Although destroyed to the first course, about a quarter of this wall is still in place at the east end (pl. 94a). A large block with the legs of offering bearers and crates of birds executed in a flat, sharp-edged relief now rests on the ground at the opposite side of the room (pl. 94b; fig. 91). Since the offering bearers face left, it is clear that this block comes from the north wall of the room. Seeing that it is smooth and finished below the feet of the offering bearers, it is also clear that the bearers of offerings comprised the bottom register of the wall. A horizontal line of drill holes visible in the photograph is witness to an attempt at some point in time to sunder the block in two.
The legs of eight offering bearers and feet of a ninth, proceeding to the left towards the lost table scene and the false door at the west end of the wall, are preserved. A cage of live birds rests on the ground in front of the seventh, eighth, and ninth figures. Since part of a cage is also visible behind the ninth figure, there was probably at least one more such figure to the right. The length of Room III is 5.19 m and the decorated block is only 2.17 m long, so less than half of the bottom register is preserved. The handwritten list of fragments from g 2374 in Boston includes a fragment with the lower part of an offering bearer and another cage filled with ducks, which may have belonged in the bottom register further to the right, thus totalling five offering bearers preceeded by cages. Taking into account the decorative scheme in contemporary east-west offerings rooms, it may be inferred that the group of six figures on the left side of the block carried haunches, while the group of figures to the right, with the bird cages at their feet, held up strangled geese as offerings.751
Another loose block found by Reisner shows parts of two superimposed registers (pl. 96a). In the lower register, the figure of a man with feet missing faces left and holds two bouquets of papyrus and lotus flowers before him in his right hand. In his left hand hanging behind, he holds an ill-defined offering dangling from a cord. His costume consists of a short wig with overlapping rows of curls and a short kilt with belt, waist tie, and overlap. Since he faces left, his figure most likely belongs to the north wall. The projecting ridge of stone at the right edge of the block identifies it as a corner block, so the figure probably brought up the tail end of a procession of similar figures, either that in the bottom register or one higher up on the same wall. In the register above are the feet of another figure, this time facing right. The unexpected shift in orientation would be explained, if the figure in the upper register presented offerings to the back of a large figure of Khnumenti (now destroyed) on the adjacent east wall. Scenes or parts of scenes in Old Kingdom tombs do occasionally extend onto an adjacent wall in a similar fashion.
World History
