Relief of Peasants Driving Cattle and Fishing

Date

2345/2181 BC

Medium

Carved and painted limestone

Dimensions

Left section: 18 1/2 x 27 x 2 in. (47.0 x 68.6 x 5.1 cm) Right section: 18 x 32 x 2 in. (45.7 x 81.3 x 5.1 cm) Overall: 18 1/2 x 59 x 2 in. (47.0 x 149.9 x 5.1 cm)

Department

Africa, Oceania & Indigenous Americas

Classification

Sculpture

Credit

City of Detroit Purchase

Accession No.

30.371

Provenance

Bernard Bothmer called attention to the fact that this relief may be a part of the mastaba decoration of Ny-ankh-nesut, as discussed by William Stevenson Smith. The tomb of Ny-ankh-nesut was found at Saqqara; reliefs from it were dispersed by the dealer Jacob Hirsch around 1930. As the Detroit piece 30.371 was purchased from Kawam Brothers, Cairo, and not Hirsch, and as there is no inscription, it is not certain that it is part of the decoration from the Ny-ankh-nesut tomb. However, there are two arguments in favor of this identification: stylistic resemblances between the Detroit piece and the group of reliefs from the tomb of Ny-ankh-nesut are striking; the Detroit piece came on the antiquities market at the same time as the Hirsch pieces. Scholars now generally agree that the Detroit piece is from the tomb of Ny-ankh-nesut. See the references for the location of the tomb.

Keywords

limestone, paint, stone, mural, funerary object, genre