Third Intermediate Period, 2jth Dynasty (ca. 747-664 B. C.)
Copper alloy solid cast; formerly clad in precious-metal leaf; regalia intentionally removed in antiquity
National Archaeological Museum, Athens (624)
Provenance: unknown; acquired by loannis Demetriou in Alexandria; donated with his collection in 1880'
Selected References: Postolakas 1881, no. 166, p. 4; H. W. Muller 1955a, p. 62, n. 3; Tzachou-Alexandri 1995, p. 145; Malek 1999, no. 800-895-048; Hill 2004, pp. 60-62, 168-69
This statuette represents a king of the Kushite dynasty, yet it is inscribed with the cartouche of a later monarch. The king is shown kneeling with his right arm outstretched and flexed. The missing left forearm and hand would have mirrored the right; his palms thus faced inward and were parallel to one another. The shoulders are broad, the chest athletic: a powerful build that conveys an impression of physical strength but not brutality. His round head rests on a distinctively Kushite heavy neck. The face has broad cheeks, and the eyes are almond-shaped, with rounded eyeballs whose outlines are deeply incised. The nose is long and sharp. The lips are small but full, with two depressions at the corners of the mouth. The philtrum on the upper lip, so typical of Egyptian art, is not indicated. The chin is defined by a horizontal groove at the top, beneath which it narrows at its peak. The underlying hyoid bone in the neck protrudes markedly. The surviving right ear is represented in some detail; most of the left ear is missing, as is the base. Small raised disks indicate the nipples and navel.
Below the toes and between the knees are three tangs that once held the figure to its base; they appear more greenish in color than the statue itself The king wears a pleated shendyt kilt, which is deeply grooved and finely executed. There are traces of gilding on the back and along the junction of the kilt and feet. On the head is a close-fitting cap decorated with stamped ringlets (see p. 94), which some scholars have interpreted as a stylized rendering of natural hair. The vertical groove that bisects the torso from the sternal notch to the navel is characteristic of the period from the
Fig. 49. Ram Head Amulet (Probably from a Kushite Royal Necklace) (cat. no. 56)
Twenty-fifth Dynasty (ca. 747-664 b. c.) until the reign of Psamtik II (595-589 b. c.) in the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
There is a diadem, or headband, on the king's forehead, from which two streamers descend at the back. Originally the front of the diadem would have been decorated with the upraised heads of
Detaih of back of head and torso (left) and top of head (right)
Two royal cobras (uraei)—their bodies twining back over the top of the head and their tails hanging down in the rear—that may have represented the Kushites' rulership over Upper and Lower Egypt. The traces of these emblems are more noticeable on the back of the statue (see above left). Around the neck there are faint impressions from what was originally a Kushite-type necklace or neck cord, which had three pendant ram heads resting on the middle and both sides of the chest (see cat. no. 36; fig. 49). The ram, a divine animal and symbol of Amun, was the dominant and protective deity of the Kushite dynasty.
The Kushites conquered Egypt in the mideighth century" b. c. Driven back by the Assyrians in 664 B. C., by 656 B. c. they had withdrawn completely. A truce of some sort seems to have existed between the Kushites and the Egyptians for most of the first half of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty—that is, during the reigns of Psamtik I (664-610 b. c.) and Necho II (610-595 B. C.). When Psamtik II came to power, he organized a campaign against the Kushites and invaded Nubia. Subsequently, during his reign most Kushite representations were "corrected" to show only one uraeus; Kushite neck cords were similarly removed and, particularly in reliefs.
Kushite royal names were erased and sometimes replaced by his own. On this statuette, the Kushite regalia were skillfully and deliberately erased in antiquity, and the belt bears the cartouche of "Psamtik." Given this political context, the cartouche is almost certainly that of Psamtik II.
The size of the statue is nearly twice that of other examples of royal Kushite metal statuary; in fact, it is the largest preserved metal kneeling king from any period of Egyptian history. Along with its other stylistic particularities, this testifies to some unique circumstance of production. The kneeling pose and the position of the hands suggest that the figure was originally holding or stretching out toward a now-missing element, perhaps a baldachin sheltering a divine statue or some other cult object or symbol. It is possible the statuette was a votive offering, but, judging from its size, it was more likely a piece of the essential liturgical equipment of a sanctuary.
World History
