Fragment of painted plaster from the tomb of Sebekhotep

From Thebes, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1400 BC

Craftsmen at work

As a senior treasury official of the reign of Thutmose IV (1400-1390 BC), one of Sebekhotep's responsibilities was to oversee craftsmen working for his department. Scenes showing the manufacture of valuable items, such as jewellery, on the walls of his tomb helped to indicate Sebekhotep's importance.

These two registers show different stages and products of the jeweller's craft, in particular the broad collars so characteristic of festive scenes in tomb paintings. The men in the upper part of this painting are probably stringing beads, while one man in the lower part of the register is making them into the large collar shown on his lap.

E. Dziobek, Das Grab des Sobekhotep. Thebe (Mainz, Zabern, 1990)