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Lot Essay
Once forming part of the dado from the Temple of Amun-Ra at Naukratis, this relief is decorated with a row of fecundity figures bearing symbolic offerings on trays. The hieroglyph atop the head of the female figure on the left indicates that these are part of a row of personified nomes or administrative districts of Egypt. A closely related block in Hannover (Kestner Museum, accession no. 1970.39) features a male fecundity figure representing the 14th nome of Lower Egypt, followed by a female figure representing the 15th Lower Egyptian nome. Another large fragment in Hannover (Kestner Museum, accession no. 1970.38) depicts alternating male and female fecundity figures moving in the opposite direction, probably from an opposing wall. According to von Recklinghausen (“The Decoration of the Temple of Amun” in A. Villing, et al., Naukratis: Greeks In Egypt), “In this type of geographical procession, a nome is represented by a female personification symbolizing the nome proper and by three additional deities symbolizing certain sub-divisions of the nome: the mr-canal represents watercourses, the w-region cultivated land and the phw-area a swampy region... the reliefs from Naukratis are by far the oldest evidence for this type of procession and the only ones originating from Lower Egypt.”
The vertical row of hieroglyphic text behind the female figure reads “…God, You are Ta-Tenen, who cares for the righteous, the Primeval God of the earth, God of strength, God of his Primeval Ones, Father of the Gods.” Similar texts addressed to deities in the second person occur on the related fragments in Hannover. Additional related fragments with similar scenes and texts were documented in the 1920s at Kom Geif (C.C. Edgar, “Some Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Naucratis,” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 22, nos. 1-6). The actual location of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Naukratis is not identified with certainty. For other similar reliefs, see no. 1A, pp. 69-126 in C. Leitz, “Geographische Soubassementtexte aus griechisch-römischer Zeit: Eine Hauptquelle altägyptischer Kulttopographie,” in A. Rickert and B. Ventker, eds., Altägyptische Enzyklopädien. Die Soubassements in den Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit, Soubassementstudien I.
The vertical row of hieroglyphic text behind the female figure reads “…God, You are Ta-Tenen, who cares for the righteous, the Primeval God of the earth, God of strength, God of his Primeval Ones, Father of the Gods.” Similar texts addressed to deities in the second person occur on the related fragments in Hannover. Additional related fragments with similar scenes and texts were documented in the 1920s at Kom Geif (C.C. Edgar, “Some Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Naucratis,” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 22, nos. 1-6). The actual location of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Naukratis is not identified with certainty. For other similar reliefs, see no. 1A, pp. 69-126 in C. Leitz, “Geographische Soubassementtexte aus griechisch-römischer Zeit: Eine Hauptquelle altägyptischer Kulttopographie,” in A. Rickert and B. Ventker, eds., Altägyptische Enzyklopädien. Die Soubassements in den Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit, Soubassementstudien I.