- Gallery Text
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Ancient Egyptians believed in supplying provisions for the deceased for eternity. Images of cattle butchery are frequently found in wall decorations in Old Kingdom tombs of the later third millennium BCE. These scenes depict the funerary ritual in which raw meat was brought to the dead to consume in the afterlife. The wall decoration of the funerary chapels above the burial chambers usually included the deceased before a table with offerings, processions of offering bearers and representatives of country estates, and bustling agricultural scenes. The reliefs from the interior of the tomb of Niankhnesut at Saqqara illustrate manifold activities connected to food production, from hunting and threshing to butchering and filling beer jars. In the relief on the left, the fragmentary inscription has been translated as "Bringing the cuts [of meat]." On the right, the inscription simply reads "female cattle." The three men are characteristic of two-dimensional representations of human figures in Egyptian art, with a frontal upper body, and head, waist, and limbs in profile. The raised reliefs were painted, and, following convention, the men’s bodies were painted reddish brown.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 1934.17
- Title
- Tomb Relief: Man Holding a Cow by a Rope
- Other Titles
- Alternate Title: Relief from Mastaba Tombs: Ox and Attendant
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture
- 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
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Level 3, Room 3740, Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Art, Ancient Egypt: Art for Eternity
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Limestone, traces of paint
- Technique
- Relief
- Dimensions
- 35.7 x 39 cm (14 1/16 x 15 3/8 in.)
- Provenance
- Tomb of Niankhnesut, west of Step Pyramid, Saqqara. [Harold W. Parsons, New York, NY, February 14, 1930], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, (1930-1934), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1934.
- Acquisition and Rights
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- 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
- THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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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
- Exhibition History
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32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
Collection Highlights
- Related Articles
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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
