Khnum or Khnum-hotep in person. The next group to 

 the right shows the overseer of the estate receiving a 

 manicure, while his retainer and scribe wait on either 

 side attentively (below). The final scene at the ex- 

 treme right shows a scribe seated and receiving a pedi- 

 cure. The whole register, from right to left (con- 

 ventional reading direction for the Egyptians) presents 

 a cross section of society, such as would be found at a 

 functioning local marketplace. In the spirit of this cross 

 section, in the replica painting of this relief scene, in 

 the exhibit, the Museum has shown another dimension 

 of Egyptian society — the many shades of skin color. In 

 Old Kingdom scenes such variation was not customari- 

 ly shown; it was a concept introduced in the New King- 



The policemen are at either end of the register, in what 

 is clearly a humorous arrangement, such as the Egyp- 

 tians loved so dearly. At the right, the senior police- 

 man holds a female baboon which has just caught a 

 thief by an unmanned market stall. The thief is naked, 

 and the baboon has bitten his leg (p. 16, lower left). 

 The verbal exchange is indicated by the captions in 

 hieroglyphs. "Catch, catch!" says the policeman. The 

 thief exclaims: "You're the authority, get him (off me) 

 onto the ground! I'll desist from doing wrong." At the 

 left end, a junior policeman pulls on the leash holding a 

 male baboon that is pilfering fruit from a market basket 

 (p. 16, top left). The shop owner volubly protests: 

 "Youngster, you may do as you like — but only until your 



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dom Period when Egypt's empire brought Egyptians 

 into contact with diverse peoples, Asiatic and African. 

 Yet, even as it is today, the Egyptian population itself 

 ranged from light-toned in the northern regions to 

 dark-toned in the far southern region around Aswan. 

 In between, there is a gradual darkening tone as you 

 progress from the Mediterranean coast to Aswan. It is 

 this variation that our marketplace replica is intended 

 to convey. 



The regular marketplace is displayed in the next 

 three registers, which may be read from the top down- 

 ward. Again, various segments of society are shown in- 

 teracting. In the second register two policemen are rep- 

 resented, not with dogs, but with baboons, on leashes! 



boss is brought to you!" The humor of this scene tran- 

 scends the centuries — the police protect, but they also 

 transgress sometimes. .The use of baboons here is not 

 unique. Elsewhere in Old Kingdom Egyptian reliefs ba- 

 boons may be seen performing chores or being led on 

 leashes. The Egyptians no doubt appreciated the ba- 

 boon's intelligence and aggressiveness, but more than 

 one relief also conveys humor using baboons. The 

 Egyptians used dogs as well, but mainly for hunting; in 

 such scenes the hounds are the Armanti breed, still 

 used in Egypt to this day as guard dogs they are fast, 

 with a greyhound-like body, and very ferocious. 



The remaining scenes are devoted to transactions 

 between customers and merchants. In the second regis- 



15 



