Ta-Seket
Height x width: 20 x 5 cm (7 7/8 x 1 15/16 in.)
MFA Boston. 99.744
This painted limestone statue of a woman named Ta-Seket was discovered within Tomb Y 524 at Hu. Hu, Huw or Hiw (Arabic: هُو, Coptic: ϩⲱ, ϩⲟⲩ)is the modern name of an Egyptian town on the Nile, which in more ancient times was the capital of the 7th Nome of Upper Egypt.
Hu was the centre of the cult dedicated to Bat, an Egyptian goddess. The sistrum, a sacred instrument associated with the goddess, was often designed to resemble her. Bat remained the principal deity worshipped at Hu until at least the eleventh dynasty, as evidenced by a shrine dedicated to her by king Senwosret I. By the New Kingdom, during the Eighteenth Dynasty, Bat’s features had been absorbed into those of a similar goddess, Hathor, who became the primary deity worshipped at Hu.
Ta-Seket is depicted with a wig with a diadem style headband wrapped around her head. She wears an ankle length strapped white dress with bare feet. Both her hands and feet are oversized, this was likely an artistic choice rather than symbolic.
The inscription that is inscribed along the rear pillar says, “A gift which the king gives to Osiris, Lord of Abydos, for the ka of Ta-Seket, justified.”
Summary:
Second Intermediate Period, 14th-17th Dynasty, c. 1700–1550 B.C.
From Tomb Y 524 at Hu.
MFA Boston. 99.744
