The false door inside the tomb chapel or the cult chamber is the architectural expression of the link between the deceased and the mortuary cult. Inside the superstructure of the mastaba lies a closed chamber behind the false door, in which a statue serves as a vehicle for the soul in the tomb. The offering ritual is carried out in front of the false door. The conventional components of the false door are as follows: there is an inner and an outer tripartite door frame, and a miniature doorway represented in between the jambs with a rolled-up mat hanging in its opening. In between the inner and outer lintels of the stela is a representation of the deceased in front of an offering table. In the present case, the outer door frame has an added cavetto cornice and a torus moulding which is itself enclosed by yet a third door frame. All three frames have inscriptions containing the conventional offering formula with the name of the deceased. Virtually all of the bottom ends of the jambs carry representations of the deceased in relief. She is the lady Ankhet, with the "beautiful name" of Mut-sherit, which can be translated as "small mother".
An offering which the king gives, (an offering which) Anubis (gives), who is upon his mountain, who is inside the covering, a mortuary offering for the venerable with the Great God Ankhet, called Mut-sherit. The royal acquaintance and prophetess of Hathor, the venerable Ankhet. An offering which the king gives, (an offering which) Anubis (gives), who is upon his mountain, a mortuary offering for the venerable Mut-sherit. For the venerable Ankhet. A thousand of bread and jars of beer, a thousand of oxen and fowl, a thousand of alabaster and linen for the venerable Ankhet. The venerable Mut-sherit. (The venerable) Ankhet, called Mut-sherit.
Bibliography
Bergmann, E. von, Inschriftliche Denkmäler der Sammlung ägyptischer Alterthümer des österreichischen Kaiserhauses, in: Recueil de Travaux rélatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes (RecTrav) 12 (1890) 10, Nr. 6.
Katalog "Altägyptische Denkmäler aus drei Jahrtausenden", Linz (1956) 10.
Katalog "Osiris, Kreuz und Halbmond", Stuttgart, Hannover (1984), Nr. 80.
Satzinger, H., Das Kunsthistorische Museum in Wien. Die Ägyptisch-Orientalische Sammlung. Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie 14. Mainz. 1994.
Hölzl, R., Reliefs und Inschriftsteine des Alten Reiches I. Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum (CAA) Wien 18 (in Begutachtung).
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