David O'Connor

Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

 The decorated Saqqara tomb chapel of Niankh-Khnum and Khnumhotep “Prophets of Re” and “Overseers of Royal Manicurists” (temp. Niuserre or Menkauhor) has been subject to significant debate. Unusually prominent depictions of physical intimacy in the chapel prompted some scholars to suggest the two men had a homosexual relationship. This conclusion would be significant for the history of sexuality in general (Reeder, 2000). However, it has also been suggested that the intention was to convey a fraternal, rather than sexual, relationship and that the two men (each married, with children) were twins (Baines, 1985).

 The problem is that while indirect evidence suggests a fraternal relationship between the two men, the visual manifestations of physical and, implicitly, emotional intimacy (Cherpion, 1995) are unusually prominent compared to its pictorial manifestation in other Old Kingdom tomb chapels. The hypothetical solution I suggest is that Niankh-Khnum and Khnumhotep were indeed twins, but specifically “Siamese” or conjoined twins. This hypothesis conforms to the documented experiences and capabilities of conjoined twins in relatively recent times and also conforms to the actual functions and activities of Niankh-Khnum and Khnumhotep as indicated by their titles.

The hypothesis has to be reconciled with numerous depictions in the chapel showing the two men, each respectively alone, as they perform various roles which are standard within Old Kingdom tomb chapel programs. This stand-alone status of the two men can be explained by assuming a differentiation between the societal personhood of each on the one hand and his individual and specific personhood on the other. In short, the artists involved in this tomb chapel adapted the visual language relevant to emotional and perhaps sometimes sexual intimacy in order to express an extremely rare fraternal circumstance.

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