TT38, the tomb of Djeserkareseneb , also known as Djeserka

The first guest on this sub-register is attended by two almost naked girls, thus they are attending to her bodily needs, not providing her with refreshments. The one closest to her adjusts her hair, whilst the second, standing behind her (th-swallw-11b-db) holds another necklace (the guest actually already wears one) and a bunch of lotus blossoms. The next guest, now missing, is attended by one girl, in a long dress, who passes to her a tall vessel from which to drink. The gu...est turns her head to the one behind her, passing to her what may be a large date or fig. None of the final three female guests (remember that the final two are sitting together) have no girls attending them. Some of these attending girls could be young daughters of the Djeserka and his wife, but as not text is present this cannot be confirmed.
TT38, the tomb of Djeserkareseneb , also known as Djeserka

Esta es una de las imágenes que faltan en la tumba TT38, de Djeserkareseneb, En esa escena faltan varias de ellas.

source: osirisnet.net

The following information and the five black/white photographs are based on the publication by Arpag Mekhitarian: "La misère des tombes thébaines" ("The deplorable state of the Theban tombs"), "Monumenta Aegyptiaca VI", Fondation égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, Bruxelles, 1994, p.1-16, pls.I-V.

The publication covers many images stolen from the walls of Theban tombs. The ones of interest here are those from TT38, the tomb of Djeserka. They come from the western end of the south wall, from the two upper sub-registers. They were removed after Davies had produced his line drawing for the publication covering this tomb. From the images below it is possible to see what went missing. The photo on the left shows the affected area of the wall in its present condition, whilst the line drawing shows what could be seen at the beginning of the 1900's. The line drawing has been modified to show they location of the two damaged areas, from where these images were taken, and the actual areas of the images included in the above mentioned publication. It should be noted that one image is still missing, that of the two ladies seated side-by-side at the very end of the upper sub-register. Perhaps this didn't survive the extraction from the wall.

By clicking on the coloured photo, an enlarged photo can be viewed. By clicking on one of the five selected areas of the line drawing, the appropriate black/white photo of what was removed can be seen.

 

According to Arpag Mekhitarian's article, these are photographs of the fragments from the Stoppelaere collection, taken in the Cairo Musuem, where - of course - the fragments must have been housed. However, this raises a serious problem, because they later appeared in the Kofler-Truniger collection in Lucerne, and also seen in Basel in 1978, and in Constance in 1983. The only possible explanation is that these and the others in the publication were stolen from the Cairo museum after the nineteen fifties!