Ankh, Priest of Horus
Unknown · Third Dynasty, c. 2750-2675 BC
Ankh sits with his hands crossed flat against his chest, a pose rarely seen in later Egyptian sculpture. He wears a wig that falls to his shoulders and a plain kilt, and around his neck hangs a collar carrying the shen sign, the ring of eternity. The stone is a grey granodiorite flecked with dark crystals, and the carving is heavy and solid: broad shoulders, thick limbs, a body that barely detaches itself from the cubic seat. The face is large and calm. Hieroglyphs on the seat give his name, Ankh, and his title, priest of Horus.
The statue dates to the Third Dynasty, around two thousand seven hundred BC, the age of King Djoser and the first stone pyramid. Sculptors were only beginning to work hard stone at this scale, which explains the compact forms and the crossed hands held safely inside the block. It came to the Louvre in eighteen twenty six with the collection of Henry Salt, the British consul in Egypt, whose purchase laid the foundation of the Egyptian department under Champollion. Ankh is one of the earliest inscribed private statues to survive from anywhere in Egypt.
Did You Know? Ankh was carved around the time the Step Pyramid was built, making him one of the oldest private statues in any museum outside Egypt.
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