Pit Tomb 33 and the Book of Abraham Papyri

I recently received the following inquiry from a commenter at Mormon Expression named Ray:

Some elderly members of my family went on an LDS tour of the holy lands, and one of the stops was in Egypt to visit the pyramids and, of course, the tomb where (they indicated) the BoA papyri was found. They took a picture of a wall painting that shows what looks like a person (woman?) wearing what appears to be robes and possibly an apron. They were quick to suggest on the tour that these were temple robes, and that the temple ceremony was being depicted. I wonder if I can ... send you the pic, to see what you think of it?

Presumably Ray is referring to Pit Tomb 33, which is part of the "Egypt and the Holy Land" package at Anderson Tours and LDS Travel Study. Ross T. Christensen was the first to identify this as the tomb from which the Joseph Smith mummies came. He made the identification based on some details in Oliver Cowdery's account of Michael Chandler's account of Antonio Lebolo's account of the tomb. A convoluted chain of evidence, to say the least.

Tomb 33, however, is not where the JS mummies really came from. As H. Donl Peterson wrote in The Story of the Book of Abraham (pp. 54-63), Tomb 33 had already been excavated in the early 18th century and so did not need to be excavated by Lebolo. Peterson points to Tomb 32 as a more likely source, though it's really not possible to know for sure. We simply don't have enough information to make the determination.

Although Egyptology's not really my area of expertise, I did go ahead and have Ray send me the image he mentioned.


About all I can say about the meaning of the image, based on my very limited knowledge of the subject, is that the falcon carrying the cross with a loop on top is probably the deity Horus bringing eternal life, and the person in the middle with the blue head and goatee is the deceased person who has been resurrected and transformed into the deity Osiris. The figure on the left in the blue dress may be the goddess Sekhmet.

As for the apron, Robin Fowler says this:

All Egyptian men, regardless of social class, wore an apron-like garment that tied in front. Through the years, the length of the apron (also compared to a kilt) ranged from above the knee to below it. Wealthy Egyptian men wore a transparent ankle-length robe over this apron. Less wealthy men also wore this robe, but it was not as transparent. In fact, the level of transparency was symbolic of an Egyptian man’s wealth and importance, with the Pharaoh’s robe being the most transparent of all garments. The Pharaoh's clothing would have also been very stylized, often adorned with colored feathers.

So the apron-and-robe combination in the picture is not a temple garment, but simply a typical (albeit expensive) piece of Egyptian clothing.