Fragment of painted plaster from the tomb of Sebekhotep

From Thebes, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1400 BC

Africans bearing gold and other items

Sebekhotep was a senior treasury official of the reign of Thutmose IV (1400-1390 BC). One of his responsibilities was to deal with foreign gifts brought to the king. This fragment was a small part of a scene that showed Sebekhotep receiving the produce of the Near East and of Africa on behalf of Thutmose IV.

Three men (probably Nubians) carry luxury items characteristic of their country: gold rings, jasper, ebony logs, giraffe tails, a leopard skin, a live baboon and a monkey. The variation of the colour of the men's skin may represent their different skin types, though it could have been done for aesthetic reasons, to make the individual figures stand out more.

Such scenes represented Sebekhotep's importance as an official, and his relationship with the king; Sebekhotep enjoyed the privileges of office in death as in life.

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

S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)