Stela of the Gatekeeper Maati

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Maati is shown seated in front of an offering table with a jar for a sacred oil in his left hand. The text on this masterpiece of early Middle Kingdom relief art contains references to other prominent figures of the time, including Maati's overseer, the treasurer Bebi, who later became a vizier, and an ancestor of the ruling family called Intef "the Great." The inscriptions demonstrate the close ties that bound together rulers and followers in Theban of the time.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art