This small piece of relief was once part of a large scene of courtiers bowing to and greeting the royal family of Amarna. The man wears elaborately pleated court dress, and a wig. His face is lined with age. Both the depiction of age and the servile posture are typical of Amarna images.

Small stones like this one, called Talatat, were used in order to build quickly. Each stone was 27 x 27 x 54 cm, so that it could be easily carried by a single man. Akhenaten’s buildings were dismantled after his death, and many of these small blocks were deposited, as fill, inside pylons and other later constructions. That act of recycling saved them from the elements and random pilfering, so that many complete wall compositions have been reconstructed.