Relief Fragment Depicting Fowling in the Marshes

First Intermediate Period, Dynasty 10, about 2050 BCE

Egyptian; Saqqara, Teti Pyramid Cemetery, offering niche of Ipi

This lively scene depicts two men hiding behind a reed blind and pulling closed a clap net to snare birds. Four birds, which have escaped the net, fly from the pond in which lotus flowers and lotus pads float. Below, Ipi (the tomb’s owner) surveys other activities on his estate. His name and titles are written in hieroglyphs over his head.

Status: On View, Gallery 50
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Relief Fragment Depicting Fowling in the Marshes
Place: Saqqara (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 2186 BCE–2061 BCE
Medium: Limestone with traces of pigment
Inscriptions: "The sealbearer of the King of Lower Egypt, Sole Companion, Overseer of Troops, the revered one Ipi."
Dimensions: 20.3 × 35.5 × 7.5 cm (8 × 14 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: W. Moses Willner Fund
Reference Number: 1910.230
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Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-second Annual Report: June 1, 1910–June 1, 1911 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1911), pp. 19, 62.
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of The Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 34 (ill.), 35.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), p. 9.
Walter Wreszinski, Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte. Teil III: Gräber des Alten Reiches, ed. Heinrich Schäfer (J.C. Hinrichs, 1942), p. 152, Tf. 73B.
Wolfgang Decker and Michael Herb, Bild zum Sport im Agypten, Teil 1 (Leiden. New York. Kolden: E.J. Brill, 1994), p. 505, Tafel CCLXXVIII.
Khaled Daoud, Necropoles Memphiticae: Inscriptions from the Herakleopolitan Period (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2011), 262, fig. 86.

Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.

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