The Middle Kingdom Seated Royal Statues Reused By King Ramses II

Abstract

Ancient Egyptian Statuary offers great information and insights into the art and history in those glorious times. It provides valuable, detailed and in-depth understanding into the artistic features, characteristics and physiognomies of the various eras and king reigns. Additionally, reprocessed statuary in different ancient periods accumulates more knowledge and intuitions about ancient Egyptian art. Those comparative analysis, and contrasts between different styles and adaptations enrich correlations and cross effects among different ancient periods. It is worth mentioning that the majority of reused statues are royal, but the discovered reused private ones are limited in number. This research focuses on the Middle Kingdom seated royal statues that have been sculpted during the Middle Kingdom and were later reused by King Ramses II (XIX Dynasty). The first part of the study gives a full description of these statues: The material, provenance, present location, characteristics and the inscriptions carved on the statues. They are classified as follows: Group seated statues and single seated statues. The second part of the research gives a full analysis of each statue criteria in order to assign it to its original owners. Finally, it ends by a conclusion that reiterates the most important results of the current study.