My reproduction depicts a wall painting from the tomb of Ahmose, son of Ebana, at Elkab (c. 1550–1525 BC, early Dynasty 18). Ahmose was a distinguished naval officer who served under Seqenenre Tao, Kamose, and Ahmose I, and whose career spanned the wars that expelled the Hyksos and secured Egypt’s reunification.

On the walls of his modest cliff-cut tomb, he recorded one of the most detailed first-person military autobiographies known from ancient Egypt. The text not only recounts his bravery in battle and the rewards he received but also provides invaluable historical evidence for Egypt’s military and political transformation at the dawn of the New Kingdom.

In this scene, Ahmose is shown in large scale, the traditional marker of his status and authority. At his feet, rendered in smaller scale, is his grandson Pahery, who would later become a scribe of Amun and was responsible for overseeing the decoration of his grandfather’s tomb (dedicated in the blue hieroglyphics). The (gold) hieroglyphic columns visible here contain the opening lines of Ahmose’s autobiography, which situate him firmly within the service of the Theban kings and the divine order they embodied.