Painted limestone head of Userkaf

Once within the collection of Prince Mohammed Ali, and since 1979, in the hands of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, this head of king Userkaf shows the Old Kingdom king, wearing the white crown of Egypt, known as the Hedjet.

The Hedjet was a representation of Upper Egypt; the Nile valley south of Memphis and up to the first cataract near modern Aswan. The Hedjet (white crown) of Upper Egypt and the Deshret (red crown) of Lower Egypt, were put together to create the Pschent (double crown), signifying the unified kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt. Despite this, kings would still wear the individual crowns.

Made from limestone with remnants of painted pigments still present, this head of Userkaf is rather small at just an overall measuring account of; 6.5 x 7.2 cm (2 9/16 x 2 13/16 in.); Face: 4.8 x 4.8 cm (1 7/8 x 1 7/8 in.). The Walters Art Museum, where the head is now located, suggests it was a part of a group statue of Userkaf with a deity, the curator writes;

“Visible chisel marks on the side of the crown imply that another figure once stood to the king’s right; only a god or goddess could have stood in this prominent position.”

Userkaf

The exact duration of Userkaf’s reign is unknown. Given the historical and archeological evidence, the consensus among Egyptologists is that he ruled for seven to eight years at the start of Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty. First, an analysis of the nearly contemporaneous Old Kingdom royal annals shows that Userkaf’s reign was recorded on eight compartments corresponding to at least seven full years but not much more.

The identity of Userkaf’s parents is uncertain, but he undoubtedly had family connections with the rulers of the preceding Fourth Dynasty. Egyptologist Miroslav Verner proposes that he was a son of Menkaure by one of his secondary queens and possibly a full brother to his predecessor and the last king of the Fourth Dynasty, Shepseskaf.

Userkaf’s position before ascending to the throne is unknown. Grimal states that he could have been a high-priest of Ra in Heliopolis or Sakhebu, a cult-center of Ra mentioned in the Westcar papyrus. The hypothesis of a connection between the origins of the Fifth Dynasty and Sakhebu was first proposed by the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, who noted that in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name of Sakhebu resembles that of Elephantine, the city that Manetho gives as the cradle of the Fifth Dynasty. According to Petrie, positing that the Westcar papyrus records a tradition that remembered the origins of the Fifth Dynasty could explain Manetho’s records, especially given that there is otherwise no particular connection between Elephantine and Fifth Dynasty pharaohs.

Unlike most pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, Userkaf built a modest pyramid at North Saqqara, at the north-eastern edge of the enclosure wall surrounding Djoser‘s pyramid complex. This decision, probably political, may be connected to the return to the city of Memphis as center of government, of which Saqqara to the west is the necropolis, as well as a desire to rule according to principles and methods closer to Djoser’s. In particular, like Djoser’s and unlike the pyramid complexes of Giza, Userkaf’s mortuary complex is not surrounded by a necropolis for his followers.

Userkaf’s pyramid complex was called Wab-Isut Userkaf, meaning “Pure are the places of Userkaf” or “Userkaf’s pyramid, holiest of places”.The pyramid originally reached a height of 49 m (161 ft) for a base-side of 73.3 m (240 ft). By volume, this made it the second smallest king’s pyramid finished during the Fifth Dynasty after that of the final ruler, Unas. The reduced size of the pyramid as compared to those of Userkaf’s Fourth Dynasty predecessors owes much to the rise of the cult of Ra which diverted spiritual and financial resources away from the king’s burial. The pyramid was built following techniques established during the Fourth Dynasty, with a core made of stones rather than employing rubble as in subsequent pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.

Limestone

Tura was the primary quarry for limestone in Ancient Egypt. The site, which was known by the ancient Egyptians as Troyu or Royu, is located about halfway between modern-day Cairo and Helwan. Its ancient Egyptian name was misinterpreted by the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, who thought it meant it was inhabited by Trojans, thus the Hellenistic city was named Troia. The site is located by the modern town of Tora in the Cairo Governorate.

The limestone from Tura was the finest and whitest of all the Egyptian quarries, so it was used for facing stones for the richest tombs, as well as for the floors and ceilings of mastabas, which were otherwise made of mudbrick. It was used during the Old Kingdom and was the source of the limestone used for the “Rhomboidal Pyramid” or Bent Pyramid of Sneferu, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the sarcophagi of many Old Kingdom nobles, the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom, and certain temples of the New Kingdom built by at least Ahmose I, who may have used Tura limestone to begin the temple of Ptah at Memphis and the Southern Harem of Amun at Thebes.

Summary:

Painted limestone head of king Userkaf
Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, c. 2435–2429 B.C.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. 1979.2