This colorful sculpture was discovered in 1850 by Auguste Mariette, an eminent French archeologist, who worked for the Louvre museum at that time. It was excavated at Saqqara, an ancient burial ground southwest of Cairo, which served as the necropolis for Memphis, the Egyptian capital during the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC). Egyptology was a relatively young science - generally perceived as beginning around 1822 – and this was one of the first real masterpieces of Egyptian art discovered there.
Although the identity of the portrayed remains unknown until the present day, his profession is obvious: he’s a scribe. He is depicted doing his job, in a characteristic cross-legged posture, holding a papyrus scroll in his left hand. Originally, he must have held a reed pen in his other hand which is now lost. The sculpture consists mainly of painted limestone with some other materials added, like pieces of wood for the nipples and magnesite and crystal for the life-like eyes.
The scribe is rendered in an overwhelmingly realistic manner with his sharp facial features, protruding nipples and chubby belly. The sculptor has rendered the various parts of his body in a very delicate and detailed way; note how convincing his right foot is slid under the left leg.
The artistic quality and strong individual features of this work make it very probable that this person must have been a highly esteemed dignitary. This is not as strange as it may seem: scribes were very important for Egyptian society. They were part of a small elite that could write and read and were involved in the supervision and organization of vital activities such as craftwork and agriculture. Another indication of the scribe’s high social position are his fat rolls, as has been revealed in comparative iconographic studies by Egyptologists.
(text: Maarten Levendig)
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