Group of Archers. Reused at Lisht North; Fourth Dynasty, reigns of Khufu to Khafre (ca. 2551–2494 B.C.E.). Painted limestone; H. 10 in. (25.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922 (22.1.23).

This relief fragment shows one of the most intricate extant figural compositions from Old Kingdom art and part of the earliest known battle scene from that period. The men are engaged in a military campaign, as indicated by the crossed bands on their chests. The engagement was probably the siege of a fortified city in the Near East, because most later battle scenes employ archers in this context. Although the relief was not found in its original location, its style suggests a date in the early to mid-Fourth Dynasty; the innovative subject matter reveals that it belonged to a royal commission.