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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Gallery Text

These two scenes (1934.17 and 1934.18), showing provisions for the afterlife of a senior official named Niankhnesut, once lined the walls of his tomb at Saqqara in northern Egypt. The tomb was found in 1917, already disturbed. Subsequently, at least 60 fragments were removed and sold to various collectors and museums; as in many places today, wartime may have facilitated the dismantling and dispersal of Niankhnesut’s tomb. The fragments are currently scattered across at least fifteen museums and three private collections in eight countries, including Egypt.

Dismantling Egyptian tombs was a widespread practice in the past. Here, it makes it difficult to understand how these scenes were originally arranged. Ongoing research suggests that they come from two different rooms in Niankhnesut’s tomb. Today, to protect the integrity of the archaeological record, tomb fragments are no longer dispersed outside of Egypt. What remains of Niankhnesut’s tomb at Saqqara continues to be investigated by Egyptian archaeologists.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1934.17
Title
Relief fragment from the tomb of Niankhnesut: Man holding a cow by a rope
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Tomb Relief: Man Holding a Cow by a Rope
Alternate Title: Relief from Mastaba Tombs: Ox and Attendant
Alternate Title: Relief fragment from the tomb of Niankhnisut: Man holding a cow by a rope
Alternate Title: Relief fragment from the tomb of Ny-ankh-nesut: Man holding a cow by a rope
Alternate Title: Relief fragment from the tomb of Nyankhnesuwt: Man holding a cow by a rope
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, relief
Date
2323-2150 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Saqqara (Egypt)
Period
Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6
Culture
Egyptian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291843

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3740, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Egypt: Art for Eternity
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
limestone, traces of paint
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
35.7 x 39 cm (14 1/16 x 15 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: top center, raised relief, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs: iwA.t ["Female cattle"]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Tomb of Niankhnesut, west of Step Pyramid, Saqqara, Egypt. [Jacob Hirsch, by 1929-1930], sold; through [Harold W. Parsons, New York, NY, February 14, 1930]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, (1930-1934), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1934.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1934
Object Number
1934.17
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Carved in shallow raised relief and originally painted (with some color still visible), this rectangular fragment of a wall relief depicts a male herdsman, at right, who stands in front of a cow. The man is nude except for an abbreviated lioncloth. He holds a rope, by which the cow is harnessed at its nose and knotted with a loop around its front left hoof. He grasps the rope in his right hand and appears to pull it taunt behind his back and over his left shoulder with his left hand; the rope disappears behind the cow. Both the man and the cow stride toward the left, each with their right legs forward: the man faces to the left and the cow turns its head back, to the right, toward the man. An inscription in hieroglyphs is present at upper center. Above, the relief fragment terminates at a raised horizontal line, marking the separation of horizontal registers.
Commentary
Fragment of a wall relief from the mastaba tomb of Niankhnesut (pronounced NEE-ahnk-NEH-sewt).

Publication History

  • Frederick Randolph Grace, "Two Tomb Reliefs of the Old Kingdom", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, March 1936), Vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 30-35, pp. 30-35, fig. 1
  • Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 6
  • Bertha Porter, Rosalind L. B. Moss, Ethel W. Burney, and Jaromír Málek, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, Vol III. Memphis. pt. 2. Ṣaqqâra to Dahshûr., ed. Jaromír Málek, The Clarendon Press (1981), p. 694
  • Gregory Mumford, "Concerning the Identity of Niankhnisut, His Rediscovered Tomb Chapel, the Affiliated Decorative Program, and Other Thoughts", His Good Name: Essays on Identity and Self-Presentation in Ancient Egypt in Honor of Ronald J. Leprohon, ed. Christina Geisen, Jean Li, Steven Shubert, and Kei Yamamoto, Lockwood Press (Atlanta, 2021), pp. 213-248, p. 218 fn 26, p. 231 Table 2, Item 5

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu