Image Details

Hands bound, a procession of Philistine prisoners, wearing their trademark feathered headdresses, are led to captivity. The relief appears on the walls of Ramesses III’s temple at Medinet Habu and, together with the depiction of the naval battle, served as the Egyptian declaration of victory against the Philistines and other Sea Peoples. The hieroglyphic text above the prisoners (partially visible at upper right) reads, “The words spoken by the fallen ones of Peleset [the Egyptian name for the Philistines], ‘Give us the breath for our nostrils thou king, son of Amon.’”