statue
- Museum number
- EA37892
- Description
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Kneeling granite statue of Wahibraemakhet with a baboon figure, the head reconstructed as a plaster cast.
The figure wears a smooth shoulder-length wig which is tucked behind the ears. His eyes are almond shaped with a thick incised line above the eyes, and his eyebrows are thick and modelled in raised relief. His nose is short and broad at the tip, with a cupid’s bow above his upper lip. The lips are thick and the lower lip is sharply incised, while the outer corners of the mouth are slightly upturned to suggest a faint smile. The face is rounded and fleshy at the mouth and jawline. His upper body appears bare, with a clear narrowing at the waist. There appears to be a faint outline around his waist indicating his clothing, though there is no clear delineation of this material at his legs or feet. His arms are broad, and held out in front of him to support the baboon figure with his hands placed at its legs. Between his knees is the separate short plinth for the baboon figure. The baboon, his face now lost, places his front paws on his knees, with the smooth ‘feathered hood’ or layers of fur across the chest delineated from the head and lower body. His tail is curled around the right side of the body. Across the front of this plinth are the royal titles for king Apries. On the reverse of the main figure is a slim back-pillar inscribed with two columns of incised text. Two horizontal lines of additional text are also inscribed around the statue base.
Part of the right side of the wig is lost, and the damage to the baboon figure obscures the facial features. There is damage around the shoulder and neck area from the break, otherwise the figure is in good condition.
- Dimensions
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Height: 33 centimetres (max)
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Width: 11 centimetres
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Depth: 22 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Inscription subject
royal
- Curator's comments
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The original head is now in the Turin collection (Accession number 3145, Museo Egizio, Turin, with a cast of the British Museum fragment: https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_3145). Further photographs of the two original pieces via the Museo Egizio website confirm their match. This individual can confidently be identified as Wahibraemakhet, also known as Pakap. His coffin is also in the British Museum collection (EA 1384; British Museum, London: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA1384). A different head is also recorded as matching this statue in a photograph from Petrie now in the Griffith Institute, which instead appears to be another piece now in Turin (https://archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk/index.php/petrie-3-1-380; corresponds to Acccession number 3139, Museo Egizio, Turin: https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/Cat_3139).
The inscription provides a secure 26th Dynasty date through the surviving cartouches of the king Apries. The figure has previously been connected to a temple for the god Thoth within the area of Tell Mostai at Hermopolis (Perdu 2006; Roveri 1989).
Further Bibliography:
A.M. Donadoni Roveri, 1989. Dal museo al museo, passato e futuro del Museo Egizio di Torino, p. 204, no. 9, Fig. 19-21.
A. Fabretti, F. Rossi & R. V. Lanzone. 1882. Regio Museo di Torino. Antichità Egizie p. 413.
O. Perdu, 2006. Documents relatifs aux gouverneurs du Delta au début de la XXVIe dynastie Revue d'Égyptologie Volume 57, p. 157(a).
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Head in Turin (3145); plaster cast currently in KEB with statue. cf. Donadoni Roveri, Dal Museo al Museo (1989).
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Provenance of Mostai suggested by Perdu, RdE 57 (2006): 157 (a)
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- incomplete - head of figure and baboon lost
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA37892
- Registration number
- .37892
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: BS.504 (Birch Slip Number)
