False Door, detail
Egypt, African
Old Kingdom, First Intermediate period, Sixth Dynasty (2345 -2181 BC)
limestone, 30 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
This sculpted limestone slab was located on the interior wall of a tomb—a place where the living could go and make offerings and prayers to the dead. It represents a doorway to the beyond. The tomb belonged to a military leader named Fefi. On the offering table are hieroglyphs representing bread, beer, oxen, fowl, alabaster, and linen. The rest of the hieroglyphs on the sculpture describe Fefi and the prayers that have been made on his behalf to the deity of the afterlife, Anubis.
(Birmingham Museum of Art)
False Door, detail
Egypt, African
Old Kingdom, First Intermediate period, Sixth Dynasty (2345 -2181 BC)
limestone, 30 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 3 3/4 in.
This sculpted limestone slab was located on the interior wall of a tomb—a place where the living could go and make offerings and prayers to the dead. It represents a doorway to the beyond. The tomb belonged to a military leader named Fefi. On the offering table are hieroglyphs representing bread, beer, oxen, fowl, alabaster, and linen. The rest of the hieroglyphs on the sculpture describe Fefi and the prayers that have been made on his behalf to the deity of the afterlife, Anubis.
(Birmingham Museum of Art)