This relief was produced by the Meroitic civilization, which flourished in Nubia, a region located alongside the Nile River in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubia had long held close ties to its northern neighbor, Egypt, which produced conflicts while also encouraging commercial and cultural exchanges. These cultural exchanges are manifested within this work, which contains many similarities with Egyptian depictions of triumphant rulers: for instance, the prince’s left foot forward stance with one arm raised to attack and the other holding onto the enemy's hair is identical to the “smiting pose” in which many victorious Egyptian pharaohs are depicted. Egyptian examples can be seen in the Palette of Narmer and Ramesses II Smiting an Enemy of Egypt. We also see an Egyptian-derived metaphor of domination in the form of the dog mauling the face of a fallen enemy between the prince's legs: the depiction is reminiscent of a common motif in Egyptian victory images, in which enemies are often shown being stomped on by a vicious animal, most often a lion.

The relief also exhibits some Greco-Roman attributes, specifically visible in the figure of the dog, whose strongly indicated iris and deeply bored out pupil exhibits a technique seen in Roman portrait sculpture. Other details of the work that are distinctly Meroitic and distinguish this piece from both Egyptian and Hellenistic works include the presence of Meroitic hieroglyphs, the style of the prince’s robe, and the shape of the headdress of the goddess hovering behind him: this style of headdress was only worn by noble Meroitic women, and examples of it are first found in monuments from at Kawa and Sanam in present day Sudan. 

Sophie Sundaram, Class of 2026, College of the Holy Cross