Relief Fragment with Part of a Hieroglyph

Relief Fragment with Part of a Hieroglyph

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fragment belongs to a vertical column of inscription reading from left to right that was part of a group of texts carved in extremely low relief and exquisitely painted. To the right is a piece of a vertical dividing line with remains of black paint. At the top of the fragment, just to the left of the dividing line, is a tiny piece of the tip of the tail of a cobra-sign with yellow and red paint. Below is the back of an owl-sign with finely painted feathers. The back contour of the bird is etched into the surface and highlighted with a thin red outline. The wing feathers are rendered as long U-shapes outlined in red, painted dark yellow, and covered with very closely spaced red horizontal lines. At the bottom of each feather is a black dot. Behind the owl there is a diagonal slash of brown paint or dirt that seems to correspond to a similar mark on 20.3.584, suggesting that the two fragments originally joined together. The fragment likely belongs to inscriptions with the titles and epithets of the tomb owner that were placed near representations of him. The background is painted gray.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Relief Fragment with Part of a HieroglyphRelief Fragment with Part of a HieroglyphRelief Fragment with Part of a HieroglyphRelief Fragment with Part of a HieroglyphRelief Fragment with Part of a Hieroglyph

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.