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Egyptian
manicurists become homosexual icons, could this be the first recorded
gay kiss?
 01 Jan 2006- A WALL painting in an ancient Egyptian tomb,
showing
an intimate embrace between two male manicurists, could be the first
recorded depiction of an openly homosexual couple.
The theory has emerged from an international conference at the
University of Wales, Swansea, which debated the significance of the
unusual tomb, dating from 4,000 years ago, which contains paintings of
the men in a clutch. The suggestion that the two men, called Niankhkhnum
and Khnumhotep, won social acceptance for their relationship four
millenniums before last month’s legal sanctioning of gay unions raises
the prospect that the tomb will become a gay honeymoon destination. The
site already attracts many gay tourists.
Archeologists have
been baffled by the two men’s relationship since the tomb was uncovered
in 1964 in the necropolis of Saqqara at Memphis, on the west bank of the
Nile. It is extremely rare to find two men of equal status buried
together. While grave robbers had stripped the tomb of relics, the wall
paintings revealed tantalising hints about its original occupants. The
men are repeatedly depicted together, sometimes holding hands, sometimes
with their arms around each other. In two instances they are shown with
their noses touching — the most intimate embrace permitted in Egyptian
art of the time — seen as a form of kissing.
Their wives and
children are relegated to the background. In one scene, in which the two
men share a final banquet before their journey into the afterlife,
Niankhkhnum’s wife has been plastered over by the craftsmen who
decorated the tomb. Khnumhotep’s spouse fails to make an appearance.
Hieroglyphs describe the men as overseers of the manicurists to the
pharaoh. They were responsible for the care of the pharaoh’s hands and
were among the select few permitted to touch the ruler.
Though the
hieroglyphs say nothing of the two men’s relationship, Greg Reeder, an
Egyptologist based in San Francisco, believes the wall paintings suggest
homosexuality could be the answer. Reeder said Niankhkhnum and
Khnumhotep adopted poses usually restricted to husbands and wives in
other tombs. “Same-sex desire must be considered as a probable
explanation,” he said, though he admits it is impossible to be sure. “We
can only say for certain that the carvings show a profound intimacy
between the two men, and the people who built the tomb were possibly
unsure how to portray this.”
Opponents say the
paintings could indicate that the men were blood relatives. Other
Egyptologists follow the theory that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were
twins. John Baines, a professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, has
previously suggested that this was the most likely explanation for the
“exaggerated affection” displayed between the men.
Richard Parkinson,
assistant keeper in the department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the
British Museum, said that the similarities between the names of the two
men suggested they were brothers, although some Egyptians did adopt new
names later in life. “The danger is that people want to find positive
(homosexual) images in the past and it is very hard for modern European
eyes to resist seeing the images as homoerotic,” he said. “I doubt
myself that this is one of them, simply because we have no other
evidence of male-male relationships being commemorated.”
However, Reeder
observed that, rightly or wrongly, the manicurists’ tomb is being
embraced by many gay people. He said that homosexual relationships,
commonplace in ancient Greece and Rome, were hinted at in Egyptian
papyruses. “When gay marriage is being discussed and debated, people
want to look to the past and find things that would indicate that there
were same-sex relationships in ancient times that the state on occasion
could sanction,” he said.
Thomas Dowson, an
independent scholar formerly at Manchester University, said: “I have
absolutely no problem if we have evidence of same-sex unions in the past
that is used to challenge the homophobia of our society today, though
that doesn’t mean we play fast and loose with the data. ” The tomb was
restored by German archeologists in the late 1970s and opened to the
public in the 1990s. While gay tour operators have not targeted the
site, in large part because Egypt outlaws homosexual activity, Reeder
said: “It has now become famous and lots of gay tourists go there.”
Dowson said it was wonderful that gay tourists were visiting Niankhkhnum
and Khnumhotep’s tomb. “I think it is beautiful, but if it became too
big, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Egyptian authorities closed it
down,” he said
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