A Syrian man carved into a schist statue base

This fragment of a statue base shows a Syrian man’s head and shoulders. He wears a fringed robe embroidered with rosettes and has long hair and a headband. He also has a beard and a moustache, something that Syrians were usually depicted with.

The man’s complete figure was positioned flat on his belly, his back resting under the reed mat on which the Egyptian king stood. Captives from four different ethnic groups are thought to have graced each of the four sides of this statue foundation, including this Syrian man in the back corner.

The statue dates from the beginnings of the Ramesside Period, between the reigns of Ramesses I and his son Seti I, the patriarchs of the 19th Dynasty.

Menpehtyre Ramesses I was the first pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty. The exact dates for his brief reign are unknown, however, 1292-1290 B.C. and 1295-1294 B.C. timeframes are usually referred to. While Ramesses I founded the 19th Dynasty, his brief reign primarily serves to mark the transition from Horemheb’s reign, which had stabilised Egypt in the late 18th Dynasty.

The statue is made of schist, and what remains weighs 4.8 kg and measures at just 23cm tall, however the fine detailing is compelling, despite it’s small size.

“Schist is a foliated metamorphic rock made up of plate-shaped mineral grains that are large enough to see with an unaided eye. It usually forms on a continental side of a convergent plate boundary where sedimentary rocks, such as shales and mudstones, have been subjected to compressive forces, heat, and chemical activity. This metamorphic environment is intense enough to convert the clay minerals of the sedimentary rocks into platy metamorphic minerals such as muscovite, biotite, and chlorite. To become schist, a shale must be metamorphosed in steps through slate and then through phyllite. If the schist is metamorphosed further, it might become a granular rock known as gneiss.” – Geology.com