This is one of numerous relief fragments from a series of offering-bearers or courtiers, retrieved by the Egypt Exploration Fund in the clearance of the temple of king Nebhepetra Mentuhotep on the West Bank at Thebes. The fragment preserves part of a finely carved figure of a courtier, one hand held in reverence to the chest. He wears a formal kilt bound in a knot at the waist. Series of such figures are first found in relief on the walls of Old Kingdom royal pyramid temples, evidently the inspiration for the artists of Mentuhotep during the reunification of Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.
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