Maati is shown seated in front of an offering table with a jar for a sacred oil in his left hand. The text on this masterpiece of early Middle Kingdom relief art contains references to other prominent figures of the time, including Maati's overseer, the treasurer Bebi, who later became a vizier, and an ancestor of the ruling family called Intef "the Great." The inscriptions demonstrate the close ties that bound together rulers and followers in Theban of the time.
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Detail of the inscription.
Artwork Details
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Title:Stela of the Gatekeeper Maati
Period:First Intermediate Period
Dynasty:Dynasty 11
Reign:reign of Mentuhotep II, early
Date:ca. 2051–2030 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes; Probably from Tarif
Medium:Limestone
Dimensions:L: 59 cm (23 1/4 in.), H: 36.3 cm (14 5/16 in.), D: 8 cm (3 1/8 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1914
Object Number:14.2.7
Purchased from Mohammed Mohassib in Luxor, 1914.
Winlock, Herbert E. 1915. "The Theban Necropolis in the Middle Kingdom." In American Journal of Semitic Languages, Vol. 32, No. 1 (October), p. 15.
Winlock, Herbert E. 1947. Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Thebes. New York: Macmillan Co., p. 2.
Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 153, fig. 91.
Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss 1964. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings: The Theban Necropolis. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, vol. I part 2a. Oxford, 595.
Scott, Nora E. 1965. "Our Egyptian Furniture." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 24, no. 4 (December), pp. 135, 140, fig. 25.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 1977. Ancient Egypt in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1–11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 89, n. 45.
Patch, Diana Craig 2011. "Early Dynastic Art." In Dawn of Egyptian Art, edited by Diana Craig Patch. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 151, n. 44.
Freed, Rita 2015. "Stela of the Gatekeeper Maaty." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 43–44, no. 2.
Kamrin, Janice 2015. "The Decoration of Elite Tombs: Connecting the Living and the Dead." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 28.
Yamamoto, Kei 2015. "The Art of the Stela." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 34.
Arnold, Dieter and Dorothea Arnold 2015. "A New Start from the South: Thebes during the Eleventh Dynasty." In Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold, and Kei Yamamoto. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 41, no. 2.
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