On the Footsteps of a Draftsman who Became a Nomarch: Paheri of Elkab

This presentation offers insight into the ancient Egyptian manufacture of prestige and its creation of value. The lecture will focus on a specific case study, the story of an artist-Pahery of Elkab-, who manufactures his colleague’s funerary commemoration and, later, his own.

Pahery first held the offices of Draftsman and Scribe Accountant of Grain for the Amun’s Estate under Thutmose III’s rule. In Thebes, he most probably created a small funerary chapel (the now lost TT A4) for his colleague, Wensu. Later, Pahery re-used this composition for his own tomb in Elkab (EK 3). Now entrusted with the higher-ranked charge of provincial governor, he tailored his chapel’s decorum to his own ambitions and formulated a familial memorial working along with the chapel of his famous grandfather, Ahmose son of Abana. In so doing, Pahery manufactured his own social prestige, playing the different layers of his professional background, and displayed carefully his multiple identities.

Pahery of Elkab borrowed elite codes and decorum and adjusted them, first, to Wensu-a rather lower-ranked official of the Amun’s Estate-and later, to his own social standing. This case study is the rare account of an artist’s professional journey. Along the way, he clearly displayed his mastery of the iconographic and textual repertoire that he used to convey specific social messages. The lecture will also provide an insight into the socio-professional networks that stood in the margin of the elite channels.