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Primary sourceArtifactOld Kingdom, c. 2600-2500 BCE

Relief of Archers from Lisht

Unknown Egyptian sculptor · Old Kingdom, c. 2600-2500 BCE

A limestone relief fragment of two archers, reused at Lisht and attributed to the decoration of Khufu's lost pyramid temple.

A relief fragment thought to come from Khufu's pyramid temple, offering rare evidence of its lost decoration.

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Photograph of a limestone relief fragment with red-painted details showing two archers in profile facing right, each with a bow and a visible quiver; the stone is weathered and broken at the edges.
Relief fragment with archers, Old Kingdom, reused at Lisht. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is a carved limestone relief fragment showing two archers, each with a bow and quiver, carved in profile with traces of red paint. It was found reused at Lisht, a site later built up by Middle Kingdom rulers who recycled stone blocks from older monuments.

Why it matters

Scholars connect this fragment to the lost pyramid temple of Khufu, since later kings often stripped older royal buildings for building material. If the attribution is correct, it is a rare surviving piece of decoration from a monument central to Khufu's reign, showing how Old Kingdom artists depicted warfare and the pharaoh's forces.

Look closer

  • What details can you see in the carving despite the weathering?
  • Why might a block from one king's monument end up reused somewhere else centuries later?
  • What does this fragment NOT tell us about the original building it came from?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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