The tomb of Merefnebef

In front of and above the characters are ten columns of text mentioning their names and titles. Thus, on the north side are, Merefnebef, Meresankh and the two sons Mem the Elder and Manefer; on the south, Merefnebef, Sesheshet and the two sons Fefi and Manefer.

The two women have a long tripartite wig, and long tight dresses with two broad straps covering the breasts.

Sesheshet, who here has the title of "his wife", is represented several times in the tomb. Meresankh, however, is only represented here and only with the title "Honoured by Anubis", which probably indicates that she had died when the scene was created. As everywhere else in the chapel, male bodies are painted red, and that of females yellow. The clothes of both males and females are always white.

Merefnebef is represented in the same way as on the facade, in a combination of frontal and lateral views; his head is shaved, and he doesn't have an artificial beard. He wears a long skirt, held by a belt of the same material and fastened at the front; he wears sandals on his feet. This type of representation of the vizier is found only here. In contrast, elsewhere in the tomb, he always wears a wig (either long or short), a beard, and a short kilt.

Why therefore this exception? It could be bound to the location of the scenes : that of leaving his tomb. Perhaps he wanted to appear in a special state of purity on his "exit" from the other world.

The tomb of Merefnebef was discovered in 1997 on the site of Saqqara, by a team from The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the Warsaw University, controlled by Prof. Karol Myśliwiec. The discovery followed two years of location work on the terrain, notably geophysical, followed by surveys.

http://www.osirisnet.net/mastabas/merefnebef/e_merefnebef_01.htm