Ankhpakhered was a member of the priesthood at Karnak, the great temple complex of the Egyptian god Amun, where his statue stood. His assured, striding, bare-chested figure evokes Egypt’s long traditions. But here it is touchingly combined with sweet features and a smooth egg-shaped head like a newborn’s. This last is a style that probably signals the wish for rebirth into the afterlife.
The simple figure is surrounded by an elaborate, supportive framework of hieroglyphic texts. A prayer to share in the offerings given to the god Amun appears on the base before his right foot. Behind his left leg is an address to passersby asking that they pray for him as they will wish one day that others would pray for them. And alongside on the base he exalts the temple where he is near the god, his statues endure, and he can anticipate transmission of his position ‘from son to son without end’. The last wish was not an idle one: other members of his family were well-ensconced in the Karnak priestly ranks, his father was a priest before him, his brother and his own son were priests, while his mother was a sistrum-player and his wife was a temple singer. On his back pillar is a formula having to do with the enlivening of his statue.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The God's Father, Prophet of Amun in Karnak, Ankhpakhered, son of Nesmin and Tadisetdiankh
Period:Late Period–Ptolemaic Period
Date:380–300 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Karnak, Temple of Amun, Cachette
Medium:Diorite
Dimensions:H. 58.9 × W. 15.3 × D. 27.2 cm, 15.8 kg (23 3/16 × 6 × 10 11/16 in., 34.8 lb.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1908
Object Number:08.202.1
From the Karnak Cachette. Purchased in Egypt in 1908 from Maurice Nahman, Cairo. Included in the online database of the Karnak Cachette.
Lythgoe, Albert M. 1908. "Recent Egyptian Acquisitions." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 12 (December), p. 223, fig. 6.
Bothmer, Bernard V., Hans Wolfgang Müller, and Herman De Meulenaere 1960. Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100. Brooklyn, cat. no. 81, pp. 102-3.
Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss 1972. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings: Theban Temples, vol. 2. Oxford, p. 290.
Spanel, Donald 1988. Through Ancient Eyes: Egyptian Portraiture. 1988. Birmingham,AL, p. 123.
De Meulenaere, Herman 1993. "Trois Membres d'une Famille Sacerdotale Thébaine." In Chronique d'Égypte, 68, pp. 45–50, 61–64.
Laboury, Dimitri 1998. La Statuaire de Thoutmosis III, 5. Ægyptiaca Leodiensia, Liege: C. I. P. L., pp. 296-296.
Zivie-Coche, Christiane 1998. "Un compagnon de Panemerit. Sân 91-200, OAE 3003." In Tanis: travaux récents sur le Tell Sân el-Hagar [1], p. 562 n44.
Traunecker, Claude 1998. "Les graffiti des frères Horsaisis et Horemheb. Une famille de prêtres sous les derniers Ptolémées." In Egyptian Religion. The Last Thousand Years. Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, 2, 85, p. 1220 n154.
Perdu, Olivier 1998. "Un monument d’originalité." In Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 84, pp. 126 n17, 144 n(af).
Jansen-Winkeln, Karl 1999. Sentenzen und Maximen in den Privatinschriften der ägyptischen Spätzeit. pp. 15; 18; 24; 27; 39; 60; 122 (Nr. 110) [A.2.a.47].
Jansen-Winkeln, Karl 2000. "Zum Verständnis der "Saitischen Formel." In Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, 28, p. 117 no. 183.
Lembke, Katja 2000. "Die ptolemäische und römische Skulptur im ägyptischen Museum Berlin. Teil I. Privatplastik." In Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 42, p. 28 n73.
Selim, Hassan 2003. "The Naophorous Statue of PA-xr-xnsw in Cairo Museum JE 37993 bis from Karnak Cachette, Excavation Number K.585." In Es werde nierdergelegt als Schriftstück. Festschrift für Hartwig Altenmüller zum 65. Geburtstag, p. 405, n. b (8).
Selim, Hassan 2004. "Three Unpublished Late Period Statues." In Studien zür Altägyptische Kultur, 32, pp. 366 n14, 368 n30.
Klotz, David 2016. "A Good Burial in the West: Four Late Period Theban Statues in American Collections." In La Cachette de Karnak: Nouvelles perspectives sur les decouvertes de Georges Legrain, 116, p. 458 n149.
Price, Campbell 2016. "Archaism and Filial Piety: An Unusual Late Period Pair Statue from the Cachette (Cairo JE 37136)." In La Cachette de Karnak: Nouvelles perspectives sur les decouvertes de Georges Legrain, 116, p. 494 comment p.
Potter, Daniel 2022. "The Statue of a Sistrum-Player in Montrose and Her Position in an Early Ptolemaic Theban Priestly Family." In Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 107, frequent mention as a family member.
Jansen-Winkeln, Karl 2023. Inschriften der Spätzeit, Teil V: Die 27.–30. Dynastie und die Argeadenzeit, 2 vols.. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 682.
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