Seated Man (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
This statue of a man holding his cloak tightly around his body has an identifying inscription down the front of the cloak: “an offering that the King gives to Osiris, First of the Westerners, Lord of Abydos, that he may give the sweet breath of life to the Ka of the Commissioner of Police, Res, true of voice.”
In theory, only the king or a god could make an offering. An ordinary person who died and wanted to make an offering acceptable claimed that the king intervened to do so. In the Middle Kingdom, members of a powerful and wealthy upper class dedicated many such statues.
Dynasty 12
Middle Kingdom Period
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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