Drawing the bow: a re-examination of the desert hunt scene in the Tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan

A recent publication of the Dynasty 12 tomb of Khnumhotep II (Tomb 3) at Beni Hassan has provided a unique opportunity to re–examine the rich and exceptionally detailed visual and textual repertoire in the tomb. Work undertaken by the Australian Centre for Egyptology has seen the tomb of Khnumhotep II re–recorded and published, highlighting that the earlier records of Lepsius and Newberry are frequently inaccurate and, furthermore, that some material was deliberately omitted. In particular, the line drawings of the walls published by Newberry are inadequate by modern standards as the figures and hieroglyphs as well as selected animal figures and inanimate objects are inexplicably rendered in solid black, obscuring many significant details. The present paper aims to examine the recently published record of the tomb to: 1) conduct a visual analysis of the desert hunt scene on the north wall of the chapel of Khnumhotep II, with particular focus on identifying the method of drawing the bow used by the archers; and 2) to consider any discrepancies in the depiction of drawing the bow that are better understood via an appreciation of the established principles of ancient Egyptian 2–Dimensional representational art.