Mehu was 'Chief Justice and Vizier' during the early part of Dynasty
VI, probably during the reigns of Teti and Pepy I, and was married to
three wives. One of his wives, Iku, is named as 'King's daughter of
His Body' and the others were Nebt and Nefertkawes. Mehu's tomb is
among those to the north of the Unas causeway, east of the mastaba of
Princess Idut and although it is not at present open to visitors it
has some of the most colourful and exquisite reliefs of the whole
necropolis.
The mastaba of Mehu, which was discovered by Zaki Saad and excavated
by Salam Hussein in 1940, has four decorated chambers with a large
courtyard. The axis of the tomb is east to west, with its entrance at
the eastern end depicting Mehu on either side of the doorway. The
left-hand wall of the first chamber is decorated with scenes of
trapping birds with nets, mending the nets and preparing food for the
birds. Other reliefs in this room show the deceased in hunting and
fishing scenes and on the eastern wall there are birds in their nests.
A long corridor runs westwards and in its entrance there are four
registers of baking, brewing and preparing birds for a meal (on the
left) and a man carrying a calf (on the right). Scenes illustrating
daily life continue down the length of the passage - the harvest,
fishing with nets, freight ships and sailing boats, and metalworkers
beating, smelting and weighing their materials are just some of the
beautifully coloured pictures here. In the right-hand wall there is a
doorway to a large courtyard which has two square pillars at the
western end depicting the deceased on each face. Behind these is the
false door of Mehu's son Kahotep and other walls are painted with
scenes of offerings and gardening.
At the far end of the corridor there are fruit-pickers above a doorway
and at either side men bring offerings to the tomb-owner. The reliefs
here are beautifully preserved and show some unusual colours.
Offerings include a bull, oryx and gazelles as well as baskets of
fruit. Many more offerings are depicted around the walls of the
following small chamber, together with scenes of musicians, including
four harpists, dancers and clappers.
A doorway to the right (north) leads into a long chapel where
offerings would be placed before Mehu's false door stela at the
western end, to sustain him in the afterlife. The well-preserved false
door has an unusual style of decoration in which the limestone of the
stela shows through dark red paint (which was used to simulate
granite) highlighting the hieroglyphic text in yellow and resulting in
a superbly detailed piece of craftsmanship. The blue-grey colour of
the walls in Mehu's chapel forms an unusual background for the
colourful reliefs which depict many more offerings (especially birds)
with priests and offering-lists. The deceased is shown seated before a
table to receive them.
A smaller chamber to the south of Mehu's offering chapel belonged to
another individual called Meryre-ankh, 'Inspector of Priests of the
Pyramid of Pepy I'. It would appear that Mehu usurped this tomb from
its original owner, leaving the offering chapel of Meryre-ankh intact,
complete with the scenes of offerings, offering-bringers and his
false-door stela. |
