Statue of Nakhtsaes
Place made:Egypt
Culture: Egyptian
Period: Old Kingdom
Dynasty: Dynasty 5
Date: ca. 2494-2345 B.C.
Medium: Painted limestone
Dimensions:
26 1/8 x 11 x 16 1/2 in. (66.3 x 27.9 x 41.9 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Anderson and Phil Martin, by exchange, and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation
Object number: 94.79
Inscribed: One vertical line of text, written right to left, located on each side of Nakhtsaes's legs and feet:
Right side:
sAb smsw hAt sAb nxt-xrw sAb r nxn nxt-sAs
Elder judge of the hall, judge who is strong of voice, judge at Nekhen, Nakht-sas.
Left side:
xrp imy-sA aD-mr grgt rsy mHtt imy-r tA-iH aD-mr Tnw nxt-sAs
Controller and overseer of the phyle, Administrator of southern and northern Gerget (Farafra Oasis), Administrator of Tjenu, Nakht-sas.
Additional information in curatorial file [S. Schellinger 2018]
Provenance: acquired in Egypt by Henry Abbott (1812-1859), New York, before 1853; sold by Abbott to New York Historical Society, 1860; on loan to Brooklyn Museum, 1937-1948; sold by New York Historical Society to Brooklyn Museum, 1948 (former acc. no. 37.21e); deaccessioned by Brooklyn Museum, 1992; on loan to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1993-1995; sold by Brooklyn Museum to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1995
Published References
H. Abbott. Catalogue of Dr. Abbott's Collection of Egyptian Antiquities at Stuyvesant Institue, New York. (New York: T.B. Harrison & Co., Printers, 1854), 12, no. 127.
J. D. Cooney, "Three Egyptian Families of the Old Kingdom," Brooklyn Museum Bulletin 13.3 (1952), p. 15ff.
H. G. Fischer, "A God and a General of the Oasis on a Stela of the Late Middle Kingdom," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 16 (1957), 226.
T.G.H. James. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Inscriptions in The Brooklyn Museum: From Dynasty I to the End of Dynasty XVIII. (Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Museum, 1974), 18, cat. no. 47.
E. Edel, "Ein vorsteher der Farafra-Oase im Alten Reich?" Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 81 (1956), 67-76.
H. Goedicke. "'An' Overseer of the Farafra-Oasis in the Old Kingdom?" Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 36 (1980), 171-173.
L. J. McAlpine, Let Us Now Not Boast of Our Worldly Possessions: Provenance Stories from the San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio Museum of Art 2022), p. 32-33
Label Text
This seated statue of the high official Nakhtsaes is remarkably well preserved, apart from the loss of the head, and retains much of its original pigment. The hieroglyphic inscriptions next to his legs and feet record Nakhtsaes's name and titles: he was a judge and land administrator as well as a priest and overseer of the Farafra Oasis in the Western Desert. The disproportionately small left hand may indicate that Nakhtsaes had such a deformity. (J. Powers, 2013)
On view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
