Wooden Statue of Senusret I

This small wooden statue of King Senusret I was found in a private tomb. It consists of several pieces joined together with wooden pins. His body is muscular and his feet, attached to a rectangular base, are bare. The exposed skin is painted a dark reddish-brown. The sculpture is in excellent condition, and is almost completely intact.

The king wears the white Hedjet crown of Upper Egypt and holds in his left hand the Heka, crook-shaped scepter of the ruler, while his right hand might have held the Sekhem scepter, symbol of authority. His kilt is plastered and painted white.

Striding statue, left leg forward, of king in the white crown, of cedar wood. The figure is uninscribed, and is now assigned to the reign of Senusret I. The features of the face are regular, with the eyes painted with black irises and white sclera.

The king wears a knee-length ‘shendyt’ kilt, painted white, with the pleated side flaps, the pleats indicated in red pigment. He hold a full-length crook, its lowest part broken away, in his proper left hand; his right hand hangs by his side, fisted to hold an object (probably a scepter of some sort) that is now missing.

Senusret was the king’s birth name and means ‘Man of the Goddess Wosret’. Wosret was the goddess of Thebes whose name meant ‘powerful’, and she was honored by a number of Middle Kingdom monarchs who hailed from her city (such as Senusret I and Senusret II).

Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, reign of Senusret I, ca. 1971-1926 BC. Dimension: height: 56 cm, width: 11 cm, length: 26 cm. From El-Lisht, Excavated by A. Lythgoe for the MMA (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) in 1914. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 44951