This is a detail from a stela that was commissioned by a man called Nesikhonsu, who lived during the 26th Dynasty (so around 2500 years ago). He held several titles, including God’s Father – which is a priestly title and is involved in the daily ritual in temples.

The vignette shows Nesikhonsu standing in front of the god Atum. You can see he’s wearing a very fine linen robe with a leopard skin over the top. Leopard skins were worn by Egyptian priests, in particular by sem priests – presumably this was also one of Nesikhonsu’s titles.

If you look closely you can see that as well as all the colour that remains on the stela there are also hints of gold leaf. Atum must once have had golden skin and the giant lotus flower that Nesikhonsu is presenting to the god had golden sepals. It was probably quite garish!

The stela was found in tomb MMA60 at Deir el Bahri, and is now in the Met Museum (acc. no.: 25.3.210).

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1486/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3ce88553077e
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2cbe0131c2bf