The sculpture of the
Seated Scribe is one of most important examples of
ancient Egyptian artAncient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting, sculpture, crafts and architecture developed by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art was expressed in paintings and sculptures & was both highly stylized and symbolic...
. It represents a figure of a seated scribe at work. The sculpture was discovered at
SaqqaraSaqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step Pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas...
in 1850 and dated to the period of 4th Dynasty, 2620-2500 BCE. It is currently part of a permanent collection of Egyptian antiquities in
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
Museum in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
This painted limestone sculpture represents a man in a seated position, presumably a
scribeA scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...
.
The sculpture of the
Seated Scribe is one of most important examples of
ancient Egyptian artAncient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting, sculpture, crafts and architecture developed by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art was expressed in paintings and sculptures & was both highly stylized and symbolic...
. It represents a figure of a seated scribe at work. The sculpture was discovered at
SaqqaraSaqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step Pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas...
in 1850 and dated to the period of 4th Dynasty, 2620-2500 BCE. It is currently part of a permanent collection of Egyptian antiquities in
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
Museum in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Description
This painted limestone sculpture represents a man in a seated position, presumably a
scribeA scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...
. The figure is dressed in a white kilt stretched to its knees. It is holding a half rolled
papyrusPapyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
. Perhaps the most striking part aspect of the figure is its face. Its realistic features stand in contrast to perhaps more rigid and somewhat less detailed body. Hands fingers and fingernails of the sculpture are delicately modeled. Hands are in writing position. It seems that right hand was holding a brush, now missing. The body is sturdy with broad chest. Nipples are marked with two wooden stubs.
Special attention was devoted to the eyes of the sculpture. They are modeled in rich detail out of pieces of red-veined white
magnesiteMagnesite is magnesium carbonate, MgCO
3. Iron substitutes for magnesium with a complete solution series with siderite, FeCO
3. Calcium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may also occur in small amounts...
which were elaborately inlaid with pieces of polished truncated rock crystal. The back side of the crystal was covered with a layer of organic material which at the same time gives the color to the iris and serves as an adhesive. Two copper clips hold each eye in place. The eyebrows are marked with fine lines of dark organic paint.
History
The sculpture of the seated scribe was discovered in
SaqqaraSaqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step Pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas...
on 19 November, 1850, to the north of the
SerapeumA Serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was palatable to the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria...
's line of sphinxes by French archeologist
Auguste MarietteFrançois Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, the founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.-Early career:...
. Precise location remains unknown as the document describing these excavations was published posthumously and excavation journal has been lost.
The identity of the person represented remains unknown. Semicircular base of the sculpture suggests that it originally fitted in a larger piece of rock which presumably carried its name and title. This somewhat unusual pose was, it seems, reserved for members of immediate royal family, although not for king himself. The statue was dated to the period of 4th Dynasty, 2620-2500 BC, and is usually associated to the person of Pehernefer. Certain stylistic characteristics, unusual thin lips, broad chest and posture of the torso might support this theory. The dating itself remains uncertain as period of 6th dynasty has also been suggested. One additional fact in favor of the earlier date is that statue is represented in “writing” position while it seems that scribes from the period after the 5th dynasty have been portrayed mainly in “reading” position.
Technical information
The Seated Scribe
Old KingdomThe Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The...
, 4th Dynasty (?), c. 2620-2500 BC
SaqqaraSaqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step Pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas...
, north of the alley of the sphinxes,
SerapeumA Serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was palatable to the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria...
,
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
Painted
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
statue, inlaid eyes: rock crystal,
magnesiteMagnesite is magnesium carbonate, MgCO
3. Iron substitutes for magnesium with a complete solution series with siderite, FeCO
3. Calcium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may also occur in small amounts...
(
magnesium carbonateMagnesium carbonate, MgCO3, is a white solid that occurs in nature as a mineral. Several hydrated and basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals...
),
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
-
arsenicArsenic is the chemical element that has the symbol As, atomic number 33 and atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250. Arsenic is a notoriously poisonous metalloid with many allotropic forms, including a yellow and several black and grey forms...
alloyAn alloy is a partial or complete solid solution of one or more elements in a metallic matrix. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may be homogeneous in distribution depending on thermal history...
, nipples made of wood
Height: 53.7 cm; Width: 44 cm; Depth: 35 cm