Cleveland Museum of Art

Talatat: Men Hoeing the Earth

Date

c. 1353–1347 BCE

Medium

painted sandstone

Culture

Egypt, Karnak, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten (1351–1334 BCE)

Department

Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In the early part of his reign, Amenhotep IV built an enormous temple to the sun disk (Aten) at the east end of the temple of Karnak. To expedite construction, sandstone was quarried in small, regularly sized, easily manageable blocks called talatat. Unlike the huge monoliths typically used in temple construction, talatat could be carried and moved into position by one man. Not all of the temple was built of stone, however. In this block, workmen are shown bent in toil. They once formed part of a panoramic scene depicting the production of mud bricks. The men are involved in the initial stages of this process: hacking up the earth and gathering the raw clay. It is very likely that this talatat represents a distinct historical event, undoubtedly connected with Amenhotep IV’s huge building enterprises at East Karnak.

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