Egyptian art relief carving of Haitiay. Post Amarna sculpture. Ancient Egypt

Post Amarna period relief replica of Hatiay

Dimensions - Height - 25.2 cm -10 inches

Width - 22.8 cm - 9 inches

Depth - 2.5 cm - 1 inch

* Made of a limestone and quartzite composition stone it is has an earthy ochre colouration with subtle hand painted details.

* A wire loop on the back allows for a wall feature display option.

* Visit Down under Pharaoh on Instagram and YouTube for more Amarna and Egyptological designs that may be available to order here.



This beautiful relief carving recreates every textural quality of the original Memphite fragment with a restoration of some of the lost ancient colour scheme.

The original piece was part of a larger scene from the owner’s mortuary chapel and was carved out of limestone in ancient Saqqara just south of modern day Cairo. It was made for an interesting official named Hatiay who is depicted as the large central figure with his son Ptah-mes behind him.
The third figure in front represents a priest wearing the characteristic panther skin and side lock. The inscription is the voice of the priest asking the re-instated god Sokar-Osiris to grant funerary offerings - ‘a thousand of each kind to be given to Hatiay.’ Hatiay holds a censur in the shape of a human arm holding incense and a libation vessel to present to the god that is not depicted.

The shape of the heads are the most revealing aspect of this fragment for those who love the Amarna period.The fine hands and the pleated costume show how the artistry of Akhenaton’s revolution had infiltrated deeply into the sculptors hand.

After the collapse of the solar revolution soon after the death of Akhenaton, there was a fervent need for the population to reconnect with the old gods. Many people that lived at Amarna had secretly remained faithful to the old Egyptian system of a full pantheon of gods and goddesses. Many more outside of Amarna were quick to get back to the system that had served Egypt for over a thousand years. This fragment is just one of many that expressed this desire by someone of means.

Hatiay is a very interesting figure if somewhat enigmatic. It was not a common name for a man but it seems possible there were two living in the times of Akhenaton. Some evidence existis to suggest they were one and the same person that lived to an unusual but not impossible, old age.

Evidence of a certain Hatiay that lived in Amarna (ancient Akhet-aton) was an overseer of works and keeper of the granaries of Akhenaton’s new city until it was abandoned. Hatiay’s house at Amarna came to light in the early 1930’s and a video by the Egypt exploration society I have seen shows how amazing his house must have been. The quality of the carved lintel of the main doorway is exceptional.

Mostly mud brick remains of the superstructure now but one can imagine how imposing a fully plastered and painted house must have been.

This particular ‘Hatiay’ had a burial in the Theban foothills discovered intact by Georges Daressy in 1896.

To the north in Saqqara definitive evidence of the ‘Hatiay’ shown in this fragment is present. Known also as Re-Hatiay and sometimes called Raiay. This could be a nickname. He was a scribe of the treasury of the temple of Aton in Memphis and he had a wife called Maya who was none other than Tutankhamun’s wet nurse.

The temple of Aton was well and truly closed by the time this carving was made as reference to the reinstated god Sokar suggests. Could it be a singular Hatiay whom had a first wife called Maya, in close association with the royal family? They moved from Amarna when Akhenaton died with the rest of the refugee court officials to the north and were re-absorbed into the old system. Maya died, Hatiay returned to Thebes to be buried with his new wife?

The puzzles of Egyptology create more questions than answers a lot of the time. Either way this fragment is one piece of the jigsaw.