sustenance for the dead. In the tomb of Nakht, he is shown spearing fish and fowl, together with his family. Davies (1917:66) suggests that "sustenance…was not always coaxed from the soil by severe labor [sic]", indicating that this scene was used to show a form of receiving food after death in a different way, for entertainment for the deceased and for an artistic change of genre. However, there is a different interpretation that they were, like banquet scenes, depicted to show an image of potency and creativity after death as some of the equipment is similar and "the women present…wear outfits similar to that worn for a banquet". Davies writes that all of these scenes may have had a further important motif in showing the family of the deceased together. He wrote that the Egyptians enjoyed family life and "the strength with which love of family survived death is witnessed to by the family groups painted on nearly every wall", suggesting that one purpose of the tomb scenes was to guarantee their company beyond death. The architecture and decoration display much evidence for the thought of the Egyptians regarding their afterlife. As the tomb was split into two chambers, it can be said that they regarded their death in two parts, their afterlife and the transition phase between death and the afterlife, the latter not being depicted in the Tomb of Nakht. The decoration shows that, in contrast to Old Kingdom beliefs, as depicted of the walls of Memphite mastabas, its most important function was depict a life after death, together with family, with indications of creativity and potency, and "thus the picture of Theban life in a tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty is a clear mirror of existence…of the homesteads around it where the nature-loving Egyptian preferred to dwell". See also List of Theban tombs References External links Nakht – TT52 from Osirisnet. Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century BC Buildings and structures of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Theban tombs Thutmose IV