Relief from the Tomb of Khnumti

Artist Unknown

Datecirca 2345–2184 BCE

MediumWhite limestone

Dimensions21 1/2 x 18 15/16 x 1 1/8 in. (54.6 x 48.1 x 2.9 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund

Object numberG.72.2.2

On View

On view

Label TextThese two limestone fragments were once part of a stela chapel, a small niche where offerings to nourish the deceased were placed. A typical stela chapel was composed of three vertical panels—two offering stelae, such as the ones here, and a small false door—set around three sides of a horizontal offering tray.

Khnumti was a lector priest who recited specialized religious texts in mortuary rituals. An educated and privileged individual, he is represented as a nobleman at his table, surrounded by hieroglyphs. Above the table bread, beer, oxen, fowl, alabaster, and linen are requested in great quantities—one thousand of each!

[C. Rocheleau, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]
Note: displayed with Reliefs from the Tomb of Khnumti, G.72.2.1ProvenanceMathias Komor Fine Arts & Antiquities, New York, NY; sold to NCMA, 1972. Published ReferencesW. K. Simpson, "Two Egyptian Bas Reliefs of the Late Old Kingdom," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 11, no. 3 (December 1972), 4-13, illus. (b-w) 3, (b-w detail) 5.

"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 12, nos. 1 and 2 (December 1973), listed 48.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 36.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 4.

Mary Ellen Soles, entry for Reliefs from the Tomb of Khnumti in Saqqarah, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 12-13, illus. (color) 12.

Caroline M. Rocheleau, entry for Reliefs from the Tomb of Khnumti, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 28, illus. (color) 29.

Caroline M. Rocheleau, Ancient Egyptian Art [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2012), cat. no. 8, illus. (color) 20; details (color) and translations 110–112.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions,” July 16-October 1, 1972 (extended).

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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