Door Jamb

E17527

From: Egypt | Memphis (Egypt)

Curatorial Section: Egyptian

View All (3) Object Images

Object Number E17527
Current Location Collections Storage
Provenience Egypt | Memphis (Egypt)
Locus Palace of Merenptah Rm 14 West Door
Period New Kingdom | Nineteenth Dynasty
Date Made 1213-1204 BCE
Section Egyptian
Materials Limestone
Technique Sunk Relief
Iconography King | Merneptah | Smiting | Enemy | Lioness
Inscription Language Hieroglyphic
Description

King Merenptah is shown in a smiting pose defeating Asiatic enemies. The lioness bounds forward to assist. The King is flanked by an anthropomorphic standard bearing a hieroglyphic text. Before the king are 2 columns of text with his names in cartouches. Above the smiting scene are the ends of two columns of large hieroglyphs. The king wears the crown of upper and lower Egypt. The scene is historical, for Merenptah's armies fought in the Levant, but also symbolic. It represents the royal ideology of pharaoh dominant over all foreigners and provides magical protection against supernatural evil that might enter through the side doorway in which the jamb was set.

Height 123.19 cm
Width 57.15 cm
Depth 10.79 cm
Thickness 0 cm
Credit Line The Eckley B. Coxe Jr. Expedition to Mit-Rahineh (Memphis), Egypt; Clarence Stanley Fisher, 1915

Report problems and issues to digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org.