Relief Fragment Depicting Meret-Teti-iyet with Offerings

First Intermediate Period, Dynasty 10, about 2025 BCE

Egyptian; offering niche of Meret-Teti-iyet, Teti Pyramid Cemetery, Saqqara, Egypt

This pair of panels (along with 1910.223) was part of a painted offering niche designed for a woman named Meret-Teti-iyet. The fragmentary upper scenes depict people bringing offerings to sustain her in the afterlife. Meret-Teti-iyet sits behind piles of food at the bottom of each panel, facing approaching visitors. On the other panel, she holds a closed lotus blossom on her lap; on this one, she sniffs an open lotus flower. The lotus, which opens with the rising sun and sinks beneath the water at night, was a symbol of renewal and rebirth in ancient Egypt.

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

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Relief Fragment Depicting Meret-Teti-iyet with Offerings
Place: Saqqara (Object made in)
Date: 2060 BCE–2025 BCE
Medium: Limestone
Inscriptions: Main Inscription: "The one who is revered before Anubis who is upon his mountain, Meret-Teti-iyet"; Above Man: "A thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, a thousand of oxen, a thousand of fowl, a thousand of alabaster, a thousand of clothing"
Dimensions: 71.1 × 61 × 14 cm (28 × 24 × 5 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: W. Moses Willner Fund
Reference Number: 1910.224
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/64318/manifest.json

J.E. Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara (1906-1907) (Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1908), pp. 18, 73, pl. X.3 (ill.).
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 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), pp. 29, 30 (ill.), 31-32, 35, 39 note 2.
Bertha Porter and Rosalind L.B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. III: Memphis. Part 2: Saqqâra to Dahshûr, 2nd ed. (Griffith Institute/Ashmolean Museum, 1981), p. 563.
Khaled Daoud, Necropoles Memphiticae: Inscriptions from the Herakleopolitan Period (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2011), 304-306, fig. 115.

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

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Suggested Terms