Sennedjem in Sekhet Aaru, The Field of Reeds

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Reproduction Details

Object Type: Wall painting

Date: c. 1250 BC

Period: Reign of Ramesses II, Dynasty 19, New Kingdom

Findspot: Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1), Deir el-Medina

Print Reference: DP114

Purchase Print

This reproduction showcases a wall painting from the Tomb of Sennedjem depicting Spell 110 of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. It describes the afterlife that awaits the deceased once they pass through the underworld.

Sennedjem can be seen harvesting tall stalks of wheat with a sickle

The tomb was built in the 19th Dynasty during the reigns of Seti I and Ramesses II for Sennedjem, an official who was part of the community of royal tomb builders at Deir el-Medina. The presence of an ostracon featuring the Tale of Sinuhe placed near his coffin suggests he may have been a scribe and his title ‘Servant of Hathor’ shows he was involved in the cult of the goddess Hathor.

Upon the walls of Sennedjem’s barrel-roofed burial chamber are a series of brightly coloured depictions of the man’s journey through the underworld (Duat) and the trials he must face. With the support of the gods, and as a reward for a life lived well, he is given a place in Sekhet Aaru, or the Field of Reeds. Imagined as a fertile paradise fed by canals and filled with flora and fauna, Sekhet Aaru was an idealised version of the Nile landscape.

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When Sennedjem and his wife reached Sekhet Aaru, they were assigned land to live on by Osiris, the god of the dead. Within the depiction, the couple can be seen ploughing, seeding, and harvesting this land in their finest pleated linens and coiffed hair. The scene gives the impression that, although life in the beyond seems to be a continuation of the earthly life, it is more prosperous, peaceful and pleasant. The fields are large, the plants are tall, the harvest is plenty, and they have two sturdy oxen and fashionable clothes - their reward for honest conduct throughout earthly life.

In the top register, Sennedjem can be seen harvesting tall stalks of wheat with a sickle, its notched teeth sawing into the stems of the sheaf he grasps tightly in one hand. His wife Iyneferti follows behind him, collecting the heads of grain from the floor and putting them into her mesh basket. Below, Sennedjem and Iyneferti gather bunches of green crops with ripe seeds. At the bottom, Sennedjem is ploughing the land with the help of two oxen he encourages with a flail.  Iyneferti scatters seeds from a basket into the newly tilled earth.

Translations

"... by the servant in the Place-of-Truth Sennedjem, justified"

Further Reading

• Farid, Hany; Farid, Samir (2001). "Unfolding Sennedjem's Tomb". KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. 12 (2). Retrieved 28 May 2023.

• Menéndez, Gema (2018). "Who Painted the Tomb of Sennedjem?". Trabajos de Egiptología. Papers on Ancient Egypt. 9 (9): 145–160. doi:10.25145/j.TdE.2018.09.05. Retrieved 27 May 2023.