Place of discovery: Saqqara, Excavated by A. Mariette for the EAS (Egyptian Antiquities Service) in 1861
Size: Height: 315 cm, width: 210 cm
Material: Painted limestone
False door of Iteti Ankhiris, with outer lintel and jambs, slab stela, inner lintel and jambs, mat roll, and statue of the deceased. The outer lintel is uninscribed, and bears no text. On each outer jamb are three columns of text above a figure of Iteti. On the panel, Iteti sits, facing proper right, before an offering table. On the inner lintel is an offering prayer in two horizontal lines and an image of Iteti seated. On each inner jamb are six columns of text comprising an offering list above an image of Iteti standing. The name of the deceased is on the mat roll. In the central niche is a figure of Iteti carved half in the round, standing on a high threshold with his arms at his sides, holding cylindrical objects in his fists. He wears a round wig and a knee-length kilt with a pleated flap. The pigment is well preserved towards the bottom of the door.
Place of discovery: Meir, Excavated for the EAS (Egyptian Antiquities Service) in 1894
Size: H. 36 cm
Material: Painted Wood
Striding statue of the porter, Niankhpepikem (“servant of Niankhpepi”), carrying a back pack (perhaps a medical bag) and a basket. The forward motion indicated by the stride illustrates his eternal portering service for his master, Niankhpepi, in whose tomb this figure was placed for such purpose. The figure of the servant is simple but well executed, dressed in a simple sheath kilt and wearing his hair, or perhaps a wig, neatly dressed in horizontal rows of short braids or twists radiating from the crown of the head. His load features a unique rendition of an ingenious carrying arrangement for one arm – a strap is attached to the right side of the pack and then is passed over the front chest and wraps tightly around the bent left arm help balance the load. The intricate decoration and bright colors of the pack and basket provide a colorful contrast to the simple figure. The pack features a leopard skin design bordered in red, white and green. The legs are pointed, a curious shape for resting the pack on the ground – perhaps they were driven into soft ground or sand to ensure stability. The basket with a colored diamond design, carefully rendered in black, white, yellow, and blue/green, has a handle; yet, our porter chooses to balance it on his right palm. Statuettes such as these were placed in tombs to ensure that the owner would enjoy all the creature comforts, such as servants, in the Afterlife as he or she had in this life – one wonders what the servants thought about this.
Place of discovery: Abusir – Sun temple of Userkaf
Material: Greywacke
Userkaf was the first king of the 5th Dynasty and for the first time associated a solar temple with a funerary temple and is depicted with the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. This beautiful uninscribed head, found in 1957 during the joint excavations of German and Swiss Institutes in Cairo, is one of the masterpieces of the Old Kingdom sculpture.
Dynasty: Dynasty 4, Reign of Snefru (2543-2510 BC)
Size: Height: 52 cm – Width: 52-53,5 – Length: 99 cm – Poles length: 99 cm
Place of discovery: Giza, Tomb of Hetepheres I
Material: Wood and gold leaf
Hetepheres was the wife of Snefru, the first king of the 4th Dynasty and mother of Khufu: his sedan chair with two carrying poles decorated with palmiform capitals was found by the American archeologist George Reisner in 1925. It is the only example of this kind of chair that survived to the present day. Ebony panels with golden hieroglyphs that give the names and epithets of the queen adorn the back of the chair.
The so-called “Reserve heads” (about thirty are known) have been found in the sarcophagus chambers of the mastabas belonging to high dignitaries at the time of the Fourth Dynasty. The function of these enigmatic sculptures made on limestone and subsequently modeled with plaster but without elements of social identification is still not clear and in this regard, there are several theories: representations of the tomb-owner, alternate home for the spirit of the deceased, magical purposes but there are no proofs.
Dynasty: Dynasty 4, Reign of Snefru (ca. 2575-2551 BC)
Size: Height: 29 cm, Length: 174 cm
Place of discovery: Meidum, Mastaba of Nefermaat
Material: Paint on plaster
Many tombs from ancient Egypt were plastered and painted. This technique was faster and more economical than relief-carving on stone and high-quality stone was not necessary for the production of high-quality works of art. This particular panel is exceptional in the skill in which it was painted. The scene contains six geese in two groups of three depicted in a garden. The plumage is beautifully rendered. Two different species of geese are accurately represented. This painting is part of a larger scene in a tomb, the remains of which support the fact that this painting is genuine.
Dynasty: Late Dynasty 5 – Early Dynasty 6 (24th – 23rd Century BC)
Size: H. 43 cm, W. 22,5 cm
Place of discovery: Giza, Tomb of Seneb
Material: Painted Limestone
This group statue of Seneb and his family was found in a naos in his mastaba tomb in Giza. Seneb is represented seated, with his legs crossed, beside his wife who embraces him affectionately. His wife is of normal height. For the sake of the symmetry of the composition, the sculptor carves the couple’s two children where Seneb’s legs would have been, had he been of the same height as his wife. The children are represented naked, with their index fingers in their mouths–the standard manner in which children were typically depicted in art. The boy is seen on the viewer’s left, wearing a sidelock of youth and depicted in a darker skin than his sister’s, who stands on his left. The sidelock of youth was typically worn by male children and was cut off at puberty.
The inscriptions on the base and the front of the seat tell us that Seneb was the funerary priest of the deceased kings Khufu and Djedefra, and in charge of the royal wardrobe.
Seneb’s tomb is very interesting, for it has the first ceiling dome over a square chamber.
Dynasty: Dynasty 4, Reign of Snofru (ca. 2613-2589 BC)
Size: Height of Rahotep 121 cm; Height of Nofret 122 cm
Place of discovery: Mastaba of Rahotep, Meidum
Material: Painted Limestone, eyes inlaid with rock-crystal, calcite and outlined with copper
These two statues represent prince Rahotep–son of Snofru and brother of Khufu–and his wife Nofret. They were created during the transitional period between the Third and Fourth Dynasties and are very good illustrations of the strict canons that governed the art of this period in Egyptian history. The two statues are very frontal and idealized, since they represented how the deceased figures wished to appear in the afterlife. Rahotep is painted reddish-brown, the colour men were customarily represented with, since they spent a great deal of time in the sun. Nofret is depicted in a pale yellowish colour, as most women were represented in ancient Egypt. Their pose is very typical of this time in ancient Egyptian history. The colours on these statues are extremely well preserved. This and their very realistic eyes, inlaid with rock-crystal, calcite, and outlined with copper make these statues among the most impressive pieces in the Egyptian Museum.
Place of discovery: Abydos (Upper Egypt) – Temple of Osiris at Kom el-Sultan
Material: Ivory
This small statue found in 1903 by the British archeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie is the only known three-dimensional representation of King Khufu (called by the Greeks Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Khufu is represented seated on a throne wearing the crown of Lower Egypt(damaged) and holding a flail in his right hand. On the right side of the throne is carved his name: Khufu is the abbreviated form of “Khnum-khuefui” (Khnum protects me).
Material: Painted Limestone; Eyes: Rock Crystal, Calcite, Copper
During the Old Kingdom officials often commissioned statues for their tombs depicting themselves as scribes. Only a small percentage of the population was literate and therefore the ability to read and write opened up possibilities for economic and social advancement. Individuals desired to retain their status in the afterlife and so they were careful to include images in their tombs that reflected their status and their abilities. The standard scribal pose includes the legs crossed beneath a partially spread roll of papyrus. The right hand is positioned to hold a reed pen. Those who were literate possessed the power to make something exist by putting it into writing or by repeating written words. Repetition of the offering lists in a tomb would magically supply the deceased with all that they desired.
This exceptionally beautiful scribe statue is uninscribed; the name of the subject, therefore, remains unknown. This piece is skillfully sculpted. The facial features are well modeled and, unlike most stone statues, the arms are freed from the torso. The right hand would have been holding a reed pen, while the left holds the papyrus roll.
This iconic statue is currently the logo of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University and has also inspired the logo of the Cairo International Book Fair.
Dynasty: Dynasty 4, Reign of Khafre (ca.2472-2448 BC)
Size: Height 168 cm
Place of discovery: Giza, Valley Temple of Khafre
Material: Diorite
This beautiful statue of King Khafre (called by the Greeks Khefren) is not only one of the masterpieces of the Egyptian Museum but one of the most important sculptures of ancient Egypt. The statue was found by Auguste Mariette in 1860 during his excavations in the Valley Temple of Khafre’s pyramid complex near the Great Sphinx and was one of about 23 identical statues. The king is represented with the names headdress with a uraeus (cobra) seated on a cubic throne decorated on the two sides with the symbol to the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt called sema-tawy. Behind his head, a falcon, a symbol of the god Horus, spread his wings in a gesture of protection.
Dynasty: Dynasty 5, Reign of Userkaf (ca. 2435-2429 BC)
Size: Height 112 cm
Place of discovery: Saqqara, Mastaba of Ka-aper
Material: Wood; Eyes: Rock crystal, calcite, copper, black stone
This is one of the very few wooden statues survived to the present day. Found by Auguste Mariette in 1870 the statue, originally covered by a coat of painted plaster, represent with extreme realism the corpulent chief lector priest Ka-aper with his left foot forward, and holding a staff (now substituted with a copy) in his left hand. His eyes are inlaid with calcite, quartz, and black stone to make a like-life model.
Dynasty: 4th Dynasty, reign of Menkaure (Mycerinos) (2447-2448 BC)
Place of discovery: Giza, Valley Temple of Menkaure
Dimension: Height Between 92.5 cm and 95.5 cm
Material: Grey-green Schist
There are three statuary groups called triads (three figures) showing Menkaure with the White Crown of Upper Egypt between the goddess Hathor and the personification of one of the provinces (called nomoi) of the Upper Egypt with his respective emblem. These triads, superbly sculpted in a single block of stone and originally painted in bright colours, were found intact by the archeologist George Reisner in the valley temple of the Menkaure’s pyramid in the year 1908.
Place of discovery: Giza, Excavated by S. Hassan for the Egyptian University in 1929
Size: height: 26,7 cm, width: 10 cm
Material: Painted limestone
Painted limestone statue of a female brewer. The woman is shown in a shoulder-length wig with her natural hair visible across the forehead, a broad collar, and a calf-length skirt that leaves her torso bare. The wig is painted black, the collar blue and white, and the kilt white; her skin is a light reddish brown. She bends forward from the hips over a large ovoid vat with a ridged base and rim, painted a red-brown, into which she immerses her hands; a screen has been left between the brewer and the vat. Both vat and woman are carved on an integral oval base. The sculpture is in good condition, with some pitting and loss to the pigment. There are chips missing from the base.
Hetepdief was a funerary priest under the reign of the first three kings of the Second Dynasty, Hetepsekhemuy, Raneb, and Nynetjer: their names are engraved on the back of his shoulder within the serekh. This is the first private statue with the earliest lines of extended text. Hetepdjef is represented with an innovative and unusual pose, kneeling in an attitude of praying or as a sign of reverence toward the kings.
Dynasty: Third Dynasty, Reign of Djoser (2592 – 2566 BC)
Size: 142×45,3×95,5 cm
Place of discovery: Saqqara
Material: Painted Limestone
Statue representing King Djoser, the first ruler of the Third Dynasty and owner of the Step Pyramid in the Saqqara necropolis seated on his throne. This statue, originally painted, is the oldest know life-size statue in Egypt and has been found during the excavations of the Egyptian Antiquities Service in the years 1924-25 inside the serdab (Arabic name for «cellar») located on the east side of the Step Pyramid and now replaced by a plaster replica. The ancient robbers removed the eyes that were originally inlaid with rock crystal and obsidian. The pedestal is inscribed with the titles of the king and his Horus name Netjerkhet «His body is divine» in hieroglyphic text.
