The ceiling inscriptions of the transverse hall of TT 84 in their spatial context

Theban tomb no. 84 is located in the south-western part of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna and was built for Iamunedjeh, an Eighteenth Dynasty nobleman who lived under the reign of Thutmose III and was one of the most influential officials of his time. Iamunedjeh’s tomb chapel is almost fully decorated, is relatively well preserved, and has an exceptionally rich textual dimension.
This paper investigates the ceiling inscriptions of the tomb’s transverse hall in their spatial and material context. Architectural and epigraphic evidence suggests, namely, that the façade, the court, and the transverse hall of TT 84 were enlarged by 50% of their originally planned size. The enlargement happened at a point in time when at least part of the chapel had already been decorated. This architectural change had a direct impact on the ceiling inscriptions of the transverse hall: the enlargement of the hall triggered a double-stage execution for some of the texts of the long ceiling bands.
Besides exploring the ways in which the textual composition of the ceiling was adjusted to these altered spatial conditions, the paper also examines the clues that may shed light on the practices and procedures concerning the transfer of a written product from one (written) space to another. In this respect, the textual parallels between the ceiling inscriptions of TT 84 and some other contemporaneous Theban tombs are discussed in detail.