Plaque painted with names of Ramesses IV on one side and as a scribal palette on the other

Unknown

ca. 1153–1147 B.C. · Travertine (Egyptian alabaster) · Egyptian Art

Whether all ancient Egyptian kings were literate or not, only rarely did they show themselves writing. The oblong plaque is inscribed on one side with Ramesses IV’s cartouches, and on the other, it is decorated to resemble a scribal palette, with areas of red and black ink and a slot to which the reed pens were placed (see, for example, 16.10.298). Mostly, kings emphasized the monumental texts they had inscribed on stelae and temple walls. A few kings, however—especially of the New Kingdom—highlighted papyri and ink. Scenes of royal literacy also appear in this period on temple walls, on which the king writes alongside Thoth, the divine scribe, especially when inscribing his own name on the leaves of a sacred tree (the Ished tree). Through its text and decoration, this plaque might be evoking these various notions of writing,

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1153–1147 B.C.

Medium

Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1908