The colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III is an ancient Egyptian sculpture dating from the 18th Dynasty (

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

). It was found in the massive mortuary temple of the pharaoh Amenhotep III on the West Bank of the

River Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

at Thebes (

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

) in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. Only the head of the broken colossal statue survives. It is part of the British Museum's Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan collection. This brown

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

statue was one of a series of near-identical statues that flanked the west side of a colonnaded courtyard. When complete, it would have measured more than 8 metres (26 feet) high without its base, and the body would have stood in the classic pose of the deity

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...

with legs together and arms crossed, holding the crook and the flail, which were symbols of Egyptian kingship. The statue would have worn a short royal kilt and the

red crown Deshret ( egy, dšrt "Red One") was the formal name for the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of Kemet (Black Land), the fertile Nile river basin. When combined with the Hedjet (White Crown) of Upper Egypt, it for ...

of Lower Egypt. The discovery in 1964 of the head of one other statue and numerous body-fragments of yet more has allowed the reconstruction of the statue's pose. The statues on the other side of the courtyard were similar, but were made of red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

and wore the

white crown Hedjet ( egy, ḥḏt "White One") is the formal name for the White Crown of pharaonic Upper Egypt. After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, it was combined with the Deshret, the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, to form the Pschent, the double cr ...

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

.BM Highlights
/ref> The pose has been interpreted as symbolising the first Sed festival of Amenhotep III, when it was believed that the pharaoh underwent a rite of rejuvenation and became a god while still living. This happened on the 30th anniversary of his rule. As a god, Amenhotep III was then worshipped through this statue and similar ones. The head is 1.17m high, 81 cm wide and 66 cm deep. It was purchased from Henry Salt in 1823. It has the reference number EA 7 and is currently displayed in the Museum's Great Court. From September 2006-February 2008 it was sent on loan to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

as part of the "Temples and Tombs" travelling exhibition.

References

Reading

*B. Porter & R. Moss, ''Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings'' II (Oxford, 1972), p. 453 (with earlier bibliography) *T. G. H. James & W. V. Davies, ''Egyptian Sculpture'' (London, 1983), p. 38, fig.45 *P. Kozloff, B. Bryan and M. Berman, ''Egypt's Dazzling Sun'' (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992), pp. 156–158 = ''Le Pharaon-Soleil'' (Paris, 1993), pp. 126–128 *G. Robins, ''The Art of Ancient Egypt''(London, 1997), p. 122, fig.135 *''Art and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt'' (Japan 1999-2000), p. 32 *''Temples and Tombs'' xhibition catalogue(American Federation of Arts, 2006) 52, cat no. 10 *P. Nicholson and I. Shaw, ''Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology'' (Cambridge 2000), p. 54 *E.R. Russmann, ''Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of'' (University of California Press, 2001) *N. Strudwick, ''Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt'', London: British Museum Publications, 2006, pp. 154–5

External links

British Museum page on the headDetailed British Museum page on the head
{{British Museum Ancient Egyptian sculptures in the British Museum Sculptures of ancient Egypt 14th-century BC works Colossal statues in the United Kingdom