This block of fine-grained limestone, once part of a wall from a private tomb, is carved with two registers showing men engaged in the preparation and presentation of funerary offerings. The scene would have been painted with brown, yellow, white, black, and red pigment, but the original color is now lost.1

The upper register of the block shows a row of eight offering bearers, most of them preserved from the neck down. The men wear identical, knee-length, wrapped kilts with belts, and their legs are shown in the same striding position. Although there are a limited number of offerings shown—live birds, trays of food, and ribs of beef—the artist has enlivened the scene by varying the order in which they are presented. Two bearers (the second and seventh from the right) carry a tray and the ribs of a cow or ox, while the others bring different combinations of objects—one carries only trays, others birds and a rack of ribs, or birds and a tray. The resulting variation in the positions of the arms and hands contrasts with the uniformity of the striding legs.2

The lower register, showing a larger-scale scene of the slaughtering of three oxen, is full of detail and frenetic activity as the men brace themselves against the carcasses as they tug on the animals and sever their legs. Eight butchers are shown. At the far right, a man facing right carries a large piece of meat-on-the-bone on his shoulder. Behind him, two men chop off the rear leg of the ox. The man with the knife is equipped with a whetstone that is attached by a cord to the hem of his wrapped kilt.3

In the middle of the lower register, two butchers work. The one at the right stands astride a felled ox, with one foot on the animal’s horn as he strains to support the foreleg while his companion cuts it. He wears a fabric sash, which is a garment typical of laborers. Here, the ends of the sash have been tucked up around his waist to keep them out of the way as he holds the leg aloft so that his companion can sever it with a large knife. His companion’s whetstone, which is attached to the hem of his kilt, is affixed to the back of his belt.4

At the left lies another trussed ox, and on the far left is a man (only his forearm is preserved) who hands a rounded object—the animal’s heart—to a butcher, who carries a severed leg over his right shoulder. He too has secured the ends of his sash around his waist. Behind him another man walks to the right, bearing more results of the butchers’ efforts: a large, spouted jar, probably full of the collected blood, and another oval-shaped object, perhaps a heart. Above the man at the left who receives the heart are two large hieroglyphs that can be read as either “heart” or “the forepart” of an animal, a reference to its choicest parts.5

There is an amazing amount of detail in the faces in the lower register. The eyes and eyebrows are heavily outlined, the flare of the nostrils is carefully carved, and the lips are thick and defined. The mane, muzzle, and eyes of the lion hieroglyph at the far left also are carved with fine detail.6

Many of the figures in this scene exhibit the “folded arm” convention that departs from the usual representation of the frontal shoulders in ancient Egyptian art.^[1] The shoulders of the man in the middle scene with his sash tucked up, and both butchers to his right, are depicted with one shoulder shown frontally but the shoulder of the extended arm in profile, rendering that shoulder invisible. In contrast, the butcher with the knife in the middle scene is shown with the more usual frontal shoulders, because his arm is not lifted as high.7

The offering bearer to the left of the middle slaughter scene also displays peculiar conventions. Although he is shown carrying a large jar and perhaps the heart of the animal, his hands do not really grasp these objects—the jar seems to float between his hand and shoulder and the heart is held as if by a handle. This decision was likely made to prevent the man’s hands from obscuring the outline of these important objects.8

Repetition and Variation in Genre Scenes

These scenes of butchery and processions of offering bearers appeared with many variations in tombs of the late Old Kingdom. The repetition is not due to a lack of imagination on the part of artists but to the essential function these scenes played in providing for the specific needs of the deceased in the afterlife—in this case, supplying fresh meat, poultry, and the other kinds of food that were shown on the trays. As a result, the decoration of late Old Kingdom mastaba tombs almost always included the genre scenes of butchers, offering bearers, fishing and fowling in the marshes, scribes registering taxes, and ships on the Nile. But even with this repetition, artisans could, within a narrow range, express their creativity, resulting in seemingly endless minor variations in facial expressions, and details of the clothing and hair, the knives and whetstones, and the poses of the butchers.^[2]9

Although the reliefs were primarily designed to function within the religious system, there was a conscious attempt on the part of artists to make them attractive and interesting, hence the endless variations. Beautiful, usually brightly painted reliefs, visible from the door of the tomb chapel, acted as an enticement for passersby, encouraging them to enter and ideally say a prayer or even leave an offering for the deceased. The reliefs seen from the entrance were usually the best executed and, apart from the false door located deeper within the tomb, were of far better quality than the wall decoration farther from the door.^[3]10

This section of relief would have been on the left wall of the chapel from the entry, with the offering bearers marching toward the false door where their gifts would have been deposited.11

Modern History

This relief is part of a group of Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period wall fragments that Martin A. Ryerson purchased while traveling in Egypt with museum president Charles L. Hutchinson in 1910, likely from the Egyptian Antiquities Service.^[4] At that time the Egyptian government itself was acting as a dealer, selling both provenanced and unprovenanced objects from the Salle de Vente at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Even entire mastabas could be ordered from the government.^[5] The tomb from which this relief came has not been identified.12

Provenance

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.13

Publication History

Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-Second Annual Report: June 1, 1910–June 1, 1911 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1911), 19, 62.14

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 23 (ill.), 24, 34.
15