Tomb Relief of Nubian Prisoners

Within the tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara, one of the most striking reliefs depicts a quiet yet powerful moment: the documentation of Nubian prisoners following a southern campaign.

Unlike the common scenes of bound captives, these men are shown seated in orderly rows, their hands resting calmly upon their knees, awaiting registration by the Egyptian scribes before them. Each figure is carved with remarkable individuality (broad-nosed, full-lipped, and strong-featured) the Ancient Egyptian artistic convention for peoples from the lands beyond the southern frontier.

They wear the characteristic Nubian earring and display the ritualised scarification upon their cheeks, marks still known among certain tribes of southern Sudan today. Their hair, once painted in warm pigments now mostly lost, was rendered as short twisted locks or layered caps, often dyed a bright red, a detail that subtly captured regional customs of adornment.

Behind them, the Egyptian scribes lean forward with reed pens poised, recording the names, origins, or number of these men—an image of control, precision, and bureaucracy in motion.

The prisoners are not depicted as struggling or humiliated, but as subdued and compliant, a deliberate artistic choice reflecting both Egypt’s perceived dominion and its administrative order in the aftermath of conquest.

The balance between discipline and dignity in this composition is striking; the captives remain human, observed rather than brutalised, while the scribes, absorbed in their task, embody the machinery of empire. Through this single scene, carved around 1330 B.C., we glimpse Egypt’s worldview at the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty; a civilisation defining itself through conquest, yet immortalising even its enemies with grace and quiet realism upon the stone walls of eternity.

Horemheb as a King

At the time this relief was carved, Horemheb was not yet Pharaoh but the powerful Commander-in-Chief of Egypt’s armies under Tutankhamun, around 1330 B.C. Rising from non-royal origins, likely from the town of Hnes (modern Hut-nesut) near Herakleopolis, he built a remarkable career through military service and statesmanship during the turbulent years following the Amarna Period.

As “General of the Lord of the Two Lands”, he held authority over Egypt’s borders and foreign campaigns, often leading expeditions into Nubia and Syria. His tomb at Saqqara, grand even for a commoner, was commissioned during this phase of his life; its reliefs celebrating his loyalty, discipline, and triumphs in restoring Egypt’s power after the heresies of Akhetaten.

Following the brief reigns of Tutankhamun and Ay, Horemheb eventually ascended the throne himself, perhaps around 1323 B.C., legitimising his rule by erasing traces of his predecessors and presenting himself as the restorer of divine order, Maat. His kingship marked both the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the reassertion of traditional power, closing a chapter of upheaval with the firm, experienced hand of a soldier-turned-sovereign.

Summary:

Nubian Prisoners Await their Fate

New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, reign of Tutankhamun, c. 1332-1323 B.C.

From the Tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara (From the Time of his work as a General, Prior to Taking the Throne)

Now in the Archaeological Civic Museum of Bologna. KS 1887