Searching for Sesostris

A new French exhibition presents what is known about the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Sesostris III, writes David Tresilian in Paris

Not as famous as his New Kingdom successors Ramses II or Tutankhamun, and not responsible for the kind of grand building projects that immortalised his Old Kingdom predecessors Khufu and Khafre, builders of the largest of the Great Pyramids at Giza, the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Sesostris III was nevertheless one of the country’s most important rulers, becoming a kind of symbolic embodiment of ancient Egyptian kingship.

However, until recently it has been difficult to disentangle fact from fiction in inherited accounts of the pharaoh’s accomplishments, with modern historians tending to see the list of achievements attributed to Sesostris III by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, for example, as either invented or a composite of actions taken by many different rulers.

According to Herodotus, writing in the long second book of his Histories dedicated to ancient Egypt, Sesostris, an unusually war-like ruler, sailed down the Arabian Gulf with a fleet of warships, subduing coastal tribes as he did so. Later, he led campaigns in Asia, defeating the Scythians, and even led Egyptian armies into southern Europe, defeating sundry armies in Thrace.

“It is a fact,” Herodotus writes, “that the Colchians are of Egyptian descent,” indicating that Sesostris and his armies reached the far side of the Black Sea. “I noticed this myself before I heard anyone else mention it… and found that the Colchians remembered the Egyptians more distinctly than the Egyptians remembered them.”

Museum Pieces - Limestone statue of Amenemhat III

Title/s: 
Shelly limestone statue of Amenemhat III
Dimensions:
length 12 cm
width 14.3 cm
Period:
Twelfth Dynasty
Middle Kingdom
Date:
circa 1831 B.C. — 1786 B.C.
Material/s:
shelly limestone
Accession Number:
E.2.1946 (Antiquities) 

Description: 
Head of king Amenemhat III, wearing nemes headdress. Only the shoulders and head are preserved; the base is modern. The statue was found in a private tomb. The facial features are a softer version of the so-called 'realistic portraits' of Senwosret III. In this way the ruler was able to promote a visual link to his predecessor.

This small but forceful head is a fragment from a statue of one of the most important monarchs of Egypt’s 12th dynasty. It is remarkable for its individuality, its suggestion of humanity as well as absolute, divine power.

Amenemhat III here wears the royal nemes headcloth, made of striped linen and bound tightly round his head. On his brow is the uraeus – the cobra symbol. This was used to represent many goddesses, perhaps most frequently Wadjet, protectress of Lower Egypt. Here it probably also represents the eye of the sun god Re, protector of the king.

In ancient Egypt the king was not only the representative of the gods on earth, he was the living embodiment of the deity Horus. Just as Horus had avenged his father Osiris by vanquishing his evil uncle Seth, and saved the lands of Egypt from disorder and chaos, so the king maintained the universal order – maat – and oversaw the continued good government of the country, ensuring harmony between the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Though small, the sculpture manages to convey the great power of the individual represented. The king's eyes look down as though from an elevated position, his mouth is determined and strong. The dark green limestone, dappled with lighter fossils, gives him a distant, otherworldly appearance.

But the sculptor here also brilliantly suggests the fleshly qualities of Amenemhat. His ears are large and protruding, lines run from his nose to the corners of his mouth, the lips are full and prominent, and there is a sense of the bone structure beneath the skin. This expressive individualism contrasts strongly with the idealised features.

But while the modern viewer might imagine that the statue is a faithful reproduction of the king's actual features, this is unlikely. Egyptian portraiture was concerned more with presenting the idea of a king, than any facts about his physical appearance. Facial lines, for instance, might suggest wisdom through age. Rolls of fat on statues of private individuals might indicate wealth. This portrait of the king is psychological rather than realistic.

The Fitzwilliam also owns the head from a colossal granite statue of Amenemhat III’s father and predecessor, Senwosret III, [E.37.1930]. Though considerably more damaged than the smaller sculpture of his son, we can discern in this a similar attempt to suggest the naturalistic structure of a human face as well as the power of a divine king. The heavy lidded eyes are deep set, there are faint bags beneath them, the mouth is turned down at the corners. His son’s image is, if not identical, then certainly comparable. The similarity of the two kings' official images might suggest a similarity in their approach to government. It suggests that Amenemhat is keen to link himself to his illustrious predecessor.

Many statues survive from the prosperous reigns of these two kings, who both built extensively. Many of these images would have been placed in temples, reminders of the important role the king played in Egyptian religion. But they were also instrumental in consolidating earthly power. Senwosret III’s 39 year reign saw a complete reorganisation of Egypt’s internal administration to secure his own absolute authority as monarch. The political power of important families in the provinces was reduced. Perhaps this new way of representing the king, which was followed by his son, underlined the new political order.

The head of Amenemhat III was found in rather unusual circumstances by Lord Grenfell, who was commander-in-chief of the British garrison in Egypt between 1882 and 1892. A keen Egyptophile, Grenfell unearthed this fragment of a royal statue in the unlikely context of a private tomb. It is thought that it might have been accidentally deposited there when the tomb was robbed, either in antiquity or in modern times.

Sources:

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/ant/egypt/gallery/cataloguedetail.html?&priref=61606&_function_=xslt&_limit_=350

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/collection_pages/ancient_pages/E.2-1946/FRM_TXT_SE-E.2-1946.html

Giant Sarcophagus Leads Penn Museum Team in Egypt To the Tomb of a Previously Unknown Pharaoh

Discovery Provides Evidence of a Forgotten Egyptian Dynasty from 3,600 Years Ago

PHILADELPHIA, PA, January 2014—Archaeologists working at the southern Egyptian site of Abydos have discovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre Senebkay—and the first material proof of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty, ca. 1650–1600 BC. Working in cooperation with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, a team from the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, discovered king Senebkay's tomb close to a larger royal tomb, recently identified as belonging to a king Sobekhotep (probably Sobekhotep I, ca. 1780 BC) of the 13th Dynasty.

The discovery of pharaoh Senebkay's tomb is the culmination of work that began during the summer of 2013 when the Penn Museum team, led by Dr. Josef Wegner, Egyptian Section Associate Curator of the Penn Museum, discovered a huge 60-ton royal sarcophagus chamber at South Abydos. The sarcophagus chamber, of red quartzite quarried and transported to Abydos from Gebel Ahmar (near modern Cairo), could be dated to the late Middle Kingdom, but its owner remained unidentified. Mysteriously, the sarcophagus had been extracted from its original tomb and reused in a later tomb—but the original royal owner remained unknown when the summer season ended.

In the last few weeks of excavations, fascinating details of a series of kings' tombs and a lost dynasty at Abydos have emerged. Archaeologists now know that the giant quartzite sarcophagus chamber derives from a royal tomb built originally for a pharaoh Sobekhotep—probably Sobekhotep I, the first king of Egypt's 13th Dynasty. Fragments of that king's funerary stela were found just recently in front of his huge, badly robbed tomb. A group of later pharaohs (reigning about a century and a half later during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period) were reusing elements from Sobekhotep's tomb for building and equipping their own tombs. One of these kings (whose name is still unknown) had extracted and reused the quartzite sarcophagus chamber. Another king's tomb found just last week is that of the previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre-Senebkay.

Royal Statuary through Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt

This article covers the trends through Egyptian royal statuary through the Old and Middle Kingdoms. It shows how the changes in society, in attitude and structure, drove these artistic trends.

by Lorna Phillips

Many changes occurred in the Old and Middle Kingdoms in Egypt, especially in relation to the attitude of the people towards the king. The trends in royal statuary during this time reflect these fluctuations in society, both physically and in their purpose. One of the main physical changes in royal statues was the development of portraiture. The sculptors had to try and accomplish a sense of naturalism yet still show the magnificence of the king.

Throughout Egyptian history, the statuary of royals has had a firm funerary grounding. This is definitely true for the Old Kingdom, as it was still strongly believed that the statue could hold divine power and was a place for the king’s ka (spirit) whilst he was in the afterlife. As they were sacred items, most were hidden away, often in a serdab, and were the focus for the cults of the dead kings as a link between the living and the dead. Although they could not see the statue, it gave them something solid upon which to focus their worship. According to Cyril Aldred, the statues were purely practical, not aiming to be emotional for the viewer, as the viewer was not for whom the statue was made. The statuary of this time was focussed only on the deceased and their needs.

Even though the statues continued to be associated with the king after his death, during the Middle Kingdom they also began to represent the king while he was still alive. The kings of the Middle Kingdom had not emerged from the unrest of the First Intermediate Period with full support. Statues were therefore placed in temples around Egypt as monuments, aiming to remind the people of the king’s dominance. Through this worship, the bonds between the king and the local communities strengthened.