An Eternal Bouquet for the Dead

This relief of an elaborate floral bouquet, to which ducks are bound below a broad-collar necklace, was the left end of a tomb door lintel. At first glance a decorative floral piece, the bouquet is actually a symbol of life. All its elements are symbols of fertility and regeneration. The necklace symbolizes protection, and the bound ducks the control of malign forces that might threaten the dead. Related Late Period reliefs come from northern Egypt and often show, as does this relief, the influence of works from much earlier periods.