Scenes from a King's Thirty-Year Jubilee

After thirty years on the throne, the pharaoh celebrated a jubilee intended magically to rejuvenate the divine yet vulnerable monarch. This fragmentary relief, which formed part of a series of scenes depicting these complex and enigmatic rituals, was intended for a royal cult structure at a pyramid. In the main preserved register, the goddess Meret chants "Come and bring" to the pharaoh, whose large running figure would have been depicted beyond the broken left edge of the block. The standard-bearer who preceded him remains, and courtiers with their titles inscribed above complete the scene.

Like most of the royal Old Kingdom royal reliefs in this collection, this block was excavated at a Middle Kingdom pyramid site where it had been reused in the inner structure. Such blocks can be assigned to the Old Kingdom by their inscriptions or style. Although no royal name identifies the pharaoh here, the straight edges contouring the relief elements and the height of the carving suggest that the work dates from the reign of Snefru.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1909 (09.180.18); Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922 (22.1.1)