figure
- Museum number
- EA33932
- Description
-
Yellow limestone figure of a male official named Kasa, the feet now partially lost.
Kasa wears a double wig, featuring long tresses over the top of the head with an undersection of small curls behind the elongated ears. A slim horizontal band of tighter curls is visible along the forehead, and on the reverse at the ends of the wig. His youthful facial features include wide set eyes, faint slightly curved eyebrows, a broad nose, and thick lips. He also has a short beard extending from the chin. He wears a thin tunic with short capped sleeves extending onto the upper arm, under which the bulging chest and torso are clearly modelled. His long kilt is belted at the waist across the front of the body, though there is no clear delineation of the material across the back. The centre of the kilt features a pleated panel which extends outwards and down towards the ankles. His hands are placed in front of him with the palms held flat against either side of the panel. The curviness of the body is emphasised via the fleshy chest, swollen stomach and buttocks. On the reverse, a slim bordered column of inscription is incised down the back of the clothing providing his name and titles, with the lower portion now missing.
Part of the right side upper arm and tunic sleeve is missing, and the ends of the feet are also lost. The figure has been repaired at ankle level in modern times. A long white line is visible across the stone surface reaching from a small chip to the left side of the nose down to the end of the beard. A white line, possibly an abrasion, also appears across the chest of the figure from the neck down to the belly. There are various further chips to the stone surface particularly at the ends of the clothing, and there is discolouration around the neck and chest area.
- Dimensions
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Height: 2.40 centimetres (base)
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Height: 16.90 centimetres (figure)
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Weight: 0.60 kilograms
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Width: 5.70 centimetres (base)
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Width: 5.10 centimetres (figure)
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Depth: 5.70 centimetres (base)
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Depth: 4.10 centimetres (figure)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- The hairstyle and dress are commonly found styles within non-royal representations from the New Kingdom; the male tunic was typically used as an undergarment and often worn together with a kilt such as that worn by Kasa (alternatively described as a sash-kilt; Hallmann 2017).
Earlier analysis of the figure has suggested a resemblance to the king Amenhotep III in the adoption of similar facial features and the heavy physical frame; in particular, Kasa’s body has been compared to a portly figure of Amenhotep III from the later phases of his reign, now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 30.8.74: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544478; Russmann 2001). This larger physical form has previously been considered to allude to fertility, and could be connected to deities such as the god Hapy (Kozloff and Bryan 1992). However, the swollen torso, though exaggerated, could equally be attributed to an Amarna influence.
Further Bibliography:
A. Hallmann, 2017. ‘Clothing (non-royal), Pharaonic Egypt’ in A. Erskine et al (eds.) The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Malden), p. 7.
J. Vandier, 1958. Manuel d'Archeologie egyptienne III (Paris), p. 652.
General Sources:
A.P. Kozloff, B.M. Bryan, 1992. Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and his World (Cleveland; Bloomington).
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- fair (repaired at ankle level)
- Acquisition date
- 1856
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA33932
- Registration number
- 1856,0814.2
