Base for Statuette of Sekhemka

In the Brooklyn Museum is the statuette of Sekhemka; the diorite statue of Sekhemka sits on this base, made of limestone and painted to resemble the statuette. The statuette was repaired in ancient times, as is seen by an ancient drill hole on the broken surface.

Originally, the statuette was probably a royal sculpture of the Old Kingdom, perhaps late Dynasty 5, that was broken and reused by Sekhemka as his mortuary statue.

There are a number of views of the statuette and its base, including the Brooklyn Museum's study of the object.

Photo: Seated Statuette of Sekhemka, ca. 2400-2345 B.C.E. Diorite and painted limestone, 15 1/4 x 7 7/8 x 16 1/4 in. (38.7 x 20 x 41.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.23E. Creative Commons-BY-NCImage: front, 37.23E_front_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007

The Metropolitan's Mummy of Prince Amenemhat

In the excavation season of 1918-1919, the Metropolitan's excavations south of Deir El Bahri revealed a small coffin containing the well-wrapped mummy of a prince of the early eighteenth dynasty named Amenemhat. A pectoral on the mummy's chest shows Amenhotep I smiting the king's enemies; this suggests Amenhotep I may have been the young child's father.

The mummy and his burial, much of which is dated to the twenty-first dynasty, were given through the division of finds to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here are a few of the finds.

Notes

1. Photo: Ambrose Lansing, February 1919, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Period: New Kingdom

Dynasty: Dynasty 18, early

Date: ca. 1550–1479 B.C.

Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt; Thebes, Southern Asasif, Cliff Tomb (MMA 1021), inside coffin 19.3.207a, b, MMA 1918–1919

Medium: Human remains

Dimensions: h. 74.5 cm (29 5/16 in) h. without head 0.60m h. head 14.5 cm

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1919

Accession Number: 19.3.208a-e–e

Reading for a Rainy Day

Here I find myself on a rainy day with something interesting to re-read the 1890 classic of Egyptian archaeology by the legendary man himself, Flinders Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara.

Mummy of Merenre I?

Found this photograph of the mummy of the Old Kingdom King Merenre I. The last time I checked it was in the Imhotep Museum, though that was a few years ago. The mummy was found beside the sarcophagus of that king's pyramid at Saqqara. Upon the Brugsh brothers removing the mummy from the pyramid, it broke into two pieces, making it easier to carry.