and bread to two enthroned goddesses – Hathor and Selket on the east and Isis and Nephthys on
the west (a figure of Ma’at kneels behind the second goddess in each group). Two recesses that separate the
upper and lower zones of the corridor are decorated with anthropomorphized Djed-pillars that appear to
support the ceiling.

Both lateral walls of the lower section of the corridor are decorated with scenes that more directly
evoke the netherworld than do the scenes on the upper part. On each side, the Anubis-jackal sits on a shrine,
with a winged cobra protecting the cartouche of Nefertari above, while Isis (on the west side) and Nephthys
(on the east side) kneel on a hieroglyphic sign for gold, and hold a shen sign.58 The associated inscriptions,
though not chapters from the Book of the Dead, relate to the queen's afterlife existence. They express the wish
that Nefertari have a place in the “sacred land” [tA Dsr], appear in heaven like Re, and rest on the throne of
Osiris59 – once again reflecting the interpenetration of Osirian and solar modes of regeneration.

Even the queen's epithets, inscribed on the two doorways of the corridor, suggest Nefertari’s physical
movement to (and from) the netherworld and her transformation through this transitional zone in a way that
echoes the message provided (pictorially) by scenes in the corridor and (architecturally) by the corridor’s steep
slope. The jambs of the doorway at the top of the corridor (fig. 8) the queen’s tides and give primacy of place to
those that relate to her earthly roles, In fact, the tide “rt-pat” (conventionally translated “hereditary
noblewoman”) is listed first, at the top of each vertical column of text."60 The jambs at the bottom of the
corridor leading to the burial chamber (fig. 9), however, record her tile “Osiris” first, and the “rt-pat” title does
not appear at all61.

The decorative program of the burial chamber (fig. 10) defines this space as the architectural correlate
of the netherworld. The west half of the chamber is decorated with images and texts that illustrate Book of the
Dead chapter 144, in which the deceased (shown on the south wall of the burial chamber, to the west of the
doorway) addresses five gates of the underworld (here condensed from the seven gates described in the
chapter).62 A group of three supernatural beings – a doorkeeper, a guardian, and an announcer – guards each

54
Goedicke, Nofretari, pl. 39.
55
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 45. Goedicke envisions the corridors program as showing “two aspects and stages in
the funerary development.”
56
Goedicke, Nofretari, 36; McDonald, Tomb of Nefertari, 87.
57
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 45, pls. 42-45.
58
Schmidt equates the vignettes (but not the text) with Book of the Dead 151 in, “Das Grab der Nefertari,"247; idem, “Die
Transfiguration der Nefertari,” 121, Abb. 169 and 122.
59
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 45-48.
60
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofietari, pl. 23.
61
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls. 8, 68.
62
Goedicke and Thausing Nofretari, 49-50.
8
gate (the fifth gate tableau at the northwest corner is abbreviated and has only one associated figure, the
doorkeeper). In addition, a canopic niche is carved into the (approximate) middle of the west wall and is
decorated with figures of the winged Nut and mummiform funerary deities. All of the figures and hieroglyphs in
the niche are painted to resemble gold.63

The east half of the sarcophagus chamber is decorated with images and texts that illustrate Chapter
146 from the Book of the Dead in which the deceased recites spells for entering the House of Osiris in the Field
of Reeds64 (on the south and east walls). On the cast half of the north (rear) wall, Nefertari offers to three
funerary deities – Osiris, Hathor of the West, and Anubis.

The rear and lateral chambers also evoke the Netherworld – with references to sacred places in real
geographical locations.65 The western lateral chamber (M) depicts a mummiform Nefertari (fig. 11), the tomb
of Osiris at Abydos, and funerary deities.66 One of the gods gives Nefertari “the kingship of Atum.67 The eastern
lateral chamber68 (O) is decorated with a large figure of Ma‘at (on the cast wall), Nefertari adoring the Hathor
cow as she emerges from the west69 (north wall), and the queen adoring Isis and Anubis (south wall).70 A figure
of Ma‘at states that Nefertari has a place in the temple of Amun at Karnak.71 The decoration of the rear
chamber (Q) is fragmentary and consists of a figure of Isis, a goddess protecting Nefertari’s cartouche, and a
figure of Selket.72

C. Leblanc identifies the burial chamber as the room in which the deceased Nefertari would lie inert like
Osiris in the Duat before her rebirth and re-emergence.73 One might take this notion a step further and suggest
that the central area of the burial chamber – the depression in which the sarcophagus was placed – can be
envisioned as the very heart of the netherworld, where Osiris (and, by association, Nefertari in her
sarcophagus) is revitalized.74 The identification of the deceased queen with Osiris is suggested by the
decoration of the faces of the four piers surrounding the sarcophagus depression with djed-pillars,75 a
protective Osirian symbol. The presence of the queen's cartouches and titles along the top and sides of each
djed-pillar suggest that these djed-pillars are iconic, Osirian representations of Nefertari herself.76 The equation

63
See Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls. 88, 89; Cathleen Keller discusses the golden figures in this niche as an example of the
transfer of the so-called “monochrome” tomb style from private tombs to royal tombs in. “Royal Painters: Deir El-Medina in Dynasty
XIX,” in Edward Bleiberg and Rita Freed (eds.), Fragments of a Shattered Visage: Proceedings of the International Symposium on
Ramesses the Great (Memphis, 1991), 50-86, especially pp. 62-63; as illustrated in Leblanc, Ta Set Neferou, pl. 72, a painting of Nut
similar to that found in Nefertari's canopic niche is on the sarcophagus chamber ceiling of the tomb (QV 38) of Sat-Re, the wife of
Ramesses I and mother of Seti I; for examples of paintings of “golden” statues of gods in the tomb of Sety II, see Hornung, Valley of the
Kings, 180-81, pls. 133-38; and for the definition of the “monochrome” tomb painting style see Bernard Bruyére, Tombes thebaines de
Deir el-Médineh a decoration monochrome (Cairo. 1952), 7 ff.
64
Faulkner, Book of the Dead, 133-37.
65
Schmidt envisions the lateral chambers as evocations of “mythical” locations, the west Lateral chamber represents the tomb of Osiris
in Abydos, in “Das Grab der Nefertari”, 254-56.
66
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 53-54.
67
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 53.
68
Schmidt identifies this lateral chamber as the “mythic” Chemmis in, “Der Grab das Nefertari,” 256-59. The Theban references in this
chamber, however, make this identification seem less definite.
69
Hornung interprets this as an adaptation of the Book of the Celestial Cow for a queen's tomb, in Valley of the Kings, 186.
70
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 54.
71
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 54. This may refer to a statue of the queen in Karnak temple.
72
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 55; Schmidt envisions this room as a conceptual extension of the “house of gold” (i.e., the
sarcophagus chamber in, “Die Transfiguration der Nefertari,” 131-32.
73
See Leblanc, “Architecture et Evolution Chronologique des Tombes de la Vallée des Reines,” 254 and 246, fig. 7; Allen, “Reading a
Pyramid,” 25.
74
Hornung, Valley of the Kings, 116; Allen, “Reading a Pyramid” 24-25.
75
Hornung, Valley of the Kings, 187. Hornung interprets the djed pillar images adoring columns in the burial chamber of Ramesses II's
tomb as iconic representations of the deceased assimilated with Osiris, and he believes chat djed-pillars decorating the piers in
Nefertari’s burial chamber serve the queen in the same way. See also idem, “Zum Dekorationsprogramm des Nefertari-Grabes,” in L.
Brancoli, et al. (eds), L'Imperio Ramesside, Convegno Internazionale in Onore di Sergio Donadont (Rome, 1997), 87-93, especially p. 93.
76
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 54, pl. 120. Goedicke identifies a similarly labeled djed-pillar in the east lateral annex of the
sarcophagus chamber as an image of Nefertari in the form of a djed-pillar. Compare pl. 120 with pls. 96, 100, 102, 106.
9
of Nefertari and Osiris is further strengthened by the decoration of the inner sides of the piers along the central
(i.e., north-south) axis with images of Osiris-Wennenefer standing and facing outward (toward the tomb
entrance).

The Small Temple

The decorative program of the Small Temple of Abu Simbel exhibits significant differences from that of
the tomb – differences that highlight why the decorative program of Nefertari’s tomb has the form that it does.
An examination of the Small Temple of Abu Simbel reveals two concepts – embedded in the rules of decorum
governing the portrayal of the royal couple – that help explain the necessity of omitting the king from the
decorative program of the tomb. These rules are: (1) the ideology of kingship clearly defines an unambiguously
feminine role for Nefertari when she is paired with the king; and (2) the rules of social hierarchy consistently
place the queen in a subordinate position in relationship to the king.

In her book on queenship, Troy discusses and defines the role of royal women within the ideological
framework of kingship. Troy argues that kingship can be envisioned as a male-female composite on earth that
corresponds to the androgynous form of the creator in the divine realm.77 Further, she demonstrates that
kingship necessarily provides the conceptual frame of reference for queenship, and queenship is thus the
feminine half of the androgynous totality of kingship.78

Troy’s notion can be applied to the interpretation of the Small Temple's program. Here, Nefertari is
shown as an unambiguously feminine counterpart to the king – one whose place on the hierarchical scale is
lower than that of the king – but who is, nevertheless, envisioned as his ideologically crucial feminine
complement. The separate coronation scenes79 for Ramesses II and Nefertari attest to the complementary
relationship of the masculine and feminine elements of kingship.

An analysis of the Small Temple's decorative program reveals that, in total, there are fifty-one pictorial
scenes from the entrance corridor to the sanctuary. In all of these scenes, rigid rules of super ordination and
subordination govern the relationship of the king and queen. To wit, whenever the king is shown in a scene
with Nefertari, the king is always depicted in front of the queen (fig. 12). This rule also applies to the
arrangement of the names and epithets of Ramesses II and Nefertari. When the king’s cartouche appears along
with that of Nefertari, his name appears in the dominant first (or uppermost) position.80 An example of this
comes from the lintel of one of the doorways leading from the columned hall into the vestibule (fig. 13). Here,
the horizontal register inscribed with the cartouche of Ramesses II is placed above that containing the
cartouche of Nefertari.81

There are, however, parts of the temple that are reserved for Nefertari alone. In these instances, the
issues of super ordination and subordination do not come into play.82 For example, some of the temple
doorway lintels omit the king's name and are inscribed with only Nefertari's cartouche (fig. 14)83 – just as some
of the scenes depict Nefertari without her husband – but these are the only occasions in which Nefertari’s
name is not in subordinate position.

In some cases, the pattern of compositional dominance in this temple's program dictates that the king's
cartouches are not only in a superior position to those of Nefertari, but also outnumber them. This occurs on
the architraves and soffits of the ceiling of the columned hall, in which the king's cartouches outnumber the

77
Troy, Patterns of Queenship, 2ff.
78
Troy, Patterns of Queenship, 2ff.
79
Horus and Seth crown the king on the south wall of the first chamber. See Desroches-Noblecourt and Kuentz, Le Petit Temple, vol. 2.
pls. 41-42. Isis and Hathor crown Nefertari on the south half of the east wall of the vestibule in pls. 98-99 and color plate C.
80
See Robins, “Compositional Dominance.” 33, 36-37 for her discussion of the superior first position of the male in two-dimensional art
– her “second rate” of compositional hierarchy.
81
Desroches-Noblecourt and Kuentz, Le Petit Temple, vol. 2, pls 93-96.
82
Robins, “Compositional Dominance”, 36-38.
83
See Desroches-Noblecourt aid Kuentz, Le Petit Temple, vol. 2, pls. 115-118.
10
queen's by a 3 to 1 ratio.84 The arrangement of colossal statues on the facade (fig. 15) is a three-dimensional
correlate of this pattern. Although the king and queen are of equal size, there are twice as many figures of the
king, i.e., a 2 to 1 ratio.

Funerary Context: Rebirth and Regeneration

In sharp contrast to her role in the Small Temple, Nefertari is represented in her tomb as a being with a
capacity for masculine regenerative potential. A woman's postmortem assumption of masculine sexual
potential would have been deemed important for two key reasons: (1) The assimilation of the deceased with
both Osiris and the solar deity was necessary for regeneration, and the ability to adopt a masculine identity
may have been considered conducive to this process. (2) As Roth points out, the Egyptians appear to have
believed that men, not women, were responsible for creating new life.85 She convincingly argues that, in the
Egyptian understanding of the process of conception, the role of women was to stimulate male sexual arousal
and then to receive the child (already fully formed in the semen) into her body.86

In the tomb of Nefertari, the queen’s identification with Osiris, her association with the solar deity, and
her gender fluidity are expressed directly and explicitly in the texts. Throughout the tomb, the inscriptions
emphasize the queen’s Osirian aspect by employing special epithets and phrases such as “Osiris Nefertari,87 or
“Justified with Osiris.”88 The equation of Nefertari with Re is made through the speech of various gods and
goddesses, who give Nefertari, “the appearance of Re."89 They also express the wish that she “appear in the sky
like Re”90 and enjoy “all protection, all guarding, like Re.” In the transitional corridor, Anubis states the wish
that Nefertari “appear in heaven like Re,”91 and that “Iu-geret be illuminated”92 with her rays.

The grammatical gender of Nefertari’s tides and pronouns suggest her fluid sexual state. When, for
example, she is called “true-of-voice,” this epithet is always rendered with masculine grammatical gender (mAa
xrw) instead of feminine grammatical gender (i.e., mAat xrw). This stands in contrast to the consistent
employment of the feminine grammatical gender in the titles that Nefertari assumed in life such as “Hmt nswt
wrt,” “rt pat” and “nbt tAwy.“93 Furthermore, Book of the Dead chapter 17, which deals unequivocally with the
notion that Nefertari is deceased and undergoing transformation, refers to the queen with masculine
pronouns.”94 In other inscriptions, when gods and goddesses address Nefertari directly, they use feminine,
second-person singular pronouns or omit the pronoun altogether.95 Thus, she is a male “Osiris” in death, while
the titles and epithets that she held in life reflect the female aspect of her identity.

84
Desroches-Noblecourt and Kuentz, Le Petit Temple, vol. 2, pls. 59-64.
85
Roth, “Father Earth, Mother Sky,” 189 ff.
86
Roth, “Father Earth, Mother Sky, 189.
87
For examples of the former, see Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls, 53, 59.
88
This term tends to follow the cartouche, in contrast to the appellation “Osiris” which directly precedes the queen's name or titles. The
term “justified with Osiris” (mAa xrw xr wsir) can occur without the “appellation” Osiris preceding Nefertari’s name or titles. For
examples, see Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls. 28, 30, 32, 34, 37, 69, 72. It can also occur in a sentence in which “Osiris” precedes
the queen’s name and titles (e.g., wsir Hmt nswt wrt tAwy nfrt iry mAa xrw hr wsir). See pls. 35, 36, 38, 41.
89
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 52.
90
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 41-42, 44, 46-48.
91
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 47.
92
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 47.
93
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls. 19-23, 27-28, 30, 32,34, 35-39, 41, 46, 48, 50, 52-69, 72-76, 78, 80, 85, 94-96, 98, 100-104, 106,
108-9, 112-16, 119-21, 123.
94
Goedicke notes that the assimilation with Osiris is responsible for the male grammatical gender. See Goedicke, Nofretari, 39, n. 50, A
less plausible explanation is offered by McDonald, who views the use of masculine pronouns referring to the queen as the result of a
circumstance in which “the copyist lost his concentration from time to time..."; see McDonald, House of Eternity, 59, n. 2.
95
See example of the use of feminine second-person singular pronoun (gods and goddesses speaking to Nefertari and bestowing
blessings upon her) see Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, pls. 53, 57, 59. For examples of the consistent omission of pronouns, see pls.
31, 39.
11
 The pictorial representations of the queen further reinforce the notion of her gender fluidity.
Throughout the tomb, the canonical Egyptian color encodement for male and female figures is employed. Every
male deity is shown with deep orange-brown or red-brown skin (with the exception of the golden canopic
niche deities and the chthonic deities Osiris and Ptah, who are depicted with green skin). Every goddess,
whether fully anthropomorphic or animal-headed, is depicted with yellow skin significantly lighter than that of
the male deities. Nefertari’s skin tone, however, ranges from a creamy pink-brown (with painterly flourishes
such as shading on cheeks and nose) to a deep (and monochromatic) orange-brown or red-brown color, the
same shades employed for male deities (fig. 16). Except for one scene, she is never represented with the yellow
skin color used for the figures of goddesses. In all other tomb scenes, Nefertari's skin color is usually
significantly darker – and always different – from that of the female deities.

The one exception to this rule (fig. 17) occurs near the south corner of the west wall of the burial
chamber, where the queen is shown in the role of the “announcer”96 of the first gate in chapter 144 of the
Book of the Dead. In this vignette, she is shown with yellow skin. This particular representation of Nefertari is
made visually distinct from all of her other depictions by costume as well as skin color. Nefertari as the
“announcer” wears a tight sheath dress – the “archaic” female costume worn by every goddess – instead of the
loose-fitting white gown worn by women of the period, which she wears elsewhere in the tomb.

This aspect of the queen, along with the doorkeeper and guardian, confronts a typical darker-skinned
representation of herself on the south wall of the burial chamber. The “announcer” Nefertari serves as a
graphic guarantee of the efficacy of the process of the queen's rebirth and regeneration, because she has
successfully completed her transformation (the period of gender fluidity being a temporary phase in the
cyclical regenerative process)—and having done so has regained her unambiguously feminine aspect. In other
words, the divine, yellow-skinned Nefertari is the ideal form that the queen will become at the conclusion of
the process.97

The evidence that artisans were not completely restricted from using yellow to represent Nefertari in
the tomb suggests that there was a special reason to refrain from employing yellow in all of the other
representations. Thus, the anomalous yellow-skinned representation of the queen appears to be an exception
that clearly underscores the intentionality of the “masculine” color encodement in the many orange-brown and
red-brown representations of Nefertari.98 The yellow-skinned Nefertari also provides a clear contrast with the
more ambiguous representations with pink-brown skin (which might be envisioned as a “gender-fluid” color
because they employ neither the “masculine” color encodement nor the specifically “feminine” yellow, either).
Until the Twentieth Dynasty, when Tyti (QV 52) and Isis (QV 51) were depicted throughout their tombs with
pink-brown skin (without shading), Nefertari was the only queen known to be represented with this ambiguous
skin color. All other surviving paintings from Nineteenth Dynasty queens’ tombs show the royal women with
the orange-brown or red-brown “masculine” skin color that contrasts with images of yellow-skinned goddesses
in those same tombs.99

96
Goedicke and Thausing, Nofretari, 49. Goedicke does not recognize the “announcer Nefertari. He describes the “announcer” figure of
the first gate as a “woman without any special features.” For the opinion that this image represents Nefertari – and is the tomb’s only
yellow-skinned representation of the queen, see Hornung, Valley of the Kings, 195, pl. 151.
97
A comparable use of visual art to ensure a desired result is discussed by Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt (Cambridge, 1997), 190.
Robins suggests that a group of Deir el-Medina ostraca, decorated with images of women nursing their babies, show the dangerous
process of childbirth as a successful fait accompli and were thus used to produce the desired outcome.
98
Although the tomb clearly employs traditional, canonical, gendered color encodement, at Abu Simbel the Small Temple's program
represents all of the figures – gods and goddesses and the king and queen—with bright golden skin regardless of gen der. The golden
color is comparable to that used for the figures and hieroglyphs in the canopic niche of QV 66. As in the canopic niche, the intent seems
to be to represent figures that have golden flesh.
99
A scene from the tomb of Merytamun (QV 68), a daughter of Nefertari and Ramesses II, employs the same color encodement
scheme. A scene on the north half of the west wall of Merytamun’s antechamber shows the queen standing between Isis and Horus,
Son-of-lsis. While Isis is depicted with light yellow skin, both Merytamun and Horus have dark orange-brown skin, See Leblanc, Ta Set
Neferou, pl. 175. Other examples are from the sarcophagus chamber of the tomb (QV 73) of Henuttawy, pl. 188, and the Antechamber
of the tomb (QV 40) of an anonymous queen, pls. 74, 75 (A); see Christian Leblanc and Alberto Siliotti, Nefertari e la Valle delle Regina
12
 The variation in Nefertari’s skin-color further supports the notion that, while death transforms the
queen into the male Osiris and solar god, she also preserves the feminine identity that defined her living aspect
– a state that perhaps finds a conceptual correlate in the ithyphallic form of the goddess Mut-Pakhet (fig. 18)
that illustrates Book of the Dead chapter 164.100 Another, very graphic, demonstration of female gender fluidity
in funerary art comes from the tomb (QV 52) of Tyti, a Twentieth Dynasty royal woman, who is shown in one
scene wearing the typical dress and regalia of a Ramesside queen, but is shown as the male Tyti/lunmutef101
(fig. 19) in an adjacent scene.

Roth suggests that the images of a female tomb owner retain an aspect of visible feminine identity in
order to stimulate her male fertility and help her self-regeneration.102 It is possible then, to apply this idea to
Nefertari’s tomb, and to envision her own feminine form stimulating her male aspect and re-conceiving herself.
I would, however, like to suggest another possibility – namely that she (in her deceased, male, Osirian/solar
aspect) can be envisioned as being stimulated and regenerated through interaction with the goddesses
represented on the walls of her tomb (of whom Isis and Hathor, the consorts of Osiris and Re, respectively, are
those most frequently depicted).

Conclusion

Ramesses II’s conspicuous absence from the tomb of Nefertari appears to be an intentional and
important part of the process of Nefertari’s regeneration. This absence can be understood when one considers
three key issues: the king’s relationship to both Osiris and Re; hierarchical decorum and the ideology of
queenship; and the necessity of the queen’s assumption of masculine regenerative capacity (and her
identification with Osiris and Re) in order to be reborn after death.

Osiris, in his role as the deceased king of the netherworld, provides a model for the static and
unchanging aspect of every Egyptian king in death – just as the solar deity serves as a parallel paradigmatic
model for the cyclical renewal of the living and the deceased king. Both paradigms are “built in” to the ideology
of masculine kingship. For this reason, the association of Ramesses II with Osiris and the solar deity is more
appropriate than that of a royal woman with Osiris. Tomb inscriptions that frame Nefertari’s power in terms of
kingship (i.e., allowing Nefertari to sit on the throne of Osiris and endowing her with the rulership of Atum)
bear this notion out by suggesting that Nefertari’s role in the funerary context must be equated with that of
masculine rulership in order to facilitate her afterlife existence.103

Nefertari is equated frequently and directly with both Re and Osiris in QV 66's texts; and her sexual
fluidity is strongly suggested by the employment of masculine grammatical gender in the inscriptions and by
canonical masculine color encodement in the pictorial images. If, however, the king were depicted in the tomb,
he, as the male ruler (and as a higher-ranking royal than the queen), would be a more appropriate “Osiris” and
“Re” for three important reasons:

(Florence, 1993), 65-67 for vivid color photos of the decorative program of the anonymous queen in QV 40, which shows that the queen
appears to have dark-orange brown skin throughout the tomb, while goddesses are clearly shown with light yellow skin.
100
Faulkner, Book of the Dead, 160, 163. This chapter prescribes the use of an ithyphallic, three-headed figure of Mut-Pakhet while
reciting wishes for the well being of the deceased in the afterlife. The chapter, however, is dedicated to ritual performance and does not
explain the significance of the goddess’s phallic form.
101
Leblanc, Ta Set Neferou, pl. 122; PM I, part 2, 758 (20)-(21).
102
Roth, “Father Earth, Mother Sky, 199.
103
Hornung suggests that Nefertari’s tomb directly borrows imagery from king's tombs, and these features set it apart from the tombs
of officials and princes in Valley of the Kings, 186-87 and idem, “Zuin Dekorationsprogramm des Nefertari-Grabes,” 88-93.
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 1) The king, as the masculine aspect of kingship, has a considerably closer ideological relationship with
both Osiris and Re than does the queen, who, as the feminine half of kingship, is associated with the
goddess Hathor.104

2) The king's relationship to the queen within the context of kingship “fixes” Nefertari's unambiguously
female role, and if she is conceptually “locked in” to a feminine role, she cannot attain the fluidity of
gender identity that would assist her association with Osiris and Re or her assumption of the masculine
regenerative potential that would allow her to experience rebirth

and renewal.

3) In a related way, the fact that the king was of a higher status also has an impact upon Nefertari’s
ability to regenerate. The king's presence would force her, as a royal woman, into the specific
subordinate position that reinforces her ideological role as the king’s complementary (and female)
opposite – a role that impedes her ability to assume both “kingly” status and gender fluidity. As the
decorative program of the Small Temple illustrates, Nefertari is shown in a position of compositional
(and conceptual) super ordination only when the name or image of Ramesses II is omitted.

As mentioned previously, New Kingdom pharaohs are depicted in the tombs of their (lower status)
sons, while Ramesses was omitted from Nefertari’s tomb – just as all royal males were omitted from every
archaeologically-known tomb of a Ramesside queen. This can be explained by the ideological construct of
kingship itself. To wit, royal women (including mother, consort, and daughter) can be envisioned as the
multigenerational feminine half of kingship, while the royal sons can be envisioned as part of the masculine half
of kingship. Thus, the king's presence in his son's tomb does not compromise the son’s masculine regenerative
capacity or his ability to become an Osiris, because the prince can be envisioned as one facet of the
multigenerational masculine model of kingship105 (as exemplified by the mythic paradigm of Osiris and Horus or
Amun and Khonsu). The queen, contrast, is drawn in complementary opposition to the king.

Thus the mechanism of regeneration that allows Nefertari to exist after death is contingent upon the
queen's gender fluidity, her ability to assume both masculine regenerative capacity and Osirian/solar
identification, and a conceptual (perhaps “kingly”) primacy of place – all of which would be impossible if the
king were present. Furthermore, the expression of these ideas in the pictorial art of the tomb is directly related
to the tomb’s function as a vehicle for the queen's regeneration. Just as the conceptual balance of
representations of the king and queen in the Small Temple's program are appropriate (and perhaps necessary)
for the cultic function of the temple, so the manner in which the queen is represented in her tomb—without
her husband and with a fluid sexual identity – is, at its core, an assurance of the proper function of the tomb
and the guarantee of Nefertari’s afterlife existence.

104
For the association of royal women with Hathor, and Hathor’s role as the divine manifestation of the feminine prototype that royal
women embody see Troy, Patterns of Queenship, 3, 53-72.
105
For a discussion of the “father-son” opposition as an application of the dualistic masculine generational structure see Troy, Patterns
of Queenship, 27-28. Troy cites the juxtaposition of Atum and Re-Horakhty as gods with well defined spheres of reference in which
Atum is associated with creation and Re-Horakhty is associated with rebirth.
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