The eleven sections of wall-painting from Nebamun’s lost tomb-chapel from c. 1350 bc are among the greatest and most famous of the British Museum’s treasures. The paintings decorated the walls of an Egyptian official’s tomb-chapel, displaying his status and activities in this life and the next. The accountant Nebamun, eternally youthful and vigorous, is shown hunting in the marshes and overseeing his servants and animals on the estate he managed. The paintings offer us fascinating glimpses of the world of ancient Egypt as the governing class wished it to be seen. Ancient visitors would bring offerings and prayers to Nebamun in this colorful chapel, and the paintings were intended to be seen and appreciated by visitors. Although they were painted in a cemetery, they were created for esthetic reasons and were intended to captivate their viewers. Their beauty and vitality is admirably captured in the new detailed photography which has been taken especially for this book. Richard Parkinson discusses the history of the paintings from ancient to modern times, and describes each painting fully, with translations of the hieroglyphic texts. Every fragment is fully illustrated in color with numerous details, doing full justice to these artists who have been described as “antiquity’s equivalent of Michelangelo.”

Dr Richard Parkinson is assistant keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. His other publications include Voices from Ancient Egypt and Pocket Guide to Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs.