Abstrakt
This study presents an annotated translation of a spell from the arch of the east wall of the burial chamber of Iufaa, which represents a new attestation of the text known as Der König als Sonnenpriester. Like most of the decoration that covers the walls of Iufaa's burial chamber and sarcophagi, the composition focuses primarily on the knowledge of cosmological secrets and mysterious beings of the Underworld.
The most interesting aspect of the composition analysed here is the way it interconnects the writing with the iconography and the spells itself with the spatial layout of the burial chamber. The connected pictorial scene of the resurrection of the sun is located in the centre of the arch of the east wall of the burial chamber, and the neighbouring textual columns partially create and image of the hieroglyphic sign of akhet.
Immediately under the scene there is a square niche reminiscent of a walled window-like opening. The placement, dimensions and shape of this space mirror the entrance opening for the mummy located in the opposite, west wall.
The east "window" thus symbolically connects the ideas of the rising of the sun from the gate of the eastern horizon, the flying out of the god Khepri from the ball of dung and from between the legs of the sky goddess, and the resulting appearance of the sun god in glory and divine might. Therefore, this square opening in the eastern wall of Iufaa's burial chamber can be linked with the so-called windows of appearance, through which the king or god appeared to the people as someone rising in glory to illuminate the world.