„Die vorausleuchtende Idee“. Zu Künstlermarkierungen im Grab des Sennefer (TT 96A)

As part of the research project “Painters and Painting in the Theban Necropolis during the 18th dynasty” (Research Incentive Grant of the F.R.S.-FNRS at the University of Liège) and in the context of the Belgian Archaeological Mission in the Theban Necropolis, a joint project of the Universities of Brussels and Liège, was a thorough study of painterly practices in the funerary complex of the Mayor of Thebes under the reign of Amenhotep II, Sennefer (TT 96), owner of the famous so-called “vineyard tomb”, undertaken. This led to the discovery of two cursive hieroglyph-like artist’s marks, obviously encoding the themes to be depicted on the walls. In both cases, these pictograms are associated with short vertical brush strokes, which in combination with the given semantic information indicated a first conceptual division of the murals. The nature, reading and function of those unique marks are discussed in the perspective of their user(s), i.e. the painter(s), and in terms of composition and iconographic latitude.