<em>Relief Blocks from the Tomb of the Vizier Nespeqashuty</em>, ca. 664-610 B.C.E. Limestone, 12 1/4 x 5 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (31.1 x 13.7 x 6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 68.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.1.jpg)

Relief Blocks from the Tomb of the Vizier Nespeqashuty, ca. 664-610 B.C.E. Limestone, 12 1/4 x 5 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (31.1 x 13.7 x 6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 68.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.1.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Did people pay respects to the dead as they do now after mummies were buried? Also, was everybody mummified?

Yes, people paid respects to the dead with some similarities and some differences to modern Western practices. No, not everyone was mummified.

A major function of an ancient Egyptian tomb was to provide a place for people to continually bring offerings and prayers for the deceased. We know that people did actually perform these tasks based on graffiti that some visitors left behind in antiquity! You can see examples of this kind of graffiti on the Reliefs from the Tomb of Nespeqashuty. It was considered a pious act to leave your mark!

Graffiti is necessary! Were the people not mummified considered "not worthy" or something? Or did they not have any money to pay for the mummification process?

You're right, it was a matter of money. People belonging to the middle to upper middle class and above could afford a mummification and burial of varying elaborate-ness. The lower classes would be buried in the sand with a few grave goods. Most of what you see in our galleries are very fine examples of ancient Egyptian material culture representing the most wealthy individuals.

Why are there chisel marks in this piece?

We're not sure exactly when those chisel marks got there. When these blocks were excavated in 1923, the excavator noted that the reliefs had already fallen off the walls of the tomb so he didn't chisel them off!

Relief Blocks from the Tomb of the Vizier Nespeqashuty

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Funerary Gallery 3, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

Tomb reliefs magically repeated the rituals required to transport the deceased to the afterlife and maintain him or her once there. The wealthier the individual, the more elaborate the decoration of the tomb. Nespeqashuty was a vizier, the highest ranking government official.

The decoration of Nespeqashuty’s tomb was never completed, allowing a rare glimpse into the artist’s working process. The three steps of relief carving are clearly visible here. First, each scene was drawn in color with attention paid to every detail. Next, the outline of each figure was carved and the background cut away. Finally, another carving of the figures softened the contour lines and sculpted the internal details.

The graffiti on the relief were written in both Demotic and Coptic, the two latest stages of the Egyptian language, as well as in Greek, during a thousand-year period after the tomb was prepared for Nespeqashuty. Writing graffiti in the tomb was a pious act, not vandalism.

MEDIUM Limestone

DATES ca. 664-610 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 26

PERIOD Late Period

DIMENSIONS 12 1/4 x 5 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (31.1 x 13.7 x 6 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 68.1

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Funerary Gallery 3, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Relief Blocks from the Tomb of the Vizier Nespeqashuty, ca. 664-610 B.C.E. Limestone, 12 1/4 x 5 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (31.1 x 13.7 x 6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 68.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 68.1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Did people pay respects to the dead as they do now after mummies were buried? Also, was everybody mummified?

Yes, people paid respects to the dead with some similarities and some differences to modern Western practices. No, not everyone was mummified.

Graffiti is necessary! Were the people not mummified considered "not worthy" or something? Or did they not have any money to pay for the mummification process?

Why are there chisel marks in this piece?