Date of creation/manufacture: King Sahure (2458-2446 BC)
Inventory number Main number: 18.2.4 Collection The Met Museum
DESCRIPTION
Object name/Title Statue
Description/Features
This is the only preserved three-dimensional representation that has been identified as Sahure, the second ruler of Dynasty 5. Seated on a throne, the king is accompanied by a smaller male figure personifying the local god of the Coptite nome, the fifth nome (province) of Upper Egypt. This deity offers the king an ankh (hieroglyph meaning "life") with his left hand. The nome standard, with its double-falcon emblem, is carved above the god's head. Sahure wears the nemes headcloth and straight false beard of a living pharaoh. The flaring hood of the uraeus, the cobra goddess who protected Egyptian kings, is visible on his brow. The nome god wears the archaic wig and curling beard of a deity.
The statue may have been intended to decorate the king's pyramid complex at Abusir, about fifteen miles south of Giza. At the end of the previous dynasty, multiple statues of this type were placed in the temple of Menkaure (Mycerinus) to symbolize the gathering of nome gods from Upper and Lower Egypt around the king. However, since no other statues of this type are preserved from Sahure's reign, it is possible that this statue was a royal dedication in one of the temples in Coptos (modern Qift).
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Dimensions H. 64 × W. 46 × D. 41.5 cm, 127 kg (25 3/16 × 18 1/8 × 16 5/16 in., 280 lb.)
Reign Reign of Sahure
PLACES AND DATES
Dated King Sahore Accompanied by a Divine Figure (2458–2446 BC)
Period Old Kingdom
HISTORY Collector / Previous owner / The Host, Nestor
Commissioner / Archaeologist /
Dedicatee Acquiring details Purchased in Luxor from Yusef Hassan
Acquisition date date of entry in the inventory: 1918
Owned by state
Held by On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 136
INDEX
Period Old Kngdom - 5th Dynasty - King Sahure
