''Raherka and Meresankh'' (Raherka: " Ra = the Sun god" and Meresankh: "she loves life") is a group statue of an ancient Egyptian couple of the

4th Dynasty The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

5th Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and VI under the group title the Old Kingdom. The Fifth Dynasty pharaohs reigned for approximately 150 years, from the early 25th century BC until ...

Background

Raherka held high administrative responsibilities. He was an "inspector of scribes of the jackal". Meresankh's title was "King's acquaintance", which means she had access to the royal

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

.Raherka and Meresankh
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Statue

The couple is known from their beautiful pair-statue now in the Louvre (E 15592), which is an example of

portraiture in Ancient Egypt Portraiture in ancient Egypt forms a conceptual attempt to portray "the subject from its own perspective rather than the viewpoint of the artist ... to communicate essential information about the object itself". Ancient Egyptian art was a religio ...

. The statue is carved from limestone and is high. The husband and wife are carefully modeled with Raherka's figure showing musculature. The pair-statue is painted in multiple colors. The husband is rendered in the traditional red skin color used for males, while his wife Meresankh is painted in a yellow toned skin color which was standard for that time. The wigs and eyeliners are painted black. The statue of Raherka and Meresankh has been compared to that of the dwarf

Seneb Seneb was a high-ranking court official in the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, ''circa'' 2520 BC. A Dwarfism, dwarf, Seneb was a person of considerable importance and wealth who owned thousands of cattle, held twenty palaces and religious titles a ...

and his family. In both statues the wife is shown warmly embracing her husband. The German Egyptologists Hermann Junker had dated the pair statue to the end of the Old Kingdom, and it has been suggested that the statue dates to the

. Others have suggested that the pose of the wife and the names point to the

.Kunst des Alten Reiches:Symposium im Deutschen Archäologischen Institut Kairo, am 29. und 30. Oktober 1991, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Abteilung Kairo, P. von Zabern, 1995, pp 36-37 The statue was found in 1902 by Montague Ballard and probably comes from tomb D 37 which is located in the Steindorff cemetery in Giza. Fragments of another statue depicting a woman carrying a child were found just north of the tomb and are now in the Leipzig Museum (Inv. 2446).Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition; revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek, 1974. Retrieved fro
gizapyramids.org
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References

{{Louvre Museum People of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt People of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt Sculptures of ancient Egypt Egyptian antiquities in the Louvre 1902 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Egypt