Head of Userkaf

Artefact Details

Gallery number: 46 – Ground Floor

Period: Old Kingdom

Dynasty: 5th Dynasty – Reign of Userkaf (2435 – 2306 BC)

Size: Height: 38 cm

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.