Wooden statue from the tomb of Ramesses I

From the Valley of the Kings, Egypt
19th Dynasty, around 1300 BC

A guardian statue wearing a khat bag wig

This wooden statue, from the tomb of Ramesses I, is similar to the two guardian statues that stood either side of the entrance to the burial chamber of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). Most of the other tombs in the Valley of the Kings also had similar statues, but most of these do not survive; time and tomb robbers have destroyed them. However, when Giovanni Belzoni cleared the tomb of Ramesses I in 1817, he found a number of fragments, including this statue.

Like the statues from the tomb of Tutankhamun, this statue wears the so-called khat bag wig, and a second, less well-preserved, wears the nemes lappet wig.

It can be seen from this statue that it is made from separate pieces, notably the arms and the front of the kilt. It is also likely that gilding was placed over certain parts of the statue, but this was stripped off when the tomb was robbed.

T.G.H. James, Ancient Egypt: the land and it (London, 1988)

N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun: the (London, Thames and Hudson, 1990)