Statuette of Heresankh
Unknown · Ptolemaic period, between Ptolemy II and Ptolemy V, c. 282-180 BC
A woman stands with her arms hanging straight at her sides, her body wrapped in a tight sheath dress that shows the curve of hips and thighs. A heavy tripartite wig falls in three masses over her shoulders and back. The head is lost, broken away above the wig, and the limestone is left plain. What remains is a compact, carefully finished figure less than forty centimetres high, its back pillar and base carrying hieroglyphs that give the woman's name, Heresankh, and her title.
She lived in the early Ptolemaic period, between the reigns of Ptolemy the Second and Ptolemy the Fifth in the third or early second century BC, when Egyptian temples continued to receive statues in the old style even under Greek rulers. The statuette was found at North Saqqara in the temple built by Nectanebo in front of the Serapeum, the burial place of the sacred Apis bulls, during Auguste Mariette's excavations. It was entered in the Louvre inventory in February eighteen fifty seven as part of the division of finds from that famous dig.
Did You Know? The statuette was found in the temple beside the underground galleries where the sacred Apis bulls were buried at Saqqara.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.