Cube stool
A cube stool is an Egyptian type of statue that depicts a person sitting on a pedestal with bent knees touching each other. Arms are wrapped around your knees and crossed with your feet flat on the floor. Often the person depicted wears a long robe so that only the head and feet can be seen and the body forms a cube . The base is inscribed with hieroglyphs and provides information about the sitter.
Further characteristics
This type of statue never depicts a pharaoh , only private individuals, and depictions of women are also very rare. Often they are Egyptian officials. Since many cube stools show few details , their production was less complex and therefore also cheaper. This was certainly one of the reasons for their popularity. The smooth surfaces of the cube-shaped body were often covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, such as Senenmut's cube stool .
The oldest figures date back to the 12th Dynasty ( Middle Kingdom ) and were found in Saqqara . These are also referred to as squatting figures because the people are shown sitting in a seat of a sedan chair, taking the same seated position. An example of this is Hetep's squat figure. From this the cube stool developed, which was popular until Roman times .
Cube stool of Hetep, inspector of the priests of the Teti pyramid in the time of Amenemhet I (limestone, 12th dynasty, from his tomb in Saqqara )
Senenmut's cube stool , Hatshepsut's daughter Neferu-Re is on his lap , granite; Thebes / Karnak; New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty; around 1475 BC Chr.
Cube stool of the vizier Chay , before that Thoth as a baboon in a temple; New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty ; Limestone; Louvre, Paris
Cube stool of the upper asset manager Harwa ( TT37 Third_intermediate period, 25th_Dynasty in El-Assasif )
literature
- Regine Schulz (ed.), Matthias Seidel: Egypt - The world of the pharaohs. Könemann, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-89508-541-3 .
Web links
- Ägyptologie-Forum Lexikon: Cube stool
- Ägyptologie-Forum Lexikon: Sedan squat figure (with image of Hetep's cube stool)