OLD KINGDOM, EARLY 6TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 2323-2291 B.C.

Carved in sharply-delineated sunk relief, these two lower portions of narrow pillars or door jambs derived from Nyankhnesut's tomb at Saqqara. Part of a large group of reliefs from this tomb that entered the market around 1917, these fragments are among those that were originally handled by the dealer Jacob Hirsch. The large figures of Nyankhnesut serve both as images of the deceased man reflecting various aspects of his priestly and ritual functions, and as elaborate and large-scale hieroglyphic determinatives forming the end of the writing of his name, and thus reflect the complex interaction of tomb art and writing during the developed Old Kingdom. Although the precise location of the tomb of Nyankhnesut was lost during the 20th century, in 2000 the tomb was rediscovered by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities working at Saqqara near the Third Dynasty enclosure wall of King Sekhemkhet, and it is likely that these fragments derive from pillared Room D of the tomb, though their exact architectural setting may not yet be established with certainty.

The figure facing right wears the priestly sash known from representations of lector priests and may be contrasted with the figure facing left, who sports the leopard-skin garment typical of the sem-priest. The hands of the two figures are also differentiated by the items they hold; the figure facing right holds an object (perhaps a scepter) that protrudes from the back of his fist, and the figure facing left holds parts of the tail of the leopard skin that he wears. These elements shown in detail in relief are attenuated in sculpture in three dimensions, appearing usually only as round objects of uncertain nature in the hands of seated or standing statues, and their appearance here may usefully be contrasted with the hands of statues (see H. G. Fischer, “ An Elusive Shape within the Fisted Hands of Egyptian Statues,” The Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 10, 1975, pp. 9-21.