The Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt - Hetepdief

HETEPDIEF

HETEPDIEF

Identity: Hetepdief, Priest
Material: Red Granite
Period: Old Kingdom, 3rd Dynasty
Reign: Unknown

Dimensions:
Height: 39 cm
Width: 18 cm
Profile: 20 cm

This statue belonged to Hetepdief who was probably a priest connected with the temple of Lower Egypt . It is one of the earliest examples of private statuary, and more importantly, it is yet the first ancient Egyptian statue shown kneeling in the attitude of prayer while maintaining its conformity with ancient Egyptian artistic conventions: frontality, symmetry and "representativity". Three names of 2nd dynasty-kings are incised upon the right shoulder: Hetepsekhmwi, Raneb and Nynetjer, to whom he might have served as funerary priest.

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