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W301 Scribal statue

W301

This black granodiorite statue includes the name of an official called Min-aa. His name means ‘Min is great’. Min was a fertility god. The name Min-aa, is not however the name of the owner. We cannot see his name.

The owner is shown cross-legged, as a scribe. Scribes were held in high esteem in Egypt so members of the male elite were shown in scribal pose even if they had never been scribes.

The fact that the stone is granodiorite which would have been hard to work. This is therefore an elite statue. The large belly is thought to indicate that this man was wealthy enough to be well fed. Such depictions of the elite are typical of the Middle Kingdom.

Robert Mond and Oliver Myres excavated the statue from Armant (Mond and Myers 1937, I 259; II pl. LXX1). It therefore calls upon an Armant god, Montu who was a falcon-headed god of war, often represented with a sun-disc and two plumes. 

The statue was at one point owned by the Egypt Exploration Society and later was purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome (Wellcome number 153446).  

 

Mond, R. and Myers, OH., 1937. Cemeteries of Armant. 2 vols. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

More Armant material in the Egypt Centre

Other Middle Kingdom material

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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