Limestone reserve head

Object(s) photograph: Site: Giza; view: G 4440

White limestone [reserve] head of woman, probably wife of HUMFA_13-11-90. Illustration: No

ID

HUMFA_13-11-91
Department

Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
Classification

Sculpture
Findspot

Pit G 4440 A, debris in pit just below top of stone block
Material

Limestone
Credit Line

Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
Object Ownership Information

MFA accession number: 14.719
Period

Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Khufu ?
Date of Register Entry

11/24/1913
Remarks

The distinctive features led Reisner to identify this head as a representation of a Nubian princess, although neither the race nor gender of the statue's owner are certain.
Problems/Questions

MFA accession number verified

G 4440
- Site Name Western Cemetery

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Assmann, Jan. "Preservation and Presentation of Self in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture." In Peter Der Manuelian, ed., Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson 1. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1996. p. 59, fig. 4.

Bernard V. Bothmer. "On Realism in Egyptian Funerary Sculpture of the Old Kingdom." In Madeleine E. Cody, ed. Egyptian Art. Selected Writings of Bernard V. Bothmer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 373, 375, fig. 25.4.

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Millet, N.B. "The Reserve Heads of the Old Kingdom." In William Kelly Simpson and Whitney M. Davis, eds. Studies in Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Sudan: Essays in Honor of Dows Dunham on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday, June 1, 1980. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1981, p. 129.

Reisner, George A. "Accessions to the Egyptian Department During 1914." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 13, No. 76 (April 1915), pp. 31-32, 34, fig. 9.

Reisner, George A. A History of the Giza Necropolis 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 477.

Sanborn, Ashton. "New Installation of Egyptian Sculpture." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 23, No. 140 (December 1925), p. 73.

Smith, William Stevenson. "Old Kingdom Sculpture." American Journal of Archaeology 45 (1941), pp. 525-526, fig. 5.

Smith, William Stevenson. Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1960 (6th ed.), p. 34, 35, fig. 11.

Spanel, Donald. Through Ancient Eyes: Egyptian Portraiture: An Exhibition Organized for the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, April 21-July 31, 1988. Birmingham: The Museum, 1988, p. 12, fig. 15.

Terrace, Edward L.B. "A Fragmentary Triad of King Mycerinus." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 59, No. 316 (1961), p. 47, fig. 6.