Statue of Hemiunu
“King’s Son of his Body”
“Chief Justice”
“Greatest of the Five of the House of Thoth”
Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty, c. 2570 B.C.
Serdab of Hemiunu’s mastaba, G4000.
Prince Hemiunu was the son of Nefertmaat and Itet, grandson of king Sneferu, and nephew of king Khufu. Therefore, it is safe to say that Hemiunu, was a man at the centre of Egypt’s pyramid age.
As well as the grand titles bestowed on him as seen at the top of this article, Hemiunu was also a grand vizier, and it is thought he was responsible for maintaining many of the great royal works of his time, including Khufu’s Great Pyramid, of which Hemiunu’s own tomb was built close by.
(A serdab, literally meaning “cold water”, which became a loanword in Arabic for ‘cellar’ is an ancient Egyptian tomb structure that served as a chamber for the ka statue of a deceased individual.)
The statue of Hemiunu was discovered on the 12th of March, 1912, during excavations by German Egyptologist Herman Junker (1877–1962), who was the Director of the German-Austrian expedition to Giza, from 1911 to 1929.
It appeared that a child-size hole had been made into the serdab of Hemiunu’s mastaba, just large enough for a child to climb through and find any treasures worth the robber’s while, and from the damage to the statue of Hemiunu it appears they found something. Upon first glance, it was apparent that the eyes of the statue of Hemiunu had clearly been hacked out, eyes which were once inset with gold and most likely inlaid with precious stones, something that was common for royal statuary dating from the Old Kingdom period. The statue was decapitated, whether purposefully or not, it is unknown, but it remained in the serdab, there was also noticeable damage to the left forearm, which could be due to possible jewellery, such as a possible gold foil bracelet delicately carved and inlaid, but that is just conjecture and the arm may have just been simply damaged from the robbery.
Courtesy of Digital Giza.
Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty, c. 2570 B.C.
Serdab of Hemiunu’s mastaba, G4000.
A choice to restoring the statue was made by the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, an archaeological museum in Hildesheim, Germany, and it began with placing the head back onto the body, and then trying to re-create the missing eyes. Luckily, the rest of the face had survived the damage from the robberies, so the curators and restoration team just had to focus on the missing pieces.
The team used this image of Hemiunu from his mastaba as a reference, in order to get the features as correct as possible:
MFA Boston. 27.296
In his tomb, Hemiunu is described as a hereditary prince, count, sealer of the king of Lower Egypt (jrj-pat HAtj-a xtmw-bjtj), and on a statue found in his serdab (and now located in Hildesheim), Hemiunu is given the titles: king’s son of his body, chief justice, and vizier, greatest of the five of the House of Thoth (sA nswt n XT=f tAjtj sAb TAtj wr djw pr-DHwtj).
Summary:
Seated limestone statue of Hemiunu (with restored eyes and arm)
Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty, c. 2570 B.C.
Serdab of Hemiunu’s mastaba, G4000
Now on display at the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, Germany.
