This slab once formed part of the north wall of a small tomb chapel of the official Ipi, which was located to the east of King Teti’s pyramid at Saqqara. The slab’s undecorated left edge would have abutted the tomb’s false door. Remains of fragmentary wood models were found in the tomb’s shaft, but no coffin or mummy were recovered.1

The slab preserves parts of three registers of decoration in raised relief. In the uppermost register, the hooves of one or two cows or oxen facing left can be seen. Presumably, a herdsman or supervisor would have been shown with the animals.^[1]2

The middle register is given over to a scene of fowling, many details of which would have been added in paint. To the left is a pool upon which a papyrus, a lily flower (lotus), and lily pad float. Two fowlers, dressed in simple kilts with ties at the waist, have laid a large clapnet on the surface of the pool, attaching its left side to an anchor on land. The fowlers, facing right, are hidden from their prey by a reed screen. The fowler on the left looks over his shoulder toward the pool as they pull the net closed, ensnaring a group of birds while a few others fly free. The artist conveys the birds’ panic and powerlessness by crowding them together, representing some upright and others upside down. In contrast to the overlapping bodies and jumbled poses of the trapped birds, the ones that have escaped are all shown in isolation and oriented upright. The motion of the men is emphasized by the overlapping of their legs and their position, poised on the balls of their feet, as they quickly move forward.3

The scene incorporates composite viewpoints that are hallmarks of Egyptian art. The net is shown from above in order to provide the most complete view of its shape and dimensions. The birds are depicted in profile, but each part of their anatomy is carefully indicated; the outspread wings display their breadth and their furious flapping.4

Birds were an important part of funerary offerings, and they are often shown being brought into the tomb, thus ensuring that the deceased had fowl to eat in the afterlife. Images of fowling could be interpreted literally as representations of the act of capturing birds for use as funerary offerings. But these scenes also operated on a metaphorical level, serving as metaphors of the conquest of chaos.5

The triumph of order over chaos was important to Egyptian beliefs. The world of the living and that of the dead were ideally in a constant state of balance. In order to achieve this equilibrium, disorder in the human realm had to be controlled. This belief was expressed in images and texts through wild animals (in this case, the birds), which were equated with the untamed and dangerous forces of nature that had to be controlled and tamed by man (in this case, the fowlers). Such was the power of these images that they were imagined to be part of the magical conquest of disorder.6

In the lowest register, the head of the tomb owner, Ipi, is partially preserved. Other scenes of tomb owners on similar reliefs (compare cats. 4–5) indicate that he likely was shown seated before a table of offerings. Ipi’s hair, or wig, is short. His eye is large and oval-shaped and is enhanced with a short cosmetic line and framed by his slightly curved eyebrow. Ipi’s ear is set high on his head. Traces of dark red pigment remain on his flesh. The size of Ipi relative to the smaller fowlers reflects his elevated importance and status.7

The text above Ipi describes him as the “Seal Bearer/Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, the Sole Companion, the Overseer of the Troops, the revered one, Ipi.” Ipi’s titles indicate that he was part of the state administration. The Seal Bearer/Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt and Sole Companion were, by this period, probably ceremonial titles that reflect his association with the administration and his recognition by the king or local ruler. In contrast, the more specific military title that can be translated as diversely as “Overseer of the Troops,” “Expedition Commander,” or “General” probably refers to his real career.^[2] The word “troops” is followed by a sign that represents a tiny crouching soldier holding a bow and carrying a quiver of arrows. He wears a feather on top of his head, a reference to the Medjay, the Nubian troops who patrolled the deserts.8

As is usual in Egyptian compositions, the text and the image are closely related. Both face to the right. The depiction of the tomb owner functions as an oversize version of the hieroglyph of a seated man that should follow the writing of his name (here, the last three signs at the left).9

In the First Intermediate Period, during which Ipi lived, the seat of the state’s administration had moved from Memphis (for which Saqqara served as the necropolis) to Herakleopolis, ninety kilometers south. It was a time marked by the rise of regional artistic and architectural styles that contrasted with the more uniform court style of the Old Kingdom. Although the country was ruled from Herakleopolis, Ipi was buried at Saqqara in the cemetery surrounding the pyramid of King Teti, who ruled some three hundred years earlier, and also near the pyramid tomb of King Merikare (Dynasty 10), who was roughly contemporary with Ipi.^[3]10

Rediscovery

This wall fragment is one of a group of Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period reliefs in the collection of the Art Institute excavated at Saqqara by the British archaeologist J. E. Quibell for the Egyptian Antiquities Service in 1905–7.^[4] He discovered a number of small fragmentary mastabas and tomb chapels in the cemetery east of the pyramid of King Teti of Dynasty 6. At this time, it was common practice for the Antiquities Service to sell antiquities that were considered unneeded for the national collection.^[5]11

Provenance

Found at Saqqara, Egypt, 1905/6; The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.12

Publication History

J. E. Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara (1905–1906) (Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1907), 8, 26, pl. XX.5.13

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), 34 (ill.), 35.15

Walter Wreszinski, Atlas zur altägyptischen Kulturgeschichte, pt. 3, Gräber des Alten Reiches, ed. Heinrich Schäfer (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1936), 152, pl. 73B.16

Bertha Porter and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, vol. 3, Memphis, pt. 2, Saqqâra to Dahshûr, 2nd ed., revised and augmented by Jaromir Málek (Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1978), 564. 17

Wolfgang Decker and Michael Herb, Bildatlas zum Sport im Alten Ägypten: Corpus der bildlichen Quellen zu Leibesübungen, Spiel, Jagd, Tanz und verwandten Themen (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 1:505, K 3.99, 2:pl. 288.18

Khaled Abdulla Daoud, Corpus of Inscriptions of the Herakleopolitan Period from the Memphite Necropolis: Translation, Commentary and Analyses (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005), no. 6.1.6, 143, 307, pl. 75.19

Khaled Daoud, Necropoles Memphiticae: Inscriptions from the Herakleopolitan Period (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Calligraphy Center, 2011), 262, fig. 86.20