Detail of a Ram, Tomb of Khnumhotep

The image known as Detail of a Ram reproduces a scene from the Tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan and was recorded as a facsimile in 1899 by Nina M. Davies, who worked with Norman de Garis Davies on the documentation of Egyptian tomb paintings. Now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it serves as a preserved record of the ancient wall painting and as a scholarly resource for understanding the visual culture of the Middle Kingdom.

The facsimile of the ram from the Tomb of Khnumhotep, rendered by Nina M. Davies in 1899, functions as a reference image in the Egyptological study of Middle Kingdom tomb art. Its place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection has supported continued scholarly attention to the original tomb painting.

This drawing records a single ram depicted in the tomb of Khnumhotek (also known as Khnumhotep), an elite burial site from Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty. Executed by the Egyptologist‑illustrator Nina M. Davies, the work forms part of a systematic survey of tomb wall paintings undertaken with her husband, Norman de Garis Davies, during the early‑to‑mid‑20th century. The piece is now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.

The animal is rendered as a large, dark‑filled ram with tightly coiled, serpentine horns and a pronounced, drooping lower lip. In Egyptian symbolism, rams were associated with fertility, strength, and the god Khnum, who was believed to shape humanity on a potter’s wheel. The presence of a smaller creature at the ram’s feet may suggest a hierarchical relationship or a narrative scene linked to funerary rites.