Collection
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Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Relief Representation of Goatherd with Goat and Trees

ca. 1350–1333 B.C.E.

Brooklyn Museum photograph

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This serene scene of natural beauty is made up of limestone blocks, or talatats, that were separated and scattered for thousands of years. Now reunited, they form the largest example of a talatat relief scene in North America.

Talatat blocks date exclusively to the reign of the ancient Egyptian king Akhenaten. During his rule, Akhenaten initiated ambitious building projects at Karnak Temple and his new city of Amarna. Talatats are of standard size, which allowed the ancient Egyptians to speedily erect legions of structures for their king.

After Akhenaten’s reign, his city and temples were dismantled. Successive rulers reused the talatats from those structures as the foundations and fillings of their own monuments. These four blocks were found at Hermopolis, across the Nile River from Amarna, reused in temples built by Ramesses II.

Object Label

These three blocks originally were part of a large pastoral scene depicting the countryside surrounding a temple. A guard snoozes on the job at the temple entrance on the lower left, while a goatherd watches his goat as it grazes on the right. Trees and the line of the temple wall carry over to the upper block, where along another ground line, there is the face of a grazing calf and the legs of a man dancing. Pastoral scenes were invented by Amarna period artists. Scenes like this one were the source for later pastoral scenes in Egyptian art.

Caption

Relief Representation of Goatherd with Goat and Trees, ca. 1350–1333 B.C.E.. Limestone, 8 1/4 x 16 3/4 x 2 1/2 in., 22.5 lb. (21 x 42.5 x 6.4 cm, 10.21kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc., 86.226.30. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Title

Relief Representation of Goatherd with Goat and Trees

Date

ca. 1350–1333 B.C.E.

Dynasty

late Dynasty 18

Period

New Kingdom, Amarna Period

Geography

Place modified: Hermopolis, Egypt, Reportedly from: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

Medium

Limestone

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

8 1/4 x 16 3/4 x 2 1/2 in., 22.5 lb. (21 x 42.5 x 6.4 cm, 10.21kg)

Credit Line

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Accession Number

86.226.30

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