False door of Tepemankh

The ancient Egyptians believed that a special false door in a tomb allowed for the ka or soul of the tomb owner to pass through it, thereby connecting the world of the dead with the world of the living. Friends and relatives placed offerings before the door, located in the offering chapel, to allow the deceased to receive nourishment during his new life in the Netherworld. The offerings, which included bread, cakes, beer, oxen, fowl, and “every good thing,” are specified in hieroglyphs in the dozens of square spaces carved in stone between Tepemankh’s two false doors. If the offering rituals were neglected, this so-called “menu list” would magically supply the deceased with whatever he wanted. One of Tep-em-ankh’s titles was “the Priest of Khufu,” meaning that he served in the mortuary cult of King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. The relief with menu list that adjoins Glencairn’s false door is in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, and the false door of Tep-em-ankh’s wife, which adjoins the other side of the Louvre relief, is in the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark. (See External Link.)

Sources:
- Katja Lembke and Bettina Schmitz, _Giza: Am Fuss der grossen Pyramiden_, 2011, 170-171.
- Ed Gyllenhaal, “A Giant International Jigsaw Puzzle,” _Glencairn Museum News_, Number 4, 2011.