The paper examines the names of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, omission of kinship terms and some features of the iconography, especially representations of their mutual embrace. It is suggested that the two royal manicurists were identical twins, perceived at the time as each other's ka. The predominant position of the mutual face-to-face embrace in the liminal zone of the tomb (in their tomb as well as in several other tombs), is related to the notion of protection and also of identification immanent in embrace, in the case of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep extending the role of the double into the Afterlife.