67-Relief of Pairkap

During the 4th century BCE, elite tomb reliefs returned to Old and New Kingdom models. Scenes of offering bearers and musicians before the deceased were favored, particularly in Memphis and the Delta. The high, rounded relief style is characteristic of the last native dynasty of Egypt.¹

The deceased sits on a feline-legged chair with lotus decoration. This type of seat first appears in the Early Dynastic period. Pairkap has a shaven head and wears a broad collar and a robe fastened over his left shoulder with fringed edges. He holds a long staff in one hand and a lotus flower in the other. The text before Pairkap identifies him as “the controller of the estates, Pairkap.”² The sole use of this title most likely relates to its honorary nature.³

Before Pairkap, a male musician plays the harp on a platform. Behind the harpist are two female offering bearers wearing broad collars and long dresses. The first woman holds out a menat necklace with a counterpoise composed of a collar with a leonine head wearing a solar disk and a uraeus. The beads of the necklace descend from the counterpoise. Her arm carries the handles of a woven basket, a bowl with caprid-headed protomes, and a tray with a seated cat statuette and a striding figurine with a basket on its head. Above the figures, the blank columns were never filled in. Behind her, another female offerer brings a bouquet of lotus and papyrus. Both women wear curious ball-like headdresses, the one to the left with a looped attachment.⁴

MH

1. Cf. WAM 22.97 (380–342 BCE from Heliopolis), and Relief of Horhotep EMC JE 46591 (360–340 BCE from Buto). ↩︎

2. See Sayed 1976, 93–94 (c), for spelling of Pairkap with a p3-bird. ↩︎

3. Jelínková 1958, 94. ↩︎

4. Berman and Bohač 1999, no. 314. ↩︎