Color coded drawing of a TT 179 fragment from the "Abydos pilgrimage” collection

Yet another remarkable Theban Tomb 179 fragment that belongs to the “Abydos pilgrimage” collection

The almost perfectly rounded shape is a clear indication of ancient reworking, the dismantled blocks were probably intended to be mortars.

According to our reconstruction, the upper register features the journey towards Abydos, with the towboat rowed by five men, while the lower row shows the way back home. The fragment depicts the towboat moving full sail upstream on the Nile with the oarsmen shown relaxing on the deck. Two further sailors are depicted standing on the yardarm and holding halyards.

When creating the greyscale color coded digital drawing of the fragment, the artist had to use the same design language that was developed for the in situ wall scenes. For the sake of consistency, the single-weight black painted outlines were complemented by the widespread use of grayscale pattern fill, representing each main hue in a simplified manner. To maintain general understandability and ease to reassemble into larger groups, each fragment drawing concerned only the decorative area with the damage texture thoroughly omitted.

Thanks to the painstaking study of the loose fragments, some of them could be joined into larger wall sections. The reassembled fragment groups, such as the Abydos pilgrimage of which the current piece was a part of, were enhanced by a basic line drawing reconstruction. As a final step, these sub-elements were incorporated into the existing wall scene representation.

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