NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, 1550-1295 B.C.

Carved in low raised relief with relatively little interior modeling, this substantial fragment of temple decoration in limestone depicts a pharaoh wearing a triangular kilt with sporran flanked by uraei making offering to a figure of the god Re-Horakhty.  The inscription before the king describes his activity as “Giving Maat (truth/justice) to the Lord of Maat, to his father Re-Horakhty.”  In all likelihood, the king held a small hieroglyph of the seated goddess Maat with his bent arm; his other hand (missing on this block) may have been held up in adoration.    The vertical band border at the far right of the fragment indicates that this was the end of a wall, and the phrases protecting the back of the pharaoh emphasize that the main scene featured these two figures.  Re-Horakhty is shown in human form, with his bull’s tail shown before him; his head would almost certainly have been shown in the form of a falcon typical for that god.  He holds an ankh (sign of life) in his right hand, and a staff in his left, and sits atop a simple block throne.  

According to Teeter (p. 7, The Presentation of Maat.  Ritual and Legitimacy in Ancient Egypt) "The presentation of Maat first appears as an iconographic device in the time of Thutmose III,” as seen on the reliefs in his Festival Hall at Karnak, and there are many instances from other New Kingdom temples in which the pharaoh presents Maat to Re-Horakhty, as well as to other deities.  The style of the inscriptions and of the surviving portions of the bodies on the relief presented here do not allow a precise dating, but they reflect the height of formal precision typical of the first half of the 18th Dynasty.   This block most likely comes from a small chapel dedicated to Re-Horakhty within a larger temple.  For related scenes, slightly later in date and thus of a different style, see the example in which Seti I offers Maat to a standing Osiris with the caption "Offering Maat to the lord of Maat," (pl. 4 in Calverley and Broome, Abydos III) and one with a standing Ramesses III offering Maat to seated Re-Horakhty with the caption “Offering Maat to the lord of Maat,” (pl. 6 in Teeter, op. cit.).