Overlapping Figures

The Epyptians rendered the figure in front hiding the figure or figures in the rear.  This is consistent with what we observe in real life, but that is about as far as the painters were prepared to go. The emphasis here is on the clarity of the story, not necessarily on representation of what the viewer would actually observe. The figures are very stylized, their anatomically impossible postures very formalized and symbolic. They are a kind of shorthand. So it is enough overlap the figures to suggest depth. The observer was presumably literate enough in this visual language to be able to incorporate that information into the story. If the rendering looks awkward to us, that is because we lack the previous knowledge or the literacy to understand it.

The Book of the Dead of Kenna; 1325-1275 BCE, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
reproduced in Hannelore Kischkewitz and Werner Forman:Egyptian Art; London, lyn, 1989, pl. 34

Geese of Medum; 2610-2590 BCE, Cairo, Egyptian Museum
reproduced in Fredrick Hartt; Art, A History of Painting, Sculture, Architecture: Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall and New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1976, Colourplate 6