The Statue of Sobekneferu was a sculpture of the ancient Egyptian queen

Sobekneferu , image = File:Statue of Sobekneferu (Berlin Egyptian Museum 14475).jpg , image_alt = Partially defaced bust of a female , caption = Statue of Sobekneferu , reign = 3 years, 10 months, and 24 days according to the Turin Canon in the mid 18th ...

(about 1800 BC), who reigned during the

12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

. This bust is the first known statue of the queen with her face preserved. There are several statues known belonging to this ruling queen, however, all others are headless. The sculpture was kept in the

Egyptian Museum of Berlin The Egyptian Museum of Berlin (german: Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) is home to one of the world's most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the iconic Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of t ...

, but was lost in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The bust was bought in 1899 (inventory no. 14475). The bust was about 14 cm high and made of

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

. The identity of the woman shown was for a long time unknown, as the piece is uninscribed. The face of the woman shows clearly signs of age and dates therefore stylistically to the late Middle Kingdom, when most sculptures show people no longer ageless young as in other periods of Egyptian history. Today, the bust is known from photographic images, and also from preserved plaster casts. The

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

Biri Fay was able to locate the remaining part of the statue. It is now in the

Museum of Fine Arts in Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

(MFA 24.742, 21.4 cm high), but was once found in the temple of

Taharqa Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo ( Egyptian: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 ''tꜣ-h-rw-k'', Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-u2'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of ...

in the

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

n fortress of

Semna The region of Semna is 15 miles south of Wadi Halfa and is situated where rocks cross the Nile narrowing its flow—the Semna Cataract. Semna was a fortified area established in the reign of Senusret I (1965–1920 BC) on the west bank of the N ...

. The lower part of the statue is also uninscribed but shows on the throne the hieroglyphic signs ''uniting the two lands'' (zm3-t3wy). This is a royal symbol and only attested for kings. Therefore, this (now photographically united) statue shows a woman that ruled as king and must belong to Sobekneferu, the only ruling queen of the late Middle Kingdom.Biri Fay, R. E. Freed, T. Schelper, Friederike Seyfried: ''Neferusobek Project: Part I''. In: G. Miniaci, W. Grajetzki (editors): ''The World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000–1550 BC) Contributrions on Archaeology, Art, Religion, and Written Sources.'' Band 1, Golden House Publications, London 2015, {{ISBN, 9781906137434, 89-91
online
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References

Sculptures of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Sculptures of the Berlin State Museums Sculptures of ancient Egypt Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt Lost sculptures Egyptological objects of the Berlin State Museums